I received my international drivers licence today, it made the future seem a bit more within reach. I’m swamped with work for my teaching diploma and I sometimes forget that life used to include other things, not only studies. Just another week to go, then I can start planning for the Australian Grand Prix and WIMA rally.
Category: general
Local newspaper Kristianstadsbladet interviews WIMA members
This is my translation of the original article which was published in Kristianstadsbladet on the 24th of July, 2015.
Front page: The motorbiker girls conquered the place
June Douglas and Ann Weir were two of the many motorcycle-borne females who reigned over the Tydingesjöns campsite on Thursday
The headline reads: The womens club breaks the record at the bike café
Picture caption: Friends Carina Breiner and Lotte Stålhammar are not members of WIMA but they are more than happy to ride motorbikes. Carina rides about 15000km a year.
It’s not only hard men with long hair and plaited beards who ride motorbikes. They were noticeably absent this Thursday when it was the biker women who ruled.
TYDINGE. They arrived shortly after 4pm. A parade of 180 female bikers turned in to Tydingesjöns campsite and festival area for a well-earned break. To keep such a large group together during a 100km long ride is a great effort.
More than 200 motorcyclists and at least just as many curious spectators welcomed the group who had ridden from Ljungby down to the café. The mobile cameras documented and people waved happily.
At the end, it seemed that the police had something to say about the parade. They were stopped at Lars Dufva in Osby after refuelling. “They thought we were riding a bit too slow. To keep trailer-speed – that would be good, they thought,” said Carola Palmqvist who is president for the Swedish division of WIMA. They made it down without any mishaps. “It went very well, some broke off from the group but that was due to personal wishes.”
Jan Salihi has come from England to participate in the rally that is called WIMA Sweden Rally 2015. On her back she wears the flag, the Union Jack, so there is no doubt were she is from. “It’s been fine riding here, the traffic was mild and it didn’t rain,” she says and turns her palms and gazes towards the sky. She and her friends started their journey from Britain on the 17th of July to make it to Ljungby by Monday. During the week there has been a mix of activities ranging from shorter rides to games, dinners and entertainment.
At the entrance to the campsite an important group of people lead by Leif Rosberg are positioned. They monitor how many bikes enter. Occasionally it can be a bit hectic for Leif and his friends. Every motorbike is registered on the computer which enables the visitors to see the number on a TV-screen by the café. “It is us in the Chernobyl committee who run this – Sven (B Svensson) donates 1sek per bike to the children of Chernobyl,” says Leif Rosberg. It was Sven B Svensson who took the initiative to the car and bike cafés when he took over the campsite. “The first time there were 8 guests. The second time about 25-30 participants and on the third 175 – and we stood there with some waffles and sandwiches!” Quite soon the decision was taken to separate the meets for cars and bikes. At the moment, they are trying to beat the current record of 890 visitors.
Friends Carina Breier from Näsum and Lotte Stålhammar from Ystad often visit the meets in Tydinge. Neither of them is a member of WIMA. “I had actually not heard about them before,” says Carina Breiner. To talk about specs and horsepower, or compare different brands or models is not in their interest. It is the riding that is the thing. “Men are more interested in walking around, looking and comparing,” says Lotte Stålhammar. Carina Breiner has a good way of killing that kind of talk, “normally I say that I ride a white one.” It says “Real women ride” on her white BMW R1200R from 2012 and on her trouser leg she wears a patch with the message “This bitch rides her own bike”. She took her own licence after many years on her husband’s pillion seat, now she regrets that she did not do it sooner.
So, how did it go with the visitors’ record? Shortly after 7pm the number had reached 1100 bikes which meant a new record. Kristianstadsbladet will get back with the exact number in Saturday’s edition.
Picture captions:
They came, they were seen and they conquered the place. When WIMA came to Tydingesjön’s campsite it was life and movement.
The group of around 180 women were given their own plot of grass to park the bikes on. Briskly they walked towards the café.
International bike meet in Ljungby which made a detour to the bike café in Tydinge.
The article, as seen in the pictures, was published in Kristianstadsbladet on the 24th of July 2015. Text by Joel Sannemalm and photos by Fredrik Jalhed. www.kristianstadsbladet.se
WIMA Rally, Sundet, Sweden – and another record breaking!
So, after the amazing record breaking meet at the Ace Café it is time to look back at our WIMA rally and ride out. Our numbers were not as great as at the Ace Café, we were roughly 200 women, but among us 11 countries were represented, Austria, Bulgaria, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, The Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom. This, I believe, is the essence of WIMA, to be able to meet up with fellow female riders from other parts of the world every year for a week of riding, playing, partying and networking. For us Swedes, this year was different because, being the hosting nation, we all worked during the week. It is hard work hosting a rally but it is, nevertheless, wonderful.
At the first evening the rally is declared open and we celebrate together with a special meal. Every country is represented on stage by either the national president or a representative and our International President holds a welcome speech. After that, the party can begin and will last all through the week until the last evening when the rally is announced closed.
Among the things served this starter was my personal favourite. But we also had “Pyttipanna” (a dish that was traditionally made of leftovers cut in pieces, I doubt it is made like that anymore). As desserts, the good old apple cake and sticky chocolate cake were served, can’t go wrong with these.
Every night we had either a live band or a disco and since dancing, among other things, actually is a very good way of keeping warm I was dancing every night. I was wearing my riding boots, they are rather heavy but never mind, since I was too busy to have time for running during the WIMA rally the boot-dancing made up for that.
The bar was open almost all the time and I believe we had as much fun behind the bar as the ones buying the drinks.
As always on WIMA rallies, there are silly games and this year was no exception. The teams showed their skills during three different tasks, finding numbers wearing a cone was the first. This was followed by the Heidy-game, i.e. to dress up with lipstick, apron and headscarf and consume a fizzy drink as quick as you possibly can, this is a lot harder than it sounds. The last game was to catch water balloons in water and carry them with your mouth. I was surprised, believing I dislike such games, but was proven wrong when I had to fill in for an injured player and actually had lots of fun. Next year, I might even sign up.
Honestly, the weather wasn’t fantastic, but no worse than any other place I had been to this summer, everywhere was equally cold – from Sweden to Ireland and back again. Despite the cold and sometimes rainy weather, the WIMA girls were busy making plans for riding and it was great to hear of all the places they were visiting: Kalmar and the bridge over to Öland and Allvaret. Mollö where you can see over to Denmark, Lund with its University, Vimmerby and Astrid Lindgrens World, The Elk Park outside Ljungby, to name a few. Maybe one day I too will have seen this much of Southern Sweden.
Despite most people being away during the days there were always things going on at the camp site. People cooking, doing laundry, just lazing around or going for a swim at the beach nearby. In addition to this we had the possibility to hear Pat and Sheonagh’s inspirational presentation about riding in India and how they through successful networking in the biker community got the opportunity to borrow Harleys for their tour on the very challenging Indian roads. In addition, they meet with the Bikirnis and spoke at the Indian Bike Meet, among other things. At a WIMA rally there is time for everything and something for everyone.
As always, my favourite part of the rally is the parade. I’m not normally a fan of group rides, hence all the solo travelling, but the WIMA parade is a group ride like no other. It feels so powerful riding out with this large group of friends from all over the world and with the bikes decorated with national flags and WIMA flags we do make an impression when we ride past villages. At one point we rode a long straight stretch of road and from my position in the middle of the group all I could see up ahead were WIMA friends, looking in my rear mirror the view was the same.
We had planned for a long ride, 100km and at the destination we would join the local bike meet at Tydinge. In this region, more or less local bikers meet at this café on Thursdays for something to eat and a chat. The bikes are always counted at the entry because the owner gives 1sek per bike to the Chernobyl fund. A normal Thursday there are around 700 bikes, the previous record was of 890 bikes, our arrival contributed to smashing that record. The new record, which I think will stand for some time, is 1120. WIMA and our support riders contributed with more than 200 bikes. The local newspaper had advertised our coming which I imagined contributed to a few more bikes arriving than usual.
Our president Carola and a few other WIMA girls were interviewed by the local newspaper, we have the article uploaded in PDF on our WIMA Sweden website, they are in Swedish but I plan to upload them here with a translation. There are a lot of pictures up as well so it is well worth checking out!
Lastly, I want to report the success we had in WIMA collecting money for the chosen charities. WIMA International’s elected charity is the Motorcycle Outreach. It is a small project based in Indonesia and Tanzania and it provides motorbikes to healthcare centres which makes it possible for nurses and doctors to reach patients in remote villages. Furthermore, training in riding and maintenance is provided which gives a zero breakdown guarantee. Read more about this project on their website. At the rally we collected a total of 6500sek (equals roughly 600 Euros) and, in addition, a promise was given from the German girls to add 1000 Euros (!) to this.
As for the WIMA Sweden’s chosen charity, Cancerfonden, a total of 10 000sek was given. WIMA are a generous bunch of girls!
It is always sad when a rally is over but, as always, promises are made for future meetings and new rallies. Next up is Australia in October, it’s going to be great fun, and Hungary in July 2016 is not far away either. See you there!