Wednesday 5th July 1916

Adelina and August Van Buren began the first successful transcontinental motorcycle tour by two women. The bikers left Sheepshead Bay racetrack in Brooklyn, New York City on this day riding 1,000 cc Indian Power Plus motorcycles equipped with gas headlights and arrived in Los Angeles on September 8 after having to contend with poor roads, heavy rains and mud, natural barriers like the Rocky Mountains and social barriers such as the local police who took offence at their choice of men’s clothing. They became the first women to reach the 14,109 feet summit of Pikes Peak by any motor vehicle. The Indians were the top of the range motorcycle at the time, selling for $275, and ran Firestone “non-skid” tires. Despite succeeding, the sister’s application to the military as a dispatch rider was rejected. Reports in the leading motorcycling magazine of the day praised the bike, but not the sisters and described the journey as a “vacation”. Other newspapers published degrading articles accusing the sisters of using the national preparedness issue as an excellent excuse to escape their roles as housewives and “display their feminine counters in nifty khaki and leather uniforms”. During the ride, they were arrested numerous times, not for speeding but for wearing men’s clothes. At one point, they became lost in the desert 100 miles west of Salt Lake City and were saved by a prospector after their water ran out. They completed their ride by traveling across the border to Tijuana in Mexico. Both women eventually married. Adeline continued her career as an educator, and earned her law degree from New York University. Augusta became a pilot, flying in Amelia Earhart’s Ninety-Nines international women’s flying organization having played significant roles in the women’s rights movement. The previous year had seen Effie Hotchkiss and her mother Avis travelling 9,000 miles on a Harley-Davidson V-twin with sidecar from New York on 3 May 1915 to San Francisco in mid-August, and back.