Women Only Adventure Ride goes great guns

Felt the urge to get off the beaten track on your adventure bike?

Calling all female riders. Have you felt the urge to get off the beaten track on your adventure bike and explore this big, brown land with like-minded, fellow female riders?

If so, then perhaps you need to sign up to the next Women Only Adventure Ride, organised by rideADV, a professionally run and fully supported navigation adventure ride company. The most recent edition was held recently but RideADV plans five similar events in March, May, July, September and November next year.

The good news is you don’t need to be a top-level off-road racer like Laia Sanz, Jane Daniels or an experienced moto globetrotter like Kinga Tanajewska of On Her Bike to enjoy them.

You don’t even need to own an adventure bike, with a fleet of Yamaha WR250R lightweight dual-sport bikes complete with long-range Safari tanks available for hire.

So what’s it all cost? Typically between $110 and $130 per rider per day, which covers support and luggage transportation. Also included is professional rider tuition throughout the event from Yamaha legend and Australian Motor Sport Hall of Fame inductee Stephen Gall. Meals and accommodation are not included, and bike hire is $175 per day (BYO riding gear).

Held from November 7-8, the fifth iteration of the Women Only Adventure Ride, or WOAR, saw some 17 riders revel in the best 500km of trails and vistas over two days between Singleton and Tamworth in NSW.

Among the enthusiastic group was Annika Mountstephens, 20, who had no off-road experience.

Annika Mountstephens took on the WOAR with her mum Katrin

Being a keen mountain biker and having just secured her L-plates on a road bike, however, the Sydney-based university student was keen to enjoy the NSW countryside the best way possible: on an adventure ride, alongside her mum, Katrin van der Spiegel.

In preparation, Annika borrowed a Yamaha XT250 from Greg Yager of rideADV and headed north from Dural to the Hawkesbury and along the Wheelbarrow Ridge Trail, keen to learn. And learn she did. Despite some of the coldest – and wettest – October weather on record, the first outing was a success, with Annika showing confidence and impressive speed on her first ride in slippery conditions.

Two weeks later, Annika and mum Katrin joined 15 other women on rideADV's fifth WOAR.

Starting in Singleton, the ride negotiated some treacherous moss-covered causeways before winding over Crawney Gap and into Nundle for lunch. From there the women – riding a mixture of bikes but mostly Yamaha's tried-and-trusted WR250R – headed to Tamworth's Golden Guitar, where the group formed a Tik Tok-friendly flash mob.

“It was really cruisey and super fun,” Annika says. “I didn't know what to expect, but now I have a taste for this and maybe venturing even further off-road.

“I got heaps of riding tips from a great bunch of people, and I'll definitely be signing up for some dirt-bike training,” says Annika, who wasn’t even the youngest on the ride. That title went to 17-year-old student Abi Chadwick who started riding from the age of four. Abi's family is heavily involved in organising the Sunny Corner Trail Bike Rally.

“There were so many fun people on the ride, and the RideADV crew made me feel welcome. I highly recommend other girls joining even if, like me, you have little to no experience,” Annika says.

For further information and updates on rideADV’s 2021 calendar, go to www.rideadv.com.au or follow them on Facebook.