Today in motorcycle history, November 2, 1934

   I'm on vacation so here's a blast from the past...

   Englishwomen Theresa Wallach and Florence "Blenk" Blenkiron, set out on a Phelon & Moore 600cc single-cylinder Panther motorcycle equipped with a sidecar and a trailer and rode from London to Cape Town, South Africa. No modern roads, no plan B, just a giant set of balls that any man would envy. Both women were already accomplished competitive racers, who were savvy enough to raise corporate sponsorship– which just goes to show how seriously they were taken as motorcyclists. The duo rode straight across the Sahara through equatorial Africa, and South to the Cape, on the long and brutal trek without so much as a compass. Undeterred by nomads, sand drifts, heat, rain, breakdowns and politics. A feat that no man had dared to even attempt. Keep in mind this was 1934.
   Theresa Wallach was elected to the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 2003. Other than being a motorcycle adventurer, she is an author who founded Easy Motorcycle Riding Schools, Inc. and published a training manual of same name and was the first Vice President of Women's International Motorcycle Association (WIMA).
Her life-long love affair with motorcycling is summed up in a quote from a 1977 interview with Road Rider Magazine.
   "When I first saw a motorcycle, I got a message from it," she said. "It was a feeling – the kind of thing that makes a person burst into tears hearing a piece of music or standing awestruck in front of a fine work of art. Motorcycling is a tool with which you can accomplish something meaningful in your life. It is an art."
   Theresa Wallach remained an active member in WIMA up until her death in 1998 at age 90.

R