Today in motorcycle history, October 18, 1941

                                  

               

 

  The Motor Maids are officially recognized as the world's first women's motorcycle club when they're granted Charter #509 by the AMA (American Motorcyclist Association).

 

 

  Linda Dugeau's boyfriend hoarded pennies during the summer of 1930 so he could purchase a $15 motorcycle. "The minute I saw it I wanted to ride," said Dugeau.

  "Girl riders", as the motorcycle magazines called them, were scarce in those days.  As motorcycling became an obsession for Dugeau, she and her friend Dot Robinson sought to unite female motorcyclists in a club modeled after Amelia Earhart's sorority for women pilots called 'The 99ers'.

 

  Dugeau, Robinson and 39 other women met for the first time in 1940. They settled on the name 'Motor Maids of America', and established two rules: A Motor Maid must own her own motorcycle, and she must at all times conduct herself like a lady.  Indeed, its original colors were pink before, in 1944, changing to royal blue and silver gray at which the same time they adopted their shield logo.  White gloves were also part of the uniform.  

  Dot Robinson would be named the first president (a position she would hold for the next 25 years) and would become one of the most influential women in American motorcycling.

  A few things have changed. You can't get a bike for $15 anymore; the large touring models favored by Motor Maids cost anywhere from $10,000 to $20,000.  The white gloves and ties that once distinguished club members are now donned only for parades.  The organization's name has been updated to 'Motor Maids Inc.', but the Motor Maids are still out to prove that "women who ride motorcycles can be above reproach."  Their four-page constitution and bylaws, revised in 1985, stipulate that members must be of good character and "at no time shall a member of the Motor Maids appear on her motorcycle in shorts or abbreviated costume."

Today in motorcycle history, October 10,1999

            

           

  Doug "Danger" Senecal breaks Robbie Knievel's 17 semi-truck record jump by one truck in Las Vegas, Nevada.

 

  Doug Danger first began making a name for himself in 1979 when he successfully jumped 10 cars in Palmer, Massachusetts.  After 10 years of jumping assorted vehicles and obstacles in various venues  up and down the East Coast, Danger finally makes the big league when he breaks Evel Knievel's record for the longest car jump , by clearing 20 cars in Toronto, Canada in 1989.

  Two years later, Doug would break the longest ramp-to-ramp jump by an American, by clearing 38 cars at a total distance of 251 feet at the New Hampshire International Speedway in Loudon, New Hampshire. The jump lands him in the Guinness Book of World Records for the farthest jump ever completed.  The fame is coming, now for a little rent money...

 

  ... just prior to a 1992 Robby Knieviel vs Doug Danger jump-off with a purse of over *$750K Doug misses an 11 car jump at Hudson Speedway in Hudson, New Hampshire, and suffers 17 broken bones including a fractured skull, ribs, femur, tibia and fibula.  Doug remained in a coma for more than a month.  The right side of his brain was found to be damaged and it would be over 3 years before he completely regains his memory.  (*Eddie Kidd would step in and beat Robbie Knievel in the jump-off.)

 

  On March 18, 2000, Doug Danger jumped an L-1011 Jumbo Jet wing tip-to- wing tip. The jump was filmed for the "I Dare You" television show. The jump was 160' across. The takeoff ramp was 4 feet wide and 20 feet high. The fuselage of the plane was 27 feet off the ground. Doug had to reach a height of 30 feet in the air. 

  Doug "Danger" Senecal, one of the greatest motorcycle daredevil you've probably never heard of.