Van Buren sisters

Last updated
Augusta Van Buren
Augusta Van Buren.jpg
Born26 Mar 1884
New York, United States
Died30 Sep 1959
Middletown, New Castle County, Delaware, United States
Other namesAugusta Roberts
Occupation(s)Librarian, pilot
Known forMotorcycling across the US
Adeline Van Buren
Adeline Van Buren.jpg
Born26 Jul 1889
New York, United States
Died1949
Other namesAdeline Tully
Occupation(s)Lawyer, educator
Known forMotorcycling across the USA
Indian Power Plus 1000 cc 1920.jpg

Augusta Van Buren and Adeline Van Buren, sisters, rode 5,500 miles in 60 days to cross the continental United States, each on their own motorcycle, completing on 8 September 1916. [1] In so doing they became the second and third women to drive motorcycles across the entire continent, following Effie Hotchkiss, who had completed a Brooklyn-to-San Francisco route the year before with her mother, Avis, as a sidecar passenger. [2]

Contents

History of the ride

Van Buren journey.jpg

The sisters descended from Martin Van Buren, the eighth President of the United States. [3] In 1916, 32-year-old Augusta and 27-year-old Adeline Van Buren, or Gussie and Addie as they were known, were young and active in the national Preparedness Movement. America was about to enter World War I, and the sisters wanted to prove that women could ride as well as men and would be able to serve as military dispatch riders, freeing up men for other tasks. [4] They also hoped to remove one of the primary arguments for denying women the right to vote. [5] [6] For their ride, they dressed in military-style leggings and leather riding breeches, [7] a taboo at that time. [3]

They set out from Sheepshead Bay Race Track in Brooklyn, New York on July 4, riding 1,000 cc Indian Power Plus motorcycles equipped with gas headlights. Indians were the high-end motorcycle at the time, selling for $275, and ran Firestone "non-skid" tires. [8]

They arrived in Los Angeles on September 8 after having to contend with poor roads, [9] heavy rains and mud, [10] natural barriers like the Rocky Mountains, and social barriers such as the local police who took offense at their choice of men's clothing. During the ride, they were arrested numerous times, not for speeding but for wearing men's clothes. [7] [11] In Colorado, they became the first women to reach the 14,109-foot (4,300 m) summit of Pikes Peak by any motor vehicle. [12] Later on, they became lost in the desert 100 miles (160 km) west of Salt Lake City and were saved by a prospector after their water ran out. [12] They completed their ride by traveling across the border to Tijuana in Mexico.

Beyond question the Van Burens have made one of the most noteworthy trips ever accomplished, chiefly because they have proven that the motorcycle is a universal vehicle.[ citation needed ]

— Paul Derkum, Indian Motorcycle Company

Despite succeeding in their trek, the sisters' applications to be military dispatch riders were rejected. Reports in the leading motorcycling magazine of the day praised the bike but not the sisters and described the journey as a "vacation". [13] One newspaper published a degrading article 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".[ citation needed ]

Later life

Adeline continued her career as an educator, and earned her law degree from New York University. Augusta became a pilot and joined Amelia Earhart's Ninety-Nines international women's flying organization.

Memorial

In 1988, their achievement was celebrated by four women members of the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) with the "Van Buren Transcon", a fund-raising effort for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation supported by Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki and Yamaha and designed to improve the public perception of motorcycling. [14] [15]

In 2002, the sisters were inducted into the AMA's Motorcycle Hall of Fame and into the Sturgis Motorcycle Museum & Hall of Fame during 2003.[ citation needed ]

In 2006 Bob Van Buren, great-nephew of the sisters, and his wife, Rhonda Van Buren, retraced the route taken by Gussie and Addie on a Harley-Davidson Low Rider from New York City to San Francisco. In line with the sisters' desire to influence the military, the trip was a fundraiser for the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund and was launched from the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in Manhattan. Contributions to the fund helped to build a new rehabilitation hospital at Brooke Army Medical Center (BAMC) in San Antonio, Texas.[ citation needed ]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American Motorcyclist Association</span> Nonprofit organization

The American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) is an American nonprofit organization of more than 200,000 motorcyclists that organizes numerous motorcycling activities and campaigns for motorcyclists' legal rights. Its mission statement is "to promote the motorcycling lifestyle and protect the future of motorcycling." The organization was founded in 1924 and as of October 2016 had more than 1,100 chartered clubs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Motorcycle club</span> Group of individuals whose primary interest and activities involve motorcycles

A motorcycle club is a group of individuals whose primary interest and activities involve motorcycles. A motorcycle group can range as clubbed groups of different bikes or bikers who own same model of vehicle like the Harley Owners Group.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kenny Roberts</span> American motorcycle racer

Kenneth Leroy Roberts is an American former professional motorcycle racer and racing team owner. In 1978, he became the first American to win a Grand Prix motorcycle racing world championship. He was also a two-time winner of the A.M.A. Grand National Championship. Roberts is one of only four riders in American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) racing history to win the AMA Grand Slam, representing Grand National wins at a mile, half-mile, short-track, TT Steeplechase and road race events.

Mert Lawwill is an American professional motorcycle racer, race team owner and mountain bike designer. He competed in the AMA Grand National Championship from 1962 to 1977. Lawwill is notable for winning the 1969 AMA Grand National Championship as a member of the Harley-Davidson factory racing team. After his motorcycle racing career, Lawwill became one of the top motorcycle racing frame designers and builders. Lawwill then used his experience as a motorcycle frame builder to become an innovative mountain bike designer, developing one of the first bicycle suspensions. He also developed prosthetic limbs for amputees. Lawwill was inducted in the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame in 1997 and the Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 1998.

Marty Tripes is an American former professional motocross racer. He competed in the AMA Motocross Championships from 1972 to 1980. He was one of the leading American motocross and supercross racers during the 1970s. Tripes rose to national prominence in 1972 as a teenage prodigy when, he defeated some of the best riders in the world to win the first-ever stadium supercross race in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cal Rayborn</span> American motorcycle racer

Calvin Rayborn II was a top American professional motorcycle road racer in the 1960s and early 1970s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bessie Stringfield</span> American motorcycle rider

Bessie Stringfield, also known as the "Motorcycle Queen of Miami", was an American motorcyclist who was the first African-American woman to ride across the United States solo, and was one of the few civilian motorcycle dispatch riders for the US Army during World War II.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harley-Davidson XR-750</span> Type of motorcycle

The Harley-Davidson XR-750 is a racing motorcycle made by Harley-Davidson since 1970, primarily for dirt track racing, but also for road racing in the XRTT variant. The XR-750 was designed in response to a 1969 change in AMA Grand National Championship rules that leveled the playing field for makes other than Harley-Davidson, allowing Japanese and British motorcycles to outperform the previously dominant Harley-Davidson KR race bike. The XR-750 went on to win the most races in the history of American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) racing.

Buzz Kanter is the editor-in-chief and publisher of American Iron Magazine, American Iron Garage and American Iron Salute magazine, and was inducted into the American Motorcyclist Association Hall of Fame in 2002. Buzz was also inducted into the National Motorcycle Museum and Hall of Fame and the Sturgis Motorcycle Hall of Fame.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Outline of motorcycles and motorcycling</span> Overview of and topical guide to motorcycles and motorcycling

The following outline is provided as an overview of motorcycles and motorcycling:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American Flat Track</span> American motorcycle racing series

American Flat Track is an American motorcycle racing series. The racing series, founded and sanctioned by the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) in 1954, originally encompassed five distinct forms of competitions including mile dirt track races, half-mile, short-track, TT steeplechase and road races. The championship was the premier motorcycle racing series in the United States from the 1950s up until the late 1970s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Motor Maids</span>

Motor Maids is a women's motorcycle club in North America with over 1,300 members from the United States and Canada. Established in 1940, Motor Maids was one of the first women's motorcycle groups and has been called the oldest existing women's club in the United States. The first president of Motor Maids was Dot Robinson, who held the position for 25 years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Avis and Effie Hotchkiss</span> Motorcycling pioneers

Avis and Effie Hotchkiss, mother and daughter from Brooklyn, New York, were pioneering motorcyclists who completed a 9,000-mile (14,000 km) round trip ride from New York to San Francisco and back on a Harley-Davidson motorcycle-sidecar combination in 1915.

Dudley B. Perkins was an American champion motorcycle hillclimb competitor and Harley-Davidson motorcycle dealer. The American Motorcyclist Association's highest award, the AMA Dud Perkins Lifetime Achievement Award, was named after him in 1970, and he was its first recipient.

This is a glossary of motorcycling terms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harley-Davidson KR</span> Type of motorcycle

The Harley-Davidson KR or KR750 was a 45.125 cu in (739.47 cc) displacement V-twin engine racing motorcycle made by Harley-Davidson from 1953 through 1969 for flat track racing. It was also used in road racing in the KRTT faired version. When the KR was first introduced, it dominated motorcycle racing in the United States. In 1970 it was replaced by the long-lived and US race-winning Harley-Davidson XR-750.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joe Petrali</span> American motorcycle racer

"Smokey'" Joe Petrali was an American motorcycle racer, active in the 1920s and 1930s. Petrali was a Class A racing champion who competed in board-track and dirt-track racing circuits, speed records, and hillclimbs. Petrali won a record 49 American Motorcyclist Association national championship races, with his last coming on August 29, 1937. The record stood for 55 years until broken by Scott Parker in 1992.

Gloria Tramontin Struck is an American motorcyclist who was one of the early members of the Motor Maids women's motorcycle club, which she joined in 1946, at age 21. She is both a Sturgis Hall of Fame and Motorcycle Hall of Fame inductee.

Jim Rice is an American former professional motorcycle racer who is an inductee of both the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame and the TrailBlazers Hall of Fame. During his career in the late 1960s and early 1970s he won 12 national races and finished in the top 10 of the championship three times. All but one of his victories were on BSA machines. Footage of Rice's crash in qualifying for the 1970 Sacramento Mile was used in Bruce Brown's film On Any Sunday.

References

  1. ↑ Murphy, William. Grace and Grit: Motorcycle Dispatches from Early 20th Century Women Adventurers. Arbutus Press, 2012 ISBN   1933926333.
  2. ↑ Miller, Ernestine G. Making Her Mark: Firsts and Milestones in Women's Sports. McGraw-Hill Professional, 2002.
  3. 1 2 Mullins, Sasha. The Chrome Cowgirl Guide to the Motorcycle Life. MotorBooks International, 2008.
  4. ↑ The Sketch: A Journal of Art and Actuality, Volume 95. Ingram brothers, 1916
  5. ↑ Calif, Ruth. The world on wheels: an illustrated history of the bicycle and its relatives. Cornwall Books, 1983.
  6. ↑ Alford, Steven E., and Suzanne Ferriss. Motorcycle. Reaktion Books, 2008.
  7. 1 2 Rollin, Bernard E. Harley-Davidson and Philosophy: Full-Throttle Aristotle. Open Court Publishing, 2006.
  8. ↑ Northern Automotive Journal, Volumes 24–25. Mechanics' Mutual Benefit Association of North Dakota, Mechanics' Mutual Benefit Association of South Dakota, Bruce Publishing Company, 1916.
  9. ↑ "Sisters of the Road", American Motorcyclist, June 1996.
  10. ↑ Recreation, Volume 55, Issue 5. Outdoor World Publishing Company, 1916
  11. ↑ Ruderman, Anne, and Jo Giovanni, "Adeline and Augusta Van Buren: Pioneers in Women in Motorcycling" Asphalt Angels 74, 1998, pp. 11–15.
  12. 1 2 Ms. magazine, Volume 6, Issues 7–12. Ms. Foundation for Education and Communication, 1978.
  13. ↑ Motorcycle Illustrated, 27 July 1916.
  14. ↑ "Women Riders Chosen." American Motorcyclist, June 1988.
  15. ↑ Savvy Woman, Volume 10, Issues 7–12. Family Media Inc., 1989.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.