Area Gets Own Motorcycle Diaries
Lewisburg woman starts web site for Miami Valley bikers
By Martha Hardcastle for the Dayton Daily News - June 2005
Suzie Browning had ulterior motives when she started a website for Dayton-area bikers: She just didn't want to be left out of events.
Inspiration came when Browning, 42, of Lewisburg and her husband Mark, 44, were eating at The Corner restaurant in West Milton this year.
"All these bikes came rolling in on a
poker run, and we would have gone if we had known about it," she said.
A "poker run" is a
motorcycle event where the group stops at enough places for each rider to draw a card from a deck at each stop.
At the end, the person with the best poker hand wins and gets part of a prize pot. The rest goes to charity.
"My husband always said the reason
bikers like to get together is to have a good time and to ride with other bikers," Browning said. "And to top it all off, the proceeds go to someone who needs it."
The website just went up in May, but Browning received more than 1300 visitors already.
She spreads the word by attending
bike events and taking pictures of the participants. She then tells participants the Web site address -
www.wherestheride.com - where the pictures are displayed.
"I started this website for very selfish reasons," Browning said. "For us living out in the country, we didn't find out about rides unless we got into Dayton once a week. But what's funny is that now that I am doing the website, I'm in Dayton about three times aweek!"
Browning just started riding her own
motorcycle in March.
"I rode forever on the back, but I wanted to ride myself, so my husband got me a bike last fall," she said.
It was a conservative purchase - only $400 for a
Suzuki 250, a bike small enough for her to handle at 5-foot-4 and 115 pounds.
As Mark Browning works on the road every week doing truck terminal maintenance in a multi-state area, his wife wanted to have something to ride when he was out of town.
"I did 50 miles in my yard before I ever hit the road," she said."I have put 2,700 miles on it since March."
Riding can be a challenge for women. Although there are petite women riding enormous bikes, Browning admitted that she can't get her husband's
Harley Davidson 883 Sportster off the kickstand.
And girls generally don't get the opportunity to ride at an early age.
"Daddies don't buy their girls mini-bikes," she said. "They have to have a boyfriend or a male friend to let them have their first ride."
While Browning isn't a typical
female biker, she cautioned that there is not a stereotypical biker of any kind these days.
"It's not like it used to be," she said. "There are so many different people on different kinds of
motorcycles. On bike night they're wearing their
leathers and T-shirts, but Monday thru Friday they've got on business suits or dresses, heels, - anything."
As for Browning, "I'm just a little country girl that lives out in the country that likes the
wind in her hair. I'm part computer geek and part mom."
Although the pictures are a draw, Browning said the motorcycle events calendar is the most important part of her website.
"There's at least one
charity ride every weekend during the summer - I have about 270 events listed for this summer already and that will increase," she said.
Some of those events include bike nights at various watering holes around the area.
Bike nights are to bikers what cruise-ins are for automobile enthusiasts.
"You ride your bike in and people walk around and look at the bikes, "Browning said.
One of the most popular
bike nights is on Wednesdays at
Jackass Flats on Rip Rap Road, where there is a live band and vendors each week.
Although the couple has a blended family of five offspring between the ages of 19 and 24, only Cory Browning, 23, has a bike.
The rest of the family includes Michael Beck, 24; Molly Browning, 21; Brad Beck, 21; and Brian Beck, 19.
Suzie Browning has more plans for the website.
"I want to eventually have a section where people can make donations through the website, becoming more charity involved as time goes by,"Browning said.
"It amazes me how many people are into bikes. I read last week
that Ohio has the largest registration of
Harley-Davidson motorcycles
per capita in the United States."
"
Ohio is a very big motorcycle community - much larger that I even thought to begin with."
