The island\u2019s female bikers are putting the macho world of biking in its place<\/h3>\n
It\u2019s a pleasant Tuesday night in early September, and the street outside the club is buzzing. Tables have been set up, a chatty crowd \u2013 with perhaps a disproportionate number of brawny, bearded men in black T-shirts \u2013 are tucking into beers and kebabs. Musicians play rembetiko. At the entrance to the road in old Nicosia (it\u2019s a private road, so they\u2019re able to cordon it off), two rows of motorbikes are parked cheek-by-jowl, like a guard of honour.<\/p>\n
The people in the crowd are a mixed bunch. Elpida Philippidou, for instance, is a floral designer, having previously spent 20 years as cabin crew for Cyprus Airways. Her sister Suzy Galanou works at a funeral home. Maria Ioannou is a cashier at a department store, and a part-time beautician. Argyri Elia \u2013 temporarily behind the bar on this Tuesday night \u2013 is among the admin staff at Nicosia general hospital. Club secretary Andri Georgiou is a high-school French teacher.<\/p>\n
What these women all have in common, however, is a love of motorcycles. The club in question is the Ledra Motorcycle Club, the oldest of its kind in Cyprus (it recently celebrated its 40th<\/sup> anniversary) \u2013 and the ladies are among the growing cohort of female bikers on the island.<\/p>\n Ledra is unisex, though most of its members (around 80 per cent) are men \u2013 especially if you only count riders as opposed to passengers and other enthusiasts, an important distinction in Biker World.<\/p>\n Other clubs, somewhat surprisingly, discriminate \u2013 even now, with all the various laws on the subject. Some are men-only. Two (Cyprus Women Motorbikers in Limassol and Island Angels in Pissouri) are women-only, as if to redress the balance. Overall, however, it\u2019s fair to say that the macho allure of biking is generally seen as incongruous \u2013 not to say incompatible \u2013 with being a member of the fairer sex. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a big taboo,\u201d confirms Elpida at her home on the outskirts of Nicosia, leading the way to the garage to show off her two-wheeled companions \u2013 a Harley Davidson, its fuel tank adorned with a \u2018Harley Lady\u2019 logo, which her husband Andros (Harley\u2019s chief mechanic in Cyprus) custom-assembled in the 90s, and a Honda CB model (the \u2018CB\u2019 stands for \u2018City Bike\u2019) which is what she uses to get around, the Harley being more for road trips. \u201cIt\u2019s a 500[cc],\u201d she explains. \u201cSo it\u2019s like a little bicycle.\u201d<\/p>\n Women bikers face opposition, though. \u201cSome get bullied by their parents. There are women \u2013 young women \u2013 who may have a motorbike stashed away secretly in a garage somewhere. We get bullying from husbands. Even from the kids.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s just easier for men, she reckons: \u201cBoys and their toys!\u2026 And society\u2019s conditioned us to be all about\u201d \u2013 she makes dainty gestures, like a girly little thing \u2013 \u201cour hair, and our nails, and our jewellery, and our little dresses, and our shoes, and our handbags\u2026\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n Elpida is 54, meaning she\u2019s been riding since the dawn of the culture in Cyprus \u2013 from around the time Ledra was founded, when powerful motorbikes were a novelty even for men, and the number of women straddling Hogs wasn\u2019t just small but infinitesimal.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were breaking stereotypes,\u201d recalls the Cyprus Mail<\/em>\u2019s own Rebekah Gregoriades, another veteran biker from the same era. \u201cWe had fingers pointed at us.\u201d<\/p>\n That said, Elpida and Suzy\u2019s case was quite different. Not only were the family somewhat cosmopolitan, by local standards \u2013 Elpida is three-quarters Cypriot, but was born in Canada and lived there till the age of eight \u2013 they were also, more importantly, a family of bikers.<\/p>\n Her grandpa never drove a car, going from horses to two-wheelers. He even rode a motorcycle for the Allies in WWII, and was wounded in action. Elpida\u2019s dad rode a bike in the 80s, a Suzuki A100 which was also her personal training bike. \u201cAs soon as I finished primary school, my older brother was like, \u2018C\u2019mon, let me teach you how to ride\u2019,\u201d she recalls (she later did the same with younger sister Suzy). Two days before her 17th<\/sup> birthday, \u201cmy little Chaly appeared in the house\u201d.<\/p>\n This is old-timer talk indeed \u2013 the Chaly, the Landy, the Chappy. These were the entry-level bikes (made by Honda, Suzuki and Yamaha, respectively) for a whole generation \u2013 at a time when riding a bike, at least in Cyprus, was gloriously unregulated.<\/p>\n Nowadays you have to wear a helmet, of course, and long trousers (as opposed to a dress, if you\u2019re a woman) and even a jacket. Bikers are enjoined to wear boots. Back then, however, says Elpida, \u201cmost of them were riding in their flip-flops\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cBack then, there weren\u2019t so many dangers. Because there weren\u2019t so many cars\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n I\u2019ve arranged to meet Maria Ioannou too, during her lunch break at the department store where she works \u2013 but there\u2019s a surprise when I call to confirm the meeting.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m glad you called,\u201d she says. \u201cI was going to call you.\u201d She\u2019s had an accident with the bike, she explains. She\u2019s off work for a while, until her bruises heal.<\/p>\n Later \u2013 the interview having been rescheduled to her home in Kaimakli \u2013 she reports what happened. She was riding her Honda Rebel on Digeni Akrita avenue, just after the Ayios Antonios traffic lights. \u201cI wasn\u2019t speeding. I was going really slow, because I\u2019d just left the lights.\u201d A taxi (driven by a woman, as it happens) entered from a side road, turning right \u2013 and either didn\u2019t see her, or (more likely) assumed the bike would give way. \u201cI have no idea what she was thinking,\u201d says Maria. \u201cThey just ignore you on the road.\u201d<\/p>\n When you see a car poised to come in from a side road, confirms Elpida, \u201cyou always assume it\u2019s going to come in\u201d.<\/p>\n Getting blocked by a car is probably the most common way of getting hurt as a biker. Had she been speeding, says Maria, she\u2019d surely have been thrown by the impact and landed on the asphalt. In the event, she rammed into her own fuel tank, causing bruising to the stomach and pelvis.<\/p>\n It could\u2019ve been worse, of course. Four years ago, Maria fractured her wrist in another, very similar accident, and was out of action for six weeks. Another biker \u2013 a friend\u2019s brother \u2013 was killed on the road when he tried to overtake a slow-moving van that suddenly veered to the right, bumping into him. The van had veered to avoid a stationary car, which someone had parked in the road \u2013 but the car wasn\u2019t visible from the bike\u2019s vantage point. \u201cIt only takes a few seconds.\u201d<\/p>\n Ledra are very active in this regard, organising not just group rides and rembetiko night on Tuesdays, but also regular classes on how to ride safely. The clubhouse is filled with posters and mementos from their storied 40-year history \u2013 though I also note an intriguing sticker, for something called Ridegaia.com: \u2018Riding a motorcycle is not just getting from A to B. It\u2019s everything in between\u2019. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n That\u2019s the point, at the end of the day \u2013 the attraction of the sport, for both men and women. That \u2018everything in between\u2019, however you choose to define it.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a way of life,\u201d confirms Elpida. \u201cI cannot imagine myself without riding a bike\u2026 If my husband didn\u2019t ride a bike, it\u2019d be a \u2018no-go item\u2019 as they say on the airplane. There was no chance I would be in a relationship with someone that doesn\u2019t ride a bike.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s what I\u2019m trying to explain to my daughter \u2013 that she should bring us a son-in-law who rides a bike. Or else he won\u2019t fit in the family!\u201d<\/p>\n What exactly makes it so special? \u201cThe freedom,\u201d say both Maria and Argyri Elia. It\u2019s a sensual experience, adds Elpida \u2013 especially riding out in Nature, in the mountains, surrounded by the bouquet of fragrances or the tang of a chilly day. You\u2019re alert in general, unlike the soporific experience of driving a car. <\/p>\n Is there more? A flavour of rebellion, perhaps, the outlaw culture of bar fights and motorcycle gangs? Sons of Anarchy<\/em>, \u2018Born to be wild\u2019, that kind of thing? Ironically \u2013 given what a hard time women face for trying to be part of this macho world \u2013 that\u2019s not really true in Cyprus.<\/p>\n \u201cShow me the outlaws in Cyprus!\u201d laughs Elpida when the question is put to her \u2013 then shakes her head. \u201cWe don\u2019t have Hell\u2019s Angels. We don\u2019t have the drugs\u2026\u201d That said, she adds shrewdly, \u201cthere\u2019s a lot of outlaws that do ride bikes\u201d, meaning criminals thinking of a quick getaway and so on. \u201cThey\u2019re just not members of clubs.\u201d<\/p>\n Mostly it\u2019s the pleasure of riding \u2013 not even speed, just that sense of possibility, an unbridled freedom that appeals to a certain independent streak. \u201cYou have to be the solitary type,\u201d reckons Argyri, riding (even with a passenger) being essentially a private, self-sufficient pastime.<\/p>\n Then again, this is where clubs come in. Maria tells of riding to Pomos as a passenger once, feeling so invigorated that she promised herself: \u201cI\u2019m going to do this again on my own, so I\u2019m not depending on someone else to take me\u201d. Later, having started biking again \u2013 she used to ride a Landy as a teenager, but stopped to get married and raise kids \u2013 she did indeed go to Pomos on her own machine; but she rode with Ledra. A motorcycle club is a kind of support group, allowing individualists to travel in company and find kindred spirits.<\/p>\n And what of women, specifically? Do they get something more out of it?<\/p>\n Not necessarily. \u201cI don\u2019t consider [biking] to be masculine,\u201d says Maria, who admits she can\u2019t even fix a flat tyre. A woman biker doesn\u2019t need to be mannish. There\u2019s no gender issue to speak of.<\/p>\n Still, there may be some secret satisfaction \u2013 in breaking stereotypes, as Rebekah put it, and matching the guys at what they believe is their own game.<\/p>\n After all, \u201cyou\u2019re not accepted that easily by the boys,\u201d admits Elpida. \u201cYou have to prove yourself, that you\u2019re a good rider\u2026 OK, they take care of us, the boys. But if you\u2019re going to go on a ride, just boys, you have to be able to keep up.\u201d It\u2019s empowering to prove that you can.<\/p>\n Women bikers have it all, acceptance in a man\u2019s world while also holding on to feminine elegance (Harley, in particular, are making very stylish outfits at the moment) and \u2013 why not? \u2013 the hair and the nails too. Other women tend to find them inspirational. Maria often gets delighted looks from female drivers when they spot her on the motorcycle; Elpida does Ledra club fundraisers, where they go to schools to amaze little girls with their presence \u2013 \u201cAnd they see us girls, us women, on the bike, and they have the idea that \u2018Yeah, we\u2019re allowed\u2019\u2026\u201d A motorbike is potent, it\u2019s iconic. The best part? It\u2019ll get you from A to B too.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The island\u2019s female bikers are putting the macho world of biking in its place It\u2019s a pleasant Tuesday night in early September, and the street outside the club is buzzing. Tables have been set up, a chatty crowd \u2013 with perhaps a disproportionate number of brawny, bearded men in black T-shirts \u2013 are tucking into<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4315,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[53,391,133],"class_list":{"0":"post-4314","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-lifestyle","8":"tag-cyprus","9":"tag-outlaws","10":"tag-show"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegloss.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegloss.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegloss.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegloss.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegloss.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thegloss.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4314\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegloss.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegloss.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegloss.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegloss.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cyprus-mail.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/profile-2.jpg\")
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