About the Newsletter...
Steeped in Non-Tradition, A Report from the Founder
By Helen Gone (Bat Tattler)
Announcing a rag-within-a-rag, a journal aimed at fat-tired ladies of the knobby persuasion: the few, the proud, the disheveled. WOMBATS NEWS is for the mud-speckled hens, the Women Who Love Mud Too Much.
It's well known that this sport would love to be considered muy macho,and in the early eighties was well on its way into no-woman's land, where the motorcycle and other noxious machines play. Fortunately, a few far-seeing"uppity women" insisted that their girlfriends join them outdoors, achieving oneness with nature, skinning their elbows, grinning a lot, and practicing dental entomology (-collecting flies in their teeth) along with the guys.
In 1983, the year NORBA was formed, only three women dared to enter a race called the "National Championships". One was a mother of three who later went on to win RAAM in 1987-Casey Patterson. She and the two other competitors shared a "why not?" attitude that allowed women to race with the fellas.
The following year there were six female competitors, in the one after that, about a dozen. And yet the number of women on balloon-tired bikes (we call 'em fat-tired ladies) numbered in the thousands. Where were they all hiding? The answer turned out to be: on the sidelines!Pleading with the women behind the hay bales proved futile - no self-respecting woman was going to make a fool of herself out there in full public view.It was necessary to bribe them with tempting goodies, a social (rather than competitive) pace, and the promise that no gnarly dudes need apply.They had their own rides, anyway.
If you've ever felt like you were the only woman in a hundred-mile radiuson fat tires, settle into your chair with a cup of freshly-made tea and enjoy the WOMBATS News.
We will share tech tips for the reluctant mechanic, and pointers from the Remedial Rider's School, as well as alert you to the latest fashion trends and political innuendoes of the fat tire world.
