Leader of the Pack
She has four motorbikes. Five grandchildren. And she’s gone from being a 9 to 5 public servant to founding Canberra’s first social enterprise for motorcycle owners. Meet Sonia van den Berg: a motorcycling enthusiast on a quest to help people become more comfortable not only with riding, but with motorbike maintenance. And she’s also a role model for women who want to learn more about the art of motorcycle maintenance.
Country tomboy
“I’ve never met any other woman my age who had those experiences growing up”
When she was young van den Berg rode trail bikes. “I lived in the country,” she said. “And that’s what you did”. She enjoyed riding out in the bush or the dirt where she didn’t need a license, although when she was older she did get her L plates a few times.
At home, van den Berg noted that while her parents were conservative, they didn’t buy into traditional gender roles. “When I was about four, I had spanners put in my hand, and by the time I was fourteen, I was helping my father strip down the ute’s motor – and after honing the cylinders, put it back together again,” she said. “There was no loud feminist or any of that sort of talk in the household. It was just that everybody was equal.”
She thought learning these things was normal. But it wasn’t until her parents turned up at her high school to complain about why girls weren’t allowed to participate in tech drawing classes that she realised just how unusual her tomboy childhood had been.
Then she started to notice how her female friends didn’t ride trail bikes or learn how to maintain and repair cars and other machinery. “I’ve never met any other woman my age who had those experiences growing up,” she said when recounting her experience.
Back on the bike
Van den Berg stopped riding motorbikes when life made other plans. Marriage, children and her career in the design and advertising industry kept her sans motorcycle until 2015. Van den Berg started on her L plates again, but despite her early motorbike experience, it wasn’t a smooth experience: she got hit by a courier van. While her bike was a write-off, she escaped without any broken bones but her family – including her adult sons – told her she was too old to be riding a motorbike.
When her relationship ended, van den Berg went out and bought herself another bike: a polite 2008 Honda CB400. (She told her adult children about the purchase after the event.)
Van den Berg’s next motorcycle was a track bike. “A friend encouraged me to get a track bike. I knew that I was older and therefore at greater risk due to slower response times. I wanted to get my skills up quickly to be a good rider,” she said.
“You have to be able to respond to all the hazards that confront you on the road quickly, but not in a reactionary or aggressive way,” she said. She said a track is good for learning skills because you can go at your own pace and drill what you’re doing.
“You have to be able to respond to all the hazards that confront you on the road quickly but not in a reactionary or aggressive way.”
This is silly! And I need to do something about it
Van den Berg joined the Female Riders of Canberra (FRoC) Facebook Group and started participating in organised rides and women’s only track days. She began meeting women around her age who had (also) just taken up riding. Like her, many had gone through relationship breakups and decided to go out and buy a motorbike.
“They love riding. But many knew absolutely nothing about what they were riding, and didn’t understand maintenance and how important it is,” she said. “And they didn’t know if they were riding a one-cylinder or a four-cylinder bike – or the implications of that.”
According to van den Berg, female riders usually relied on their male mechanic – or if they were lucky, a boyfriend or mate. “And that can be a testy area for some women, too, because they don’t like being told by men what to do – particularly if they bought their motorbike after coming out of a relationship breakup. And I just thought – this is silly!”
“they don’t like being told by men what to do – particularly if they bought their motorbike after coming out of a relationship breakup.”
The idea that she needed to do something to help women was an idea that wouldn’t go away. She lived with the idea for a couple of years before deciding to make it a reality. But the idea kept getting stronger, reinforced by her getting even more involved in motorcycling, joining the Veterans Vintage and Classics Motorcycle Club of the ACT and adding more bikes to her stable.
Starting a social enterprise
After percolating the idea of needing to do more to help women motorcycle enthusiasts, van den Berg contacted social enterprise business advisory intermediary The Mill House Ventures. They told her to speak to the Canberra Innovation Network (CBRIN) – so she did.
Van den Berg took part in the second Idea to Impact course run by CBRIN in 2022. “I learned so much, and it really built my confidence,” she said. “Coming out of the public service, I was pretty shattered.” She found the lean innovation method taught in CBRIN’s Idea to Impact course taught her about the importance of not having preconceived ideas and instead testing the market to see what people want.
She also immersed herself even further into Canberra’s motorcycle riding community, which helped build her profile as a passionate community-focused rider. She’s now on the committee of the Motorcycle Riders Association, and an administrator of the Facebook Group Female Riders of Canberra – aka FRoC. And she regularly organises FRoC rides, a topic she spoke to Georgia Staines about on ABC Radio Canberra.
Riders Lane
And then there’s Riders Lane, a social enterprise van den Berg founded that will open in October 2023. Riders Lane will provide a workshop with tools, equipment and networks for its members to work on their own motorcycles. It will have dedicated bays with electric hydraulic motorcycle lifts, professional tools and assistance from volunteers. Membership is open for a fee and includes mentoring sessions, organised rides and events.
“... learning how to maintain bikes is simply about having the right people to teach you”
Riders Lane will also host classes that teach anything from basic motorcycle maintenance to the more complex, including Wednesday Women’s Night, a maintenance course free for all female members.
“People – especially men – say to me ‘wow, Sonia, you’re doing great things,” she said. “But learning how to maintain bikes is simply about having the right people to teach you.”
For information about Riders Lane, contact Sonia at riderslane.canberra@gmail.com.
