Bike Lust: Harleys, Women, and American Society

Author Barbara Joans is the director of the Merritt Museum of Anthropology and chair of the Department of Anthropology at Merrit College in Oakland, California. She also rides a Harley-Davidson Lowrider. The combination gives her a unique perspective of the emerging world of women bikers. As a scientist, she untangles the rules, rituals and rites of passage common to the biker culture. As a new rider and member of that culture, she is candid about her own struggles to overcome fear, physical weakness, and a tendency to shoot her mouth off - a tendency that very nearly gets her killed.

From serious sport riders, to traditional biker chicks, back-seat Bettys and underage groupies, she covers the diverse generation of women who now ride and reside in the biker world: what they think and how they cope with its traditional issues of gender, race, and class.