Women’s Motorcycle Tours’ Suffragists Centennial Motorcycle Ride is set to start in Portland on July 31, 2021, and run through August 20 in Washington, DC. The cross-country ride will be a single-route event, called the Portland Celebration Route.
The cross-country celebrants will start in Portland, with shorter-term riders joining as the route heads east. Rather than a coast-to-coast sprint, the ride will take two-lane rounds, while stopping to check out historic sites along the way. Optional side trips will be available, including a seven-day New York Historical Route that will visit important 19th Amendment sites that can be fully guided or self-guided.
The ride end date dovetails with the three-day Women’s Motorcycle Conference, which begins on August 19 in Washington, DC. There will be concurrent Centennial Celebrations in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles, New York, Orlando, Portland, and San Francisco.
Initially planned for 2020, the Centennial Ride has been moved to 2021. “While I am disappointed that COVID-19 has interrupted our 2020 plans for the Centennial Ride, I am quite certain that our 2021 Celebration will be even more spectacular,” said Women’s Motorcycle Tours Founder Alisa Clickenger. “I am now able to take the ideas collected from two years of planning and development and put them together in new ways to create an event that will leave an even more indelible mark on the history of women and motorcycling.”
According to ride organizers, “The Centennial Ride is a nationwide women’s motorcycle celebration…celebrating the centennial of the signing of the 19th amendment—women’s right to vote. The Centennial Ride is about unity, community, and the freedom of the road. The event is for all riders on all makes and models and disciplines of riding, including two wheels, three wheels, and passengers. The Centennial Ride seeks to change lives, establish life-long friendships, and bring riders together in a way that only epic journeys can.”
