July is Women's Motorcycle Month! Every week for the month of July, visit our blog to read about some of the pioneers of women's motorcycling.

Dot Robinson

From before she was even born, Dorothy “Dot” Robinson was surrounded by motorcycles. When her mother went into labor on April 22, 1912, her father rushed her to the hospital in the sidecar of his motorcycle. Beyond that, motorcycles were in Dot's blood. Her father designed sidecars and was an amateur racer. Dot and her family moved to Michigan when she was six years old, where her father ran a motorcycle dealership.

She started riding when she was young, and earned her first trophy in the Flint 100 Endurance race back in 1930. Dot met her husband, Earl Robinson, while working in her father's motorcycle shop. She and Earl married in 1931, and in 1935 made a record transcontinental run together. After that, they were invited to run a Harley-Davidson dealership in Detroit. They ran the shop until 1971, then sold it to travel the world by motorcycle.

While running the shop with her husband, Dot was also busy becoming the first woman to win an AMA national competition in 1940 and again in 1946. She was also a founding member of the Motor Maids, a women's motorcycle club that still exists today, which was featured extensively in American Motorcyclist Magazine. Dot began wearing her signature pink motorcycle gear in the 1950s in order to distinguish herself from the motorcycle “outlaws” portrayed in film wearing all-black leathers.

Dot Robinson, motorcycle pioneer, passed away at the age of 87 in 1999. She guessed that in her lifetime she had traveled more than a million miles on a motorcycle.

What do you think? Did Dot Robinson help pave the way for women motorcyclists of the future? Share your opinion below, or join the conversation on Facebook!

Source(s):
http://www.motorcyclemuseum.org/asp/museum/exhibits/heroesofharley/biopage1.asp?id=78