Manitoba bikers celebrate 20th International Female Ride Day
Posted May 2, 2026 5:09 pm.
Last Updated May 3, 2026 3:12 pm.
Over 100 bikers from the Manitoba motorcycle community gathered in Winnipeg for the 20th International Female Ride Day to celebrate women on the road and bringing the community together.
The global event is held annually on the first Saturday of May to promote, empower, and increase the visibility of women in motorcycling and power sports. The movement was founded in 2007 by motorcycle advocate Vicki Gray.
Every year the event selects a female organization to raise funds and this year the community is supporting Villa Rossa, a Winnipeg non-profit that provides assistance to pregnant persons in need of help and safe space.
“Being able to impact women who need some strength and empowerment and being able to offer that and riders and say: ‘hey, we see you, we haven’t forgotten you are there and you are struggling. we want you to know that we care,’” said Jessica Doucette, coordinator, Indian Ladies First Manitoba.
This year for the first time in Manitoba’s female ride day men were encouraged to take part as well.
“Lots of us learned to ride from our fathers, so we wanted to make sure men knew that they were seen in our world too,” Doucette said.
Kari-Ann Leathwood says it is encouraging to see more women joining motorcycling community.
“The empowerment. Love it. To see more ladies riding because when I started back in the 90s there weren’t many women riders,” Leathwood said.
She added that it was a lot more intimidating to be a woman on the road with motorcycles not being adjusted to fit female riders when she first began.
Shaune Slobodzian started riding a motorcycle 49 year ago. She says she is glad to see more women take up bikes.
“It’s a lot of progress over the years,” Slobodzian said. “Never would have guessed that would have happened back then.”
