RELATIVE DETERMINATION

In 1916 two sisters, Augusta (32) and Adeline van Buren (26), became the first women to ride solo motorcycles across America on board Indian’s then-new 1000cc side-valve Powerplus machines.

‘Gussie’ and ‘Addie’, as they preferred to be called, were actually distant relatives of the eighth president of the United States of America, Martin van Buren. Originally of Dutch descent, he was elected into office in 1836.

Gussie and Addie weren’t the first women to pilot a motorcycle from the east coast of America to the west – mother and daughter duo Avis Effie Hotchkiss claimed that mantle in 1915 when they rode a Harley-Davidson Model 11-F equipped with a Model 11-L sidecar in 1915 – but the sisters were the first to do it on solo motorcycles.

RIDING FOR RIGHTS

But it wasn’t about the bragging rights for the two spirited sisters. In 1914 the atrocities of the first World War had broken loose in full force, resulting