CAMP VC 2025 TICKETS ARE NOW LIVE!
GRAB ONE NOW AT WWW.CAMPVC.CO.UK
Not long now before our girl Gemma Harrison heads out on the Sailor Jerry 2016 ride competition starting this Saturday with her team THE ORIGINALS! Follow Gemma, Hex , James & Fids on their journey on their instagram to watch them compete against 2 other teams !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Meanwhile heres some shot of them working on their Harley Dyna build for the competition by the amazing James Grant.
PHOTO: JAMES GRANT
Summer is here & we're teaming up with the lovely chaps at London Motorcycle Training again to run our ladies only CBT days throughout the summer months!
The next one is on Saturday 9th July with a discounted rate & limited spaces so get in there quick if you want to book in !!!!!!
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For more details call London Motorcycle Training on 0207 2411111 & quote VC ladies CBT day to book in!
We recently spoke to fellow brit rider & mega babe Jenny O'Grady for We Buy Any bike blog about all things VC, The Shop, VCC & of course Babes Ride Out UK!
Check it out below x
VC London is an all female biker collective, inspiring and supporting women riders. The group are East London based, from their workshop, The Shop Customs, they throw parties, design their own women’s Moto label and even organise CBT training.
They believe in ‘MOTO RIDING, GOOD TIMES & FUN SH*T. SIMPLE’
I caught up with Gemma Harrison, a founder of VC London and got some insider info.
Jenny: When and how did you get into motorbikes? What do you love about riding?
Gemma: I started riding just over 5 years ago. My husband had always been into racing cars mostly but since we lived in London we’ve never had the space to keep them so he started riding. He got his licence and a Triumph pretty fast so his SR125 was handed down to me to give it ago. That was the first bike we rebuilt together & I still have it today. I still love riding it even now I have other bikes too. Its a little ripper & perfect for around the city! To be honest I just rode with my husband for a couple of years at first until I started teaching a few friends to ride & helping them to get on bikes.
The community here in London is pretty amazing & were all very close from different groups of builders, riders & moto businesses so that’s something I love about riding here in London. As much as I love riding with other people, its also my alone time that I love to just having to myself sometimes too. Especially in a busy place like London where everyone is so crammed in together, it’s nice to feel like you’re just on your own a bit.
J: How would you describe London biking culture at the moment? Have you noticed a difference in the amount of women riders?
G: Slowly I’m seeing more female riders here in London. It’s still not super common that you see lots of women riding by on a motorcycle in London even now though. It would just be nice to see more giving it a go because it’s so much fun! I mean we don’t claim to be the first women to ride a motorcycle in London for sure, but were hoping that what were doing by helping a few people take their first steps in riding is doing its bit to inspire more to give it a go. Everyone has to start somewhere! We’re just trying to make it a little more accessible to get into if you want to.
Although we support a lot of women to start riding to be honest I’m very much of the mind that I don’t think you have to be boxed in with a “ female ride/ male rider” tag. To me I’m just a motorcycle rider who enjoys riding with everyone or anyone, disregardless of what bike they ride or how long they’ve been riding. With VC we are just saying say hey, if you always wanted to give motorcycles a go then we can give you a hand. We’re women so we’ve just done things from a woman perspective with some of the challenges we’ve faced being women riding. We’ve actually given a few guys their first go at riding too recently which has been pretty rad!
J: Tell us a bit about how and why you started VC London?
G: The VC started as a bit of a joke really between a few friends. We’re not really a club or a gang, just a kind of collective of people riding, building, hanging & having a great time doing it. We’re a pretty mixed bunch of riders and bikes from 125s, bobbers, cafe racers, Triumphs & harleys to dirtbikes .The 4 of us who are the sort of main people who run the VC ( Myself, Namin, Mai & Jo) all hang & work out of The Shop Customs in East London, where we allwrench, ride & hang together with a bunch of other guys and girls. In the beginning I was just kind of using our Instagram to document all that we were doing, learning about bikes, wrenching etc & it just seemed to catch on.
J: Are there any women biker groups or individual riders who have really influenced you?
G: Argh! There are too many to mention! Since we started the whole VC thing I’ve been lucky enough to hang & ride with some incredible women from all over the world.
Anya & Ashmore of Babes Ride Out are a pretty inspiring pair of ladies! Jaime Dempsey & Brittany Wood are also a total gems that helped us out so much when we went t LA last year! Closer to home there’s the lovely Sahra Lewis (@roxysunny ) from Warrs Harley Davidson- most smiley lovely, positive lady ever, Sami Graystone (@sami_graystone) – complete bad ass on the road or on the track & of course the other VC girls (well I had to say them didn’t I ?!). Jessie Gentry ( @jessiegentry ) of the Velvets, Joy Lewis ( @mouthfulofjoy) & the lovely Shelby Rossi ( @therippinkittin) of Scarlet headers are a few more ladies I’m pretty desperate to have a rip around with stateside.
J: You also offer CBT training now, how did this begin? Where do the lessons run and how do people book in with you?
G: We originally put a post out on our insta offering anyone that wanted to give riding a go to get in touch. We just thought that if someone didn’t know a friend or a partner with a bike where they could just take them along to a supermarket car park to give it a go then how would they be able to start? The response was pretty huge so we started teaching the very basics in some private land, nearby our workshop, to a few girls. The next natural step was to hook up with a local training school to get them a CBT certification & get them on the road. A few of us did our tests with London Motorcycle Training & we thought they were great so we hooked up to do all female CBT days with discounted rates for everyone. A lot of the women that have been on the CBT days have made close friends with each other, riding together & going away on moto trips, so that’s pretty rad.
J: VC London now have an awesome fashion label too, how did VCC start up? How would you describe the VCC style?
G: Myself & Namin Cho (another of the VCs founders) originally met through work about 3 years ago. We have both been working as fashion designers for over 10 years, so as time went on we started designing our own clothes for riding as we couldn’t find anything that we liked in terms of stuff to ride in. About a year ago we started developing the VCC collection which is a fusion of moto inspired styles, gear with some safety features like our heavy cotton worker jacket (that comes with an option to have a full kevlar lining) to things like motocross style jerseys. We just couldn’t find styles that their arms were too long for us (mens sizes) or if they were made specifically for women they usually came with a big flower on them bike gear wise. Cool if you’re into that sort of thing, but it’s just not really us.
VCC is pretty London street wear inspired, easy to wear stuff that you can wear on or off a bike just as easily. Hopefully its modern way to look at clothes with a hard wearing, functional angle meaning you don’t have compromise on your own style. We’re not trying to compete with moto safety brands with full armour, but just present another option that we felt was missing for riders like us. We actually have a lot of interest in VCC from some rad women who are into other scenes like skateboarding & riding bikes so I guess it’s quite organically going the way of a lifestyle brand which is pretty awesome!
J: Massive news – You are bringing Babes Ride Out to England. How did this come about and what does it involve? What are your hopes for the event?
G: Yes! We’re super stoked about this!
We went out to The Babes Ride Out event last year in Joshua tree & had the most incredible time. We met some great new friends, rode in the desert, partied our arses off & when we got back to the UK we started talking about how great it would be to bring that type of event here to the UK. We started talking to the lovely Anya & Ashmore about it all & that’s when the idea to do Babes Ride Out UK came up.
Its gonna be great to see women riders from all over the UK & internationally coming together to ride & hang in what we think is one of the most incredible places to ride in the UK. We’re hoping to bring people together & create the same welcoming, inclusive vibe to the event as we experienced in Joshua Tree last year, with some mind-blowing riding routes & of course one rad party at the end of it all!
J: Do you have an end aim or goal for the collective, what is your dream for VC London?
G: I think the main aim is to keep enjoying what we’re doing together. Hanging out, riding, doing events, launching our womens brand VCC & getting more people to give motorcycles a try, that will be as into as we are & for the long run! It’s all just about having a rad time. If people dig that then that’s cool but if not it would still be the same for us here at the The Shop just doing what we do.
To read the rest of the article click HERE
For all you babes travelling to Babes Ride Out UK from far off lands, or for the ladies wanting a little something different for the weekend we've set up some great deals with some of London & the South of Englands best rental dealerships for all Babes ride Out UK ticket holders!
Just speak to any of the below places & quote Babes Ride Out for all they've got on offer! Jump in there quick as they get booked up FAST!
x
Up for grabs : Heritage softails, street glides & sportsters.
******** 10% OFF ALL RENTAL PRICES WITH A BABES RIDE OUT TICKET**************
Also stay tuned for an arranged ride out to Babes Ride Out UK campsite from Warrs Harley !!
EMAIL FOR BOOKINGS : matt@warrs.com/ sahra@warrs.com
TEL: 020 7736 2934
A range of bikes from Triumphs to Harleys
********** 10% OFF ALL RENTAL PRICES WITH A BABES RIDE OUT TICKET**************
EMAIL FOR INFO: Michael - abouttownbikehire@hotmail.com
TEL: +44 20 8871 1112
EMAIL: axel@lind.co.uk
TEL: call +44 (0) 7984 277 199, quoting "Babes Ride Out UK" to receive our special rates and services.
For the period around the weekend 6/7 August:
- Sportster/Street 750: £240/ Softail: £315/ Touring: £360
You can extend this for 24 hour period before and/or after the basic rental for:
- Sportster/Street 750: £95/ Softail: £125/ Touring: £140
The price includes VAT, HOG Assist Breakdown Cover, unlimited mileage and insurance. The insurance excess is £1,500, which can be reduce to £750 for £10/day.
ROAD TRIP: - http://roadtrip.uk
RACEWAYS: - https://www.raceways.net/rentals/
Its back! The Sailor Jerry Ride for 2016 is here & they've had the total lack of judgement to let us along for the ride! Gemma (@ghwfive ) is part of team originals & will be setting off on July 2nd on what seems like its gonna be one mental trip (and they don't even know where to until the first day of the ride)!
SAILOR JERRY HITS THE ROAD FOR ROUND TWO OF THE RIDE
Iconic American brand, Sailor Jerry, will be hitting the road once again for round two of The Ride. Kicking off on Saturday 2nd July, three bad-ass, bike building teams from across the UK will be tasked with a series of epic challenges and compete against each other on a hell raising journey of balls-to-wall riding.
This year’s teams, hailing from across Great Britain, include Hackney Wick’s finest bike specialists, Kingdom of Kicks, Welsh motorcycle club and hot rod masters, FTHaters and 2015’s returning challengers, The Ride Originals,who will take on an action packed schedule of hard-hitting challengeson this 9 day tour, in a bid to crowned champions of The Ride 2016.
Before setting off, teams will be tasked with customising their own brand-spanking new Harley-Davidson Street Bob; from sweet handlebars to awesome paint jobs, the public will get to vote for their favourite ride with the winner collecting those all important points.
Each team will be handed their challenge book and routes as they set off, and tasked with making their own way across the country, competing for points along the way. Nationwide challenges will see the teams fight for the lead as they take on epic eating competitions to pit bike races, cutting each other’s hair to wearing their helmet for 24 hours straight- the teams will go head to head to win their Harley and a trip to Norman Collins’ spiritual home, Hawaii. Rolling towards the finish line on the 9th July, the riders will have 24 hours to complete their final challenges face to face ahead of the winner being crowned on 10th July.
All the madness and mayhem will be captured in a series of six videos airing across Sailor Jerry channels from w/c 18thJuly. So…dust your leathers off, start your engine and follow us via #TheRideSJUK, it’s going to be one helluva ride!
Stoked to see this article in the Evening Standard after the lovely Liz Conner came down to take her first try at riding recently!
Click the link to see our chat with her about all about starting riding, presenting the first Babes Ride Out UK this year & launching our label VCC!
Weeew!
TO read the full article & interview click HERE
Totally stoked to be involved with the instagram project #MYSTORYUK.
The project & exhibition celebrates inspiring visual story telling by women all over the world & how they use Instagram to share it all. From mommas to models, skaters to shepherdesses, activists to artists they got us all together to celebrate!
We had a great night meeting so many amazing women, getting completely wasted, hearing the lovely Lauren Laverne announce "Motorcycles, good times and not giving a shit" to the entire room, teaming up with all girl skate crew Nefarious crew ( our new girl crush ) & skating through the exhibition space sealing both our reputations as the complete reprobates of the event....
Shout out to Frankie, Marieka, Michelle, Charlotte, Lauren & all the ladies that made it happen! x
VC Team Talks with Dakar racer, Red Bull romaniacs rider and previous record holder for the highest woman up Everest on a motorcycle - Tamsin Jones
Read MoreA rad little vid from Alex Grant of our visit to Babes Ride Out UK sponsors Red Wing shoes to collect our brand spanking new boots from the ladies collection ( launching October this year for all you ladies! ) for our trip to Wales last weekend!
ITS BACK!!!
Summer is here & we're teaming up with the lovely chaps at London Motorcycle Training again to run our ladies only CBT days throughout the summer months! The next one is on Saturday 18th June with a discounted rate & limited spaces so get in there quick if you want to book in !!!!!!
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For more details call London Motorcycle Training on 0207 2411111 & quote VC ladies CBT day to book in!
So that was the first of our VC monthly moto meet up nights at Bike Shed, in East London! Thanks to everyone who came down to hang!
Babes who have been riding years, some just passed their tests & CBTs & some who are just starting out (and a couple of dogs for good measure) got together for a drink over carb talks, customising tips, road trip planning & some Babes Ride Out UK plans. Eeeeeek!
Our next one is on Wednesday the 6th June at 7:30pm, same place. If you want to meet new rad babes to ride with, or even want to get into riding but don't know where to start, come down & hang! x
