Avis and Effie Hotchkiss

Avis and Effie Hotchkiss, mother and daughter from Brooklyn, New York, were pioneering motorcyclists who completed a 9,000-mile (14,000 km) round trip ride from New York to San Francisco and back on a Harley-Davidson motorcycle-sidecar combination in 1915.[1]

Avis and Effie Hotchkiss, Salt Lake City, 1915
At Pacific Ocean, 1915

Transcontinental motorcycle ride

Effie Hotchkiss (January 28, 1889 – April 14, 1966)[2] learned to ride a motorcycle at age 16, after instruction from her brother, and her first motorcycle was a Marsh & Metz. At the age of 18 Effie had begun working on Wall Street.[3] In 1915, she acquired a new Harley-Davidson Model 11-F with a sidecar, the first Harley-Davidson to feature a 3-speed gearbox at a cost of $275, which she paid for from her inheritance from her father.[3] She had an ambition to become the first woman to cross the United States on a motorcycle, and decided to visit the Panama Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco.

Age 26, on May 2, 1915, she set out with her mother Avis (age 56) in the sidecar,[4] who noted, "I do not fear breakdowns for Effie, being a most careful driver, is a good mechanic and does her own repairing with her own tools."

They rode to Albany across the Hudson Valley, then travelled to Buffalo, and on to Chicago, averaging 150 miles a day. The two lady riders, as they were called, attracted lots of attention from curious onlookers wherever they stopped.[4]

The pair took two months to reach San Francisco, attracting attention on the way. They stayed in rented rooms, travelling light with some clothes, tools and a gun. When they reached their final destination, they were photographed pouring out a jar of Atlantic sea water they had carried from New York, into the Pacific Ocean at Ocean Beach, in San Francisco.[5]

The success of their journey made Effie and Avis Hotchkiss the first transcontinental female motorcyclists.[6][7][8]

Commemoration

In October 2022, the American Motorcyclist Association posthumously inducted Effie Hotchkiss into its Hall of Fame, with the family represented by Craig Dove, her great grandson.[3]

See also

Notes
  1. Mullins 2003, p. 18.
  2. "Oregon, U.S., State Deaths, 1864-1971". www.ancestry.co.uk. Retrieved 2023-08-13.
  3. Sills, Erin (2022-11-22). "Effie Hotchkiss joins AMA's Hall of Fame". Women Riders Now. Retrieved 2023-08-13.
  4. Jo, Mary (2022-01-12). "Avis & Effie Hotchkiss: Women Harley Riders Who Rode Into the History Books". Traveling with MJ. Retrieved 2023-08-13.
  5. Somer-Simmons 2009.
  6. Harley-Davidson museum
  7. Miller 2002, p. 186.
  8. American Motorcyclist 2006.

References
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