My Road on Two Wheels Vol.5: The Baton Became an App — and the Relay of 3,500 Riders Is Being Passed Every Day

Last time I wrote about someone whose name took 114 years to reach the hall of fame. Being remembered matters — I do believe that. But what stayed with me after finishing that piece was the riders who are out there today. A record grows backwards into the past, while friends can only be made on the day you're living. So the thing I've been following since is the Women Riders World Relay. It set off in February 2019 from John o' Groats at the northern tip of Britain, and more than 3,500 women riders across 78 countries linked up over 60,000 miles before it finished in London about a year later. Not a digital handoff — a real baton, passed from hand to hand, in person.

On January 1, 2026, the WRWR set off again, this time as a digital relay. Download the free app and you can receive a digital baton and pass it on to the next rider — but passing it isn't just a tap on a screen. The rule is that you meet in person to hand it over. More than 7,000 baton passes were completed in the first month alone. The ambassador network now spans over 100 countries, and the target is one million participants by the end of the year. Founder Hayley Bell put it this way: "We wanted to build a tool that could include everybody. Women bikers have been crying out for a voice; this is the tool to use it." I was just as fond of what CEO Liza Miller said: "When we say we want to connect every woman rider, it's not a slogan. It's a practical mission."

The app carries more than riding: a challenge series for building maintenance and mechanical skills, tools for creating and finding local events, a points system tied to taking part, and discounts from the industry. This next part is my own opinion, but I don't think the "riding alone" feeling many women describe comes from a shortage of information. Where to ride, how to choose gear — all of that is a search away now. What's missing is a good enough reason to speak to someone you've never met. Passing a baton fits that gap almost perfectly. Both the giver and the receiver are handed a reason to meet before they even start. The first step is frightening for anyone, and a mechanism that lowers that fear by even one notch is not something to dismiss. I was also glad to see maintenance among the challenges. I've lost count of how many women have told me they were never handed a tool at a dealership. Checking your own oil level, adjusting your own chain — each of those small things builds the feeling that this motorcycle is yours.

Then on August 10, at the Sturgis Motorcycle Museum & Hall of Fame in South Dakota, an event called Pearl's Jam marked the museum's 25th anniversary. That is where a coast-to-coast American ride of more than 13,000 miles, led by Liza Miller and Wendy Crockett, came to an end — its GPS track reportedly drawing the words "WRWR 2026" across the map. Shantell Williams' Sisterhood Ride, which had come all the way from Florida in tribute to Bessie Stringfield, joined it there. The days around it belonged to women too. On August 9 the Flying Piston Benefit held its charity breakfast and art auction, with builders including Lena Fairless, JoAnn Bortles, J. Shia, Brittney Olsen and Cris Sommer Simmons lending their names, and proceeds going to All Kids Bike and to Motorcycle Missions, which helps veterans recover from PTSD. At Biker Belles Women's Day on the 11th, a guided ride through the Black Hills was followed by a bike show that hands out awards for both the cleanest machine and the dirtiest one. The people who actually rode there get praised for it. Isn't that a good prize? And on that same day, in that same place, Bessie Stringfield and Mary McGee were honoured with hall of fame inductions. The story I wrote last time and the story I'm writing now overlapped in one venue on one afternoon. A name carved in stone and a baton moving hand to hand are, I think, part of the same road. The relay runs until January 2027, so if this caught your interest, do go and have a look at the app.