HER STORY | Lena Bartalszky

Her Story. A series of blog posts telling the stories of 'women who ride' from all corners of the globe. We hope that by sharing these stories we can help encourage other women to build their confidence, learn from others and inspire others.

This month we have a story by Lena Bartalszky from Vienna, Austria. A real story of how finding your 'tribe' can really change your motorcycle experience.

We hope you enjoy her story!

Hey there! I’m Lena Bartalszky aka Lena Lilablau, 37 years old and from Vienna, Austria (in the heart of Europe).

My love for motorcycles started early, riding myself quite late though. Already as a kid, I enjoyed riding with my dad and grandpa. I especially remember that feeling which is kind of hard to describe - at big motorcycle ride outs - when there are only bikes behind you and in front of you. A special fascination comes with this! Even though I took my motorcycle licence when I was 18, I never got the chance of riding (also other things were more important at that time), but I often stopped to look at bikes, visited the European Bike Week with my dad once in a while, and knew that one day I’ll ride myself.

When my mum died in 2019, I realised life is short and I need to start doing the things I’ve always wanted to. So at the beginning of the pandemic I bought my first motorcycle, a Ducati Scrambler 400cc. First I started slowly, with short ride outs alone or together with my dad, but was keen to find like-minded people - a community of riders (also more my age.

CREDIT: Christian Lendl

Instagram was the support I was looking for. Stumbled upon a mixed group of crazy, lovely riders called the Rainbowriders (@_rainbowriders_), who organise ride outs around Vienna. In September 2020, I joined my first big group ride out… didn’t know anyone, was a bit scared how this will go and ended up meeting so many amazing people. Some of them I can now call my friends.

There I also met two wonderful women of a womxn-only motorcycle club from Vienna called the Breakfast Club (@breakfastclub_moto), who invited me to join one of their future ride outs. So I found my tribe, my community, and with that so many new friends!

Since then riding my bike became my peace of mind, my feeling of freedom and my calm in the chaos of life!

I’ve never been much of a commuter with my bike, always wanted to go somewhere out there. So in 2021, I did my first overnight road trip with some friends to Großglockner, my first ride of 400+km in one day. I was so proud of myself, when we arrived. And what an overall fun trip.

The year after I got more excited about doing bigger trips and also got a “bigger” bike, my second babe. It’s a Triumph Street Twin and I just love it. With the new bike I went to the Petrolettes Festival with some girls from the Breakfast Club in summer and did my first solo road trip to Italy. I guess you could say that I really got dragged into living this motorcycle life!

After I have acquired a taste for solo road trips, this summer brought me to Denmark. Three weeks of riding and exploring this beautiful and amazing country. Loved every single minute of it.

Although I love being on the road by myself, enjoying the freedom, I still fancy the time together with some friends. So late summer brought the chance to go on a short trip with a very good friend and her HD Sportster 883. Within five days we crossed several country borders spending time riding in Austria, Hungary,
Slovenia and Italy.

So looking forward to get on the road again…

Last but not least, a little recommendation if you’re a female rider and about to start your motorcycle journey. I can really recommend to find a group of female riders like the Breakfast Club, the Petrolettes, the Litas or similar, because riding with womxn is different and you can learn and gain so much from this. I
wouldn’t want to miss the knowledge exchange, the challenges to improve my skills, the friendship, the laughter and the journeys together!

CREDIT: Georg Aufreiter

Keep on riding!
See you on the road <3