Judith Gliddon takes off
To look at Judith Gliddon - tall, slim, pleasantly spoken, a woman of a certain age (53 to be precise), university lecturer and the mother offour radiant daughters you wouldn’t pick her as someone likely to talk her way past security and be photographed on Valentino Rossi’s bike at last years’ Philip Island Grand Prix.
One mention of motorcycles however and her face positively glows, her conversation quickening, and it’s easy to see how she would have charmed her passage past Yamaha’s VIP security, no matter how cold-hearted its keepers.
“I so deserve to be treated like a VIP,” she recalls telling them with a slightly embarrassed laugh.
“Oh, yes, missy, and why would that be?”
“Because,” she said, trump card ready, “I’ve just ridden four thousand kilometres in three-and-a-half days to be here, and (pause for effect here) I did it on an R1.”
For those not in the know, Valentino Rossi is the hot young gun of the motorcycle world, a 1000cc Yamaha R1 his latest beast of burden. Disappointingly she did not get to speak to the impish racer but to be within his hallowed reserve was satisfaction enough for an unexpected rev-head like Judith.
After working her way through a number of motorcycles for more than a quarter of a century, her newest love, an MV Agusta Brutale (pictured here), is even more of an elegant eye-opener, 750cc of pure adrenalin, an Italian-bred beast designed to perform and likely to take off from under you faster than a rocket in Kabul.
Asked to explain how she got started on her path to motorcycle heaven, Judith speaks plainly.
"We'd get together and go for long rides in the country and camp out overnight"
“Anger. I used to ride with a bunch of guys (not bikies!) when I was in university, always pillion with my boyfriend. We’d get together and go for long rides in the country and camp out overnight. One night we met up with some scary types and my guys had too much to drink to look out for me. Things got pretty hairy, especially for the girls in the group. For my own safety I snuck away from the campsite with my sleeping bag and spent a night under a bush. Never again. At that moment I decided I was never again going to depend on a guy to get me home. At that time I was the first female engineering cadet in WA and one of only five women in the faculty of engineering at UWA I was already operating happily in a male-dominated area., which probably made the leap to being ‘one of the guys’ riding my own bike a lot smaller for me than it was for other women. Plus of course, if a man can do it...”
Describing the thrill of her pursuit, Judith’s enthusiasm is immediate and captivating.
“It’s the greatest feeling of freedom you could ever get. You come alive, you feel totally in the moment, immersed in the environment, testing yourself… it’s almost like meditation.”
When not out riding on both tarmac and, more recently, dirt, Judith is rewardingly engaged at work as a course administrator and lecturer at Edith Cowan University, having also just completed a PhD (“it was like giving birth”). Recently remarried to a man she met on her bike, Judith commends the camaraderie engendered on the highway. Having in an earlier life toured Europe on a bike with her first husband, her photos of her travels prove the point: touring on a bike is one of the surest guarantees you will make friends wherever you go. And you are just as likely to be invited to meet the rest of the family, whether it be in Hungary, rural Britain or far north-west WA.
"You come alive; you feel totally in the moment, immersed in the environment, testing yourself it's almost like meditation."
“It’s like a club everywhere you go; you meet people who ride or who have ridden and who want to know everything about your bike and your travels. It’s a great feeling. You make friends and go to places you never would if you weren’t on a bike. It’s a wonderful way to enrich your life.”
And for your own daughters?“Aaah… that could be another matter,” she says laughing. “But sure, if they were interested. Only one has been, so far." That could change of course, the biker bug known to bite at all stages in a person’s life. “Give it a go,” Judith urges. “If you’ve got good reflexes and coordination (and strong nerves!) you won’t regret it.”
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