WOMEN RIDERS ROCK
TRAILBLAZERS Jessi Combs Fastest woman on four wheels, metal fabricator, bike builder and two-wheel trailblazer “I’m Jessi Combs and I do a lot of really rad stuff,” Jessi said in an uncut interview with Hoonigan released in full after her passing. A lot of really rad stuff? That’s an understatement for the girl born in Rapid City, South Dakota who attended her first Sturgis Motorcycle Rally when she was a few days old. Ask women across the motorcycle industry who inspires them and you’ll hear Jessi’s name often. “The first person I think of is Jessi Combs,” custom bike builder J. Shia told me. “She was a point person to talk to about my building career, and she’s one of the most important women in the motorcycle industry… in the women’s movement in general.” Jessi dreamed of being a racer from the time she was small, and as an adult started her own metal fabrication shop building motorcycles, hot rods, race
vehicles and more. An accomplished welder who worked to teach more women how to weld and work on their own bikes (and cars), she developed an entire line of protective welding gear for women in 2008. Jessi’s love for motorcycles was evident when she published her first children’s book, Joey and the Chopper Boys, a story about a young girl who rides motorcycles. She also became the first woman to be named Grand Marshal of the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in 2017. A well-known TV personality, Jessi appeared on shows like Overhaulin’, Mythbusters, and All Girls Garage, yet that fame never kept her from doing what she loved most, helping women. When asked what she got out of her projects with women, she once commented, “What I get out of this is I get to see other girls kick ass at life.”
“To know Jessi,” said Ride Wild founder Kelly Yazdi, “was to know a legend, a true trailblazer and dream walker. To be friends with her was like having a magical being of magnificent love by your side reminding you that the sky’s the limit.” Jessi passed away on Aug. 27, 2019, while achieving her dream of setting a new overall women’s land speed record on four wheels, doing 522.783 mph. Just a few weeks later, The Jessi Combs Foundation was created with the mission to “educate, inspire and empower the next generation of female trailblazers and stereotype-breakers.” “If I die today,” Jessi once said, “this is the testament I want made: there are no limits for gender!” — Joy Burgess
Real Deal Revolution
“There are no limits for gender,” Jessi said, and she lived a life that backed that up, leading to a question that’s become popular with the Jessi Combs Foundation and women around the world: What would Jessi do?
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AmericanMotorcyclist.com
