I’D RATHER BE
Riding BY HEATHER HAMILTON-POST
Sisters Speed, Kerri Donnelly ( left ) and Sara Rodeghiero hit the road.
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“You might have noticed that you never pass a motorcyclist broken down,” laughs Kerri Donnelly. “No, never!” Sara Rodeghiero confirms, nodding in enthusiastic agreement. “If you can’t help them with tools, you go grab gas or make a phone call for them. It’s an unspoken rule,” Donnelly says.
Comes To
Rodeghiero is a Senior Account Manager, and Donnelly works as a tutor in the Boise School District. If you saw them on the street, you wouldn’t necessarily think “biker chicks,” but that’s where they say you’d be wrong.
“There isn’t really a type of person who rides motorcycles, but we share some common threads. We like the brotherhood and sisterhood it creates, we’re patriotic, and we have each other’s backs,” says Rodeghiero. “We’re all just real people–what you see is what you get, and I love that.” Donnelly explains that the motorcycle community tends to be
genuine and accepting of people. It includes a large number of veterans, whom they wholeheartedly support. The two met through mutual friends and have an infectious joy when they talk about their bikes and their community. It promotes connectedness, frequently joining together to support groups, causes, and yes, motorcycles on the side of the highway. For many, riding is an outlet for stress, especially during a pandemic. Donnelly and Rodeghiero both talk about the freedom of the road and the power riding gives them. Donnelly found riding casually–she got married,
had a baby, and her husband got a bike. “I was on the back of his bike and I was immediately like, ‘Nope, I gotta ride my own. It wasn’t unenjoyable, but I knew I’d have more fun on my own bike, be more free,” she says. The marriage didn’t last, but the love for motorcycles did. Her 16-year old son doesn’t ride, but Donnelly frequently rides with her ex husband, who she says is a great friend. Rodeghiero says that, as a little girl, motorcycles always turned her head. When she decided to try riding, she went all in, buying her dream bike before she’d even taken
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