MILWAUKEE (March 19, 2020) –Susan Lang—often identified only as Mrs. John Lang—entered motorcycling as a sidecar passenger in the early 1900s. Reflecting on those early days of roving the Scottish countryside alongside her husband she wrote: "To be with him, even if an exhaust valve broke or the engine had to be pulled to pieces on the road, was a delight so long as I could help him put it together again." Sidecar riding was no passive activity for this woman who would soon be dubbed "the most accomplished motorcycle mechanic of her sex in the country."
The Langs immigrated to the United States in 1911, and in 1913 they opened a Harley-Davidson® dealership in Waterbury, Connecticut. Susan started riding on her own in 1914, in part to accomplish local errands such as getting packages to and from the dealership. Soon she had learned to overhaul her own engine and was assisting her husband with both the dealership's shop and sales.
Susan credited the electrically equipped 1915 Harley-Davidson® motorcycle with getting her out on longer trips. Just a year after learning to ride, Susan put the kids in the sidecar and made a New England record for long distance motorcycle trip by a woman unaccompanied by a man, covering 500 miles in two weeks. She reported that suffragette jokes were common after locals found out her husband had not gone for help, as they typically assumed, but that she was the 'the man' of the party. Also on the tour, she amused and impressed the Harley-Davidson New England branch when she earned the distinction of being the first woman to visit the Boston affiliate alone.
Susan Lang (far right), the only woman pictured, drove her husband to the 1917 New England Harley-Davidson dealer meeting.
Two years later, Susan again entertained the New England Harley-Davidson group when she drove to the district convention—with her husband in the sidecar. She must have been a well-known figure by the 1920 Dealer Convention in Milwaukee, when she delighted attendees by baking a pig-decorated cake for Ray Weishaar, H-D racer and new World's Champion motorcycle rider who famously adopted a piglet mascot. (The cake was displayed at the dealer convention and then eaten at an open house at the Juneau Avenue headquarters, following the convention.)
Susan supported motorcycling and bicycling clubs and events in and around New England, including going directly to the general manager of the Motorcycle and Allied Trades Association, M. & A.T.A., to get a hill climb approved in 1921, providing entertainment at Brass City M.C.'s annual social in 1922, and being the only woman to drive herself on the Providence Gypsy tour in 1924.
Both Susan and her husband loved riding, and it was important to them to instill that spirit in their four children. They accomplished this by balancing their family and professional commitments. When she would venture off with the kids in the sidecar, John would run the dealership. When he would take a kiddo or two out on his own, Susan tended the customers. Susan even wrote about the importance of walking the walk—or riding the ride, as it were—in an article titled "Why a Motorcycle Dealer" in Motorcycle and Bicycle Illustrated (Sept. 15, 1921), where she criticized motorcycle dealers who used automobiles instead of motorcycles.
That enthusiasm was infectious. In 1922, Susan and John acquired a Harley-Davidson® dealership in Providence, RI and their son William took over the Waterbury store. The impact of Susan and John's passion is also evident in this photo of Waterbury riders visiting the pair in Providence. "There seems to be a friendly feeling among motorcyclists which is hard to find in other trades," Susan said.
