Glens Falls Chronicle Serving the Glens Falls/Lake George region; Warren, Washington and northern Saratoga counties since 1980
By Cathy DeDe, Chronicle Managing Editor
Motorcyclist Liza Miller of Santa Cruz, California, is one of the guest organizers of a new focus on women motorcyclists at the Americade Motorcycle Rally this week, June 7-11 in Lake George.
It’s called “WRAP,” or Women Riders of Americade Program. Its events are free and open to the public, men and women, both, as well as to Americade registrants.
How did Ms. Miller get into motorcycling? “I was born this way,” she replies.
“I was obsessed with bikes for as long as I can remember. I was that five-year-old kid in the back of the family station wagon waving out to the Hell’s Angels, yelling ‘Nice Hog.’”
Was it a family thing? “No. My dad worked for the Department of Highway Safety.”
Today, Ms. Miller, 55, rides far. She’ll speak at Americade about “Chickistan” — a series of motorcycle tours to rural Pakistan for American women riders.
“A friend of mine who lives in Pakistan has a program, inviting bikers to come and see what the country is really like, to change American perceptions of Pakistan one rider at a time,” Ms. Miller says.
“I went, and I loved it. So I start thinking to bring more people there, and planning these women’s motorcycle trips. We’re doing our third one in September.”
She says, “A lot of people think Muslims hate Americans. That’s not true at all. It’s like saying the Ku Klux Klan represents all Americans. When you go, you are treated like a guest of the country. Everybody wants to take care of you. It’s the opposite of what you would expect based on Western media.”
Ms. Miller also hosts the Motorcycles and Misfits podcast. She said she has 3.5 million listeners and “we’ll hit our 500th episode at the end of this year.”
Additionally, “I run a cooperative garage space called Re-Cycle Garage, where people with motorcycles come and we help them learn to fix them. People hang out and tell stories. A community has grown around it. I thought, wouldn’t it be great to bottle and share that.”
Ms. Miller also happens to have a background in sound engineering.
She said a friend from the Pakistan trips happens to live in the Lake George area, and invited Ms. Miller to do a program on Chickistan at Americade.
“I love everything motorcycles, so I said, put me in, anything I can do.”
“I have to be honest. I never heard of Lake George,” she admits. “Embarrassingly, my father is from Tarrytown but I’d never been there. I had to look at a map to see where it was.
“I’m so excited. It’s one of the most beautiful parts of the country.”
Quoting herself she recalls learning, “Oh! You have a fort! What! Hold on, that’s a big lake! I had no idea. I’m excited to experience the whole week.”
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