Elvington, York – 15th October 2019.
Louisa’s at it again. Our regular ‘The Ride is Life’ columnist, also known as The Existential Biker, has blasted her previous personal best speed by nearly 60 mph at Elvington Airfield in North Yorkshire, home of Straightliners Top Speed events where numerous world and UK records have been set for landspeed racing. This one attempt on a 450 bhp Kawasaki ZX10r Turbo owned and lent to her by Jack Frost propelled her as a new member of the 200 mph club, the aim of many aspiring land speed racers. Her terminal speed at the standing mile mark was 203.224 mph – although she had no idea until she made it back to the pits where she was greeted by smiles and congratulations, particularly from Mike and Becci Ellis (the current fastest woman to ride a motorbike in the world) who have been supporting Louisa in her speed ambitions.
Louisa rediscovered motorcycles three years ago after a long gap and since then has simply not stopped for a moment to breathe. Apart from being an adventure tour guide for Magellan Motorcycle Tours and riding all around Europe she’s also been ambassador in an all-female motorbike world relay event (WRWR) and taken up landspeed racing seriously, with her first competitive event in May. In just six months she’s competed twice on Pendine Beach in Wales, gaining four UK speed records and becoming the fastest woman to race a motorbike on sand. She even squeezed in a run on Bonneville Salt Flats in August, qualifying during Speed Week to race competitively which she says she hopes to continue next year. Added to which of course she now writes for Overland Magazine and is a presenter at our next Winter Warmer event in February, when she’ll be discussing facing personal fears.
Apart from clearly being addicted to two wheels, Louisa tells us her other mission is to share her philosophy of life and talk about how she overcame her fear of speed, fear of change and fear of the unknown by embracing a completely new direction and being open to opportunities as they came her way, however out of her comfort zone they were. She wants to show that anything is possible, that we all have the potential to achieve things we admire in others and how good it is to find your true niche, at whatever point in life you’re at.
