Vivian Bales: The Forgotten Story of America's First Motorcycle Cover Girl
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There's a name that Harley-Davidson fans whisper with reverence and the rest of the world has almost entirely forgotten. Vivian Bales. In 1929, at just 21 years old, she set off from Albany, Georgia on a solo motorcycle journey that would take her across 14 states, into Canada, through the streets of Manhattan, and eventually to a meeting with the President of the United States. She did it on a machine she'd only been riding for three years. She did it before most of those roads were even paved. And she did it at a time when women simply weren't supposed to do that sort of thing.
This is her story.
From Florida to Georgia: A Creative, Restless Kid
Vivian Bales was born on 19 January 1908 in Wacissa, Florida, where her family had moved temporarily while her father recovered from a tuberculosis scare. By the time she was two, the family had relocated to Albany, Georgia, the city that would shape her formative years.
She was a kid who couldn't sit still. She sang, danced, sewed bridal gowns, crocheted, and built furniture with her own hands, including a four-poster bed and a chest of drawers that reportedly stood up for decades. She went to see every travelling production that passed through Albany, including the Russian Ballet. She was not, in other words, the kind of girl the early twentieth century expected her to be.
After graduating from Albany High School in 1926, she talked her way into teaching dance classes through the city's Superintendent of Schools, recruiting pupils from the local grammar school and staging a full recital complete with orchestra. She made $300 from it, which was serious money in 1926.
The First Harley: A Model B and a Revelation
That $300 gave Vivian options. She looked at her family's horse, looked at the now-affordable motorcycles appearing on American roads, and made her decision. In 1926 she bought a brand new Harley-Davidson Model B, a 350cc single-cylinder side-valve machine that riders nicknamed "the peashooter" for the sound of its exhaust. It had been designed to compete with the popular Indian Prince, and it was the most capable machine a young woman with a recital fund could reasonably afford.
There was one problem. She didn't know how to ride it.
At 5'2" and 95 pounds, Vivian struggled to even kick-start the thing. A friend who rode motorcycles helped her learn the basics, and from there she taught herself the rest. Before long she was known all over Albany as "the girl with the motorcycle," a title she clearly wore with some pride.
The First Big Trip: 300 Miles to St. Petersburg
Her first serious adventure came when she rode more than 300 miles from Albany to St. Petersburg, Florida with her best friend from high school, Josephine Johnson, who wanted to visit her sister. It wasn't a solo ride, and it wasn't a record breaker, but it was further than most women in America had ever ridden a motorcycle, and it got people's attention.
The local Harley-Davidson dealer in St. Petersburg heard about what the two women had done and was fascinated enough to arrange coverage in the St. Petersburg newspaper. That story then made it into the Atlanta Journal. Vivian Bales had become, almost by accident, a news story.
Upgrading to the Twin D: "A Real Honey"
Inspired by her first taste of long-distance riding, Vivian traded in her Model B for a 1929 Harley-Davidson 45 cubic inch Twin D, the company's first 740cc motorcycle, with a flathead engine that represented the cutting edge of what Harley was building at the time. She described it simply as "a real honey."
Empowered by her new machine, she wrote to Hap Jameson, the editor of The Harley-Davidson Enthusiast magazine (first published in 1916), telling him she was planning a solo trip north to visit the Harley-Davidson factory in Milwaukee. Jameson didn't hesitate. He appointed her the official goodwill "Enthusiast Girl" and, while the company wouldn't formally finance the journey, arrangements were quietly made. Harley-Davidson dealers, Rotary Clubs, and other contacts along the route were lined up to provide Vivian with accommodation, fuel, and maintenance. The company gave her two sweaters with "The Enthusiast Girl" emblazoned across the chest, which became her trademark look on the road alongside her all-white riding breeches, shirt, helmet, and socks.
The Famous Ride: 78 Days, 5,000 Miles, 14 States
On 1 June 1929, Vivian Bales left Albany, Georgia and pointed her Harley north. She was 21 years old and had been riding for just three years.
What followed was one of the most remarkable solo journeys any American woman had undertaken. Her route took her northward through Georgia, up through the Carolinas to Washington D.C., then on to Manhattan, New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Rochester, and Buffalo. From Buffalo she crossed into Canada before heading to Detroit, and then west to Milwaukee to visit the Harley-Davidson factory. She reportedly hit speeds of up to 85 mph along the way.
In Washington D.C., Senator William J. Harris arranged for her to meet President Herbert Hoover personally. She arrived at the White House wearing her now-iconic white riding outfit with "The Enthusiast Girl" across her chest. It was the kind of moment that would have seemed unthinkable for a 21-year-old woman from a small Georgia city just a few years before.
In every town she passed through, local dignitaries and Harley-Davidson dealers came out to meet her, most volunteering to help support her journey. She was, as Harley later put it, a goodwill ambassador for the open road.
When it was over, she'd ridden for 78 days and covered nearly 5,000 miles. Arthur Davidson, co-founder of Harley-Davidson, called her "The Georgia Peach." Newspapers across the country called her "The Enthusiast Girl." Vivian herself, writing in The Enthusiast about the journey, put it this way: "I just can't help but feel quite proud of my record, 5,000 miles through the most densely populated section of these United States, and all alone, too."
The First Motorcycle Cover Girl
Before she'd even completed the journey, Vivian Bales had become a cover star. She appeared on the May 1929 edition of The Harley-Davidson Enthusiast, pictured confidently beside her motorcycle in her white riding gear. She made the cover again for the November 1929 issue, and her journey was documented in detail in the December 1929 issue.
She was the first woman ever to appear on the cover of a motorcycle magazine. Not just the first woman on the cover of The Enthusiast. The first ever, full stop.
Life After the Ride
Vivian didn't hang up her helmet after the famous ride. She went on to perform stunt riding at motorcycle races in Tallahassee, Florida, adding yet another chapter to a life that kept confounding expectations. Hap Jameson had a special trophy made for her to mark the completion of her 5,000-mile tour.
She never bought another motorcycle after her Twin D, but she never stopped talking about what those years on two wheels had meant to her. In interviews she described the experience as one of the most significant of her life, and her Twin D as "a key to the whole United States."
Vivian Bales married and became Vivian Bales Faison. She lived a long life in Albany, Georgia. She was laid to rest at Floral Memory Gardens in Albany, beside her husband.
A Final Ride
Vivian Bales Faison passed away on 23 December 2001, three weeks before what would have been her 93rd birthday. She had one final request. She wanted a procession of Harley-Davidson motorcycles at her funeral.
That wish was organised and carried out by Flint River Harley-Davidson of Albany. A line of riders escorted her casket in a tribute that those present apparently won't forget. It was, as Harley-Davidson have said, a fitting final expression of the free spirit she'd embodied her entire life.
Why Vivian Bales Still Matters
In 1929, a young woman from Georgia rode solo across America at a time when women weren't supposed to ride motorcycles at all, let alone do it alone for 78 days through 14 states. She did it before the roads were finished, before GPS, before mobile phones, before safety gear as we'd recognise it, and before anyone was obliged to take her seriously.
She became a magazine cover star, a presidential guest, a stunt rider, and a pioneer for every woman who's ever thrown a leg over a motorcycle since. She told the papers her bike was "a key to the whole United States," and she wasn't wrong.
The Georgia Peach. The Enthusiast Girl. The first motorcycle cover girl in history.
Meet Vivian Bales. Now you know her name.
Sources
Harley-Davidson Insurance: Vivian Bales Faison, "The Enthusiast Girl" – insurance.harley-davidson.com/resources/vivian-bales
Wikipedia: Vivian Bales – en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vivian_Bales
Women Riders Now: Vivian Bales: The Enthusiast Girl – womenridersnow.com/vivian-bales-the-enthusiast-girl
Motoress: Harley-Davidson Enthusiast Girl Vivian Bales Taught Herself to Ride – motoress.com
Wheels of Grace Magazine: 1929 Harley-Davidson "Lady Rider" – wheelsofgrace.com
Grokipedia: Vivian Bales – grokipedia.com/page/Vivian_Bales
Harley-Davidson Museum Facebook: This Day in H-D History, June 1, 1929 – facebook.com/hdmuseum
Vintage Motorcycle Works: The Enthusiast Girl – vintagemotorcycleworks.com/vivian.htm
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