About a week ago I was going through my news reader and came across an article on Custom Motorcycle Talk about a new website for the ladies called Garage Girls. The beginning of the article really pumped up the site and immediately my interest was piqued:
WOMEN RIDERS HAVE A NEW WEBSITE TO CHECK OUT
www.garage-girls.com goes live covering everything a girl wants to know about motorcycles and so much more…
Minneapolis, MN— The launch of www.garage-girls.com was well received by female motorcycle enthusiasts around the world. The new site created and maintained by Sara Liberte and Jody Perewitz presents motorcycling and everything that goes along with it from a female perspective.
www.garage-girls.com is a unique, exciting new website developed to meet the growing needs of women seeking information about motorcycles and their maintenance.
Wow! I couldn’t wait to go check the site out!
I have vague knowledge of both ladies who are involved with the site. Sara Liberte, as far as I knew, fashions herself a photographer and her images usually consist of a portrait of a person photoshopped with motorcycle parts. I’m not a big fan of her images (I’ve seen better “image fusion” done by other artists) but that’s just my opinion. As it turns out she owns a bike shop as well. Jody Perewitz, well, the only thing I knew about her was that she’s the daughter of famous bike builder, Dave, and that she and Sara are doing a bike build for charity.
Needless to say, I was more than disappointed when I got to the site. The overall design of the site is lackluster and the footer navigation doesn’t even work. Also, it’s never a good sign when the homepage of a site that claims to be a “motorcycle resource for women” is chock full of too much info about the two women who involved with the site. Sigh.
Moving onto the Body & Machine section and it doesn’t get much better. I do think it’s interesting that they’re trying to incorporate fitness information in the “Body” section, but there’s not a whole lot of helpful info there (and I can’t tell who wrote the copy. Since the main graphic says “Sara Liberte’s Garage Girls” I’ll assume she wrote everything). In the middle of the page is a video of Jody and Sara interviewing each other that seems really out of place, even though they do talk about their favorite foods among other things.
The “Machine” section is comprised of two videos of Jody and Sara and a section about battery maintenance. Yawn. “Events” is where you can see them on tour building their Bobber for a Cure and “Sites2See” consists of links to Sara’s photo site and bike shop.
“Cruisin’ companions” has nothing to do with fellow women riders but riders of the fuzzy, four-legged kind. It’s a cute spin on the request for users to upload their photos (and let’s face it, animals on motorcycles will make anyone’s heart melt).
Overall, Garage Girls seems to be a narcissistic venture for these ladies rather than a site providing “everything a girl wants to know about motorcycles”, which totally bums me out. For that, I’ll stick with Women Riders Now, which I still think is the best site for women riders yet.
February 21st, 2008 at 12:12 pm
Thanks for the heads up about the Garage Girls sight. We should keep a watch to see if it gets better, but I doubt it.
Bikerchickz
February 21st, 2008 at 12:32 pm
I really REALLY wanted to like their site. I think the idea of the site has potential but the execution just isn’t there.
February 21st, 2008 at 2:12 pm
Hey ladies, hold on, we have only been live for about 3 weeks, and this is all out of my own pocket. There is much more content up now and we have lots more work to do sure, but were working on it. As for the homepage with info about us, that is just there until we whip this site into full gear. Stay tuned…~Sara Liberte
February 21st, 2008 at 3:08 pm
This is one area that old Crusty has a lot of difficulty with so I’ll tread lightly! Some women in and around the motorcycle industry fall into the “Biker Bimbo” category. You see them spread eagle across some chromed out custom usually wearing a thong…or less. I can only imagine most women have a pretty low opinion of what they represent. Then there are women motorcyclists such as yourself, and other Blog writers, that do their best to inform and educate women (and men) hoping to raise the bar a little. “Garage Girls” falls somewhere in the middle. They capitalize on their cuteness and self promote using a famous family name. I am sure the “Garage Girl” baby doll tops, thongs, and other items will be hitting the shelves soon. Looks as though they are trying to create and market an image. Just an old farts two cents. -Crusty
February 21st, 2008 at 3:24 pm
I don’t see where it’s an “intuitive guide to motorcycles for women.” There really isn’t that much “information” on the site, but then again I’m not a woman or intuitive.
February 21st, 2008 at 8:57 pm
Hi Lizzie. Thank goodness someones’ (you) courageous enough to tell it like it is–thank you. Your observations well written and factual–it’s all right when people talk the talk, but lets see the substance to back it up.Many women in the motorcycling business live in the attention they receive from it with very little ability–and lets not forget about the many who continue to come and go.There will be more.
Oh and don’t forget 2 May International Female Ride Day–JUST RIDE!
Betty
*I’M A MOTORESS*
February 22nd, 2008 at 10:14 am
I just want to say thank you to everyone for their comments and a welcome to Sara and Betty for commenting for the first time.
While I don’t want it to appear that we’re all ganging up on Sara and her new site, I think the point that I really wanted to get across is that it seemed a bit premature to me to launch a new site that’s ill-prepared and to have articles written touting it as a robust resource for women.
I create websites all the time (it’s my real job and a personal passion) and I would never have launched that particular site without making sure it was a bit more informational. I do wish Sara and Jody lots of luck with the endeavor and look forward to checking back in a few months.
February 25th, 2008 at 11:09 pm
I had a chance to take a peek at the site when I first read your post a few days ago… I couldn’t get any of the links to work for me. Then I went back and check it out again this evening, watched some of the videos… enjoyed watching about Battery Maintenance. I think the site has potential and hopefully they’ll add more info soon before readers get uninterested.
February 27th, 2008 at 5:19 pm
Hi Lizzie. Thank you for your welcome
I agree, we’re here to support one another/encourage women in motorcycling–yet its promoting a site thats not quite there yet. Again, difficult for women to be taken seriously in the sport and its these things that causes the industry to take note and conclude by lumping us all into the same boat.
Of course [JOVI] they had to fix the links/content–Lizzie your blog is properly fed through all major media –you gave a good heads up to the garage girls.
TTYL >> Betty
I’M A MOTORESS! (.com)