Cristine Sommer-Simmons has enjoyed a lifetime love affair with two wheels. An eager passenger on her step-father’s motorcycle at age 9, she rode her first motorcycle solo at 14, got her first Harley at age 19 and has been riding ever since. She was a longtime member of the Women’s International Motorcycle Association and in 1984, co-founded the 2nd Chapter of Women in the Wind. A year later, in 1985 she co-founded the world’s first motorcycle magazine for women called Harley Women. For over 5 years she acted as co-publisher and editor, often riding her motorcycle across the country to find the stories. On one such ride in 1989 she met her husband-to-be, rocker and fellow motorcycle enthusiast, Doobie Brother Patrick Simmons.

For several years Cris appeared in countless national newspaper articles, radio and television talk shows as a representative and advocate of the growing number of women riders. She holds an Honorary Lifetime membership to Women in the Wind and was a Sustaining Member of the Motorcycle Riders Foundation (MRF) for many years. In 1990, she was honored as a pioneering woman motorcyclist in the American Motorcycle Associations’ Women In Motorcycling exhibit in the AMA’s museum in Westerville, OH.

Cris has served as a freelance journalist for numerous motorcycle publications including American Iron, Motorcycle Collector, Iron Works, Easyriders, V-Twin to name a few, as well as magazines in Japan, Spain and in Australia. Cris also had her own column for over 12 years in the popular Japanese Harley magazine Hot Bike Japan.

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Sturgis Museum and Hall of Fame - Sturgis, South Dakota