Motorcycle Mamas

With biker babes and lots of leather, the sixteenth annual Ladies Run of Colorado roars into tiny Fairplay July 13-14. The yearly festival celebrates some of the finest scooter ladies around.

With a population of about 650 people, Fairplay will be overrun, if not run over, when the 3,000 participants that are expected this year roll down Front Street, the town’s main thoroughfare. “They definitely take over town,” says Deb Carty, a member of the South Park Chamber of Commerce.

“It’s a hedonistic field day,” Carty says, “People come up here and forget their senses.” All three local bars boast live music, and Fairplay turns into a bikers’ wonderland with activities such as a bike parade, wrestling matches and a tattoo contest. The official Ladies Run Dance features music by Slick Machine, a northern Colorado band whose albums include Road Warrior and Ride.

“We just throw a big party,” says Janine Harmon, a Ladies Run organizer who rides a Suzuki Cavalcade 1400 with a sidecar that she bought to take her mom around. “Gals are invited to dress up for the big dance. We know the guys won’t. Either way, there is going to be a lot of leather in town.”

And with lingerie and leather fashion shows on Sunday, this weekend is geared more toward adults than kiddies.

“Bikers still have a nefarious reputation,” Carty says. “We don’t see a lot of families up here that weekend.” But she also stressed that other than a few bar fights, the town has never had any serious incidents on Ladies Run weekend. “You don’t ever see the women go to blows,” she explains. “It’s always the drunk men that follow them up here.”

The ride leaves from the Xcel Energy parking lot at Kipling and Hampden in Lakewood on Saturday, July 13, with registration from 8 to 9:30 a.m. before the 10 a.m. departure. It’s approximately a two-hour ride to Fairplay, and the group will stop along the way in Como, for a treasure hunt. The $10 entry fee gets you a red, white and blue garter belt — the theme this year is patriotic — as well as entry to the evening’s activities. Fairplay’s three hotels are booked up, but don’t be discouraged — you can rough it at the local campground or rent a private cabin.

And men, don’t let the name mislead you; organizers invite both genders to participate: Last year, 20 percent of the riders were solo females, and 35 percent were stag males. Nearly half were couples.

While the main focus of the weekend is loud, clean fun, the event also raises money for charity: Sixty percent of the proceeds go to the South Park Community Relief Fund and Project Safeguard, a victims’ advocate group for abused women. Last year the Ladies Run donated $7,000.

“Find a biker, jump on the back of [her] bike and feel the wind in your hair,” advises Carty, a former biker. “Everybody needs to experience this at least once in a lifetime.”