The Administrators for Motogirlz of California

Meet Annika Hertz

Motogirlz of California Administrator

May 14, 2013

My name is Annika S. Hertz, I am 39 years old and happily married to my husband of 20 years. Together we have a beautiful daughter, Arianna, and a house full of critters. I moved to the US from Germany almost 20 years ago and love living in California.

"My motorcycle riding experience started about 2 years ago..."

(my year of pocket bike riding doesn’t really count) and I currently ride a 2004 Ninja 250 (street only) and a 2006 Honda NSF (track only).

Christine Schallmo

Motogirlz of California Administrator

May 14, 2014

As I sit here, I think about when I started to ride. It really started back when I was an infant and my mother sat me on top of a horse. I attended my first approved national horse show when I was 7 and competed up until approximately three years ago, winning many regional, national, and year end awards. But sadly my show horse past unexpectedly.

During some of this time, I had been using my pit bike, a TTR 90, for horse shows. My husband had a street bike and dirt bike, and I would go with him “two-up” on the street or I would ride the 90 around at OHV parks. One day I decided that I wanted to learn to ride and was tired of being left behind. I purchased my first bike, a TTR 230. I had many not so exciting times and some rewarding moments with that bike, learning on how to ride. I moved up to wanting to ride street, so my husband (Aaron) had me now learn on our KLR 650. I went from riding up and down small roads, to actually taking it out on my first track day. Throughout this time to the present, I rode and competed in Motocross and ended up coming in 2nd in the overall standings for the season. Then decided to race Hare Scrambles and out of three of them I won two and got third in the last one.

I never knew how much fun 24 miles at speed, over everything they put in front of you, could be!

My daughter, now 9 years old, started riding and racing in a minimoto club when she was 6. I helped and supported her as best as I could. Then my husband started racing and I got fed up watching the fun from the sidelines. With the help of a friend I learned how to ride a motorcycle, but no real handling techniques. I was, however, proud of my riding - until I crashed in a turn, broke a few bones and came to realize that I had no clue what I was doing.

"So as soon as I was healed up, I took a Motorcycle Safety Course, got my street license and bought the Ninja and started riding."

I also took a Keith Code course (organized by the minimoto club my family and I belong to) and have since then continued learning both off and on the track. I still have a lot to learn, which will never end – but I did complete my first minimoto races last month and now look forward to getting lots of seat time riding around our beautiful mountains. I am currently contemplating getting a newer, fuel injected bike and have been eyeballing the new Honda CBR 500…we will see.

Then we purchased my first sport type bike a Katanna 600, and now, for the past two years I have been riding my "girl" a Suzuki GSXR 600. As of today, I have probably done over 50 track days, and over 50,000 (s)miles. I have been very lucky to have had the chance to be a mechanic's helper with my husband at the California Superbike School for the past 4 years. I have completed all 4 levels at the school, met a lot of very interesting people and got a chance to really get to know the people that make up the school.

That and the passion I have about riding, the enjoyment that you see when someone has that "aha" moment, when they finally have, what they need to now, to really use their skills, is a priceless moment.

Since I consider myself to still be very much a newbie, I hope to be able to encourage girls and women of all ages to give motorcycle riding a try. Or, if they already ride, lend support or share ideas on how we can all become better, safer riders. Although my hubby has supported me 100% in my riding adventures and will always help me, especially when it comes to motorcycle repair and maintenance, I found that I learned more working with women than with guys.

When I am not on a motorcycle, I will either be running (LOVE mud runs, 5k, 10k and one annual half marathon) or ride and compete with my horse.

Annika, in light of recent tragic events involving young riders, some just a little older than your daughter, how do you feel as a parent about putting your child's life at risk? How far is too far?

This is not an easy question to answer… Do I worry about my daughter’s health, her life, whenever she goes out on the track? Absolutely! But I worry as much about her when she rides my horse or plays with her friends on bicycles or goes swimming. I worry about her all the time. While we cannot shield our kids from any and all dangers, we can do our best to reduce the risk. When she learned to ride a bicycle, she started slow – with either my husband or me on either side. She wore a helmet, knee protection, elbow protection and the bike had training wheels.

We didn’t send her out on a freeway and wished her “Good Luck” on her first attempt to tackle this new skill.

Neither did we sit her atop a bucking bronco when she learned to ride horse or taught her to swim in the open waters, with sharks circling.

Although I sometimes wish I could, I cannot wrap my daughter in bubble wrap and never let her leave the house. But I CAN introduce her to this amazing world with baby steps. Every child is different, their abilities to learn, the amount of courage and curiosity they show toward new things.

When our daughter expressed her wish (NOTE: hers! NOT ours) to race motorcycles, we found a club that would start her out very slowly, literally. But still we had people asking us on how we would feel when (if) she would race in the Moto GP circuit…My standard answer was “She is 6, she rides a pocket bike right now – I will worry about her going over 100mph in 10 years or so when she has slowly graduated to that level.

It’s been three years since she started riding and racing motorcycles. She has crashed multiple times, never sustained any serious injuries and continues to enjoy the sport. She has watched some of her friends crash and she also heard about those that died in a crash. We have never lied to her about it but, instead talked about it openly. She told me only a few weeks ago, that when she thinks about those riders that got hurt or lost their lives, she gets scared. When asked if she wanted to stop riding because of it, she’d reply:

“No! Sometimes bad things happen but you can’t always be afraid of everything”.

I think the decision to let your kid race is up to each parent. I feel that there are many other sports out there, which bare a lot of risk of injuries and possible fatalities such as alpine ski racing or football, just to name two. But our society has accepted those as “normal” sports, yet motorcycle racing, especially for kids, still brings out raised eyebrows and head-shaking.

I decided some time ago, that I would try to see, if I was good enough to try out with the California Superbike School. It was the first time that I was followed and I couldn't even tell you, how huge the list of things was, which I had to improve on. But as time went by, the list became shorter and shorter, until I finally was at a standard to do a tryout with the California Superbike School. My tryouts were in October...it was probably one of the hardest, but funniest days, I have ever had. I passed my tryouts! But boy, was the oral exam a killer - but it was all worth it! Unfortunately I had a severe accident a few weeks ago, while I was flat tracking, and had to have surgery and rehab for my left leg, ankle, and foot. So plans to do any further work to becoming a coach are on hold at this time. But I'm so excited about this endeavor with Annika Hertz, that we jumped right on in with both feet (my two canes too) and I really can’t wait to take California by storm...