January 5, 2017
Super-fast female racer, Shayna Lier, interviewed right after climbing down from the winner’s podium at Round 1 of the AMA Championship Snow Bike Series in Elk City, Minnesota, loves to talk about the motorcycle industry’s hottest new segment, a winter sport called snow biking. She has been riding in the mountains for five years and entered her first snow bike race less than a year ago. She rides a 2012 Honda CRF 450R with a ST LE Timbersled kit attached and to see tiny Shayna (she stands about 5 feet tall) racing the sizable machine around the track is pretty amazing. With relatively little practice behind her, she makes racing look easy and Shayna makes no bones about it; she intends to take home this year’s AMA National Snow Bike Series Women’s Title.
It is her love of the motorcycle community and family-type outings that draws Shayna to straddle a motorcycle. This close-knit comradery is a great match for Shayna, who is a warm and approachable woman, and she feels that she has a mission, not only to make herself as fast as possible, but also to inspire other women to join her in the sport. She acknowledges that she is making history as one of the first women to compete and the first to ever qualify and race in the top men’s A Main at last year’s West Yellowstone, Montana race. At times she has beat out some pretty tough men and women last year and in 2017 she has a secret weapon, mentor Jimmy Jarrett, the 2016 Men’s National Snow Bike Champion, who is proving to be instrumental in helping her improve her already strong racing skills. Shayna Lier is supported by her Dad/Gary’s Auto Body, Evolution Powersports, Klim, Bell, 605 Signs and Designs, and Timbersled.
“I am working on my cornering, right-hand turns, jumping, smooth landings and acceleration. And mental preparation is key as well; you can’t let anyone or anything get into your head,” said Shayna.
We asked Shayna what advice she can offer to other women who want to get into this exciting new sport. She told us, “I want any woman who thinks that she can’t do this to know that she can. If you can ride a bike, you can ride a snow bike, and frankly it is even more fun.”
Ronda Gibbons - AMA Championship Snow Bike Series