Mothers of Southern NH ride up to Laconia Motorcycle Week

LACONIA — The women's motorcycle club Spice and Ice Sisterhood is attending their third Laconia Motorcycle Week this year.

Primarily from Nashua, Spice and Ice Sisterhood empowers dozens of female motorcycle riders across the state to ride together, and all current members of the club are mothers. The founders are Sheri Durgin, Pricilla Iraola, Jen Taylor and Liz Mortimer, with Erin Gaudette as their road captain.

Durgin, of Nashua, has been riding since she was a teenager, but stopped when she had a child. Now, she rides her grandmother’s 1981 Harley-Davidson Shovehead that she rebuilt two years ago.

The club started in 2024, when Durgin got a call from her friend Iraola, to see if she’d be interested in starting an all-women's motorcycle club.

Iraola "gave me a ring when she realized I had a bike, and asked if I was interested, and I've been with [the club] since. It's been a blast,” Durgin said. “You get the opportunity to get on the open road and feel the wind. Every 10 miles, you feel the weather change. You can feel the dips in the cold and the heat. It's very empowering.”

This is the club’s third year staying in Laconia for the week. Durgin finds Laconia Motorcycle Week a “really cool opportunity for people who love to ride” to be in the same place.

“I love to see the bikes, I love to see the camaraderie and everybody getting together,” Durgin said. “We like to go [on] the long rides up the mountains, to enjoy the scenery and get out of the city for a bit. It's nice to get up here to the open road.”

Because the motorcycling community is male-dominated, Durgin believes in the importance of women coming together to ride, and feel a sense of “freedom.”

“Women have always been overlooked in almost every aspect of everything,” Durgin said. “It's really important for us to stand out, stand up for, and empower women to do what they love. I'm a mother, [and] every woman in the club is a mother. We all work really hard all day, so it's nice to get out on the bikes and just ride.”

To learn more about Spice and Ice Sisterhood, visit facebook.com/groups/1682871765889334.

“There’s no stigma, and no requirements,” Durgin said. “Women are always welcome to come ride with us if they're looking for it.”