Women in Motorcycling: Lara Small

I'm a Chartered Engineer by profession and also an Army Reservist, a commitment I made when I was at university that manifested into a role as a Major in the Royal Engineers. But as much as I am proud of my qualifications and role in the military, if you cut me down to my absolute core, I'm just a bit of a motorbike hooligan at heart. 

Motorbikes have parallelled my career so far, from riding a moped that my dad found out of a skip, where I was born in Jersey, to razzing around on a two-stroke, again in Jersey. I worked as a Scooterman chauffeur when I was at university, so I had my two-wheel fix on monkey bikes that was more affordable, where I'd race taxis around Bristol. 

Once I had enough income, I was able to buy my first big bike which was a Honda CBR 600F. I started doing a few tours on it in the UK, before taking it to the track. My instructor questioned how I'd learned to ride like I did. I didn't know, I’d just looked at the pictures of the racers in MotoGP. 

I’d overtake people around the outside of Gerrards on far more sophisticated vehicles. Bear in mind, I had a rack on the back of the bike and a reflective vest because I was a noob. It turned out that it felt pretty good; I was quite handy. I started racing a CB500 in Thundersport, before progressing onto racing a Ducati 1198, but to be honest, that motorcycle kind of raced me, all I did was teleport from corner to corner. I also raced some super twins and then started winning trophies on a Krämer EVO2-690 single, getting a nice little trophy cabinet. 

I owned a Ducati Supersport which was a step up from that CBR600. The twin created an energy; it had a voluptuous engine. Everybody needs a big thump and thunderous twin in their life! I did a few European tours, that led to me realise that motorbikes were missing in my life when I was not racing. 

I went on a big tour to the Pyrenees on my Ducati and came back on the ferry with a reaffirming, greater desire to spend more time on two wheels. As a result, I set up a YouTube channel. I started talking to a camera, something I was really scared of doing, but that resulted in more confidence, learning to present my thoughts about motorbikes, which led to my role in Bike World. And here we are! 


I’ve been with Bike World for about three years now. I'm kind of like the super sub for when Chris and Chad aren't available! So, I have to get up to speed pretty quickly and figure out what I'll need for each launch. 

My first Ducati launch was when I first started with Al from Bike World, on the Diavel V4 on the Jebel Hafeet mountain in the United Arab Emirates. That was a baptism of fire, night riding on a sporty dragster and razzing it up a private mountain road with 60 turns over 15km and perfect tarmac. I was like, “hmm, this job is nice!” 

I’ve recently come back from the new Monster launch. When I first got on it, it felt quite compact and manageable. You can get round it really well with the slimline seat design. I'm quite long in the leg so I felt like it was reasonably compact and you can adjust the seat height to suit you. I’ve always liked the Monster ‘tankness’ to it, that big broad tank up at the front. But it's very manageable and quite sensitive because it's so light, easy to flick around. In terms of the V2 performance, you can't be disappointed by that, it does everything really well. If I was a novice, its power is easy and smooth on the throttle, it easily zooms past legal speed limits if you’re not careful! It’s very much on the sporty end of a midsize naked. It's got all the Ducati panache around it and it's pretty very easy to ride as well, it’s brilliant.

Both my academic and engineering careers have been in a male-dominated environment. I could argue I have been a little bit blind to the subtleties in genders because I've lived constantly in that ecosystem. But now and then, differences present themselves. But mostly, for the very same reason where I had support from my instructor on my first track day, I’ve really enjoyed being part of a community of people actively interested in helping people, no matter what the gender. 

The funnies I have are when I’m on track days, or racing. At Darley Moor I was on a Gixxer 600, a very well put together bike. Someone came up to me who had been riding a very similar bike and asked if I was on a 750. I was like, “No, that's the same bike as you mate!” I think my ponytail perhaps triggers a response that some men might not actually realise. When I outbrake them into a corner, it might cause a change in their behaviour, that might result in them tipping off in front of me. But maybe that’s just in my own head. 

The other difficulty for women in motorcycling is clothing. I’ve had to modify my own kit, so it fitted properly when I got my first set of leathers. I’ve paid a premium to get bespoke leathers ever since, just because ergonomically we need a different fit to men. I think we have a greater variation in sizes, and fewer options. But I have found a happy medium with Knox clothing in particular now, that’s because they have found the budget to properly dedicate to an all-female range.

When it comes to inspirations in biking, I’m a big fan of Anna Carrasco who is showing phenomenal resilience and desire to get back on the bike and challenge for podiums. So that's pretty hot. 

But since I started riding, I've always been pretty single-minded anyway rather than following others. I have an intrinsic desire to be on two wheels, probably coming from some internal inertia to ride motorbikes and not actually realising that. 

Off-road is a new challenge for me, I've just come back from eight weeks travelling for 4,000 miles from the UK to the Balkans with my friend Maja, who's Biker Maja on Instagram, definitely worth a follow! 


We took 53 days to travel over on the Trans European Trail from the UK to Greece, on a couple of CRF300 Rallys, following eight different countries, including Bosnia and Montenegro, and survived off the bikes camping. As a result, this year coming up, we will be showcasing what we did at the Adventure Bike Rider Festival. I've got another trip in Spain coming up with Austin Vince, to live off the bike again in a rugged and rural environment. 

I’ll be continuing to work with Bike World this year also. We have more clothing to launch, hopefully I can work with Al to get a more feminine range out as well so keep an eye out for that.

You can follow Lara on Instagram here and check out her YouTube channel here.