VMPL
Noida (Uttar Pradesh) [India], May 11: Noida-based Letsryde, India's first motorcycle training academy built exclusively for women, has achieved a landmark milestone: organising and leading the first all-women group completion of Thailand's Mae Hong Son Loop -- 1,200 kilometres of mountain road through Northern Thailand, across 4,066 curves and 1,864 hairpin bends. Completed in April 2026 in collaboration with Delhi-based world exploration company Viktorianz, the eight-day expedition featured eight Indian women aged 40 to 56. It is a first for India, a first for women's motorcycling in the region, and a defining signal of the new market that Letsryde has been building, steadily and with conviction, since 2016.
Motorcycling in India has always been a story of mobility. But for decades, that story was written without women in it -- not because they weren't capable, but because no one built the infrastructure that said they were welcome. For most of this country's riding history, the motorcycle was coded as a male machine -- utilitarian for men, transgressive for women. A woman on a scooter was acceptable. A woman on a motorcycle was a statement.
Letsryde was founded in 2016 to course correct that: and it did it by creating India's first dedicated space where women could learn to ride, led by a cadre of professional trainers, in an environment that took their ambition seriously- -built not around tolerance but around belonging.
The academy established its base in Noida in 2021 to meet the rapidly growing demand from women across Delhi NCR, and has since trained over 8,000 women -- now extending its presence to Gurgaon to deepen its reach across the region.
What is happening in Indian women's motorcycling today is not a trend. It is a structural shift -- and it mirrors a transformation playing out across the global experiential and adventure economy. Women in India are moving through motorcycle culture in ways the industry has never mapped: from the daily commute, where two-wheelers represent hard-won independence and freedom of movement in cities not designed for them, to weekend rides that signal identity and community, all the way to endurance sport, high-altitude expeditions, and now international adventure circuits. This is not a linear progression -- it is an explosion of appetite across every register of riding.
Women are not entering motorcycle culture through the side door anymore. They are arriving at the front, in numbers, with ambition that spans from city roads to mountain passes, from local rides to foreign loops that challenge the most experienced riders in the world.
Letsryde has an expedition programme that has taken its riders from Leh-Ladakh and Spiti Valley to, now, international terrain in Southeast Asia. It has not just trained women to ride. It has created a new market.
The global adventure and experiential travel market is growing at pace, and women -- particularly, with financial independence -- are its most energetic new force. In India, this cohort has been dramatically underserved. They do not want packaged tours or sanitised itineraries. They want real terrain, real challenge, and the kind of experience that changes how they see themselves. Letsryde's expedition model -- structured training that leads directly into immersive, high-stakes riding experiences -- was built for exactly this demand.
The Mae Hong Son Loop, one of Southeast Asia's most technically punishing routes, is the fullest expression of that model to date. Eight women rode it. All eight completed it. The Quint, in a landmark feature on the expedition, called it a defining statement on freedom, identity, and midlife reinvention for Indian women.
"When we started Letsryde, women riding motorcycles were considered an anomaly. Today, eight of our riders have completed one of the hardest routes in Southeast Asia. We didn't just train women to ride -- we built a movement that is changing what women believe they can do, on a bike and in their own lives. Indian women have always moved. On foot, in autos, on scooters, through traffic that was never designed for them. We gave them the motorcycle -- and with it, the road, the community, and the absolute right to go as far as they want. From the daily commute to the highest passes to international terrain, women are riding this country into a new era. Motorcycle culture in India has always had power. We are putting that power in women's hands." said Kuldeep Sharma, Co-Founder, Letsryde.
(ADVERTORIAL DISCLAIMER: The above press release has been provided by VMPL. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of the same.)
