IN FOCUS: SHENAYDE NICOLAI

Sometimes, you don't pick the dirt bike life, the dirt bike life picks you. This rings true for the Kaiwaka resident as we discuss how her transformation into two-wheels all began..

Name: Shenayde Nicolai
Location: Kaiwaka, Northland
Bike: CRF250R
Been riding for: 4 Years

It all began when Shenayde’s parents brought her three, Nitro Circus tickets for her birthday one year to attend the Palmerston North show back when she used to live in Ohakune.

Something just clicked inside me that went “hold up, why don’t I have a dirt bike”.

I went to the show with two of my mates who both were quite big on road bikes, and after watching the show, we all decided we were going to go get dirt bikes. They never did! I had no money, so I put 5k on my mortgage and just went and got one on my own one sunny afternoon.

First bike on the track for Shenayde was a KTM 85SX. After sitting on a 125 in the store, she quickly realised that being 5ft 1 and under 50kgs wasn’t going to work out very well. The spring didn’t even move when she sat on it and the budget didn’t have much wiggle room to include a full suspension overhaul.

So I went for the 85. Some days I wonder if I should still be on one!

When I picked up the bike, I was straight on the phone to my friend in New Plymouth, as he had offered several times to come teach me if I ever ended up getting a bike. He came over the very next day and sat at the back of the bike while I learnt the clutch and gears and to get a feel for the throttle. Just kinda stopped me from tipping over while I learnt the controls. It was a good way to do it actually, because by the time I had half a day of learning, he got on his own bike and all I had to work on was remembering to add in a bit of balance to the mix.

Learning to ride a bike can come naturally to some, and not so much to others. When asked what Shenayde initially found easy about riding dirt bikes, she came back with a resounding one-liner.

Almost nothing!

I’m a terrible learner and I had barely ridden a push bike when I decided to take up motorbikes. It wasn’t easy at all for me. I mean I could barely touch the ground, even on the 85. I’m still pretty appalling at using my rear brake, and to be honest, I didn’t even know I had one till I moved up to a 125!

Now being on the full sized bikes, the height thing is still a bit of a pain in the ass. Not being able to touch the ground, mostly on trails if she gets somewhere that the ground is uneven. But in motocross, she barely notices it.

I find I barely notice it in motocross though, as I never really need a firm foot on the ground. My bikes been lowered a lot, an inch taken out of the seat and has a much lighter spring in it now so that helps heaps too.

OH - and here is a really good short persons hack: I put two insoles in my boots!

Going back to the path some people take when getting into dirt bikes. More often than not, this love for two wheels is passed down the lineage, from fathers and mother before. But for this Northland lass, it couldn’t be further from the truth.

No one else in my family rides…and they aren’t particularly thrilled that I’m doing it either. I had Scoliosis and Chiari malformation as a child and as a result, I’ve got titanium rods up either side of my spine and a shunt in my brain that basically dumps excess cerebral fluid into my chest. I was told that I had to sorta take life easy - I’m technically not even allowed to do contact sports. I can’t imagine between snowboarding and motocross that my surgeons are very impressed with me.

And when it comes to tips, tricks and advice, not having a family background in moto hasn’t slowed Shenayde down one little bit. She started riding alone, just showing up to places by herself with the bike on the back. She recalls the first time she went to a ride on her own, she pulled over on the way because she got so anxious that she threw up!

I almost turned around several times to go home because I was panicking that I would have to ask someone to help me get my bike off the Ute (I’ve always had a bit of a problem with asking for help). As soon as I showed up I went straight to sign on so that I had dropped the $50 and would have to just grow a pair and ask someone to help me. When I got back from sign on a guy was there and kindly offered to get the bike off for me. Honestly if that first time on my own hadn’t gone like that I doubt I would have had the courage to keep riding. To this day he happens to be one of my best friends. And I get a lot of my advice from the friends I have made from riding.

These colours don’t run, and it seems Shenayde was destined to bleed for her brand. Although swiftly personalise her steed in a striking teal colour-way.

I always wanted a Honda, when I was looking for a first bike, and I was dead-set on the CRF150R, but couldn’t afford it at the time. When I sold my first house and had a bit of money left over after sorting my new place, it went straight into Northcoast Honda in Whangarei and I brought a shiny new 2019 CRF250R. I remember thinking what an idiot I was for buying a new bike when I had only clocked about 6 hours of ride time since I started over a year beforehand.

But as it turned out, for Shenayde, it was the best move she could have made.

I loved it! For me it was much more nimble and narrow than the other full framed bikes I had tried, and the power was there as I needed it and I didn’t have to work for it. I’ve just clocked 110 hours on her now and I’ll be keeping her forever I hope. She wasn’t my first bike, but it was definitely the bike that got me to really love riding, and the bike that got me off the trails and into the races. I see her becoming an ornament in my house one day - I don’t think I could ever part with her.

“Doubt kills more dreams than failure ever will” - Shenayde — *“Doubt kills more dreams than failure ever will” -* ***Shenayde***

She decided to do all the things right from the start with the CRF, after having a bit of a garage home-jobbie done on the suspension of her 125. She enlisted Troy and the team at P1moto to set it all up for her and get it sitting a bit lower and sweeter.

In all honesty, it’s like riding a magic carpet for someone my size. If I had to pick one thing I could do with it’s new tyres haha! I do miss the red though but I do love the confusion when people see the teal. And it is perfect for Motocross which is what I enjoy doing the most. I love the jumps and I’ve always been a bit of an adrenaline seeker. I just love the feeling of being in the air so much that it doesn’t even occur to me I mightn’t land on two wheels.

Not just a one-trick-pony, Shenayde did freestyle snowboarding from the age of 15 and her life pretty much revolved around that, right up until she twisted that first throttle.

I do really miss the snow though and I’m hoping to move back down there in the near future now that I know there’s plenty of motocross tracks within a stones throw. I also love wakeboarding but I’ve mostly only been on cable. Though, I was lucky enough to go behind a boat once about 4 years ago.

The last 2.5 years, she has been working as a chippie, building sheds. To start with, she didn’t think she would last a week, but it’s actually been really good for her resilience. When she left high school, hairdressing was the first foraying into career life, so it was like going from one extreme to the next as far as work is concerned.

I really love building though and I’m hoping to get into building houses when I move back down the line, because there’s not a lot of indoor work doing sheds. And although it’s bliss in summer, l’m not digging the wind and rain in the cooler months. Yeah it’s hard and heavy work but I really enjoy it.

And what does home life look like for Shenayde?

I pretty much just sleep there haha. I’m always at work or at moto. I have two dogs, a Husky-X-Labrador and a Labrador. I’ve got 3.5 acres where I am and have built myself a tiny home to live in while I build the main house, so I don’t have to try find a rental with two dogs. We all know that’s a nightmare.

And if you’re reading this and still on the fence about getting into dirt bikes, take another one liner straight from this Kaiwaka resident…

Don’t hesitate!

Go get a bike and don’t wait around. If you rely on or wait for your friends to get one too, all that happens is you end up missing out. I can confirm - dirt bikes are fun whether your mates come with you or not.

Plus, there is actually a pretty big community of women riders in New Zealand and I can’t speak for all of them, but most of us are more than happy to help you along and get you out riding with us. There’s a heap of pages on Facebook you can join to find like minded people and if you get stuck finding them, I’d love to hear from you too.

Finally, say hey to other chicks if you see them at the track. You’ll get snubbed every now and again but I promise you those girls are the minority in this sport. Most of us are thrilled to meet more chicks like us. I’ve met some of my very best friends just by plucking up the courage to go say hello at the track.

Looking for a place to start your dirt biking career? Check out these Facebook pages to find like-minded chicks who ride dirt bikes.

Kiwi Chicks on Dirt Bikes
Queens Of Dirt

You can follow Shenayde’s moto journey on her Instagram - @shenaydenicolai
Images supplied by Shenayde and Click n Shot Photography