IN FOCUS: WITH SHELLEY HICKMAN
Team Hickman in Italy - Shelly and her Dad.
From trail rides to club days - from national titles and world championship events - Shelly Hickman has done it all and we couldn’t be any more impressed. The Auckland based rider has been all over the world on her dirt bike and she took some time to tell us all about her amazing journey.
The seed is planted.
Name: Shelley Hickman
Location: Auckland
Bike: YZ250 FX
Been riding for how long?
SH: Ever since I can remember. Riding dirt bikes has been a family way of life for me from the age of six when I got my first one.
TD: How did you get into riding dirt bikes? Who encouraged you (if anyone)?
SH: My Dad has always loved dirt bikes so bought me a PW50 when I was six. I wanted a donkey because I didn’t like being kicked, bitten, or bucked off by my big sister’s horse.
I remember the first MX I saw was at a sand track in Ruakaka, they wouldn’t let me race my XL75 because I didn’t have MX boots, gloves, or any of the required safety gear other than a helmet. Apparently gumboots weren’t good enough, so Dad took me riding down the beach.
Shelly’s first bike and her Dad giving her some tips.
Right from the start, Dad was beside me riding around farms, pulling wheelies and having fun. That progressed into trail riding, then hare scrambles where Dad helped set up and run these for many years with the Whangarei MCC. I was always with him, riding around while helping out with putting the arrows up, moving logs, etc, and genially honing around. Dad loved to race these two-hour hare scrambles and was very good at them. I wasn’t very patient and didn't enjoy waiting around the pits much but it wasn’t long before Dad and the club started to run Junior 45 minute mini hair scrambles. This set the scene for my riding/racing. I have memories of MX friends pulling me and my bike out of muddy bog holes, pushing me up steep clay muddy hills and encouraging me to get out of first gear and hold it on, down these steep wet clay hills (Thanks Smiley)… Not knowing it at the time, all of this built a strong platform for later in life. Motocross was my dream and I had posters all over my bedroom walls of Craig Dack, Kym Ashkenazi and other MX riding stars.
TD: Tell me what was your first bike and why?
SH: My first bike was a plastic tricycle, then I got a BMX which got totally thrashed. It ended up with no brakes but that didn’t hold me back. I even built my own BMX track (which we now call a pump track) out of lime with a wheelbarrow and spade. I made two sets of double jumps and tried to quad them, ha, ha and that didn’t end well. I hit the third ramp and winded myself thinking, “am I was going to die”?. Dad put an end to that and got the lime works truck back and squashed two of those double jumps. Lucky because next, I had planned to try to quad it on my XL75!
I just loved to ride and my best mate who lived next door (Ian Drake) also had a BMX so it was even better riding with a friend. As mentioned above my first motorbike was a PW50. Second bike XL75 then I got a CR80 that Dad and a friend transplanted an XR200 motor into, because he didn’t like the power of the two strokes back then.
TD: What did you initially find easy about riding dirt bikes?
SH: Having fun, with Mum and Dad right next to me, nothing was a problem.
Saying that, nothing about bike riding seamed easy to start with, every ride was a challenge while at the same time an amazing fun journey. Learning the basic skills required to get around a track, the more I improved the more I wanted to learn - it’s a crazy fun addiction. It does not matter what level you are at with riding, the personal satisfaction you get after achieving a new skill gives you the same amazing feeling of accomplishment.
TD: What do you still struggle with when out on the trail?
SH: Slowing myself down! I’m a MX rider by heart and on an MX track you ride as FAST as you can, out on the trails you need to slow down (otherwise trees grow legs and run in front of you when you least expect it) ha, ha…or a tree root will take you down! Seriously I try to back it off these days. One wise man once told me that not everything in life is a race. It took me years to understand that and I now try to ride within my limits and have fun. Oh did I mention that I struggle with other women passing me too? Apparently I have overcome that too, after getting smoked by the Senior Women at the 2019 NZ Vet and Women’s MX Nats.
In Texas training on her RM125.
TD: Who else in the family ride dirt bikes?
SH: Everyone in my family can ride dirt bikes. Dad currently has a WR250 & KTM 990, my Mum has a Honda CT110, postie bike and used to ride my CR80 with XR200 engine, to work up the country roads. My sister can ride and would have been amazing if she decided to take it up but horses are her thing and she is very good at it, which also helped drive me to be my best.
TD: Where/who do you get your inspiration/advice/tips/ tricks from right now?
SH: I have always had plenty of inspiration and have always followed my own dreams and desires but right now during the lockdown I have really enjoyed seeing sportspeople on FB like Cortney Duncan, Avalon Biddle or Emma working towards their next race events and seeing friends achieving their personal goals, from exercise to home renovations or doing different and cool things with their family and kids.
I have also been enjoying reading all the posts on the FIM WOMEN in Motorcycling and also following Sandy Mckinnon and her adventure rides. And of course, The Dirt has some pretty awesome articles, video’s and up to date Moto info on FB and the web.
Surround yourself with positive people and positive things will happen!
At Pirini with family and friends.
TD: So, we hear you were quite the MX racer…tell us a little about that.
SH: What’s there to tell, my life was simply EAT, BREATH and SLEEP MX. It was my life and I raced MX every weekend with the boys. I simply loved to race, improve my riding and push myself and to top it off, worked in the motorcycle industry in Parts sales to help pay the racing bills.
Right from the start, I was taught to work hard to achieve my goals. As a kid living in the country there wasn’t much opportunity to earn money, so from early on I worked around home to earn money to buy petrol for my bike and it wasn’t long before I wanted new MX gear. So at 12 years old I started gardening for the dairy farm owners down the road - I would cycle 6km's there and back on my BMX bike.
Shelly’s favourite 1996 RM125 that she raced in America.
Dad offered me a deal to help buy my first 125cc MX bike. If I helped him over the winter months to skin dead cows (after work), he would buy me a 125cc MX bike. Yes, it was a gross job but I really wanted the bike and back then it was the quickest way to earn the money.
It wasn’t long after earning that money and getting my very first 125cc MX bike at the age of 15, I rode the first-ever Women’s and Vet’s Motocross and came third. The very next year in 1993 I placed second and represented NZ at the World Women’s Motocross Cup in Italy. Julie Managh organised the whole amazing trip, I came home with a sixth-place overall and Julie eighth, both of which we were really happy with. International connections and great friendships were made at that race which have lasted a lifetime.
Worlds in Italy with Julie.
The following year 1994 my parents saved hard and took me to Oklahoma, America for the Women’s Word Cup, I ended up third equal and relegated to fourth overall, the next International Women’s race was at Rusk Texas where I finished 5th overall.
After two international races, I had the MX bug really bad. I raced Motocross every single weekend, it was my life, I not only raced MX but worked in the industry as a motorcycle parts person and it wasn’t long before I had saved enough money and planned my next trip to America in 1996. I don’t think anyone really believed that I would do it, because I was a really quiet girl (back then) but I organised the whole trip by myself by writing letters and by sending fax communication with the WML representatives. Nothing was going to hold me back!
The late Kat Spann (she sadly died of cancer in 2009) and her husband Greg Spann . Greg was a Fort Worth Police officer when Shelly lived with them in America.
I not only raced but lived in America for four months while following the AMA WML (Women’s Motorcycle League) Outdoor National series, traveling over 2,720km’s from East Coast to West Coast twice. That’s the equivalent of driving from the top of NZ to the bottom over three times in a row! Just imagine a 19-year-old girl from NZ flying to America with two friends, both of whom were 21 and had never traveled out of NZ., arrive in LA and all the race plans go out the window - (see Kat’s article attached). Our home base ended up being in Burleson, Texas. I could tell so many crazy, funny stories about our adventures traveling across America to the races but that’s history and I ended up coming home with a second-place overall in the 1996 Pro Women’s Class at the AMA Outdoor Motocross National Series.
The HUGE table top at the 1993 Worlds in Italy.
I’ve had some great results with my latest being 1st 40 years + at the 2019 NZ Vet Women’s MX Nationals (unplanned event after breaking my scapula 8 weeks prior). I had so much fun riding at Pirini with the girls two weeks earlier, they had talked me into racing (and MNZ dropped the price & allowed day licenses) so off Dean & I went.
TD: Any favourite tracks?
SH: Sand MX tracks, Whangarei - Harrisville MX track - Auckland - Washougal Motocross track - Washington - Mammoth Mountain – California. But now I love to ride with my family and friends around Pirini’s MX track and Burts Farm because they suit us all.
TD: Some memorable bikes?
SH: My 1996 RM125 was a really good reliable bike. Now I’m lazy I love the 250 four-strokes, especially my YZ250FX. It’s just all-round amazing!
Shelly’s home track in Henderson and… “the biggest jump I have ever done!” It was about 130ft (40 meters).
TD: Fiercest competitors?
SH: It may sound a bit strange, but my biggest competitor was myself, always wanting to improve, do better, jump that next big jump and keep up with the guys. Winning wasn’t always my main goal, to start with it was to always catch and beat that guy in front of me then get top five in the NZ Women’s MX Championship. Then it was to win the NZ Women’s MX Champs and from there it quickly turned into the World Champs with my ultimate goal to become number #1. While I was racing in America, my biggest competitor was definitely Shelly Kann, oh and beating my Dad ha, ha.
Julie Managh Shelly at the 1993 World Woman’s Motocross Champs in Italy. “We had never seen a tabletop so HUGE, it was hard to walk up let alone ride!”
TD: What else do you get up to besides being a badass chick on a dirt bike. Any other hobbies etc?
SH: An easier question would be what I don’t do, ha, ha! Since giving up MX I have tried so many sports; from duel downhill mountain bike racing, snow skiing, snowboarding, fishing, wakeboarding, 10km fun runs which grew into half marathons (mostly with my Mum) and I have completed a Marathon! More recently I have raced BMX and enjoyed the people’s triathlon series in the sprint class, but I mostly love riding dirt bikes with family and friends - oh and Mountain biking comes a close second.
A couple of years ago we brought a toy hauler and love heading away as a family on the weekends riding dirt bikes, mountain bikes or simply exploring new areas and towns around NZ. We have a beautiful country and it’s nice to be able to explore it freely with a fully self-contained caravan.
Shelley (H) raced a Stuart Morgan's, Ballard-tuned WR400 at the Broadford Thumper Nats in Victoria, Australia.
TD: What is one piece of advice that you would give other girls thinking about getting into dirt bikes?
SH: Follow your dreams and don’t let anything hold you back!
Get yourself into a club or group such as Queens of Dirt because meeting like-minded people who love dirt bikes just as much as you, they can quickly become your friends who you learn and have fun with.
There are also plenty of dirt bike coaches or schools around to learn from. The cost will quickly be recovered when you learn the correct riding technique which saved you from a crash or tips about how to service your bike correctly rather than riding it until it breaks.
We wish to thank Shelly for her time and resources and the images she shared with us and you from her racing career. Before there was a Prumm or a Duncan, and well before the sport was professional for woman… there was a Shelly Hickman paving (and paying) the way for all those Kiwi gals who followed. Well done.
Shelly’s illustrious career took her all over the world with results some people only dream of.