Oistins, Christ Church, Barbados – For many, the roar of a motorcycle engine evokes feelings of freedom and adventure, but for others, it’s a sound laced with apprehension. Busy Bee Riding Academy in Barbados, founded by Fabian Reeves and Claire Reeves-Haynes, understands this duality, offering more than just motorcycle lessons; they provide a transformative journey, particularly for women, helping them conquer their fears and realise a newfound sense of empowerment on two wheels. “My first client was from Jamaica,” Claire recounts, her voice filled with pride. “She carried a lot of fear. Seeing her overcome that, seeing the goal become a reality for her, that’s when I knew this was more than just teaching skills.”
Reflecting on those early days, Claire adds, “It feels like quite a little ways back to remember exactly what it was like, but I don’t know that she had a lot of issues with balancing. Many students fear the noise, so I had to work her through that. But I realised how important the goal was for her, just to see that she did it. And yeah, it was after that that I jumped in.”
Claire emphasises the prevalence of fear among her students, particularly women. “We have too many of these stories to count. For the most part, most women who come to the school, outside of a very small few, have a fear of motorcycles ingrained in them, right? What will happen is more so that you will get guys to the school, and they don’t necessarily have a fear of the bike, but the people around them, like their wives, fear the motorcycle. But I want to say that more men and women for sure, they do. I see the difference in their confidence when they realise that the noisy troll no longer scares them the same way.”
While not everyone purchases a motorcycle after training, the impact on their confidence is significant. “I wouldn’t say a huge amount go on to actually buy motorcycles, but it has been a really incredible experience. I have a handful of students, female students, that actually want to buy motorcycles, and I did a ride with them up until a couple of months ago, and it was a really awesome experience. I love to see when I think they’re actually riding with more confidence than me, haha. I love to see that because I am not personally a fast rider. I’m a confident rider, but I don’t feel the need to be fast. But I have some female students that have taken it, and they have run with it, and now, you know, I have a lady who’s a musician, another lady who’s a hairdresser. I have another, well, two students who are hairdressers, and they’ve done, really well. They all have their own bikes.”
Claire believes the lessons learned extend beyond just riding skills. “Overall, I would say that it teaches people how to tune into what’s going on in their mind when they’re learning something new. And it’s the same process as anything that you learn new. Your mind goes into a space of trying to protect you, and that often can feel like overthinking. So, tuning into being at one on the motorcycle and being in the present is a tool that can actually translate to anything in life that causes you undue fear.”
Reflecting on the challenges, Claire notes, “I wouldn’t say there were any major specific challenges per se. I would say location has been very difficult for us because you need to have a safe space for students to do lessons to start, and then you need to have the ability to let them go into, to have more access to the road, but not necessarily going on the road right away. So, the gymnasium is the perfect blend to do that.”
Claire describes her coaching approach: “When I’m coaching students, I first of all, try to assess the fear level that particular students are at. Some people are naturally adrenaline junkies, so they just jump in, and they’re not overly concerned with whether they fall or not. And then there are other people who can jump on the bike with their hands shaking. I for the most part try to give a certain amount of detail, which can be overwhelming for some, but I always emphasise that we go through it over and over again. But I find that giving a certain level of detail helps students to put the pieces and connect the dots.”
The initial lessons can be challenging for some. “The first two to three lessons, I mean, I’ve had students who, you know, they just, they can’t get their feet on the pegs because they’re overthinking the throttle and something called whiskey throttle, which can happen very easily. And that’s basically where you pull the gas accidentally, and then in panic, you pull it even more so. With some students, I’ve actually intentionally made them pull gas while the bike is in neutral so they can get accustomed to the noise.”
Claire also emphasises the importance of tailoring her approach to individual students’ needs. “Also, sometimes with students, you have to allow them, you give them a drill, and some students want you to keep watching them and giving them feedback. There are other students that would prefer you to just leave them alone. And some students actually don’t even like booking appointments if they think that there are going to be other onlookers at the school. So, these are things that I will take into consideration when I am dealing with specific students.”
Looking ahead, Claire expresses a desire to expand the academy’s offerings. “I would like to expand to have a few more coaches so that it can sometimes free myself and Fabian up to work on other parts of the business. So, that’s something that we can look into. A bit of difficulty finding another female coach, as I am the only motorcycle female coach on the island that I know of. But we want to get a couple more coaches and maybe a couple of, maybe another location or two in a different part of the island as well would be really helpful. And as I said earlier, another voice not working on getting a bigger online visibility. We need to work on that because right now we have IG, but we don’t, we have enough, we have, we need to launch an official website for the school, and through that website, we want to do more online courses. So there’s still room for growth for sure within the industry.”
Claire highlights the advanced maneuvers they teach. “So there’s, yes, we definitely have challenging maneuvers for sure, would be doing cones, and that’s where you’re basically zigzagging or sneaking through cones. Depending on the size of the bike, that takes a maximum amount of clutch control, and it is something, it’s a drill that students will have to often times go out over and over again until they get it right. You have to steer the bike in really, really tight, and hence, what it’s actually helping you to do is to filter traffic and to learn what to do if a car swerves in the middle of the road, you can learn to comfortably navigate around that.”
The transition to riding on the road presents a unique set of challenges. “Another really big challenge can be for some students when they go on the road for the first time. There’s really nothing that quite can prepare you for it. It’s one that’s kind of, you got to walk through the fire of it, and that’s just there. Even though mentally, they understand that they don’t have the barriers of a car, the experience of feeling any wind on your skin, feeling your helmet dragging, even your hands if you don’t have on gloves, you know, it, it, it’s a lot, it’s a lot to take in. So that’s why it’s really important that your evaluation is there, that you have that support, right? So that in itself can be quite challenging.”
Busy Bee Riding Academy can be found on Instagram @busybeeridingacademy.
