Jocelyne DiRuggiero finds freedom on a motorcycle

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Growing up in Lyon, France, Jocelyne DiRuggiero had two passions: volcanoes and motorcycles. The first led to her career as a scientist. As an associate professor of biology and deputy director of the Cell, Molecular, Developmental Biology, and Biophysics Graduate Program in Johns Hopkins' Krieger School of Art and Sciences, DiRuggiero focuses on microorganisms that live in extreme environments, especially extreme deserts. She also holds an appointment in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences. While her fieldwork has taken her to Iceland, New Zealand, and the Atacama Desert in Chile, DiRuggiero's Hopkins work takes place mainly in a lab.

She did not embrace her second passion until a few years ago. "I love riding motorcycles," DiRuggiero says. "I've been wanting to do this my whole life." As a teenager, she would ride as a passenger now and then, but that wasn't enough for her. "When I was growing up, boys were riding motorcycles, not girls, so girls were in the back. And I didn't like that very much."

DiRuggiero's passion persisted as she grew up, got her PhD, and moved to the U.S. "When I was in my 40s, I talked to my husband and said, 'I would like to ride motorcycles.' And he said, 'We have two little boys, I don't want them to become orphans. Can you wait?'" So she did. Ten years after her husband died and when her children were grown, DiRuggiero finally decided it was time to learn to ride a motorcycle.

In 2021, she signed up for a beginners course offered by Harley-Davidson. The three-day session included classroom work and hands-on training on a motorcycle. DiRuggiero was one of only two women in the class; the other was a police officer. Though they were riding only in a parking lot, she was hooked. "I loved it," she says. "I was in control of this big machine, and it was like, Oh my gosh, this is so fun."

DiRuggiero admits that many people express concerns for her safety when they learn she rides motorcycles. She notes that in this country, there is an impression that motorcycles are dangerous, but that's not true in other countries. "The perception in Europe is very different. There are many more motorcycles. People use them for transportation, and drivers are used to seeing motorcycles more," she says. Also, the laws to ride motorcycles in France are much stricter. To get a license, riders must take an intensive course that includes riding on roads and passing a series of exams.

DiRuggiero takes safety seriously. You won't find her riding a motorcycle wearing a T-shirt and flip-flops like you might see on riders on I-83, she says. "I have a helmet. I have a jacket with reinforcement in the elbows. I have pants with reinforcement at the knee. I have boots, gloves, and I always ride with all my gear," she says. "Sure, you don't have the protections you have in a car, but if you have good riding skills, if you ride defensively and with protective gear, I'm not saying you're never going to have an accident, but the risk is much, much lower."

Even so, when she visited her parents in France, she was nervous to tell them about her new hobby. "I talked to my dad first, and he said, 'Oh, that's pretty cool.' And he went on to tell me a story of riding motorcycles when he was young, which I didn't know about." When DiRuggiero finally told her mom, she said, "You're careful, right?" And that was it.

The next step was buying a motorcycle. DiRuggiero did her research, made a spreadsheet, and went to a couple of dealerships. "Two weeks after I got my license, I had a motorcycle in my driveway," she says. She opted for a Kawasaki Z400—a small, lightweight motorcycle that's easy to maneuver.

Riding on the open road "was a bit scary at first," she admits. "I have a good friend who took me on rides with him. For weeks I would ride behind him, watch what he was doing, and just learn and go faster and faster. Going up Falls Road, there are really nice turns. He was so nice, slowly taking me along and teaching me how to find the lines to turn and gain confidence in myself."

DiRuggiero has continued to gain confidence, skills, and friends through motorcycle riding. She regularly attends training classes and events like Bikes & Breakfast and is a member of the BMW Motorrad Club of Washington, D.C. "It's a very social sport," she says. "I've met a lot of people through this passion, and I would never have met them otherwise. It is also a great way to learn new skills and to challenge yourself."

At the moment, DiRuggiero owns two motorcycles: a BMW 750 GS—"the motorcycle of my dreams," she says of the adventure motorcycle that can go off road—and a smaller Kawasaki KLX230. "It's fun to ride a motorcycle on the roads, but what I really like is the freedom that an adventure motorcycle gives you," she says. "Last summer, I put the panniers on the bike, put in all my camping gear, and just took off and went camping in Pennsylvania by myself," she says. There are forest roads and Backcountry Discovery Routes throughout the U.S. open to off-road motorcyclists.

DiRuggiero also has ridden in Colorado with friends. A couple of them drove the motorcycles there on trailers, and the rest flew out to meet them. "For 10 days, we rode everywhere in Colorado, and it was just amazing," she says. "We went to a place called Boreas Pass, and we did some off-road riding, which was absolutely fabulous."

DiRuggiero finds that riding provides the stress relief that running once did for her—and it's easier on the knees. "It's just you and your motorcycle. You don't think about anything else, you're just focused on the road, taking the curves. There's the feeling of the wind, the feeling of control over a powerful machine, and you have this sense of total freedom. It feels really good."