Amanda Knapp grew up in the woods of rural West Virginia, where racing through rocks, roots, and mud wasn’t a sport, it was a way of life. When she first started racing at the age of 34, she leaned fully into that upbringing, competing in hare scrambles: the kind of races where everyone leaves the line at once, fighting for the holeshot before the trail pinches down to single track. The kind of riding where you learn quickly how to fall, how to get back up, and how to keep going even when you’re tired, hurt, or questioning whether signing up was a good idea at all.
That world shaped her. Dirt bikes are still home. She’ll never give them up.
But when I asked Amanda to tell me the story, the one that stands out, she didn’t talk about a race she’d won or a crash she survived.
She talked about a ride that hasn’t happened yet.
This spring, Amanda will fly to the UK, pick up a large adventure touring bike in London, and ride north. She’ll take the ferry to the Isle of Man and line up on one of the most famous motorcycle courses in the world, not to race, but to be part of making history.
For the first time in the Isle of Man TT’s 100-plus-year history, the Legacy Lap will be led by women, composed of members from the Women Riders World Relay (WRWR) and influential women in motorcycling.
Amanda will be one of them, representing the United States. The goal is ambitious and quietly powerful: at least one woman from every country in the world, riding together at one of the most iconic motorcycle events on earth - a first ever!
For someone who has spent her entire riding life on dirt bikes, this is a full discipline shift. New bike. New country. New roads. New risks. She hasn’t even owned an adventure bike yet. Riding a BMW R1250 GS will be her first real taste of that world.
And she’s completely blown away by it.
The WRWR began as a literal relay, a baton passed from rider to rider, eventually connecting more than 20,000 women across 102+ countries. It has since evolved into something bigger: a digital platform (the WRWR App) that connects women riders across disciplines, borders, and experience levels. Riders log their bikes, their gear, their riding styles. They learn what others ride, what works, how they prepare, how they maintain their machines, all while accepting challenges and building new friendships.
The ultimate goal is simple and bold: to connect every woman rider in the world.
Amanda sees WRWR as a bridge. Because for a long time, she didn’t even know these communities existed. All she ever knew was dirt bikes.
Growing up in West Virginia, racing wasn’t an option as the costs made it out of reach. Her dream would come much later.
Amanda entered her first race as a mom with three kids at the age of 34 (hence her race number 334), a PhD, and a career in higher education in full swing. As a first-generation college student, she credits higher education with changing her life, the very reason she has devoted her entire career to the profession as a way to give back and make a difference for others.
When she completed her dissertation, her husband and mother surprised her with the bike she would eventually race: a KTM 300 XC-W.
She broke her toe in that first race and came back anyway.
One race turned into a series. One bike turned into many. A trailer. A truck. Sponsors. A cover on American Motorcyclist Magazine. A feature on NBC Sports Network and much more.
And then the doors started opening.
Today, alongside more casual dirt racing, Amanda serves on the Ride4Mary Team, a global movement honoring the legendary Mary McGee. She’s a member of the Women’s International Motorcycle Association (WIMA) and training as a volunteer to serve as a marshal at the Isle of Man TT in her “downtime.” She’s booked for the Baja 500 with close friend Ruth Belcher, founder of Global Moto Adventures, and will welcome record breaking, Elspeth Beard, into her Maryland home later this year during Beard’s U.S. tour.
Amanda isn’t moving away from dirt. She’s expanding beyond it.
What drives all of this isn’t discipline, it’s people. A common thread among the riders I get to talk with.
Amanda is honest about the tension. She values women-focused spaces, but she doesn’t want riding to remain permanently divided. The end goal, in her mind, is simple: we’re all riders. The app. The relay. The events. They’re stepping stones toward that future, not walls.
It’s the same mission that drives us at American Moto Co: break down the barriers and tell the stories—the people will come.
The irony? Amanda still doesn’t know which adventure bike she’ll buy someday. She’s learning as she goes.
Maybe that’s why this story fits so well here.
Because the most meaningful rides aren’t always the ones already behind us. Sometimes they’re the ones just ahead, the ones that scare us a little, force us to learn something new, and quietly reshape who we are as riders.
Amanda Knapp is about to take one of those rides.
And something tells me she’ll never stop talking about it.
