The guys might call them a hog, chopper or crotch rocket.

But one local woman who rides a beautiful Yamaha V-Star Silverado 1100 motorcycle might not use such crass-sounding names to describe her sparkling, beloved machine.

After all, Freeland resident Susie Yeilding sees the seven years she has been riding motorcycles as a period of power and enlightenment.

“It’s so much bigger than just operating the machine,” Yeilding said.

“Riding has helped me to truly understand that courage is not the absence of fear, but doing what you have to do in spite of your trepidation.”

And do it she did, with the help of her sister, Portland native Mary Scott Huff, who introduced both her older sister and their sister-in-law, Monica Scott, to the power of two wheels.

Now the sisters call themselves the Dreadful Damsels. They ride custom-fit beauties they’ve named Giddie, Rruby and Growly.

It’s not surprising that this sisterhood ended up straddling and in control of their own 800-pound motorcycles.

They are go-getter gals, with careers, families and, well, big bikes.

Yeilding owns two successful South End businesses, Allstate Insurance Agency and Sound Mortgage Group, both in Freeland. Scott is a busy massage therapist in Seattle and Huff is employed as a computer programmer in Portland, as well as an author, having recently published “New Stranded Colorwork: Techniques and Patterns for Vibrant Knitwear.”

So why motorcycles?

“We found that riding as a woman reveals so many parallels to your life and finding inner courage,” Yeilding said.

“I didn’t always understand that I could do it. But something happens when you master an 800-pound machine; it gives you a new perspective. I think it’s the most powerful thing that has ever happened to me,” she added.

Huff was enthusiastic in reinforcing her sister’s views on riding.

“We have to choose confidence if we are on the path to success, and that requires a core of strength,” Huff said.

“With motorcycles, that is true both physically and metaphorically. You must be in the right place physically because you have to control the bike with your core. But that bleeds into your whole life; it is a place of power that you master,” she said.

Yeilding and Huff are always on the lookout for other women who might like to become Dreadful Damsels. Although they can never be damsels, their husbands followed their lead and bought motorcycles after seeing their wives having so much fun.

But the Damsels say it’s different for men. For men, they said, it’s all about getting on and going. Women, they said, see mastering a bike as something unexpected, life-changing and a thing not to be taken lightly.

But, for everyone, safety must come first.

“Safety is of the utmost importance to us,” Yeilding said.

“I expect to have some failures in order to have some success, and my experienced sister told me that dropping a bike is OK.”

The men say, “Just don’t do it.” But, these women need to be in the know.

In fact, they both taught themselves how to fall by dropping the bike at least once on purpose so that they would know how to get it back up again. Most men can strong-arm their way out of a bad situation. Women on big machines can’t do that.

Both sisters had the real experience of dropping their bikes on the road.

“I had laid Mary’s bike down once,” Yeilding said.

“I thought I’d never get on one again; I thought I was done. My sisters called me. I had excuses. I told them I shouldn’t be doing it anyway. I was a mother, I had babies crying. My sisters told me to get back on and call them in an hour. So I did.”

That was early on in her riding years, and Yeilding has gained miles of experience since then. But even the most experienced rider should never become complacent, they said.

Being prepared on a motorcycle is vitally important and, along with a required motorcycle safety class, Yeilding and Huff said driving defensively at all times is a must.

The one basic rule of thumb, Yeilding said, is that you are invisible on a motorcycle to many drivers, so defensiveness is the only way to roll.

“You have to always be thinking 10 seconds ahead of everyone else on the road,” Yeilding said.

Comfort, too, is very important, because if you are not comfortable on the bike, then you won’t have any fun.

Yeilding and Huff said they started with smaller bikes and moved to larger ones as they gained confidence.

Everything on their bikes is custom-fit to their individual bodies for maximum control. The seat is a certain height, the windshield is at the right level and the handle bars are where they need them to be to prevent fatigue or injury.

“If I only have time for a half hour of fun on my bike today, then I want it to be the most possible fun I can have. You can’t have fun if you don’t feel good on your motorcycle,” Huff said.

The Damsels have also taken umbrage with the lack of comfortable, stylish motorcycle clothing available to women. That’s why they are in the process of patenting their ideas for a “Dreadful Damsels” biker clothing and accessory line.

“We prefer cashmere, silk, sparkles and sterling to spikes, ballistic nylon and denim,” Huff said. “It’s just ugly.”

Even after nearly a decade of riding, Yeilding and Huff talked about how they still try to think of reasons to go for a ride.

“Sometimes we just do ‘ride-lets,’ like little trips to the store, or we decide we must go shoe shopping, or go to lunch or see a film. Any excuse to ride,” Huff said.

“We have a map that shows all the shoe stores within a 100-mile radius.”

For the Dreadful Damsels, spreading the confidence around seems right, and they are devoted to the idea that every woman has an “inner damsel” waiting to be released, whether they ride a motorcycle or not.

“Being an insurance person and in the business of protecting people, some of my clients wonder what the heck their insurance agent is doing riding motorcycles,” Yeilding said. “But several of my customers have said they like it that their insurance agent is also a motorcyclist — it’s kind of a paradox.”

To find out more about the Dreadful Damsels and motorcycle riding on Whidbey Island, call Yeilding at her Allstate Office in Freeland at 331-6424.