MEREDITH, N.H. — When Linda Johnson hit the road solo on her motorcycle 20 years ago, finding the proper clothing was one of the hardest parts of getting started.

“There were just a few styles of jackets, almost no pants and no boots for women,” says Johnson, who now owns a Harley Davidson dealership. “The glove department was very lacking … they couldn’t understand why women wouldn’t want to wear gloves that hung from their fingers.”

Today, women’s leather jackets, pants, gloves, shirts, boots, fake tattoos and bathing suits fill almost a third of the floor space of Johnson’s 19,000-square-foot store, outnumbering even the products for men.

Wendell Sproul, owner of the Central Maine Harley Davidson in Hermon, Maine, estimates that women account for 60 percent of his apparel sales.

“Women tend to be more stylish,” he notes. “They know what they want and they’re willing to spend the money.”

Besides women’s leather boots, pants, jackets and chaps, Sproul’s Harley dealership features shorts, sweat shirts, T-shirts, blouses, blue jeans, bandannas, bathing suits and even jewelry.

The blue jeans are by the far the biggest seller, explains Robin Cummings, the store’s general manager, whose burgundy and black Ultra Classic — the biggest of the Harley bikes — is parked outside. Women riders like the way the Biker Blues are cut looser at the ankles to fit over boots, she explains.

Paula Simpson of Bangor, who hops on her black Harley sportster every chance she gets, has yet to try the jeans, but confesses to an affinity for the Harley tops.

She opens her black canvas Harley tote bag emblazoned with “Live to ride…ride to live,” and pulls out an ecru jacquard T-shirt, a black sweatshirt with white fringe and red cabbage roses along the shoulders and yoke and a black leather vest inscribed with the words “Lady Harley.”

“These are my standard clothes,” Simpson points out. “Whether I’m riding or not.”

In fact, Sproul says many female customers who don’t know a primary case from a swing arm, come into the store expressly to purchase Harley motorcycle apparel.

“Someday I’d like to have one of those motorcycles,” they murmur as they turn instead to the clothing racks and select a turquoise T-shirt here, a sleek, red bathing suit there.

You don’t have to be a bonafide biker to project that “Harley image,” agrees Cummings. No one will be the wiser when you put on a pair of Biker Blues jeans, top them with a Harley black rib knit pullover and black leather vest and tie a Harley pinstripe cotton bandanna around your neck.

Sproul says that while most of his female customers position themselves on the passenger seat, more and more women are buying their own bikes. Women account for seven percent of his motorcycle purchases now, up from roughly five percent last year, he explains. He’s confident that number will rise to ten percent in 1997.

Simpson recalls the impetus for her own bike purchase.

“I just got tired of having to wait for rides!” she laughs.

“Motorcycle riding has probably saved more marriages,” Sproul chuckles. “The kids may be grown and gone, but biking gives the couple something else in common, something they can both enjoy. Biking reunites them.”

Johnson estimates women account for 16 percent of her motorcycle sales with bikes starting at $6,000.

Women have always ridden motorcycles, but businesses only have started catering to them in the last 10 years. The industry estimates women own between 7 and 8 percent of motorcycles, but some say that percentage could go as high as 12 percent.

At sales prices of cycles averaging $5,000 and up, retailers are happy to cater to them.

“This is pricey stuff,” says Johnson, whose women customers include lawyers, bankers, teachers and homemakers.

Manufacturers also are meeting the demand by making lower-riding, smaller bikes with more comfortable seats and smaller brake and clutch levers. Though not marketed as “women’s bikes,” they tend to attract a disproportionately high number of female buyers.

Kawasaki sales vice president Bob Moffit estimates women make up to 30 percent of buyers of its smaller Ninja motorcycles. That’s partly because many women customers are first-time, solo riders who prefer lightweight, less intimidating bikes, he believes.

Women buy close to 7 percent of new cruisers, which are lighter-weight bikes popular with first-time buyers, says Yamaha spokesman Scott Heath. Sproul, meanwhile, says that the Harley “hugger,” is a favorite of the ladies. “Low to ground and lighter … ride for one year and then move up to … can lower seats and put different seats…”

Many of her female customers initially gravitate towards sportster models, which tend to be smaller, but they quickly upgrade to larger bikes, Johnson adds. She says shorter men also appreciate the design changes because they fit better.

Motorcycles’ popularity has produced spinoff sales to women who don’t necessarily ride.

“They just like the style and the quality of the clothing,” he points out.

Whitehorse Press, a North Conway-based publisher, sells a videotape documentary, journal, note cards and books featuring the feats and challenges faced by female bikers.

Harley Davidson’s Ladies of Harley program features motorcycle service seminars and workshops like “How to Stud Your Duds,” which show how to personalize riding wear.

“I think that it’s only in the last couple of years that the industry has started to wake up to the fact that women are a growing part of the industry,” says American Motorcyclist Association spokeswoman Nancy Mooney.

The increased interest is a far cry from what Jo Giovannoni remembers. Giovannoni helped found Harley Women magazine in 1985 so women could read about motorcycles without being offended.

“They were kind of starved for something they could relate to … the other magazines were either very technical or male-oriented,” she says.

Today, the Elgin, Ill.-based magazine boasts regular advertisers and 15,000 readers. Articles profile male and female riders, as well as the latest motorcycle equipment.

Still, she recalls a meeting a few years ago with a motorcycle industry executive interested in attracting female customers. He wanted to market a pink motorcycle just for women.

“I was like `gag’ … have you not heard anything I’ve said?” Giovannoni remembers. “Women just want to ride.”

Jessie Cahill, a marketing consultant in Portland, Ore., says the industry could do a better job of reaching out to women customers. She says women and men are similar in that they want good-quality, well-made bikes. The difference is in the approach to selling.

Cahill says women tend to ask more questions about products than men. She says many dealers still assume female customers know little about motorcycles.

That may be starting to change, however.

When Beverly St. Clair Baird, a spokeswoman for the Motorcycle Industry Council, went motorcycle shopping recently with her husband, the sales staff didn’t assume anything.

“They approached both of us and asked what we were interested in,” she says. “They didn’t cut me out.”

“Women spend a lot of money,” says Rita Roy, of Tamworth, a longtime rider and Whitehorse Press employee.

Moffit says his company has not specifically targeted women with an advertising campaign, because research has not shown women want that.

“We do know women are not looking for special models or treatment,” he says. “Just recognition.”

That’s an assessment Wendy Perkins, who works at Johnson’s Harley dealership, might agree with.

She says she looks for products that are well-made and fit, rather than stereotypically feminine.

“If a woman wanted a pink bike,” she says. “She’d paint it pink.”

Still, Sproul remembers one woman who ordered her Harley Hugger in a delicate peach hue.

“Doesn’t happen too often though,” he admits.

Ruth-Ellen Cohen contributed to this article.