Origin Story
It was 2015 when Cassie (our owner and lead coach) started dreaming about a motorcycle trip that would take her from Seattle, WA to Buffalo, NY. As she pondered and planned, it became clear to her that she’d use up all her saved time off, if not a few extra non-paid days just to get there and get back. There would be no time to stop and smell the flowers. Burning up all those vacation days to pound pavement wasn’t much of a vacation. So she started coming up with a different plan.
This new plan wasn’t about picking a closer destination, it was about adding to the trip and quitting her job instead. Her job was becoming frustrating and she’d been there for a solid four years at that point, so she decided to make plans for her exit. Cassie would give up her job and her appartment to ride around the United States and some of Canada for a total of 3 1/2 months in 2016.
Cassie figured an Instagram account would be the easiest and most fun way to share her journey with family and friends as she embarked on the longest solo motorcycle camping trip she’d ever been on. At that time, the longest trip was four days and it was with her dad. The idea was to ride and travel basically until her money ran out. The name “Full Gear Female” was born from naming her instagram account.
That motorcycle trip in 2016 changed Cassie’s life. She wanted to leave the normal and secure-life notion behind her. She didn't fit in that box well anyway. During her journey she discovered herself and found herself looking for work within the motorcycle industry. Her first gig was with the BMW Motorrad Demo team, which lead her to the BMW US Rider Academy in 2018. The BMW US Rider Academy is where Cassie began her coaching career. Life made another shift in 2019 and she relocated to a different state and took up a coaching and guiding position with an adventure motorcycle training school called West38Moto. During all that time, since starting her Full Gear Female instagram account she shared not only her solo motorcycle trip, but also her motorcycle industry and coaching journey.
More and more people started following along, so when Cassie decided to start her own motorcycle rider training program in 2020 the name Full Gear Female just seemed to make sense. Full Gear Female began to grow and eventually men began to ask if they were allowed to train with Full Gear Female. This alarmed Cassie because she is all about inclusion and coaching anyone. It became apparent that it was very possible that there were more riders that didn’t ask than those that did if they could train with Full Gear Female.
Full Gear Female became FGF Moto in late 2022 and then evolved into CLEAR Moto in 2023. Name changes and rebranding is challenging for any business, or even for people, and in this case, Full Gear Female to CLEAR Moto impacted both Cassie and her business. Ultimatly, CLEAR Moto was chosen because it was the name that she kept coming back to. The word “clear” embodies many of Cassie’s coaching pillars which reflect support, patience, tenderness, care, love, and communication, just to name a few.
However, Full Gear Female is deeply rooted in Cassie personally and her business, CLEAR Moto. Full Gear Female is now a branch off CLEAR Moto which provides motorcycle rider training for woman and non-male riders only. The reason Full Gear Female transformed into FGF Moto then CLEAR Moto was based entirely on the notion that every rider deserves the right to learn, and the name Full Gear Female didn't feel inclusive to Cassie anymore if riders had to ask if they could train with her. Now, Full Gear Female and FGF Moto are back solely as CLEAR Moto’s woman and non-male training options, because the riders that want to learn in that environment should have that option. Cassie’s heart is in making all riders feel comfortable, safe, and confident, and having courses designed just for them only made sense.
Our business will continue to evolve as we adjust to the needs of our riders over the coming years. Nonetheless, we had a begining and it all started with Cassie’s dream to ride her motorcycle across the country and the start of an Instagram account that capture her story.
