WATERLOO -- General manager Doug Bruns did the unthinkable: He pushed one of his Harley-Davidsons over on its side.

Gently, of course. The bike was tipped onto a padded mat on the floor inside the showroom of Silver Eagle Harley-Davidson, and Bruns made sure it wasn't completely on its side so he wouldn't have to replace a turn signal.

Then Marilyn Dolph, 52, of Waterloo, was instructed to pick it up. She looked skeptical.

"If I can do it, you can do it -- I've got a bad ankle," Bruns said.

Dolph scoffed. "You're a guy."

From across the room, Amy Vossberg piped up: "I did it."

She had been the first to show a group of women exactly how to pick up the 450-pound hunk of steel when it gets "tipped" or "laid down" -- meaning a motorcycle has fallen over.

It's going to happen, Vossberg said, so you might as well know what you're doing.

So Dolph planted her feet in a wide stance, back to the bike, and lifted with one hand on the back and one on a handlebar, using her hind end as leverage on the seat. Slowly, with baby steps, the bike was lifted and the kickstand replaced.

A smile crept onto Dolph's face as she returned to the circle while another woman gave it a try.

"You really do have to put your legs out," she told another participant.

Most of the 50 women who attended Silver Eagle's invitation-only Garage Party for Women weren't motorcycle owners or drivers.

Many have fallen in love with riding, however, and were interested in what it would take to get behind the handlebars.

"This is giving them the confidence -- it's hands on," said Vossberg, who works at Silver Eagle and teaches a motorcycle education course.

Participants learned what the differences were between motorcycles, how a motorcycle fits to any shape, what different controls do and which motorclothes to wear (including helmets that accommodate ponytails).

Donna Bute of Waterloo has taken a motorcycle education course before -- in the rain. It can be intimidating, she told some of the other women, but not as much as you'd think.

"I tipped it, fell over, and I got back on and finished," she said.

After all, why leave all the fun to the men?

"This is really what women do need, to get over that stepping stone of anxiety of the 'man's world,'" Dolph said.