Picture a woman who posed for Playboy, directed marketing campaigns for Fortune 500 companies in Manhattan, then walked away from all of it to race motorcycles, write about bikes for a living, and help rebuild a small Kentucky town from the inside out. That’s Leticia Cline—part journalist, part racer, part preservationist, and entirely unwilling to live a life that fits neatly into anyone else’s expectations.
Born Leticia Ann Bjork in Cave City, Kentucky, in 1978, she’s built a career that defies easy categorization. From international modeling and live television to motorcycle journalism, flat track racing, and community revitalization, her path has been anything but linear—and that’s precisely what makes it worth telling.
Who is Leticia Cline?
Leticia Cline wears many hats—former model, television personality, motorcycle journalist, MSF RiderCoach, flat track racer, and heritage tourism preservationist. But what makes her story compelling isn’t the list of titles. It’s the unlikely thread connecting all of them.
Her path started on the backroads of Cave City, a small town in Barren County, Kentucky, where her father put her on a Honda 50 at age four, and a love for motorcycles became as instinctive as breathing. After years in front of cameras as a model and TV interviewer—and a detour through corporate America as a Fortune 500 marketing director and certified public accountant—she found her way back to the bikes, the backroads, and the town that first shaped her.
At 47, Cline holds degrees in psychology and finance from the University of Kentucky, has beaten cancer, competed at the ESPN X Games, and sits on multiple community boards in her hometown. She’s appeared in major publications, interviewed professional wrestlers on live television, completed cross-country motorcycle endurance rides earning Iron Butt recognition, and invested her own resources into Cave City’s downtown revitalization. Her official website and active Instagram presence reflect someone equally comfortable drafting a business plan and navigating a dirt track at speed.
Early Life in Cave City
Growing up in Cave City put Leticia at the crossroads of small-town Kentucky life and the constant flow of travelers passing through on their way to Mammoth Cave—the longest cave system in the world, just a few miles from her family’s property. Her parents, Dennis and Patricia Cline, ran a campground and later a rock and gift shop catering to tourists exploring the area, and young Leticia spent her days meeting people from every corner of the country, hearing stories of places she’d only read about in library books.
Dennis Cline built motorcycles in the family living room and drove trucks over the road for a living. Leticia often rode along in the cab of his flat-nose Peterbilt, making friends at truck stops and diners across the eastern United States—a habit that planted the seeds of what she would later call her “Forever Tourist” philosophy. At home, weekends meant grease-stained hands in the garage: taking apart bikes, polishing every piece, and putting them back together. Dennis handled each component like a rare artifact, explaining its function to a daughter who favored the smell of engine oil over flowers.
He put her on a Honda 50 when she was four years old. She never looked back.
Roadside Gift Shop
The roadside gift shop became Leticia’s real education. Every day brought a different set of strangers—different cultures, different beliefs, different reasons for traveling—and each one carried a story she wanted to hear. She discovered Civil War artifacts in her own yard, Native American relics in her neighbor’s, and spent hours in local libraries searching for photographs and histories of places she’d only imagined. By the time she could legally drive, she was leaving notes by the coffee pot: “Gone to see New York. Back in time for school Monday.”
That restless curiosity and small-town grounding would prove essential through every career change that followed.
Modeling and Early Media Years
Leticia started modeling at fourteen. Within a few years, she’d moved from local assignments to international work, spending a year modeling in Tokyo—a long way from the gift shop in Cave City. Her natural presence in front of a camera opened doors to major publications including Playboy and Maxim, where her features drew national attention and established her in an industry that rarely gives second looks to small-town girls from Kentucky.
But even as the modeling work accelerated, she kept one eye on a more conventional path. She enrolled at the University of Kentucky, earned degrees in psychology and finance, then passed the CPA exam and worked as an accountant for four years. It was a practical move, the kind of stability her upbringing valued—but it wouldn’t hold her forever.
The modeling world taught her skills that proved unexpectedly transferable: how to present herself professionally, work under pressure with production crews, and think carefully about audience and image. She appeared on Season 5 of Beauty and the Geek—the reality series co-created by Ashton Kutcher—where she and partner Matt Carter won The Young and the Restless Soap Opera Challenge and ultimately finished in third place. Television suited her, and it opened a door she hadn’t anticipated.
TV Personality & Wrestling Interviewer
In late 2006, TNA Wrestling producer Jessie Ward recruited Leticia as an interviewer, and she made her television debut on the November 30 episode of TNA Impact! Working alongside Jeremy Borash, she covered major events and interviewed some of professional wrestling’s biggest names, building credibility in live television production through sharp research and quick thinking under pressure.
Her time with TNA was relatively brief—she was officially released in November 2007 to focus on other projects—but the skills it honed proved lasting. Researching subjects thoroughly, asking substantive questions on camera, and presenting technical information clearly would become the foundation of her next career.
Outside the wrestling world, Leticia also worked as a sports announcer for Supercross and Motocross races—events she often attended with her father, who shared her obsession with anything on two wheels. She appeared in the 2008 film The Last International Playboy and later played the role of Trixie in the 2019 action film Disturbing the Peace alongside Guy Pearce and Devon Sawa—a part that kept her connected to entertainment even as motorcycles increasingly dominated her focus.
Motorcycle Journalist & Racer
The shift from entertainment to motorcycle media didn’t happen overnight—it was the culmination of a lifetime on two wheels. Leticia became a certified MSF RiderCoach, grounding her riding expertise in formal instruction, and began writing for motorcycle and travel publications. Her work covers gear testing, motorcycle reviews, custom culture stories, and industry trends, and it’s informed by serious mileage: she has logged well over 200,000 miles on motorcycles and still averages roughly 20,000 miles a year.
She works closely with industry organizations including the Motorcycle Industry Council (MIC), the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA), the Motorcycle Safety Foundation (MSF), ABATE, and Power Lillys—advocating for rider safety and serving as a voice in the female riding market. Her journalism spans machines from 50 cc scooters to 2,163 cc touring rigs, and her reviews carry the weight of someone who tests parts and gear in real-world conditions across some of the most demanding terrain in the country.
In 2014, after a six-year hiatus from riding that followed her father’s death, Leticia took her son Caleb to the Daytona Supercross. The smell of exhaust and dirt, the roar of the crowd, and the excitement on her boy’s face told her what she already knew: she belonged on a motorcycle. She rented a Triumph Thruxton the next day, rode 300 miles to a motorcycle event, and bought a patch to place on her father’s grave. Within a week, she purchased a Harley-Davidson Iron 883 and started racking up the miles.
Standard Motorcycle Co.
In 2014, she co-founded Standard Motorcycle Co. in Orlando, Florida—a custom shop and community hub for riders. She completed multiple Iron Butt endurance rides, earning three Iron Butt Awards for rides of 1,000 miles or more in under 24 hours, and made history as the first and only female Harley Hooligan flat track racer, competing on modified Harley-Davidson Sportsters in a discipline that demands precise bike control and fearless commitment. In 2017 she raced in the ESPN X Games, placing her among the sport’s elite alongside top-ranked flat track competitors.
Racing Highlights
The Harley Hooligan flat track achievement stands out as a landmark moment. The sport involves racing modified Sportsters on dirt ovals at high speed, requiring precise throttle control and the kind of confidence that can’t be faked. Being the first woman to compete at this level opened important ground for female riders and brought national attention to women’s participation in a discipline long dominated by men.
She’s also competed in and appeared at motorcycle events nationwide—from charity endurance rides to competitive races, and industry showcases—each appearance reinforcing her credibility within a community that respects riders who actually ride, not just write about riding.
Projects, Businesses, and Hometown Work
Returning to Cave City in 2018 allowed Leticia to channel everything she’d learned into the place that started it all. She opened Smiley’s, a completely free community motorcycle garage named in honor of her late father’s nickname—a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit where local riders can work on their bikes, share knowledge, and build community without spending a dime. It preserves the garage culture Dennis Cline taught her, repurposed as a gift to her hometown.
The Dive, a bar she co-owns with her mother Patricia and her sister, became another anchor for Cave City’s downtown social scene. She then purchased a historic theater built in 1903 known as The Ace and began renovating it into a coffee shop and multi-use space—part of a broader effort to bring economic life back to the town’s core through heritage tourism and historic preservation.
These aren’t side projects or branding exercises. Leticia holds a seat on Cave City’s City Council and serves on the boards of the Phoenix Theatre, the Cave City Proud Committee, and the Cave City Planning Committee. Her work in community-driven economic development earned her the Economic Development Award for Cave City in 2019—formal recognition that her approach is producing tangible results.
The pattern is deliberate: every venture connects to something larger. The garage preserves the motorcycle culture her father introduced her to. The bar and theater create gathering spaces in a town that needed them. The council work ensures development decisions reflect what residents actually want. It’s heritage tourism, downtown revitalization, and community investment working together as a single vision—and it started with a daughter coming home.
Public Profile Today — Social, Writing, and Media
Leticia maintains an active presence online through her official website and her Instagram account (@leticiacline), where followers see riding adventures, community projects, and daily life in Cave City without much filtering. Her posts mix professional content—gear reviews, event coverage, riding insights—with the unpolished reality of small-town life: bar shifts at The Dive, Saturdays at Smiley’s, and quiet miles on Kentucky backroads.
Her writing appears in motorcycle and travel publications, covering everything from product reviews to stories about custom builders and the communities around them. YouTube content adds a longer-form dimension, letting her share detailed reviews and riding stories that don’t fit neatly into a magazine column.
What stands out across all platforms is consistency of voice. Whether she’s reviewing a high-end motorcycle or documenting a weekend at the garage, the tone is the same: direct, knowledgeable, and uninterested in performance for its own sake.
Personal Notes: Resilience and Return
Leticia’s career arc makes more sense when you understand what happened behind it.
In the summer of 2008, her father Dennis died unexpectedly. Leticia rode his Harley-Davidson Softail to the funeral—and then didn’t get on a motorcycle again for nearly six years. The loss was devastating enough to completely upend her life. She moved to New York City, took a position as Director of Marketing and Public Relations at a Fortune 500 company, and spent five years on what she describes as autopilot—building a corporate career that looked impressive from the outside but felt hollow from within.
Then, at thirty-seven, cancer came.
She fought it and won. But the experience stripped away whatever remaining tolerance she had for living on someone else’s terms. In March 2014, she took her son Caleb to the Daytona Supercross, and the sounds and smells of the track broke something open inside her. She rode the next day again. She bought an Iron 883 the following week. And she began building a life that actually felt like hers—one mile at a time.
Her public statements carry the weight of someone who’s earned her perspective the hard way: don’t wait for a crisis to force your hand. She’s spoken about the importance of pursuing what genuinely matters, even when the path looks unconventional or financially risky to everyone watching from the outside. She lives in Cave City with Caleb and a wolfdog named Jack London, rides as often as the roads allow, and shows up for her community in ways that go well beyond her council seat.
Recent media reports have connected her romantically with Mike Wolfe of American Pickers fame. The pairing makes intuitive sense: both are deeply rooted in American culture, small-town values, and the preservation of things worth saving.
Why Fans Care — The Human Throughline
Leticia Cline’s story resonates because it’s fundamentally about choosing the harder, more honest path—repeatedly.
She left modeling when it stopped being fulfilling. She walked away from a Fortune 500 salary when it started feeling like surrender. Leticia returned to motorcycles after grief had made them unbearable. She went home to Cave City when most people her age were trying to leave small towns, not rebuild them.
Her philosophy, which she calls being a “Forever Tourist,” isn’t about constant travel. It’s about maintaining the curiosity and openness of a visitor, even in your own backyard—the same openness her parents’ campground taught her as a child near the mouth of Mammoth Cave. Every person passing through carries a story worth hearing. Every place, no matter how small or overlooked, has something worth preserving.
As writer William Least Heat-Moon once observed: “On the old highway maps of America, the main routes were red and the back roads blue… in those brevities just before dawn and a little after dusk—the pull of the blue highways is strongest.” Leticia Cline has spent her life on those blue highways—in her writing, her racing, and her work bringing a small Kentucky town back to life.
For current updates on her projects, riding adventures, and community work, follow her on Instagram @leticiacline or visit leticiacline.com.
