1) The document describes the author's experience at her first Black Bikers event in Myrtle Beach, where she rode on the back of motorcycles without a helmet along with her friends. 2) During their rides, the motorcycles went very fast and scared the author, though she pretended to enjoy it. She was nervous about the lack of safety gear. 3) Two months later, one of the riders from the event, Terry, was killed in a motorcycle accident where he was not wearing a helmet, demonstrating the danger of not using proper safety equipment. The author and her friends vowed never to ride without helmets after this tragedy.

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Lauren Greene
English 101
Professor Alicia Bolton
January 30, 2012
One Body, One Bike
It was finally here, the best part of summer, Black Bikers, 2011. It was my first
time going, and I was beyond excited I was pumped. My two favorite girls in the world,
DD, and Quan and I were ready to take on Myrtle Beach. Being a mother of two, I was
more than ready for this vacation. I kissed my kids and told them I loved them, and I was
off for a long exciting weekend.
We finally got to the hotel. My legs couldn’t stop shaking because of how
nervous I was. We checked in and immediately, got our things, and headed to the room.
The sounds of the bikes were driving us crazy. The only thing we could say to each other
was, “Next year it will be us on the bikes making the noise and doing burnouts. In control
of a powerful motorcycle what a feeling, we thought. Entering the room, DD gave us our
itinerary for the weekend. We had bike rides lined up for the whole stay, so we each went
to change in our bike gear. Ready for the night, we started walking down to the elevator.
Upon our entry was a rowdy bike club of guys. All of them were wearing shades and
fancy leather vests with their names engraved on the back. We all gathered into to
elevator, smiling and blushing at some of the very attractive members of the group and
they seemed amused by it. They started making little jokes to keep us entertained. We
finally reached the lobby floor, and night had already fallen. The sky was lit with
sparkling lights, and our crew had just arrived to pick us up. They were ready, and so
were their pretty bikes. The girls and I raced to the bikes and jumped on and because we

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knew the guys, we already plotted ahead on which bike to get. I told my driver to make
sure he parked last so I would have a straight run to him, and DD got on the Hybussa that
Terry was driving. She felt that since she was a bigger girl, she needed a bigger bike. She
was obsessed over it because she had already seen how powerful it was. The smaller bike
gave me a sense of security, being a first time rider, and I hopped on. Immediately, I
started squeezing the life out of Pernell while we were still parked. He started gasping for
air, and forced out, Lauren I can’t breathe. I quickly released him and laughed. I
explained to him that it was my first time and I was nervous. He then told me,"If I knew
you were a virgin rider, I would have switched with you for one of the other girls." We
both laughed.
They all cranked up their bikes. The girls and I got excited. I think I was the only
one who was nervous. I just put on my happy face and pretended that I was ready. We
took off, and I felt my heart skip three beats. I held my eyes, shut so tight that it hurt my
eyeballs. We went so fast that by the time I had opened my eyes we had come to a
stoplight, and I felt relieved. The guys were all laughing and talking about how the
others’ bikes were slow. Terry had the Hybussa, so he smiled from ear to ear, knowing
that he could beat the other two bikes. The other guys didn’t like it one bit. That’s when
the racing began. They all lined up side by side, waiting for the light to turn green. All the
guys yelled out to the females all at the same time, "Y’all better hold on." I then grabbed
for dear life, looking at the other girls to see if they were as scared as I was. They were,
and by the time I could turn my head back around, we took off. We were going so fast. I
then realized that I underestimated the power of this motorcycle and had not realized
what I got myself into. Then it hit me that not one of us had a helmet on. All these

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different thoughts were running through my head. The only thing I could do was pray that
we got to wherever it was that we were going, safely. I tried to open my eyes, but the
force of the wind wouldn’t let me. I could barely catch my breath. (Prying my eyes open
with Pernell’s shoulder), everything was completely blurry.
Finally, we came into some traffic. I could feel the bike slowing down. The noise
from the bikes gave me reassurance. We ended up side by side behind other cars I was
happy seeing DD and Quan, and I realized that I wasn’t the only one relieved to stop. Our
hair was flying, and our noses were running. We were very unattractive at the time, but
we were prepared for that. I had my compact in the inner pocket of my vest, and Quan
had a comb. We straightened ourselves before anyone would notice. Traffic was moving
slowly, so we had time to talk. Once again, the guys were going on about the bikes. The
girls and I shared how we were scared, but then strangely DD said how she loved the
thrill. That’s when I realized that maybe this wasn’t for me. (Knowing how dangerous
this was, I didn’t want to kill the enjoyment for everybody else). I kept quiet and
pretended to be enjoying the moment when all I could think about were my kids and what
would happen to them if they lost me. Traffic didn’t pick up any, so we all decided to go
back to the room and go eat. After about two hours of riding, my inner thighs were sore,
and it was a bit uncomfortable on that narrow seat. We got back to the hotel still in shock,
I kept smiling. Continuing the whole weekend riding without helmets and speeding.
Instead of me opening my mouth and speaking up or even choosing not to ride, I got on
the bikes and continued to ride as if I didn’t know any better.
I learned a valuable lesson that weekend. We put our trust in technology not
realizing that it could have cost us our lives. Two months later, Terry was killed on his

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motorcycle. He had not been wearing a helmet. We all vowed to never ride again without
a helmet.