The document is about a woman named Lauren who goes on her first motorcycle trip to Myrtle Beach with her friends. On the trip, they ride motorcycles driven by men from a bike club without wearing helmets and racing at high speeds. Lauren is nervous and scared during the rides. After two of the rides, her thighs are sore from gripping the narrow seat. A few months later, one of the men who drove them, Terry, is killed in a motorcycle accident without a helmet. This tragedy leads all of them to vow to never ride without helmets again.

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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, 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 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 of being a
first time rider, and I hopped on. Immediately, I started squeezing the life out of Pernell while

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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 bike 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 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

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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
got to be a bit uncomfortable on that narrow seat. We were ready to go. We got back to the
hotel, still in shock I kept smiling. We continued 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.
About two months later, Terry had been killed on his motorcycle. It hurt all of us deeply.
He had not been wearing a helmet. We all vowed to never ride again without a helmet.