Meet The Badass Bikers of “Black Girls Ride”
Who says women of color can’t be a part of the motorsports culture?
Porsche Taylor’s scarf fits under her helmet and hides her natural hair, dyed pink for the ride. Black shades adorn her face and a Black Girls Ride T-shirt peeks out from under her leather jacket. She removes gloves from her hands to take a sip of water before updating the masses. After an intro, she tells the audience that she is in Arizona where “it’s hot… it’s disrespectful, disrespectful.” Taylor would later tell me that the temperature was 108 degrees during that ride.
The founder and editor in chief of Black Girls Ride, the first and only magazine run by Black women motorcyclists, then describes the brutal heat. The exhausted but smiling commentary is peppered with reminders to pack sunscreen for the long rides under a scorching sun. Hydrate, she tells the audience while sipping from a bottle of water. Then, she’s telling everyone to also cover their skin as much as possible. Yes, full gear in the heat. “Dress for the ride and the slide,” Taylor would later tell me. This day, she explains the switch from the more stylish gloves that exposed her fingers to full gloves. The reason? The sun was literally roasting her fingers as they rode through the Arizona desert.
