When I was a carny kid who had the run of the midway, the motorcycle thrill show was off-limits. "That’s no place for girls," Mom would say as we stood behind the counter of her Balloon Dart. She wanted to keep me away from those dangerously alluring guys who rode the Wall of Death. And the guys who rode inside a spherical metal cage known as the Globe of Death were even more dangerous: girls who hung with them usually got the job of standing in the middle, while the guys racing round got all of the glory.

Not anymore, Mom. And nothing in the world could keep me away from the Flores Circus Thrill Show when it opens this week at the Meadowlands Fair. I can hardly wait to see Fearless Frances Flores perform death-defying loops on her motorcycle inside the Globe.

When I interviewed Frances last year for a story on circus daredevils, I was wowed to learn she’d been riding professionally in shows at fairs and sports arenas since she was 14. Now 21, she is one of the few female Globe of Death riders in the world. As far I know, she is also the youngest.

Victor Flores, a former circus flyer, trained all three of his kids to perform in the family thrill show, instilling confidence by saying, "If it was easy, everybody would be doing it." Frances, along with her brother Ricardo (23) and sister Victoria (26), started out riding kiddie-sized motorbikes at age seven. She once caught hell from Victor for doing 34 loops in response to her brother’s challenge. In the show, she usually does four or five.

I called Frances last week in Biloxi, where the family was performing at the fair before heading up to Jersey.

We did a three-girl act in Miami. Me and my sister rode. One of my cousins, Carmen, was in the middle. There were no guys there at all! It was girl power. We had the little leather pants and the halter tops. It was pretty cool. Right now I’m training my cousins to ride. One is 21, the other is 15. But they have a long ways to go.

We do a lot of acts. We have the motorcycle on the wire. It’s a high wire and there’s a bike that sits on it with a trapeze underneath. We have a swaypole which goes 65 feet in the air. I climb up there and do contortions in the air. And we have the dog act. It’s awesome. It’s my favorite part of the show. My mother has, gosh, eight fox terriers. One walks across a little high wire. Another one is a diving dog.

The Globe is the feature attraction, naturally, ’cause that’s everybody’s favorite. Me and my dad will ride.

Because it is such a rush. You get that adrenaline rush. It’s something that not many people do, or think about doing. And then you get in front of a crowd. It’s crazy. I absolutely love it! People are shocked because they don’t expect it [to be a girl]. When we take off our helmets, there’s usually a pause and then they start cheering.

We ride Honda 100s, which are small dirt bikes. We ride them stock. We don’t do anything to them. We cut the pipes so they’re a little bit louder. It adds more effect to the act. When we get going in there, we go maybe 40 mph. We go around and upside down. The Globe that’s gonna be in the Meadowlands is 16 feet [diameter]. When you see us literally come within inches of each other, it’s scary. Even me, I get in there sometimes, and it’s, "Whew, that was close."

Oh yeeessss. Jeez, a lot, I wreck all the time [laughs]. Not all the time. I would say at least two, three times a year.

My family’s very lucky. None of us have ever broken any bones or had serious injuries inside the Globe. But we’ve had lots of trips to the hospital, because it’s not just you hitting the metal, it’s the bike falling right behind you, it’s you hitting your head. You have to worry about that.

Yeah, it’s hard to explain to people, ’cause to me, it didn’t even seem like a big deal. It seemed like the thing to do. When you’re young and you grow up around it, it’s natural. I thought I was a little badass. I thought I was a little showoff. And I remember the first time I tried it, it’s actually pretty complicated because you have to focus on this and that, the clutch and the brakes and blah blah blah, all at one time. I guess I was shocked because I had thought it would be a lot easier than it was.

No, no. The first time I did it I was in the Globe with my dad, and he was kind of standing there in the middle, holding me on the bike. And then I started in first gear and he had to hold on to the clutch to control it, in case I got into some trouble up there. You start out real, real low and easy, until you get the feel of it, and then you just go a little bit faster and higher until eventually the confidence builds up.

My brother learning how.

Oooh yeah. Long time ago. I would say I was probably about 10 ’cause he was riding in the Globe. I was like, "Oh, that’s so cool."

I think I’ve surpassed him. I’m a lot better than him now [lots of laughter from Frances, as well as from Ricardo, who happens to be sitting close by]. No, he’s still my role model when it comes to the Globe, but we’re both pretty good. We do a lot of dares on each other, just testing each other out.

It’s completely different. We work with a lot of people who race motorcycles, motocross guys, and they always think that they can do it easy. It’s easier because naturally they know their bike and how to handle it. But it’s different ’cause they start on their left foot or their right foot. When you’re in the Globe, the bottom isn’t flat. You have to get your balance differently. It’s still a whole different ballgame.

Oh, definitely they get very, very…um... It intimidates them, to be honest with you. Either they completely admire the whole thing, they’re blown away by it, or they’re intimidated. My sister and I had an interview one time for a radio station and they asked us a question that was absolutely hilarious: "What exactly does a guy have to do to entertain you two? An average movie isn’t gonna cut it..."

Well, I like to think that I’m pretty normal. I like to go to the movies, I like to go to the mall. I like flowers. I just have a different living, a different way of life, that’s all.

I’m pretty convinced that this is what I want to do the rest of my life. This is what I have to do, because it’s in me: I’m a ninth-generation circus performer. I want to raise my children in this lifestyle. I need to find somebody that has the same goals as I do and if that’s somebody from town, I don’t have anything against that, if he’s willing to learn.