Motorcycle Girl

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.

So what’s happening with your all-woman Globe act? Are you still looking for a fourth girl?

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.

What kind of show are you bringing into the Meadowlands?

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.

Why do you enjoy doing the Globe?

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.

How fast do you go?

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."

Have you had any accidents?

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.

What kind of injuries have you