BIKER NEWS -- Some women in a New Orleans motorcycle club don't mind if you call them eye candy. In fact, they’d be insulted if ...
BIKER NEWS -- Some women in a New Orleans motorcycle club don't mind if you call them eye candy. In fact, they’d be insulted if you didn't. They're the Caramel Curves - glamorous biker chicks.
"People pull out their phones and record you and take pictures," said Coco, the club president. "To see a bunch of sexy women on a bike is a fascinating thing even to women!"
The club started before Katrina, and then picked up again in 2008. Seven or eight women were in that revamped group. Now it's 28 women strong.
Swag drives an Orleans Parish school bus, Stacks and Shorty Red work security. Diva is the oldest of the bunch, and Hood Priss is a nurse. Their lives are all different.
"My T-strap has to be perfect," said Hood Priss as she showed off high heels and tights.
"They see the pink mohawks and high heels they say, ‘that's the Curves.’"
From head to toe, they dress to impress and ride with experience. Coco says it takes 90 days of riding and hanging with the Caramel Curves if you want to try to become a member. The club has to make sure you can handle your bike.
"Most people think if you have a motorcycle you have to have the motorcycle look. That's not true," Coco said.
But sometimes, the truth hurts.
"I hit a big bump in the road and my bike toppled over and I slid," Foxy Bell said.
The accident happened as the Curves roared back from a breast cancer event in Biloxi. Foxy has the scars and the sisters to make it all better.
"She's an RN and the other one is an LPN," she said, pointing to her fellow Curves. "They got a first-aid kit. They'll patch her up and keep on rolling."
Foxy said she was more worried about her bike than herself. After seven falls, she knows being a Curve is risky, but she's reminded of her mortality every day. Foxy is a mortician's assistant at a Denham Springs funeral home. It's work that makes her appreciate every moment she's alive.
The women she rides with are her heart.
"It's just a sisterhood,” she said. “We love each other and we help each other."
Shorty Red rides out her own challenges.
"I'm a five-year breast cancer survivor. I fought like a girl and I won," she said.
"I had the lump taken out," she said before she burst into tears and walked away. Her Curve sisters were there to bring her back into the fold.
"Come on, sis, get back to Curving," they all said.
These ladies with over-the-top looks are the salt of the earth. From feeding the homeless to raising money for breast cancer awareness, the Curves are all about giving back and good times.
"We don't have too much time to catch the second line. We going to try to make it, I guess. We can go up Crowder and ride up Chef," said Coco, preparing to leave.
Coco pops a wheelie on the way. Customers in her beauty salon find her showmanship hard to believe.
"I don't think they expect me to finish doing their nails and then go get on a bike and burn rubber and cut up on the streets," she said.
Burning rubber is an understatement. One after the other, the Curves thrilled the crowd in Central City, spinning their custom tires and releasing colored smoke. These fierce biker babes support each other, and to this crowd, they're superstars.
"You the Caramel Curves, you want to be hot on these bikes, you have to wear high heels you the burn-out queens," said Hood Priss.
It's like a sorority with hot wheels, a group of sisters who share cool clothes. Women who roll with the hills and valleys of life, together.
This article was first published on Nov 12, 2015 6:12 AM
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