Black Bike Week

Black Bike Week is a bike rally that happens every year in South Carolina over Memorial Day weekend. Up to half a million predominantly African American bikers and revellers descend on the usually sleepy seaside town of Myrtle Beach for several days of riding and partying. The traffic comes to a standstill as the streets fill with brightly customised sports bikes, their riders taking advantage of the state’s “no helmet” law to perform burnouts and stunts up and down the main strip along the seafront.

Hordes of women – known as “huggers” – also flock to Myrtle Beach for the event, hoping to be picked up for a ride, and maybe something more. A girl will often perform the “pillion clapping” move as a passenger – essentially twerking on the back of the bike. Unfortunately, the combination of partying and biking without a helmet isn’t an especially safe one, and there are always people who don’t make it home. The event also attracts a ton of prostitutes, but more and more women are starting to ride their own bikes and an increasing number of female biker gangs are showing up for the party.