Hawai'i's female riders lead their own pack

Zeia Isberner, at left, and Michelle Carrasca prepare for a ride with Dangerous Curves Hawaii, the state's only all-female motorcycle group. Members get together once or twice a month and say they feel empowered riding with other women. Some members have statements on their bikes such as Brittany Durchuck's bumper sticker: "Girls Must Be Obeyed!" Photos by Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser

Women of Dangerous Curves Hawaii enter the H-1 Freeway at Middle Street. Members say group riding offers women a noncompetitive form of companionship. Want to ride? Dangerous Curves Hawaii is an all-female motorcycle group that gets together to ride at least once a month. Learn more at DangerousCurvesHawaii.com. Mac users should try: misshell218.homestead.com /DCriders.html.

But from her more demure seat behind a computer, Miss Hell is still revving things up on the streets by organizing a fast-growing, all-girl group of riders called Dangerous Curves Hawaii.

What started as her personal Web page devoted to sport biking has turned into a network of 50 female riders who are finding camaraderie and the confidence that comes from riding together. The largest crowd yet — 16 riders — showed up last week for a group ride.

"I just like the idea that the other girls get to meet each other," said Carrasca, 33, of Makiki, an AT&T employee who has been passing out Dangerous Curves business cards and asking cycle dealers to spread the word. "My biggest thing is for everybody to get out there and have fun."

Shannon Abrams and Shannon Wohlgemuth, friends and military wives known collectively as "A&W," found Carrasca on the Internet when one of them stumbled on her Web page while searching for a leather riding jacket. They exchanged e-mails, and the three became fast friends. That's how Dangerous Curves was born about a year and a half ago.

The two Shannons bought their own bikes because they were sick of seeing the road only from the back of their husbands'. Dangerous Curves gave them a feeling of empowerment.

"When you ride with the girls, you learn at a pace that's comfortable for you," said Abrams, 27, who leaves her 3-year-old son with Dad when she goes out with the girls.

"It's easier for girls to get comfortable when the ride's not fast and furious," said Wohlgemuth, 25, a bank teller who gets a chuckle out of guys checking out her 2002 blue Yamaha R6 and asking, "Is that your boyfriend's bike?"

Stares and shakas

The women of Dangerous Curves are used to getting stares, shakas, waves and whistles.

"When I take off my helmet and my hair comes down and they go, 'Oh, it's a girl!' — that's the best feeling," said Brenda Dorador, 24.

"When they do see you and realize you're a girl, it's like the eighth wonder of the world," said fellow rider and 'Ewa resident Kat O'Konski, 27, who's also in the military.

The women of Dangerous Curves represent what's changing in the motorcycling world. In 1960, women made up only 1 percent of motorcycle owners in the United States. Today, women account for about 9 percent of the 10 million Americans who own motorcycles, according to the Motorcycle Industry Council, a trade group in Irvine, Calif.

The typical female motorcycle owner is in her late 30s or early 40s, is married, has some college education and earns about $44,000 a year, council research shows. These women are employed as everything from accountants to interior designers. Celebrity owners include Rosie O'Donnell and Mary Hart.

Dangerous Curves' membership ranges in age from 19 to 55 and includes office workers, military wives, a hairstylist and grocery store clerk. Most are 25 to 35 years old and own sport bikes. About a third are married, and a handful have children. They've had girls' nights out, have gone to see chick flicks and even had a cheesecake-baking party. But the members are not all cheesecake. They can talk bikes, talk tough and talk back.

Kapo Magdaro, 26, a GSXR 1000 rider from Ka'a'awa, used to work in a motorcycle shop. Considered one of Dangerous Curves' best riders, other members follow her lead on roads full of truly dangerous curves, such as the zigzag section of Auloa Road in Maunawili they call "13 Turns." That's where Chad Tanabe, a 21-year-old Kalani High School graduate from Mililani, took a fatal spill last year in a motorcycle crash.

Rachael Worley, 35, of Diamond Head, has been riding for 20 years and has seen motorcycle injuries in her job as a hospital surgical technician. She treats the dangerous aspect of the sport with black humor. The license plate of her new red sport bike says: "OGN DNR" (for "organ donor").

Full-throttle rush

Dangerous Curves draws riders who are looking for camaraderie and the absence of competition. It's also a club for the safety-conscious. They advocate wearing helmets, taking safety courses and following riding rules.

"It's more fun to have more people to enjoy the sport," said Wohlgemuth. "Our husbands rode. We wanted to do it ourselves."

Reach Tanya Bricking at tbricking@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8026.