Lucretia Small is a mother of three, a schoolteacher and a really sweet woman, and she'll blow right past you. Even in her black leather vest and riding jeans, most folks wouldn't make Small out to be a biker. The 36-year-old says she rides because she loves the power of performance motorcycles and the camaraderie that comes from riding with the pack.

"I like getting into the curves," says Small, who began riding this spring. "I ride because it's fun. It's something that I always wanted to do. For me, it broadens my horizons."

Small's sports bike club, Steel Roll'n, is one of many African-American clubs in North Carolina, where sports bike culture has become, in many ways, intertwined with daily life.

Much of that culture will be on display this weekend at the North Carolina Hot Car & Bike Fest, a weekend of celebrity and community events, mostly in the Durham area.

"I think everybody is big into bikes. It's crossed into the whole community," says WQOK-FM 97.5 radio personality Brian Dawson, who organized the event. "It's almost a year-round thing. There aren't but a few months here when you can't ride your bike."

Hip-hop and movie star Ludacris, who will be a guest host this weekend, is from Atlanta. He says sports bikes are beloved in the South.

"I've got three bikes myself. It's the ultimate rush, the ultimate stress reliever -- having so much power at your fingertips. Black people, we just love it..."

Sports bikes aren't your father's motorcycles. Often called "crotch-rockets," they are mostly foreign, usually colorful motorcycles that can reach speeds nearing 200 mph. Unlike old-school Harley Davidson hogs, sports bikes aren't meant for cruising.

Since the mid-1990s, hip-hop culture has embraced sports bikes; rappers from Lil' Wayne to DMX have made songs about the vehicles and the lifestyle. The 2003 movie "Biker Boyz," starring Laurence Fishburne and Derek Luke, showcased riders. Yet sports bike culture isn't the thug movement many believe it is.

On a typical weekend, a sports bike club might rocket down I-40 en route to a club barbecue, then race to a charity event where they put the bikes on display and make donations before finishing off the evening at a bikers-only party.

And doctors, lawyers and teachers are filling club roles.

"You've got everyday business people. This is how we unwind on the weekends. We're our own community. We do a lot of networking, that's what people don't see," says Tee "Big Boi" Dudley, the 30-year-old leader of Steel Roll'n. "It's almost like a fraternity or sorority. It's a fine line, almost like you were a Mason."

At a community festival last weekend in Southeast Raleigh, Kim "2 Tuff" Atkinson revved her engine as little kids, boys and girls, watched in awe and adults -- men and women -- coveted her ride.

Atkinson, 41, is the leader of Ebony Angels, which she says is the state's first all-female sports bike club. She's one of the women who aren't content riding the back of a man's whip.

"The draw depends on the rider. I learned to ride my first bike when I was 6 years old. I love the sport itself, but it's also the crowd, the people, the attention," says Atkinson, who lives in Raleigh, as she hugged her daughter. "We really are a huge family."

Model Buffie Carruth -- aka Buffie the Body -- rides a big bike, a 1300, which has more power than most men can handle.

"I always got excited when I saw a group of guys on a motorcycle, I always thought it was fascinating," says Buffie, who will play host at one of this weekend's event. "It always draws a lot of attention to see a group of guys on nice, shiny colorful bikes."

Most of the bikes flock to Myrtle Beach each spring for the Black Bike Weekend, the Super Bowl of sports biking. The gathering gives much of the Triangle a Rapture-like feeling, as hordes of young African-Americans leave town and flock to the beach.

That area streets are so empty during the South Carolina bike weekend shows just how popular bike culture is in this part of the country, says Rodney "So Long" Long, who rides a Yamaha 1000.

"It's just really exciting, but it's also the lifestyle, the people you're around," says Long, a 35-year-old Raleigh computer specialist originally from New Hampshire. "It's just bike culture; you'd have to be in it to understand it."