The Motorcycle Portraits: Megs Braap

The Motorcycle Portraits is a project by photographer/filmmaker David Goldman, who travels the world making documentaries, and takes time out to interview interesting people in the motorcycle scene, wherever he might be.  The result is a single exemplary photo, a geolocation of his subject, and a transcribed interview.  The audio of his interviews can be found on The Motorcycle Portraits website.

The following Motorcycle Portraits session is with Megan Griffiths, better known on Instagram as @megs_braap, a dedicated dirt bike and trials rider.

“My name is Megan Griffiths, also known as @mags_braap. I got into dirt biking when I was 17 years old.  Ever since I was a kid, I wanted something with a motor, something that could take me places, and eventually, I had enough money to get one. I was choosing between a quad and a dirt bike, so I walked into a Yamaha dealership, and saw a beautiful TTR 125. And thank God, I chose that over the quad.

“Regardless of your size, or your gender, or whatever it may be, you can do anything anyone else can on a bike. I mean, people tend to shy away from riding certain bikes or riding difficult terrain because ‘oh, I’m a woman,’ or because ‘I’m small and I can’t touch the ground.’ All it takes is more work. It’s just more work putting in the time, and you can do anything.

David Goldman (DG): How old were you when you bought your first bike?

Megan Griffiths (Megs): 16 or 17? I can’t remember.

DG: And where you grew up, is it common that 16 year olds are buying these kinds of vehicles?

Megs: I think most people start when they’re younger, and their parents get them into it.

DG:  When you bought your bike did the salesperson think twice about you being a woman?

Megs: They didn’t seem to think anything of it. I mean, it was a complete beginner’s bike. I’m a small person, and a TTR 125 is a really small bike. So they actually pushed me in that direction. It was a good beginner bike for me.

DG: And where you grew up were there tracks to ride on?

Megs: Yep, but I didn’t know about them. At the time, I didn’t even know we had such a beautiful trail system. I would just explore fire roads, logging roads, stuff like that. And then eventually I discovered single track. That’s where everything started to take off. I didn’t have any friends that I rode with. My brother and I actually took turns on the bike: we’d go out together and one of us would like stand in the parking lot while the other went out. And then we’d switch.

DG: You’re pretty big on social media. You have like 130,000 followers. How would you say that happened?

Megs: The right people shared my posts. I mean, I started doing some pretty gnarly stuff. When it actually started was when I posted a video of a three foot suspended log crossing. And I guess most people don’t picture a five foot three woman riding over stuff like that. That got shared a lot, and people started seeing my stuff, and it started growing from there.

DG: Did you have other young women reaching out to you, saying that you inspire them?

Megs: Yeah, it happens all the time. And it’s actually really empowering, to know that I’m having an influence on other women and men. I mean, that means a lot.