In England, if you get the chance to meet the queen, it is customary to drop to one knee to pay your respects. We have no queen in America, but there is a woman I find so remarkable that she warrants that level of respect. In the world of motorcycles and bad asses, Sam Morgan is the queen, and long live the queen!

Sam rides the “Wall of Death,” which if you’ve ever seen her, you’ll never forget. Even if you’ve ever seen the amazing Rhett Rotten, or anyone else ride the wall, it’s still not the same thing as seeing Sammy girl in action. Sam is just a skinny little thing, and her riding style is fast and furious. As she whips up and down the vertical wall, she kicks her back wheel right up into the thin cable that separates your face from her bike. Her long ash blonde hair is flying in the wind as she snatches dollar bills from your outreached hands. All the while her infectious smile is sharing with you how much she loves what she is doing. This woman loves to ride. She was born to ride.

For the past five years, Sam has entertained at bike events all over the country with a group of guys at the American Motordrome. Which if you’ve never seen the “Wall of Death,” it is basically an old wooden carnival act that has been kept alive by a select few people like Sam, whose roots tie her right into those people who originated the sport back in the 1920s. Inside this big wooden barrel that gradates from the floor to the wall, riders scale the wall, and ride with centrifugal force. We the viewers watch from a surrounding ledge above. But because these original old structures have a lot of years on them, maintenance is essential to the health and well being of their riders, as is the maintenance of their old vintage Indian Motocycles.

Sam has always expressed concern about the condition of any the Motordrome she rode. Some are old and weary and not kept up as well as the American Motordrome.

According to Jay, the owner of the American Motordrome, "My drome is in the best condition ever. It's my livelihood and I maintain it meticuliously. You can ask Officer O'Brian from the Volusia County Police department. He inspects it every year. This year he invited other officers from surrounding areas to witness the level of our conditioning."

Harry from Cycle Source magazine and a rider on the Wall of death called to comfirm Jay's statements. "The wall is well kept and every year, after it sets for four months the wood is slippery until we break it in. Everyone knows that."

The show went on according to Sam, along with her fearless attitude. Unfortunately, in front of a horrified group of onlookers at Phil Peterson Harley-Davidson in Miami, Sam hit a spot that was slick, due to residue from a repair, or natural wood seepage. She doesn’t really remember crashing, but she does remember the painful ride home.

Now lying in bed with a multitude of injuries, she smashed her face and teeth, broke her right wrist, left shoulder, and a couple of ribs. Her back, leg and knee are bruised and sore. When I asked her how many accidents she has had in her career, she couldn’t remember the total. From the ground up she has broken ankles, foot bones, tib and fib bones, her pelvis, numerous ribs, and her back three times and always in different places. She’s blown out her knee, wrist and shoulders, and smashed in her face, temple, and head numerous times. Maybe it would be easier to ask what she hasn’t hurt. With a wonderful gleem in her eyes she said, “I never hurt either elbow!”

I’ll tell you what else has never been broken, Sam’s spirit. I asked her if most of her accidents were in front of an audience or in practice. “I only rides when there’s an audience,” Sam said, “that way I never get hurt for nothing!”

At 46 years young, this is an old soul. Her earliest memories foster parents were mixed, a passive good man and the bitch from hell. At the ripe old age of 11, she made the decision to run away. She somehow thought it might actually make life easier for the passive man, and thought she was doing everybody a favor.

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