**DISCLAIMER** I have no opinion on this other than I thought it a good read. I don't agree nor disagree**DISCLAIMER**
As Motorcycle Safety Foundation (MSF) rider coaches and road racers, we were asked to dig into the subculture of motorcycle stunt-riding for an in-depth look at the mentality behind this growing phenomenon. What follows is our opinion, based on several interviews, research and personal observations, spanning more than 45 years of experience in the motorcycle community.
Remember when you were 7 to 10 years old and just had gotten a new BMX bike for Christmas? You and your buddies couldn't wait to build a ramp of old wood and toss it on the ground. Then you would set up a garbage can three feet away and pedal your sparkling new bikes toward it--getting airborne as you went.
Success sometimes was followed by doom when you or a buddy caught the rim of the can, causing the bike's gooseneck to inflict great pain in that oh-so-sensitive area. By the end of the day, you had pushed your bike and yourself to each other's limits but usually came away with nothing more serious than a few scrapes and bruises.
Now, fast forward 10 years, and you're on a 140-horsepower motorcycle that goes from 0 to 60 mph in three seconds--one on which any trained monkey can get the wheel to lift off the ground. Scraped elbows and knees no longer are your biggest concern. Instead, you have to worry about losing control of that 450-pound motorcycle at 35 mph and perhaps injuring or killing someone.
The point we wish to make, ladies and gents, is that each of you should grow up someday and take responsible actions to protect others around you. Those actions include making choices about where and when you're going to test the limits of your machine and yourself.
Unfortunately, not all riders ever reach the limits of their machines; some only find their lack of talent when plastic meets pavement. If that happens to you, we hope you'll heed the advice we give in the MSF Basic Rider course (mandatory for all Sailors and Marines) and dress for the fall, not for the ride.
We asked several riders why they do stunt or "extreme" motorcycling, and their answers remarkably were similar and painfully shallow. Here are some of our favorites:
"So chicks will dig me." This one kills us. Both of us met our wives while riding a motorcycle and--if we must say so ourselves--while earning some major cool points. None of it, however, involved doing triple-digit speeds, passing cars while riding a wheelie, or sitting on the gas tank.
"Takin' it to the limit." On a modern sport bike there is no way the average or even the above-average motorcyclist can "take it to the limit." In most cases, the limiting tactor in performance is the rider, not the machine. Dump the clutch hard enough and time it right, and you can wheelie a Gold Wing.
"To be on the edge." The good ol' adrenaline rush, huh? Give us a break--unless the edge you're talking about is the edge of stupidity, the edge of the police taking your license, or the edge of losing your insurance because you've made three claims on totaled bikes in one year. Speaking of edges, it definitely isn't the edge of the tire, because every "extreme" rider we've run across has a good inch of rubber on the outside of his tires that never has seen pavement. Ironically, most of the plastic on his bike has.
We're not saying that a wheelie isn't a beautiful thing. In the right environment, such as a remote location, it's absolutely cool. But even people who get paid disgusting amounts of money to ride motorcycles sometimes botch a wheelie, and, when they do, there's no air bag or seat belt to keep all their parts in the right places. When a wheelie goes bad--and it will--you're going to hit the ground hard (check out the accompanying photo).
Some guys are crazy enough to try 'em on public roads, in traffic--where crashing is the least of your worries. Now, you have to sweat an automobile running over you, and, if that happens, the most expensive safety equipment you can buy won't help you.
One acronym you hear a lot in the Navy today is ORM, or operational risk management. The cool thing about ORM is that most rational, responsible and mature people in the world use this process all the time and just don't know it. We often say to ourselves, "It's raining, and the streets are slick, or the tires on my bike are a little worn, so I'll go a little slower and give myself more room to slow down." Perhaps you say, "I can't see over that hill ahead, and there's a double yellow line running down the middle of the road, so I'll wait until after the hill to pass that dork reading a book."
Any conscious decision you make, whether you draw up a matrix to help you reach that decision, is a form of risk management. Let's face it: The risks to yourself and others just aren't worth the consequences when trying to pull off motorcycle stunts on public roads. Remember, a 500-pound motorcycle traveling at the speed required to lift its front tire is going to slide a long ways if it goes down, and neither the rider, nor anyone in the motorcycle's path, is going to enjoy what happens.
One of the big draws to sport bikes is that, for a relatively small amount of money--less than $10,000--you can buy a vehicle that goes nearly 200 mph and does a quarter-mile in 10 seconds. No current production car can match those numbers; the one that comes closest is the Lamborghini Murcielago. It has a top speed of 205 mph and can do the quarter-mile in 12 seconds. Oh, I almost forgot--it costs $273,000, if you're "lucky" enough to find one, which likely puts it beyond the reach of 98 percent of this magazine's readership.
All that power for so little money makes it easier for people without the proper skills to get on these motorcycles and ride well past their abilities. Unfortunately, the argument that "it hurts no one but me" really doesn't hold true, especially when you ride a wheelie between cars on public roads or do stunts in a residential neighborhood.
The bottom line here should be obvious (but, to some, it isn't): If you must do "extreme" stunting (Can someone please tell the guy who started throwing around this term to stop?), find a remote location, or, better yet, do it on a closed course. Besides the advantages of less moving and fewer stationary targets to rip limbs from your body m crashes, you most likely won't injure any innocent bystanders or damage someone else's personal property.
If you add drinking to the mix, the results can be tragic. Alcohol impairs judgment and motor skills--two important factors in motorcycling. Use a little sound judgment and think of someone other than yourself before you try this ridiculous crap on public roads. Better yet, don't do it at all ... because it really isn't cool, anyway
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...it is better to live 1 day as a Tiger than 1000 years as a sheep...
Originally Posted by White trash
and Sniper you're a monkey who hasn't learnt to climb trees yet, making you vulnerable to various predators like GSXR's.
yank tank at Glenorchy 2006 rally
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