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15 November'04

"Brazen Bikers"

On Thursday, November 11, 2004 Inside Edition ran a story titled "Brazen Bikers". Aside from the same errors that we normally see in any story about motorcycles from the press it showed some pretty bad behavior by motorcyclists on city streets, which none of us would condone.

There were film clips of sportbikes taunting police officers to chase them, speeding on city streets passing police cars, running road blocks, lane splitting and running red lights to avoid capture and arrest. They covered these actions in three cities, New York City, Orlando Fla, and somewhere in New Jersey.

Young riders performing stunts on the street seems to be a growing concern of all localities across the country. The worst part is the ever growing attention it brings on the rest of us, especially those of us who ride sportbikes.

According to Inside Edition's reporters there is money to be made filming these stunts on the street no matter how good or bad they turn out. We reported the story of the young rider who was paid by a filmmaker to perform stunts on the street, which resulted in the rider's death. (Second Man Charged In Motorcycle Stunts That Ended In Death )

I have to admit I have a large collection of clips of stunts and stunts that went wrong. The entire collection was pulled from the internet. Some of these riders are talented and very skilled, but most show little regard for themselves; riding with little or no safety equipment or others when they do these stunts on city streets, and interstate highways.

Inside Edition reported that the sportbikes were easily outrunning police cars and passing motorists on the highway at speeds over 200 mph. This was and is a very dangerous exaggeration of the truth. Admittedly the difference between 160 and 200 mph on a city street is mute in my eyes, but the truth is most of the stunters are only reaching speeds of 100 mph. I don't doubt there are riders on the highway who are passing cars at speeds greater than 100 mph. But 200 is a stretch of the truth. If they couldn't get the speed correct how much of the rest of the story is actually true.

If you have been reading the Biker eNews, or been watching television or reading the newspaper you know about the young man who was timed by aircraft at a speed of 200 mph. By now you realize this was just an error, yes he was still speeding but his motorcycle just wasn't capable of 200 mph speeds. In fact there aren't any off the showroom floor capable of 200 mph. The most exotic, expensive racing motorcycles in the world, the factory built MotoGP machines, in the hands of the very best riders in the world are just now approaching the 200 mph mark. See Motorcyclist Allegedly Broke Speed Limit By 140 MPH and Motorcycle enthusiasts question 205 mph ticket

They also mentioned the death of Florida State Trooper Daryl Haywood. "Haywood was killed when he lost control of his police car while responding to a report of a motorcycle drag racing on interstate I4". The cause of his loss of control was a blown tire. Trooper Haywood's death was a tragedy, but it just as well could have happened to him chasing a speeding truck, car or dope dealer. Now according to the report just hearing about a motorcycle drag race is dangerous to the responding officers. See Tire, 911 tapes get focus in trooper crash .

This brings me to another point; the need for high speed pursuit, just how necessary is it. Are the risks worth the effort and the pain it can cause to the officer, the general public and the speeder? There needs to be better guidelines for police high speed pursuit. I am not complaining about the police departments doing there jobs, but perhaps we should look at high speed pursuits and determine some guide lines whether or not it's necessary. I may be watching too many which turn out bad on TV's Wildest Police Chases. But perhaps we need to give this some thought.

My last bone to pick was the statistics they quoted about motorcycle accidents that flashed up on the screen, a big 70% next to the number 3,500. The voice over explains that motorcycle accidents have rose 70% since 1997 and that so far this year there have been 3,500 accidents involving motorcycles. No time did they give the viewer anything to balance the number with? Not the total of motorcycles owned or registered in the United States or any mention of the rise in sales of motorcycles, just lots of pictures of crashed motorcycles. The voice-over emphasized the danger to motorists while showing a burnt car that a motorcycle had crashed into. Another scene showed a crashed SUV that supposedly was run off the road by motorcyclists passing by and doing stunts. There were not enough details to determine anything about the accidents or who was at fault.

Inside Edition spent a lot of time with the Florida Highway Patrol in Orlando, showing the troopers pulling over groups of sportbikes and writing tickets and making arrests. All the time the voice was saying they really couldn't stop them and how the bikers would taunt them to chase them knowing the troopers couldn't catch them. Well maybe the troopers in Orlando are that inept, but if you watch Wildest Police Chases they seem to always catch the cars and motorcycles they chase.

When you see this story and the interview with a stunt rider/film maker Paul Sheerer founder of Las Vegas Extreme (stunt team), the stunt rider comes away looking like the jerk he is. His comments and attitude speak volumes, and now that he has had national television exposure and the rest of the country has heard him, they will believe we're all that stupid and careless. No matter how hard we try to improve our image it seems there are those who could care less that they have just took a large crap on the rest of us. If you're interested in seeing this report I have it on tape and will be glad to make it available to anyone who cares to view it. The bright spot in the whole report was the filming of the stunt rider Paul Sheerer falling and breaking his leg, I just love it when stupidity is rewarded.

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