How “EXTREME” do you ride?

How “EXTREME” do you ride?

Last Thursday, September 15^th, a motorcyclist conducting a “wheelie” on I-15 at 100 mph was killed after hitting the guardrail.

In June, a group of motorcyclists in Texas wanted to “honor” their fallen military comrades by conducting acts of extreme riding on a public highway while police watched (Again, policies dictated they could only watch and not chase).

I remember a horrific accident on Sahara, west of Decatur, approximately 2 years ago, involving a motorcyclist traveling at high speeds, while conducting a “wheelie” and colliding with a car, killing the rider instantly with gruesome results.

I observed, on several occasions, a motorcycle traveling northbound on highway 95, with the rider on the bike, backwards, traveling about 85 mph.  On other occasions, it appeared the same bike and rider were NB on the rear wheel at 85 mph.

I’ve been involved in several pursuits with motorcycles (at least when the police were allowed to chase bad guys), that ended up in the riders crashing  or just giving up.  All the pursuits were high speed, and thankfully for the intense training provided by LVMPD, I was able to keep my bike upright, while sometimes the other riders couldn’t.

One pursuit involved a “bulletbike” that I definitely couldn’t keep up with.  The rider ditched me in a neighborhood and by the time I approached the neighborhood, he had turned around and was headed the opposite way, but without a helmet this time.  Later, when he was caught trying to ditch his bike in a casino’s employee’s parking lot, I asked him what had happened to his helmet.  He said at one point he was traveling about 175 mph and looked back to see how far behind I was, and the force of the wind at that speed ripped the helmet from his head. 

While seeing firsthand some of the “extreme” riders here in Vegas, I noticed most of their stunts were low speed and if they did have a accident, it usually involved some sort of road rash, MAYBE a broken bone. 

Other motorcycle riders feel that the stunt riders showing off on the public roadways gives the rest of the recreational riders a bad name, and even state they deserve the punishment administered by the asphalt.

The comment section on the local papers article of the most recent death on I-15 revealed a harsh discontentment for stunt riders, even wishing further harm to the riders.

While a lot of riders do so for recreation, I don’t believe it fair to judge the rest of us based on the mistakes of a few. 

The local rider’s safety courses at the community college and the dealerships have been busy and productive in producing safe and sane riders.

Many laud the bike’s ability to get great gas mileage, provide fun, transportation and a stress relieving experience.

Those who chose to show off on the streets and run from the police always pay their dues, one way or the other.

Oh yeah.  They can’t outrun the radio (maybe this radio, you can.  Check the archives of www.VegasNewsReview.com on the “Speak and Spell” article) or the chopper…

As far the people wishing ill will on certain riders, I think it’s a jealousy issue.