http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/Midwest/08/25/daredevil.motorcyclists.ap/index.html

one officer lamented, "their kick is to find cops, race by them, give them the middle finger salute or wave at the officer. They are out of sight in the blink of an eye."


I've never done this but it would be funny to see.

but your right rippin, its going to get were the cops just pull you over because your on a sport bike.

I've seen Hardly's going over a 100 and not even wearing gear, probably drunk or doped up.

I do hope that the people in that suv will be ok. Its not right to run anyone off the road. Although I find it hard to believe a bike run a suv off the road. I'm guessing the sound of them doing a blow by scared them and they jerked the wheel.

Safety advocates are quick to point out that motorcycling is no game, with fatalities nationwide having risen every year since 1997. The number jumped from 2,116 in 1997 to 3,661 in 2003. It's not clear how many of those deaths were related to extreme motorcycling, said Judy Stone of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, a Washington-based lobbying group funded by the insurance industry.

do those safety idiots compare that to the exponentially increasing number of motorcyclists on the road??? more bikes....more accidents ......more deaths.

motorcycling is more popular than it ever has been. also, what they fail to tell you is that the majority of those deaths are on bikes of 1200cc or bigger......ummmmm hello?? can you say CRUISER??!!!!! i agree that doing that in traffic is the WRONG place, but there is such a thing as overreacting. and i bet you that the non-seat belt wearing folks didn't get ticketed because a motorcyclist caused the accident. there is a small number of guys that do that kind of stuff on public roads, that's why they are called the 1 percenters, too bad it's gonna be real fuckin hard on the rest of us in a few years :x :x

i ain't preaching, i ride like that too.....on public roads, but they are back roads and they are empty...and we chill until we get by the cagers.

too bad it's gonna be real fuckin hard on the rest of us in a few years

going to have to get a faster bike now. :P

Ive already been pulled over for no reason. He said he clocked me doing 75 in a 55. I told him, " no you didnt:" you shouldve seen the look on his face when I said that. He gave me a warning ticket. Yea right he knew that I wasnt speeding :roll:

Quote: It was so outrageous. They had to be going 80, 90, 100 miles per hour."

lol... They don't realize that these people just slowed down...


The big problem is these people in the cars PANIC and scare them selves.
I highly dout the guys on the bikes would have passed them close enough to FORCE them to swerve... I know I pass freinds and then thought I was close but only we really know...

If were passing you like that I think we would KNOW ENOUGH NOT TO RUN INTO YOUR ASS!!!

it's just our continent getting used to the shit... look at europe. they know to expect it over there.

a reader wrote in this 'pretend' responce...

Rider Claims He's Innocent In Alleged Stunt-caused SUV Crash

FIRST PERSON/OPINION

Via e-mail:

Dear Sirs,

As the rider "allegedly" responsible for wheelieing past an SUV and causing five innocent people to be injured, I must write in to defend my name and clear my good honor. In this age of internet news and streaming media, the truth can often be an elusive mistress.

As it happens, it was the Ford Explorer that was wheelieing past me. I was calmly riding along at the posted speed limit, minding my own business, Scanning, Identifying, Predicting, Deciding and Executing, when the Explorer came roaring past on its rear wheels, the driver hanging on with one hand and flipping me the bird with the other.

When will these menaces stop?

Additionally, I was not aware that the man in the car behind me was videotaping me. The man was simply an interested tourist, capturing footage of the glorious Missouri landscape, with whom I coincidentally happen to co-own a video-production company specializing in low-budget motorcycle video sales.

Lastly, and most importantly, a Chevy Suburban is not technically an SUV. It's a small truck. So, obviously, I'm innocent.

Thank you.

Shalom Auslander
New York, New York

PS: When that new ZX-6R coming out, boyyyy?

This message contains information which may be confidential and privileged. Unless you are the intended recipient (or authorized to receive this message for the intended recipient), you may not use, copy, disseminate or disclose to anyone the message or any information contained in the message. If you have received the message in error, please advise the sender by reply e-mail, and delete the message. Thank you very much.

Ive already been pulled over for no reason. He said he clocked me doing 75 in a 55. I told him, " no you didnt:" you shouldve seen the look on his face when I said that. He gave me a warning ticket. Yea right he knew that I wasnt speeding :roll:

me and a few buddies were filling up the other night and a cop pulled up behind us and started running our tags. then he got out and asked us all for our licenses. 3 of my buds did and me and another guy didn't. i asked him why? (because i just got to town and hadn't even had a chance to "terrorize" the "neighborhood" :P ) he said "first of all, because i asked. second, ya'll fit the profile of some bikes that ran from another officer earlier". i just stood there :eek: and i said "let me get this straight..........i am just supposed to hand you my license for no reason..........and it wasn't even you that the bikes ran from earlier???" i got so PISSED so fast, that's not like me. i went on to tell him that he had no right to detain us if he couldn't give us a good reason and that he was violating our rights as well as profiling. then he just stood there and :eek: looked at me......LOL
then he said he could do whatever he wanted to do to get to the bottom of the "crime". then i laughed and said "if you weren't involved in said chase and you can't pick any one of us out that may or may not be ihave been involved then, NO SIR.......no you can't!!" i may have been wrong, but he was taking my bluff. if he hadn't been so cocky, i woulda be just fine.

well needless to say he got VERY red in the face and i could tell he wanted to pull out his Asp and beat the living hell outta me, but he had 3 licenses to run and that was better than none i guess. so i finished filling up and pulled out of the way along with my friend. about that time(i guess he got on the horn) the SAID involved officer pulled up and i could see the first officer going nuts, but he seemed new and the newly arrived officer looked like a veteran. anyway, the Vet. cop looked around and i could tell he didn't recognize anybody. anyway, everybody got their licenses back .........and boy was i getting GLARED at. i nodded and clicked it into first and we left. he followed us for as long as he could, but he could only go as far as the city limits. but almost every turn that night we saw a cop.....city, county, and state troopers. they are definitely out to shut us down around here. oh well.........i hope they don't frusterate themselves too bad, because i ain't gonna stop riding :wink:

DAMN, and I am moving to Texas too, awe hell! First I was giving up the nice roads over here, and that was bad enough, now I have to think about dealing with that crap!

Most of the time I respect Cops, they go out ther eand risk their lives to make htis world safe for us from the psychos and crazies with guns trying to rob banks and old ladies. It is hte Officers like this asshole that make us all hate cops! Why they gotta be pricks. I guess it takes one of two mentalities to be a cop, you wanna help people, or you wanna power trip, it is the latter attitude that makes aholes like that guy.

Now, about the article....
People are gonna be dumb and pull dumb s**t everywhere, unfortuantely we are all gonna pay. From what I read in that article, it wasn't the stunt that caused the accident, but Cutting the guy off.
How many times a day do you think people cut people off in cars that bad? How many acidents like that have cars caused? Is it on the front page of CNN, No, huh?
Know why, people dislike what they don't understand, most people don't like bikes, think we are all crazy assholes with no regard for human life. Hate us when we cut traffic because they are stuck there, not thinking about the fact that it is legal because our bikes will overheat. Most people don't ride. Those who don't ride, don't understand...People don't like what they don't understand.

THat does not mean that it is ok to do stunts on the freeway or any other busy street, BUT like I said, it doesn't appear the stunt caused the crash, it was wreckless driving.

Now if the guy were so enthralled by the stunt riding he drove his seatbeltless passengers off the side of the road.....


just my 3 cents!

xxx

all that being said, public image is important. I try not to scare people & I have calmed down a lot. but these dumb asses that drive off the road because they just got passed by a bike, thats natural selection, which is what I attribute most of the dead too.

not always tho, sometimes Squiddies give us a bad name, I saw this guy the other day, slaloming down the road in his tank top, and new Gixxer 1000, warming up the tires... he started to slalom on the fwy at around 90, taking up his full lane, swerved next to an old lady, scared teh shit out of her, caused her to slam on her brakes.

THen he was cutting traffic at over 100 ON AN OPEN ROAD! OPEN WIDE OPEN FWY! If he had gone one lane over to the right, instead of to the left OR WAITED 4 SECONDS, he could have passed safely. Maybe he was showing off cause I flashed him, who knows?

I agree, squid do give us a bad look, I was including him in on the natural selection thing. appropriately dressed bikers make up a very small % of the smashed people I see, like maybe 1 out of 15-20, but (big but here) they usually die, the 15-20 others a couple lose their foot or leg, a 6-8 die, 3-4 just road rash, 6-7 isolated fracture and a couple have multi-system trauma but make it. The last kid that was dressed well, his helmet somehow came off prior to a impact. He lived for a few weeks, thats the worst ones, that live for a few weeks.
Have I cheered everybody up?
A little fear is good for ya.

there is always going to be morons out there giving us a bad name. as to the cops, i have the utmost respect for what they do, after 9-11, i dont think i would want that job. i have gotten several compliments from cops on my bike, on the first thursday of the month here in minneapolis, there is a bar called delanos, it is a norton motorcyle club meeting place, this started like 40 years ago, now its gotten so big there is 4,000 to 5,000 bikes there on the first thurs of the month. all diff kinds of bikes too, the roads around there are shut down and guys are stunting, wheelies, burnouts you name it, and the cops are really cool about it, they let pretty much anything go, if anybody is in this area during the summer you should check it out :lol:

You know most cops are cool and stick to doing there job but you guys are right there are the select few ass holes that over police and all I have to say about that is this. I have heard cops talking about why people dont give them the respect that they deserve, to this I say talk to your boys that have a chip on their sholder evertime the pull out of the lot in that squad car.......... They do it to themselves..... I had gottem pulled over one year ago and the cop had me dead to rights on speeding and no insurance but this dick head off duty cop saw me change lanes quickly before that so he pulled over to rat me out for it, I got a careless.... WTF is that shit I was already getting a ticket why the fuck did he have to go out of his way to be a prick..... I told the city attny that I would not take any deal at all that involoved me taking any points from that dick heads careless charge....... I got what I wanted too and I know a buch of cops personally that said he was an asshole for doing that......

I AGREE!!!!!!!

Well on another note I have had two seperate times that rednecks tried to run me off the road for no reason. I never stunt when theres traffic around but ill tell you there has been many times that people in cars try to get me to pull a wheelie. Two times I had elderly men motion for me too and after setting it back down and slowing down they caught up,(both of them) and gave me the thums up. Now truth be know I dont always pull the front up just cause someone wants me too, there has been many times that I decline. :wink:

Its a long read but this is what happened. Looks like it was'nt the bikers fault after all..................................... ............................

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

100% fault of a 16yr old kid trying to follow some squids

By Jeremy Kohler
Of the Post-Dispatch
08/28/2004

Cory Evans loves the wheelie-popping lifestyle of stunt cyclists. He reads the glossy biker magazines and has been searching ads for a racing cycle of his own.

Cory, 16, of Florissant, and the motorcycles he loves were at the center of a terrible crash that injured eight people on the Page Avenue Extension on Aug. 21. The incident had the St. Louis area buzzing last week about daredevils on bikes. Are they artists? Are they a menace? Do they have a right to expression, or should they be reined in?

Cory was at the wheel of his mother's Ford Explorer that Saturday night with four friends. They were headed toward the home of another friend in St. Charles County, and stopped about 7 p.m. at QuikTrip on Route 94 and Kisker Road.

Four gorgeous bikes were there. A Suzuki GSX-R750 in red and another in blue. Light, powerful, agile machines. With them were a lime-green Kawasaki Ninja and a black Honda.

"Hey, nice bikes," he told the riders, according to his mother, Tina Evans.

Cory's group was expected at their friend's nearby. Instead, they headed back east some 10 miles, eventually taking Highway 364, the Page Avenue Extension, back toward St. Louis.

Tina Evans, who provided this account - but would not let a reporter speak with her son - says she believes they were headed to pick up another friend.

Either by luck or by design, then, Cory stayed with the stunt bikes. Each rider pulled up on one wheel as they zipped toward the Missouri River, the sun sinking in the western sky.

It's a stunt seen ever more often on highways from coast to coast. So-called extreme biking has expanded in popularity; Hollywood has made stars out of stunt drivers. Even the historically staid Motor Cyclist magazine this month started a new publication, Super Streetbike, to reach the wheelie-popping crowd without causing its base of older readers to fret.

For adrenaline junkies, it's an affordable way to get their speed. The fastest bikes cost barely more than an economy car.

Cory "is into it," Tina Evans said. "He is wanting to get one."

The bikes were in the left lane, Cory's Ford Explorer in the center. At right was a Chevrolet Suburban with eight friends heading to a Lynyrd Skynyrd concert at UMB Bank Pavilion in Maryland Heights.

Exactly how the crash happened is still under investigation by the Missouri Highway Patrol. What is known is that the bikes cut to the right across two lanes, then exited the expressway at Upper Bottom Road. Witnesses told police that, while the bikers had been performing stunts, they were far enough ahead so that they didn't cut anyone off.

But, for some reason, when the bikes cut into the center lane, Cory cut over to the right lane and T-boned the Suburban.

"Oh . . . ," shouted the driver, Terry Woodson, 44, of O'Fallon, Mo. That's what one of his passengers, Todd Wenick, 41, of St. Charles, remembers.

Begging for life

The Suburban veered off the highway and rolled at least six times. Wenick remained inside the Suburban. So did Nicholas Woodson, 14, Terry's son.

Everyone else was thrown, including Wenick's wife, Jill Wenick, 40, and their son, Ryan, 25. Terry Woodson and his wife, Debra Woodson, 38, were thrown. So were Kimberly Gronek, 38, and her husband Mark Gronek, 44, of St. Charles.

Todd Wenick said he suffered a separated shoulder and injuries to his back, neck and knees. But he felt no pain.

"I asked Nick, 'You OK?' and he said, 'Yeah,'" Todd Wenick said. They crawled out a window.

The bodies were cast over a wide area. Nick found his mother, who said she couldn't feel or move. Jill Wenick was maybe 15 feet from her, covered in blood.

Todd Wenick found Ryan, who seemed unscathed. He escorted him uphill to the side of the road, where a couple stopped and said they would stay with him.

"I told him Mom's fine, but I needed to get back and get her," Wenick said. "I just prayed and begged for her life. I got her to talk. She opened her eyes. I just couldn't lose her. We've been together since the seventh grade."

No charges have been issued in the crash. Police say they don't know the identities of the bikers, but they want to find them. They could face charges for careless and imprudent driving - or worse.

"I'd like to wait and see what the police write up and what the witnesses say and if they ever catch these clowns," said St. Charles County Prosecuting Attorney Jack Banas.

Although some initial reports indicated that the motorcycles may have been accompanied by someone filming their stunts from a car, police now say they don't believe that was the case.

Stunt riders in St. Louis

When St. Louis area media outlets reported the accident, the story line was obvious: Those stunt cyclists you've seen around town? Some of them might have caused a serious crash.

Probably the area's best-known stunt drivers call themselves the Streetfighterz. They run a kiosk at South County Center, where they sell DVD recordings of stunts they've performed for the past five years. Most of the videos were shot on Interstate 55 between downtown St. Louis and south St. Louis County, using the Gateway Arch as a backdrop. One of their stunts includes a 14-mile-long wheelie.

The Streetfighterz say they have sold 70,000 videos, bringing in $1 million. They have myriad connections and sponsors. They're tight with a rock band, Sted-Fast, which includes the musician who created the beats and sounds behind most of Nelly's hits.

Sted-Fast performs the Streetfighterz theme song, "Ride On," and shows video featuring their stunts during live shows. A few TV news channels, too, played footage from a Streetfighterz video while reporting on the accident.

The exposure on the evening news compelled someone to write on the Streetfighterz's Internet site: "If you see a big, black Cadillac tooling down the highway, don't go @#%$ around flying past me and endangering everyone around you, because I guarantee as soon as I see you coming I'll swerve into your lane and knock your stupid ass off that Japanese piece of @#%$. That would be a great video!"

The threat came as a shock to the four members of Streetfighterz, who are used to adulation and the occasional peeved police officer. They say they weren't the four bikers on Highway 364. They resent the implication that they caused a crash and fled.

However, they freely admit to performing - and filming - their high-speed stunts on highways. They know it's illegal. They say police have issued them some 80 tickets since 1999, though only a few for actually performing stunts.

From basketball to bikes

Moreover, the Streetfighterz members reject the notion that they are either a danger or an undue distraction for motorists. There are plenty of potential distractions on the road, they say. Rude bumper stickers, for example. Gaudy sports cars. Scantily-clad women.

"If a naked lady is going down the road and you crash, you can't blame the naked lady," said one of the Streetfighterz, James Vaughn, 30, of south St. Louis County. "You gotta blame yourself."

Another member of the Streetfighterz, Dennis Cardwell, 26, of Arnold, said he can control his bike with one wheel in the air as well as most drivers can control their cars.

The Streetfighterz say they don't advocate stunt riding. In fact, they would rather no one else did it. But they acknowledge that the trend is taking off, thanks in part to their videos.

The foursome met playing basketball at the YMCA in South County and later started talking about their mutual love of motorcycles. The friendship turned into a competition. As each began to hone his skills, they started filming themselves on highways for training purposes.

Later on came the idea of selling the videos. Why do the stunts? Cardwell and Vaughn were asked. Because they can, they said. Today's bikes are lighter and quicker than those of yesteryear. The stunts are exciting. People like them. If their fans can't do the stunts, they said, they want to see experts like them doing them.

"They like what they do," said the group's lawyer, Les Steinberg. "But there is no way to do it without breaking the law."

The survivors in the Suburban are too badly hurt to compare notes about the crash. Todd Wenick said his wife suffered two broken hips and serious facial injuries. Ryan Wenick has vertebrae injuries, bruises to his lungs and heart, a broken arm and a concussion.

Todd Wenick said he and Terry Woodson have met frequently at St. John's Mercy Medical Center in Creve Coeur, where both of their wives are hospitalized.

The extent of injuries to the others were unavailable because of medical privacy laws, but at least Mark Gronek, too, remained hospitalized as of Friday.

Todd Wenick said he feels the wheelie-popping cyclists caused a diversion, and said he hates to see more youths doing stunts on motorcycles.

So, too, does Tina Evans, Cory's mother.

"I'm trying to keep an open mind," she said. "I'm afraid for my son to get (a motorcycle) now.

"All I know is they were doing tricks," she said. "I don't think they should be doing tricks on the highway. It's distracting and should be illegal. There is a place for that out in the country where there are not a lot of people."

Tim Bryant of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.

Reporter Jeremy Kohler
E-mail: jkohler@post-dispatch.com
Phone: 314-241-9435

Humm, one things for sure, too much more of this and we will be seeing a crack down on our priveleges like it or not. :eek:

sounds to me like the kid following the bikes tried to keep up and hit the suburban. he caused the wreck. witnesses say that the bikes were way in front and gave plenty of room, but they're still gonna get a citation and possible jail time???????????? WHAT THE FUCK??

DID CNN POST A RETRACTION?!?!?!?! I am in vigilante mode now, I say we bombard them with e-mails until they do! That is BS! AAAARRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGG, I am so mad, and I don't bget so mad easily

Ok, maybe I do :eek:

That is the problem with this country. Everybody wants to point there finger at somebody to blame rather than admit they fucked up. Just because a couple of guys were dicking off on the highway now cops think they have more of a reason to have a cock and ball attitude against us. It's bullshit!

Its just like when i was driving a 18 wheel semi, if you were in a wreack they always tried to pinn it on the truck driver just cause it is a truck. Same thing with bikes only bigger cause there is people that just piss the police off on purpous. I know a Deputy sherriff here that told me that on more than one occasion he has had a kid on a rocket wheelie by him to jump off at the next exit and wave as they were speeding away from him. Stuff like this is what is gonna make it hard on the rest of us. :roll:

OK...so the mom told the reporter that her son t-boned the Suburban for no apparent reason yet she still believes its the bikers fault??? DId I read that right?