Road stunts by sport bike enthusiasts concern other motorist

[PeteSC]

Road stunts by sport bike enthusiasts concern other motorists, authorities
Sunday, May 15, 2005

By Alana Semuels, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette



He spends his days as a post office clerk, filing mail and dealing with customers. But when James Nutt leaves his day job, he becomes a skilled stunt man, racing down the highway, pulling wheelies, trying tricks just for the thrill and danger of it.

 
 Bill Wade, Post-Gazette
James Nutt, 22, of Allison Park, demonstrates a head stand on a side street in the North Hills with his Suzuki GSX motorcycle.
Click photo for larger image.
 


You might have seen him whizzing by on the parkway, trying to break free of other vehicles. Your kids might have given him a thumbs-up.

State police have issued an alert about motorcyclists such as Nutt, urging the public to report reckless riding. They say it endangers other motorists and that cyclists have no place on the road if they're not going to obey the law.

They arrested six motorcyclists one night last week, charging them with driving recklessly and fleeing from police. They also issued an alert for four others performing tricks on stunt bikes on Interstate 279 while a passenger in a vehicle filmed them.

Now that the warm weather of spring has arrived, more motorcyclists like Nutt are out on their sport bikes, practicing stunts on busy highways and, for the most part, eluding efforts to catch them.

While not every sport-bike driver is an extreme rider, the bikes have become popular with daredevils. They're proof that the world of motorcycles has changed from the road-trip days of the 1969 movie "Easy Rider" to a faster and more flashy scene characterized by the 2003 movie "Torque."

These bikes are the toys of a growing population of motorcycle riders over the past five years. Nationwide, there were 6.6 million motorcycles registered in the United States in 1998; by 2003, there were 8.8 million. In Pennsylvania in 2000, there were 210,788 motorcycles registered; by 2004 that number had grown to 286,531.

The number of sport bikes also is on the rise. From 1999 to 2004, sales of sport bikes grew by 90 percent nationally, according to the Motorcycle Industry Council.

They're popular because they handle better than a standard cruiser and are much lighter, said David Razorsek, a sales manager at BMW Motorcycles of Pittsburgh. Built more for speed than for touring, they can stop and accelerate more quickly than other bikes, with top speeds above 150 mph. Their frames can weigh as little as 350 pounds, but some bikes can produce 150 horsepower or more and are powered by engines of more than 1,000 cubic centimeters. Even with all of this power, the bikes can be less expensive than traditional cruisers, starting at around $6,600 new.

 


Bill Wade, Post-Gazette
Nutt on a side street in the North Hills, with his Suzuki GSX motorcycle.
Click photo for larger image.
 
 





Sport bikes are so acrobatically inclined that more and more professionals are using them to compete in stunt tournaments on racetracks. Some even make a living out of it.

"It's a new sport that's ... up and coming," said Kyle Woods, a professional street biker based in south Florida. "Every year, we get more exposure, and it's starting to become mainstream."

But highways and parking lots are where most riders learn their tricks. Woods has had friends die from crashing on the highways or being run over by cars after they're thrown from their bikes. While riding on the roads is dangerous, he said, "That's where we all started from."

Novices see the stunt riders and attempt some of the tricks that take years to master, such as wheelies -- riding up on the back wheel -- or endos -- riding only the front wheel.

As bikes' tires become wider and the center of gravity lower, their novice riders find that such tricks become less difficult, said Brian Bubash, of Shaler, who is a professional rider.

"It's pretty easy to do," he said. "It's like a toy that you can drive on the street."

It's also easy to make a mistake on the bikes.

Kellen Winslow learned that the hard way. The Cleveland Browns tight end saw a video of Starboyz, an Akron, Ohio-based group of stunt riders, and decided to give it a try. He's a professional athlete, but still went flying over the handlebars on an attempt to do a wheelie, landing in the hospital and jeopardizing his football career.

But despite the dangers, riders say it's addictive once they learn some simple tricks, and that, to practice, they need to be on the roads.

"I can't get on my bike without wanting to be on one wheel," said Nutt, 22, the post office worker. "I love doing it, and I'm not going to stop doing it."

He's flipped over his handlebars at 60 mph and concedes that he was out riding on the roads before he really knew what he was doing.

"That's part of the thrill of it, knowing you're doing something dangerous," he said.

Nutt started riding 18 months ago. After seeing some friends get hurt, he left the roads and began doing his stunts in parking lots and on side streets. But wherever he and his friends went to ride, they were kicked out or pulled over by the police.

So they've taken to the highways again and say they'll ride there until they can find somewhere else to go.

Sometimes, Nutt puts more than 50 miles on his bike in one night, just riding around the city. He's logged 20,000 of those close-in miles during the past year.

He insists that he is a more attentive driver than people who talk on cell phones or play with the radio on the highway; car drivers have even run him off the road because they weren't playing close attention.

But most people he passes don't agree that he's safe. While some of them wave or give him a thumbs-up, others pull out their phones and call 911.

Behavior like Nutt's gives other motorcyclists a bad name, said Bill Foley, president of the Allegheny County chapter of Abate Pennsylvania, a biker advocacy organization. While the state fatality rate for motorcyclists dropped last year, the young riders practicing stunts aren't helping generate motorist support for motorcyclists, he said.

"To be old and wise, you once had to be young and dumb," Foley said. "This is young and dumb. They put on a $300 helmet and they're invincible."

Foley is especially frustrated because motorcyclists have been lobbying to gain more respect. They were successful Wednesday in fighting off an attempt in Congress to withhold federal highway money from states that did not require all motorcyclists to wear helmets.

Some sport-bike riders who don't try tricks wish that the stunt riders would stop as well. The say daredevils are making the sport notorious, just as outlaw motorcycle groups once gave Harley Davidson riders a bad image.

"Stunting and high-speed riding should be done on a track, not on public streets and highways," said Tom Lindsay, spokesman for the American Motorcyclist Association. "We completely support the efforts of law enforcement to take reasonable steps to control it."

Police officers have usually been stymied in attempts to catch these riders because the bikes are so much faster than cars, and high-speed chases can endanger others on the highway. State police and the district attorney's office urge motorists to call in and report these riders and get their license-plate numbers, if possible.

While the majority of people on sport bikes obey traffic laws, the police intend to prosecute those who drive recklessly to the full extent of the law, state police spokeswoman Robin Mungo said.

"We want motorists to know that we're out there to keep everyone safe" Mungo said. "If you're going to be out there doing this, you're going to be caught, you're going to be charged."

For each count of reckless endangerment, penalties can be as stiff as up to two years in jail and a hefty fine, district attorney's spokesman Mike Manko said.

But riders have become experts at escaping from the police.

Nutt can fold up his license plate so observers can't see it, and he can outrun most police cars. He and his friends try to pick places to ride where the police won't bug them, but he said most riders flee rather than argue with police that they need somewhere to practice.

He wishes that he didn't have to, though.

"Someday," he said, "this is going to become a professional sport."

"Someday," he said, "this is going to become a professional sport."

Maybe, but I doubt you'll be around to see it........