My girlfriend and I were heading home today after a great day of cruising when a guy on an R1 comes up from behind and starts coasting with us one lane over to our left.
We both nod hello. We're cruising about 70 and he takes a good look behind him as we're cruising up 495 (the washington D.C. beltway). I'm thinking here it comes, all the fools we've heard so much about, he's one of them and he's getting ready to do something. He leans forward (I didn't know what he was going to do for a moment) and revs it as he give the bike a good pull and all the sudden he's cruising on one wheel standing up with the bike as he's increasing speed and pulling away from us on one wheel. The wheelie literally was about 10 or 12 seconds long. He just stayed up and probably got up to 80mph. Front comes down, tires smoke and then he takes off zig zagging through traffic.
That's the first time I've seen this first hand and had two thoughts. One was damn the guy knows how to handle the bike, and secondly why on the fricken highway? It's the beltway, there's lots of cars behind us and some ahead, he's not wearing leathers and has a half helmet on to boot. That's just a little bit over the line for my taste and continues to give responcible riders a bad name with antics like that. At least there was another bike riding normally that others could see too (this time) My guess is he was showing off for the V-ROD and it's riders.
Cindy wasn't impressed either. She said later what if he would have come our way? She's right. Lots of things can go wrong doing wheelies in traffic on a high speed freeway. I guess that's why we hear about so many of these people getting killed. It's a damn shame they can't stick to vacant roadways for the more zealous stunts.
Do you guys and ladies see much of this "extreme riding" on the roads?
I see the occasional biker doing the zig zagging and speeding but not the wheelies.
As a side note this guy looked old enough to know better. Maybe in his late 40's.
We both nod hello. We're cruising about 70 and he takes a good look behind him as we're cruising up 495 (the washington D.C. beltway). I'm thinking here it comes, all the fools we've heard so much about, he's one of them and he's getting ready to do something. He leans forward (I didn't know what he was going to do for a moment) and revs it as he give the bike a good pull and all the sudden he's cruising on one wheel standing up with the bike as he's increasing speed and pulling away from us on one wheel. The wheelie literally was about 10 or 12 seconds long. He just stayed up and probably got up to 80mph. Front comes down, tires smoke and then he takes off zig zagging through traffic.
That's the first time I've seen this first hand and had two thoughts. One was damn the guy knows how to handle the bike, and secondly why on the fricken highway? It's the beltway, there's lots of cars behind us and some ahead, he's not wearing leathers and has a half helmet on to boot. That's just a little bit over the line for my taste and continues to give responcible riders a bad name with antics like that. At least there was another bike riding normally that others could see too (this time) My guess is he was showing off for the V-ROD and it's riders.
Cindy wasn't impressed either. She said later what if he would have come our way? She's right. Lots of things can go wrong doing wheelies in traffic on a high speed freeway. I guess that's why we hear about so many of these people getting killed. It's a damn shame they can't stick to vacant roadways for the more zealous stunts.
Do you guys and ladies see much of this "extreme riding" on the roads?
I see the occasional biker doing the zig zagging and speeding but not the wheelies.
As a side note this guy looked old enough to know better. Maybe in his late 40's.
:hitfan: :hidesbeh: 
