Stunt Riding - A Show Worth Seeing

Alex Flores doing a burnout.

East Bay Motorsports, Christian's work, and the California Highway Patrol sponsored a free "safety event" at the Oakland Coliseum parking lot.  Just like the true meaning for "safety corridor" this was just as fun.

Yes folks, we got to see stunt riders!  Alex Flores and Jason Pullen were there doing all manner of things, from balancing stunts, stoppies, wheelies, and jumps, to riding a modified dirt-bike that could roll upside down.  I honestly wasn't expecting that much.  I had seen stunting only once before at MotoGP when I saw a race at Laguna Seca.  Christian has made me watch stunting videos occassionaly on TV, but I hadn't seen stunting up close and personal the way I watched it today.  Seeing the burnouts up close, smelling the burning rubber, and watching the facial expressions of the stunt riders adds a whole new dimension to stunting. 

Jason Pullen doing a wheelie.

Of course these guys are hams - they grin and wiggle their eyebrows with the best of them.  Of course they feed off of each other.  Of course they are flirting with danger as they do things with motorcycles that could in theory result with 400 lbs of metal, plastic, and hot solvents falling on your body.  But these guys are good.  They are consistent in their execution and they make it look only moderately difficult (because it's impossible for it to appear easy).

In addition to the entertaining stunt riders, the CHP gave a demonstration of their motorcycle cops riding their BMW R1200 bikes through a cone slalom course, after which anyone could try their hand through the cones. 

Alex's blue & white paisley stunting bike

East Bay Motorsports had a booth where you could check out some of the different kinds of vehicles available at the shop as well as some of the gear.  During the break between stunt shows, you could meet the riders, buy merchandise, and get autographs.  East Bay was giving out free food as well - chips, hot dogs, soda, water, donuts, and other random snacks. All in all it was a pretty good time for a free event with free food. 

Jason's Harley stunt bike

From the announcements, it sounds like this will happen again at least annually if not more often.  When it does I highly recommend going because it's worth the rush of seeing someone stunting up close and personal.  Even if you're not a huge motorcycle fan, it's worth seeing at least once for the experience of it. These guys are phenomenal athletes doing crazy things for our entertainment. A little homage is totally worth it for everyone involved.