June 21st, 2008 by R.J.

SEATTLE- Eleven riders on high-powered motorcycles took turns riding wheelies through 60mph traffic last Saturday on I-5.

This kind of plays hand-in-hand with the article below about many motorcyclists having the “biker boyz” mentality resulting in their deaths. It’s just this kind of nonsense that makes the general public look down on our hobby.

If you want to wheelie, fine. Go out and do it on a street away from cars where you aren’t going to hurt anyone else when you crash. But that’s not cool, right? You have to show off in front of people. Why don’t you enter a stunt competition? That lets you show off -and- be safe. But then you don’t look like a badass in front of strangers you’ll never meet? Oh… Well… In that case… By all means, carry on.

I just don’t understand this. It just makes motorcyclists look like hooligans that have no regard for anybody including themselves. What’s going to happen when one of those cagers decides to float the idea of banning motorcyclists from the roads and all the rest of them that you scared to death agree to it? Or how about when your insurance (assuming you have insurance, right?) decides to raise your rates because the perception of bikers is now a bunch of reckless turkeys riding machines of pure suicide.

But, hey, those were some awesome wheelies, right?