While most bikers are content with riding their bikes down the highway, the wind in their hair and the scenery flying by, some want to do more risky things. These bikers turn to motorcycle stunt riding. Stunt riding involves doing more than just riding at high speeds. Stunt riders do wheelies, flips, spins, and much more. In fact, a whole new type of motorcycle was invented for stunt riding. These sport bikes are a bit different from standard bikes.
Stunt racing began with the simple wheelie, which many drag racers learned to do. However, drag racing was generally considered illegal, and the bikes used where modified and weren't street legal. As bikes became lighter and more powerful in the 1970s, however, more motorcycles were able to do wheelies without modifications. Bikers began figuring out how to perform other stunts, and by the 1990s, some riders were making stunts their main form of riding. This was the beginning of stunt riding.
Today, there are many different types of tricks and stunts one can perform on a stunt bike. There are tricks that can be done while hanging on to the handlebars with the feet or with one hand, stunts with two riders on the same bike, and even stunts that involve jumping off the bike or standing up on it.
Motorcycle stunt racing teams perform at many different biker events, and contests are held every year to determine the top stunt racer. While they're a bit different from other bikers, stunt riders are similar in that many also enjoy riding for pleasure, working on their bikes, collecting biker patches, and much more. They're a different kind of bikers, but they're bikers nonetheless.
