Why would these people trust these stunt drivers at a street takeover? Back in the early 2000’s a coworker knew about a motorcycle group that was going to do some stunting and invited me to join him and his friends where we met up with the group at a coffee shop in Sacramento, California. The large group of us then rode in formation to a commercial area that was dead on a Saturday morning, and the guys were stunting in the street as we were parked and stood safely away from the action. They were doing stoppies, wheelies, burnouts, and my favorite was a guy who sat on his fuel tank with legs dangling over the front while doing stoppies, and when he was finished the tank of his nice Suzuki motorcycle was caved in. You’d have to think these guys tear up their bikes and get insurance to fix them. We got bored and left to go ride some fun twisty roads, but my coworker’s friend was an extreme hooligan who fled from the police, so the rest of us were followed by said police to where we didn’t get to enjoy the first twisty road, a dynamite road from Auburn to Foresthill. All that to say, be careful who you ride or hang around with, as after some of my group riding experiences I was happy to do my own riding and exploring alone.
One more story comes to mind. I was riding with a local group from Sacramento with one guy being a fellow AT&T employee, and we were going to meet up with some motorcycle stunters from outside the Napa area. The main guy from Sacramento was leading the ride who wore a prosthetic right leg from a motorcycle accident because of following a car too closely on the left corner, which he still did as I witnessed on this trip. So an emergency stop by a car in front and he crushed his leg on the back of the car, and one year on the anniversary he wrote a post about it, laying in the street in great pain and seeing his own bone chips on the ground, as well as describing that phantom pain like his leg was still attached which took time to go away.
So as we head out of Sacramento towards the meet up with the stunting group, these guys proceed to start lane splitting on the freeway at 80+ mph with traffic in the fast lane usually going about 75 mph, with the speed limit being 65 mph on I-80. I let them go and was happy to do my own ride for the day, but they waited at the exit for me. So we meet up with this sketchy stunt group, and proceed to the Napa wine country which has some fabulous twisty roads to ride though beautiful country. I take up the rear because these people seem reckless, and we hit these wonderful roads and the stunters do not know how to turn a motorcycle on twisty roads. One has an issue with his motorcycle and I end up being the first to catch up with the leader as we waited at a turn for the rest of the group. After we grabbed burgers at a small town I split from the group and visited some friends in the Richmond area of the bay before heading home. And I never rode with a sportbike group again. Though the ride was worth it as he showed me a couple roads I didn’t know, with one going along a stream and this really uphill twisty road with switchbacks going up to Angwin, and I would ride those whenever I went to the Napa wine country.