January 14, 2004

Two-wheeled freaks

Full-throttle maniacs on high-octane crotch Rockets do it all for the thrills. It’s the guys of the Triple Xtreme Stunt Team.

by T.M. Shine

photos: Josh Prezant

Take a minute to digest this. The idea is to gather all the power your bike has to offer and use it to bring up your wheelie. Accelerate to half or three-quarter throttle while simultaneously feathering the clutch. Don’t pull it in, just a slip of the clutch will do. Ease on and off the throttle but never chop it; that would make you wobble from side to side. Don’t be afraid to lean your weight back — it helps the bike come up. With a 12 o’clock wheelie, you need to stay at the true balance point of the bike. The secret is to try to hold the throttle as steadily as possible while using the brake to keep from flipping. Don’t freak out, relax your body and keep a clear head. Be one with the bike. When you feel as if you’re going to crash, you’re probably OK.

Those are words of wisdom from Kyle Woods, the 25-year-old founder of the Triple Xtreme Stunt Team. Of course, the lesson comes with a warning not to try this without a professional medical staff on hand. In other words, if you must attempt to perform this wheelie on the ninja bike you got for Christmas, practice in a hospital parking lot.

“At least 15 people will come up to me today wanting to know how to do one of these stunts,” Woods, of Deerfield Beach, says one recent morning before taking to the track at Moroso Motorsports Park in Palm Beach Gardens for a team exhibition.

“They’re certainly popular here,” Moroso Executive Vice President Laura South says of Triple Xtreme. “People always love watching crazy people do crazy things. A little danger doesn’t hurt.”

Woods is currently hanging onto the back of his Honda CBR 900 by his fingertips, literally skiing behind the bike as it flies down the straightaway, his shoes smoking across the slick asphalt. Leaving the bike entirely is the only thing left to do. In quick succession, the four-man team had gone from doing basic wheelies and handstands to Mission: Impossible 2-style endos (a rear-wheel wheelie) to standing on the seats, their arms spread to the wind, a ghost rider at the helm. Totally abandoning the bike is obviously the next step.

“The Triple Xtreme guys are one of the best [teams], especially as far as control,” says Nadine Moser, co-creator of www.stuntlife.com, a resource site for extreme bikers. “There are a lot of sloppy acts out there, but this is one you’re never afraid to watch.”

“How do they do that?” asks Carl Rankin, a spectator from Wellington watching a riderless bike streak by.

The Triple Xtreme team, which also includes Matt Gorka of Fort Lauderdale, Anthony D’Orsi of Deerfield Beach and alternate member Joe Brown of Boca Raton, probably won’t be filling Rankin in on all the details of that particular stunt. “If it’s someone we know has the skills, we’ll have them come out to a practice and show them some stuff,” Woods says.

“It’s the novices we have to be careful with,” adds Brown, 27, who recently won a freestyle stunt competition in Gainesville.

“But if a guy just wants to learn to spin the bike on its kickstand to look cool or something, we’ll get ’em started,” Woods offers.

Although 15 curious riders might approach them today, another 50 bikers in the crowded stands will simply make a mental note to give a certain stunt a try next time they’re on the Sawgrass Expressway at 3 in the morning. “That’s the thing; amateurs pick up on stuff we do and even start to master it quickly, so you have to always do more. It never ends,” says D’Orsi, 25, who closed a successful motorcycle shop in New Jersey to compete in freestyle competitions such as the upcoming StuntWars in Lakeland (Feb. 8) and do exhibitions around the country.

“To keep ahead of everybody these days, we use dangerous as a starting point and go from there,” Woods says. “It’s always, ‘What if I do this and what if I do that? What if I flip off the back of the bike and grab onto the seat?’ Let’s put it this way: You know you’re in it for real when you say to yourself, ‘This may be the last thing I ever do,’ and then go ahead and do it.”

The outlaws

Triple Xtreme is trying to take the sport of stunt riding to a legitimate plane. But its members are not far-removed from the streets. “It’s impossible. We’ve become outlaws simply by being involved in this,” Woods admits. “Due to the liability, there’s no place to practice. Even [at Moroso], they only allow us 30 minutes of practice before performing.”

South says the park is leery of liability with stunt riders. Even though stunt riding may seem no more dangerous than a dragster flaming down the track in seven seconds, races are highly regulated with mandatory helmets, fire extinguishers and roll cages. “How do you regulate a guy on a motorcycle flipping through the air?” South asks.

That’s a good question, and the main reason why Triple Xtreme rehearses in secluded warehouse areas in Broward and Palm Beach counties. “Anywhere with a big empty parking lot,” Brown explains.

“Anywhere we can find away from the police,” Woods adds. “Every good warehouse gets busted sooner or later. Buddies don’t say anything, but word gets out. And before you know it, you’ve got 300 people showing up to watch, and it’s all over. Spots are all right until ambulances come.”

The sport bikes, also known as café racers, are built for aggressive riders. “That’s what we exemplify,” says the 28-year-old Gorka.

Pioneers of stunt riding, the members of Triple Xtreme are near descendants of the infamous Miami Zoo Crew, the local daredevils who made a name for themselves by pulling antics on public streets. At the height of the Zoo Crew’s exposure a couple of years ago, it was not uncommon to see a member dressed as a superfurry animal flying down I-95 backward while standing at attention atop the bike’s seat.

The group produced Jackass-style videos documenting their feats such as Miami Zoo Crew: Unleashed. The crew began making public appearances until one day … they just disappeared.

Word on the street is that a couple of members were killed in action. They became urban legends, and it’s easy to conjure up images of their hairy ghosts swooping down the Glades Interchange at 190 mph in reverse.

“No, they’re not dead,” Woods says. “Some of their friends might have been killed, some of the people that rode with them. But not them.”

In a way, this news is kind of a letdown as far as biker folklore goes, but the original members of the Miami Zoo Crew — Cosmo, Leo and Junior — are very much alive. “We just don’t really do local stuff anymore,” says Cosmo who, like all the club’s members, goes by only a first name.

 

The reasons for shutting down are many. Chief among them: an overabundance of people doing the same stunts; the fact that Zoo Crew alumni now own successful businesses so therefore have more to lose if they do become ghosts; and as Cosmo explains, “We’re dinosaurs now.”

“I’m 30,” he says. “Besides, it was supposed to be fun, and that’s how it was in the start. But then, it turned into a business, which means it became work. We were never into that.”

Thanks to their videos and a couple of reality-TV-type features in Germany and other parts of Europe, the Zoo Crew now has a large fan base overseas. “They love the street stuff, so we still make appearances at international events,” Cosmo says.

They only do exhibitions. “You drop your bike, it’ll cost you more than the prize money you can win these days,” Cosmo continues.

To many people, the Miami Zoo Crew and Woods’ team are seen as pioneers in the sport of stunt riding. “But that’s not really the case, because it didn’t just come out of the blue. This is a huge sport in Europe with a point system and everything,” Cosmo says. “And sooner or later, corporate America is going to grab a hold of it here, and who knows what will happen.”

Woods and the Triple Xtreme team are poising themselves to take advantage of the situation if and when the sport explodes. “It’s nowhere near being established. There’s no Tony Hawk of this sport yet, no God on a bike,” Matt Gorka says. “It’s not on ESPN every weekend.”

So possibilities are wide-open for one of them to become God on a bike. “We’re even looking into creating our own organization. There’s no sanctioned body for this sport, no NSRA [National Street Rod Association], no NFL,” D’Orsi says. “We’re working on that now — for riders by riders.”

While Gorka makes a living as a mortgage broker, the team’s other members are full-time stunt riders. “Between the practice, the maintenance and the performing, you almost have to be,” Brown explains.

“I sacrificed everything to do this,” D’Orsi says. “My father doesn’t understand. My mother can’t even look at it. And as far as money goes, it’s not working. But am I reaching my goals? Yes.”

Since Woods founded Triple Xtreme about six years ago, several members of the team have rotated in and out. “There’s always turnover, because we can train guys all day long, and they’ll all do pretty good — because they haven’t wrecked yet,” Woods says. “That’s the true test. When you get out of the hospital and get right back on the bike, then, it’s a career.

Woods’ injuries have included numerous broken bones — three ribs, a wrist, an ankle, both collarbones, three vertebrae, “Oh, and eight concussions,” he says.

Brown has also had his share of spills. “Some guys will just stop after a bad fall,” he says. “I couldn’t wait to get back on the bike. I was riding with a sling and brace.”

Although they wear the traditional helmets, leather jackets and jeans, the team’s members ride without extra protection of any kind. “Your skill is your protection,” D’Orsi says. “People may view us as outlaw dudes. They think we act crazy, and we do. But in life-and-death situations, we’re a level-headed group.”

Only Gorka, the mortgage broker, wears a hard sheath, called a spine protector. “[For] peace of mind,” he says.

Who’s your daddy?

“I’m the dad,” D’Orsi says of his role on the team. “I’m the one who pushes the practices and the workouts. It’s a very physical sport.”

Both D’Orsi and Gorka are bodybuilders. “And I get everybody doing everything from weights to water aerobics. We have to train like any other professional athlete,” D’Orsi says. “I won’t be happy until I’m on a Wheaties box.”

All the members exude a team mentality, but individually, at freestyle competitions, they compete against one another to the death. “That’s when the crazy stuff comes out. When you separate the men from the boys,” Woods explains.

“People don’t realize that some of the hardest stuff to do on a bike isn’t necessarily flashy,” notes the Zoo Crew’s Cosmo. “The stunts bikers do to impress each other are much different, but you can’t forget showmanship.”

The pressure is always on for the riders to top themselves. “We get a lot of regulars here, so they get tired of seeing the same stunts over and over. No matter how scary it may look, they still get bored,” Moroso’s South says. “These days, the crowds want to know, ‘What’s next, what’s next? OK, we saw that. What else have you got?’ ”

Brown agrees: “You have to stay on your game. You can’t get comfortable.”

Right now, the phones are blowing up at Woods’ house, because word has gotten out that Triple Xtreme has mastered a new stunt. The number of inquiries have forced him to record an answer machine message that says, “Don’t even ask. I’m not telling you about the new stunt.”

“It’s a psychological thing,” he says. “Someone who wasn’t supposed to be at one of our spots saw us practicing it. Every year at the StuntWars, there’s a ‘sickest trick’ category, and we’ve come up with something different. It’s kind of leaked out.”

Most of the Xtreme team met when competing against one another at various meets. Brown is originally from the Bronx, where the emphasis is more on how pretty your bike looks than how skilled a rider you are. He hooked up with Woods at a stunt fest. “We were both doing the same type of things, and we clicked,” Brown says. “That’s how I met Matt, too.”

“I met Kyle at a StuntWars riding competition in Tulsa,” D’Orsi says. “He knew I was a free agent. And last year, I went full-time.”

Each member seems to have naturally progressed to this point. “One day, you see a guy rockin’ a wheelie, then you’re trying to do it in second gear. And the next thing you know, you’re standing on the seat,” D’Orsi says.

“I had a dirt bike at 11 and went through skateboarding and all that stuff,” Woods recalls. “One day, I was standing up on the seat and going down the road, and my Dad was like, ‘Whoa!’ ”

Woods’ father has accepted his son’s choice of profession. “[My parents] see what I’m doing at this point, and it makes a big difference,” Woods says.

Although still far-removed from the mainstream, the Triple Xtreme team has attracted several sponsors, including Alpinestars Leather, Bob Marley Footwear, Sportbike Decals and EPI Bodywork. One sponsor, Custom Creations in Lantana, specializes in sport bikes and stripped-down street fighters. “Unlike in Europe, the sport is still seen like a rebellious thing here,” says Chris Schuette, the store’s owner. “But that’s how skateboarding and snowboarding started, and look how big they are today.” With the release this Friday of Torque, a stunt-bike-intensive movie starring Ice Cube and produced by the makers of The Fast and the Furious, the mainstreaming of the sport may be closer than anyone even realizes.

“All our efforts now are toward going legit,” Woods says. “Doing stunts on the highway and stuff — we’re staying away from that now.”

Woods has appeared in 2 Fast 2 Furious and CSI: Miami and worked as a stunt coordinator on other productions. “It all helps,” he says.

The Miami Zoo Crew has even taken some of the Triple Xtreme team with it to perform in Europe. “Kyle is one of the top riders around, so if he puts a group together, you know they’re going to be good,” Cosmo says.

With so much interest in stunt riding, Woods is also looking into opening a school so, for a price, everyone can learn how to do endos at the family picnic. “Liability is tough, but a track on the west coast of Florida seems like they may be open to it,” he says.

Yet this is merely busywork as the team waits for the sport to explode. “We’ll probably be the guys in rocking chairs when riders are finally making real money at this,” Gorka says, putting his helmet on for the day’s second performance at Moroso. “I better get out there.”

 

damn thats a long article, where did you find it at?

 

i read about 15% of it.

 

good article were did you find it???