Nick Apex and E-Dub from Team Outermost terrorize Tokyo, and give Japanese stunters a taste of the American styleAllegedly, you can't enter Japan to perform in a stunt contest or any other sort of public event without a special work visa, and you also can't bring in any merchandise without plenty of customs paperwork. So how exactly Ernie "E-Dub" Vigil and I got through the Narita airport in Tokyo with two Racing 905 crash cages, two Full Throttle hand brakes, two cases of Go Fast energy drink, 500 posters, 200 DVDs and a grip of SRH clothing without special visas just by claiming it was "a gift for a friend" remains a bit of a mystery. But so does most of what happened on our trip over to Japan this past fall.
E-Dub and I were in Tokyo at the invitation of Jason Fullington, owner of J-Style Inc. in Musashimurayama (we couldn't pronounce it either), to perform stunt exhibitions to build excitement for an international stunt competition called Multiplex featuring a barrage of U.S. stunt riders that Fullington is planning to host in April 2006. It turns out that Japanese bike fans are mad about stunting, which became evident during our exhibition. More than 12,000 fans showed up in force to watch us ride, in addition to drift and grip car racing demos, supermotard events and the craziest variation of scooter racing imaginable. The stuntriders were designated a spot to ride and despite the fact that it was Japanese-sized (slightly larger than a postage stamp, in other words) the local stunters took turns showing us Americans what they had to offer. From what we witnessed, they have been doing their homework. When it was our turn, the locals went wild for what E-Dub and I whipped up. Tricks like a saran-wrap circle would have the Japanese crowd and riders alike jumping up and down in this land where rev-limiter coasters are considered cutting-edge stunts.
After the show was over, we spent a few days running around Odaiba, Shinjuku, Ginza, and Shibuya districts of Tokyo. Shibuya-or, as we took to calling it, "Shabooty"-was the bees-knees, where girls outnumber guys in what seems to be a ratio of nearly 20:1. Despite all the amazing girls we encountered, E-Dub's met his true love in "Lucy." She was the finest vending machine we had ever laid eyes on. The lovely Lucy pumped out both hot and cold beverages, coffee and half-sized Cokes and something called Ginger Power with a taste remarkably similar to flaming dirt. We hope to return in April to continue our tales at the Multiplex show-not to mention, E-Dub longs for the love of his sweet Lucy. Only in Japan
Shanghai SurpriseTexas madman Patrick Stephens lays some wreck on Chinese motorcycle fans in what was probably the first-ever street stunt exhibition in the People's Republic
With a population of roughly 1.3 billion people, China is the most densely populated nation in the world. And even though we have no doubt that among those 1.3 billion souls there is probably every possible personality type represented, we're pretty sure that there's no one in China quite like Texas's inimitable Patrick Stephens. Part-time male stripper, part-time stunter and full-time lunatic, Stephens recently gave the People's Republic of China the good old "Hucklebuck" when his friend and entrepreneur Jim Frank, owner of Classic World Imports, arranged a two-week promotional tour of Hong Kong and the surrounding area to gauge Chinese interest in American-style stunting and raise excitement for a possible series of future stunt shows by Stephens in China.
After a grueling 19-hour flight from his hometown of Dallas to Hong Kong International Airport, Stephens was able to meet up with his Chinese sponsors and get acquainted with the borrowed stuntbike he would be riding, a gray-market Honda CBR900RR complete with makeshift scrape bar hastily affixed to the back. While there he would travel around the country and perform impromptu stunt shows for audiences as diverse as Super Car magazine, Chinese motorcycle manufacturers and motorcycle dealerships in the city of Shanghai. To say that the Chinese fans were receptive to his act might be an understatement: "It was movie-star treatment all the way, and crowds were crazy," Stephens says. "People were begging me to wheelie their own bikes-I must have wheelied 20 different kinds of bikes over there."
Stephens did a little sightseeing on the side as well, taking some time to explore and learn about the history and culture of one of the oldest civilizations in the world. "It was cool to visit someplace with so much history and to experience a new culture," Stephens says. "The architecture is truly amazing, especially in the modern cities like Shanghai-there's such a futuristic quality to it." The only bad part, Stephens said, was the insane local drivers. "Everyone drives worse then I do over there." That's saying something, coming from the mouth of a guy with 270 traffic tickets on his record.
At the end of the trip, Stephens left China with a sponsorship contract with German moped/motorcycle manufacturer Sachs and also a tentative invitation to return to the country in May of 2006 to perform an exhibition during the Chinese round of the World MotoGP Championship at the recently opened Shanghai International Circuit. An opportunity to be a part of the world's biggest motorcycle racing series in one of the world's biggest cities-sounds like just the ticket for an oversized personality like Stephens.
Word: Larry "Spiderman" McbrideLarry "Spiderman" McBride (so named for the arachnid-like way he crawls around on his Top Fueler at 200-plus mph) talks about what it's like to ride the most insane motorcycle on earth, one that does 0-to-243 mph in under six seconds and rearranges your internal organs in the process.
How long have you been riding top fuel bikes? I've been doing it 26 years now.
What was your greatest moment? We (McBride and his brother/tuner, Steve-Ed.) were the first drag bike to go into the 5-second bracket, back in 1999 at 5.99 and 243mph. We are still the only ones who have been in the 5s; last year in Richmond, Virginia, we did back-to-back five-second runs five times in a row.
What the hell is that bike you ride anyways? It's "based" on a Kawasaki inline four, but it's all handmade. The motors are made over in England by a guy named Peter Daveys at Puma Engineering. Our rods are small-block Chevrolet pieces, and the crank is based off a small block Chevrolet crank as well. It's 1400cc displacement with a supercharger, burning nitromethane, and it puts out around 1000 horsepower.
Do you ever get nervous riding something like that? Actually, I'm pretty calm on the bike. It's before I get on the motorcycle that I'm nervous. I have a lot of respect for the bike. Everybody I've ever seen even ride a bike-even a streetbike-without respect ends up getting hurt.
Do you ride on the street? Yeah, I've got a ZX-12R-all stock. I have about 50 motorcycles, actually, but most are little small old bikes-Honda 65s, Honda 70s, Honda 90s, Z50s, QA 50s that kind of stuff. Ironic, huh?