Episode Transcript

Off road action is brought to you by shop, truck tires.com for the best prices on tires. Go to shop truck tires.com

today. It's high flying two wheel and phone crushing four wheel action.

Upstate New Yorkers know how to stay warm in the winter. At the snow scramble.

The cycle daredevil try a world record jump in Vegas.

These Dakota Crawlers ascend the waterfall

and you've got to have a screw loose to do motorcycle demo derby.

You've got to see it to believe it. We're crisscrossing the country in search of off road action.

Welcome to the show guys. I'm your host, MEREDITH. We

the next half hour should be very entertaining since we're going to take you to some off road events, some you've never seen before.

Let's get started by getting a bit poetic. In upstate New York.

The 17th century poet George Herbert wrote Every mile is too in the winter. These men who came to the unforgiving woods in upstate New York may not know who George Herbert was, but they sure know what he meant.

Just man and machine against mother nature.

You're just crazy,

crazy people coming and riding the stuff,

not just riding on the snow, but racing in it straight into the unknown,

you really don't know what's out there. There's

big roots out there,

rots and everything out of there. You really don't know what's out there.

It's really

kind of terror

because everybody's bunched together.

When you hit the tree roots and jumps and things, there's no forgiveness. You hit the ground, it's pretty hard even though you think it wouldn't be.

But, uh, so it's a lot, it's a lot more challenging than in the summer.

You know, I'll probably be wearing a smile for at least a week or two. You're gonna need a hammer to beat it off for me.

A hammer would work and so would slamming into a tree.

There's bar busters on that for a reason, you know, and it's because you're gonna, you might whack some trees here and there. So,

yeah, it's really tough in the woods.

Unexplainable feeling when you're going towards the tree and, you know, you're gonna hit it

just cringe and take it,

hit trees isn't good. They're not our friends. You try to avoid them. Uh,

sometimes two of us will tangle together, two riders and bounce each other into trees. Trees may hurt, but that's nothing compared to getting a tire in the leg.

Bikes. Tear up the flush pretty good and do a flush one. That's not very good. Boy, when you get in that snow at night, you gotta have the trouble

board spike tires. If you look at the tires, we're using big spikes sticking out of the tires. You know, because

that's the only way you can do it. Otherwise you'd be on your butt every 15 people.

You gotta be crazy or stupid up here. That's all there is to. It can't give a fly out here.

We look like we're in control but we're not,

power is not your friend. Like you're coming into the corner and the tires won't even grip the ground or anything. You know, you're just sliding around and you gotta just pin the motorcycle to try to get this thing straightened back up. You're like flapping your legs and everything

for those who have tried to ride in the sand. I think it's real similar. You kind of the bikes all over the place, you slide around a lot and it's hard to keep the front wheel underneath

you.

I

mean, I'm 18,

I'm almost too old for this.

No complaining because Joe

Aess has been at this game for almost 40 years.

I've been riding up here for quite a long time

back years ago. It was

spare tires and that's it.

No suds, no screws.

Nothing.

Spend more time on the ground than did on the bike.

Spending time on the ground didn't intimidate. Papa Joe.

I thought I'd try it one

once and

I got right and it, it was just made the su uh winter go so much faster.

And just sitting at home doing nothing controlling your

THS

drinking beer.

We can drink out of that true kid done

at

68. He's still putting in the laps and enjoying that post race.

Bruski. I still enjoy it.

I

look forward to the, the week and coming out,

just get away from home and do something.

He may be 68 but it's his riding that's earned the respect of the younger generation.

He's pretty much one of the toughest guys I've ever met. He's broken all sorts of bones, ankles, wrists, collarbones, everything you could speak of. He still comes out and rides with.

He's incredible. I, I cheer him on out here. You know, every time I see him, I hope I'm still doing it when I'm his age. That's all I can say.

You never know when you're gonna

be able to do it anymore.

As long as I can do it, I'll be here. That's all I know.

As you can see, it's a cold New York day seven below at my house.

Everything's getting frozen up today. It's,

it's hard to get these things to run.

It was so bad. In fact, before you guys got here, I had to take a hammer

and break away, but the wheels were frozen.

I tell you

no.

For the racers there was just no way to really escape the bitter cold.

You got experience to really know what it's like out here in the cold when your hands lock up on you,

it's totally different in the summertime.

By halfway through the race, you start to lose feeling in your two fingers that you normally use on the clutch and also on the break, they start to go numb and it's really hard to hold on by the end of the race. You just, you just want to get over because your hands hurt so bad.

Cold sucks.

However, that wasn't gonna stop these men from doing what they love

better than sitting home chasing my wife around the couch. You know, this is, this is where it's at.

Uh,

some people say we're crazy but we live for uh racing motorcycles.

They probably are thinking we're nuts. But you know, we love this. You can't stop. It's like a disease. Once you do it, you just,

you can't stop

and we're not going to stop because after the break, we're headed back into the woods for more snow scramble.

And later on the show, kids don't try this at home

Daytona Bike Week brings out the crazy that the motorcycle demo derby and so

show you got to see it to believe it.

Welcome back to off road action where we're taking a break from the summer heat by chilling out in the Catskills.

We don't put our bikes away at winter time.

We put our trolleys on and we race despite rain, sleet, snow and frigid temperatures. Square deal riders have been putting on these races since 1937.

This tells you what, uh, we love the sport and, uh, maybe more than this something to do in the winter, you know, keeps you in shape, gets you ready for the summer time and it's a good time. I know all these people, they're all my friends. This is great out here. My dad got me into it. He, he come up here when he was,

he was young. I was Bruce Barney. He rode up there and

you know, we come up here, he comes with me, supports me 100% up here. He comes up here with me every weekend and we love it. Close to 100 racers came to compete in 16 classes including those big bad A TV S.

Yeah, the A TV S leave two ruts. So it gets difficult because you have a lot of loose snow on the outside and in the center rut. So, uh you bouncing back and forth and just hoping you don't go down, trying not to go down was Kevin Herrera who was running a 74 Honda Elsinore. I think of the guys that originated and pioneered the Motocross and that rode these and

you know, it was more of a man and physical thing to go fast on one of these.

He wasn't going fast but he sure was grinning ear to ear.

There's nothing like the sound in the ring ding with the, the, the high pitched wine with the sausage pipe that goes down underneath,

you know, take a real beating in the woods here and,

you know, beating totally flat underneath there,

pounding on the tree roots and

rocks and

everything else for Kevin. This machine is more than metal gears and gas.

I've had this way longer than any women that I've ever had in my life.

And, uh,

it sure complains a lot less too. I'll have this bike for, you know, forever for as long as I love

good old vintage racer. Still take the liquor and keeps on ticking.

17 of the top snow racers in the world were running in the expert class

competition. It's pretty tough out here. Bike to bike,

run it

back all the way around

and sometimes there are tires locked up together.

It's gonna be pretty, pretty

gnarly

with

the powder.

It was gnarly as some of these guys ate more snow than a thirsty Eskimo.

Chris Smith has six Isde gold medals to his name and he showed off his skills in the snows of upstate New York.

But you have to be really easy, really smooth on the throttle and then pick your spots every once in a while it'll smooth out and you can kind of accelerate and get your speed back up. But

it's, uh,

you know, it's like more of a delicate touch while you're riding

Smith's first race ever was here back in 1986.

And it was the most horrifying experience of my life. I came here with no studs on my tires, just bare rubber tires and I crashed every 15 ft. I think I was

crying at the end of the race. I think I was bawling.

No crying this time as Chris made his triumphant return easily finishing ahead of Adam Wilson and Ken Chamberlain for the win

and I appreciate all those guys out there whooping it up, man. That's what makes it all worthwhile.

I was ready to stop at that bonfire at a certain point. That that had been good enough for me.

It's the best man. I'm telling you anybody who's never been here. You don't know what you're missing

this season. The Square Deal Rider celebrate their 71st anniversary as a motorcycle club

and they still hold their eight race no series every winter

when we come back, Daytona Bike Week. Like you've never seen it.

Motorcycle Demolition derby when off road action continues.

Bike week in Daytona can mean a lot of things,

a chance to escape the winter weather show off your trick new motorcycle or temporarily lose your sanity.

Let's head to the Florida coastline for more

the daytime. They're out here to see what's here. They want to see all the different motorcycles when the sun goes down. It's party time

during bike week, all the action happens nightly down on main street

and this party had exactly what the bikers came for

a

lot of motorcycles and wild women.

I

like

it.

They didn't have to get involved in the craziness to enjoy this show.

All

the people come by

it.

What am I looking

at?

I'm looking at all the beautiful lights going by and all the beautiful women that are either riding them or on the back of them.

My great

watching the theater,

watching all different flights

down here. There's a feeling of anything goes, but there's some things you just can't get away with

when main street becomes too much. There is always the motorcycle demolition derby and stunt show.

Oh, yeah, it's not,

I mean, it's not,

it's

great

love

every minute

of it. It's the craziest place I've ever been in

a whole lot for the two wheeled main event. These four wheeled thrill seekers put life and limb on the line for the fans.

They love to see fire. They love to see cars getting a wreck

and getting blown off. I mean, the more fire, the more mayhem,

the more crazy,

the more they love it they put on a good show. He loves it.

He saw it a couple of years ago. He loves, he loves coming out.

Going big was the junkyard dog. We hit this first car about 60 miles an hour. He'll knock it up in the air, flip cart wheels and land behind you.

Then you go to the next one and it hopefully jumps up in the air and you just drive under it.

Hopefully, this was his second attempt at the wall of steel. I did this, tried to do this stunt here back in October

and missed my mark

and ended up being carried off to the hospital. And

I haven't done it since a trip to the hospital wasn't gonna stop the junkyard dog from Destiny. If

you ask me, I'm having fun. You ask my wife, I'm,

I'm trying to kill myself. It's definitely the crowd is, is the biggest thing for me. I love pleasing the fans.

I'd rather get paid $500 than work in front of 10

1000 people than to get paid $1000 and work, you know, 200. He earned his coup on this night. It worked pretty good. I got a little beat on my hand when the car came down on the windshield and

actually pinned my, my hand under the windshield between the car. It was, I was landing on me on my, on my steering wheel. But

oh, if that's all that's good, man, I can live with that. Fred Sly and his little red beer hauler took his role as warm up hack. Literally

hot air coming out of the back of this is just

subsonic, about 600 miles an hour and about 780

°C

which is about 1500

°F,

right? It's very hot,

comes out of an F 94 star fire fighter plane. It is wild

with the crowd fired up. It was time for the craziest event during Daytona Bike week. Kids don't try this at home.

All volunteers out of the crowd sucker born every minute. We'll give them a bike.

There wasn't a shortage of suckers all going for the top prize.

When you win,

you get the height of stupidity. That's all

flat track raced and Motocross when I was a kid and drag race. So,

uh, this is where I ended up. I guess.

I know. I have no idea why it suddenly occurred to me. Hey, I need to do a bike demo. Derby.

Three rounds would determine the winner and after the first event they were loving it. Oh, man, my heart's just pumping like crazy. I mean, this is,

it's crazy.

The first round

of

Wisconsin's Shane Watkins earned the nickname Suicide Sideways because he wasn't afraid to take some blows or get a little bloody

head

blacked out.

It looked like just, you know, when you hit it's kind of

sparks and then

pretty good adrenaline rush going on out there though. I'm sweating and everything

making it through to the end was X racer. Doug Brinkley. It was wild. It was,

it was all about the control of the bike just

quick short spins and

all that. I mean,

and there's nothing better than his flamer to cap off the knife.

Now we were there and saw each participant have to fill out a waiver about this long. Now, those guys were absolutely crazy.

This next guy does stunts for a living

outside of the Knievel family. There are not many jobs like this. Ryan Capes is a professional distance jumper. A professional. A

lot of these guys say they're stout men or Daredevils, but

that's not what I'm about. You know, I,

I take calculated risks. He currently holds the record for the second longest jump ever at 247 ft, but he's consumed by one single goal to be the first to jump 300.

There's a lot of guys that claim

that they're gonna do this and jump 300 ft.

I call them all out on it because, you know, I'm the only guy doing it right now,

cocky or confident. Just ask his team.

Ryan's got the skills to pay the bills,

full confidence, full throttle all the way to the ramp

that

it's a new world record

one

and the proof is in the tape,

new world record.

Las Vegas, Nevada. Ryan takes

ramp to dirt

traveled 260 ft

to beat his own record of 247 ft

and he did it in fourth gear.

I had plenty of room to hold my gear, you know, wide open to get the top speed that I need to do the record

and, uh, held around 72 miles an hour

and, uh,

preloaded off the ramp as hard as I can to give me maximum pop

and uh

sell three cords way down the Lanny and stuck 260.

Since we take that story, Ryan has broken the 300 ft mark and then some

this year he got 353 ft ramp to dirt in Royal Washington.

We're back on off road action where we're taking you to Rapid City for some black hills for w

yeah,

for 23 years, the Black Hills four Wheelers have put on one of the toughest trail rides in the country.

The Dakota territory challenge.

There's usually 100 rigs from all over the country that come out here

to wheel with us for four days

just so they can come out here and do the hardest nastiest stuff that we have to offer.

Located west of Rapid City. The 50 plus trails all have one common denominator.

They're full of big nasty rocks. They don't know what to expect when they come to the challenge

and they come and they're going, oh my gosh. Look at this, you know, and it's,

it's all rocks, you know, and it's fun rocks.

I pray to the rock gods. This is my church. It's amazing how much fun you can have every time you come out because you can take different lines. The obstacles do change throughout the day and throughout the year, depending on rainfalls and other people throwing rocks around. So you pretty much can learn new stuff. Every time you come out,

Jason Pauley grew up on these trails and as a pro rock crawler and rig builder, he knows what it takes to conquer the Black Hills.

These trails are pretty tough. A good, good suspension is great quality of parts

and really well built rig really helps the day.

He built his latest creation for Mike and Josey, nor who were making the Black Hill trails look very easy.

It's cool. It's a third day out with it, you know, still getting used to it, but it's, uh,

works awesome and it's really fun.

They had a pretty sweet CJ seven

they had for years and years and kind of reached a point where they needed something, maybe a little bit more radical. We used a lot of used parts off his old rig just to keep the price down quite a bit.

Um, his axles

and, uh, tranny and transportation. All that stuff are used from his old vehicle, but it was very good pieces. This motor is a little bit bizarre. Mike and Jose decided to do something a little bit crazy. They ended up with an all aluminum dual overhead cam Lexus motor of an SC 400 looks pretty radical. Runs great. 265 horses seems to be plenty for anything. He, he's wanting to do with it for the steering. We went with a pretty radical way to do it. It's a fully hydraulic system,

ra M

it offers great power, really good reliability. It does offer great high speed and low speed.

You never have any kick back to the steering wheel. So even big rocks you can drive with ease. The body on this buggy does resemble an old CJ like they used to have. We put some pretty fancy paint on it to make it look cool and it's brand new and they found some really cool street rod tail lights to put on it.

You better not like your body

and you will get damaged out here.

You hear the scraping, but I'm used to that sound by now.

You can tell that I don't much care if I bump a rock or, or when I'm going around a corner,

but take your time and go through the trails. Right. And you have really good spotters. You can get through them and not damage anything majorly and have a good time. I mainly have to work them a little bit and rocky them around, but we can get them through.

Got

some of the hard stuff included, this mud covered waterfall,

just transmission damage today.

An eagle. Once the first guy goes o over it, it gets a little slick, gets a little mud on it and then

it makes it a little bit harder. The couple undercuts that are there.

Hopefully we'll get to the top on the first round.

It takes more than optimism to get through this obstacle

and although the trail may have gotten the best of Ray this time. He'll always come back to the challenge. Come back every year. It's a lot of fun. So

everybody should definitely check it out. You will like South Dakota Wheeling. It's uh some of the funnest around. Most definitely,

the Black Hills four Wheelers hold the territory challenge every Labor Day weekend,

bring your trucks, trailers and a whole lot of touch of pain.

That's it for

action this week, I'm your host. Me

keeping it off the pavement.
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