Wheelies

[Volvi]

All-Moto correspondence of the month: “I think I told you about a case I had, defending a rider who was charged with riding in a manner dangerous to the public as a result of doing a 50 metre wheelie at 11.30 on a weekday morning down the highway, in front of two cops in a divvy wagon. The magistrate convicted him, but a Supreme Court judge allowed the appeal. He accepted that because there was no one else immediately in front of or beside the rider, there was no danger to the public. The Crown ran the argument that he should have been found guilty of riding in a manner that was inherently dangerous. My response was to argue that the evidence was that he could still steer the bike by weight transfer, could still brake by using the rear brake, and the bike was obviously stable because it would have fallen over otherwise. The judge agreed that there was no evidence that the wheelie was inherently dangerous. He also accepted that it would be unfair to send the matter back to the magistrate for the police to lead more evidence, and accepted with some interest the copy of an article from 'Performance Bikes' (UK) December 2000 'The Weighting Game' which analysed cornering, wheelies and stoppies by the application of Newtons Laws."