Friends, we are here to help you out. In that vein, we try to bring you not only stories about new motorcycles, very cool custom motorcycles, and motorcycle technology, but also the occasional “do not do” cautionary tale. In this instance, we refer to on-road hooliganism coupled with bragging about that hooliganism on social media.
Do Not Do:
You may ask what the big deal is, right? We all exceed the speed limit on occasion. Sure, but do we then post our shenanigans on YouTube? Are said shenanigans extreme enough to get the local constabulary interested in your whereabouts? Maybe either posting your (fun but not over the top) ride to social media or performing a little bit of hooliganism once in a while on an empty road is mostly OK. The combination, however, can be very bad news for you and for everyone whose license plate appears in your video.
A group of Spanish riders learned this over the past year, since that is the time it took for their local police to track them down. Based on a video one of them recorded during a particularly–-let’s call it enthusiastic–-ride, then posted on the internet, police took note. This video wasn’t the only one, just the one that piqued the interest of law enforcement. The erstwhile cameraman had already reportedly posted somewhere in the vicinity of 50 (yes fifty) other fun flicks of his friends and himself terrorizing their local countryside en moto.
It sure looked like they were having a whole bunch of fun riding on the wrong side of the road, passing cars and other bikes in their lane of travel, passing over a solid center line, and thoroughly and repeatedly exceeding the speed limit. Perhaps any one of these infractions, or just one or two YouTube vids, wouldn’t have drawn the eye of the Guardia Civil, but combined, this pattern of behavior had law enforcement extremely interested in this group of riders.
The area in the recording above is near Logrono, Spain, and for obvious reasons is very popular with motorcyclists. The views, the road, and the twisties in this section known as “Mataburros” (Donkey killer? Yikes.) all combine to make a pretty spectacular riding destination.
The cops did a little online research into the profile of the videographer. With the unfortunately extensive amount of evidence he volunteered, they were able to identify ten of the riders involved. Those riders have been charged with a combined two crimes and 39 road safety violations, which, all told, will run them 14,100 Euros (a touch over $15K US) in fines and 132 collective points on their driving licenses. Oops.
Source: MoreBikes, ABC, VisorDown, YouTube