Posts Tagged ‘motorcycles’

NOTICE: these embedded social media posts may contain profanity and sensitive content.

Admins note: this post may still be updated as more footage surface.

We warned people about being on this section of 270 today between 2 PM and 5 PM – and almost on cue – that was the time the worst delays happened when the Ride of the Century went through.  What we did not expect to happen was that the group split into two units with one group staying west on 70 towards 170 then made its way on eastbound 270; and another larger group going across the McKinley Bridge.

It was very clear that the smaller group that ended up going eastbound was the most hardcore stunt motorcyclists that the ride had – complete with the ATVs:

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Photo by Danielle de Villiers. Used with permission.

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Photo by Danielle de Villiers. Used with permission.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B2aGbAznVV8/

There was a larger group that went the traditional route and opted to livestream which made it much easier for the one admin to watch cameras of the much smaller group.

Almost as soon it hit the canal bridge, there was an incident that was not caught by that livestream that froze westbound traffic for a few moments:

https://www.instagram.com/p/B2cqjqEgeXM/

The first rider involved in the crash had shoulder and hand injuries but walked away from the crash. The other two riders later posted social media posts:

https://www.instagram.com/p/B2alo_knHZl/

One of the riders allegedly involved in the canal bridge incident shared this status update – she walked away as well and appears to be heartbroken. Please remember she was not able to avoid the incident – and admins here run on a no fault system when it comes to incidents.

This was very scary as it understandably caused westbound traffic to go to an halt to make sure everyone was okay:

Other footage is starting to show up as well:

https://www.instagram.com/p/B2fGmhvHCt1/

I’m later learning that the groups may had split because some of the riders went to check out an alleged incident on westbound 70 near the city/county line:

Remember that these riders often see strength in numbers and this is why you often see large groups of them doing wheelies and other stunts – with the ones most likely doing the stuff in the front of the pack. While that canal bridge incident froze westbound traffic – because the ones that botched the stunt was in the front of the pack the rest of the pack was able to see it and freeze all the traffic to make sure they were okay, clean up the wreckage with support vehicles, and get back going again.

What are below are some of the MoDOT traffic camera images. The camera in my own iPhone (which I had for less than a year) recently messed up and I couldn’t livestream as a result. I was in fact supposed to work that day but a looming GM Strike changed that plan (as I work for a supplier).

UPDATE 10/15/19 – there was a second incident on the bridges

It sounds like a broken record that has to repeated every September but the dangerous and illegal tradition known as the Ride of the Century makes its infamous return this weekend. With this tradition brings antics that while seen at other times of the year – tends to be at the very peak during this specific event.

It will not help that good weather is expected for the weekend AND IDOT and MoDOT have weekend closures on alternate routes, especially the one on 55/70. Although it is eastbound the closure will put more I-70 cross country traffic through this section of 270.

But the big story is the Ride itself, and it is not expected that the admins will be at the event due to other commitments that just happened to be on the same date. (One of them has to be at work, and another has to go to work right after the event.)

I will not go into specifics on this post except that between 2 PM and 4 PM on Saturday there could be at least 2000 motorcycles and even ATVs on the public highways – causing traffic delays and other headaches. Most of the participants will be having GoPro cameras mounted and some will even live stream the event. Instead, you can go back to these links from previous years. This is a very dangerous tradition that dates from 2000 and this group loves to make its way down this section of 270 (they have virtually done it every year except for 2013).  (Note they did in 2014 but the event was so low profile there is not a lot of footage thus there was no post – and it happened while North County was already heated from the Ferguson protests.)

2011 Event

2012 Event

2015 Event

2016 Event

2017 Event

2018 Event

They do all the stupid stuff including alleged instances of nudity (notable incident from 2010 on the canal bridge is not being posted due to the NSFW and suggestive content), wheelies, burnouts, blocking all traffic, and other dangerous stuff.ride of century risk

DISCLAIMER: Ride of the Century is an annual event done in September – the actions that some of the riders do are illegal and should never be attempted.  This ride even draws the professional stunt bike riders to take part.  This post was made to warn the truckers and normal people about this event and the potential dangers.

To start, we will show the video one of the admins shot with the cell phone of the MoDOT live feed camera as the ride made the way across the bridge around 14:35 on September 5:

While this video does not do justice, there are riders popping wheelies and other showboating actions, especially from the ones at the front of the pack.  Despite the quality of the camera, this has been a popular post with over 200 shares.  After spending two days camping social media for videos and photos along with the other admin, the videos will be shared below. (The other admin is going through his own footage from the ride and has not released anything at this time.)

Most of the videos currently out there right now are either poor quality or where shot from the rear of the pack.

This video skip to the 7:30 mark, as the riders begin to make their way on 270 from Route 3.  There is a blue minivan taking photos with all the side door and rear trunk door open at some point in this video, which is a very unsafe practice.

This one is not a good quality, and it appears that the riders were at the rear of the pack of approximately 1000 bikes.

Instagram, however, had a couple good photos of the showboating going on:

https://instagram.com/p/7RQbb2wg8t/?taken-by=mikestuntz

https://instagram.com/p/7RT05Dwgz5/?taken-by=mikestuntz

The last one was disturbing, with an incident at Lilac involving a botched wheelie.  This just underscores on how dangerous the ride is, given the large number of tractor-trailers that use this section of 270. While there is no other large scale stuntbike ride that use this section of 270 like the Ride of the Century, it is possible for the rest of the motorcycle season to encounter small groups of 2-10 riders pulling off dangerous tricks.  (Last year one of the admins caught two bikers in the act of pulling off wheelies but was not able to get photo proof.)

Update 20:14, 9/9/15: Additional footage is now coming in and it is very shocking. (Also corrected embedding errors with Instagram posts, it should view properly now.)

https://instagram.com/p/7Y5L-IGbOF/?taken-by=stuntsquad

That post has been trending on Instagram for the past day.

It is not as shocking as this:

https://instagram.com/p/7YD7sbKtS-/?taken-by=grampion

Another view of the same stunt:

https://instagram.com/p/7X1SjqKtXE/?taken-by=grampion

The rider in those two images is a professional with past stunts on 270 down the road in North County earning over million views on YouTube.

Edit 22:25 9/26/15:  Additional footage has been released on YouTube this week.

https://instagram.com/p/8Chhaomv-d/

That image is of the rider that crashed just west of the Lilac Exit based on this YouTube video below:

Before the YouTube video of one of the big stunts is revealed, there is another Instagram post that needs to be shared:

This video been slowly gaining a lot of views in just the past week since it was released. NOTE:  This girl is a professional stunter.

This weekend, being an holiday weekend, usually means that the Illinois State Police will be out in large numbers enforcing the traffic laws. Because it is now September, the weekends means the potential for large groups of motorcycles taking part in the infamous event called Ride of the Century.  This evening, one of the known participants confirmed the date to be 9/5, but did not give time, location, or any other details as the organizers have kept a lot of the information under wraps.

What is not a secret, however, is that the majority of the annual rides have opted for this section of 270.

2012:



2011:

Some of the videos that featured sections of 270 further into North County which we are not sharing have gotten over 1M views on YouTube. The ride in 2010, which we are not sharing any footage due to the offensive nature of the clip, involved alleged flashing on the canal bridge.

The motorcyclists will travel in large groups of at least 1000+ and will cause delays when they come. This ride has gotten media attention in the previous years.

The good news is that August did not yield any major incidents, but September has not gotten off to a good start during the morning peak periods:

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The monitoring of the account of the morning peak has been spotty the past two weeks – one of the admins that normally wakes up around 06:00 is now dealing with a later than normal wake up time due to an injury and is unable to drive at the present time.  Due to this send any tweets to @y98lance or @ontimestl as this account is not monitored 24/7 (if there is an serious accident you may also send tweets to @foxtrafficdiva).  The people that do tweet the conditions are not always able to do it instantly due to cell phone driving laws that are in place, and sometimes are done on a delay.  Someone just mentioned on Facebook that the google traffic maps are sometimes inaccurate, so please check the live feed camera for 270/Riverview as MoDOT has gotten that feed back up – before you make that trip.

First, there was an incident on the river bridge during the morning peak:

This morning did not get off smoothly, as 2 vehicles collided on the river bridge.  Although the incident was cleared within 20 minutes, the traffic backed up all the way to Route 111.

Roc2013This weekend is the annual Ride of the Century put on by the stunt group Streetfighterz, and the ride will be on Sunday.  The rides in previous years all went across the river on 270, and has been known for its open highway stunting.  While this group keeps their planned route a secret, this event has drawn media attention last year and is likely to get such attention this year.

There will be traffic impacts when the ride occurs Sunday, usually between 14:00 to 18:00, but can occur anytime during the day as riders see strength in numbers.  Since the riders will do dangerous tricks, it is probably wise to give the group the right of way during the ride.  The editor will monitor the live feed cameras during the time of the ride and will attempt to post a Facebook post if the riders start making their way across on 270.  Last year there were over 4000 bikes taking part in this event.

Related:  Crotch Rockets invade this Saturday, Ride of the Century 2012 stunting did happen, final #ROC2012 post

This video please fast forward to the 3:00 mark for the stunting on the canal bridge.

There was an video that had an alleged flashing incident during ROC 2010 but it is not on YouTube at this time.  It was on the last Streetfighterz DVD and I will not go into details except it happened on the canal bridge.

The video with the Texas couple is now trending in the St. Louis area, making the 5PM and 6PM news as police release their ROC 2012 numbers.  It didn’t take long for comments to pop up on the KTVI page regarding these stunts, especially when one of their reporters on the story has been following via Twitter for quite some time.  There has been additional videos and photos of the duo popping up on Facebook and YouTube from various riders.

Now, its time to move on from this and get back to the seriousness of why this site exists in the first place.  Everyone knows that the section between Route 3 to Lilac on 270 is very dangerous on any given day as is and the construction going on at the canal bridge doesn’t help matters.  One little issue can cause traffic to back up for miles if it happens during the wrong time of the day – and sometimes bad things happen as a result.  Feel free to read the links on the side of the page to learn more about the issues.

The canal bridge striping scheduled today was rained out and no new date has been announced at this time.  However, IDOT did release some work that will happen on Route 3 at 270 on September 21 and 24 during daylight hours.

Remember that couple from Texas that pulled off that one stunt last year?  Well they were back at it during the 2012 Ride of the Century complete with a stunt that goes all the way across the bridge and does not end until Lilac:

Here is another video of the same two riders doing that stunt from someone else. It is a poor quality video but from a different angle.

KMOV has posted at least one picture wheelies that did happen.  That ride itself got major media coverage, as the police did not want a repeat of what happened last year.  This year was to be the last such ride, but there are three other major stunt bike rides that do happen in St. Louis during the year.

A heavy influence of motorcyclists will be out in force Saturday afternoon, as it is that weekend of one of the most infamous events is due to happen.  Expect the worst delays to happen between Route 3 and Highway 170 sometime between 15:00 and 16:00 and expect some stunting to go on.  If you don’t have a clue on this stuff, some of the videos that they posted on YouTube last year went viral and several have at least 100K views.

What they do is dangerous, so give them the right of way and pray that the stunts don’t get botched.

IDOT announced today that there will be some lane restrictions on the westbound lanes of 270 at the canal bridge starting at 11:00 Monday and ending by 05:00 Tuesday.  Pavement striping will be removed during this time, and the restriction is weather permitting.

Expect very heavy traffic this weekend, especially in the westbound direction, as MoDOT got the westbound lanes Highway 40 from the Poplar Street Bridge to Jefferson closed.

As mentioned in the previous post the stunt riders were out this weekend for the annual “Ride of the Century” put on by a stunt bike club out of St. Louis.  It makes the local news, and there were no doubt they were going to cross on the Chain of Rocks at some point.  Today was spent going over Youtube searching for ROC 2011 videos and sure enough some of the first ones posted did show such footage.  The first video jump to the 1:30 mark of it.

Sure enough, like anyone was surprised at that would happen.  That clip lasts for 10 seconds.  A second such clip starts around 1:55 of the same video but doesn’t last but a few seconds.

Edit 9/19/19: A second such video has surfaced, which is even more shocking than the first. Imagine if this stunt got botched it would not been pretty.

This is beyond illegal – its stupid. Please try these on closed courses not on your public highways.

There will likely be more videos coming out in the coming weeks.  Last year ROC produced at least 5 known videos on YouTube that had such footage right there on the bridge.

In unrelated news, expect some random off-peak lane closures this week in the westbound lanes, as IDOT scheduled inspection last Wednesday got rained out and there is some construction equipment sitting on the shoulder around MP 1.0 that could very well be used to shut down a lane.