Redbull contacted us and we agreed to ride there as part of the show, it will be the first time anything like this has happened in hong kong so there is a lot of authorities to get permission from and people that want risk assesments etc, hong kong was ruled by england for 100 years so is very similar to australia in a lot of ways, even most of the highways share the same names eg princess hwy, old england werent very creative with names obviously.
We cant bring over our proper setup kawasaki 636 stuntbikes from china in time as customs holds them for 30 days so have to source bikes in hong kong, A local dealership we are friends with has 2 bikes we can use so we take the ferry over to inspect them and write up a list of what parts and modifications we will need to get them stunt ready we head back over to mainland china.
The event is set for saturday and the government has shut down a major four lane highway in the city for us to use, great surface so should be fun! Redbull is very well organised and sends us pics of the event area and a basic time schedule. Thursday afternoon we head over and take delivery of the bikes at our workshop, we work on them removing the expensive plastic panels and fitting stunt parts we had made and painted in advance, we get a fair amount of prep work done so go out to dinner and sleep in a local hotel.
Friday morning starts with a huge storm, and monsoon rain but were inside working on the bikes so hopefully it will clear up and all be good. I have music cranking in the workshop when there is a huge explosion noise, the power stays on though and no one is screaming so i keep working away until smoke starts seeping into the area im working in so i walk outside for a look.
Great. the roof is on fire. Not like in the song but literally on fire. Lightning has struck the top floor of the building and is burning away nicely, cops are there and the first fire trucks are turning up while a crowd gathers to watch the proceedings.
the cops kick us out and we spend the rest of the day waiting for them to clear the building before we are allowed back in. we eventually finish the bikes around midnight but its way too late to go test them anywhere so we will have to try and test them at the event tommorow and hope they work. We go to bed listening to the rain.
Saturday morning, we load the bikes onto a transport and go with the driver into the city, a lot of people are turning up and its still 6 hours until the event starts, redbull has been promoting it hard so everyone is keen to watch the f1 car tear up the streets. The weather is perfect but anyone is afraid to talk about it unless it starts raining again.
we go to the spot in the pits near the f1 tent and set the bikes up and have a meeting with the organiser, and find we will not get any practice time to try the bikes. This could be interesting. Go for a walk around and watch the crowd gather until its 30min before were on so we go get changed.
By the time we roll out over 46,000 spectators have turned up and more than 10million will watch the live TV coverage, people are hanging off buildings and over bridges and whatever they can to get a look, i ride a lot of shows but im feeling a little nervous for this one, we still havnt even ridden the bikes at all let alone tried to stunt on them.
the first show out we take it pretty easy just doing basic tricks we know 100% we can pull, event organiser has warned us not to crash and although you want to go big you have to use your judgement and ride to the situation.Both the bikes work out fine and myself and Mark have a good feel for them by the end of the first 10minute show and are both pretty stoked when we pull in after its finished, the crowd is going crazy! even just riding out and revving the bike is enough to make them cheer there all full of enthusiasm and bubbling away on redbull hahaa.
we do two more shows over the night as it get dark the street lights come on and the crowd gets even noisier, the bikes work well and everytime we ride them we get more comfortable to pull off bigger and more technical tricks, the f1 car does some big burnouts and the night is over, well until the afterparty starts but thats another story!
big thanks to all the VC family who were my first ever supporters and always encouraged me to go for it!!!
