Virtue of Courage: Baja Motorcycle Adventure (Part 6 of 7)
Published July 23, 2021 · 11:55 · 72,597 views
About This Video
Part 6 of the Baja series. The worst day of the trip. Sam breaks his bike. Then Sam breaks his bike again. Sam, Van's second oldest friend, the one who taught him the value and importance of reading books when they were kids. The virtue named in the title (courage) is not the Hollywood version. Sometimes you just have to keep going, and that's it.
By Part 6, the series has established enough physical and storytelling context that the courage Van describes carries real weight. The Baja Peninsula has been dangerous, grinding, and indifferent to the riders' intentions. Continuing isn't heroic in the cinematic sense. It's stubborn, embodied, and sustained by nothing more than the refusal to let the peninsula win.
Transcript
this was the worst day of the trip starting with the bike cam that was too shaky then sam broke his
bike then sam broke his bike again [Music] [Applause] lay it down lay it down on the side okay it's stopping basically it could go yeah lay it down
[Applause] these things are [ __ ] weak man sam is my second oldest friend when we were kids he taught me the value and importance of reading books
[Applause] better than the gas leaks than this the shake we're shaking on it yeah two thousand i'll say i'm one
that's a good deal because we can we can sweaty that up i can fix it if i can make the ten can i make the ten
forty wait hold on can we do one thing first not debate this because it's not
something i want to debate because it's going to happen i'm not good at this it's not my thing it has nothing to do
with not wanting to slow you down i would have no problem slowing all of you down and that doesn't bother me one bit i want to go home see my kids i'm not good at this i try things and if i don't
like them i try other things yeah look it's not your thing maybe i'll try it another day on a
different bike sam's going back to miami i feel terrible i advise him to get a bike that was too big for him
and uh i feel a little bad about this whole thing makeup wardrobe i'm sorry
it didn't work out man you don't have to be sorry it worked out it was fun i had a good time i'm still having a good time okay i just
i had enough though he's a scientist and made his fortune developing drugs legal drugs
when he got back home to miami beach he opened a motorcycle shop had me ship my bike down to the shop and
built it up into a proper enduro as a gift had our own adventure in the red mud of georgia are you all right okay
[Music] you're just going too slow man that's all really yeah because i think when you get squirrely you your tendency is to go on
the brakes what it should be is to go on the gas because the gas will bring you hit the brakes once or maybe you ease off the throttle and
the thing lunges forward and the tire goes into the soft sand you gotta hit the gas and then the brings the front tire up
and um the gyroscopic motion of the wheel keeps you upright i'm really proud of scott
he's doing a great job he's like an animal he just keeps going gets up and
keeps going i'll walk all right i'm going to drive his bike up a little bit see if it gets a little bit better
okay scott try the beamer again it's just a bigger bike for me to drop right now
i just can't ride in this [ __ ] right now this stuff is no joke man i'm sorry it's so [ __ ] hard
you know i tried i underestimated how hard this is this was going to be and uh the only way
to do it is to go balls out and to drift the corners you can't go slow you saw matt struggling mac's been riding dirt bikes
he said he said this is really difficult this was scott's second or third day
riding ever and riding on sand for an inexperienced rider can be
terrifying difficult and dangerous not to mention scott wasn't really
supposed to exert himself like this four years later after this adventure
surgeons would replace his heart with a younger one so they're taking turns shuttling a bike up
then shuttling scott to the bike shuttling a bike up scott to the bike
i got to figure out how to make this fun for everyone tomorrow still have a couple more days of riding
yesterday was great today was pretty bad when we got back to the house sam had
rented for us neve packed up his stuff and rode to a campsite for the night
we were supposed to be camping in mexico after all and that was the end of the worst day of
the trip what's that he just told me exactly how he felt but you know he told me [Music] but after that looks like scott's picking up some speed
too hands down without a doubt best ride ever on the edge i was doing things and then i looked over and it was straight down like a half a mile breakthrough day because
you were with scott through that pavement yeah yeah awesome well
what did you think that's a major accomplishment dude yeah dude that was the coolest thing ever man
[Music] it had to be below freezing don't you think it's all covered in ice this is california socal isn't it
supposed to be warm where are the girls in the bikinis if they broke don't fix it
first one ready as usual drop it drop it drop it drop it drop it holy [ __ ] man you guys killed it [Applause]
so [Applause] [Music] i miss those guys so much now that watching this footage a dozen years later well it made me cry
this stuff right here the campfire no please hey dave who built this fire
i did [ __ ] man that kid's from new york city too i mean i laid the groundwork van came in
no i was fishing for you i was fishing for you okay i gotta go it looks like we're in complete darkness like there's nothing
behind us oh god that's nice can you see the bikes yeah barely
i see scott's the best [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] okay [Music] goodbye borrego springs
and that is how you do that four bikes one more to go picking it up in the laboratory yeah
next weekend 930 market street san diego california all right is that in your mark i'm i'm right there i went and saw my friend ryan berman scott myers is a beep ryan's an admin so he's rich and
has like really nice apartments and cars and like what kind of car are you driving these days escalate that's my escrow economy ain't
hurting him i'm gonna bring you up to speed on the story different though i just got this i'm riding to baja tomorrow i made the decision
i came out here i told ryan berman's friend said can i borrow one of the dirt bikes
to ride to baja ryan berman said that's awesome let him borrow scots ryan berman is an advertising right so
this is how he's convincing scott to let him borrow his motorcycle can you read it aloud the text message has already gone
through at 2 49 eastern standard time so and let's get personal i don't want van to go to baja by himself
period can my closest friend ride your bike so he doesn't have to go alone question mark he'll wake up to this in about three hours that's why you're in advertising because that is brilliant
Products & Tools Mentioned
- BMW motorcycle uses — Van's motorcycle on the trip
People Referenced
Sam, Scott, Neve, Ryan Berman