I’m sure it is a huge adrenalin rush. Since they had on helmets I could not tell their age, but they were probably late teens or early twenties. This age group believes itself essentially invincible. Otherwise how do you explain some of their behaviors?
We were headed east on I-270 in St. Louis. The interstate here is 8, maybe 10 lanes across. It is generally heavily traveled with the traffic moving between 60 and 70 miles per hour. In the west bound lane were three kids on “crotch rockets”, those motorcycles that are essentially racing bikes made street legal. As they were passing the other traffic, two of the riders were doing wheelies.
I have seen this behavior before in Tulsa city traffic. The stupidity amazed then, and it still amazes me now.
Perhaps they should pass a law. If you do wheelies on one of these contraptionson on public roads then you are deemed too stupid or too irresponsible to own one. They then impound your machine, sell it, and give the money to a non-profit that works with folks made paraplegic from motorcycle accidents.
Or maybe we should just let genetic selection takes its course and let them opt of the the gene pool.