Bavarian Evel Knievel revs up his stunts

Chris Pfeiffer must be a man who drinks a lot of Red Bull. Always on the look out for a challenge, the 36 year-old German’s motto is, “the more you sleep, the more tired you are,” and starting today, he’s going to wake Taiwan up with some gravity-defying tricks

Pfeiffer is arguably the world’s most talented streetbike freestylists — a title he prefers to stuntman or stuntrider, as the latter implies he is doubling as an actor in a movie. From stoppies, a trick that involves stopping abruptly with the front-wheel brake while the hind wheel lifts, hopefully, 90 degrees into the air, to wheelies and other daredevil stunts, Pfeiffer wants to make his first visit to Taiwan one the locals won’t forget.

“I will try to show all I have,” he said in an e-mail interview. “Currently [my] most innovative trick is ‘high chair wheelie circles,’” he added. This involves using the gas tank as a “highchair,” where both Pfeiffer’s feet are held over the handlebars while he pulls a wheelie and spins around in circles.

Landing on his first bike at the age of five, Pfeiffer has preferred two-wheeled machines to bipedal movement as a means of transportation ever since. Very few riders have shown the variety of skills that Pfeiffer possesses across such a wide range of disciplines.

Most motorcycle riders hone expertise in one area such as road racing or motocross. Pfeiffer, on the other hand, has discovered a rare talent for being able to derive the maximum performance from just about any motorcycle he rides — on road, off-road, trials, enduro (dirt bikes that are street legal), on snow and even up mountains.

His stint in Taiwan will see him perform on a Ducati 1000 Monster, the kind of streetbike that has only been allowed on the streets of Taiwan for a few years. Unlike other, smaller bikes, streetbikes are powerful, fast and heavy, and keeping a tight rein on them takes years of practice.

But the German’s love of bikes has earned him generous returns, which include the 2003 World Stunt Champion and 2004 European Stunt Champion. He maintained his credentials as the world’s best streetbike-freestyle rider when he was judged the 2006 European Stuntriding Champion, considered to be the most coveted stunt riding prize in the world in the absence this year of a world championship contest.

“I am looking forward to hopefully meeting — and maybe even riding with — some Taiwanese,” he said.