Sha­had Ali

Se­nior Press Pass Cor­re­spon­dent

Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies

The im­age of sharp edges, the rum­ble of the en­gine and the amaz­ing hair whip you do af­ter you have parked your mo­tor­cy­cle is em­bed­ded in the mind of most young thrill seek­ers. Many young men have dreamt of it, but very few made it a re­al­i­ty. Mo­tor­cy­cle rid­ing is be­gin­ning to boom in Trinidad and To­ba­go and as such, gieMAGAZINE de­cid­ed to in­ter­view An­tho­ny Nor­ie­ga, al­so known as 'Horsey D En­ter­tain­er', a vet­er­an in the field of mo­tor­cy­cle rid­ing. "Many ride for dif­fer­ent rea­sons, whether it be for stunts, mo­tocross, cir­cuit rac­ing or sim­ply for ca­su­al rid­ing," ex­plained Nor­ie­ga. "Mo­tor­bike rid­ing is be­com­ing quite pop­u­lar among the youth in Trinidad and To­ba­go, with men in their 20s shar­ing a deep in­ter­est in the sport." This dar­ing man has been in the field of mo­tor­cy­cle rac­ing for 26 years and con­tin­ues to guide younger stu­dents. Many young­sters look to Nor­ie­ga for his tremen­dous skills de­spite his age and he is known na­tion­al­ly as an en­ter­tain­ing rid­er among many of the clubs, in­clud­ing 'Hood Rid­ers', 'Rock Star Na­tion' and 'Chaot­ic Whom­pers'.

Bik­ers are ac­cus­tomed to prac­tic­ing at the Lar­ry Gomes sta­di­um in Ari­ma, how­ev­er, as Nor­ie­ga ad­mit­ted that there is a need for more pro­fes­sion­al fa­cil­i­ties. "In or­der for this sport to grow, we re­al­ly need some prop­er rac­ing fa­cil­i­ties. If pro­vid­ed, we could use the are­na to prac­tice all forms of mo­tor­cy­cle rid­ing." You would be sur­prised to know that stunt rid­ing takes on­ly a few months to per­fect with con­stant prac­tice. On the oth­er hand, cir­cuit and mo­tocross train­ing can take up to a year to mas­ter the nec­es­sary tech­niques. It is not very dif­fi­cult to start your ca­reer as a bik­er in Trinidad and To­ba­go. If you have al­ready passed your reg­u­la­tions, the on­ly test you would have to un­der­go in or­der to get your mo­tor­cy­cle li­cense would be the dri­ving test. Once that has been passed, a li­cense is grant­ed. While a li­cense does state that you are cer­ti­fied to 'dri­ve' a mo­tor­cy­cle there are ex­treme dan­gers in­volved in mo­tor­cy­cle rac­ing. All pre­cau­tions must be tak­en and if they are ig­nored they can re­sult in se­ri­ous in­jury or pos­si­bly a very grue­some death.

"There are dan­gers in every­thing, but once all safe­ty pre­cau­tions are ob­served you can be­come a safe and skilled bik­er," Nor­ie­ga said. Steve Woods, Nor­ie­ga's part­ner, of­fers mo­tor­cy­cle rid­ing lessons. Apart from teach­ing the ba­sics, he al­so gives de­fen­sive tips for dri­vers on the roads of Trinidad and To­ba­go. Like with any sport, mo­tor­cy­cling comes with a high cost. A mo­tor­cy­cle can run up to $55,000 to $65,000. With re­spect to brands, Nor­ie­ga prefers Hon­da be­cause it is more bal­anced and is light­weight. When it comes to se­lect­ing a mo­tor­cy­cle for your­self, it all de­pends on your pref­er­ence. As Nor­eiga point­ed out, "Some go for the look, the pow­er or the han­dling. It is re­al­ly based on what you want in your mo­tor­cy­cle."And ladies, there is no need to feel left out. Nor­ie­ga as­sured gieMAGAZINE that there are a lot of women who ride mo­tor­cy­cles. While he did ad­mit the ladies ride ca­su­al­ly, he can eas­i­ly ac­count for a dozen of them on Trinidad and To­ba­go's roads. They may be hard to spot in their pro­tec­tive gear, but they are out there. Nor­ie­ga con­tin­ues to men­tor young stu­dents about the joys, dan­gers and safe­ty mea­sures with re­spect to mo­tor­cy­cle rid­ing. It is not a sport for the weak of heart, but for peo­ple who are de­ter­mined, skilled and metic­u­lous when it comes to pro­tec­tion mea­sures. So while we may see it as a "mad" sport, it is one that re­quires dis­ci­pline and hard work... do you think you can han­dle the thrill?

PHO­TOS BY BRI­AN AMOW