Gary Rothwell – the king of the stunt riders
He changed two-wheeled tomfoolery overnight with his daredevil antics
In the 1990s, one name stood head and shoulders above all when it came to stunt riding – Gary Rothwell. On his luridlypainted Suzuki GSX-R1100, Scouser Gary introduced the world to the extreme side of stunt riding with antics such as skiing behind his bike while wearing metals shoes to ensure lots of sparks, loading as many people onboard as possible and then pulling wheelies (his record was 13), riding backwards, stoppies, burnouts and of course, huge wheelies. With the support of local bike dealer West Coast Motorcycles, Gary hit international fame and his subsequent video, Showtime
(the first mainstream stunt vid), inspiring a new generation of stunt riders such as Craig Jones, Kevin Carmichael, AC Farias and the Starboyz to follow in his footsteps. And it all started outside Bushy’s Bar on the Isle of Man…
“In 1992 I went over to the TT with my Kawasaki Z1300. I was stood outside Bushy’s Bar with a couple of guys from West Coast Motorcycles and there was the usual chaos – people doing burnouts and crap wheelies. Nick from West Coast turned to me and said, ‘get out there and show them how it’s done’ as he knew I was quite handy. I said ‘no way, I’ll end up getting nicked.’ He said, ‘if you do, I’ll pay your fine.’ So I hopped on the Zed…
“I did a circle burnout with my feet up the crowd went bananas but the police started to wander gently over, so I pulled it into a wheelie and rode off. About 20 minutes later, with the bike parked up, I was back in the crowd wearing a different coat, shirt and no helmet - but I felt a tap on my shoulder. Sure enough, I spent that night in jail… “Someone at Performance Bikes magazine must have been at the bar, or they saw me at the Hawthorn pub that was close by, because after I got out of jail (West Coast did pay my fine) they got in touch. They asked me to do a few burnouts for their photographer in the stop box of the pit straight, plus a couple of wheelies. We got a right bollocking from one of the TT officials but the snapper got his pictures.
“At the time it was just a bit of a laugh, but when the magazine came out it had my picture and a caption that said ‘this is Gary Rothwell, he will be a star.’ The PB article created loads of interest and a couple of weeks later I had my first booking as a professional stunt rider.
“The first show I did was the Day of Champions at Donington Park in
‘I pulled wheelies with the chief of police on the back’
‘We got a right bollocking from the TT officials’
1992 and then, believe it or not, the next year I was back outside Bushy’s pulling wheelies with the chief of police on the back – and being paid to do it! After that the whole thing snowballed…
“West Coast gave me a GSX-R1100 and I was soon doing shows all over the UK in 1994. The next year I took a gamble, got on a cheap flight, bought a new GSX-R1100 from a US dealer out of my own money and did a show in Minnesota.
“The American audiences were brilliant, they just went crazy, screaming and hollering! They hadn’t seen sitting on the tank wheelies, skiing behind the bike, long stoppies, feet-up burnouts or any of my stunts before. To be honest I think they all thought I was about to kill myself, but they loved it and very soon I was doing 15 to 20 events in America and then jetting back to perform in the UK or Ireland. I even released my own video – Showtime.
“By the early 2000s the stunt scene had changed and it became slower and more athletic with riders jumping all over the bike, which didn’t appeal to me as I loved a high-octane performance on heavy bikes and so I stopped doing the shows. I’ve still got both my GSX-Rs in my garage and last year I did a brief appearance and a few wheelies at Carfest, but I’ve hung up my titanium shoes for now.”