WARNING! Motorcyclists being targeted in South America

[Travelling Sam]

I was chatting to a mate last night who has just returned from South America. Mike says there are some new dangers on the roads – particularly in Brazil. The local tykes are targeting and killing motorcycle riders.

They are doing it in two ways:

The first is the old, rope or wire across the road at neck height. For those on GSs that’s not such a problem – these wires will hit us at chest height not at neck height. Even so, as you can imagine, they will throw you off, break ribs, damage your bike and if you catch them wrong they can still whip your head off! The last time a found people doing this was on the Taftan to Quetta road in Pakistan.

The second way is new to me. They are flying kites over roads. The danger comes from the strings up to the kits. They have been coated with broken and ground up glass. The kite flyers hover the kites over a road until a suitable victim comes along and then they swoop the kites down so that the strings catch the rider across the neck. Apparently this is so efficient it cuts peoples throats.

Why is this all happening? Just robbery. Sometimes just for the pizzas that the rider is delivering. Brings new meaning to the saying ‘Life is cheap’ doesn’t it.

Many local bikers are now riding with protective posts attached to the front of their bikes, or they have a sort of wire aerial at the front – these are supposed to deflect the kite wires over head. I’m told this system works. Some have hooks on the top so they can pull the kites to the ground.

So, if you are heading this way or know someone who is, please pass on the news.
Stay safe.
Sam
PS PLease keep this post coming up for as many people as possible to see. Make a comment...

 

[Timolgra]

I witnessed a similar 'prank' in Rio de Janeiro where a small weight attatched to a thin line was dropped from a high building onto the heads of unsuspecting pedestrians below, an accomplice would then quickly rob the dazed, collapsed or dead victim.

 

[LiquidLAN]

mmmm you get this sort of thing in England too, a guy I used to know had a concrete fence post dropped of a bridge onto the back of his car as he was driving, and apparently there are oiks near Leicester pulling branches across roads

but I'm a little confused by this story... I'm not saying I dont believe it, but everything you've listed above seems to be a Afgani/Pakistani type thing, the example you gave of the road you've said was last seen in Pakistan and the kite thing sounds like kite fighting kites - thought kite fighting was an Afgan pursuite rather than a South American one?

You'd have thought there'd have been something reported about it with all the Dakar stuff going on over there???

 

[davidgibson999]

They are flying kites over roads. The danger comes from the strings up to the kits. They have been coated with broken and ground up glass. ...

Sounds as though someone has read The Kite Runner !

 

[DrFarkoff]

I think David that you'll find "travelling Sam" is Sam Manicom

LINKY IF I remember correctly

http://www.sam-manicom.com/

 

[davidgibson999]

I think David that you'll find "travelling Sam" is Sam Manicom

LINKY IF I remember correctly

http://www.sam-manicom.com/

Yeah I know it is - spoken to him a couple of times and read all his books (well I'm in the middle of Distant Suns right now)!
I was being facetious, the kite thing sounds like something from KR - sorry for any ambiguity - my intention was not to make light of what Sam posted!

 

[pedro]

Yea,

and then there's the story about the woman putting her cat in the microwave or the one about the diver who's found dead in the middle of the forest...

 

[itchywheels]

Thanks Sam

I'm going to South America Jan 2010. See you at the next H.U. meeting

 

[everywherevirtually]

or the one about the diver who's found dead in the middle of the forest...

Is that the one where he got scooped up by a forest fire plane and was dropped into the tree canopy?

they feature this at the beginning of the film 'Magnolia'.

Ot it could just be an urban legend

http://www.firediving.com/

 

[pedro]

yea that's the one

guy's out doing a spot of scubu, gets picked up by one of those fire bomber planes as it takes on water and gets found a while later stuck up a tree having been dropped on a forest fire. More convincing than being beheaded by a kite i suppose.

 

[sijohnston]

this razor wire stunt happened to me in Cambodia 5 years ago. I was down at the coast in Sihanoukville and rented a scooter from the guesthouse we were staying in. my mate rode pillion and we - with the advice of the guesthouse owner - rode up the pitch black coast to a restaurant that was supposedly good. on the way back, i heard some rustling in the bushes to our right and saw what i thought was a swarm of locusts or something flying by in the headlight of the scooter. a moment later and i had wire across my neck. i kept my hand on the throttle and lifted the taut wire up over my head which then caught pete on the forehead. he released it and about 100 yards later i suggested to him that we go back and sort these boys out (since khymer men were all a good deal shorter than us!). fortunately the english approach over-ruled the irish approach and we rode on to tell the police. we met about 8 police on bikes at a roundabout in town, one of whom spoke some english. he told us this had happened before and we were lucky we weren't killed. they were after the scooter and if the wire hadn't severed my jugular, it should've pulled me off at which point they stick a knife in you. i got home, patched up the wound on my neck, and told our host who obviously didn't grasp the finer points of the english language as all he could say was 'very nice for you!'
i am pondering a south american trip and most certainly don't want to run into these sorts of antics again.