Stunt Rider Amazes Crowd With Daring Feats

Luke “Duke” Emmons makes you shake your head in disbelief as you watch him in action at one of his motorcycle stunt-riding displays.  He leaves you wondering how he performs his tricks with such poise and perfection.

After two rain cancellations in May, the warm late-afternoon sunshine was welcomed by several hundred spectators who filled the Enfield Motorsports parking lot on Palomba Drive Monday for the latest show from the talented 28-year-old Plainfield resident.

Luke put on two 30-minute shows for the highly appreciative crowd, who cheered and applauded burnouts, wheelies, acrobatics and many other eye-opening stunts.  With driving rock music and an enthusiastic commentary as a backdrop, he pulled out all the stops to display his considerable bike-riding talents.

Before his first show, Luke spent a few minutes with Enfield Patch to talk about how he became a top stunt rider. 

“I had a Honda XR80 when I was nine years old," he said. "On more than one occasion, my father warned me that if he caught me riding it fast, he was going to take the bike and cut it in half. I managed to avoid this by riding my bike where he couldn’t see me! I then bought a street bike and started doing wheelies and stunts on the streets ,and got myself into a whole bunch of trouble.  It was then I decided to take my stunts to parking lots, and have been doing so almost every day since the spring of 2005. Stunt riding’s a completely different discipline.  It took me six months to master a straight-line wheelie without touching the throttle."

Luke never had any formal lessons in stunt riding. “I taught myself through watching stunt videos," he said. "I’d slow them down, study how they did the tricks and then go out and do it for myself. I based my style on riders like Kyle Woods, Hawaiian rider Mana ‘The Natural’ and Chris ‘Teach’ McNeil. I got a good base from all their tricks, and then started to develop my own style so I can stand out above the other riders when competing."

Luke uses a Kawasaki 636 for his stunt riding. “I chose this bike because it has a little more power and is really well balanced.  This makes it ideal for stunt riding.  Most of the top guys use this bike.”

In 2010, Luke finished in third place in the XDL pro stunt-riding series. “The XDL is the national points championship series and, in 2011, the XDL is staging five meetings," he explained. "So far I’ve had a third place in Daytona, a second place in Scottsdale, AZ, and a third place in Nashville, TN. This means I’m currently third in the series standings. The next two rounds are in Monterey, CA, and Indianapolis."

"I’m currently the points leader in a championship called Stunt Wars,” Emmons continued.  “They’re doing four rounds this year. I’ve competed in the first two rounds and taken a first and a third place. Including XDL and Stunt Wars, I probably do around 30 shows a year. I’ll be back at Enfield Motorsports in late August, so make sure you come see me.”