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00:00way out west. There's a place I want to tell you about. A place
00:14where champions gather. Now you may not see any bulls around
00:20these parts. But trust a fella who knows a thing or two. You're
00:27looking at a rodeo. So crack open some of that good sarsaparilla.
00:35Cause the boys are headed to a shootout.
00:58Welcome everyone to the great state of Texas. Home of one of the largest police riding skills
01:03competitions in the country. Also known as a rodeo. These events are where motorcycle officers
01:09race through a complex maze of cones and maneuvers to test the skills that they have developed to
01:15respond to emergency situations. And in just three days time Zach and I are going to be facing off
01:21with more than 100 of the most talented motorcyclists with a badge and a gun. Only problem
01:26here is we don't actually have any training or experience doing anything like this. We don't
01:31have a badge or a gun. We do however have the appropriate motorcycles. I have here a 2013
01:39BMW R1200 RTP. That's P for police everybody. It has a mere 77,000 miles on the clock and I purchased
01:47it for $2,500 American dollars. I have a 2016 Harley Davidson Police Road King. I was not able
01:55to purchase one because they hold their value incredibly well. But I did manage to borrow a
02:00fully equipped police rodeo practice bike. Which is to say it's a cheater bike. Which is to say
02:06Aerie is already cheating. Whatever the case our motorcycles have far more experience than we do.
02:12So in a desperate attempt to not embarrass ourselves at this rodeo we're going to try
02:16and get up to speed with a little one-on-one training from the reigning rodeo champion himself
02:21Mr. Donnie Williams.
02:37If traffic cones had a guardian angel it would look a lot like this man here.
02:44Donnie Williams sets them up and almost never knocks them down.
02:51Which is why he's got more crowns than a t-ball team at Burger King.
02:57Somehow the CTXP fellas had convinced Donnie to show him the ropes of motorcycle rodeo riding.
03:05Just a single day of training for whatever good it do.
03:13And first up was a slice of humble pie.
03:17You guys may be really experienced riders and have more knowledge of what we're about to do
03:22than I think. And that's that's great if you do. But I think you guys will have a new respect for
03:27what we do when you guys go through this and see what the bikes can do if you do the right thing
03:33and right technique. And you'll see what they will do if you don't do the right thing. Yeah so
03:38how do you usually proceed when people are coming out here to get trained? So just to let you know
03:42in a motor school we have already gone through dropping the bike over, teaching you how to pick
03:47the bike up correctly so you don't hurt your back. We've already gone through parking because
03:52you don't want to be that guy that's here here here and then this guy's way over here. And then
03:57really we just kind of get into starting up on teaching them the technique with the clutch
04:02throttle brake and that's where we start now. So do you guys want me to show you on my bike first?
04:08With a heart of gold and the patience of a kindergarten teacher, Donnie explained how to
04:13mount up like an officer, plus how to gracefully dismount, and of course how to pick up a stricken
04:22steed even for those lacking championship-sized muscles. Then he reached out to me and said,
04:30And made the offset weave look as easy as roping a three-legged calf.
04:38Your move, Cali boys!
05:00Good luck, buddy. Never ridden this motorcycle before. Never ridden in front of an officer like
05:05this before. I kind of feel like I'm doing a sobriety test or something. All right, I got
05:09Zach lining up in the course first. This is the slalom, the cone slalom. Sounds like it's all
05:14about timing, putting your bike right in the gate where it needs to be, and then being comfortable
05:19going full lock to full lock. Supposed to be doing this faster. Ah, whoop, touch the cone.
05:31Already losing points. Already knocking over cones. Okay, I screwed it up. Don't get in the
05:36habit of looking at those cones. Gotcha. Don't look at the cones. Okay, we can do better than that.
05:43There we go. Getting the head up helped so much. Certainly not going fast. Certainly not going
05:56smooth, but I'm doing it. All right, no cones have been knocked down. That is a success. I like it.
06:04I was hoping that I was going to get to help you guys more, but you're already such
06:09good riders. You flatter us. We still got some other things. It gets a little bit more
06:14challenging, so we'll see how it goes. Yeah, I got a feeling you probably have something in
06:17your back pocket where you just put us right on the ground. This is normally called the
06:21intersection. To pass the motor school, you've got to at least go each direction. You've got
06:27to do it four times. One of those out of the four, you have to at least go the way you don't like to
06:31go. Okay. One at a time for right now. One at a time. Okay, just one at a time.
06:42Look where you're going. Look where you're going.
06:49There's not enough speed on that one. Look at me right here. Oh, hey, how's it going?
06:54Ah! Do it again. Keep going. Keep going. I'll get it. Yep, yep, yep, yep. All right.
07:01For the rest of the afternoon, Donnie did his best to educate the rookies on the art of the
07:07two-wheel tango. Eyes up. Revs up. Feather the clutch. And don't you dare touch that front brake.
07:19You guys really did great. I mean, I'm not just saying that. Like I said, I've trained a lot of
07:26officers. I've trained a lot of civilians who actually do this, and they just want to get some
07:31more training to get better. And man, you guys just went through that like nothing. And y'all
07:36listened. You got some habits of, I got to tell you, to keep the cheating eyes. You keep
07:40wanting to look down. I get it. You want to see. You want to make sure your tire's where it needs
07:45to be. But try to remember that when you guys get down to the competitions and stuff. Just
07:51let your peripheral vision see those cones in front of you. Okay. And just be looking where
07:54you're going, not where you're at. It's challenging, but it's super fun. And we certainly appreciate
07:59you showing us how to do it. You're very welcome. Yeah. Thanks so much for your time, man. I think
08:02we'll just like spend the rest of the afternoon trying to get better. Absolutely. Thanks so much.
08:07We'll see you in a few days. This is great, man. I got a newfound respect for the old road king
08:21here after seeing how just smoothly it can dance through a cone course. I got to say the training,
08:27I thought, was a success. I learned some new stuff, which is exciting. Huge success. It was
08:33a crash course and not in the way that it usually is with Zach and Ari, but we do have to get from
08:37where we trained here with Mr. Donnie Williams near Dallas to where the competition is south
08:42of Austin, which is around 250 miles. Hopefully smooth sailing from here down to Buda. We will
08:48register and then we will be very intimidated by a huge fleet of police officers with a lot more
08:52skill than us. But for now, a road trip.
09:22So
09:41I'm nervous. I'm very nervous. Showing up to a new race club and a new racetrack,
09:46you know, to do something that you're probably the worst at here. Yeah. With society's
09:51disciplinarians. Wow. How are we going to remember where to go?
10:00The pond had just gotten a lot bigger, but the West Coast fish, well, they were about the same size.
10:09Memorizing the course was critical and the roots were more tangled than a family tree in Louisiana.
10:18So we got our training with individual obstacles and what they've done here is linked together a
10:23ton of obstacles, many of which we've never seen these new maneuvers. So it's as much about being
10:28precise with the bike, but also knowing where you need to go, which is not going to be great for me
10:33with my bad memory, but we're trying to soak it up. We're trying to understand where the riders
10:37are going. And then there are all these different practice courses. And sooner or later, we're going
10:41to quit procrastinating and actually get started. I think after we finish this, so maybe we should
10:46talk a little bit more so that we don't have to... Suit up, man. I haven't dropped my bike yet. So
10:51once I do that, I feel like my nerves will kind of loosen up a little bit.
10:54Okay. Cross your fingers for us, everybody. Here we go.
11:16Okay. I'm going for it. I'm going for it, Eric.
11:31I think this is right.
11:38Oh, wow. This is so tight. What the...
11:41All right. I'm going to peg the first cone.
11:47I think I'm doing it right, but I'm genuinely not sure. And I tagged a cone. Damn.
11:56Oh, way off. Oh, I'm so...
12:04I'm falling apart here. Oh my God. I'm so glad to be done with it.
12:08That was punishing. Oh, sorry. That was... Sorry, sir. You know how we say we're worried
12:19about embarrassing ourselves and looking awkward and foolish? That's me right now. Very much so.
12:28Wow. It's a type of stress that I haven't felt since getting called into the principal's office.
12:35I don't know why I feel like I'm in trouble. I just feel like I'm in people's way. I don't know
12:38where I'm going and I'm disappointing Donnie. And it's just, it's a lot going on all at once.
12:43That's the hard... That's one of the hardest things is coming out of one and remembering
12:47exactly where you're supposed to be when you turn into... You inevitably turn in too early
12:50and then you just run out of track. That's the only way you get better at it. You can get back
12:53in line. Yep. Well, that's what we're going to do. Thanks, man. Get back in line. This is humbling.
12:58I don't remember the last time I was this bad at riding a motorcycle.
13:01These fellows may have ridden a bike or two, but just because a chicken has wings,
13:05don't mean it can fly.
13:15I don't know. I don't know. I don't know what I'm doing.
13:21But they persevere. And little by little, turn by turn, cone by cone,
13:29cone by cone. They started to figure it out.
13:36The first course that we were riding today, we at least know what we need to do better and what
13:41we suck at. Which feels like a miracle based on where we started this morning. That's true. So
13:46now there are two other large courses that we need to learn. One of which is the first test
13:51for tomorrow. Yeah. So we actually compete on this one tomorrow. We have spent zero time on it. And
13:55the learning curve is very steep. So we're planning on putting in the hours this afternoon
14:00in order to learn it, because you only get one shot on each course during the competition.
14:04One shot. Fire up the lights, people. We're putting in the hours.
14:26The next morning, training wheels came off. The real deal got going. Departments from all
14:46over the country rolled in, eager to test their mettle against the best of the West.
14:55So
15:14it's race day, folks. This is why Zach and I came to Texas. It's why we trained with Donnie Williams.
15:20It is why we stayed up late into the night practicing. And of course, it's why we are in
15:24our RevZilla uniforms. So the way this works, you go in numerical order, one, two, 150, or however
15:30many people are here, over three courses in the next three days. And they're in the high 30s for
15:36course one right now. I am number 43. I am extremely nervous. We know that Donnie's training helped. We
15:44know the courses. We just have never done this before. And we're about to, it's race day. I got
15:49the jitters, man. You only get one shot. So there's a lot of sitting around waiting, a lot of time for
15:53nerves to build. And yeah, it's very nerve wracking. And we're very concerned that we might crack
15:58under pressure. For Donnie, for RevZilla, for CTXP, we can do this. The rules of the rodeo
16:09go something like this. You ride for time, but you don't just have to be quick. Rub a cone,
16:18there's a one second penalty. Knock a cone over, that's two seconds, partner.
16:26And put a foot down or tip over, well, you might as well tuck tail and head home.
16:32Okay. Here we go. This is it, everybody.
16:51All right. I am good to go. All comes to this.
16:57It's jumping right in. I always hit that cone. Let's see if I can avoid that.
17:02Okay. First couple of corners in the books. Come on, Zach.
17:13Quick transitions. Need the quick transitions.
17:16Okay. I just got to stay focused here. A little relief. Eyes up, revs up.
17:47Stair step.
17:53Sputter from the bike. Come on, Willie. Keep going, buddy.
18:02Almost through, almost through, almost through.
18:04Nice job, Zach. Thanks, Donnie.
18:22Thank you. Thank you. Thanks, Donnie.
18:25Oh, man. The bar has been set.
18:30Okay. Wow.
18:38Holy crap.
18:42Somehow, the metric muchacho had done all right, but these horses are about as friendly as fire
18:49ants. As he waited around for his turn, the Harley Hombre was already looking a bit stumped.
18:59The sun is much lower in the sky because many hours have passed since Zachary went and did his
19:03incredible run. During all that time, I have done nothing but stress and fret and freak out
19:09internally. As Donnie said, I just got to ride my own ride, get the hell out of my own way.
19:15I know how to do this. If I crack out there, it is all on me.
19:20I just need to breathe. I got this.
19:24You so do. You so do.
19:25I am very nervous though.
19:44You might have noticed by now that Blondie was pretty tight-lipped on his go-round.
20:03It seems he was a bit overdrawn at the memory bank.
20:06Anyhow, he better be quick if he planned to keep knocking over cones.
20:36I knocked a few over, but didn't get locked out, which is what I really wanted to avoid.
20:50122 is that with penalties?
20:58Yeah, I think I knocked one over here too.
21:00My legs feel like noodles.
21:06All right, well, that's it for today. We got lots more though.
21:10First race in the books.
21:17Well, the sun had set on the first day of rodeoing, but the competition was just getting started.
21:24The next day meant learning a new course and mowing down more than a few cones in order to do it.
21:31Okay, I'm going to go line up.
21:37Oh, I already f***ed it up.
21:43Ups and downs are all part of the police rodeo experience,
21:47and the boys were in good company in their struggles.
21:51Meanwhile, Uncle Donnie was cool as a glass of sweet tea,
21:55slamming out fast clean runs and setting a high bar for how it's done.
22:03But there was still a full day of competing left to go,
22:07and you better believe the toughest riding was yet to come.
22:21So,
22:38third and final day of competition is underway. Zach and I are tired and weird places in our
22:44forearms and shoulders that we didn't know we had. Our brains are exhausted from navigating
22:47these courses, but it all boils down to today. And as far as we can tell, we got some curveballs
22:52coming our way. On the docket is the third and final cone course, which we have learned,
22:56but also a team ride where we are told we will be tethered together with a Velcro strap,
23:01and we have to go through a barrel race next to each other without breaking the tether. It's a
23:06very literal interpretation of our CTXP relationship, and we'll hope not to embarrass ourselves or Mr.
23:13Donnie, of course. We have no clue where we are in the overall standings. Frankly,
23:17it doesn't matter. We're just trying to ride as best we can, utilize the skills we've learned,
23:20obviously have fun, and, you know, try not to knock over any more cones or motorcycles.
23:26Are you suggesting that we're not winning? Definitely not winning. Not even close.
23:33Before getting to the two-man tether, it was a matter of the final cone course.
23:41Once again, the bearded buck got through his run smoother than peanuts in a Jif factory.
23:47Oh, that was hectic. Meanwhile, the other fella just kept ripping his britches.
24:01Oh, I'm going to plow a cone. I'm going to plow a couple cones. Oh,
24:05****. All right. Not my finest work, but I made it through.
24:16The nerves, man. I got a lot to work on. Thanks, man. Sometimes you ride the rodeo,
24:25and sometimes the rodeo rides you.
24:27So, as far as we know, the two-man tether event, if that's even what it's called,
24:37is where two motorcycles are tethered together with a 36-inch piece of Velcro,
24:44in the case of the actual competition, and you have to go sort of like a barrel race at a rodeo.
24:47You have to go around three barrels and then loop back out to the finish. So,
24:51it's a pretty short course. It's pretty simple, but it's obviously extremely complex
24:54because one bike has to go around the outside of the other one, and then you have to switch
24:58positions. And as far as we know, most people aren't mixing metrics in Harleys,
25:02so we're making it even harder on ourselves. We're breaking down barriers here.
25:14Where are we going? I don't know, but wherever we're going, we're going slow.
25:25Ready? Sure.
25:33All right, I'm turning left. I'm going around. Nice, nice.
25:38Okay, go around now, turn in. Okay, okay. All right, what are we going to do when we get to
25:47the end here? Are we going to go left? We're going to go left. Okay, let's slow down a little bit.
25:51Three, two, one, left. Oh, oh, oh, oh, goodness. Okay, let's come to a stop. Let's stop.
26:02Not bad. Okay. I feel like we probably got a little tension on it at one point,
26:05but it didn't seem like it got that bad. There's a little key here, and it has to be an alpha.
26:08That person controls. Wait, call the shots. Go, go, go, go. Gotcha. Okay, so you're both
26:16trying to communicate. Yeah, we just experienced that. We're like, should we go left now?
26:19That makes perfect sense. I assume you've never done it with a Harley and a Metric at the same
26:23time. That's a little different, but the Metric's got to be cautious about going too fast because
26:29it can turn tighter. Okay. It's quicker getting up on the- Okay, so maybe you should alpha,
26:35and I'll try and follow. Thanks, man. Appreciate it. Let's back up. Let's just,
26:40because we're in the way here. You don't think we can go in there and do a super tight
26:43turn around? No, I don't. All right, so you're going to call the ball. Yep. This is why we
26:48practice. The beta boys kept practicing for the tandem race. It went about as well as you think,
27:01but the clock had run out. Ready or not, it was time for their final showdown.
27:09All right, man. We trained with Donnie. We learned the ways of the Donnie Williams Dojo.
27:24We showed up here. We failed horribly. We had some success. You had more success than I did,
27:30but overall, the team showed well, I'd like to thank for having never done anything like this
27:34before. What a rad way to experience bikes. This is going to be interesting. Yes, it is going to be
27:41interesting. You're right. Here it comes. Yeah, it's going to be. Next up, Team Redzilla,
27:48all the way up from Los Angeles, California. Oh, God. These guys have persevered.
27:54One of their bikes is floored, and these are two completely different motorcycles for Team Redzilla.
28:06Please tell me that Donnie's not watching. Yeah. All right, you ready? Oh, my God. We're just going
28:12to survive this one. This is our last hurrah on the course, so smooth and steady. Here we go.
28:19Ready? Yep. Go. Very smooth and steady. Let's go big, wide turn. Ready? Gotcha. Turn. Turn.
28:29Nicely done. Nicely done. All right, across. Very nice. Excellent. Okay, ready? Nice wide turn. I'm
28:36going to go slow. I'm going to bring it wide for you. All right. All right. We're going farther
28:41left. We're going wide on this one. All right, Zach, we're doing good so far. All right, turning.
28:46Okay. I'm with you. I'm with you. I'm with you. Yep. Yep. We're going. Almost touching crash bars.
28:51Yep. One more rotation. Okay, ready? We're not going to accelerate hard. We're just going to
28:56go nice and smooth through the cones. Go, go, go. Nice, dude. Yeah. Survived it. All right.
29:16We're very, very proud of ourselves on that one. Ended on a high note. Extremely proud.
29:21Thank you, guys. Thanks. All right. Time for a beer. Yeah. Agreed.
29:30Well, what do you know? I guess those California poppies did all right in the end.
29:37Sure, they made more mistakes than a cross-eyed accountant, but they also learned a few new tricks
29:42and made some new friends, and that makes for a rich man around these parts.
29:48As for Donnie, he made like that arch in Perry and triumphed once again.
29:57But regardless of the champion, there are some mighty impressive riding at these here rodeos.
30:05An officer or a medic on a motorbike can get places other folks can't or get there faster.
30:12I reckon I take comfort in that. So if you ever meet someone out on the trail who says otherwise,
30:20you can tell them about a place out west, a place that you now know a thing or two about.
30:43These eyes ain't going nowhere.
30:46Even if they do, these wandering eyes will always wander back to you.
30:54I know you called me looking and I just won't lie. A man is bound to look from time to time.
31:03But there's no use in pushing me across the line. I can't help I have these wandering eyes.
31:15These wandering eyes ain't going nowhere. Even if they do, these wandering eyes will always
31:23wander back to you. These wandering eyes will always wander back to you.