- Oh, geez.
That was real sketchy.
- Yeah, that really surprised me.
Like I got little butterflies in my tummy.
This is the most dangerous vehicle in the world.
According to the US Government who banned it.
So we bought one.
And today we're gonna be putting it
through a series of increasingly dangerous situations.
- [Nolan Sykes] Oh my God.
- To find out how this thing put half a million people
in the hospital.
- I don't, I don't think this is a good idea.
- He's Nolan, I'm Jeremiah.
Welcome to Donut.
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- We gotta do one more, dude, dude, that was awesome.
- Is it in gear?
I'm just gonna dunk 'er.
This is a Honda ATC 250 R.
This is the most powerful version
that Honda made throughout the '80s.
And if you know anything about three wheelers,
you know that they're dangerous.
Holy (beep)
This thing is terrifying.
It has like no power, then it has like a bunch of power.
I posted a single picture of this thing on my Instagram
to tease this episode.
And here's what you guys said about it.
Boys, those are so sketch.
Death machine.
Wow, those things are real dangerous.
Even the guy I bought it from had a story
about getting hurt on this exact three wheeler.
- I know I got a neck injury maybe
from crashing this.
The bike came up, hit me in the chest.
And that was like this.
I think that's where this,
little kink there.
- [Jeremiah] In fact, at one point in time,
three wheelers were the biggest news story in America.
- Government experts say it is
by far the most dangerous vehicle on the market today.
- So many people were getting injured
or killed on these,
that it caught the attention of the US Government,
who forced manufacturers to stop selling them.
But what I want to know is what is it about the design
of this thing that made the government ban it?
Well, I got a couple theories.
So why don't we head off in the desert to go test them.
(western solo guitar music)
- First impressions.
It's just hilarious how unstable it is,
at speed in a straight line.
You saw that, right?
He was coming at us and it was doing this.
- And that brings us to our first test
because of the high center of gravity
and bad weight distribution,
one of the most common ways people get hurt
on these things,
is tipping them over when turning.
These things obviously are known to tip over.
So we're gonna put that to the test.
I'm gonna come in between these cones right here,
and make a left hand turn.
How do you think this is gonna fair?
- The fact that you're a very experienced rider,
I don't think you're gonna have a problem necessarily,
but I could see how a lot of kids would.
- If anything, I might ride it,
on two wheels off into the sunset if I want.
So I'm gonna do the test first,
then we're gonna put Nolan on.
- No, we're not.
We're not gonna do that.
- Oh yeah. Look at that.
Now he has to ride on two wheels forever,
lest he crash.
Yeah, that's pretty impressive.
- I might ride it,
on two wheels off into the sunset, if I want.
- You barely turned the handles at all,
and it wanted to tip over.
Like, and all these low speed tests,
the bike already wants to flip over.
There, it goes again, not a great design.
- Let's do it at high speeds. - Okay
- And see what the difference is.
- We're lucky, Jerry is like really good at riding.
Oh my God.
Most stressed.
- At high speeds, it's not as bad,
but it's definitely scarier.
It didn't seem right, that high speed turning,
would be more stable than low speed.
So I tested out a few more low speed turns
and the thing just wanted to tip me over.
So do you think that test
is as dangerous as people would say?
- With a little practice,
you know what to predict with this thing.
Not sure we've reached the point where
I think it's ban worthy yet though.
- Okay. So we know this thing is unstable,
but how unstable is it at top speed?
For our next test,
I'm going to see how fast this ATC will go.
And then I'm gonna take that speed
over uneven terrain to see if it's any more dangerous
than a dirt bike or an ATV.
- All right, let's go.
Okay. Here he comes.
Let's see here. It's not picking him up yet.
- 37. 37. 38.
(engine reving)
(upbeat drum and bass music)
38 miles an hour.
- That's nothing. I've ridden my bicycle faster than that.
It's pretty smooth at speed.
It's not bad.
- We're on a road though. That's the problem.
If we did that over there,
where it's talking about lumpier,
like that thing's gonna be bounced all over the place.
- Well lets go do that then.
- If you say so.
Okay.
32. 33.
That was 34.
How's it feel over these whoops Jerry?
- I mean, it's a little sketchy for sure.
You know, these ruts are formed from four wheelers
and dirt bikes, which create an even path.
So if there's any deviation,
that creates a ton of instability
and could pretty easily send you over.
- The U-turn was definitely more dangerous.
I don't really see why this should have been banned
off that demonstration.
- No way, dude.
The government is just freaking falling
in to all these (beep) who are just like (beep).
Keep filming Canin, keep fi-
(upbeat trumpet solo)
Let's crank up the danger,
and move on to the next demonstration.
Another way people got hurt on these things,
was that they would put their leg down
to prevent the three wheeler from tipping over.
The problem is you got that big rear tire
would drag your leg under it ripping you off your bike,
and potentially breaking your leg,
which is something that nobody wants.
- Unless you have a custom made,
ballistic gel leg complete with bones.
- Yeah, man, we got that thing made just for this test.
So we are gonna put this ballistic gel leg
to the test to see if this ATC eats it up.
(engine reving)
- Did that look how it looked to me on camera?
- In hindsight, we probably didn't go
about this test in the most scientific way.
You know, 'cause in real life,
a femur, it's not going anywhere.
It's held there by the rest of the rider's body.
So the whole legs under way more stress
than it was when I just dropped it behind the wheel.
But for good measure, I decided to take what was left
of our melting ballistics gel leg and give it another shot.
And then this happened.
- You could see the way the ankle,
you know, pivots and kind of pinches away from the leg.
Your body shouldn't move in that way.
All right, again Nolan,
Not the most scientific, but you know what?
We're not done getting dangerous.
Nolan, let's go on to our next test.
So we already know this thing
has a side to side imbalance,
but it also has an imbalance, front to rear.
The majority of the weight is on the rear wheels.
So when you're going up a hill,
it has a tendency to flip over on itself,
tumbling down the hill with you on it.
We found the biggest, rockiest steepest hill
we could find.
I've already walked up there, sussed it out.
It's pretty gnarly.
So the rollover potential is super duper high.
- We're ramping up to the big boy stuff right here.
So I've got on our new donut high vis t-shirt.
You can get it right now at dountmedia.com.
- If you get lost in the desert,
this is a shirt to have.
- After seeing the weight balance issues
with this thing already,
and all the other issues present with this design,
I think we're gonna see a broken bike
by the end of this test.
- I'll be impressed if I can get it up there
without it falling back down.
I'm gonna try my darnedest.
(intense drum music)
- Wow, he's really going up that hill.
(engine reving)
Dude, that is so sketchy.
Just popped the wheelie going uphill.
Oh god. No. No.
- I wanted to try to show
when you get into steep inclines,
when you put power to it,
it's gonna want to wheelie and fall backwards, right?
She wants to tip.
But what happened is I was off camber,
and instead of it falling straight backwards,
it tilted and rolled like this.
Especially out here where the rocks are so sharp,
Like imagine being under that.
Not, no bueno.
So what do you think on a dangerous scale?
What would this potentially be?
- That's like a nine out of 10 for me.
- On to the next test.
For our final test,
we're gonna get this thing airborne baby.
Up to this point,
we've talked about how much imbalance
is engineered into this three Wheeler,
and where you want balance the most
is when you're flying through the air, off a jump.
We're actually gonna be recreating a test.
This was played on 60 minutes to display
to people how dangerous these things really are.
- Okay. - See the guy.
- That's a little baby little jump.
- That's a little baby jump.
Oh. - Oh but tipping forward.
Oh no.
(both shout)
- Oh no. Oh my god. it's gonna crash on him.
Oh, that's why they have that pad right there.
Whoop. - Dude imagine being that guy
- Dude. No, thank you.
He willingly did that?
- That's like me right now. I'm that guy.
I'm that guy.
- I've got a neck injury, maybe from crashing this.
- So we have a hill about the same size.
So who knows what's gonna happen?
I'm gonna try to come out of this berm
and hit this as fast as I can.
If I break my collarbone
on this little freaking hill, I'm gonna be so pissed.
(engine reving)
- Okay.
Here he comes.
Little wheelie at the start.
Oh, that is bouncing.
Oh Jesus.
Okay. Even in the air, it like rotated
and then he had to land on that back wheel
and it came down.
- That was pretty (beep) sketchy dude.
- That was real sketchy.
- Yeah. That really surprised me.
Like I got little butterflies in my tummy.
We were lopsided in the air,
and the front wheel was kind of turned.
Not very much but enough to like get your attention.
Anytime the machine does something different
than what you expect,
it's always a little bit of a surprise.
- That was enough for me.
I was like, that is that's so sketchy.
And that's you riding it.
- I could see how someone could get into real big trouble,
who's never jumped anything before.
- Absolutely.
- This thing is way sketchier- - Way sketchier
than a dirt bite.
Follow Nolan at Nolan J Sykes,
follow me at Jeremiah Burton.
Follow us at Donut, at Donut Media.
Until next time, bye for now.