Colombia’s kamikaze cyclists

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.3 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 12 September 2019

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Precipitous mountain roads, specially-modified bikes, and deadly consequences. Simon Maybin spends time with the young men who race down the steep roads of Colombia’s second city Medellin. Marlon is 16 and he’s a gravitoso - a gravity biker. He hooks onto the back of lorries or buses climbing the precipitous roads to reach high points around the city. Then, he lets gravity do its thing and - without any safety gear - hurtles back down the roads, trying to dodge the traffic. This year, two of his friends have died gravity biking and Marlon has had a near-fatal accident. But he’s not quitting. So what drives young men like him to take their lives into their own hands? And what’s being done to stop more deaths?

Presenter/producer: Simon Maybin

(Image: Marlon with his bike ready to ride back down into Medellín. Credit: Simon Maybin/BBC)

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	There's a dark shape approaching now. I think this must be one of them so low to the ground head fast. It's zoom past
0:13.8	hurtling down the hill. There's another one behind him now. Here he comes. They're
0:17.9	overtaking the buses, overtaking the cars and off they go around the bend. There's two more
0:25.5	keeping up with that motor bike. They're going incredibly fast.
0:27.6	These are the gravitosos, the gravity
0:34.3	young men on specially modified bikes fly down the precipitous mountain roads of
0:39.0	Medajin Columbia's second city.
0:42.0	It's high speed, high stakes and deadly. In this region 10
0:47.1	young men have died gravity biking in the past year and a half. I'm Simon Mabin and for assignment on the BBC World Service I've come to
0:56.1	medagin to find out why Colombia's kamikaze cyclists are putting themselves
1:00.5	and others in danger and what's being done to stop more deaths in this increasingly popular activity. Heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh
1:17.0	with the modified bikes and some of these bikes have really big weight like you would attach to a barbed and a gym.
1:26.2	It looks kind of like halfway between a bike and a weight machine.
1:29.6	It's incredible.
1:30.6	That's incredible.
1:31.6	It's incredible. who grew up here and has managed to persuade a group of gravity bikers to let us into their world.
1:46.0	He translates as we talk to them on a small road bridge on the northwestern outskirts of Minajin.
1:51.0	This is where they meet before doing a descent.
1:53.0	My name is Marlon and I'm 16 years old.
1:58.0	Marlon, you've got your bike here.
2:00.0	Can we take a look at it?
2:01.0	It's really low down. The level of the seat comes up to my knee and the
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.