The Dh50,000 Wheelie: Dubai's Most Expensive 10 Seconds of Fame

The Dh50,000 Wheelie: Dubai's Most Expensive 10 Seconds of Fame

A confession, a phone call about followers, and a lesson about who is waiting for you at home.

Last week, Dubai Police caught a gentleman riding his motorcycle at 290 km/h on a public road. Doing wheelies. Weaving between cars. And — this is the best part — filming himself while doing it. From the video, it looked like he was wearing just a t-shirt. Because obviously, when you are planning to travel at the speed of a small aircraft, the most important thing is to keep your elbows nicely ventilated.

His bike is now impounded, and getting it back costs Dh50,000, as reported by Khaleej Times. That makes it possibly the most expensive video shoot in Dubai history that did not involve Tom Cruise.

Everybody is laughing at this man. I also laughed. But then I remembered something, and the laugh became a little uncomfortable. Because friends, I have my own confession to make.

My Own Little Crime Scene

Two years ago, when my YouTube channel was new, I made a video about my weight-loss journey. Very innocent topic. Very motivational. The plan was simple: I talk about losing weight while riding my bike to office, camera running, morning sun, inspiring music in my head.

The problem was the morning traffic. It was heavy, I was impatient, and there was this lovely empty space on the other side of the yellow line. So without thinking much — honestly, I thought it was permissible — I crossed the yellow line and overtook a whole queue of cars from the wrong side. Smoothly. Proudly. And completely on camera.

Then I edited the video, uploaded it to YouTube, and went to sleep feeling like a proper content creator.

The Phone Calls

Next day, my friends started calling. Not to congratulate me on the weight loss, mind you. Nobody cared about the weight loss.

"Bhai, you crossed the yellow line in the video. If somebody reports this to police, you will get fined."

"Fine? How much fine?" I asked.

"It depends on how many followers you have."

And this is where I started laughing. Because if the fine truly depends on your followers, then I was the safest man in the UAE. Two years of YouTube, and my followers could comfortably fit inside one Careem. With the driver still complaining the car is empty.

Now, I could not find any official rule that says "fine = followers × something." But there are real fines for posting risky stunts on social media, and the logic behind my friends' warning is actually beautiful: the more people who watch you doing something stupid, the more people you can mislead, so the bigger your responsibility. A flat fine punishes the act. A "reach" fine punishes the influence. That is quite intelligent — much more intelligent than me crossing a yellow line with a camera on.

The Digital Walk of Shame

So what did I do after those phone calls? I will tell you exactly what I did, because a confession should be complete.

I opened YouTube Studio, found the editor, and carefully put a blur mask on every single second where my bike was on the wrong side of that yellow line. Frame by frame. Like a criminal wiping his fingerprints — except my fingerprints were in 1080p and I had uploaded them myself, with a title and thumbnail.

It was embarrassing. It was also the right thing to do. I made a mistake, I admit it, and I removed it from public view so nobody could take "inspiration" from it. That is the difference, I hope, between my yellow line and that gentleman's 290 km/h: we both did something wrong on camera, but only one of us was proud of it.

The Part That Is Not Funny

Here is where I stop joking for one minute.

290 km/h on a public road is not bravery. In a t-shirt, it is not even a stunt — it is almost a suicide attempt with background music. If you want to test yourself and your machine, the track exists. It has ambulances, barriers, and nobody's grandmother crossing the road.

But my bigger problem is not even the risk he took with his own life. It is the video. Because somewhere, some young rider watched those 10 seconds and thought, "wah, what a hero." And if even one person tries to copy that and gets hurt — is the original rider not partly responsible? I think he is. We live in a society. Our actions do not stay with us; they travel, especially at 290 km/h.

Remember Who Is Waiting at Home

So here is the lesson, and it is a simple one.

Before you take any panga on the road — any panga, big or small, a wheelie or an innocent-looking yellow line — pause for one second and remember who is waiting for you at home. Your wife. Your kids. Your mother who still thinks the bike was a bad idea. They did not sign up for your 10 seconds of fame. They only signed up for you coming home for dinner.

"I would rather arrive home wet with sweat than not arrive at all."

That is why I wear my full heavy jacket even for a short ride, sweating inside like a kebab on slow fire, while some of my friends ride past me in t-shirts looking cool and comfortable. Yes, they look better in photos. But I have made my choice.

The road is not a stage, and it is not a racetrack. The Dh50,000 was the cheap part of that man's mistake. The expensive part, thank God, did not happen.

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