Watch as FMX star jumps from moving truck to truck over motorway barrier
German FMX star Luc Ackermann has leapt from one moving truck to another moving truck, clearing a motorway barrier all while travelling 45mph.
German freestyle motocross rider Luc Ackermann has pulled off a stunt that looks more like a physics exam question than a day’s work on two wheels.
Ackermann leapt 40 metres from one moving truck to another, clearing a nine-metre-high motorway barrier in the process – with just half a second to spare.
And because just flying through the air wasn’t quite enough, he threw in a Tsunami Backflip mid-flight for good measure.
The jump took place on a motorway in North Rhine-Westphalia, where Ackermann accelerated his FMX bike to 33mph on the back of a truck travelling at 12mph. That gave him a combined take-off speed of 45mph, enough to launch over the barrier and touch down safely on a second truck rolling along in front.
Timing was everything. The trucks, each 31 metres long, had to stay 23 metres apart, at a constant 12mph, to leave Ackermann the right window to make the leap. His brother, fellow FMX pro Hannes Ackermann, was in the take-off truck to give the precise signal for the jump.
“If I didn’t take off at the right speed and the right moment, I’d either crash into the sign or miss the landing,” Luc explained afterwards. “Precision and timing were especially important.”
Behind the spectacle was a serious amount of science. Thomas Stöggl, Head of Global Performance Innovation at the Athlete Performance Center in Thalgau, Austria, crunched the numbers on everything from speed and trajectory to wind conditions and take-off angle. The calculations meant the jump wasn’t just possible, it was repeatable, at least on paper.
But Ackermann still had to trust his team. The truck drivers, Franz Reinthaler and Walter “Bill” Kranawendter, had the unenviable job of keeping the rigs straight, aligned and at exactly the right pace. “For this project, I had to place full trust in my team,” said Ackermann.
And, as you can see from the video, Ackermann stuck the landing, but only just. As he backflips the bike, with a cheeky ‘Superman’ thrown in for good measure, the rotation of the bike is slightly off centre. Adding more jeopardy to the stunt, from the landing angle of the camera, we can see that Ackermann actually lands slightly off-centre on the leading truck. In short, he was just millimetres away from what would have been a very nasty crash.
“The feeling after the jump was overwhelming because I realised it was just enough,” said Ackermann after the jump. “The preparations took several days, and there was a lot of tension. To have that tension lifted was simply overwhelming. I really celebrated and basically went half crazy.”
In the end, it was a cocktail of physics, nerve and precision, the kind of stunt that blurs the line between athleticism and engineering.
It’s also a great way to get through traffic jams, so long as you have two articulated lorries fitted with ramps following you around.
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Simon (AKA Toad) has been working within the motorcycle industry for more than twelve years, and a member of the motorcyclist family since birth. Growing up around British-built single and twins, it was inevitable that a life on two wheels was on the cards, from a very early age!
