FREE FLY HE'S BARELY OLD ENOUGH TO TAKE THE WHEEL - BUT THEY DON'T GIVE LICENSES FOR THIS KIND OF DRIVING.

Byline: RAMONA SHELBURNE  Staff Writer

Lance Coury had all the fire and fearlessness you could ever want. But Shane Trittler wasn't sure if that was because Coury was just 15, or if it was the real thing.

You see, it takes a special kind of person to become a freestyle motorcycle rider. And by special, we mean thrill-seeker on a triple-espresso, Bruce Willis in ``Die Hard 2'' with no stuntmen kind of special.

Freestyle motorcycle riders don't just go fast around a track, they launch themselves 40 feet in the air, do a backflip with a 200-pound motorcycle and try to land smoothly on 8- inch-wide tires. You ever get nervous when a gymnast tries to stick a backflip on the balance beam? It's like that at 40 miles an hour.

You can imagine then, the reaction Trittler, a longtime freestyle rider and show promoter, had when Coury, a 15-year-old from West Hills, showed up at his track in Santa Clarita asking to ride.

It was something along the lines of, ``Yeah, right, kid. That bike's bigger than you are.''

The kid didn't go away though. He kept calling, asking for a shot.

No matter how many times Trittler said no, the kid came back. Either he was hard of hearing or just stubborn enough to do this sort of thing.

``Basically, he wouldn't leave me alone,'' Trittler said. ``This is a dangerous sport. I didn't want to see him get hurt.''

After a few months, Coury's persistence wore Trittler down. He let the kid ride at his track and told him to be careful. As it turned out though, no warning was necessary.

The kid was a natural. He was still raw, but ridiculously smooth for such a young rider. He looked like he'd been riding all his life.

Which, of course, he had.

His father, also named Lance Coury, bought him his first bike when he was 5. He'd tried team sports, but never took to it. Baseball may as well have been knitting to him. But when he got on that 50cc bike, he just knew how to ride it.

``He didn't need any training wheels. He just hopped on and went,'' his father said. ``It was like, OK, forget the team sports. He's doing his own thing.''

Within a couple of weeks, he was racing on tracks. By age 9, he'd won the AMA California State Championship for ages 9-11 in the 65cc bike class.

It was about this time that his parents realized this was more than just a hobby. Like it or not, their son was going to be a professional motorcycle rider.

``My wife was a little worried, but he was so passionate about it, it was all he wanted to do,'' his father said. ``She knows you can't take away somebody's passion.''

Last year, Coury got tired of racing around a track and got the itch to try freestyle. But in order to become a freestyle racer, he needed a track to ride on and there aren't exactly many of those around West Hills.

``At first, they were like, `There's no way, it's too dangerous. You can't ride here, it's our place. You didn't work hard enough to get to here, we worked hard to get here,''' Coury said.

``But once I started hitting jumps and started getting tricks, other riders saw that and said I could go to their places, or that I could do the demos. Once I started it, it got easier. But getting in was hard.''

Once he was accepted by the freestyle establishment, he still had to pay his dues though.

``When I first started riding, they'd make me vacuum their house, or go clean the weeds. I'd go out to the course and move all the rocks. I was like the cleaning crew,'' he said. ``I hated it, but at the same time, they're letting me ride at their course and if I don't have them, I can't ride.''

Coury is past all that now. In addition to his skills, Coury has proven his toughness. In December, he broke his fibula and tibula in a nasty crash and had to have six screws and a plate put into his leg.

He was back riding within three months.

Now, legends of the sport like Mike Metzger invite him over to ride.

But Coury will forever be grateful to Trittler for giving him a shot.

Trittler has always been a risk-taker and visionary in the sport.

In 1996, he called Davey Coombs, the publisher of Racer X magazine and asked his opinion on putting together an organized freestyle event.

Coombs was quick to respond.

``If you don't do it, someone else will,'' Trittler recalled Coombs' saying.

Turns out, they picked the right stock. Extreme sports have grown exponentially in popularity in the last 10 years, thanks to national exposure at events like ESPN's X Games and most recently, the Winter Olympics. This summer, Trittler is working with Wal-Mart on a tour.

In many ways, Coury is the next generation of the sport. Right now, his marketability is tied to his age. He just turned 16 and would be a sophomore at El Camino Real High School in Woodland Hills -- had he not opted to be home-schooled this year.

But Coury is savvy beyond his years. He has his own Web site, lancecoury.com, and a myspace.com profile. He's even talking about going to college next year to start work on a business degree.

Sponsors like O'Neil, Blur and ValSurf have already signed on, looking to get in early on his promising career.

``He could really be somebody,'' Trittler said. ``It just depends on how much he wants it.''

Coury wants it pretty bad. Over the past few weeks he headed to Pennsylvania to train for the Drew Action Sports Tour, carried on NBC and the USA Network. After suffering a broken jaw in a fall while there, he's already back on his bike and still hoping to make the tour.

Should he make it, he's already proved that he knows what to do with an opportunity.

``I'm still fresh,'' he said. ``Nothing is holding me back in my mind.''

CAPTION(S):

4 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Freestyle motorcyclist Lance Coury, 16, has been riding since he was 5. He was a state champion by 9. Now he's got his eye on the professional circuit -- and one hand on the bike.

Photo taken by Lance's father, Lance Coury

(2) If you get squeamish about watching a gymnast land on a balance beam, probably best not to watch Lance Coury at work. Think back flips with a 200-pound bike -- and landing on 8-inch-wide tires.

Lance Coury/Special to the Daily News

(3) Lance Coury, something of a prodigy in the freestyle motorcycle racing loop, is now taking a crack at qualifying for the Dew Action Sports Tour. Advertisers and sponsors are taking note.

(4) Lance Coury, working here on a computer at home in West Hills, would have been a sophomore at El Camino Real High -- had he not chosen to pursue professional freestyle racing.

Michael Owen Baker/Staff Photographer