Trials legend and elite Hard Enduro rider Pol Tarres and his thrill-seeking crew of friends are at it once again, this time wowing with a new short film, A Thousand Ways To Live, starring Pol aboard his custom Yamaha Teneré 700, and actor, Ahikar Azcona, piloting Yamaha’s new Wolverine RMAX2 1000 XT-R side-by-side. 

While Pol’s riding is always magical to watch, it’s his and Ahikar’s physical comedy that takes a front seat in this video, a spaghetti western-style spoof involving a high speed, off-road chase between sheriff and villain, bike vs ute. As with Pol’s last short film, The Seeker, also written and filmed by The Who a.k.a Echevarría brothers Javi and Mito, this new stunt-filled short is artfully shot and infused with humor.

The location in Almeria Spain, known as Oasis Mini Hollywood, is also first-rate; a massive set built in the 1960s as a backdrop for famous films like ‘Fistful of Dollars’ and ‘The Good, The Bad and The Ugly’ and left completely original. These days it’s more of a Tombstone Arizona-type tourist attraction with daily shoot-out shows. 

In the opening of A Thousand Ways To Live we find Sheriff Pol with his Stylmartin MX boots propped up on a desk, keeping a wary eye on Ahikar, his prisoner. Predictably, the Sheriff nods off just long enough for his harmonica-playing villain to break out of his cell and rip away aboard the RMax with the Sheriff and the T7 soon in pursuit. 

While Pol’s good buddy Ahikar is technically the short’s star (you might remember him from Money Heist and he was also featured as the mechanic in The Seeker) it’s the Yamaha T7 that steals the show, always taking the most difficult route – think over the mountain instead of around it –  while in pursuit of the side-by-side. 

We recently reported on this T7 build and its highlights, which include a 30-pound weight loss achieved by removing things like the bike’s ABS system, the exhaust gas recirculation system and swapping the stock exhaust with a titanium Akrapovič slip-on unit. An aluminum skid plate with linkage protection and a steel rear bracket was custom-made by Outback Motortek. Other goodies include Mitas knobbies, a rally seat, Magura levers and Rtech handguards. 

At the time of filming, the T7 was still running stock suspension prepared by master tuner Eric Augé, but since then, it’s received a new fork and rear shock built by Italian off-road specialist, Boano Moto, an upgrade made ahead of Pol’s unorthodox attempt to ride the middleweight adventure bike in the infamous Red Bull Romaniacs rally, held last month in Romania. 

Often called the “World’s Toughest Hard Enduro,” Pol entered his Tenere 700 in the race’s Bronze class, a category organizers have previously referred to as “not possible” for adventure bikes. In the end, not only did he make history as the first participant to ride a twin-cylinder machine in this grueling category, but he finished the multi-day event 18th in a field of nearly 200 riders.

And – spoiler alert – Pol and his T7, the good vs evil, also triumph in A Thousand Ways To Live. Co-producer Javi Echevarría says the most difficult thing about the shoot was safely choreographing the two vehicles, especially in the jump sequences where the side-by-side and bike are close together. Javi describes Ahikar’s first attempt at jumping the side-by-side as “nuts,” though everyone remained safe and had “so much fun shooting this video.”

In keeping with The Who’s production style, behind the scenes footage makes up a good portion of the ten and a-half minute video. At one point we find Pol changing into his moto gear with nothing more than a couple paper towels to stand on. He jokes about how he’s seen Tom Cruise’s Mission Impossible dressing room setup but he doesn’t feel jealous. “We are happy with the little that we have and everything we are going to do,” he says ahead of shooting, noting that Cruise needs an Fx team to make him look good, while Pol’s actual riding is all the special effects needed to make his videos cool. 

As for Ahikar’s experience making Million Ways To Live, it sounds like he had an awesome time too, saying on Instagram that “every minute with these people is a gift, to be able to work, learn, discover and discover myself among friends is priceless.” 

While a kick to watch, this latest short doesn’t steal your breath in quite the way the Pol’s The Seeker film did last summer, so we are happy to report news that a Seeker sequel, featuring some “scary” new stunts on the T7, has just wrapped up shooting in Spain and will be hitting YouTube this fall. 

Photos: Javier Echevarria

Author: Jamie Elvidge

Jamie has been a motorcycle journalist for more than 30 years, testing the entire range of bikes for the major print magazines and specializing in adventure-travel related stories. To date she’s written and supplied photography for articles describing what it’s like to ride in all 50 states and 43 foreign countries, receiving two Lowell Thomas Society of American Travel Writer’s Awards along the way. Her most-challenging adventure yet has been riding in the 2018 GS Trophy in Mongolia as Team AusAmerica’s embedded journalist.