Last ride for popular Philly dirt biker

TINDLEY TEMPLE United Methodist Church's stained-glass windows vibrated around Kyrell Tyler's casket as hundreds of dirt bikes, ATVs and motorcycles revved outside on Broad Street yesterday, ready to roll for one of their own.

Tyler, a well-known stunt rider known as "DirtbikeRell" on various social-media sites, was shot and killed on Oct. 14. His body was found in a Chevy Monte Carlo near 60th Street and Greenway Avenue in Southwest Philadelphia. Police have made no arrests, but have said they believe the murder was drug-related.

The mourners numbered more than a thousand and they shuffled in and out of Tyler's funeral at the church at Broad and Fitzwater. A small electric motorcycle sat beside the casket.

"He was fearless," Sheila Alston, Tyler's godmother, said from the pulpit. "He rode on the streets, on the expressway, on the dirt, wherever he could ride."

Outside, mourners gazed at the machines parked in an empty lot next door, idling under the haze of little cigars and exhaust fumes. Riders of every race, age and color had come, some from as far away as Virginia.

"He was a rider, one of the best, and this is what we do to pay respects," said a man who identified himself only as Jaybarr.

In Philadelphia, it's illegal to ride most dirt bikes and all ATVs on city streets, sidewalks or parks. A vast majority of residents consider the riders a dangerous nuisance. In 2012, the Daily News explored the growing dirt-bike culture in the city and how it's a created an enforcement headache for police.

"They can't stop it. It's not just some fad," said a rider named Zee who came from New Jersey for the funeral.

Though Tyler died a violent death and had his own run-ins with the law, fellow riders insist that bike life is a way out, or at least a way to avoid other temptations. Tyler had more than 83,000 followers on Instagram and was crossing over into mainstream dirt-bike success, riders said.

"Rell was a role model for these city kids," said Mariel Osner, a drag racer seated on large Kawasaki motorcycle.

Dozens of police officers were lined up along Broad Street, but the department appeared to give the riders a reprieve from the usual cat-and-mouse game yesterday, allowing them to ride on sidewalks and tear off down Broad Street afterward.

Children stood in the street and stared as the funeral ended, their jaws dropping as riders did burnouts and wheelies, right past the motorcycle hearse that would carry Rell's casket away.