Eternity Plus Two Laps

Listen everybody, Im almost 45 years old. I know I am slow...and getting slower and I do not care.
I suppose I have reached that point that we all feared when we were 16. I have become that guy that I swore I would never become. I am a good 20 pounds overweight ( I mean a GOOD 20 pounds). I putt around the track a full gear lower than I should. When I know people are watching me, trying to figure out if I am really that slow, I look down at my bike like there is something wrong with it. Yep, you know the guy, that is me!
Still, I do not care. I simply love being on the bike. I guess I have outlived (in moto terms) the desire to be the fastest, farthest jumping, shit hottest dude at the track. There is no shame in this at all. None. Due to the fact that I am only that slow to you, the observer.
In my mind, I am just as fast as I always was or always wanted to be. That is what counts man! The stoke. Can motocross still get you stoked? That is the issue.
When I was a young kid, before I even had a bike, I would ride my BMX bike around my house like I was at Unadilla or Carlsbad. I remember being the sports announcer for myself and how I would dream of beating Marty Smith (my big brother's all time hero). In my mind I was the fastest dude on the planet. Back then, that was all I needed.
Now we have come full circle. That is all I need now. The never ending moto in my mind. I am still banging bars with my heroes. Still blasting the berms and bombing into the flats full throttle.
Marty Smith will never catch me. It never ends. Moto #1-Eternity plus 2 laps.

The Wonderful Youth

Kids these days. Exactly! Kids these days are really something else. I would also have to say, in retrospect, that they always have been. I get tired of the Bill Gates stuff as I am sure you do, but as an example, he was in his 20's when he founded Microsoft. In motocross terms, Bob Hannah was 19 when Yamaha signed him in 1976. He won three straight AMA Supercross titles. In Moto GP terms, Valentino Rossi was barely legal when he signed to Aprilia in the 125cc class. He has won 9 Grand Prix World Championships! Kids, at the time. All of them kids. Wonderful achievements. Boldness and bravery beyond compare. How about President George Senior? 19 years of age when he flew his first combat mission in WW II. Amazing. When I was 19, I was struggling with making a car payment and trying to to perfect my mullet.
What is my point? Kids are good. Youth is good. It is a time to go and forge new ground and to make daring moves. On the race track, in the boardroom, on the world stage. That's only the half of it though. If youth is a physical condition, you know what I mean, no wrinkles, strong bones, livers that still work, then why cant that boldness continue into later life? Boldness is not a physical condition. Courage is not either. These are mental states. So, if your body is still in good shape, why can't people continue to win races at 30?
Ill tell you why. Because many of us let youth drive us to old age. Yes, we allow youth to be squandered on the pressure to be successful and the pressure to build a life.
Let's take racers for instance. Young riders have nothing at stake and everything to prove. So, the ride like mad men. Pin the throttle and hold on right? Then come some victories. Then some sponsorships and then some endorsements and then some money and that is ALWAYS followed by wife and kids. Now the picture looks very different indeed. Now while sitting in the paddock, our once wreck less, ass hauling, hero is concerned with just finishing the race in one piece. Forget winning. He is worried about making his child an orphan. This isn't a bad thing. Its just life. Youth drives us to a place where we are suddenly much, much older.
So we will not be seeing 40 somethings on the podium any time soon. I say this because riders don't slow down because their bodies are older. They slow down because the cost of going fast is too high for them at some point. This is a reasonable thing. Kids need their dads. I get it. But what of the boldness of Gill Gates? Is he still as bold today? I suppose so. He is so freakin' rich I suppose he does not worry about his next big idea failing. What does that mean to you and me though? Hell, I don't know. I suppose I want to still go fast in some area of my life.  Still hold on to some boldness, some courage.
Maybe there is still a race to be raced. A place in life where we can still "pin it and hold on".
If you are like me, you are hungry to find it. The wonderful youth. Is it still out there for us older boys? Lets hope so.

The Stoke of Getting Stoked

You never know when it might hit you. That beautiful feeling of "The Stoke". Is it "getting stoked"? The verb or is it the noun? To me is is both. The verb leads me to the noun. Actions lead me to the state of being.
Maybe its looking at bike pics on the internet or hearing the whine of a bike on a nearby expressway. Sometimes it is seeing the Triumph jacket my wife bought me for Christmas hanging in my closet. Heck, maybe even seeing a cover of VMX magagzine or one of my helmets on the garage work bench. It starts the process of getting stoked.
Before too long, the jacket is on, the gloves and helmet are on, the bike is rumbling and your rolling down the driveway.
Now the verb becomes the noun. You are STOKED. The state of being. The joy of riding. The joy of being on a bike. The joy of being seen on a bike. The good life. Being Stoked.

Not Ready for what?

I will always remember the day I talked to Jonathan about the possibility of racing at Highlands Motocross Park for the first time. I made the sad excuse of not being ready to race, to which Jonathan simply replied, "Not ready for what?" LOL. I paused and said, "hmmmm ,ok......I'm not sure". It was simply a question that I couldn't figure out the answer to. I went to that race and had a blast. I hurt my shoulder really bad on a practice lap (which is totally gay). Still, when it was over I had a motocross race under my belt. Years later I gave up the dirt and started beatin' up the streets! Once again Jonathan got me started off right and helped me with an Honda CBR 600. Without him I wouldn't have wheels under me. Ok well I got to run ..Nathan wants to go outside. Later folks.

First Post for Expanded Blog Page

Moto Mania is more than a passing interest of frame of mind. It is a state of being. An infection of sorts. As the profile of this site mentions, it started for me when the garage door of my childhood buddy, Pete Mahoney, raised to reveal an orange tanked Indian mini bike and a silver and red Honda XR75. I was sick. I was stunned. I was infected. The memory of standing in his driveway and watching him and his sister ride laps around his yard is still vivid and vibrant.
It took me many years after that fateful day to get a bike of my own. I started with a rolling basket case of a Honda SL100. I'm not sure what modifications my brother and his buddy made to that bike, but it would drain a battery in minutes. It wasn't long before that machine was retired to a spot in my dad's shack. It was replaced with a drool producing 1976 Suzuki RM100. Sweet. Metal tank, low pipe, 2 stroke beast. I remember doing the pre-mix in one of my mother's Mason jars because it had small quantity measurements on the side of it. This was a total necessity because the only gas I could get was the small amounts I could steal from my dad's mower or edger. I don't recall him ever asking me if I knew why his mower was always empty. I suppose he just figured it out. I rode the shit out of that bike. After school I was no longer a Tom Browne middle school student. I was Roger DeCoster or Bob Hannah or Broc Glover or Marty Smith or any other Sunday afternoon hero. That's how we did it back then. We scratched up whatever we could to put two wheels under our dreams.
What next? A 1981 Yamaha YZ125. Off the showroom floor. I paid for it by working day labor on my dad's construction sites one summer. That was the first bike I ever raced and I raced the wheels off of it.
Then came more YZs of various years, then the Kawasaki years, then another YZ. I borrowed and traded to keep my habit alive. What a life.
Now I love the Triumphs and the Ducatis and the vintage Japanese machines. Really, I love them all. I bet you do too. That's why your here.
I'm glad you stopped in today to check us out. Come back soon and often. We will always have alot to talk about. Bring a friend next time. The cold beer is on the house.