Be the Adult

  After several track days on my Triumph, I realized I'll never take my riding to a higher level on a bike that I can't afford to wreck. Not that I want to wreck, but I'd rather have something a bit better suited to the task. After looking around for a month or so over the holidays, I found a 2008 R6 that belonged to a former rider coach, second owner, all paperwork, and three boxes of spares. After some of the comical experiences I had in my shopping process ("You can fix that, bruh," "Hmmm, didn't notice it had no coolant. Hadn't ridden it in awhile," "I know nothing about the bike- I'm selling for a friend and he's not available."), the seller was a breath of fresh air. The bike had been down a couple of times, but it appeared solid, had good history, and it was priced right. As I drove home with a new-to-me R6 on the trailer, I committed myself to the following: Flush/change all fluids Adjust cables Change spark plugs Replac...

Welcome to the addiction. I heard that at my first track day as we were wrapping up the last session and I embraced the words, rolled around in them a bit, and determined that yes, this is good. And expensive. I'm thinking this year's season is over as the leaves start to turn, and like most things in my life, I have some summary data in order to budget for next year, which is likely to be more expensive because I'll likely try to go every chance I get. Also, a friend reminded me last Sunday that they do track days in Vegas, California, and Florida year round, so there's that. Here's a summary of this year's spend for all things track related: Expense Cost Notes Consumables/Travel     California Superbike School (CSS) $5500 Two days at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, two days at VIR Airfare $350 Back when flights were cheap and we were still weari...

  I've been thinking about this for a really long time. We're the sum of our experiences, and while I can take credit for some of my good fortune, I stand on the shoulders of the many, many people in my life that helped me learn something whether it was terribly negative, wonderfully positive, or something right in the middle. For many of the people in my life, I could write page after page, but instead I'm going to give each person one sentence, and not the easy, obvious sentence, but one that's particularly dear to me. Without further ado, my Wall of Thanks: John Jamison - Teaching me how to shave correctly. Michael Gura - Smoked Salmon is good and yes, it's not all that hard to start your own company! Keith Goodwin - Made me realize many of us join the military for the same reason; to catapult ourselves out of a dead-end. Sabrina Menear - She was only one year older than me, but she seemed so knowledgeable and worldly. Also introduced me to the Scorpions 'Lov...

  I had a moment this morning where I went from a little indignant to a lot sympathetic. It was a gorgeous morning to get out and run- 50 degrees, nice breeze, and an amazing sunrise. As a motorcyclist, I generally have a pretty high situational awareness regarding traffic; I don't wear headphones and rarely get lost in the scenery unless I'm on trail. I always assume drivers are distracted and I'm basically invisible. This morning, though, I was crossing a residential street and a guy and his passenger were driving right toward me. I could see that he was looking at the road (not the usual staring-at-the-crotch-checking-email look), and I was thinking, I'm crossing, I'm crossing, I'm crossing, why aren't you slowing down? At the last second, I stopped and waved at him as he pulled up to make his right turn. The look of 'holy shit where did you come from?!' is a familiar one for any runner, bicyclist, rollerblader, or motorcyclist. I'm bold, but ...

From the movie Freejack : Alex Furlong : Man, if it's come down to this. What's the point? Eagle Man : He Riddles me. The ancient riddle: "What's the point?" Have you ever seen an eagle flying back to his home with dinner for the Mrs. and all the little eagle babies. And he's flying against the wind ...