2017 Racing Reflections

With the end of one season of racing brings the start to a new one. I feel I did less racing in 2017 than years prior. The Bottpower bike was an exciting and all encompassing experience and it was the focus of the first half of the year. Getting to go to Spain and test on the MotoGP Aragon track was special even though I never had a complete lap without the bike literally falling apart. The Pikes Peak race week was stressful with the bike seeming like a sure suicide machine but coming away with a class win and respectable overall finish was rewarding. Since the race I have not spoken with Bottpower. After reading my story in Sideburn I imagine I am not well thought of. I see pictures of me on the Bott all over social media and the internet and rare is any credit given to me. When I see my picture on 10 foot posters at the Eicma show and no mention of my name or instagram pics of my race number with out a tag I feel almost plagiarized. I reckon the monkeys that were sent into space never had mention of their name either though.
Other highlights of my 2017 season were purchasing and racing the late great Carl Sorensen's ZX10. It is a proper race bike and I look forward to taking it to new tracks and having fun with it. Raging a DIRTBIKE through Morocco for Sideburn was totally rad! At the beginning of the year I got to race an electric Alta at the Indoor short track is Salem Oregon. That bike is amazing and I want one very much. The ultimate urban enduro assault bike! Later in the season I had a lot of fun with vintage MX. It is a very fun form of low pressure racing. I am building a yamaha twin for this coming season. For the 2017 season the only series I followed was the Colorado Hill Climb Association. these are not hill climbs like you think but more like a sprint rally. Gravel road racing on a 500cc or less dirtbike. I hope to get more moto racers involved with this great form of competition.
Much love and happy trails for this upcoming race season.

Farts in the wind

I find it amusing how series some of us racers take our racing. I know that if we do not take it serious it is very hard to succeed but at what cost and for what reward? I fondle the thoughts often. People ask me often how I manage to sacrifice so much of my resources or why I choose to spend so much time preparing, fixing or driving to and from.  Racing is life is an easy enough answer but I know it goes a lot deeper than that. Maybe my molecular make up still harbors some cosmic radioactive space dust spit off of a passing fire ball of a comet. Or maybe I just watched a lot of Dukes of Hazard. Stunts are cool! and A-team; Vans. With a van you can.  And MacGyver taught me that I can build anything out of any old piece of trash. Chips; bikes get babes. But seriously, I get tired of people asking me with such astonishment how it is that I can do what I do. And I get tired of looking for an answer. Shit, 2017 saw me chase only one championship series. Only one. Maybe people are getting to me. The mortgage broker, the insurance sales man, and the square family poster people. Ugh! The more I think about it the more I feel like signing up for the most absurd race I can and getting the fuck away from normality. I have been lost before. After enough time in handcuffs I found my savior. It has for the last 15 years taken me places I could never have dreamed. I have given my all to racing bikes. And I feel that the bikes and racing have never left me short changed. So I fully plan on committing my nearly 35 year old carcass to the closest thing I have found to nirvana. I cant begin to fathom the amount of passion towards racing motorbikes all the past and present racers have sweated out. The greats of the Isle of Man to the 80% sportsmans. How many lost souls have found the light and lived my it's creed faer beyond their prime. Just giving it you all every lap. What else? Why else. The best I can ever hope is to live with out regrets. Complete combustion. Back in grade school the first quote I ever memorized went something the sorts of:

Life is not the intention of arriving in the grave in one pretty and well preserved piece.
But rather to slide broadside thoroughly used up and worn out shouting Geronimo.

I am only babbling on about such thoughts because I have some pictures to post of an old race bike I dug out of a neighbors weed pile. The previous owner had lost his passion to race long ago. a cold 50$ was all he cared for. The mechanic who built the bike however still had a passion and after hearing of the sale found my shop and told me all of the battle stories he had. The front brake, half hydraulic and half cable was built to rid the problem of breaking "expensive hydraulic brake levers. The MRA sticker on the fork is a badge of colorado Mountain Racing Association that I races the ZX10 with this year. With some cool old Bates pegs and nifty safety wiring I wish I could say that I revived the old racer but my passion as of acquiring  the bike was with my TT500 vintage motocrosser. So I sludge hammered out the old rusted piston and sold the bike to another keeping only the Bruce Sass built head. I put it on my TT for the last race of the season. It had a sticky valve that sounded like a jack hammer but it kept up the fight for all four motos and without a problem to speak of together we took home some trophies , some glory, and some reason.

I'm just chill'n, like Bob Dylan

I have been struggling with the world around as I perceive it.  Mostly disturbing because I am part of it and most harsh on myself I can feel. It is my attachment to my phone, My bad driving, My frustrations with people I must interact with. Like the pissed off check out manager who cant swipe my card either. I am America. Check it out on instagram.  A picture of pecker head perfection.  Piss on your neighbor.  All my friends are made up. But my old truck has loud ass fucking pipes. I smoke weed all day playing Super Mario bros NES and am drinking beer for lunch. Don’t bust my balls at the stop light bitch. I’m working a real honest 9-5.  Keep your chicken picken fingers off my bread dough. I get up and make an honest effort every day to find meditating moto jesus farting on my yoga mat.  I am my own 18 year olds laughing bald spot of a douche bag biker. Cash register clinking polo shirt petrol pimp. Two wheels of glory spent my life writing this story. From a bmx back ally barspin to hired moto ninja racer. The real freedumb I have found is profound. Double bound. Or else I would be in the pound. I am going to take this exit and abscond.

More pictures of me!

I can't help it. And Wallace (@brapp_snapps) takes such lovely pictures. Just out playing on the Lil' Goose. I am so lucky to have this bike, It is more fun than a barrel of drunk monkeys. A proper set up MX race bike indeed. The suspoosh is so amazing be it a bit under sprung for me but I don't want to mess up the shim stacks as the 15 year old boingers are unlike anything I have ever ridden. IT is apparent though that I am packing on a lot of extra beer gut since pikes peak (25 lbs!) And it is only a 125 but with a power plant that I imagine was built by Mike Gosselarr, when it is on the pipe it is getting it. The little tiddler is confidence inspiring enough for me to try and get my bar in the dirt. Just having fun. If only these pictures had sound...

Moto Motto

Fuck, I need more weekends in my calendar. Every thing the radio tells me, all the things the TV shows me are trying to steal my life away. I don't need your lower rate finance plan or your season blow out sale on denum dungarees. Take your over priced plastic piece of kiddy hauling cage and just dump it in the junk yard where it will end up within a few years any way. The free man needs none of this capitalist slavery. Freedom is a dirt bike or something of such simple nature. Be apart of the system enough to get by and keep gas in the tank but keep the knowledge of the truth in a financial driven society. I wish I could escape it all but it is everywhere and in it is the last small shred of the American dream. I am far more fortunate than I let my self believe but what more could I want than my two wheeled toys and those to share in them. The years are ticking by and I see that life is not anything more than a good chance for me to fuck off every chance I get. Make a few bucks during the week and wring the shit out of what ever throttle I can every weekend. Here today gone tomorrow. Respect for you and respect for me and future generations. Respect the will to live and die free. WFO.

THE WORST 38 MINUTES OF MY LIFE ...That I can remember

Every Morning when I get to work Baja gets out of what ever mode of transportation we took to get there. Bicycle trailer, motorcycle or the less exciting van like we took today. As I unlock the door she makes her way to one end of the parking lot to sniff what ever dogs sniff. As I go inside to start wheeling out bikes she makes her way to the other end of the parking lot. This morning I had to piss and by the time I came out with my first bike I was oblivious to the fact that she was not any where near where she always knew to be. She was gone. Dog gone. After the second bike was wheeled out I registered that she was not herding my heels and watching out for the things that a heard dog watches out for when her master is maneuvering motorcycles through a 30" door. This has happened before as A free range dog will often wonder in to the neighbors shop if the door is open and she so inclines to visit. I checked. Not there. I walked up the street a few houses but I knew she would never wander. I knew she had been snatched. I have seen it nearly happen several times before. She is friendly to greet a car that pulls up into our parking lot just like her mother and all the other collie pups we raise on my parents ranch. City life is not the same as ranch life and some do-gooder people don't really think about what good they are actually doing to their surroundings. I called the automated city animal control. I called the police dispatch and left the needed info. Black and white, No collar, no tracking chip. Please call me back. My heart sank deeper than any lost object sucked into any black hole in all of unknown space. I sat by the sidewalk like a piece of road kill and felt the worst feeling I have felt for such a long time. 11 1/2 years of a collie dog that is beyond words. A true best friend.  A long life by the standards I have implemented upon my companion. It has not been easy at my side. The crashes. The all weekend fetch sessions. The RC toy chasing. The whiskey riddled songs I sing with my broken 6 string. Fuck, the women, The hot vans. for the love of kibbles and bits. It has been a good long trip. The thoughts behind my melting face as I watched the cars pass by. This morning I felt such shit. Such total and complete shit. I accepted my irresponsible ways. Fuck collars. Fuck not letting my country dog prowl her own damn parking lot. fuck it all. And then I saw an animal control police vehicle, I ran out in front of it causing it to swerve off the road. The officer said he had just picked up a dog. black and white. Could I be so lucky. Did he have my dog in his truck. I peered into the dark tinted window and through the caged door of a tiny kennel I saw two  sad big brown eyes meet mine. WHEW!  I finally lost it. I hugged the officer three times. He gave me the number of the people who picked her up. I had visions of my fist breaking jaws before but now that my best friend was back with me I let my nerves wind back together. I lay on the floor of my shop and let her saliva become sticky and then dry upon my face. I called and a lady said that her daughter had picked her up and wanted to talk to me. both the mother and the officer had said how my dog was wanted to be contained by another. The instant gratified teenage girl wanted what was not hers. Is it like some game they play on their shiney balck rectangle? Is this justified to the mind of a self centered do-gooder. brainless. My door was wide open not 30 feet from where she was snatched. The entitled teenager voice on the phone sent shivers down into my ranting raving anti humanism good deed hating deep dark corner of my soul. She reprimanded me to go to wallmart where they sell dazzled collars with names. I reminded the young lady that with out dog snatching my smarter than the two of us dog needed no such dignity defying device. but thank you for letting you mom call the animal control. thank you just the same. and have a good day. you too. I fear I dont belong in such a time or society. I fear the City cant contain my capitalistic venture that allows me some freedumb in our world of corporate power and currency obedience. But those brown eyes are all I need to see to know that to be free we only need what we need. Nothing more. Our world is just what we make it. Emotion aside and inside all I need is what I got. Companonship. A loud motorcycle or two.  Some tasty nuggets. And Love. Love in all the different ways people dish it out. Love.

Leave no berm un-shredded

Wallace is killing it with his camera.

Pedal Power

Don't forget to excersise your tongue.

Desktop Dump clean up on isle 4 please

I have some pretty amazing photographer friends. Warren with the gold winger shots, Wallace with the Pikes Peak shots and Vir with the ugly mug of me.

Carl's bike rides again

I still call it Carl's bike but I reckon I own it now, at least in physical form. I was happy to make her my own and carry on with it where Carl left off. First up was a new race body so as the original could be preserved. I am happy with my spray paint job and 1993 ZX7 design but Scott my neighbor who runs Vinyl Works knocked it out of the park with the Ninja font Newbold's Motorbike Shop decals. I mounted up some remaining Pikes Peak tires and before heading to the track I stopped by Carl's old house. His garage was completely as he left it with a few pieces of yard work and miscellaneous house-work junk now starting to pile up on what he left behind. His vintage triumph dirt bike's top end lay neatly scattered on the work bench with two years of dust now settled onto the job. I riffled through his race parts bin hoping to find the kit harness computer link cable I needed to operate the kit ECU. I grabbed a cell phone chord out of despair but later found it would not hook up to anything kawasaki. I got a bit weird feeling when I started to find things I knew Carl was treasuring. I found sprockets and brake pads and other bits for the ZX10 but with nobody to ask if it goes with the sale of the bike or not I left it all. I grabbed the service book, the ZX10's tire warmers and left. A few minutes down the road I realized I left without grabbing the spare set of wheels that came with the bike. The main thing I went there for. I didn't know if I should turn around or what I should do, I just went to the race track; doing the only thing I ever know how to do. My first few outings on the bike went well. I was overcome with the bikes speed but very pleased with how it kept it's composure and instantly I felt more at home on it than any other racing street bike I have ridden. Fuck is it fast though. Practice sessions completed and I was amazed at how easy the bike was to ride. Then My race came and after I did the warm up lap I gridded on the back row as I have not raced in almost a year and had no points. I launched at the start light but the bike stayed in some sort of limiter mode. Computers. Not having a book for the kit ecu or a computer I could not find any faults. I drank two beers and went to sleep in my little old shitty camper I love so dear. The rain came down hard while I slumbered and I hoped I was not going to need the rain tires that were still sitting in Carl's garage. I awoke to a brilliant sun rise over the corn fields surrounding the race track. The bike ran spot on in practice and I was only left now with the premier race of the day. It was my first time racing the premier class, my first time on a liter bike, and my first time racing short course in almost a year. As I staged I noticed I was the only bike without a brand new tire mounted. Again, I gridded last. The start light went out and I got pinched out in the first corner. I saw elbows bumping in front of me and bikes checking up. I hit my apex onto the long back straight and as I grabbed gears I felt the sensation of flying. The bike is a missile! I out braked and made my way around a few bikes. A few laps in and I was passed back by one of the racers. I figured I was done to settle in the back of the pack with my lack of experience and un sure of my stamina for the 14 lap money class race. But then I started to gain on the rider so I passed them back again, I caught some other riders and passed them as well. I was pushing hard but I felt like I was with in my limits. At the end of the long straight I missed my brake marker at what must have been close to 180mph but I kept it on track and kept the hammer down. My rear tire was giving up the fight as I snarled my way up out of the corners, the traction control keeping things in check. I pushed on and finished my fastest lap of the race right before the white flag came out. 15th place out of 26 expert racers. Plenty of room to improve. The world has much to offer. Fuck yeah! I did it. I raced a liter bike. Carl's liter bike. My liter bike.

BOLTS WY 2017

Sometimes life has me feeling like a dog on a leash that is all tangled up and wrapped around my legs like a twisty vine. So when Warren asked me if I wanted to spend six days riding up to Jackson Hole Wyoming I figured I could use some unwinding. Fuck it. That is why I own a goldwing. We stopped by my parents ranch, slept under the hay shed, rode the back roads including the legendary all dirt Irish Canyon. 20 miles from our destination we got blasted with a hail storm that left us with oozing welts, soggy britches and feeling alive. When we reached the camp the Bolts crew had tacos, cliff diving, and swimming in mountain streams colder than any thing I have dared to know. A quality group of active people. We did the turkey tour through yellow stone and saw the classic shit. On the way home the shovel head gave up the fight with bad internal noise. Fucking Harley Fucking Davidsons. I don't get the craze. I did get the explosive shits though. Picture me squatting roadside in the reed grass blasting out my internals when out of nowhere the girls high school volley ball team comes walking down the road. Classic. And we doubled up nuts the butt on the goldwing and lived out our dumb and dumber dreams. Life is what we make it and the people we share it with are what help make it worth making it.