Personal History
My personal history in regards to Motorcycles begins when I was 16. My parents would not allow motorcycles in the family because they were too dangerous. When I turned 16, my parents were in the middle of a not-so-pretty divorce, and in an effort to win me onto her side, my mom bought me an XR400. Turns out that was the best bike for me because they require no maintenance (which I had no idea how to do in the first place) and they can take a beating without dying. I took off into the mountains, and came back down a couple years (and more than a few broken bones) later. I lived for riding. I still do. Every minute I had free, I would be riding. My friends and I would be able to start the bikes at my house, ride right out of the driveway, and up into the Mountains of Northern Utah. It didn't take long for the neighbors to get annoyed with the noise from our bikes, and begin to call the police regarding the sound issue. The addition of the police patrols in the neighborhood only added to my love for the agility of a motorcycle, and consequently, also added to my technical ability. jumping up and down landscaping, weaving through trees in the yards surrounding mine, and generally giving the preverbal finger to the cops trying to catch us. We were young and stupid, but I will always have some great memories of the first couple years I learned to ride.
Riding Goals
I have become much for adept at maintaining my current motorcycles. I try to ride as much as possible, usually making into the mountains once a week or so. Not the single lifestyle I had grown accustom to, however- having wife and kids, and still getting their blessing to go and ride almost every weekend is great. My wife knows that I come back totally decompressed from whatever stress I carried home from work, and not only that, but she knows that I am always to grateful for little throttle time in the hills, that I also come back ready to help around the house more than normal. I love riding, racing, hill climbing, and the occasional 95 mph wheelie in the west desert of Utah (Bonnaville Salt Flats, the Knolls, etc) I saw Ty Davis do a wheelie at that speed in a movie 8 or 10 years ago and decided that it couldn't be that hard, turns out that when you're out on the salt flats where you can ride for miles and miles in a perfectly straight line, the high-speed wheelies are not too difficult. I plan on riding well into my 80's, and now that I have a little boy (2 weeks old and growing like a weed!) I want to maintain my skills more than ever so I can give him (and any others that come along) a better foundation for riding than I had. I guess the draw for mxsponsor.com is that with the level of care that I give to my bike, it has become necessary to find a little assistance with parts, equipment so that I can keep my passion alive and well.
Competitive Highlights
Not having any formal training made it difficult to maintain any type of career as a racer in Utah. The competition is high, and there are so many good riders out there. I was in a race at the Deseret Peak Complex in Tooele UT back in April of 2002, riding well, and moving up in position, when I came up just a few feet short in a triple triple section. I came off the bike to the left (biggest regret of my life) and landed on my left leg in the standing position. A few minutes later I was in a helicopter on my way to the main hospital in SLC. a few screws and more pins than I can remember later- I came out of the hospital with a little over 8 months of rehab ahead of me. That crash was a big reality check as to my actual riding level vs. the riding level I had for myself in my head. I have slowed the competitive racing down significantly, and now do mostly mountain single track, hill climbing, and I also teach the skills and techniques for high altitude mountain riding. I don't charge anything. All that is required is that you show up at a certain time at a certain place, ready to ride, and ready to learn, I take what I have learned over the years and offer it up on a silver platter to those gaining a love for off road motorcycles so that they might not have to learn all the lessons I learned "the hard way"
I hope that this little bit of background information will help you to see that I am a regular guy, who absolutely loves to ride. Thank you.
Jeff