About Me

I was born in Denver, Colorado many, many years ago. I started riding dirt bikes when I turned 18, got a job and could afford to buy one. At first I was just happy to be on my bike, out in the hills until it was to dark to see. At that time I was a Yamaha fan and my first bike was an Yamaha DT250 Enduro, this soon changed to a DT360 which I rode in many Enduros. As my interests in going a bit faster I bought an MX250 and a TY250 (Yamaha’s first Trials bike). So I usually had two bikes tied down in the back of my El Camino.

At one point I was dissatisfied with life and so I joined the USAF (United States Air Force). After boot camp I was sent to Biloxi Mississippi for technical training. However I had to settle for only one bike… and that ended up being the MX 250. During my stay in Mississippi, I rode with a group of bikers and we spent a lot of time riding through the Mississippi swamps, with my bike all taped up to allow amphibious types of riding… and a machete strapped to the bike for cutting our way through the underbrush and creating trails. I also rode in several Enduros according to ECEA (East Coast Enduro Association), which was quite nice as there were no penalties for arriving at a checkpoint early as back in the West, where you were penalized more for arriving early than late.

After finishing my schooling in Mississippi, I was reassigned to Sumter, South Carolina, so I traded my MX 250 in for a YZ 125… and it was “at the time” the best bike I ever rode… probably because it was powerful, had a super suspension (one of the first mono-shockers), lightweight (I could actually pick it up) and you could pop wheelies in almost every gear.

After spending several years in Sumter, where I enjoyed riding in the local motocross and cross country races… I wanted to move on and I put in for transfer to Alaska. Unfortunately… or maybe fortunately… someone else took the position and instead I was sent to Bremerhaven, West Germany… yes, back then there were two Germanys… and my dirt biking days were over.

In Bremerhaven I met my wife and later got out of the AirForce. At the time I decided to take a delayed transfer back home (up to one year), assuming I wouldn’t find a job. However, much to my surprise and some help from my boss, I was able to find a job working at the Düsseldorf Airport. Unfortunately, still no chance at riding dirt bikes… and as for street bike riding, I wasn’t really interested… plus, they didn’t accept my American motorcycle drivers liscence… so I gave up and started looking for other hobbies like Hang-gliding and then eventually Scuba Diving.

Soon after my daughter was born, I stopped Scuba Diving and five years later my son was born… so I spent most of my time working, hiking, camping and then canoeing. The turning point came when my son turned 18 and said he wanted to get a motorcycle license… and I decided to get the license with him. During that training I found that street bike riding could be fun too!

After we both got our licenses, I started looking around for a motorcycle and ended up buying a Suzuki 650 VStrom with which I met a group of other VStrom Riders and was soon putting a lot of mileage on my bike. At first the VStrom wasn’t very appealing to my son and so we picked up an Aprilia 750 Shiver so we could ride together. Needless to say, this was sometimes frustrating as the bikes were too different, the VStrom for long trips getting some 400 km on a tank of gas and the Shiver managing some 150 km.