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First time I made this mistake was November of 89. I hired a local legend to build my RZ350. I told him “Don’t hold back, I’m tired of getting passed on the straights.” I spent most of the next season running behind that bike, pushing it, begging it please to start this time. It rarely did...

A week before round-1, I got a call from a friend who I first met at a racetrack, crouched in my pit. He’d come out of no place that day, offering to help. I was shy about accepting. I knew who he’d helped before, and I feared I could never live up to him. …No. I knew I could never live up...

I've wanted to do this for years. Always failed, which is bad, but you know what's worse than failing even? Not trying. Which I did. Year after year after year. I wish I could say I made a promise to myself that this year I would get it done. And that I stood up like a man, made good on...

I bought this one month before AFM round 1. It's the silver and blue R1. I bought it to race but re-destroyed my ACL so I am out for the year. It has one weekend on it. Never ridden on the street, never touched ground, never wheelied or missed a shift. Pretty much breaks my heart, it's a...

I read a story about a prodigy once. Maybe you did too. It's really resonated with me. Some lines speak to me like whispers, still. She graduated from the greatest schools, she won a silver medal in the Olympics, she began a great career as a surgeon. Yet somehow the peering aim of all that...

She was dangerously attractive and for me, that was just the start of it. Tall, lean, dirty blonde hair with curls that bounced like a slinky when she walked, and her legs – they never ended. She wore big white-rimmed sunglasses, she drove a convertible without ever it’s top, and rumor has it...

If I believe life is defined more by its journey than its destination, and I do, I must also believe it never stops moving. It never stops changing. This is scary in some ways; perhaps it means we never own a thing in life – like hope or success. But it is also welcome in other ways; maybe...

The oldest number I can remember writing is 1974. I was nine years old, one of four brothers whose parents were not in love. Rarely if ever did we see them touch but to this point neither of us recognized the threat in that. As far as we knew, this is how parents were. That changed one day...

This bike is a trip. The look, the story, and now even the sound. Forever my favorite of all time. If you like bikes, this is not a waste of 6min. 115385119

AFM round 6, 2014 OLDER A Yamaha bit my ACL in half ten years ago. I got it fixed but it’s never been right, so I went to the doc to arrange an MRI. The nurse told me to step up on the scale. I asked her why, it’s an MRI. “Standard proceedure.” Instantly my desperate quest to avoid all things...

*sorry this is late I was away between rounds AFM round 4, 2014 SLIPPER CLUTCH SUNDAY! People freak out when I write “we” instead of “I”. Sounds weird I guess, I understand, but in reality it’s not weird at all. It’s accurate. “I” out-brake other racers, but “we” win. “I” crash, but “we” fail...

AFM round 5, 2014 NO STRUGGLE I went into this year with a goal, to beat myself. In the past I have done good things but I don’t feel I have achieved my actual best, at anything. I have raced my hardest, but always through compromise. I have tried my best, but always just with what’s before me...

It lived out east, on the southern fork Long Island. It's name was Bridgehampton, but everyone called it "The Bridge". Nicknames are cool like that; they take something unique in you, maybe even something hidden, and they put it right out there for all to see. So yea, The Bridge was the...

Has everyone checked their scoring results for round 3? I have from both my races, which I almost never do - which is most likely why I don't understand them in the first place. Anyway if I crashed on the last lap of FP, and didn't finish the race, do I get awarded a finishing position of...

DESTINATION - JOURNEY AFM round 3, 2014 Chapter 1: Looking back - tracing the events, the decisions, the moments in life all tied in a line to end us where we are today, is fascinating. Almost never is it one decision that does it, it's a chain of them. You're probably not homeless today...

*disclaimer - if misspelled broken English throws you off, I'm about to hurt your feelings. Chapter - 1 "The Dark Side" I was born a fortunate kid. I excelled at almost everything. I could jump higher, run faster, and endlessly imagine. There was this one thing though that stopped me dead...

Used to be I couldn't walk through a restaurant without blood rushing to my face in horrified despair. People were watching, people were judging. I didn't go to parties, proms, or football games. I couldn't, I had locked myself in my own prison. Surely I got this from my Dad, he was just the...

You know how I can tell I'm old? ...Numbers. Not my age, those numbers mean less the farther you get. Different numbers, like 27. To me that number still says Fred Merkel, and he's been herding sheep in New Zealand for two decades already. 2 is a good one, to me that's Jamie James -...

Still covered in sweat, Bud Anderson celebrates a mighty win in the fight for Prop 8 (OK, Formula 50. ....and 40!) Meet Gary, the ever generous Bridgestone guy who so diligently mounts our MICHELIN tires for us.. Only in the AFM Just exactly how much fun can one rider wring out of...

I thought for sure I'd screw it up, I never took a photo of 300 plus people before, yet somehow the photo came out really well. But it's impossible to promote online. I've tried but failed to find a way to fit five feet of real life impression into 800 pixels on a computer screen. Or worse...