I was hit by a Land Cruiser the first time I ever rode a motorcycle. It was late spring in Seattle, when an absentminded mother of two teenage girls failed to yield at a red light, tagging the front wheel of the 1989 Honda NS-50 I’d borrowed from my friend, Joel, with the front bumper of her beige colored Cruiser. I was thrown headfirst into the driver’s door of the Toyota, leaving a watermelon sized dent. I had just turned 25, and aside from a few rips on an old Suzuki RM80 when I was eight years old, this was my first proper motorcycle ride.
I was fine, but Joel never let me live it down.
I turned 40 years-old this summer. I was supposed to enter two enduro races in Washington while I was up there this past June, but the world has a way of slowing you down just as you get going, you know? But with some help from my friends at Kawasaki who’ve loaned me a 2025 KX250X to race for remainder of the season, I’ve signed up for the Coconino Trail Riders’ Flagstaff Enduro, which takes place on October 4th. This will be my second ever race, and one I’ve been told is “rocky as hell.”
