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US
The other day RupertX threw up a cool post, and i shared a story I had from Loretta’s in that thread. It got me thinking...with allot of us stuck home right now and no racing to enjoy there’s no better time to tell a good moto story or two. Got a few good ones if anyone likes to hear em. Here goes my KW’s california house story
It’s sometime soon after thanksgiving 2004. I was 21 and blessed to be living the life at the time that a moto kid could only dream of. Lived in Oceanside,CA right on the beach (a stones throw from the ”Top Gun” house for those Tom Cruise fans out there). I had moved to Cali from New York by myself for an amazing opportunity to work at RK/Excel. My best friend and riding buddy from back in NY Jack Carpenter was out in California that winter with his cousin Paul Carpenter who had just gotten onto the Pro Circuit team after a year on the factory squad. Those guys were staying in a house with Factory suspension tuner Dan Worley in a neighborhood just past the Lake Elsinore track. I’d drive out there on some of my weekends off to hang with Jack. So I’m chilling one weekend morning at Jacks place when the phone rings... it’s Paul. Apparently him and his new teammate Ivan Tedescoe and a few other people in there crew had went out to enjoy a few drinks the night before. It was there off season and there one window of the year to let loose a little bit when time allowed. Those guys had gone to Pechanga Casino in Temecula and ended up at Kevin’s house afterwards and crashed there. KW wasn’t there though, he was back in Mississippi. One of the people they were with was house sitting for Kevin. Paul goes on to explain he needs a ride home right now from windhams cause Mitch called and wanted to do a test session later that day. (I don’t think it was planned, I got the feeling Mitch was messing with those guys cause he heard they went out). Jack hangs up the phone and he’s like “dude I can’t believe this but we gotta pin it right now and go to windhams”. Both of us we’re just kids. I’m 21 and jacks maybe 19. KW was like a god to us. We roll up to this nice gated community go thru the guard/gate and it’s a neighborhood with houses all fit for a king it seemed. Find KW’s place and inside we go. Once inside we see there’s a few industry types mingling around that I didn’t really know and Paul is in the middle of a heated video game battle of some Madden NFL with this guy on the couch who introduced himself as toast or crispy or some kind of stony name like that. I was in such awe though I couldn’t even remember the name he said after meeting him (years later I put it together he said his name was “ash”, and would later on become the “dirt shark”) . I had no clue who this guy was at the time but I could tell he was a bro with all these guys. So while jack and me wait for Paulie and him to finish up there game we did what young moto kids would do... we ventured around the downstairs area looking at all the bad ass shit Kevin had. I can remember there was really cool Japanese decorations, a few random moto items, but best of all his championship sx YZ125 was hanging on chains from the ceiling above the pool table in the game room area. Jack and me played a couple games of pool and admired that bike until Paul was set to go and we peeled outta there. We hit the freeway in a dash back to the house so Paul could round up his things and off he went to the track. Jack and me spent the rest of the day still kinda tripping out on the whole deal. So if KW was to ever be undercover here on vital.... highly unlikely I know lol. Sorry you have to read it here that you had some New York moto strangers in your house. But I promise we never disrespected your crib or did any creepy fanboy shit. I’m 37 now , back in NY, happily married with a daughter, and seems like a lifetime ago. Crazy to think back how we were just kids out in California on our own getting these amazing experiences. No real worries in life, it was all about motocross and nothing else. Good times indeed!
It’s sometime soon after thanksgiving 2004. I was 21 and blessed to be living the life at the time that a moto kid could only dream of. Lived in Oceanside,CA right on the beach (a stones throw from the ”Top Gun” house for those Tom Cruise fans out there). I had moved to Cali from New York by myself for an amazing opportunity to work at RK/Excel. My best friend and riding buddy from back in NY Jack Carpenter was out in California that winter with his cousin Paul Carpenter who had just gotten onto the Pro Circuit team after a year on the factory squad. Those guys were staying in a house with Factory suspension tuner Dan Worley in a neighborhood just past the Lake Elsinore track. I’d drive out there on some of my weekends off to hang with Jack. So I’m chilling one weekend morning at Jacks place when the phone rings... it’s Paul. Apparently him and his new teammate Ivan Tedescoe and a few other people in there crew had went out to enjoy a few drinks the night before. It was there off season and there one window of the year to let loose a little bit when time allowed. Those guys had gone to Pechanga Casino in Temecula and ended up at Kevin’s house afterwards and crashed there. KW wasn’t there though, he was back in Mississippi. One of the people they were with was house sitting for Kevin. Paul goes on to explain he needs a ride home right now from windhams cause Mitch called and wanted to do a test session later that day. (I don’t think it was planned, I got the feeling Mitch was messing with those guys cause he heard they went out). Jack hangs up the phone and he’s like “dude I can’t believe this but we gotta pin it right now and go to windhams”. Both of us we’re just kids. I’m 21 and jacks maybe 19. KW was like a god to us. We roll up to this nice gated community go thru the guard/gate and it’s a neighborhood with houses all fit for a king it seemed. Find KW’s place and inside we go. Once inside we see there’s a few industry types mingling around that I didn’t really know and Paul is in the middle of a heated video game battle of some Madden NFL with this guy on the couch who introduced himself as toast or crispy or some kind of stony name like that. I was in such awe though I couldn’t even remember the name he said after meeting him (years later I put it together he said his name was “ash”, and would later on become the “dirt shark”) . I had no clue who this guy was at the time but I could tell he was a bro with all these guys. So while jack and me wait for Paulie and him to finish up there game we did what young moto kids would do... we ventured around the downstairs area looking at all the bad ass shit Kevin had. I can remember there was really cool Japanese decorations, a few random moto items, but best of all his championship sx YZ125 was hanging on chains from the ceiling above the pool table in the game room area. Jack and me played a couple games of pool and admired that bike until Paul was set to go and we peeled outta there. We hit the freeway in a dash back to the house so Paul could round up his things and off he went to the track. Jack and me spent the rest of the day still kinda tripping out on the whole deal. So if KW was to ever be undercover here on vital.... highly unlikely I know lol. Sorry you have to read it here that you had some New York moto strangers in your house. But I promise we never disrespected your crib or did any creepy fanboy shit. I’m 37 now , back in NY, happily married with a daughter, and seems like a lifetime ago. Crazy to think back how we were just kids out in California on our own getting these amazing experiences. No real worries in life, it was all about motocross and nothing else. Good times indeed!
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Just read it, that's a great story. Thank you for sharing!
Their, There, They're needs a little work
I was waiting for a we plugged the shitter or something to be confessed.
We have nothing better to do, so let's do our best to crack each other up. 😊
EDIT: Not directed at you Jay, just a 'Mission Statement".
We were very respectful of Jeff and Dana's house, but it was a cool moment in time in my younger years.
Back in 2012 I went to a Tucker Rocky Dealer party 2 nights before A1. Got there with a buddy of mine, walked in, got some jack & cokes and ended up drinking with K-Dub, put TR rep, DVS Dani and a bunch of other dudes. Ended up going to a nearby bar with Dano, an MSR rep that wanted to get me into MSR gear for good and a few other reps. That was awesome!
Oh and before the TR dealer party we went to the Parts Unlimited dealer meeting to get tickets and ended up meeting RV. That was a hell of a night for my buddy and I!
We were supposed to be a 3 rider team that year with Levi Kilbarger, Nico Izzi, and a tbd rider... Nico ended up leaving the team before I arrived though and I never had the chance to meet him. I fly into Columbus, OH to meet the mechanic and team owner and they take me to the race shop in Logan and as a humble farm boy from north western Kansas I was blown away by the race shop, tractor trailer setup, amount of spare parts, motors, A kit suspension etc!
So at this point I'm wondering where Levi is so that I can introduce myself and I find out in the morning im heading down to Florida to JB51's house! It was days before that, they had just released the Vurb Platinum ft Justin Barcia video and I was a huge fan of Barcias to say the least. So my dream job of being around the sx/mx industry was finally coming true and to top it off im at BamLand surrounded by pros that can do things on a bike I could only dream of.
To say I was happy was an understatement, I was surrounded by moto heads I could relate to 24/7, and about to watch the races up close and personal like never before week after week! I loved every minute of it but I wanna say it was between Indy and Toronto that Levi broke his wrist and that was that so I only made it to 5 rounds since we didnt have any other riders! Coincidentally during this time I also found out that my ex girlfriend from KS was 2 months pregnant so I packed up and moved back home to raise my soon to be new born.
Sorry this was so long, memories just kept popping into my head as I type, anyways this was the most awesome opportunity and experience I could have ever had... I owe Vital a huge thank you for this platform, without it I'd of never had the experience's I've had.
I hope this Corona 19 debacle is over soon.
Kyle
*their
A wall of text is demotivating to read. Use paragraphs.
Pit Row
It was the summer of 2010, and I had just resumed working for Bel-Ray. They send me, along with the global sales manager, to the Tucker-Rocky show in Texas at the Grapevine resort. We had our booth all set up and got through the first day or two of our show process, when it was time to scope out our competitors. Maxima was really close to our display booth, so we snagged some of their marketing stuff and put it away for safekeeping (corporate espionage, dude!)
Strangely enough, at some time or another we "caught" Ron Lechien doing the same thing to us! (Nobody really cares and every competitor does it.) We all laughed about it and went back to work.
Well, Saturday night TR hosted a party at the bar, so naturally everyone shows up. Sean and I from Bel-Ray went to go have a drink or two and we ended up running into Ron and Dan from Maxima. We all started drinking together and just getting lit. I was asking Ronnie about 1980s MX shenanigans and telling him stories of my 125 Intermediate days. He seemed genuinely interested and we hung out like old friends.
We ended up closing the bar at 2:00AM so all the "oil guys" headed back to the hotel where there was still one bar open and we kept drinking. Sometime around 3:00, I realized I was about to pass out so I said bye and started to leave. All of a sudden, Ron Lechien grabs me by the arm and says, "Fuck you, you aren't leaving! And with a wave of his hand he gets a waitress to bring me a Corona. Oh well, party on, dudes!
I finally had to bail out of there but not before I finished my beer that Ron Lechien bought for me. If I had known back in the '80s that I would one day be partying with Ron Lechien, I think I'd be pretty stoked.
When he was in high school, him, another fast SoCal kid, and his stoner buddy drove a car to Texas to try out for some KTM team (can’t remember the name, but the owner posts on here I believe).
My friend gets picked up and opens the ice chest to grab a “terrible tasting” home made brownie. he said is tastes like shit and the other two kids just start laughing at him. The next week is a blur for him and he pretty much rode like trash the whole time (over and under jumping everything) and didn’t end up on the team. Everyone there kept calling him and his buddy “the caliboys” lol. He Has no idea why the random stoner kid was even with them, but he strongly believes that brownie was what ruined his chances at getting anything done that week lol.
The best part is he has always been super straight edge, had hair down to his ass and looked like joe dirt. Even if he told the owner he accidentally ate a weed brownie, no one would have believed it was an accident
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