Good/Bad experiences with meeting riders?

What Deegan drama on X ? 

I was at the Suzuki test track in 02. I was 12 at the time. Windham yelled for someone in one of the box trucks and goes, “hey can I try that head?” The mechanic didn’t hear and asked him to repeat himself. Windham goes, “can I get that head?” but this time made a pumping motion with his hand over his dick. Travis just looked at me and shrugged 😭😭😭

All good here. Met McGrath a couple of times and he was super cool. Emig was too. Albertyn was one of the friendliest dudes around. Mike Craig was a great dude and very fan friendly. Barry Carsten was as grounded as they come. Scotty Sheak too. Larry Ward hung around and chatted with us for about 20 minutes. Chad Reed was really down to Earth. Too many to list!

2013 (I think) Seattle SX. I’m probably 23 at the time and patiently waiting in the pits for Roczen to come out of the semi. I waited longer than a grown man should wait to meet a teenager, but don’t make it weird.

Anyway, the pit party wrapped up and I was bummed, but started walking off. One of the team guys saw that I’ve been waiting patiently, so he pulled me and my friend behind the KTM banners and told me to wait by Kenny’s bike. He grabs Roger, who goes into the rig and tells Kenny that we’ve been wanting to meet him. 

Kenny comes out and chats with us for 10ish minutes and seemed genuinely interested in interacting with us. We got some great pictures that I’ve lost on broken phones, which sucks, but the whole experience was super cool. Thanks to that random team guy for looking out. 

Conversely, the only one rider over the years that left a bad impression was Davi. 

I have 3 that stand out....

1. Magoo, I was 7, and he made me feel like a champion, as he was at the same local race I was in that day.

2.  DeCoster.  I was 5, he was having breakfast at a diner early before a Trans Am race.  He sat down in the booth by me for a good 5 minutes and talked Moto to me, and told me to quit putting so much sugar in my oatmeal.

3.  Hannah, I was 8, on my birthday at Ponca.  He gave me a signed poster, and a Yamaha hat as well.  As I was leaving, he turned to some older man beside him and said, "Did you see that kid's Mom?  She has a great ass...."  

Ron Sun. Rode a practice day and pitted next to him in Longview.  Great dude to talk too and so helpful. We traded bikes for a few laps and he gave me great pointers, and of course beat me. One of the coolest days Ive ever had.

"Did you see that kid's Mom?  She has a great ass...."

If he told her that now, it would make her day!

Yep!  Especially since she is pushing 80 now.....

I travel an incredible amount for work and I'm always in and out of airports. Seems like most run ins happen on Thursdays before a race event - which is also a day I travel on quite a bit.  Ran into and talked to tons of riders in various situations, several pretty random. I've ran into Ryan Dungey 5 different times (usually with his family) while traveling, and every time he was as genuine and nice as a human can be, so was his wife.  Simply Lovely, awesome, salt of the earth people.  Ran into Ken Roczen once - super cool as one would expect, huge infectionus smile.  Marvin Musquin - awesome person and great to talk to.  J Mart - very nice, but also seemed quiet and reserved.  Austin Forkner - super good young man, was very nice.  Shane McElrath was really down to earth and really nice to chat with.  Pierce Brown and his mom were really nice - his mom was super sweet.  Johnny Omara - was kind of quiet, very professional, and yet nice.  Very business like, yet cool.  Met Aldon Baker once away from the SX/MX scene and he too was really nice a pleasant to talk to.  Come to think of it, I've never had a bad experience with any professional from our sport.

Early 2000s, we pull into the campground in Mammoth for the race weekend and got randomly parked next to Travis Preston who was there on a weekend RV trip with his chick. I believe it was at the time when he was on factory Honda and my brother and I were super nervous to go say hi, but he came over once he saw our bikes out getting worked on. Super nice and engaging guy, and he invited us over to play ATV madness in his outside TV for a bit.

Met RJ at Barona Oaks when I was a kid (probably 1983 or so). He was a bit standoffish, but that probably had more to do with the fact he was trying to watch Mike Craig's 80 Expert race, and we wouldn't leave him alone.

Got a Jersey from Larry Ward at Muddy Creek in probably 1989. Didn't talk to him, though, he just tossed me his jersey on his way to the announcers tower for an interview.

Met Broc Glover a couple of times when he came into the restaurant I worked at. Really, really nice guy who gladly took time out of eating his dinner to chat with me (he was solo both times).

Met Jimmy Holley at the Saitama round of the Japanese Nationals last October. Really nice guy who was more than happy to chat until he had to get back to the rider he was working with. Met Jo that day, too, but didn't get the chance to do anything other than get a photo with him. Seemed like a really nice kid, though.

Ricky johnson was my favorite rider growing up.  I believe it was the 1990 125/500 national at Washougal....he was number 13 and post navicular injury.  Was cruising the pits after the motos and found his box van,  he was clearly visible inside cooling off and had Lunnis his mechanic come out and tell us all hanging around that he wasn't going to sign any autographs.  This was post wrist injury and not doing so good results wise.....but crushing as a kid.

K-Dub. Early in his career when he was on a Yamaha, our then young son saw him standing by the fence at GH and went over to say hi. Kevin was super cool and friendly to him and spent a few minutes with him, made his day.  Years later he saw him again at the Del Mar fair, our son was eating a funnel cake and this guy with a cast on his arm yelled out to him, "Hey where'd you get that I've been looking all over"  Our son looked at him said "Hey Kevin" and showed him where to go, he smiled and waved, said thanks and went off to find a funnel cake lol. Once again super cool and friendly. Met McGrath and TP199 at a Carlsbad Christmas Gan Prix, both talked to us like they were average Joes.  Met Twitch and the Mulisha crew a long time ago in Ocotillo Wells, our son who was on an 85 at the time recognized them and rode over to say high, they cool guyed him and didn't say one fucking word. Fuck those guys, I know it was the middle of no where but it was an excited kid on an 85, we used to talk to everyone we'd run into out there and every nobody we met was cool as shit, except those guys. Maybe they're different now that they're older and having kids of their own, but they were dicks that day. Met Jason Lawerence at Elsinore, there was a red flag for an oldtimer that went down and I wound up sitting next to him waiting for the track to open back up, back then we all wore club jerseys so he asked what the blue jerseys was about. I told him it's the oldtimers and everyones over 40 and we race twice a month, some of the guys are in their 70's and 80's, we bs'ed for about 15 minutes. Say what you want about him he was as nice and polite as anyone to me, said good luck today hope the guy that went down is ok etc.  

I caption this: Haiden thinking about how he's going to get out of the next MXON. 

Pastrana, McGrath, Emig, Reed all absolute class acts. 
Emig offered me one of his donuts and showed me spy pics of his latest Emig grips, totally down to earth.

McGrath was just plain cool, I asked him if trucks are fun, he said “it’s motocross with a cage” and laughed- felt like he had all the time in the world

Pastrana was just like you see him on camera

Reedy was super laid back, it was at an Aussie race when he was prime 2004 YZ250

Also met Bogle and John Dowd at Southwick, both legends also 

Was lucky enough to get tickets from the make a wish foundation to go to press day and to Anaheim 1 back in 09 We got to walk the pits while it was pretty much industry only just me and my pops and we’d never been around the pits in that kind of setting so we just kinda moseyed around checking everything out while they were setting up. And since we didn’t know what else to do. We saw Bubba hanging out talking with his dad outside the Yamaha hospitality tent. They were a ways away and we were basically the only two people in the immediate area. We proceeded to the tent that was about 150 feet away to try and get an autograph. When they seen we were coming they turned their bodies to give us their backs and kept on their conversation faced in the other direction. We made it to the partitions and they never acknowledged us. I wasn’t a bubba fan after that. 

a few years prior to that we were at the Vegas supercross when we ran into k-dub walking thru the pits. He was my dads guy so I got a pic of them together. Had a quick chat and went about our days. We saw him that same year 09 kn the Anaheim pits by the geico truck and my pops called out k-dub! He looked over and said hey man how you been! Might have actually remembered him, might not have, who knows. But it made my dads day and that’s what counts.

Was at gh on a Thursday before the nationals and there was a ton of pros riding that day. Decided to walk my 2 year old around and see if we could get his strider signed. Was lucky enough to meet Kenny and Grant that day. Talked for a little about this n that. Both were cool as shit and didn’t seem at all annoyed that some random dude and his kid walked up to ask for an autograph while they were taking a break between motos. Grant even gave us a jersey and signed it. He’s still one of my all time favorite riders based off that interaction and his overall badassery on a bike. 
 

Another time at Comp Edge when it was open I met AC and Nick Wey. I was driving out and stopped and rolled my window down and waved AC over and he waved me over instead.. I thought, eh.. that’s fair haha 😆 so I got out and walked up to the ez up and said hey man I just wanted to say you’re a bad mofo on a bike and I hope you kill it this summer I’ll be rooting for you. He was genuinely appreciative and said thanks. Wey seemed annoyed with no expression or even a look in my direction. I was a bit taken aback by that one because I always remembered Wey as a jokester in his interviews and seemed like he would be someone to shoot the shit. Idk it was hot as shit so maybe I caught him on an off day. 

It’s just the little things that sometimes mean the most

Max Anstie, what an arrogant prick.  I met him many many times in MXGP days, just rude.   Thinks he's such a bigshot. Gave real Chad Reed vibes.  

Goutier Paulin was the best... still to this day, when you see him at the races, he always has time to chat.

Gatorback 96, I was a young teen walking the pits when I overhead that Emig was walking around hanging out. I'm thinking it was a Saturday and pros raced Sunday then, I could be wrong. Anyway , I asked a  younger adult pacing around  if he had heard this and said he sure did, If I wanted to meet Emig to follow him. This guy walked me right into a factory rig with my younger brother. It wasn't the Kawi rig and I can't recall which teams it would of been. Any way he pointed out to a rider and said that's Jeff Emig right there. Go ask him for an autograph. This rider signed my No Fear Hat and the signature looked nothing like a Jeff or an Emig, there was a chuckle from a few people in the rig and a very pretty girl as well. The pretty girl then says, Jeff , quit playing around with those kids. It was the ultimate troll. As then I realized it was Jeff Emig the whole time we followed into the rig to meet Jeff Emig. He signed the hat , I was geeked out all weekend and he gained a fan for life. One of the best moto experiences of my life.

David Bailey and Doug Domokos, 1983.  Bellevue Honda (before it became Land Rover) in WA had a meet and greet with the two, I was 9 at the time and was just getting into moto on my CR60, but hardly anybody showed up, so I spent a couple of hours with them and they were the nicest guys, talked about everything under the sun and inspired the heck out of me.  I was definitely spoiled getting their undivided attention for as long as I did, but they were awesome to me, I went there as a fan, and left a huge fan.

I had a similar experience, he was an intense guy around the track.  It kind of left a stain on my impression of him when I was a kid.

Had dinner with Webb back in 2016, very down to earth and didn’t say too much, Swanie did all the talking for him instead

Lommel MXGP, 2016. Tim Gajser was in his rookie year MXGP at 19 years old - leading the MXGP class and close to winning the championship. Weekend was hot for Europe, up to 33 degrees. On saturday, I was walking around the paddock. Gajser is leaving the Honda HRC truck, about to head to the starting area for his MXGP Qualifying race and a fan with his mentally handicapped son (that I personally know for a bit) holds him up. The son asks for his race shirt. Gajser tells him that he will come back to him after the race. 

He wins the qualifying race, does his podium interview and heads to the public area where spectators with a disability can watch. Pulls of his shirt that he just raced in, HRC assistant gives him a marker and he signs the shirt. Some pictures were made and he heads back to the HRC truck. Made me a massive fan, such a humble guy. There are a lot of stories of him going an extra mile during race weekends to keep his fans happy. That is why he has such a strong fanbase (yellow shirts) during most European rounds. His vlogs give a great insight of him too.

I was racing in the 80cc class in 1981 when my Dad pointed out Don Rickman who was watching the races. I had no idea who he was (age 11 at the time) but my Dad said I should get his autograph as he was a bit of a legend.

I walked up and asked for him to sign the race program, and he looked at me, laughed and said "your Dad sent you didn't he? You're too young to remember an old fart like me!" He was great, we chatted for a bit after he asked me how my racing was going, and he wished me luck.

We met Chad Reed and Ellie at an IMSA race when he was doing SuperTrefeo, I was super cautious approaching him but honest to God him and his wife treated my wife and I as long-lost friends, really cool, super nice people. As was every racer we met at that event, Paul Tracy, Davey Jones, Christian Fittipaldi, great people. Met Jeff Ward and 722 once as well, great folks.

Not a huge follower of Australian MX, so did not really attend many races (and meet many riders) but I did share emails with a few riders back in my Youtube days, namely Travis Pastrana and Bilko. I had emailed TP a couple of times - I didn't want to bug him very much (trying to see it from his perspective, might be considered annoying) even though I was arguably his biggest fan at the time. He was super supportive and respectful. Nonetheless, I did meet him at a Nitro Circus signing. Always nice (although looked pretty hungover!), but I was a pretty shy kid and somewhat embarrassed to mention be the kid who made all those Youtube videos of him.

Here was the email from way back in 2008:

hey bud, I just watched ur red bull rough cuts entry.. you were the only one who matched the lyrics with the music.. (monky on his back) or something had me laughing a lot when you put that to the section where plamber was on my back in the no chute jump.  I think you have a bigger following with your editing than i do with my riding!  Funny but i must get at least one person a week that mentions a video done by kickerman360..  Sorry it's taken me so long to reply as i am one of the worlds worst when it comes to writing and calling.  I'd rather be outside doing stuff anyday.  but today i am stuck in bed because i busted up my hip and had knee surgery so I figured i would look you up and drop you a line.  Keep on kicking ass bud and I look forward to seeing what you come up with in the future.  Maybe one day you will be working on a nitro project with us.. until then, good luck. 
 

1976, Rio Bravo, my best friend and I were giving it a go.  We were 16 and our mouths were hangin' open being around all the studs we'd seen in the magazines.  Everyone was hanging out in the Holiday Inn parking lot.  Marty strolled up, acted like he'd known us his whole life.  Basically took us under his wing and introduced us to every one racing.  "Hey Tripes...what happened to yer face...catch it in a door?"  They may not of all been friends but they got along pretty well.  

I've met a handful over the years, probably the two nicest were AP7 and Brayton. Probably get downvoted for this lol, but the most rude was probably Trey Canard surprisingly. Me and my stepdad went to Ironman 2018 I believe it was, Kenny was on HRC at the time and Trey was following him around like a puppy dog. We happened to be walking the pits and was unknowingly standing right by Kenny's motorhome, him and Trey come walking up after one of the 450 practices and I asked Trey for a quick picture ( would have taken no more than 10secs of his time). He responded with something like "yea in a second" and went in Kenny's motorhome. We stood there for about 30mins and neither one came back out so we left. 

We've met most of them wandering the pits at the Nationals over the years, but our interaction with KDub was probably the best. He just returned on the "privateer" Honda & he was setup at 'Dilla by a motorhome with Dottie & the kids. My son was about 9 & pretty starstuck, but Kevin totally put him at ease. I told him how great it was to have him back in the series & wished him luck.

He holeshot both motos that day & went 1-1. One of my favorite days at Unadilla for sure.

This thread kicks ass.

All mine where good or great.