Good/Bad experiences with meeting riders?

I flagged the Southwick National in the 90's.  Brian Deegan came cartwheeling down the fifth gear downhill that is now the pit road into the mud and flew off the side of the track almost hitting me.  His bike was terminally stuck in the mud half on and off the track.  After he collected himself we shot the shit for 15-20 minutes until the race was over.  He told me tidbits about each passing rider and it was like we were old friends.  He invited me to hang out between the motos in his pits and after the race.  Great dude.

I saw this thing with Deegan and thought it was stupid.

At Dallas SX the line to get his autograph was insane. There was no way there was enough time for him to sign even a quarter of the people in line. I couldnt understand what they were thinking, or why they were even there. They clearly didn't realize these guys only have half an hour or so to do it.

I mean this guy is crying that Deegan didn't even look at his son, but plenty of other people could complain that he took much time with each fan and didn't get to them.

The teams used to rope off the line to cut it to a doable amount. Not sure why they stopped.

A lot of good stories here. I have two that stand out to me.

One was at a dealer signing prior to Hangtown Not sure what year but Broc TicKle was on RCH. It was all the Kawasaki and Pro Circuit riders and Broc cause they were all Monster athletes. It was a very big line and I was like 20 minutes in line before I got to the tables. When I got to Broc Tickle he looked up at me and asked how I was doing and hoped I was having a good time. I hadn't even said anythng to hm yet. We talked for a minute or so and I moved on. Everybody else for the most part just signed posters and slide them out and didn't say anything except to each other. When I got to Jake Weimer he was talking to one of the PC guys next to him. I was standing in front of him and he didn't acknowledge me. Finally RV punch him and told him to pay attention. I thought that was cool. Got a photo with RV and told hm I appreciated his efforts. I lost that photo along my travels. Since then I have always appreciated Broc Tickle. He made me feel good and I was important and not hm. 

Next one was at the Long Beach Motorcycle Show. It was primarlity all street bike stuff but one year they had Cooper Webb there signing autographs at a table in the Yamaha area. This was when he was on the Star 250 after he won his outdoor championship. There was nobody in line. I came up up and said you looked bored. He laughed and we talked about bikes, surfing, NC, the shoes I was wearing and other things. We talked for probably 10 minutes. He was super cool and seemed really happy to talk to somebody.

 I know these factory riders sign thousands of autographs a year but it may be the one time a fan gets to see them up close and in person so it could be something they will remember their whole life. The riders can make it a good or bad experience.

The coolest experience I had was when I got to sit and talk to Roger DeCoster at Loretta's one year. We just sat under the tent and talked for probably 30-40 minutes and the conversation contained little about motorcycles. I told him about visiting the Naval Air Museum in Pensacola FL and he was so interested in that. He was telling me about a military museum in Belgium that he loved to visit. It was a great experience to visit with one of my heroes and find out besides motorcycles we had a lot of the same interests.  

After reading a few of these experiences I'm a little surprised these factory teams don't have a "handler" of sorts for these riders during dealer signings. Or at least someone with a little common sense and respect to tell these guys not to treat fans like assholes. I'm not saying they need to hug everyone but at least a "hi how are you today" would go a long way with fans especially little kids. Signing 10 posters ahead of time and sliding them off the edge of the table while bro'ing down with your buddies is very disrespectful to someone that has waited in line for hours just to meet you.

RJ was a real A hole in his youth, from 80-84ish, he was super arrogant and didn’t care about people. 

He turned into a really good guy when he started going to some church, he really changed. 

Once he trashed his wrist he was in deep depression, and that’s probably why he didn’t want to talk. 

One of my favorite pics of James, 2004 early Sunday morning in the pits.  

Was at the Suzuki test rack in Corona with some friends from NZ. The gate was open and we got an odd look from Roger as we pulled in. Travis was on the track for a little bit. When he pulled off, he talked with his mechanic, wiped off his face and came over to us, stuck his hand out and said "Hi, I'm Travis". He talked for a little bit, welcomed the Kiwis to the US, signed autographs and stood with the boys for a pic. It wasn't 5 minutes but for some it's the chance of a lifetime. He's an all time. 

I met Hunter Lawrence when he and his dad came for the USGP. We were at Milestone and he pitted right next to us in a rental truck and borrowed bike. I loaned him a few tools to set sag and adjust chain etc.  I would see him at the tracks and would stop and say hi. Once at Milestone he was testing and pretty busy and said so but would visit later, asked where we were pitted. When he was leaving he and his dad stopped, and sat with us for a few minutes. 

When I met Jett the next year, they were they were at Glen Helen practicing. This is while he was an amateur. I went to their pit, said hello and talked a little with Darrin while he was going over the bikes. Hunter wipes his face, grabs a water and comes over to say hello. He looks over to Jett and says "this is my brother Jett". Jett gets out of his chair, walks over to shake my hand and says nice to meet you. That was very impressive to me. 

I met Travis Pastrana at Red Bud MXON back in 2018. Although he was visible in pain with his knee he took time to chat with fans around his pits 

When Kenny went to Honda I got to meet him at the Monster Energy Cup.  I was in Vegas for work with the dealership I worked at.  We were at Honda service training but got some Honda VIP tickets from them also.  Kenny was new with the team and it was obvious that they were trying to get him all up to speed on the new 17 450R.  They had suspension techs from Japan there working on the bike and trying to translate what he was needing.  You could just tell it was pretty focused on that but Kenny came over to my buddy and I who were hanging out in the VIP area watching.  He was such a genuine person in the moment that I was truly amazed at his composure and compassion for the people around him no matter who they were.  Meet him after a race again (just briefly at the airport) years later and truthfully it was the very same.  

Couple of notably bad... No surprise, Weston Pieck is a douche and Chad Reed has the personality of a table lamp.  Neither of them cared to even engage at all.  Weston was actually a complete asshole.  Even my wife who rarely will speak bad about ANYBODY stated he was a complete dickhead.  Both were behind the scene interactions when I was with a Blu Cru team in Phoenix.    

I have a bit of a unique one...2004. 

I don't remember what exactly I said, but there was a Stewart thread on whatever this site was called back then (I believe it was MotoNews?)

I posted something in defense of Stewart, along the lines of "remember what the kid has done" before he was about to move up to the big boy class. 

I got a DM from his agent saying "Hey James read that thread and really appreciated what you said and he wants to send you something, what's your address?"

This showed up after a few days. Florida dirt still on it...

Not really exiting but, at the Southwick National last year I saw Johnny O'Mara and Darrin Lawrence watching practice by the fence. They didn't seem too busy so I went over and just wished their racers good luck and told O'Mara that I've been a big fan of his since the Mugen days. He seemed surprised that somebody actually recognized who he was. They were both friendly and seemed cool.

In 2017 my son and I were in the pits at the Southwick National early, before the pit pass spectators were allowed in and we saw Zach Osborne basically standing around in street clothes - months earlier he had won the 250 Supercross title in Vegas. If you remember, he cleaned out Joey Savatgy in one of the last turns at that race. Zach was really friendly and posed for a picture with my son. I congratulated him on the title and mentioned how I was screaming at my television while watching that awesome race. He just smiled and chuckled a bit. Seems like a real down to earth guy.

I’ve been to 3 A1’s, 1 LA SMX, and 2 Fox Raceway Nationals, the line at the truck for him has always been crazy long, longest in the pits, the closest line i’ve seen rival the Deegan line is the line for Eli at the more recent races. I stood in the line once, I got a picture and an autographed poster at LA SMX, same with Eli, Webb and Ferrandis. Moral of my story is, i’ve only been in the deegan line once and am always amazed at how long they are.

When I was with Bel-Ray we did a ton of meet and greet opportunities for our dealers and had racers come and sign autographs at trade shows. I have to say that most of the riders I worked with were great with our guests. Occasionally there would be some that were not as outgoing but never rude. 

There were a couple that stood out over the years have been great. 

Andrew Short spent a bunch of time talking with a guy and his wife about his cattle. At a mining show, where Jeremy McGrath was signing for us, we had a customer tell him that his daughter would be bummer because the dad met Jeremy and she didn't. McGrath told the customer to call his daughter and Jeremy said hi and chatted for a couple of minutes. We also had Ken Roczen and Carey Hart come hang out in our suite at a SX and watched some racing with our guests. I'm sure there are more but these couple stand out. 

The thing for many racers is that they do this all the time, but for the fan it's a once in a lifetime opportunity. We're lucky that our sport is so open to the fans. 

Michael Jordan once said - "If people are going to take time out of their busy day and spend money to come see me play, I have an obligation to fulfill and give them their money's worth, to give them a show".

I believe this should be true off the track as well. 

In the summer of 02 I was 15 and did alot of riding at Pastrana's neighbors house where the moto track is. One day we rode over to see if Travis was riding or doing anything cool. When we got there he told us he was done riding for the day. No biggie it was still awesome to meet my hero. Then Robert comes out of the barn and says "Travis go do some flips for those kids!" Travis throws his helmet and boots on, cargo shorts no shirt and hucks a massive double backflip into the foam pit. My jaw was on the ground. Very few people had seen a backflip in person at that point and here is Travis doing doubles for just me and my buddies. I got to go on top of the foam pit and watch him do 360's and other never before seen tricks. At the end he asked me if I wanted to get on the bike and do a flip with him. I told myself I couldn't get hurt before Loretta's doing something stupid with Travis so I said no. I've regretted it ever since.  

Meet Dewayne Windham at Red Bud in 95, he was watching practice and started talking to me, next thing you know 250's are out and he says he has to go back to the truck but he'll be back. I thought he was so polite and nice but never figured he would come back, about 20 minutes latter I hear that slow southern draw say now what were we talking about? We stood and laughed for a long time. Very good person. I have been lucky to have meet and talked with a lot in the sport and have only had a few bad experiences.

Is that Kevin’s dad?

Yes, I should have said that. 

Met Decoster a few weeks ago in the pits at Tampa, cool as can be. Talked about some old school moto and told him my dad was a huge fan, got a pic with him sent it to my dad and he called me saying I needed to frame it ASAP. 

RC almost ran me and my friends over at Daytona SX in 2016 or 2017 with a Honda CRV. He had his phone in one hand and then threw his hands up at us like we were doing something wrong. Always chapped my ass after that. 

Met Dungey after the races at Budd’s when he came back for the outdoors a few years ago. Probably would’ve talked to us for as long as we wanted. 

Met him just after that injury when his wrist was still in a cast and he was super friendly .

Buddy Antunez. He was one of my favorites back in the day as we are close'ish in age. I was at Perris in I want to say 2001, and he was there busting out laps. I was pitted right next to him and end of the day he is trying to load his bike into the back of his giant chevy and was struggling so I ran over and helped him. He was very nice and appreciative. We chatted Crusty movies and arenacross for a half hour or so, then he took off. 

Years later we had a laugh about it at Moonshine Flats after the San Diego SX as I hadn't seen him in a long while at that point. We got absolutely plastered that night, face timed Nate Ramsey (who was well into his own party at that point) from the dance floor, it was all a blur at the end. That was a rough Sunday morning.

Met McGrath in 2012 at a reno casino. Was a chill dude, and genuinely nice. We talked about the psf 1 forks, as he was on Honda at the time. 

In 2012 I won the "JS7 at work" instagram contest after he'd won Daytona and ran 259 in practice. I had my desk fully kitted out, wore a jersey to work, had a mini Christmas tree with Red Bulls on it, was just over the top.  He gave me 5 VIP passes with industry seating to the Indy SX, his agent Greg escorted us around, gave us a tour, and I got to meet him before the heat races. It was brief but he was very funny, appreciative, and it was a great experience.  Met Ralph and Emig in the tunnel at that same race after Greg introduced us, they were both awesome!

Unfortunately 2012 was peak JGR years, and right after the first turn in the heat race he wadded up in the rhythm section, got ran over, and was out for the night.   He ended up leaving JGR a couple races after crashing in Houston, then switched to Suzuki for outdoors and had a great run until Lakewood!

Also met Pastrana when he was driving for Roush/Fenway and he was at an open house here in Detroit.   He was nice, interaction was short.  He chatted for a bit with my girlfriend who had one of his signature DC shoes hats that she had him sign.

That sucks man. My kid (9 at the time) met Max at Charlotte and he was super cool to him. Been a fan ever since. Also met Kenny and same deal. Cool dude.

RC  biggest dickhead and cocky AF. Acted so entitled.  Now divorced , lost shit loads of money and is announcing to make a buck.

Max Miller and Seth Hammaker are two awesome young men for their interactions with my son. Preston Boespfluo is top notch also.