The truth and nothing but.

I have been riding motorcycles since the age of 17. 58 years old now. I moved to California with an Industrial Design degree from NC State in 1996, and I soon found work as a design assistant in the Motorcycle Division at Honda R & D, in Torrance CA. I have worked alongside many M/C Industry stalwarts like Dave Arnold, Erik Kehoe, Chuck Miller, Ray Conway and other Honda legends. I was even lucky enough to get XR setup tips from Bruce Ogilvy back in the day, when he was still running the Off-Road team with Johnny Campbell as #1. I've worked and traveled in Japan to Honda's central R&D office and many of the factories so many times I lost count. I developed colors and graphics for street and dirt bikes, ATV's, PWC's and the race team, to make sure the Team Honda bikes always looked like "factory" bikes. You can check some of my pics, I'll try and put some up as soon as I can. If you want to take a look at some of my other work, you can find it here: dynamicaldesign.com

Anyway, I got off track, nothing new there, I go off the track pretty regularly! While working at HRA, I fell in love with dirt bikes and motocross, almost eliminating street bikes from my garage, but not quite. I went from a $300 83 XL600R that I thought was a dirt bike, to a '90 CR500R I raced SuperMoto, then on to a 2002 CR250R for MX, and now I ride and race a beautiful 2022 CRF450R. I've raced a little, but I suck, never won a race, though it wasn't for lack of trying. Haven't finished last, either, so that's why they call me Midpack (Racer). I got started too late at MX to really be fast. Now I just have fun and try not to ride over my head!

It hasn't been a smooth 2-wheeled road! I've had 4 knee surgeries, 2 broken thumbs, been speared by handlebars a couple of times and nearly lost a finger in a weird crash while trail riding.

So, I've been on a bike. I ride motocross. I've raced, crashed, and been hurt like most of you. I can't get it out of my system like most of you, either.

I've been lurking on here, almost every day, since early 2008.

Flame on, there's more to come.

Michael Keating
Midpack_Racer