The truth and nothing but.

I have been riding motorcycles since 1982. I moved out to California from North Carolina in 1996, and landed a job as a designer at Honda Research and Development, North Americas, Inc., affectionately known as HRA, in Torrance, CA. Motorcycle Division. I have worked with and consider myself a friend of Dave Arnold, Erik Kehoe, Chuck Miller, Ray Conway and other Honda stalwarts (maybe even Ray Blank, as we've had some great conversations over the years, but also, maybe not). I've worked and traveled in Japan to HGA, Honda's central R&D office and center of the Honda Motorcycle Universe, 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 a lot! While working at HRA, I fell in love with dirt bikes and especially 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 with which I raced SuperTT (STTARS?)(um, OK, Supermoto, then), then on to a 2002 CR250R, then an '04 CRF450R, then a few years on a YZF (I know) and now I'm back on brand with a cherry 2012 CRF450R. I've raced a little, the most fun was at Mammoth, but I suck bad, never made the "main" though it wasn't for lack of trying. I guess I just started too late at MX to really be a fast guy. Now I have a shitload of fun and don't ride with my ego. I've had 4 knee surgeries, 2 broken thumbs, been speared by my handlebars a couple of times and almost lost a finger in a weird crash. (Edit: Make that 2 fingers nearly lost as I recently had ANOTHER chain and sprocket incident!)

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. Currently active with SoCal Old Timers MX in 50+ novice. Yes, I own a transponder.

I've been lurking on here, almost every day, since early 2008. Don't know what compelled me to finally sign up and sign in, but here goes. I guess I was afraid I wouldn't be able to put it down. I guess we'll see.

(Edit: Here it is, like, 100 years later and I STILL haven't posted anything!)

Flame on, there's more to come.

Michael Keating
this_is_mookie

PS. The "Mookie" nickname has been mine since I was 6 years old, growing up in Long Island, NY. When I go back, people still call me that. So, yeah, this IS Mookie.