Finding peace after a busy life

I’ve lived to be 84, that’s a long time. Like my father before me who lived to be two weeks shy of 91 and had planned on living to a hundred. We have, as some would say I have seen a lot of stuff during our lifetime and that is a fact. I could fill pages of the stuff I’ve seen over my lifetime, but I’m not.

It took me a long time to realize just how blessed I’ve been during my lifetime. I’ve always thought of myself as kind of lucky and unlucky at the same time, unlucky that this or that had happened to me, but also lucky because it could have been much worse.

I’ve done a lot of truly dumb stuff, some on purpose, some by accident and some by being dumb. I’ve also done some truly smart amazing things all for the same reasons. It took getting older in my life to realize some of things I took for granted like just being lucky were, actual gifts given to me and I was truly blessed to have received them at all. The older I get the more I realize the gifts I’ve been given were not by accident and I realize just how valuable they are. I do not take them for granted and I am so thankful to have been blessed in so many ways. 

I spent most of my life, doing life like most of us, kids, hustle bustle, making money, spending money, worrying about this or that and for me racing and riding motorcycles for about sixty years

Better late than never as they say, maybe I’ve been given more time here to truly understand what I’ve been given, to recognize this and to consciously give back in some way. Almost twenty years ago I started doing Hospice Volunteer work because I was with my dad when he passed away, I did not know what to do or say to him, I was afraid to even touch him. I know he didn’t want to die, was afraid to die even, so I wanted to find out more about the death and dying process and I got involved in Hospice.

After I could no longer race or ride motorcycles and after I went through my withdrawals and sold everything, I was left with an empty feeling. Fortunately for me I had other out lets like writing and being a motorcycle racing fan and BS-ing. I also had the realization of all the gifts I’d been given and the feeling I needed to do something else with whatever time I had left. I thought I could do senior projects, like volunteering, etc. Then it sort of dawned on me, I’ve been doing Hospice work since 2006 I enjoy it, I’m very good at it, so at the same time as I was wondering what I should do I realized the Hospice work is and has been what I’ve been giving back all these years and is exactly what I should be doing for as long as I can.

So, I rededicated myself to this work and have started a new program within Hospice. I have for a long time wanted to reach out to Hospice dementia patients with their music. The music they grew up listening to and the music they listened to maybe all of their lives. One of the last doors that dementia can break through is music, music whether we recognize it or not has to some extent been part of all our lives. Music can open that door and let them access memories they can no longer access. Sometimes the reaction can be very dramatic; most for me have been mild but still extremely rewarding for me, the family and to the patients as well. Yes, when the music is turned off the door closes again, but I’ve had other patients tell me that since I’ve been playing the music for this patient, they are less agitated, smile more and in some cases talk more. I download their music by the original artists to my phone I then play it through a wireless headset. The headset cuts out any outside noises and allows them to just listen to the music. They don’t have to try and listen.  Hospice work requires a 100% commitment to the patient, they deserve it and it’s an honor and a privilege to be with them at this time in their life. If I can be a contribution or make a difference in their life at the end of it, it does not get any better than that for me.

In past the year or so I’ve had some spiritual revelations some were tied to my Hospice work and some were not. The Hospice ones were directly related to the music work I’ve been doing, the others were a result of my own curiosity. I did not spend my life thinking much about what comes after; I didn’t spend any time in any church that did not call to me. But I now have a budding relationship with God, the spirit, the man above, whatever you might want to call, her, him, it. As I’m now in the 4^th quarter of my life I feel more comfortable about what may come next.

I know that some of you who read this might say, easy for you, you have all these blessing and gifts that I don’t have, well I’d have to say not true. First, I believe we all have been blessed and given gifts, some of us more than others for sure. The trick for us is to find them in ourselves. In order to find them in you, you first must be willing and be honest with yourself, it’s easy to find our own faults, and just and just as easy to point out faults in others. It’s just easier to talk about negative things than positive things, kind of the way we are built.

A little more about being willing, nothing can start period if you are not willing, if you are not willing to look for the gifts and blessings you have been given absolutely nothing can or will happen. If you are truly willing you can start looking for the positives in you, no negatives, the positives are there, they will be harder to find though.

Doug 21J

Doug's KLX Evolution

Story number 3 on my KLX300

I did finally did take the suspension off and give it to Bucky to change the oil. I decided not to do any revalving I don’t think it needed it for what I’m doing so Bucky just change out the OEM oil which apparently is like honey. And I will never take the suspension off this bike again, I‘ve taken suspension off countless bikes over the years, but the KLX was not fun at all and fought me at every turn, nothing came apart or went back together like it should have, totally frustrating.

On my last ride before I had the suspension serviced Wayne and I ended riding to a lake called Bowmen which is probably a PG&E Hydro Power lake up in the Sierras. The roads in and out are very bad and full of various sized sharp edged rocks. After only a short time of riding on those rocks I told Wayne I need to get off the rocks, we are many, many miles from our trucks and if I should get a flat I’m screwed. I have the stock tires, tubes and no rim locks, if I get a flat with no rim locks trying to ride back to the truck will become a nightmare.

So after I had the suspension serviced and before I rode it I had heavy duty tubes, rim locks installed and the wheels balanced. So Wayne and I went for a nice 64 mile ride and I felt much safer with the new tubes and rim locks and the suspension worked excellent. I don’t think I could ask for it to work any better than it now does. So it has stock valving, stock springs, just clicker adjustments and preload spring adjustments and I weigh 210 plus gear. Can I and do I bottom it out occasionally, yes. I’m not a slug on the type of terrain I ride, far from it and the suspension is soft and I do have my trusty ole fork Air Cells (Which aren’t manufactured anymore) they smooth out the initial fork travel and keep the front end from deflecting over the small stuff. I’ve whined about how I wouldn’t want to ride single track on this bike because it’s so heavy, but when I think about it I rode lots of bikes 35 years ago on single track trails that were close to 300 pounds like a XR600. If I had my 2025 KLX300 to ride back then it would more than held its own against any four strokes in that era and I wouldn’t have been complaining, although my 1991 XR600 and my 1998 XR400 were pretty good and most of today’s single track trails in my area are pretty beat up compared to how they were back in that time period. Today’s bikes are so good it’s easy to create cornering berms and to create suspension and braking bumps that tear up trails. And the mindset of lot riders today is to have no regard for the trails and treat them like a moto cross course, it is possible to ride those trails at speed and not tear them up. But that’s a story for another time.

Let me say it again I like this bike, is it perfect no, but it’s easy to ride, because it’s closer to the ground it feels very planted and confidence inspiring. Even if I went back to a light weight trail bike (Which I won’t be doing) I believe I would spend the money to shorten the suspension, I don’t think I need or want 12” of travel for trail riding, but I am an old man now.

Doug 21J

21J On Life's Travels

Opinion’s of a highly qualified lifelong fan (Who occasionally spends the night at a Holliday Inn to keep his mind sharp)

My son said to me the other day, this year’s races have been in some respects very different and unique, you should ride a story about it. So here’s a shot at what has gone down this year.

First off my son and I have been critiquing the Super Cross and Out Door Pro Motocross races for years now. I think it all started back when Ryan Dungey first started racing. He was my son and his wife’s favorite rider throughout his entire career. When Ryan retired his wife pretty much stopped watching the races. For her it was much more than how good of a rider he was, it was who he was as a human being. I’m sure you can imagine Hayden Deegan is not one of her favorite riders. Social Media has within the past few years risen to a whole new level and my son has jumped in and routinely expresses his opinions and sometimes does a little batting to get reactions.

He and I go back a long way with dirt bikes, starting when he was about 10 or 11. I think the first thing we did together was ride a family enduro as a father and son team. I welded some foot pegs on my bike I think it was a 1976 Yamaha IT400 and he rode on the back with me, I think we did that twice, eventually he got his own bike and we still rode as a team but he on his own bike. About that age we started going to HangTown together and just about every year since then, we even rode our dual sport bikes out there. We would probably make two laps around the entire course during the day and of course up and down every hill. We were there when some incredible things happened, in the more modern era when Eli Tomac went beast mode and beat Ryan Dungy by a minute and a half.

There’s no walking like that for me anymore, for the last five years I’ve worked as a security guard (What) in the Husqvarna pits and the farthest I walk is from the pits to the starting line and mechanics area to watch the races, with the factory mechanics. My son still walks around and up and down I don’t think he gets in two laps anymore but he’s still capable of hoofing it around there.

So because of our years of experience we believe we are more than qualified to comment on anything related to anything really. I at least spread my wisdom around; I have a number of equally qualified friends who I talk with regularly about what we saw on television over the weekend.

A couple of things have become apparent the last few years, a lot more riders are getting hurt these days riding Super Cross, the abilities of the riders have risen to a point the current track layouts are in some ways not as challenging or are to challenging in that they all have to go for it, if they make it great if they don’t injuries accrue and not just the mid pack back riders, the top riders are getting hurt and that results in inconsistent top riders not being available to race each weekend. We all have our favorites and when they go down for anytime at all it can interrupt the spirit of friendly competition. And some of these riders’ careers are threatened or are actually shortened by injuries.

I do not pretend to have the answers, I believe we all have suggestions, but I’m not sure the track builders have the answers, but something needs to change or we will continue to see some of our favorite riders unable to compete for championships or wins. And who wants to watch races every weekend to see who gets hurt this time? 

In Super Cross lappers continue to be an issue at critical junctions in the races, in some ways it’s a test of a rider’s ability to navigate the lappers, but far too often it can affect the racing usually in a negative way.  I think they have tried to come up with ways to have better control over this area, but it still needs to be better. I think we as fans all have ideas about how they can control this aspect of racing better. I don’t know about you but it seems to me most of the flaggers start waving the blue flag (Move over the leaders are coming) at the leaders as they approach. At Unadilla they were waving the blue flag at Levi for the rider he had just pasted which turned out not to be a lapped rider, Levi confused let up thinking he was a lapped rider and as we all saw the rider passed him back costing Levi a point.    

Speaking of outdoors, the past five years as I’ve said I have usually watched the HangTown races from the mechanics area which is very close to the track and have been amazed at just how fast the all of the riders are. And one of the biggest differences these days is at the end of the races even the 39^th place rider is still digging; they all deserve to be on that track.

One of the other things we have seen over the past number of years now is the longevity of the current riders; a number of riders are sticking around still racing into their early to mid thirties. Ryan Dungey, Ryan Villapoto, Ricky Carmichael, James Stewart all retired, when, in their mid twenties? We can all come up with a number of reasons why they are doing this these days, money, conditioning, better bikes, etc. But in a sense it has perhaps held back some riders from getting coveted rides and progressing. I’m sure some of the guys who have been around ten plus years are still making good money and the fact there are several new manufactures added to the mix doesn’t hurt. Although there is two brands Gas Gas, Husqvarna have dropped their factory efforts, but those brands will be absorbed into satellite teams so they aren’t really going away.

And there is new crop of riders, like Jet Lawrence, Prado, Cole Davies and the thing they have in common is they are so smooth. Jet started it in this current modern era; he and his brother are basically dominating the 450 class right now. It’s a lot of fun to watch riders like Hayden Deegan and Levi Kitchen ride, especially when they come through the pack. But both of those riders are going to have to learn to ride more Jet and Hunter like, especially like Jet. As fast as Levi is Cole Davies is so smooth and gets such consistent starts Levi will always have trouble catching him. Same with Deegan and Jet and Hunter and Prado until he learns to be smoother he will never last long enough in the motos to beat them. I do think he will eventually he’s just too talented and his determination is off the chart. I must say I have enjoyed this more subdued version of Deegan, I suppose when and if he starts winning 450 races he may return to the old absolutely annoying version of himself.

What about Chase Sexton, the enigma. What about him, so much talent but can’t get out of his own head, not sure about him. Should Eli continue, I guess if he wants to, but that was a gnarly crash he had, I would think that still has to be on his mind (and his families) because that was one of those that could have easily been a life altering events. Should Roxen retire, now or race next year with the #1 plate then retire? I’m not sure how I feel about that let’s see how he does in the SMX playoffs. It was great watching him this year. Will Hunter ever win another Championship? No I don’t think so. How will Deegan and Davies be when both are on 450 Yamaha’s? Unless Deegan learns how to be smoother that could be tuff for Deegan. Is Malcolm to Kawasaki a good move for Kawasaki? Yes, he’s well liked by the fans; and his dad I’m sure will be at the races with him and his dad is really a fan favorite, maybe Malcolm can expand on his ties with Bass Pro Shops, and then ride off into the sunset in a new Tracker boat. Where’s AP going to land next year? I‘ve watched him in the pits with fans he’s great and would be a great asset to any team.  He’s not going to win anymore, but neither is Hampshire, Malcolm, Barcia, Frerandis and a few others, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t valuable to some team. What about Justin Cooper is he ever going to win again? Maybe and some of these other guys can win a SX heat race now and then. One more, Garret Marchbanks, just think if Jet, Hunter, Prado, Deegan were not in the 450 class, guess who would be leading the championship, he’s kind of solidified the 5^th OA spot this year. Hampshire and Justin Cooper who are probably faster, have either missed time of been inconsistent.

There is also a great crop of young talented 250 riders who will soon be dominating that class, thanks to Star Racing’s programs and the 250 Futures Program or whatever it is they call them. I’m also enjoying the Pro Women’s Racing and hope it continues to grow, I’d like to see it become a regular on the Out Door Program and there are a lot of up and coming very fast ladies. I think all would like to see Lala Turner race with the men.

Right now it’s an exciting time in Super Cross and Out Door Moto Cross the future looks very bright. I haven’t quite gotten behind all the after the season championships, I suppose it’s good for the sport but just makes for such a long, long grind for these guys and the fans as well. But I do believe the way the point system works it in a way almost forces some riders to compete in the Out Doors Championship in order to get a better position when the SMX championship starts and that has been perhaps a bit of a savior for the outdoors, I believe. I still prefer outdoor motocross so hope it stays viable for a long time to come.

My KLX300

The weather has been either fog to the ground or wind and rain lately, with both you get the cold, especially with fog. Even though I knew it was sunny up where I would normally ride, I just couldn’t make myself get off my ass, load everything up and go find the sunshine, so I haven’t been riding. The other reason for not riding is my expiration date had come and gone on my trigger point neck injections, the very thing that allows me to ride again. They only last a few months at a time and I have to wait at least three months before I can get them again. But until that happened this fall I did ride I’ve put close 800 miles on my KLX since June. And the more I ride it the more I like it. The more I like it is a relative term, is it better than all the other bikes I’ve had, absolutely not, but for what I’m using it for its good, not perfect, but I do enjoy riding it. If I decided to expand the kind of riding I’m doing to include say riding single track or desert riding then no I would have reached and surpassed what it’s good at for me anyway. After fifty plus years of riding and racing and a hundred plus bikes it would not meet those expatiations.

Some of my current thoughts, when it comes time to replace the stock tires I will replace them with either the same thing or something similar, why because I believe they work very well for what I’m using the bike for. I’ve ridden so called dual sport bikes for years most all of them with knobby’s on them because a percentage of the terrain was single track or single track desert etc. But quite frankly riding on knobby’s on dirt roads, two track dirt roads and pavement isn’t real comfortable. The stock tires are comfortable and very stable for that kind of riding. I have to admit at this point in my life I’m no longer interested in riding in rain and mud or muddy conditions, done all that. If I did then the stock tires are not good for that kind of riding and different tires would be a must.

The bike is quite, I like that, I’m sure an aftermarket exhaust would give it more power and lighter weight. I would like the lighter weight the bike is heavy especially by today’s standards, years ago no they were all heavy. I do think at some point I will remove the stock muffler just to see how much it weights. But for the kind of riding I’m now doing the bike feels just fine, jumping water bars maybe not so much. In my first story I said I was having issues with shifting the bike, it’s still an issue, but it’s better. I’m on my fourth after market shift lever and the latest one I believe a 1995 Honda XL650 shift lever works a lot better. It’s only going to get marginally better because of my size thirteen boots. The other issue I’ve struggled with is the rider triangle; it’s not comfortable for me. I don’t feel comfortable standing at all, it’s too cramped. Fast Way does not yet make down and back pegs for the bike, maybe someday they say. I used to be 6’1” but old age and having a seat pound my ass for years has resulted in me now being 6’. I just recently went to higher bars and aftermarket clamps that move the bars forward, when I did that I did not put the wrap around handguards back on, just a set of flag handguards, I’m not going to be crashing into stuff on single track trails. What little I’ve ridden it just around my home it feels much, much better and I think I’ll be much more comfortable standing in situations that pretty much demand you stand.

For those of you who have perhaps read my older stuff remember I always used Air Cells on my forks, no matter what. For those of you who have never heard of Air Cells I’ll explain how they work. But first I must say Air Cells are no longer in business from what I can tell. I have enough parts and pieces to make a set work on the KLX. The purpose of the Air Cells was to let air flow from the forks into and out of the Air Cell cylinders, the flow is metered and that helps soften the first few inches of initial fork travel. Most all the suspension companies are very good taking care of the middle and final part of the travel and maybe now they have that part figured out as well. The last time I looked into it Enzo suspension in So Cal was the only company who offered the Air Cell type technically, but they only made it for Showa forks. The initial few inches of travel can sometimes be harsh like when hitting rocks, roots etc. that tends to deflect the front end and allow the front end to move around giving you an unstable feeling, you could still feel the rocks and roots etc. but it didn’t hammer your hands and made the front stable. The KLX has a bit of that feeling, so the Air Cells. Overall the suspension works well for what I’m doing and so for now I don’t feel the need to run out and have them revalved. I haven’t ridden the bike since I installed the Air Cells so I assume they will help like they always have in the past. Eventually (Around 1000 miles) I will have at least the oil changed in the forks and shock, the stock oil is very thin.

For now this all I’ve planned on doing, just keep riding it and see what happens.

Doug 21J 

2026, Well another Hangtown in the books!

This was my fifth year working my ass off as a Security Guard for the Dirt Diggers in the team Husqvarna pits. I was looking forward to doing this again for a couple of reasons. RJ Hampshire was one of my favorite 250 riders, that’s why I picked the Husky pits five years ago; I have always liked his race mentality, never quit. I believe he’s a better 450 rider than a 250. I was also looking forward to seeing his growing family, the first year I was in the Husky pits his daughter had probably been walking for months only and she cruised around the pits all day, she never stopped. I was also looking forward to seeing Big James, Malcolm and James Stewart’s father, I’ve said before he’s fun to be around.

Unfortunately RJ’s family didn’t come, Malcolm was injured at Paula the week before so not only was he not there neither was his dad. So I started off the weekend batting zero. I in particular wanted to see Big James because as most everyone knows by now the factory Husqvarna factory racing team will go away at the end of the year. And the reason I wanted to talk with Big James was I had a couple of questions for him. Malcolm will be moving on to another team I assume and so will his dad. As I’ve said before Big James would come out and sit in the hospitality section of the Husky rig and always draw crowd, he’d take pictures sign autographs and just interact with everyone who stopped by to see him. I wanted to ask him if all the factory team rigs he’s been in all these years between his son little James and Malcolm, if he thought those teams appreciated what he himself brought to the team by just being himself and sit out there in those team hospitality sections entertaining people. I thought he was a great asset to the team, especially when the team riders never had any sort of formal team autograph signing sessions the whole five years I was there and I never asked anyone why they didn’t. Actually only a few of the teams had formal autograph sessions it seemed to be all about who was on the team. I wanted to ask him that question because who knows if and where he will be next year, I do know he will be missed.

The pits open to the public a 9:00AM and at 9:02AM on Saturday there was already a line maybe sixty fee long waiting for Hayden Deegan and I don’t know when the sessions started but I know they ended at 12:00PM when the pits were closed.

The weather this year was very nice mid eighties with a steady breeze all day kept it from feeling too hot, unlike last year that was pure hell, pun intended. The track was excellent, lots of rice hulls mixed in with some new dirt. (The new dirt came from a local new dirt maker, I think the name of the company was Walt’s, I believe their motto is “If you need new dirt, let Walt dig it up for you”) 

I did my usual, went down to the starting line with the mechanics then walked over to the mechanics area after the start. This year the mechanics area was two stories like they do in the European GP series, the view from up there is pretty darn good. It’s still amazing to see even the last place riders come by the mechanics area at the beginning, middle and end of the race with an amazing pace. These back maker riders would all be hero’s at their local tracks, no doubt.

All of the races were enjoyable this year and a few things stood out to me, the following is for those who are outdoor motocross fans. Levi Kitchen is very fast but can’t seem to put it all together; if he did he would be a consistent winner. Seth Hammaker was inconsistent like Kitchen until this last year. Why did it take Jo Shimoda so long to pass Romano, once he did he was gone. Well two rounds in and I know a couple of things Deegan has shown he is better than all the rest of the 450 riders already (Which has to burn the ass of a number of those riders) but so far he hasn’t been a match for Jet and Hunter and from my prospective they are so much smother especially Jet than Deegan is. Deegan is fun to watch he rides the 450 like a 250, he’s wild.

I appreciated Nate Thrasher (#23) in the first moto he fell and was about a quarter lap behind on the first lap but he kept digging and never gave up. I paid particular attention to what Chase Sexton was doing today, I think he fell twice today and I believe they were both the same kind of fall, he pushed the front end. I think if you went back and researched all his falls since his Honda days I bet the vast majority were when he tucked the front end, if so to me anyway it proves that it isn’t and hasn’t been all the different bikes fault, if anything it’s the way he rides the bike into corners, maybe too much pressure on the front end, I’d say there has to be a balance there. It seem to me there were times in both motos where it seemed like he was just riding, when Deegan passed him, it looked like from my perspective he didn’t even give a hint of fighting for third place, after the pass Deegan just moved on. Then at some point in the moto Sexton’s teammate who was definitely catching him, it was like someone told him hey your teammate is catching you and he picked up his pace to the point he was catching Deegan who was probably slowing a bit because he couldn’t catch Jet or Hunter. It would not have been a good thing if his team mate a sort of fill in rider passed him. Speaking of Hunter it was interesting to see him just sit behind Deegan in the first moto until he decided not to follow him anymore caught and pass him then left him. I wonder if he was just watching him to see how he rides, taking notes so to speak.

During the opening ceremonies when the horse ladies were finished with their program and were presenting our nations colors and the national anthem had just been sung I was standing under a pop up at the starting line when a couple of fighter jets went right over the start line and scared the shit out of all of us under that pop up because we couldn’t see the jets coming. It was loud, scary and super exciting.    

It was a good day, but I think this will be my last year, being in the pits but one never knows.

Doug 21J