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This is my third winter as a year round rider. The cold, wind, and rain fade into the background if you have good winter gear. I actually prefer the bike over the car, and given the choice of riding or taking my wife’s car I gear up 100% of the time. My wife does not share this view of the weather, so sometimes I am forced to endure the confines of a Subaru Legacy GT. Don’t get me wrong, I owe my life to a Subaru, and the Legacy has some nice features. Heated seats, satellite radio, cup holders, reverse…you know, all the same stuff as a Honda Goldwing.

I bring this up because I had to drive yesterday. The rain was fairly steady from Concord to Fremont, and since it was a weekend, I didn’t have to deal with the commuter traffic. We listened to the comedy channel on the satellite radio, there was Starbucks in the cup holders, and at risk of  talking too much about my behind, the heated seats were functioning flawlessly. Once we got to our destination my wife brought up an interesting point…

40 minutes or so on the freeway, in the rain, and not once did I hit the switch for the wipers. I shrugged it off but paid more attention to it on the way home. George Carlin? Check. Peppermint Mocha? Check. Warm rump? Check. The wipers, however, remained off. Although it was quite dark in the car because of the rain and glass tinting. I have recently done window tinting (more at Dalo Auto Tinting website) and haven’t got used to it yet. I guess I prefer the way the world looks through my visor, and yesterday this was the best I could do.

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Something is not right, and I think I have figured it out.  Joe rode on the street. For realzies. At speed. For the one person that just woke up from a coma after highsiding on the street, Joe gave up street riding after the following picture was taken. Oddly enough, the caption was already there. highside

In the time that he has been back on the street, there have been no fewer than three notable earthquakes in the bay area, not to mention the one up in Humboldt county.  You know, the one that “harshed the mellow” of countless potheads who were forced to move from their couches after their couches moved across the floor. I recieved the following email from Chauncy Phillips to my 4TheRiders email address.

Dear Max,

Dude. Your boss Joe like totally owes me some cash bro. I was at home watching the Pauly Shore marathon on Turner classic movies when the house started to shake. And I don’t mean like when my roomie Maggie has gas, bro, I mean like my velvet Marley poster fell off the wall shaking. I was like wait? What? and then it hit me Bro, and I was all “EARTHQUAKE”, and then Maggie was all like “NO WAY”  and boom. The bong goes flying out of my hand spilling bong water all over the carpet. I am going to send you the bill for half a carpet cleaning, I mean cuz we needed one anyway what with Maggies cat, but come on bro…bong water.

Thanks Bro,

Chauncy

I am not paying for this stoner’s carpet Joe. I’m not saying to stop riding the street, I am just saying be safe out there, and maybe keep it under 6 on the Richter scale.

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It started innocently enough, probably before I can even remember. No, now that I have had some time to think about it (I spent a few hours looking at old pictures… You will soon find that I have a bit of a problem focusing) I remember the exact moment, and have the picture to back it up.  This picture was taken at a time in my life that holds very few but fond memories. I was four after all. I am fairly certain that this one event,  documented in living color by my mom and one of those 110mm cameras with those bizarre tall flashes that you can flip over so you can use the other side 31 years ago is the first self promise I made to uhhhh…. myself. 

 maxonbike

 

I have long since forgotten what my voice sounded like back then, but I distinctly remember telling my mom that someday I was going to get my very own motorcycle. Granted I still had a bit of a journey.

Like training wheels for example.  And Women.  A short list of estrogen filled roadblocks. It started with my mom denying my repeated nagging for a mini dirt bike, not to mention the bigger dirt bike that she would not allow, or finally once I turned 16 the “ninja”(it might have been a Honda, my bike recognition ability was pretty bad back then too) that I wanted.  I thought I had her once. I was 18. An adult. I still lived with my mom, but I was paying rent, and she no longer could keep me from my destiny. I even lived above a motorcycle dealership in Kenosha Wisconsin. Destiny.  So why didn’t I get my first bike until I was over 30? I will spare you the details, but the 15 years that separated my living with my mother and my living with an SV650 in the garage were filled with financial hardships and estrogen roadblocks two and three… I now have an awesomely supportive wife, two bikes and two jobs (Technically all three if you count working turn 11 at Moto GP) that would not exist if it was not for motorbikes.  My point? Not sure if I had one, but it is the off season for racing, I needed something to write about, and the holiday season usually brings back childhood memories.  This year I was reminded that staying true to yourself pays off, it just sometimes takes 15 years.

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4theriders had a snow day. 11 of us came, only 3 returned. we left the dead for the bears. we have all kindsa video footage, including riding 2 up down a goat trail covered in mud and snow, carnage, towing sleds, ramming mountains…everything we could think of. hehe.

we’ll start with a “moto” so it’s relevant…hehe.

kevin, beating on my scooter.

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I have an abnormally non-celebratory set of parents when it comes to things like holidays. So, since Christmas came and went (please no “that’s what she said” jokes), I decided to gather my resources and bring Christmas to a deserving family.

My main source of helping hands was through a variety of local riders: Sac Riders Forum, Sac Crotch Rockets, Central Valley Riders Forum, 4theriders.com and even Throttle Worx. Regardless of how much anybody pitched in to help, it is greatly appreciated. Except for whoever donated the stuff that fell off the back of their motorcycle (kidding). Many people want to offer their time to help out for a good cause and instead of having those people search, I found them.

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Damn, just a few days ago I swear it was sunny outside, but no longer. My hills and twisty roads have transformed from something beautiful and fun to something terrifying, dark and full of high-side. Every turn to me screams all of a sudden “No! Don’t do it! I’ll make your life horrible”. So what else is a man to do but turn in, hide the bike under a cover, or inside a garage and wait for better days? Well, of course that all does seem rather silly, especially because supermoto exists, but still, the weather puts a bit of a damper on riding.


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Well, it’s officially my off season. Now I’ll be going weeks at a time with no work and lots of time to spare.

I DO shoot other things besides bikes, so you know. If you need any photo work done, or know of anyone that might want a party shot, or portraits, or weddings, or anything, feel free to take a look at my portfolio and contact me if you want. :)

http://www.seppes.com/Portfolio/Recent-Months/

Here’s a somewhat recent shot I took; posting it for giggles..

pismo beach pier at night

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What’s up, party people?! I just updated the 4theriders sweatshop and added some fun new crap! Like a sexy 4-Thong for your lady…Just to let you guys know that I’m not only there 4 you at the track…I’m there 4 your lady friends as well. :P *cackles*

    4thong fantastic 4theriders womens shirt
    fantastic 4theriders mens shirt fantastic 4theriders hoodie

Hahaha! For reals though, check it out! I added some new Fantastic 4theriders designs and all that riff-raff. And I don’t make CRAP offa em. I just wanna see 4theriders crap being worn, is all. :D

Thanks everyone!

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Man, what a day… 4theriders went down earlier this morning… server crashed or something… all I know is that I’ve spent the whole freggin day migrating everything over to a new server/host… and I’m still not done.

It’s going to be a few days before I get all the thumbnails loaded up and stuff. There’s about 9GB of tiny images in all. Sorry folk! Quite frankly, I’m a bit annoyed myself.

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So, I’ll be running around like mad starting Friday…headed down to Salinas for some flat track stuff. Sunday, I’ll be at Infineon for some Zoom Zoom action… then Monday and Tuesday will be back to back open trackdays at Thunderhill with Francis and Kneeriders! Whoo hooooo! I love nothing more than open trackday formats.

I’m really not looking all that forward to all the driving I’ll be doing though. I drive almost a billion miles per month, I swear.

In other news; I think I’m nearing being ready making this blog actually live. Right now I’ve just been kinda writing to myself about nothing. Hehe.

Anyhow, here’s a pic I took the day before yesterday that I’m rather pleased with….

    pidgeons