Velocity Racing's 'Honey Badger' Blog

    Knowing that I had a lot of work in front of me in order to learn to ride the bigger bike, I had made plans to attend some of the Ken Hill Dirt Days. They are training classes designed for road racers, using the same terminology and principles in a (supposedly) lower risk environment. Despite never having ridden a dirt bike, I was looking forward to the weekend and knew I would leave having learned a ton.      I arrived Saturday morning excited to get educated from the best. The first couple sessions were really a struggle for me in terms of trying to get used to being on a dirt bike. The adjustment was not coming easily and I was feeling slow. Advice on how to ride the machine was incoming, and then finally I made a connection that worked for me - it was like riding a barrel horse. All of a sudden I was starting to "get it" and riding the bike wasn't so difficult and my speed was increasing because of that.     As fate would have it,...

     After my decision to move on to a new bike, the fun part of actually getting said bike was the next thing to do! I looked into a couple dealerships in hopes of finding one I could partner with as a sponsor. I had a personal reference to Roseville Yamaha Kawasaki, and I met with the sales manager, Ali, who seemed open to a sponsorship arrangement. After careful consideration, I felt like Ali and the team there were more behind supporting the sport, and I appreciated the straight forward and honest dealings, so I decided to partner with Roseville and ordered my bike through them.      I decided to go ahead and go with the bike I really wanted - while I technically could have saved a little bit with a barely used or on the floor bike, if I was going to take the plunge, I wanted to get the bike I really wanted. While the bike will go straight to track, that doesn't mean it would never see the street again, and either way, I wanted the white tank and...