Skip to main content

Loss of an American Hero

Today marks a tragic day in the history of motorcycle racing, especially for those of us here in the US. Nicky Hayden, the most recent American to race in MotoGP and who was currently in the World Superbike series, has passed away due to injuries sustained in an accident while riding his bicycle in Italy. 

While I never met Nicky in person, this is affecting me more than I would have thought. He was one of our own, one of only a handful of Americans competing at the international level. One of the "good old boys," he was never involved in drama, and was well liked by everyone who met him. A genuinely nice guy, who was also an amazing rider.

Life is so short. We are never promised tomorrow, and this is one of those instances when it becomes so abundantly clear. Someone who has spent his life competing at the top levels of a sport that is known for it's dangers, and he's lost to us due to an everyday activity that almost no one would consider a "dangerous" thing to do. 

The loss is not only hard from the standpoint of being a racer, but also from being a human. Seeing both sides of this, we racers all accept that there are risks with our sport. Having someone so talented taken in such a mundane way makes you realize that life has no promises. 

I challenge readers to live your life. Even if other people think it's dangerous - or boring - or crazy - or stupid - if it makes you happy and you have a smile on your face at the end of the day, then go live your life.  As long as your joy doesn't come at other people's direct expense, then do what you love to do. None of us are getting out of this life alive, and none of us are promised tomorrow. 

Nicky was living his life to the fullest. I can only imagine the pain that his family and fiance are going through right now having him torn from their lives, but I would hope that they can take a small consolation in the fact that he was someone who chased his dreams, and inspired thousands if not millions in the process. He will live on in the hearts of his fans, rivals, and many who never even met him. 

Ride in Peace Nicky.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

WERA Cycle Jam - Road Atlanta - May, 2024

Road Atlanta rapidly became my favorite track on the east coast thus far. Even though I've only been there a few times, I was excited to head out there on a race weekend and see if racing lit more of a fire under my tail.  This track has tons of elevation, is extremely fast, and has a nice variety of corners with opportunities to catch a breath or two in between. All things I love after "growing up" on the northern California tracks. Coming in to the weekend I was excited, but also a bit nervous. I have never raced here, none the less at Cycle Jam which brings in a ton of riders and overflows the entire paddock, shelf, and beyond. I knew my times here were still slow, but if I found a little time I wouldn't be dead last - there are some fast people around here, but figured another couple seconds would at least give me some good battles. Coming in, I had some specific goals outside of just have fun - I wanted to work on some of the feedback I had gotten at the end of t...
Post a Comment
Read more

Back at the Track!

2014 track season has officially started for me! After making a few small modifications to the Triumph 675 (such as new brake pads and the switch to GP shift) I was ready to go. It worked out that Pacific Track Time had a trackday that worked with my schedule, so I signed up and got prepared. This was a Monday trackday, so I spent Saturday and Sunday prepping, packing and then Sunday afternoon picked up my carpool buddy and we headed up to Thunderhill. Upon arrival, I went to see If I could sneak in for a baseline prior to Monday morning with Jason Hauns at JPH Suspension, my go-to suspension guy. I love his work, and have been VERY happy with the results. He had room, so I ran over and unloaded the bike, hooked up the battery, turned it on - and nothing. Well, almost nothing. I had backlights on my display, but that was it.Try to bump start it, but no go there. One of the very nice gate guys at THill lent me his battery charger to us, so, figuring that was the issue, threw the bat...
1 comment
Read more

WERA Roebling Road March 2021 - Ya Win Some, Ya Lose Some.....

 ....and sometimes you do both within half a lap. But that's not how the weekend started. Making races this year was looking very hit and miss, but with RIDERZLAW continuing their title sponsorship, a few rounds were not outside the realm of possibility; as finances were working out, I set up to head to Roebling Road, one of only 2 tracks I made it to last year for a race. I was excited to see if a) mentally I was back to a better place and b) to finally race a familiar track. Friday practice went smoothly, and by the end of the day I was feeling very comfortable at my previous pace, and could tell I had a lot left in me. Issue was, I still wasn't nailing the entire track - parts of it, but there were a couple places that still needed to come together for me, turns 1 and 5 in particular. Saturday I had a fairly early race with Formula 1 - with not even so much as a trackday since last September, it took me the better part of 2+ laps to "remember" I was racing, not jus...
Post a Comment
Read more