So who is the most approchable factory rider you've met?

Believe it or not I had a couple nice visits with Mladin at the Suzuki dealer shows several yrs. ago. He was there alone, I don't think his wife ever came with him to the shows, saw him sitting alone at the bar in the casino at the Paris. Figurerd what the hell, went up and said hi, introduced myself etc. We just started bullshitting about the show, new stuff etc. then got into a little more serious stuff, probably talked a good half hr. or so. He even bought me a drink. And every year after that we'd see him at the show he always recognized me, said hi. Away from the track he seemed to be a pretty decent guy.

 

On the Dirt side I met Charmichael out at the Worlds in Vegas one year at Dinner... He sat next to us with his GF at the time... Very cool... Chad Reed one that night then he and his Entourage came in one of the Bar's at the MGM... He was very cool as well...

 

Anthony Gobert

Scott Russell was great at the Barber Vintage Festival this year.

I speak to Bob Hannah sometimes at work and he has always been nice to me. He even asks about my racing almost every time. That part makes me laugh.

 

He was a guest speaker at a track day, back before I actually started racing. I had a set of spare tires that I wanted to mount before the afternoon sessions. The Ferracci team was there, practicing for the race the following weekend. I walked over to their truck to ask for help, they weren't particularly busy. They told me they couldn't touch Dunlops!
Sadowski, whom I had never met before, overheard me telling the story to my friend who was one of the track day organizers. He borrowed some tools, found some soap, and (hand)swapped my tires for me!

 

List is too long. Reg Pridmore always treated his crew like royalty, getting drinks and snacks for us when we worked on the bikes. Dave Emde offered to set me up with a girl he had just picked up at the Holiday Inn bar near Road A in 1980. (I was in his van, working on the BMW he rode that weekend)

Jason Pridmore was fussy, but I think his diaper was full. He was about 7-8 months old. (Does that date me a bit?) Kenny Roberts borrowed a clean shirt from me at Laconia when his luggage got lost, and returned it weeks later with some free tickets to an event (I forget what the event was) and a nice letter. Steve McLaughlin did the same thing a year later, with the same shirt. I never really liked that shirt.

Met Josh Hayes and Melissa P. while we were waiting on line to take showers at NJMP the first year AMA ran there. We sat on the picnic tables and just chatted about stuff for about a half hour. When I saw them at races this year they both said Hi like they knew me.

Ben Bostrom approached me as I came off track in 2011 at NJMP before the AMA weekend and spent fifteen minutes quizzing me and two other riders about track conditions, then he hung around and let the local sport bike club folks take pictures with him. Then he said "I've been on the road for 24 hours, I need to go get some rest." Cool young fellow.


Met Elena Myers at the NY IMS show in 2010, we talked for a while. Later that season I saw her at NJMP, she said "we met in New York, remember?" Sharp, polite kid, despite the media pressure. I introduced her to a ten-year-old girl racer who idolizes her. they talked for a LONG time, just hanging out. Very cool treatment of a next-gen racer.

I was treated respectfully by all the RIDERS when I did a stint at AMA Tire Control this season at NJMP. Some of the team members were a bit douche-y to me. (Note to self: Treat EVERY race official respecfully)

Interestingly, the two men who have been the most reviled on this beeb have been the same two who have treated me most respectfully, and went out of their way to offer help and guidance even when it was not requested. One was Mat Mladin, in his last race event at NJMP. My neighbor is from the same area in Australia as Mat, and when they discovered that, he came to where we had my trailer and bikes parked and visited for a while, discussed track features and lines and showed me a trick that I still use today.

The other was not a racer (currently) but an AMA official. Al Luddington. Every time I have had a face-to-face with Al, he has bent over backwards to provide accurate, clear and concise answers to my questions, and several times he has stopped by and asked "How is it working out?" This season at New Jersey, I was working with a first-time-to-AMA team, and Al approached us at the pit wall, introduced himself to everybody on our team and said "I know you guys are a new team. Please let us know if there is anything we can do to help you or answer any questions." Every time he walked along the wall, he asked if we needed anything. When there was a red flag restart in the Supersport race, Al hustled over to us and gave us a 30-second briefing on how the process was going to go, and he stood right by our pit and signaled to us when we could go over the wall, when we had to get the team and gear back over the wall, etc.


All in all, I have enjoyed the company of motorcycle racers for almost 35 years, and have had wonderful memories with many of them. I cannot recall a single time when any pro racer was disrespectful toward me. I wish I had the same experience with some lame-ass club racers who thing they are God's gift to internal combustion, but act like flexible containers for feminine cleansing products. Who? You know.

 

Aaron Gobert talked to me for a while at Mid-O about riding in the rain. It came in handy later and I've always appreciated it

 

Buddy of mine asked Hodgson about the "throwing-up-in-the-helmet" incident at a Ducati thing. I was horrified, but he just laughed and gave us some gory details. Cool dude.

 

A buddy of mine goes to Malibu for about a month every summer to ride and hang out with one of his buddies who lives there. While riding up in a canyon one day, he's parked with his motard on an overlook and up pulls a guy on a road bike. He says the guy keeps his helmet and glasses on so he doesn't really recognize him.
The guy on the bike asks about his motorcycle and and why it looks different than most and then basically asks for a tutorial. About halfway through explaining wave rotors, rotational mass and slick tires, my buddy realizes its Ben Bostrom. They had a good laugh about it, as did I when he told me the story.

 

Eslick by far in AMA. Dude came in after a race and me and my son were standing outside the garage. He took off his helmet and gloves, looked at my son (6 at the time) and asked him if he wanted to get some pics on the bike. The kid climbs on, Danny takes the time to snap about 10 pics, gives him a pile of stickers and then invites us to hang out. Then he went and got a drink.

WSBK is Checa. I have video somewhere of my kid teaching Carlos how to ride a RipStick in their garage. It was fun till the Team manager came out screaming at Carlos about breaking his ankle the day before a race.

 

NICKY HAYDEN


Scott Russell!


Awesome Riders, and were super nice to a wanna be like me

 

I wouldn't disagree with anyone mentioned so far. My contribution would be Michael Barnes. I got to the gate late at VIR years ago and would have to sleep outside that night. I had a friend coming with a RV but they were hours away. Mike Barnes was coming to grips with the bad news at the same time and we were commiserating. Then he asked if I wanted to crash in his RV. I thought that was the nicest offer. I waited around for my friend and got a bug in my ear. So I greated her with "Hi Beth! Would you grab a flashlight and look in my ear!?" What a night.

 

Al ludington is suprisingly a cool guy. 2 Years ago at the Indy GP my brother
and I get let into the paddock by a even cooler guy at the gate. We are
standing next to Spies's bike which they are warming up,Ludington
notices our lack of credentials ,gives us smile and walks away.

 

Back in the day. Mert Lawill Dave Aldana. Jason pridmore actually stopped a TV interview to take a couple of pic's with me and my Son, super nice guy. :up:

 

I read somewhere that DaveK will not give you the time of day unless you have a McRibb.

Jake Holden is a genuine dude.

 

Tom Kipp, Jay Springsteen, Doug Chandler, Jimmy Felice

 

Oh And JOSH Hayes, I actually got to ride with him at a track day at jennings back in 2006. SUPER NICE GUY

 

He's a dick and no one wants to be around him. But he was never a rider worth a shit.

 

Sounds like BS. I'm nearly certain he's never ridden a motorcycle.

 

Oh, he has! And it was spectacular.

Damn a KTM is hard to kick start when you're 4' tall!