New Member from North Carolina

[bruce]

Hello to all! A little about my family and I.

I grew up in a small town in south Florida, began riding at 14 and one year later I found myself right in the middle of the 'motocross boom of the 70's. I had a some success and a lot of fun during that time while racing all over the south east and California. Injuries and my Dad telling me to 'get a real job' forced me to quit in 1979.

In 1992 the bug to ride again bit real hard so I bought my son a Honda Z50 for his 5th birthday, and since he couldn't ride alone I got myself a Honda XR600. We trail rode and had a ball for a couple of years but racing was calling my name again and we soon found ourselves racing hare scrambles and cross country races. A long string of race bikes followed for both of us as we worked our way up through the ranks for the next 10 years. During that time we also got involved with the organizational and promotion side of the racing. I was elected VP and served as trail boss while my wife was elected Secretary/Treasurer and served as head scorekeeper of the NCHSA, a local sanctioning body. Along with a couple of buddies we also built, maintained, promoted and ran a race track that was sanctioned by the NCHSA and I proud to say that our race was voted race of the year three years in a row.

In 2004 my son Bryan was getting involved with a lot of school activities and getting ready to start college, it didn't take long to figure out that we wouldn't be able to spend the time or money required to keep the racing effort going AND put him through college so the race bikes were parked and we began to focus on that. I wasn't ready to quit riding and felt like Julie deserved some fun of her own after being so dedicated to a racing effort that was nothing but work for her, so in August of 2004 I brought home the Nomad. It was our second street bike, but in all honesty we hardly ever rode the first one because of the racing and didn't hang onto it long or ride it very much.

We didn't ride much in '04 or really in '05 due to a multitude of reasons, but by '06 we were fully hooked on our new found interest and rode every chance we got. We've been doing that ever since.

Most of our trips are long day rides with as many week-end and long week-end rides thrown in as we can manage. In 2006 we used our vacation time to ride the Natchez Trace and make a tour of the southeast. Since then we've been to Florida once on a family trip and I've made two trips down there to visit my Dad by myself.

In 2007 we noticed that Bryan was jonesin' to ride real bad, but no way could he afford the time and we afford the expense of dirt biking again. He had ridden the Nomad on several occasions and enjoyed riding on road, but the Nomad just wasn't him. So we got him a 2005 Yamaha FZ6 and his transformation to road rider began.

From 1979 until 1999 I was in the trucking business. First as a driver for an owner-operator, then I bought a truck and was an independent trucker for several years. After meeting who would soon be my lovely wife Julie I found a way to get off the road and began working as a truck broker in Florida for a North Carolina based company. We moved from Florida to Texas and then to North Carolina where we finally settled down. While employed by that same company I worked my way up from a broker to the operations manager of the 125 truck, 275 trailer, refrigerated fleet. The company ultimately filed for bankruptcy and I found myself in need of a job. For a while I worked as a transportation coordinator at the Stroh brewery in Winston Salem, NC but to be honest I was burnt out on trucking, miserable and in need of something new.

That's when a friend changed my life.

I had been working part time at a local Honda/Kawasaki/Polaris dealership since 1996 trying to help offset some of the racing expenses. In 1999 one of the guys that had been a salesman there bought the place and hired me to be the parts manager. I've been working full time in the motorcycle industry ever since.

In the thirteen years I've been in the industry I've worked at four different dealerships under eight different owners. Which speaks volumes about the industry to those who care to listen. In that time I've worked with Honda, Kawasaki, Yamaha, Suzuki, Polaris, KTM and Bombardier as well as most of the more established custom bike manufacturers. For the most part I've always been a parts manager but I've pulled a few stints doing a double role as the service manager too.

It's been an interesting ride let me tell you. But through it all my love for motorcycles and riding has never wavered and in fact has grown over the years. I love it now more than ever. On top of that I've had the wonderful pleasure of introducing my son to the sport and the satisfaction of knowing that he loves it as much as I do. I've often told people that the best thing I ever did for my marriage was get the Nomad and that I'd rather ride with my son than eat when I'm hungry. But I'll tell you folks too that motorcycles and riding not only saved my life, but helped to make it what it is today.

That's why I'm always... RDY2GO!