Skipping MRA Round 1, Good Problems, and Rebuilding a Ninja 650 Race Bike

Nobody wants to hear it, but not everything is a highlight reel. This post is not a highlight. It’s about to mark a 3-year low point.

My excitement for motorcycles and racing is at an all time low. This despite my first year racing as an expert, sponsoring a class for ’25, and dumping thousands of dollars into this sport over the last 3 years.

When I think about my results: 2 wins and 9 podiums in something close to 50 race starts, I’m happy with my performance as a novice racer in the light and middleweight classes.

I rode Friday afternoon at the HPR track day and felt great, brilliant even, on the bike. I didn’t feel great about being in the paddock, off the bike, which is where most of my time gets spent on a race weekend. I wasn’t feeling it, like at all, not even a little bit. I’d have rather been working on a Harley for some illiterate prick.

So I sent the “Refund plz” email, spent the night at the hotel, and then went home and felt some type of way about pulling out. There’s no shame in it tho. I’d argue if you’re not ready to die for it, not ready for life-changing injuries or worse, you have no business racing.

I got to thinking about it and decided I’d be fucking raging mad at myself if I raced, crashed, and got hurt, especially if the incident wasn’t my own damn fault. So I pulled out. I wasn’t ready to die for it, so I didn’t race at the first ’25 round.

Why wasn’t I ready to die for it? WHY?! I hate that question, “WHY?!” spilling out the mouth of some petulant 5-year-old. Why my ass. It is what it is. But there’s a petulant 5-year-old boy living in my skull for now and for forever, so “WHY?!”

Was it a club thing? Like no not really. I do not think the club does a great job of making people feel included, but it wasn’t a club thing keeping me from racing. It’d help if I wanted to kick everyone’s ass more, but it’s whatever. The MRA does a great job of putting on racing events in Colorado, and that’s all that really counts with respect to the club as far as I’m concerned.

I pulled out for personal reasons, mostly being overwhelmed with work. Way back, people would always be like “Maybe your biz will blow up!” and yeah baby, my biz has blown up in a good way! Good problems! My biz is in a flywheel stage where I can’t kill it no matter how hard I try, not that I’m trying for that; I’m not.

Good Problems

I’m trying to fix as many bikes as I can and make money doing it. Not “as much money as I possibly can” because I’m definitely NOT going for that. I focus on fixing bikes. The money follows. The second I start focusing on money, I’m just like every other ‘Murcan business bro on the planet. Hey kids, file that under things that will never fucking happen, ever!

Recent projects include more Genuine Buddy 50cc scoots than you or your hillbilly uncle can shake a stick at. Honda Shadows. Triumph Bonnevilles. The usual.

I’ve also seen a few GY6 Rucks this year, which is more than usual. This one has a fueling issue that’s going to be hard to solve, that I think the guy who built it never really solved despite all of the work he’s put into making these swapped bikes a reality.

I’m not going to name names. If you know you know.

Rebuilding, Transforming My Ninja 650 Racer

I’ve gotten around to some personal projects by stealing time from things I really should be doing instead. I got the fairings back on my lightweight race bike. I crashed the shit out of it, ass over teakettle style, at the first round in ’24. A year later, and I’m still putting it back together. It’s going to be a street bike this time around.

The trickiest part of turning my old lightweight racer into a street bike is the headlights. I’m looking for a solution that doesn’t involve paying for an OEM MV Agusta F3 headlight assembly. Maybe something attached to the front fender. Or a projector beam behind the front wheel or windscreen. I don’t ever plan on riding at night, so whatever’s semi-legal will work.

I haven’t decided how to do it yet.

This is the second bike I look at when I open my garage. I made it myself! It’s an ’06 Ninja 650 AKA ER6 with, ahem, MV Agusta fairings and a Honda RS125 tail. It has a full custom wiring harness, a swingarm off of a Kawi Versys, a custom subframe, and enough one-off parts to make it a complete nightmare to rebuild after it hits the ground.

That’s the worst thing about it. Solution? Stop crashing it! Make it a street bike! The best things about it are it doesn’t weigh anything (under 370# full of fluids, dripping wet), and it has a mortgage payment’s worth of suspension parts under it. And of course it looks shit hot!

I made it go 2:02s around HPR at the last round in ’23, so it’s a proven race weapon. It’ll make for a really fun triple+ threat street/track/show, possibly even race bike, that’s not too precious to thrash on Colorado’s backroads and race tracks.

Yeah it kinda rattles its way around; it’s not the smoothest bike on the planet, but, when push comes to shove, it will throw down anywhere and everywhere: track, race, now back on the street. Lastly I’ve always kind of, sort of wanted to race a street legal bike after riding that bike to the race and casually removing its mirrors, lights, plate, etc 1970s-style. IMO it’s stunts like that that are going to make motorcycles fun again (sorry lol) for me.

Thanks for reading! If you have a bike you want to ride again, book online.