Hi. I know the past 2 months have been a pretty wild ride. Physically never felt worse while trying to get healthier, but I have never ridden better or fatser in my career. Weird.

I was finally able to get through to this Dr. that has been seeing me since my accident. I told him mulitple times thta my neck is getting worse. The pain was pretty unbearable at times and just never tappered off. "First things first, let's deal with the leg and knee...." he replies. Well, my neck is just on the back burner. I dealt with it. Im dealing iwth it still. Yesterday I had a follow up for the wrist and leg and now that it is satisfactory I said, "My neck still hurts..."
I know I have a good tolerance for pain, but geez louise. He puts me in for an Xray. WHADYA KNOW, a fractured vertabrae!

I was livid, actually freaking pissed! This whole time yeah we've been able to run upfront and win races, but man the pain is just unreal. Then I was told that it's an old fracture. No kidding, 2 months old. It's in the T1 and just downright crappy. Yeah I have been rather irritable due to lack of sleep. Just cannot sleep, just a constant pain. Dr. says well maybe we can see if it's a disc or muscular. Yoouve got to be kidding me again. My PT, after a thoroughly long eval. does not want to touch me. She says it's not either, it's structural more or less.

Went to get a 2nd opinion today. The Dr. was great, very gruff an dto the point. Not as old as the other says (fracture), and needs an MRI for another dimensional loook at it. I can still do stuff, due to what I have already accomplished with it. Long term effects are serious though. SO, just need to get this crap over with and get ack to making BMW owners proud.

I think the MOA rally was awesome. I didnt realize how many folks knew about this blog and or had their families following things. LOL, I think it's funny how many BMW riders said thier wives and grilfriends say it's "OK" to go and be a part of this Conquest of ours to race BMW's and prove their validity. Meaning, they have either been to the track and or heard through the grapevine how great a time it is and condone thier spouses involvement, lol. Jus pretty cool.

Camp Gears at the BMW rally centered around the next generation of BMW riders. With a seminar based on decision making and riding comprehension, I had a great time sharing and talking with the young riders. I found it to be such a tough time to touch base on so many important aspects of motorcycling in a short period of time. I would love to be involved as much more with anything I can hlep the BMW MOA with in the future.

With that being said, I look forward to another BMW MOA rally and just thankful for the support I recieve from group of riders that any manufacturer would love to have, and BMW has them!

I will be at Barber Motorsports park for some practice and possible 2 up rides on the BMW R1200S 7/28-29 next week! Come and enjoy the track and commraderie.

Cheers,

N8!

Well hey, had a blast this weekend! There were some bumps in the road for some, but we just put gas in and fresh tires. It was great to have Brian out there with me finally this weekend in National Thunderbike. We broke away, a lapped rider really slowed me down but he pace was anough to just check out. Buell riders EVERYWHERE! 2 BMW's on the podium. We were able to pull out two wins in the CCS Thunderbike (same competitors as Natl.) and in Supertwins I made a fubar decision. I went out with pads that were just shot. After leading a bit, the lever just went to the handlebar. Pulled in.SO, after a really good podium ceremony for ASRA Tbike, I was disqualified for one hp over the 4lbs. per hp ratio. LOL, we just drink alot of fuel at the pace we were running. I even added 16 lbs. of diving belt weights.....

Oh well, so hey MotoST was up last. Parriott did great getting us out there early. Brian said he wanted me to ride second. period. Didnt happen. Pace car comes out during a full course caution, does not matter what kind of lead you have you just lost it. As the field filed up behind the pace car. The rider put out by SJBMW, passed the pace car.....?! SO, the fireld had to be picked up again and it took forever. eating alot of fuel and time. BOOM pace car is off the track and Montano leas the field into one and outta sight. Comes around in 5th. Brian goes back out and all was left on the table with the fuel gamble. Hey we had to win it to have a shot at the championship. Mathmatically it is just not in our favor. Would have loved to have ridden as the pace that was after the rider change was 30's and 29's, did that all day long with discomfort, but way obtainable.Im just glad to be racing again and tehre is just not enough time in the day to tell you how many great BMW riders I have met this past weekend. PP members, MC Cafe.... you name it. Just great folks that were looking for a great time! We gave it to them.

Thank you all very much for taking the time to come and wear you BMW aparel and be able to stand a couple of inches taller after seeing jugs flying across the line first!Just really need to rest the leg and wrist. Hopefully for not much longer, but after VIR 2 weeks ago, my physical therapist said I set my wrist back 2 weeks in PT. Dont and cant afford anymore set backs, we need to stay running upfront for all of you!

Cheers,

N8!

All I can say is this was the save of all saves and actually GOD pulled us ( my bike and I) through.

Simple. Road America is a very VERY fast tack. Down the back straight, 4th gear, R6 in front of me and a bit to the left. I have my head down and just ripping, I notice through my windshield the back of this R6's tailsection rise, the rider sits up, and as he is working the throttle (elbow up and down, to me a missed shift, and vigorous effort to get back in gear) the rider drifts to the right.... All I could do is shut my left eye and stick my elbow out bracing myself. His rear tire smacked square into my left header pipe and cylinder head. Crushed the header pipe (bent the exhaust in 3 places), broke our upper fairing, blasted the oile cooler off of mount. I went off of the right side of the bike dragging my leg and barley hanging on left handlebar. Boot skipped so fast and hard off the pavement, it went and tip of my boot was wedge between shock and paralever arm. lol Rear tire rubbed tip of my boot bottom, close one, almost got sucked in. The bike just kinda uprighted itself from tank slapping and the kill switch somehow was pushed and thank goodness settled down the bike from slapping me all the way down the track.I came to a stop and rested the bike on the wall and just sat down for a bit.

Only thing I was left with was more thankfullness to be here and badly bruised left foot! lol SO, my team is here and we are very happy to be here. More than just a couple of crew guys. Rode good and hard today. Physically gettin stronger each weekend. 2 weeks ago was my first race back and I even didnt know what to expect. Team BMWXPLOR.com, BMW MC's of Atlanta, and Morton's BMW pulled out a new ASRA Thunderbike track record at VIR, put it on the pole, won one race and a second in the other! With help from 84 BMW riders total over 2 days, their enthusiasm helped me pull it off! Best of luck to everyone this weekend.

N8!