By AJ Jacobsen Tablula Rasa, Latin for “scraped tablet” or “clean slate” refers to a state of the human mind before ideas have been imprinted on it. Naturally, as we age, time and experience leaves fewer blanks, and we have fewer opportunities to truly experience things with a blank slate. A blank
Motorcycle Pilgrimage
By Kurt Sunderbruch From the Cambridge English Dictionary: pilgrimage noun uk /ˈpɪl.ɡrɪ.mɪdʒ/ us /ˈpɪl.ɡrə.mɪdʒ/ a special journey made by a pilgrim a visit to a place that is considered special, where you go to show your respect Usually when we hear the term, pilgrimage, it’s in the context of a religious
To Ride or Not to Ride
By AJ Jacobsen Following the rather eventful moments during my previous race weekend, the Pacific Track Time weekend event at Thunderhill Raceway was looking to be an interesting experience for me. I was still recovering, and until a couple days before the event, I still wasn’t sure if I could even tolerate the drive
Expensive Gear – Worth It?
By AJ Jacobsen As any new rider experiences, the world of bikes has a number of smaller sub cultures and expectations. Depending on the group one falls into, they may experience different “standards” of what one is expected to wear while riding their bike, from the “no gear, no helmet, you can’t tell me
Zoom Zoom Trackdays Women’s VIP Day 2018
By AJ Jacobsen Back in 2011, I had my first experience with a track day. After winning a spot through my riding club, I had shown up excited, scared, and nervous to finally ride my bike on a track. Friends surrounded me, and that first day was phenomenal, and laid a desire that came
Final Winter Race Prep
By AJ Jacobsen After completing the rebuild on my transmission, and getting that and the clutch reinstalled in the bike, I had one more weekend of final prep left to do before I felt ready to kick off the season. First up was installing a new chain. While this is a routine task, it
Barber Motorsports MotoAmerica Experience
Sometimes in life we are presented with an opportunity we simply can’t pass up. I was provided one such opportunity to accompany a friend to the MotoAmerica races at the famous Barber Motorsports Park outside of Birmingham, Alabama. Naturally, I had to tag along! For me, the benefits of being able to go were layered.
Diagnosing Troublesome Issues Part 2
By AJ Jacobsen It was a lovely Saturday morning. The sun was shining, the weather perfect, and I was ready for a weekend of learning some new things about my bikes. I had my service manual by my side and ready to go, my bike on the stands, and space to work and spread
Diagnosing Troublesome Issues Part 1
By AJ Jacobsen In December of 2016 I picked up my brand new, fresh from the factory 2017 ZX10R. I was so excited to get my hands on the bike, and could hardly wait to turn it into a race bike and get out on the track with it. I had big plans, and
Chasing Set Up
By AJ Jacobsen Any track rider and racer can tell you that having a properly tuned suspension can make a massive difference in the handling of a motorcycle. Yet, I’ve seen and heard arguments from top level coaches on down to casual racers saying two very different things. On the one hand, they tout
Getting There – Trackside Tips
By AJ Jacobsen Every track day rider runs into the conundrum at some point – “how am I getting me, my bike, and all my stuff to the track?” There are a lot of options available, and depending on your personal needs, likes, desires, and budget, you should be able to find something that works
Riding Coaches – Is It Worth It? (Part 2 of 2)
Below is the recap of my first full day with a one-on-one coach. We went ahead and scheduled the first day of coaching for Sunday on the opening weekend for Pacific Track Time. I took Saturday to just feel my bike out, made a lot of adjustments, spent time coaching customers, and just getting myself
Riding Coaches – Is It Worth It?
By AJ Jacobsen When it comes to your riding, what do you invest in? Obviously, there’s the motorcycle, but after that, where do you spend your money? Gear? Upgrades? Track days? What about coaching? Many riders shy away from paying for professional riding instruction. I can see why – it’s a lot of money, with
Jackson Blackmon Joins RiderzLaw Racing
Orange County, CA — RiderzLaw Racing is proud to officially announce that Jackson Blackmon will be piloting its Graves Yamaha R3 in MotoAmerica this year. In the national series last year, “Action” Jackson Blackmon had seven podium finishes, including three first place finishes. “We’re really excited to have Jackson join the RiderzLaw Racing family
MotoGP 2017 Finale
By John Knowles I think we can all agree that the Moto Gp season finale was epic. So much happened in those 30 laps. Zarco lead most of the race, Jorge wouldn’t move over, Marquez crashed without crashing, both Ducatis crashed for real, including Dovi, and many of the teams had their test riders
CVMA and WERA Race Report
By John Knowles Most road racing championships are wrapping up this time of year. In fact, they all are except for CVMA, it’s just getting started. I went and raced at round 2 of the CVMA series back to back with the Wera grand national final at Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama. The week
AMA Supermoto Finale Race Report
By John Knowles The season finale for AMA Supermoto was set for October 7, 2017 at Five Flags Speedway in Pensacola, Florida. I road tripped it out there with Toxic Moto Racing. Rain was on the forecast for the weekend but nobody thought much of it until it started getting closer to race day.
UMC Supermoto Report
By John Knowles It was a cold day at Utah Motorsports Campus and the view of the mountains was beautiful in every direction. UMC has one of the best Supermoto tracks in the country and it’s home to Utah Supermoto. Utah Supermoto is a great club series with a great family atmosphere. This weekend
AMA Supermoto @ Streets of Sturgis Race Report
By John Knowles MA Supermoto round 4 is the legendary streets of Sturgis race. I got to the track early Thursday morning while they were still turning down town Sturgis into a track. I helped out a little bit with making the dirt sections. Clay was trucked in and dirt jumps were made in the parking
When Riding Doesn’t Go As Planned Part 8
By AJ Jacobsen If you’ve been following my blogs, you are aware that back on December 3, 2016 I broke my leg in a dirt bike accident when another rider hit me, and both of us ended up rotating over my leg. Unfortunately for me, this was not “just” a broken leg – it
Matters of Money
Sometimes I think about all of the money I spend racing. And I don’t get upset about it, I just kind of marvel at it. Once my mom told me I should write out a will, you know, just in case. My mom thinks about things like that. It surprised me. Not in a morbid
Best Moment
Besides racing motorcycles professionally, I work part time and I’m a student. This semester I’m taking a public speaking course for transfer credits and recently we were given kind of an odd prompt: Deliver a speech about your best moment ending with the line “…and that’s when I knew I was at my best”. Weird.
Mini Moto Endurance Race Report
I’ve been wanting to do this race for years now. M1gp is a mini bike endurance racing series and they put on a 24 hour race once a year that draws teams from around the world. 24 hours of world class mini bike racing! Sign me up. The last two years it’s conflicted with other
When Even the Experts Miss the Obvious
This season has been frustrating for me as a rider and racer. Between the injuries to my leg and dealing with that, adjusting to the new bike, and moving up to expert, I’ve often been very frustrated, and while I’ve been “accepting” of some progress, I’ve yet to leave a weekend at the track “happy.”
Winter Training for Racers
What do motorcycle racers do in the winter time? Do our fans think of us like kids think of teachers? To them, we probably only exist at the race track. Our teams hang us up in a closet at the end of each race weekend and wake us back up at the beginning of the
AFM Round 5 Summary – Sonoma Raceway
Saturday was brutally hot and the air was harsh due to a nearby fire. Despite the conditions, lap times were already in the 1:39s by the second round of practice in the morning. But as the temperature continued to rise, the lap times did as well. Sunday was slightly less harsh but still not what