By AJ Jacobsen Picture a beautiful Sunday morning on any curvy backroad where riders like to congregate to enjoy the scenery, twist the throttle, and embrace the freedom that comes from being on two wheels. Suddenly your morning coffee is interrupted by the revving of a sportbike, as the local “street-Rossi” rolls in with his
By AJ Jacobsen Life never quite decides to go along with our plans though, and early in December 2016, during a dirt bike class, another rider tried to force a bad pass and I ended up with my tib/fib pilon fracture. This happened the day after I bought my new race bike…go figure. At
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
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
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
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
By AJ Jacobsen So what does the off season look like for a road racing “enthusiast” who is determined to do a little better than they did the previous year? Follow along for a breakdown of what a typical winter/off-season day looks like for me. Let me begin by pointing out that I work three
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.”
A lot of people questioned my decision to compete in the 390 cup. And why wouldn’t they? I only had one year of road racing under my belt from a background of jet ski freestyle and canyon riding and here I was planning on traveling with a national series. Other people saw me putting unfair
It’s funny how your perspective changes while you grow as a racer. I remember when I first started doing track days and I thought the A Group riders were so fast. I was really intimidated when I signed up for A Group the first time but I was already throwing around the idea of racing
At this point I can’t think of anything more meaningful than racing. I guess that would be great if everyone else felt the same way. It’s hard for me to grasp how road racing isn’t the most popular sport in the world. My opinion is biased but it actually brings on negative emotions when people