I'm a classic motor head. A tinkerer, in the truest sense of the word, I can't leave ANYTHING alone (a refined and way more accurate version of Tim Taylor, if you will). I'm also a 3 Stooges maniac. I believe they made the store, All Things Stooge, specifically for me. Home Theater is another of my passions. And I love motorcycles, you can blame my father for that one. Now my kids can blame that on me.

In the early days, it was all about riding them on the gravel roads of Iowa. When I started understanding what Horsepower meant, from that time on it was always about finding a way to make the engine perform better. Then when I figured out what handling meant, it was about trying to match the bike's handling characteristics to the bike's HP. Then I found out what it was like to have good brakes.

I lived in a small Iowa town that had a Suzuki dealer in it and a Yamaha dealer in a nearby town, the Honda, Kawasaki and Harley dealers were miles away. Seemed like I was always working on the Suzukis, Hondas and Kawasakis and yet I always saw Yamahas riding around apparently trouble free so, that is what I bought.

I had everything but a Yamaha until I turned 15. That was my introduction at that point. Since then I have never been without at least 2 Yamahas.

Working for Yamaha Motor Corp. USA was like a dream come true for me. Great products, great people, and best of all a great Company to work for. I will NEVER regret working for Yamaha. I learned a lot while I was there.

Working for the Service Division of Yamaha in the Cudahy, WI facility gave me a better insight into the workings of motorcycles, snowmobiles, personal watercraft and ATVs. Not to mention the myriad of other products that Yamaha builds. It also allowed me to do things I had not been able to do up until that point.

I was at a local motorcycle accessory store in 1989 and met a person who would become a big influence and a great friend in my life. Alan Henry is a local successful businessman that was also just as big a motorcycle nut as I. Alan and I started drag racing nearly every weekend during the summers for the next 3 years.

We also did some YSR riding and racing along with my boss at Yamaha, Joe Pollow and another very good friend Jerry Woulfe. Jerry is the only person I know personally who has broken, make that SHATTERED, a collar bone while riding a YSR. The Four Bandelaros as such. We had too much fun. My wife actually told Alan one day when he showed up at the house and knocked on the door that, I couldn't come out and play. She always said she has 3 kids, it's just that 2 of them are under the age of 21 (for the time, anyway).

I had the opportunity to hook up with a very good road racer by the name of Dr. Bob Meister. He was the first AMA National Supertwins Champion riding a Honda Hawk for the Erion Brothers. The good Dr. and I had some good times as well.

I built and tuned an OW01 with a highly modified FZR1000 engine in it for Bob. In the 2 years that he and I raced together before he retired in '93, he lost 3 races on that bike. Once to a missed shift and a quick jab at the shifter when it was revving VERY high, it derailed the cam chain. Another time when the remote oil filter failed and took the main bearings out. And we lost to the late, great, Jimmy Adamo at the Fall Race of Champions in Daytona, after we trounced him a month earlier in Grattan winning by over 20 seconds. The loss at Daytona was my fault, having not been there before, I didn't know what to gear the bike at, so I went long and took away too much acceleration but, we had the highest speeds recorded all that week.

The upside to moving home, besides being closer to family, is also that I am able to race YSRs on a track here, as the Central Iowa YSR Club is alive and well.

I had started a YSR with a YZ400F engine in it before I left Yamaha. My original plan was to build a TZ125 chassis, I knew of crasher and the owner was looking to sell, around that engine and let my son race it in the Sound Of Singles class. Lots of chassis and suspension adjustability. But the TZ chassis was too damaged to use. Alan Henry to the rescue. He had an old YSR chassis laying around that I had given him some years earlier. I got it back from him and installed the engine. Then quit Yamaha, moved home and shelved the project for a few months until I started getting some free time to work on the bike in the shop again.

Herein lies that project along with others that have all been fun and a learning experience.

I hope you all enjoy my site and please stop back as new pictures will be added as time allows.