OSCAR STORIES: STACIE B. LONDON

I grew up in Culver City, California and I’m a third generation Angelino. My family didn’t ride motorcycles; my dad actually grew up with boats and building race cars as a teenager. He ended up designing engines and made a couple of land speed records in 1965-66 in Bonneville. I grew up being a gear head, surrounded by gearheads, so when I went away to UC Santa Cruz and started working, I knew the first thing I wanted to buy was a motorcycle.

I didn’t know anything about bikes. I just knew that it was time for me to start riding. I signed up for a motorcycle safetly class and on my lunch break I opened up craigslist to start looking, and there it was. A 1969 BMW R 60US. My first bike.

When I started riding in 2009 I immediately started riding with clubs. I saw and appreciated the comradery these male motorcycle clubs had, but they didn’t allow female members and there weren’t any female clubs out there. I was like “ok, I guess I’ll have to start my own.”

I started a Facebook page and tagged women that knew how to ride. Right away I started having meetings and organizing events. Everything started to pick up around 2010 and little by little there were more and more female riders. I never thought of this as a job, my day job is in art and design, so for me it was a way to make events that were charity driven, awareness driven or just to bring women together. We are a small group still. It’s hard to be a strong feminist woman and have confidence in all of our ideas or our femininity. We’re still breaking barriers and breaking stereotypes. I think it’s really interesting that even though it’s 2017, there’s still women that are looking to find the courage to get on a bike.

Right now, the Eastside Moto Babes has a monthly meeting where we talk about our frustrations, about being marginalized and being disrespected. It is a sisterhood that gives unconditional support and inspiration, and helps us go on. I call it the “Sorority For Rebellious Girls.”

I still have my first bike and I’m never getting rid of it. I gave the bike a new life and the bike gave me a new life. It taught me survival, patience, and discipline of perseverance. It’s taught me how to respect and be respected. It has taught me to be grateful and as long as you have those things, you have everything.

THE 1993 USGP AT LAGUNA SECA

With John Konciski and Mick Doohan giving chase on their potent 500cc machines, Kevin Schwantz (No. 34) leads the start of the 1993 USGP at Laguna Seca. A sinuous circuit situated in the foothills of both Salinas and Montery, California, the Laguna race was a bittersweet affair as at the round before, American, Wayne Rainey crashed out and suffered injuries that would both cost him the world title and end his career. Nonetheless, Schwantz and his Suzuki carried on and would clinch the ’93 World Championship. The Laguna Seca round was epic in that John Kocinski, yet another American, would ride the underdog Cagiva for all it was worth to win the USGP that bright and sunny afternoon in Northern California.

OSCAR STORIES: MICHAEL JOHNSON

My name is Michael Johnson and this is my 2007 Benelli Café Racer, 1130CC, triple. It’s more of a work of art than anything else but it’s lovely to ride as well.

I race motorcycles and I own 7 of them. The majority of the bikes I own are race bikes so obviously they can’t go on the street. The Benelli is just great on the road and on the freeway. It’s a nice, smooth and fast ride. You can get away from anybody. 

If there were a fire in my garage and I had to choose, it would definitely be this Benelli, because I can’t replace it. This one is a rarity. You know, you can get an insurance check, but it just wouldn’t cover it. I have a Ducati, which I can go out and get another one tomorrow. I have a track bike, I can probably get a better one tomorrow, but this one is definitely the one I’d go for. 

If I’m standing in the garage, I’m the type of guy that will start wiping her down. 

Ever since I can remember, I have always wanted a motorcycle. So much so, my father would always say, “You’ll have a motorcycle over my dead body.”

About a week after he died, I bought my first motorcycle. 

Now I’m a racer and it’s a part of my life. I defied my father because once I got on a bike, you instantly feel the addiction. If I’m off of my motorcycle for more than a week, I feel a sense of urgency to get back on. The bike, the lifestyle, it is a part of me now.

THE STEEL SHOE SYNDICATE

American Flat Track racing was born out of the blisteringly fast board tracks and dusty horse racing circuits of the early 1900s, where towns such as Dodge City, Kansas, Laurel, Maryland, and Fresno, California played host to “Class A” 1000cc national events. In 1954 the American Motorcyclist Association Grand National Championship was launched with San Jose, California’s Joe Leonard winning the number one plate for the Milwaukee, Wisconsin-based Harley-Davidson Motor Company. By the early to mid-1970s, Flat Track was a wildly popular form of motorcycle racing in the United States. Captured so vividly by Bruce Brown’s camera in the seminal film On Any Sunday, riders such as ’69 champion Mert Lawill, Gene Romero, Gary Nixon, Dave Aldana and a young Kenny Roberts (who would later trade in his trade in his steel show Flat Track accolades for three 500cc World Roadracing Championships).

UNION GARAGE ITALIAN BIKE SHOW AND ALPINESTARS POP-UP

More info here: Union Garage + Alpinestars Pop-Up

Great times with our friends at Union Garage in New York, putting on a show for the "Italian Sporting bikes of the 70's" -- Our Alpinestars pop up shop is now open until June18th at: 103 Union Street in Brooklyn -- So stop by!

Get an up close at our Tech-Air airbag system being sold exclusively at this location.

 

OSCAR STORIES: ALEX CHACON

My father always had a motorcycle in the garage. I think I was around 2 years old when he first put me on his Honda Shadow and I remember that he never put any more than 500 miles on a motorcycle…so I took that as a challenge. I said “You know what? I’m going to ride more miles in one day then my dad did in his entire life!”

I grew up with motorcycles and I’m usually a GS guy but on my last trip, riding through South America, I took a KLR 2016 because I sold everything I owned; my clothing, my car, everything. It was either buying the GS and not be able to go anywhere or getting a KLR and be able to finish my adventure.

A bike allows me to connect with people directly, in a more profound and deep way with anyone around the world. So any biker on the road is a friend. I really don’t know if I am in the right place or the wrong place in my life right now but I do know that where I am has provided the most opportunities in benefiting people around me, which is very important. It has been the pinnacle of my life to this day.

AKIRA WATANABE: 1978 WORLD MX CHAMPION

In the history of the World Motocross Championship, riders representing upwards of 15 individual nations have claimed world titles. However, interestingly, amazingly and almost unbelievably, only one Japanese rider has won only one World Championship. His name is Akira Watanabe and in 1978 he won the 125cc World Motocross Championship. During the 39 years which have followed, no rider representing the nation of 127 million inhabitants has been able to win a World Championship.

Akira Watanabe was born in 1954 in Utsunomiya, Japan and first became intrigued by motocross by seeing 50cc race bike inside the store front window of a motorcycle dealership. He took to the bike quickly, and within two years was racing. Excelling in local and regional races around the nation, by the age of 17, Akira had caught the eye of the Suzuki Motor Corporation and was hired to test, research and develop the brand’s motocross bikes. In 1974, at age 19 and already a professional, he won the Japanese Championship in both the 125cc and 250cc classes. One year later, he fulfilled his boyhood dream of being sent to Europe to contest the 125cc World Championship Series. “Of course I remember Akira,” exclaims Roger DeCoster. “He was based in Belgium, actually, when he raced in Europe. That was during the Gaston Rahier days. He actually spent some time living with Gaston on the East Side of Belgium. He also rode with me. Akira raced the Trans-AMA Series, as well. He was a good rider – a very good rider. I mean you don’t win a World Championship without being a decent rider. Akira was very focused and he really wanted it bad. He came to Europe, which was not so easy for a Japanese rider.

OSCAR STORIES: JON BEKEFY

My name is Jon Bekefy and this is my 2015 KTM 690.

My old man got me hooked onto motorcycles. I grew up listening to stories from my mom about my dad being a wild man. He was a motorcyclist, lumberjack and a bit of an outlaw.

The man was legit. The first thing I learned about my dad was the scar down the middle of his face was there because of getting bashed on the head with a beer bottle in a bar brawl.

That was my male role model growing up. He was a badass.

My mom’s brother was also a rider but quit right after getting into an accident. In my brain, at that age, I was like “well, that’s unacceptable, clearly my dad is fucking awesome.”

I’m first generation North American and my mom and dad lived in Vancouver before then. My dad was an immigrant and his favorite person when I was a kid was Arnold Schwarzenegger. He was a Gold’s Gym t-shirt wearing type of a guy. By type, I mean that was legitimately my dad. While my Mom was in the hospital giving birth to me he was pumping iron.

In high school I was doing a lot of BMX and mountain bike racing and finally dragged home my first Honda as a garage project. I decided I was going to be a motorcyclist. I remember Top Gun also inspired me along with my dad and all of that kind of pop culture explosion of motorcycling. It was a done deal. Tom Cruise was the man. He is a legit and talented rider and talented car driver. I know he is a little kooky but as a role model, when I was a child, Top Gun and Maverick were just so rad. Maverick was a total fuck-up and successful at the same time and when I was a kid, I thought “hey I can be goofy or stupid and be totally awesome,” and that’s powerful...unintentionally powerful.

I’ve lived in San Francisco since 2000, so riding in San Francisco and going on the track, will always be for me. But being into motorcycles and being on a bike is the sharp end of the stick. It is something that will totally fuck you up more often than not. And more often than not, it has NOT shown me what I’m good at, but it reminds me of what I’m really fucking terrible at...like riding.

Even working on bikes is always a lesson in humility. It’s really cool to stay alive and stay somewhat fast and to be smart in what you’re doing. It’s more about focusing on what you don’t know.

MARTY MOATES AT THE CARLSBAD RACEWAY

In the month of June, during the summer of 1980, Carlsbad Raceway and Marty Moates would become synonymous with one another. On that sunny afternoon Moates, the consummate underdog as an empty-pocketed privateer, rode his LOP Yamaha to victory at the 500cc USGP, a race that until then was dominated by visiting European stars. It was the one race every American rider dreamed of winning, though no one had pulled it off up to that point. But in Cinderella fashion, Moates, born and raised in nearby San Diego, pulled off what remains arguably the single biggest upset in motocross history.