<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Jumkie @ Aug 13 2008, 12:09 PM)
<{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>Hey guys. Its about 1am in the morning. Just got in and have an early day tomorrow (up at 6am). But I said I’d post a bit more (must keep my word), so here is a brief post.
4399
hoto_080108_053.jpg]
I was at X Games practice on the 1st of August; the day Nicky injured his foot. At the time I knew something was not right. As it turns out, it has now been announced that the injury to his foot is much more serious than was known at the time. This is the reason of course he didn’t enter the Supermoto race.
Its amazing the luck I had in getting into this area as you will see below, it really paid off. As some of you may have seen the pics I posted on the Nicky at X Games thread. (Sorry Johnny for taking so long to post). I was hanging around about 2-3pm. Keep in mind, the practice was at 10am and most all people were gone for the day. Here is a pic of the Troy Lee Designs tent. (FYI all pic taken with my cell phone—1. I lost my camera, 2. Taking pic with a regular camera might be a dead give away).
4400
hoto_080108_009.jpg]
(Click on pic to enlarge) You can make out Nicky’s bike (#69) and Jeff Ward’s bike next to it (#3), who BTW ended up wining X Games Gold, and Hanson (#100). Anyway, one reason I took this picture is to show you the throngs of people hanging around the pit area. This of course should give you a clue as to how deep I was able to get inside. Anyway, I had a brief conversation with one of the mechanics, a real nice guy, who gave me the scoop that Nicky had gone well in practice, even amazing and challenging some of these full time Supermoto professionals, until something went wrong. It seems some of the dirt jumps were a bit unorthodox. At the time it didn’t seem like much, but I could tell the guy was giving me a rather ambiguous account of Nicky’s injury.
As I walked around the area, I noticed a rather plain and unmarked truck (looked more like a camper a privateer might have) as you can see. It was parked next to the Troy Lee designs tent. Here is the pic.
4401
hoto_080108_028.jpg]
I really didn’t pay it much mind and passed by it a few times as I looked around the other tents. But as I passed by I looked inside and something caught my eye.
4402
hoto_080108_027.jpg]
I though, those leather seem to have a rather familiar number and logo. Could it be that somebody in a dirt bike in the other competitions here is running the same number or perhaps being sponsored by Nicky? (Its not an odd thing to think since it seems the Bostrom brothers are sponsoring some other kid, and keep in mind, X Games has some dirt bike events (notice the tires all have nobbies).
So this of course was very curious to me and I hung around. As usual, I was in my Nicky Hayden T-shirt (though this function was far removed from a MotoGP event), so naturally my interest was sparked. As I was being a fly on the wall and hanging around, this guy walks up to me carrying a box and wearing an Aplinestars hat. He says, “Hey bro is Nicky here?” I say, “Uuuuuhmmmm, Nah man, haven’t seen him.” The guy says, Ah good, then.” He says to me, can you help me with this box?” I say, yeah sure, no problem.” He walks up the steps to the trailer and me behind him. He opens the box and takes out a set of new knee pucks. He gets the leathers on the seat and begins taking the scuffed pucks off. I say, “So what’s your job?” He replies, “I service Nicky’s leathers. I work for Alpinestars and service all our equipment.” Then he says, “Hey man, can you help me inspect the leathers. I will hold it up and you look for any problems on the back while I look for issues in the front. Look for scratches, scuffs, any stitches that look odd.” I say, “Uuuuuuuuhmmm, OK!”
I know you fuckers don’t believe me, so here is a picture. The guy is holding it up, and after I looked it over, I took out my phone and snapped a picture. Notice who these leathers belong to. (This was taken with my cell phone, and obviously it doesn’t have zoom, so as you can see, I’m practically touching them to snap this pic).
4403
hoto_080108_026.jpg]
Of course, this guy thought me snapping a picture was rather odd, being that we both ‘belong’ here. “Soooo, what do you do here?” He asks me in a rather very inquisitive tone. My reply, “I’m a guest here…an honored guest you could say.” (…pause) “Oh, well I apologize for imposing sir, its just I’m a bit over worked today, my partner didn’t show up and I have several equipment checks today. I really do apologize for the inconvenience….. Sir.” My reply, “Oh ‘sir’ is not necessary, don’t worry about it man, I don’t really buy into all that VIP stuff, I’m just a regular Joe, just like you. I’ll let Nicky know you did a great job!”
Oh, the story doesn’t end there. .... I’m just getting started. For reference on a side note, let me show you the factory Honda and Yamaha tent.
4404
hoto_080108_029.jpg]
4405
hoto_080108_030.jpg]
As you can see if you scroll up to the picture of the white truck, what turned out to be the trailer for Nicky is rather an insult and a joke compared to what the factory riders got. The Troy Lee Designs tent was nice, but Nicky, not being part of their full time team, was a ....... child in a plain jane truck off on the side. Do you guys see where I’m going with this? Anyway, I just thought you might be interested in what I observed to be a rather unceremonious treatment by HRC toward their factory rider who had brought them both a coveted US & World title. (Yeah, you could say I was a bit disappointed in Honda).
Oh, but that is NOT the story….moving on.
So, now I’m like in 6th gear all hyped up looking around me wishing somebody I knew could witness this ....…but what was to come was even more unbelievable. So I hang around, walking about from tent to tent, then periodically, I would come back to that whit plain truck, just to get a glimpse and see if anybody was around. But it was empty. On one of these return walks, I go right up to the door, since out of the corner of my eye I thought I had seen some movement inside. I walk up to the door and just then Nicky come out to the door, looks at me and says, “Hey, what’s up?”
Sorry guys, but I did a deer in the headlights look back to him. ...., what a start struck little ..... I must have looked like (glad nobody saw my face). But in my defense, he startled me as much as I was star struck. I mustered out a, “Hi, how’s it going for you?” "Ah man, I’m ok.” Was his reply. He comes down the steps slowly then shakes my hand! What happened next I know nobody here is going to believe me. I ended up having a full on conversation with Nicky as if we were a couple of guys at the track during a break in the action. I talked with him for several minutes. I asked him about his inspirational mottos, like ‘Chasin a Dream’ and “Believe in the Power of Dreams’ and ‘Never Give Up Never Give In’ and ‘All In’. I remember this being the start of our conversation, because I had rehearsed this chance meeting in my mind many times. As a fan, I have always been inspired and impressed with these mottos. Turns out, he told me He had wanted to be a world champion since he was very young. He said he started on bikes before he could walk and was on them at three years of age, and one day he knew he wanted to be a world champion—this was his dream.
I was actually wearing a t-shirt with the motto ‘Never Give Up Never Give In’. I asked him about it. He told me that the shirt was designed by his mom (Rose) and that she had come up with that motto. I told him it was an inspiration not only to me but to my best friend. I told him a rather private struggle that my best friend has been going through in his life in the last few years and how he had made a fan of him. Nicky seemed very humbled by my story. He bowed his head and I patted him on the back and I told him lots of people root for you man, not only because of the enormous talent you display on the track but because you present the image of the regular guy who works hard to get ahead, and that is something we can relate to. He thanked me, and said, I am a regular guy who has a great family and friends who keep him grounded. I told he we are both lucky them, because I have a great set of family and friends too. He asked me questions about my best friend, he seemed genuinely interested. I told him a bit more.
Then the conversation turned to his career. I took out my key, it’s a Ducati motorcycle key. I asked him if he would be having one in his pocket in the near future. He laughed. Sorry man, I told him, I gotta ask. Dude, I said, think of one of your sports heroes, now imagine you meeting him. Wouldn’t you want to know about their thoughts? He laughed again. He said, well you obviously follow MotoGP, not to many of those here at X Games. He said the future is still to be determined, but anything can happen. Well that’s ok with me. Whatever you ride, your fans will root for you. I added, we want you to have the best shot, and as a spectator and from simple observation (as I pointed to his white, plain, unmarked camper truck); we want you to have a fair shot. Again he laughed. I said, well perhaps we should talk about something else since you must be sick of people asking you the same stuff, and you are on vacation after all. So I turned the conversation to talking Supermoto. Then we talked about the weather (Cali has great weather). Then we talked about the crazy stunts the MotoX guys are doing. Then we talked about handling a supermoto bike vs a MotoGP bike. (Yeah, I know, crazy). There was nobody around to keep him or me from stopping the conversation (as you saw, not too many people were around at the time). I know some of you are reading this and saying, ......... So again, here is a pic.
4406
hoto_080108_042.jpg]
If you look into our glasses you can see my had extended with my phone in my hand. Notice that it looks like Nicky is talking? Well after having a rather laid back extensive conversation. I said, look man. I don’t really belong here. I’m not a worker or anything, I’m just a motorcycling fan who is a MotoGP fan, and obviously a fan of you. He says, well I gathered that, you are wearing my T-.... and its signed by me (you can see the white marker autograph on my shoulder). But its all good man. He says, I’m like you too. I’m a fan of MotoGP and motorcycles myself you know. I break out laughing and say, yeah, no ..... So I said, well if you don’t mind, I need to take a picture with you because nobody is going to believe me when I tell them this story. So I took the above picture. Well as I was taking the picture he asked me why I didn’t have a camera. So I told him how it had got lost at the club at Laguna Seca. I told him the whole story. I had him laughing (some of you may recall that I was blasted and had a bit of a fight with a parking meter which I mistook for Dani Padrosa). Ah man, he says, you must have lost some pretty good pictures. I did, I told him. But I’m going to Indy, and hope to get some good one there with a new camera.
After I snapped the pic with my phone, he says, let me see it. I showed him the picture and says, it’s a bit dark, lets move out into the sun and take another one! Not ...., so we walked out from under the canopy and took another one just a few steps away on Nicky’s request.
I know you don’t believe me, so here it is:
4407
hoto_080108_043.jpg]
Notice, the first picture is within the shadow, inside the boundary, the second one is outside the shadow. After I snapped it he looks at my phone again and says, dude, you need a camera. I know. (BTW, you can see his plain jane truck in the right side of his glasses). Anyway, I have several more pictures to post. I will tomorrow, or so. Not sure when I have more time.
But to answer your questions about his injury. What I observed, was a guy in some discomfort enough for me to notice it, but he endured it enough to give me attention. He didn't mention it and I didn't think to ask, as obviously I was a bit distracted. This was just hours after it had happened and so the severity of the damage was probably not known to him. I’m sure after careful examination, his doctor determined it was a dangerous injury that could jeopardize his career if not properly healed. After having this lucky meeting with him. I am even more convinced the man is of a decent, honorable, and fine character. From my perspective (and surely one can say its bias) he seemed to me a man of word, down to Earth, and committed to his profession (which is his passion as much as we are fans of the sport). As a fan, and from what I observed, he could easily say to hell with HRC, and he would be justified. But I think this decision to sit out is surely in the interest of prudent self-preservation of health and honoring his current contract (he can't do his best if he is fighting a subpar bike on a subpar foot). He has expressed he wants to finish the year strong. As it is, he doesn’t need any more hindrance to his sub par performance this year. So I think in the interest of honoring his contract with HRC, he doesn’t want to short change them and himself by riding injured. Now I’m no doctor, but I do know enough that some injuries to soft tissue are much more jeopardizing than broken bones. Which if some of you have ever injured non-vascular tissue, it can easily he scared if not healed and never regain its full function.
Well guys, its really late now. Its about 3am. I’m in trouble now because I’m gonna be a wreck in a few hours and really need to sleep. But I didn’t want to leave you guys hanging. I’ve summarized a lot (yeah, believe me, it was alot more). I have way more pics and stories, and I’ll post them when I have a chance.
JUMKIE! Im SOOOOOOOOO jealous
what a great story, yet again
