Tales from the Laudramat/Wow is all I can say

With crappy weather impending, today was destined to be a slow day. Earlier today before the precip started, a man rolled up on a motorcycle with a bag full of clothes heading in next door to do some laundry. After he got his load started, he came into the bike shop to shoot the breeze. No biggie, happens all the time. As we started talking, he told me that he'd been spending the night up in the forest with some buddies. He left his duffel bag outside overnight and woke up with a couple inches of snow on the ground so he needed to do laundry. Pretty nondescript guy riding a 15 year old Kawasaki street bike. We got talking awhile and it sounded like this guy definitely knew his way around a bike. He said he'd been racing speedway, short track, and TT motorcycles his entire life and had made a living as a professional dirt track motorcycle racer. There's not too many folks that can earn a living like that so he was quite interesting to talk to. I didn't ask many questions, just listened. I started riding motorcycles when I was a kid and had many motorcycle heroes growing up. We talked about Malcolm Smith (Tomac owner Joel Smith's father), who was one of his peers from days gone by. As it turns out, this fellow was also in the movie "On Any Sunday" as well. He was very modest and only mentioned that he was in the movie as a bit part because he was part of that scene. He was a fascinating guy to talk to with lots of great stories. He kept popping in and out as he would go next door to check on his laundry. Before he left, he asked if he could hop on my internet. He brought up a web page and asked me if I could please look at it after he left. He was planning on heading to Boulder, riding up to Ned, then to Estes and back down 36. I told him that he would encounter crappy weather on the Peak to Peak, but he wasn't concerned - said he was prepared for anything. He was extremely modest and didn't even give me his name. He walked out, started up his bike and got his laundry loaded up. Then he then turned, helmet on, and walked back into the shop. He said he wanted to introduce himself but didn't want to create a scene because of his fame. He reached out his hand, shook mine, told me his name, and I think I had to pick my jaw up off the floor. The man - Jay Springsteen - one of the winningest motorcycle racers in US history.



It was a real pleasure Jay. Thanks for spending your day in the shop and be careful out there.