On Sunday I was invited out by my newly found friend Ethan to do some early morning riding through the hill country of Austin with him. I was luckily enough to meet Ethan at Woods where I recently bought my bike when I took the bike in for it’s first service. As it turns out the world is much smaller than it seems since when we soon got to talking I discovered his daughter lives in Chiang Mai, Thailand where my fathers side of the family is from. Long story short, after getting a chance to look at his amazing cbr1000rr and getting my bike serviced we agreed to ride out together.

The morning for me started at 8AM when I eagerly woke up to get my bike cleaned and presentable for today’s ride with some of Austin’s elite.

We agreed upon meeting at a Texaco off of 620 and 2222 that I normally go to on Saturday nights in between touge runs with the boys. Here is a picture of Ethan caught mid sentence.

The Fireblade and the Babyblade. Seeing Ethan’s bike with no mirrors makes me want to do the same. Also, black bikes are the coolest.

After a code red for me and a coffee for Ethan we were off to the infamous LC road. Those who drive know what I’m taking about but I’ll leave the full name for the imagination. We ran the road twice and made our way back to the meet up spot to catch up with Ethan’s friend and co worker Logan.

I just had to get a shot of Logan’s beautiful Kawai. This bike was amazing as well and yes the black theme is really catching on. Once again no mirrors are cool and I’m seriously missing out.

The black fireblade in all it’s glory

A close up of Logan’s beast

On our first run out we saw Ethan’s buddy JJ running the uphill as we were running the downhill but the cool thing is, is that everyone knows where to meet up after runs and soon enough JJ showed up on this bad boy. 4 black bikes, an amazing sight.

Side shot of JJ’s ride

The bikes and the guys. I was so excited to get to ride with these guys!!

I ended up cutting my run a little short to get back and watch the Germany vs. Denmark game as well as the MotoGP and Moto2 races. These things took priority over studying for my Geo lab test the next day, but hey oil runs through my veins and I can’t help that.

I would like to say thanks again to Ethan, Logan, and JJ for letting me ride with them and most importantly to Ethan for inviting me out. I’ll be out again with them very soon and will keep all you Natsukashiers updated.

On a side note I would like to to take this time to explain how awesome the motorcycle community is. In the moto community, it doesn’t matter what you’re riding on the thing that matters is that you ride. The whole aspect of riding takes precedence over the style, make, and speed of your bike. This type of comradery is amazing and something that all the more makes me want to progress in this realm. At the opposite end of the spectrum you have the car community. These days everyone is a jerk to everyone else depending on what you drive and how you drive it. I personally think that the fact that you are modifying your car and driving it should be all that matters to people. I want to build this sort of unspoken bond in the car world that exists in the motorcycle world. We must stick together, because in the end it’s us against the streets right? Keep modifying, driving, and racing. It’s what we do. It’s what we live for.