It looks like my 1998 Kawasaki KX 250 will belong to someone else tomorrow. I bought that bike, worn and beaten, six years ago. I brought it into my garage, took it apart, cleaned it, painted it, put new graphics and a new seat cover on it, gave it a new rear race tire, had the forks rebuilt by Pro-Action, and gave it a new Renthal rear sprocket.

This, my friends, is how you show your motorcycle just how much you love it.

I’ve loved every minute I’ve ridden it. I love that rush of adrenaline I feel when you kick the engine to life and you feel the motor revving beneath you. I love the awesome power as you launch off the line and the pull you feel in your arms as you climb through the gears and that amazing 250cc two-stroke powerband. I love that feeling of soaring high above the ground (where “high” means “a multitude of inches”). I even forgive my bike for that time I was trying to learn to double-jump and instead I broke my collarbone.

If any girls read my blog they probably think this is so dumb. And to that, I say this: I had a fair number of girlfriends when I was single, but when I found one that I felt this strongly about, I married her. And if that doesn’t show you up, well, I don’t even know what I meant by that.

Seriously, I really wish I could keep it. Maybe someday, when my career doesn’t require every spare minute of my time and investments of large sums of money in laptops, maybe then I can have another one.

Until then, there’s a part of me that will be dead. There’s a part of me that will ache every time I watch motocross or supercross racing live or on TV. There’s a part of me that will feel like I sold my soul in order to try to move my career forward, and that part will let me know how disappointed it is with me for the rest of my life, especially if I fail.

It will definitely be a bittersweet memory. Like the CRX, I’ll love it forever. And I don’t care if you think that is stupid.

So, for posterity’s sake, here’s some pictures to remember my baby by:

Jumping my KX250

Catching tons of air at Bunker Hill Raceway in Delta, 2004-ish.

KX250

I love this picture.