Saying Goodbye To My Dyna
Well today is a day I’ve been avoiding like that one ugly stripper at the club nobody wants a lap dance from...I sold my Dyna. It’s been a decision that I’ve been struggling with for quite some time now and ultimately it was time to let it go. Normally selling a bike wouldn’t affect me in any way, I’ve gone through dozens of them over the years, but this one is special to me for a lot of reasons.
First, I spent months building it up into version 1.0 from a terribly ugly pile of shit covered in chrome, rhinestones, and enough leather tassels to make the entire 80’s jealous. After that was all taken care of, I set my sights on the Harley stunt scene. When I first got into the scene 5 years ago, there were only a small handful of guys doing it and I quickly built up some skills and started getting a bit of attention for it. At the end of that summer, I shot the first video that launched my Youtube channel, Stoke Or Broke. That video was the culmination of a ton of practice, hard work and about 2 straight months of filming. That video went over real well to say the least and people wanted more, and I actually did too because I fell in love with the editing side of things, but clearly making content like that on a regular basis was impossible. That’s when I turned to motovlogging and my journey down the YouTube rabbit hole officially began.
Fast forward a little bit and we get to launching my brand Thirty Eight Ride Company, which YouTube was the catalyst for. It was something I had always wanted to do and I finally had a means to do it because of the years I had put into making videos, and thankfully I had gained some amazing support from the people watching them and the brand is now just over 2 years old. One year after my brand launch, came my print shop and business #2. Something I had never expected to take on, but all of the headaches from my brand led me to it and it was something I immediately fell in love with because it scratched my creative itch in a big way. So here we are now with a solid YouTube channel, a clothing brand growing every day, and a totally new business that I’m sure will eclipse the other one shortly...all of it is because of that motorcycle. All of this stuff is insanely connected and without that bike, I probably would have never gone down this path.
So needless to say, it was very hard to come to the decision to let it go. We had come so far together and I had a bond with it, it was more than just a machine to me. But at the end of the day, it has been collecting dust in my garage for nearly 2 years now which meant it was time. The business aspect of my life has taken over me in such a good way, and I’m completely obsessed with it because it’s a new world and a new challenge that’s ever changing. For a very long time that’s how I felt about riding and still do in a lot of ways, but it’s now taken the second spot on my list of priorities and I’ve had to take a bit of time away from it. Something I have no regrets about whatsoever. Plus I’ve tackled the riding world and have done nearly everything I want to do in it. I’ve done things no one had done before, I’ve been a touring pro, I’ve lived the dream that I thought about every day as a kid...but now I look at business as that new dream that I’m going to kick the shit out of and riding is going to be something that I do for fun instead of a job.
Don’t get me wrong, that doesn’t mean I plan on hanging it up and riding around on a bagger doing the speed limit with the grey haired crowd, I’ll always be going hard when I throw my leg over a bike. I have a talent and ability on a motorcycle that not many people have and I always want to use that to it’s full extent every time I put a helmet on, but at the same time it isn’t the main goal I’m chasing anymore. These days I kind of want to explore more aspects of motorcycle riding, and not feel the pressure to perform while I do it. I’ve been riding for 28 years and I’ve never known what it feels like to just ride like a regular human being. It’s always been a race, a competition, a freestyle show, a video shoot, whatever...I’ve always had to push to that limit damn near every time I’ve ridden. That sounds bad as I type it but trust me, I have no regrets about that either. A side effect of it is all of that stuff has made me an extremely versatile rider which is super cool, I can ride the shit out of any bike or any terrain, and that means I need a bike that is just as versatile as I take this new step forward. Simply put, a Harley just isn’t that bike.
I would have loved to keep it forever because it did mean something to me, but I’m not rich. Ideally I’d love to have a dirt bike, a sport bike, a stunt bike, a cruiser and whatever else I want to ride when I feel like riding it, but sadly that’s not the world I live in yet (trust me, I’m working on it). I needed to get rid of the Dyna to make room for the next bike, and when the opportunity came up to sell it, I took it. What will that next bike be? Who knows, it’s not something I’m thinking about right now. I just knew that I needed to go a different route with my riding and what I was riding.
Old Debbie the Dyna has been a good bike for the last 5 years, it gave me a lot of grief but I have a ton to be thankful for because of it. It became somewhat of an icon in my content and connected with a lot of people (believe me, I heard a lot of shit from all of them when I posted it being sold on Instagram). It was part of making a lot of really cool shit that will live on with social media. And most importantly, it sent me down a path that I think I was meant for. I’ve had a few bikes that really meant something along my riding journey so far, this is now another one to add to that list. Goodbye Dyna, we’ll all miss you.
