PORTFOLIO / FIELD NOTES
Motorcycles
Machines understood by taking them apart. Distance understood by crossing it.
When I was 17, a motorcycle-shaped hole opened in my heart. I have no idea why. To ride a motorcycle is to become a sailfish or a dragon and a thunderclap careening through the heavens. To maintain and repair a motorcycle is to put a small piece of the Universe into good order. Motorcycling is the diametrical opposite of doomscrolling.
Two years as a technician at the best Ducati shop in the United States, multiple solo cross-country trips, one painful, instructive failure, and a collection of lifelong rituals and practices that positively shape how I live.
Machines intimately understood · Landscapes known with all five senses
01 / LONG MILES
The road is the workshop of the self.
From May through July 2004, with no previous motorcycle travel experience, I rode 15,000 miles alone across the United States, camping almost the whole way. Later trips included Vermont to Vancouver; New York to San Francisco; and San Francisco to Denver.
Flying down a country road on my bike with panniers holding just the minimum kit needed, I feel like an old dog curled up by the fire. From a motorcycle saddle, all is right with the world.
02 / THE BMW
A useful failure.
From 2018 to 2022, I attempted a major customization project on my 2001 BMW R1150GS. The project expanded from minor mechanical work into a complete rewiring, bodywork fabrication, modifying the coolant system, and endless cycles of assembly and disassembly. In the end, neither I nor multiple professional mechanics could solve the electrical issues that developed, and I let the bike go.
The experience had some costly foolishness and impatience that disappoint me, and the loss still stings a bit. The journey also taught me a great deal about design, systems analysis, persistence, how small errors can accumulate catastrophically, and how to walk away when the sunk costs exceed the potential payoff.
03 / THE FALCO
Back to life.
In 2026, I repaired and restored a 2001 Aprilia SL1000 Falco. The scope was narrower, my judgment better, and the result very different: a truly classic motorcycle returned to robust health.
I take my mechanical work extremely seriously because the consequences of mistakes are extremely high. That said, the garage can still be playful—a place for prototypes, odd solutions, meditative coffee breaks, hilarious mistakes, and the satisfaction of tending the soul of a beautiful machine.
MORE / SELECTED WORK