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Do you remember when you got your first bike? For most of us, it’s one of the best days of our lives. Thanks to the support of our friends at Spy Optics, we have a Saturday column called “My First Bike.” The subject of this week’s column is Eleven 10 Mods’ Chad Sanner, who has fond memories of his first bike, which sparked his passion for racing motorcycles. His father, Robert Sanner, wrote this piece for us.
Chad got his first motorcycle when he was about 14 months old, but his first motorcycle with a motor was in 1981. It was a Yamaha Yzinger, and I had to put training wheels on it. After a month, Chad was trying to jump with it, and he kept tearing the training wheels off. One day I finally told Chad that this is the last time that I was going to fix them. Two hours later, they were broken again. He argued with me to fix them, and I said no. I told him that I would run behind him and hold on to the rear of the bike. I ran about 10 feet and let go, and when Chad got to the other side of the yard, he stopped and turned around to tell me something and I wasn’t there. He noticed that I was still standing where he had started and got a big smile on his face, and the rest is history. Thank God, because I wasn’t crazy about running too far.
Chad has raced since he was 4, and he’s going to be 30 in a few months. He’s a father now, and now he gets to see what it’s like to be in my shoes. I told him all the money that I invested in motorcycle racing was his college education. For the past few years, Chad has wrenched for Ryan Clark, Yamaha of Troy, and the SoBe/Samsung Honda team. After the 2006 season, Chad decided to step back from the travel and start his own business, called Eleven 10 Mods. He is using all the knowledge that he has learned over the years to pursue his new business. I’m really proud of Chad and wish him the best of luck!
If you work in the industry and have a story you would like to share with our readers about your “first bike” experience, contact Fubar: mikef@racerxill.com.
