Aloha and Welcome to *Liam's Wild Ride* , the Official Website of Liam Shubert. This is the mostly complete chronicle of my travels, adventures, and experiences while I was busy working in MotoGP, with stints in WSBK, WSS, and the World Endurance Championship! Please enjoy the Places, the Faces, and especially, the Races!
I'm currently living and working in beautiful Walnut Creek, California, just a short ride from San Francisco and Oakland. I'm still dabbling with cars and motorbikes, but since the Covid 19 Pandemic, I've been focusing my efforts on bicycling! How cool is that??
Holy Smokes, I'm still here! I haven't put much time or thought into this old website since I left the ranks of MotoGP after the 2008 season ... in fact, I'd completely forgotten how to log-in to post, I'd misplaced my bags of links, lost my password, etc. Thank goodness I still remembered the name and initials of a girl I once knew ... or I wouldn't have been able to figure out how to get back in, and get back to writing.
A lot has changed for me in the past 10 years ... I'm now married and raising a strong little family, I've transitioned to a new career path in Healthcare IT, and I've been blessed to re-invent myself at every step of the way in order to tackle new motivations, or because I simply didn't know what I was doing. The "fake it 'til you make it" approach still applies to some degree ... I have applied myself over hundreds of sleepless nights working and figuring things out as best I can. Not bad for a guy that didn't own a laptop (or really use a computer) until the summer of 2005.
I've kept this website going as a chronicle of some of my past adventures, but to be fair, my memory is not as strong as I had anticipated, and it seems the older I get, the more I've forgotten. I'm hoping to start writing again as a means of capturing my current life, and writing here on my blog because this is more of my "quiet space", with less noise and distraction of Facebook and the like.
So what am I riding these days?
Introducing my oftentimes headache bike, a 1974 Harley Davidson Shovelhead FLH (a real troublehead). I love it. It is slow, cumbersome, mechanical, industrial, agricultural, and it is alive. She takes me back in time, and I am perfectly content to just cruise and not pound on the giant S&S Super B carb. Most of my changes have been reliability related, but this is a something of a foreign machine for me, so I'm still learning about it, bit by bit. I added a primary belt drive system, dry clutch, some big jetting changes, small ape hangers shipped from my friend Koji Hamada in Japan (http://www.hammer-sycle.com/index.html), and generally I have just been having a ton of fun getting to be more proficient with kick starting this big old beast (74 cubic inches, or ~1,200cc's of air-cooled awesomeness). She's a 3-50 Kick Start bike!!!
I'm growing again - finally. I feel very connected right now; connected to my mind as it expands both inwards and out, spirituality finding harmony and peace within myself, and as I learn more about my new role and new goals, I see the architecture of my mind going through another reset, as it had in '05/'06 and again in '10. I am sensing my potential and visualizing my existence as more than myself again, beyond the body and the physical, beyond toys and games - and beyond life itself. I am inspired to become inspirational again.
I feel alive; the blaring roar of my engine as I row through the gearbox, feeling the front tires fold and tuck, in and out, in and out, while the rear scratches and claws for traction, always pushing me around and twisting my bodies, steering wheel twitching, hunting and darting, bouncing and pulsing, seeking that perfect inertial drift . . . wheels cocked sideways, counter-steering and on the pipe, perfect flow, perfectly flowing, smooth and raw and brutal - all pieces working together to separate, translate, re-direct and transfer energy from fuel and air. Barbaric, clattering, an Exercise of Power. Loud Noisy, Everything Howling, my Existence is Now - and more is coming. I have the tools and the desire to forge ahead, to see beyond my past and experience connection. I'm ready.
This feeling comes and goes, the briefest of touches, a caress and the flip of hair into my hand on a warm, windy sun-filled day. I can feel the spray of the waves licking at my face, no longer stinging my eyes, welcoming me home. I am so proud and grateful to be learning again; I am feeling more fulfilled, more productive, and more connected. It is bliss. I missed you. I am sorry I forgot what this feeling was truly like, but I will honor you. I have taken the last 4% of my life to find some measure of peace again. Everything is coming together as it should. I am seeing myself in the equation and how everything affects me, and how I, in turn, affect everything. The missing pieces are drawing closer, tidal waves and the gravitational pull of my life force, the heartbeat of the universe is within my grasp. Circles. Always Circles. My earthquake is building. I have held the sun in my hands before, but it was not something I could hold on to. To know this feeling is to want it, to chase my dreams and aspire that warmth again. I'm out there. I will be one with myself, for I am everything I was meant to be. Let life become ever deeper and more meaningful.
I encourage you to watch this video on full screen.
Ulrich Schnauss: Monday Paracetamol
It's been an incredible week; new job, new shoes, and I'm rolling like never before. Jules snapped some beautiful pictures on our ride last Sunday, sailing through the dirty mountain roads I love so dearly.
Conditions weren't the best; heavy rains the week prior had washed a lot of dirt and debris onto the road, and several corners were still awash with little rivulets and streams, making for some hurried decelerations. The day prior I had run with a crew and the rider in front of me managed to rear end a postal van on Pescadero. Tis' the season . . . to be careful, cautious, and remember the mantra of the mountain rider. "Make it home."
Masterpiece: The most exquisite production bike in the world
Ducati has created what I consider to be the most beautiful, most exquisite production missle motorcycle the world has yet seen - and it's a drastic departure from the "traditional" design parameters that one normally associates with the Italian Marque. I've spent more than a few weeks at Ducati Corse's workshop and design studios so I'm quite familiar with their capabilities, but this machine, the 1199 Panigale, has completely blown me away with the engineering genius that has shaped every major component, and the technical genius of the entire sporting package. If ever there has been a Masterpiece of modern Italian Design - this is it.
I remember my discussions with powertrain engineers during the development of the SuperQuadro engine (or SuperQuadrata as it was known in its early stages), a radically oversquare v-twin that was destined for extreme RPM's, and I remember the difficulty we had on the GP teams with the packaging of our complex and sophisticated electronics control devices. I won't be getting into the precise details of the materials tested and chosen for the production version of this machine, but I would like to take a few moments and discuss what I feel are the noteworthy and ground-breaking aspects of the 1199; a machine that I will simply refer to as "God-Bike". The laws of physics have been bent; gaps in logic forced open and closed with the high speed precision that can only come from Ducati's signature desmodromic valvetrain. This is truly a stunning machine, especially when the clothes come off and we're left with the naked truth.
Leave the Ivory Tower and take a moment to share your life with others. Learn from them, teach them, realize deeply that we are all one people, and truly appreciate all the gifts in your life.
Music has been a constant in my life from early days, and it's why I share so much of it here. Oftentimes, I find it replaces words and can more accurately replicate or instigate a mood or feeling. Smile more :)
I spent Saturday morning running through the Santa Cruz mountains on the way to meet up with a "True Grit" rain or sun ride with a group of hardcore motorcycling enthusiasts. They will often ride in gnarly conditions to learn more about available traction while practicing advanced bike control, and just to have a good time challenging the weather while most folks stay inside (roads are typically more empty, almost no bicyclists, etc). Unfortunately, I didn't quite make it to the starting point of the ride and ended up calling it an early day. I crashed.
I've been thinking about you lately, and what it means to Love. Not just the physical act, or the brain's chemical response, but the Power of Love and how it can transcend sheer "emotionality" in the human sense. These thoughts stem from a conversation I had in early January, wherein my friend proposed that "perhaps" we only get one chance at Love.