Advice appreciated - may quit racing for a bit

[clutch]

If you are not happy doing what you are doing get out. You have to think long term. If you are miserable at work then how can you be happy at home or doing hobbies knowing you have to go back to the dump.  Can you bargain with this other company? Perhaps take a little less pay rate and gain health benefits in lieu.  This sucks. It is one of them tough descions.  But bottom line is if you are not happy at work and have to lie about what you are doing then you dont need to be there. What happens if you are caught in a lie and they terminate you...that will look bad.  I just found out at work that we have what is called an ORDINARY Retirement.  I was glad that I and several hundred others at work found out about this. No one really knew it exhisted. If for say and God forbid I was injured while racing and couldnt perform my duties as a LEO (Police) anymore then I would get full pension benefits and retirement right then and there good for life.  This was one awesome benefit that set my mind at ease a little when deciding to get into this stuff.  I now know that if somthing bad happens I can still get a full pension.  Of course this has to be medically proven and it does cover off duty events to include racing and track days.  Read the fine print..you never know what the hell you will find.  Good luck in whatever you decide, but I think that I would have to leave the job I was at if I was as unhappy as you are.

Sean
817

[clutch]

BTW...Super Dave gave some good advice.  Actually, maybe switch to Track Days. A lot of employers and insurance companies I believe dont look at these as racing and as a way to better yourself as a rider.  Employers who hate this MC Racing probably are jealous and mad about all the fun we have. Debt does incur with this addiction and the chance of a factory ride is far..even for the best.  It takes a large fortune to make a small fortune in racing. I think Robert Yates of RYR said that one. (NASCAR). Most factory guys are or their families were connected.   But hey, my girlfriend and soon to be wife supports me..so do my parents..they know I love this stuff so much that they fronted me cash to get another bike..even though it scares them half to death watching.  I am 28 and been a police for 6yrs and felt like a 10 year old asking for a new BMX bike. But this is my way of relieving stress and having fun and I would rather blow $300 for a weekend of racing than $300 at the nightclubs.  You do need a job and preferably one that your employer will not bash you for what you do in your own time..that just isnt right.  I am lucky enough that all of my superiors wish me luck each time I go out and never bash me about doing this..just the occasional be careful.  Sorry to get off topic kinda, but tryin to help.

[james-redsv]

BaltoBuell, I did leave out one thing, Im in the fiberglass business. I build surfboards mainly, I can also repair boats/watercraft or repair fiberglass race bodies on race bikes. So anytime im at a track days or race Im advertising to fix your bike if you crash and tear it up. If you pay me to fix it Im making a profit and I got the business by going to the track and advertising. So everthing I do at a race is promoting and advertising for my business. I guess it depends on what your business is as to wheather you can deduct all your racing expenses. If you owned a MTC shop you can write off all your racing expenses advertising for you shop. Racing should relate to your business somehow. Although I have read in a Tax book called "How to pay Zero Taxes" a guy who raced cars deducted all his racing expenses was audited. He owned a lawn care Bus., totally unrelated to car racing, and used his racing as advertising. In the audit the IRS did allow him to do this totaly because he had his business plastered all over his car and trailer. He was no different from a billboard and totally legit. Atleast my business can relate to a race bike.  ;D

[james-redsv]

Dawn, in these time I have yet to see a company that is really secure. They have stolen workers pensions and 401ks, they have gone bankrupt at the drop of a hat, and people are laid off with no notice. I have an Uncle who is a captian for USair, almost 20 years, if you read the money section in the papers he has recently had to take major pay cuts, lost almost all of his pension, and is in fear of being laid off everyday. Companys many thought were rock solid are struggling, look at Mcdonalds and Burger king, both are hurting bad. Not to mention the DOT.COM and tech blow out. As you can see Im all for doing you own thing and not reling on someone else, Im a republican and proud of it. Also Dawn check with an investment adviser, there are more things you can do investment wise when you do it through your business than reling on someone elses pension plan. I even know a person that makes thousands a month selling junk on E-bay, thats all he does, his biggest headach is standing in line at the post office.

[sdiver68]

OK, I'm going to let you anti-butt kissing people in on a little secret....and those that know me know I'm fairly well qualified to speak on success in money matters.

You can't do squat on your own, work wise, efficiently.  You can't dig a ditch, set up a network, sell a house, stitch together leathers, run a school, etc...  This means succesful accomplishments rely not only on your own hard work but your ability to work WITH other people.  Much of what some people call "butt-kissing" or politics, as much as I hate it as well, is really how projects get done efficiently.  It takes teams of people, all with their own qualities, to succeed as a whole.  some offer more than others, and some are throw-away, but it still takes many.

Given that fact of life and business, it follows that those who are good at working with other people, both "above" and "below" them in the organizational hierarchy, offer a distinct advantage in business.  Unfortunately, there are those whose only skill is politics.  There are those whose only skill is the task at hand.  Sometimes these 2 people get together and succeed as a package. Those who are good at both, eventually, will rise to the top and be in the most demand.

[OmniGLH]

The Super take...
At 25, you seriously cannot consider that you will have the contacts or money to get yourself a ride that might give you an opportunity to ride for team for pay.  Those opportunities are for the well connected, media-hyped, and some that just have financial support.  It isn't like the days before when the best riders got the rides, if that necessarily always happened back then.  

What to do?  I feel the pain your having.  But you do need a job...  What's next.  

And why can people be such D1ck's sometimes?  If you fell down in the shower, they wouldn't pull such cr@p on you.  If you got hit by a drunk driver, even though you were still driving around at 2AM, they wouldn't razz you.  It must be all the fun were having.  Maybe we should tell everyone that were just "exotic dancers" or something.  That's acceptable as a recreation, isn't it?

Oh, believe me Dave, I don't have any delusions of a Factory Suzuki team coming and knocking on my door.  A personal racing goal of mine is to eventually make it to the AMA level, and be competitive enough not to finish last.  Be a front runner, no way.  I don't have the money or the balls to do it.  I race for fun.  Not in the sense that I hear a lot of other people say it... "I race for fun..." and then treat a race like it's a track day.  I have fun racing, I love the competition.  Figuring out how to go faster, to beat the other guy next time, etc.  Passing 2 guys at once in the bus stop and never looking back.

As far as why the people in my office are D1cks... I can agree, seriously, that it's probably jealousy.  I am the only person (seriously, the ONLY person) in my group of 12 people, that has ANY kind of life outside of my job.  Everyone else, ALL they do is work.  And they're happy with that.  I'll send out an email inviting everyone to see a friend's band playing on a Friday night... and I'm instantly labelled as the "group party animal".  So I'm sure a lot of it is "Why should HE get to have fun if WE don't?"

Sad.  A pathetic way to live.  I refuse to be like that.  A job is not what I live for.  It's something I do in my spare time... something I do so that I can go out and do what I want.  This job, right now and for the past 8 months or so, hasn't allowed me to do anything but work.

[Super Dave]

You can't do squat on your own, work wise, efficiently.  You can't dig a ditch, set up a network, sell a house, stitch together leathers, run a school, etc...  This means succesful accomplishments rely not only on your own hard work but your ability to work WITH other people.

Very, very true....

[Decreasing_Dave]

Dawn, in these time I have yet to see a company that is really secure. They have stolen workers pensions and 401ks, they have gone bankrupt at the drop of a hat, and people are laid off with no notice. I have an Uncle who is a captian for USair, almost 20 years, if you read the money section in the papers he has recently had to take major pay cuts, lost almost all of his pension, and is in fear of being laid off everyday. Companys many thought were rock solid are struggling, look at Mcdonalds and Burger king, both are hurting bad. Not to mention the DOT.COM and tech blow out.  

Work for the government.

I'm with the U.S. Border Patrol.  I make good money, have a real good retirement plan (I can retire at 50 ;D), and job security (Mexicans are a tenatious people).

The only catch is you have to relocate to where THEY want you to work....oh, and you have to go to an academy for 5 months.

If my employer goes belly-up...we have bigger problems than unemployment.  :-/