January 2024 - Dave Westerfeld

Fast Facts:

Started riding at age 60
Prefers dirt over asphalt
Has a YouTube channel: @dangerdave8080

Where are you from/where do you live?
My home is in Bakersfield, California about 120 miles north of Los Angeles in the San Joaquin Valley. Bakersfield has been an amazing place to raise kids and live. We have been here for over 40 years.

How long have you been riding?
I bought my first motorcycle at 60 years of age. I was getting a little “bored” and wanting something more to do in my off hours. Motorhomes looked interesting but I saw too many in storage facilities wasting away, so I thought…“MOTORCYCLES”!

After coming home from work that day I said to my wife of 40 years, “I think I’m going to buy a motorcycle”. The response, “And I think you are NOT going to buy a motorcycle!” I could tell in her response there was a crack of an opportunity.

First motorcycle?
The next week I signed up for a motorcycle class to get my license. The second week I purchased a used 2008 Honda Gold Wing as my very first motorcycle. This was in May of 2017.

The next 5 years I put nearly 100,000 miles on the Gold Wing. I LOVED riding. I have ridden across the country two times and up to Canada a couple of times. Like most riders, I was addicted!

In early 2022 I decided to get another bike. Riding all over California there were so many “dirt roads” that left the asphalt. I tried riding the GW on dirt, but I’m not that good of a rider!

Not knowing for sure I would like riding dirt, I went to a two-day “Adventure“ style Riding class, RawHyde Adventures in Castaic, California. I needed to rent a bike and all they had were BMW 1250 GS and GSAs. I was given a GSA to ride. Some would argue this is a big bike, which it is, however, this is only the second bike I had ever ridden at the time. I went from a nearly 1,000-pound GW to a nearly 600-pound GSA. Seemed ok to me!

The experience riding the BMW was magical to me. The following week, May 2022, I purchased a 2020 BMW 1250 GSA. Since the BMW I have mostly ignored the GW. In my “obsession,” I have ridden over 4,000 miles on dirt. We are talking about fire roads, two-track stuff. While I still really enjoy riding asphalt, more so on dirt!

Why do you ride?
I feel like when I’m on a motorcycle, there is a drip of adrenaline going all the time, a great “feeling.” Riding a motorcycle is very therapeutic, a compliment to the career. There is nothing boring about being on a motorcycle. It is not stressful, there is simply a good feeling riding dirt or asphalt!

Tell us about your YouTube channel, DangerDave8080.
About a year ago I started the YouTube channel, DangerDave8080. There are two reasons why I started YouTube. First, I am now 67; as you get older, all muscles begin to “fatigue” a bit; I think your brain starts this fatiguing process as well. Making videos for a YouTube channel is very challenging. Learning how to use cameras and using editing software is a huge challenge. Learning how to tell 4 to 10-minute stories that people want to listen to...a long way to go, but so fun working at it! My goal is to get 5,000 Subscribers. I have a little over 500 subscribers now. I have LONG WAY TO GO!

The second reason is to learn more about how this “social media” world works. YouTube is an amazing tool. We all go to YouTube to find out how to do things, what to buy...anything you want to know about is on YouTube. I learned so much about AEROSTICH on YouTube. Having a YouTube channel, I get to participate in a ridiculously small way in social media talking about motorcycle stuff. It is very enjoyable.

What Aerostich gear do you wear and why did you choose it?
As soon as I went to my first introduction to motorcycle class years ago, I was committed to wearing safety gear. It seemed to me that falling may be part of the adventure (I was right!), so, it made sense to me to gear up. My first gear was some pretty cheap stuff, it did not feel right to me. I looked further into riding gear and came across AEROSTICH. I was hooked!

The idea of a “suit” made good sense to me. I read everything there was on Aerostich and watched every YouTube video I could find. I bought the R3 during the first couple of months after I began riding (the Gold Wing). I added the back pad and large hip pads and later the chest protector. It’s the perfect set up!

Aerostich-related or Aerostich-specific stories?
I fell once on ice in Utah on the GW. It was a good fall of about 20 miles an hour. I remember hitting my knee PAD, my ELBOW pad, SHOULDER pad, sliding on my back for about 30 feet (it was ice). I was not injured in any way. The suit was amazing!

I fell on the BMW 1250 on a dirt road in November 2022. That was the hardest fall I have experienced. If it were not for the huge AEROSTICH hip pads I have in the suit, there is no doubt in my mind I would have fractured my hip.

Once you wear AEROSTICH it's hard to wear anything else!

Anything else you would like to share with our audience?
I would like to encourage any rider to consider starting a YouTube channel. All you need to start is a camera (phone) and computer…share your experiences…every rider has different experiences. I really enjoy watching what others experience on motorcycles!