When donating a kidney to my mother in May of 2004, I didn't entirely understand the positive impact it would have on my life, particularly as it would relate to motorcycle riding.

The obvious benefit was to make my mother healthy, and fortunately we were blessed with that result. She's doing fantastic.

Prior to the transplant, many told me that I'd never be the same. I'd be frail and sickly and my love of riding motorcycles would have to end. My doctor was one who disagreed.

To prove him right and to make sure life got better after transplant, I was determined to show other potential donors that donating a kidney actually increased the quality of life. To me, that meant more riding.

Recovery is said to take about a year for the donor. Fifty-four weeks after surgery, I raced my first Baja 500 in Mexico to show that donors weren't frail, sickly people and didn't need to spend the rest of their lives on the couch. The National Kidney Foundation supported the effort. (Read the story)

Later that year, I was chosen to participate in the Around the World GS event, and wrote a story that is featured in the January 2007 Owners News. While outside sponsors of any kind were forbidden, they made a single exception for me. I was allowed to run National Kidney Foundation decals on my bike, enabling me to tell another story about donors. Sickly? Frail? Nonsense. I was riding a new R1200 GS Adventure through the Sahara in Morocco, proving again that donors can live full lives after transplant.

Why am I doing this? Perhaps someone, somewhere, sometime will be inspired. Donating a kidney is easy, and it makes life better, not worse.

As my latest endeavor to raise donor awareness, I raced a motorcycle last November in my first Baja 1000. I rode from Ensenada to La Paz, for a total of 1,048 miles. My personal section was approximately six hours at night, San Ignacio to Loreto. We went on to finish race in just over 28 hours, placing 7th in our class of 52 entries. Again, I was supported by the National Kidney Foundation as well as Terrible Herbst Motorsports. It was a dream come true, another testimony to life after kidney transplant, and another chapter in the yet to be completed story of how much better life is after helping out my mom.

My one kidney rides a lot more now than the two of them ever did.