About OddBike
My name is Jason Cormier, and I'm obsessed with motorcycles. I've been riding and fixing bikes since I was 17, and they remain my number one passion in life.
I'm a prototypical jack-of-all-trades. I do many things; I even do some of them reasonably well. By education, I am a historian. By experience, I am a mechanic. By trade, I am a salesperson. By pastime, I am an artist. By personality, I am obsessive and driven by perfectionism.
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| OddBike's Benevolent Dictator, Editor in Chief, Supreme Leader, and Sole Contributor: Jason Cormier |
In the course of becoming a certifiable cycle nut, I've encountered or heard tell of many strange machines. I've always taken a keen interest in weird and rare motorcycles, with a particular eye towards their technical aspects, whether they are underappreciated gems or magnificently awful turkeys. I started OddBike in November 2012 as an outlet for my creativity and my all-consuming passion for bikes. I wanted to share my fascination with these odd bikes with the world, and hopefully keep the memories of these unusual cycles alive. Thus OddBike is a sort of archive, a historical register of all that is weird and wonderful in two-wheeled contrivances.
But OddBike is also more than a simple register of unusual motorbikes – I seek to provide accurate, meaningful and insightful profiles of these machines, free of sponsorship or corporate interference. I use my experience in history and my skills as a researcher to separate the facts from the drivel. I use my technical expertise to write meaningful analyses of mechanical details. I use my skills as a writer to convey the stories behind, and context surrounding, these fascinating machines. Finally I channel my enthusiasm for, and knowledge of, motorcycles into my writing to make my articles approachable and honest.
My Bikes
Since 2006 my daily rider, touring mount, backroad-scratcher, and all-around grocery-getter has been a 1997 Ducati 916 superbike. I've had a variety of bikes over the years, including a BMW K-bike, a couple of Honda V-4s, a heavily modified Suzuki SV650, and a V-twin Aprilia Tuono. I did time as a Triumph-Norton-BSA mechanic during university, and continue to freelance as a Ducati wrench-for-hire when I'm not busy fixing my own intemperate Italian bitches.
The Ducati, however, is my bike – the machine I desire, the one that gives me an adrenaline rush on every ride, the one that compliments my personality, and the one that has accompanied me through several important stages in my life. My surroundings, circumstances and relationships have changed – but my 916 has remained a constant. And so it will always be. With over 55,000 miles under her wheels, I feel our relationship is only just beginning and I foresee us being together for a long time. I am occasionally tempted by newer, shinier, faster, and less temperamental bikes - but a thundering high-speed blast through a tight set of twisties on the 916 always cures my wanderlust.
About Me
I grew up in the Canadian Maritimes, spending my youth on a farm in New Brunswick before I moved to Montreal, Quebec in 2005 to pursue my desire to escape the simple life and earn my education in the big city. I had visions of the good life, of moving up in the world and becoming a cultured man enjoying the finer things.
Eight years later I came to my senses and escaped a soul-crushing post in the luxury business to renew myself. I moved to Calgary, Alberta in 2014 with the hope of starting my life over (again) and finding some of the meaning that I had lost sight of while catering to the miserable elites of the world. I still haven't found it, but my travels have ignited a nascent wanderlust that has driven me to explore and examine the world with newfound enthusiasm.
