I founded Motobella Vintage after falling in love with motorcycling this year — at 50!!!! (Wait… what??)

As a recent empty nester navigating a major life shift, riding quickly became more than just a hobby — it gave me new meaning and purpose in the wide open space of this next chapter. In October 2024, I took the MSF course, and with the encouragement of my brother and nephew (both big moto buffs), I bought my first bike: a 2015 Yamaha SR400.

Its vintage 1970s aesthetic stole my heart — classic simplicity with just enough modern adaptability. I swapped on some knobby 50/50 enduro tires so it could handle the county dirt roads around my place. It's a smaller CC bike, easy to handle but still with enough get-up-and-go to hit any road I point it toward. The kick-start-only design and clean mechanics gave me exactly the challenge I craved.

As my skills — and courage — quickly grew, so did my hunger to explore. More roads to ride. More wild places calling. Bigger inner and outer terrain to traverse. That desire to ride into the unknown and find something true has only multiplied.

Motobella Vintage was born from that longing — a deep need to reclaim a sense of personal freedom. Not the kind marketed to us, but the kind we uncover when we quiet the noise and come home to ourselves.

For me, that freedom lives in wild places. Far from the pressures and patterns of the world. It’s in the stillness of a desert sunset, the curve of a canyon road, the smell of rain on sagebrush. It’s in those moments I remember who I really am — whole, connected, free.

Over the years, I’ve crossed landscapes by foot, by horse, by car. But now, it’s the motorcycle that carries me. Through motion, I return to truth. To nature. To essence.