Memories of Mark

[KTM Mike]

I know that I have very much appreciated seeing the photo boards of happy memories when I have had family members and friends pass on. I am sure Mark would prefer us to remember those happy times to. With that in mind, I thought I would post a couple of pics I had of Mark, doing what we here on DRN all shared with Mark - dirt bikes! I thought I had many more pics, but I think some got lost on a crashed computer a year or so ago.

This first pic is of him recieving a special award from our buddy Woodsy - the sign says "Woodsy Roostee". I am sure Woodsy can elaborate a bit on that story. The next pic is of
Mark in turn 1 (#396) at the Camp Chaos Harescramble in 2005...lookin good!

I think one great testament to Mark was the fact that on December 25th he wrote:

"I got out on my 950 on Xmas eve for about 30 minutes. It was great. There's no way I could ride the 450 unfortunately. But the 950 was a close 2nd to a dirt bike ride. Ya gotta do what you can do!"
I hope you all have a great Christmas!!"

What a great positive outlook - a biker to the end! And a friend to the end as well. Over the last several months in particular Mark and I shared many emails, a few phone calls. He and I both attended Central - we shared many CMU stories...back in the days of "Top 10 Best Party Schools"! He was so proud that his son Ben is about to start at Central as well. We was also proud of the great progress Andy is making, and of course of his daughter Emily.

Mark also shared many great pearls of wisdom with me as I was contemplating a recent job change - helping guide my decision, actually was a key part of that decision making process. After I accepted that job - Mark was right there offering up advice on the travel component of the job. Your advice has been spot on Mark!

One thing was clear from the various emails from Mark in more recent months - many many people cared deeply for him - and did a lot to help him out in the last several months. He was absolutely appreciative of the help everyone gave him. Tim - he mentioned you many times in fact. A real friend.

One thing I will treasure forever is the Photo Book Mark made for me in 2005 after Camp Chaos that year. I will think of you every time I see it.

Many many other bright snipits of Mark come to mind, but others chime in - post some pics of his smiling face!

Rest in peace my friend.

 

[woodsy]

del

 

[woodsy]

The memories will NEVER end!!!!!!!!!!

 

[KTM Mike]

I just knew that somehow that pic with his tongue hanging out would surface! Yup...that is the Mark we know and love!

 

[BadgerMan]

One of my favorite memories was years ago when we took one of Mark's former bosses trail riding. He was a Harley rider type but had not ridden dirt bikes too much. Mark put him on an XR250 and sent him off down the trail with a bunch of moto-heads like myself.

After the ride we sent his boss off to the hospital to get his broken toes fixed up. :ohmy:

After that, whenever Mark would tell me he was frustrated with his boss, I would just say "do you want me to take him riding"?

 

[Fred T]

I remember the time at the Rites of Spring ride Mark took the "Lunch Truck " out with gas cans in it. He locked the cans on a chain carefully to the back bed of his truck so no one would steal them. Then he left us the keys so we cluld un- lock the cans and get fuel. Well he gave us the wrong key and we all had to take turns leaning our bikes under the tail gate of the pick up truck while another person carefully poured gas from out or our cans into our tanks because we had to stretch the hell out of the chain just to make any kind of angle to pour the fuel. Man we razzed the crap outta him for that one and it makes for a great memory. A great idea gone bad!

 

[woodsy]

del

 

[SNDMN2]

I never met Mark but it sounds like he was a good friend to many and we all know that good friends are hard to come by.
Best wishes to his family and friends.

 

[fatherandson]

One of the many memories....

Thanks to Mark, I got to go trail riding with Sheryl Crow. After the ride, we went to her concert in Muskegon.

 

[Smit-Dog]

The first time I met Mark it was back in June of '02. It was one of the early TrailFest weekends, back when there were a total of 10 or so riders. It was also my initiation ride on a new KDX after not riding for 20 years. Shiny bike, shiny gear, no barkbusters - complete noob. I didn't know anyone, but MotoWeissen was there as one of my guides, along with F&S, Fred T, V-Man, Jeff Allen, Loctite, Badgerman, and Napper.

On the first day we took a break at a road overpass and river nearby. I remember telling Mark how I thought the trail was pretty sandy and tight. I had fallen in a sandy turn just before the break, and Mark was riding right behind me. He helped get the bike back up and me back on it. Mark took a look at my stock KDX and gave me the clue that Michelin S-12s were the hot ticket for Michigan trails.

The next day we again hit the trails around LMC. About 10 miles into the ride my front tire washed out over small berm, and down I went, snapping the collarbone. Badgerman (riding sweep) rode ahead to let the others know what happened. Mark came back, and basically took over helping me get comfortable. He took off his kidney belt and used it as a compression sling to wrap me up, then helped me walk out of the woods to a two-track. Here's a guy I've just met, barely spoken to, and he was taking care of me like I was his own kid. On top of that, Mark's wife Marie was there waiting on the blacktop to drive me back to camp - and as a RN, she had a nice baggie of painkillers with her! The MotoWeissen's, complete strangers the day before, were a blessing for me in the woods that day. Needless to say I've pretty much run S-12's ever since!

Mark continued to help me with bike advice, and yes, he also gave me the opportunity to ride most of his bikes too (although I missed out on the granddaddy 950!). Considering the engineering patents he's been awarded, he had natural interest and talent in anything mechanical.

Mark truly loved the feeling of riding, took great pride in building, maintaining, and sharing his bikes, and the great camaraderie, friends, and memories that go along with the experience.

My dad was diagnosed with pancreatic and liver cancer last November, and Mark was the first one I went to for help, answers, understanding, and hope. I held him up as an inspiration for my dad of what's possible in life. Through Mark, we were able to quickly cut through the medical-babble provided by the doctors, and Mark helped us understand and cope with the wretched disease much better.

If there is any solace in this tragedy, it's that Mark got to spend some important time with his family and friends before the cancer took his life.

Here are a few pictures...

TrailFest June '02
Watching kids on 50's... Mark, Andy, F&S, V-Man

TrailFest October '03
Mark and Andy

TrailFest October '03
Mark organized some fun for the kids

TrailFest October '03
Kids scrambling for candy and moto goodies

 

[Smit-Dog]

Rites Of Spring May '04
A motley MTR crew: Fender, V-Man, Young Ted, MotoWeissen, Fred T, RickShaw

TrailFest October '05
V-Man with Mark watching big boys race their little toys

TrailFest October '05
Now who's the kid in this picture? Emily, MotoMarie, and MotoWeissen... (Emily's thinking... My Gawd Dad, I am soooo embarrassed!)

 

[SweepRider]

Mark Weissenborn was a true gentleman.

He was the guy who always showed up at the trailhead with a smile on his face, full of enthusiasm because we were going riding, and that in itself made it a great day. Upon arriving fashionably late, he felt it more important to give everyone a handshake or a hug and greet each man, woman, and child by name, rather than to take his bike down off the truck.

Riding wasn't as important to Mark as the people he was riding with. I can't count the number of times he rode with Ian when I couldn't keep up any longer, or the times he held back to make sure Hannah and I made it out of the woods.

Dear friend Mark:

May the road rise to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face;
The rain fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of his hand.

My heart goes out to his loving wife Marie and their children, Andy, Ben, and Emily.

Tanya

 

[Jeff Allen]

My fondest moment with Mark was when Mark and I were "crew chiefs" for his oldest son Andy, racing one afternoon at Gratten MX Raceway. I was telling Andy to take the far left gate on the starting blocks because all the other riders were taking weird lanes to the first corner for some unknown reason. Mark didn't think it would work, but when the gate dropped and Andy was the first one to turn 1. The look on Mark's face was priceless!!! His son had pulled a holeshot on riders with way more experience than him!

He was always proud of his kids, and that's how I'll remember him.

 

[SPARKEY]

I remember the time at the Rites of Spring ride Mark took the "Lunch Truck " out with gas cans in it. He locked the cans on a chain carefully to the back bed of his truck so no one would steal them. Then he left us the keys so we cluld un- lock the cans and get fuel. Well he gave us the wrong key and we all had to take turns leaning our bikes under the tail gate of the pick up truck while another person carefully poured gas from out or our cans into our tanks because we had to stretch the hell out of the chain just to make any kind of angle to pour the fuel. Man we razzed the crap outta him for that one and it makes for a great memory. A great idea gone bad!

Here are the pics of the famous gas stop at 32nd street.
Rights of Spring 2004

Mark felt foolish that day :)

 

[YZMAN400]

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v621/CRF250X/?action=view&current=RidewithMark.flv

Lets see if this works. I found a small little video clip I had of Mark on a ride out to Cedar. The Resolution is pretty low as I had to downsize it to get it to upload on my crummy dialup.

 

[MXGirl230]

We never got the chance to meet Mark at all. I have talked to him for a few years through e-mail and PMs. It just never worked out to go ride or anything. Recently he offered for us to head to his house to check out his All American Sport...but we knew if we went to look at it we would want it. We had to decline the offer. I wish now we would have gone anyway.
He first PMed me when he noticed that I was riding a Honda and he had a few parts sitting around his place. He wanted to let me know if I ever needed any of them, that he would make me a great deal. Ever since then we had kept in contact.

 

[fred2]

Hello all,

I bought Mark's KTM 250exc in '04. I never had the pleasure of meeting him face to face but he did seem like a genuine person. After talking to him many times through email and a handful of times on the phone I wanted to take a trip to Michigan to ride with him and his riding buddies. I have young kids right now so that just wasn't possible.

Reading all of the wonderful stories on this board it sounds like I missed out on meeting a pretty good guy. I just sent Mark an email today asking how he was doing and Marie wrote me back with the bad news. It's still kind of shocking. I'll looking forward to the day that I will finally meet him at the end of my days.