If I talk to one of my buddies on the phone and he says he’s recovering from the weekend, I know it’s because he got hammered. But when Carey Hart says it, it could be due to a life threatening injury.

“It was my 40th birthday. So it was kinda life threatening,” said Hart about recently hitting the big 4-0 and the ensuing party. “We had a big one. There was probably about 20 of us and we did a 150-mile motorcycle ride that ended at this cool little motel bar where my wife threw me a big party.”

Hart is rebuilding a H-D 2015 Road Glide Custom using 90 percent Harley-Davidson P&A. The build is in preparation for a ride from Nashville, TN to the 75th Annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally (Aug. 3-9), where he’ll showcase his creation as the 2015 Grand Marshall of the Sturgis Mayor’s Ride.

How did you get hooked up with Harley Davidson?

I got my first Harley when I was in my early 20s, and its always been a passion project of mine. Not only do I like riding them, but I like working on them. And just the whole culture of it. I’ve been to most of the rallys – Laughlin, Daytona, Sturgis – it’s just something I’m really into. I’m kind of in the twilight of my riding career, and I’ve come to the point in my life where I want to do more on the two-wheel bagger side. Harley sent me this bike and I did my version of a build on it. And I’m pretty happy with how it came out.

At what point in your career did you accept getting hurt as part of your job and not having any fear of it?

As an amateur. By the time you make it to the pro level in motocross or where you’re at the level where you are doing contests, you’ve already had a good share of injuries. Very, very few riders make it to the pro level without a few major injuries along the way. It’s part of the job – it’s not about if, it’s when.

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Photo credit: Chip Kalback

Ryan Dungey is sheer class. Every sport witnesses a wide range of talents that pour their lives into the fragile hope of one day reaching the top, yet rarely do young phenoms storm the scene and rack up the kind of success that Dungey has already seen.

After a string of noteworthy performances in the amateur ranks, including a victory in Loretta Lynn’s Amateur Championships, a promising young Dungey was pleasantly surprised by an offer from Team Suzuki to join their factory team, and in 2006, made his professional debut at just 16.

Feeding off the tutelage from motocross elite Ricky Carmichael and Roger DeCoster, accolades continued to roll in, including 2007 AMA Rookie of the Year. Despite these successes, it wasn’t until 2009 that Ryan really layed down the hurt on his competition, sweeping the 250 Motocross and Supercross Lites championships and gaining a victorious momentum that steamrolled into 2010, where he accomplished what only one other rider has: win the 450 Supercross and Motocross championships in a rookie season.

2011 saw Dungey’s talent continue to thrive, and despite landing on the podium countless times and bringing home the win for team USA in the Motocross of Nations, he fell just short of overall victory in both the Supercross and outdoor seasons.

A new team and machine were no doubt risky moves for Dungey coming into 2012, yet it didn’t take long for him to put the hammer down and bring Red Bull KTM its first ever Supercross victory. A broken collarbone sidelined the champion for a large chunk of the remaining Supercross races, yet he still managed to win the final two events. During the outdoor season, Dungey rode away from his competitors and into the books as being the first rider to win a 450 Motocross Championship for KTM.

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