After a prolonged rain delay, the 2006 Harlem Motocross season has begun. Get ready for the non-stop summer action of teens on ATV's and dirts bikes, as well as one old guy on a motorcycle, once again going up and down Adam Clayton Powell and Lenox Avenues ad nauseam.

(I have a bunch more photos on flickr.)

Just as in previous years, the 2006 Motocross substitutes for a fixed track a fluid central Harlem course largely determined by where police cars are not currently pursuing participants and the availability of chicks on the street to watch them ride wheelies.

In all seriousness, this totally baffles me. Where do Manhattan teenagers get an ATV, let alone store one? If Greg were to say "hey man, we really need ATVs by the end of the week; let's pick some up," I'd have no idea where to begin looking. And if I did get an ATV, where would I put it?

It's not like these kids are hiding a pack of cigarettes and some dirty magazines under the bed. These are multi-cylinder gas powered vehicles. Cheryl has a car, and I have a bike. Both are legitimate, and both are a pain in the ass to store in the city. Getting garage space for an ATV seems totally out of the question, as going through a credit check, putting down a deposit, and providing a billable address do not seem like things a fifteen year-old storing an illegal machine would want to do.

Cheryl has the best theory so far on what people do with their personal motor vehicles. She speculates that they buy them, begin ridding them, and, all lucid on Provigil, don't ever stop riding them until they are finally caught by the cops. This would explain why we hear the mosquito-like buzzing of their engines at all hours in the beginning of the summer, with their use tapering off until summer's end.