Remembering A Friend With “Numb Nutz Ride”

By Bob Rosen

New Year’s Day is often a time for new beginnings and renewed commitments to an improved life. The passing of the previous year also creates the urge to review and reflect. In the case of a hardy group of riders in Fairfield County, CT, they use Jan. 1 to renew their love of riding and reflect on a friend who will never ride with them again.

Dan Levy was an interesting guy. The urge to travel and to see new places was prominent in his DNA. A Yale-educated, senior-level financial executive, he traveled the world helping companies manage their far-flung operations. But his real passion was travel on two wheels.

Even while he and his wife, Jaci, raised their son and daughter, he managed to get in some quality riding time. Dan particularly enjoyed exploring his nearby “neighborhood” of CT, MA and NY. There was also the occasional big trip to places like Newfoundland and other challenging destinations. He realized a life-long dream when he spent the summer of 2005 on a 16,000-mile solo trip to the northern reaches of Alaska on his BMW R1100GS.

For years, he put his memory for detail to work learning all the good riding roads in the Tri-State area.  He became the defacto ride leader for many of our rides in the region. We regularly referred to Dan as the “Human GPS.” You could always count on a fun and challenging ride when you followed Dan. He even convinced a few of us asphalt lovers to follow his Kawasaki KLR 650 onto some of the milder dirt roads in the area. 

The news of Dan’s brain cancer diagnosis came in the fall of 2008. He spent the next year engaged in a fight that he had less than a five percent probability of winning. And he did not win that fight. Our friend would no longer be there to enjoy the life he had so artfully crafted. We would never again have the pleasure of following the Human GPS on our little weekend adventures.

A number of years ago, Dan established the annual New Year’s Day “Numb Nutz Ride.”  As long as the road surface was visible, the ride was on. The goal was to ride until either the cold or snow forced our retreat. Some years we made it from southern Fairfield County deep into Massachusetts. Other years, the ride was a lot shorter!

One of those riders, Fairfield resident Geoff Kooris, has kept the tradition alive.  Weather-permitting, every New Year’s Day, Geoff leads a group of riders on the Dan Levy Memorial Numb Nutz Ride. This year’s ride was of medium duration and included a lunch stop at Wood’s Pit BBQ and Mexican Restaurant in Bantam, CT.

Geoff and company captured a short video of the guys cruising south on Route 209 with Bantam Lake on the left side of the screen.  The ride then continues west on Route 109 towards Washington, CT.

Dan Levy will never be forgotten. On New Year’s Day, he once again rides with the old gang.