When it came to riding his off-road motorcycle on trails, Scott Weber was so intense that his friends took to using his name as an adjective.
Going on a “Weber trail” or a “Weber ride” meant that anybody who came along was in for a grueling challenge.
On Thursday, Weber’s beat-up yellow-and-blue Husqvarna dirt bike sat in Tasky’s Metric Cycle as a shrine to a man being mourned in the off-road motorcycling community. The disintegrating rubber on the rear tire and the zip ties holding parts in place were Weber trademarks, said Jeff Tasky, the shop’s owner and a friend of more than 20 years. “There’s literally thousands of people who know this guy,” Tasky said. “He’s basically a local legend.”
Weber had been visiting Tasky at his shop in downtown Everett Wednesday before he left on his street bike and headed home. As usual, his dog, Rubie, was with him, her paws on the front handlebars.
The Washington State Patrol said Weber was traveling north on I-5 near Smokey Point about 1:30 p.m. when his 1983 Yamaha crashed into the back of a 2007 Dodge pickup. Weber had been in the left lane and the truck pulled into his lane from the shoulder.
Weber was airlifted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, where doctors pronounced him dead at 7:15 p.m., troopers said. The 45-year-old Snoqualmie man driving the pickup was uninjured.
The Washington State Patrol’s Major Accident Investigation Team continued Thursday to search for witnesses to the crash.
Rubie the dog was apparently with her owner during the crash and was found safe in another area afterward and returned to Weber’s sister, Tasky said.
Weber, 51, lived in Silvana and owned his own welding company, Weber Mobile Welding. He rode with the Skagit Motorcycle Club and was a competitive rider until a few years ago.
He was a regular at Walker Valley off-road vehicle park in Skagit County. A race coincidentally called the Webfoot Enduro that Weber planned to enter there on Sunday has turned into a tribute to him.
“We told everybody ‘bring us pictures and stories,’” Tasky said.
As Weber’s friend remembered their times together, he sighed and said, “Riding will never be the same.”
Noah Haglund: 425-339-3465, nhaglund@heraldnet.com.
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