MO Catches Up With Eric Bostrom
E-Boz gets us up to speed with his latest venture, the Backmate
I like to think I got into motorcycle racing at the tail end of an epic time for American motorcycle racers. It was approximately around the year 2000. A young whippersnapper named Valentino Rossi was all the buzz, but in the 500cc paddock, Kenny Roberts Junior took the crown. Over in World Superbike, the epic battles between Troy Bayliss, Nori Haga, and Colin Edwards were just hotting up, with the Texas Tornado sealing the deal and making it two American world champs in the same year.
Back home I had many racing heroes too, and as someone who generally roots for the underdog, Eric Bostrom quickly landed himself as one of my favorite riders. Aboard the old and heavy Kawasaki ZX-7RR, E-Boz wrung its neck against the likes of Mat Mladin and Nicky Hayden, sometimes coming away victorious. To this day, he’s the reason I sometimes browse the classifieds when my wife’s not looking, hoping to score a ZX-7 for a good deal.
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As luck would have it, my career choice enabled me to meet, and work with, the youngest Bostrom brother on a couple of occasions. A fierce competitor on the track, Eric is the nicest guy you can meet off it. Recently, I had the opportunity to catch up with E-Boz once again, this time to talk about his pet project since he left racing – the Backmate. As you’ll hear about in the video above, a nasty crash left Eric searching for answers on how to heal the body naturally, without the reliance on medications. His answer is the Backmate, a rather simple device that attaches to most doorways and lets you loosen nearly all of your muscles, similar to a deep-tissue massage. It has since become his mission to be an evangelist of sorts to help people feel better, without depending on popping pills.
Learning about the Backmate and Bostrom’s knowledge of the human healing process dominates the majority of our conversation, but before we get into the heavy stuff, we also talk about motorcycles and racing – including a funny story about how Troy Bayliss was so fast, but would never take the same line twice.
Troy's been riding motorcycles and writing about them since 2006, getting his start at Rider Magazine. From there, he moved to Sport Rider Magazine before finally landing at Motorcycle.com in 2011. A lifelong gearhead who didn't fully immerse himself in motorcycles until his teenage years, Troy's interests have always been in technology, performance, and going fast. Naturally, racing was the perfect avenue to combine all three. Troy has been racing nearly as long as he's been riding and has competed at the AMA national level. He's also won multiple club races throughout the country, culminating in a Utah Sport Bike Association championship in 2011. He has been invited as a guest instructor for the Yamaha Champions Riding School, and when he's not out riding, he's either wrenching on bikes or watching MotoGP.
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ZX-7R. For some reason, I really really like this bike. Even crazier, I like the 2003 last edition orange colored version.
Thank you for doing this piece. First off, it was great to see Eric! I am intrigued by this device for sure. I had major spine injury / surgery / permanent rehab and live with chronic pain as well. I won't take the pills, so I may take a closer look at this.