Alan's history sounds like something you would have heard in one of those old "Successes of America" vids -- that is if they still made them. As a teenager he worked to support his family (two siblings and his mother who also worked) and managed to put himself through both a technical school and a magic school at the same time.
Between his and his mother's income they were able to move up in the world and a mechanic that could double as a sorcerer wasn't a common thing -- job offers were coming in enough that he should have been corporate locked easily enough. Unfortunately all the work and study cost him some of his health -- but as he figured it was something he could buy back later when he moved further up in the world.
However Alan had a passion for the cycles -- and his was good -- enclosed, fast, and with just a bit of extra armor to ensure his safety... and there were people that wanted that cycle. People he made the mistake of refusing to give it too.
The explosion and fire were chalked up to an illegal drug manufacturer the level down -- Alan had his suspicions but there wasn't much that could be done about them -- his mother was at work at the time and Alba (his youngest sister) at school. Tara (the middle child) however was at home at the time sick. His mother, grief stricken, fell into a funk and Alan couldn't keep up the work pace and taken care of everyone at the same time.
When they asked for the bike again he agreed to race them for it. Combat cycle racing was something new to him, and they thought winning would be easy -- it certainly should have been. Not a single one of them expected the wall that appeared in front of them, none of them hit the breaks either running into the barrier at 200 Km/H.
Since then he's signed up with a team -- having the extra members around meant more people to help and more protection for his family. The money wasn't bad either, between it and regular work he was able to keep things afloat. In time Alba was finally old enough that she has her own job while attending school, and unfortunately their mother passed away.
The one area of his life that he has felt the lack in has been his romantic life. With the amount of time he's spent doing other things he hadn't had to the time to pursue any interests. His 'netiquette' isn't that great due to his general distrust of the matrix ever since the Crash.
