Robin: In this episode, EICMA standouts, Velcro vexation, and Daytona Racing circa 1970. That's kind of a wide range. I like it. Variety is good. A couple announcements. First one is, on the podcast, we now have transcripts and closed captioning. If you're using one of the better players, like Brian and I both enjoy using Antenapod when we do our playback, it allows you to follow a transcript. So if you have any friends who are hearing impaired or have difficulty hearing, you can follow the transcript and they will be in sync with whatever you're hearing and you can all enjoy it together. Next announcement. I recently got off the horn with Dylan Code, who has appeared on the show. Dylan Code, who is now one of the main operators for Cali Superbike School in California. That's California Superbike School. Their schedule is now on the tro.bike website events calendar. If you go to tro.bike and mouse over events, you will see them in the upcoming season for 2026. So be sure and check that out. Lastly, Brian, excellent article, Urban Motorcycle Riding, parentheses, Advanced Tactics for Two-Wheeled Combat. Basically riding your naked street fighter or whatever bike you got through inner city traffic and such, which is really well timed. Consider we just had that sit down with Angel and discussed these very things. Nice riding, man. Thank you for that. Thank you. Now let's go into some corrections. I'm just going to say that Borden Jeepman, you may have heard of them. The corrections are one, a divorced transmission is also called a non-unit. What, did we call it something else? During the terminology dermatology episode, where we were trying to figure out those terms that don't always line up. A feather bed frame, that was by Norton, not Triumph. So the first swing arm based suspension was Norton. Not a correction, but an add-on. You remember we were talking about cafe racers. Yeah, yeah. Well, he brings in the fact that cafe racer refers to the Ace Cafe in London. That's right. Where riders would strip down their bikes to be as light as possible. Light enough to make it from Ace Cafe back to Ace Cafe along one of their major roads before the song on the jukebox, House of the Rising Sun started and ended. Interesting. Nice. Yeah. Thank you, Borden Jeepman.

Brian: I think the Ace Cafe is still there too. Like you can go to England and you can ride a motorcycle there if you can find one. That should be under protection, a national treasure, if you will. It might. I think it is. I'm not sure. I've read articles about it. All the history is still there. So anyway.

Robin: A new bit that I'm adding to the opening announcement stuff, and I'm going to need your help with this one for sure. The opening announcements. Now we also have news. Opening announcements, corrections, news, and banter. The U.S. Department of the Interior announced on Tuesday, November 25th that the America the Beautiful Pass will once again cover two motorcycles per pass at national parks across the United States starting in 2026. This announcement follows the provisions of H.R. 4386, the America the Beautiful Motorcycle Fairness Act, which passed the House Natural Resources Committee by voice.

Brian: Yeah, the America the Beautiful Pass, you pay one price at the beginning of the year and you can visit any national park is included in the pass. If you're riding with your spouse or a buddy or whatever, you can both get in under one pass and that's any national park. A lot of states have something similar too. So Indiana, Ohio, and several other and probably all other states have a, you can buy an annual pass and get into all the parks all year. And if you like to camp a lot, it's a neat thing. Or if you're touring U.S. and you like to visit the national parks, it's a good, it can be a really good deal, especially if you're having like a, you know, your big adventure and you're traveling the U.S. for the year. Sounds great. But yeah, now two motorcycles can get in instead of just one. So perfect.

Robin: Mucho better-o. Much gooder. Now on to some banter. How are you sir? Hey, happy Thanksgiving early because tomorrow's Thanksgiving while we record this. How are you doing?

Brian: I am doing excellent. I am on the porch of a house on the beach. I am looking at the Gulf of Mexico at the waves. It is, it's after dark, but it's still about 72 degrees out here. It is beautiful out. There's a pool in front of me. There's a beach in front of me. There's ocean in front of me. And here with a bunch of family, we're celebrating Thanksgiving and it's awesome. Nice. And we have good wifi. Best of all.

Robin: Yeah. I gotta ask. So what have you been doing to keep yourself entertained while you're down there? I mean, of course you're around loved ones and hanging out and getting to talk to them, but what else?

Brian: Basically walking on the beach, you know, going out, walking around and getting some exercise. All the houses are up on stilts. So we are 25 feet up in the air on these stilts on the end. So you got to walk down, walk the stairs, go walk around. A lot of that, just enjoying the sunsets and really doing a lot of nothing. So I've been doing a little bit of replying to emails, but not too much. Holding yes. Just holding yes down. Let the Google AI answer for me. I'm not quite there yet.

Robin: I do remember around the Gulf. It almost imposes relaxation, you know, ignore, ignore the Florida man headlines that are definitely out there for a reason. If you're anywhere near St. Pete or Sarasota, just the general atmosphere is very chill.

Brian: Yeah. We're in Delphin Island, which is actually Alabama. Oh, okay. So we're a ferry ride across the Bay and about 40 minutes from Pensacola. So we are close to Florida. So we're, yeah, it's, it's tropical. There's palm trees. It's really odd how out on the Island, it stays a lot warmer because of just your air temperature is determined by all this water on either side of you on a barrier Island. So on the mainland, it's 60 degrees or whatever right now here. It's, it's, it's a lot warmer because, you know, the water on the downside, I can see three or four oil rigs out on the distance. Um, our gasoline does not come without a consequence. Let's put it that way.

Robin: Shit, man, a toothbrush. You look at the plastics, all of it. It's not just about gasoline. Your turn to talk. Okay. I had so much fun producing that last episode, listening to Maggie and Joanne and Angel Marie hang out and talk. It was just a pleasure to produce. My favorite part was when Joanne who God love her. She was like, you can meet all kinds of nice people like Maggie and Brian and this podcast moving right along. Didn't say my name at all. Then the question became, you remember, I brought up the whole fact that as much as I was talking that last one, I was like, you gotta watch out for all those guys that are gonna like mansplain. Angel brought that up. And what does Joanne say? How do you handle that Maggie? I was like, oh, thank you so much. Thank you very much. But I did hear a couple of things while producing that episode that I wanted to bring up. Especially in reference to how horsepower is really produced. No, I invite you to debate me in this if I'm wrong, but I'm going to say it my way. No, cylinders do not stipulate more horsepower. They stipulate more cylinders and division of whatever power is going to be available. It gets into complicated terms that are kind of fun to talk about if you're thinking in a linear fashion. Undersquare versus oversquare versus total mathematically added up CCs versus throughput. These things will arrive at horsepower. There are other things a little bit more complicated that I don't know about as well as Brian does that will do the very same. So you get into rev range, power band, power to weight ratio, the distribution of that power. For example, the 675 Street Triple R by Triumph has a better power to weight ratio than the Speed Triple, even though it's bigger. Is it faster in the long run? Not so much. It's just if you let the Speed Triple drink, it's going to get you. However, the Street Triple would do 70 miles an hour in first gear. Yeah. Cylinders do not stipulate power. Cylinders stipulate how that power is being managed and distributed.

Brian: I think it's good enough for a very, very long time in one's writing career to just have a very vague understanding of these things, because it really doesn't make a lot of difference to whether you like about, you know, if you like the way it feels, you like the way it sounds, write it. Yeah. It's one of the things you'd like talking about once you begin to understand it more, but it's also not something to worry about. It's like, I need enough power to keep up on the interstate, not get in the way, you know, if that's what I need to do and just understand it, different engines had different characteristics and there are different ways of enjoying different bikes, but yes, it's not something we're stressing about.

Robin: Truth. However, it is something that while not worth stressing about is a lot of fun to understand because it gives you a better mental reference to what's happening when you activate the throttle or the clutch on your bike, any of that. I think it is something we should sit down and have fun with possibly next episode. If not, I will bring it up for that episode after, since you'll be flying the ship next time, right?

Brian: Yeah, I think it'd be fun to, yeah, to go over those principles. These are, this is kind of how engines work and this is what's going on in the engineer bike, you know, so maybe we'll dig up some animations and things like that. Do you need all that to ride the bike? No. All you need to know is this, you twist this and it goes grr, you know, uh, you don't need to know all that, but it, it, I think. Even more than, than driving cars, you kind of do, it does help to have some understanding and it also just adds to the enjoyment to understand more about what this machine that you're enjoying.

Robin: In some cases, when your displacement is the lesser and you catch up to the more, it just tells you how much better you've gotten with less neediness in terms of power.

Brian: It's the rider, not the bike. 99.999% of the time. Yeah.

Robin: Regarding that last episode, the Ninja 400 manual, every motorcycle manual on a bike you buy, used or new, especially built in consignment, the manual should probably be under your rider seat, probably strapped there, but maybe, maybe not. Maybe, yeah. Also, eventually we got to talk about slow speed maneuver techniques, like taking a 90 degree turn using your rear brake, but I think clutch is going to be the hang up first. Cool. Anything you want to add before we actually do a show? I am good.

Brian: I've got a gin and tonic here that's almost gone, but... I've got a glass of wine. I'm ready for some listener questions. You got questions, we got answers. So if you'd like us to field your questions, visit email.tro.bike in your web browser and send us a message. JA asks, the answer to this question seems obvious, but I would like second opinions. Winterizing fuel in the tank. Let's say I fill up my tank to capacity, four US gallons of fresh gas Olean. I put in my favorite brand of stabilizer at one ounce per two gallons. So two ounces of stabilizer. Okay. Got it. Picture clear. All right. I run the engine for a few minutes, go inside and have a beer. Excellent. A week later, temperatures warm up. So I go for another ride. I fill the tank to capacity by adding two gallons of gas. So to keep the correct fuel to stabilizer ratio, I would add one ounce of stabilizer for the two new gallons of fuel. Right? Short answer. Yup. Yes. Next. Yeah. It's a story problem. When JA uses up his two gallons of gas, he also uses up one ounce of the stabilizer. So there's one ounce of stabilizer left in the tank along with the two gallons of gas. And again, we're kind of fudging. We're not going to worry about one ounce among the 128 ounces there in a gallon, whatever.

Robin: I once poured in a half bottle, man, a half bottle and it did no damage. White smoke. That was it.

Brian: Yeah. It's a fault tolerant process. It's fine. You'll be fine. So yeah, he's correct. If you use up two gallons of gas, put two gallons in, add another ounce and you'll be back to the original concentration and you can sleep well. And like Robin said, it really doesn't matter. Just get somewhere in the ballpark.

Robin: Yeah. I mean, you don't need to add a half bottle. That was a mistake on my part. I was still new at the time, but I did that. And there was no negative aftermath. It just burned off in the first tank.

Brian: It smells funny for a while. Like licorice and bowling shoes. So speaking of bowling shoes. Why are you making fun of me, man?

Robin: This is my natural voice. You're critiquing me so much.

Brian: LC asks, can you recommend a tire valve extension hose? I just bought one on Amazon and it leaks all over. The valve clearance is tight and I have not yet upgraded to a portable compressor. Yeah, I got nothing. What you got, Robin?

Robin: I myself keep a shitty one on hand that I got on Amazon for roadside emergencies only. I would bet money that Slime makes a decenter one. Slime is a known company for all of the roadside tire inflation, whatever repair kits, all the motor and their motorcycle heavy. Like they have a whole section that's dedicated strictly to motorcycling. So their portable air compressor, all that stuff is really good. I will say that the one I got, if it was the one I found on Amazon, go by the reviews. Anywhere you choose to buy, just follow the reviews because I had hoses that I fastened to the L-shaped valve stem on our Ford F-350 King Ranch Lariat Super. So I fastened them to that because it's a Dually and I left them there. Like just fastened them on, capped them and drove with them on there. And they were kind of banging up the rim, whatever. I didn't really care. Point is they never leaked. It's all about like, does it get 4.5 stars and does it have more than one review? One person thought it was the best.

Brian: Yeah. That was kind of my advice is just try again on Amazon, roll them dice again. You know, it's four bucks or whatever.

Robin: Yeah.

Brian: It's nothing. The other thing I can say is that I've used, I actually have one around. It's actually for those electric scooter tires. It's a long story, but somehow I got tangled up in electric scooters working on them for people. And it was, it was dumb as hell. Anyway, they have tiny little tires and they're, it's a, it's basically a brass extension. So it's a metal valve extension. And sometimes in some situations it's easier to get that in there. And then, and then you can get a real chuck on it. Just kind of ponder what you have and rummage around Amazon and try again. You're talking about the L-shaped ones that fasten on? Yeah. There's straight ones and L-shaped. There's different shapes and they're just made out of brass. And you screw them on there and just stare at your situation and, and, and try again. You know, these aren't something that are made in laboratories in Germany by little gnomes and trees or whatever.

Robin: But the ads make it look like it is. They always show somebody holding a soldering arm and pretending like they're doing sciencing. They're sciencing.

Brian: Yeah. Or he's a chemist with a, you know. Foggy beaker up against his nose. Yeah. The reality it's, it's some kid on a, it's some kid on a lathe and in Pakistan or something. And you know, whatever, just try again.

Robin: I have no corporate insurance. Buy my product. It's already on the slow boat. I'm wearing safety sandals. Again, if you'd like us to field your questions, visit email.tro.bike in your web browser, which will take you to our contact page and send us a message. We'd love to hear from you. Segment one, the hard stuff. Enter man cow, Robin. EICMA standouts. We're talking about the E-I-C-M-A standout motorcycles that captured our attention. I'm trying to get better at being an opposable thumbed human. We're not looking to diss that, which we ain't into rather it's all about that, which we cannot ignore before we do. Let's see if we can't reduce the explanation of combustion in engine terms to the smallest common denominator. Let's just make sure everything we say about motors is one shelf above gas, explode, bike, go. And here's what we're talking about. So you got four stroke engines. You got two stroke engines. Now just imagine a bicycle. If we've ridden a motorcycle, we've ridden a bicycle. Now replace the legs with a dense machine, a machine that collects a ball of fuel and then wads it up as tight as possible. Then sets it on fire and uses the resulting explosion to drive a crank, which eventually spins the chain and subsequently the rear wheel. It takes four separate strokes of a piston inside of a cylinder. Cylinder is just geometry. Piston is the thing that fits perfectly within it. Suck, squeeze, bang, blow.

Brian: Suck, squeeze, bang, blow. Piston goes down. It sucks in the fuel air mixture and then it comes back up. It squeezes it and then it goes bang, explodes and it pushes it down. Then in the exhaust stroke, it comes back up and it opens a valve and it exits the engine. So suck, squeeze, bang, blow.

Robin: And when we talk about valves, different valves have to be open for different strokes. So you need to get fuel in one valve open. You need to get exhaust out a different valve open. With that, there's going to be a lot of motor talk in this next bit about what draws us in individually to a given bike. Now we got this from motorcycle.com. Thank you to them. The list that we looked at, that's the one I strictly stuck to and I got my sources. I know what I wanted to do. Excellent. Brian, what do you want to say on these matters?

Brian: So whenever there's a motorcycle show and a lot of announcements, there's a couple of categories. There's things that are actually happening and things that may happen in the future and things that ain't ever going to happen. And I'm really much more interested in the things that are happening. Reality. Yeah, the reality bikes. There's some fun concept bikes and some fun stuff that we'll touch on a little bit, but I'm really very interested in the stuff like, yeah, this is going to production. We are making these. This is not an AI shot of a, you know, some rider on a mountain. This is somebody and actually writing this, this thing we're actually making. There are a lot of bikes that like, I will rarely throw the keys back. If someone wants to, wants me to ride a bike, I will go ride it. I don't care what it is. If I can fit on it. If, if you're, if you're throwing keys, I'm catching, uh, in almost every instance, like a sport bike that I could not actually bend my knee onto, it would be about the only exception. Yeah. There's a pretty rotten cruisers that I've been like, okay, this is, yeah, this is not for me. This is somebody's overall, like a lot of these things, I wouldn't really want to own them, but I can see why people would. And I also really enjoy that. There's so much variety in the motorcycle world. It's just fun to see what's out there, even though my interests are that my interests are both broad and narrow, but even if something's not my cup of tea, I'm glad it's there.

Robin: I was hoping to surprise you this round. Like you've pasted all of your information into the outline as though you own this, this segment. And it appears to me from what I'm reading that you and I've done this in very different ways. I've got my bikes and I'm looking forward to, uh, bending your ear a bit and surprising you in a positive way.

Brian: Let's start with something that I thought was really interesting is that I think the 450 is the new 650 because I've seen there are a lot of bikes. And again, this is back to displacement. Displacement roughly tells you what kind of power range you might, you might expect from an engine. They tend to be around 40 to 40 to 50 horsepower, uh, and a twin cylinder 450. And again, there are some that are more, some that are a little less, but they seem to be popping up in every category. I, for one, I'm really tired of the word adventure riding. I think it's cringy, but that's me. Uh, Chinese bikes are big news in the U S is getting pretty famous and making friends or making some pretty good bikes. Grownups can actually ride places and give a home on. And yeah, like I said, I'm not really, I don't really, I haven't really talked about concept bikes and so forth. So, you know, I want to see what's real and in production. So, okay. First bike I want to talk about, and we'll see if you just wanted to talk about it, or if you have something else that's similar. CF Moto. The ACMA was the debut of the 1000 MT dash X. Uh, so it's basically a large dual sport adventure, not equipped bike. The CF Moto Ibex is a 450. It's a, you know, it's a much smaller engine. Uh, it's, it's been a big hit. People have had a great time on theirs. It just made sense. So it has something that's really vague to do with KTM. Like somehow there's some KTM engineering going on.

Robin: It's the engine work.

Brian: Yeah. And so it makes a lot of sense for them, whether they'll make it to the States, what the costs and tariff and yada yada BS is going to be. I don't know. But, you know, it looks like a little jet bike and, and it also addresses one of my pet peeves is that dual sport bikes that have tube tires are just why they know how to, they have the technology to drill the hole in a damn different place and put tubeless tires on your dual sport bike. Why don't they do it? I was trying not to bring this up. The CF Moto 1000 MTX does do that. Good for them getting back to the title of this damn podcast. I look forward to seeing the sport touring variant of that engine.

Robin: Absolutely. What do you got, Robin? Well, first off, I'll dial it down to the CF Moto Ibex 450, which we've already talked about with Joanne Don. I agree with her completely that it can do probably everything I needed to do, even on there. Look at this. We have the party boat version that is however many CCs, I think a thousand, you said for the MTX? More like 890. Yeah. And it's like, I know, I know that the next bike I buy for sport touring purposes will be a leader bike, a sport bike and luggage equipped. You know me. I have a street opinion about the sport touring feel. It should really tuck. And that's not for everybody. It's for me. That's what I look for in a bike. But I'll tell you something, man. When I was telling you, I wanted to surprise you with some selections. The CF Moto Ibex 450 was my first choice. Oh, yeah. Because my garage currently has a Suzuki GSX-8R, my sport tourer. Yes. And a current generation SV650 for the wife that is my naked street fighter. What we are missing and do have space for if we subtract a scooter is the CF Moto Ibex 450, right? Oh, nice. Yeah. The platform is being true to its word. The only fragile discussion points are around corporate morality and parts availability. Yeah. You can say all you want that you've produced a bike that is just as good as the things we're demanding. And then sort of in the shadows of your comments, say you intend to produce it only long enough to get it to our shores. And then the parts will be moot point. That's not good for any business. So that's the big worry with the brand is parts availability. If I remember right, there's a freedom to work on your machine, the legal stipulations for parts availability in the United States saying it has to be 10 years. And I've already run into comments where people who own a CF Moto machine are unable to get parts for the generation of machine they bought. Because why? Then how did it reach us? Honestly, we go big. And the parts may go long. We need that to happen. We need the aftermarket to cater to the lack thereof after the 10-year mark. This doesn't even make the three-year mark in some cases. I'll leave that at bay and say the bike itself, the CF Moto IBEX 450, I think it's an overweight dual sport bike. And I love that. It's what I want. Overweight dual sport bike that I could slap luggage on.

Brian: Oh, we got to get you in the dirt, buddy.

Robin: We got to get you in the dirt. I would love to. I have to have the machine that will allow it or borrow one that I can drop. The engine's legit. 449 cc's. They're one cc shy of the 450 mark. But they also keep it old school. You can see where that enters. I mean, you see the trellis frame. You know that it's tubular steel. The ergos are upright. It looks very comfortable to me. It looks like something I would enjoy thoroughly, especially in an environment where I want to be completely upright, which I'm not on the Gixator. And then that power to weight ratio. You know, it's 386 pounds dry, 425 to 440 pounds wet. Assuming you follow their stipulations about luggage placement. Yeah. 4.6 gallon tank on a twin cylinder. And it's a 270 degree crank, which I'm familiar with now. It's that's extremely efficient and runs more fluid. You got me. I'm in. It's a value-packed, confidence-building, capable off-road machine with off-road geometry without any premium price. That is the next golden opportunity. Your turn. What do you got?

Brian: Yeah. Interesting take. Yeah. And again, that's the big thing about CFMoto. They're going to have to follow through for the long term. I'm hoping the next one will surprise you too, by the way. They've got a lot of dealers. Yeah. Some of the dealers are better, are more stable than others. Let's put it that way. They've got a shot. They got every shot. People are really giving them a chance. So maybe they can put an alternative together. What's your next one? Honda has the CB1000 engine. So they've got two bikes. They've got a naked bike, a naked retro style bike. I mean, I love vintage bikes. I own vintage bikes, et cetera. But I'm not sure the vintage drag really works on a bike with fat, modern tires and a radiator they have to try to hide, that kind of stuff. So, but yeah, it's a really cool looking naked bike, what has or so what. Big deal. The thing that really, really caught my eye and hopefully, and maybe caught Robyn's was the CB1000 GT. So they took that engine, 1000cc engine, 148 horsepower, something like that. Sport touring bike with luggage, a fairing, et cetera. And so on. That sounds pretty cool. That sounds like a lot of power. It sounds like a big bike and there's no pretension. So off-road or whatever, it's kind of a tall rounder. It's a big, fast, sporty touring bike. And I kind of liked the idea a lot.

Robin: I'm warming up to it. I still feel like some of the mods would make it both. You know, if you handed this over to a custom bike builder, which companies often will, what would you do with this to give us a showpiece that is unbuyable? I'm sure what they would do is turn it into a bike that I would absolutely love. And maybe that's a little bit of the weakness in the industry right now is that, hey, this would be great if I got the version that was done by like analog motorcycles in Chicago. You know what I mean? Yeah. So for example, is it a tall rounder? Yes. Is it a GT? Well, by automotive standards, I would say yes, because it almost has enough luggage space. And that seems to be the GT motto. If you're going on a grand tour, you should only have almost enough storage. Here's your GT. So the luggage looks a little bit useless to me and the Ergos scream tall rounder. And I think that's really great. I have to say that for my own soul, because of the people who are so much taller than I am, that need that to be comfortable in a sporty riding position. Us old guys, old damaged guys. I also feel that it's more about my body is this, and they don't make the Gixator or the R1200 or any bike I've ever personally chosen at 5'8", 170 pounds. I choose the bikes that I'm like, that's freaking sleek. I want that because it fits me. And why shouldn't everybody be able to do that? Hence the term tall rounder, because it's the easiest, most accessible. So the sleekest tall rounder I've ever seen that arrived at what my overly opinionated definition of sport touring is, was the KTM Super Duke GT. I thought that is the sexiest tall bike. It was too tall for me. I was like, God, look at that thing. And then came the Triumph Tiger Sport 800. Oh yeah. It answered the call. I wanted to see a bike that could look low and be comfortable for tall people. Does it feel sleek? I know what Brian does on an FJ09. What he does on the bike is dirty, dirty. It's great. So this bike wants to sort of arrive in that profile, but is missing some links. Like give me bigger bags. Give me a huge top case. Give me a sub frame that I feel I can trust to ride two up from Chicago to Asheville and back, but I'm warmed up to it. Thanks to you talking to you about it. I feel a lot more comfortable with the prospect of that machine being what it needs to be. I like it. Support.

Brian: Yeah. You know, Honda doesn't spare the material, you know, it's, it's not a light bike. So it'd be interesting to see how it feels, how top heavy it is. The other thing is, and this is almost everybody, not just Honda. It is absolutely dripping with technology and you really have to wonder about the longevity of some of that. Yeah. Like Honda can make it all work. I think, you know, if anybody can.

Robin: For how long?

Brian: Yeah. 20 years from now, you're in your, in your fancy radio key stopped working. What are you going to do? So that, but that's a lot of bikes, not just Honda. Yeah. So next on my list, just briefly mentioned the KLE 500 from Kawasaki. It's not a KLR replacement. It's a, it uses their 500 CC twin cylinder engine. And again, this is in that same 450 CC twin cylinder sweet spot that we're seeing a lot of other stuff pop up. And again, another, it's a dual sport bike adventure. Everybody cringe a lot of potential, a lot of ways you could do it. And it'll probably have a pretty good aftermarket following. And like, if you're not comfortable with CF moto as a company, something like this KLE, I think it'll sell big. I think the pricing looks good. So that I think is going to be interesting to a lot of people. And again, I really applaud these smaller bikes coming up and doing something really cool and their bikes that experienced and new riders can enjoy too. And I just liked that trend a lot. Nice. I mean, I want the, you know, I want power. So, yeah.

Robin: Well, let me help you out there. Remember, I was going to try to throw you some curve balls. Throw it. My next choice, the 2026 Ducati Diavel V4 or V4S. I've always kept this to myself. I see these power cruisers and I'm like, it just looks good. We're talking about muscle cruisers, you know, sport power hybrids. They're still, they're not forward controls.

Brian: So lead no forward controls. Yeah. Okay. Good.

Robin: They have socks.

Brian: Yeah.

Robin: It's a classic standard. So you remember the Nighthawk series, those ergos at the foot, your feet are directly below your knees at the ball of your foot. They're no longer behind the knees. That's the only pseudo forward ergonomics that you're dealing with. Other than that, it's just the rake angle and the geometry of the motor position versus the ergos. So you want to have that perfect geometry where you're not creating bizarre engineering imbalances in the rider's influence on the bike's overhead design. You want your seated position to make sense while riding to the bike so that the response feels correct. They got that. They actually did that. So the change is just the rake angle. I mean, they have a cruiser level rake angle in a bike that looks like, I mean, I would take it to a track day. Could I chin over wrist it? I mean, it'd look goofy, but whatever it takes to get through the corner. Didn't we see a Diavel at a track day? Yes, we did. I've sat on one and eyeballed it pretty heavily at my first international motorcycle show. 1158cc V4 standard. Apparently it's 1103 for the RS. I don't know. I'm looking at the specs here and just, you know, pretending like it's coming off the cuff, but I am reading information. Chassis and suspension is aluminum, monocoque, single-sided swingarm, fully adjustable Ohlins on the RS, which is great. Brembo Stylema brakes, 17 inch wheels, 240 rear tire. It's nice, but the ergos are hilarious. I mean, the default seat height is 31 inches. If you get the low seat on this, good luck keeping up with Maggie Dean. That's not, it's not going to happen. She's gone. We're not touching her. 485 pounds wet. It's heavy and not at the same time with solid horsepower. Ride modes, traction. Okay. So let's put it to you this way. It's got wheelie control and it needs it. It needs it. I mean, this thing will do what you ask. Is it a full-on sport bike? Nowhere near, but is it sport? Oh, you set this next to some generic American name brand. Well, it says Sportster in the title. We're going to beat the shit out of you. The shit out of you. Sexy bike, cruiser profile with classic standard ergonomics, wholeheartedly sport. I'm going to get weird after this.

Brian: I have not ridden a Diavel. I have ridden a Triumph Rocca 3. Yes you have. Which is even more ridiculous. Same logic. Like they made it rideable and like they turned Perfect Strangers loose on that thing and we all returned in one piece. But yeah, it was, and it's even more ridiculous. I'm glad these bikes exist. I wouldn't want one. I have heard that Ducati makes the thing actually rideable and yes, we have seen one at a track day. Passed it, yes, but we saw it at a track day.

Robin: Never the bike, always the rider. I'm going to keep going then. I'm going to step on you here and go ahead. Bring me the weird. I'm going to give you back-to-back weird that I can't ignore. You know I have a type. So I'm bikes that I would love to own or at least ride. Give me a break. That I probably wouldn't take on a major tour. The Honda V3R 900 e-compressor prototype. So you brought this up. I loved when you said this. It's 450cc, the new 650. So let's talk about what this bike is for the listener. We went over briefly the concept of a four-stroke motor. We didn't touch two-stroke, but just four strokes. The suck, squeeze, bang, blow. And yes, there are fetish websites for that, but the point is this is a hyper naked, a street fighter. So we're talking about a super compressed 900cc bike with big bike torque. That's how they bill it, but the fact of the matter is 800cc, you're getting into big bike territory by today's standards. You have a 75 degree V3 water-cooled e-compressor, which means electronically controlled intake boost, six-speed chain drive bike.

Brian: So basically it's got an electric fan instead of a turbocharger driven by exhaust. It's an electrically driven fan.

Robin: Yes, a V3 layout, compact agility, claims 1200cc class torque. Crazy. They haven't been able to figure this out yet. It leaves broadcast to the public. The horsepower, the torque, the weight, suspension, brakes, electronics, product, the timeline. I mean, they want riders who are interested in a small package, high torque, cutting edge engine. And that's what we're looking at. It's their first e-compressor bike, potentially redefining the middleweight street naked class. We get into power. How much do you really need? I mean, I'm on 88, I think I'm 88 brake horsepower at top end of the RPM spectrum. And, uh, I have to wait for people, you know? Yeah. How much fun can you have on less? A lot. You can have a significant amount because while people are busy talking about what they know about the specs of the machine, they don't know how to ride. You have already been riding and are waiting for them to catch up.

Brian: Yeah.

Robin: This bike doesn't all. So that's weird. And I dig it. The next one, I need to understand this better. You need to take the reins on this. What the hell is the limited edition Brabus 1400R? A hyper naked ultra limited. They're only making a hundred units. 1350 CC's LC8 V-Twin 190 horsepower. That's 107 foot pounds of torque. So zero to 60 and 3.2 top speed, 168.

Brian: Okay. What the hell?

Robin: Gen three Apex semi-active Brembo monoblock brakes, forged wheels. It's got carbon bodywork, leather, dynamica trim, all the fixings. It's only 445 pounds dry. The audience they're aiming for is collectors and luxury hyper naked fans. So here's your hook. It's boutique. It's hand-finished. It's hyper naked performance plus exclusive materials and branding. What a chunk of, this is an answer to overpopulation.

Brian: I mean, I'm glad things like this exist. You know, I hope they make a lot of money, but yeah, I don't know. I don't get it either. Let me quote from the website. It creates an aura of intrigue revealing only what the night allows like a whisper emanating from the darkness shrouded in mystery. I don't know, man, I got nothing. It looks a certain way. If you like that sort of thing, it's the sort of thing you're going to like. What's your next bike? One of the things I was a little surprised to hear about this year, you know, Suzuki just released the SV7GX. It's really pretty interesting. They took the SV650, same V-twin they've been making forever. Everybody loves this engine. Everybody loves the SV650, but gosh, there's nowhere to put your luggage. Well, they solved that. So they've got, it's got a fairing. It's got a place for luggage. What a great idea. You know, they had the V-Strom, but that was a different, the SV7GX is a sport tour. It's sporty. You can tour. It's got luggage. It's got places to put things, got places to put your butts. A great idea. And like in Suzuki fashion, they're just kind of reusing engineering for years and years and years. And I'm here for it. 72 horsepower in a light, pretty lightweight package for what it is. Should be a big success, I think. But it was a little surprising too. Is it sport touring though?

Robin: It doesn't have factory hard bags. I thought it did. They were showing it with hard bags. They're showing it with what is, and I shit you not, the SW-MOTEC rebadged Blaze saddlebags, which are soft luggage with a little bit of hardware. I have them for my bike and I designate it as sport touring because I've configured it as such, but out the gates, it's a conversion thing. Like they're basically saying, okay, no hard bags, but they do have the space for the top case. And I think that speaks all the volume. That's the big deal is having a big old freaking top cases.

Brian: Yeah. And they're calling it a crossover, which is also almost as cringy as a great new term.

Robin: I like it. You're arriving at that intersection at the same time and we can keep it a mutual and consistent debate. I like the term crossover because it's basically answering the tall rounder statement.

Brian: Yeah. Better seats, blah, blah, blah. Yeah. What I'm trying to figure out, I'd swear I've seen pictures of the luggage and you're saying the luggage is basically aftermarket soft luggage with Suzuki sewn on it. It is. You're right.

Robin: Those are the Blaze saddlebags, which were originally sourced to this country by SW-MOTEC or twisted throttle at that. And you can get those bags for half the cost. And they are those bags from the original source through freaking AliExpress.

Brian: Interesting. Okay. For some reason, I thought I saw hard bags and I was getting back out. Anyway, it's still a really interesting variant on the bike because the V-Strom has moved to that 800, the same engine that's in your bike. The V-Strom itself has moved to the jigsaw engine.

Robin: They just need to call it the Strom. Don't call it the V-Strom. Strom is cool.

Brian: Yeah. I think a long-term Royal Enfield is going to be a real powerhouse in the U.S. I mean, they're making inroads, they're making friends. It's not available yet, but they're working on and they're going to release a 750cc engine and they're going to put it in a couple of different, they're going to put in a new version of the Himalayan and the Continental and so forth. So I thought that was pretty interesting. I've never ridden a Royal Enfield. I would like to. I'd like to try one out and see what they're like. Totally not an open letter to them. Yeah. Okay. Then next up, what else, what else we got in ridiculous land?

Robin: The MV Agusta Brutale Siri Oro. Oh yeah. I remember the nineties, how all that was bubble aerodynamic were replaced by sharp, jagged attack profile lines. And this bike seems to envelop something that neither contain, which is liquid lines, airflow on the chassis of this machine. It's fluid and liquefied and gorgeous. It is such a monster bike. So I brought this up with Kelly Howard. He saw me ogling this basically naked would be street fighter of sorts and hipped me to another bike that they had that was limited edition. It was 40 plus thousand dollars. I can't get over the fact that he's like, do you remember when they created a rear single-sided spoke rim? The spokes were only on one side. Okay. And they banded them like mag wheels. So you had four spokes, space, four spokes, space, only on the right side of the rim to the outside of the rim for that matter. Single-sided laced wheel with that profile. And he showed me pictures. I was like, these people are out of control. And then we went on discussing this machine. I was just shitting myself with amazement at the beauty of this thing, the intricacy it is. It's a limited run naked sport bike, 300 units only 931 CCS inline triple 148 horsepower, 107 Newton meters of torque, six speed quick shift. Nice. If passed on this bike at a track day, I do not deserve to own it. That's my next choice.

Brian: I'd be happy to just be sniffing it.

Robin: I would slow down just to stay behind it the whole dang time.

Brian: But when you look at that MV Agusta, there's all these places where you can see through it. One, which is just amazing. And the exhaust is just crazy. It looks like, it looks like something, you know, like a demon is going to be stabbing you with when you end up in hell.

Robin: Oh, the next one, let's get weird. Get weirder. This is my favorite. I don't want to overdo this. So the Norton Manx-R, this is a Tupperware centric machine, heavy on the plastics. It's a modern classic super bike, 200 plus horsepower V4 street focus, 1200 CCS, 206 horsepower registered, 130 Newton meters of torque, six speed with bi-directional quick shifter. So you can roll off the throttle downshift, roll on the throttle upshift, cast aluminum, single size swingarm, semi-active Marzocchi suspension, which I'm going to have to look up. That may be a topic for an entire episode years from now when we catch up to everything we want to talk about. Dual 330 millimeter Brembo front, 245 millimeter rear, carbon BST wheels. The dry weight is 450 pounds, ready to ride. So 1200 CCS, 450 pounds. You know, I remember my Bandit was like 525 or 550, somewhere in there. So it's got, oh, here's the fun part. The electronics, cornering ABS and traction control, wheelie side control, launch control, launch control. This is the best. They're billing it as an everyday 200 plus horsepower super bike. Just going grocery.

Brian: Yeah. It's really interesting that the, the revival of Norton as a brand and Manx is there's several British and European brands that are being revived by India. So they're seeing Royal Enfield have all the success. So there's an Indian company named TVS. Mahindra makes like tractors and stuff. I think they're backing a BSA, a revival of BSA. That's kind of interesting that, that all these, all these rupees are being thrown into all these revivals of British brands. And, uh, it's also happened with some, uh, other European brands. These companies know what they're doing. They have a lot of money sloshing around. It's not going to hurt the company. You know, the brand, if they want to, they'll make these Norton Manx bikes and, and sell all they want to make, or they may just tease it for years and, and let that reflect on the, on the, uh, you know, the car and heavy equipment company. And they can do that without, that's the funny thing. They can, they could do that. It won't hurt the main company at all. You know, it's not enough money to them to care. It's just very interesting to see that happening and it'll be cool to see where it goes. Are we going to see product hit the U S you know, we're going to see those at the next track day of Manx who have 200 horsepower and some, some dweeb on it, wobbling around the corners. It'll be awesome. I can't wait.

Robin: Wobble, wobble, wobble. Do you have the next bike? I only have two more. Go on. Yamaha's R7 in my mind is pinnacle brilliance and worthwhile purchase for the experienced rider and track day aficionado. Yeah. I feel really good about that bike.

Brian: I think it bodes well that, that what they showed at Eicma was a vastly upgraded version of what was already a brilliant bike. It's had so many upgrades and like, well, they're, they're committing to this. So, and that engine is in a million other bikes.

Robin: So yeah, we're not going to let up on this thing. Here's gen two. And what do they do? They basically gave it the electronic suite from the flagship R1 as well as a quick shifter and IMU based rider aids, TFT dash plus connectivity all in their 689 CC package. So you've got the beast with all of the new tech. I imagine that comes with a metric fuck ton of new riding modes and a crap shandle of better braking and better acceleration.

Brian: The audience has to be a very particular kind of person. You know, the, the squid is like, Oh, a leader bike, you know, and go pull wire, go fast. That's that person's not going to buy that. The person buying a used, uh, R6 it's been crashed four times already. They're not going to, you know, it's going to take some, it's going to take someone with taste is what I'm saying. People with taste are going to be really drawn to this and be like, I'm going to go to the track and I am going to be so cool. You know, I am going to really enjoy this thing.

Robin: $9,399 is what it's listing ads.

Brian: Yeah. Is that, that, that was, I didn't know what it was going to cost, but yeah, it looks like they're going for someone who's like, no, I need that. Cause they're really, I can't think of a, any competitor really, other than maybe a KTM. I hope they sell a million of them. I hope the track days are overrun with the things. I only have one more bike. What do you got? Anything? There's a headline. I'm like, I saw this headline. I'm like, I don't care, but you know, maybe I'm just old and out of touch, but the headline was Honda's e-clutch added to more models, you know, so they're adding their electronic clutch. You know, there's no lever on the left to more models. And I'm, I'm not in, I'm not all about it, but I also see, you know, especially after talking with angel and this old dog is kind of seeing with fresh eyes a little bit. And it's like, yeah, clutching, clutching is challenging and so forth. And one of the problems is people have tried to do away with the clutch lever before, and they've all sucked. Yamaha tried it. Uh, and it's, it was horrible people, you know, they all crashed Honda by all accounts is doing it right. You know, it's on the gold wing and it's spreading to the other models, computer controlled stuff and things. Yeah. It's one of those things. It's like, yeah, maybe I am a little old school and I really don't understand why you wouldn't want to shift on your own. But then again, I do understand why you wouldn't want to bother.

Robin: Yeah, sure. If it exists and there's an option, all the better. But in the case of our new friend, we want to see that rider learn the clutch. And it speaks to a different problem, which was they got through the instructions. They went through the motions to learn what they needed to know. And they were told, you know, just enough for us to kick you out with a pass. Goodbye. Good luck on your own trying to figure out the entire world. And that's not enough. I, I don't insist that further learning should be imposed on anybody who exits that class and says, OK, cool, I'm good with this. I'm saying that if that student wants to know more, they should have an excess, an entire day of open communication where they get to ask, can you show me more about this? And they can build their skills with it. This is an idea in the making with a glass of wine in my system that I may have to try to figure out on my own. We'll see. Anyhow, I got one more for you.

Brian: Lay it on me.

Robin: If it can't be the IBEX, which would be my first choice to fill in that space for the scooter. If it can't be something that could take me off road and be lightweight enough to call dual sport, but heavy enough to call the other term, it has to be without a doubt the CF Moto Papaya.

Brian: That's almost as good as the Tohatsu Run Pet.

Robin: 70 miles to the gallon, a great pit machine. Anybody who says, look at you on that scooter, we can say, this is our pit bike, kiddo, and show them the real machines that are waiting at home. But the fact is, it gets to the grocery. It can haul more than the biggest sport touring bike I've ever had, which would have been the RS. The luggage was everywhere. I had luggage galore. It was the space shuttle. Our 2008 genuine buddy scooter has a bag hook for the step through portion storage that can fit an entire helmet under the seat. And we put a GV top case on this thing with a passenger seat that's not holding anything. We can haul a farm if we had to. So when I saw the CF Moto Papaya, I just thought, look at this adorable not motorcycle. I like it. It's rebellious. I could put saddlebags on it. I could probably run a tour and maybe even outride some of our customers with a smile on my face.

Brian: Yeah, I think you should buy like a fleet of eight of these things and run papaya tours.

Robin: Absolutely. 126cc single cylinder thumper, air cooled four stroke engine. It's got EFI. Claim max output is just trying its best to make 10 horsepower and failing. I'll take it. Gimme. Nice. Thing weighs 250 pounds. Pick this bike up, put it in your pocket, walk into the grocery store and be smiling the entire time. I like it. I really dig it. That's my last bike. And then we'll move on to the other segments. Go on with your bad self.

Brian: Speaking of really cool little bikes, the Royal Enfield Flying Flea. Yes. Gimme. I love it. I want it. I want the key. Let me ride it again. It's, it's, I think they'll actually build them and I think they'll actually sell them in the U S you know, I don't think it's vaporware yet or anything like that, but it's not here yet, but I hope they sell a million of them. Royal Enfield has the chops to make these things and, and bring them in. And it's about, you know, it's at least a year from production, but I can't wait to start seeing these around the city. I think electric bikes are finding a real sweet spot in the city bike. And I think this is one of them. This thing looks, it looks great. It looks ridiculous. It looks like a, it looks like a flash Gordon Ray gun. It looks like that combined with your mom's Schwinn. I mean, it's just amazing. And it's hilarious. I hope they sell a million of them. I want to see them everywhere. I think it's going to be fun as hell. I had a weird one, at least finally at last. Okay.

Robin: Rockstar. So this has been a long discussion. So an episode or two ago, we talked about field repairs. Brian's been waiting to ask Joanne about whether or not there's any hope for wilted Velcro. She answered here's how it went.

Brian: It seems like, okay. Every piece of gear I've ever had expensive or cheap. Uh, the first, the first thing that wears out is the, what I call the goddamn Velcro. Well, so what advice do you have on, on Velcro on keeping it alive on repairing it? What do you do?

Joanne: I have to question your definition of expensive.

Brian: Like I've got a climb jacket and the Velcro is wearing out at the risks.

Joanne: Yeah. For me, that's really poor quality and poor product management. Like they're not choosing great Velcro, like really, really good Velcro. Cause you can, there are products that are in my opinion, better than climb in terms of quality in some respects. I'm not saying as a product, as a whole, but in some details, certain brands use different Velcro and there's a variety because we all know there's the brand name Velcro and it's just these like Kleenex tissue is Kleenex. It's the same thing with Velcro and the cheaper product you buy. Well, the cheaper Velcro they will use that falls apart miserably. Um, so you should warranty that first of all, climb has a really good one. So if it's falling apart, call them on it and don't just complain about it. Get them to fix it and replace it. Seriously. Like that's what they want you to do. They don't want you to be unhappy about it.

Brian: My, my representative Joanne will be in contact regarding the poor quality of this Velcro. I recommend not making her angry.

Joanne: You have a giant tag somewhere in a drawer with their phone. No, really call them like, Hey, my, send them pictures should always do that. I mean, even though budget brands have a year and you should always call them on these things, but you know, you can always expect failures from certain brands or certain price points. But that to me is a poor choice in Velcro cause I've used the crappy Velcro and I've used great Velcro. It just depends on what they decide.

Brian: And it's just like, um, so you're saying good Velcro does exist.

Joanne: Absolutely. But the product costs more. I would say that those kinds of details really exist on European products. If that's one of the big differences and you have as a producer or product manufacturer, you have to pick and choose, right? Well, we're going to put more money in this because there might be a price they have to set. We can't spend more than $500. Let's say to design this jacket. So they're going to pick that apart and go, well, what if we eliminate two buttons or what if we spend less on this button so we can spend more on the zipper? I don't know. So Velcro could have been a sacrifice in that product so that you could have a better collar or neoprene branded neoprene at the collar. It could be something really minor like that, but it does exist. You just have to, you can test it in the store, like get the Velcro and like play with it, you know, and just see like how crappy it is. And the really good Velcro is really firm. Even the soft, you know, the softer side of Velcro, the high quality Velcro is actually really firm on that side. You can feel the difference. It's not like cottony that's cheap, but the really high quality products, it feels different. But also there's a lot of manufacturers moving away from it. So you don't have to use it, right? But you do have to dip, you got to dip into the companies that are spending money on innovation and research because there's a huge difference between a company who design, who makes great product and a company who innovates an R and D's product and really designs high level product. Those are two huge differences. And once you invest in companies that design and innovate, that's where you really get the gateway to all these tiny little details that most people don't really care about or may not notice.

Brian: So you're saying there are devices or closures or whatever that can do what Velcro does, the variable closure, that's not like a leather strap.

Joanne: Different ways to design the products so that maybe less Velcro is used or an alternative solution is provided in lieu of Velcro. One of the things that a lot of the European brands do, Revit did it, I think, I've seen Alpinestars do it. You know how on some jackets, when you go to close the Velcro, you close it towards your pinky. You go to close it and you're closing it towards the outside of your wrist.

Brian: Okay.

Joanne: Well, a lot of brands like Revit, they actually do it the opposite way. So you have to close the Velcro toward the inside of the wrist. That makes a huge difference too, because as you keep doing it, it'll catch less on certain things, like as you're just moving your arms around, right? Little things like that. A lot of companies, I've seen products where instead of a whole, like a rectangle of product, it's like a V-shape design, or they'll use a zipper instead of a Velcro. Yeah. So, you know, brands are trying to do different things. You still need Velcro for certain things. You know, you want to scrutinize the brands you're using and look at what they did 10 years ago. Are they still doing the same thing today? Okay. That gives you a huge clue as to who the brand is and what they really do, because some brands just copy other brands. And we know who those brands are that are being copied from, because you see less expensive product. And it's the same thing as like clothes, right? You go to Target and you see like a North Face style jacket. Well, of course they just copy North Face and sell it to you cheaper. It's the same thing as in gear. So, you really have to scrutinize motorcycle gear in the same way. You have to really look at it. And again, also my favorite analogy is tools, okay? It's the same thing. Motorcycle gear is a specialized technical product with a lot of money and technology and innovation and design, and a lot of people copying. It's the same thing with weaponry, knives, kitchen accessories, running shoes, any specialized product where you have a really special hobby and you know what that hobby is. You know all the terrible brands in your hobby and you know all the great brands and you know all the differences between one and the other and why you spend $100 more on one brand over another. It's the same thing. So what you want to do is find the equivalent product, whatever it is, and that's how you are going to find all the good stuff that you really like.

Robin: Can you tell me what you think about like the reversal of what you're saying? The reversal being parts sourcing, getting the same thing and then rebadging it the way say Suzuki does with saddlebags. Sometimes SWMOTEC, their Blaze saddlebags are sourced for half the price and rebadged by like three separate major corporate entities in the motorsports world. I don't know. It just seems like a mirror of what you're saying in some cases. Not every. I don't know how to tie that to anything, but you made me think about that. Like what she's talking about, these people innovate, they are designing, they are coming up with it themselves, but then there are also companies that will extract an opportunity and then badge it as their own double the price.

Joanne: In those situations, they usually partner with the brands, right? Suzuki will say, hey, SW, we want that bag with our name on it, but we want to change it a little bit. Or we want it to fit our new GSX series or whatever. There's not necessarily a price hike. There could be. I mean, every brand is different on how they do that, right? Absolutely. My experience with Revit is that it was a partnership. Hey, what do you want to make? We want to make this for this. We want this. Manufacturers often have a huge say in, of course, what they want and how they want it. And it's often a very different product than anything than the brand might offer in the aftermarket.

Brian: Yeah. Like Triumph and BMW, for example, are known for having their own gear line. It's actually pretty good stuff usually. And they get it from different places. It's unique too. Yeah.

Joanne: Yeah. And you'll see like Dainese branded rain jacket with a different OEM. And there's all kinds of OEM and aftermarket partnerships like that, for sure. The quality is great usually.

Robin: When you see the circle with the X through it, it's like built, it's like crammed out and it says, no Dainese.

Joanne: That's a little different. That's copyright infringement.

Robin: It's a little different.

Brian: Yeah. We were in a Harley dealer yesterday buying t-shirts for a Harley fan because they have a lot of t-shirts there.

Robin: Yep.

Brian: Yeah. They have their own line of gear. I don't know who makes it.

Robin: Don't either. They're made by the Statue of Liberty, Brian. Yeah.

Brian: Made in Cambodia, New Jersey or something like Suzuki, Honda, not so much, but they do have a little bit, but yeah, I know BMW, Triumph.

Joanne: Every OEM has products that they don't know how to make, you know, and you reach out to people who know how to make them and partner with them and create your own collections and stuff.

Robin: Well, so let me set you up for the painful headache of the real question here. You get something you really like, you chose it because you liked it. You're like, that's, that's me right there. That's everything I needed. And I know we get into compromise a lot. I love that about our conversations. They're tough. You're rough on us. Great. Here we are with something we like. We have it. It's in our hand. We wear it. We use it. And something, some ingredient to it is just shite. And in this case, let's say it is Velcro. I'll tell you, mine is not great. I love this jacket. They may not even make it. They certainly don't make the three seasons of the, I want to, I want to remedy this one thing about it that is just in my way. So the question is, how do you feel about these? Like at home, what do you get the staple gun out, the hot glue, what, what do you, what is your opinion on field repairs of, of writing kit? And if not, do you have any personal techniques you've ever employed on your own?

Joanne: Yeah. I mean, anything, you know, you own is yours and I'd say if you want to customize it or change parts of it, of course you should do that. Knowing that your warranty will no longer be valid if it's something that's new. Okay. But if it's something that's, you know, you've had for a while and you want to keep doing whatever you need to do, of course there are people who are really good at that though. There are tailors. Who are they? And repair people. Well, if you want to repair technical product and brand name product like Gore, like Gore Tex products, for example, you have to go to an authorized Gore Tex repair company because they know how to make repairs without ruining the quality and compromising the performance of the product. So it depends on what it is. Are we talking something really cheap and inexpensive without a brand name? Well, you can do whatever you want with it and go to anybody. Are we talking a $2,000 Gore Tex suit? Well, if you want it done right, really is what it is. If you want your repairs done correctly so that they work, like I had a Burton snowboard jacket and the main, it's a big YKK and it broke. So I sent it to the authorized Gore Tex repair center. There's also a company in Washington state, at the time I was in California. So I sent it to them and they repaired it for like $80 and it was still waterproof. Do whatever you need to do. I'd say do whatever you want to do. Just make sure that if it's a high quality technical product that you go to the manufacturer and ask them to help you first, because they probably will fix it for you, especially if it's in warranty. You should utilize your warranties. That's why they're there.

Robin: I forget what YKK is. I remember there's a zipper type. It's not a format.

Joanne: No, it's just a brand name. But the cool thing is that they're widely used.

Robin: Yes.

Joanne: Widely used across many companies and brands. So because it's a brand name, you know, well, if my YKK zipper brokes, it'll be easy for you to find another one, call the repair place, and they'll probably be able to fix it for you versus some obscure Italian, I don't know, European brand zipper that no one knows or has access to. So the YKKs are nice and they're really robust. They don't really fail often. They're high quality. They're reliable.

Robin: Those other zipper brands don't stand a chance with the major zipper mafia coming at them. You know what I mean?

Brian: Yeah. There's a whole zipper underground. I know. I had a jacket that I really loved that got cut off me after hitting a deer. Whether that was a good idea or not, I took it to them.

Joanne: Yes, it is. Saving you is better than saving your jacket, Brian.

Brian: Good, Joanne.

Joanne: Yes, I agree. Okay. Your wife agrees as well.

Brian: I took it to a guy who actually, his main business is repairing costumes for reenactors. So this guy has all the equipment to repair anything from like the year 1492 forward.

Joanne: Okay.

Brian: Yeah, he did a great job of putting a new zipper in it.

Joanne: Oh, so just the zipper was damaged?

Brian: Yeah, it was just a zipper.

Robin: Of course, it's got an oracle with a glowing light in it that has some sort of spell binding.

Joanne: The other thing with zippers is you want to make sure that the retention is still there. So a lot of motorcycle gear comes with locking zippers, so your zippers don't start to open like on your sleeves. So a terrible product is usually the ones that don't have that. If you've seen on the inside of your forearm a zipper to close your jacket, well, a lot of the cheap stuff or just brands that aren't paying attention, they don't put a lock there. So your zipper slowly opens during the day. But same thing on any other zippers. So the thing with repairs is it really depends on the repair and you don't want to try to fix something that could compromise the safety of the product and the ability of it to actually do its job for you. It's one thing to replace this YKK zipper, but it's a whole nother thing to repair the integrity of say the shoulder seams or the armor pockets. That's not something anybody can do except a motorcycle apparel manufacturer or authorized repair person. Someone who just sews doesn't know that. So that's the other component of it's not just sewing and tailoring. It's the safety aspect, right? Because you have to sew and manufacture products in a way that does its job of protecting you. You can't just do that with heavy stitching.

Robin: Would you say it's basically like you're trying to take two components and not make them this component is connected to this component. You're trying to make them as close to being one as possible? Yeah. Unified?

Joanne: Yes. And certainly in ways where the garment in whatever way is necessary. So the garment doesn't compromise at the seams, but also just doesn't compromise period. Because the sign of a really good product is one that doesn't compromise. Either takes a while, takes like 10 seconds, whatever to compromise or doesn't at all as far as the seam strength and integrity. So it just depends. You just want to be really careful who you ask to help to repair things because motorcycle product is not just skiing gear. It's not just a sweater you wear to work. Yeah. You can't just have your grandma fix it. It's no different than taking your European sports car to a European mechanic versus taking it to a tractor repair place. The vehicles aren't the same.

Brian: It's got to have the German accent.

Joanne: I mean, just because you can repair a Jeep doesn't mean you know how to repair a BMW 5 Series. It's the same thing. It's the same thing in people I find treat motorcycle gear as just clothing. And that's true in many cases from some companies, you know, and some brands who aren't really there to protect you, right? Like lifestyle clothing.

Brian: Yeah.

Joanne: No, I don't mean like industry. I mean, there's a lot of fake lifestyle clothing that brands itself as something to wear on a motorcycle. I was walking by somewhere and I saw an advertisement for, I want to say it was for like casual sneakers or a casual boot, you know, just like fashion boots. And the advertisement was a couple sitting on a motorcycle and they're just wearing jeans and a t-shirt. You know, and that is right. And that's the kind of marketing that implies that this product is something they should purchase to ride their motorcycle, which is a horrible, horrible way to represent that. But that's where the differences lie, right? It's yeah. Those companies, of course, they're making fashion as they should, and it's great, but it doesn't necessarily mean it's there to actually protect your feet or do anything for your feet.

Robin: Sometimes those who don't know still are trying to send some kind of a message.

Brian: The non-rider who said here, I don't know, put this teacher on, put this on a billboard, put this on and you're cool all of a sudden you're just as cool as this motorcycle that we've never sat on before. Yeah.

Joanne: Well, they can't, unless they're motorcyclists and they actually care about safety gear, they're never going to even consider the possibility that it sends a horrible message about safety. Why would it? I wouldn't expect them to. You have to really understand what it means to actually care. And I bet if there was someone there to go, hey, if you do that, that's going to send a really horrible message to this audience. And I bet if they knew that they might reconsider. Maybe, I don't know. One of the worst commercials that I hate, and it actually is a motorcycle focused commercial. I think it's Geico or Progressive. Have you seen the one where it's a woman on a cafe racer in like a fake desert? And she's like racing across the desert on her like scrambler, some cafe racer.

Robin: I could probably find it.

Joanne: Although we were just having the cafe racer debate, but go ahead. Is it Flo? No, no, no, no, no, no. It's not. It's not Flo.

Brian: She's in like a Evel Knievel outfit.

Joanne: No, no, no. Just like a brown leather casual jacket, a very biker looking 80s outfit.

Brian: Yeah. Just what some director thought.

Joanne: Exactly. And it's an all AI generated background, but she's on a cafe racer of some kind and she's riding like through a desert. It's some insurance company and they're advertising motorcycle insurance. And yeah, it's an ad specifically to sell us motorcycle insurance. And I hate it. I hate it so much because she's wearing like a men's jacket or she's so slim that it just looks terrible on her. And then she's wearing this oversized crappy helmet. And then it's just awful. I'm like, you're selling motorcycle insurance to people whose lives are in danger and you want them to buy your insurance to lower the risk and help save them. Yet you show this woman riding garbage at like a hundred miles an hour through the desert. What the?

Robin: So you hear that Geico, you guys need to make a good advertisement and we would like to make it. The three of us could come up with a really, there's only two, there's two kinds of music.

Joanne: Sell some insurance. I'm a state farm person. Sorry.

Robin: Well, I mean, that's, that's good too. You know what I mean?

Joanne: But I've, yeah, it's like, I think it's, it might be Geico. It's one of the big ones. I just, every time I watch it, I just, I have to turn the channel because it drives me crazy. Yeah. Anyways, I'm ready for a nap.

Robin: You look it and I want to talk to you about it. Well, there you go, folks. Similar banter at higher revs can be, how do I usually say it? Hold on. Don't you dare.

Brian: Can be found at, good Lord, can be found.

Robin: Who's tired now?

Brian: Nobody's looking.

Robin: I don't have an outline open 10th time.

Brian: Similar banner at higher revs can be found via the gear check website, visit gearchick.com and dig in. Next up moments in motorcycle history with Jordan Liebman. Our focus moment this time around is Daytona, specifically 1970, where all sorts of innovations, rule changes, and skullduggery converged. Jordan went deep into his magazine archives, preloading perspectives and observations he's been chomping at the bit to ramble about. Now's his chance to run with it. Take it away, Jordan.

Jordan: Daytona 1970. It was regarded as the big one in America, 200 mile motorcycle race. The AMA sanctions it. And in America, they were the American arm of the FIM or the Federation International Motorcyclismo, whatever, for the rest of the world. And they were governing professional racing since 1904. That's the FIM. AMA was effectively the U.S. representative of FIM in America, but there were differences. So Daytona started in 1937, won by a gentleman on an Indian scout named Ed Kretz, very famous. Back then it was run on the beach, two miles one direction on the sand and two miles back on the paved surface going the other way. And that was, I believe, 100 miles total. You can imagine what that looked like if you think about World's Fastest Indian and what he did on the beach there, kind of the same idea, right? So the circuit is 3.81 miles and divide that by 200 and you get the number of laps that it takes to finish this race, which is in excess of 52 laps. I've seen some say 57 laps, but I'll leave that to the experts. It is an endurance race. In Europe, they were accustomed to doing more turns and corners where all-out top speed was not always a deciding factor. Machines competing in FIM-sanctioned racing were not tested for the Daytona type of track for such high speeds for such extended time periods, which puts a different set of stresses on all aspects of rider and bike, for instance, shit brakes. Things that work there in Europe don't work here, and some shit just don't play and work at all. The Daytona Motorsport Racing started in 1937 on the ocean sand and ran through 1960 on the beach, and in 1961 it moved to the Daytona International Speedway with its ridiculously steep 31-degree banking and the tri-oval track design, which encouraged very high speeds. The bikes that raced at Daytona were production racers. For instance, that means they had to be at least based on a production model instead of being a pure race bike, like Honda's four-cylinder RC166s or anything that MV Agusta made for the racetrack, or the sometimes often bizarre and one or two offs that would build in the UK, like the Porcupines and whatnot that they raced, that the consumer just couldn't buy for sale in the showrooms. So these are basically built on a production model, right? They've been racing production bikes on the beach since 1937, where Indian rider Ed Crest won on an Indian Sports Scout. For this feature, though, we are discussing specifically the Daytona 200 Expert Race, which is experts, okay? Not the kid down the block. These are guys that have qualified as expert, stop and drink. So leading up to this event, in 1960, 59, up to 1959, France had been a big proponent of Daytona moving to a different racetrack, specifically for cars. And even though it was over there, or we were over here, it helped boost the popularity, particularly with European brand involvement. France also was a factor in building and eventually moving the race from the sand to the speedway in 1960. This is a big race in that there are so many entrants of amateur, semi-pro, and factory teams. In 1970, some reports claim that there were as many as 98 bikes at the start of the Daytona 200. By my count, I read five magazines, actually seven now, depending on whose list you go by, there were either 80 or 81 bikes at the start. Some reports must have counted the numbers that did not start or did not show. I counted 27 bikes that were registered, but did not compete. So there were a total of 107 or 108 registered, but only 80 or 81 were at the starting line at the beginning of the race. Not all production big brands were represented. So coming up to 1970, in the sixties and the fifties, we had so many different countries competing in GP racing. We had Italy, right? We talked about MV Agusta, Ducati, Marini. There were so many more. In Spain we had Voltico, all these other brands that were competing. They were not present at this race because of the dynamics in the industry that had been changing over that decade of the sixties. A lot of brands had to concentrate on smaller buds for local markets due to money crunches and whatnot, just to stay above water. A lot of the British bands that were competitive before went strictly into designing bikes that were for off-road purposes or commuters, or even in some cases, mopeds and things like that. So a lot of these brands that were big in the fifties and the sixties had dropped off. There was a lot of attrition. And in addition to that, Triumph and BSA, which used to be separate companies, merged as one company. And the same thing happened with Norton, AJS, and Matchless. So a lot of changing in the British industry too, which was a leader in motorcycle sales and development up to that point. Now, for instance, we could talk about him. He does stick out his ugly head to a lot of people's chagrin and disappointment in this story. And you'll see about that later. All right. The British bike industry was strained with the issues of deflating market share due to the new presence and pressures of Japanese brands, mergers between BSA and Triumph and Norton, AJS, Matchless. There were a lot of moving pieces and the need to prove their metal was of the utmost importance. So really, we have all these mergers of the British companies and they see a lot of their competitors in their local market folding, going into receivership or having to shut their doors completely. So this was a really important race for the British teams to win. Now, they came out in 1969 with the Triumph Trident and the BSA Rocket 3. OK, up to that point, the British bikes were running vertical twins, generally of the 500 to 750 cc displacements, and they had 360 degree crankshafts. So what you have is pistons rising and falling together in unison, and that will limit things in terms of maximum RPM and the structural stability of the entire motorcycle because it becomes basically a jackhammer. They have different firing order, but the pistons are rising and falling together. Now, Triumph had an ace up their sleeve. They have this bike called the Tiger T100, the 500 cc four stroke pushrod overhead cam engine that they decided to adapt into a triple. But instead of having three cylinders with 180 degree offset on the crank, they're spaced 120 degrees per cylinder. So now we have 360 degrees and perfect primary balance. The center cylinder is split on the production version, and half of each of the center cylinder's exhaust is fed to one side and the other. So it looks on both sides like there's two exhausts and kind of a ray gun fishtail with three straws sticking out of it. You can look at the picture. Perfect primary balance, completely new. But the T100 had been designed and tested and raced and perfected over decades. So they had all the tuning ahead of time for making power with this engine. They just had a new way of doing it. And really what some people say is that this bike should have been released seven or eight years earlier to save the British industry. But it wasn't. They sat in the laurels, they waited for it, and they released it in 68. They raced it in 69. They were competitive, but they didn't win at the Daytona 200 stop and drink. Who did win? I'll let you know. So basically with the merging of these companies, BSA and Triumph and Norton, AGS and Matchless, there's a lot of moving pieces and the need for these companies to prove their mettle. And it was of the utmost importance for them to do well at these races. Some of the brands that would have normally competed no longer had a engine or motorcycle to sell as a production model. So they didn't have anything that would have qualified in the Daytona 200 race. Now the race itself, the rules were changed. This is something they love to do, particularly the AMA side of things, where they have lobbyists by the name of Harley Davidson at this point, because Indian is long gone, that have the rules massaged to make it more beneficial for them. So Harley said up until 1969, they had the KR 750 and in 1968 and in 1969, they won the Daytona 200 with a KR 750. They were fast. They were side valve pushrod engines and they squeezed every bit of power they could out of those machines. And that was the Zenith, the best bike at Daytona 200 and they won it in 68 and 69. They were looking for 1970 to be their hat trick, to be their trifecta, to win three in a row. And in 1969, the fastest lap was done on a Harley Davidson in qualifying at about 151 miles per hour. So they set the bar for themselves at about 150. They did it in 149. The one that made it above 150, it failed to win the race. It fell out, did not finish. In 69, Cal Rayburn, that's what it was. The previous were Panhead model engines. The new ones in 1970 are the XR 750. So Harley comes to the table with a brand new bike, with a brand new engine that they've been testing and tweaking and perfecting and honing and dialing in for at this point, probably over a year to try to win the third in a row at Daytona on this new XR. And the XR was instead of a side valve, it's an overhead cam. So Harley has, AMA changed the rules to allow overhead cam bikes up to 750. So what suddenly qualifies as an overhead cam? Well, that started in 69 because the British were running BSA Rocket 3s and Triumph Tridents with a push rod overhead cam engine. Cool. So they changed the rules supposedly to their benefit and they limited the two strokes to 500 CCs. Until recently, the British had been campaigning vertical twins with 350 degree crankshaft, meaning the two pistons rose and fell in unison and added vibration and stress, which put limits on redline RPMs. And it was off the mark in comparison with the new Japanese 180 degree crankshaft designs and fours, et cetera. What the British and others did have was proven handling because they were used to winning on racetracks that had more curves than straights. The Isle of Man was approximately a 200 mile race, but it was more turns than straights. So you can make up a lot in turns if you don't have all out speed. Robin, you can probably botch with that, right? Asking Brian.

Robin: Man, I love the fact we've got at least two more episodes of that coming up for you. It may be three, four. We'll see. Anything can happen, man. Anything. So I need to take my leave as it is Brian's turn to take over the helm during the next episode. What do you feel like talking about?

Brian: Yeah. How's that feel? I, I wasn't sure whose turn it was. All right. So the word that popped into my head was mentorship. This goes all ways and both ways. We're kind of acting as mentors. But we have also benefited from people who have helped us figure things out and helped us build a community and be part of a community and welcomed us. I think everybody, you know, it's an important part of what we do. This is, we're not playing tiddlywinks and so you need a good community around you. We'll need to shape it, but I think that's the word. How do you feel about that word? Shape is a good word.

Robin: Well, it's a very complex thing. There's an enormous difference between teaching and coaching. Oh yeah. The most important thing I could say about anything involving the word mentorship is the goal is to inspire a person to find the answer within themselves. If that doesn't happen, to help them sculpt some information out of the questions they've managed to formulate. You can't do that all the time, but it should always start with that. Can you say, before we even begin, can you walk through your own questions and see if there's an answer that's obvious to you, if that answer is blatantly wrong, you'll know it before we do and we can work with that and then you start kind of saying, well, here's what I do and there's what he does, here's what she does and that to me is far more important than delivering a go-to itemized answer. At the same time, somebody who doesn't feel as well put together, it's limited how much time we have before they find themselves in an unsafe situation. So there's that secondary balance of you want them to learn as much as they can and have realizations, epiphanies, sudden observations that make them better so that they don't find themselves in those situations while also not overwhelming them with, no, this is the way, this is how you turn, this is how you ride. You got to get them out of it.

Brian: Yeah. Sometimes it's one of those things where you're, you have to just teach something, do something this way so we can talk about something more important. Learn this physical skill. Like here's how to use a clutch. Here's how to use the brake. You know, the, the people debate the forefinger thing when you're talking about instruction. Um, so there are times like, yeah, so I think, I think there's a lot there and there's, you know, and also obviously, uh, you come from a teaching and coaching environment, that's a lot of what you've done, I do not. But I've also acted as and benefited from mentorship both ways.

Robin: My riding on a motorcycle, you are part of the ingredients. You know what I mean? Yeah. The person who teaches or coaches can find somebody who speaks at least on the level enough, even if side-eye to where you can envelop that information as part of your arsenal of understanding.

Brian: Yeah. The, the act of someone coming up and just stealing your potato chips at the gas station can correct your, I don't know, anyway, give me those. Here's how you eat those. There are things you, yeah, I think it'll be interesting to talk about things like that. Riding with you makes me a better rider and I like to hope the opposite is true. Always has been. And again, it ties into all these concepts of community. You have to find your tribe and find your community and build your community because what we do is not, we're not playing around out here. We're not, I mean, we are, but yeah, it's significant. It is dangerous. We have to admit that. Um, and we have to mitigate things and we have to depend on each other. And so that mentorship back and forth in all directions is really important.

Robin: I look forward to this. Cool. All right. You good to go?

Brian: Let's get out of here.