Robin: Hey everybody, I'm Robin Dean.

Travis: And I'm Travis Burrelson.

Robin: And this is the Riding Obsession podcast. You can visit us online at theridingobsession.com on the internet global high web net org dot The information superhighway. This week's episode is sponsored by Grip and Ride. Grip and Ride is an action sports passenger belt. It's basically a set of exterior handles attached to a textile weight belt which provides both lower back support and Passenger security. Learn more about the product at www.grip-n-ride.com That's gripandride.com. And now on to the show. It's been a long time man. It's time for us to actually get into a real rhythm.

Travis: Yeah, we definitely know that it's almost kind of sort of warm enough to be riding again in the Midwest. So how was your week? It was good. Well, we you know, we met up yesterday on a Wednesday in Waterford the sort of halfway point between Chicago and Madison.

Robin: Yeah, not the best start, but at least we got to ride.

Travis: Yeah, the weather forecast was much more promising than the weather turned out to be. It called for like low 50s and Sunshine and end up being in the mid 40s with gray dark skies and a little spit of rain here and there.

Robin: Did you get rained on on the way back home?

Travis: I just like the little of spit like yeah, wait Is there yep on my visor and just wipe it off and I didn't get I wasn't wet Enough to say this is not the forecast we anticipated. Yeah, it's enough to like just just rub it in that it's 40 degrees and I'm cold. Yeah, I got the bike master heated grips put them on my 1994 Honda CB 1000 big one Toro El Blanco. No, El Toro Nero.

Robin: El Toro Nero The black hole.

Travis: How do you say rust in Italian? Can I say El Toro Rusto?

Robin: El Toro needs a new set of steering head bearings and Valve adjustment.

Travis: Oh, and well, the valves are good. I check the valves. Yeah, I was just picking that out of here It does need some paint, but I kind of like it like kind of dirty because you don't have to like wash it like if I wash it it's not gonna look clean because it's because the paint's all faded and And and hazed and there's scratches on the engine cover So I just you know, hose it down.

Robin: We should just jacket the entire thing a primer.

Travis: Bed liner, man Bed liner all the way. Bed liner special.

Robin: Bed liner is the post 2000 primer It's a fix-all.

Travis: You got scratches. You got dings and nasty paint. Just sand it and hit it with bed liner.

Robin: Actually just recently did that to two parts for our Hawk GT I'm happy I did so believe it or not.

Travis: It looks better than it would have otherwise well, that's what I did, you know on the on my BMW I did the heat shields on the Muffler and the little plastic insert guys in the black rust-oleum spray-on bed liner It looks great because it gives you that textured especially on like plastic parts and I did your ability effect Yeah, and they're super durable. I haven't had any issues with them even with the heat on the Exhaust muffler heat shields. I think the general rule is everything in moderation Yeah, I don't know about doing a whole bike in it Because it gives you that textured sort of plastic look and But yeah, I did the headlight can on the big one and the crash bars I got from French Craigslist There you go.

Robin: Here's the two parts I did. So this is the headlamp attached Whatever the rim is it goes around the surround bezel for the headlight Yep, that actually comes in chrome because I replaced the headlight for a Hawk GT with that of a Honda 919 and the Bezel it comes in chrome so I was like that doesn't quite look as good as the stock headlamp did and now it's alright and plus the and also the Gauge cluster surround. Yeah, it needed it. It was just not looking right.

Travis: So yeah, that's I do I did I did the whole can and the and the surround bezel for my headlight on the big one But it was it was chrome, but it was rusty chrome and now it's just a nice textured black Looks a little better.

Robin: Yeah.

Travis: Yeah, it looks looks clean cuz like, you know getting it rechromed would cost me an arm and a leg You know, why would I do that? They just hit it with a little sandpaper clean up the rust a bit and hit it with some bed liner and it's nice texture texture hides the scratches and and Dents and where the the chrome had bubbled from the rust and looks good and it's black end up in the bikes black

Robin: So it all blends in that bike looks good when I saw it at Doc's on the Fox The bike is looking in better shape because it's owned by Travis Burleson plain and simple the bike is now owned by Travis Burleson That's a blessing to the bike

Travis: Yeah next time we Get together and the weather's decent you got to take her out for a spin and see what you think about How she rides now that I did the carbs and finally got the carbs back together and actually working, right? Cuz it it's running better than it was when I bought it. Yeah, I took the took the BMW out or a rundown Today just for sale everybody Yep, everybody wants to buy that bike. That's their cycle trader

Robin: Riding obsession validated motorcycle from here to Portland and back maintained steadily with absolute the utmost care

Travis: Yep, and took it out and just did a good hundred and what I do 110 miles today Shake down and got her hot and runned out and did oil change when I got back so she's ready to ready to go ready for the next person to

Robin: Take her over right for 2016 with somebody else.

Travis: Yeah Yep, just kind of find the other person. Well, I've been getting those I got another one of those calls from What do they call themselves once ridden?

Robin: Yeah We notice that you're selling a motorcycle Our Borgian robot has called you to inform you that we may be able to help if you just pay us this one-time fee of $8,000.

Travis: Yeah. Well the guys said they called me again. He said it was like 200 bucks and I've never heard of this company I don't know if any of the Listeners have heard if you've if you've used once driven and had a good story, let us know should that be the case?

Robin: Yeah, just call us up to two four three five eight thirty ten That's two to four three five eight thirty ten and what's the name of the company?

Travis: They said it's called once driven and they said for $200.

Robin: They'll guarantee my motorcycle gets sold So let's look at this way if they really do that then that's great If they don't really do that and they're ploying motorcyclists, let's all help each other out call our number Let us know what you know about this company and tell us who your experience with them.

Travis: We'd like to know Yeah, I don't know how they'd guarantee I guess if it doesn't sell in a month then they give you your money back I don't know how they guarantee that the bike will sell it's like oh, yeah.

Robin: Yeah three years later. It's old See it worked The real question also is do they know how to calculate the exact figure that they're gonna need to ask to give you Exactly what it is you want for the bike?

Travis: Yeah, I mean, I don't know it's the hidden fees question Yeah, I don't know what the model is or if it's a real company. It could just be some dude Right. I mean, I've never heard of it. You'd think a company like this It's calling me and and soliciting me despite the fact that any of my postings about the bike Specifically requests that there's no solicitation about it, right? You'd think I would have came come across them and like the AMA magazine or motorcyclist or MCN or any other public What's the name of your company again me?

Robin: I'm Fred, you know Fred, you know, my name's Fred It's companies called Fred. So, you know, you give me a couple hundred bucks. I'll sell your bike for you. What do you want?

Travis: Yeah, I don't know. I guess I could I should Google them and see if there's at least a website, you know Sure, but no harm.

Robin: No foul.

Travis: I mean they contacted you you owe them nothing yet It always goes straight to voicemail comes through as an unknown number and usually I'm I don't Even because my cell service is really terrible in my house. I don't even get the call. I just get the voicemail. I Was a week. What did you it's great.

Robin: I got it on the bandit both yesterday and today I rode the entire route today got our legs running, you know, she's warmed up. She feels pretty good I even got out on my wife's scooter just to make sure it was in decent operation Other than that, I know you remember talking about this I'm trying to prepare like a workout regimen so I can get back in shape, you know, I'm not getting any younger It used to be easier. So now I'm looking at an already healthy diet. My wife's a great cook She watches out for me, you know, though perhaps with less drinking maybe because the winters over, you know, and then a Bodyweight workout which involves no need for me to have any equipment It's all just CIA style other than that the hot GT is beginning to do everything we'd hoped it would I love that bike I ever spent

Travis: We should talk about that because I came down there and we took the took the carbs off

Robin: Yeah, man when you spotted the just one simple thing now that the carburetor jets are in their proper locations the the Hawk GT has mismatched sizes for The carburetor jets I imagine because it has a gallop to it.

Travis: You were saying it's got kind of a but up but up There's a different size main jet for the front cylinder versus the rear cylinder, right?

Robin: So the genius and go-to faithful mechanic of the previous owner had mismatched those as well as a couple other things that were not where they needed to be and As a result, I was wondering why at track day there I am on the final curve and Autobahn Raceway there in Joliet I'm gunning it through what is really called a trick curve if you're riding I believe the south track the final turn before the straightaway. It looks like it's multiple turns It's one turn. So I'm gunning it. I know this I know this I'm gunning it and then here comes Fellow author for the site Joe Nardi on my outside on a pearly a shiver and just black. No, wait I'm sorry. He had already sold the shiver. He had a Dorsoduro 1200 1200. Yeah, there's the door 1200 just blazes by me on the outside and I'm pegging this thing going maybe 65 miles an hour just ramming the revs as high as they can go getting all kinds of backfires So thanks to you spotting that one little mismatched yin-yang effect. The bike is now it's it's powerful, man It's a boss. I say that a lot. It's the bike just feels like a boss now Yeah, it doesn't matter how fast I'm going doesn't matter what gear I'm in if I turn the throttle It says I'm gonna do my best and then yanks my shoulders out of their sockets, which is great So, you know, even though it's a belated winter project We're kicking through all sorts of mods in preparation for long-distance rides This bike is essentially my wife's sport tour at least for 2016 after that We might look harder like an fz6 But the plan is to get this thing Happy get it some luggage get it ready for a long-distance tour Make sure that it's comfortable enough to go around Lake, Michigan without failing us and lo and behold It's a Honda and all those things you picked up that I picked out in good shape There's there's still the matter of the little hot of 250 though So my wife's starter bike is a Honda Nighthawk 250 and it's up for sale, by the way That's up for sale. You know, we'll need to repair it the flywheel slash crankshaft Basically the the it wasn't torqued down properly and the key for the flywheel marred everything up and some people told me that I should Drill again and that didn't make any sense to me until yesterday when I realized that I could drill For the flywheel key further in or outside of the shaft itself before filling in the damage section That's that's everything I'm up against man. Other than that. It's just dealing with our puppy. Gypsy gypsy gypsy gypsy the P machine P machine. She's a peepee beast Peepee pooper. Yeah, which brings us. Okay, so that's that's your week. That's my week on to updated site features and developments I'll make this quick the navigational overhaul of the site is now complete. It's more well rounded. It's it's better it's better balanced for the sport touring mindset or the long distance be a dirt or Paved doesn't matter the whole spectrum the navigation has been taken care of I keep chipping away at the weather page Which continues to get better and more informative? We've set that up so that it prioritizes daylight conditions So from sunrise to sunset where exactly at what time does the high temperature take place? Is that high temperature outside of your comfort zone? if so Divide the day by three and then set a beginning section and an end section where you might like to ride be it in the Morning or in the evening and then lastly our camping checklist much more streamlined way lighter lighter gear better Organized I used to have stuff like that battery operated inflatable mattress Even though it was a single person even still that thing was lead so stuff like that out the door. That's it Take it away Travis.

Travis: I'm still slogging my way through Zen in the art It's gotten a little bit better. It's still just about you know Philosophy books work.

Robin: It's a good book man.

Travis: I'm not gonna let you tell me otherwise he got into something. That was good Oh, there was a really great article in The back of MCN is the most recent issue MCN about it was like it's just like the psychology of writing and and why writing makes you happy and how to be How to deal with being either overworked or underworked, you know, if if you Your day-to-day Rigmarole is either just way too stimulating and high stress or way under stimulating and how like your hobbies Kind of help balance that out and I thought that was a really good article

Robin: I'm not sure if you read that I've not was this from the one with the cover of the V twins

Travis: The cover with the weird French bike on it

Robin: I think I did read that one on an airplane on my way to Vegas from a mother's 75th birthday

Travis: But yeah, so there's that there's me selling the BMW want to get a dual sport kind of looking around It's it's tough though because I'm looking at the so that's for sale now and that does it's not necessarily going to be for sale once I sell the BMW and have cash to buy a dual sport. Sure. I'd really like a dr350 but they're a little hard to come by and in in demand because they're a great they're a great compromise between a An underpowered 250 and an overweight, you know, 600 650 bike 650 is not bad. It's just heavy.

Robin: It's heavy Okay.

Travis: Yeah, and the other bike I was looking at allows the KLR the old KLR 250 which The more I look into it, the more interesting is it's kickstart only but it's a 250 Yeah, and I guess it's basically the same architecture as the engine that Kawasaki using a lot of their quads Okay, so you can just swap out a lot of those quad parts and get off-road unregulated performance out of it You know, you can take off though the the road emissions cams and put on the off-road cams from a quad well I guess you can even kind of you can do a full engine swap or just swap like the jug in the head and Some you know the piston and stuff and make it like a 300 that they made in a quad Put in a quad bike that was the same basic motor just in like a 300 or 310 a joke

Robin: But all of this sounds very Travis Burrell Sony and well now that I've taken one engine apart. It's You know, that's a toy engine for you.

Travis: Oh and a single single cylinder super easy. Yeah, that'll be nothing What are you working on there?

Robin: You got your at the very moment what I'm working on is I've got the speedometer There were some nuts and bolts that had basically come loose falling apart cracked stripped shredded You know just age basically and so I've cleaned everything up and in order to upgrade this bike to LED a lot of Hondas have Running lights up front. Does your cb1000 have running lights up front?

Travis: Yeah, the cb1000 is running light So there's a dual filament bulb in the front signals Yeah, and I ran it runs and then when you flick it it turns off one element and flashes the other well

Robin: There's something to do with the grounding of that That's how it knows which one is being signaled as it grounds out if it grounds out one way That means the left signal if it grounds out another way that means the other so I don't know how they arrange their circuitry But I went through the hoops of simply following somebody else's instructions that have panned out very well A lot of hot is do this. So the running lights will be gone and I'm okay with that It's gonna be a little bit more generic and that the LED signals will work properly now that we have an LED compatible blinker for the signals But the system had to be changed up where what was the left signal is now a ground What was the right signal is now a diode. So those have been soldered in and Built up compatibility. So what I'm all I'm trying to get through tonight on two glasses of wine and a beer is To put on the properly colored shrink-wrap tubing so that I am being that much more kind to the next owner However far down the line. So what was blue must be green. What was blue must be orange this and that that's what I'm working

Travis: yeah, that's the the problem with the with you have a Single indicator bulb on the dash for your turn signals and you put LED lights all around Even if you put in a an electronic relay for the flashing signal Maybe the flash will bleed it'll bleed through because there's so much less resistance in your LED signals It'll bleed through the indicator bulb and and when you flick it whether you do it left or right It'll just flash all four signals without that diode in there to to mitigate the bleed-through

Robin: I see. So what exactly would you tell a noob such as myself? What does a diode do a diode is essentially a one-way for electricity So it can't get back through it can't get it's gated.

Travis: Yeah Yeah so it's you know because electricity just kind of flows through wherever it flows through and if it meets resistance or and it can do work if There's resistance, but if if there's not enough resistance, it'll just keep flowing through Yeah, and now with LEDs that can be quite the issue since they require so little voltage. It's not exactly helping There's a lot less resistance on them but LEDs the D and LED is a diode too. So do you have you have LED? Lights in the gauge cluster.

Robin: They are not LED. They are the other Incandescent incandescent. That's what I was. I'm glad that I could help you learn something new about light bulbs.

Travis: Yeah well, I always kind of I'm not sure I'd have to do some more research on that, but I really wonder if Replacing the indicator bulb with an LED if the you know the diode nature of the bulb would rectify the bleed-through without the requirement of Inserting an inline diode externally.

Robin: I can't invalidate that question What I can say is that the one guy who was crafty enough to come up with a solution that I am implementing Brought in an even more influential person on the forums who knew electrics better enough to say that if you're gonna Maintain the running lights you need to do this and that and he did everything LED So he actually came up with a separate circuitry system It allows you to have the LED signals and the LED runners and on and on and on He was one that everything on his bike is LED and his circuit diagram was a lot more Know what Travis just said does not work

Travis: Yeah, I'm not an electrical engineer. I'm not 100% on that with the the big one I do have the LED headlight and then I have LED LED lighted hand guards Are effectively running lights and but I just tied those into the running light circuit that runs into the Signals so that and then those are still incandescent bulbs in the actual signal housing itself So yeah, just with the with the big one, too I'm at that point of even though it's gonna be my main bike I guess when if I sell the BMW You know, it's old and it's ugly and I don't have to care about it as much

Robin: Remember, I was just telling you at the bar Yesterday that if that bike, you know It's one of those bikes where and you know this you you're the one that actually taught me This is that that's one of those bikes where you could pretty much have it until you were dead and we're not that old You know, it's just that simple if you wanted to maintain it simple as it gets, you know there was a time when I was worried about my ability to work on the four-cylinder the Bandit being a half-fired bike an air-cooled oil cooled inline parallel for it doesn't get much easier than that You know, that's the way to go so that's one of those bikes where if you've wanted to you could just stuff it in the corner and then like After you get the bike you want you can pull that out and just be like do do do do I'm kind of bored Oh, what do you know this thing still works? I can still ride it Yeah, exactly.

Travis: I'd say the only thing simpler is probably the Buell blast. Yes. That thing's a tank. Yeah one cylinder one carb Really? The only thing remotely complicated about it is the automatic choke where you can bypass that or put on a different carb Well the bike will hardly engine who needs a dentist. Yeah. Well, this other thing too is it's it's a Sportster 12 We'll probably get sports or eight three engine with a cylinder lobbed off and then bored out You know 500 CCS that transmissions made to take twice as much power as it's getting that transmission I'll never break the big Harley primary, you know the separate the transmission separate from the rest of the engine it can take a whooping Yeah, it'll just you'll never break. You'll never break that bike and it's uh, Part of me kind of wants if I want to really get like a an around town runner That's a street only bike not a dual sport. I kind of want to get another Another blast just because they're they're fun. They're stupid. They're fun the ride

Robin: This episode of the writing obsession podcast brought to you by grip and ride Which is an action sports passenger belt the grip and ride is basically a set of exterior handles attached to a textile weight belt Which provides both lower rider back support and passenger security learn more at www.gripandride.com That's www.grip-n-ride.com For more information site inspired topics from written articles and Travis you just packed a wallop of an article with your Topic of considering the middleweight sport tourer. What do you got to say about that?

Travis: Oh, yeah, I think the industry hasn't the Industry's got away from middleweight I mean this the bikes have just continued to get bigger and bigger bikes that were you know a thousand CC's 20 years ago became 1100 became 1200 became 1300.

Robin: It's the SUV mentality man.

Travis: They're trying to outdo one another yeah, there's this sort of arms race going on and and in the in the process the the sport tourer has become More of a tourer. It's become a yacht Yeah You know if you look at something if you you know if you just look at sport sport touring on any of the manufacturers websites You get bikes like the st 1300 the FJR 1300 the concourse 1400 the BMW k 1600 or r1200 now are these bad bikes no right, but they're big bikes. They're huge And really I think and I made the point of it on the the site of the on the article I mean BMW does have the f800 GT great bike are they way overpriced? Well, it's a BMW Yeah, and no one else really has there's one other that was kind of oh the the versus is the only other like sport Touring the 650 versus LT comes with bags and a windscreen and is comfortable So that's the Those are the only bikes really in that Over 500 under a thousand CC segment that are really coming with luggage. I make there is like the Ducati Hyper hyper motard, I think that comes with kind of bags, but nothing else is really in the segment definitely nothing like Bst 1300 the FJR that come kit it out fully with hard bags and windshields and a comfortable riding position

Robin: So, I don't know the FJR isn't even all that comfortable from what I've heard It's beautiful and it's it handles like a sport bike and it can do the long distance But the pegs they're high if you're if you're even slightly taller than I am That's the your femur is gonna be parallel to the ground so that and that and that just leaves you know

Travis: There are midsize bikes out there Kawasaki just came out with a new z800 But it's kind of a naked bike unlike the old 750 which had a half fairing more like the bandit But then there's there's some fully fared bikes with comfortable riding positions and that's sort of what we talked about the ninja 650 The Yamaha FZ 6 are as a full fairing with the standard riding position, but that's become the norm now

Robin: I think I like the idea of I Never would have said it when I first got my bandit. I think when I got my bandit I thought I hope someday I can get a real sport tour and now I've got my bandit Which is a pretty proud bike and I think to myself I like the conversions better than I like the dedicated the conversions allow you to pick the bike that suits you and its default Nakedness of sorts, you know half-fairing even a fully naked bike and then you can modify it to suit or a fraction of the sum of Dedicated sport tours that are oftentimes painful to ride.

Travis: Yeah, exactly I think there's um, you can take that you can take an fc6 are or a Gsx 650f even though they don't come as touring bikes from the factory per se You can easily add put those add-ons to them to make them Comfortable touring bikes and not has a haul around an extra 300 pounds a bike I mean, you don't have you know, 1,400 cc's of power, but when do you use it? You know if you're really gonna just Interstate Slab it. Why are you buying a sport bike good point? You know, I mean you can get a gold wing or you can get something that's gonna be actually way more comfortable I mean, I guess it's like you're doing if you want the option you have the money But if you're really focused on taking the the scenic and twisty route I really think you know taking a middleweight bike is gonna be lighter and more nimble and Outfitting it to take the stuff that you need to take along, you know in turn already talks about that a lot in his article

Robin: He's the one who wrote our history of sport touring on the site

Travis: Yeah, I really think that's kind of the way to go. I mean and even you know 2015 20 years ago. It was just you know Motorcycles and then you I guess more than that now because it's mm. It's 20 25 years ago You know motorcycles are motorcycles and you put bags on them and a windshield on them and then they were touring motorcycles The vetter the vetter fairing. No That's a whole different thing the better windjammer, but I think that's that's that's something to consider You know if you want to do sport touring, you don't have to spend $20,000 on a bike That's ready-made as a you know, quote-unquote sport tour. You can get a sporty Comfortable bike and add the touring factors to it Especially, you know if you start in the used market or you know, even then that you in these 600 750-800 CC bikes are Thousands of dollars less than their 1200 CC 1300 CC displacement counterparts not to mention lighter and lighter and then you take that extra money and you put on some aftermarket bags and a windshield get a seat made heated grips And you got a comfy bike that you can actually back out of a parking lot.

Robin: It's almost like we're taking back hip-hop Like nah, let's do this let's do this home style Let's do this old-school like this work with the way we used to you know Like we invented stuff that made sense that suited its purpose and cost far less And now as much as I love the genre or I might be more of a phylum. That is the sport touring Phylum. Yeah, cuz you got dirt you got Street so it's a lot more fun to just buy the bike that you just love the bike for the bike and Then build it into your bike. That's always I've taken great pride in in doing that Which brings me to one of the things I wrote about which was the tracker an upstart company that provides GPS Tracking for anything just about in the entire world, but it just happens to be really good as a lowjack for your motorcycle It's if you have a physical security system such as like the a bus locking mechanisms It's a German company and the tracker which is a pretty cheap. I mean, it's affordable little stick on lowjack system then Yeah, I mean you really have better security then than otherwise there are other lowjack systems that cost 150 some odd dollars this thing I think costs between 20 and 50 dollars between depending on which one you get Comes in black blue rose gold different colors all that stuff things about the size of a half dollar. It's just one way to Reliably secure your bike in case anything should ever happen to it I know that living in Chicago And you know, I've never known that I get a little bit worried about my motorcycle depending on where I parked it Luckily, I had a garage and then I worried about the garage getting broken into on and on and on This is one solution I came up with that I kind of like I'm gonna order one See if I can get them to send us a few once again for this podcast. We've had no Listener questions, so I'm gonna put this out there. This is a podcast We record it if you ask us the question, we will research it We will come up with the most logical sensible answer. We will weigh it against one another's opinions We'll come up with a conclusion and we'll discuss it for you online with credit to you for having asked it All you have to do is call 2 2 4 3 5 8 30 10 2 2 4 3 5 8 30 10 And if you know us personally don't call that number Is there also an email someone can send a question to Robin podcast at the riding obsession dot? Com on the interglobal webnet. I'm gonna go ahead and sip this beer again And if we can't, you know research or find a reasonable answer We'll make one up, but we'll let you know we made it up before we give it to you Yeah, and that just gives us that much more ammunition to make sure it's entertaining now as for this this episodes route planning I'll tell you something. I just need advice. Where will my wife and I travel to this year? We are we go on an annual trip. So last year my wife and I two up we rode south into Tennessee and then That took us through, Kentucky we ended up in North Carolina where the Blue Ridge Parkway all the way north and had an Astoundingly good time. So now it's just a matter of where do we want to go this year now? Travis isn't gonna get to go with me on this May trip But he does plan on going with me to the Ozarks, which will be fantastic I'm sure he will never experience anything that good. He's never seen anything like that So the question becomes where am I going? So here's what we've looked at We've looked at Colorado, but I had to warn Margaret Dean also not there for the site. She writes for the site, too She just wrote about the grip and ride and that's gonna be posted soon She and I talked about Colorado, which I've told her about what you and I experienced we had to go through You know, you had to go to Des Moines. You had in a big Kearney took three to get three days There's a lot of flat between here and there there's a ton of flat and there's a ton of stink, you know So you basically ride? What do we say you rode to the silo where you made a right then you rode to the next silo? You made another left those left the angles of these turns were about a hundred Seventy degrees.

Travis: Yeah, you could see you did basically the the highway we were on cuz we stayed off the freeway It was just a flat straight line that followed the railroad You could see a grain silo on the horizon you be aligned to the grain silo You kind of wiggle through this little town and then you see a grain silo on the horizon Under the grain silo and then you hit this little town and then you slow down you wiggle through the little town and then you See a grain silo on the horizon now was Colorado worth it.

Robin: Oh Man, was it ever? I mean route. What was the route six? It was just switch back up to switch back after sweeper after sweeper amazing ride in Colorado.

Travis: So we took Route 40 highway 40 over the bush Bertolt Pass in the Steamboat Springs if that's the one you're thinking of that's where we found the Snowcaps. Yeah, there we got up to like the tree line there.

Robin: Sure Was the melt river was coming down and it was that's only the first option Colorado we also thought about Memphis maybe ride that direction because that's not something that is on the Resume yet for the site. We've covered the Pacific Northwest. We've gone to the southeast This would be the general South the heart America's Heartland Go down to Memphis, maybe check that out because we're considering a big move at some point It's right on the border of a right on the border of Arkansas.

Travis: Yeah, we're running in all directions I mean you got hills and that's all hill country through there and then you could even jump jump over a little bit and catch the West side of the Appalachians.

Robin: I like this plan a lot. The only thing we've considered against that is something that's more Localized in which case she'd be able to ride the Hawk GT That would be a much modified version of the Lake Michigan Circle Tour all the way around but it'd be twisty twisty twisty twisty twisty

Travis: Yeah, find some a couple of the good UP roads, though Not only are that good on the if you stay out to the western edge of the UP the middle UP is pretty flat

Robin: Well good friend Kevin Mulcahy fellow Madisonian such as yourself He mentioned a particular highway that runs a little bit north of the UP I mean it waltz part of the new UP, but it's north of the lake

Travis: Yeah, us2 is pretty boring. If you just take us to around the lake.

Robin: Mm-hmm.

Travis: Yeah No, I like well, they have like the Porcupine Mountains and stuff in the Western Upper Peninsula Yeah, I think it'll definitely become more boring once we reach.

Robin: What is it Southern, Michigan on the way back that but still it'll be pretty That's when we'll hit the actual lake part up until that point

Travis: I want it to be curvatures if you have you follow if you follow the lake sure It's not so bad if you go down like the gut in Michigan It's soybeans and corn, but if you actually follow the lake shorts, it's it's interesting enough

Robin: So of those three, which ones do you like best?

Travis: Well, I mean, I think it'd be cool to Have Margaret ride with you instead of on the back, you know, so you think like Michigan circle tour with twisties Yeah, I think that'd be a fun ride. I mean otherwise You could do out west. It's just you got to do that slog to get out there

Robin: This wouldn't have anything to do with the fact that you might be able to join us for a short stint of it

Travis: No I mean I just I was just thinking like what would I like to do if it was even remotely possible that Laurel and I would have time Off during the summer together, you know, I think I'd like to have her ride her own bike and enjoy it That way if possible.

Robin: So what you're saying is that you hate having her wife right on the back of the bike?

Travis: Yes, that's that's you you read. Do you read through my ruse completely? I can't put anything past you Laser laser brain.

Robin: Let me make sure let's see here. Do I have this thing straight on? I believe this thing is just about as straight on as I can get it Yeah, Robin's fixing his gauges with superglue or Gorilla Glue Gorilla Glue for just this one a mod So, I don't know what they call this kind of screw where it's got a perforated edge around the head And it's molded into the plastic. I needed to take it to the hardware store So I went ahead and bored it out and said here's what I'm trying to design a fake version of this because one of them Has been stripped and well, we actually came up with solutions So now I've got the old one glued back into place, which will be far more secure than it was You know, then then it's gonna be fine. The other one on the other hand is Improvised so it needs to be Gorilla glued into place. Did I JB? Well, no why because Gorilla Glue these don't get any torque They take cap nuts and all I do is I hold the cluster together I'm not worried about it and you shouldn't be either sir You know why because beer and what beer are you drinking the MF it's is that the stuff that I bought when I was there? I've got another one and that brings us to our closer remarks and final sponsorship message this episode The writing obsession podcast was brought to you by grip and ride Grip and ride is an action sports passenger belt The grip and ride is basically a set of exterior handles attached to a textile weight belt Which provides both lower back support to riders as well as passenger security learn more at? www.grip-n-ride.com So closing remarks, this has been a great podcast. It's good to get back on our feet We should probably do this every week. We're trying to shoot for every Wednesday I've come up with three new platforms that I hope that will implement one is what we're doing right now Where I now have over-the-ear headphones and a mic I can work on my bikes while we're chatting about whatever we're chatting about another Option that I hope we'll put to use is Riding to Waterford, which is the sort of the halfway point between Madison and where I'm at Mine's a little bit longer just in terms of no twisting this mine Yours is longer in terms of miles. I made mine longer because of finding something interesting to ride Yeah, it takes me if I take the twisty route.

Travis: It takes me like two and a half hours Are you complaining a little bit when it's 40 degrees out and spitting rain?

Robin: Yeah Was it 40 degrees yesterday, I felt like it it felt like There's certainly no Sun and there was wind the third Tech that we might like to put to use is the next time you and I take a ride We will have audio documentation of the intercoms while we ride the twisties wherever we're at That might be fun. We can that would be a good thing if we can figure that out I learned something that I wish I did not have to learn and that's that I am definitely 41 I learned that I am out of shape my Firehose material pants no longer fit properly. So to ride comfortably I have to leave well to ride comfortably with the Thermals still in them. I have to unbutton the top one.

Travis: Yeah, my my stuff all still fits good, but yeah, definitely the the big one could use a custom seat because I rode the The beamer today and I got that a nice custom seat for it and man Well, you know because you have a you have a seat guy seat to me I do it makes it makes all the difference that I mean this the stock seat on the Honda is not terrible But it's 20 years old. Who's the seat guy John Revella the seat guy at the Seat guy calm as they have a website. Yeah, so now he owes us 50 bucks a man or at least a good case of beer Yeah, or like maybe I'll do my Honda seat for you know, 150 bucks. Yeah Probably not Anyway, yep, that's about it Don't don't underestimate stretching before the season starts you think you got it Like you spend time in the garage getting the bike ready get yourself ready because it'll make a difference So this has been the riding obsession podcast for the riding obsession calm.

Robin: I'm Robin Dean.

Travis: I'm Travis Burlson safe travels everyone