Robin: I had prepared words for the opening. I don't remember what they were anymore.

Brian: Use those words. I don't remember what they were anymore. Yeah. Say, say what you said when I came in. We had a high energy week. Epic.

Robin: We didn't ride the roads. We burned them into the side of a mountain. Yeah. First thing I need to say before we get started is I can see you in Google Maps. And if you don't conceal your location, I'm going to steal all of your coin bits. I can still, you're still sharing your location with me.

Brian: Oh, I thought I stopped that. Yeah. I thought I stopped that somewhere in Las Vegas or something.

Robin: Well, it may depend on which account because you've got, you got two accounts and I'm like, well, okay. Now, which face am I looking? I don't know.

Brian: Yeah, weird.

Robin: In this episode, truth or consequences. What's new to New Mexico? We ran our New Mexico NM3 truth or consequences tour and learned a lot. We had some very interesting and unexpected things happen. It was pretty dang cool. Also, weathering the unexpected as it pertains to the New Mexico tour. We asked Joanne and Don, what gear would you recommend for this kind of unexpected situation? Which you'll hear about in a moment. And where in the world is George Wyman? I don't know where we're at in that discussion because I'm still producing last week's episode because I had a tour to run and articles to write. So now I've got time to start getting all my ducks in a row and everything. I do know that we're still discussing George Wyman with Mr. Jordan Lehman and that it's going to be interesting as last time because I know that was a rocking exchange. All right, by confirmation, it is my turn to steer the ship, but we are, we're both holding on to the wheel. Opening banners, corrections, website updates. First off, huge with a Y, changes to the suspension sag calculator. Thank you very much, Brian, for helping me figure that out. Good friend, Paul Rosner was here who went on our trip seven store. He also joined us for the New Mexico tour and he got a new bike.

Brian: It's a Yamaha MT-10, basically the sporty four-cylinder CP crossplane crank.

Robin: It's got a fully adjustable suspension front and rear. He had just gotten the bike. He had not gotten a chance to get it dialed in and we wanted to get it right. So I finally started going at it with TRO's suspension sag calculator, but honestly, I couldn't remember what I was forgetting. I couldn't remember that fourth ingredient that you brought to light because I do now remember why the calculator was the way it was. Find out what your suspensions travel is, know what your sag needs to be, use the calculator, right? Now we've changed it up. So you can't use the calculator unless you know what your suspension travel is. And that took some fairly, well, entertaining exchange between you and I over the phone. We had to get our math right. Yeah. Yeah, we had to get our mathing. I don't even agree with that. We were both slaloming different angles of the conversation. While I was pointing out one thing, he was concluding about another and I was like, no, no, no. And he would go, no, no, no. And then we would jump back to, I'm talking about the sag measuring points and he's like, we'll talk about the suspension. Then I jumped to the suspension. He talks about the sag measuring points and we kept on doing that back and forth. Took three phone calls before I figured out what the hell we were trying to get done. And we did thanks to Brian. Brian is the reason the suspension sag calculator is the way it is now. I'm way happier with it because now you need to find out what is your bike's total suspension travel and then you may begin going through the measuring process. Thank you, Brian. Now, I love this. Brian entered into my opening banter, thoughts of Viridian Cruise product for the Suzuki Gixator, which is basically electronic cruise control. I'm thinking, I love it. I had cruise control on the Beamer. It was handy. I enjoyed it very much. It's been stated on repeat episodes that this is a modular build for me. I bought a very affordable bike and I'm turning it into a personally modulated, expensive bike.

Brian: Yeah.

Robin: On this product, I got to say all of the yes. Yeah. If this exists, I got to wonder if there are others. I was just driving one of our friends, Subaru's, and it has a digital cruise control setting where you can actually say, I want to go 84 in a 75. Odds are nine, you're fine. Ten, you're mine. If you're cruising down the expressway, if you're going nine over, you can probably get away with it with the cops. They're not really worried about that. You hit the 10 mark, double digits. That's when they just start to say, well, I see a, I see a financial opportunity here for our community. So right. That I would love to see a version of it where I can actually set the speed that I'm trying to attain. But I mean, dude, what am I talking about here? If this exists at all, I didn't expect to ever have this. I've got a throttle locker on mine. A go cruise too. You know, what are your thoughts?

Brian: Yeah, that'd be nice. That's the thing. I think it's just malpractice for motorcycles manufacturers to build bikes that have a throttle by wire, which is pretty much all of them nowadays and not write the, you know, four extra lines of code to have a, have cruise control. I mean, it's crazy. Put in a couple of buttons. And in fact, on my Yamaha, every day I ride the bike, I had to look at a switch pod with three blanks in it, where they took out cruise control switches just to remove cruise control capability from, from the motorcycle. They have it on the Super Tenera of that year. So all the, you know, the, you have speed sensors, you have an ECU that runs software and you have a throttle sensor and you have an actuator, you got everything you need for cruise control, but they won't do it. And there, there are kits that people have hacked together for Yamaha. Now, this company does not make a kit yet for Yamaha, but they do make a kit for, I noticed they make a kit for Suzuki and several other bikes. Uh, they're basically plugin kits too, which is really interesting. You don't have to run any extra anything. You just plug into the existing connectors. Oh yeah. The reviews are good. Um, no affiliation. It looks pretty interesting. It's, it's expensive. It's not cheap, but it would be cool.

Robin: 400 bucks. I mean, if I have that lying around, will I do it? Probably. Cause I always enjoy building the bike. It's an outlet for creativity in some respect. Right?

Brian: Yeah. When's the last time you had 400 bucks that wasn't doing anything? Huh? Yeah.

Robin: It's been a minute.

Brian: Mr. Diesel owner.

Robin: Yeah. Diesel truck, three grand right there. New serpentine belt. Hey. And a new studs for the turbo mounts. I will say when Brian talks about, for all you coders out there, when Brian discusses four lines of code, he's talking about four lines of code that have an entire function of ternary operators in each line. But in the end, I'm exaggerating. Yeah. Cool feature. I would love to have. Yeah. But before I can even think about that, I actually am right on the money hitting maintenance time. It's time to check my air filter. I've got the stock air filter in there. After my ordeal with the BMW previous, I'm discovering that I love the factory parts. So I'll probably stick with a factory, unless I go to a professional race tuner, you know, and say here, do the whole thing. I got no complaints about the bike. Did it look like I was struggling to ride it? You know? And like, I felt happy on it. It felt like it did what I asked of it.

Brian: Not from my, not from my viewpoint, uh, wrestling a 21 inch front wheel, but, um, the riding a moose elk or moose. Yeah. You know, the thing is any, any reasonably modern bike, the bottleneck and the whole intake exhaust system is not the fricking filter. Yeah. You know, it's yeah. You know, that's, that's far from the, far from being any sort of bottleneck to airflow.

Robin: I sent a video to Brian. Yeah. Cause I wanted to know his thoughts on this. He's had plenty of Suzuki's to deal with. I've had a couple of myself. There's a video out there where the guy says, okay, basically remove the screening foam that they've inserted before the air filter and disconnect the direct air intake ports so that it's just a box under the seat with two holes that go right to the air filter. From what I can tell, I can see ditching the sponge. That's new visually to me. It's like, I know how these cotton air filters work. I could probably get away from getting rid of that sponge. I still don't know if I even want to do that. He claims extreme power change, an extreme power delivery shift before any kind of an ECU flash. And I'm fascinated by it. I am, but we'll give it a try. Yeah. That's what I say. What that, so my question for you right now, this is me as the listener, you as the specialist. If I pull off those intake ports, what am I doing in the case of a heavy downpour can rain reach that point and start pulling water into the air box?

Brian: Um, I don't know how your air box is designed. Most air boxes have a, uh, fairly capable drain in the bottom. So it's really not much of a worry where those are. You're not going to get direct. You're going to get like mist. It's not really, it's really should not be a problem. I think it's something that's worth experimenting with. So what they're talking about is you basically pull out these two antlers that are these intake tubes. And I think they're basically designed to damp intake noise. So that's one thing. People who do this report, it has more intake noise. And some people like that, that kind of slobbery slurping air intake thing. I honestly don't care about noise. Yeah, I know you don't. Yeah. The dyno graphs are a little bit different, a little bit better without all this. So the other thing is this nice about this, it's all reversible. So you might as well, might as well see what happens, you know?

Robin: Oh, wait, what am I looking for here on this, this link? This 13, look for Lagonia.

Brian: Oh yeah. That's a, that's a, that's a thread on ADV rider where they're doing a photo tag. So you take a photo and the next person figures out where that was and goes to that spot, gets another photo. Anyway, I noticed that one of the, one of the people went to a place in Indiana called Lagonia where George Adams Wyman, who, you know, first person to cross America on a motorcycle where George stopped one day in 1903 and somebody actually put up a plaque. So if you scroll down to that link.

Robin: So I'm speaking to Jordan in the future. If you're listening to this, Jordan will have to remember whatever I titled this episode to be, to discuss the fact that you and I discussed the fact that George Wyman, who he'll be discussing in the future about George Wyman's past, went to this place.

Brian: Yeah.

Robin: So I'm sure that somehow we can create a wormhole into oblivion throughout the galaxy.

Brian: If the name of the town Goshen comes up, then, then he actually pushed through Goshen and stopped in Lagonia. Please make a note of it. Anyway, go on. How are you doing? I'm good, man. We were talking earlier. We're all, we're, we're, everything was at a fever pitch. We were riding, you know, great, great time, camaraderie, all that good stuff. Flew back to Indiana, back to work. So the energy is a different place. Yeah. Still recovering. Still like, you know, it, it takes a few days like of, of sleeping to return back to normal after doing a big pushing trip like that, the memories will exhaust you just thinking about that curve, that one section, that view like, Oh my goodness, I did that. Yeah. Yeah. The weird thing about my spring is next. So I'm working this weekend and next week. I'm doing it again. I'm going on another trip to the Smoky Mountains. So we're going to be in Tennessee and North Carolina on KLRs doing a big dual sport trip, getting dirty, getting dirty, another exhausting. Uh, so the people at work have feelings and that's fine and that's okay. You know, but, uh, I'll be nose to the, I'll be nose to the grindstone pretty much all of May. So I think I should be able to catch up. So yeah, just getting ready for that. All I have to do is change the oil on my KLR. There's really no, not much prep needed. The other thing that's happening is tomorrow. There's a, uh, there's tomorrow and Saturday. There's an event at the, uh, local triumph dealer in Indianapolis where the triumph shows up with their truckload of motorcycles and, and lets people ride them.

Robin: You have been assigned a pro. You've been given an assignment.

Brian: I have an assignment. What was the adventure? What was it? The, yeah, the tiger sports, six 60 tiger sports, six 60. So I'll try to get on that. If I can.

Robin: I imagine it's going to be mellow on the power, but it is probably going to be fun and probably get handled like a dream. And it is absolutely the best looking tall arounder I've ever seen. I think it's really great looking bike.

Brian: And I'll make sure and ask him if they fix the, uh, fix the damn anti-theft crap yet.

Robin: Can it be disabled and removed? Is there a workaround? Yes. I know what they're going to do too. Uh, you know, it's interesting. You say this one's got ABS. Let's talk about the cruise control options. Like, you know, there's skip around.

Brian: Yeah.

Robin: You'll hear a mumble somewhere in there. Prince of darkness, Prince of darkness, Prince of darkness.

Brian: Yeah. It kind of, you know, it's, uh, we'll see the bikes are great. They're just, they're European bikes. You have to keep that in mind.

Robin: I think British bikes, Brian.

Brian: Yeah. Well, they're made in Thailand. If we want to be technical. Yeah. They got little union jacks on them, but, uh, I'm harsh. I actually love triumph. I'm just pissed, you know? Oh, yeah. I, you have every right to be pissed and anyway, I'm burning a lot of vacation. I regret nothing. And hopefully in June, we got a, got some rallies, hopefully a track day. And who knows what the rest of the summer is going to be like, going to be great. You ready to move on to some listener questions? Let's hear some listener questions. Robin.

Robin: We have one from one of our regular asker, reverse the Ascorator. And it's a good question. Simple to answer. And since we have limited time, we'll crank this one out quick and move right along. KB asks, have you used any route planning software that finds fuel stops based on the route time, miles and or fuel consumption? My answer is that over at TRO, we're pretty dedicated to ridewithgps.com. Again, that's ridewithgps.com. The trick is to divide the routes, resulting mileage as needed for gas stops, using Google maps to highlight them. And by Google maps, I mean, they have multiple optional layers, different map systems that you can click and choose from while looking at the exact same route, because the routes just align. So if you select Google maps as the layer of view, then you can zoom in and find gas stops and all kinds of things. The trick is to divide your distances up. I like to go about 60 miles per stop to take a break, give the legs a rest and just find gas stops along the way as destinations point to point to point. Now, what you're asking to sort of have it automatically highlight them to some extent, maybe that'd be kind of cool. I do like the concept of it. There may even be a way to do that in ridewithgps, but I've not yet explored it. If I'm to quote Alex Gay, who was on the show a while back, if you think of it and have to ask about it, it probably exists. You just haven't quite found it yet. He was pretty confident in the fact that like we pretty much got all bases covered. It's just now people have to learn how to play this thing. You're either playing chopsticks or you're playing some WC piano masterpiece and you got to get there.

Brian: It started as bicycle route software. So they don't know how much they care about gas stations, but oh, they do. Alex is a Miata guy. Yeah. Oh, there you go. They need gas, right? And yeah, just a basic route planning. Like, like you can kind of mouse over your route and see what mileage you're at and do a little math and then zoom out and see, oh, here's some civilization here. Here's or the road crosses the interstate. There might be a gas station, things like that. But yeah, I don't, I don't know anything that'll kind of route you from gas station to gas station, not so much route.

Robin: But if you create your route, will it highlight the gas station distance between points? Maybe that's what I don't know. I like your version too.

Brian: Yeah, you can kind of see the towns and then there's going to be gas or sometimes there'll be gas. If you're, if you're not in New Mexico or Arkansas, where they can apparently have a town with no gas station, pretty large town. If you'd like us to field your questions, email podcast at tro.bike. It's podcast at tro.bike. We promise we will look at these and you may or may not get an answer of some sort.

Robin: Segment one, new to New Mexico, sponsored by twistedroad.com. Brian is going to give you the reasoning behind why this particular segment in this particular episode is sponsored by twistedroad.com. We'll get to that. Brains full. Yes. Talk, tour, truth, consequences. That's what we're going to do. We're going to discuss the fact that we just rocked the TRO truth or consequences N M three tour, which covers New Mexico and a portion of Arizona, namely devil's highway. And as the person up front, one trick to leading a ride is if you can remain calm, have a great time. Enjoy your ride. Remain calm. Keep an eye. Anticipate use foresight to solve problems that don't even exist yet. Some things just will make it through the screen and curtain of whatever you're trying to do and bite you in your ego's ankle. And that's okay. You're providing a good time. Robin. He said to himself, here we go. Things I learned personally. First one, no more tours during any popular holiday. This was one of those things that it was either going to be a good, you remember I told you in an episode ago, like, Hey man, I had to change some scooter tires and I knew they were either going to be incredibly troubling by comparison, anything I'd ever done or way, way, way easier. Guess which one they were. I'm sort of exaggerating this, but the point is that this was one of those. It might be a good idea to do these on holidays. It also might not be a good idea. And as is now known, it's not. So holiday free time, as it were, isn't people are spoken for during these anti vacations, correct? Father's day. I can't wait for father's day. I'm going to go on a ride. Said nobody ever because family's going to put on a three hour play in your living room.

Brian: Yeah. Fathers don't get to do whatever the hell they want on father's day.

Robin: They don't get to do whatever they want on mother's day.

Brian: I've learned this in the Brown County rally and scheduling, you know, when one year it happened on mother's day when we had it in May and we had like five people whose mothers were already dead or something. And then and then we tried father's day and apparently that doesn't work either. Well, we picked Easter somehow. We ended up on Easter because Easter was in a weird time this year. Yeah. Let's face it. Easter is the weird one here. It's a moving target. Easter jumps around and it was really late this year. And as this happened next year, Easter is on April 5th. That's good. Yeah. So you're going to avoid Easter next year.

Robin: I'm going to avoid Easter next year. Hell, I might even do something in October. I'm thinking about it. We shall see people are spoken for. So that's one. I've looked at things like, you know, father's day or like Easter. I'm thinking, oh, well, the time off is already there. Maybe they'll get into less trouble with work if they bleed more days into that already established time off. And nope, it doesn't. Well, yeah, here we are. Next up. I'm saying these in order of the next thing that happened. The first thing that happened during the tour, we had a slightly low tire during the first break of day one after riding into Silver City to get fuel. And I've got a way to inflate the tire. It turns out that's pretty cool. Um, like I discovered that my jump kit, that jump starter, it's emergency power. It's a big block of lithium, right? It can be plugged into the wall and charge all of my stuff as a single hub for all of my tech that I bring along. So while it's charging, it is charging other things. Nice. So when I discovered that that cheap portable air pump that is a set it and forget it, we wrote an article on it. We'll go to tear it up. I can look for air pump and you'll find one that looks like whatever. Anyway, point is it can be plugged into the jump pack and can gain power from it directly via USB while doing the pumping. So that worked out what I did not have in case we needed to use a hand pump and we do have a hand pump, like a bicycle pump, I will be adding a tire valve extension hose to the pack. I mean, it's cheap. It's light. It's dumb. It's like five inches of floppy. You just screw it on, plug in your pump. Yeah. Way better. Way easier. So keep that in mind on your next door. Live and learn.

Brian: You probably get one of those at any truck stop. Really? They probably had one inside the gas station, Walmart, whatever.

Robin: Sure thing. Alpine, Arizona. Beautiful, beautiful devil's highway. This time I bought the sticker and the magnet only cost me a small mortgage. Yeah. Alpine lodging. We found solid lodging. It was a great solution. It was not as expected. I booked the rooms through Airbnb. My eyes told me, Hey, look at that. We've got two rooms and a couch. I will take the couch or whatever. We'll draw straws for the couch, whatever we want. And on arrival, I discovered this was not a private established. It wasn't a house or anything. The living room was part of a lodge.

Brian: Yeah.

Robin: If I were going to do this, people are going to walk into the main lobby of this lodge and see some hobos sitting on a couch trying to sleep. And that's just not the kind of place this was. Although the only other guests were a couple of turkey hunters. Thank you, turkey hunters. Keep them off our roads, please. Awesome. Brian immediately scored himself a room. We had enough rooms. No problem. Only solutions. And the lodging that we found in Alpine will probably be the default solution.

Brian: Now that you know what it is, it's really, it's basically a bunkhouse. So you've got like a central, a central area, which is really nice. And there's a giant elk hanging on the wall and several elk in the yard. Cowboy kitsch all over the place. I massaged the hallway thermostat. So I was a little more comfortable. And apparently all the heat went into Paul's room. Sorry. Sorry, Paul.

Robin: Paul should be taking notes about this episode. So anything we missed, we'll just hand him the mic. He can talk the entire next episode. Cliff Dwellings, the gas stop at Cliff Dwellings. So I use ride with GPS to lead these tours. Not only will it give me the standard Google Maps prompts, I can also program my own prompts into it and it will read them verbatim to me out loud at a given fixed point. I know this because I used to have a ball with this while Maggie and I were leading Can-Am rides. I would change the map while she was in ride. And when she gets back, it would say some incredibly awkward things while she was turning back into the parking lot with these Can-Ams and she'd look at me and sneer and give me the middle finger and we'd laugh our butts off. The Cliff Dwellings gas stop. I need to A, confirm every time there's a tour. Is that gas station still there? Because it is. It's still there. I need to reword the prompt so it elaborately lets me know. Trust your judgment. Yes, that's a gas station. Yes, you need to go to it. No, it seems far away, but it's actually not that far, but you got to. So there's a, if you ride this tour and you opt to go to the Cliff Dwellings, which is an amazing curvy road.

Brian: Fantastic.

Robin: You got to make sure that you have enough gas after the fact so that you can make it home. I need to go into ride with GPS and type, Hey, Robin. Yes, you're correct. It is a gas station. Zoom out. That's all I needed to do. Zoom out and go get gas. Now, last thing I'll talk about real quick. And then it's Brian's turn. The fluke weather. We had three weeks of 75 to 85. 75 to 85, 85 to 75. It was beautiful. And then on one particular day of this particular part of the late early start of summer, whatever you want to call it snowed. What can we say? We saw flakes hit our helmet. Now, was it still rideable? Yeah. Did we do some riding on that day? Yes, we got two amazing days in and the very last day, which is only 190 miles of out and back. We got hammered by snow. I was prepared. I had what I needed in my top case, ready to go all the way to Iron Mountain and back. But others had no reason to be that prepared and weren't. It was just a wild scenario. Why were they going to fly to New Mexico with that forecast at that time of the year? And then find that we're going to deal with 35 degree lows. I made a point not to put on my solution because you guys didn't pack one. I needed to know what you guys were feeling. Yeah, and we all agreed. Okay. No, this is it. Let's go have a beer and pizza. And that's my take on this entire segment. Brian, you get the whole microphone turn here. It's yours. Thank you, Matton. All right.

Brian: Like I had brought my three, I brought my cold weather gloves, but I didn't bring my like snowmobiling weather gloves. Like I've got one. I've got one stage colder that would have made it all possible. And then also we were looking, you know, looking up at the mountains where we were going to go into other areas of snow and areas of rain that were obviously falling actively at that time. And, and the other thing I'll say about that is going into there. I had kind of mentally set a limit for myself. If it gets to be 40 degrees and or precipitating, then yeah, we're not going to try this last segment. Yeah. 40 degrees is my cutoff with the gloves. I had, uh, everything else was pretty okay, but yeah. Why, why would I go to New Mexico and in late spring with, uh, my deepest winter gloves, you know, cluttering up my luggage. I don't know.

Robin: Yeah. Now, I mean, nitriles would solve the problem. That's what Paul was using, but it was still just freaking cold.

Brian: So yeah. Like last year, I flew out to Albuquerque. I rented a motorcycle from TRO sponsor twisted road.com. Yeah. There's some things you learn because there's a lot of, you know, it's kind of like planes, trains, and automobiles are using a lot of different forms of transportation. Hopefully everything fits together and it did last year and it did this year too, but it was, it was a lot. Uh, I got up at one 30 Albuquerque time, which was three 30. My time to get to the airport by four, four 30 and get on my flight at six o'clock, went through Denver and then, and then went there Albuquerque. Yeah. I get off the plane like 10 50, uh, Albuquerque time. It was two hours mountain time, two hours ahead of my home time. Zomboid zomboid city. So anyway, I'd already set up the rental twisted road.com where I ended up after, after some back and forth and so forth was, uh, ended up with, uh, renting a Honda Africa twin, uh, from a really great guy named, uh, Stuart, Stuart P shut up. He's got a couple of bikes that he rents out. So he's got a little, he's got a little side hustle going with these bikes. Great way to do it. Very well maintained. He's got a BMW, I think, and maybe another one. The, one of the reasons I picked this bike was it's got a lot of luggage because I had a lot of crap with me. He had his big aluminum boxes and plenty of room for all my junk and all that stuff. So my carry on on the airplane was my helmet stuffed into the bottom of a big backpack. And it was really hard to find a backpack that would actually, this would work on. And then my jacket was stuffed in there with my gloves inside the, inside the helmet. And I was wearing my riding boots and some Kevlar jeans. And the idea would be if my luggage, cause I checked a bag with all my other stuff. And so if that got lost, I could still go get the bike and be able to move and do and, and get things done. Fortunately, that didn't happen. You know, I got my luggage, uh, everything went fine there. You know, the truth is most, most of the time, everything goes just fine, but you have to be ready for contingencies. You love them or hate them. Southwest does get you where you're going. So, you know, uh, everything was right on time, that kind of thing. But yeah, it was really like, I, I went through three or four backpacks on Amazon to find one that was, that didn't have a lot of extra padding and BS on it.

Robin: A pillow with a pocket.

Brian: Yeah. Yeah. Some, so many bags are just full of like extra foam for no reason. Uh, this is one that actually, it folds down into about basically a small Nerf football size. So if I needed to save space, which I didn't on this trip, this bike, the bags were huge.

Robin: Plus based on my packing checklist, that's a great idea. We have a folding Frisbee in there in case anything happens and you were stuck roadside folding Frisbee. I like the idea of a fold up book bag that becomes a Nerf ball.

Brian: There you go. Yeah. You can actually play football with it. Yeah. Yeah. In case you get that board, although riding boots aren't good for taking a long pass, but you know, true. And also on the way back, I went through Las Vegas and I'd like to express again for the record that the Las Vegas airport is a shithole. Anybody who flies anywhere probably knows that already. So yeah, the rental went, went very well. Uh, bike was in great shape. Tires were in great shape this time around. That's great. I really had no issues. Uh, I, I needed to put a, I actually brought a, uh, charging setup with me for my phone, for my navigation on the bike. And, uh, Stu was really, really flexible about, you know, you let me like, you let me like take the battery out, hook this thing up and get it all wired in. So I'd have a, you know, I'd have my navigation. You went direct to battery or any kind of relay? Uh, went direct to battery. I didn't bring a relay and all that stuff with me. So just, it was rude. Maybe. Uh, I probably, I probably should have taken another couple of hours and hit a radio shack if there, if there are any around and well, wait, did you let them keep all that set up the wiring? Yeah. I actually, I actually said, if you let me put this on, you can leave this charger on the bike for, for anybody else who needs it. Does it have an inline fuse? He's he's happy. Yes, it does. And it's got a switch on it. So you can turn the charger off completely. So it won't drain the battery. So it's fine. Yeah. And two things that weren't a problem that they could have been a problem. And I need to remember for the future. And I just a little feedback. I think twisted road could, could make this a little clearer, but, uh, I'd never really did figure out what registration documents you need to have on the bike, uh, whether it's the owner's registration documents or what. I, and yeah, I never did figure that out. And the same goes for the insurance. What I did figure out on insurance is when you buy the insurance through twisted road, you do have a way to print that out and bring it with you. I didn't really see that until three days after the ride. I was looking around. I started thinking about, you know, what if I had been stopped, you know, and had to talk to somebody in a funny hat, yo Austin, Hey, yo, Austin, just an email a couple of days ahead, say, Hey, make sure you print out your insurance. Make sure you have these documents with you, whatever that may be to prove that you're not stealing the bike, uh, the owner's registration, whatever. And the other thing I didn't really know, understand whether or not I needed my motorcycle insurance documents with me. That's a better safe than sorry thing. Did you bring it anyhow? I would have needed a, an internet connection. I could have gotten to it on my phone, but for 90% of where we were and we were hooning around, that wouldn't have worked.

Robin: So zoom into the center of devil's highway and you'll figure out that. Yeah. We weren't communicating much.

Brian: You will see no cell phone tower there whatsoever. We did not take a break to watch a movie on a solid to cell phone commercials. Right. That could have been clear and partly, you know, that's partly my fault for not really thinking about it until it was too late. But anyway, next time my insurance stuff, the twisted road insurance, um, and do a little research on what the heck is, is available or what the heck you need to have on the bike in case you do need to have an awkward conversation. Just saying it could happen. Uh, as far as the bike itself, um, the Africa twin was a, it was a great bike for the trip. Uh, very roomy, very comfortable. And Stu, this is great. Stu actually had two seats for this bike and you could choose which one. So I got the one that was a little taller just to give me a little more leg room for my banged up knee. Very good. Very good. It was just perfect for this, this sort of thing in a huge bags. Kind of the downs. Yeah. Kind of the big downside is that, I mean, there's nothing hidden here. The Africa twin is an enormous bike. It's huge. 21 inch front wheel, big forks way out there, big fairing. It's heavy. It's top heavy.

Robin: Without the side bag still manages to be kind of skinny. So it really does say ADV for real. Like I, I would rather have that than the R motors from Bima.

Brian: Yeah. Yeah. It's really, yeah. It's really quite narrow. Uh, ground clearance or according clearance was pretty good. I thought, I thought the handling was, uh, it handled quite well for what it is. Whether you want it. Yeah. We keep talking about this cliff, this cliff dwellings road. And I think it's what New Mexico 15, I think is what it's called. Yes. It's, it's a ridiculously. Yeah.

Robin: I just remember burying a corner and coming around and finding one of those massive odyssey million dollar zebra Hunter off-road adventure RVs and it bicycled to get out of my way because it was in my lane that you can retell this, if you want, I remember when we got to the bottom, you explained to me that you felt like you had already not only been riding a motorcycle, but you also got to go to the gym.

Brian: Yeah. It was a workout because this road's very, very twisty and it kind of goes up and down and up and down and up and down. And I think up and then down maybe one more time, but basically it just goes right across and over and through two or three pretty large. So it goes through a lot of elevation changes and across a couple of Ridge systems and, you know, when it was actually pretty chilly up high and then hot down low, yeah, I was beat. I was sweaty. I was, I had gone through a, you know, a 10 round workout by the time we got to the end of that. I mean, it was a hoot total blast. Yeah. And this thing, you know, his bike had kind of had these Dunlop adventure tires on it, so it did really, you know, it did really well on, on the really filthy roads, like on the devil's highway. Make sure you put some reverb on that too. Highway highway. But on like devil's highway, uh, this road and all that, you know, they have the really narrow ones have a lot of debris on the road and stuff, especially devil's highway, which was about, you said it's the cleanest you've seen it, but it's still pretty filthy.

Robin: Well, no, the cleanest I've seen that that was cleaner than the first time we wrote it together. The cleanest I've seen was 59 out to iron mountain and back, which has never been more pristine. And we did not get to do that.

Brian: Yeah.

Robin: Counterpoint on your appreciation of those Dunlops. I mean, that's a, what a 60, 40 tire, 80, 20.

Brian: Yeah. That's a pretty aggressive off-road tire, but it worked. It worked on payment just fine. I mean, all the way out to the edges. Yeah.

Robin: My angel STS that we're getting on the cheap is like the reversal of that. So it's tread. It didn't step out on me once. Well, actually no, it did step out of me once and I saw it coming. I was like, it's going to step out here and it did, but every other pile of P gravel, you know, pool, chip seal, whatever it was, it just absorbs that material and then places it right back down on the ground. I, it was just sticking all the time. I loved it. Do they last? I can't. Yeah. They're great tires. I'm happy with them.

Brian: Yeah. Very happy with them. So I got on my Yamaha back home and I can say the same.

Robin: Sorry about that. I digress. Continue, please.

Brian: Okay. One thing I really want to bitch about though, is the location of the horn and the turn signals on the Honda Africa twin. They are the reverse of every other bike I've ever ridden. Meep meep. Oh, he's turning. Yeah. Except for BMW and Harley, which are totally different. But anyway, what, which actually make us some sort of, this makes no sense, but basically I kept honking when I meant to hit the turn signal. Uh, and I kept hitting the turn signal. I didn't really need to honk, but yeah, I don't know. I don't, are all Hondas like, is this a Honda thing where they just, they just know we're going to do this our way. Bitch, bitch, bitch.

Robin: No idea. Yeah. Yeah. Tim Clark could answer that one. If he were listening anymore, if he's out there, Tim Clark.

Brian: Have I told you about my monkey? Yeah, it was funny. We got, I got there and then immediately there's a big bag and a small bag. And these, these are enormous aluminum panniers. Robin knows, Hey, these are, we had to remove the positions of the bag. The small one's supposed to go on this, on the right side with the muffler and the other one, and that way they're even out. No big deal. Easy to do.

Robin: So what I saw was a massive right shift in the luggage area because the, because one bag has to be smaller, the exhaust goes in between it and the frame. And you want the same general geometry for wind or weight or whatever. It's like, Hey, uh, huh. And it was super easy to, I mean, they're just built like erector sets or like advanced space Legos. You just pull them apart, put them together. And now they're that.

Brian: Yeah. I think it's, yeah, it's an SW Motec system. Really, really well-made. Um, but yeah, I, I do, I do hear that the bags, uh, come very, very, very close to the ground in some corners. At least that's what I've heard. I stayed at the Pelican spa hotel in truth or consequences, funky, bright colored, if you want the corporate Hilton holiday and experience, do not go there under any circumstances. But if you want to stay somewhere, if you want to, if you want to get weird, uh, that's the place to go. It's awesome.

Robin: Hey man, welcome to Pelican. Hold on a second. Cause decriminalization. All right. Let's uh, let's talk slow here. All right. And let's get into this. All right.

Brian: Yeah.

Robin: You say you have a, how do you say this? Reservation.

Brian: Yeah, man.

Robin: Yeah. All right. It's cool. Cool word, man. Cool word.

Brian: Yeah, very. But yeah, it was, it was great. I just left my stuff there all four days instead of, instead of exiting to go to Arizona and then coming back and all the logistics and packing and it was, it was worth it. Then they've got these, they've got these tubs. You can soak in using the local mineral water, you know, as a giant pipe. The facilities are very, very clean and usable and everything, but everything is very old too. So just know that, but it's included with the part of the room. So I had a nice soak and it was, it was nice. And again, we've also referred to the weather was as everything from 90 degrees to 30 degrees. Really didn't expect that. Probably the only thing I really would have changed was bringing different, bring one more set of gloves, but whatever. The trip back to Albuquerque from truth or consequences was crazy. The middle 70 miles of that trip, like 40 degrees or less in a cloud condensing fog, hell of a return, man. Yeah. Had to slow down at some points because you really couldn't see that far. Most of it, most of you could see. Okay. But I just like, well, I got a plane to catch and hunker down and keep going, you know, turn the grip heaters on and go for it. I think I finally noticed my feet, uh, unfreezing somewhere over, uh, somewhere over Kansas. So now we haven't really talked much about the writing itself because we just keep saying, Oh, epic. It was great.

Robin: You know, and there's an episode all about it. Look, you got to experience it. This is, you know, people wonder how the hell do I consider this? Given what trip sevens is, yeah. How big and relentless and popular, despite the fact that we're on Mayday mode now, we need people for that tour, but that's, and that's okay. But it's a popular tour. It's seven relentless days of consulate pass. It's our hardest tour. It's our only quote unquote level five tour. I've kind of said that New Mexico is my personal favorite. I think it's even better. Even if it is shorter, you really got to experience this because you get it all. You get to see the beautiful scenery. You get to enjoy the beautiful scenery.

Brian: Yeah. It's crazy. You get desert. I mean, Alpine Arizona is Alpine environment. You get everything from low land, desert, no grass, everything that looks like all the Western movies you saw. We're sitting in this lodge in Alpine and, and we were looking around and there's all this like corny, cheesy cowboy stuff and these drawings of horses, there's a picture of a horse and a cowboy and there's stirrups and spurs and tell them what I said.

Robin: Then you, then you, then you realize that you realize, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, hold on. We both kind of stopped. And he's like, Brian's like, I already thought about this. He says, look at all this cheesy, bad house in the middle of wherever. And then you realize we are where this is the art. This is where these things are the reality. It applies. It's not cheesy. This is not hammed up. This is Alpine living. And that's what goes with the atmosphere.

Brian: Yeah. And cowboys. We saw, you know, we saw cowboys doing, working, doing their thing.

Robin: Straight up lassoed around calves and noise. Impressive.

Brian: Yeah. It's just the scenery that it's mind blowing.

Robin: That's it. And that's the thing of it. It's like the way I would describe it is yes, you will get to see the scenery and we're on a lot of roads for a very long time. So stretching out the accordion, there is no accordion. It's just, do you want to go burn the pavement? Do you want to leave a streak of fire behind your bike? Do it. Go rock out. Do you want to cruise it and observe the environment? Do it. You're welcome to do that. Just wave people by that want to go quicker. You know what I mean? You get to do that for mass length of time between truth or consequences and silver city. And then from silver city, when you get those, oh, those freaking delicious tacos, man. Oh my God. I love that place. But you get some, you get some tasty tacos and some interesting conversation. And then you are going up devil's highway. What, what is now a different number and used to be six, six, six, hence the name. And it is 90 miles, 90 miles of nothing, no services, just curves, curves, curves, cliffs with curves and no guardrail elk mule deer, which are dumber and smaller and constipated. Yeah. There's a big horn sheep up there. I didn't see any of this time. The next day after writing devil's highway, which is kind of like the pinnacle of it all, you are writing. I think it's one 80, right? One 80. Yeah. All the way back, which I always look forward to that too. You think, oh no, now it's going to be a mellow Valley run. It's not. It is a beautiful high speed curves environment or low speed scenery. You get it all. And it's my number. It is my favorite tour that we've compiled. I can't say it enough. I might try to run it again in October of 25. So be on the lookout for that. And this time, damn it. I better profit the end. Do it that way.

Brian: She will.

Robin: Joanne's going to be joining us in a moment.

Brian: There's Joanne.

Robin: There she is the one and only. Hi Joanne. How are you doing?

Joanne: I'm all right.

Robin: Very happy to see you.

Joanne: Thank you.

Robin: We just talked about how during the New Mexico tour on day three, we had fluke weather.

Joanne: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

Robin: Weeks upon weeks of amazing weather. And then on the last day of the tour, when we're going to ride to Iron Mountain and Gila, if you look up Iron Mountain route 59 Gila National Forest, we got halfway, we got to the halfway point and it was like 40, 38 drop and snow hit the helmet.

Joanne: No, absolutely not. Pass.

Robin: I actually had my solution with me. It was in my top case. These guys had no reason to bring a solution.

Joanne: What was your solution?

Robin: I've got a full body, weatherproof, cheap plastic onesie that it blocks everything.

Joanne: Raincoat?

Robin: Yeah, totally a raincoat. Nice. It's worked in the past. I've done 29 degrees, 20 degrees in it and been like, okay, I'm cold, but the wind isn't getting in. Right. I had that on me, but there's no way I was going to use it with those guys behind me. I wanted to know what they were feeling and we all agreed we're done. The tour's over because they didn't have it. I see. I'm all about customer satisfaction. Got it.

Brian: So that triggered Brian's thought. Yeah. So the main thing I needed was, was my winter, winter, deep winter snowmobile, ridiculous weather gloves, which I didn't, why would I need those? I didn't bring them with me. So we were thinking about posing the question to you, what are your recommendations and strategies for gear to cover all four seasons? We went from 90 degrees to 30 degrees.

Robin: Okay. So that brings us to The Armory brought to you by GearChick.com with the one and only Joe and Dawn. Tell us what you will.

Joanne: Okay, that's a really long answer because whenever I talk to folks who are in this position, I need to know a few things. There's a few things that will make a difference on what I recommend, right? So the first is, Robin, what bike were you on?

Robin: I was on my Suzuki Gixator.

Joanne: Okay. So your Gixator is a, is semi-faired or minimally screened?

Robin: Fully faired, reasonable windscreen.

Joanne: But not a tour with like, you know, full-on wind stopping front end.

Robin: It's becoming a tour, definitely not a, yeah, no.

Joanne: And then what were you on, Brian?

Robin: I was on a Africa Twin.

Joanne: Okay. With maybe a modest little screen.

Brian: Yeah, it had a fairing and yeah, like I always do, I took the screen off.

Joanne: Okay. So let's assume those are your actual motorcycles, right? That you're, that you own, right? Okay. So then the other thing I ask is, all right, how cold do you run? You know, what's the coldest temperatures, you know, in the freezing temperatures, like, well, as it gets colder, like when do you actually get cold? You know, what is your tolerance level like?

Robin: I start to get chilly around the 50 degree mark, 45, I'm like, okay, I'll still ride at 40, but I'll be very, very covered.

Brian: You know, the bike, it's a newer bike, has an electronic thermometer. So I was, I was looking at that on the way out to Winston and I was like, okay, my, my no-go point is going to be 30 degrees. And we were 36, 35, you know, we were below 40 and sinking. Oh, yuck.

Robin: It was getting worse. We stopped at 35.

Joanne: Yeah. And then you add, subtract, you know, then you have to say, right, if it's 40s, well, it feels like 30s, right? If it's 50s, it'll feel like 40s, unless you're on a monstrously faired vehicle. So for those of you on minimally faired motorcycles and your tolerance level for cold is low, that means you have to invest in a waterproof windproof exterior, whether that's a jacket, like an actual armored riding jacket that has waterproofing built into it, which gives you wind resistance. And then some kind of middle layer that's giving you heat, like a heated liner, that would be the ultimate heat is a full sleeve, either seven volts or 12 volts. Well, actually 12 volts is a more powerful. You're going to get way more coverage of heat all the way down your sleeves, your neck, your chest, your back. So 12 volt, you plug into your bike. It's a minimal installation. That's how you really try to stay warm. But honestly, we also need to think about the fact that motorcyclists aren't meant to run in 10 degree weather. It's just, they're not. People do it. But if you're out there going, I want to ride in zero degrees, you're going to have a hard time no matter what you wear. It's just pushing your boundaries. So we'll talk about realistic temperatures, like you guys are saying, maybe some thirties. So heated is really where you got to go at those temperatures, unless you're a hot, hot volcano. You know, I've met riders who are really warm.

Brian: Well, my wife thinks so. I, yeah, it was a softball. You had to hit it.

Joanne: Or you only need the heat, say in your hands. Cause I've met riders who are fine in the body, you know, who are warm enough wearing just a regular winter jacket with a warm mid layer, that's not even electric, but they need heated hand grips or heated gloves. And that's it. And then I've met riders, there's riders like myself where I would die without heated everything. And that's why I don't ride in down in the thirties, you know, if I can avoid it. So you're going to add 12 volt gear when you run the coldest of cold. And for those of you who run much warmer, much hot, you're hot blooded and you don't need as much warmth, like, or your tolerance is high or your comfort, you know, like my husband's comfort is, is in the cold. He'd rather be a little chilly in a mesh coat a little bit, you know, he doesn't want to ride in mesh and 30 degrees, but his comfort level is, I hate being hot. Mine is the exact opposite of course, because we are polar opposites. I hate being cold. I will sweat in Gore-Tex and in a winter suit happily. Yes, I'll be uncomfortable, but I mentally can handle it and it doesn't affect my riding judgment. But if I'm freezing, it literally affects my safety. Distracted driving. It's as bad as texting while driving in your car. I am fully distracted when I'm cold.

Robin: If I start riding where I start using my eyes and not pointing my face in the direction of travel. Yep. Do you're using your eyes to make it through the corner? That's not good. That's when I know that I'm not performing to my best.

Joanne: Or you're just thinking about your gear. So that's always a, that's a flag, no matter what kind of temperature is, if your mind is on your gear and not the road, that's your flag that you've chosen, say the wrong size helmet. You've chosen the wrong fit helmet. You've chosen the wrong size glove, the wrong jacket. If your gear is distracting you, there's something wrong. You've made the wrong choice or something went wrong.

Brian: Yeah.

Joanne: But to answer your question of like, what gear would we look at in that range of temperature, it's literally impossible to find one outfit to do 30 degrees to a hundred. It just is. So you have to ask yourself what your compromise is for the hot-blooded volcanoes. I always recommend to avoid a waterproof suit because no matter how much you spend on a Gore-Tex suit, example, Revit has my favorite Gore-Tex laminated suit with direct ventilation for women and men. It's called the, um, Lamina for ladies. And then it's called the, my mind is blanking.

Robin: I just saw that today. Yeah.

Joanne: Okay. You know what I'm talking?

Robin: Yes, I do.

Joanne: You could spend the most money on the best Gore-Tex waterproof, but vented suit, it will still be hotter than your awesome mesh jacket and pant when it's 90. You have to think about your personal preference. And if you're a volcano, you will be miserable. You will be miserable when you have to ride in the 90 degree days in that Gore suit, because your personal preference and comfort is I hate being hot. However, if you're me and I'm not a volcano, I am an ice queen when it's 90, I'm happy in Gore. I rode in Gore from Philly all the way down to West Virginia, and it was literally 90 degrees and humid when I left. And then when I got to the, to front Royal Virginia at the top of the Blue Ridge, it was 50 and I was dying. So then I put all my, I had my layers in, right? I pulled over to eat and it was starting to rain, but I was happy being in 90 degrees because I'm okay with that. So you first want to think about where's my comfort level. Okay. If it's hot blooded, avoid the waterproof suits. But if you have to do a waterproof suit, you want to stick to laminated Gore-Tex products. Now, if you are a cold blooded person and you have to do that range, you're going to shift the other direction and you're going to go with a heavier waterproof suit with venting and liners. So that you will be happier when you're riding in the cold. You know, the challenge though is always there. Like, I wish I could wear two different outfits. The struggle is there and you're always going to have to compromise. So you have to sit down and literally think about your personal compromise because really it's different for everybody.

Brian: Agreed. Yeah. I like how you're, you're not sugarcoating it. It's like, yeah, you're just going to have to suffer. Suck it up buttercup.

Joanne: You do. It sucks. So you have to decide where, where am I okay suffering the most?

Brian: Yeah.

Joanne: Cause some people are like, I'll suffer for a day in death valley and gore, bring it on. Yeah. That's just like my gist is you first want to think about what is my core comfort? Where do I hate being? Where do I love being? And then work backward, you know, for the combinations of what will keep you dry and what will keep you vented. So for a lot of hot blooded, especially male riders and female too, for those ranges, I usually recommend lighter weight mesh product or lighter textile. And then like you are, you said you had was a fancy onesie.

Robin: Yeah. Well, it's not fancy by any means, but it is a solution or a solution onesie.

Joanne: Right? Yeah. Like just a quick waterproof over shell because stopper of wind. Yeah. Like you're just concerned with the wind. That's exactly what you're trying to as a personally, you are probably comfortable there. I wouldn't be. I couldn't do that solution. You know, that's perfect. You found the solution for you that works for your comfort level and you're okay with that. Maybe if it were colder all the time. I mean, what if you were riding in cold the whole time? Maybe you would have changed your options, right? Raman?

Robin: It's crazy to me that this went the way it did. So this is great, but it also lands right on something that I already built a long time ago. Please remember if you're listening that most of the members or a lot of the features that I installed into TRO.bike, I didn't make them for you. I made them for me. And then I thought, well, other people are going to use them. Let's make them so they can fine tune that. One of which is our weather page. So if you do sign up for a TRO membership and all that stuff, then you'll have access to the members section where you can adjust and fine tune your personal. Don't judge the defaults, but you can change your personal weather preferences. What is your ideal temperature for riding? We all run different as Joanne was saying, because she knows this stuff better, Brian and I get our minds blown every damn time you come on the show. But the point is that like you can set that threshold. Where am I most comfortable? And it will govern the percentage quality of your riding day and tell you based on those preferences. You can also put the, you know, some AI crap in their keys if you want. But the real key to what I'm getting at is that we have a section that reads what do you wear at zero degrees to 45 degrees Fahrenheit? What do you wear at 45 to 60? What do you wear at 60 to 75, 75 plus these are just to divide things into the rule of fifths and have five variable areas where that is semi-universal. Some people can put the message in there if they don't ride zero degrees, but just don't, you know, like don't ride is you can put that in there if you'd like, but I'm looking at what I have. It's still rings true for me this day. I found my solution will better, more lavish solutions come about. If they do, I'll try to buy them in the meantime. I always start at the coldest rate. I've got my full three season stuff on with the heated gear under it with the basically rubber suit over top. That's everything after that. The suit comes off the heated gear stays on after that. The heated gear comes out after that the liners come out and then I'm just down to what is a summer mesh. It works for me.

Brian: I really I really regret that. I didn't get to see Robin in the Michelin suit put on the yeah, put on the full body condom.

Robin: Well, you can see it. You can see it. So at my oldest brother's Memorial, I rode an iron, but there is a lengthy article about that on TRO. If you go to TRO and look up iron, but ride, there is my ride to Florida Chicago to Florida in one day.

Joanne: Ow, my back hurts too.

Robin: Just thinking I was wearing everything. I left when I went to get through one of the toll booths. The gate didn't go up. I had to back up 30 yards and go find a person so that I could punch them folks.

Joanne: Just FYI. Just don't do it potato potato. Just don't do it. It's each their own. When when do your tires warm up? Never. Yeah, but you're right to each their own, but I would say it's not recommended not recommend.

Robin: I would say it's definitely what you need to do. No, no, no. I'm kidding.

Joanne: Kidding.

Robin: It was a personal venture. It was I was younger. It was a different motive.

Joanne: That's the difference when you're in your 20s and your 30s. You're like I was not in my 20s 30 degrees 40 still.

Robin: Oh shit. That was 2018.

Joanne: Okay, that's seven years. Yeah, so you're still in your back to you, Joanne.

Brian: You were older. You were old enough to know better. Yeah. Yeah, go on for me.

Joanne: Nine years was the last time I rode in below 50 degrees. I wrote when there was snow on the ground and it still sucked. I had my heated gear. I had my winter. I had the whole thing and it sucked and I just didn't have fun, you know, and I I don't like wearing big gloves. I don't have protection. So I did heated grips. So here's the other thing.

Robin: Hippo hands.

Joanne: I know I didn't want to do that. So I did heated grips only which help, right? But here's another thing is if you don't want to do a rain suit, you don't want to do rain over top, which is a hassle for a lot of people, right? A lot of people it's a preference. It's a pain in the butt and it's definitely a personal preference. Some people are okay with it. Some people are not. Some people are adamant. They don't want interior rain. Some people are okay with it. There are many ways to do the rain thing, right?

Brian: Yeah.

Joanne: However, I will say this. The best compromise because remember all of these choices are compromises in a waterproof product that has ventilation will always be a laminated Gore-Tex or waterproof product. There are other materials being used for waterproofing besides Gore-Tex, but in the motorcycle world Gore-Tex dominates, but brands are doing Gore and then a lower more affordable solution, non-Gore-Tex branded, but basically a waterproof, no, a waterproof product that's laminated and then has direct venting. So when you open the vents, you actually get air to your body, not to a wall of material. That's how you get the best compromise so that you maintain waterproof and windproof and you get venting. So it's better than say a base waterproof jacket that doesn't have direct ventilation, meaning when you open the vent, it's just a wall of fabric and the wind doesn't actually get to your body and what you can do on a garment and test that and you're in the store is unzip the vent. Yeah, open the vent in the store, take the flashlight on your phone and shine a light through it and you're going to see whether that coat will actually give you ventilation direct to your body. That's how you're going to know whether you get any, but laminated products are lighter. They're more breathable so that they're more tolerable in the heat and they're more versatile. So that would be the way to at least compromise. Well, and like I said, heated products are always the way to go. 12 volt specifically for motorcycling to get the most heat coverage you can, but there are some good 7 volt products too. So it just depends, you know, what you're looking for. Nice. I like heat though. I'm a heat fan.

Robin: I don't ride in winter. Good. Thanks, Joanne. Similar banter at higher revs can be heard via the Gear Chick podcast. I know, I know. The point is just go to GearChick.com. Dig in.

Joanne: Help at GearChick.com if you have questions.

Robin: That brings us to segment three. We're going to move on to moments in motorcycle history with Jordan Liebman. I haven't finished producing the last, I know where he's at. I know that he just crossed boundaries and he just crossed a border into Nebraska and it was ridiculous what he went through to get there. We're still on the George Wyman coast-to-coast journey. Jordan is laying it out and he's probably digging up information that the historians didn't even know at this point. I love the beer bottle episode, by the way. I don't know if you guys heard that one. At any rate, take it away, Jordan.

Jordan: He passes Fort Fred Steel with an E on the end and the road begins to ascend again where there are only ruins of abandoned houses. Then follow the old immigrant trail that winds across the River Platte and approaches the Laramie Plains and the Laramie Mountains to White Horse Canyon, which is named after a drunk Englishman who rode his horse off of a 200 foot high cliff. He called him a remittance man. So whatever remittance man is, I think I looked that up before and I think it just meant that he was stationed there and is receiving money to be there. What's the best thing to do? When you're a remittance man, jump off a cliff drunk on a horse. So he reaches Walcott, Wyoming at 6 10 PM and he calls it a jerk water settlement. But the stage line comes in there and he meets with locals who are interested in the motorcycle and automobiles. And one of them stated if someone built an automobile that could carry 12 to 14 people and run through sand six inches deep, he would pay three to $5,000 for it. These people are locals and they know that people have cars and they know that the cars that are out there can't handle this whole lack of road situation. Seriously, I have a van. I will have no problem driving through six inches of sand. It won't be great, but I could do it. They didn't have anything like that back then. A few years later, there was a guy named Henry Ford who built a car that could. That was the obstacle, but he was ready to pay three to $5,000 for any car that can carry 12 to 14 people. So he's talking about prairie schooner size and Georgia's crashing America, hopefully for $500. So that's a lot of money. This comes up later when we discuss Route 66 and the Lakin Highway and the National Road and more stuff, which this is going to be the next section of our history stuff. June 2nd, he leaves Walcott, Wyoming to go uphill eastward towards Laramie, the reminding town of Hannah, Wyoming, and they were all in his quotation marks, Finns and Negroes. People from Finland? I don't understand. Or maybe he means Irish people. They were all miners through Edson, Dana, Allen and Medicine Bow, mentioned on the Lincoln Highway or Route 66 bits. At Medicine Bow, he loses several more spokes and makes a temporary fix and took the rails. Laramie, Wyoming, population 10,000 and the greenest country I have ever seen since I left Sacramento. He was glad to be there with sheep and cattle and natural, civilized people. He found nowhere in Nevada with fine, bald-faced, bighorn cattle and mentions Bill Nye. Okay, now this is a Bill Nye that was famous back then as a humorist, comedian. He was famous in newspapers, particularly one that was syndicated called the Laramie Boomerang. And he gets to Laramie at 7.05 PM and finds a bicycle shop of Elmer Lovejoy. He gets five new spokes and he let George use the shop and all of his tools to get the job done. So, decent guy. This is where it gets confusing for me. There is no entry for June 3rd, 1903. I think he spends up spending an extra day in Laramie with the humorist. There's a lot on him, more than there is about George Wyman. He did say he liked it there. He finally found a woman who kept furnished rooms, who eyed me suspiciously and said she had no room but would fix me up a cot. She listened to my story and finally fixed me up a nice room and I stayed there two nights. So that's why we didn't have a June 3rd. The next morning I washed and pinned up my rags as best as I could and went out to replace my wardrobe. I must indeed have been a tough-looking specimen the night before because the first place I went in the morning, a furnishing store, the dog growled at me savagely and disputed my entrance until called off by his owner. So this is in Cheyenne, Wyoming, not Laramie, according to the next section. You know, his bike is going through hell all along. His body and his clothing is going through hell too. It's starting to be unbearable. He has to change his clothes. Otherwise, he's not going to get service from some places. He doesn't say what time he left Laramie, but does say it is uphill from there. Locals told him to take the road over the bridge instead of the railroad and he would save 20 miles. He took their advice and thinks maybe he did save 20 miles, but it was all uphill. Eight miles of steep grade and got to the summit at 8,590 feet following the hoof prints of the presidential party who came there the day before and made it easy for him to not get lost since their prints were everywhere. So thankfully, Teddy Roosevelt and all of the people trampled the ground so much that he knew where he was going, but it was still all uphill. Presidential party had hoisted a flagstaff up at the summit and he carved an inscription on the pole. George Wyman gets to this pole and carves his name on it. G.A. Wyman, June 4th, 1903, 1130 a.m. He tags it. He says, first motorcyclist across the Rocky, not Rockies, but Rocky, going from San Francisco to New York. I don't know where this flagpole is today, but it's probably of a historic importance and if someone would probably bid some money on it on one of those antique shows. At the summit, it starts to thunderstorm. So he's on top of this mountain, 8,590 feet, and it starts to thunderstorm in buckets and he has no shelter anywhere. So he had to keep going in the storm and after three miles, the belt on his rear wheel just slipped. There's no grip. He had to get off and walk and finally got into what we've already described as gumbo mud, which is the mud that they use for plastering the crevices in log houses. It's so thick that you can get no movement in any direction. And he says, it has the consistency of stale mucilage and when dry, it is as hard as flint. It sticks better than most friends and puts mucilage to shame. When you step in it on a grassy spot and lift your foot, the grass comes up by the roots. My wheel stood alone in the gumbo whenever I wanted to rest, and that was pretty often. Even if you just stopped the bike at it, it wouldn't fall down. Every time I shoved the bicycle ahead a length, I had to clean the mud off the wheels before they would turn over again. So the mud's literally stopping his wheel from turning. It sunk into the gluey muck so that I could not shove it either forward or backward. And this is going downhill. I found that it had taken me two hours to travel half a mile. Okay. So that's not very fast. And I could not see New York looming in front of me with any particular promise, meaning he didn't think he was going to make it. I finally left the bicycle sticking bolt upright in its bed of gumbo mud and set out to find a place where someone lived. He says, this move led me to a pleasant experience. This is Wyoming. This is between Laramie and Cheyenne. The hospitality of the Wyoming ranchers. So he left his bike and walked two miles. He came across a ranch house and I was lucky to find it for there isn't another house within seven miles. He luckily stumbled on a house. The young man I met immediately hooked up a team of horses and went back with me and pulled the wheel out of the mud hole. When I got to the house, my rescuer was R.C. Schrader of Islally Station, Wyoming, who lent me a hose. And with the aid of a stream of water and a stick, I got the machine fairly clean. And after an hour of hard work, he gets it clean. He says, Mr. Schrader was a hearty host and I had eaten nothing since early breakfast. And it was then 5 p.m. He does get breakfast and lunch and dinner confused. Breakfast, I think means lunch in this case. Maybe. But anyways, it was 5 p.m. So he made me stop and eat. And then as I insisted on pushing along, he showed me the way to the railroad track. I was glad to see the ties again. It was 20 miles to Cheyenne and I walked most of the way arriving there at 1030 p.m. So this is already dark now. He had just bought new clothes too. So after an hour after I left the Schrader farm, it began to rain and it kept up raining until I was within two miles of Cheyenne. So it rained on him for 18 miles. When I reached there, I was a sight for men and dogs. Probably means he was really ugly and filthy and torn up. I was mud and tatter from head to feet. A colony of tramps would have been justified in repudiating me for my face had been washed in streaks and the mud remaining on it was arranged as fantastically as the war paint on an Indian buck. My shirt is splashed with mud too. And I miss my vest because I could remove it and make a better front in the town, meaning it would be more presentable. I have missed that waistcoat all the afternoon for there was snow mingled with the rain and I was cold, but I took off the vest, a light fancy affair sometime before reaching Laramie and threw it away because I took a notion it was a hoodoo, meaning he had been having so much bad luck. He blamed it on the vest. So that's where we were, Laramie. So we're going to finish Wyoming here. Leaving Cheyenne, it is raining and the roads were unfit to ride. So he did the tracks, but the tracks were barely better. He had to pedal, but not using the engine for 43 miles and goes on to describe it as riding what it's like riding a tandem bike with somebody in the back and having to do all the work because the passenger is a lard-ass. He reaches Egbert, Wyoming at 1245 p.m. And he says he can see Elk Mountain, which is visible for hundreds of miles at 7,254 feet. And he heads across the plains. On the way, he encounters prairie dogs and he shoots at them, but they are too fast. And he thinks that even if he did shoot them, they would have dived back into their holes so they didn't die above ground. He's getting into their heads. Then it starts to rain and it turns the ground into more impassable gumbo mud, which just stops any movement in any direction. So he turns back and waits at a telegraph station, assumably in Egbert, Wyoming, until the rain dissipates about three hours later. Then he heads out and makes it as far as Pine Bluffs by 440 p.m. We're at the border here. He goes on to mention that his first few miles in Nebraska, he was nearly killed by a freight train while riding along the track close to the rail with a strong headwind and didn't hear the train. And suddenly the whistle goes off right behind him about 30 feet back and he ditched off the tracks down an embankment and basically fell off the traction down the side of the road just in time with no regard to how he was going to land. But somehow he and the bike made it. He says if it had been a passenger train that was faster, it would have killed him. That day he goes 65 miles, gets into Kimball, Nebraska, and at 6.50 p.m. He calls it a day. And now we're in Nebraska and wrapped up Wyoming. And that's our chapter.

Robin: Nice. All right. Thank you, Jordan, for more of that. Can't wait to figure out what's happening next time. Hell of a trip. Technically, this was my turn. What should we make Brian do next week?

Brian: Let me tell you what I'm doing next week. I'm not going to be around on Thursday. I'm going to be in Tennessee. Oh, big dual sport ride next week. Meeting some friends down there with KLRs and other resorted knobby machinery, staying in Newport, Tennessee, and going to ride around kind of on the north side of the Smoky Mountains. And that's going to be rad. It is so humid here in the Midwest compared to New Mexico. My God, so dry here. Either you and Joanne can just do whatever you want because I don't think I'm going to be available Thursday. Travis Burleson's interested in showing up. Why don't you guys do that? I'll bring Travis in. I'd like to do an episode on dual sporting when I get back and talk about some of that. Yes, do all the things. I keep trying to drag Robin into the world of dirt. You can't drag me into something.

Robin: I can't. I don't have the kit. I don't have any of it. I can't afford it.

Brian: You don't have the room.

Robin: Yeah, it's true. As for next week's episode, there's a lot of ways that we could do this. We got options to wind everything down. We have no idea what we're doing next week and we'll find out. Stay tuned and we'll see you all next episode. Is everybody ready to get out of here? Let's get out of here.