Robin: In this episode, we've got plenty of questions from the wild. We love questions from the wild. Acclimation before acceleration. And Joanne Dawn has no idea where to begin to choose what gear to buy if she's new to purchasing gear. And George Wyman is hitting Chicago if I play my cards right. We took the north route out of Iowa. Did you ride today?

Brian: No, I didn't actually. We've got some of Marge's friends from way back visiting this weekend. You know how you only really clean in the dark corners of your house? They would never judge you, but it's an excuse to take care of the dust bunnies and dust rhinos that are in the corner. Detailing the house. Yeah, just moving some stuff around today. But I rode yesterday. Rode to work, got wet on the way home.

Robin: Nice. I also rode yesterday. And that's going to be particular to segment one today, because I'm just, I'm feeling kind of inspired by it. I'm in Wisconsin. And yesterday I went riding that little air box mod that we discussed. Yeah, yeah. I pulled off the intake boots and I pulled the filter screen off the top of the default, the normal air filter. And I had to ignore. It does sound really good, really nice. But I had to ignore that sound. I really wanted to know, do I feel more power? Yes. Really? Wow. It is bizarre. Now, I told myself, be serious here. Try to tune out the sound of the air going through the air box. That really snarly, angry, new to me tone on this machine.

Brian: Angry, slobbery, yeah.

Robin: Stop hearing it. Focus on the horizon. Twist the throttle. It was definitely choppier, more attack. And you definitely arrive at a higher speed inside of the 3000 to 5000 RPM range. It's happening. Excellent. I'm going to leave it that way. Cool.

Brian: Confusing, but there it is. It did work. Just to throw a wrench into your thought here, would this have anything to do with going from a higher elevation to a lower elevation? T or C, it's a couple thousand feet, isn't it?

Robin: Yeah, but I think they're almost the same altitude, aren't they? Winston is 6,175 feet. Lone Rock, Wisconsin, 709 feet. My experience with the previous bike, the R1200RS was that in the higher altitude, dry air, it was going, ready to eat. It wanted to ride. I don't think Wisconsin is the difference.

Brian: Okay. The mile and elevation difference is not really going to. It's injected. Just thought I'd poop on your parade. That's all. That's all I really wanted to do.

Robin: All I know is I'm happy riding the bike. I could care less. It had enough power before, but it feels peppier. Strangely peppier. Nice. Despite our previous discussion about the cost of new and used motos, by the way, at season start, prediction was it'd be really pricey. You remember, we were talking about this. We both agreed that usually it's going to be expensive, but I'm seeing a lot of really good bikes. Would I say excellent, unreal, impossibly affordable? No, but I'm seeing a lot of really good bikes for sale at better than reasonable prices. I think it's the economy. Many are older, all the way back to the early to mid nineties, but they are really looking good. There's an XJ6, which I thought was the Seica 2, but I think the XJ6 is a four manger, right? It's a four cylinder.

Brian: I don't remember for sure, but I think that sounds about right. Yeah. Yeah.

Robin: So the Seica 2 was an XS and that was a twin. 750 bucks is a 94 Yamaha XJ6. $2,500. There's a Generation 1 1998 Suzuki Bandit 1200. For 3,000 bucks, I see a 1996 Buell Thunderbolt, which is a little bit out there, but the bikes are available. $2,000. There's a 91 Honda ST 1100. Yeah, I think there's options out there. It's the used market that I think people are just like, look, the situation is this. And I forgot that I had that. I need to sell that thing so I can pay down whatever debt, you know, there's just stuff going on. These are good looking machines.

Brian: Yeah. Yeah. A buddy of mine just scored a, I think it was a 2003 Bandit. A nice bike, you know, got a really good price on it. Same generation as the one I had. It needed a few little things, but yeah, it's one he had before it came back to it. It's a great bike. You know, the downside is, yeah, there's some uncertainty out there in the world. And the upside is you can find some, find some deals. Yeah.

Robin: They're coming back a little bit. Maybe have some fun with that uncertainty to the extent that you can. I think that the next thing I would like to buy, if I'm going to buy anything like that though, is a 1976 Ford Galaxy 500 wagon. That would be epic.

Brian: Sure. That'll fit in the back of your toy hauler.

Robin: I am also seeing some really good affordability in the new market too. I saw an article on Visor Down for the MIT 775R. It's, you know, an 80 horsepower sport bike, bargain price tag, linked to an article on it right there, but it looks wonderful. USDs, ABS, probably traction control. The MIT? Yeah. I've never heard of the brand. MIT.

Brian: Like catcher's MIT. Okay.

Robin: So it's got nice styling, but that's going to get into a topic that Maggie actually asked me to bring up for segment one, but I'm just not mentally in a state to handle it. Fact is, I was talking to Travis, who says hello, by the way, for a special episode, the OG episode, and we were discussing CF Moto versus the Suzuki SV, and we're still arriving at the fact that the SV is the better, more responsible investment because of possible parts issues. That's actually a little bit upsetting because the, what is, I don't remember which sport bike it is. It's a 650 sport bike, a true to form sport bike that they're making, CF Moto is that is. And it's got a lot of really good features that the SV does not have for around the same price. When Travis said in the middle of a sentence that the bike that our good friend has is no longer being made. I think they only made it for two years. What happens if I go to a dealership and say, Hey, yeah, I need the, uh, I need the, uh, you know, what do they say? I don't know. Well, we can't get it for you, but good luck.

Brian: Let's just say that CF Moto has a lot to prove and it just going to take time to prove it. If they're willing to, they will, you know, it's a huge, huge company with a lot of backing, a lot of money. If they, if they choose to stay in the U S market and the European market and provide that part support, it'll happen. If they choose not to, then it won't. It's not, are they capable of it? It is like, are they willing to, that just takes time to answer. I hope they do. I've looked at the Ibex up close that they haven't gotten a chance to ride it yet. Yeah. So their, their products are looking, they're looking pretty good. They feel good. And if they last, then they'll, they'll have it all. So no, there'll be a stiff competitor.

Robin: It's really great to have a company like that. That is forcibly lowering the bar on what we have to spend to get a really decent machine. Yeah. And in other news, I detonated a bird. So I've now joined the Brian club. What do we call it? What do we call the club of writers who have exploded feathers?

Brian: Bird slayers. The tweet ploders. I don't know what to call it. Yeah.

Robin: So Burleson and I are writing down 14 right outside of Lone Rock. And we're chatting away as we will sometimes when we're in the long streets. And I see this cute, fluffy ball for all of a fraction of a second, which then pummels me in the chest. It hurts. It hit hard. So I don't know. I think it was flying slightly like angled in my direction. Nose diving for something, but this songbird or I don't know, it couldn't have been, there was no way it was as big as like a blue Jay or something like that. It was more like a songbird, but it was going so quick. It hurt. And the feathers just went everywhere. Travis did not see the signs of a bird. He just saw feathers. So then we stopped for fuel as you do before the ride should really start. I let my friend go through the motions to gracefully squeegee the widespread remnants of bird onto the ground. The foreign color of red and brown are still in my jacket right now in the laundry.

Brian: I'm not riding until I wash it. That's the worst part. The residue of the bird. Like you don't know what that fluid is. Well, you kind of do, but you don't want to think about it. I had a bird wearing mesh, you know, like the tennis ball hits you and you're like, Oh, I was a bird. There's feathers everywhere. And then you, then you feel it soaking in. They're like, okay, that's, that's gross. Fluid matter. Yeah. One time in West Virginia, I, I nailed a bird with my right knee. So that's good because it just hits on the armor and the people behind me like literally had to stop because apparently it was just a, it was just lit correctly by the sun. So that there's this, this halo and this explosion of feathers at all. I felt it was a little pecking, you know, but yeah, the Tweety serial killers, the, I don't know.

Robin: You said you got to ride yesterday. Anything big coming up? Any plans to get out and escape for a bit and any of that stuff?

Brian: Well, I did two big trips. The New Mexico trip did the dual sport trip and the Smokies like within two weeks. And so I'm kind of nose to the grindstone.

Robin: Yeah.

Brian: Until June, until Brown County, uh, track day. Unfortunately, I can't do 777 this year. That's killing me.

Robin: Let's see if we can make something happen either next year or we'll, we'll figure something out. Are you sure you can't meet us in Kentucky?

Brian: Yeah, I could probably manage that. We'll have to talk about that. We can make that happen. I may parachute in and impress everybody or something. I don't know. I will put this out there. I really had very little to do with the route this time around. So in case anybody's worried, I did not have my dirty little fingers in the route.

Robin: Questions from the wild this round. All right. We find this stuff and we field it, whether the people find out or not. At the same time, if you have a real question for us, email podcast at TRO dot bike. We promise you you'll get an answer. Whether or not it's the correct answer depends on your imagination.

Brian: I don't know how much of a disclaimer that is. That's not much protection, but that's all right.

Robin: I've got five beast questions here. Let's see if we can beat the hell out of them with haste. All right. With a quickness, we're on it. BC asks, should I get sport or touring tires for my 2022 ZX 650? I just ride for fun on public roads when the weather is nice. My answer, get sport touring tires.

Brian: Exactly. Next. And if you want to know which ones you should get, go to TRO dot bike, look under digi tools, look for the road rubber rankings, and we keep track of tire prices for you. If the Pirelli Angel STs are still on Amazon, I don't know how they do it. I don't know where this guy's getting them. They are the big bargain right now in sport touring rubber.

Robin: ML asks, you see that rider with their turn signal still on? That's me. I was telling my friend about always forgetting to switch my turn signals off, wishing it was auto off like in a car. Their response, you use turn signals? Now, in Illinois, here's how you change lanes. Listen carefully. Step one, change lanes. Don't look, just change lanes. Okay? All right. While you start changing lanes, then you hear a horn honk, squeal manically, and skid all over the place back into your lane. Turn your head and you look at the rider whose atoms are occupying the same space as that which you, king of the world or queen of the world, would like to occupy and scowl at them because it's their fault for existing there. That's the Illinois method. My method, especially if you're on a motorcycle. Step one, announce intent. Just signal, okay? Go ahead and check your mirror and see if the lane is open. Since you're already turning your head, go ahead and look over your shoulder because you were already on the way to that anyhow, and then accelerate into the passing lane, get around it, and then move back over.

Brian: The Suzuki GS shaft-driven motorcycles had auto cancel turn signals. We have the technology. We've had the technology for nearly 50 years. This is what they took from us. I mean, get mad. Demand auto cancel turn signals on motorcycles. It can be done. There'll be a non-profit petition waiting for you after this episode. I have my turn signal on a lot. Yeah, I'm that guy. Call your senators. Yeah, I've also learned if you're on a track, you don't need to activate your turn signals. It's just, A, they're not there. I took them off, but habits die hard. Hell yeah. AS asks, dude, I keep hitting neutral, dude, and rev bombing, dude, when shifting from first to second, dude, bro. Dude. I end up rolling with no throttle because I'm in neutral in panic, and sometimes it takes like five kick attempts to actually hit second. Dude. I swear I'm kicking the shift as hard as I can, dude, and I don't know why I'm hitting it, dude. Cry emoji. I'm on a 2004 R6, so there isn't any positive neutral finder. Any tips?

Robin: Any tips is the question.

Brian: Try to slow down and be more deliberate in your shifts, and pull in the clutch. Basically, slow it down like you're straight out of MSF, and go through your shifts to get past second. Because, yeah, this is a common thing. Because you have to go past neutral to get to second. It's a little, it's kind of an extra notch and so forth. Two physical things you can look at. If your left boot has a squishy toe, you're going to have a little more trouble shifting. Any good motorcycle boot's going to have much better shifting action. It's going to help you a lot. Check your shift linkage. I don't know if that bike has linkage or whatever. Make sure nothing's too terribly loose. Anything like that. Make sure you have a relatively fresh oil on the bike. Sometimes that affects shifting. Make sure your clutch lever is fully disengaging. Things like that. And the other thing that happens, especially on sport bikes, and especially bikes that are, you know, ridden hard, and people talk about kicking the shift lever instead of activating the shift lever. Yeah, sometimes the gear dogs get a little worn out on second gear. That's the most common thing that happens. And so it'll kind of go to second, and then it'll pop back into neutral. It's often a sign of like hard use or abuse and so forth. Because if you miss second, you know, it'll kind of round over those gear dogs. And the gear dogs are like these little teeth on the backside of the gears that mesh together. So they're basically these little square studs, and they kind of mesh together to keep you locked into gear. I'm oversimplifying big time. So if you're deliberate, and you have good boots, and your linkage is okay, and blah, blah, blah, and you're disengaging the clutch completely, and it's still popping out a second, then you may have a transmission issue, unfortunately.

Robin: Also make sure that your clutch cable is adjusted well enough that when you fully release it, it should be completely engaged. And when you squeeze it to the hand grip, it should be fully disengaged. And maybe have a gander at that. Clean things up too. Pull the cover off as though you were going to clean the front sprocket and make sure that all of the bits that slide back and forth to shift smoothly are clean, free of grease, not being stopped by anything.

Brian: Yes.

Robin: All right. Ed asks, How empty do you ride your motorcycle? Yesterday, the low gas light came on, and I was far from any gas station with a dead phone. But I made it to the gas station and filled up on only three gallons. I have a four gallon tank. Is it normal to have so much in reserve? Do you regularly ride that low? Hmm, we don't know what kind of bike this is. If it's a carbureted bike, I probably wouldn't care. If it's an injected bike, I'd probably care. Two bikes ago, I had a carbureted machine and it was not going to be an issue. And the past two bikes have been electronic fuel injection. So I have a thing that tells me exactly how many miles I have left.

Brian: Yeah. On my Yamaha, it's fuel injected, obviously. And the counter went down to zero miles left, and there was still no gas station because Arkansas. And yeah, I mean, I made it a good 20 miles. So there's a secret reserve there, too. And a lot of places in the country and in other countries, you never pass gas. Get gas. I learned this lesson about Arkansas. But yeah, it varies. When the light comes on, it varies tremendously based on the motorcycle. There's some range. You don't know how much. The advice we always give is to look for that internet form devoted to your particular motorcycle. And the people there will have the same complaint. Someone somewhere has probably ridden it until it stopped. Now, I will say you should not do this on a fuel injected bike if you can help it at all. Fuel actually lubricates and cools the fuel pump. If you do run a fuel injected bike out of gas, you probably need to cycle the key five or six times to prime the pump again and get all the air out. Yeah, I've done this on a fuel injected bike when I didn't know what the the last dot and then the last dot disappears. And on that on that particular bike, that meant I needed to stop. Now, it didn't mean get on the interstate and go to the next exit. Well stated here for the next one. I'm ready for the next one.

Robin: SM asks, What are your tricks to reduce helmet noise? Recently, the noise coming from my helmet has started to get to me specifically at speed. I tried foam plugs. They definitely have good noise reduction, but not quite enough. Then I got loop switch to earplugs. I wonder if he's actually selling something. And they are more comfy, but about the same in noise reduction. OK, I guess not. I wear a thin smock under my helmet, but I haven't tried anything thicker. The helmets I have are a Zox Z-FF10 and an Icon Airflight. Both are about the same level of noise. Here's what you do. You go to tiara.bike. You click on the search icon and you type motorcycle earplugs into our search form and you will find Brian Ringer. He wrote the Bible on earplugs. If you ever wanted to read over a thousand words on earplugs, it's a dead topic. It's yours. It's waiting for you. Get on it.

Brian: Basically, every ear is different and you may not have the right earplugs yet. I think that's the main thing. The second thing is airflow over the helmet is a big factor. So you may need to think about your windshield or what's in front of you. I'm weird. I prefer to ride with no windshield just so I have clean air. So I have air flowing, but it's not turbulent. If you have turbulent air coming from a windscreen that's in the wrong spot, that's the absolute worst. It can buffet you around and create a lot of noise. But yeah, pretty much if you get the right pair of earplugs, then none of this will bother you as far as noise. You just haven't found... you got weird ears. You know, I got weird ears too. It's okay. There's no shame here. But yeah, read the article. Everything I know, it's way too long on how to find the right earplugs. It is the encyclopedia.

Robin: We take pride in writing articles about topics that may as well be boring and then really dressing them up with maybe a beer or five just to see what happens. Are you ready to do a segment? I'm ready to do a thing. I wrote this thinking when I reread all this, it's going to get me inspired. But honestly, I wanted to put it in the air for you and I to volley back and forth. All right. We can kind of feed off of this and make something good of it. Here's, you know, we can sit on any amount of the notes for this. We should get through them all because I think it matters that the conclusion is towards the end there. But here's the deal. New Mexico, which is where I ain't. That was weeks ago. Now, I'm in Wisconsin. The roads are far more rough. The traffic a bit less appeasing. And law enforcement, stealthy, you know, Farkles hiding in the brush behind a barn, willing to drive through people's yards to pick you up. This is Wisconsin. So motorcycles were the bad guys. You know, the thing is, our field of view is far more obscured in the Midwest by broad leaf trees, bigger deer, turkeys, horse drawn carriages. You know, how is it that every time we leave here, I've reobtained my Midwestern mojo for curve carving? I don't know how after the ride I had yesterday. Yesterday, I went for a ride and was absolutely unable to get the clearance of view for me to hard corner. I was riding confidently, but there was never enough for me to be like, it's on risk assessed. I'm going vroom off. We had a couple of really good corners, but it was never consistent. It seems like no matter where we travel to next, if we've not been there in over six months, we know nothing about it beyond daydreaming, deja vu, fond memories from previous rallies. The actual riding always starts off as uncertain, if not insecure. And yesterday was no different. Did I make it to the ton? No. And I can already feel listeners who weren't present imagining me doing so on some express way when the area we're discussing is the driftless, the goods, the curves. You know, the unexpected pea gravel, but incredibly good cornering. Positive truth of it is, we know what has to happen. It's back to basics where mindset is concerned. Slow is fast until fast is fast. And only ride the road you can see, to quote Tim Clark. Find your line and follow it with peripheral vision stronger than the eye beams of Cyclops from the X-Men. Take your time. It's yours. Enjoy it. There's no need to accelerate until you acclimate. Hell, there's no need to accelerate at all, unless you want to. But pick your per instance curve by curve battles, grinning ear to ear. It wasn't freeze up. It was just like, how am I?

Brian: This is different. Yeah, there's no room for bold. One of the things I discovered a long time ago is that I'm not going to say fast, but riding well in Indiana or in the Midwest and Wisconsin is really good training for anywhere in the world.

Robin: Yeah.

Brian: There's a lot of things you don't think about until you try riding somewhere else. For example, the roads in Indiana and in Wisconsin were designed around where cows like to go. Someone's cow took this path along the stream. And then, and that's where they put the road without doing any engineering like they do in the mountains. So there, the roads are different. The cameras are different. The stuff on the road is different. Like in New Mexico, I found myself saying something that really kind of, I'm not sure if it's stupid or not, but we're on devil's highway, way, way. It was you, Paul and me, and Paul's top case was open. And so I caught up to him and managed to get his attention and he pulled over and so forth. And the thing I said that really made me go, Jesus, what did I just say? Was, well, I couldn't catch up to you until there was enough rocks on the road that I could, so you could feel more comfortable with the dirty crap pavement.

Robin: The surface conditions needed to be shit before you could ride.

Brian: Yeah. Yeah. This is just, that is, that is messed up. I tell you what. Yeah. But basically he's on a, you know, a full on sport bike and which I've since written and it was terrifying. It was awesome. And he's being very reasonably prudent on these all incredibly graveled up nasty bits on devil's highway. And I'm like, oh, here's my chance to, here's my chance to catch him, you know? And I did. And later on I realized, well, that was kind of a dumb thing. But anyway, but what I'm saying is that it is you, you, when you think of challenging roads, you think of mountains and no, these are your thing. The challenging roads, I think are in the hills where people are farming. Anybody, you know, the roads are made for, to get cows and milk to market.

Robin: Yeah. The surface is just hanging on by a thread. Please remain a road so I can get the cart back to the field.

Brian: Yeah. And there was never, there was never an engineer anywhere near it. The road, you know, like the mountain roads, they have to engineer it. They have to get people in to know what they're doing to put in the, put in the curves and bank it correctly and things like that. You also get, there's a lot more human activity in New Mexico. The thing that's so great about it is it's so fricking deserted. There's nobody there. Yeah. You know, in Wisconsin, I mean, they're making cheese up there. They got shit to do. You know, there's, and the same in Indiana there, there, even in the middle of nowhere, there's, there's, the roads are there for the farmers are not there for us. Yeah. And then you have vegetation and you have stuff like nobody's taking like an Indiana, especially the roads are filthy because we don't build anything past the white lines on any road whatsoever. There's no shoulder in Indiana. It's unknown. And so there's all kinds of crap that gets pulled up into the road by trailers. You only go around corners with their horses on a trailer or their cows or moose or whatever they're hauling. So yeah, you have all these challenges thrown at you in a fairly crowded environment. It puts you on your toes. And so it takes getting used to when you come back.

Robin: I guarantee you that at the end of this visit, you know, we're here until basically just shy of October, but by the end of it, I know that I'm going to be Midwestern writing again. Right. All over. Yeah. It happened last year. You were there. We were having a great time. But that's the deal is I need to pick three priority routes that are all amazing, right? Each one back to back to back by itself for like three days in my off time, you know, 200 miles a day with a workload. Good luck. But the point is really just no three routes really well. That's enough to a feel safe on the route that you are familiar with and be set yourself up to be familiar with the at least the scenery of any route you haven't been on. That's what I'm going to do. So the plan is go slow, pick a line, practice until all of a sudden I realize, oh, my goodness, I'm feeling a little bit more uppity than before. And I'm with Brian. It's about, you know, skill and assertiveness will always be more fun than outright speed. But I know that they will arrive me at my personal preference in terms of pace, which is an individual thing.

Brian: Yeah. And it's a little bit like when I when I show up in New Mexico, I'm on some other guy's bike, a bike I'm not familiar with. And yeah, it took a while to get acclimated to that as well. I mean, it took a day. Okay. It wasn't like forever, but you just have to back off your intensity level and go back to basics. Think through what you're doing and, you know, until the muscle memory develops again. But yeah. And you have to develop that vision, too. I think in the Midwest, it's a different kind of vision. It probably won't have elk up there. Maybe they do. I don't know. Well, they have a huge deer, a huge deer, lots of them.

Robin: Perfect timing, Joanne. Yeah. Good to see you.

Joanne: Thank you.

Robin: It's time for The Armory, brought to you by GearChick.com. What are you into?

Joanne: Well, when you asked me earlier, I had no idea. So that gave me an idea. If you don't have any idea what to get, I'm going to give you a few places to start. The first place to start is money. So first, you have to decide how much money as a whole do you have to spend? Because that's going to dictate where you shop and how you shop. Because if you're, maybe you're a college student, or maybe you just don't make a lot of money, so you can't afford the high-end helmets and gear that you really want to buy, which was me in the very beginning. It didn't, we didn't have the money to invest in the best. Like, I knew I wanted a Rai because I tried it on, but I was like, I can't, I can't throw this down. So knowing how much money you have to spend is your first place and ballpark it. You know, if you know you have about a thousand to play with-ish, you know, in that range, well, that's still a good starting point. If you're at the sub 500, if you're down to like to the 500 and below, well, that puts you into used gear, maybe a new helmet, because used gear depreciates so fast, faster than a lot of things these days. So if your budget is, let's start at like 500 and below, you're going to buy a new helmet for maybe 200. Like that's reasonable. And honestly, 300 is plenty to get good used products that people have actually used. So not the people who bought the Rai, but they changed their mind and they're trying to get every penny back for it. Not that person, but maybe the Robin who has this jacket and he's worn it a few years and it's, you know, he's cleaned it, but he's bought another one.

Robin: I have one right now that's covered in bird guts that I will sell you on the cheap.

Joanne: Are you still wearing that ugly jacket? Have you yet upgraded?

Robin: With the Siddiqui? No.

Joanne: Okay. Anyways, no offense to Siddiqui, but Robin here can afford a larger investment. Should he wish to, he could. So if you're not a Robin's bucket and you're at that entry level point, you're going to surf Facebook marketplace. You're going to hit the message boards. You're going to hit any motorcycle friends you have and say, hey, I'm a large jean. I'm a large jacket. I'm a medium glove. Anybody have anything? Because I guarantee you the minute you put the word out there, motorcycle people are some of the best people you'll ever meet on this planet. And there are so many people who will give you new, almost new gear, you know, because they're not thinking about selling it yet, but they have stuff in their closet. They're just not using, you know, Brian may be like, oh, you know what? I have these gloves, climb gloves I bought, but I really don't like them and I don't have anything to do with them. I'll give them to you. A lot of times people will actually give them to you or they'll just give it to you for $20. Like I've got a few things I'm trying to sell for my friend for $50. Any ladies out there who want a killer two-piece Dainese riding suit, textile, and seedy boots, I hope you will message me. Message me on my socials, Gear Chick, because she just wants to make sure it goes to a good home. She's not looking to make $1,000 back. So literally $75 for the jacket, $50 for the pants, $75 for the boots. That's a whole outfit right there. The only thing she doesn't have is gloves. That's where you're going to go if you're really, really, really on a budget. And then when you're in that mid-range budget, then you start to shop on the online stores and you look at your motorcycle type. Now, I'm not saying that just because you ride an adventure bike, you have to wear adventure gear. That is not the case. You can wear whatever you want, right? I mean, I've got friends who ride one-piece leathers on adventure bikes. It all depends on, yes, will the product fit you in your riding posture and position? Because some people don't want to wear the typical adventure suit on their Africa twin. Some people want to wear riding jeans, just like an urban hoodie, and that's okay too. What you want to be conscious of, whether you are riding something that's an aggressive sport bike or a more neutral, feet beneath you, slightly forward, your lean is slight. Because basically anybody who doesn't ride a track bike, so we're talking- Race replica, yeah, double R. Right. Anything like a S1000RR, an Aprilia RSV4, R7, R6, R1, Daytona, anything where you're not laying down, you wear whatever you want. As long as in your riding position, the comfort is there, you can pretty much wear it, right? If you're on a naked, like I'm on a street triple, so I can wear pretty much anything I want. Pants are kind of weird just because the rear sets are high. But for those of you riding a neutral motorcycle, maybe a Bonneville, maybe a Murguzi V7, you know, neutral, you can pretty much throw on whatever you like. Just make sure that when you sit down in that posture, that the gear isn't hindering your range of motion, right? That's kind of the key. But, you know, there are reasons why there are products meant for certain lifestyles. There's a reason why there's adventure-specific gear, but it does depend on the performance of the guy. What do you want it to do? My main tip is for the sport riders who do have an R1, who have a Daytona, who have a Dixer, who have these really aggressive bikes that are not comfortable, well, for most of us, but where you are leaning very forward, then you kind of have to look at sport gear. You have to, because it's really hard to wear upright gear on a sport bike, like a really aggressive sport bike. It's impossible to wear your climb pad lens jacket on your S1000RR. It's not even going to let you lean forward.

Robin: Well, your shoulder pads end up by your ears and the belt line is like up against your belly button. Yeah, it's all up high.

Joanne: I bet you'd have a hard time just reaching your hand grips so low. So the fit of the garment is that different. So for sport gear, it is really important that you do look for gear that was designed for sport riding because you have to lean forward so much. After that, I want you to think about narrowing your brand choices by European fit or American fit. And everybody, for the most part, not everybody, but most of us, we know our bodies. We know like, yep, I need a more loose cut top and I need a straight cut jean or I need a skinny cut jean and I need a skinny cut jacket, you know, or something in between. Because once you know you need a looser cut, you're going to go like full American brands. So brands based in the United States that pretty much only sell here. And then if you're on the other end of the spectrum, like me, I'm very petite. I'm very slender. I need European product. Otherwise, my pants fall down. My jacket is too large around the chest and around my shoulders. So put yourself in that European or American bucket, chase the brands. So if you're a European cut person, go chase those European brands. If you're an American cut person, go chase the American brands. And there are some exceptions there. And if you message me, I'll give you some ideas if you need some specific ideas for your body. Just you want to make a mental note of that, of what you might need.

Robin: What's the email where people can reach you?

Joanne: So I'm going to do a more extensive podcast on my own podcast. You can find my podcast on Apple iTunes and you can find it on my website.

Robin: Similar banter at higher revs can be heard through the Gear Check podcast, which is making its eventual return. Trying to visit GearCheck.com and dig in. If you want to reach out to Joanne directly, I believe the email is help at GearCheck.com. There you go. I will admit that the entire time you've been talking, I've been listening and shopping at MotorcycleGear.com because of her comments about my beautiful, elegant Siddiqui Alexei 3.

Joanne: To be clear, I don't see there's anything wrong with it.

Robin: I'm just saying. Blood smather. Yeah.

Joanne: There's many options available to Robin. And now that he has a sexy motorcycle, he deserves.

Brian: Oh, I love that bike.

Joanne: An equally sexy outfit.

Brian: Obviously you need like those guys on Italian bikes. You need a matching helmet with the motorcycle brand on it.

Joanne: Well, you bought a Suzuki, right? Didn't you buy the GSX-8?

Brian: R. The Gixator?

Robin: Yeah.

Joanne: Oh, you bought an R?

Robin: 8R, not the GSX-R.

Joanne: Okay. I was going to say, Robin, you're kind of old for that. Yeah.

Robin: It's an awkward conversation at every gas station with anybody who doesn't. That one of them there does one of them there, right? That's a cry truck. It's a gixxer, right? It's a gixxer. Yeah. No, it's not. There's a version of the Klim induction jacket, a previous version. The current version, they've got a couple left over that they're only asking for 300 bucks for. They have a previous version that I don't know if it was a gen one. They're only asking $129 for a Klim induction jacket of the previous gen. Yeah. So motorcyclegear.com is not a void opportunity for the new rider or anybody who's on a dime.

Joanne: They also have a used marketplace.

Brian: Yeah. They have the rider's closet. And if you need advice on fit, they are, they're very responsive. They're very helpful.

Robin: It's on to the good stuff. The fine one of it all to bring Jordan into the mix. Moments in motorcycle history. And I'm rolling the dice on this one because I'm still producing the previous episode, but focus moment. George Wyman continues Holland High and Quarters due East in an effort to make it to New York City with little to no horsepower in 1903. As a story gains momentum though, so does Jordan's narration of it. Jordan, make it happen, Captain.

Jordan: So this is like a testament to his ability to ride as well as fix things while he's riding it. This guy is the complete package. He leaves Columbus, Nebraska at 740 AM, what he refers to as a late start. The delay wasn't because he was tired at this time, but just practical. He had to wait for gas and there was no gas yet in rural Nebraska. He couldn't get it from a roadside station, but it was delivered to him by a horse-drawn wagon that makes its daily rounds like a garbage truck might today. The gasoline had to come to him. He had to wait for it. So he probably lost a little bit over an hour because of that. Once he got his gas and leaving the bad roads behind, he gets back to the railroad tracks and he goes 28 miles, bouncing along the ties, avoiding as much deep sand as he can and splintered wood and infrequent oncoming trains. And he finds a stretch of road that looked serviceable enough. So he gets off the tracks and he switches. The roads are actually getting better now. And by the middle of the day, he gets into a town called Fremont, Nebraska, where he stopped for his, again, dinner, which is lunch in the middle of the day. And then the roads got better even more from there. So this is, he's getting into the Midwest here. He's really, he's cutting through Nebraska and he's going to be getting into Iowa and roads are going to be flat and straight and maybe not as abused by wagons and weather and whatnot. And he's starting to make some progress now. So maybe hopefully he's going to leave some of this gumbo mud behind and he makes pretty good, good progress. And he's got his eyes set on Omaha, which is a big deal. Isn't that where the Wizard of Oz was from? Omaha State Fair. The balloon from the Wizard of Oz was from the Omaha State Fair. And I think it's also a battleship. Anyways, head towards Omaha. This is a significant mental milestone for him because he's crossed the Rockies. He's crossed the bad part. He knows he's into the sweet stuff. The Rockies are gone, fading further and further behind him. And he thinks that from now on, his trip should be easier. This is day 27 of his trip. And on that evening in Omaha, pretty big town, he finds a good bike shop to overhaul his machine. When he says overhaul, I assume he's taking the whole damn thing apart. You know, maybe as far as, you know, the top end of the engine or something like that. But he gets into it. Everything that he needed was there. The bike shop was owned by a guy named Louis Fletcher. Not Fletcher, but Fletcher at 1622 Capitol Avenue. He's no ordinary mechanic because his connection to early American motorcycling is a big one with one of his bikes now enshrined at the Wheels Through Time Museum. The Fletcher bike is parked right next to the Yale California, which is basically the same model that George Wyman rode. But now it carries the Yale name instead of the California Motorcycle Company, because they bought it a couple years later. He also played a role in the legacy of the Yale California Motorcycle Company, whose name helped inspire his motorcycle journey, whatever. OK, that's what it says. Fletcher allows Wyman to use his workshop to perform his repairs. The machine had suffered greatly in the first 2,000 miles. His rear wheel was battered, spokes broken, drive mechanisms worn down by rocks and rough riding. He replaced six broken spokes. He seems to be doing six at a time. Stocks up on a few spares, trues both wheels, replaced the belt rim. That's that wooden part that drives rear wheel. And the old one was so battered by stones, it looked, in his words, like it had been chewed by a horse. So I could imagine that's pretty bad. It was wooden, as many belt rims were back then. He also installed the second tire that he had wisely shipped to himself. Remember how he stopped and bought two tires and he shipped one ahead? Well, now he received it in Omaha and installs it. And now there's a hole in his gasoline tank, which he says he solders. I assume that means he just leaded it up. But yeah, there was a hole in his gas tank too now. I don't know how you get a hole in your gas tank except for falling down on it too many times. So many miles of vibration and impact had taken its toll on the bike. But being in Omaha with access to the proper tools and materials, he was able to get his bike back to pretty good shape. At this point, he decides that he wants to reduce weight. He's looking at making up some time. So he removes his rear carrier. He's been carrying an additional can of gas and several other things that have gotten him to this point. He thinks he's in basically flatland and have access to gas and everything else after this point. So he's done his research and I think he's able to ditch some of his ballast here. So he gets rid of his luggage rack. He ships both the tank and the carrier ahead himself in Chicago. He's leapfrogging himself with shipments here. Foresight. Smart guy. He's not a passenger on this trip. He's the rider. He's traveling light. Bare essentials. He's got a tire pump, a patch kit, a wrench, a spark plug, and some oil. He works well into the night, 1.30 in the morning. On June 13th, 1903, he's prepared for the next day leg of the trip, which is 1,600 more miles. He's only got 13 days remaining to claim the $500 prize, which he's calculated he'd need to average more than 123 miles per day from now on, which is a lot. Instead of resuming his ride at dawn, he slept in a little bit. He didn't leave Omaha until 3 o'clock PM, because I guess because he was up till 1.30 the night before. I can relate to that. I've done that too many times. 3 o'clock PM, he leaves again. He's well rested, but he's several hours behind schedule. Clock is still ticking. So in Omaha, he calls the streets, I think I got to look at my dictionary here, he calls it vitrified brick streets. They are so smooth, they're like tiles. And he feels the bicycle seem to skim the earth like a swallow as I started for the steel bridge across the Missouri River to Council Bluffs, Iowa. He's getting into Iowa now. He's crossed Nebraska. That's a big deal. Nebraska compared to like Texas, maybe a third. Pretty wide. That's a chunk of road. We're about to get into Council Bluffs. Talking about Omaha's streets. I mean, he's been through a lot of towns. Every town has some sort of street in the town. Not the entire town is covered in streets. Their streets might be wood. It might be a boardwalk. It might be the six by six or eight by eight vertically stacked wooden blocks. It could be brick. It could be their version of asphalt, which is basically gravel covered in tar. Some of it could actually be concrete because they had Portland cement back in the 1800s. Saying the roads are like vitrified brick streets. So smooth that they're like tiles. This is like being in heaven, you know? It's fantastic for him. The bike is lighter without the carrier and its load. He was having the finest ride of his lifetime. In quotes, the finest ride of my lifetime. He's having such a good time riding. Apparently he crosses a toll road and there is a toll collector, but he is cruising along so briskly and happily he just blows right by him. The toll collector chases him down. Maybe he noticed him too late and figured, whatever, I'm going to get away with this one and he just keeps going. Nothing came of it, but he didn't pay the toll. He does not get caught like a 1980s teenager. He just gets away with it. He gets to Council Bluffs, Iowa and he meets a Mr. Smith of the Nebraska Cycle Company who has traveled all over the country, which to me probably means just the Midwest, and told him to not be too enthusiastic about the roads ahead because of the weather and rivers overtaking their banks all the way to Chicago. Well, we're east of Nebraska and getting into Iowa and there's rivers and yeah, sure, maybe they've overflowed their banks. Dampens his enthusiasm for getting to the Atlantic Ocean on time and he decides to explore Council Bluffs, Iowa for a long day, enjoying the best of brick pavement he had ever seen in comparison to the best roads in Australia, which of course, as you remember, he's already circumnavigated all of Australia on bicycle. So he compares these brick roads to a wooden floor. It's in Council Bluffs, Iowa that he decides to alter his route from the southerly route to the northerly route. Apparently there's two routes. I know that one of them will go through Chicago and one will go through Springfield, Illinois. Starts following the northwestern railroad route.

Robin: Awesome stuff. I can't wait to sit down with Jordan again and sip a glass and pick up where I left off. I know George Wyman is getting closer. I don't know what we're going to talk about after he gets done with this whole thing, because then it's on to like, oh, how did fuel injection get started? Or, you know, the little stuff.

Brian: Wonder if Jordan would be willing to talk about Bessie Stringfield.

Robin: You have no idea what you just did to that man. If he hears, I'm going to leave that in.

Brian: She's the first African-American woman to ride across the United States solo. And she was actually got paid to ride motorcycles in the U.S. Army during World War II. Had a very, very cool life. Earned money from performing motorcycle stunts and carnival shows. Won flat track races and then got refused. She'd enter the flat track race and then you find out she was a woman when she won and broke a lot of barriers. What do we want to talk about next week? Well, we weren't going to talk about waterproofing. How to find actual waterproof gear, keep your gear waterproof, how to wear it so it's waterproof. There's a lot of topics in there. How do you keep the damn water out? Brian is looking for a fight.

Robin: Please have an argument with Brian. Now, here's the hard part, Joanna. It's like, trust me, you'll have a great time having an argument with Brian because it's just it's just fun. I like to argue. Problem is, he's agreeable into the first moment of the argument. When the argument gets going right at the very beginning, he will respond with, oh, I never really thought about that. I guess that does kind of make sense. And the outlines and he comes to an end and the fight is over. There's no.

Joanne: Well, then it should be easy.

Brian: I'll throw out a simple thesis. There is no such thing as waterproof gear that actually works. There it is. That's what I was looking for.

Joanne: Is that based on the premise that you've tried all of them from cheap to expensive?

Brian: I've tried most of them.

Joanne: But not all of them.

Brian: It all fails.

Joanne: You haven't tried all of them. Your statement is based on a lack of complete data. We're going to talk about that.

Brian: We'll get into that one. All right. We'll get into that one. Is everybody happy with us? I think I can be happy.

Joanne: All right.