Robin: In this episode, Corner by Corner, I don't know what Joanne's going to talk about, but I know it's going to be part of her armory. And George Wyman is trying to get to Chicago, we think, or Springfield, Illinois, one or the other.

Brian: So he's not in Chicago yet. Okay.

Robin: Yes. And he's uncertain. We have not gotten there yet. You'll hear in the most recent episode that he made it to more mud. Yeah. It's pretty bad. It's pretty rough. Good to see you, sir. Good to see you. It's been absolute ages, a whole two days. And some basic riding of sorts. How you been? Good.

Brian: I was really starting to think about the tires on my GS 850. I'm going to take my old bike to the Brown County, and the tires on it are about three and a half years old. And they're fine. I don't ride that bike that much. But I thought about it, and I thought about it again. And then, you know, weeks later, boy, I'm still thinking about this. So I followed my own advice. You know, crapped out the 300 bucks for tires, and going to throw them on and have new tires, because that's always been one of my rules. If it's on your mind, take it off your mind, so you can think about other things. And it was one of those things, like, I think it would have been okay. But yeah, you pick up the new ones, and they, like, stick to your palms.

Robin: Oh, yeah.

Brian: This is right. This is correct.

Robin: That's the new. Yeah. I guess, figuratively, you could ride an expressway run for about 15 minutes, really heat up your tires, bring them back, and give them a test, and see, do they have the elasticity, plasticity?

Brian: Yeah.

Robin: Whatever. And just see if they're worth keeping. But you did the right, you did the safety thing on your own. Now it's off your mind. That's not so bad.

Brian: There was a Bridgestone rebate that's active till the end of the month, and going to take advantage of that.

Robin: Well, I got some interesting news for you. I'll read this verbatim and see if it comes out fluid and smooth. One episode prior to this, we observed the lack of runoff and metal fencing at Ozarks International Raceway. I have you fortayed. You look at photos online. You go, oh, wow. Wow. Like, I've never heard you express. You meant it. I was making a point that the new raceway in the Ozarks, Missouri, is questionable for motorcycle track days because of the lack of runoff and the, as Brian immediately announced, metallic chain link fencing and such. I was just informed, coincidentally by someone who called in with a listener question, that they're trying to recover from their initial design and construction decisions by putting in air fencing, which is an actual trademarked product. This is an actual product. So airfence.com. You can check that out. This alone makes me feel a little bit more confident in the idea of attending one of their track days on a motorcycle. Kudos for this decision. Here's hoping they keep adding more safety solution for what looks to be an excellent circuit. I remember when it first came out, this is Robin playing the safety third card. I just see the circuit. I'm like, oh yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Brian: Yeah. Yeah.

Robin: Yeah. Yeah. It's 3.7 miles long, I think, which is, I don't remember what road America is off the top of my head, but that's a long track.

Brian: 3.97 miles. So just shy of four. Just shy of four. A lot of elevation changes. Looks gorgeous. That would be exhausting.

Robin: Yeah. And I was talking to Travis and Tim back in the day about this on the show. I was like, gimme. Didn't think about anything involved. Brought it up with a good friend over at riding solutions.com, Jason Erheim. I was like, hey man, check this out. He's like, ooh, no. And then he pointed out everything. I was like, yep. I know that I would blow that corner and crash. I'd blow that corner and crash. Probably blow all those corners and crash. And what am I hitting? Let's just make the fencing out of steak knives. They are fixing all of that, which I think is pretty cool. And there's probably a threshold for which I'll be like, hell yeah, let's do this. Anyhow, what else you got? What's good in the Brian world?

Brian: Friend of mine had an exciting experience and I'll just mention that you definitely need to replace your valve stems. If you don't do it with every tire change, which I do, you should at least do it every two or three years. Not the core, the whole valve stem. Why? What happened? Yeah, he went to put air in a bike he just bought and the valve stem just fell off. It's just in your normal rubber valve stem, the TR412. Yeah, they get hard and cracked just like the other rubber. So just replace them. The thing a lot of people don't do is if you have the metal valve stems, you also need to replace the O-rings or the seals on those on some sort of regular basis every three years or so. They're not forever.

Robin: This is good to know. I've got some reasonably priced right angles because it's just easier that way. And they went on and immediately after fastening them securely in place, they could still be forced to turn if you tried hard enough, which told me, huh, watch over that over the next few tire changes and see what you find out.

Brian: Yeah, not a fan of the right angle valve stems. I think the rubber valve stems are just simple and tough, like they can take a hit. You know, a lot of people use them. A lot of people prefer being able to reach them, that kind of thing. So whatever. But yeah, the rubber in there deteriorates. Just a little reminder. I'd also mentioned the road rubber rankings are updated. Yes, it is chew up your tires season.

Robin: My worst kept secret, the Angel STs have made it over the 3000 mark. They're still on right now. I rode to Travis's back and forth a couple of times. We're prepping a track bike at his house. ER6N for naked. So I rode to his place. I've still got tread. I've got some local travel I can do on those tires still safely at that. And so I'm at the 3200 mark. Hey, not bad considering what I've done to other tires in the past.

Brian: Not bad. Yeah, considering that was the whole, yeah, that was a whole tour and everything. And there's a plug in the rear. So thank you, sir.

Robin: You know, the only reason Brian gets credit is because he beat me to punch. I put the bike on the side, get ready to deal with it. And I'm like, okay, I need to find my tire sticky string. I turn around, Brian's like, you're good to go. All fixed. Oh, I did learn. It has been the pattern. The Ryobi tire pumps, the set it, forget it, portable walkaways. They are three PSI off. Which way? They are low. My FOBO tire pressure sensors said that I was at 33 PSI for both front and rear. I thought, okay, well, you know, maybe my FOBOs are off. And our friend Dale, he's got the same Ryobi that you have. So, okay, whatever. I get home and I use my pump, set it, forget it. It goes up to 36, boop, check the FOBOs, 36 flat. So I'm like, okay, this is ringing true to me. So I believe that they, oh, and then I checked it with an analog tire pressure gauge and it was just shy of 40 because I got a cheap pressure gauge, but whatever.

Brian: Yeah, I've got two digital gauges that are like really high quality and they are truth. What are they? One of them is actually, it's a Merlin brand digital gauge. It's the style with a little round thing and a hose. And it's from Harbor Freight of all places. You know, when people have tested these, they come out, they're very consistent and very accurate. And the other one's one that I have from, I bought from a company called Road Gear, which is no longer around. I have that one. That one's really good. They had one. I wish I had that talked in this really sassy accent. 36 PSI. I've got the one you're talking about. I remember the last one I heard. It was like 34 PSI. It was really entertaining. I wish I had one of those. The one I have is from Road Gear. Very nice digital gauge. Very accurate. Has always done me well. I trust that one too. And it agrees with the Merlin gauge from Harbor Freight. Very nice. What's this I got about motorcyclegear.com? Yeah, dudes fix your site. The website is having issues there. They used to be new enough and I'm upset that they changed the name from new enough, but I'm getting over it. It's only been five years or whatever, but yeah, their new website has all kinds of issues. If you're trying to filter and look for stuff, images don't load. I know they're aware. I know they're working on it. It's like, come on people. I hope they get it sorted out. We love you. Get it sorted out people. Yeah, that's really the point. We're not, we're not bashing. No, we love Motorcycle Gear. I have spent the equivalent of several nice motorcycles at Motorcycle Gear over the years. And I will spend more. I just hope they get their website. I'm sure they're working on it. It was frustrating earlier today when I was looking for options.

Robin: We got some hardcore listener questions and some heavy topics after. So I don't know how we're supposed to bang this out of vision. Technology. Are you ready? I will. I will be succinct. Question that I fielded today over the phone, paraphrasing what they asked. I have a ZX-10R that I ride both on the street and track. I ordered and received an extra set of rims so that I can more easily change between slicks and road rubber. The seller photos showed on eBay that all looked well, but on arrival, I noticed a small dent slash ding near the lip on the front. Should I trust that it's okay to ride on? Now this was a conversation. He thought that I was mcwheel.com. I'll get to that in a second. But our MC wheel rim repair article is showing up on Google as a service. So they're calling TRO asking if we can repair their rims. I'm like, absolutely not. I do not have these expertise. But the conversation went on where I was just like, you know, them asking, hey, I want to track this. Do you think it's safe? I'm not going to answer that. I'm not going to tell you you should do it because I might, if I had it in hand and decided that the lip, if there's no warping of the behavior of the tire, and if the bead is sitting correctly, I might, but it's definitely compromised and needs some love and attention. Heating it up and torching it and getting it on a roller is going to fix that. And it also probably cures some of the compromised metal, but he needs to go to a professional. I can't decide for him on the phone. He insisted on getting the advice. And my advice is no, because I don't know. Then he asked, well, can I fix it? I said, he wants to go to mcwheel.com. I've sent my rims to them two times now, and both times I've been extremely pleased with their service. Especially the second time was for the RS where they were like, also, we found a very strange geometry blended off into the distance. I was like, yeah, sure. Whatever. I don't know what they found, but they fixed it. If they fix it, then you can trust it. mcwheel.com. There's a detailed article on our website about a visitor to bike and look up rim repair. And that's the first thing that shows up.

Brian: Brian, what you got? Another one to look at is in Woody's wheel works. I think they're in Colorado. Nice. A trusted source for the ADV rider crowd who beat the hell out of the rims on the BMWs all the time. And those are the only two I can really think of, but there may be others, but yeah, these, these two are really experts in motorcycle wheels. Talk to them. Don't talk to us. We're just two idiots.

Robin: Yeah. It's like mcwheels.com website is horrible because they don't need you. They're going to be just fine. They have enough business. They don't have time to come up with anything better. They're too busy answering phones, taking in product and all this stuff. And if you send them a limerick, I think they give you a discount. I don't remember how that works. I did that. What was the one you mentioned? Uh, Woody's wheel works. There you go. You've got a pair of options right there.

Brian: Yeah. The damage he describes will be very easy to, to, for a good shop to fix. If it sounds minor, you know, they've, they've fixed some pretty rotten stuff. Next. All right.

Robin: Here's the complicated one. So real quick, JL asks, I've heard a couple of views. I've heard a couple of use folks being sketched out about bikes with 16 inch wheels. And I understand that they did that in the eighties to make bikes more responsive in turns, but isn't it the overall profile, a 16 inch rim could still have a tire with a steep aspect ratio, say 170 over 90, 16 or so just pulling random numbers out of my head. It might still be as tall as modern bikes with he says, 19 inch rims. I'm a switch. That's a 17 inch rims and one 70 55 zero 19 whatever zero 17 would be the modern standard. Uh, not sure on the math, but hopefully you understand the gist of my question. What say you my answer? Yes. Also no. So correction. We're not sketched out just anticipating performance differences, any difference in the end geometry, total dimensions with the rubber on will have an effect on the handling. So I'm thinking of like the Africa twin, that's a big, steep front tire, which you rode in New Mexico. You handled it beautifully. You handled it like Brian ringer handles a bike. So the point is though that the sketched out part is how the rider will have to change their cornering techniques to suit the change in the end geometry. So is it good or is it worse? Nah. I mean, Brian's V-Strom was stellar with him on it, but it's going to corner differently. It is. If you have a 21 inch front to a 16 inch rear plus rubber that suits the generic dimensions on that, your front end is going to step in. It's going to go deeper to the outside of the corner than otherwise. Am I right?

Brian: Yeah. It's going to need a different technique and things like that. Uh, and again, to a large degree, you know, if you're not sitting on a moto GP track and, and shaking hands with Valentino, it's, it's the rider. It's not the bike. You know, you can ride quickly. You can ride safely. You can ride on tracks on pretty much anything with, with rubber on it. The other thing to point out, and I think you touched on this a little bit was if even if you end up at the same height, you're not going to end up with the same profile. So the, so basically the roundness of the tire is going to be a little different depending on width and how the tire is constructed, things like that. The second thing is air and rubber are not aluminum. Yes. You're going to have a different distribution of mass. Uh, so yeah, you're, you're going to have a different feel, even if you end up at the same overall diameter. Absolutely. Is that a better or worse feel for what you're doing? That's another question.

Robin: Try using a one-inch pencil with a four-inch eraser. Okay. An incredibly extreme exaggeration of the concept, but yeah, just hold onto the pencil portion and try to use that eraser, a normal eraser, but the eraser is four inches long and the pencil is two inches long. That's going to feel different no matter what, because the eraser is not made of wood. Is it something we're tweaked out about? No, that's a completely different matter. You hand me the keys, I'll write anything.

Brian: And I might even bring it back. There you go. In one piece. Yeah. The biggest thing, making oddball size tires is kind of a problem. And so the world in this performance world, especially has standardized on a 17 inch wheel diameter. So 16 inch wheels were a way to get, you know, a quicker turn in, especially on really large, powerful bikes. And people were still figuring out handling, they're still figuring out frame geometry in the 80s and 90s. Looking up what the CBX has. Yeah, that was a way to kind of do that. And then later on, MotoGP actually went to 16.5 inch wheels. And nowadays, since I think I looked it up, I think from 2016 up to now, they've standardized on the same 17 inch wheel sizes and diameters that we use on sport bikes, street bikes right now. Obviously adventure bikes, different bikes with different missions have different wheel diameters. The main reason you have a larger wheel diameter on an quote adventure bike or a dual sport is so that it can roll over obstacles. That was one of the issues with the 16 inch. There was a 16 inch tires on performance bikes. They were just a little more reactive to imperfections on the pavement. So you hit a rock, you knew it, you may have a little more of a chance of wobbling, you know, you knew a little bit more things like that. It didn't make a big positive difference. And it made life a lot harder. So if you own one of these old GSX, what were they the GSX-Rs in the 80s? I don't remember they were, well, they had 16 inch fronts on some of the like super bikes in the 80s. Wow, that's the front and the rear, I think was still 17, maybe 18 on some models, because they were trying to get it to handle quicker. So the big problem is not the handling, the big problem is finding some damn tires to fit the thing. Because if you have a GS1150 from the 80s with a 16 inch front, you have like one or two choices of front tire for it. Most people get a 17 inch wheel from a later model and can convert it. They settled on a standard, the 17 inch, just to make it easier to develop tires, make it easier to transfer technology from MotoGP, from other types of racing to street bike tires, and just to make like everyone's life easier. So yeah, there are little differences, little subtleties that are different and better and so forth. But 17 inches turned out to be a really good compromise.

Robin: We've arrived.

Brian: It just makes things so much more convenient. Yeah.

Robin: Another obscurity, I remember that Honda's big one, the CB1000 was dual 18s. And apparently the CBX is a 19 front, 18 rear. Yeah. Strangely, my Seika 400, 1982 Yamaha XS400RJ Seika, dual 18 inch rims, which was strange to me, covered that pretty well. I don't know if it did or not, but well, that was our bit. JL also asks, you ready for this one? I think so. What are the wear and tear differences between cable or hydraulic manual clutch, quick shift, and DCT transmissions? Do they have the same wear points, i.e. the shift dogs, forks, et cetera? With all things being equal, i.e. durable design of parts and metallurgy in each case, are there other designs besides those above mentioned? Metallurgy is a word I like. And a long time ago, special guest host Joe Godin cannot stand. He would walk up to me randomly and say metallurgy and just walk away. He hated that word. This is a multifaceted question. There's a lot of ingredients to this. It's like multiple questions in one. Hydra versus cable. I prefer Hydra with minerals almost never in need of any maintenance. You hardly ever have to replace the mineral oil in a hydraulic cable setup. For cable, I mean, I have to bring an extra clutch cable, for example, for when, you know, sure, I tighten a knot and, you know, hate stuff it into my top case, but I have to have it because at some point I could lose that cable. So I keep an extra clutch cable on my person. As for the quick shifters, I mean, my R1200RS had one and my current ride does as well, the Jixator. My experience is that the more cylinders you have, the more smoothly a quick shifter will operate and perform. For twins, both my current and previous were twins. They feel pretty rough, but still worth having after second gear. This was exacerbated on the RS due to its 180 degree cylinder profile. It felt like a two-wheeled tractor. I mean, by the time I got done with that bike, shifting from first to second using the quick shifter was just, you just heard kachunk and you heard things break and fall back into place somehow naturally. And it just felt like I was doing damage and it was undoing the damage on its own. As for the DCT, I know next to nothing about, so I'm not even gonna touch that one. Brian, cover all you want to. Have at it.

Brian: Yeah, as far as overall durability and so forth, there are good and bad transmissions of all types. You know, all of them work and you can design a good and bad one and so forth. One advantage of cables is that you can kind of repair them in the field. It's a very simple thing. And so I've repaired broken cables in the field several times. I've also replaced them when someone, you know, thinks to bring one. Cables do require that you adjust the clutch cable and a lot of surprising number of people have no idea how to do this. Just throwing that out there. Hydraulic clutches sure do feel nicer and they do self-adjust and that's nice. They do introduce more complexity. I would say you do get some warning, like if they're starting to get dirty and, you know, they'll leak a little bit, you'll probably notice before they just fail. Like a cable, most of the time you don't notice and then suddenly you got no clutch and you're heading toward the red light and so forth. Just make sure you flush the fluid regularly. Most of them use brake fluid. If you use like mineral oil, squeeze from, just make sure you know what the maintenance process is.

Robin: You gotta juice rocks.

Brian: You gotta squeeze rocks. Well, it's just fancy baby oil. It's actually, that's baby oil minus the scent is mineral oil. Anyway, just make sure you get it right. Whatever your bike uses, don't mix them. Make sure you maintain those. The slave cylinder is down kind of at the bottom of the bike and all the muck and so forth. So that's the big failure point with hydraulic clutches to get gunk in there and corrosion. And so just make sure you flush it regularly if that's part of it and keep it clean. A quick shifter, I think, has the potential to reduce the most common transmission failure on a motorcycle, which is losing the gear dogs. So it pops out a second. You spoke about this in a previous episode, how second gear is when it starts to get really rough or it can be. Yeah, you got teeth on the backside of the gear that mesh with each other. And if you're kind of slamming from first to second a lot, and it's a lot of sloppiness, these teeth kind of get worn and then they're supposed to lock in. But if they start to get worn, then they'll slip out. So when you crank it on in second, it'll pop out a second back into neutral. And some bikes, this is a known weak point. The Kawasaki, the ZRX, I believe, has a real problem with second gear.

Robin: It can also start to happen with a hot bike. If you're lower displacement bike or sub 1000 displacement bike, as I can tell you that my 800 is, you might be trying to shift and all of a sudden it just kind of, you've been riding a long time, the bike is warm, the fan's going off more often. All of a sudden, second is oftentimes neutral because you just didn't put enough hate into it. A little bit of oomph.

Brian: I think some of these automated things, like the quick shifters and so forth, had a potential to extend the transmission's life. The big if is if they are calibrated correctly, they have to have the timing just right and the electronics have to be just right. So it cuts off and you're definitely in second by the time it turns the power on again in third, fourth, fifth, sixth, all that. So overall, you're just down to how well designed it is, how good the components are inside. And it kind of talks about DCT transmissions. It's a whole other ball of wax. You know, Honda, I think is, I think Honda is the only one making motorcycles for the street with DCT. And I think that tells you something because Honda is the only one that could pull it off. You know, they are, they're a company that really prides themselves on flexing, on their engineering flexes. I think this is an engineering flex. I think they're great transmissions. I think they've got it right and they'll last a long time and they're gold wings. But it's also very expensive. It's a little heavier. It's a lot more complex. There's a lot more going on in there. And you have to have some really good, well-tuned computer controls to make sure everything does what it's supposed to exactly when it's supposed to. And so you've got sensors to deal with and things like that. Then make all of that droppable. Yeah. So back to the question about durability, it comes down, you know, do you trust Honda to build something and have, you know, Honda has already beat the hell out of this. The answer is yes. Yeah. Yeah. Go for it. Yeah. I think it'll be fine. I do think the DCT, people do say it requires a different set of skills. It's not like driving an automatic car, but it's also, of course, it's not like driving a manual transmission car or motorcycle. So you do have to develop a different set of skills and it throws you off for a little bit. You can ride it in automatic mode where it does the shifting for you. You can put it in manual mode and hit the switch for your shifts. But yeah, there's no clutch lever and yada yada. Now, Yamaha had a really crappy system on the FJR 1300 for a while. They basically, it was a regular old transmission, but they had like a computer and some actuators to do the clutch stuff for you and you did the shifting. Okay. So you did the shifting and you had switches or you could use your shift lever like normal. Yeah. The problem was it went out of calibration really quickly. So after a few weeks, your bike could start acting different. And so a lot of people, you know, they're trying to turn around a low speed to drop the bike because the power's not there when they expect it and things like that. It's pretty bad at doing all that.

Robin: Well, Yemi was always pretty good at experimenting. So they'd take a lot of chances on some very obscure noise. Suzuki did a couple of times too, but Yamaha really was the, at the time, like, let's mess around with this concept, you know?

Brian: What was the, the GTS with that weird front end? Yeah. Yeah. Which was a great bike, really heavy stuff. But basically just to sum it all up, I think a quick shifter that is properly calibrated has a potential to extend your transmission life because I think it should reduce the amount of stress on the components and the amount of mistakes you make. And I think Honda's DCT, I'm sure will be just fine. It is heavier. It is more complex. There's a lot of electronics and so forth, but I kind of trust Honda to get it right. Other bikes, you know, if, if, uh, you know, Royal Enfield comes out with a DCT, I don't know. Yeah. Hard to tell, you know, that kind of thing. Yes. And also we haven't really talked about CVTs, which are like snowmobiles, ATVs, things like that.

Robin: I will edit all of this out if you don't figure out how to wrap this up. Yeah.

Brian: Anyway, in conclusion, I think we're going to see a lot more automatic transmissions come to motorcycles. I think they're going to be like half a sales in 10 years easily, because I think a lot of younger people are not really interested in learning shifting. Uh, and I think the technology is going to trickle out. It's a little sad.

Robin: I love stick shift cars, man. Stick shift is fun. It's so much more fun. I, I don't want that for me. I'm going to want the manual setup at all time.

Brian: I'm going to be the old guy. Yeah. Yeah.

Robin: So if you'd like us to field your questions, email podcast at TRO dot bike, or go to email dot TRO dot bike, and that'll take you to the forum where you can email us directly through the website. You're ready for segment one.

Brian: I'm ready for segment one. I don't know. I can't make head or tail of your notes, Robin. Let's dig deep.

Robin: I've thought about this topic. Brian's laughing, but the fact is, is that it's important to me. Every time I try to address cornering and spirited riding safety, I get a little bit of momentum, but I can't quite land it. So I've kind of outlined some perspective on it that is based around code. We're going to talk about arrays. Segment one, corner by corner point and shoot strategies for spirited safety. We're talking about per instance, risk management, self-assessment, and curve carving. And by per instance, I mean, how much can you visually take on and process in front of you on a motorcycle that you're able to calculate through, make sense of, and execute a plan and even have a backup plan? Stream of consciousness is kind of the only way to discuss it, yet you can easily find yourself crashing into a wall of information that you can't get out of while trying to express the idea of it. I think Brian's going to be a little bit more smooth about this. I predict you're going to have a lot more fluid wording for what I'm sort of saying, but I want to say it my way. Per instance, risk management, self-assessment, curve carving in an array, which is a grouping of anything. You open up your carton of eggs. That is an array of eggs. Well, if you have one egg in that carton, the carton is still an array. You can't have an array of one. So let's talk about this. An array equals one corner or many processed in block format before employing your preferred technique, which can change at any time to better suit a given situation. Now, maybe you're not the fastest rider. Who cares? You're happy. And that's really goal number one. There's no judgment here. It's just about the skill to risk offset. As we say, does your skill far outweigh your risk? This is a good goal to have. If you're pushing a little bit, as I tend to, one curve or many, your risk management itemizing all of the factors, good and bad, for each specific block or array, as we're calling it. I might see three curves with a lot of runoff, but that's the limit of what information you have. So that's the limit of the information you can process and make use of. Then comes the self-assessment. Even while you're executing that plan or preparing to, you're remaining aware of what level of technical prowess you have at your disposal. And then you round that down. There are days when I do not have it. I cannot convince myself to get my butt off the seat. I cannot put my chin over my wrist. That amount of technique that I feel comfortable using, that's going to bring me down in pace quite a bit, but I'm still happy on the bike. Then there are days when I'm feeling it. I am hyper-aware. I am stereoscopically enhanced.

Brian: You are a four-dimensional being.

Robin: I'm seeing it all. I'm feeling it all. Yes, I did check my heart right through that field. Yes, I do sense what is or isn't happening in that deep runoff to my left. Yes, I am aware that is not the road directly ahead of me. My road turns right. I'm processing all of it. I'm feeling all of it, and I'm on it. Either way, when I see one corner or I see five corners, I've decided on what plan I'm going to go with based on how I'm feeling. I've decided how I'm going to execute that plan. It's on. Engage. Carve the corner. Whatever your superhero activity internal dialogue is, do it. Go for it. The next truth that I want to make very clear, before you finish executing that plan, you need to be preparing the next plan because your array is coming to an end, and a new array is waiting. Every instance is its own independent moment that you need to prepare for, corner by corner, one instance at a time. If you get tired, take a break. If your skill drops, slow down. Per instance, risk management, self-assessment, and curve carving. Maybe I could have done that better, and maybe one day I will, but for now, that's who I am. That's how I ride, and that's what I advocate.

Brian: Nice. Now, you left out one thing. Go ahead. What you're talking about is a state of flow or ebb. You're at a peak. We talked about it before, transcendence. Motorcycling gives you access to an elevated mental state. The thing you haven't mentioned yet is pure enjoyment. Yeah. When you learn this, when you figure this out, when you achieve this on a regular basis, it is incredibly wonderful. It's incredibly addictive.

Robin: It's my mistake. Brian nails this. Don't forget to smile and enjoy yourself.

Brian: Enjoy yourself. Yeah. When you get that state of flow, when your consciousness expands, hey, there's a hawk over there. Hey, you get an incredible amount of awareness. This is hard. This is very difficult to learn. It's continuous decision-making, thousands of decisions a minute. That really is the core of it. That's really a lot of why it's so much fun, and it takes a lot of energy. You're going to be fried. 250 miles of this. I've done 300-mile days at 290 miles. That's enough. You're done.

Robin: Yeah. You're sitting at the dinner table with your friends. How are you doing? Well, I'm...

Brian: Yeah. Nothing, which is a good state to be in if that's where you want to be. I love the part about self-awareness. This changes continuously. I would say it's more like your array is what's in front of you. You've got your egg carton in front of you. New eggs are continually coming in, and old eggs are disappearing. It's a bad analogy, isn't it? We're talking about a belt of eggs. Imagine you're in an egg factory.

Robin: I can hear Beastie Boys Eggman playing right now. I'm like, oh, this is rough.

Brian: It is a very high-end process of decision-making at every moment. You're balancing enjoyment against your risk and skill at that moment. It's all continuously variable. It's all continuously changing all the time. There could be an elephant around the next corner in the middle of the road. You do not know. You have to balance all that as well. It's a great model for explaining what it takes and what happens.

Robin: By the way, however you happen to look when you're enjoying yourself, you owe nobody any explanation as to why you look the way you look. I just updated my Facebook profile banner image and profile pic. One of my dragon photos zoomed in on the super high-res view of my face. I'm in attack mode. My pupils are very small, and that's a sign of displeasure. Your pupils are big. That's a sign of happiness and joy and maybe some molly ecstasy, but the point is when they're piercing like needle thin, that's distressed. I look like I'm about to eat a squirrel or something, but I'm happy. I'm having a good time. It's fantastic. Nice. There's Joanne. Hello. That means it's time for The Armory with Joanne Dahn brought to you by GearChick.com. I have no idea what we're talking about. That's between you and Brian. Brian's got some comments he wants to talk to you about, or maybe you came up with a thing. I don't know. Let's have fun. I would love for Brian to quiz me.

Brian: Excellent. All right. We give you crap for always recommending the expensive gear, but Joanne, you are right. I should spend more money on my gear.

Joanne: Well, you should spend more money on you, Brian, because you're worth it. That's the end comment here is that spending money on you. What is that?

Brian: There are two four-inch holes in my Tourmaster Mariner jacket.

Joanne: Oh, no. What happened?

Brian: I don't know. There's one here, and there's one on the other side. He wore it on the side seam on the back. Oh, no.

Joanne: I'm sorry.

Brian: I noticed that in Kentucky, and then we ran in some rain in Indiana, and it was a little drafty, a little wet back there.

Joanne: Got you. What's going on? It's not always about the money you spend. Not always, but there's sometimes. It just depends. Is that your summer jacket?

Brian: Now, my summer jacket is a mesh climb, whatever their mesh is. It's fantastic. The thing is a tank. I was able to get it clearance and yada, yada, so I'm happy with that. Also, look at the back pad that's in this Mariner jacket from Tourmaster. I don't know if you can see.

Joanne: You're supposed to replace it because it was your job in the beginning to replace it, or it was a salesperson's job to upsell you and go, hey, do you need a back protector with that?

Brian: Well, I think I literally bought this one back when everybody was in the stores with a mask. I think I was wearing a mask when I bought it.

Joanne: So no one helped you?

Brian: Yeah, no one was there and it was...

Joanne: You helped yourself.

Brian: I think I'm past the Tourmaster warranty of four years.

Joanne: Yeah, probably.

Brian: Probably.

Joanne: So that's your waterproof jacket is what you're telling me.

Brian: Yeah, so I have some repair tape that you use to fix tents. I'll just throw that on there and see what happens. What's the worst that could happen? I'll put a better back pad in.

Robin: I can't believe this conversation is going the way this conversation is going.

Joanne: Look, I'm not... I'm not here to force people to do things. I'm just here to give you information as you start to say things about things. I'm here to provide any additional information you require.

Brian: So here's my question. I'll do whatever assery I can do with this thing. Honestly, for the next several months, I'm going to be wearing my mesh 99% of the time.

Joanne: Yeah, and a raincoat. It's great.

Brian: I have a climb physique. Can you give me some hope here? Is there somewhere else I should look?

Joanne: Well, what size is your summer climb jacket?

Brian: 2XL.

Joanne: Okay. If you want a waterproof choice to go with you, the reason you would spend that money is to make sure you have the most waterproof solution you could possibly have and the most breathable waterproof solution. So there are other solutions for you, like on the affordability front, actually Revzilla's house brand, they make the Garda for $250. Siddici Garda is an affordable, you know, waterproof entry and it will do the job. It'll probably do as well as your Tourmaster did, as far as the breathability and waterproofing. It actually might do a little better in the waterproofing department. But, you know, with waterproofing, it's all about good, better, best. So this is in the better department, in my opinion, because they're actually doing a laminated waterproof jacket for you. So it'll be lighter and more comfortable than other jackets in that price point. So if you're like, listen, I don't need the best. I just need something that's reliable, will work for me and is consistent. I'm not looking for the top. I'm really just looking for something to do its job enough. You know, that middle of the road as far as breathability and comfort. Do that in a 2X. Nice. Or try it. Just try it in a couple hundred. The reason to pump up your game to something at the level of a Klim is if you appreciate the value that Gore-Tex delivers. However, I will say this. With Klim, what you're not going to get is that lightweight factor.

Brian: Yeah.

Joanne: In the context of their collection, a Carlsbad is lighter than a Latitude and it is great. However, in the context of the field of competitorship, it is not the lightest and won't be. But it will still perform better than a Garda or your Tourmaster in terms of breathability. Right. So it's all about context. Can you introduce those contexts? The Garda is not a Gore-Tex waterproof material, but I want to add a third friend in the group that I think you'll find way more comfortable. And that's the Revit Echelon. And the Echelon is a lighter version of a Carlsbad. It's also more breathable and more comfortable. It is also Gore, but it's fabricated in a different way. It's using a different fabric, different fabrics on the outside, because every type of fabric that is used on the outside can either decrease or increase the weight and comfort and breathability of the Gore-Tex on the inside. It's a good looking jacket. That too. That is its bonus point. But here's the thing with waterproof materials. You could have the best technology like Gore-Tex, right? And if you've never seen it in its raw form, it's like a sheet of dental floss, because that's literally the material. But here's the thing. If you pair it with materials that suck or materials that are heavy, or you layer more materials with it, guess what? You're inhibiting what Gore-Tex can really do. So brands like Klim, brands like Revit, they try to pick the materials to pair with it to make it as optimal for you. And my thing with the Echelon is the materialization is more comfortable. It's lighter. There's just less bulk.

Robin: I believe it's Echelon, but yeah, okay.

Joanne: Echelon. And the ladies version is lamina, by the way. But the Echelon has a different fit and comfort to it that's unbelievable. So if you try a 2X in Echelon, it might actually work for you. You may not have to go to a 3. It's also like $70, $50 cheaper. I always recommend to my customers, even if they don't have a budget, let's say you just don't have one or it's a Garda budget, you still need to try on the higher performing products.

Brian: Yeah.

Joanne: There's always a tie to fit and comfort. Always. That's why you pay more money. It's just like any other top of the line product. Just try on this $700, $600 product because you need that frame of reference to go, oh, this is a 10 out of 10 for me with fit and comfort. I can't afford it yet. I'm going to put it in my back pocket. But now I take that frame of reference to the lower budget pieces that I can afford. And I try really hard to find the next best thing.

Brian: And I'll never be happy.

Joanne: At least until you can maybe save up.

Brian: Yeah.

Joanne: The reason why people spend hours in a store and they can't make up their mind is because they have never found the perfect fit to try to then duplicate to make a choice.

Robin: Well then, so what's it going to be? We're going to do the Carlsbad, the Latitude, the Garda, or the Echelon?

Joanne: My vote would be the shorter-waisted pieces, which is the Carlsbad and the Echelon. The Garda is a little bit short. It's not as long as Latitude because anything adventure-oriented like Latitude is longer. But Carlsbad and Echelon are different. So Brian, if you have an issue with a lot of jackets that are too long-waisted, where you're like sitting on the tails, or it drives you crazy that gathering up at your waist when you sit down.

Brian: Yeah, I'm kind of the opposite.

Joanne: You like a longer waist.

Brian: Yeah. I have a longer torso.

Joanne: Then I would still recommend going with trying an Echelon only because remember, your torso length is really only important in the seated position. You don't want an extra foot in front of you when you sit down, right? It's really more about that backdrop coverage. And all of these jackets will give you a low back.

Robin: I'm noticing the Cedici, they're using the exact same sleeve compression snaps that they had before. Sure. This is the Alexi 3.

Joanne: Sure, makes sense.

Robin: That's their thing, I guess. So clearly it's got a liner.

Joanne: That thing is a removable liner, but it is a waterproof outside. The nice thing about that is that fabric is stretchy.

Robin: Nice.

Joanne: Like really stretchy. So if that comfort is important to you, Brian.

Brian: Yeah.

Joanne: Try that for the bang for your buck. It really will probably come down to fit, in my opinion, is either it's going to work for you or it's not.

Brian: That's the way helmets are.

Joanne: Do you like the fit?

Brian: Fit, nothing else, yeah.

Joanne: Is it comfortable for you? And honestly, sometimes you spend more money just because it fits you better and it's more comfortable. And depending on who you are, you might be willing to pay more money for that. Me, I'm always willing to pay more money for that because I want it to be comfortable first and foremost.

Robin: Similar banter at higher revs can be found via the Gear Chick website. Visit gearchick.com and dig in. Which means now it's time to pick right back up where we left off on the George Wyman 1903 journey from the West Coast to the East Coast. Luckily, I can say this with confidence. He's trying to get to Chicago. He's going to end up in either Chicago or Springfield, Illinois. And it has been a rough go of it. Take it away, Jordan.

Jordan: Once on the road, he got his wheel stuck in a rut and he falls and broke his fourth cyclometer. I don't know. This is like a rating system for how bad a ride could be. How many cyclometers is this ride? That's almost five. And it had not rained since he left Council Bluffs and he hoped it wouldn't. He missed going through Des Moines because of following the tracks because Des Moines is a spur town down from Ames. At Ames, Iowa, he got a new screw for his carburetor that broke. Up to this point, I thought it was a box of gasoline. Maybe it's bolted onto something. He reaches Marshalltown at 7 o'clock p.m. After doing 71 miles for the day, he relaces his belt drive and he goes to bed. We're going to get into Illinois here. He departs Marshalltown, Iowa at 7 o'clock in the morning, determined not to be chased off the tracks again by section hands. He calls them section hands, not foremen, just regular railroad workers that get too big for their bridges and they chase them off the tracks. For a strapping guy, he backed down from basically every fight he could get into. I'd personally like to see him get into a fight, but whatever. And goes off onto the northwestern track, not yet confident in his ability to prevaricate them. Now, I thought prevaricators were liars. He's not confident in his ability to lie to them, but whatever he told them, they mostly let him ride because some of them ordered him back to the highway. So basically, he was on and off the tracks as needed to avoid these section hands. Apparently, there's more of them now. We're getting into the Midwest where people aren't working as hard. They're justifying their jobs by pushing people off tracks. That's a personal quip. Here in Iowa, he saw a lot more Indians in this section of the country west of the Missouri River. He saw a reservation at Tama, Iowa, and he called them tame redskins. Okay, this is 1903. I mean, they were still inventing stuff here, but tame redskins because they were wearing shirts. God bless them. Coats and trousers and doing farm work. Wow. He tried to get a photo of women who covered their head with blankets because they think a photograph steals their soul, in his words. Five miles from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, his batteries go weak again. Makes me think his ignition was a total loss ignition, and these typically take six large six-volt batteries, assumingly in parallel, so they will still put out six volts but last longer. This is my thoughts. His batteries got weak. We talked about voltmeter versus ammeter. Voltmeter meaning he's got voltage. Ammeter meaning he's charging. I don't think he's charging. I think he's just got a total loss here. Still not answered by barber or Wheel Through Time, and I'll have to get to the bottom of it. We'll have to go there and look at the Yale, California, and say, does it have a charging system? They're waiting for me, and Matt will be like, well, here's a wrench. Figure it out. Maybe. I don't know. Depends on how much he trusts me, but we'll see how it goes. Anyways, his battery gets weak. Oh, look at this. His coaster brake broke again, so he has to walk to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and he passed the rapids as he entered the city. He goes 77 miles, though the distance on the tracks was only 69 miles. Eight out of the 77 miles was not on tracks. Interesting. His bike needs attention seriously in Cedar Rapids, worse than it had ever been before, and it had already taken him 2,300 miles. He goes to a bicycle store on 2nd Avenue where he soldered the loose sprocket nut, the one that was fixed by a blacksmith on the hub. Handlebars were cracked at the head where the holes were drilled for the wires, so this is the third time his handlebars have cracked. The first time not catastrophically, but they were cracked, so he had to braze a piece of reinforcement onto them. Leaving Cedar Rapids, the roads were still muddy. It's June, 1903. The roads are still wet there, and he took to the railroad again, but there were too many sharp rocks, so he went back to the wagon road, and on the wagon road, he wonders, how didn't he get lost here? Because the telegraph roads went veering off, constantly left and right, and he had a hard time determining which was the actual road and which was the telegraph path. In his words, it was a toss-up to decide which was the line of poles to follow. So east of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the roads were a little bit better, but it got dark before he reached Clinton, Iowa, and he was afraid of smashing into something, which I've done personally, without a headlight, in the dark. I ran into a caltrop, and it bent my front wheel and forks, and learned not to ride at night without a headlight. He did this just east of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and Clinton, Iowa. He walked the last few miles, arriving at Clinton, Iowa, at 9 o'clock p.m., covering 85 miles. Clinton was only 150 miles from Chicago. He goes on to say, on the morning of June 17th, so I have to assume he spent more than a day in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and we skip a day again. June 15th to the 17th, no entry. He spent two days in Cedar Rapids, it looks like, a major metropolitan area. He left Clinton, Iowa at 6.30 a.m. and crossed the Father of Waters, in quotation marks, a.k.a. the Mississippi River, and entered Illinois, where he had been told he would never get with his bicycle, in quotation marks. Well, he made it. He's recalling that somebody told him, you're not making it to Illinois. Here he is. Should have made a bet. Illinois roads improved at once, in his words. Because Illinois, all right? Except for nowadays, you cross into Illinois, and you know you could do it with your eyes closed, because you're feeling it start leaving your teeth. Whether you're coming from Wisconsin, or Michigan, or Kentucky, or Iowa, or Missouri, you can close your eyes now and realize you've crossed into Illinois, because the roads get worse. But back then, they got better.

Robin: Now we understand that much more of the journey. We are getting close. He's almost to New York City. By almost, I mean nowhere near. He's got an entire third of the United States pre-roadways. Very good, very good, very good. Let's wind this thing down, then. What do you want to talk about next time?

Brian: Next Thursday, Robin and I are going to be in Bedford, Indiana.

Robin: What if we just hit record, fast and loose, fiasco? Whatever. We could try it. Sure. The three of us, and who may be a guest host next month, the one and only Neil Sullivan, as I will be out for July, working on MotorcycleTraining.us, finally. We'll hit record, see how much material we can get. I'll be happy to produce that. We'll get the whole gang. Everybody talking at once to keep the listeners as confused as possible. Everybody like this plan? Yes. Okay. Is everybody ready to get out of here?

Brian: Let's get out of here, Robin. Yes.