Brian: In this episode, we're getting ready for winter. Joanne is indisposed in Vegas. Opening announcements, corrections, and banter, Robin.

Robin: These are half announcements and half just banter because it's all I've been doing. I've been staring at the screen, walking the dog, riding the bike, but here it goes. I have officially started combing through every single article on TRO, correcting minor grammar fouls, tuning into things for SEO and LLMs, making it better for both SEO and learning language models, if nobody knows what that means yet. For anybody wondering what that is, learning language models, it may seem mundane, and in many ways it is, but the point is to keep even TRO's oldest content improved and to some extent up to date. 15 pages of article listings, 20 articles per page. You do the math. Now that I'm on page 11, counting down, not up, the writing is improving, so the process becomes more efficient. Hey, whatever. I'm happy in my work.

Brian: Awesome. Making it MoBeta for everybody.

Robin: MoBeta. Excellent. Yeah. Not sure how it happened, but somehow, likely via some bloated plugin, a minimal few images on the server got blowed up real good, or to like 240 DPI, and the expected relevant file sizes to suit that. Ew. Some are in range of like 30 megabytes, and our remote media system can't fire off scaled down versions due to the memory. That media system, by the way, I built it, so I know what it can and can't handle.

Brian: I, yeah, no, no, I feel your pain. I've, yeah, my clients do that all the time. I'll just take this picture with my iPhone and put it straight on my website and wonder why it's weird.

Robin: Yeah. So the only thing that got expanded was the resolution, and it just ramped up the file size because it's doubling pixels is what's happened. Yeah. Geek talk. Sorry about that. At any rate, some are in range of 30 megabytes. Yeah. I've already got a plan to fix it, but had to laugh at how slow a few of my articles from like 2014 and 2015 land in my web browser. It looks like GeoCities is loading. But in the real banter, Mags and I made the ride to almost Silver City, then doubled back to skip coffee shop traffic. Good solid time. We'll be revisiting that this weekend until the cold of winter lands. After that, the Iron Mountain run, or at least half of it, will be our regular go-to for bigger miles. Gotta say, I still love our 30-mile lunch route. Brian, you actually have a frost alert with the snow that's arriving in your territories. How you doing?

Brian: Did you ride today? I did not ride today. I probably should have, but I ended up walking to the office supply store just to get some exercise.

Robin: Walking's good.

Brian: Yeah. About three miles. Three miles is solid, man. Yeah. Not bad. It's, you know, Indianapolis is a city based on the car, not the pedestrian. I'll just say that. And some sidewalks sure would be cool.

Robin: Sidewalk ends. Well, did the sidewalk ever begin?

Brian: We have bits and pieces of sidewalks. So you have to like scamper into the road and scamper. I don't scamper all that well. So yeah, it's not my physical vocabulary. So yeah, the big thing, deer season has been fired up. So basically we did the Kentucky and then I'm pretty much staying in the barn, or close to home anyway, for several weeks or a few months while the deer frolic. People are hunting them. My neighbor has already bagged a deer and he's out begging more. Did you hug him? I know he was covered in deer guts, but I would have. Yeah. So anyway, I've already mentioned this before. Like a friend of mine has having me do some work on this gigantic motorcycle. It's a Boulevard C90, 1500 cc, air oil cooled V-twin Suzuki. Cruiser later. It's big just to be big. It's just a weird, weird world to be in. I got like one more part that's coming in and then I'll be able to finish it. And I'll be able to enjoy room for activities in my garage. Yeah. One of the things I had to remember. So remind me next time I take on a cruiser is that the setup I have for changing tires is all just kind of manual spoons, you know, a simple stand, but it's not compatible. What I forgot is it's not compatible with 15 inch tires, which a lot of cruisers have on the rear. So that was challenging. Got that done. Updating the charging system on this beast, because like all Suzuki's it's got crappy connectors. It's got odd wiring choices that are common to pretty much every Suzuki from the seventies up through pretty recently has had some just endemic wiring issues and stator and charging issues and so forth. So we're getting that fixed, putting in a series regulator, taking out some burn connectors and about half a mile of wiring that doesn't even need to be there. It just like, it sends the electricity from the stator over here, all the way back to here, come back to here and then back down to six inches from the stator where the regulator is. It's a whole thing. Yeah. And, uh, had to take apart the fuel pump and the fuel gauge and perform an extremely delicate repair. There was machining. There was, it was there, uh, you know, taps and dyes. And anyway, that all works now. Nice. Just a few odds and ends and, uh, should have the space back soon. They owe you. Thanks. We are not cruiser people, not cruiser people. It's weird. And this is kind of a news item. I thought it was really interesting. There's a new, there's a company making electric motorcycles called the Stark Varg SM.

Robin: I am so ahead of you on this. While you were talking about that Boulevard C90, I was just like rhetorical responses. I am conversating. Ed McMahoning the shit out of it. Yes. Yes. Ah, yes. Because I immediately wanted to see what is this Stark Varg SM and damn man, we're talking electric dirt bikes, right?

Brian: So they started with the Stark Varg. I don't know. Anyway, they started with a pure dirt bike, electric dirt bike. Yeah. And it does, they do a lot of things differently and they've been, I've, they've actually been very successful. They've sold a lot of bikes. They've hit their production goals. This company is a little different in that they're actually making motorcycles. That's kind of new. They just released the SM, which is a supermoto. So basically based on a dirt bike, it's a street legal bike. And again, it's a logical step towards, you know, they're going to be building street bikes, pure street bikes at some point. The thing just has so much appeal. I really like the way the company works and the way the bike works and the reviews are good.

Robin: You had in your notes, the Stark Varg SM, right?

Brian: Yeah. That's the supermoto. Yeah. That's this one.

Robin: So if you pull the SM off, you can see the dirt bike version in Google images.

Brian: A lot of great ideas, a lot of details. You know, they're doing a lot of stuff like, uh, they've got this electronic dash, which is basically an Android, a rugged and ruggedized Android phone. That screen is the dash for the motorcycle. It's pretty wild. Is it, they call it the Arkenstone, which is, which is cool too. They're claiming the range is about 50 miles in mixed riding, about 113 miles in urban riding. And I think, I think it'll actually work for a lot of people and they've proven that they can produce bikes and they've proven that they can sell bikes, hit their price targets, hit their production targets. So pretty hopeful. I, I have never ridden an electric motorcycle. Robin, you have.

Robin: It was the most fun I've ever had on two wheels. When I rode the Zero SR slash F, which is the faired version, I immediately put it on max mode and just gunned it for an hour and brought that thing down to a 10% charge and handed it back and said, thank you. That was awesome.

Brian: Good time. Yeah. Like I think Zero is probably the, the best known at the moment that that's actually making bikes.

Robin: And well, there's certainly the most stable.

Brian: Yeah. And, uh, Harley's got the live wire. Maybe, I don't know if they still do, you know, for just commuting, grocery, getting stuff like that. I could see myself using the hell out of one of these guys. And you actually see a lot of almost a glorified electric bicycles running around town and in the cities. So it's one of those things, I think electric motorcycles are going to come in from the bottom up. And it's something Eric Buell was talking about in, in the interview you had with them a while back. It's one of those things that's just going to happen and it's going to be great. So can't wait to see.

Robin: I think it is a world of upstarts and many will falter, but their ideas, the nobility of their ideas will carry over into other brands or already established brands that could then become that much more stable, which is a great thing.

Brian: Yeah.

Robin: I'm a big fan. I love the sound of a bike. Although mine doesn't really make a sound, does it? That's a different topic.

Brian: Kind of a Jetsons.

Robin: Yeah, but I'll tell you, riding the electric bike was a thrill. I didn't miss the clutch. I didn't miss the lever. I only knew that now I'm dealing with this and my riding technique will be that. It worked out well. It was a lot of fun.

Brian: Next up is listener questions. If you'd like us to field your questions, visit email.tro.bike in your web browser and place a message into our brain cavities. The electronical signals. Electronical. We would like to answer your questions, so we'll guarantee some sort of answer or discussion. Do you want to read this or you want me to read this? I'll read it because I think you're going to have the best answer to this question. I'll give it my best go. SG, some person asks, I'm about to graduate college and I've always wanted to race motorcycles. How do I get started? Simple yet complex. I love it.

Robin: It's a beautiful question. It's a fun question to field. Before we respond to this, it's important that our listeners know that neither Brian nor I have a racing license. Nope. I've been around enough people who do to feel confident in an effort to answer the question.

Brian: Yeah, I think we can get them started. Here's where you go to figure this out. There's good news and there's bad news. Hit me with the bad news. I like to get that pill down and then we'll smooth it out.

Robin: If you were thinking that it's your time to start so that you can make it to Arma and then move on to MotoGP or whatever the required route and path of a professional motorcycle racer might be until you find yourself landing on the Isle of Man because you were invited to take part, then the Dakar rally because you have to ride dirt too, all of these things. If you're thinking at college graduate age that you are ready to begin, you are too late. It is over. It is not going to happen. Unless, of course, you defy everything I just said, ignore it, and press on with an absolute vengeance and a hell of a wallet. Surprise us all. I invite that. I would love to see that happen. I would love to feel the vicarious energy of you successfully doing that. That would be a fantastic story to read about. However, the likelihood of it is extreme. It's financially oppressing and psychologically demanding.

Brian: I definitely got the impression that they're not expecting to be a pro level. It's just something they wanted to do and then they were focused on a career. I think going racing on weekends is certainly doable. Everybody you see out there has got a day job and a family they need to go back to. As long as you're not wanting to be a professional, it's very possible. Also, the other funny thing about the question is they ask this question and there's very little other information and then they just vanish. We don't even know if they have a motorcycle. Step one, acquire a two-wheeled vehicle of some sort.

Robin: Yes, of course, this is possible to the extent that your life and lifestyle allows. My first suggestion would be to do as we do and get it out of your system track day style. We prefer motovid.com. I just think they're fantastic. There are other services that are reputable. You might want to make sure that it's a good chemistry for your perspective, but if you're looking for a very organized, very contained, and very learner-centric environment, motovid.com. There are significantly worse places to go than motovid.com. I advocate them, worked with them, for them. They're a fantastic outlet and as hobbies go, they're my first choice. I think Brian might agree. There are others. He's going to check them out, but at the moment, it's a great reference.

Brian: Yeah, reputable track day provider and just start at the beginning. The question came, oh, what's the best bike to track day? For your first several track day, just whatever you're riding, just tape it up and go.

Robin: I loved passing a Goldwing in the main street around America.

Brian: Yes, there was a Goldwing.

Robin: And it's just a cool guy too, because it wasn't a new model. It was an early model Goldwing. I don't know if it was an Aspen gate or whatever. It looked like it was the Force Hill.

Brian: I think he had the antennas on it were flapping around. It was great. So that's a good place to start. Yeah. At the track is where you're going to find people who will be very happy to help you learn how to get to that next level and to progress as far as you want to.

Robin: So the familiarity of the environment is the key to the track day. It's not a racing environment. It is an individual skill set expansion environment that you will get a lot out of. And maybe this person has already done that. If they have experienced track days and all that good on them, it's just our listeners might want to know that if you're going to consider, I want to be a motorcycle race, you know, then consider this first. So you can just know what it feels like to be on that kind of pavement. Do understand that there is no prerequisite for how skilled or quick you need to be to earn the right to enter a race. You can go through the motions to get your race license. I'm not sure how they scale it. Maybe now you're allowed to race sub 500 CCs or sub 750 or sub 1000 or sub 10,000 CCs. I don't know. But the point is that you want to get something that is accessible for your skill set and then use it. There are few things as fun as riding a small, slow bike quickly. That's a good time. One environment where you can really enjoy this is the vintage racing environment. So get your race license, get yourself a vintage bike, and then learn to be slow and respectful of your fellow racers and get out there and see what you can do with the new tools that have been awarded to you. For something I haven't done, I know enough to say, go out there, obtain the license, get yourself something slow and learn to stay in the back of the pack and see what happens with your confidence as time goes on. You're going to learn. People are going to talk to you. They're going to be helpful too, I imagine. They're also going to be in your way. They're going to slow you down. They're going to beat you. You're racing. I once asked Murray Haynes, hey man, how should I take this corner? And Murray Haynes said, in a race environment, and he drew me a diagram, we would basically come in at about a hundred bajillion zillion miles an hour. And then right here at the corner, you just go straight. And then I'm like, you're going to have to turn, man. So now that you've cut, he's like, yeah, but I've cut the guy off. Now I've taken his position. Murray, what do you do next? Hope.

Brian: I've never seen a friendlier, more giving and understanding and helpful crowd. So that's kind of the thing. Just go, start working it out. There'll be bikes for sale. And also we don't know where this person is. You know, if they're in California, then you can throw a rock and hit a track. If you're in Indiana, it's a little tougher. You can do it on the cheap or you can, you know, you can spend the cost of a house and tires in one season if you really work at it.

Robin: So it's, I would figure that the track day environment. Yeah. I agree with Brian. It's very helpful. I'm guessing that the racing environment will be helpful ish, but it's still legitimately competitive.

Brian: Yeah. They're going to be different.

Robin: Yeah. And you're, you're on the cheap comment. I love that because I don't know how to tie this joke in, but it makes me think of like, yes, you can get yourself a thousand dollar SV and then get it track certified, get it all up to snuff. The truth of the matter is no matter what you go with, so long as you have the license to do it, your bike will be classified and you're going to enter races that match that classification. The joke I think of my head is I doubt that there's a classification where it's ran. When parked slight oil leak is going to get you on the racetrack for competitive behavior, but have fun out there SG. We hope you do it. And Brian, I hope that you'll post a link to this episode in his question. Some at some point, that would be fun. So let's get to the meat of this sandwich. Segment one frost warning.

Brian: Frost warning, frost warning, frost warning. All right, we're going to do it. We're going to talk about this dirty, dirty, dirty, filthy word winter. We're going to talk about how, how we stay sane, how we keep our mind on two wheels, how we keep from going absolutely crazy when the days are short, the nights are long, the blizzards are howling. Wolves are walking around. There's mammoths out there.

Robin: We've covered this topic before, so we're going to have to be unique about it. There is an episode called winter blues, which actually features the music of one West John Chihos. We talk in depth about what are we doing to keep ourselves going? Some of the key moments in that we're going to talk about these specific things, but there is an article by one Travis Burleson. If you go to tr.bike in your web browser and look up junk moped, and you'll see a great article about buying a almost useless moped so you can just tear it apart, explore how engines work, throw it in the trash if you need to, or if you're lucky, rebuild it and go riding. We try to do this annually. I think Brian and I have done this before. We're going to keep on doing it too.

Brian: Now, some people when winter threatens, they basically get in their RV and they drag it somewhere south, like New Mexico, for example, just saying, but even where you are in New Mexico, you do get winter there and up in the mountains. I can tell you firsthand that it does snow and it does get a cold, but then you go back down to lower elevation. You're fine again.

Robin: So Brian has got the right sermon going here because my two favorite roads where I'm at in New Mexico, they will cease to be accessible probably come December 1st. They'll be open, but not good on two wheels until after the end of January, maybe mid-February if I'm lucky.

Brian: I don't know, just a thought that occurred to me is that riding motorcycles actually does the brain a lot of good and the level of focus and discipline required, I think that actually does a lot of good for the brain and mental health. To me, that's the part I really miss in the winter. It's not so much, oh, I want to ride and I'm being all sad. It's like, no, I'm missing out on that kind of scrubbing action that only comes from riding. They've been doing sleep research on what happens while people are sleeping and what they found is there's actually like waves of cerebrospinal fluid sloshed around in your brain, actually get pumped around your brain to kind of clean out your brain and everything at night. That's what happens. That's one of the things that sleep physically does for you. I think something similar happens when we're on a motorcycle. When you have that intense focus, when everything else falls away, you don't have time to think about all the BS wherever and whatever work and whatever. You have to focus on what's in front of you and enjoying it and on staying alive and things like that. So I think there's some sort of mental scrubbing that goes on that we miss and replacing that. It's not so much as your butt gets soft and your throttle hand calluses.

Robin: Oh, yeah. There's a point where the freaking red sore appears at the palm on the interior knuckle. You know, what's that called? The bridge, the bridge across the phalanges, the metatarsals have issues at the callus points, you know, basically the drummer's hand thing.

Brian: Yeah. So I think there's some functions like that. So you have to find ways to engage the brain and all that as well. It's partly physical. You know, we've talked before about just keeping up exercise. You know, like today I went for a very long walk and three miles is great. A reasonably long walk. Yeah. Yeah. I didn't get run over, so that's good. And it's also, you know, when you go back to riding, you have to remember, oh, I've been off the bike for a while, so I've got to be careful about that. I mean, I feel it if I've been off the bike for two days or a week. I know people who like ride, they'll go months and then they'll hop on the bike and go right away like it's nothing. I can't figure that one out.

Robin: There can be a moment when you decide you're not confident in your riding or decision-making process and you will either consciously or subconsciously elect to forget what you know. Right now, I've got well into 15,000 miles under my belt for the year. Big, fat, stupid miles. Lots of twisties. Constant technique.

Brian: So stupid.

Robin: I'm following people around one-handed and not because I'm trying to prove anything or confident, but because I am legitimately just like, I know what I'm doing. I know where I stand for the year. But there is a time where if I sit long enough and I let the familiarity fade, oh.

Brian: I got to pay attention now. Yeah. Yeah.

Robin: That decision to not know can be a filing order for what your brain can recollect. That is a real thing.

Brian: Skill decay, skill rust, whatever you want to call it. Yeah. This is a random list somewhat of things to talk about, things to do. So like this winter, I don't really have any motorcycle projects to do. I had the same problem last year. All my bikes were in fine shape. I didn't have anything I needed to do to them. And I think that's what's going on this year. But yeah, working on motorcycles and like you said, tearing apart a moped or taking on some really stupid project can be a lot of fun and a way to get through it.

Robin: It's great for the beginners to tear apart a moped. It's just like here is something that was cheap. Okay. I'm out 300 bucks. Okay. That may be a lot of money in today's world for some, but if you want to buy $300 worth of information that is prospectively not going to be disposed of after the fact, you can pull everything apart, understand things in reverse order, put it back together and think on that and just add that to your arsenal of experiences that, okay, well, maybe you discover that you're not good at wrenching. Maybe you discover that you're way better than you thought. That's just fun. I mean, I'll buy that ticket and take the damn ride in a heartbeat.

Brian: Yeah. Kind of fun. And I've got like a, you know, like I've got an old snowblower and an old lawnmower and that I need to fix up, you know, I'll get bored enough to pull those in and deal with them and then try to sell them in the spring. But anyway, it's yeah. You know, but yeah, I'll, I'll find some projects here and there to do things like that. I think one of the important things is, and that we've discovered over the last few years is that doing this podcast is really, really, really good for our mental health and outlook in the winter. Yeah. Don't go out and start your own podcast or anything, people, or maybe do, I don't know, but we got you covered in that department.

Robin: Listen to our podcast. There you go. Listen to us getting things wrong, right? Extensive dissertations about how wrong we are and email those dissertations to us through the website at email.tri.bike in your web browser. That's right. If you write a long enough complaint dissertation, any of that, it will become an article. We will help it become an article on the site under the guest posts. If you will allow us to.

Brian: It's capital C content. Yeah. Yeah. Talk bikes, people. Yeah. And things like, you know, like, like helping youth with tech support on something you're doing, you know, stuff like that, or back and forth. That's always that connection and so forth is always really great. And that's something we need.

Robin: Yeah.

Brian: I've had people come up to me recently and say, Hey, you guys are slack. And it's like, well, because we've been writing a lot and we haven't had time to record in the summer and in the winters when we have time to record. So yeah, we're here. A little bit of a paradox, but we're here.

Robin: We're going to take care of you all winter. We will be stupefying or in my case, we will be stupid defying the entire winter effort.

Brian: It amazing.

Robin: Remember that it's okay. I've told motorcycle students in the past, you're allowed to ride however you want. So long as you pick the correct venue for it. Well, the same thing goes for when you can't ride. If you feel like you're going to write us about a concept and you end up with this enormous sigh of discontent due to the winter doldrums, that's okay. Go ahead and exhale. I remember I once walked into the garage in Texas at Joe Godin's place and I heard him walk in. He didn't know I was in there, but I heard him walk in to his bay and I heard this long sigh. And it went for like 30 seconds. I was like, yeah, all right, man. Point is that like, if you want to write us about anything or write for TRO.bike, first off, that is its own domain. If you go to write.tro.bike, that will take you to the article submission form. But if you need to start your article with, if it needs to start that way, get it out of your system, it's okay. But once it's out of your system, the words will find you and then you'll be on the right path to sanity until the snow is gone.

Brian: Yeah. Talking about motorcycles, writing about motorcycles, that all is good. I was, I don't know, somebody recently brought up Long Way Round. So like motorcycle movies, motorcycle media, Long Way Round was great. And I haven't seen it since it came out in 2005-ish, I think, somewhere around in there. I haven't seen it in 20 years. And I'm like, that was good. The follow-ups weren't as great, I thought, but still kind of worth seeing. A few years ago, I saw On Any Sunday and it was kind of fun. A lot of motorcycle movies are like Southern California. Like On Any Sunday was all Southern California. Why We Ride was 90% Southern California. So yeah, there's gotta be some more motorcycle movies out there. World's fastest Indian, man.

Robin: Yeah. Travis Burleson actually curated an excellent few different playlists, some of which are dedicated to Jay Leno's Garage, Only the Motorcycles. Just motorcycles for Jay Leno's Garage. Another one is Regular Car Reviews, Only Motorcycles, which is where we get the Hayabrosa and the Amabart and R6, yo. There's a lot of them. Burleson sat around, just said motorcycle, motorcycle, motorcycle, came up with playlists that are very entertaining. So if you look up Travitron5000 on YouTube, maybe I'll link to it in here, he's got a lot of links to interesting, fun stuff to goof around with in 10-minute spurts before work.

Brian: Yeah, I got a little bit of a list here. Like Itchy Boots, my wife and I love that, love her channel, all the stuff she's doing. As To Make Pie Flies, a much different, you know, not like out getting shot at or anything, you know, she's just really thoughtful channel. Doodle On A Motorcycle's got a lot of really interesting stuff. Dork On The Road, Fat Guy With A Beard, Riding Dual Sport Bike. He's just real humble and has a lot of fun with it. And it's kind of fun. There's skills improvement. There's a lot of stuff you can get on YouTube just to pass the time and keep your brain alive.

Robin: And if you want to ramp that up for a little bit more rock and roll, look up Shade Tree Surgeon, of course. Yeah, that guy's a goofball. He's a lot of fun to watch.

Brian: Yeah. And there's some YouTube channels that we shall not mention that kind of suck. Yeah. Curate your own list. It's a matter of taste. So one that I, and there's also motorcycle reading, you know, skill stuff like twist of the wrist, read it again, soak it in. Melissa Holbrook Pearson, past guest on the show at a couple of amazing books. Books that deal with motorcycles, The Perfect Vehicle, and The Man Who Would Stop at Nothing. Ted Simon's Jupiter's Travels. I have not read Jupiter's Travels. I should make that a goal this winter to do that.

Robin: It's a fantastic book. There's a sequel to it, too. He did it again. I mean, in his 70s, I believe, he rode the route again. Finding Jupiter is that book. So Jupiter's Travels followed by Finding Jupiter, great pairing, especially with this fine boxed wine that I'm sipping right now.

Brian: Franzia. And this is, again, if somebody has some recommendations, email.tiro.bike, share that with us. I don't know if there's any motorcycle gaming out there that's any good. I think there is some GP games.

Robin: Eh, just go cars.

Brian: Yeah, I've not played anything since, like, the Atari days, so I'm too old.

Robin: Oh, you mean like Excitebike? Yeah.

Brian: Robin's got some things to say, I hope. What is some good motorcycle music to help you feel that pump and feel the summer, feel the lean, feel the G-forces?

Robin: I'll tell you what. When it comes to music, of course, like every generation, as we grow older, we become attached to the music that we started with, that we finished with in college. And that's all well and good, because I definitely, I'm a Gen X-er, and I've got that music in my playlist in bulk to the point where I'm semi-tired of it. My mission these days is to stay in tune with not necessarily the age group of the music that's being produced or released, but simply how the music makes me feel. I'm fortunate that I have a music degree, a jazz music degree, and that allows me to ignore where the music came from and simply appreciate it for what it is. It's neutral-mindedness. It's meditative. Did the music affect you in a good way? I have my own way that I go about selecting music that I listen to in-ride, because I do listen to music when I'm riding a lot. I want the music to raise the hair on the back of my neck, especially because that's the only place I have hair on my head, anyhow, at this point. I want to feel goosebumps from whatever the song is, whether it is orchestral, electronic, metal, jazz, rock. It could be fucking polka. I don't care, so long as it makes me want to accelerate, and then I allow myself to decide whether or not I'm going to. But the point is, I like music that puts me in superhero mode. I'm going to alleviate the situation. I'm going to rescue the damsel. I'm going to assess every threat. And that's really what it gets into. A lot of people will hear me start to say that first part and think, well, that's just dangerous, and it's not. Your senses become heightened. You appreciate your surrounding environment more, and you are focused on what is happening around you in a way that you're tuned into more. I like that feeling. But then, I am a musician. Actively, no. And anybody I ever made a record with will say the same. He doesn't play anymore. Well, you're not wrong. But the musician is still there. It's just now, I'm playing at the handlebars. I have a playlist called Robin's Road Ruckus. It is dated. It's got some old grunge in it and stuff. But there's a lot of new stuff in there from television shows I watch. Most of the music I find, I find on Instagram. I'll go to bed, and I'll start doom-scrolling Instagram. And because my algorithm is fine-tuned to my entertainment desires, not political nonsense or anything that's full of hate or strain, it's all just entertainment, there's a lot of new music that is only getting exposed through these little moments in Instagram videos. And I'll be like, that's the one, that tune. I need that. What is that? And it'll tell me, and I'll find it. And I use Tidal, not Spotify. I use Tidal because I'm an audiophile. I want 24-bit audio, and I'll add it to my playlist. There was some other stuff here that I'll breeze through real quick. The reading stuff, yes, absolutely. Gaming, my response to what you were saying about, oh, there are motorcycle games out there. Screw the motorcycle games. Just get driving games. So Project Gotham Racing, Gran Turismo, if that still exists. I may be dating myself on both of these. Find anything that just plants you on a track, anything that gets you moving. Yes, Moto Methadone, as Brian calls it. Do these things. Find the games that keep you on a paved surface or dirt surface or something that has you racing and crashing with no consequences. Those are the games you want to find and just keep yourself entertained.

Brian: Yeah, if that's what you're into. Or maybe you're into just Lego Hobbits or something, whatever. Just whatever. This is something I think I'm learning, and I feel like I need to do better at. That's one of the things I've learned from doing this podcast is staying connected with the people that, instead of only seeing your motorcycle buddies when it's warm out and you're riding, stay in touch, make that effort. It's something I need to do better at. There's people I haven't talked to in a year I need to call. For us, for Robin and I, the podcast really helps with that. We get to see each other regularly, and it's a lot of fun. Also, the people that are local, we try to get together, at least call people that aren't local, check in, see how they're doing. Forums, there's some online forums. I know we're all old, I guess, but like the vintage Suzuki forum gets more important over the winter. Yeah, you start to see people get grumpy because they're not riding, but it's making those emotional connections, which is part of the wonderful side of riding. You have that connection with people, even if you're a lone wolf or whatever.

Robin: It's a heavy anchor. Yeah. I personally can get pretty dark. You hear the light-hearted me on the podcast. Here's something that's been extremely therapeutic for me.

Brian: He puts on the black makeup and full goth. It's pretty wild.

Robin: Anyhow, so if you're feeling this way at any time in the winter, pro tip coming from somebody who gets pretty dark, flip the coin, take on the role, make a list of people that you know are struggling or have recently gotten through a struggle, stack that list and set them up on a bi-weekly phone call where you spend a good portion of your day, an hour or two, calling each one of them individually for a unique to them phone call. See how they're doing. And if they're just fine, let them know maybe you're not feeling as good and catch up. Then do it again with the next person. The person who's feeling worse, be there for them. The person who's feeling better, ask if they can hang out with you for a second and just loop that. There's no harm in it. It's the act of thinking and producing a conversation with another person that will keep you balanced and proactive even when you are in a pessimistic phase.

Brian: I have some friends that are kind of the instigators more than I am a lot of times. And you definitely need that. Someone's got to, hey, we're going to, or we need to start planning this, what we're doing next spring now, and that helps. Like, oh, wow, yeah, that's kind of fun to do and think about this. I think it's important for anybody to do, but people like us who are really seasonal in our passionate interest here, you've really got to be mindful about it and pay attention to it. Get through the dark days and help each other get through the dark days.

Robin: Yeah, it's that dark, the days are only going to be shorter. Brian said it all, but don't forget about pub games either. Darts, pool, ping pong, bowling.

Brian: Get out of the house. In furtherance of this goal, and I don't know if we want to talk about this or we want to just do it.

Robin: Yes, we do. I'm going to ruin you for this idea.

Brian: Discord or whatever it is, you know, to start a hangout.

Robin: It's going to be Discord, and Brian's going to run it.

Brian: Don't know what we're getting into here, do we?

Robin: Brian has posed the question, should we start a TRO Discord hangout? Now, there's already a personal Discord server for the super slick, ultra badass motorcycle mega posse of incredible power, which is super slick, ultra badass, and as a sidebar, it happens to be incredibly powerful. But for TRO specifically, a publicly open Discord channel, Brian's got this covered, so be on the lookout for that.

Brian: There may be one session and that's it. I don't know. We'll see what we get.

Robin: Well, let's just open discussion. Brian has until I produce this episode, which I have two episodes in front of this one to get done, to tell me whether or not he actually wants to do this. He's already writing notes like cancel request and edit out Robin. I can see him writing it. Anyhow, we'll figure it out. We'll figure it out. Maybe Brian will delegate it to somebody that we want to watch suffer.

Brian: Next up would be the Armory, but Joanne is in Las Vegas. I don't think there's any fear and loathing, probably the opposite. She's not with us this week. So what we would like is, and we'll be back next week with a, well, I screwed that all up. Sorry.

Robin: I'm not editing any of this. I'm going to leave it in exactly as it is.

Brian: Ah, hell. Okay. The raw truth of what is this show. Next up is the Armory from gearchick.com, the one and only Joanne Don. However, Joanne is in Las Vegas this week feeling the opposite of fear and loathing. Too good for us, I guess. Anyway, if you would like to inspire Joanne with some topics, with some questions, you can email Joanne at help at gearchick.com.

Robin: And I see traces of you in this where you were talking about gear repair, coping with gear emergencies, both at home or in the field, water leaks, Velcro, snaps, rips, tears, crash damage, seams, glove blowouts, spares. And I remember that you were curious about the repair of Velcro because yeah, it does go bad. Heck, I've got my dad, God rest his soul. His toiletry bag goes with me on every tour and the Velcro is dead. So every hotel I stay at during a motorcycle tour, I hang it on the towel rack and then I count to three while I brush my teeth and it falls and hits some random hotel floor. So yeah, can I fix that?

Brian: And if so, how? I know what her solution is going to be. Oh, well, you need to get by. You need to buy new gear.

Robin: Similar banter at higher reps can be found via the Gear Chick website. Visit gearchick.com. Dig in. I'm going to take it from here. Yep. We're winding down. I've brought this up so many times. Next time I mean it. Hell, I even put the question out to a variety of Facebook groups that I'm in and no longer have any poll or positive reputation in. The MSF Rider Coaches Group, the Rider Coaches Life, the MSTA page on Facebook. Nerds. Bunch of nerds. I said, terms in motorcycling, be them riding techniques, wrenching methods slash tools, whatever, that mean something different depending on the rider slash mechanic slash curriculum through which they're being described. And go. Terminology. Next week's episode, we're going to discuss terminology that gets lost in translation between those who are claiming understanding of its definition. If you out there have heard things, you're like, well, this person says this, but that person says that, go to your web browser and type in email.tro.bike into the address bar and contact us through the contact form. Let us know what you're thinking.

Brian: Can I preemptively forbid two terms?

Robin: Trail braking and counter steering. No, those two have to be in there.

Brian: So we're going to fight. That's what we're going to do. Okay. No, there's really nothing to fight about there, is there? We've talked about them before. We haven't done it this way. These are the most misunderstood four terms I've ever seen.

Robin: They totally are. You and I will sit back and discuss the different perspectives on them. We can convey which one we agree with, and then we will move forward argument-free. Feel good?

Brian: I feel good. Let's get out of here.