Brian: Robin, what you got for the random song of the minute, the coolest thing we've ever done?

Robin: If you want to hear our random songs of the minute, visit radio.tro.bike in your web browser. This one comes at an eerily dark moment in television history where we've lost a great young actor to their own self-inflicted demise. But I won't get into the details of that. Point is, if you know, you know. The song is DMZ by TV on the radio. That's DMZ by TV on the radio. This is one of those dark anti-hero songs that definitely makes me twist the throttle, if you know what I mean. So check that out. What do we got in news, Brian?

Brian: In intercom news, Socardo adds bigger groups with one update day catch. Interesting. Interesting headline. All right.

Robin: Okay, stop. You were not allowed to say interesting anymore. The amount of times I have to edit the word interesting out of you reading the news is insane. You have no idea.

Brian: All right.

Robin: It's like in the middle, you'd be like, the useful part, interesting, maybe less time, interesting. Go ahead.

Brian: That's a rant I didn't expect. All right, so let's get into it. Cardo's free Mesh Boost update, LUT's supported PacTalk Pro, Edge, and Neo units form groups of up to 31 riders, which sounds like a nightmare. So public mesh opens a shared conversation without creating a private group, while remote grouping lets friends join in through an invitation before the ride. You got all that?

Robin: Sort of.

Brian: Mixed groups with older DMC units still top out at 15. So the useful part may be less time standing around a gas station trying to get everyone connected. But there is one catch. Cardo warns that the update erases existing DMC groups so they need to be rebuilt. That is a garage night job, not a five minutes before departure job. So 31 people can now talk at once. And whether 31 people should be talking at once on a ride is a very different question.

Robin: This is just news. It's not news that I personally care about. I will, I'm open to talking to one person, maybe on an occasion two people. But once you get four people talking, no, no, no, no. My unit will suddenly not work anymore and I'll have music playing for some reason.

Brian: Yeah.

Robin: All right. Next up, a phone mount that fixes the angle instead of adding another screen. Now, originally when I read this, I thought, I don't know if I even care about this. but then I realized how important the phone angle actually can be if it's out of sight where it should be. It should always be out of sight. So when you want it in sight, it should be easy to access, right? Well, this comes from quadlockcase.com. Now, Quadlock's handlebar mount pro adjustable uses one bolt to set both rotation and tilt. Existing pro and large pro owners can buy the adjustable arm separately instead of replacing everything. This is a small fix for an irritating problem. Honestly, I get this. The phone is securely attached, but the screen points at the sky? Yeah, no. Quad Lock says this version targets touring and cruiser handlebar layouts. So fit does still matter. A better viewing angle is useful only if the phone also clears the instruments, cables, and tank. The upgrade worth paying for is the one that makes the cockpit less awkward, not simply more expensive. So I get this. It's like if you want your phone at the exact angle that's right for your ergonomics, yeah, there you go.

Brian: Yeah, we need options. Good. And yeah, that is one thing you see with the Quad Lock. They kind of point it.

Robin: Faces the street.

Brian: In movie maker news, the Insta360 X6 takes aim at the footage. Nobody gets around to editing. That's the big problem. The Insta360 X6 launched in August at $700 and has now appeared in an October motorcycle review. Interesting. Nice. Gotcha. Beyond its 8K 360 degree recording, Insta360 says the camera can produce flat 4K clips with subject tracking and, automatically assemble highlights while charging using an AI hamster or something, I'm gathering, probably. It also has replaceable lenses and built-in storage for the time the memory card is still sitting at home beside the computer. So the real Turing problem here is not always missing the shot. Sometimes it's returning home with hours and hours of footage and no desire to spend the weekend editing. So yeah, automatic highlights sound really useful if they preserve the moments and the things we actually care about.

Robin: Starts to get into that zen in the motorcycle maintenance. Like, what is the definition of quality? How do we trust its judgment on what we should or should not keep?

Brian: Yeah, I'd need to know more about this and how you can control what you like and so forth. But I think you can like hit a button and say, yeah, I want that. You know, that was a neat thing. Even like a camera could choose like a technically impressive corner and still miss the roadside conversation or the or the animal or whatever that made the trip so less editing is very appealing, handing over the storytelling decisions we're not so sure yet but remains to be seen very nice.

Robin: Next up, this comes from Ducati.com. Direct from the source, Ducati wants service intervals to reflect how hard the engine actually works. Ducati's 2027 Desmo 450 MX update includes predictive maintenance through an accessory Wi-Fi module. Ducati says the system uses writing data to adjust engine maintenance intervals to actual use. This is motocross equipment, not a new service schedule for our street bikes, but the idea reaches well beyond a racetrack. A mileage counter cannot tell the whole story of an engine's life we know this the appealing promise is maintenance based on the work the engine has actually done rather than treating every hour alike the ownership question is whether we can see and understand that recommendation budget for it and share it with an independent mechanic a smarter service reminder is useful a mysterious countdown that only the dealer understands is less inviting so yeah i get it It makes sense. How hard are you flexing? How much you lifting, bro? How much you lifting?

Brian: Yeah, and this kind of stuff is already in place on a lot of four-wheeled vehicles, where it actually monitors, optically monitors the oil quality and things like that.

Robin: Oh, my 2015 Ford F-350 does it. It tells me, hey, man, you might want to check your engine coolant, like the quality of it, and it's like, not the level.

Brian: Oh, really? Okay, yeah.

Robin: But it detects the oil health, the compression, all that stuff. What's up with Kawasaki?

Brian: In the category of are we sure we want this? Kawasaki puts radar and real touring equipment on the Versus 900. And again, this is straight from the source, Kawasaki.com. So Kawasaki has announced the 2027 Versus 900 SELT ABS with a 948cc inline four, standard hard saddlebags, heated grips, and a center stand. That's a lot going on. They've got a serious entry for a tall rounder sport tour.

Robin: Yeah.

Brian: Who thought we'd be talking about this 10 years ago? Anyway, its writer assistance package includes adaptive cruise control light, whatever that means, forward collision warning, and blind spot detection.

Robin: You don't even have to write it.

Brian: Yeah, just get on and push the button.

Robin: Or take a nap and send it out on its own.

Brian: This is wild. U.S.-based MSRP is $13,599 or $14,439 with Kawasaki's listed destination charge before taxes. So the forbidden word part is not another model name. It's getting the luggage and all the tour equipment in the same package as radar assistance and all the other rider aids. That makes the comparison with a cheaper bike plus a shopping cart full of accessories more interesting. And again, this is a spec sheet and a price sheet. We can't settle wind protection, loaded handling, or whether the warnings are useful and helpful rather than just nagging at you. Those are things that have to earn or keep on a long day. And overall, this is stuff people are getting used to on their other vehicles. So it kind of makes sense it's leaking into motorcycles. The price point is the surprising part here. This is not a $20,000 bike. This is $14,000.

Robin: Pretty good.

Brian: So Robin, what have you been up to lately? Have you been doing forbidden things?

Robin: Yeah, it's been good. We're all set up. We're comfortable. Even having been here for a week, maybe two weeks, only this past week are we now officially able to embrace that we are here in New Mexico. I did get a chance to go out and ride the road that shall not be named. It remains most excellent. Got to visit with a friend here who showed up for the Honda Demos Tour. I almost ended up doing that, but timing did not work out. so there's a honda demo ride tour or as we might call it the honda e-clutch tour all the bikes have them and they're all looking pretty good shout out to jason morris who's great to see a man great to do some riding One thing that happened that was interesting is, you know, he's been doing a lot of these demo rides, which are slow. Hey, everybody, follow me. And what do you think of the bike? Blah, blah, blah stuff. He hasn't gotten to do any hard riding in a solid minute. So during that ride, I know that road. I really know that road. So looking back in the mirror, there was a lot of disappearance happening. And I finally realized, why don't I just relax and work on my line at a pace where I can paint the picture more slowly and have them do the same thing? And it was not a relaxed pace. We were still enjoying the breeze for sure. So that's a real pleasure when you get to ask, hey, you know, here you go. Here's the line. Follow it. And they did. And it was a lot of fun. Then there was the chain replacement. Man, here's how that went on Maggie's SV650, my wife's bike. The chain, I looked at it and it just materialized on her bike. It simply existed. Come time for my own bike. And I told myself that day, this has to go. You don't need to do this to yourself. Don't do that thing where it gets loused up because you tell yourself it has to subconsciously. Like, this has to go wrong. And then your subconscious sabotages your consciousness and whatever. It's like, that happened. I pulled everything apart. I cleaned everything out. We degreased. I cleaned out some bearings. Set it all up perfectly. Got the chain rolled into place. Peace. The sprockets went on no problem, put on the old chain, locked in the rear gear, cranked up to 111 foot-pounds of torque. And on my bike, it's a lot easier. It just has the sprocket goes on, a simple washer that is not a flex washer, and then a little bit of threadlock or blue, and then crank it to 111 pounds, and you're done. Okay, cool. Rear sprocket, no problem. We're all set. Now it's time for the chain. So I roll the new chain on, bust out my chain tool. Now, I have the lesser version of the Motion Pro product. I really wish I had the PBR, but I have the standard entry-level chain tool. And I go on to press the plates. Everything squeezes. I give it an extra oomph. And then I'm not quite sure it's quite seen. A little bit further, and then I back off, and I notice, oh, oh, oh, oh. First off, it's ever so slightly, very slightly cockeyed. And second off the side that it's cockeyed into is truly stiff like it'll go but i just feel like i'm breaking o-rings like i don't like it at all everything's hyper lubricated whatever so i'm like oh no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no okay call a friend call a friend call okay brian of course i'm gonna call brian so he's like hey man what's up let's do this thing. Brian goes out into his garage, pulls out an old chain of similar or identical styling and scale.

Brian: Identical.

Robin: 525?

Brian: EK525ZVX3. Definitely, definitely, definitely great chain. Yeah.

Robin: Here we are in a signal chat. He's trying to guide me through the motions. Like the first person I asked was, hey man, what would you do? And that person was smart. They are a wise friend. They're a good friend of mine here. They're like, I would replace that link. I'm like, okay, now that's true. that's not a bad way to do it however I know a person who might know the voodoo who do you do Brian says two screwdrivers, these two pressure points, and see if you can fiddle faddle in this manner. And I said, yeah, I can do that. And promptly stabbed myself in the hand with a screwdriver, bleeding profusely.

Brian: Sacrifice accepted.

Robin: That did not stop me from continuing on. Then everything slipped into place. I saw the perfect distance. Everything felt the same in every linkage. That saved the day. So now it comes time to actually rivet the pin. Here's where things get tricky. So I knew Brian could help me with this situation beforehand, but time to rivet the pin. The default dowel that comes with that particular Motion Pro tool, it's nowhere near enough to really get that to work. Brian's logic is sound. You get the ball. Go into the rivet point, you flex it down until the ball is disappeared into it and the shoulder touches the edge. But that is where you might want to stop. Food for thought, the instructions actually say otherwise. They say whatever they say about continue going and yada yada, but it doesn't change the fact that I don't think that particular portion of the tool is adequate for that scale of chain. So the next morning I got my friends come over, he brings his tool. So long story short, I've got Brian, Travis Burleson, the two of them in a group chat on Signal with me and a friend of mine who says himself, I'm not exactly known for my chain work. He shows up with the better tool, the PBR, which has a really good riveter bead. And he's just like, all right, all right, here you go. So I've got at least two articles out of this and a podcast episode that I'm introing now for the next time around. There's all these philosophical notions of what I'm looking for. Travis is like, just fake it till you make it, man. Brian's like, no, be the rivet. And then my buddy who shows up with the tool, it's almost like he handed me the tool. It was like, here you go. Are you done yet? Are you done yet? Are you done yet? Are you done? So this is all happening. All this noise, right? Be ready because we're going to do an episode at least a little bit dedicated to this subject matter and there's going to be two articles one that tells this story and one that tells the process that's how that went the rest of my activities i uh did besides the chain make some big buys today and i'm happy to say i ordered another set of tires

Brian: Oh so many tires.

Robin: The same ones as before man Pirelli Angel SDs I ordered a small tape to a bolt ambient temperature thermometer and I I ordered the OneVon Motorcycle CarPlay screen with Android Auto 6.25-inch waterproof GPS. This thing has two cameras, TPMS, a powered remote for $150. I ordered all these things today. And my last update I'll say is that that Stealing Speed book, Stealing Speed just keeps getting better. It's a motorsports book. I can't recommend it enough. And riddled with typos.

Brian: Is it a translation of a book in german or something i don't i don't remember.

Robin: No idea fantastic book though how are you doing

Brian: It's still like halfway warm here but we've had some we've had some cold weather it's looking like fall the trees are turning so we did the kentucky thing, when i was in denver i finally had the chance to meet joanne and the man in person and we had dinner. It was awesome. She's a lot taller than she looks on Zoom. I thought I was like walking into like a hobbit situation and like, don't stare, don't stare.

Robin: No.

Brian: I kept giving her crap about, boy, you're taller than I expected from someone who's writing articles called, hey, so you're short. Here's how to ride a motorcycle.

Robin: Check the shoes. Was she wearing some Gene Simmons action or?

Brian: You know, I didn't even look at her shoes. I was just fascinated by the conversation, joanne and evan were lovely lovely people and robin i'm sure is insanely jealous we sent a selfie to him right away.

Robin: On my birthday right to the heart

Brian: Yeah all the travel and stuff is done and i think this weekend coming up it's kind of kind of be the season finale as it were generally from mid-october through whenever i pretty much stay out of the countryside thanks to deer season here in indiana.

Robin: Eat more venison

Brian: Everybody should eat more venison And we're planning a nice little, probably a dual sport ride. The days are already getting really short. The winters are not that bad here, so I do a lot of riding in the winter, but most of the time, it's mostly around town errands and things like that. Don't get out into the countryside a lot until March, but that's where I'm at. Happy to be back home.

Robin: We've got this show all winter.

Brian: It keeps us sane.

Robin: After I've ridden 120 miles of perfect pavement every time we do this, I will reach out and make sure that you've gotten at least 15 minutes on a bike in some, fortunately, dry parking lot.

Brian: Yeah. Hey, guess where I rode today? We saw some really good rocks and it was actually a little hot. I wore the mesh. Yeah, I want to hear it. Next up, we've got questions from the wild.

Robin: If you'd like us to field your questions, visit email.tro.bike in your web browser and send us a message.

Brian: First up, a thought-provoking question. The short title is, when is a sport bike the more comfortable touring bike? And here's the details. A rider of some sort has made repeated trips of more than 1,200 miles on both a Kawasaki ZX-6R and a Triumph Tiger 900. Very different bikes. And he or she is a little puzzled because they would actually choose the Kawasaki again. They report less wind buffeting, better fuel mileage, and a riding position that works better for their back while accepting less luggage capacity.

Robin: Okay.

Brian: That's kind of wild. I wouldn't, you know, I wouldn't have guessed that.

Robin: Yeah. So the motorcycle that looks less suitable for touring is the one this rider prefers after repeated long trips. How would that preference hold up? I happen to have a friend who is faced with a similar take on things, and he would say that he's built like Shrek. Okay he feels really good on his honda superhawk for example he loved that bike and would tour it in a heartbeat so there are people like that my answer would be whichever bike triggers the endorphins that make us feel better typically those will have their own health benefits that outweigh the physical agony we would feel if we were unhappy in the riding situation yeah Yeah.

Brian: I have a very similar take. My rule in motorcycling is that if you're happy, you're happy. So be happy.

Robin: Yeah.

Brian: If it works for you, it works. Obviously, you know, this is not the majority opinion a lot of people, at least on paper and even in personal, would be more comfortable on the Triumph Tall Rounder. But it is possible. And if it works for you, it works to tour on a sport bike. I remember Jasmine's water pipe luggage rack on her CBR1000RR. RRR, Pirate Edition.

Robin: That was literal plumbing on that bike.

Brian: And it was amazing. And she rocked it. And then Paul on the same bike had a backpack and just a hardcore attitude.

Robin: I will say

Brian: Hard luggage on sport bikes is really difficult to pull off. Nobody makes it. You're in a distinct minority there. So I would look at what the dual sport people are using for luggage because there are a lot of good solutions in the dual sport world, for packing a lot of stuff very close to a small bike that doesn't want to carry a lot of stuff, and it's also waterproof it's very durable stuff like that so i'd kind of look over in that direction if you really want to increase your luggage capacity a little bit, they have different systems there's a giant loop idea where it kind of looks like a pair of pants full of stuff and as always the roll top bags can be waterproof and do a good job at keeping your stuff clean. For any other type of bag, use a waterproof liner. The rain covers that they give you on soft luggage.

Robin: Oh, yeah. No, no.

Brian: They only make everything worse, so don't even bother.

Robin: I will contest Brian's wording here. There are solutions for sport bikes in terms of hard luggage, though rare. Most of them are provided through SW MoTeC or twisted throttle. The issue is the hardware.

Brian: Yeah, GV makes the hardware.

Robin: And so does SW Motech. So SW Motech makes an adapter that fits the GV top cases. And they also make some hardware for some bikes that are also adapters for GV side bags. But your selection really gets narrowed down, you're going to want to pick and choose carefully. The one that I know I'm limited to now on my own bike is the Blaze saddlebag system, which is a sporty set of thermoformed soft bags. And I like them a lot. They're really good.

Brian: Uh-huh.

Robin: Their answer to Brian's qualm about those external rain covers that were always crap, they always just tore apart, is they said, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Let the bags get drenched and then put a dry bag on the inside of the bag, which works really well. And speaking of dry bags, you can also check out our article on TRO called the Dry Bag Diddy. So if you just look up Dry Bag Diddy, D-I-T-T-Y, or maybe it's D-I-D-D-Y, I don't remember. Point is, if you get one of those in a rack, oh, man, you're a golden. Travis Burleson, instead of making it perpendicular to the bike, he's running it as a hot dog, you know, like it takes up the passenger seat and the rack. And you could haul a small refrigerator in that thing. So there's solutions. No problems, only solutions. Just got to figure them out, you know. You ready for the next one?

Brian: Absolutely.

Robin: How much tire life would you trade for cornering confidence? This comes from Reddit. A mountain road rider deliberately avoids putting miles on straight roads, but says their tires are wearing aggressively. They named the tires as a Rosso 4 Corsa, that's R-O-S-S-O, and asked what alternatives would last longer. Their post does not give the motorcycle tire pressure or mileage, so there's not really information to pin the wear on one cause. It's like, I run mine at spec, 30-30 at a track day.

Brian: Yeah, there's plenty of information here. We'll get to that.

Robin: I don't even know that brand. I used to run the Michelin R5s when they were less than a small mortgage. Then I ran to the Dunlop RoadSmart 4s. And then they decided to chase the price range. Now I'm on the Pirelli Angel STs and I'm happy as a clam. They all feel right, but it's like, I don't know. Look at the reputable brands and determine whether or not the reviews are speaking any truth. And then go test them. At spec. I don't believe these guys are getting 21,000. Yeah.

Brian: Yeah, you always get one of those squeakers. Yeah. First off, the tire he's talking about is the Pirelli Rosso 4 Corsa. Corsa means track. This tire is one step down. It is street legal. It's a DOT tire.

Robin: It's damn near a slick.

Brian: It's pretty much a spec series race tire. Wow. But they have a tire that's one step racier. That's like pretty much track only. So there's your trouble, buddy.

Robin: On to the next question. Siping is your friend. Dual compound.

Brian: So let's say you don't care about spending all the money and you don't care about the, spooning on tires every Saturday. The biggest problem is when you have rain or crap on the road, as you often do in the mountains, the weather is unpredictable. I would say this rider would be much better served by a good sport touring tire. There are grades of sport touring tires.

Robin: Yes.

Brian: There are some that are more tour. And again, this is just subjective, but maybe the Michelin Road 6 is probably more of a tour tire. It's long lasting. It's a pretty hard compound. It does grip well. Maybe you'll like it. I don't know. So something like in the Pirelli range, the Angel GT2, that's the replacement for the ST, which Robin and I are super familiar with. And it's a long life. It's a sport touring tire. There was a very interesting thing I learned at the track day last year at Road America. It rained most of the day. And one of the things that was explained to us, was that the people on their street bikes on sport touring tires actually had an advantage in the rain we had tires that would evacuate water they had a little more of, a tread pattern and also the compounds had more silica in them silica is what you need to have wet grip and cold grip, the tires this guy has they're for dry conditions only you need to get a little heat in them to really make them work the best if you want to stick around the Pirelli Angel GT2s, their new sport touring tire, might be a much better move for them. And other things like the Metzler Sportech M9RR, it's a sport touring tire. It's got silica, it's good in the wet and things like that. But it is one that's still more on the racy or sporty side of the sport touring equation. And the thing is, these will feel a little tiny bit different, but that difference will go away. And I think it would quickly develop the confidence that he needs in the corners and so forth. The other thing is that it's going to work well in a lot more conditions than just dry, hot days in the mountains. Because there's a lot going on in the mountains. There's a lot of poop on the road, literally. There's a lot of stuff on the road. There's a lot of sudden storms. There's a lot of washouts and things like that. And honestly, maybe back down to Macho a little bit. Let's just go ahead and say it. You're not Valentino Rossi. It is still a public road.

Robin: Don't scare the stiffs.

Brian: You can do anything that is remotely reasonable to be done on a public road, on a good sport touring tire.

Robin: Which means I have two pieces of news to add to this conversation. First off, for those of you who live at the bottom of the road that shall not be named, I would be happy to inform you that the wild cows that have been roaming randomly along the road in the middle of the mountain pass, they are being rounded up by their owner who after almost a half year realized they were gone and has rediscovered them with his trailer i learned this when i came around a sharp steep right-hander and discovered a wall of noses running at me there were six or seven full-grown cows hauling ass happy and i managed to talk to the guy be like hey thank you that's great before then carrying on and discovering that one calf was running opposite direction with somebody else following it.

Brian: That's when you need an Insta360 and hopefully the AI would figure out a sea of cows would be kind of interesting.

Robin: That's a feature. Keep that. So then the other bit is, as we were discussing this, I've been intending to do this for a long time. You no longer need to visit TRO.bike and then mouse over DigiTools and click on our Road Rubba Rankings page. You may visit tires.tro.bike and that will take you directly to our Road rubber rankings page so yes please check that out and with that again if you'd like us to field your questions visit email.tro.bike in your web browser send us a message we'll see what we can do with it to mangle and answer brian what are we getting into today

Brian: It's mid-october officially as middle as you can get in october we're looking at pumpkins we're looking at halloween we're looking straight Straight up the arse of winter. Now, Robin has partially escaped. There's still weather there. There's still winter in the desert.

Robin: Technically, according to the clock,

Brian: Robin has wisely escaped the Midwest for the season.

Robin: If you like pina coladas,

Brian: There's palm trees and stuff there, right? Yeah. Thoughts, you start thinking. You think in thoughts and thoughts start thinking and they come through. But part of the yearly ritual is figuring out, what do I need to do over the winter to my motorcycles, my vehicles, my home, my life, and accumulate the parts, accumulate the resources, the time off, the funds and so forth to do all these things, and sort of kind of plan them out, partially just because all these things need to be done. But there's also an element of I need to kind of ration and drip out my motorcycle and garage time in order to keep myself sane over the winter. I need to get that little hands-on time just to get a little bit of that methadone so I feel like, yes, there's going to be life and there's going to be light at the end of this. You know, I'm going to wake up in March. There's going to be an orb in the sky that's unfamiliar and it's going to have unfamiliar feelings. It's going to feel warm. It's going to happen. It's coming. Have faith.

Robin: The doldrums, as it were.

Brian: The doldrums. Sad. Seasonal affective disorder. Your version of winter is quite different, although there's still things to be done. There's still things to be handled, planning to be done.

Robin: I remember us discussing in a previous episode, there are times when you actually may tell yourself, I need to not ride for a while, which is a strange... Thing to think, but there are times it's like, you know, I know it's there, but there are certain things where that space is of benefit, whether it's subject matter outside of motorcycling, or if it's just dealing with the bike itself and sitting on your butt and having some Zen time, a personal connection to the bike on the wrenching level. I tend to come up with little lists pre-winter. I know I have got it now. I plan to peel Maggie's bike apart here and there, add some electrics, add a phone charger mount, some luggage structure, just stuff that will be helpful in a tour. There's an auxiliary power block that I've become a big fan of that really solves a lot of problems with just routing power directly to any gadgets that, if you have a CAN bus system, you can just bypass all of that yourself, go direct to battery. The bike's going to get one of those. A phone charger. The phone mount's already there. Maybe a heated gear. I've got these really great cheap heated grips that are over grips. Little things, just stuff like that. And for my own bike, there's some fine tuning I want to do with, like I said, I'm getting that Android Auto screen.

Brian: They'll keep you occupied for a while. Yeah.

Robin: It's got good features. So I need to learn it. I need to install it. It will be powered by my power block. The old Fobo TPMS is coming off my bike to go onto Maggie's bike. So she has TPMS as well. Mine comes with pre-paired units and all these things need to be connected. So I'm going to get all that situated and then I have to develop computer scripts that will actually extract the videos. It has a loop video function. So while I'm riding, when the road gets good, I simply hit keep and all of that will be saved to the device on a 64 gigabyte card. It has a Wi-Fi connection where I'll be able to extract that data and then stitch it all together for tour footage. Two cameras, front and rear. Life's good. Those are my plans.

Brian: Nice.

Robin: Even now, I'm ready.

Brian: Yeah, you got it planned.

Robin: You're going to dismantle your entire bike and build it into like a R9.

Brian: That's kind of the plan. The plan here is to basically upgrade the brakes on the FJ09. I think there's like 9 or 10 or 12 brake lines. It's really complicated. I've got a set of stainless steel brake lines. Bought them from sportbiketrackgear.com. Not a sponsor. Call us. A set of Spiegler lines. And I've installed Spiegler lines. They're made in Ohio. They are extremely high quality. They're always great. So I've got that set in hand. I've got a set of very low mileage takeoff brake rotors because I measured my rotors and at 65,000 miles, 45,000 miles of that was me. So I know how I do. The front rotors are pretty close to their minimum spec for thickness. So I've got a set that are right at the factory thickness and those are going to go on, bleed everything and all that stuff. So the problem is it's an ABS bike. And like most ABS bikes, you have a lot of different brake lines and you need to pretty much disassemble the bike to get to the ABS unit. So, yeah, it's going to be a big job. It's going to be probably a couple of weeks of me picking away at it in between all the other junk I have to do. I'm kind of saving that for when the garage is warm enough to work.

Robin: But that gets into the real question the hardcore question that you've got here like now we already knew what we were going to start getting into we kind of knew where what our paces were going to be you've got some amazing content here about what spiritual core philosophy amounted amounts to our decision what can wait what needs to happen immediately what can wait till winter and what feels great to place into winter.

Brian: Yeah.

Robin: What's your take on all this?

Brian: With the brake upgrades, I hate to admit it, the inspector to track day at Putnam Park was kind of a dick about it, but he did have a point. My brakes were not optimal. But, Did the track day. It was no problem. At least three other really intense, great rides and things like that. So it wasn't one of those things that was like an immediate problem. It's like, you know, I need to do this. I need to take care of this. I need to handle this. So he didn't like tell me anything I didn't know other than the stuff he kind of made up. Like he told me the pads are almost gone and they weren't. So that kind of thing, like, yeah, you're just making a little list and checking it twice. So that's been in my head for several months and so everything's accumulated, everything's ready to go when i feel the time is right when i'm like yeah i'm jones and i need to get out and get dirty and get some stuff in there and the other thing is it's kind of almost the same category is i'm not having any problems at all there's no indication of anything doing anything but i know i need to take the swing arm out. And grease all the bearings so the question there is do i buy all the bearings from Yamaha and just replace them? Or do I kind of trust, okay, nothing's happening. Nothing's clunking. They're probably okay. I can probably just take everything apart, clean it, grease it up and slap it back together. So I'm kind of making that debate. I need to check the pricing on everything. Yeah. If it's like 50 or a hundred bucks worth of stuff, I probably will just get all the bearings and do it. If it gets into serious money, like tire money, that starts cutting into the tire budget. I may rethink that. And again, that's something 65,000 miles of wind and rain and riding, you know, they're getting a little funky in there. And it's not something that has a fixed interval, but you got to do it. I've seen what happens when you don't and it's not pretty. The other big thing, and again, this is something that's not necessary at all, but I'm really thinking about swapping the engine in my GS850. Because, A, I've got two whole engines under my workbench and a bottom end. You have to accumulate parts when you have old bikes basically when the bike is idling, you can hear this it's just a god-awful metallic clanking noise and it's because the camshafts kind of slide back and forth and there's a little too much clearance and it makes this, really awful noise it is completely harmless it's not hurting anything it can make that noise till the end of time.

Robin: It's a diesel

Brian: It's just it's just a noise it's going to make so the reason for that is there's an early engine in my later model bike. It's called cam walk, where the cams walk back and forth as they go around and the spring pressures are different and all that. So that's like, am I really ever going to get that board where I just like, you know, I'm going to yank this engine out. And again, this is a vintage motorcycle. It's one of the heaviest engines on any motorcycle on the planet.

Robin: And it's a Suzuki engine too. So it's like a block of cheese. Every time you park the bike, it's a different bike the next morning. So everything's all shifty and melty and soft

Brian: Yeah it's not a minor project but it's one i've done before i don't know how many times two or three at least yeah and i've done it by myself i've done it with help.

Robin: Well that's that's there's a big difference there so anything that is ornate or complicated you've seen the origami that goes into taking my plastics off just stuff like that anything that is as severe as when And you and I did something that nobody had really documented. The valve check.

Brian: The valve check, check, check, check.

Robin: Well, we also replaced every shim. I feel like that is a great, holy crap, we're going to have a lot of cold weather start thing where you've got your insulated coveralls and a kerosene heater, or in my case, a fire pit going outside. You got the fire pit going, you've got light, and you're able to just sit down. You've got enough time where it's part of your off time. You know, maybe you've got some whiskey to keep you warm. You've got a chalkboard to document things on.

Brian: Yeah.

Robin: I don't know what I'm talking about here, but the point is you sit your butt down or in Brian's case, you raise the bike up on a lift and you grab the Torx bit and attach it to the wrench. And then you wait another 10 minutes. And then you look at your first bolt and you turn it a quarter turn counterclockwise. And then you wait for three minutes and then you give it another quarter. You know, you've got so much breathing room and all of the opportunity for Zen enlightenment, where so long as you keep everything orderly, you're going to be okay. You may arrive at an, oh, this is going to require two people. Well, don't worry. If you live anywhere where there's a big winter, you've got, well, eight months of winter.

Brian: It's not quite eight months here, you know, but yeah. I see your point. Yes.

Robin: You've got the doldrum time, the darkness factor to just be like, hey, you want to stare and watch the freaking wallpaper peel off the garage? Hold this for a second. Here's a sandwich and here's a beer. Enjoy the piece of it.

Brian: Yeah.

Robin: You may get fed up with that piece, but it really is a time and place for the, I'm not sure how to do that. I'm going to do that. Because you can find the documentation, you can get the support, which gets into committees and things, which is one of those articles I'm going to write. When is the committee helping? And when is the committee helping with air quotes? There are two different variations of that situation.

Brian: How do you express that yeah that's a great point we once made like a whole weekend out of it where a friend of mine came down and we installed a big bore kit, in his klr 650 oh wow because i'd done it before and, yeah it's not the most complicated project in the world but also you know it wasn't like he needed my help but it was a it was an excuse for us to get together hang out have some garage time, and my garage is not heated but it's it's next to the house, down to somewhere below freezing can actually be fairly comfortable out there, so yeah it came down we started on saturday morning, we unloaded on friday got everything set up we took off a few plastics and then, spent most of saturday just taking our time having a good time putting this kit in and had it had it running that afternoon and you know so stuff like that's great, you know and there's also just life stuff like i know a lot of people personally who have put off major surgery major medical care, They're limping around or they can't pee or what, you know, because they're putting it off until November and then they can recover and be back at it in March.

Robin: They're still active. They want to keep on doing stuff.

Brian: I've seen that happen many times.

Robin: So in your case, it is a full teardown of your bike.

Brian: Yeah, it's going to be naked. It'll be good. And it'll, I'll see, I'll see parts of my bike that I've never seen. So that is happening definitely. And the rest of it is a little optional. Although I may get really bored. I don't know. Plus there's kind of a whole case. So I don't know what other people are going to come up with or ask about. So that's always fun. I always get a lot of texts. That's kind of fun too.

Robin: That just inspires me to tell everybody as the season gets colder, and I'm sorry if I'm rubbing it in your faces, but as things are starting to chill out up north, I wish y'all well. I hope you guys find some nice, pleasant winter projects that are going to make the 27 writing season that much more awesome. That means that winter's going to hit, and it means Brian and I will be recording on the regular. We'll have all kinds of inspired topics of random subject matter. We hope you'll listen in. That said, we are, yeah, of course, still looking for more sponsors.

Brian: Yeah.

Robin: And if you just want to give us your money and you're a fan, go to donate.tro.bike, and we will spend it on, quite frankly, bills.

Brian: Yeah, the podcast is part of what keeps us sane, and we hope it keeps other people sane, too, over the winter anyway.

Robin: Time for The Armory with Joanne Don, brought to you by GearChick.com. That's G-E-A-R-C-H-I-C. What are we talking about this round?

Joanne: The first topic question is, what's a purchase you've talked a rider out of, even though they arrived convinced it was perfect? Many things, helmets, jackets, boots, gloves, I have talked people out of. Because what tends to happen is, when you're faced with 40 options, let's say you go to rizzle.com, motorcyclegear.com, and there's 10 jackets, It is up to you to determine which is best. So what do you do? You might read the description, go to YouTube for reviews. Okay, read the technical details. And you put together some requirements or qualifications that for you... Oh, it's the color I like. It's the budget I want. I like this color here. I like the pockets. It matches my whatever it is. And those are all very valid reasons to pick something, right? It's your money. You buy what you want. However, when you talk to a professional or someone who's trained in these products and has more knowledge and experience in the shopping and selection and understands the products in great depth and detail, you will always change your mind about something, maybe not all of it. Sometimes I would change someone's mind about, oh, this jacket over that one. But I definitely have had customers where I've completely changed their outfits from what they thought. I had a guy bring me like printouts, like 20 pages of printouts. I looked at it and I said, well, it looks like you've read on some things, which is great, but let's just start over. So let's just not read. Let's just go touch some things and try some stuff on. And I was able to figure out who he really is as a rider, what his needs are, what he really wants, and other things that he hadn't been thinking about. What a lot of people don't also understand is the nuance between the type of motorcycle you ride and the fit of the garment. If you ride a Ducati 848 Evo, you literally cannot wear certain gear because it won't fit you correctly. It'll fit you on the runway. It'll fit you in the dressing room, but it will not fit once you throw your leg over that 848 Evo, bend forward, hike your knees up into your chest and try to ride for 40 minutes or six hours like my friend did when she rode from Pennsylvania to Indy. Things like that, they don't think about it because it's not their job to really know every single thing. And so once they also see more physical choices... Think of anything you buy, like you want a new coffee maker, you want a new washing machine or a new lawnmower, whatever it is, new tools. You want to see it in person, don't you? Especially if it's your thing. You know, if you're into knives, like some people, you want to touch it. You want to feel it. You want to see like what's it made out of? Like you want it in your hands because that's going to change your mind or just give you different ideas, right? It's going to change your opinion and your impressions. And with gear, it's even harder because it has to fit your body, right? It's not like a coffee pot that you're just picking up off the stove. Like it's a whole process. I've. Definitely told people not to buy that. But I've also had customers who buy it anyway, because a salesperson should never say, you can't buy that. That's a dumb idea. You're an idiot. You should never even think about that. That's not sales. That's just being an asshole. My approach was always like, hey, I love that you love the way this matches the rest of your outfit. I remember a guy who came in and he wanted a red, white, and blue theme to match his bike, shoes, pants, everything. And actually he looked really good. However, it didn't really fit the best on his motorcycle because of the riding position and the fit of the garment. But what I told him was, hey, I just want you to know these things. This is what I see when you sit on your motorcycle to ride and show off that awesome outfit that 20 minutes later, your knees might hurt because you're forcing the seams in a position that they weren't meant to go. And you're gonna feel this uncomfortable gathering behind your knees because they're bent too much for this jean. I just want you to know what to expect because this outfit is like 60% right for your riding lifestyle. I just want you to know these things. I'm going to let you figure that out.

Robin: Customers like, what are they made of? Oh, it says here chain mail. That's not good. Okay.

Joanne: Just giving them the information, even if I wholeheartedly disagree about the, you know, what they're buying. It's not my outfit. It's not my motorcycle. It's not my money. So my job is to throw out all the things that you haven't thought about that may get in your way later or make you uncomfortable or make you regret your purchase so that you can go, you know what? It's fine. I'm going to deal with that. or buying a helmet strictly for aesthetics. I'm going to wear it for 10 minutes to the meet and back. I already have a showy, whatever. I've got a, you know, touring helmet for the long rides. So understanding those nuances, and that's for me, get to know you. Like, oh, hey, Brian, where are you from? What's going on? Why are you shopping? You know, are you going somewhere? Did you buy something? To give them like a holistic approach or idea to what they should buy and why. It goes like both ways. Just depends on the person because we're all different. We all like different things. So stop telling other people they suck. Stop gatekeeping other people from doing things.

Brian: Joanne's rule, don't be an asshole.

Joanne: Don't be an asshole. It all rolls up into the same idea as riding different motorcycles in general. Hey, are you sure you want a Ducati 848 Evo to commute an hour? Okay. You love it. You're going to suffer. Have a great time. I hope you enjoy it. I hope you have the abs to support it because you can't ride that bike without a strong back or good abs to support your core. Yes, I hope that answers that question.

Robin: What's a piece of gear, feature, or buying habit you've changed your mind about? Like maybe something disappointed you after long use or something you missed eventually won you over. What changed your opinion and what would you tell your past self?

Joanne: I went from Sina to Cardo, made the jump years ago, but I had been with them since their first unit. I sold their first units back in 2007 or 2006 after... We were using walkie-talkies with push buttons on the handlebar, basic Sina Bluetooth headsets. At least at our store, they were the new hot thing. Because Cardo back then wasn't as competitive. Their products were good, but they just were different. And what Sina was offering was much easier to use. That's eight or ten years ago was when I switched completely to Cardo. Because they had completely changed their lineup and came out with completely new products that worked way better and like just aesthetically fit what I wanted on my sporty helmet. I didn't want a giant knob and a giant thing on the side of my awesome helmet. These days, I have different helmets and different requirements, but back then I wanted to streamline unit and they were the ones redesigning and engineering new products that sounded better too. So just, you know, when brands really like and take the time to invest in research and development and design to, you know, create new products, people will always switch over. But that's like probably the biggest switch I made. I don't recommend Cina anymore.

Robin: I love my Cina.

Joanne: They're a good product.

Robin: Somebody called TRO asking about how do I operate my U-Clear.

Joanne: Oh, my God.

Robin: First off, we don't recommend you buy that product. Go to the toilet.

Joanne: You open the drawer. you put it there for later and then you close it. When people are like, oh, I've never had a headset. My go-to is Cardo because I've used a lot of their headsets. I know how they work. I've been using headsets for 20 years. Different Bluetooth.

Robin: Yeah, you can play it like a piano.

Joanne: Yeah, and I love it. So much so that I have given up my aesthetic requirement. Because years ago, when I started buying Bluetooth, my requirement was it's got to be smaller so it's not as loud because you can hear the wind noise from your unit mounted.

Robin: So is this like a 1984 Run DMC Sony boombox with the detachable speakers?

Joanne: Not that big. But, you know, you've heard your headset. Which one do you have? Do you have a 50 or like a 30?

Robin: Oh, no, no, no. I'm running an SMH-10.

Joanne: Oh, my God. You know, that's like Bluetooth 3, right?

Robin: How will I ever survive, Joe? Yeah, no, it's still doing a great job and you could still get them.

Joanne: As long as it works. That's because they don't retire products in their product line. What I noticed was I could hear wind noise, the turbulence on the left side of my helmet, and I didn't like it. That's when I switched because they made a low profile SMH-10R. I still have a video on YouTube that has like 15,000 views of showing people how to install it. And then another video showing people how to pair it. Pro tip, every kind of Bluetooth device all pairs the same way. But I changed my requirement of it's got to be low profile. No, because the unit's that good. I'm like, you know what? I don't care. I'll just wear thicker air plugs. It's fine. Totally worth it. Pack talk, so good. Use what you like. You got what you got. Where I draw that line and where I will be really insistent and assertive is when I see people giving other people bad gear advice or incorrect advice. And I don't mean, oh, you should get this helmet because it's cool. You should recommend things to your friends because it's cool. But it's when you say things like, and this is something I read recently, oh, my Vans, They're great riding shoes. I put out a comment on that. I said, vans don't offer any protection on your motorcycle. Just FYI, there's no protection built in for you when you wear them.

Robin: Cotton skin.

Brian: They'll just fly off.

Joanne: Just so you know that. I didn't even go that deep. I just said there's zero protective value. I would not recommend even looking at them for motorcycle footwear.

Robin: Well, nothing's going to happen. They're never going to crash.

Joanne: I hope not. This was someone asking about a rider who was recommending them as riding shoes with protection because the other The person asked, how's the ankle protection? And they said, it's okay. That's when I commented, no, it's not okay. You need to know that they have none. They're okay for her because she wants to wear them. Awesome. If you want to wear them, flomp them, love them. But don't you dare tell somebody that the protection is okay when there isn't any.

Robin: They're really great in the top case when you get to the restaurant and you change out of your boots.

Joanne: Right. So when I see people saying incorrect things or false things about gear from a safety standpoint or a function, that's when I will step in.

Robin: Similar banter at higher revs can be found via the Gear Chick website or by emailing Joanne directly. That email address is help at gearchick.com. And what is it on Instagram? The Gear Chick?

Joanne: No, that's TikTok on Insta and everywhere else. It's

Robin: I've already spun the wheel, Brian. What did we land on for segment three, the alliteration grab baguette? Does anybody want to hear some French music?

Brian: I'm in a cafe eating snails right now. It's amazing. So wonderfully dumb. Okay, this week, we pulled a G out of the hat, and that stands for G equals Greasy Gambit. What does that mean? I hear you cry. I have an answer. I'm not sure it's going to be illuminating. All right. Rabbit hole risks we roll the dice on while elbow deep in a wrenching effort. So what's your mechanical Hail Mary? What's your mechanical save? What's your mechanical tragedy? Is that what I'm hearing?

Robin: What risks have you taken while you're deep into the wrenching effort at any given moment? What was the risk that you took? He was like, well, I mean, my soda's right. It's just a couple inches further. I know I can hold this wrench while I get the beer, you know.

Brian: I do a lot of wrenching. We'll see what you guys have. But I referred to earlier, removing and replacing the engine in a, 1983 Suzuki GS850G, the heaviest shaft drive engine Suzuki made in the 80s by myself. Oh, that was a physical risk. It was a rough one. I've done it with assistance before, and I probably should not do it by myself. The second one is a risk that I've run many times. And when you own vintage bikes, you get really good at dealing with fasteners that are messed up or snap off or whatever. And so many times I've had to just go ahead and take that risk of removing the exhaust bolts on an engine. So you have two bolts holding on each exhaust pipe. Odds are about 80%. Yeah, they heat cycle, they get brittle, and they're going to break. Whatever you do, you're going to break at least one. You just have to be ready.

Robin: They just shatter.

Brian: Yeah, just really work on your drill skills. Have a selection of left-handed drills, just be ready for that. But that's always a gamble. One I've run regularly, you know, no matter how much you put on them, no matter how much you heat or cool or whatever, you're just going to break a bunch of them every time you take an exhaust off. Robin, we've been through many greasy gamuts. We've decrypted many of them here on this very show. What's your favorite?

Robin: Five came to mind because I was counting the ways that I can screw up my wrenching process. I do a lot of wrenching too, and it's just my odds are not as good with Brian because the calm doesn't always stay. The first one I think of is the need to use my stressed member engine on the BMW with jack stands to hold the front end off the ground, or at least as a backup method while I pull the front tire off to change rubber. The price of that bike now it's got no wheel on it up front and everything's able to tour you could see it sort of shimmy shimmy you know like it's being held in place by coat hangers sort of diagonally and now and then you hear a scooch and it changes position yeah i didn't like that at all that's one another would be the broken carburetor diaphragm on my honda hawk gt that i decided at least I know it's there now. I was wondering what that backfire was. I'm going to go ahead and take this to track day and did. Every throttle roll-off with a shotgun blast. People were freaked out. They didn't know who it was. They didn't know why. That was a good one.

Brian: Keep them off your ass? I mean, you know.

Robin: Yeah, probably the grand finale was that helicoil incident where you didn't know that I didn't have what I didn't know I needed, which is a variable speed drill.

Brian: Oh, I remember that.

Robin: So the ignorance of a single speed drill just augering out the port for this stupid piece of plastic. All it is is an ignition coil cover, but ruthlessly just boring out, you know, like that was a rough one. Those are my three biggest risks. One of them unknown that I would say, Joanne, what do you got?

Joanne: It's been a while since I've had a space to work on my own motorcycle. But the last thing I did was like real wrenching was installing crash bars by SW Motec on my street triple at that time when I was looking, the only ones who made crash bars for my bike that look good. They blend right in. I mean, sure, they do look kind of weird, like on a sport bike to have that crash bar, but it blends in. It works. I love it. And yeah, we had to unscrew, right, those massive bolts from the engine case because that's where it bolts in. And we just did it in the garage, Evan and I together. We're like, all right, well, here's the torque wrench. I bought a torque wrench. I have the service manual. So I just looked up the specs. I'm like, well, it looks like it's holding. It's working. It works. It was first time, but every component on my bike I've installed for the first time. New taillights, new signals. I've never done that. That was fun. Like trying to figure out how to adapt the new lights to the old. Never did that.

Brian: It's an adventure every time, huh?

Joanne: It's an adventure every time. On my old SV, when I installed a controller for my heated jacket liner on the dash of my SV, I had to drill a hole. They sell a knob where it's just a knob to... Change the heat volume of your heated jacket. And we had to drill a hole, mount it in there. And then first time.

Robin: On the gauge cluster?

Joanne: To the left of it. On the edge, on the SV, right, there's a little black plastic.

Robin: Yeah.

Joanne: Just a nice little blank spot. And that's where we drilled the hole.

Robin: Nobody knows what's under there.

Brian: It's a bold move.

Joanne: It was one of the best accessories I've ever, ever installed. No control on my body, just right on the dashboard. You know, I had a dial from like 1 to 10. So great.

Brian: Have you bled on your motorcycle like Robin did earlier?

Joanne: I broke my foot when I crashed.

Brian: That doesn't count. All right, so we're at the afterwards, the wind down, the what's happening, the what's happening next, the look back, the look forward. We've covered a lot of territory today. We talked about winter coming up. We talked about all the news. We gave some advice. I hope it was good advice about tires, about suspension. What are we up to next time? Robin, it's your turn. What are we talking about next time? What's on your mind? Let's get it out in the open.

Robin: My vague notion is going to delve into one of the many quotes that I like to use on a regular basis. It's not what you do. It's how you do it. We're going to bring that into some notion of maybe a more exacting subject for the next episode. Does that do it for you?

Brian: Very mysterious. I like that.

Robin: It could be DIY. It could be writing style. It could be courses taken. It could be wearing a disguise into a biker bar to learn how the other half live. It could be anything.

Brian: The workings of your mind are a mystery and an enigma forever.

Robin: It's a palace.

Brian: It's a swamp. Shall we get out of here?

Robin: Let's go.