Brian: Robin Dean is on vacation. I hear he's roaming around the countryside in Colorado, commuting with the moose, sleeping with bears, sleeping outdoors, getting snowed on, all kinds of things. And so... And what do people do for fun in Colorado? I don't know. They probably just watch TV, play some Xbox, you know, stuff like that.

Travis: The rich people like ski, or they just like own timeshares in Aspen, is that?

Brian: Oh, yeah, yeah. I guess they do ski. So I don't know what there is to do on a motorcycle out there. I would have no idea. I'm sure... I'm sure there's a road or two that they've found somehow.

Travis: Yeah, there'll probably be some sort of article about it that you can find at the riding obsession at TRO.bike. TRO.bike. Thanks, Travis.

Brian: I forgot all about the required obligatory branding.

Travis: Your sport touring motorbike fix.

Brian: That's right. And on this week's episode, we have no plan, which is usual. The only plan is no plan. So how's your riding life been this week, Travis?

Travis: Well, it's been good. So I think since the last time our listeners heard my delicious voice on their podcast feed, I turned 40 and I traded in my trusty burrita, the NC700X, and got a 2020 CB650R with its neo-retro styling and street-tuned supersport motor powertrain.

Brian: Spicy, yeah. That's going to be a little more, a lot more spicy, I imagine, than the NC, yeah.

Travis: Yeah, it's, you know, I was test riding. I was out by the dealership for work one day, and I decided to pop in and test a couple of bikes after work. And they had an FJ09. That's what I have. Which like, on paper, ticked all the boxes for me, right? It's like a little more power, had all the factory luggage on it. You know, didn't have, so I don't know if they had cruise control as an option on those, even though there was like a, clearly a slot for it, but I know the tracers do. But like, I don't know, I just didn't, I rode it, I was like, this is fine. And then I was like, you know, I kind of want to check that, he's like, yeah, you can take two bikes out. I was like, let me check that CB650 out because they're pretty. Yes.

Brian: Oh yeah.

Travis: And I just, I just couldn't stop grinning. Like I got back on it, and I was just, I was just smiling. And I'm like, you know what? I'm not going to, I'm turning 40, I get to make a midlife crisis purchase. I'm going to make, buy the pretty one that goes, and put the smile on my face instead of like the practical one. Because I've always bought the practical one. Yeah.

Brian: Wow. So that, that I pulled it up to look at it and yeah, that is pretty. Yeah. And yeah, yeah. It's a different mission than the FGA. You know, I've got an FGA 09 and it has a different mission. Yeah. It scratches a different itch.

Travis: Yeah. And since I got kids now, like I don't do as many like big trips, but I had the NC set up with, you know, hand guards and a comfortable seat and all the luggage and, you know, could just do days and days and days on it. Not that you can't do that on any motorcycle, right. But it's like I commute to work and then get out for like, you know, once or twice a month on the back roads.

Brian: Awesome.

Travis: This is way better for that. I went out with Mr. Tim Clark on Memorial Day. No. Yeah. Memorial Day. Labor Day. Labor Day.

Brian: That's been a while.

Travis: On Labor Day. And, you know, I had just a lot of the driftless roads here in Wisconsin that we're more or less used to. And I was like 15 miles an hour faster through like the roads I knew. Like, like I was like, I was like going through these corners and being on this new bike, new to me bike and just being like, well, man, I'm not really, you know, I guess I'm a little rusty. I'm on a new bike. I'm not really pushing it, you know, so that, and I looked down, I'm like, I've never gone through this corner that fast. I guess this is fine.

Brian: Yeah. And it does it. And you probably haven't like you haven't done any modifications or adjusted anything. You just went out and rode it and you immediately just became friends. Yeah.

Travis: Yeah.

Brian: Pretty much.

Travis: Yeah. Since then I did get like a seat on it, which is just like a Chinese, like off eBay, like I mean, came from China. Um, and it's got like a quilted pattern on it and it's a little flatter than the stock seat, uh, which is, which seems a little more comfortable.

Brian: Um, and got that seventies quilting, you know, back in the eighties, that's what we had on the gold wings. Yeah.

Travis: Um, I don't know if that makes a difference or not. We'll see when I actually can get, do some miles on that seat, but it feels flatter. So it's like a little nicer to just kind of, you know, the old, the stock seat had that thing where it always wants you pinned up against the tank. Yeah. You know, that slope where you can, you can scoot back, but if you don't keep yourself back, you're going to be, um, yeah, I think a lot of them have done, have started doing that.

Brian: Um, a lot of bikes have that complaint. And I think it's because I think a lot of times they're trying to make it work for people who are, they're trying to make it work in the showroom when people sit on it, who are kind of short.

Travis: Yeah. So you have to sit on the short part.

Brian: Yeah. So, you know, they, they sit up there and they're like, okay, I can do this. And I get that. I mean, I understand that because we do need more bikes for short people. Um, definitely, but it also, yeah, you know, when you're actually, you know, after you actually buy the thing and you're taking it for a ride, you're like, wow, this I'm really up there. I'm really up against this here.

Travis: Yeah. So it was, um, otherwise the taxi, I mean, we did 450 miles and I haven't been running that much and like my butt was a little sore, but it wasn't bad. So um, excellent.

Brian: What kind of power are those things? Uh, those things have D I couldn't find it.

Travis: Um, so I think in like the European market where they actually have to like list power figures by law, uh, Honda is saying it makes like 90 at the crank.

Brian: Okay.

Travis: Um, but all the dinos are about like 80, 82 at the tire. Yeah, that makes sense. But that's all like in that like 9,000 to 13,000 RPM. Like it's, it's got that very inline sport for kind of thing, even though it's like the, you know, they bumped the displacement up to 650 and they retuned it for more like low mid range. Um, you know, you really got to get it over six grand to, to feel like the power. But even then there's one road I do that's pretty close to Madison and there's a couple of like really tight corners and then it comes around this big left, this like this big left. And then you go up like a really steep hill and like, you can maybe only do, you know, 35 miles an hour around that corner. And on the, um, the NC, I would always come around that corner and then just pin it. And then it was just like, get up the hill. And it's like, now I'm on a bike where I can actually accelerate up the hill.

Brian: Yeah. I was going to say that has to just plain old poop all over the NC's, uh, power. Yeah. Yeah. You're, you're spending more for gas for a given like, like, like, yeah.

Travis: Like the, on the NC, when I would beat the crap out of it, I would still get like 64, 65 miles to the gallon. I don't think I ever dipped into the fifties. Maybe if I was like stuck in traffic, I would dip into like the high fifties and I'm getting like high thirties.

Brian: Yeah. And who cares? It's fine.

Travis: It's a motorcycle. It's fun. It's worth it. Um, yeah. And it's got like, you know, a show, a big piston, separate function fork and Oh, okay. Nissan radial mounted four piston calipers. And it's like, Oh, this is nice. But it doesn't have what I do like about it. And I didn't even think about this and it might lead us into our topic. But one of the things I did like about the NC is that it was like fuel injected. And that was it. Um, it didn't have any like technology in it. Oh, okay. And the CB is like very similar where it's, you know, it's got like a nice fork, but it's like not adjustable. Um, and it does have ABS, which is probably for the best. And it does have like a very rudimentary traction control that just has one setting and it's like on or off, um, and fuel injection. And that's it. And it's like, that's perfect. Like that's, that's all I want. Like, I don't need ride modes. Like most of the time, like in the meat of the, the rev range, like it's making 60, 70 horsepower. Yeah. That's not going to, that's not going to get away from you too much. Yeah.

Brian: Yeah.

Travis: And like ABS is, is nice to have. I feel like I only ever feel it kick on, on the rear end when I'm on the rear end too much.

Brian: It's awesome. So are, are you a Honda guy? Is that kind of, I, I seem to only remember Hondas, but I, you know, I'm, I'm a Honda simp.

Travis: Yeah. I started on a Rebel 250.

Brian: Started with a mighty, mighty Rebel. Okay.

Travis: I mean, I did like a 900 mile trip like from Chicago up into Michigan, went back home, saw some friends. Wow. You know, I had a bunch of luggage on the back. There's a picture somewhere. I mean, I'm, I'm like six foot one. Um, I'm sure it looked ridiculous, but, uh, yeah.

Brian: You're riding motorcycles. It's fun.

Travis: Yeah. And I just stayed off the interstate as much as I could. You know, I took like lakeshore drive, which is like highway 41 down like out of Chicago and then like through like Gary and then into like the Dunes national lakeshore and then the red arrow highway up into Michigan. And it was really nice. Um, that's awesome. So that was, yeah. And then what did I get? Then I got my BMW, the F six 50 CS Ginny, the jackhammer. Um, I almost bought an N V yeah. And then V 700 the Veradero.

Brian: Oh, okay. Wow. What does like a one-year model or something? They were, yeah, they sold them like two years.

Travis: Like they're like a staple in Europe. Like, like every career bike courier has one in Europe, but like, yeah, they only sell them for like two years or three years in the United States. Yeah. They sold like four.

Brian: Yeah.

Travis: Yeah. So they had like a demo at, uh, Des Plaines Honda because this is when I lived in Chicago. And I test rode it and liked it. Um, obviously like coming up off a rebel two 50, I was like, oh, this thing's, you know, lots of fun. Um, but then, you know, I was like going to sleep on it. And then the next morning it was gone. Yeah. So I ended up getting the Beamer and then I had the CB 1000, the 94 CB 1000 big one also, and only sold for two years in the United States.

Brian: Yeah. I, we, we have no taste here in this country. And I could, I could rant for hours about that, but anyway, yeah.

Travis: So that, and then, uh, and then the, and then the NC, so mostly Honda's, you know, my wife started on a, um, Nighthawk two 50. Um, which is the bike I wanted to start on, like not the rebel, but I couldn't find one. Um, and then, uh, she had a Buell blast for a little while. Um, and then in Kawasaki, uh, ER six ends, like at the Z six 50, before they called it the Z six 50.

Brian: Yeah.

Travis: And the, uh, what else did we have? We're kicking around. Um, I had a DRZ for a little while. They're not exclusively Honda's, but I'm kind of a Honda.

Brian: Excellent. Excellent. Well, that, that kind of poops all over my week, which was basically writing the working back.

Travis: So I'm not even gonna, I'm not even gonna, I mean, yeah, this, this week for me was, you know, basically just writing the working back. Yeah.

Brian: Your recent news. That's, that's good. A new, a new bike is always in brand new too. Like that's something I still haven't done. It was, it was, it was a 20, but it only had like 1400 miles on it. Yeah. Who are these people that buy bikes and then just let them sit? That's wild.

Travis: Judging by the scratches on the left engine cover, uh, someone who thought that a CB 650R was a beginner bike. Aha. I see.

Brian: So got a, got a nice little, uh, got a nice discount for that. I would imagine, but that's cool. Thanks. Interesting. All right. Um, let's see, let's do, got a segment here called stuff. Our listeners might ask, and actually we've actually had a couple of questions from real live listeners lately. Um, there's one I want to bring up. That's not a real question, but I think it could be a good topic. But, uh, what, what is one of your more controversial opinions on motorcycling? Like what, what can start an argument? I don't want to, if we start an argument, Hey, great.

Travis: Let's kind of weave this into something a little more controversial. So I always tell people, like I'm an advocate of motorcycling. I want people to ride motorcycles. Right. Um, but I'm also the first person to say it's not for everyone. Agreed. Um, so I, you know, I've seen people in the beginner riding course, just like struggle and struggle and struggle and struggle. And it's like, you know, there's, there's something to be said for like persistence and, um, effort. Uh, but it's also just one of those things where it's like, man, like, I think there's people that shouldn't drive cars that get allowed to drive cars. Um, you know, like it's, it's not safe. And, uh, you know, there's some people that just, you whatever, don't have the physicality, don't have the mentality, can't, you know, focus enough. You don't have, you know, the mechanical sympathy necessary to operate a manual transmission vehicle that you need to balance at the same time.

Brian: Um, I'm, I'm with you, man. I, I, I, yeah, I've had that talk with someone. I'm not a rider coach, but I've, I've had that talk with someone like maybe, maybe knitting or video games, might be more or they are true.

Travis: And it's like, you know, I always tell people like, well, you know, take the class before you spend big money and buy a bike. Like I've talked to so many people who've like bought a bike and then it's like, I'm going to sign up for the class. And it's like, you know, you did that wrong. Like take the class. And if like you flunk out of the class, like you finished the class and you somehow pass, but you're still like, I don't know. Then it's like, yeah, maybe, maybe it's not for you. Or maybe, you know, get a scooter, kind of get a bigger feel for it, you know, for having a motorized two wheel conveyance. Yeah. Well, get that Rebel.

Brian: Yeah. Start, start on that Rebel, you know, couple thousand miles on a Rebel.

Travis: Because too, like I get all these, you know, these, I see these people who like start on a Sportster and it's like the Sportster is like the worst beginner motorcycle. You know, I mean, there's like, there's something such as like, I think, you know, not to pigeonhole our, our friendly hog brothers, but you know, the, the whole Harley Cruiser culture in America is like a whole nother thing. And there's a lot of bravado and bullshit there that we don't have to unpack all of that. But like, you know, people like, oh yeah, get a Sportster. It's, it's a beginner bike. And it's like, no, those suck. Like they, they're, the Sportster is an enthusiast's bike for someone who wants something that like shakes and the brakes suck and the clutch is too heavy. And they're like, the clutch is super touchy and has no lean angle. Like they're not good bikes for beginners. Like you need to know what you're doing to ride that because you have to compensate for a lot of the bike's flaws, which are charming, which are a reason to ride the bike. Like a lot of us ride bikes because of the flaws in the bike, because that's character. Um, but you know, it's like, again, get a Rebel, like get a Rebel 500 or Rebel 300.

Brian: Yeah. And see what you see, what you think. Yeah. And I, I mean, I don't, I don't see the controversy there, but I can see where people would get upset. Um, I, I always tell people that don't ride motorcycles unless you just got to ride motorcycles. And, and I don't, I don't know if you know this, but I have, I've survived three serious injury accidents. I broke my leg three times, the same leg, uh, wrist, you know, and, um, and I still ride and people ask me why. And I just tell them I'm not really bright. So, but if, if, so I tell people, it's like this, you know, this is, this is not playing around. And so sometimes people are a little shocked. I tell them, you know, unless you just got it, unless it's part of who you are, unless you really have that itch, unless you, unless there's an itch you have to scratch, then, you know, maybe, you know, if you're just going to casually do 300 miles a year, uh, and that's fine. If that's what you want to do and you really do enjoy yourself, but if you're just doing it, cause someone else wants you to, or you think it's cool, or you get to wear the t-shirt or, you know, maybe think, maybe think about that a little bit. I don't know. Uh, I, I feel like I have to ride a lot to keep up the level. I feel comfortable at where I feel like, like if I were not on the bike for a week or a month or two months, it'd be tough. Oh yeah.

Travis: No, it would drive me insane. Like I at least need to do like ride to work, you know, like even if I can't get out for a ride ride, like I at least need to be on the, on, on, you know, the 10, 15 minute ride to work. Like, um, which I do, that's not, that is a nice thing about the CVL trying back in is that like, you can rev that sucker out to red line, like 13,000 RPM and second gear and not lose your license. And that's cool. It makes you, it makes it fun, you know?

Brian: Yeah. Yeah. It's interesting when you get a new bike and we're, we're wandering around, but Hey, that's fine. We're digressing here. When you get a new bike, like when I, I bought a 2015 FGO nine, I bought it in early 2020, you know, with Matt or early 2021, actually. So it was still a COVID crap. It's just COVID everything. And we had to be real careful and everything. Anyway. Um, yeah, the first, the first month I was riding that thing, uh, every, I kept, I had to, it took me a while to recalibrate. I kept like the front end kept coming up, you know, first, second, third gear, you know, I'd passed 9,000 RPM and third gear, here comes the front end. And so I had to ride it and ride it and ride it to finally recalibrate to where I'm not yanking it open. Like I can on my KLR, you know, KLR, you can just go, you know, nothing's going to happen.

Travis: Yeah. It's like Yen Si was like that too. You can just pull throttle all the time, every time.

Brian: Yeah. It's more like a switch. So you have to do that. Um, I'll, I'll go ahead and give a controversial opinion. And I don't know if this is really controversial or not. I, uh, that was, that was a great one too, by the way. Uh, I think most people screw with their chain way, way, way too much. Stop screwing with it. Stop worrying about it. Throw something on it every 600 to a thousand miles and go ride. Stop adjusting it every 20 minutes. You know, that kind of thing. Just put on a good chain, adjust it, adjust it once. Keep put something on it once in a while. I don't care why we're not going to get into that controversy and you know, just stop. People just worry about it. You know, the same thing with tires, they worry and worry and worry. Do I have there? Are they rubber tires? Good. Go, you know?

Travis: Yeah. I mean, do they suck? Then maybe buy better ones next time. Like pony. Yeah. Yeah. No, that's the, um, yeah. It's like, I don't check my tire pressure. Like if there's like a big, like I'm going on a trip, are you going to do like a big ride? You know, I'll check my tire before I head out and I'm going to the office. I don't take my tire pressure. And like the only other time I do is if like, oh, yesterday it was 72 and today it's supposed to be 56.

Brian: Yeah.

Travis: But yeah. Yeah. It's the same thing with chains. It's like, yeah, it's there. It looks dirty. I'll clean it. I'll put some grease on it. Yeah. I want to go on a big ride. I want to do 500 miles a day. I'll put, I'll clean it before I go, you know? Yeah.

Brian: I'll take a look. But yeah, I, I usually don't adjust. I adjust the chain once and I usually don't adjust it. Like the first time I have to adjust it, that's when I order the next chain, uh, because it's, if it's starting to go, then it's going to, it's on its way. Yeah. Um, yeah, some people are like, oh, I had to stop and at lunch and adjust. No, you don't just go. Yeah. Just ignore it all week. It's fine. You do like, if you're dual sport riding, yada, yada, you do want to keep it a little cleaner if you can.

Travis: But, uh, yeah, you want to clean it after you were like out in the mud, you want to clean it when you get home. Yeah. If you're on the road, if you're on a paved road, you're fine.

Brian: Yeah. And if you're using a decent chain wax, I use the DuPont Jane wax. It's, you know, stuff's not really not going to stick to it. Even if you're, if you're riding into rain, you might want to, and it's heavy. You might want to, but yeah, most people think about it way too much. And, and, and it's one of those things, you know, chains, tires, there's, there's some, there's some things people just think about way too much and instead of thinking about the things they should. So yeah. Excellent.

Travis: Yeah. On that note, I'll tell a quick story about my friend, Jeff, AKA Don Coyote on the ADV Rider Forum, who was riding a, uh, F650 BMW F650 Dakar all through the winter here in Wisconsin stud tires and he had gear. And he, uh, buzzed me up one night and he lived out like 30, 40 minutes West of Madison on like the road. Like you really like turned off a highway onto a side road, turned onto a more side road and then rode that till it ended in a Valley in the Hills and the driftless. And then you walk down a path to a cabin and that's where he was living. So, um, so he, he called, phoned me up one day and he was in town like working or whatever. And he's like, Hey, my chain's making a weird noise. Can I stop by your garage and take a look at it before I drive like out to the sticks? Um, I'm like, yeah, sure. So, so he comes in on his, on his, uh, BMW and he, uh, he popped me, I popped, he's got a clip type master link. So I popped the master link and it literally like just dissolves in my hand. Like the road salt had just like eaten like the bushings on the inside. Like it just, it just cracked apart in my hand. Um, and I, luckily I had the DRZ at the time which took the same size chain and we, we threw that in there and he got home just fine. Um, but, uh, you know, don't, don't let it get that bad, but yeah.

Brian: Yeah. If you're riding in road salt and fricking Wisconsin in the winter, first off your, you know, hats off, you're, you're a better man than I am. But, uh, yeah, yeah, that is true. Yeah. Motorcycles don't have the corrosion protection that cars do. Uh, uh, they, they just don't, that's a little outside the label usage. Cool. Let's see. Do we want to do a, we want to do a reheated rehash go, uh, I'll do the next segment of, uh, yeah, I think we'll go ahead and wrap up this article actually. Yeah. Do you want to go ahead and read the, do you, do you have it in front of you? The, the intro, you want to read the excerpt of this, the intro and I will read the excerpt.

Travis: Let me see if I, was it in the calendar? Where is it? It's in the, uh, Tiara weekly. Is that the one?

Brian: Yeah. And it's, uh, yeah. If you look under reheated rehash and it's, I don't know about a little over halfway down. Uh, tasty leftovers served hot and crusty. Yeah. Yeah. Just read that, read that intro and then I'll read the article and then we'll talk about it.

Travis: Read a rehash. Tasty leftovers served hot and crusty. In this segment, we'll read an excerpt from one of Brian and Robin's past TRO blog articles on sport touring motorcycles and doesn't hold up. Do Brian and Robin disagree? Fight, fight, fight. What will we change?

Brian: Thanks for the intro, Travis. All right. Uh, this week's right. This week's reading is, uh, we're going to wrap up the, uh, 10 commandments of the sport touring to, to lead an insanely fun sport touring ride. There's an article written by yours truly Brian ringer on TRO bike. Um, and we're going to, we're going to blast through commandments nine, 10, and then we have a bonus at the end, a bonus commandment, which is gonna, it's gonna blow your mind. We got bonus commandments. That's right. Yeah. It's like, you remember Moses coming down in the, in the movie with the 15 and then he drops it. The 10, 10 commandments. Anyway. Yeah. What's so special about 10? All right. Um, we are going to start with commandment nine thou shalt freely offer and encourage tap outs. This is a short one. As the route allows, make sure you mentioned possible shortcuts to the night's lodgings whenever possible. Maybe you're crossing an interstate or you're just about to start a loop. You could cut off. If a rider or the whole group decides to tap out, applaud their wise decision, give them directions at a map, or maybe assign them the beer shopping list. We all hate to miss good writing. So when a writer decides they're done for the day, they have a damn good reason. Um, and I, I think this is an important, important one is to kind of make it okay to do you as part of writing your own ride. It's okay to ride your own ride. It's okay to tap out and say, you know, I'm shagged. I'm done for the day. Where's the hotel. And that's something I always try to keep in mind when I lead a ride.

Travis: Oh yeah, for sure. Like maybe you caught a bug along the way, or, you know, you're just not feeling it or you had a butt clencher, you know, 10 miles back and you're just kind of ready. You know, that kind of took, took, took the wind out of your sails.

Brian: Yeah. Yeah. And there's, I mean, some of the, some of the absolute best writers I know are just like, okay, I'm done. I'm tapping out, you know, and, and like, you know, where, where are we or whatever. And again, it goes back to the last, the last commandment was about keeping an eye on your block, your followers. And so you can tell when someone's kind of like, man, I'm kind of glazed over him, you know, or whatever. Yeah.

Travis: Or it's like, if they're like, you know, normally a pretty exuberant rider and they're really not doing that.

Brian: Where'd they go?

Travis: Yeah. And it's, you know, better they cut out and, and head to the end, then make people sit around for four hours while you wait for an ambulance. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Brian: That sucks. Yeah. There was one time a guy was like, uh, we were stopped. We're looking for a place to pee, I think. And, and we stopped and he was, uh, he was like, man, I, you know, I know we got like a hundred miles ago, but I is I'm like, turn around. And behind him was a sign that said, you know, the city where we're staying 14 miles. Like I was like, just go that way. You asked at the right time, dude. Enjoy. We'll see you later. All right. Uh, commandment 10 commandment, the 10th thou shalt keep thy flock informed. Some people want maps, GPX tracks, turn lists, and prefer to know exactly where they are and how far they're riding. Some prefer to bliss out and just enjoy this end of the moment, trusting you to lead them wisely down twisty paths. Most are somewhere in between. So gauge what they want to know and adjust accordingly. After a few hours, most writers start wondering when and where lunch will be. And later in the day, most will want some idea when they'll reach the hotel. Um, I normally also carry a few copies of old fashioned paper maps. Uh, they're handy for giving directions that someone needs to tap out and showing a map sometimes is also a good way to make writers more comfortable with where we are and where we're going. Uh, it's best if every writer has at least a paper state map and some basic ability to get back to the barn. Uh, great writing often means poor cell coverage. So don't count on your phone to navigate. But yeah, there, there are people I ride with, uh, and Robin's often want Robin is kind of somewhere in the middle. Like sometimes he just wants to bliss out. Oh yeah. And then sometimes he's like, okay, where are we going? We're going, here's the track, whatever. And so forth, you know, he's, he does, he does, he rides both sides of that. And there are people I know who just, Hey, we're a right. I don't care, man. Uh, just wherever, man, I'm happy.

Travis: You know, you got, you know where we're going on it. That's good enough for me.

Brian: Yeah. I don't care.

Travis: Yeah. Not everyone's got their own style. I know like Robin likes to run the like turn by turn in his headset and stuff like that. Yeah. That would make me crazy. And yeah, no, I just, I want, I, I have a line on a map and that's, and that's it, you know, that's enough.

Brian: All right. We're going to wrap up with the bonus commandment, 11 bonus commandment, 11 lawyers got to eat. What in the world does that mean? So here's a handy rapid roll writing pro tip time for lunch. And you're in the middle of nowhere, scan the horizon for the largest water tower nearby. You'll find a town often the County seat at the center of that town will be the town square and the County courthouse. So you're with me so far. And then across from the County courthouse will be at least one excellent local restaurant that has been catering to the legal profession for many years. I guarantee you every County seat has a courthouse has a restaurant. It's full of lawyers. So that's your, that's your commandment 11. So it was time for lunch.

Travis: Simple old-fashioned space chicken.

Brian: Yeah. All right. We'll do another article next time. All right. Well, Travis, do you have a tail from planet that guy? You probably have some that I've never heard. Oh, tails from planet that guy. We've all been that guy. We've all ridden with that guy. Let's talk about that guy.

Travis: Do we want a, someone else was that guy or do you want him? I was that guy. I've only, I've not been that guy very often.

Brian: It's it's dealer's choice, man.

Travis: I feel like, you know, with Robin not here to defend himself, it's hard to throw him under the bus.

Brian: No, no, no. He's he's out. He's out farting around sleeping with bears.

Travis: I mean, it's the common, you know, it's the same old one. I think on like the trip seven store, he's run out of tire at least three times. But that's not much of a story. I think we talk about that all the time. Like if you're going to go do 1500, 2000 miles, just put new tires on your bike. Do it before you leave. Like you can always put the old ones back on after the new ones wear out, but you don't want to be the guy who does it in the middle of the trip who misses a whole day of riding because you got a beeline to some city to get to pay some stealer ship $600 to put tires on your bike. Like otherwise, the only time I can think of myself kind of being that guy again, it was trip seven store. We had rolled into Maysville. Robin and I were getting gas before we got to the hotel. And, you know, I've been, it'd been a long ride and I was filling up my tank and usually on the, I was on the NC and usually like I could put the filler like all the way in the tank and just hold it down and it would click off like a car does. And then I would like, you know, pull it out and kind of top it up. Right. Well, you know, I was like chatting with Robin. I was kind of tired. Wasn't paying attention. It didn't do that. And I just like dumped gas all over the bike, all over my riding pants, like soaked through gasoline. And those are like my only like riding pants, right. Cause I got on a trip. So like for the next eight days, I just reeked of, and like, I tried to wash them, like it didn't work. Like you get gas and clothes like that. And like, yeah, it just, it just, I just reeked like gas the whole trip. So always, always watch your tank when you're filling it.

Brian: Yeah. That might've impacted your future fertility too, man. That's a rough one. Good thing I'm done. I already got kids. I'm gonna, I'm gonna talk about that guy. And this has been a couple of that guys, to be honest, uh, that guy who left on a trip with a dying battery and just used a jump pack over and over and over until the jump pack died. And that's happened a couple of times.

Travis: Are these like dual sport guys? That sounds like a dual sport guy thing.

Brian: No, no, no. This, this one guy's a, yeah, one guy was Robin and the other guy was another, that guy, you know, on street bikes. And it's just like, come on, you know, if you're, if you got to use the jump pack once, just you got to bite the bullet, save your pennies, go get a battery.

Travis: Yeah. I mean, it's twice in the same year. You get like a $10 Corfi back. So there you go. It was like a 10% discount. You just get a cheap battery. They're like a hundred bucks. It'll get you to the trip.

Brian: Yeah. Yeah. And on, uh, on Robin's bike, we actually, we found at O'Reilly, a, uh, like the BMW comes with like a tiny battery and a foam spacer. And so you can, or plastic spacer. And so you can take out the tiny battery and the plastic spacer and you can get in like a real battery. And it's like almost frightening how fast it spins the bike.

Travis: It's like twice the cold cranking power.

Brian: Yeah. Yeah. And, uh, and yeah, you know, instead of fumbling around with a jump pack or repeat, you know, Oh, it'll, it'll be all right. The rest of the day. It's like, let's just, you know, let's, let's eliminate this worry from our minds.

Travis: Yeah. It's like it too. If you, if you keep it on a tender, like you should, and it starts getting weird, it's, it's done. Like that's what happened to my, the end, the battery on the NC is it was like the original battery had been in there for like five or six years and you never had any trouble with it. And I always kept it on a tender, never had any trouble with it. And then it just started acting funny, getting weird, electrical glitches. The dashboard got weird. And I was like, what is going on? And it was like, Oh no, the battery is just toast. Like it just doesn't hold that battery tender says it's charged, but it's not charged.

Brian: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, they're batteries are consumables. They're not heirlooms, you know, just let it go, let it go, you know, get a new one. All right. Well, I say we, I say we talk about we, we put it down here as Travitron's tech takedown, but let's let's, let's, let's talk about some different technologies. I wrote down a bunch of ideas. Maybe you've got some other ideas too. Yeah. We did some of this last time we talked. So, all right.

Travis: Yeah, no, that one, like I've talked about a little bit with the you know, I, how much I enjoy the simplicity of the, the CB and the NC.

Brian: Okay. All right. You want to read the intro or you want me to go ahead, man? It's your, it's your, it's your tech takedown.

Travis: What's the motorcycle tech we can't live without? What's a great idea with poor execution? What's just a bad idea all around? What's a great idea that no one is producing yet or taking full advantage of? We got a little list of tech items that we can discuss. So when you say LCD, do you mean LCD or do you mean like the, what do they call it? The, the color screens. There's a word for that.

Brian: The TFT is what they say.

Travis: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Brian: Yeah. I just LCD screens in general is what I had in mind. Basically the whole, you know, the old school was the, you know, the two round instruments, you know, you got your speedo, you got your tack and you may have a few lights in them and so forth. And that seems to have just been thrown out the window in favor of putting a screen on the bike of some sort. Yeah. And I think there are, I think there are some that are doing it right. And some that are doing it wrong. It's kind of where I land on it. Yeah.

Travis: I mean, it's funny too, because there's still a couple like the, um, the Kawasaki RS models have like real analog gauges. And they're probably just electronics underneath. I mean, there's probably no electronics. There's no like cables driving.

Brian: They're just faking it. Yeah.

Travis: Which is for the best anyway. Cause like those cable drives are always wonky. And yeah. Um, there's a cable drive on my moped and I can bury it. Like, so it goes up to like 40 and then it stops. I took the speed regulator off. And so if I'm on a downhill, I can just bury it like way past 40 and I'm only doing like 35. Um, you know, like the little magnet inducing the, it just doesn't. Yeah. Um, I mean the, so the, the, the CB has like the reverse LCD. So it's just like the black and white like liquid crystal display. It's not like a color display, but it's like where it's mostly black. And then the, then the information is white. That's like the reverse style.

Brian: Yeah.

Travis: Uh, and that's I really like it. Um, the NC had just like a regular kind of like your, did you have a KLR with the digital display or is this just the new one that has that? Just the new one. Yeah. I've got the, I've got the first gen. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and again too, it's like that, that one was pretty good. Like it had everything on there. You need it. They had a clock and your odometer and tachometer that was easy enough to read. Um, there was, so the ER6N, we had like a 2009 ER6N and I think like the Ninjas and the other Z bikes of that like era had this where they just like did it backwards where it had an analog speedometer and a digital tachometer.

Brian: Yeah. Yeah. There, there's some bizarre combinations going on. Yeah.

Travis: And it's like, no, like the, the sweeping of the revs should be a needle. And then I just, just numbers for the speed. Like that's how it should be. Yeah.

Brian: Yeah. I think, I think there's, I mean, there's, there's some of the LCDs that are done better or worse. One of the, one of the kind of the buried issues that I think is, I think it's really kind of almost malpractice, but one of the buried issues here is that a lot of bikes, the, the screen unit is where the odometer lives. So basically if you have to replace that, then you have an issue, you know, you have a potential issue. Yeah. And in some, and also in general, and especially with newer vehicles, sometimes the parts and sometimes some of the parts are VIN coded or they're hard-coded to the ECU. And that's, I think that's kind of a problem too, because 20 years from now, you know, when I, you know, 20 years from now, if the LCD fails on my FJ09 and I find one on whatever's left of eBay in 20 years, am I going to have a problem plugging it in? You know, is it going to, is it going to just plug in and work and the mileage is going to be wrong or is it VIN coded? I don't know. Yeah. You know, so that's, that's, and, and that opacity of the knowledge of what's going on in there is, is kind of an issue too.

Travis: Oh yeah. There's a lot of, you know, right to repair kind of stuff concerns. Yeah. And I feel like a lot of the screen, like, what did I look at the other day? I didn't test ride it. Oh, the FTR, the Indian FTR. And like, I think if you get like the premium one, you get like a six inch or seven inch like square screen. Right. But on the like base one, you get like a little four inch circle screen. And it's like, what am I just, just put gauges there. Like just put a speedometer and like a tachometer line. That's all we need. Like, yeah. Why is this a screen? This shouldn't be a screen.

Brian: Yeah. Sometimes. And I think, I think it's getting to the point where screens are just cheaper as part of it too.

Travis: Oh yeah. For sure.

Brian: Definitely.

Travis: Then like a mechanical gauge. Now, one thing, I don't think there's anything wrong with LCDs if they're, if you do it right.

Brian: Yeah. Yeah. Like one, one bike I think is doing it right is the, is the Yamaha Tenera 7.

Travis: That's a vertical screen, right?

Brian: Yeah. It's got like a vertical screen. It's really basic. It's black and white, big numbers. Like you can, you can see what's going on at a glance as you're you know, going a hundred miles an hour through the woods or whatever they put in the commercials. And when you're doing what you're supposed to be doing on this dual sport bike, that one is kind of, I like that one because it's almost brutally simple and it's a big, easy to read display. It's kind of oriented and it's kind of out of the way. So no matter how much you fall off, it should be okay. As far as whether it's VIN coded or anything like that, I don't know.

Travis: I mean, probably not. They might have the odometer in it or maybe, I don't know why. I just had that problem with my Toyota car where I have to, I have to replace the gauge cluster for the whole thing. And I've got one on eBay, but it is like, you know, 10,000 miles ahead. And it's like, well, I could ship this to a guy in Colorado who can like reprogram it. Yeah. Or I can just wait 10,000 miles and then swap it. And that's what I'm going to do. Because otherwise like the interior dimmer doesn't work. I'm just living with it. But yeah, it's like, why is it, why is this not just in the ECU so you can replace the part?

Brian: Yeah. Yeah. And there are a couple of things we got on this list, I think are almost like, unmitigated, you know, they're all good other than perhaps expense. Like for example, ABS, I really, if it's an off-road bike, I think it does need to be switchable ABS.

Travis: Yeah. I mean, at least on the rear, but probably all around or have an option.

Brian: Yeah. I have an option to do that.

Travis: Even if it's like a vaguely off-road bike, like a V-Strom.

Brian: Yeah. Yeah. It'd be nice to be able to shut it off. Um, uh, but like on a street bike, I mean, that's why I finally bought a newer street bike after all those years of riding old stuff. Uh, traction control, I didn't think I would like that. Um, and then I experienced, you know, I played around with it some and I've actually, you know, I've put it to use on the FJ09 and it's actually pretty like, wow, this is, this really works. This really works well.

Travis: Like, oh, that's slick. Or you didn't that there's, you know, there was a shady corner that was still damp and he didn't. Um, on the other hand of that though, I think sometimes they put it on bikes. I don't need it. You know, like if the bikes make in 50, 60, even 70 horsepower, it's like, or you don't at least need like modes. You just, you can have it on or off like, like the CB does though. I think the switch on the CB is, is an annoying place. It's like, you know, where like your, your, your high beam flasher usually is on the trigger on the left hand. That's where the switch for the traction control is. Okay. That's very strange. Yeah. It's like, it's too easy to turn off by accident.

Brian: Yeah.

Travis: On like a street bike.

Brian: Yeah. Yeah. Cause yeah, that's true. Nobody can get there. Nobody can get their poop in a group about where they put controls other than like even turn signals vary way too much. Anyway, if you're hopping around, um, and there's, there's some others that are really like, I think have been pretty much to the good, like AGM batteries. Oh yeah. Yeah. I mean, who the hell wants a puke tube battery anymore? I mean, the old wet cell. No.

Travis: Yeah. Why would you even, I don't, I mean, on my, I'll get on the CB, the battery goes in sideways. Like it goes down on its back. Like you couldn't even put a liquid battery in there.

Brian: Yeah. And you know, I've talked about this before. Tires are ridiculously good compared to what we had in this eighties and nineties and so forth. Yeah.

Travis: Even the cheap stuff is good.

Brian: Yeah. Yeah. Even, you know, even the cheap stuff's fine. Uh, chains are amazing. You know, X ring chains are ridiculous and how long they'll last. Yeah. Um, so some of these things are like, just that, that's, it's just going to be good no matter what.

Travis: Yeah.

Brian: Fuel injection, like. Fuel injection.

Travis: Yeah. It's, it's, it's so such an old technology at this point. Like it's, it's always going to be good, right? Yeah.

Brian: Well, it should be. Yeah. Um, and something associated with that though is, is something I'm less sold on is a throttle by wire. Or I think, I think on bikes with throttle by wire, like the FGO nine is it's a 2015, but it was an earlier one that had throttle by wire and, um, they're not making the most of it. Um, you have to have it retuned in order to get decent throttle response, you know, especially down low, which so Yamaha kind of mess that up from the factory. And the other problem is, I think you mentioned this earlier when you test rode an FGO nine, there's a switch pod with three blank switches in there where they took out. The cruise control. So they have cruise control on the super tenor and on the FJR, but they took it out of the FGO nine and you know, with throttle by wire, all you need is a little programming and a few switches, you know, you need software.

Travis: Yeah. Like any, any bike, whether it's like a 300 or a 1200 super adventure tour, it's all about where it should just come with cruise control.

Brian: Yeah. I mean, you know, new, new law when I'm king, you know, that, yeah. So it's one of those things that is a potentially wonderful technology, but it is implemented. Not, it wasn't quite there at least. And now I think in later bikes, you know, it's getting there. And I think, I think in the last several years, most of the manufacturers have kind of gotten throttle response figured out. You know, up to 2015, 2017, 2018, you were getting some bikes that were really pretty crappy.

Travis: Like light switchy on the end of the on off. Yeah.

Brian: But they're getting that figured out. I think like, for example, stuff like, like on some bikes, like on my V, like when I used to have a V-Strom, when you hit the rev limiter on that, it's like hitting a brick wall. I mean, it's a, it's a very rude event.

Travis: It's like, like should ease you into that red line, right? Take the last 500 RPM and just like really start. Yeah.

Brian: Yeah. Like if you hit the, yeah, if you hit the red line on a V-Strom, it's like hitting a brick wall. It's a very rude. And that's because they don't have throttle by wire. So the only tools they have are interrupting spark. And I mean, it'll. Yeah.

Travis: It's like you close the throttle all of a sudden why you're at the peak of acceleration.

Brian: Yeah. And on, and on a throttle by wire bike, it can be managed much more smoothly. And really I've been really impressed. It's, it's a, you know, it's an, it's a, it's a fairly primitive on or off traction control, but I've been pretty impressed by how well it works. You know, I really haven't. I mean, you don't go out on someone else's bike and experiment with the traction control. So I had to buy a bike in order to experiment with traction control, but I, I didn't think I would be, but I'm a fan of that.

Travis: Um, uh, well, it's got electronic suspension. I'm not sold on. No. I mean, unless you're like GP racing where you need it to like adjust itself, like, oh, this is a bumpy section of the track and it adjusts itself. Like, like, you know what you're doing, right? Like, oh, just like turn, like adjust the suspension, like turn it, adjust the compression, rebound, damping. Maybe you're out doing some more bumpy stuff or you got a passenger, you got more luggage or something, but yeah, I think the need to press a button and have it change itself or change itself on the fly for road use seems unnecessary.

Brian: Uh, yeah. When I, when I see electronic, the words electronic ignition, what, what I hear is expensive and prone to breakage. However, the one use of this, I have seen that really does make sense. Although it is expensive is on the Harley Davidson, Pan America, where they actually have an option where the bike, when it comes to a stop, it'll automatically lower itself a little bit.

Travis: Yeah.

Brian: And it'll kind of adjust itself for off road or on road and stuff like that. And it actually like, it's one that actually works by all accounts. I haven't written one of these. I'd like to, I'd like to beat the hell out of it. Give me a call, Harley, TRO to bike. Um, but by all accounts, like there, it is expensive technology and I hope it's not delicate or anything like that, but they're at least they're, they're putting it to use to do some useful things for a street and off-road rider. And that's, but most of them, you know, have electronic suspension. It's not, you know, where, where's the benefit for the expense?

Travis: I mean, I guess like, you know, on like a Goldwing or whatever, if it's like a solo rider, passenger luggage, you know, got like tear a bunch of plastic off to get to the thing to, to manually adjust it, you know?

Brian: Yeah. But why not, you know, why, what's wrong with the old hydraulic preload adjuster where you just, you know, twirl a dial, you know, give it a couple of cranks.

Travis: Yeah. Yeah.

Brian: But yeah. And Nick, yeah. It's sometimes it's a little gimmicky, you know, and like there are a number of BMWs that have all kinds of electronics on the suspension and it's, I don't know, a little suspect there. Yeah.

Travis: It's like, just build a good suspension. It seems like there's some, some bikes out there that just have like good suspension. That's not all that adjustable. That just works really good, no matter what you do with it. Yeah. You can engineer this.

Brian: Yeah. You can get it working and so forth. Yeah. And I think another one that's kind of an unmitigated good is heated grips. Oh. It's not even technology, you know? It's a hot wire in a circle.

Travis: Yeah.

Brian: But why don't more bikes come with heated grips? The FJ09, I didn't, I didn't even know this before I bought it, but it came with heated grips. Yeah.

Travis: It's like, but you have to go to like the menu. There's not like a physical switch. It's like in the menu, right?

Brian: Well, no, you have to, you have to pull one. There's, there's one button on the left handlebar. That's all it does is it switches your display from heated grips to back to normal.

Travis: Yeah.

Brian: So you switch your that and then you have another button.

Travis: I think it does other things if you're in like a sub menu and you're not moving. But I think when you're driving, yeah, it's just your heated grip switch.

Brian: Yeah. It's the weirdest. Anyway, that's not even technology, but come on, you know, more bikes need heated grips from the factory, I think.

Travis: Now the CB and the NC could get like, you could get the official Honda accessory heated grips, which are like $300, but they do nicely integrate the control into the grip. So like the, like the inside part of the grip has like a little switch on it, like where the, where the grip flares out, you know? That's like where the controls are. So I guess that's where your money goes. Yeah.

Brian: Yeah.

Travis: But they, they, they, they wire in, they come with an accessory harness, like the fuse box has a slot for a relay and a fuse that go to a pigtail that isn't connected to anything that connects to the heated grip unit. Like they built it in there, but you still have to buy it. Yeah. Some of the value engineering can be a little odd. It's like, how much is that? How much is that saving you at the factory? Just like put an extra a hundred bucks on the, the bike MSRP and include it. Yeah.

Brian: I, yeah, I, I consider heated grips mandatory. I mean, I put them on all my bikes if they don't have it already. And it's, it's just, I think it's a rider safety thing. I mean, even if you're a fair weather rider, you're going to get caught out when it's 60 degrees or, you know, 60 degrees and you have, you know, you know, mesh gloves. You, you, you should, you have heated grips so you can, you know, I think it's, I think it's a safety item, but you know, eh, whatever. All right. Did you want to go through anything else on this list or save some for later?

Travis: Uh, I mean, we can save some, yeah. Some of this stuff too is just like, well, you know what, since I got the moment, I do want to talk about Bluetooth.

Brian: Let's talk about Bluetooth. Let's talk about Bluetooth, Travis.

Travis: Take it down. Tell us how it sucks. No, it all sucks. Like why am I strapping this battery and all this crap on my helmet? Right? Like someone, and I mean, if anyone's out there listening, wants to go in on this, it has the means and the knowledge to like get stuff built in China and marketed. Like they just need to make a box that you put on your bike and you hook up to your battery. And then you're like, you run a little antenna out to like the, the tail light. And then you run a little wire up to your handlebars with the controller. And it's a, it's a Bluetooth communication unit. Like it does everything that like a Sena or a Cardo or a Euclid or whatever does. It's just, it's, it's just, it runs off your bike battery. So you don't have to plug it in at the end of every ride and charge it. And it doesn't attach to your helmet. And you don't get this big thing on the side of your helmet making wind noise and probably invalidating all the safety features of your helmet. And then, yeah. And then you just like, it has like one wire that comes up and you do like earbuds or like the in helmet speakers and a microphone. And it just, you know, it's all there and it's like one little connector or you, you can even do like, oh, the, the headset and the microphone are like wireless, but they don't need the transmitter. They don't need the controls. They don't need as big of a battery. So you put those on your helmet and they're all on the inside. And then they just pair with the unit that's in the bike that doesn't need recharging. And then you control it like off of your handlebars. Like why doesn't that, that exists? I don't understand. Somebody build this.

Brian: Yeah. Right. And on a related note, I think building Bluetooth into the bike from the factory is a problem because it's going to be obsolete. Like whatever version of Bluetooth that is is going to be obsolete in five years, you know? Yeah. So I, I, there are some bikes I've seen that have that, you know, like where you can connect, you know, oh, it's got my app where I can see how many miles I've ridden and you know, how many, how many times I've stopped to pee. And, and yeah, who's going to maintain that app at the manufacturer? Nobody.

Travis: We'd be able to get a new little box that is updated with Bluetooth five or whatever.

Brian: Yeah. Yeah. So I have seen some features of Bluetooth come from the factory and I'm like, that's a little scary. Now an add on box, like you're talking about, that sounds like a great idea. That way you can, you know, use it as long as you can. And then, you know, something does change or you can move it to another bike or you could, you know, get the updated version for Bluetooth 12 whenever that comes out, that kind of thing.

Travis: Yeah, exactly. Like, and I mean, again, like, I just don't want a big thing on my helmet and I hate like, here's another thing I have to recharge at the end of the day. Like, why not just like put this thing on the bike? It seems like it belongs there.

Brian: Yeah, that, that's a, yeah, that's a good, yeah, it's kind of the whole, how are you going to power all this stuff? You know, we're, we're still, I think we're still in early days and all this battery technology. And so there's all this, you know, some stuff, oh, this lasts like, this lasts for a week. And then some stuff lasts two hours, you know, it's just, we're still figuring it out, I think.

Travis: Yeah. And it's like, this isn't a thing that you have a giant generator between your legs. Yeah. Why are you running something off a puny battery that has to like sit on your head?

Brian: Well, there's an excerpt. You have a giant generator between your legs. Excellent. Excellent. Good stuff there. I think we're having, got anything else you want to talk about? Anything stuck in your craw today, Travis?

Travis: No, I don't think so. Other than, you know, the usual stuff, you know, turns out three-year-olds can be really annoying sometimes. I love them.

Brian: Nobody told you this, huh?

Travis: I love them, but sometimes, sometimes.