Robin: Hey everybody, I'm Robin Dean.

Travis: And I'm Travis Brunson.

Robin: And this is the Riding Obsession podcast, unscripted. And all of the podcast magic. All right, so this month's episode of the Riding Obsession podcast is sponsored by Eleven Motorsports out of West Harrison, Indiana. Andy really helped us out, providing four-wheeled vehicle and trailer parking for the duration of our nine-day state-to-state group tour. His shop specializes in European and Japanese cars of all kinds, and he certainly knows his stuff. Thank you, Andy. It's also brought to you by PlugFones, industrial-grade sound-isolating earbuds. Assuming you don't have the freakish ears of one Mr. Travis Burleson, these are definitely the way to go. They work great with most motorcycle helmet intercom systems, providing high-fidelity audio with little to no inner helmet noise. I myself have been a dedicated user for many years now and can't thank them enough for backing both our site and our podcast. Find out more about PlugFones at PlugFones.com. It's just, I do that exact same stuff when I visit family for Thanksgiving. So this is just like getting together with friends.

Travis: You're trying to sell them PlugFones? Trying to sell your family PlugFones?

Robin: Hi, everybody. I'm Robin Dean for TheRidingObsession.com. Shall we sit down and eat? Before we do...

Travis: Have you thought about getting PlugFones?

Robin: So what, how's the face?

Travis: Oh, you know, maybe slowly improving. I'm trying to get in to see the neurologist again and check, just to check in. But the hospital that I have my primary care through no longer has neurologists on staff. Like they quit or something or they went to a different hospital. So they have to refer me out to another. And it's just a whole, whole thing. So I'm waiting.

Robin: You're not union. You're not a union neuro.

Travis: Neurologist. Yeah. So other than that, it seems okay. Balance is still kind of just plateaued.

Robin: And that was this month's episode of The Riding Obsession Podcast.

Travis: The podcast recording podcast.

Robin: Yeah. Speaking of which, this is our annual fundraiser episode. We want to get some new gear. So send us money. Donations at TheRidingObsession.com for PayPal. It's been a long time. We got to do one of these each week. Let's do one this week, next week and the week after that. And then we'll be caught up. I'm going to try to get the guys to do a roundtable in Arkansas. I can't believe I'm doing this. I'm going to go to Arkansas.

Travis: Yeah. I can't believe anyone goes to Arkansas.

Robin: How have you been otherwise?

Travis: Oh, good. Just stress. You know, it works kind of meh though. I saw a billboard for a company that's moving into town here and they're hiring people. So I might apply for that. It'd be like a systems assembler and maintenance for industrial gearboxes.

Robin: Drops out of the sky. Well, that looks interesting. I'm going to do it. And then you just read up on it and then you go do it.

Travis: Yeah. Because I can tear an engine apart, put it back together. I'm sure I can assemble industrial gearboxes. No problem.

Robin: Remember splitting the engine case for the BMW. Yeah.

Travis: And so why not apply for it? I mean, if they're like, sure, but we're going to pay you nothing. I'll be like, okay, thanks. Bye. Or they'll say nothing. It's not like I need a job right now. I just kind of want something different. That's a little less stressful, hopefully.

Robin: Yeah. So you got life is short syndrome.

Travis: Yeah, a little bit.

Robin: Yeah. I feel you.

Travis: Well, in like five years, well, I guess not all of that's been working from home, but the last three years working from home, I don't know. I'm starting to lose my mind.

Robin: Yeah. No, you hold on to yours better than most.

Travis: When the dog starts talking back, you know, it's.

Robin: Sure. Travis, I'll do your taxes. Be right back.

Travis: Yeah. Other than that, the bike, I was taking the bike out today. I rode the the route, the double helix, Madison, the basketball, just up to Dodgeville. And then and back that one of the roads is closed, like closed, closed on the way back. Flooding. No, they're repaving it like it's just like ripped up.

Robin: Really? So they're going to pave, pave.

Travis: Yeah.

Robin: Cool.

Travis: So I like detoured and got turned around and it's fun. I also got blocks. So, you know, J.G. out of Mount Horeb, right? J.G. Yeah. The curvy road that goes by Stewart Lake County Park there out of Mount Horeb. Yes. Yeah. So I was coming. Was it? Yeah, it was J.G. I was coming by there. And, you know, like when you first come out of the park there and you go through a couple of corners, there's a couple like farms down in the valley there.

Robin: Yeah. They're sort of offset in between the hills.

Travis: Yeah. So I come around this corner and there's this like big harvester machine stopped on one side of the road. And on the other side of the road is a semi truck stop. And like the harvester thing has like a loading spot and it's like spewing grain or whatever over into the semi truck.

Robin: So they're doing their they're doing their crop transfer at the end of a curve.

Travis: Yeah. In the middle of the road next to the barn. Yeah. So I stop and I'm like, OK, OK, like I thought I thought about driving between them in like under the arm that was like spewing grain. I think I know where this is going. I thought better of. And then I was like, I'm on the I'm on the NC. So I just like drove around the barn, like through his yard.

Robin: Tell me you waved to him. Did you look at him? At least smile. Hi.

Travis: Yeah. Well, there was like one guy. I mean, the guys in the trucks, I couldn't see them. And then there was another guy and he was walking when I pulled up and he just kind of looked at me and I kind of looked at him and then he went into this other tractor and was sitting there and I was like, well, if you then. Yeah, and the bugs were like the you know, those little Asian beetles, the fake lady bugs, the orange ones.

Robin: Yeah, I know what you're talking about.

Travis: When I was stopped for that, they were just swarming around the grain and then just all all throughout the ride, you'd go by where they'd harvested a field. And it's like there's like a like a light haze over the road and then you just get hammered.

Robin: You asked me about the trip. The trip was incredible. So for those of you listening, we now offer a group writing tour. It's not a guided tour so much as your leader is going to be writing this way. And if you want to follow him, you can. But it is a group writing tour that we call it the trip sevens tour, and it covers seven states and seven days. It takes nine days total because you got to count for the time that it takes to get to the start point and the time it takes to get home from at the end. But all in all, we do seven days of writing. And it's southern Indiana all the way across Kentucky, a little bit of Tennessee, the North Carolina Blue Ridge Parkway, then a beautiful, outstanding section of West Virginia, Virginia and West Virginia, followed by the triple nickel in Ohio. And I got man, West Virginia is unbelievable for riding traffic. It's like, I mean, the nickel is fun. What a road. Some of those Ohio, they got the windy nine there. But West Virginia, it was uncomfortably perfect. Every curve was just banked and double lines and great sport bike riders heading your way that would just wave as they went by. And everybody was technically proficient. We did have one bike go down. That was a bit of a tail, but we'll talk more about that another time. It was a great man. It was absolutely excellent. And so can I count you in for next year as the sweep?

Travis: Yeah, we'll make it at least one of them work.

Robin: I'll give you dates. We got to set it up and I got to get people on it. It was great. It was an excellent trip. And I look forward to doing it again next year. Probably twice. Only thing I was wondering about is whether or not I should head West. Like, I should do it counterclockwise so that the sun's not in my face.

Travis: Maybe. I guess unless you're doing it in a day, it doesn't really matter. You'd have to be heading West in the morning and East in the evening.

Robin: The Kentucky section is West to East. So you would see these incredible roads and then you would have to wince. Saw elk. They've been released back into the wild on the Blue Ridge Parkway there. Yeah, that was really cool.

Travis: I was going to say, John Denver knows what he's talking about then.

Robin: Sunshine on my shoulder.

Travis: No, I was talking about country roads.

Robin: Country roads take me home to the place where I was born.

Travis: The first verse, you know, almost heaven, West Virginia, Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River. Life is all there. Almost as all as Robin Dean. Younger than the mountains and only half as mean.

Robin: I got to think backwards about all that's been going on since the last time we did this, though, because let's see. OK, I got a flu shot because I always feel better during the winter. If I get a flu shot, you should do the same. Get your nanobots, get your nanobots injected. And now I'm putting braided brake lines on the bandit. Well, I just I just did. I just finished doing it.

Travis: Yeah, I saw your Instagram video there of the ratty brake fluid.

Robin: It's nasty, man. I've never seen black, like not even root beer colored. You know, it tasted like licorice, you know, but when you really chug it, you can get the root beer flavor out of it. Don't drink brake fluid.

Travis: Wasn't the the weird Harley purple brake fluid, the weird silicone brake fluid they used for a couple of years.

Robin: Yeah, further back. New exhaust. The bandit's got a bunch of upgrades.

Travis: No, it doesn't sound good with that new exhaust on it.

Robin: Oh, my goodness. It's just gnarly. It's so gnarly. I got a decibel killer so that I can turn it back to city mode. But you pull that thing out, man. It's just ravaging. Just bruh. Sounds great. I love it.

Travis: Sounds more like a tractor now.

Robin: So yeah, it does almost sound like a diesel engine. It sounds straight up diesel. So new exhaust because the other one sheared while I was in Farmington, Missouri, and braided lines because it needed to happen. And then there was one other thing and I don't quite remember what it was. And that's why we have silence removal scripts.

Travis: Yes. The NC's doing good. I put the crash bars on it.

Robin: Are they light or are they heavy duty?

Travis: They're pretty heavy. They're like the GV ones. I guess SW Motec says theirs are better, but I like the GV ones. I like the way they look. And they're cheaper. I put fork gators on it for no reason.

Robin: Fork gators. What do those do?

Travis: The accordion things that go over your fork stanchions.

Robin: Oh, yeah.

Travis: So no use at all. Yeah, I don't have to clean the bugs off the fork stanchions.

Robin: That works. Can you pull those off and just spray them?

Travis: Yeah, they're just rubber. So they just clean off. Nice. The bugs don't glue on to it like they do to the metal.

Robin: Well, you do ride some dirt on that thing. You came up with that route that's sort of a nice loop outside of Madison.

Travis: Yeah, the gravel roads outside of Dodgeville. You have to go all the way to Dodgeville to find gravel roads.

Robin: You still got to write an article for it.

Travis: Yeah. Yeah, I did. I did take some good video, though, and it was a good time. I'm thinking tires, the rears going off my Shinko 705 rears square in.

Robin: Already?

Travis: About three, four thousand miles on it.

Robin: Oh, fair enough.

Travis: Which were like an $80 tire. It's pretty good.

Robin: Heck yeah.

Travis: So I was debating whether or not to get another another one of those for the rear because I have a front on that's that's fine or go something different. I was thinking maybe a Continental TK C70.

Robin: Well, that's a that's a big step up, though.

Travis: No, it's similar. The 70. The 80 is like the big block nine. Not be kind of thing.

Robin: I just mean like in terms of the quality.

Travis: Oh, yeah. I mean, it's twice.

Robin: So I figure if you were going to do it that way, you could you could also get yourself like two sets of the tires you currently got a three and then just keep rotating them out as you shred them down. That way you don't pay the same on the shipping or the whatever.

Travis: Yeah. Yeah. Deciding that to just the shinkos are little. They don't grip super good on wet pavement, especially in the city where the pavement's real slick.

Robin: Yeah.

Travis: And so with the fall and then assuming the spring when it's going to be riding, it's going to be cold and wet. I maybe want something that's going to be a little bit better for that urban riding when I'm not going to be hitting gravel or anything.

Robin: Yeah. Like next week. I think I'm going to I'm going to try to head up there next week. I hope to if I can get I can't decide if I should do the valves or not. I've got the tank off. I've got all the bearing parts off. I could go for it. It's not a big deal, but it's like I just want to button it up and ride it or do I just don't want to check the valves at this point? I don't see any real hassle.

Travis: Yeah, the yeah, I think I mean, eight thousand, I only got about a little less than four thousand on the bike. So and it's supposed to be eight thousand for the second service. Nice. So I'll probably just do it over the winter, change the oil and check the valves.

Robin: Very cool.

Travis: Yeah. And still want to maybe do cartridge emulators in the fork.

Robin: This bike's going to be on you for a while, right? I mean, you could go race tech. You could go you know, you could you could go high end with it. Get like a Penske. And I mean, I'm really stoked. That's the other thing I got the Penske, the Penske rear fully adjustable with. So you got the race tax up front with some 15 weight fork oil, which feels substantially better in a Penske rear. That is just outstanding. I've really, really gotten good at tending suspension.

Travis: Did you get it dialed in?

Robin: Oh, it's it's dialed in. And now it's like I know I know too much. I can only here's the thing. And you've probably observed this as a friend of mine. I can only know two or three things really well at one time. Anytime a fourth element comes into play, I have to completely forget everything I knew about the previous item of interest. And then eventually, like a year down the line, you'll get a you'll get a message from me saying, yeah, so I don't remember how motorcycle. And then you'll be like, yeah, there's this and that. And so, yeah, with right now, suspension tuning, I really I'm pretty confident now.

Travis: I remember that word, but I forgot my wife's face.

Robin: And now I'm looking at the website. I don't remember. OK, so braided lines, new exhaust suspension tune up. And before that, we did a big trip, right? Also did the Missouri stuff. It's been so long since we did a podcast. My notes here talk about a track that we did. Oh, I got to ride a track day with the gal that taught me how to ride a motorcycle. Her name is Jenya, a really incredible Russian gal, just a smoking rider, too. And she was at Gingerman this year. And it's just like, oh, hey, how you doing? Oh, you're fast now, too. Go figure. It was pretty sick.

Travis: Nice. Yeah, there's haven't. Yeah, unfortunately, haven't done too too much this.

Robin: I'm sorry, man.

Travis: Yeah, well, that's what happens. But hey, I can fit, you know, 12 bottles of beer in the front of the NC. So yeah, that's a good purchase.

Robin: Yeah, yeah. What was your best ride of the year?

Travis: Oh, probably Brown County.

Robin: Oh, nice.

Travis: Yeah, that's cool. That was a good time.

Robin: So we're just going to make up for this year, next year.

Travis: Yeah, hopefully, you know, nothing, no strange illnesses befall.

Robin: Yes. And now we got to figure out what we're going to do for the winter, though. That's the thing.

Travis: Yeah, well, I definitely want to do the things I do, the forks on the NC and like valve check and stuff on it, which is, you know, when I did. So I put those crash bars on and I wired in the auxiliary relay, the factory auxiliary relay, because there is a then he comes with. I think we talked about this last time, the factory. I don't think so. So there's a factory, you know, heated grips and auxiliary lights option for that bike. OK, yeah. So in the in the fuse box, there's a slot for relay. They just pop in. You put a fuse in to turn the circuit on and you pop in this Honda relay. And it turns on this part of the wiring harness on a relay that's normally not on. OK, so I did that. And the relay is pretty cheap. It's like 10, 11 bucks.

Robin: Is it like a Honda? Is it like rebadged Bosch?

Travis: No, I mean, maybe the insides, but it's a weird shape. It's not a regular five pin thing. It's not like the one you can get at AutoZone or whatever. It's it's a weird shape specific to Honda proprietary.

Robin: Yeah, no turning back now.

Travis: But yeah, the other side of that is it turns on this this pigtail on the wiring harness and to get like the other end of that, whatever you need to like hook up the factory heated grips like that wire with the connector on it. It's like 150 bucks or something stupid. So I just like I just cut the wires and spliced in regular connectors so I can wire in whatever I want. So I put in an auxiliary light for no reason.

Robin: Nice. Are you going to are you going to do heated grips on that bike? Because I know that you were considering heated gear, heated grips.

Travis: Yeah, I got some heat. I got the Tourmaster Synergy 2.0 gloves and vests.

Robin: Oh, you're set then. Yeah. You could ride deep into November. Yeah. And I got those.

Travis: Those are just running straight off the battery. I didn't relay them because it's heated gear. It's like it's it's you can't leave it on. No, it's like you're wearing it.

Robin: Right. Correct. Sorry, my phone just dinged. I always know that something has been answered correctly when it dings.

Travis: Yes, I got that. I haven't actually used them yet. It hasn't been so warm here even to the end of October. It's been so warm. I haven't really tested them out. I mean, I hooked them up and made sure that they get they get warm, but I haven't really ridden with them. So we'll see.

Robin: Well, it's not that warm. It's been I've gotten well, low 50s to mid 60s a couple of days on here.

Travis: Yeah, I don't need heated gear for that.

Robin: I guess I'm just.

Travis: Yeah, I you know, I don't need heated gear until it's like in like the low 40s.

Robin: So what you're saying is I'm a big old wimp.

Travis: Yeah, maybe. Or you need to get better at long jumps.

Robin: Yeah. I you know, I do not like cold weather yet. I live in Chicagoland, north of Chicagoland, where my dad grew up in Waukegan area, basically Libertyville. Yeah.

Travis: Yeah, so we'll see. I put heated grips on the Buell for fun.

Robin: Oh, that's cool. Is it the over grips, the ones that you had from the big one?

Travis: No, it's just the the cheap, the cheap cycle gear ones are like 12 bucks. They just, you know, that go under the grip, the little resistor sticker that, you know, the basic cheap Chinese heat grips.

Robin: OK.

Travis: Yeah, but they work great. They get really hot and they're like 12 bucks. So who cares?

Robin: Yeah, it's such a simple platform. But do they have the ones where they're like they're lifted off of the the bars a little bit to create there's like a because I used to have hot grips where which were sort of intended for like gold wings. They were big. They were big and packed a whopping amount of heat.

Travis: Now, these this is just it's like a little sticker with like resistor metal in it that you just stick to your handlebar on the left hand by wrapped it in electrical tape, just kind of insulate the metal a bit so you're not just heating up the bar.

Robin: Nice.

Travis: That's smart. But other than that, and it's funny because every time I'm like, man, this bike's dumb. And then like, and then I ride it and it's like, oh, man, this bike is stupid. It's awesome. Like it's a full circle backwards. Yeah. Like, I kind of like, it's so little and it shakes so much within, you ride it and it's so much fun. It's like it puts a smile on your face, you know?

Robin: Yeah, it looks it looks cool. And then you're just shifting, shifting, shifting, shifting, shifting, shifting, shifting, shifting.

Travis: Do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do to clunk. Yeah.

Robin: That's a heavy.

Travis: Yeah, so Maybe one of these days if we get Laurel and a new bike I'll keep that and I'll put rear sets on it and super bike bars. Oh, that'd be cool Yeah, or in Clubman's get some club major clip-ons That's a little too low and the down think the tank would support that but just like real low super bike bars It's interesting.

Robin: I just got a phone call from somebody. I hadn't heard from a long time A friend from the past who has got all these bikes He's trying to get rid of one of which is a CB 500 T and I was like, oh, I'm tempted He's got like a GS 550 if anybody's interested reach out GS 550. That's in pretty good shape He's got a GS 750 that's and then it's coming together. Let's get the CB 500 T. I'm just oh, man Yeah, my problem was he was asking me if I was interested in buying and I can't buy unless I sell the Hawk which I Really I'd kind of like to do I would love any motorcycle that I could get into a little bit of trouble on that's Easier to deal with than the cursed Hawk But then again this winter by the end of this winter that Hawk is either gonna be coming out better or worse Because I mean, I mean, I don't care mode

Travis: Like I'm about your gun is basically just saying that you're gonna dick with it this way.

Robin: Yeah, man I'm gonna okay. I've got I've got a y-pipe to eliminate the catalytic converter underneath. I'm gonna go direct to that I've got that extra exhaust. I'm gonna learn how to pack an exhaust get that installed I'm gonna cut anything off of that bike that makes it look complicated the carburetors. Yeah, man I don't think they're necessary You can just pour gas directly in via funnel Well, we learned anything from the last time I work on the view will it helps with the carburetors are attached to the engine so Facebook, huh? I think it's gonna be pretty big.

Travis: I don't know. I'm still still got my myspace the So I went to a bike night here at the Madison cycle gear store Yeah, and I won that SMH 10-r. Yeah, which I have one, but now I have another one the it was cool Cuz to like I got like you got like one raffle ticket for it showing up You know and then you could buy more raffle tickets to go in the pot if you wanted and I didn't and I Just put the one raffle ticket and then I got and there were guys who bought, you know, like rolls And the first first drawing I never win anything. This is great. That's cool Now I have another one to sit in a box until Laurel's calm breaks or mine breaks nice Yeah, so she's got the SMH 5 right now, right? Yeah, but yours is still working fine She hasn't had battery problems with it.

Robin: Like we haven't had a swap battery or anything on it Nice, so I guess as long as that's working right still the third most popular article on the site right now The first most popular article for whatever reason is trailers Speaking of which I do have a we did get listener questions. Let's check those out.

Travis: Why why?

Robin: So Scrolling down here. I can both read it and answer it real quick Day ray if that's his real name doesn't matter day ray writes in to say hey guys just found your awesome That's right article and greatly appreciate the time it took to post this great content I'm currently looking to replace my Hawk GT headlights. How about you replace your Hawk GT? I've got one that might be for sale When I went to super bright LEDs, it is a great bike. I should probably yeah, whatever They suggested a newer model than the LED headlight you showcase Mm-hmm. Yeah, just wondering if you think it will work with the same installation technique you outlined and The light he's looking at oh, it's kind of like yeah It's like a cycloptic one on top of the other inside of a 7-inch round.

Travis: Yeah, that's the new newer one Yeah, whatever. Is that the one that's actually got the little tabs on it for a regular install? I think so and so it goes in like your regular light bucket.

Robin: I think yeah short answer is yes I believe it'll work based on your wiring options provided But I've long since discovered that there's a much better looking LED headlamp setup that performs better to boot Basically the headlight for both the Honda's 9 1 9 and 5 9 9 are cross-compatible with the Hawk GT allowing for installation of an aftermarket h4 LED bulb the h4 that we Link to and I'll probably link this on the podcast page. It's significantly more lumen. It has significantly more luminosity I'm totally not reading this than any independently plugged non housed model You can see the eyes of vermin that haven't been born yet Thousands of years in the future the the flood effect is slightly lacking but for the most part it does a job and then some Yeah, seriously, man, these LED bulbs what I don't see is Ambient light projected in front of you But anything that is even remotely reflective will burn out your retinas in it It's just every you can see you can see Chicago three days from now Just every time I'm behind a car. I'll light up the brights and you'll see every every sign That's up ahead that they they couldn't pick up with their regular bulbs, but you don't see like the there's a certain You know roll of the dice factor with potholes because you know what I mean?

Travis: Yeah, I find like the temperature on those LED lights. Yeah, it doesn't illuminate the road in the same way But anything that's in the road gets lit up really well, and it's kind of an odd and say yeah to get used to it Yeah, it's a worthwhile trade-off.

Robin: But yeah your bulb will work I just suggest you go with the Honda 599 or 919 option instead because the h4 version that I'll be linking in This is it's just better and it's it's a more DOT friendly.

Travis: Yes That's like get the newer Honda 7-inch You know cup and lens and it has a better lensing and that was what Terry did with his triumph He has a last-gen T100 Bonneville, yeah The seven-inch round headlight and he swapped out the triumph headlight for the Honda headlight because it lends is better nice So he's Frank and biking.

Robin: Yeah So I saw here that I don't remember when this happened to I had the option of getting a new bike recently I had the option of Making the down payment picking up the the loan and quickly paying off a new bike I was gonna test right? Okay, the f800 GT the GS XS the MV Agusta the STR 765 the new one even the VFR and that this was when I wrote these notes It's like feed for content for the podcast, right? This is when I first wrote this stuff and then since then we've now got the H that it's the Kawasaki h2 Super the super tour.

Travis: Yes, that's not that stupid.

Robin: That's ridiculous, man. It looks great. Yeah, it's a lot Unnecessary power. Yeah There's no there's no reason to have that much power on two wheels There's just no reason at some point the front tire is gonna lift off the ground It's always gonna do that once you reach a certain threshold.

Travis: Yeah, the yeah There's definitely a limit to how much power you can put down at any given point on a bike and you know most modern bikes that are Leader class or approaching leader class are well over that limit Just saying I I test rode Buddy's F. He got a 2017 F co9 and yeah that did the first wheelie was not intentional That was with like the trash control on and like in the the middle power mode like not even in like the hot race mode mapping Injected and it's nine hundred and eighty nine cc's something like that nine hundred and change nine thirty or something Mm-hmm the triple and it was just like you just touch the throttle in first gear and Front end just pops right up. I'm so used to my little my kind of portly, you know 670 cc Honda that I could just crack the throttle wide open whenever I want and on this thing No, it's like oh I gotta be and it's got a quick shifter on it Right up inside when I got in the highway, I opened it up a bit and ease the throttle wide and this And then I like I hit third gear and had to stop because I was gonna lose my license

Robin: It just doesn't run out of power.

Travis: Yeah, once I hit like night. This was at night to on a stranger's bike So I was like once I hit 90 in third gear.

Robin: I was like no Those were those were two of the options. I was or that's one of the options I was processing in addition to the ones the the G the every energy T the jigs is the Augusta the 765 in the VFR now, there's like the the Kawasaki h2 super tour There's the super duke GT and there's the modus and I immediately wrote off the modus because I read it's 30 grand Well number one, it's 30 grand like what we've done at modus is we've taken Solid but dated mechanical technology and we've made it here in the United States So America so expensive and it doesn't I I'm not gonna subscribe to that I do subscribe to their their theory about simplicity for the sake of easy maintenance It's a simple bike.

Travis: That is the I mean, yeah, that's the whatever they call the baby block or the mini block. It's it's a 1650 yeah, it's basically a it's half of a Chevy big block like it's a 350 shrunk down with four cylinders missing Yeah, and so Eric Eric Shropshire wrote the article.

Robin: He did a test ride on it for us and Incredible article I read through it and thought to myself. Well That settles that no because it's it's a roadster It's you know it could get people into a lot of trouble if you don't know your stuff or even if you do know your stuff and you Just decide one day to know a little bit more and you fail.

Travis: I don't want to be that guy's of power All the time, but premium components, but yeah, you do pay for that sort of boutique small company price Yeah, so I think to myself, okay that one's out of the picture That's super duper h2 and showed him to the wife.

Robin: She was like, ooh, ooh, ooh Right, and then I came down to the fact I ended up on the modus and I'm thinking that well That's the direction of going but the truth is I'm looking at the punchline to all this in the end man I just want the bandit. I just I want to take the bandit as far as I can I want that bike to go to the 100k mark There are people that have gone further than a hundred thousand miles on a bike, but I got that bike in 2013 with 3200 miles on it and I just I'm just shy of 30,000 miles this year It's the bike owes me nothing.

Travis: I've said it before 30,000 on the odometer you're close to 50, right?

Robin: But 30,000 miles riding this year 30,000 miles riding this year almost I'm coming up on 60,000 miles on that bike I bought it with 3200 miles on it 3200 miles in 2013. I Want that bike deserves my attention. It's not hard to work on I can solve my own problems I mean you you're familiar with it.

Travis: I wouldn't I wouldn't go so far as to say it's not hard to work on fair enough Yeah You know the idiosyncrasies now and then that's one of the things that's like so when I was when I was wearing up We're just we're talking about working on the the NC Mm-hmm. I think I told you this when I was wiring up that relay to put the totally necessary auxiliary light on That's totally necessary and totally works

Robin: You're gonna have to come back to that one

Travis: Oh, I put up like a $15 Amazon like auxiliary light on the crash bar like it's it's kind of bright Yeah, anyway

Robin: The

Travis: But yeah So to get like the front like, you know We're like the beak plastic is like that very front plastic section on that to get that off you take off the seat and then you take off the rear most plastic section and then You have to work your way forward like all the plastic layers on top of itself starting with the front So when you're putting it together the front goes on first and the back goes on last Oh, man, when you got to take it apart the back comes up first. You have to go all the way up.

Robin: Oh Let's see, it's a modern bike territory where they're saying like, okay, here's the part we could do this simple But watch this you got to take it to the dealership.

Travis: They want people going to the dealership to get the work done It was and it's built limits It's you know, they it's all plastic and you know, they designed it to be assembled on an assembly line Like it goes together in a nice order. Yeah, like when you need to get to part number one You got to start with part number 50 because that's the way it went in and that's the way it comes out That's gotta stop man.

Robin: That's that's gotta stop it cars

Travis: I mean cars like that not to they oh you want to get to this thing under the dashboard Okay, you got to take apart the entire dashboard like there's no there's no access points for you know Maintenance pieces like it's it's assembled and a very specific type packaging But it only it only comes apart the way it went together You can't get in into a part that's in the middle without working your way down to it

Robin: And I'm not trying to reminisce or nothing, but that's what's taking away from I'm not I'm not a parent I'm not a father, but the whole like idea of being in your garage with people and Relating to them and and having a motorcycle culture for the wrencher suffers because they went and built these bikes in a strangely Disconnected linear fashion that makes everything hard to get to I had difficult. Okay I don't even remember what the difficulty was, but I had to remove Margaret's my I had to remove my wife's mudguard because the luggage system was installed in the wrong spot It wasn't it should have been above something and it was put below So the mudguard hit this this cross-section and I was like, all right Well, they're gonna get me a new mudguard then and they did and that's cool But to get the thing off and to get a mudguard off the bike Is it is a piece that should require no more than two large or maybe four small bolts easy to access Not it's just it was impossible. You had to remove Things that weren't even near the back of the bike. That's my story. I'm sticking to it.

Travis: Yeah. No, that's like It reminds me of a couple years ago I had a you know a PSP the second-generation PSP little handheld game thing Yeah, that took the the little discs a little small discs the UMD anyway, so it was a Sony the Sony PSP 2000 And it has little optical discs little mini discs UMDs that go in and like spin, you know in a disk drive

Robin: Yeah plastic shells spinning Yeah

Travis: It's right on the back and you pop it in and you close the thing and it reads the disk my disk drive went bad On it and I looked it's like oh you can buy a disk drive online for like 30 40 bucks And it's like it's right on the back of the items Like you have this little thin brick with buttons and a screen on the front and a little door on the back that when you Put the disk in right sure to change this drive. You have to go in from the front So you you you take the case apart pull off the case pull off the button controllers pull off the screen Pull out the whole CPU board and then you can get to the disk That's on the back But you can't just you can't just you can't just pull it from the back you have to go in through the front and Unsandwich everything and then replace it and that's what I mean.

Robin: I can hear customer support saying. Oh You want to do something very? Complicated why would you want to do that? You should probably just spend the extra scratch get a brand new unit since your warranties you know that that's the kind of mentality that I mean the There's something is lost in the mix here with manufacturing and distribution where what we receive Doesn't lend itself well to the spirituality that goes into knowing your bike it ends up being ride your bike be Be a trained bear and ride your circus bike and take it to the dealership so we can fix it for you And by the way pay us. I don't know when that started. I don't like it You know for example Why does my half fairing require that I read and this is on the bandit which I know that bike in and out But one two three four okay wait before I take off the fairing I have to take off the mirrors Why is that the case? Why is it just another chunk of secured plastic with four? Industrial massive bolts I do see in the motion of the bike at this point that as the bike is moving forward Parts are sealing parts into place are sealing parts into place like the motion of the bike actually secures It's thought out in terms of safety You know you can even see where bolts can't get past the exhaust because if one were to come loose the exhaust well It would take some damage, but it would stop it. Okay. That's cool It's kind of a safety factor, but in the end just give me the big old secure bolt You know give me the lock washer. Give me the sealer. Give me the freaking Loctite don't deal with this intricacy Just give us a solid good-looking bike that isn't using what is be all use like give me an engine.

Travis: That's smooth Yeah, so the that's like the On the NC to get to the air when I was I want to get taking like you ever take the back plastic stick the front Plastics off you have to do all of that to change the air filter I see yeah, and it was Tim Clark Tim Clark was okay On any KTM bike if you want to replace the air filter first remove everything that isn't the air filter Yeah, I love that gag.

Robin: It's it's hilarious to me.

Travis: Yeah, I know that's the way You know that's the the modern world I guess I mean there are bikes out there that aren't like that, but not sport bikes Dang it, and there should be there should be maybe modus is the Thruxton the Thruxton.

Robin: Okay one I'm not it see it as I'm back I'm back to the modus, but could they just maybe lower the CCS a little bit just to bring it down Yeah, let's see like modus makes most their money Just selling the engine they put it in like dune buggies and shit like that engine moves cars around Oprah And on that note, what do you want to talk about tires?

Travis: I'm trying to decide tires like I probably kind of wants to do pr4s I mean kind of wants to keep like sort of adventure pseudo light knobby's going do the TKC 70s or the Avon trail Riders which are really like a 9010 tire, but they look pretty cool No, they how long do they last so they put are they known to have a little on the last for a while? I don't know. I mean, I've seen I seem to be going through tires rather quickly on this bike.

Robin: You're right Well, you got low-end torque, right?

Travis: Yeah low-end torque and I ride the shit out of it I mean, I guess I buy ride it hard. It's you know, I mean, I I could have gotten a faster bike but it's like I like that I can go wide open throttle and and to like I'll do chip seal roads and gravel roads and slide around the back end and I'm not I'm not Gentle on the rear tire by any means it is a very Travis Burleson bike. Yeah, it's very practical and That's why I like that. I like that torque. I think I'm I'm a Twin torque low-end torque bike guy, like I don't think I'll go back to an inline-4 There's another friend of ours mutual that says that the inline-4 has no soul. I call bullshit on that Yeah, it's just got a different kind of soul.

Robin: That's what I'm saying. It's got soul at 10,000 rpm You know if you're gonna go the PR 4 route, you could consider the twos.

Travis: They probably do good in the dirt Yeah, I mean on the rear end who cares who cares how much it slides it's not like I'm and that's not like I'm like Trail riding it. I'm just on gravel roads.

Robin: Yeah, you know that, you know, the fours are good. You know how good they are Yeah, they just started making those for the Hawk too.

Travis: So I might go that route as well in the right size Yeah, yeah, and I'm just really thinking about wet wet grip, but the Avon's might might be okay I like kind of like the way they look but yeah Cuz the shinko's just man well into you've been the roads around my house are so slick when they're wet And so it's like it makes me like you lose that confidence and then that once your confidence is gone

Robin: Lower you just lower your pressure lower your pressure

Travis: Doesn't I mean there's there $80 tires for a reason? You know, they weren't good in the dry and they were good on like light off-road, but they're they're not very good in the wet So you want the force? Yeah But like I said, maybe I'm trying to see if I can get some solid anecdotal reports on the TKC 70s and see because that continental does a like a binary compound kind of thing to which isn't the same as Michelin Michelin actually uses two compounds and what continental does is they cure the center of the tire different than they cure the edges of the

Robin: Tire, so it falsifies a third compound of sorts

Travis: Yeah So it kind of makes it like a different compound in the center a harder compound in the center and a soft cover on the edges But it's all starts out as the same rubber. They just cure it different. So you get them So into what you get is a finer like a gradient transition as you roll the tire over Yeah, as opposed to some some people I guess I can't can can feel when you change materials on like a dual compound tire Like when you roll into the soft material, I can't feel that but the transition I wouldn't imagine that even be possible

Robin: If you decide to chop a turn, there's I mean so choppy, you know, it's not gonna change anything

Travis: Yeah, I don't I don't know but that's what that's their system. So maybe maybe it'll be good and the the 70 has a The the middle stripe of it is like a solid stripe so we get a little bit more longevity out of it Oh, so they do this they do a center line. Yeah.

Robin: Okay. All right. Well on that note This episode of the riding obsession podcast was brought to you by 11 motorsports out of West Harrison, Indiana If you decide you want to get any work done on your European or Japanese Aka metric car ask for Andy and it's also brought to you by tires Tires they take your motorcycle to places that you aren't currently at we reckon we strongly recommend going on any motorcycle forum and

Travis: asking people about tires and also about oil and that's and the people are very helpful and very Accommodating and they don't have strong opinions about those two subjects.

Robin: It's really Tires they're a thing that you put on your bikes for the writing obsession. I'm Robin D.

Travis: I'm Travis Wilson safe travels everyone