Travis: Hello everybody, I am Robin Dean. I'm Travis Burleson. And I'm Tim Clark.

Robin: And this is the Riding Obsession podcast. Jazzy music. Jazzy music.

Travis: Joining us today is Tom Burns, a writer for the site who's taking part as we discuss Chicago's 2019 progressive international motorcycle show.

Tim: This episode of the Riding Obsession podcast is brought to you by the Ugly Apple Cafe of Madison, Wisconsin, where they use local overstock produce to offer a quick tasty breakfast.

Robin: TheRidingObsession.com is always seeking sponsors for this podcast. Sponsors are given three focus mentions toward the start, middle and end of their designated episode. Their contributions are put towards bettering the program's content and recording equipment. I'll take this opportunity to promote our next group riding tour, which is scheduled for spring of this year, dubbed the Trip Sevens Tour. Seven riders will cover seven states in seven days, starting May 26 of 2019. We got two spots left, as far as I know. It's a twisty sport touring getaway of epic proportions, and we hope you'll sign up. More information about that tour is available via theRidingObsession.com.

Travis: If you like avocado toast and destroying certain industries, then it's totes amazeballs. If you're not of that, uh, fastidious, uh, age group, then it's really good and you should try it out.

Robin: Visit the group tours link, which is anchored under events in our navigation menu. Uh, announcements and corrections, et cetera. The only thing I want to announce is that man, the electric bike industry is popping up just as we finished that last podcast. Not that it was any influence, but Zero Motorcycles just announced their newest street model, the SR slash F. It's 110 horsepower, 140 foot pounds of torque. And then Buell just started Buell, which is an electric bike company, or he's working with somebody.

Tim: Yes. I saw the announcement, but I didn't see what the partner was.

Travis: Yeah. I haven't had time to do the dig deep on it, but, uh, yeah, he's got a new, which I mean, his, his engineering capability is, has always been a leap ahead of everyone else. It was stupefying. And the, the willingness to like do something different.

Robin: Sure. Yeah. Well, you know, so like, keep an eye on this. We're going to probably do an article right up about the current status of the electric motorcycle industry. And, uh, we'll get to that eventually. Cause that's not what this episode is about. This episode is about, well, before we begin, let's welcome Tom Burns to the show. Tom. Hey, what's going on, man. So last I heard you were looking into a ZX 1000 valve inspection. How's that? Ninja, Ninja, whatever. How's that? And motorcycling in general been for you this month, sir. Talk to us.

Tom: Yeah. The motorcycle is still chilling under a blanket.

Robin: Oh yeah.

Tom: It's untouched this winter. Okay.

Robin: All right.

Travis: Well, the weather's been garbage in the Midwest this winter. So yeah, no, no faults there.

Tom: My head's been garbage with allergies and, uh, yeah, it's been cold. You know, I've got a kerosene heater out there. I've got a little, uh, we call those, uh, another little space heater. I don't even want to go out in the cold to get there. I'm so with you.

Robin: Yeah. Yeah. All right. Um, well it's good to, we're really glad to have you on the show and I'm really glad that you're writing for the site regularly, uh, for the past year or so. It's been good to have your content. Uh, you know, with that, Travis, what about you, uh, yeah, you know, uh, not too much.

Travis: I mean, definitely we're in the depths of the, the winter here in, uh, in the Midwest and this season has been especially record lows, record precipitation. It's been kind of a nightmare, you know, we'll get 10 below and then it'll jump to 40 for a day in rain. And then we'll go back to 10 below and freeze. And it's been total garbage. I know my friends up in the UP are literally buried. You know, we're talking hundreds of inches of snow, right? Um, I've seen, yeah, there's a couple of, uh, some of my old professors up there posted a picture from a gig where it was a parking lot and there was a snow bank was about four stories. Good grief. I mean, that was like, that was like, they just, they use front end loaders to stack this stuff up to clear the parking lot. Sure. But another, another professor, it was just his driveway and it was, it was over his head. It was 10 feet of snow by the time he snow bloated out. So you get in and out of his garage, you know? So it's, uh, that's up North here. It's not quite so bad other than the ice. You know, I was chipping three, four inches of ice off my sidewalk, uh, the other last week or so. Um, but other than that, I've been playing music more, so that's good. I'm searching for a drummer for both of my, both of my groups that I got going on, uh, which has been a Craigslist. Um, you know, there's a lot of like, Hey man, I'm totally down for this. Cool. Here's the songs we're doing silence or like, Oh wow, that's cool. Let's meet. We meet and you're all cool. I'd like the stuff you're doing. And then like, Oh, sorry man, I can't do it. Um, so you know, but I've had a couple of nibbles. So Matt and I come together. Uh, so that's been good. I'm in a clash cover band now.

Robin: Nice.

Travis: Um, so we're doing mostly clash stuff. We're going to maybe branch out to some other early punk sex pistols, maybe some dead Kennedys.

Robin: Are you wearing a second bass strap? So that base is like down by your knees.

Travis: Well, no, they didn't, they didn't play like that, man. This isn't like, this isn't like corn.

Robin: Oh, well I wasn't really comparing it to corn. I just remember that Sid Vicious wasn't exactly high and tight.

Travis: Uh, he was high. Yeah. Uh, and we're, we're focusing mostly on earlier, earlier class stuff too. Um, but uh, the, um, I did dye my hair red.

Robin: You're speaking to the right audience. Cause we got Tom Burns on the show right now. And he is, he knows music that I need to sit down. He, if anybody's got a doctorate in punk, that guy's got the doctorate in punk.

Tom: I don't know about all that, but uh, my ears perked up when I heard dead Kennedys too. I knew you were doing other clash covers, but uh, yeah, Kennedys is not easy to pull off.

Travis: Yeah. We're running out of kind of class stuff. The clash were, they weren't the sex pistols, you know, the sex pistols were like all about being different and being controversial where the clash were a little more about having a message, but also being musicians. So, um, the other later stuff got seventies. Um, you know, there was, I mean, rock the Casbah. If you take the, like the way, the way he sings out of it, it's a disco tune.

Robin: It's kind of a pop tune.

Travis: Yeah. Yeah. They had, they had a lot of and they did some, they did some kind of stuff that's straight up disco. So we're kind of avoiding that.

Robin: Tom is one of those guys where like every time I learned about a new band, I get deep into screaming females, you know, Bob theater, a good guy. He hit me to screaming females and Tom was like, Oh yeah, I heard they were going to be in town. You know, like, you know, I, I'm never going to be the trendsetter, but I am always going to know the people that I'm glad I know because they are way ahead of the curb, you know?

Travis: Yeah. Well, you know, this is a late winter motorcycle podcast because they're talking about music. But yeah, so that's been my, uh, my sort of space. I've, I've, uh, rearranged the rehearsal space in my basement. Um, I've been waiting, I've been waiting for Harbor freight to send me the flyer with the super, the super coupon for moving blankets. Um, so I went and I brought the whole catalog in. So he just scanned the coupon and let me keep the catalog site. Then I went back later that afternoon and bought, so I bought, it was, it was like the moving blankets were like, they were $3 a piece with a seven limit seven. So I went in the morning, brought the whole catalog and then he just scanned the coupon, gave me the whole catalog back. I went back in the afternoon and bought another seven.

Tim: I like that.

Travis: So, so my big concrete box of a basement, I hung up moving blankets and move some stuff, move the freezers out of the way and move the piano and the desk. Robin's piano, which doesn't have any beverages on it. Robin, you'll be pleased to know.

Robin: Thank you very much.

Travis: Um, and then hung blankets up on the, on the floor Joyce to kind of sound insulate and make like a room. And then they also had a coupon for like the, the cool little patio lights. I hung some of those up and made some more rooms. I got a nice little rehearsal space with Robin's drum kit. Thank you again, Robin.

Robin: No problem.

Travis: I will not let any heavy hitters plan your symbols. Thank you. Uh, though my friend Nick did tune and rehad your snare drum.

Robin: I trust Nick. Nick is a badass. He's, he's a solid player.

Travis: Yeah. He's, uh, he's always been good. So, um, I mean my, one of my oldest friends has been a drummer since the sixth grade.

Robin: Yeah.

Travis: He's a bad man. Um, so, um, yeah, so that's my thing. I got the rehearsal space set up. I got the clash cover group. I got, uh, my, my band four string at F O R E string. If you want to check this, check us out on the Instagrams or whatever. Um, yeah. And we do punk kind of folky covers of punk tunes. Um, so that's pretty, uh, pretty cool. We're working on that. So more later stuff, nineties, two thousands kind of punk, but, um, yeah, that's kind of that jam. And then, uh, what else has been going on? Yeah, it's just been cold and terrible. Like I've been just trying to keep, keep the bikes on the tenders. I keep my halogen work lamps running in the garage to keep the negative 15 temps away. Um, and, uh, and that's about it. That's about it for my month. It's just been playing music and, uh, and, uh, waiting for the, waiting for the melt. Um, Tim, what else are you been up to since, uh, since you last got on the podcast?

Tim: Oh, it's been a busy month. I, besides going to Chicago for IMS, I also went to Milwaukee for the flat out Friday, which is part of the mama tried motorcycle show.

Travis: Damn.

Tim: Yeah.

Travis: I heard that. I heard that's really, really cool.

Tim: Yeah. It is way more of a custom builder show than IMS. You know, IMS, the custom builds is kind of a side show. There'll be bikes in the aisle and you can vote on them. But from the thing is I've actually never been to the mama tried show myself. I just went to the flat track Friday, which is indoor flat track or flat out Friday, indoor flat track racing.

Travis: Was there, was there a moped category? Yes. Yes, there was a swarm of angry bees.

Tim: It was some of the best racing I have seen in the small bike category. Slow is fast, man. Slow is fast. It's, and it's just rough neck to neck, bumping into each other. They're crashing their bikes, getting back up and riding more. It's just a lot of fun. So I can actually bring up a photo of some of that stuff. I did take pictures today. No, I didn't take my, I didn't bring my nice camera in. So I didn't, I didn't get really anything nice. I just got a couple of things on the iPhone when we were there, but, um, Sylvia came with me and really enjoyed seeing the races. And she went through IMS with me and held some of the extra camera gear while I was strolling around. And let's see, other than that, we think a couple of big things went to New Mexico for a visit to Sylvia's family. And I got my first opportunity to fly an airplane. Oh, yum. Oh, it was fantastic. So her mom married a guy who was a pilot. He's been flying since he was in the air force and he's 80 something now, 84, I think. So he's been flying for over 60 years. And he, he was just like, yeah, I'm going to take you down to the, let's go down to the hangar and I'll show you what I've got. And I'm just, I'm on, I'm on board for the ride. I'm like, oh yeah, show me what, show me what's in the hangar. So he's got, he's got four airplanes in the hangar in various states of completion. Wow. Okay, cool. So he, he bought an old biplane and he's almost done rebuilding that. He's got another one. That's just a shell and a skin on some wings and a pile of parts.

Robin: So then what did you guys jump into?

Tim: It's a Piper Cherokee, if I remember correctly. I totally lost what the plane was. I can show you the picture of it here in just a moment.

Robin: It's a single engine aircraft, kind of like a Cessna, but a little bit more aerodynamic.

Travis: Yeah, the Pipers. Yeah. Just, you know, who would know is Nick, Nick Bogowski would, would be fully aware of all of that. Yeah.

Tim: I don't usually show people all of this because I take a lot of photos. So not very many people get full access to everything.

Travis: It's the raw dump. It's the, it's the, this is all the garbage. And then the 10% that makes it to something is, yes, because that's how photography actually works.

Tim: Boom. All right. So that is the plane. Yeah.

Travis: The wings are below the fuselage. So it's not, the wings are on top of the fuselage, like a Cessna. It's, it's a little more, a little more aerodynamic. Yeah.

Tim: Yep. And the, the tips are up higher than the base of the wing, which gives it a lot more stability and behaves a lot better. So we went up.

Travis: It's still a fixed wheel though. I can see the guards over the wheel. Yeah. The aerodynamic things over the wheels. Fixed wheel.

Tim: Yeah. So five minutes after getting up in the air, he says, all right, you're stick. And I was just kind of like, okay. And kind of timidly grabbed the, the controls and yeah. And he let me fly it for about 50 minutes. And we were up over the mountains, kind of the, some of the smaller ones, we kind of peeked around Sandia peak so we could see Albuquerque and we didn't go into that alley. We didn't want to get in on their airspace. And, uh, but it was super cool. So you can show you a real quick picture of, this is the biplane that is almost ready. Yeah. Beautiful machine.

Travis: Yeah. I need a machine gun on the back.

Tim: Sorry, son.

Travis: They got us.

Tim: It's just, it is world war one era awesomeness. And I don't even know if I've gotten, so they're like, there's the third airplanes motor.

Travis: Oh yeah. Look at that. It's a Subaru motor. Yep.

Tim: So that was a super cool experience. I, he let me control everything and a pusher.

Travis: Look how long those push rods are.

Tim: Yeah. Oh yeah. Like 12 inches. Is that like an F head? No, can't remember. I didn't get any of the details on it. It was like he was doing the pre-flight checklist and I'm running around taking pictures.

Robin: We'll tell you what, it's not, that's not a rotary. Nope. Flat floor.

Travis: It's a flat floor. It's a overhead valve. It might be a, it might be a, an F head or something weird like that. Just like looking at the, the way the head assembly is.

Robin: Tom, how are you doing back there, man?

Travis: I'm all right, man. I'm just, I'm just checking it out.

Tom: So do you have any training or, or he just like said, grab the stick and fly this thing.

Tim: He was, uh, air force when he was young. And I, me? Do you have any training or he just said, no, he just gave me the stick and said, go and like talked me through it as we did it.

Robin: Tom, I'll tell you what, man, flying a plane is easy.

Travis: Everything else is hard.

Robin: Yeah. So my mom dated an air force trainer pilot for a while. The guy that would teach you how to land on aircraft carriers. And he took us, made a buddy up when we were like 11 and 12 years old. And he was like, he handed us the, he handed us the stick. Very first thing my buddy did was shove it into a nosedive. But, but you know, in the end, I mean the man teaches new pilots how to land on a very small piece of property. He was ready for any mistake we were going to make. So when you have a good pilot with you, like you said, he was air force. It didn't matter if you ended up in a, in a, in a flat spin, he was going to get you out of it.

Travis: Well, and your co-pilot's got a yoke too. And it's, I mean though too, landing on aircraft carriers, anything like any top gun, the NES game, it's basically impossible.

Tim: Yeah. Yeah. So it's, he just kind of talked me through all the controls and I was surprised at like how timid I was to lean the plane over into a banked turn. It just was a little spooky. I'm not, I was going so gently into the corners that like, I wasn't really feeling pressure. Like I was banking into the corners. I'm just feeling plane tilts.

Robin: Yeah.

Tim: So it was a little unnerving.

Travis: Yeah. Well that's like, if you actually want that like motorcycle style, like centripetal, like push you down into the seat, you have to like. Pull up, pull back. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You have to, you have to kick the plane over and then, and then go up. Yeah. Even though up is sideways. Sideways.

Tim: Yep. So yeah.

Robin: That's pretty fun.

Tim: I'm just going to scroll through here for a moment and see if I can find one of the other pictures.

Robin: Hurry up Tim.

Tim: We got a topic to get to. You better believe it. So you can see, I take a lot of photos here. This is.

Robin: Yeah man, you got a problem.

Tim: The concert I went to.

Travis: Well, anything unneeded is what the editor is for. Yeah. Thanks Trav. No, this is when he was in New Mexico.

Tim: Oh, that was a guy named Corey Wong and that was a really good concert.

Robin: Well, these photos are beautiful. Oh, that's Chicago.

Tim: No, it's Milwaukee. This is Illinois beach.

Robin: Oh, that's cool.

Tim: Cause we stayed at the hotel in the state park on the way down. All right. Yeah. So let's get back to the other stuff. So that was the big thing. Got to fly, went to flat out Friday. Um, I installed airbags in the truck. Um, the airbag load supports.

Robin: Yes, sir.

Tim: I got them in.

Robin: I got, I just put them in the three 52.

Tim: Oh yeah. Yeah. It was, the instructions were horrible and the instructions were wrong. IKEA airbags. So they're made by Firestone and really the only problem I had was that every bolt that they had you install, they had you install it backwards because you guys have backed me up on this.

Travis: Like from the top where you can't actually get a wrench in there or whatever.

Tim: Right. You torque the nut, not the bolt.

Travis: Yeah.

Tim: They set it up. So it was the opposite in their instructions. You could not access the nut the way they had you install it. So, and it's blind, it's a horrible reach. Like I'm hugging the, the, the wheel carrier assembly, trying to reach something behind the frame rail. I can't see what I'm doing at all.

Travis: It took forever.

Tim: It was freezing cold. I actually like had the, uh, kerosene heater roaring full blast. And I probably was getting a little bit of carbon monoxide poisoning. I came in with a headache and some nausea, but I finished the goddamn job. Congratulations. So yes, joys of working in the, or it's an insulated garage now, but it is unattached. So there's no heat from the house leeching into it. So it's cold.

Travis: It's a concrete slab in the Wisconsin tundra with yeah. With insulation and drywall and OSB.

Tim: Oh yeah. And the, the other fun thing is that the heated air was making the cold metal sweat. Oh, yeah. The cold metal sweating actually melted or mixed with the road salt that was coating the truck. So it was dripping super salty water on me.

Robin: That's horrible.

Tim: It's bad for your bikes. It was kind of miserable work.

Robin: Yeah. Yeah.

Tim: But yeah. So then, but yeah, IMS, that was the big deal for motorcycling stuff for me. At some point I'm going to tear apart the Africa twin and change the air filters, but I haven't gotten to it. I don't know.

Robin: We're going to talk about IMS. Wait until it to be tolerable.

Travis: Yeah. Well, Hey, ADV rider forum winner, uh, Madison meetup. Let's make it happen.

Tim: Yes, we do need to get that happening.

Travis: Um, get Jody and Jody's Tim over and some of the other guys. Yeah.

Tim: But that's, so that's my thing until we get into the big topic. So Robin, how about you tell me what's going on on the camping adventures?

Robin: Well, okay. No camping adventures. We have a rolling earthquake of a house that, uh, we drive around places. Um, let's see here. I have no recollection of any bad weather. So I'm sorry to say that because I know you guys are suffering. Um, I do however, miss you guys. I miss riding with you guys because my summer never ended. We basically ditched the cold weather and are down here now. So while everybody that I care about is suffering in the North, I joke and say that I'm not laughing with you. I'm laughing at you, Tom, I am laughing at you, Tim, Travis at you. Don't worry your victims. Um, uh, you know, basically the last time you heard from us, we were probably in dripping Springs, Texas. And then we went to, uh, truth or consequences, New Mexico. And within the truth of consequences area, we were in elephant Butte, which looks like elephant butt, which is hot and sexy by a 90s standards. Anyhow, um, but when his, uh, true, the constant true, true, the consequences, New Mexico, which changed its name to that based on a game show, we spent a month there. Um, because it's freaking beautiful. It's right next to the spaceport, which is where virgin is developing their space tourism platform. They are renters at their tenants at that location. We got to tour it, which was pretty cool. Uh, Maggie Dean jumped into the, the, uh, G4 simulator, the training simulator that can go up to like five or six G she did too. Uh, which was entertaining enough. You can probably see that video. If you look us up on YouTube. So we spent a month there, the roads there. I will say that in truth or consequence, New Mexico, there are three, maybe four, let's call it three in credible writing routes. One is short. It goes out to the spaceport. One is incredibly long. It goes from truth or consequence to silver city. That is through Gila national forest. It is drop job, beautiful. And it was my regular go-to. If I felt like having a day trip, I would work, I would work, I would work. And that would take a day and be like, I'm going to go and take a little ride. I'd ride to silver city on this stupefyingly beautiful ride. Uh, that's, uh, let's see. It's route one 52, one 52 from truth or consequence to silver city. Now north of there through Gila national forest is the 59 slash 52 combination. It is also a, uh, it's a national forest road, but the difference is it's no, it's nowhere near as high traffic. It's pavement that becomes dirt. So it's not maintained. And even the paved section, the video that I'm going to present, the article that I'm going to present for that route is all about hazards that you'd be writing this long straight on 52. And it would, it would say, Hey, 30 miles per hour. Uh, I'd be like, well, I don't see a turn anywhere. I'm doing like 70 or the speed limit, of course. And then all of a sudden you're just in the air because it's not that there's a curve coming up. The road is just goes to a steep cliff and you can see across like it's a, like it's a mad magazine fold out. You know what I'm saying? So incredible writing there, but, uh, that would be the hazard route. That'd be the let's practice my safety technique route. And then there was like a small route local that, uh, like I said, went to the spaceport is pretty beautiful. Um, and so we spent a month in total serene seclusion at a beautiful park that was on these incredible, uh, side-by-side and dirt bike ADV trails. Um, there is so much dirt riding there. It's everywhere. Uh, so I was lucky that I picked a spot where we had enough street writing that I could get my jollies. And then, uh, we, you know, after that we packed it up and now we're in Tucson, Arizona.

Travis: So that's the thing about like out West is there's so much more like off-road and like public land to be had out West than there is in the Midwest and especially East coast. But like, you know, Wisconsin, there's no public land to use.

Robin: Yeah, absolutely. And they were going to have a rally, a side-by-side rally for wildcats and all those, whatever those vehicles are, as we were leaving and we kind of high-fived everybody and pulled out. Um, but here in Tucson, it's a little bit different. It's the opposite, the serenity, the seclusion, the rural feel that is out the window. We, it took us three days to set up here in Tucson because everybody is so friendly and there's so many of them. They just want to walk up and talk to you and ask you how you're doing, which what are, what are you doing? Who are you? And they just want to get to know you. So as it turns out, I'm going to be able to get a little bit of work done because surprisingly, there's really not as much writing here. I mean, I've got one route that actually did two routes, but the route that goes up Mount Lemon is through downtown Tucson, which there is no outer belt. So I had to kind of go through the downtown there and, and pick it up. It's a beautiful ride, but it's high traffic because it goes to three count, three resorts at the top of the hill. So, you know, so far I'm figuring it out, but there's really not as much street opportunity here in Tucson as there might be in maybe Phoenix, if that. In the end, you know, we came here to, honestly, we came here to visit my folks. We came here to visit my folks who are up in Phoenix, which is why we parked about two hours away from them. So we didn't have to visit them too often. At any rate, that, that is, that's the mess.

Travis: There's a, there's a YouTuber that I like that she does car stuff. Former Air Force mechanic does a car YouTube stuff. Sarah in tuned, but she's out of Tucson. If you want to check out her channel, hit her up, see if she wants to do some motorcycle stuff.

Robin: That'd be cool. It'd be a good interview while we're here. You know, that's something we need to start doing. If we're going to be traveling this much is to make sure we interview people that are local just to get the feel and the vibe. That'd be kind of fun. Which brings me to our guest interview in the outline here. This being our annual IMS special, there is no interview for this month, but we'd love to hear your motorcycle story. If you'd like to be featured on this podcast, you can reach out to us at podcast at the riding obsession.com or record your thoughts to an app like allphonic for Android and iPhone. It's spelled a U P H O N I C upload the resulting file to SoundCloud and email us the link. We'll polish things up before featuring your tail and your voice and your words. Now the outline is out the window, Tom, Tim, you guys both attended, you know, usually this is me and Travis and Tim, you went the past two years. Uh, now it's Tom and Tim are running the show. You guys argue, argue your way through it. What did you guys see? I'm going to sit back and sip my wine and make a fool of myself or yourself, whatever.

Tom: Well, first of all, since Tim already mentioned Mama tried to flat track Friday, I was disappointed. It was the same weekend because I've yet to get to flat track Friday. I've been to Mama tried on a Sunday cause that's easy to do. But, um, I like to do the IMS on Friday so I can get off work, you know, two 30 and hit it when it's not packed. And, uh, Friday is the way I like to attack it. And, uh, I can't, I couldn't do that and flat out Friday. Maybe I could have, but that would have been crazy.

Tim: Yeah. Um, so yeah, I, yeah, I, I really wish they hadn't done them the same day, but you know, they don't talk to each other for sure. And one of the things that I was a little sad is sometimes Chicago's IMS is kind of late in the season for the show circuit. So we don't get to see all the new stuff, you know, some of the that's getting announced as the tour is happening. So, you know, I was really excited, you know, even though, you know, Harley is not usually high on my list of things to see, but this year I wanted to see the live wire. I wanted to sit on it. I wanted to, because we'd been chatting about it and chatting about the electric motorcycles. I really wanted to get a feel for not just the live wire, but I really actually am kind of excited about some of the small electric vehicles there they've got in the concept phase right now. They've got a one that looks halfway between a dirt bike and an electric mountain bike, and they've got a scooter one and none of that was there. Oh, yeah.

Travis: So you're, you're, you're telling me Harley is failing to effectively market their non vintage style cruiser line.

Tim: That would be an accurate statement. Although they did have their, their custom Harley Davidson branded trucks. They had two of those, and I actually talked to the guy for quite a while and he gave me a press kit, which was a treat because I'd never been given a press kit of anything.

Robin: It is amazing. It's amazing how little I give a shit about that. My God.

Travis: Well, here's the thing I remember. Excuse my snort. The markup on licensing is a hundred percent.

Robin: Holy.

Travis: Right. The marketing on licensing is a hundred percent. You have to remember that.

Tim: It was, they're very expensive. They're very expensive. F one fifties.

Robin: Oh, really? An underpowered truck that can't tow anything really.

Tim: I mean, I got a really nice key shaped USB stick with a Harley Davidson logo on it.

Travis: Loaded with malware.

Tim: Tom just loaded with, uh, they're Harley Davidson photos. So they're not quite malware, but close.

Travis: So, I mean, that's, I mean, that's the usual thing. It's like, they have these concepts, like they're, they have people in their company making the electric mountain bikes, making the electric scooter, making the electric sport bike. And they're still just like, nope, we're going to make our bread and butter off of licensing our brand, my brand to Ford for pickup trucks.

Tim: And I know that they've had some, yeah, I know they've had some tough years. They've been, there has been a lot of news about them struggling, but I think that the bleeding's got to get a little worse before they take some serious steps to change. And they've got to work really hard and be very delicate to change their brand without alienating everyone who's bought bikes, you know, before now.

Travis: Yeah. I mean, that, I mean, that's the thing I, I mean, we've talked about this before, but like if you make sport bikes and you make electric mountain bikes, that's not going to stop you from selling a, a Softail Heritage to, to a guy who wants one, right? Like, like it's, it's mutually exclusive, like selling, like actually like having in the showroom and like prominently displayed and trying to sell the live wire or whatever their sport bike concept was, I think is 2020, 2021 that they're going to come out with. That's also the adventure bike.

Robin: Yeah.

Travis: The guy who's in America, the, yeah, the Pan America, the guy who's going to drop the, the 20 grand or more on the Heritage Softail is going to do that anyway.

Robin: Anybody who buys that Pan America piece of lead is, they deserve what they get.

Tim: I mean, honestly, if any, if it's decently, yeah, like kind of like a whale shark. The mouth of it looks like a whale shark.

Travis: Well, yeah, it's that, it's that, that, what is that called? That's not the Milwaukee Eight. They had a, they had a, they had a term for that styling motive. Oh, but yeah, that's, but that's fine. It's like, honestly, I mean, look at a review for an R 1200 RS, like the best, arguably the best selling adventure motorcycle on the planet is a big, heavy pig and R 1200 RS.

Robin: You want to back up on it?

Travis: Sorry. Say R 200 GS. Thank you. Yeah. Or R 1250 GS. It's like a big, heavy pig of a bike. You know, they call it the Rhino cause it just kind of plows. It doesn't really like go over rough roads as much as it plows them flat. Yeah, but it works.

Robin: Right.

Travis: So if, if Harley engineers this right and releases it, it could totally work. And, and that's a premium market and they can charge a premium price. And if it's comparable, but is it going to get build and sit in the back of the showroom and collect dust?

Robin: I'll ask Tom, if it's okay to back up on this as well, but I want to back up and say that, you know, you mentioned how a Harley tends to have a certain, they don't have the end in their marketing scheme. They have, they have the only, it's like, this is what people should want. And it's only this type. There's no, we're going to add to that because there's a demand for it. They that's where the, that's why I've always seen them as a staunch failure. They don't allow and into the picture. It's no, no, no. Stop. What? And we, we need to explain to you why you want this, not that. And that's horrible. I hate that about them. And I've said it before. I want them to succeed. I want Harley to be, but that is not how success works. You don't bark a directive at the consumer.

Tim: You know, one of the things that I've been a little surprised that they don't do is open up a, well, they kind of did that with Buell. They opened up a secondary brand, but I'd almost think that it would be good to have them have a, rather than a sub have a, a parent company with Harley as a sub brand and whatever else they're doing as a sub brand. I think that they'd be more flexible as a company.

Travis: Kind of like Polaris with like victory.

Tim: Exactly.

Travis: Well, not defined by like Polaris Indian.

Tim: Right. That's the kind of thing I'm thinking.

Robin: I feel like they would feel like victims to that though. They, they would feel like they fell, they fell a notch for having taken on such a role.

Travis: Yamaha tried that with star and now that star is the funk now and it's just all just Yamaha. But I feel like star being the funk doesn't mean Yamaha is not making cruises anymore. They just call them Yamaha's instead of stars. Kind of like Toyota and Scion.

Tim: Exactly. Yep.

Travis: But I feel like, yeah, with the, the way that the way the Harley brand is ingrained, it might be a little better, but then that's part of the reason why the Scion brand didn't like the Scion never took off. And like in America, Toyota is known as this like premium brand, but then Honda and Acura that, that work right. Like only in America is Acura a brand ever else. All those Acura models are just Honda.

Tim: Yes, yes, exactly. Yep. So Tom and I had had a quick chat before and he said that he likes to hit the, hit the vendors first before going straight to the bike. So when I went and I was taking pictures, I've mimicked that as well.

Tom: I noticed that.

Tim: Nice. Yeah. So we're going to walk through some of our photos here, even though I don't know if we're going to show any of these on the website, but we'll just kind of talk about it, you know, and see what kind of people you're seeing. And what kind of products you're seeing. I didn't sadly catch everything or not everything that I actually put out there, but before you could even get there, of course there was Confederate motorcycles along the right-hand wall.

Robin: Their name freaks me out. Talk me down.

Tim: All right. Yeah. It's so the guys that are running it now are not the guys who started the company. The guy who is actually in this picture here in the cowboy hat, he bought the rights and the, the brand, he basically bought the brand and the rights to produce Confederate motorcycles.

Travis: Well, that bike there in the picture too, it's like, it was pretty well-sculpted. It's got that kind of Springer, um, you know, uh, levered front. It's basically like, yeah, like a, like a Honda passport, but it's got that hover to the, basically the spine is the gas tank.

Robin: I remember that from the past.

Tim: Actually, no, but it's on this one. The spine is the oil. The gas is in the belly. Yeah. Gas is in the belly pan. This thing weighs like 325 pounds.

Travis: If I remember for a big fatty custom cruiser. Yeah. It's like it is it's motocross bike.

Tim: It is all carbon fiber and billet aluminum other than the motor itself. It is stripped down to nothing fast kind of nonsense bike. And I really want to ride it.

Robin: Yeah. I don't, I don't really even see cruiser with that. It's not that that's more, it's more of a standard chassis.

Travis: Yeah.

Robin: It's naked street fighter.

Travis: Like it's got 17 inch wheels with sport rubber on it.

Robin: Yeah.

Travis: I mean, I would track that side exhaust.

Tim: Yeah. So it's a strange beast and it's something like 60,000 base price. I love those lights.

Robin: I love those lights. You know, on the little projector. Well, you know what those remind me of? What, what is that? Uh, there's a thermostat, there's a thermometer from the, you know, post 16th century where the Galileo thermometer.

Tim: Yeah. It's like, which is I think more of a burn. No, is it Bernoulli as a barometer? It's a buoyancy thing.

Robin: Yes. Basically a, a, a module will fall when you're above a specific, it's very odd numbers, 62.5, 72.3 eights. You know, it's, but it just, it looks, it's got that vibe to it. Yeah. I love it. I think it's cool.

Travis: So AKA it kind of looks like a, like a late two thousands BMW. Yeah.

Tim: Those BMWs with the, uh, the big headlight and the little one always reminds me of head trauma.

Robin: It's all cuckoo for Cocoa Puff.

Travis: Well, that one too, with like, if you've got head trauma, the levered front fork with the shock in it, but it's got a reservoir shock.

Tim: Yeah. Yeah. It's such a goofy combination attack.

Tom: And I, the machine looks like billet aluminum machined on it. It's really cool. But I can't get used to that. Those forks, they look like rudders.

Tim: Well, I, from what I understand, like the geometry of it is supposed to have a lot less freight, uh, break dive than standard telescoping forks.

Travis: Yeah. I mean, it's like an Earl's fork or, or a tele lever fork or whatever Honda's using a Goldwing now than a standard telescopic fork, like having that, you don't get the dive in it, but it also eliminates, you know, some feel. So depending on what kind of sportiness you're wanting, but that's the trade off. I mean, that was the whole thing with the new Goldwing, right?

Robin: Yeah. And the BMWs through the ages. We got the zonks.com.

Tim: Yes. Yep. So this is a little bit of a con. The thing that really caught my eye here was this stick on blinker system, which is this be seen wireless break turn signal light. It's I love the idea. It just looks goofy.

Robin: Yeah.

Travis: Yeah. It's a, so if you, I don't know if I think we'll probably maybe do a YouTube version of this, but if you're just listening on the podcast, it's a giant tail light turn signal assembly. Like you'd see on like a sport bike tail tidy that sticks onto the back of your helmet. And then like maybe Bluetooth or uses some sort of wireless tech to, uh, to tap into your, your motorcycle system and then replicate it on the back of your helmet.

Robin: I'll tell you what, if they can do that, I would love for them to put some kind of one of those, one of those scrolling led signs on the back of my helmet where it can have custom messages. One that says let's back, back the fuck up. That kind of thing.

Tim: So I love it. Like, I mean, as far as, you know, all the science behind it is it's up high, it's visible to the cars behind you. It makes a ton of sense. It just, you know, even for someone who's willing to be goofy and where hive is and be a safety dork, it's still a little too much.

Tom: It's a little bulky looking. Yeah. I was teasing my friend because he loves to ride at night and he's got like lights all over his bike, like every, any, anywhere he can affix some led strips, he's got them on there. And I was like, this is for you. I call him the night ride. Even the line at this point, he said, no, it's a bit much. Yes. It's an ax. Yep.

Tim: So we're going to see just a whole stack of things. And here's another fun crowd shot of the, of one of the Chicago motorcycle clubs guys in their leather and their leather vests.

Robin: The hierarchy of the tasseled order.

Travis: A bunch of dentists.

Robin: A bunch of dentists.

Tim: And I just hadn't seen that many guys wearing leather motorcycle vests and berets. Yeah.

Travis: Well, those are more like kind of driver boy.

Tim: Yeah.

Travis: I don't know.

Tim: Okay. Yeah.

Travis: But it's with the Harley, with the Harley patch on the back and then, Oh, you got the past guy with this USMC, USMAF. Yeah.

Tim: And he, the veteran patch and Marines. So this is a lot of the accessories are very heavily geared towards the Harley crowd because in Chicago and Midwest, they're very well represented.

Travis: Yeah.

Tim: So, I mean, it's, you know, those are expensive. Yeah. Yeah. These were awesome. This is one of those, like, get the kids involved and get excited about motorcycles. These are electric driven. Well, bicycles that they were on and a little flat, little mini flat track.

Travis: Are they, are those, I don't see pedals. Are those like electric driven strider bikes? Yep. Where you like kick and then it also pushes you along.

Tim: Exactly.

Travis: That's pretty cool. I want a grownup size. One of those.

Tim: I know, I know they looked fun. They looked full fun. And this, this girl was having a hard time figuring it out. She duck walked all the way around, but she had a smile on her face. So it was good. And we got a little kid here in the corner, waiting his turn in line. Just like, I mean, it's, you know, early in the show, I'm still trying to get my settings figured out. So some of these are a little blurry. And this one here is the one that I really wish was in focus. This, this is a little, it was, I just kind of loved this bigger kid who really knew what he was doing and he was riding it. Like he was riding the flat track. He's getting his inside foot down. And those two boys were just tearing it up around this little track.

Travis: Yeah. He's got his, he's got his, he's got an inside foot kicked out and just like swinging it around.

Robin: He's been waiting for the opportunity to fuck shit up. And he was like, Oh, is this a chance finally? Am I old enough now? And he's like in, in the pit whooping ass. But no, it's, you know, he's gonna have to deal with, uh, kids are basically just trying to figure it out, you know, and get the, get the ropes going. But he's still having fun. Yeah. Yes.

Tim: So yeah, this is all state and sponsoring the little kid zone. They're trying to get the kids involved and get, I know there's a lot of issue with people are worried about the future of, you know, are people actually coming into motorcycling? You know, is this something people are excited about or is it just older guys and this thing's going to fade away?

Tom: I think they did a good job trying to promote that to get the younger riders interested.

Travis: Well, especially like with the electric, I think that's a big deal, man.

Robin: You need to accept the fact that the next generation is going to be smarter. They're going to be worried about the environment. They're going to want all that. Uh, they're going to want green energy and they're going to want power and torque. And I mean, it's the solution is already there.

Tom: Yes. And here's be able to get on a bike and, and, you know, sit on it and ride it around. And, you know, that's what I always wanted to do when I was a kid is, you know, strap a lawnmower onto a bicycle, get, get, get, get going, get, get mobile.

Robin: Yeah. And they made it possible right at the show, right? Exactly. They got to get to it.

Tom: Oh yeah.

Tim: Yep. And they also had their adult area as well. So they had both Yamaha with their electric motors or electric mountain bike. And they had some out riding those around getting feel for what the pedal assist electric bicycle feels like, you know, I'll, you already know that I'm a fan of, I've got one of my own from track.

Travis: Yeah, you do. Yeah. Which I've written in. It's a fucking hoot. Like you get on it and it just makes you feel like Superman.

Tim: You feel super human. It's so fun. Yeah. So they also had, this is what the, uh, what's the name of this? The discover the ride is the name of the program they had going here. And they had some zero motorcycles there as well.

Travis: Could you actually ride the zeros or yes.

Tim: Yeah. There were a couple of people riding them. Um, I got a whole bunch of pictures of a month. It was kind of a lot going on in between the photos I took here. So it was a little hard to keep track.

Travis: I didn't go to the IMS this year. Cause it's like, it's kind of boring. I've gone for the last, like whatever, six years or so. And there's, there wasn't a whole lot of new bikes this year that I was interested in. But if I think, I feel like if I could have gotten in with some of these guys, it would have been a little more worth it.

Robin: Right. And only after the IMS, all of a sudden we got the SR slash F and Buell's new project plus, you know, what makes you, which like if they, if they, if they got some repping next year, that might be the, Oh yeah.

Travis: And if she has their live wire, that would be nice.

Tim: So I almost actually kind of purposely made the decision not to try and ride the zero because if I ride it, I have a feeling I'm going to want it.

Travis: And I, you just bought a new electric mountain bike.

Tim: Yes. Yeah. I I'm, I'm at the point where I've got to take a break.

Travis: You can't, you can't blame it on the broken leg drugs anymore.

Tim: No, no, I can't. Yeah. That was a very convenient excuse. I broke my leg. I bought an Africa twin. I broke my leg. I bought a gun.

Travis: I was high when I boarded it on mine. Oh yeah.

Tim: Yep. Yeah. Someone else is injured. I bought it. I bought another thing. Yeah. No, I thought it was make him happy. Yeah. So yeah. Oh man. And this guy, I took a picture of on kind of sitting on the zero FX. He was so excited. He was like, you got to take my picture, take my picture. And it was because he had the most ironic shirt to wear when you're on a electric motorcycle. What's the shirt that says ass gas or grass for free. And I'm like, well, you just obviated the need for one of them.

Robin: How are we going to keep that phrasing? How are we going to make that guy? I love that phrase. So yeah, we got a gas issue. Yeah.

Tim: Yes. So now, uh, your, your cost to give someone a ride is pennies. So how much ass or grass are you getting for that ride?

Travis: Ask fast charge for grass mass or grass juice juice or juice.

Tim: Oh, and the, the guys from zero, they were super helpful because Sylvia's wheelchair tires were flat and they chased down an air pump for us.

Robin: Oh wow. Nice.

Tim: So while we were sitting there waiting for them to go chase one down, I took a bunch of pictures, pictures of their motorcycles there.

Travis: Yeah. The FX looks pretty cool. I mean, I don't know. I'm sort of torn on that. Like the, what they did do, which is better than like Toyota and some, have you guys seen the, um, some of the, like, like, like the Toyota, like the Tacoma and some of the other off road, like truck, I'm doing air quotes here, truck, um, where they do like that desert camo, flat tan, and then put a glossy clear coat on it. So it's like gloss flat and it looks like garbage. It looks at those shoes. Like, like there they do, they do the, the, the flat, but it's actually a matte finish. So that's good.

Tim: Yeah. Well, I do know that one of the reasons that they do clear coat it is because if you do scuff it or damage it and have to repaint it, it is nearly impossible to get it to blend with the existing satin or matte finish.

Travis: Well, that's the whole point of like the actual, like, this is a tank in a war zone, flat, like desert color is like, you just spray paint it with the desert, with the same 50 gallon drum of spray paint.

Tim: Yeah.

Travis: Yeah.

Tim: You don't care about blending or feathering. You just, you're like, but it's like, I don't care if it's like, how about you just make it three shades brighter.

Robin: There's nothing, nothing that bed liner can't make look just fine.

Travis: Yeah. So anyway, they got a wheelie machine here at the FX or at the zero booth?

Tim: They had a wheelie machine. And I think if you remember the previous years, the wheelie machine was like a hydraulic ram.

Travis: Yeah.

Tim: Ooh, Sylvia's wearing sparkles. Stripper dress.

Travis: Yes. Hey, Tim got distracted. Edit this out.

Tim: Sorry about that. Very nice. Okay.

Robin: So yeah, we're recording a podcast. Be professional, sir.

Travis: Nothing else. And now Tim is distracted.

Robin: Yeah. Tim, I know you're, I know you're paying my friend.

Tim: Okay. So in the, in the past, the wheelie machine that they brought to these shows was a big hydraulic cylinder, a big hydraulic Ram underneath the bike that would lift the bike. This year? No, they put the zero FXS, the super moto electric bike, and it is on a wheel roller in the back and a pivot on the back. And they are actually having people do wheelies with the throttle.

Travis: Oh, that's awesome.

Tim: And they've got a strap on the front wheel to hold it down to keep people from going over the back.

Travis: So it was fun.

Tim: So yeah, even with a, you know, big, big chunky guys, that thing would come up.

Travis: Well, it's a hundred percent torque. Huge. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think the FXX isn't as big as like the new one, but it's still like 80, 85 pounds.

Tim: Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's plenty. It's from zero. That has got to be a hooligan machine. It'd be so fun.

Robin: What did the RF slash S?

Travis: Yeah. The new one.

Robin: Well, whatever it, that thing is 140, 140 foot pounds torque.

Travis: The RF slash F I think.

Robin: RS slash F. Thank you.

Tim: Yeah. So yeah, here's guys that just got off the little test track riding the zero. And sadly I caught the picture of the guy with his eyes closed. Oh, he's a total control instructor. That's cool.

Travis: Yep. Yep. Got, he's got $150 deer skin gloves.

Tim: So yeah. And then we've proceeded to hitting the, uh, hitting the booths and talking to the people on the run.

Travis: I see the rumble on ads on my Instagram and Facebook.

Robin: If you're hitting the booths, Tom, like the new, the new cycle trader, if Tom, if they were nice screaming in, if you see something that catches your eye that you remember like, Oh, then you go right ahead.

Tim: We'll do.

Robin: Yes.

Tim: Yep. Rumble on is an interesting one because it is like cycle trader, but they will also do a cash offer. If you want to sell your bike and you're willing to take what they're willing to offer you.

Travis: Yeah. The company will buy it instead of like a buyer. Yeah. That's cool.

Tim: Yeah. So you don't have to mess with strangers other than the company. Yeah. Yeah. And we, we chatted with them for a while. They were pretty funny. I, you know, you never know. Sometimes you're dealing with people who work for the company or who are the company. And some of them are hired, you know, salespeople consultants. I can't even remember what they were. I think these guys might actually be the company, but we also talked to the model who was, we got a whole lot of talk about like, yeah, she would, she was fun. She was nice. She was joking about me and Sylvia both getting one of these suits, one of the unit charges, because they are they're apparently they're waterproof and quite comfortable. All right. And very soft. But I said, no, we would look like a bobsled team. And I wasn't ready for that.

Travis: Yeah. Well, yeah. Well, especially with, if you're at the thing with Sylvia's wheelchair, you can like actually bobsled down the thing.

Tim: Absolutely. Yeah. And Sylvia was a trooper. I had her there for five and a half, six hours. So yeah, it was, it was good that she had the chair. So it was.

Travis: Yeah. Well, that's right. And if you're just tuning in, if you're a new listener, so Tim's SO, his, his, his, his significant is, has, has MS. So she has like a, a wheelchair walker hybrid thing for when, when it kicks in and she can't quite get around as easily as she maybe wants to.

Tim: Yeah. Especially something like this, where you're just standing about and you're kind of shuffling around and it's, it's just so much easier.

Travis: When you're not fully active, it's like way, it's the worst.

Tim: Yeah, it is. It's one of those ones where like, you get that feeling like when your hips hurt because you're just kind of shuffling, you're not actually walking.

Travis: Yeah.

Tim: You're not taking a natural stride.

Travis: Yeah. And it's, I mean, it's draining when you're, when you're fully able-bodied, let alone having a, you know, something like MS or some other mobility issue.

Robin: This girl, this girl, now to back up a second of what you guys are talking about, I'll tell you right now, I know for a fact that Sylvia could whoop this girl's ass, but this girl looks. I don't know. You see the, you see the snakes on this girl? I don't, I personally, I mean, I'm complimenting Sylvia on that. I personally don't want to mess with this chick. She, she looks like that is one bad-ass gal.

Travis: The hardcore Dianese, whoever was hosting the Dianese booth, right?

Robin: Well, that may be my, a friend of mine runs a Dianese store in Chicago. So.

Tim: Yeah. Sometimes it is a, it's local store reps that'll run these.

Robin: Yeah. Shout out to McKella. McKella. I don't have his last name in front of me. McKella is a fellow MSF instructor, but he operates the Dianese store in Chicago. He may have had something to do with this booth. Whoever this girl is, I want you to tell her.

Travis: She might be corporate. It looks like her name, man, says Stacy, something Stacy, right? Riser, Riser. Dianese USA.

Robin: Hey Trav, what's your tattoo say?

Travis: What does my tattoo? What does her tattoo say? Yeah. Or my tattoo?

Robin: I didn't say, I know what your tattoo says. Your tattoo is awesome, but her.

Tim: I can't, I can't make any sense of that.

Robin: It looks like Travis, I'm looking for you.

Travis: And when I find you, you better be ready. It looks like it's in like Cyrillic or something. Like she's like a hardcore Easter European, Russian babe or something.

Robin: She's a can of whoop-ass is what she is.

Travis: That's so funny. Yeah, this is, if you can read this, we're making love or I'm kicking your ass.

Robin: Column A, column B, or maybe both.

Travis: There's probably a C go on. There's a blurry, there's a blurry line in there somewhere, but we have a, I'm a fan of the safety stuff.

Tim: I'm a little bit of a safety dork and I would really love for the airbag tech to come down in price.

Travis: Is she demoing the airbag tech in this photo?

Tim: Yeah. Yeah. That's what she's pointing at and talking about is the, this is the race model jacket, you know, the track jacket. They also have a, they have a street version as well.