Robin: Hello everybody, I am Robin Dean.

Travis: I'm Travis Burleson.

Robin: And I'm Tim Clark. And this is the Writing Obsession Podcast.

Travis: In this episode, we'll discuss podcast outline with subcontent here.

Robin: There you go, Travis, try that again.

Travis: All right, in this episode, we'll discuss the possibility of a new Honda Sport Touring model, as well as riding Kentucky's Killbilly Triangle, and take a look at some new kit, including tools and luggage.

Tim: This episode of the Writing 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: TheWritingObsession.com needs, we need sponsors. Please help us out here. Sponsors are given three focused mentions toward the start, middle, and end of their designated episode. Their contributions are put toward bettering the program's content and recording equipment. Total cost for all three ad spots, 50 bucks per sponsor per episode. That's it. Help us help you. Lots of helping. All of the helping. I'll take this opportunity to promote our next group riding tour, which is scheduled for October of this year, dubbed the Trip Sevens Tour. Seven riders will cover seven states in seven days, starting October 5th of 2019. Sign up deadline is September 20th. It's a sport touring getaway of epic proportions, and we hope you'll sign up. More information about that tour is available via TheWritingObsession.com. Visit the group tours link, which is anchored under events in our navigation menu. And that takes us to our personal notes. So, Travis, what is up, man? How's your month going? Any news with the buns in the oven?

Travis: Oh, you know, the fetuses are still there. That's good. You know, the hospital bills keep coming in the mail. So, you know. But yeah, so that's all going well. I put the spare Kawasaki ER6N up for sale. So if anyone's in the Madison area looking for a naked sport bike, it's basically a late 2000s version Ninja 650, which is the one that has actual handlebars on it, which is, I think, the best one because you can adjust the handlebars with regular handlebars instead of having to deal with clip-ons. But it's a naked version of that, and it's in super clean shape. It's under 2,000 miles. Find it on Craigslist. I'll show you the thing. The other one is almost coming together. I'm almost done painting the tank. I got it primed and built, and I'm ready to kind of do the final sand and color on it. I just got to get around to doing that. I did do some color match painting on the speedometer cowl, and that came out really well. I was really happy with the way the color match worked out because it's a two-level paint.

Robin: Yeah, didn't you say it was like there's a combination of silver goes to one blue, goes to another blue. It's like almost like three paints, or how did that work?

Travis: Yeah, so you got your primer, and then you put a base coat on, which is like a heavy metallic. So it's kind of bluish when it comes out, but it's mostly just metal flake. Then you go over that with a blue, and then you got to keep putting blue on until the color is the right color of blue. I think it was like four or five coats, and then you put a clear on top of it. So it was kind of a neat process, but it's actually just like mail-ordered color match rattle canning. I thought the one little cowl came out okay, so once the tank's ready, we'll see how it goes once I get around to doing all that. Yeah, there's not much else. I got to do some riding. It's been pretty busy around here, so I haven't been able to do a whole lot else for motorcycle stuff. Always little bits and bobs with the NC700. I got a new pair of bullet riding pants from MotorcycleGear.com that are pretty good. I just don't think they make motorcycle pants that fit me right. They always ride up too high once I'm on the bike, so the knee armor isn't in the right place.

Robin: Even when you're standing, is it low? They say it should only fit properly when you're actually in riding position.

Travis: Yeah, so when I'm standing, it's almost right. It's just like a couple inches off, so I might rip the seams on it and try and move the abrasion-resistant material and the armor pockets down a couple inches. We'll see if I feel so motivated to take on a project like that. Hopefully the Kenmore 58 can go through everything.

Robin: Yeah, my Kevlar denim that I have, whenever I'm standing normally, the top of my knee pads are below my knee. The top of the armor is underneath, and then when I sit down, it all kind of cups in.

Travis: Yeah, which is how they should be, and mine aren't quite fitting that way, so I'll fight with them when there's time. Other than that, on the motorcycle front, I'm just trying to get as much riding in as I can while I can, and it's going pretty well. What about you, Tim? What have you been up to?

Tim: Well, I've been putting some miles in on the new bike, and I'm still very much enjoying it. What is that new bike, then? That is the Husqvarna Svartspilen 401. It's a tiny, tiny little bike. It's basically the Grom for big boys that don't fit on Groms, and I somewhat ambitiously volunteered to do the motorcycle crew for the Ironman, following the bicycles around the course.

Robin: Now, which version of that did you do? I saw that Michael Gordos, one of our friends, Michael, he signed up to do that. He had a cameraman on back, and then did you have, what was your role?

Tim: No, he had a referee on the back. He was up with the professional men, so he was up. He left the staging area early, went through the course very fast, because those guys just screamed through the course, and yeah, he was done with his day much earlier than I was. Since I can't have a passenger on that bike all day long, I did not have a referee to carry around the course, and they didn't have enough for us anyways. The question is, so what were you riding? More motorcycles than referees. Well, I am on spotter duty, and this is just an extra set of eyes out on the course. You know, I'm there if someone has an emergency. I'm, you know, someone with a phone that can call the command center, and a lot of times, it's check on people. How you doing? You know, if they're standing on the side of the road, what's going on? Can I get you a bike tech? You know, they're a mile back or something like that. You know, run and give the bike techs a heads up that they need to come up and pick up somebody.

Robin: You're keeping everybody safe. You're keeping everybody intact and safe, and I mean, that's like a hero's move right there. That's cool.

Tim: Yeah, so I mean, it's fun, and sometimes you get to play bike mechanic, and you know, I usually travel with a set of bike tools, some patch kits, an extra set of tubes, and just all sorts of little nonsense to maybe get someone back on the road that we don't need to flag down the truck with a bike tech.

Robin: Good. Nice.

Tim: And I left way late. I was with a slow crew all day long. It was much colder than I was expecting this weekend, and drizzled, and I froze my heart off, but it's fun, and I actually, I screwed up once and almost ruined someone's day.

Travis: Did you pull out in front of someone or something?

Tim: So what happened is I'm on a stretch of road that I just passed a bunch of bikes that were going about an average 12 miles an hour or so, you know, not moving all that fast. Check my mirror. Looks clear. Looks like there's a couple hundred yards between me and anyone behind me, and there's a water bottle or, you know, a Gatorade bottle that was in the path of their travel because I tend to hug the right shoulder. So normally when I see that and I've got space, I'll just pull over and kick it out and into, you know, I will kick the bottle off the road just to give them a clear path. I stalled the bike. Oh! Because I forgot that I was in second and not, didn't drop all the way to first. And at that same time, apparently one of the pro men, or if not the one of the pros, one of the very fast men was up on me, and he almost hit me from behind at about 30 miles an hour. It is unreal how fast these guys go on those bikes. So, yeah, I felt bad. Like, I didn't ruin his day, but I definitely pissed him off.

Robin: Oh, man.

Tim: Yeah, it sucks. I'm like, I hope I'm doing, you know, net good. You know, I'm not here to give anyone a hard time or make anyone's day worse.

Robin: I think you being there was not a bad thing. You made up for it just by, you know, existing.

Tim: Yeah, I had one guy that was just like, he'd been on the side of the road for 45 minutes, hadn't seen a bike tech, and he was just happy that someone had stopped and gave a damn that he was there. Nice. So, chatted with him for a while until the bike tech showed up. Because the one thing that I forgot to bring was an air pump, and that was all that man needed to get back on the road. So, that's all right. So, overall good day. How about you, Robin? What is going on with you this week, this month? What's the deal?

Robin: I'm here in Lone Rock. Lone Rock, we're about an hour from anything or anybody that we know. But my sister came and visited from Columbus, Ohio. My sister visited from Columbus, Ohio, which was really cool. Got to spend a few days with her. Coached a lot of MSF courses over the past month, some with folks I've been looking forward to coaching with for quite some time. I also got to coach with my wife, Maggie Dean, who is now a certified MSF rider coach for the yeah. So, congrats to her, which was a lot of fun, man. That was a solid experience, and I'm looking forward to coaching with her regular. Then rode a few of the Wisconsin Driftless Adventures maps. I actually spent that time with you a little bit and Michael Gordos as well. We got to ride that Boaz Kaz route, which is just a damn fine time visiting the western regions of the Driftless. Isn't that great? And what was really hilarious to me was noting when Tim knew the road, because he would be squaring my exhaust pipe versus when I was ad-libbing up front on the road. None of us have been on the road. So, yeah, that Boaz Kaz route was just a hoot, man, and it's right here. So, Travis has been on that now, too. He and I doubled up for that one a couple of times. So, let's see, where was I?

Travis: I was on the tank facing back.

Robin: Facing me. That joke never gets old, man.

Travis: I use it regularly.

Robin: You got to sit on the tank, but you have to face me. So, yeah, visiting western regions of the Driftless and employing a big number of the twisty goat roads. Most importantly on that route, there's Pi at Kickapoo Corner, which, I mean, Kickapoo is not a, that's like a river, but where is that located? Is that in Boscoville or where is that?

Tim: That is in Reedsburg? Reedsburg, Reedsville, I can't remember which reed it is. Yeah, it could be. I think there are all three somewhere out there. A lot of reeds. Apparently the reeds were a very successful clan out there. Yeah, it's corners. I think it's a plural, corners.

Robin: Yeah, nice.

Tim: Well, I can't pluralize here.

Robin: Yeah, and I've got to figure out some way to say it with Travis. I was about to go into the, what were you about to say?

Travis: Kickapoo Corner is in Reedstown, Wisconsin, but it's reed like you read a book. R-E-A-D-S-T-O-W-N, Reedstown. Nice. And they have good, their food's just great there, if you ever out that way.

Tim: Yeah, and one of the things that is lovely in rural Wisconsin is almost any place you find that says family restaurant or supper club. You know, the supper clubs are going to be a little bit more upscale, but Wisconsin takes that seriously, and they put out some good food usually.

Robin: Every time, every time is good. And this is a terrible segue on my part, but we're going to move on. Travis, you've got this month in motorcycle history. There's the link. So you need to pick out only that which is specific to this month. Let's see if we can get this right. It loads in January, which is not good for us.

Travis: Take your time.

Robin: We have a silence eliminator.

Travis: It also only goes back to 2015, which is- No, I mean- A blog archive.

Robin: Yeah, do that. No. How did I do this before?

Travis: How do I be not in January? I don't know. This site is very poorly made.

Robin: Now you know why we rake the data off of their site instead of actually linking to it.

Travis: Yeah, it only gives me January.

Robin: Keep talking, and then I'll, let me figure out a way to do a thing.

Travis: Oh, here we go. I got it. What is today? It's September.

Robin: Well, today is September 10th. We want basically anything for September.

Travis: Let's see if there's anything on September 10th. There's some cool pictures.

Robin: Let's be professional about this, Travis. Give us the intro. Today in motorcycle history, not enough whiskey in the world to make this interesting.

Travis: No, this is, I blame Robin for linking this janky thing. Oh, the links turn black once you click on them on the black background. That's why.

Tim: Yep. Oh, that's some fine site design there.

Robin: Oh, yeah. For those of you listening out there, todayinmotorcyclehistory.blogspot.com. The Writing Obsession does a data rake on their information, so you can read it much more easily if you visit the podcast episode page for this specific episode or any specific episode that makes mention of this week and this month in motorcycle history.

Travis: Did you manage to lock it down? Yeah, I kind of got to the right thing, but it's not really useful. Look at the URL. That might help.

Robin: Use the domain.

Travis: Let's see. I think I got what we're looking for, but I'm cross-tracking. No, it came out in July. There's something on there about on any Sunday, but that came out in July. I just cross-referenced it. There's nothing good for September 22nd. Oh, there's some naked women. What's that all about? Risky business. Dancing girls performing on motorbikes. September 22nd, 1977 on the stage of Le Crazy Horse Saloon in Paris. Images of girls and Le Crazy Horse on motorcycles. Yeah, Crazy Horse Saloon, 1951, champs. Yeah, so the Craziest Horse Saloon opened in 1951. But yeah, they did something with their crazy burlesque girls riding motorcycles around.

Robin: I can't believe I'm saying this, but that made the wait all worthwhile. So 1951, half-naked ladies on motorcycles in France.

Travis: Yep, it was about halfway down in September.

Robin: You know, and probably some other stuff happened, but after that, I think that's everything we need.

Travis: Yeah, I think that's about 1987. There's like a movie. Yeah, there's nothing else that's good there.

Robin: Motorcycles, 1951. Let's talk about, let's let that be what it is. You're riveting. You made my day. So, and from there, we'll go on to our segments. Let's get into this month's featured segments. Travis, what year, make, and model are we focused on, and what can you tell us about it?

Travis: Well, it's a bike that maybe doesn't, well, that definitely doesn't exist yet, but might exist, and is definitely the bike that should exist. So the bike I almost bought, I almost bought one of these back when I was looking to get, move up from my 250 Honda Rebel back, oh geez, it must have been eight or nine years ago now, and that was the Honda NT700V. Now, this is actually the descendant of the NT650 Hawk GT that Robin recently sold. Yes, it did. Which was a tight, tiny little ripper's naked sport bike, but had completely evolved into, yeah, a fully fared, integrated luggage, shaft drive, sport touring bike, and commuter bike. And the luggage on this is pass-through, right?

Robin: It's got the hollow point up top.

Travis: Yeah, so the back, the luggage is integrated into the bodywork, so you can't take it off, but it connects through the back of the bike. So you can put a longer, like a tent, or a poster, or something, or a longer piece of equipment in there. Oh, that's neat. And it is the workhorse of Europe. It was sold in Europe for a long time as the Dovil, the NT700 Dovil, and it's like every commuter, every cameraman, because it's like just enough power, good for two up, you can carry a bunch of stuff, and it's a Honda. And they sold it in the States for two years and then stopped selling it. And now you can get one with fairly little miles for like five grand-ish, if you don't mind trying to track down parts from Europe, because they only sold in the States for two years. But it was released here a couple weeks ago that Honda did file patent paperwork for a new version that uses the, whatever, 998cc parallel twin from the Africa Twin.

Robin: And now, is that going to be retuned, you think? Will it be a different bore or a different overall?

Tim: I don't know if it would need to, even.

Travis: I don't think, yeah, I don't think it would need to. It may be a little bit, but well, too, I think that the, so the original NC was a V-twin motor, same as your NC650, but bigger with the 700. And I believe Honda did use that in the original Africa Twin, right? It was a V-twin.

Tim: Yes, yeah, that's right.

Travis: So I think it was the same motor in the original Africa Twin. That would make sense that they would put it in this again. But again, it would be the parallel twin, but with a 207-degree crank, essentially mimicking an L-twin or a 90-degree V-twin.

Robin: Well, I should know this by now, because you and I, we know Tim had had one for a while, but I never felt like I knew whether or not that bike was revvy, or Tim, like what was the, what was the, what was the red line? And would, do you feel like that would be enough for a sportier platform?

Tim: You know, I never pushed it up near the red line on, on that bike. I found it to be plenty sporty, you know, even with the 1821 wheel combination.

Travis: Yeah, but I think the, the charm and the tune of the engine is, is linear flat power. Like it doesn't really matter. You don't have to rev it out to get power out of it. Yeah.

Tim: Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's plenty of power for putzing around, you know, low, low speeds, even in town, up hills, you know, where you're starting in a gear higher than you needed to be in or something like that. You just, it was hard to get that engine to complain in any way.

Travis: Yeah. So kind of classic Honda stuff and perfect for a midsize sport tour, right? Like you don't, I mean, some people, when they sport tour, they want a sport bike with bags on it. And some people want a touring bike that they can sport with. And this would be, this would be that where it's like, it's a little more forgiving. You don't have to keep it on the boil to get the power. You know, if you, if you don't, you know, miss a downshift into a corner, if you miss a downshift into a corner, you can just open the throttle and they start at 3000 RPM and it doesn't matter.

Tim: Yeah. And it'll grunt through. I'd say that like, in terms of where it fits on the spectrum, it would be more on the touring side than the, uh, the, what the FJ, um, FJR, FJR. Yeah. The MT-09 touring version.

Travis: Oh, the Tracer 900.

Tim: Tracer 900.

Travis: Yeah. The FJ-09. Yeah.

Tim: Yeah. I would say this is more, a little bit more on the touring side than that.

Travis: Yeah. It doesn't have that quite as, it probably wouldn't have the same fiery engine, but you know, would be probably be a little more comfortable too. So, um, and would slide in there because right now Honda doesn't make a touring bike. That's not the Goldwing.

Tim: Yeah. Yeah. I would find this much more appealing than a Goldwing.

Travis: Yeah.

Robin: Yeah, absolutely.

Travis: There's nothing in Honda's lineup right now to, I'm trying to think about their current whole current lineup. I mean, there's the naked bikes, there's the Neo retro line, you know, there's the CTX, but you know, that's really more of a cruiser and that's it. So this would be a nice slide. Definitely would go over well in Europe. And if they do bring it to light, I would love to see it in the United States because that's probably the only thing I would risk my, uh, you know, pending children's college fund to get. You hear that Honda?

Robin: Make it happen. Give it up.

Tim: Yeah. And it's a, it's a good low service engine as well. That's, I think it was an 8,000 mile oil change interval. Like a lot of modern Hondas, it's just got a huge oil reservoir. I think it took four quarts or damn near it in order to fill the oil on that thing. And if they do a shaft from drive version with the DCT, then that takes a whole lot of stress out of what you needed to worry about if you do use it as a commuter. Yeah.

Travis: Just twist and go. If it was shaft driven like the original, that would be, that'd be awesome. Cause it would, uh, you know, for touring, I feel like that's just the best, you know, 10,000, 15, 20,000 miles service intervals on the drive train.

Tim: Yeah. It's so much nicer than pulling over and clean in your chain every other day. Yeah.

Robin: Chain maintenance, 250 miles chain maintenance probably should every day. Yeah.

Travis: But yeah. So that, uh, let's hope that Honda, uh, Honda makes that a real thing and, uh, brings it to the United States. Um, but yeah, let's talk about some new kit. Uh, Tim, what are we looking at for, uh, some new toys to add to here?

Tim: All right. Well, I, I dug in and found a couple of things, one that I already purchased and one that I've been drooling over. The first is the fix it sticks tools. And these guys are a company that are a tool company. That's mostly, mostly focused on cycling and shooting, but it's just a general really compact bit driver set that would work in your moto kit as well. So what we're looking at here is two interlocking bit driver pieces that become a T handle driver in a couple different, and you can do two different configurations T on the long side, or take that cross piece off and stick it in the middle and you get a little more leverage. So they make a set where all four positions are interchangeable. They also make a set where two of them are permanently fixed in and another set where all of them are permanently fixed and you don't, they're just common cycling sizes. But I went with the hybrid one where there's a five millimeter hex on one side, a six millimeter hex on the other side, and the next stick is interchangeable.

Robin: Okay, nice. So it's a combination of the two.

Tim: And it's super compact. Comes in this little, yeah, rolls into this tiny little tool bag that will hold, I think, eight bits is what it holds.

Robin: Can I read these features here off the page?

Tim: Swap them out, please.

Robin: It says right here, let's see, high quality steel construction can withstand 40 newmans of torque, compact, durable, accepts any standard quarter inch bit, and only 116 grams. I'm looking at the picture here, and I love everything about it, minus one thing I want to know, is there an option for an extension, if it should be necessary?

Tim: Well, what you're looking at is a standard bit driver size, so you can use any extension, any bit driver extension. Nice. Yeah, they've got a couple different models, if you flip through some of the pages here, but, and they're fixitsticks.com, and they're, you know, I picked one up once I saw them, and you know, it's 30 bucks for the bit driver and a couple bits in this little pack, and yeah, it's like a sneak. So far I've used them once on the trail. Nice. And no problems at all.

Robin: So what you got after that?

Tim: So that is the, all right, the, what I've got after that is the Overland series from Krega. It's K-R-I-E-G-A dot U-S, and the OS system, the Overland system, is rugged, a little bit more rugged than their standard waterproof bags. You know, they're, basically, there's rectangular waterproof bags with roll tops with a couple strap options to strap them onto any old rack, but the new thing that they're coming out with is what they call the base system, and it's a rackless design. It's a hoop that goes over the back end of your bike. It's been designed for enduro bikes, but it looked to me like it would work really well on my Husqvarna with the minimal tail section.

Robin: Yes.

Travis: Well, I mean, there's a lot of, you know, dirt bike DNA in your KTM Varna.

Tim: Yes. So, and like Krega's, I've had some of their stuff, and Krega's top-notch quality, so it's hard to go wrong.

Robin: If you guys out there check it out.

Tim: This ends up being a lot cheaper than my favorite. Usually, my go-to is the Moskow Moto because I just, you know, they are bomb-proof, awesome design, but they're also pretty pricey right now.

Robin: Yeah, but at the same time, what's neat about this, it has this vertical, this vertical appeal where it's angled with the bike, but it's almost top-loading with good support locations. It means it's gonna have depth, and it's gonna be secured in a whole different light. I think this is freaking, yes, that's a beautiful concept. I've never seen that angle, you know what I mean? Does that make sense?

Tim: Yes. So, what is really neat about this system is that you buy the base, and you can put either the six, the 12, or the 18 liter bags on the side of them. Oh, interchangeable? So, the picture I'm showing you here, 212 liter, yeah.

Travis: So, it's like a soft base, as opposed to like a hard rack, and then the bags clip onto the, like, the soft base is strapped onto the bike, and then you can strap the bikes to the base without the need for like a hard bolt-on type rack. That's right. That's pretty cool.

Tim: So, this is one I'm really considering that it ends up being almost a couple hundred dollars cheaper than the nearby competitor of the Moskomoto that I had been considering earlier. So, Robin, what are you up to? What article are you going to read this episode?

Robin: Okay, which I'll do ad-lib after we get done recording this episode, but this month's article read is Hillbilly Triangle, a Kentucky Motorcycle Ride, and that's by Patrick Moguevero. He's the president of the MSTA. That's the Motorcycle Sport Touring Association. I had a lengthy phone call with this gentleman a couple weeks ago that got me pretty excited because the MSTA is AMA recognized, and, you know, they're a thousand members deep or so. I don't know. It's some big number. I'd lied about it on Facebook before, but, you know, they're kind of a big deal, especially in my neck of the woods. And so, he wrote us this post. Hillbilly Triangle, a Kentucky Motorcycle Ride. It's basically a specific section of eastern Kentucky that goes into Red River Gorge National Forest, some of that, and, you know, you get pizza. So, let's talk about this, and here we go. A Hillbilly Triangle, a Kentucky Motorcycle Ride. Available at TheRidingObsession.com. Post ID 23501. The American Heritage Dictionary defines hillbilly as a person from the backwoods or some remote mountain area. Wikipedia says that Red River Gorge is a canyon system on the Red River in east central Kentucky. It lies within the Daniel Boone National Forest, next to what's commonly referred to as Hillbilly Triangle, covering about 29,000 acres. Backwoods? Remote mountain area? A canyon system? Tell me more, you say. Well, okay. This is what happens when you combine 200 plus miles of twisty, smooth roads that go into the forest, winding around the backwoods and mountains, before plunging into the depths of the Red River Gorge. Only then does it finish with an exciting run across the fabulous ridgetop roads of north central Kentucky. If you're a motorcycle sport touring rider, and I assume you are, you wouldn't be listening to this, you end up with one of the best days of riding anywhere, anytime. This is the Hillbilly Triangle, Red River Gorge route. We'll start in Mount Sterling, aptly known as the gateway to the eastern mountains. Mount Sterling, the county seat of Montgomery County, is a town of about 7,000, located some 40 miles east of Lexington, Kentucky, on Interstate I-64. It's a fairly sleepy little town that supports many hotels and eating establishments located near the highway. Going south on 11 will run you right into the small downtown where there's a bypass for Route 689 that you can use to go around it to the west. In either case, you want to continue south on 11 until you reach SR-646. Turn right, which is west, on 646 until you reach SR-974. A note here on the Kentucky numbering system, generally speaking, the more numbers in a route, the smaller the road. Not always true, but generally so. Follow SR-974 until it reaches SR-89 and turn left onto 89. Soon you'll come to a small town of Irvine. Go through town and continue on 89 south. This is the true beginning of the Hillbilly Triangle. Stay on 89 all the way to McKee, deep in the heart of the Daniel Boone National Forest. Once you reach McKee, go south on Route 421 and take a slight left on SR-587. And to look back, of course Hillbilly Triangle mentions an Irvine. This is in the southernmost point of the route, near the town of Beattyville. 587 will intersect with SR-399. Take 399 north and when it ends, turn left on SR-52. This is taking you back west toward Irvine. Before you get to Irvine, turn right on SR-213, which again is taking you north. You'll cross under the mountain parkway just on the southern edge of a town called Stanton. Just past the parkway, you'll turn right or east on SR-11 and begin your journey into and through the Red River Gorge. There are some choices to be made along here. The shorter way to go is to turn left off 11 on SR-77. This takes you through the famous Not a Tunnel. A longer and better way to continue on 11 passes SR-77, not turning until you reach SR-715. Doing so will take you past Miguel's Pizza, some of the best you'll find anywhere, which is, you know, saying a lot considering Robin is from Chicago. That's me. Anyhow, it also takes past Natural Bridge State Resort Park. The resort park features a lodge, a restaurant, cabins, campground, hiking trails, and unbelievable views of the gorge canyons. It makes a great home base from which to explore the eastern Kentucky mountains. If you take the longer route and use 715, you'll also be treated to a wonderful ride through the gorge area itself. Most of it is 1.5 lanes-ish. Recently repaved and in wonderful condition. However, there are several hiking trails and parking areas located off this road, so traffic on the weekends, particularly in autumn, can back up sometimes. It's tight and twisty through this area and many of the turns are blind when the summer's foliage is out. Enjoy your ride through the Kentucky wilderness. Take it easy and enjoy the shade. Continuing on 715 will run you back into SR-77, north of the Not a Tunnel. Continue north on 77 right off of 17, 715, sorry, until you reach Route 460. Take a left on 460 and you'll reach the town of Frenchburg in a couple of miles. Go straight and you go on to SR-36. Follow 36 north to the town of Owingsville and turn left or west on SR-60, a rolling road through the horse country of east central Kentucky. Turn right onto Van Thompson Road before you come back into Mount Sterling and it will run you back over to SR-11. When you reach SR-11, turn left again and it will run you back to your starting point at I-64. The total distance for this route hits around 260 miles, give or take. Figure in six hours of actual riding time at lunch. We recommend either Miguel's or the Natural Bridge SRP Lounge, plus a gas stop and water break. Eight hours is a pretty common time frame in which to complete this ride. Hillbilly Triangle covers all bases. The route pretty much has it all. Lots of really twisty roads, great scenery, places to stop, historical attractions, everything but traffic. Well, that is except for the area around the gorge on holidays and weekends. Otherwise, you can expect little to no traffic. Many people in Kentucky will even pull over and let you pass when they have a chance. Passing zones? Fairly common. I do recommend making sure you're fully gassed up before starting this route and to take a water bottle or some other fluids with you. While there are some small towns along the way, there are many miles that are and it can get hard to find help when you need it. Cell service is spotty at best and even small towns are hardly worth relying on. Put the route in your GPS or remember paper state maps are priceless. With that, what's your favorite Kentucky motorcycle route, listeners? There are other great Kentucky motorcycle rides out there. Which ones do you prefer? What do you like about each and why? Your input is invited. Post an article. Visit TheRidingObsession.com. Scroll down on the right hand side where you see Write About Riding and get started. Again, this article was by Patrick Mogovero. Thank you very much, Patrick. And that was the article read for Hillbilly Triangle, a Kentucky motorcycle ride by Patrick Mogovero. Thank you, Mr. Mogovero, for that article. Which brings us to updated site features. Actually, yeah. So, okay. So, the updated site features. I'm going to continue on here. Not sure if I mentioned this ages ago, but our weather page is back up and running in reliable fashion. I'm still working to bring back a few of its lesser features, but all in all, it's the best way to determine what your ride is going to be like. I always mention this to people in their first responses. Well, what I like to use is, and I don't care at all. I've tested, tested, and tested. Our motorcycle riding weather forecast is the best predictor out there. Check it out. Just go to TheRidingObsession.com and it's up there in the middle of all the other stuff in the features pages section. We also moved some code around so that certain functions only load on pages where they'll be used. This has sped things up a bit where page load times are concerned. And like I said, we're looking for sponsors for this podcast. So, I added also a support TRO link under the about section. It currently has only minimal info about how you, our viewers, might help us stay afloat soon. I'll include that text that describes just how we make money. How does the site function? How do we get the moolah? Added a few ringers to the links page. Big shout out to Patrick McGrovero and the MSTA. Abbreviation. We'll soon work with them extensively in a coordinated effort to promote the pastime of sport touring. I'm about to write an article about that specific topic, how to promote anything motorcycle related these days. Also, RidingSolutions.com. RidingSolutions.com, it's a motorcycle training source that I personally hope will grow with exponential success because for one, I work there. So, I've worked with them during some of their custom curriculum events and have to say the knowledge they offer really sets the bar in unexpected ways. So, oh, and we also added VotoCycle to the YouTube channel. He and Tran has some of the most interesting stuff on there, always explaining it in sort of fresh, with fresh eyes or a fresh perspective. She's pretty cool. So, be sure and check out VotoCycle on YouTube. Which brings us to Travis. You want to introduce our listener questions?

Travis: Sure. This question comes to us from Dominic Bogdan, who we want to give a shout out. He's a U.S. Marine Corps retired disabled Iraq and Afghanistan combat veteran. I just want to thank him for his service.

Tim: Yeah.

Travis: But he asks about the tools to keep on the bike here. He wants at any time and place, sort of custom assembled kit. And he's on a 2019 BMW R nine T scrambler. And he wanted a preference for stainless steel and titanium tools to do their corrosion resistance and toughness.

Robin: I was thinking about this.

Travis: That might be more Tim's wheelhouse.

Robin: Tim, you could help with this for sure. I feel like, you know, he initially emailed thinking that we could sort of build an itemized list of purchase points. But I think really you'd be the one to be like, you know what, you need to go to this specific source or these specific sources. What do you have to say on that one?

Tim: Oh, goodness. You know, I am. My, my preference has always been to go to minimal low cost stuff. So I found some, you know, pretty much everything that I have for my bike toolkit is quarter inch drive, you know, and like the fix it sticks, you know, just hand powered because most things on a bike are really low torque, relatively speaking, you know, your common body and engine bolts are seven to 10 foot pounds, your bigger things are 16 to 24, which is all with my big monkey hands are pretty easy to achieve those levels.

Robin: Well, I can definitely feel I will have a let me throw down a little bit on this one that I know that this bike, it's the same general jet, it's close to the same generation as my, my R 1200 RS that bike has a lot of torques.

Travis: No, it's a, it's the previous, well, it's the previous engine architecture gets the oil head. But as far as the sort of, yeah, the sort of hardware that BMW is using, that's a lot of torques.

Tim: Yeah, it's a, it's a lot of torques bits are common with mine as well.

Robin: Yeah.

Tim: So I guess, I mean, really, I think it's an Austrian German thing.

Robin: Yeah. What's a good source for titanium stuff though? I know that he's going to need everything from a 10 millimeter torques all the way up or a number 10, sorry, a number 10 torques all the way up to a number 30 torques, maybe some of the bigger ones for, for like wheel lugs. If it's a single sided, I don't know.

Tim: Yeah. One of my go to companies for motorcycle tools, when I need something specialty is motion pro. I don't know right now if they've got titanium tools or stainless, but they do a lot of anodized aluminum tools that are going to hold up pretty well.

Travis: Yeah. Yeah. So the anodized aluminum, the, their bead breaker tire iron combo thing is pretty cool. I think Tim, you have one of those. Yep. Which I'm not sure if the R19 scrambler is tubed or tubeless.

Tim: I expect it's a tubeless. Yeah. Tubeless spoked because BMW has those really fine wheels that are spoked, but they offset them to the exterior of the rim so that they can get a good air seal.

Travis: I had never heard of that. Yeah. So if you're rubbing, running, if you're running tubeless, you, you probably don't need a bead breaker and it's just best to carry a, a plug kit. Oh yeah. You know, some sort of inflation tool, whether that's a hand pump or an electric pump. There's a good article on the write-up session about electrical pumps, electric tire pumps you can pack with you. And then otherwise what I usually carry with my BMW is just one of those little kind of jack knife torque sets, you know, that fold, they all fold into one little handle. Oh, the Leatherman Wave stuff is amazing. Yeah. Yeah. Well, see this, I'd rather have, I don't know, the Leatherman doesn't really carry the torques and stuff though. Good point.

Tim: Okay. I do have a confirmation for you that the Motion Pro does carry a set of titanium combination wrenches.

Robin: Nice.

Tim: They are pricey. They're, there's no joke. They're going to cost you a pretty penny, but they should be lifetime lasting. We're talking about a four piece wrench set, an eight, 12 and a 13 combination wrench set for $125.

Robin: Wait, is this the one that's like two, it's like two ratchet wrenches on either side. So you got there, they're like hole shaped on either side, but if, but the left and right has a different dimension.

Tim: No, I'm talking about a old school combination wrench where you've got a open end wrench on one side and a closed hoop.

Robin: Okay.

Tim: Got it. Wrench on the other side, you know, both the same measurements. Yeah.

Travis: But yeah, the, the torques thing would probably be the best for the BMW. Just one of the little jack knife ones. I usually tend to just go grab like Harper Freight tools for on the road kit. Cause that way, if it gets left at the side of the road, you know, you're not out. Yeah, man. A couple hundred bucks. The, and they do sell, and I love, I use it all the time. They have this ratchet and it's quarter inch drive on one side, three eighths on the other. It has an extendable handle. So it's fairly compact, but, but it has the extendable handle. So if you, if you need to like take a wheel off and you need to have something that's got more leverage for a high torque fastener, you can use that. And then otherwise I would just piece together anything, especially you need like a, a super large, you know, 45 or 50 torques bit, or, you know, anything like specialty for spark plugs or, you know, anything that's like very, you know, axle tools or anything that's specific to that, that's like you need the specialty tool to take the wheel off. It was like, I know with my, when I had my BMW, that was the single nut, single sided swing arm. And you needed like a 50 millimeter hex. That just, that just, where do you, where do you find that? Yeah. That just lived on the bike. Cause like, yeah, no one's going to have one. And if I ever need to take the wheel, the rear wheel off, we're going to need that tool.

Tim: Yeah. That's hilarious. Yeah. I think another key part of the toolkit is what you're trying to do. Where are you going? If you were just out on a couple of days trip, you know, cross the U S you're in civilized country. You really just need what you need to get you to the next town, whether it's plugging the tire, changing the tube.

Robin: Something like what Travis was talking about. Like I don't see any reason not to just glue that to the bolt itself and just leave it there for the remainder of your ownership of the bike.

Travis: Yeah. The yeah. I mean, if you're not yet really out in the wilderness to kind of depend on what you're doing, it's like, yeah, a tire patch kit is probably an inflator is probably your number one. And then after that, a cell phone and a credit card.

Tim: Yeah, absolutely. Like you've got a common wear part. Like I had a Vespa that had an exhaust collar that disintegrated every time you took the exhaust off. And you had to take the exhaust off every time you change a tire. So if you found yourself in a strange city and needed an entire, you could probably find a scooter tire, but almost never could you find that graphic collar. So, or graphite, excuse me. So I always carried one of those graphite exhaust collars.

Robin: Yeah. Here's a bit of a tip too on the site. If you look at the bottom of it, there's a, well, actually just look up in our search, the search motor at the top of the site is the Cyplus A2. It says Cyplus A2, more than just an air compressor. That was written by Don Baron, not too long ago. This thing is pretty quick. First off, it's USB charging with a rechargeable battery on the inside. Charge is pretty quick, but it has a set it and forget it pressure meter that is pretty freaking accurate. And quite frankly, of the electric portable pumps I've seen, this is the smallest, most accurate, most convenient of all the ones we've talked about in the past on any article. So be sure and check that one out. It's worth having. Sorry. Go ahead.

Travis: Yeah, but that's about it. That's about, you know, you guys said you can, if you really got a bunch of, you got a big bulge in your pocket and you want to buy titanium stuff, you know, go right ahead. But I feel like, you know, just go to Harbor Freight, get some, get some inexpensive stuff that you don't mind, because it'll probably get wrecked.

Robin: Recycled from beer cans.

Travis: And also, you know, when an important, an important thing to do too is, you know, use those tools to do your regular maintenance. So then you're using them, they aren't going to get rusty. And then you know how to use them when you're stuck on the side of the road and have to use them. And if you're going to just, and if you're just going to like bundle them up and throw them in a bag and throw them, you know, in some luggage in your concern, just, you know, every couple of months, pull them out, spray them down with some WD-40, wipe them off with a towel. They won't rust. Even the cheapest tools won't rust that way. I do that with, I have the, the OEM toolkit for the Kawasaki. Yeah. I just, you know, every couple of months, just pull it out and spray it down, wipe it. And it's been fine. That covers it. There you go, Dominic. Hope that, I hope that, that garbled mess of varying information is clear as a lead curtain.

Tim: I hope you're not too put off by the fact that we're really not into the stainless and titanium, but I just haven't found them to be worth the expense.

Robin: Yeah.

Tim: Just my own personally, it's just never hit the cost benefit analysis for me. So I do usually go a little above the Harbor Freight if I can, because especially with like the, the Torx keys, I've had Allen key sets fail on me before, and they tend to be a little bit harder than the screws that you're trying to undo with. So drilling them out becomes a real pain in the butt.

Travis: Yeah. I mean, definitely go with the, you know, the best tools you're willing to, to purchase, but yeah, I think yes.

Robin: Or loose on the side of the road.

Travis: Chilling out four, yeah, four or five times as much for stainless or, or, you know, titanium is really, especially on, on that bike. It's not like you're on a Dakar rally where, where every ounce counts. So it should be on a scrambler that's already kind of heavy.

Tim: Yeah. You might be in the, you know, compact is more important than lightweight.

Travis: Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, if you want to get, you know, Craftsman or whatever, you know, Husky from your big box store and just get a set of Allens and Torx from there, you know, piece together the sockets that you will use the most. So like I said, just make a note when you're doing your regular maintenance and working on the bike, what you need to take it apart and get the serviceable parts and just bring those with you.

Tim: Yeah.

Travis: That's your, that's your cue, Tim.

Tim: This is my cue. Okay. All right. Email your questions and concerns via our contact form, which is located at tro.email or by calling 224-358-3010.

Robin: That brings us on to this week's mess a la moto brought to you by The super slick, ultra badass motorcycle mega posse of incredible power, power, power, power, power, super slick, ultra badass motorcycle mega posse of incredible power is super slick, ultra badass, incredibly powerful.

Travis: So, okay. All purchases final, no refunds.

Robin: Yeah. No, no reproduction. You say not found in Nevada. So, okay. There is a, the videos that are out there currently, we've got the, uh, the hard life of a MotoGP front tire. Somebody put a go, some kind of low profile camera underneath the chassis of a MotoGP bike and took it out for a few laps. And this is, this is a nuclear thing to witness. Holy beautiful. Like you're looking at the line choice. They're measuring down to a nickel in some of these apexes. It's just beautiful. How's it got here? Yeah, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, Amazes zing and then I remember okay, so then our good friend Mel bolt posted the image of the is from a while ago But the Honda that was standing itself up and had an adjustable rake.

Travis: Yeah, huh? yeah, Honda put a servo assembly on the head tube that can both turn the handlebars and adjust the rake of the The bike it's actually on the same chassis that NC the new concept chassis that my NC 700 X is on But then yeah an IMU controls the servos and the bike bounces itself with like very slight adjustments of the handlebars and rake and they There's a one section where like the woman beckons the bike and it just follows her out the door on its own of its own accord with Electrical motor assist and let's be honest.

Robin: This doesn't exist.

Travis: No Honda just actually actually makes it I mean, yeah one does it's not like a production bike, but they may And Now, okay.

Robin: So the next thing is that we have a running theme going that's 10 millimeter sockets. They pretty much don't exist I think they're a phantom. They're a figment of the worldly imagination And yeah, Oh Michael Gordo's proved that you can ride a tuner It's a miles from Madison, Wisconsin, and maybe Minneapolis, Minnesota on one tank of fuel. What bike does he have again?

Tim: It's the KTM a Kate the KTMs 1290 super adventure touring super tanker And it is it is mesmerizing to ride in front of that man and watch those cornering lights turn on oh, yeah I like going around the corner spending way too much time looking in my mirrors Just going.

Robin: Oh, that's neat night The last post we got shows dog. Oh shows us how to drag two knees Schooling riders. It's just a dog It is clearly a herding dog being very happy about being leaning over in full speed ahead get the zoomies going and They got a posture next to the reps all Honda there and pretty good The deep dog Oh deep cut dog. Oh Okay, so that brings us and we want to add anything otherwise, we're on our closing sponsorship messages

Travis: Yeah, I think that that's what it from for motorcycle Motorcycle time

Tim: It's um, all right 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 the riding obsession comm needs

Robin: sponsors Sponsors are given three three focused mentions toward the start middle and end of their designated episode Their contributions are put towards bettering the program's content and recording equipment It also gives us beer money if you help us out the total cost for all three ad spots And there are let's see three six nine ad spots available the total cost for three of those ad spots Which is our limit per sponsor is $50 and that's $50 per sponsor per episode. That's it Help us help you help us help all of the helping that are helpers or helpers that are helping whatever I'll take this opportunity to promote our next group riding tour Which is scheduled for October of this year dubbed the trip sevens tour seven riders will cover seven states in seven days starting October 5th Of 2019 signup deadline is September 20th It's a twisty sport touring getaway of epic proportions and we hope you'll sign up more information about that tours available via the riding Obsession comm visit the group tours link, which is anchored under events in our navigation menu And

Travis: That's it that's our episode for this round tune in next time for more discussions and all things for sport touring or Universal the motorcycling as a whole for the riding obsession comm I'm Travis Burleson.

Robin: I'm Tim Clark, and I'm Robin Dean