Robin: Hello everybody, I'm Robin Dean.

Travis: I'm Travis Burleson. And I'm Tim Clark.

Robin: You're listening to the Riding Obsession podcast. I don't know, are we going to keep going?

Travis: I don't know, the theme music. Uh, joining us today is, uh, chest cold. I hope we take apart. As we discuss our usually, our usual yammering about our lives. Zero's new third version of their flagship motorcycle. Motorcycle hauling accessories and thermals from the future. The future! Upcoming Riding Obsession tours, as well as 10 tips for leading sport touring rides.

Tim: This episode of the Riding Obsession podcast is brought to you by Riding Solutions, helping people become motorcyclists and motorcyclists ride better. Be safe while having a great time riding the open road. Visit them online at ridingsolutions.com. Also by Ranch Road Fabrication, specializing in architectural, interior, and automotive metalwork. They take on complex tasks that others can't. Visit them online at ranchroadfabrication, all one word, dot com. And lastly, by the Ugly Apple Cafe of Madison, Wisconsin, where they use local overstock produce to offer a quick, tasty breakfast. Find out their food cart location by visiting uglyapplecafe.com.

Robin: I'll take this opportunity to promote another of our group motorcycle riding tours, which is tentatively scheduled for August 5th through 9th of this year. It's the Ohio Windy Nine tour, and it's based in one single lodging location for the entire event. Seven riders will cover nine beautiful routes in three days, starting May 26th of 2019. It's a twisty sport tour and getaway of epic proportions, and we hope you'll sign up. More information about that tour is available via theridingobsession.com. Visit the group tours link, which is anchored under events in our navigation menu. I'm happy to say that the Trip Sevens tour is sold out. Woo-hoo!

Travis: Yeah, that's coming up this spring. And we here at theridingobsession.com wish to apologize for our previous episode, Math Planning. It's not that we didn't try. It's just that we don't care. It was fun to record. We hope you enjoyed it a bit.

Robin: Yeah. Actually, I haven't even produced it yet. This one might get out before it.

Tim: All right. Then that won't make any sense. Sorry about the next thing.

Robin: It's gonna suck.

Tim: Get ready.

Robin: That's awesome.

Travis: Um, all right. First of all, though, it's Travis.

Robin: How you doing?

Travis: Hey, doing okay. The, uh, starting to get a couple of warm days here. Of course, they always have to be on days that I'm working, which is annoying. But we had a couple of 50 degree days here in Wisconsin. Um, so I might get one this week because I'll probably take the bike out for a little spin. Um, that's one of the problems with working from home is I don't have a commute in these kind of warmish days. It's like, oh, you can ride the bike to work. It's like, well, I don't. It's hard to like take the bike out on a 40 degree day just for fun. Um, but we're just around the corner with spring. So that's exciting. Uh, the, uh, the wife and I traded in our soul for a minivan. I love the way that sounds. Have you, if you like puns, you should just buy them.

Tim: I no longer have a soul. I have a minivan.

Travis: If you want puns, buy a Kia Soul. That's if that's the only way to go. A friend of mine has a black soul and we're talking about having seen, seen in his black, seen into his black soul. And, um, and it was quite comfortable getting lost in his black soul and stuff like that. Um, but we got a, a Kia Sedona minivan. Uh, it's pretty, pretty awesome. It's black, but, uh, it's base model, but it's, it's, you know, it's, it's all of the things we can fit the kids and the dogs and stuff.

Robin: Is it like a little bit tricked out? Does that have any of the special modern features that are just awesome? Because modern, I mean, the minivan catches so much flack, but you know that because of that flack, they just make them better and better all the time.

Travis: Oh yeah. Minivans are awesome. I love minivans. They're so practical. You get so much storage, so much room in them. Like they're so much more room than, than a comparable SUV or crossover. Uh, I mean, yeah, it's the base model. Um, but yeah, it comes with like their standard, we got a new one in 2020 and it's got the new, uh, infotainment set up in it. So it's got Android auto, Apple car play, you know, big eight inch screen, touchscreen, backup camera, media integration. Um, it's got the home link. So we could program like the mirror button to open the garage door and stuff. And, um, other than that, it's pretty sparse. Like it doesn't have like a million power ports or like, you know, screens built into it, but that's okay. Cause that's stuff that kids break anyway.

Tim: Right.

Travis: But we can actually fit the kids, the dogs and two adults and some stuff if we needed to. And it's, it's so big. It's, it's comfortable. It kind of sucks to park sometimes, but it's all right. Um, yeah, that was spring here. I'm looking to still sell the Kawasaki's. I mean, I have to finish the broken ones still cause it's been too cold to finish painting the gas tank. But once that's done, I can plop it together and get out the door. The other one's still for sale. I've gotten a couple of bites on it over the winter, but so if anyone out there in listener lands looking for a 2009 Kawasaki ER6N or two of them reach out, I got them here in Wisconsin. Tim, what have you been up to?

Tim: All right. Well, we did go ahead and go down to Chicago and buy that BMW C650GT scooter we were talking about and love it. It's really good. It's going to be very comfortable for Sylvia. So just that I can get her out on the bike with me. I'm happy. Yeah, man. And, uh, there was a bit of a snafu with the title. Um, it wasn't in the paperwork. They didn't know where it was and I still don't have it. And I, so yesterday it was nice. It was just above 50 degrees and we went out on the bike totally illegal because we were at the, uh, we were past the 30 day temporary tag and rubble without a cause. Oh my goodness. Yeah. So I'm, I've got to go and talk to them again.

Travis: Did you get it from a dealership or was it a.

Tim: Did get it from a dealership. Yeah. I would never put up with that shit from a private seller.

Travis: Oh yeah. If they don't have the title in hand. Yeah. You don't buy it.

Robin: Yeah.

Tim: Yeah.

Robin: They'll figure it out.

Tim: They know it's on them, but like I got the paperwork. I like even have like the previous owner's name with the lean release, you know, but for some reason the title just wasn't in the paperwork.

Travis: So I wonder if like the bank, the bank didn't get it to the dealership or something or.

Tim: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So this is the big beast. It's pretty good. You know, and it's, it behaves really well, super chill on, you know, anything up to highway speeds and even cruising down at about, you know, 80 miles an hour. You're totally happy on it. That's a twin.

Robin: I mean, it's a six 50, right?

Tim: Yeah. Six 50 twin.

Robin: And it's got that cone, that anamorphic thing going on with the CVT.

Tim: Oh goodness. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. It's got the CVT. It's got a enclosed bath chain, final drive.

Robin: Wow.

Tim: And the, the clutch is a little slow and shuddery to engage. And that is honestly is the, the, the only bad thing I can say about it.

Travis: I wonder if that's just, have you ridden it in like not cold temperatures? I bet the clutch is better when it's warm.

Tim: Yeah. So I'm, I'm, I'll take that with a grain of salt. We'll see how that goes. And Sylvia took advantage of some end of season closeouts or some new, let me think. So a redesign of the climb gear and got previous version of climbs women's sport touring motorcycle gear. Oh, nice. And also.

Travis: Motorcycle closeouts.com. That's so good. Yeah. I never buy anything new. It's always two or three mile years old. Yep.

Tim: That is the way to go. And it's, especially when you've, if you're like, I love getting the really nice stuff, you know, you get a good quality zipper. That's not going to fall apart on you or something like that. For some reason, I am such a dork about zippers. It's got to have a good beefy zipper. If I can't trust that zipper to go up and down when it's dusty and dirty, I'm not happy, but.

Robin: Wait a minute. This is a real thing. Motorcycle closeouts.com. Travis just got a new bookmark.

Tim: Yeah. Well, they've been around forever.

Travis: Them and motorcycle gear.com.

Tim: I think like 2010, I think when I first started shopping for stuff, I was grabbing stuff off of there.

Robin: Is motorcycle gear closeout stuff as well.

Travis: Yeah.

Robin: Yeah. Holy cool.

Travis: Motorcycle gear sells. So motorcycle gear used to be new enough where they would sell used here, but now they sell new stuff.

Tim: Well, that's cool.

Travis: Yeah.

Tim: And she also got a new base layer, which we'll talk about later in the new kit. So that's my bundle of fun. Tell me, Robin, what has been going on with you and your crazy trailer lifestyle?

Robin: Crazy trailer lifestyle. Um, hold on. I'm bookmarking these freaking discount things because I live in a trailer and I can't afford stuff in my life. Well, we got the new tour in the works for the Ohio 99. I'm really excited about it because we get to just chill in one spot. We've got one really nice location for a bunch of people to come hang out. And hopefully Travis's lovely wife Laurel is, she's considering, or we've talked about maybe she'll get to cater the event, which would be great. Either way, I'm going to try to set it up so it includes all meals. That's what I want to do so that everything's a fixed price. You know what I mean? Um, other than that, uh, oh, we're having the GS resources.com, which is not that BMW GS. It's the Suzuki GS. It's a vintage bike, the GS resources.com rally down here in Texas, March. Uh, I don't remember when. So I've been working on getting the routes ready for that. And I've had routes down here that I love to ride, but they're kind of sparse and sometimes are shorter. And so I'm trying to connect them. And that is proving to be really, really boring. I have one 350 mile ride that is epic and really good. And then I have another one that's like 120 miles. So I'm trying to stretch the other one and making it into something good. And today I, it was a lot better. It was a lot more scenic, but it was still just kind of like, oh, here's another 10 minute lull of nothing. Uh, so working on that last thing. Oh, what were you saying?

Travis: Everything's bigger in Texas. Yeah.

Robin: Everything's bigger in Texas. Um, oh, the MSTA website. So if you visit ride msta.com, a little personal note about me, my job, I run, uh, deanmultimedia.com. It's a web development, copyright, that kind of thing. Well, we got asked to rebuild the ride, the MSTA website. That's the motorcycle sport touring association. So I've been rebuilding the ride msta.com website. And I'm almost done with that. Only a couple of little final touches to put on there before I go through the painful motions of instructing them on how to maintain it. That's going to be fun. That's it. That's everything about me. That's everything about Travis. Now onto our guest interview. Uh, there's no guest interview this round, but we'd love to hear your motorcycle story. If you'd like to be featured on this podcast, record your thoughts to an app like authonic, uh, A-U-P-H-O-N-I-C for Android or iPhone, and then upload the resulting file to SoundCloud. Meemos will email us the link. We'll polish things up before featuring your tail and your voice and your words. So now we can just go on to segments. Travis, what year slash make slash model are we focused on today?

Travis: You're excited. Yeah. So, uh, zero has released a fully fared version of their flagship S R slash F. So that's the one. Yeah, that's the one that came out. Uh, was it a year or two years ago? Um, the competitor to Harley's live wire, but has had less problems and is less expensive. Um, yeah, every review. I mean, I haven't heard any complaints about the live wires or goes, we'll see what, what, um, the long way up whenever that actually comes out. Uh, when it gets out of post-production here, uh, has to say about that, but, um, yeah, so the S R slash F has been, um, pretty, uh, has had pretty solid positive reviews from the motorcycle press. Um, you know, the power has been amazing. The range has been, you know, good. Um, and I put, I've put some links there to the different things and they've done a fully fared version. Now, if you look at it, what I noticed is it still has, it's not like full on sport bike. It is a, you know, sport touring or a sporty road bikes. It's got a full sport bike fairing on it, but it doesn't have like the, like low sport bike clip-ons. It kind of has more of like a Ninja, you know, a Ninja 650, a Ninja 1000 type profile.

Robin: It's not a, it's not a full tuck RR. It's a, it's a standard with a fairing.

Travis: Yeah.

Robin: Yeah. Like a modern standard.

Travis: Yeah. Like it was with a sportier, a sportier riding position, but it's not a full rear sets, full clip-ons. Um, you know, your knees are tucked, but they're not way back behind you. The bars are low, but they're not down on the triple clamp. Um, so it's a, it's a road bike, uh, a street bike for sure. Um, but it looks cool. And if you're actually going to try and tour on it, you know, you have a fairing and you have a windscreen, so you have a bit more protection than the naked, uh, slash F version. Um, I did link there. There is a ride apart series. Uh, one of the authors from rideapart.com, uh, spent, uh, I think it was four weeks or five weeks, uh, with a SRF and did a trip on it and did live with a day-to-day for a month, um, and, and reported back. And it was funny because the, the big takeaway on that was range, at least in California, where there's lots of electric charging stations is not really the issue. It's charging time. So if you, so it's actually better to get like the quick charger instead of the range extender.

Robin: Interesting. Yeah. That's what a thousand dollar upgrade.

Travis: Uh, yeah. And I mean, it's not, it's not a cheap bike. It's like $20,000 plus if you had to start adding options. Um, but, um, yeah, yeah. It's like, you're going to stop anyway. Like you do. I mean, you can get a hundred miles, a hundred and something miles, no problem, right? Which is about as much as you want to do on a regular bike. It's not a Goldwing anyway, but it's like, do you, can you wait 20 minutes to charge or do you have to wait 40 minutes to charge before you can go in again? Um, so she had a very interesting point. I thought that, uh, you know, the future maybe lies less in extending the range and more in making the recharge time faster, making it that gas tank fill up range speed. So even if you can't go as far, if you can fill up faster, it doesn't matter.

Tim: Yeah. I could see like a 20 minute stop would be very reasonable time period.

Travis: Yeah. Have a cup of coffee, have a granola bar. Um, but yeah, I mean the, otherwise it's the exact same. If you compare it side by side with the SR slash F they're this exact same bike with different fairings on it. Um, and of course the SR F has had glowing reviews and anytime you watch a YouTube video or someone riding one, they just go, whoa, and the power just blows them away. Uh, the power and the performance. Um, so it's, it's a, a cool, um, cool electric bike. And I was actually looking at the rest of zeros range. So even their base, like S model, it's 10 grand, right. Um, just not that much for like a midsize commuter. So, so like if you're, if you were thinking about buying like an MT seven, yeah, my MT seven, which I think is like seven, seven grand.

Tim: That sounds about right. Yeah.

Travis: For three grand more, you could get a zero S which only has like an 80 or a hundred mile range. But if you're primarily like city commuting on it, well now you have a one you don't have to do maintenance on and you don't have to gas up one moving part. And it makes 80 pounds. The, the, the ass, the base, the, the small one makes 80 pound feet of torque all the way across the power band, right? So the, the, the flagships we're talking about. So the SR S and SR slash F make 140 pounds.

Tim: Such a nutty number.

Travis: That's like rocket. That's like triumph rocket three torque numbers.

Robin: Yeah.

Travis: In like a lightweight, a fairly lightweight, a 500 pound sport bike.

Robin: Well, what is it? Let's compare that. What is the rocket three way?

Travis: Over 600, even the, even the new one, which is, which is like 50 pounds lighter is like over 600 pounds. It's got, it's got a, it's got a two, what? 2.3 liter engine or combustion. That's a lot of motor.

Robin: Whenever we talk about electric, I always bring up the fact that they're working on the new, the new battery cells. Somebody. Oh yeah. I was talking with Jeff Alford, who is the, the coordinator over at Total Rider, which is a, an MSF school here in Austin area. And he and I were sitting down at lunch, talking about the electric stuff. And I guess at one point of zero, let him down. He actually got stuck on the side of the road because it went out of battery before they told him it would. Oh. But we started talking about range specifically. And he knew the term, what is it called where you use pulverized glass? There's a name for that. And he was familiar with this tech already. The man is, you know, he's a Marine and military, so who knows? But the point is like that eventually we'll have the range we need. I think it's supposed to multiply the available range by as much as four times. So if you had 150 mile range machine, you're, you're looking at, I mean, I don't need that much range in a given day. I'll plug that into my freaking hotel room after I'm landed. You know what I mean?

Travis: Projected range for the SR slash S and slash F is 161 miles. I'm assuming that is under ideal conditions. It's 161 city.

Robin: Yes. City commuting.

Travis: In 99 highway at 55 miles an hour with a combined of 123, uh, 82 miles range at 70 miles an hour, which is not great.

Robin: I mean, we, we need to up that quite a bit.

Travis: Yeah. I mean, again, depending on, on what you're doing, right? Like, are you going to go out? So like you, you get a flagship sporty bike like this is something, I mean, it's $20,000, but assuming you have the money, you go out, you blast for an hour and change on some curvy roads. You stop at a cafe or gas station or whatever. You plug it in for 20, 30 minutes, have a cup of coffee, do whatever, go out for another hour, come home. Like it's totally doable. Right. I mean, yeah, there's no, there's no electric equivalent for Goldwing for, or even for, you know, Robbins, you know, our 1200 RS where it's like, Oh yeah, I'm going to, I'm going to drive 500 miles today. You know, there's just, it, it doesn't exist yet. And, uh, and even an automotive, like you can kind of do it in a Tesla if you string your superchargers together. Right. But, um, you know, you can't just go wherever you want. Um, but anyway, I mean, too, even you compare this to its biggest competitor right now, which is probably LiveWire. I think it looks better. Not that LiveWire doesn't also look cool. I kind of like this one a little bit better. It just looks, it looks less muscle bike and looks more sport bike. I mean, LiveWire looks, but it looks like a naked muscle bike, especially with the S with the fairing. It like, it looks like a, kind of like a Ninja 1000. It looks like, I love that. It looks like a leaner Ninja 1000, the way the shock is and the big gap between the tail section and the rear tire. Um, and, uh, yeah, and it costs less and seems like it'll probably perform better.

Robin: Just as a side note, Chakra, S-H-O-C-K-R-A, that domain, because I intend to turn it into a website that's about electric conversion kit. So stay tuned for that. That's something I'm going to build here. Hopefully over the next winter, I'll be getting that sort of situated. We can take a Hulk of a bike and make it into an electric machine and, uh, provide people with details on how they might want to go about doing that without any waiver, any, um, any insurance liabilities. So there'll be a hell of a sign up page.

Travis: This site exists for educational purposes only.

Robin: Yes.

Travis: Entertainment purposes only.

Robin: What you do with it is up to you, not pay us money.

Travis: Anyway, diverging from, uh, electrical motorcycles, uh, we'll turn to Tim here. Give us some information on some new kits.

Tim: All right. What we're looking at today is some more tie-down solutions with the new bike, which has an unreal amount of plastics.

Travis: This is your scooter.

Tim: The scooter. Yes. Really? Yeah. So it's got this big fairing. It's got kind of encloses the radiator up front with plastics. Does anything say Rubbermaid? Sadly, no. That'd be fantastic. But German, you know. So it's hard to even get like soft tie straps to the triple clamp, even the lower clamp. So it's really hard to tie this bike down. The only option was putting straps around the handlebars and the grips, but heated grips, you don't want to put a lot of pressure on heated grips or you will damage them and you no longer have heated grips. You just have grips.

Travis: It's okay. I'm sure BMW replacement heated grips are super cheap and easy to get. Of course.

Tim: Yeah.

Travis: I mean, money solves everything.

Tim: Right? But the nice thing is when I started looking into this, started talking to people, it was the recommendation was the Canyon Dancer Strap Kit. So the newest version of these things, where they used to be kind of like a poly sleeve that would wrap around the grips. Now it is a...

Robin: You got the links here. Should I open up the bar harness or the strap ring?

Tim: So the bar harness is what we're talking about first.

Robin: Okay.

Tim: So these are basically like thermoplastic molded cups that completely encase your grips.

Robin: Yeah.

Tim: So low pressure contact. So they're not going to damage your grips. And the way the straps end up getting hooked up, the stresses are more lateral across. So it's the cup on the right is actually being tensioned on the left.

Robin: Okay.

Tim: And the one on the right. Yeah. And the other way to the other side.

Robin: It's a balanced load. Yeah.

Tim: Yeah. So what the... Instead of a downward pressure on the grips themselves, you're getting an inward pressure across the bars. So you're not going to do damage to your heated grips. And it keeps the straps out away from the plastics. And they're really reasonably priced. I think the ones I ordered were like 30 bucks.

Robin: That's pretty good.

Tim: Yep. And they come sized depending on how wide your bars are.

Robin: Now, does that beast have a center stand? It does. Yes. If you have a center stand and you use... You could use... If you lock your center stand open, like maybe even use a front rim and light ratchet strap, not a lot of tension. Just to keep it open. And then use this with light tension. That thing's not going anywhere. I wouldn't want to see it get hurt. Yeah. Because I went through that with my Bandit. I used my handlebars before I knew better. And I saw that the guy was retching it down. I was like, you need to stop. You need to chill out. And then I saw the whole handlebar go...

Tim: You were flexing your bars?

Robin: I mean, the other person was, but I felt... I was upset. Anyway, back to you. Sorry.

Tim: Yeah. So that's one of the possible solutions here. So the other is the strap ring. So what you're doing with the strap ring is you are pulling one of the lower triple clamp bolts and slipping this. It's basically like a figure eight loop. So the smaller loop goes underneath your triple clamp bolt and you torque it down normal. And then you can use that larger ring and you can slip your hook from your ratchet straps down.

Travis: Yeah. So that's like a semi-permanent bolt-on attachment point that goes under your triple trees. Yeah.

Robin: I think it's really good. Is that an M8 or an M10 or what is that? I think it's an M8.

Tim: I'd have to double check, but there's... Let me think. The Pit Posse, I think, is the other company that makes an equivalent product. I'd have to look that up. But that's one of those ones that's really low profile, easy to do. So you're not having to try and fish a soft strap through your triple clamps or anything like that. And I was thinking that could be a possible one where I can hook these on. And I'd have to actually X-cross these straps to clear the plastics if I used these on the lower clamp on the scooter. Like the access on this, tying this thing down is so poor. It was a little sketchy, like taking it home when it was kind of like it was wet, it was cold. And I've got a bike I've never strapped down and I didn't want to crank it down because I didn't want to damage the grips. Because all I had was soft straps looped around the handlebars.

Robin: A lot of our listeners out there will think about like, okay, scooters. Okay, well, you don't understand.

Tim: This is a 550 pound monster.

Robin: Right. Now I will say that, you know, we got that Buddy 125, that's our grocery getter.

Tim: Yeah.

Robin: Which sidebar we're thinking about trading in for a TW200. But my point is that, I mean, it is the afterthought strap down in this trailer. And because it's old and the gas gauge is broken, we don't care about it. So like we load my Beemer in and we load Margaret's bike in and then those have pit bull stands. They hook, they're rigid.

Tim: Oh, rock solid.

Robin: Just badass. We get the fastener. It connects to the rear axles and it's just one arm. It's not going anywhere. And then we take this scooter and I just wrap it in ratchet straps and crank it until I hear it. And then I'm like, that'll do. It's like, we don't care about that thing at all. Once we hear the frame starting to buckle, like, yeah, it's probably in there then. You know, it's all rusted and gone.

Tim: It's not going to go nowhere.

Robin: What you're talking about is a noble purchase in like a really elegant machine. One that you could do some real travel on, which is awesome.

Tim: Yeah. And we've already got a trip planned for that bike. We are going to do a little bit of Great River Road touring coming up in mid-April, I think is what we're talking about.

Robin: Mid-April.

Tim: Yep.

Robin: That's when Maggie and I are arriving. Oh yeah. So yeah.

Tim: Love to take a look at that. So yeah, we're going to bed and breakfast it. And just, I think it could take three days, three, four days. Just kind of cruise up and down the road, up and down the big Mississippi.

Robin: It'll be beautiful. That means another Tim episode.

Tim: Yeah. Yeah. So what I was mentioning earlier is the space age undergarments that Sylvia picked up. So this is... Travis, can you cue up some space sounds? So what we're talking about is a material called an aerogel. Oh. Which is...

Travis: They have aerogel clothes?

Tim: Yes. Looks like it. So there's this company who has developed a flexible aerogel product, which is a fairly new beast. It's called Oros. O-R-O-S. Travis, the link is right there in the outline.

Travis: Yeah, I know. Well, it's like, for people who don't know what aerogel is, it is insane.

Tim: Oh no.

Travis: But it's been like, it's very stiff and rigid and it like shatters. Yes.

Tim: Oh wow.

Travis: You can put like a quarter inch thick piece of aerogel on your palm and take a settling torch to it and it won't burn your hand.

Tim: Oh yeah.

Travis: Yeah.

Tim: You could hold it there for a minute and it will not... The insulating capabilities of a pure aerogel is unreal. It is total space age crazy shit.

Robin: Yeah. So then Tim, is this the same caliber or tell me more?

Tim: No, they don't publish the numbers, you know, of like thermal permiss... Permit... Permittivity? I don't know.

Travis: Yeah. Yeah, it was... It probably... It looks like it is like a polymer fabric, so it probably won't be fireproof, but it has super insulating properties.

Tim: So we went out on Sunday and we went down about the lower shore of the elegant Koshkanong to a supper club down there. And we were out and about, probably put on about 90, 95 miles in 50 degree weather. And it was... If you're not dressed warm, you're going to get all the heat pulled out of your body.

Robin: Oh yeah. So... Air extracts it, right?

Tim: Yep. Yep. Yeah. At that point, it's like if... At 50 degrees, you can't have any air moving against your skin. If you... Because... And if you have clothes that will compress, you will, at that point, be conducting heat out, which at 50 degrees can still be, you know, after an hour or so, you're going to be cold. But her report was that even though she was cold, she got really cold, but any of the area covered by the panels was fine. So they put the aerogel in and it just kind of like strategically locate the panels where they're not going to flex too much. Mm-hmm. So like on the lower... On the bottoms of the thermals, there are like kind of these panels on the outside of the thigh. Yeah. And then on the front of the chest.

Robin: That's pretty cool.

Tim: She reported that she had no problem at all.

Robin: They do have kind of a sun chips like look to them, you know what I mean? Yes. So they look like the fabric itself wants to be brittle. That's pretty nice. What does something like that go for?

Tim: Mm-hmm. Um, I think that she was saying that between the tops and bottoms, it was about a hundred dollars. That's not bad. And I think she got them on sale as well. So regular price, I think they're a bit more, you know, they're, but compared to the, what I bought from Duluth Trading Company, my little cheap or not so cheap, um, kind of more traditional waffle style thermals, you know, those are 40 bucks top 40 buck bottom. You know, 80 bucks a set, but I've also found them to be stellar, but I, I don't get cold as easy. So if you get cold easy on the bike.

Travis: Tim is a robust mountain of a man.

Tim: I'm a well insulated without clothes is the, uh, the appropriate statement, I think there. So yeah, I just thought it was fantastic. I'd never heard of anyone actually making a flexible, durable aerogel material in a garment. It's just phenomenal. So that's my, that's my exciting bit of the, uh, the space clothes.

Robin: So hear that space clothes, people. Our address is 180 rainbow drive box number 8084 Livingston, Texas, 77399-1080. So we'll be looking for your package any day.

Tim: Yeah. We're talking to you, orosapparel.com. Send us free shit, please. Please. All right, Robin, you are up.

Robin: Okay. I'll try to keep everybody's suffering to a minimum. As you hear my voice reading this article, it was written by Brian ringer. I intended to read it last time and then the whole thing went to pot. So this is another Brian ringer spectacular brought to you by the ringer of Brian's 10 commandments for the ST ride leader. That's 10 commands for the sports ring ride leader. Tim and Travis, you guys are my backup singers. So all right. Riding motorcycles is pretty much the most fun and interesting thing you can do while wearing waterproof pants. And it's even better with other people for both group riders and ride leaders. Nothing beats grinning and babbling like idiots with like-minded motorcyclists after reeling a particularly tasty tangle of twisties. Thanks for making that easy to say, Brian. But a sublime shared riding experience doesn't just happen. I don't want to get all Zen here, but it takes a conscious, continuous effort to create an environment or culture that maximizes and balances enjoyment and safety. You need the proper doses of velocity and lean angle without harshing the mellow with stuff like groupthink, bad vibes, and impromptu dirt sampling. How to actually ride your own ride. A lot of people ride by themselves most of the time. So that's what they're used to. And that's when they're safest. The goal of a group ride leader is to recreate that familiar experience as much as possible, yet keep the elements that make riding with pals so much more fun than soloing. The usual advice along these lines is ride your own ride. That's straight out of MSF, if I remember correctly. But I cannot represent them, even though I'm a...

Tim: yeah.

Robin: Like most good but vague advice, it's hard to follow. To put quote, ride your own ride into action, each rider must do two things. Minimize distractions and eliminate deviations for themselves and others. Travis, what are distractions?

Travis: Distractions are anything extra a rider has to think about or work around. Are they watching their buddies and not the road? Trying to remember and interpret a bunch of hand signals? Worried the rider in front is going the low side? Getting hangry? Does their butt hurt? Are they bored spitless? Scared spitless?

Tim: Tim, what is deviation? All right, deviation means anything a rider might do differently, just because there are other riders around. Also referred to as groupthink. That covers a lot of territory, including things like struggling to keep up, clowning for your buddies, pushing past fatigue so you don't slow the group down, or not stopping immediately to fix a problem.

Robin: If you're a ride leader, you and your fellow riders can help remove distractions and deviations with the following simple commandments. One, thou shalt stay the hell away from each other. This is the number one inviolable commandment. Space is life. When you're moving, give each other at least a school bus of space. Only share lanes and stoplights. Each rider needs enough room to maneuver instantly, as needed in any direction, without wasting attention on other riders. If you want to be close enough to hold hands, go find a roller coaster. If you want to ride fast motorcycles, give each other lots of space. One important factor of maximizing space is to keep the number of riders to an absolute minimum. Three up to about five or six riders is the ideal group size. With more than that, things can start to get cumbersome, and you run more risk of damaging each other. For example, u-turns get exponentially more awkward as you add riders.

Tim: All right, let me interrupt here real quick. This photo you've got in here. Which one? This is not an example. This is the one, me following you in the corner. This is not an example of giving space. This is me and Robin feeling very comfortable with each other. This is professional riders on a closed course. This is how fast were you going in that corner, and you are taking a picture one-handed.

Robin: Oh, absolutely. Yeah, and we were going exactly the speed limit, and it's a closed course that happens to have two yellow lines down the middle.

Travis: Yeah, and the camera is mounted to a drone, an unmanned drone fence following Robin.

Robin: Travis, you're up.

Travis: Thou shalt pass and be passed. Pass, pass, pass. This is the logical corollary to space is life. Don't bunch up. If you're feeling frisky that day, don't crowd the rider in front of you. Instead, hang back a little and pass as soon as you can safely do so. If you're feeling a little mellower, keep half an eye on your mirrors for frisky folks behind you, then move over and enthusiastically wave them around as soon as it's safe and enjoy the show. Soon, everyone is sorted into the pace they prefer that day, and you'll have a lovely spectacle of a line of riders spread out, and the spaces between them will gradually get wider and safer. Tim?

Tim: All right, number three. The number of hand signals shall be only three, and three shall be the number of hand signals. Two hand signals is not enough. Five hand signals is right out. And you shall not stop at two. Accepting shall be passed immediately to three. All right. The less to remember, the better. The following three signals are all a ride leader needs while you're moving, and all are pretty obvious, so there's not much to remember. If you need to communicate something more elaborate, elaborate, pull over and use your mouth words and ear holes.

Robin: Your mouth words and ear holes.

Tim: Listen to the mouth words I'm speaking to you. All right. First one is, we're doing a U-turn. It's one finger in the air, twirled in a circle, yippee-ki-yay rodeo style. Yep, I screwed up and made a wrong turn, so spread out and stay sharp. Try not to run into each other. This one is necessary, and I've always needed it a lot, because usually I realize I made a wrong turn pretty quickly, so everyone's still a little bunched up. U-turns are somewhat surprising moves, so this is one essential signal everyone needs to know. And keep in mind that everybody turns around in a different radius. You got your guys on the dirt bikes, they're going to spin around and stay in their own lane. And if you got the guys with the sport bike with the super narrow steering lock, they are going to have to do a 20-point turn.

Robin: Or an FJR. Yeah, we always have one friend who requires that they lay the bike on its side before picking it back up during the U-turn process.

Tim: Yes, all right. And this next signal is, yo, we're going that-a-way. And signals are not normally needed for turns. That's why we have, you know, turn signals. Once in a while it's not obvious, or you're coming up on a hidden turn, or you're at a five-way intersection or something, so you have to resort to pointing. If you're turning left, point to the left with your left arm. If your plan is to turn right, left arm straight out, elbow at 90 degrees, hand straight up. And then pass me, you magnificent beast. This is waving around with the left hand. Add creative flourishes of encouragement as you deem necessary. One other signal is needed on some vintage and dual sport rides where the bikes may not have kickstand cutouts. Your left kickstand is down. Yo, you left your kickstand down, dipstick. Is three quick horn beeps. This quickly turns into a formless group beep bang, but it's usually fairly effective.

Robin: Four, thou shalt leave no rider behind. Behind. Behind. Where am I? Following the above rules, you'll quickly have riders spread out over a mile or more. It's important for the ride leader to strategically regroup and count headlights at stop signs, turns, and towns so everyone knows where they are. This commandment applies to everyone. All riders are casually sort of responsible for the rider behind them. Don't stare at your mirrors, but a couple of times a mile, take a glance and make sure you can see the following rider's headlight. Maybe slow way down on a straight and wait a bit of if you're really getting away. If the following rider doesn't reappear after a decent interval, stop somewhere safe and wait a bit. I usually give this a minute or two, then turn around and go see if they need help. That's enough time for someone to stop and put on a sweatshirt or make an undergarment adjustment. If there is some real problem and everyone follows this protocol, pretty soon you'll have everyone gathered around and maybe, just maybe, one of you remembered to bring a tire patch kit. The no rider left behind policy is why it's also important for anyone leaving the ride to tell others beforehand. If you're going to peel off at the interstate, make sure the rest aren't wondering where you went and dredging the digits. A simple warning ahead of time and a jolly farewell wave are usually sufficient.

Travis: Commandment number five. Thou shalt always bear in mind the big picture. Picture. Picture. Picture.

Robin: Picture. Where's Tim?

Travis: I also would have accepted blank, blank. You're not seeing the big picture. Picture. Number five. It's simple and obvious, but the ride leader needs to also know where you're going. I'll save a discussion of route planning, wayfinding, GPS options, and such for other posts. Even if you're just following a blue line on a GPS, it's important to stay oriented in time and space in a larger sense.

Robin: Time.

Travis: Space. Sense. But that means having a good mental picture of where you're at at all times. Example questions for the big picture general plan. Are you crossing a river or interstate soon? How long until you need gas? Do you have another 20 minutes of flatlands before you hit the twisties? What's a good point people could shortcut the route if they're done for the day? If you're on the west side of a mountain and the hotel is on the east, what are the alternate routes back and how long might they take? Weather is another reason to carry the big picture in your head. If you're always aware of where you are and what direction you're headed, flexible about your route, and keep a close eye on the sky and wind, you can often dodge rain and passing storms, or at least judge when to hole up for a bit and let the storm blow over. A ride leader also needs to be able to maintain an interesting pace. That doesn't mean you need to some knee down, drag out struggle to decide who's fastest, but the rider in front does need to be able to stay out of everyone's way for the most part. Boredom is one of those distractions we were trying to avoid.

Tim: What is this, VI?

Travis: Tim?

Tim: Romans?

Travis: This is Commandment VI. Thou shalt shred.

Tim: Thou shalt choose thy velocities rationally. Rationally. Let's talk about speed, baby.

Travis: Let's talk about speed, baby. Let's talk about you and me. Let's talk about speed.

Tim: Speed is a bit of a taboo subject. To be clear, competitiveness has no place on a street ride. Especially one that proceeds at a, um, entertaining pace. But some of us are red-eyed, nub-biting, slobbering, lean-angle addicts where others prefer a more casual pace. Since we're on a sport-touring-focused website, we'll go ahead and assume most folks are in that lean-angle camp, preferring more elevated velocities than your average poker-run putt-putt. Let's start with something interesting about brisk street riding. Highly skilled riders will make very nearly the exact same decisions in most situations, no matter what motorcycle they're riding. That's mainly because street threats like chihuahuas, bovines, bovine by-products, Buick's mailboxes, and gravel, and goats. I've had to dodge goats. They all behaved about the same, no matter what bike you're on. There's only so much traction your circle can, or should, expand on the street. On pavement, the differences between bikes don't matter much. Note the diversity of machinery in the ride documented in my last article.

Robin: Oh yeah, uh, his Northeast Kentucky ride. It was, uh, it was pretty crazy.

Tim: Alright, so he had everything from a 35-horsepower KLR650 to a 1200cc Uber Beast rode the same routes all day and had a grand time. We didn't have to wait long at all for anyone. On a track, sure, we would have been all over the place. On a Moto Rapide street ride, our decisions and our velocities were remarkably similar. There's an old saying along those lines, speed follows the rider, not the bike. With highly skilled riders on the street, speed follows the limits of the environment far more than the bike. Kind of reminds me of when I'm on the 500 and you're on the bandit 12. I was kind. You were. Like, keep up on anything but a straightaway.

Travis: Exactly. Yeah.

Robin: Okay, yeah, but that's what that photo's from and that was a damn fine time. But we don't talk about it this episode.

Travis: But that is a point to both. Tim and I tend to ride smaller displacement bikes, unlike Robin, and we usually can keep up with him on anything but a straight line. Yep, yep.

Tim: It's like fast into the corner, fast through the corner, and then he walks away.

Travis: Yeah, because you can only go to that corner on a public road so fast regardless of how fast your bike is. Yes.

Robin: I think the three of us should do a track day.

Tim: It'll be fun. I haven't done a track day yet. No.

Robin: Oh my god. I'm still, I'm working on something. I'm working on it.

Tim: Same bike. Robin, you are on number VII.

Robin: Thou shalt stop about every 90 minutes. I'm going to read eight too. This is just a rule of thumb that works for most groups. But as a ride leader, I've found that stops every 60 to 75 miles work best. With dual sport rides, this can be as few as 25 to 40 miles. If you've all agreed to just grind through an unpleasant slice of slab, this can go as high as 120 miles or more depending on gas tank capacity. Older or newer riders might prefer to stop every hour. Afternoon stops often end up closer together as riders get tired. So a nice long break, a nice long brisk day would be one or two morning stops. Lunch, then two or three stops in the afternoon. Depending on the twistology factor and the length of the day, that's anywhere from 150 to 300 twisty miles in a route. More if you're traveling and significant slabs of interstate are on the menu. Now for VIII. Eight, nine, ten. Yeah, that works. Eight. Thou shalt observe the state of thy flock. When you arrive at a stop sign or pull off the helmets at a gas station or a rib joint, what you want to see is a state of attentive bliss. Seal clapping, club high five, happy incoherent babbling, and similar expressions of joy are great. Browns, red eyes, shaking hands, anger, thousand yard stares, and corn stalks caught in a frame are danger signs that need to be addressed immediately. At stops, ride leaders should quickly and quietly check in with each other. Mention the probable time to lunch or the hotel. Make sure they're safe and happy. Ask riders you know well to keep an eye on things too. Also be aware that heat, cold, and rain also add to the emotional load and stress each rider feels. Adjust your plans as needed. Emotional danger signs include Mistakes.

Travis: Obviously you can't spot riding errors from up front unless things go really wrong, but there are still signs. Maybe a rider who suddenly slows way down, keeps looking at or feeling with their bike, or looks shy, isolated, or angry is starting to make mistakes and needs a break. Often riders who have scared themselves will say things like, Man, I almost lost it back there. Or start asking, How far? more often if they're getting tired. Pay attention to other riders. Oftentimes a rider having trouble has a buddy who hangs back with them, and sometimes other riders will express concern. Harshing the mellow. If someone is getting upset or mad at you or others, it's a giant red flag. Time to stop immediately and address the situation. Even if it gets personal, bear in mind that anger is often how fear is expressed. Most often, anger or other negative vibes stem from a rider who is way over their heads in some way. They're trying too hard to keep up, or maybe they're tired, or hungry, or lost. Watch for changes in mood, isolation, shaking hands, loud complaining, and similar signs of emotional distress. Fatigue. Watch for signs of exhaustion, like helmet down on the tank at stops, red baggy eyes, or flopping of the grass at filthy gas stations. Ew. Sometimes it's a side effect of strong beverages the night before, or they had trouble sleeping. Time for a rest, some hydration, and maybe some caffeine. And last thing we want to look out for is discomfort. If you start seeing more squirming and stretching at stop signs, or riders standing up to ease their aching bones, or doing pee-pee dances, it's likely getting time for a stop. Watch for signs of increasing discomfort as the day wears on, and try to space stops a little closer together. Tim, you want to take on commandment number nine?

Tim: All right, I'm taking number nine. Thou shalt freely offer and encourage tap outs. As the route allows, make sure you mention possible shortcuts to the night's lodgings whenever possible. Maybe you're crossing interstate, or you're just about to start a loop you could cut off. If a rider or the whole group decides to tap out, applaud their wise decision. Give them directions and or a map, and maybe assign them a beer shopping list. We all hate to miss good riding, so when a rider decides they're done for the day, they have a damn good reason. Thou shalt keep thy flock informed.

Robin: Inform-ed. Inform-ed. Some people want maps, GPX tracks, turn lists, and prefer to know exactly where they are and how far they're riding. Some prefer to bliss out and just enjoy the zen of the moment, trusting you to lead them wisely down twisty paths. Most are somewhere in between, so gauge what they want to know and adjust accordingly. After a few hours, most riders start wondering when and where lunch will be, and later in the day, most will want some idea of when they'll reach the hotel. I normally also carry a few copies of paper maps. They're handy for giving directions to tap outs. Showing a map is also a good way to make riders more comfortable with where we are and where we're going. It's best if every rider has a paper map and some basic ability to get back to the barn. Great riding often means poor cell coverage, so don't count on the phone to navigate. Although I will interject, the GPS antenna on your smartphone is completely independent of its other antennas, so if you've downloaded digital routes to your phone for offline use, there's no need for cell coverage or a data connection. Hey, that should just make you feel that much more comfortable.

Travis: All right. Who wants bonus commandment 11? I'll take it. I'll turn this up to 11. Yeah. Bonus commandment, it goes to 11. Lawyers gotta eat. Here's a handy rapid rural riding pro tip. Time for lunch and you're in the middle of nowhere? Scan the horizon for the largest water tower. Nearby, you'll find a town, often the county seat. At the center of that town will be a town square and the county courthouse. Across from the county courthouse will be at least one excellent local restaurant that's been catering to the local legal profession for many years. Leading a sport touring ride is always challenging, but there's also always interesting and rewarding and happy grinning and babbling of my fellow lean angle addict seems to make it all worthwhile every time. I want to redo that last paragraph. Go ahead, do it.

Robin: I'm leaving the bad one in there too, though. Go ahead.

Travis: Sure. Leading a sport touring ride is always challenging, but it's also always interesting and rewarding and the happy grinning and babbling of my fellow lean angle addict seems to make it all worthwhile every time.

Robin: What are your favorite ride leader methods? These are a few solid riding tips for leading a motorcycle ride. What might you add to group riding and safety? How would you go about it and why? Your input is invited. We want you to post an article. If you want to post an article to theridingobsession.com, visit theridingobsession.com forward slash contribute. And that was by Brian Ringer. Brian Ringer is a big idea guy, wordsmith, branding expert, and vintage motorcycle enthusiast. He's led countless rides and is a GS Resources super site moderator.

Travis: Anyway, that brings us to our updated site features and developments. So from our web master guru, Robin, what's going on?

Robin: I'll be quick. Yeah, the overhaul continues. I'm rebuilding some code for more efficiency. The weather page now predicts migraines better than before even. I learned that five of whatever type of point equates to 0.15 inches and 0.15 inches of pressure drop is the known number to cause a migraine.

Travis: Yeah, it was funny because whenever Robin drops 1.5 inches, his wife gets a migraine. It's funny.

Robin: And then the maintenance logs are back up and running and there's some mods still needed for that, but it's beginning to happen. Listener question. This one, we're going to keep this quick. I'm going to read this because I answered this on Facebook telling this guy, you know what? Freaking wash your tires and do a track day or go take an at-speed course. My problem is that when the dealer, okay, he initially posted about how he wanted to scrub in his tires. Can anybody tell me where there's a parking lot where I can go lean my bike back and forth and scrub in my tires? And I informed him that one, that doesn't do anything for stiction. Two, the way you heat up tires, that's not going to happen in a low-speed environment. You have to be going faster. And three, he might want to consider signing up for something that brings his confidence back. So the deal is his dealer, his motorcycle dealer installed new tires. They use some sort of lubricant to get the tires on the rims. I'm thinking they use like Vaseline or syrup.

Travis: Yeah, I mean, that thing. So, I mean, if you take it to someone who knows what they're doing, they will use some sort of bead lubricant. That's usually water-soluble if they're using the right stuff. Two, it's just on the bead and on the rim, so it shouldn't touch the contact patch of your tire at all. The thing is, and two, with most, I mean, pretty much every modern tire, there's no release agent. Like modern rubber releases from the modern molds without any sort of interference of a release agent. The problem with new tires is that, one, they're new. So they are relatively smooth unless you're getting like the Continentals that have the, they have their like snakeskin or whatever they call it where it's rough from the molding process. But even then, they're still pretty sticky. The thing is really just that you're on new tires and you were on old tires. So even if they're the same model, make, tire you had before, now they feel completely different. And looking through this, since you're not reading the whole thing, going into a parking lot to like scrubbing your new tires is a bad idea because parking lots are usually dusty and dirty and broken. They don't get consistent traffic so they get covered in dirt.

Tim: And frequently a lot of oils as well.

Travis: And oil from parked cars to cars.

Robin: Sharp debris, sharp puncture or something. The other thing is that, I mean, is that you're not creating enough momentum to actually compress the tire if it's inflated properly and create that heat that's gonna get stickied up already. You really just wanna ride the bike and find a good road that you can trust and ride it modestly, responsibly. This is not an unseasoned rider. He just took an ARC. But it's like now it's time to basically get your confidence back. The funny part to me is that he picked the bike back up after that. He downed his bike. The previous comment that started this conversation, he had downed the bike because there was lubricant on the sidewall, which I think they used the wrong one because that stuff's designed to evaporate and harden.

Travis: Yeah, well, I wonder too. So this is saying the problem was dealing with new tires. They used some sort of lube to get the tires on. He asked them to not wash it. And then the lubricant found its way to the sidewall and then in a parking. And I almost wonder if it was less that, I mean, I don't know the dealership. So I'm not gonna, you know. But I wonder if it was less that there was tire mounting lube on the traction area of the tire and more that you found someone's, the spot where someone had parked their 94 Corolla for four days and it leaked a quarter oil on the ground in the parking lot.

Robin: That's freaking crazy.

Travis: Or a part of the, you know, a north corner of the parking lot where the wind catches the building and the dust is built up. And now there's like grit, a light coating of grit on the pavement and it's otherwise slick. I mean, yeah. So new tires are usually pretty good. Also like, I mean, did you get cheap tires? Like I ran the Shinko 705s. Is that what the? Yeah.

Tim: And those are, they're a hard compound. They're hard.

Travis: I mean, yeah, they're adventure style, but they come in sport bike sizes. So I tried them for a minute and they were decent on gravel, and on clean, dry pavement, they were fine. But as soon as the pavement got wet, man, they would slip and slide all over the place. Not like Dunlop's, not like Michelin, like proper sport touring tires. So that's something to consider as well.

Robin: Our answer is get good tires, go to an at-speed event, get your confidence back. Do we need to go into Messalamoto?

Travis: We're at just over an hour. So we're probably okay. You want to skip it? Unless you really, unless there's something on there you really want to talk about.

Robin: Not really. Well, let me scroll up right now. I'm at the rare turbocharged Kawasaki. There's a rare turbocharged Kawasaki? Well, here, I'll share my screen. That way my audio will go out and people won't have to hear my voice. Hold on here one second. So here's this, here's this. We'll waver through it real quick and I'll post everything to the site. I am posting, there you go. Tell me if you guys can see that. Yep. Okay. So you got the rare turbocharged Kawasaki.

Travis: How far back are you here?

Robin: This is February 5th.

Travis: I'm scrolling down.

Robin: Oh, okay. February 5th, you'll see a red Kawasaki that looks like it's made out of a wedge.

Travis: Oh yeah, like an 80s thing. Is that a turbocharged original R2 or whatever with the, that looks like a four-stroke.

Robin: Travis, that's why we have you on the podcast. Why would you ask me if we knew this? This is your, this is your, you know this noise.

Travis: Kawasaki, I like the fucking solid wheels. Right?

Robin: Hard disc wheels.

Travis: Yeah, like a, like a cruiser. But it's a, yeah, it looks like a twin. I only see two exhaust.

Robin: Yeah. Okay, now if you scroll up above that to my other boss over at Total Rider, Kyle, he owns a VFR that keeps cutting out power. He thinks it's probably because of some electrics he added to it. We're going to, that's what Mike Dunn was going to cover in this episode. But Mike's not here because we had his substitute which was, you know, lung congestion. Then above that, we have how to load a motorcycle.

Travis: VFR.

Robin: How to load a motorcycle. And above that, yeah, we got the rally coming up. Above that, the Cardboard Ducati, which that's pretty creative.

Travis: Yeah, it's a, it's a, it's a pedal bike with cardboard bolted on it to make it look like a Panigale.

Robin: Come on, you got to do that for your kids.

Travis: And then we have a gif that Robin, a gif that Robin, no, Neil posted. Nevermind, Neil posted it.

Robin: And it links to another site. I didn't do that. Um, Greg White posted something we can't see anymore. Um, let's see here, scrolling up. Oh, so Sean McKellen saw SR slash F out on the road. He's the one that mentioned the SR slash S, which is the reason for all this shit.

Travis: Oh yeah, wow. I wonder where that, where was that? Where does he live?

Robin: He's moving all over the place. He's working for K&M now.

Travis: Oh, that's like, there's a lot of, uh, there's a lot of bikes right there. It looks like a US, it's the US somewhere. California, California. California plates on those bikes.

Robin: Quite a selection there. So yeah, Tim, he's in charge of marketing for them now is from what I understand. He's part of their marketing team. Oh, cool. Uh, cops staying on a motorcycle, riding a ticket to a monster truck. Uh, and some free Indian t-shirts, uh, the Batman bike.

Travis: Yeah, so the new Batman film, there was some spy shots leaked of him on a bike in a graveyard and it's got, it's got a, I think faux boxer cylinder heads on it. Like a faux boxer four cylinder.

Robin: But they're high.

Travis: Yeah, they're kind of high. And there's like four, there's like four, there's two exhaust pipes on each side and his knee is on the header or his knee is on the head. So there's like no way. Very comfortable. But I think it is a, I think it is a live wire. Okay. I think.

Robin: You think it's just disguised?

Travis: Yeah, I think it's a live wire with some Hollywood bits on it. Like it's got the little short upside down forks and it's got the blocky, the blocky interior. I think it's a live wire that they just Hollywood it up. Nice.

Robin: Okay. So then Mike Dunn posts, I have a pleasure room. Do you want to see it? And it's a picture of a room full of motorcycles.

Travis: Ha ha ha. Is that a barber? There's like a, there's a formula one car in there too.

Robin: Maybe, it may be. There's a place in Dodgeville, Wisconsin that is kind of like this. It's beautiful, but it's mostly cars, not bikes. The rally stuff. And that's it. That's a, that's the Super Slick Ultra Badass Motorcycle made by a positive incredible power mess a la moto.

Travis: It's Super Slick Ultra Badass.

Robin: And as a sidebar.

Tim: It's incredibly powerful.

Travis: Also there's motorcycles.

Tim: Incredible.

Robin: Okay. So yes. Visit the Super Slick Ultra Badass Motorcycle made by super incredible power.com. Good luck with that.

Tim: That brings us. Let's let's close it out, Tim. All right. This episode of the riding obsession podcast is brought to you by riding solutions, helping people become motorcyclists and helping motorcyclists ride better. Be safe while having a great time right in the open road. Visit them at riding solutions.com. Also ranch road fabrication, specializing in architectural interior and automotive metalwork. They take on complex tasks that others can't visit them online at ranch road fabrication.com. And lastly, by the ugly apple cafe of Madison, Wisconsin, where they use local overstock produce to offer a quick tasty breakfast, find out their food cart location by visiting ugly apple cafe.com.

Robin: I'll take this opportunity to promote another of our next group riding tours, which is tentatively scheduled for August 5th through the 9th of this year. It's the Ohio winding tour, and it's based in one single lodging location for the entire event. Seven riders will cover nine beautiful routes in three days starting May 26th of 2019. 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 the riding obsession.com. Visit the group tours link, which is anchored under events in our navigation menu.

Travis: That's our episode for this round. Tune in next time for more discussion on all things specific to sport touring or universal motorcycling as a whole. For the riding obsession.com. I'm Travis Burleson. I'm Tim Clark. And I'm Robin Deere. Safe travels everyone.