Robin: This episode of the Riding Obsession podcast is brought to you by DriveWeather. Be safe and check road weather conditions using the DriveWeather app. See wind and weather information at each point of your trip. Visit driveweatherapp.com to learn more. And also by John DelVecchio's Cornering Confidence program, a self-paced interactive online course that brings more enjoyment and assurance to the twisties. Their website is corneringconfidence.com 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. The Riding Obsession, your sport touring motorbike fix. We're an ever-developing online venue for motorcycle enthusiasts who enjoy responsibly spirited riding along routes less traveled. Travis, how's your month going?

Travis: Oh, you know, it's going. I think it's been a little over a month since we last recorded a podcast anyway. It was good. I mean, we went out for my birthday there at the end of September, and that was good. I thought that was a good time. I think everyone had a good time. You guys are there, you know. That was a good time. Yeah. That was a good ride. Some good routes. Yeah, it's a long one. There's some sleepier sections of like pretty countryside. And then, you know, obviously like the Mindoro Cut and Wildcat Mountain are some...

Robin: Which were exactly as slow as they always are.

Travis: Well, Mindoro Cut was good. We didn't get hung up on that. We did get about halfway through Wildcat Mountain before we got stuck behind the janky SUV.

Tim: Yeah, and I caught a bee to the neck.

Travis: Oh, yeah, I remember that. Oof, that's the worst. That's the worst. Otherwise, I haven't really gotten out too much for fun riding. Mostly just some little commutes here and there around doing stuff. Grocery runs and beer runs and stuff like that. Started playing again with the Dead Johnnies, the class tribute band. So we played a show last Friday and that went really well. It was really well-received on the outdoor show. It has really great weather for mid-October in Wisconsin. So where did you play at? The Parched Eagle, our guitar player's brewery. Yeah, so he's set up under the COVID emergency relief orders. They got to set up a sort of hastily put together patio on the old loading dock of the building it's in. So the loading dock is like a stage. He's been doing music out there.

Robin: That's cool. Were there any volume restrictions or was it pretty much open?

Travis: Yeah, it's all kind of DIY under the radar. So no one called the cops.

Tim: You don't have much in the way of residential right on top of that place.

Travis: Yeah, just that Marlene building that they built there, the old lumberyard. But it's like, I don't know, it's not louder than any of the summer festival stuff that would be going on in that part of the city if it wasn't COVID. You know, any of the like the Willie Street festivals and stuff. Yeah, so that's good. I've been playing bass again and otherwise just babies and dogs and not sleeping and you know, not too much not too much and excited in the world of motorcycling at this point, unfortunately, but the Oh, that's what I was going to say is I've been watching the Itchy Boots on YouTube channel. The gnarly, the Dutch woman, or is it not everyone from the Netherlands is Dutch? I don't remember how that works. She's from the Netherlands anyway, and she likes solo motorcycles around the world. And she just started her like third season, which is like around Europe now that COVID after she escaped getting trapped in Peru this spring because of COVID when she was supposed to do the Americas. Now she's just traveling around Europe because Europe is mostly open kind of sort of it's been it's been evolving. But it's like the videos come up like, like live. Basically, it's not like it's all done. And she's got all the video. It's like she just she posts them at the end of the day. Unedited. And that's nicely edited. They're really good, but they're just very current. You know, it's like the video, the events in the video only a day or two old.

Robin: Oh, that's cool. Wow.

Travis: So yeah, but they're not she's not on the the YouTube links on the Ride Obsession site. So we need to add her to that.

Robin: I think that's a good idea. Have you organized? Does she have like playlists available that are specific to like the adventures and all that stuff?

Travis: Yeah, it's just like it's just like everything. Yeah, everything she does is is that nice.

Robin: I can make that happen. Eventually need to we need to write up an article on winter reading for you guys up there. And is it starting to get cold yet?

Tim: Yeah, yeah, it's getting there. It was 54 on my ride home tonight.

Travis: Yeah, it's like if I was going somewhere, I'd want to be bundled up a little bit, you know, have some winter or some cool weather gear on. And I like tonight, so but, you know, we'll get there. What about you, Tim? What are you going to do?

Tim: Sylvia and I did a road trip down to Colorado. Oh, yeah. And took the scooter with us and got to ride a couple of mountain passes. And it was all around a good time. Did she enjoy it? She did. She did. It was actually a little bit hard on her. She's having issues with her sinuses and the elevation changes were a challenge for her. Sure. So when we'd be going up or down a big hill, my sinuses would probably equalize like three or four times. Hers might squeak a little bit. So it was just building pressure. And she was battling with some headaches and had a pretty good migraine on one of the mornings. But she's a trooper. She pushes through pretty hard.

Robin: Yeah, she's a force, man. She's a force to be reckoned with. She wants to enjoy life. So she's going to do it one way or the other.

Tim: Yeah, it's awesome. It's like, it doesn't matter. Like, you know, she's got all sorts of health issues and she just is going to push through and try and do everything she can. So, yeah, this is the first time we got to do a trip with this big scooter, riding two up.

Travis: And you got to do it in the Rocky Mountains.

Tim: Yeah. Yeah. And she was very comfortable on it. I mean, as comfortable as she can be. So sport touring scooter.

Travis: Hey, it is a BMW.

Tim: Yep. Yeah. So, yeah, I refreshed the crazy winch rig for loading the scooter into the back of the truck. Now with less wood and a lot more pulleys. So it's, it's convoluted. It's one of those things I'd have to show you for it to make any sense at all. But it still works so that I can load and unload, you know, 500 pound plus machine into the back of the truck by myself. And basically, I don't have to exert myself. I'm just have to balance the bike. Did the two of you roll the dice on any dirt while you were there? Didn't do it two up. There was a day that her mom and her mom's husband came up to visit and she was in the minivan with them. And I was riding by myself and I got a half day to myself. So I did find a dirt mountain pass to go over. Not a, not a serious Jeep road, just like a little bit of washout and a little bit of ruts. So it was, it was fun. Scooter does fine. You just have to go really slow.

Travis: Yeah. So you probably don't have too much suspension on it. And like your feet are in front of you. You can't really like load, load the bike with your feet.

Tim: Yep. Yep. So, yeah. And then it was the only problem with that road is there was a lot of washboard and that is what slowed me down more than anything.

Robin: And the, uh, did you run into any guys that had like, uh, they seemed friendly at first, but then all of a sudden they got into arguments with people on the street. And when they took off their helmet, they had a giant Scooby-Doo bowl haircut. Nope. Did not meet that guy.

Tim: Thank goodness. And you're going to be okay. Didn't really have any interactions with any other motorcyclists while I was out there. So, which was fine because, you know, it was, uh, our, we considered that our COVID getaway, go up, camp in the mountains and didn't see a shower for many days, seven, eight. And yeah, just kept our distance from people and just did some riding and some hiking. Um, one of the issues I ran into is the, the clutch is having issues on the scooter. And I'm not quite sure what to make of it yet. So it kind of grabs and slips, grabs and slips a couple of times before it locks in. It's a centrifugal clutch. You know, so it's got the, the sliders, rollers, whatever.

Travis: Is it a centrifugal clutch or is it a CVT transmission? It's a combination. Oh boy. Is it the clutch or is it just a transmission trying to figure out where it wants to be?

Tim: It's the clutch. It is initial engagement where it's having trouble.

Robin: So from a start?

Travis: Yeah. Well, I mean, it's a BMW, so it should be easy to fix and relatively cheap.

Tim: Oh yeah, of course. Yeah. Yeah. I'll, uh, so, you know, I'll drop it off at the dealer and it'll cost me a thousand dollars.

Robin: But they'll have great snacks. Fantastic snacks at the dealership this season.

Tim: This is, uh, I'll probably take it up to Mischler's, which is a combination Harley dealer. So they'll have t-shirts and leather as well.

Travis: So they'll have snacks and beer.

Tim: Yeah. Yeah. So I don't know. It's, I haven't decided if I'm going to crack it open myself yet or what I'm going to do with it. There is some question that it's just the, the clutch glazing up. And you might be able to just kind of like go in there, hit it with sandpaper and beer. You're good. Okay. Yeah. The way it works, it, it does have the, it's main, you know, disconnect for the powertrain is the centrifugal clutch. And then once that's engaged, it's the pulleys for the ratio on the CVT. And the final drive is a oil bath chain. So it's a really goofy setup.

Robin: That, yeah, I was going to say that's crazy. So they've combined the CVT with the centrifugal clutch, whatever.

Tim: Yeah. And that's pretty normal.

Robin: To a chain final drive. Yeah. Interesting, but also awkward. It's, that's crazy.

Travis: Well, I mean, it makes sense because you can make CVTs pretty compact and a lot of like the smaller scooters, like the CVT, like is the drivetrain, but on the bigger one, it's like then your swing arm has like all of the motor in it and it's so heavy, it's so much heavy unsprung weight.

Robin: Right. So I think like our buddy 125, our grocery getter that we bring in, that's, that's got the whole, it's got this, it looks like a shaft drive type thing.

Travis: Yeah. Cause the transmission is the drivetrain essentially.

Robin: It's all right there. Yeah. That's a sensible design.

Travis: But it's only got to take a 125 horsepower, not a 650s.

Robin: Yes. But in its favor, like I'm saying it in Tim's favor, we beat the crap out of that, that scooter. I mean, I, I don't respect that thing at all, you know, and it just, it just doesn't break.

Tim: I took it on some challenging stuff for that drivetrain. You know, there's, so we went to the Black Canyon, the Gunnison, which is kind of South Central Colorado. And one of the roads, I remember it was something ridiculous, like 20% grade, snakes down switchbacks. Oh wow. Into the bottom of the Canyon. Okay. And this is like a 2000 foot drop to the, the, the bottom of the Canyon. So going down, it was a challenge with the CVT because I could not engine break for shit. Yeah. I was on brakes the whole time and I was a little nervous about that.

Travis: Run back and trying to not cook them. It's got dual front though, at least. Right?

Tim: Yep. Yep. Yep. So there we go.

Travis: Better, better than my bike.

Tim: Yeah. You needed it. And then the climbing back up out of there was a challenge with that bike. Cause yeah, you can't like rev the engine and feather the clutch. You just gotta lug the thing up the hill.

Travis: Yeah. And let it figure it out. Yeah.

Tim: It did okay, you know, but towards the end of the trip, the clutch shutter was getting really, really bad.

Travis: Yeah. Maybe it just got a little over, maybe it just got overheated. Maybe you could just do a fluid change or.

Robin: It's clutch shutter where it starts to kind of engage, disengage, but it's sort of like more slower pace.

Tim: It's lurch, lurch, lurch, lurch. Okay. We're good. And then we're going to just drive normal, you know, it's yeah. And it's like, if I spin up the RPMs really slowly, like take off, like I'm grandma from the stoplight, it's fairly smooth and doesn't slip. But if I'm just kind of on it, like I would normally without thinking about it, it's going to kind of shake me around. So yeah. Uh, BMW ownership is turning out to be about what it was advertised. It's a one-time thing, buddy. It's a one-time thing. It does kind of make me think I should have just lived with the ugly beluga whale of the Bergman.

Robin: I, I, uh, I couldn't warn you enough, but at the same time I didn't exactly warn you directly. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I love this machine that I'm working on right now. I really do.

Tim: Yeah. I mean, for handling for a scooter with two up is a well handling machine. Yeah, man. There was actually like, um, one of those times when I was on, on my own, one of these Canyon passes, um, roads, it was fresh, fresh pavement and I had a clean run on it and I was being stupid. I was taking the corners at, you know, 20, 25 over the recommended speed. That's scary. On a scooter. I'm chin over wrist, leaning into the corner and almost.

Travis: Is this on the scooter? This is on the scooter. But just you.

Tim: Just me.

Travis: Okay.

Tim: Yeah. So yeah, so I was like near, I did find the center stand once. Ooh, that's what that is. I was, I was pushing it and it was, it was pretty entertaining. So I mean, as far as I can lean, I would not have expected that level of, uh, nonsense out of that machine. So I was rather pleased with it.

Travis: The ultimate driving machine, right?

Robin: That's the day that I told Maggie Dean, you're getting a motorcycle license. This is dangerous. You shouldn't be doing that on that scooter.

Travis: Didn't, didn't you, didn't you do that and then like lift the tires up and derf that scooter in like one of the six way intersections right in Chicago, like in Andersonville?

Robin: That I did. I know very well what this scooter is not capable of. Yeah. Well, I don't know until I do.

Travis: Yeah. Over like a six way Chicago intersection where it's all bussed out and it's like whoop-de-doos.

Robin: Well, let's remember it was Lincoln and Ridge.

Travis: Yeah. So Lincoln is the slanty for the six way.

Robin: Yes. But so is Ridge is kind of funky too. I don't know. It was somewhere in Rogers park, like North, uh, Northwest of our crib. And yeah, I was like gunning it to get home, having a hoot on that thing. And I discovered, wow, let's just find out what it, Oh, that it can't do that. Now I know.

Tim: Yeah. So yeah. And other motorcycle news, I did finally got around to the first oil change on the XSR 700.

Travis: What did it look like? Uh, sparkles, no metal flake. Perfectly clean. Oh, good. Yeah. Well, it's a bit like a tuning fork.

Tim: I did, uh, compare it to the last oil change on the, the Husqvarna and oh my God, the oil was so sparkly. Silver door.

Travis: Yeah. Sorry. Anyone that works have yeah.

Tim: Well to the trade in, um, yeah, let's not, uh, let's not identify who I traded that into. Were you satisfied? It was the purchase experience was fine. Yeah. Yeah. I bought the Yamaha from fuel power sports over in West Bend. I bought a bike from, from them before and they're fine. You know, they're, it's a dealership. They're going to add on their fees. Like the usual, they're going to tell you who that you're going to borrow from. The biggest problem that I had with them is that they did not participate in the Yamaha 0% financing incentive.

Travis: And I don't know why, but well, I mean, I'm sure there's probably some fee to be a member of that, you know, or, or you have to move X amount of units or yeah, that would make sense.

Tim: But it just was a shame because the rate I got wasn't that bad, but it wasn't zero. So yeah. And then today I wrote it to work and back and, you know, there's no drips, no leaks and I can start running the RPMs up a little bit more.

Travis: I see. You have to start doing burnouts so you can burn through those crap tires and put some decent tires.

Tim: God, definitely. Yeah. I, I, it is the first time that I've really like seen on the forums, like, oh my God, you got to get rid of those tires immediately. And actually agreed with them.

Robin: Even after like deflating them a bit, they were just total garbage.

Tim: No, they're not total garbage. They're just, they, they skate more on like loose gravel. Oh. Like, uh, like your gravel on your pavement intersections, you know, that little bit of crap that's always getting kicked up by people cutting the corners.

Travis: Yeah. It's because they have that weird, like square cut tread instead of like the Vs, like a regular actual performance player has.

Tim: And there's no siping out on the, uh, out on the edges. It's all centered right down the center strip is the only place it's got any siping on it. So it's definitely like, it's a little spooky. If you hit any like P gravel in a, in a paved corner. Um, once you get on like full dirt, it's the same as any street tire, you know, which means I'm probably going to spin the back wheel. And the nice thing is with, unlike a knobby, I'm not throwing rocks at the people behind me. No rooster tail. So, so far I I'm really liking the bike. Kind of, I think I'm going to try and live with it for a while before any spends, spend any significant amount of money setting it up.

Travis: That's probably a good idea.

Tim: Once I get that first, like one week tour on it, if it still feels as good as it does now, then yeah, get the suspension done.

Travis: Yeah. I still want to take it for a ride here before the winter comes. If I, if I ever actually have the money, energy and drive to, uh, replace the NC 700, that's, that's up on the list. That and the CB 650R. Oh yeah. Which is just like that bike, but four cylinders and prettier.

Tim: Yep. Yep. I'm weird because like, I realized I've never had a motorcycle with more than two cylinders. Really? Yep. Singles and twins, nothing else so far.

Robin: Wow.

Tim: And it's been a pretty wide, diverse selection of bikes, but never had a triple or a inline four.

Robin: I've heard people say that an inline four has no soul, but I completely disagree. I think that's a great bike, but you already got a bike right now that's badass. So you gotta live it up on that for a really good minute.

Travis: Yeah. Fours, it's like I've, the only four I had was the big one. Yeah. Yeah. And it had its own charms. It's definitely like fours have a different, they just have a different kind of feeling. And I don't know, I feel like I need to ride more of them to really get a handle on it.

Tim: Mm-hmm. Yeah. One of the things that I like is heavy engine braking and the, oh man, like when it comes to engine braking, like the big singles are crazy sometimes. Like the DR650, you roll off the throttle on that, it feels like you're dropping the anchor.

Travis: Oh yeah.

Tim: Like, yeah. It's fantastic.

Travis: Yeah. The BMW 650 was pretty similar. Like it would eat, it was, it was easily two to one back tires just from throttle on enough. Actually the Honda is pretty good about that with a 270 degree crank.

Tim: Yeah.

Travis: The DRZ not so much because it's just a little 400.

Tim: Right. Yeah. Well, that's, that's, that's it for me pretty much. Robin, tell me what's going on with you.

Robin: I'm in Kerrville and I love it. So we made the trek for three days down to Texas where the temps were immediately in the mid 80s and set up our, set up our base camp here in Kerrville, right next to the Three Sisters motorcycle route, which is an excellent, excellent ride. It's kind of the only ride, but it's still an excellent ride.

Travis: And. Yeah. Well, right now with the, with the podcast listeners can't see us, we're on Skype and I'm in my basement and Tim's in his living room and Robin is outdoors under a easy up working on his bike in like 80 degree evening heat.

Robin: Yeah, it doesn't suck. So the, the best thing about being on a named route, which, you know, if, if the trip sevens tour is specific to anything, it's avoiding infamously named routes that are just a zoo on the weekends. The sisters though, you go out there on a Monday through a Thursday and it is completely void and it's a freaking ton of fun. It's 225 miles with, I think one major lull beyond that. It's still just the same hooligan good time all the way through and through. So I am living on that. And so let's see what else I take in my notes here. So we made, yeah, we made it to Kerrville, rode the Three Sisters, we're right on it. And lo and behold, our neighbor next to us, he's, he's both a Harley rider and has an R 1200 RT. So I've been hanging out, chatting that guy up a bit, just, you know, talking shop. I coached my first eight to one MSF course here. Uh, that went really well. Three people got a perfect score. Everybody passed, but it, it was quite challenging. I'm lucky though. Cause Margaret Dean, who is also a rider coach, she, uh, she's not certified to coach in Texas. So she just worked as a range aid. So she'd be catching things and she would just walk up behind me and go, I'd be like, oh yeah, hey dude, stop doing this or something. You know, she would never engage with the students, but I had like that backup. Hey man, no wheelies. No wheelies allowed. I forgot about that. Um, anyhow, beyond that, as we chat, I'm reassembling my RS, um, the carbon fiber that I ordered for this thing. Does it fit? Yes. Does it fit? Well, not necessarily. The right side panel is, is perfect. It fits absolutely perfectly. In fact, I'm quite pleased with it. The left side, however, and I forget who these guys are. I'm going to write them and just be like, Hey, you need to deal with this. The left side, it's the front. It's basically the eyelash, the eyelet that goes around the headlight. There's this huge gap on the dashboard between the cover plastic and the, uh, the actual carbon fiber side panel. So I'm kind of bummed out about that. I'm going to have to have a little chat about it and see what I can get out of it. Um, and then this, this whole, I'm frustrated right now because I disassembled the machine and I tried to be as organized as possible. You know, I had to pull the entire front end off to replace the fairing stay. They got cracked from that deer wreck and one screw, one screw ended up in the wrong spot. And as a result, the domino effect and absolute confusion about which screws belong, where has taken hold. I've, I've, I've observed the fish. I found spots where there were missing screws to begin with that needed to be replaced. So I got to take note of that. Or did I remove them and just set them in the wrong? Ah, I'm yeah, I'm this, this is a dark podcast for me. I'm letting you guys do most of the chatter and that's how it is. That's how I'm doing, which brings us to the whole thing.

Travis: You got to talk about Robin and what's up with the site and new updates still working on the site overall.

Robin: When I have time, actually, I might kick into some of that tomorrow. Uh, 2021 tours will be posted soon and the new version of the site will hopefully get posted inside of the next three or five or 28 years. Um, just working, working, working, hustling, hustling, hustling. You want to make it easy for us? Donate to the site. You know how? Donate at thewritingofabsolution.com. Help us build this thing more.

Travis: It actually reminds me of something that, uh, I don't know what it was there that reminded me of it, but, uh, Englehart's here in town has a monster 696, which I think to be the prettiest monster, the one with the air intakes in the gas tank. Yeah. Um, the one with almost forward controls almost. No, it's a, it's a monster. The naked sport bike. Well, what am I?

Robin: Oh, I'm thinking of the Diavel.

Travis: You think of Diavel. Yeah. That's the power cruiser. So it's the 696, which is the one that has the air intakes in the front of the gas tank. And the second prettiest color, which is all red. The prettiest color is white with the red frame. You know, all the wires have to be red too. Yeah. All the wires are red. Yeah. Cause it's Italian, but it has low mileage. I think like under 5,000 miles and it's like five grand. And I'm so tempted. Like the monster might be like a little small size-wise for like trips, but man.

Robin: Go for it. You should totally do it. You should do it right now. In fact, Tim and I were talking about, we were like, you know what Travis should ride? A Ducati. Which Ducati? Probably a 696 or something. Maybe a monster 696. Tim was like, yeah, that's what I was thinking. Yeah. And we spoke about that for like hours and only that. So you got to do it. Oh yeah.

Travis: Do we want to do this week in motorcycle history? I don't see it. Where's the, is there a link somewhere? Yeah. Copy the link. It just takes me to like the riding obsession. Oh, today in motorcycle history. There you go. This month in motorcycle history.

Robin: This episode of the riding obsession podcast is brought to you by DriveWeather. Be safe and check road weather conditions using the DriveWeather app. See wind and weather information at each point of your trip. Visit driveweatherapp.com to learn more. And also by John DelVecchio's Cornering Confidence program, a self-paced interactive online course that brings more enjoyment and assurance to the twisties. Their website is corneringconfidence.com.

Travis: October 28th, 1964. Raymond Scott Russell, aka Mr. Daytona was born in East Point, Georgia. Scott Russell's great history reads as world superbike champion, AMA superbike champion, three-time AMA super sport champion, and won the Daytona 200 a record five times. Also won the Suzuka 8-hour in 1993. Oh yeah. And Russell is also the all-time leader in 750 AMA super sport wins. Not bad for a guy who quit school to follow his dream, finding inspiration in Freddie Spencer's 1985 Daytona victory. Russell went from a job in a garbage bag factory to the podiums at racetracks all over the world. And after racing motocross as a kid, Russell raced the WERA events before reaching AMA in 1987. In 1988, he was a runner-up in the 750 super sport class. He was a superbike runner-up in 1989, and that was before winning the 750 cc super sport title three years in a row from 1990 to 1992, and won every race in 1991.

Tim: Holy crap. In 1992, Russell claimed the AMA superbike championship. His favorite race was the 1995 Daytona 200, where he crashed on the first lap, got back on the bike, and won, finishing ahead of Britain's man of legend, Carl Fogarty. Scott Russell was inducted into the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 2005. Carl Foggy Fogarty. What is this, MBE? I don't know what MBE is as an acronym there.

Travis: Order of the British Empire, the most excellent order of the British Empire. Oh. He's a knight.

Tim: He's a knight. Carl Foggy.

Travis: Oh shit.

Tim: Sir Carl Foggy Fogarty is a four-time world superbike champion, having been crowned in 1994, 1995, 1998, and 1999.

Robin: Damn.

Tim: If there's one long one that's more interesting than the rest. What? Oh, that's a show note. Ignore that. Oh, yes, yes. Maybe we should, I don't know, italicize that if we shouldn't actually read that out loud.

Travis: Basically spend five minutes something about that.

Robin: And that brings us to our segment. So, Travis, what year, make, model are we focused on today? And I already see it, so I'm pretty amped about this. This should be pretty good. Tell us everything you know.

Travis: The year is the probably not gonna happen Harley Davidson Bronx Street Fighter. Man, and why not? Why not? Well, so Harley's stocks tanked, right? Probably because of COVID, probably because they haven't made anything interesting or new in like 50 years. And like there's a recession because of COVID and the pandemic and no one's $25,000 motorcycles to go to the bar three days a week on.

Robin: Okay. Now that's true, but I don't know if you know this or not, but motorcycle sales are pretty freaking insane right now.

Travis: They were pretty good, but it's mostly in like the dirt segment. Okay. Because everyone either is like bored and doesn't want to get a license. So they're riding dirt bikes or they have illusions of grandeur about being like post-apocalyptic dirt bike warriors. So the segments are not $20,000 Harley cruiser, bagger, drag bike things. So anyway, so when Harley before three CEOs ago, whenever this actually happened, right? So Harley's like, okay, we're gonna do the live wire, which is still haven't watched long way up. I don't want to sign up for Apple TV. So I kind of want to just find another way.

Robin: I think I might be able to help you out there. Wink, wink. Wink.

Travis: And so, yeah, then, then, then, then they developed this liquid cooled, well, they developed this, the, the liquid cooled 500 and 700 engines, which were a big disappointment and made the street rod, which was a big disappointment. But then they have the new revolution max revolution X thing. They got revolution X, which I think was a really terrible super Nintendo port of a arcade game starring Aerosmith. But fitting, but if I can tangent that in there, um, you know, send us a message. If I, if I messed that one up, I didn't Google it. Um, you know, you know, the game we're talking about, you throw CDs and they're like grenades. It's a first person rail shooter. Anyway, uh, the revolution X motor, which is this liquid cooled motor. So there's like a 1200 that's in the Panamera adventure bike that is still slated. But since the CEOs got swapped out and then there was a big shakeup earlier this year, Harley has pulled the Bronx from its website and all of its.

Robin: Okay. I don't know anything about the shakeup. What's the shakeup?

Travis: Okay. So Harley Davidson in the second quarter of 2020 reported its first loss since the 2009 recession. Okay. I guess first loss in a quarter since the 29 2009 recession.

Robin: Okay.

Travis: Um, so that's, that's the shake. So they booted the CEO and got this other guy in who was like not a motorcycle guy. He's like a CEO guy. He like brought back Puma sports apparel and sneakers. Okay. So he's, he's like a business guy. Anything's like German or something. So, and they're doing the typical Harley thing where they just like tuck their tail and run back home and say, we're going to sell expensive baggers and vintage looking cruisers with air cooled engines. And that's going to be our bread and butter because they have really nice profit margins.

Robin: So they're going to run back home and just hope that there's a market for that. And that market is beginning to fade, but they've, yeah.

Travis: I mean, at least right now, I mean, post pandemic, we'll see where that lands. Right. But the, um, the average Joe is not doing well, but the 1% are doing well because the stock market is still doing well because that's where all the federal money went.

Tim: Wasn't there something about Harley, um, losing partnerships in India?

Travis: Yeah. They pulled out of all of their like non, like all of the not most profitable markets, which is essentially North America and Europe. They've pulled, they pulled, they just pulled out all of like their world markets.

Robin: Yeah. In India, that bike didn't make it there. The bikes that they were trying to sell in India didn't make any sense. The climate's too hot. The engines are too hot.

Travis: Well, then they're big and heavy and expensive and people in India drive 125s.

Robin: Right.

Tim: So it did not work out. But it also is one of the biggest motorcycle markets on the planet. Yeah, it is. So saying we're not going to compete at all is.

Travis: Well, they don't make a bike that is, that fits that market, you know, $20,000, you know, 1600 CCV twins.

Tim: Wasn't there a Chinese bike that they were going to re rebadge as a Harley where they were developing in? Oh, maybe, but they. It was like a 250 twin.

Travis: Yeah, I think they can.

Tim: I could find that article.

Travis: The, um, but anyway, so they were going to make, or maybe they will eventually still make this, uh, liquid cooled, uh, near enough thousand CC. Let's see if I can find the specs here.

Tim: Uh, nine 75 and nine. So it's a hundred and 15 horsepower.

Travis: Yeah. Pared down liquid cooled V twin overhead cam, like naked street brawler looks great. I mean, obviously if you're in the bikes, you've heard about this. The pictures are awesome. They've made prototypes. I mean, they had them at the IMS in Chicago last year.

Robin: It's a good looking machine.

Travis: Yeah. It was like a really cool looking naked bike. You know, kind of looks like the live wire, but with a, with an internal combustion engine, which again, they are continuing to make the live wire. So they're making a lot of the components I've been at the same, you know, as far as like the forks and the wheels and the brakes and stuff, handlebar. It looks great. Yeah. And I, why, why Harley doesn't want to make a bike and that goes into a different market. I mean, obviously they didn't push Buell when came out. They just like sat in the back of showrooms and no one tried to sell them. And this looks awesome. Like looking at these, the photos of it, it's got a cool little round, looks like digital dash. It's like probably full screen. And cause it's got like the five way joystick controls and all of like the do dads and all of the, like it would be a really good high end naked street fighter. Even if it was not quite as like light and fast as like some of the competition, you know, your Ducati monsters or your, you know, Yamaha, uh, MTO nines. It looks really good. It's premium because it's Harley. Um, you know, it's got some cache. I bet it sounds great. I think there's, I think they'd sell them, but maybe not in this economy. Right. So no one's selling anything right now. Cause then no one got no money, but, um, it's, it's a sad that, that this bike has gone on the back burner.

Tim: Yeah, definitely. This is probably one of the prettiest ones I've seen Harley make.

Travis: It's, it's every, it's everything that Ulysses should have been. Oh yeah. Like liquid cooled engine that actually makes power, you know, really cool style. I mean, it's very similar even to the Ulysses. I mean, it's a naked, it's a modern naked V twin, so it's got the really muscly stance and it just looks awesome.

Robin: So yeah, the profile is what I dig about it. It's not the Ulysses. It has a little bit more of that street fighter essence than the Ulysses, but it just looks so meaty and like overpowered, like overpowered round towner, which is cool. I mean, that's cool.

Travis: You know, what's that naked muscle bike, you know, you can, you can take it around town and look cool. You can go hit up the back roads and shred them and you can hit a track day on the same bike. That is the appeal of the, the naked bike. That's, that's the MTO nine. That's the monster.

Robin: That's, you know, I'm cracking up a little bit cause I'm loving how exhausted the three of us sound by 2020 by October, October, 2020. Yeah. Like my goodness, not enough gin in the world.

Travis: Anyway. So that's the bike I want to talk about in a very apropos sort of way. A bike that's dead. So let's go on to Tim. Hey, Tim, you got any new kits or tools or do dads or widgets or what you want to talk about?

Tim: I have not done a lot of a gadget shopping in the last little while, but uh, what I did finally order was a hands manual for the XSR 700 slash MTO seven slash FCO seven slash slash tracer 700 hashtag Yamaha.

Travis: Bring the tracer seven to the United States so I can buy one. Cause that's the one I really want.

Robin: Yep.

Tim: So it's a, you know, it's about time I got around to that. Usually it's one of those things I advocate everybody do if they're going to do any work on their bike is to get a, get a manual.

Travis: Oh yeah. But even if it's just like oil changes and you want to like take wheels off to take the tire changes yourself. So you have all the torque specs and brakes and regular maintenance.

Tim: Yeah. And get yourself a cheap torque wrench, you know, plus or minus 10% is pretty good.

Travis: Yeah.

Tim: Even if you're a freight special.

Travis: Yeah. At first street bike, it's fine if you're not like seriously at the track doing racing and like really on the edge engineering.

Tim: Yeah. At that point, buy yourself some quality tools, but for your average garage mechanic, the cheapo Harbor freight stuff will do just fine. Hell I'm in a tent. It's working out just fine. Yep. So yeah, that's a, that's the one thing that I've got. And the other is the Butler maps. You know, this is one of those resources. If you are going to go traveling and you don't know anything about the area, snag yourself one of the Butler maps and they will have highlighted what the best roads in the region are. No, I grabbed one for Colorado before this trip. And goodness, I, I hit a bunch of the, the roads that were highlighted as, you know, recommended best roads.

Travis: On your BMW C650 GT sports scooter.

Tim: Sport touring scooter. Indeed, indeed. So yeah. And I did this for when I went to Arkansas as well. And same thing, you know, they've their G1 series maps is kind of their primary ones for motorcycling. And all the highlighted ones are guaranteed to be paved. They're going to be lovely. You know, their highlights are a little goofy.

Robin: It's I've actually got that right here because my next door neighbor was talking about Colorado a whole bunch. Now, where is that? He showed me the stuff that was near where you are. And it was just covered in beautiful red lines.

Tim: Oh, it was. Yeah, it was like the highlight there. Their best is the gold. If I remember the second is red, and then the third is orange, which those last two seem reversed to me in terms of color coding, but whatever, it works. So it's really easy to find. And, you know, I had so much fun that I just kind of really wish I'd had, you know, a week to myself with the XSR to go and rip around there. I was thinking, hey, you know, we could actually work on a triple C's tour. Colorado Cowboys and Cannabis. That would be UK.

Maggie: Oh, canyons. Sorry.

Tim: Yeah. Yeah, canyons. What do you mean? Cowboys and canyons. And yeah, the fourth C is optional. You know, it's legal, but not while you're riding. But I mean, we could we could string together something and that would be a hell of a lot of fun. I think so. You know, we did the area of the U.S. 550 south from Montrose is a road they called a million dollar highway. And oh my lord, the climb out of Ophir. No, Ouray. Sorry, Ouray. The climb out of there heading south was absolutely stunning.

Travis: It was like switchbacks or.

Tim: Oh, yeah. Switchbacks up the canyon, like major exposure. I got yelled at by Sylvia because I she was out looking at the horizon and I crept to within like a foot of the shoulder and which meant I was two feet from the edge of the cliff.

Travis: That's highway 550 heading south. Yes. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I'm looking I'm looking at it now and it's like it's like the first two are just like and then yeah, then it squiggles all the way up.

Tim: So there was some construction right above Ouray and I was the second vehicle in line and the jeep that was in front of me pulled away. So I had a clean shot all the way up over the pass.

Robin: That's how it's done.

Tim: And it was it was fun. It was a lot of fun. Sylvia tolerates a lot of my nonsense. You know, 650 does pretty good at an altitude and with two up. But, you know, we're going uphill topping out about 85. Yeah. 85.

Travis: 85 on the switchback road.

Tim: Yeah, that's so. Yeah. So I behaved myself nicely. Yeah, it was good stuff.

Travis: Is that a twin or is it a single?

Tim: Let's say in inline twin.

Travis: It's kind of lay down twin 180 degree 180 degree cranker.

Robin: Crank, crank, crank, crank, motor swipe, motor swipe. Welcome to the widening of switch one.

Tim: Yeah. Yeah. It's kind of like laid down. So the cylinders, I think, are pointing forward. OK.

Travis: Yeah.

Tim: Kind of like in your in your NCR and see five or seven fifty seven hundred.

Robin: That's right. Tim knocked off his mic. He is he is reevaluating the biking. Yeah.

Travis: The 750 is the new one that has the cool the cool LED headlight and the tank bag straps on the front.

Tim: So, yeah, if you're going somewhere, check to see if Butler's got a map for it because you will not be disappointed if you know if they highlighted a gold road, it is going to be a good road.

Robin: See, now I will say the red stands out more. Yes. Make it easier. But whatever. I mean, I'm anxious, you know, and you're not wrong. Maybe we need to start planning something like that.

Travis: The next generation Butler maps are going to have a platinum road and then there's going to be a diamond road and then it'll go diamond, platinum, gold, red, yellow, orange.

Tim: Yeah. Well, for my adventure in dual sport friends, the the G1 maps will have recommended dirt routes, but they also have the backcountry discovery route maps, which from what I've heard are amazing and they do a crazy amount of research.

Travis: Like this, this is called Greg's backyard. He's cool. So you go through there.

Tim: Absolutely. You know, I've actually talked to a guy who owned a ranch in Nevada who said that like the guys from Butler had like come through and talk to him and about, you know, having a route through the road in front of his place. And, you know, is there a place to camp? Things like that.

Robin: That's pretty cool. And he, he was open to it.

Tim: Yeah. Yeah. He was really cool. And they, like, I was in no mood to talk to him. I was sitting in a hundred and 105 degree heat waiting for road construction to let us through. Oh yeah. So I wasn't feeling all chatty, but it was now I'm looking back on it. I should have talked to the guy, but it was hot and overheated, but the maps are waterproof, tear resistant. You know, they're going to be durable. They're going to live well on the bike. Yeah. Nice. Oh, and there's topology maps too. So you can see where the mountains are. Topology. Yeah. So that's, that's my thing. You know, it's maybe not as excited gear nerd stuff as usual, but I think those are solid.

Robin: I'll be honest with you, man. From the day that I've had, I'm just enjoying getting in a rhythm, doing a podcast at all. So hopefully we'll get to record more of these more often. If you're listening to this right now, I've got an eggnog with rum in my hand and it's Christmas Eve. This podcast was originally recorded in October of this year. And the interview you're about to hear was recorded earlier this month. Kelly Howard is a friend and a long time enthusiast. His rider training background spans from newly licensed beginners through track level enthusiasts. I had the privilege of riding with him here in Kerrville, Texas, and immediately knew our own Maggie Dean just had to interview him. Take it away, Mags.

Maggie: Hello there, Kelly Howard. Thank you for joining us and giving us some time to talk motorcycles. For people who may not know you, why don't you tell our listeners a little bit about yourself and about your experience with motorcycles, what you do?

Kelly: Well, currently I teach motorcycle safety here in Texas. I'm a rider coach trainer, which means I also do quality assurance visits and train new rider coaches, do updates, professional development workshops. That's the motorcycle world and a ride. I enjoy riding.

Maggie: How long have you been riding motorcycles?

Kelly: My flip answer is since last century. So my first motorcycle was a 1962 Yamaha that I bought in 1964, so 50-something years.

Maggie: Wow.

Kelly: That means I'm an old fart.

Maggie: That's quite a number of years. You know, how do you keep it fresh? How do you keep learning? How do you keep, I mean, motorcycle riding is fine, sure, but how do you just keep it fresh for that amount of time?

Kelly: Well, it's been a struggle over the years. You know, I went through a period of time where I couldn't afford a second car, so motorcycle was my only transportation. I couldn't take the family car. So that involved riding and just every kind of weather and good, bad, or otherwise. And then I got involved in motorcycle training that gave it a boost. And not exactly from the riding perspective, but from what you see in classes with the students, it's just an amazing thing how they come in at 10 hours, five hours of classroom and 10 hours of range. The first thing is they don't even know where the front tire is, basically. And by the end of the 10 hours, they're doing emergency stopping and swerving and all those skills. And to see the joy of them, that rubs off on me. And then I retired from work a few years ago and discovered that most of my riding was back and forth to work. So that was kind of a dead spot. I had to kind of reinvent the joy there and have done that with a touch base with friends like Robin that go riding out in the hill country. Hadn't done that in like 30 years. Meeting some of my other retiree friends going for breakfast down in Galveston. And there's still some kind of joy getting on the bike, feeling horsepower and all the things that go with it, the wind and the smells.

Maggie: So let's talk about the bike you brought out here a couple of days ago, the KTM Super Duke 990.

Kelly: Correct.

Maggie: How long have you had that bike?

Kelly: I bought it used in 2011. It was a compulsive buy. I had KTM before, so I was aware of the brand and the issues. That particular model had some problems with it in the fueling. And it has been a pain in the butt some ways. But it's a wild child. I mean, you can't hardly not like it, even though it's painful to ride sometimes because it's exciting.

Maggie: Yeah. Let's actually get into the other experience I did want you to talk about, and that is track riding. Can you talk about the control riding you did and where and how long you've done that?

Kelly: Well, I kind of fell into it to become a track day instructor. I had very, very limited racing experience, like two races over one year. My budget just wouldn't allow for more. I was taking my street bike and taking it to the track, taking all the license and turn signals off of it, racing, and then bringing it back home late Sunday night, have to put it all back together so I could ride it to work because I didn't have another car. And that was just too painful. But that got me to meet a bunch of people that ride in the high-performance end of the world. And then I was engaged in a sport bike club here in Houston in the late 1980s. I was a president for several years. We did quite a bit of riding out in the old country where Robert and I did. So that made some introductions. Well, some of the guys that I met there, they loved back road riding and it was just getting too dangerous. One of their group had crashed hard. So they created a track day company and they enlisted a friend to develop a curriculum for the street riding class. And that person contacted me. That was around 2002. I did not think, I said, I'm not fast enough for that, for track. And they said, no, you'll do great in the street group. And that proved to be true. I wasn't fast in terms of racing. I never got out in the racing group, but I had tons of fun. And as part of that, me and another guy created another curriculum that got approved for ticket dismissal in Texas. Probably rode over a 15-year period. The company went out of business in 2016, so I lost my gig. And at that time, probably rode 10 or 11,000 miles on track.

Maggie: Wow.

Kelly: It's extremely exhilarating and demanding.

Maggie: Yes. Let me ask you this. This might be a little bit of a leading question, but since you're a coach for MSF, so you're working with beginning riders and you've also had the experience of leading riders around on track, is there a benefit of doing a track day? What can you learn from that style of riding? Even if speed is not something you regularly would go to, is there a benefit to doing, at least trying a track day?

Kelly: I believe there is. In an MSF basic class, part of the class is teaching basic skills, where the brakes are and how to use them, the steps that MSF uses for cornering, and developing that school and get just a basic level before you leave the class. You can't do much more than that. On the track, you're using exactly the same techniques. In the street riding group, we did not advise trail braking, which is an advanced technique. Do all your braking straight up and down before you start to lean the motorcycle, just like we tell them in the basic class. The difference is the speed and also the safety aspect of it. Because riding out in the hill country with Robin last week reminded me, those roads are narrow and there's a lot of really bad things to run into if you make a mistake. There's very little margin there. But on the track, most of the track was 40 feet wide, had a smooth runoff into grass. So if you do make a mistake, most of the time you could stand it up just right off in the grass and get embarrassed and then get back on the track and finish what you were doing. So you get to practice those skills at higher speeds and things change as you go faster.

Maggie: Absolutely. Do you feel like there's any common myths that you want to sort of demystify or bust of track days?

Kelly: Well, I have friends who very strongly believe that you could do track experience and not take MSF class, get good on the track, and that would translate to street riding. And that's not true. The problem with the street riding, of course, is traffic and all the other things that you have to deal with. I spent a year in Houston area working downtown. So I was riding my motorcycle through rush hour traffic back and forth every day. It was about a 40-minute ride for me. And that is some of the most challenging riding that I've ever done. And almost none of the track experience helped there. It's all because there's some idiot trying to kill you. And there's a lot of them out there and dealing with other traffic and making choices instantly, you know, coming upon a risky situation and being able to assess what's most likely to kill you. And they come up with a plan and then do it before anything happens. And on the track, it's just so much more calm, really, than riding on the street.

Maggie: I definitely agree with you there. You said something the other day in terms of how important the bike is versus the rider's skill. Can you talk about that?

Kelly: Well, there's an old saying, you know, it's the rider, not the bike. On the track, I used to tell people that one of the great lessons of the track is humility if you're willing to pay attention. As you come out there with the best, the latest, fastest sport bike that's buyable, go out there and some little kid will zoom by on the 250 easily. So, you know, it's not about just being able to accelerate and brake and do those things. It's their skill that goes in there. One of the stories, I remember Eddie Lawson, an old MotoGP or Grand Prix star back in the 70s and 80s, Yamaha came out with a new motorcycle. It's probably been about, I don't know, 84 or something like that. And they had all the journalists out there on the latest, greatest sport bike, and Eddie Lawson was out there on their Yamaha touring bike. And he delighted the whole day, just catching up to him and bumping him on the rear of the motorcycles with the front tire of his, just riding around him all the time. So it's the rider in most cases.

Maggie: I think as instructors, we see that even, you know, in the BRC, sometimes you'll have students who struggle with the clutch control and sometimes they try to blame the bike. And, you know, as an instructor, they're like, no, you know, it's not the bike. But, you know, when you said that the other day, I thought that applied to more than just the track. It's the rider. You, you know, the rider are controlling the bike.

Kelly: Well, you know, training bikes, they lead a really difficult life. The site where I train, most of the bikes have over 4,000 miles on them. And every mile on that, of those bikes have been done in a parking lot, max speed about 25 miles an hour from 120 degree heat index to freezing rain and never getting out of third gear for sure. Most of them never get out of second gear. So they get beat up, they get dropped, but it does have a lot to do with the rider. You can take just about any motorcycle there and develop the skill. If you develop the skill, then you can work around anything on the motorcycle. We don't want to ask a student to do that, but sometimes that happens. But it's about learning skills and applying them. And every motorcycle is a little different.

Maggie: Yeah, I agree with you there. So you've ridden a lot in hill country. Are there other states that you have gotten to explore some twisty rides?

Kelly: Arkansas. I lived in Arkansas, worked at a nuclear plant up there and lived there for a bunch of years. But actually it's the worst riding you can imagine. I don't advise anybody to go there, which is not true because I'm selfish and I want the roads to be safe. I haven't been up there oh in 10, 15 years probably. But we spent a number of years, several of my friends, doing weekend runs up there once a month or once every couple of months. Just endless twisty roads and usually in good shape. I've lived in Pennsylvania. So I rode most of the roads around Pennsylvania and that area up there. My job, I was an engineer in nuclear power plants. So I worked the outage and the startup circuit for a while, which means we moved every couple of years to a new state. And I got the opportunity to ride mostly on the east side. I've not much experience on the west coast, but a lot of different places. You know, riding a motorcycle, and you know this too from your experience, everywhere you go, you see it a little bit differently than you would in a car. You're out in it, you smell it and you feel it.

Maggie: Yeah. Is there a state or a country to get to, to explore on the bike?

Kelly: I've been fortunate to ride different racetracks. I did track days. I did Keith Code class way back in 85 at Mid-Ohio. Reg Pridmore was an old AMA champion back in the seventies, and he had a class that he called the class. I did a couple of those, one at Willow Springs. So I really can't think of any place, you know, I really try to enjoy where I am at the moment and get the best out of that. Houston is challenging because there's a lot of freeway and a lot of challenging, aggressive drivers. It's not as much fun as the hill country, but I'll make the best of it.

Maggie: That's a great thing to stay local and enjoy your local surroundings. One final question for you. What is your riding obsession?

Kelly: Oh, well, I like horsepower. You know, there's that Superman feeling, you know, that you can just go at any time. Of course, that comes with responsibility. But over the years, my motorcycles have gone from not so fast to faster and faster. And I don't feel the need to have the latest, greatest, but the horsepower is a good thing and braking. I mean, I love handling all those things in a motorcycle and I take advantage of it every time I ride, I use it. So that's my favorite thing.

Maggie: That's awesome, Kelly. Well, thank you so much.

Kelly: Been a pleasure. Enjoyed meeting with you guys last week and getting to meet you.

Maggie: Yeah, same here.

Robin: That was our interview with Kelly Howard. Kelly is a Houston resident and trains there as well as other Texas locations. Look him up on the Googles to learn more.

Tim: Didn't we get a listener question? Check it. It was one of your students, Luke. Luke, read it up. Giving a shout out to Maggie and Robin who led the MSF course in Madison a few weeks ago. Said he had a ton of fun but learned a ton about motorcycle safety. It was a great experience, even if he did stall the bike a hundred times. Seriously, don't worry, we all do that. Well, I'm still doing it today and I'm an instructor.

Robin: I know. You'd be amazed what they'll let me do.

Tim: Yep. And his question is, do you guys have any motorcycle-oriented book recommendations? He has read Jupiter's Travels and he thoroughly enjoyed that. And he has got the second book on his list. Do you guys have some favorites? And then a follow-up question is, how would you recommend finding riding buddies, groups? He says he's more on the introverted side and none of my friends ride. So let's go book recommendations first.

Travis: Book recommendations first. There is a page on the Riding Obsession site.

Tim: Yeah.

Travis: Obviously, our good friends, Charlie and Ewan, I think have a couple of books between them.

Tim: Yep. And let me plug one that I absolutely love because I actually watched this guy's ride report while he was on the trip and then I bought his book afterwards. His name is Nathan Millward. He's a British guy who found himself in Australia where his girlfriend dumped him and his work visa expired. And he had to get home and he decided he was going to buy the only bike he could afford, which was a retired postal bike. A Trail 90. It was a 110. And he rode his Trail 110 to England. I'm going to read this. I'm going to read this book. I think it's depending on what market you're in, the title has changed some, but it's Going Postal. On his postie bike. On his postie bike. And it was so much fun. And if you can track down some of the multimedia stuff afterwards, it's hilarious. Because he actually took really good photos while he was out. He took some video while he was out. And yeah, he even personalized my copy of the book and drew a Vespa in it and it was awesome. If I remember, he did his ride in 2011.

Travis: Travis, you want to take a turn or do you want me to go? I can take a turn. I haven't read too much. I'm not a nerd like you guys. I just don't have time to read. For media stuff, I would recommend Itchy Boots again. Itchy Boots is really good, cool stuff to watch on the YouTubes. But otherwise, it's not really in the vein of Jupiter's Travels. But it's a really good book to read if you haven't read it. And that is David L. Huff, H-O-U-G-H's Proficient Motorcycling. It reads like stereo instructions. It's more of a manual than an entertainment book. But man, it's got everything you need to be a good rider.

Robin: I got a copy of that sitting on my shelf right now.

Travis: It's a damn fine read. Every motorcyclist should. And I feel like there's that plus three night in the Midwest in the winter when you just pour yourself a drink and you sit down and you read through it again once every winter and just keep your head in the game.

Robin: Keep the brain in the motorcycle context, yeah. And so Travis is talking about a very technical book. And Tim is talking about a very emboldened, passionate book. I think that the ones that we mentioned on the article involve, you could always pick up Melissa Holbrook Pearson. She wrote a few books. One of them was The Man Who Would Stop at Nothing. He modified his FJR to have a 30 gallon gas tank. 30 gallon gas tank. So if you look it up on Google Images, you'll see this massive FJR with a huge camel hump in the middle. That's his gas tank. He actually died, I believe, of that situation where you get the blood clot from sitting in the same position too long. So, I mean, it's just an intense freaking story. Right now I'm reading Neil Peart's, I'm reading one of the Neil Peart books, his first one, which is an excellent read. Rest in peace, Neil. And yeah, if you go to TheRidingObsession.com and look up good reads or whatever in our search box, there's an article about all that.

Tim: So let's talk about him, his question about finding riding buddies.

Travis: Hit us up. I mean, you're in Madison, right? Yeah. You can find me and Tim at least on the Faceballs. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, there's a couple of like squid groups, right? Which probably aren't what you're looking for.

Tim: Well, there is the Madison Motorcycle Club, you know, but COVID's got everybody kind of not doing much there.

Travis: A lot of the like bike night things around are like, it's a lot of posers. Are you guys still running the Madven Moto? You Madven garage nights and stuff have been kind of put on hold since COVID. Yeah, safety first. And also like the my having of children, you know, which is really cramped my schedule, at least a couple of years.

Tim: One of the things you can do is keep an eye out for some motorcycle clubs that are doing rallies. Rallies are usually a pretty good way to do things. You know, Slammy Crud's pretty decent. Usually it's, I don't know if there's a lot of social mixing there. I don't know. I've never actually like met someone I didn't know at the Slammy Crud, but it's one of those things that like I go and I see a lot of people I do know is because I've been lurking around this for 10 years in Madison area.

Robin: Did you know them before you did it?

Tim: Oh yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So it'd be, let me think, we haven't been very active for quite a while, but the Adventure Rider, advrider.com has, we were doing a Madison meetup group. That kind of social circle fell apart a little bit.

Travis: Yeah. I think pandemic has definitely put a pinch on a lot of that. So maybe in a year or two, whenever.

Robin: One can hope.

Travis: Meeting new people isn't hazardous to your health.

Robin: Yeah.

Travis: But yeah. Otherwise, you know, social media, there is like some Wisconsin areas. I don't think it was specifically, it was like the Madison area, BMW riders is like a more local group.

Tim: Oh yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, another place that I've met more riders is I volunteered to do the Iron Man course Marshall for the bicycle course. And I met a couple of people through there where you're hauling around a referee on and watching to make sure the bicycles obey the rules on the Iron Man.

Travis: Yeah. But again, that's probably not a COVID friendly activity.

Tim: Yeah. And it's really not one for beginners. It's actually a pretty challenging task.

Travis: So we're not answering his question, are we?

Tim: No, no.

Travis: We've tangented it off a bit. Yeah. But you know. That's all right. I would say, you know, just hit us, just hit us up on Facebook. And then there's at least two people. Yeah. I don't even know that many riders. I got a couple of other friends that ride. I have some friends who ride cruisers, too. So I don't actually end up riding with them too much. But they're friends and we hang out otherwise.

Robin: I have an idea about this. So in Illinois, we have the Illinois Street Smart Riders. And anybody who graduates the Harper College MSF course, because Illinois is a state-funded course, they're allowed to join the Illinois Street Smart Riders group. And they can plan rides, discuss topics, ask questions. And the coaches are free to respond to these questions with a little bit more relaxed approach.

Travis: In a social setting instead of a teacher instructor setting.

Robin: Absolutely. We've gotten the clearance from the big boss that, yes, we can speak our minds freely there. So there is the Illinois Street Smart Riders. I would say avoid that, though, because he needs to look for something in Madison. Let me talk to Jason Herheim, who runs Riding Solutions. Thank you, Jason, for all he's done for this website and other things. I'll chat him up about starting up a public group where people can discuss getting together, going for rides, knowing each other, the experience they had, all those stuff. It'll have nothing to do with reviews of the service. It'll just be about getting together, talking shop, and going for rides.

Travis: Oh, man, that'd be good. Yeah, I don't know, I mean, because it's a Madison Motorcycle Club, but I feel like I don't have the energy to manage.

Tim: Yeah, I wouldn't know. The actual Madison Motorcycle Club is reasonably active.

Travis: Oh, the actual AMA group.

Tim: Yes, consequently, it is the oldest AMA club still in existence. I think there was one that was formed before the Madison Motorcycle Club, but I think that they are now defunct. And it's seriously like a $5 annual membership, so yeah.

Travis: Well, you have to be an AMA member, which is like 20 bucks a month. A year, yeah. So AMA, the American Motorcycle Association, you should be one anyway, because you get roadside assistance with the basic membership, and it's worth it.

Tim: Absolutely, absolutely.

Travis: And you get a magazine, and you get some other discounts and stuff, but it's like AAA, but you get roadside, so that's cool.

Tim: I highly recommend. And you get a magazine.

Travis: Yeah, you can get the magazine. Magazine's okay, it's not great.

Tim: There's some discounts as well associated.

Travis: Yeah, Red Roof Inn, you get some gear stuff and some other things. So there you go, there's an answer to your question. Sure. Luke, thank you for asking.

Robin: We need those, it helps us a lot. By the way, Luke, you're listening to the laziest, most haphazard Writing Obsession podcast we've done since I think we started in 2014.

Travis: We're all deep into the 2020. The 2020 funk. Malaise. Good grief.

Tim: We've had some nice, tight podcasts in the past.

Travis: This is not it. Is malaise the right word for a bottle of gin? Maybe? Anyway, we're deep into it.

Robin: Sloshingly diagonal into it. I'll tell you what, Luke, also, if we ever get a chance to ride with you, whether it's Tim, whether it's Travis or myself, that is your gateway to joining the super slick, ultra badass motorcycle mega posse of incredible power. Which, by the way, is super slick, ultra badass. And as a side note, it happens to be incredibly powerful.

Travis: Yeah. Well, anyway, I think on that note, we'll have to say that that is our episode for this round. Tune in next time for more discussion on all things specific to sport, touring, or really universal motorcycling as a whole. For TheRidingObsession.com, I'm Travis Burleson.

Tim: I'm Tim Clark. And I'm Robert E. Safe travels, everyone.

Travis: Cut.

Tim: Baby.

Robin: This episode of The Riding Obsession podcast is brought to you by DriveWeather. Be safe and check road weather conditions using the DriveWeather app. See wind and weather information at each point of your trip. Visit DriveWeatherApp.com to learn more. And also by John DelVecchio's Cornering Confidence program, a self-paced interactive online course that brings more enjoyment and assurance to the twisties. Their website is CorneringConfidence.com.