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 Rabid Neon.

Travis: I'm Vibrator Unless. And I'm Catmilker.

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. Duh. Happy New Year! Here's hoping we can make good on 2021, even if it's starting like an 85 Chrysler LeBaron. Announcements and corrections, let's see. The one and only Matt Berry out of eastern Wisconsin. Tim, you know this guy. He made it known that for our Monty Hall episode, two individuals should have picked three bikes for the remaining individual without any option for the target individual to choose their own.

Travis: Well, I mean, you would be opening doors of unknown contents, right? So yeah, someone else I guess should have been picking the things, but we just kind of, you know, picked it as a template and ran with it. It wasn't a literal interpretation of the Monty Hall paradox. That was just something I'd like seen a video on earlier that day and I figured we'd work it into the...

Robin: I thought it was great. I mean, just the way it went, it was fun. We got to pick our own and Tim ended up buying the bike that he, you know, that worked out pretty good. Yes. Onto personal notes. Before we begin, let's take a moment to catch up. Travis, how's your month going?

Travis: Well, it's funny that you mentioned that, you know, 2021 is starting like an 85 LeBaron because my first car was an 81 Reliant, which was the same car, essentially, the K car platform. And then in the depths of winter, I had to sit in that car for 10 minutes and feather the throttle before putting it in gear and trying to drive anywhere or it would stall. So, you know, that was a good one. It had a really great, it had sun floors. Sun floors, like a nice view of the exterior? Yeah, it's like a sunroof, but in the floor. It was an 81, you had to manually pull the carpet up. But, you know, if you did, you could see through it, let the air in. Well, there's not much motorcycling going on. It is January in Wisconsin. I did manage to change. We had some good like a couple of warm days. It was at the end of November, beginning of December. So I managed to get the Honda out and warm it up and change the oil on it like I should have done three months ago or whenever before the snow came. But I got the oil changed on it. Do love a good Honda oil change. It's so easy. You know, it doesn't make me miss my BMW or my DRZ. No other real motorcycle projects at the moment. At some point, I will do a write up about my Harbor Freight, not Pelican case, Jerry Rig luggage solution. But those were great. They're holding strong? Yeah, after the one ride we did where I did not successfully measure the cross brace and then hit a bump and it bottomed out into the tire.

Wendy: Oh, yes.

Travis: After I remade that part, it was fine. It looked custom even after the fact. Yeah, but otherwise, just been playing music. So my Clash, the Clash tribute, the Dead Johnnies, did a live stream between Christmas and New Year's. We called it COVID Christmas with an X, you know, because punk rock. So XOVID, XMAS, COVID Christmas. So that was pretty good. We had up to 30 people tune in.

Tim: Very nice.

Travis: And I know for a fact that at least one of the tune-ins had multiple viewers on the other side of the computer. So there we go. Into the Tens, it's your classic, classic local band. Because when you have that many people in like a tiny backroom bar, it seems like there's a lot of people at your show. When you're just still in someone's basement, it still feels like there's no one there. But that was good. I've been editing that stuff down and putting it on YouTube as individual tracks instead of the whole. It only took like YouTube like 10 minutes to copyright claim everything I put up so far. Oh, nice. Because of their covers. So that was really funny. It's like, you cannot monetize this video. It's like, if they think our versions of this song are good enough to monetize it.

Robin: Well, I would love to hear a cover band that is bad enough. The original composer was like, that's not our song. That's clearly not a copyright infringement. What exactly were you trying to do?

Travis: Yeah, we're not that bad. Maybe, unfortunately, we're not that bad. You ever heard Frank Zappa's Yellow Shark? Sorry, that's an atonal album. Go on. Yeah, I did that playing music, taking care of the babies, looking at motorcycles I can't afford and bases I can't afford and trying to not let the country burn down. What about you, Tim? What have you been up to? Probably nothing big or major or interesting.

Tim: No, nothing that much. Just bought a new garage to put the motorcycles in. It's going to come with a house. Yeah, we've been, ever since Sylvia moved into what was originally going to be my bachelor pad, my tiny little house, we've been kind of stumbling over each other's stuff. So we finally decided on a house and working on getting it ready for moving. Lucky enough that we're able to hold on to both houses at once for a month or two. So I've been scrambling to get the thing ready. We've got some contractors coming in, get some things done before we get in there. I did get the motorcycles over there right before our big five inches of snow. Oh, so you've moved the bikes already? The bikes are already over there. Congratulations, Tim Clark. That's not near the end. It's not anywhere near the end yet.

Robin: No. Do you have an itemized list of stuff that you're doing to it? Like an order of importance and stuff?

Tim: Well, I'm painting the majority of the house, ceilings included, and we're putting a first floor laundry in. So we've got a guy coming in, going to do all the plumbing and running all the venting, getting that taken care of.

Travis: So when are we going to start digging the tunnel from the garage to the basement so you can bring motorcycles down into the basement during the winter?

Tim: It might be sometime after I finish putting the firewall between the garage and the house.

Robin: Let's talk about the garage. How are you feeling about it? Are you going to rig anything up in that or are you going to do anything special?

Tim: Well, it needs some work to get it winterized. So it's right now got house wrap and I think maybe like an inch foam board in there for insulation, which in Wisconsin is not enough to do shit.

Robin: Yeah, are you going to do drywall over insulation or are you going to get a heater in there, that kind of thing?

Tim: I've got two big electric heaters that I've been using in the current garage. So I think I'm going to double check what insulation is there. I might have to change that, put different insulation in, deeper insulation in, vapor barrier, and I'll probably go drywall this time. Nice. I did do the particle board in this garage, the plywood walls, and it's really nice, but man, it's a lot of work. Cutting holes in drywall is so much easier. I did buy a bunch of those Black Friday deals. So I've got a box full of motorcycle parts that need to go on a motorcycle, but I haven't had the time or anything to work on that. So that's it for me. Robin, what about you?

Robin: Mags and I made the trek from Texas to New Mexico, and while we were in Texas, I built a new tour that will be listed for fall of this year. We made some new friends there in Kerrville, which is where that tour will be based out of. Shout out to Greg Noller, who is the next-door neighbor who helped me in a lot of situations. He's a good guy. And let's see, we left Kerrville, Texas, just before New Year's Eve to meet up with Joe Godin, if you remember him from a previous episode, at his Desert Air Motel in Sanderson for New Year's Eve again. Yeah, where we got dumped on by seven inches of snow in Texas. Sidebar, watching Texans attempt to drive in the snow is worth the money spent on popcorn.

Travis: They don't sell out of four-wheel drives and Subarus in Texas.

Robin: No, and I mean, there were out-of-towners from like other states that were snow friendly, and they just didn't expect this. So they did have their all-wheel drive cars, but they didn't bring the clothing necessary. So it was kind of like a half-rescue mission of sorts. People got sort of stranded. It was intense. I actually got to help, which is unlike me, you know?

Tim: But you're like, I'm from up north. I've got the shovel and the blanket and the car. Do you need something? Here's some hot cocoa.

Robin: Four-wheel drive mega truck, you know, just sucking down diesel fuel and helping people out. It was cool. We actually pulled out of there with a bunch of snow on the roof on the trailer. People were staying behind us way far in the back because I know we were throwing sheets of ice. It's like, you're going to leave us some distance. So now we're in New Mexico. We have a beautiful spot on the edge of the park. So really only one neighbor. It just looks out into the New Mexico sort of desert landscape, complete with a 15-by-20 steel-framed tin roof awning over a paved patio and an outboard storage shed. So we got tons of space to work with and very comfortable. Unfortunately, we're all going to be here for about a month and a half before I start this gig. Best part is I'm right by two of my favorite riding roads. Probably the best riding I've ever done. New Mexico 152 is just freaking ridiculous. It's got all of the typical badass concerns and twisties and sweepers and switchbacks. A skilled rider should consider. The alternate to that is right next to us 5259, which is, it's just the hazards are more obscure. They're bizarre. Every atypical concern a skilled rider doesn't expect. You're going in a straight line. You have an open field of view. You can see everything around you. And it says go 25. And you're like, well, why? Why am I going to go 25? Because there's a Mad Magazine foldout that is a 45-degree angled drop of about 15 feet that's a water viaduct that you can't see. And all of a sudden, you're doing 70. And all of a sudden, you cross it straight line. And you look down like, wow. You feel your RPMs jump. And let's not do that anymore. But it's a great ride. Tons of it. It's like paved whoop-de-doos.

Tim: I remember seeing some of those out in the Mojave that were like that, that just you'd see this funny sign and dip.

Robin: Oh, holy cow. Yeah. And then you're just in the air. Like, Tim, if you had a supermoto, you'd be in heaven out here. I'm telling you. Changing topics here. Now that I'm in New Mexico, I started to face some burnout. I've temporarily abandoned my role as an MSF instructor to work strictly on TRO. So the Riding Obsession site, I'm giving it some focus because it's been left by the wayside too long. The overhaul on the site is live, as in it's released. And now it's just on to whatever minor bugs remain. If I can juggle my schedule a bit better, maybe I'll even start writing for it again. I wouldn't mind doing that. Trav, I would love to have that article from you. And I'm going to try to work on the store so that Tim can do photo shoots and maybe get some of your stuff on there as a specific-to-you thing. Beyond that, been maintaining our bikes, learning to use the Save Search feature on eBay. Maggie Dean had her first high-speed off, and so we're waiting for some parts. Her bike's running fine now, but could still use some touch-up.

Travis: Yeah, was that just like a low-side thing?

Robin: She took a corner off of Old Fred Road in Kerrville there, which connects to 290. She just target fixated a bit and low-sided her bike at a reasonable pace. And she's fine. She's fine. A couple of sore toes, and the bike needed a new shift lever to get it home, but we happen to have one. So maybe I'll order another one. Lastly, not leastly, enjoying new music. Lots of new music. I raked a bunch of tracks off the Long Way Up playlist, and I was thinking, guys, we should totally do a super-simple interview that would take five minutes for us to record, and I would just add the music in, where it's just strictly our favorite riding tunes. We each pick five, and we just go around. We talk about music we like to listen to. Let's get to the Texas Tour guest interview with Field Correspondent Maggie Dean, a.k.a. MagStar.

Maggie: Hi, Wendy. Hi, how are you? It's nice to see you. It's actually been a really long time since I've seen you in person. And now it's in virtual person, but it's been a long time.

Wendy: Yeah.

Maggie: I've only just seen a couple of Facebook updates. Thanks for having me. I really appreciate it.

Wendy: I'm excited to be here.

Maggie: Good. Let's start with your handle, which maybe a lot of our audience knows, but I don't actually know the story. Where did Wendy in Motion come from?

Wendy: I think that I needed to set something up for a new email address or something like that. Maybe it was when I signed up for Facebook, but I was sort of brainstorming just ideas for some catchy phrase or name or something. And people are always telling me that I'm always in motion. You know, I've been a swing dancer for over 20 years, and I'm just always socializing and finding something new to do. I got into motorcycle riding, so it just fit my lifestyle, really. And then even more so after starting my motorcycling adventures.

Maggie: It's a pretty awesome name. Thanks. I think a lot of us know you as Wendy in Motion because it really sticks.

Wendy: Yeah, that was the idea.

Maggie: What drew you to motorcycling? How did you get started?

Wendy: When I was little, my dad was in the Army. We lived in Hawaii. And because military families don't have a ton of money, my dad was looking for transportation to get around the island. He had ridden when he was younger, and so he picked up a bike. And when he took us for a ride for the first time, I had two younger siblings at the time. Now three younger siblings, but at the time just my two brothers. And he took them for a ride first, and they loved it. And he took me for a ride, and he was, like, leaning really low in the turns and everything. And it terrified me. I hated it. I never wanted to get back on the bike. So my mom pulled it out of me why, and he adjusted his riding. And after that, I just loved it. Fast forward to my late 20s, I was on the back of a friend's motorcycle, and I was just thinking to myself, like, man, it would be so cool to have a motorcycle. And then I realized, I'm a grownup. If I want a motorcycle, I can just go buy one. So I talked to my dad about having him teach me. Thankfully, my friend talked some sense into me and had me sign up for the MSF course. And kind of the rest is history. I just, I jumped right into it. I bought my first bike. It was a 75 Honda CB200 vintage bike, and I rode all over the city of Chicago. I would leave on my lunch hour out of the high rise, go downstairs, get on the bike, ride my whole lunch hour, and then go back to work. I was just, like, instantly addicted.

Maggie: You've been a part of Chi-Vin for a long time. Were there any other motorcycling groups that you rode with?

Wendy: I would ride with anybody who told me they had a motorcycle and would let me tag along when I first started. But really, the main group that I rode with was Chi-Vin Moto. And I feel pretty lucky that they were around because they had a lot of peer pressure, but it was positive peer pressure. I remember one time riding up to a bike night, and I didn't have a helmet because I wanted, like, to have cute hair at the bike night. And they gave me the hardest time ever for not having proper gear. And I remember a couple years later, like, riding up, it was a very hot summer day, and I had a helmet and gloves, but I wasn't wearing a jacket. And they were just like, oh, really, no jacket? You should really be wearing a jacket. And it was exactly what I needed. I mean, it's always kept me safe. So I was very thankful for that. Plus, you know, their extensive mechanical knowledge and willingness to help out has always been really great. So I'm very thankful to have found them in the beginning.

Maggie: So you've ridden all over Chicago. You've done some long-distance trips. Where else have you ridden?

Wendy: I rode with my dad for his 50th birthday. We did a ride together. We rode out to Bar Harbor, Maine. We sort of took the long way around Lake Michigan up through New York, Pennsylvania area into Vermont, coasted the northern part of the United States. We only didn't go into Canada because my dad didn't think to bring his passport. So we did the northern part of the United States, which worked out lovely, actually, because Vermont was amazingly beautiful. It's still one of my most favorite places that I've been so far. And then we went to Bar Harbor, stayed a couple of nights over Fourth of July, ate lobster out of the ocean, which was the goal, swung back through New York through West Point where we were stationed when I was a kid and got to see some of that stuff, which was amazing, and then back to Chicago. So that was a great trip. All in all, I think it was about 10 days. And then just this year I did a big trip out west and rode to Idaho. I got just inside Idaho and stayed a night and then rode through Yellowstone, which was pretty amazing. That was a solo trip. I took it with my dog, Piper, who rides with me sometimes. It was quite the adventure. I learned a ton on that trip.

Maggie: What did you learn?

Wendy: I learned that as beautiful and amazing as a lot of the riding is out there, there are large expanses of just nothingness, which I was mentally not prepared for, riding sideways at 80 miles an hour because the winds are so insane, riding for two hours just on a long, expansive, straight road. The land is never-ending, which was pretty amazing. I learned that I can camp in 38 degrees, which was lovely. And Piper did a fantastic job. I think she was just so cold she stayed under the covers of me the entire time. It was adorable. It was an amazing trip. I learned that I need people around me much more than I realized. And with COVID times now, it's a lot harder. One of the things that I love most about motorcycle riding are all the people you meet when you're out on the road. And there wasn't really an opportunity to do that much this trip. It was very solo. It was really interesting. And it was really wonderful to, during COVID times, get a different perspective. There are a lot of political views and things that are happening around all of this. And it gave me a chance to see the other side. And really, while I'm riding for three hours in nothing, just think about the people who live there and how they live. They're not on top of each other the way we are in a large city. And just getting that, I think that riding gives you a perspective of the world that you wouldn't otherwise have, which is kind of amazing.

Maggie: So it was lovely. That sounds like it was an amazing trip. I'm not at the point where I could do a solo trip like that. I need a person.

Wendy: You could. You could do it if you wanted to. But it gets lonely. More than I expected.

Maggie: What other stories do you have from the road? What are some favorites?

Wendy: One of the things that I learned is there's no such thing as a side road in Yellowstone. There's a road. It's called Ashton Flag Road. And it looks like this beautiful, twisty road. And that morning I'd woken up and I was like, I'm not following Google. I'm making my own route. So I pulled the map up and I'm almost done with the day and I've got two hours to go. 6 or 6.30 p.m., the sun's setting. I turn on Ashton Flag Road. It's this cute little road. It starts winding and then it turns to gravel. And I'm freaking out because it's just a gravel road. So I go about 10 miles and I'm looking at my GPS, which I have no signal left, but thankfully GPS is just staying on, connected to the route. And I still have an hour and 45 minutes to go. And it's only 40 miles. Holy crap. It's going to be gravel the entire way. And I, at this point, had almost no off-road experience. I'd gone dirt biking a couple of times. I'd taken American Super Camp flat track school a couple of times, which is so helpful in this scenario because, you know, the bike's moving around. The sun's setting and I'm in the middle of nowhere with no cell service in bear country with bear bait on my bike because I have my food. I'm camping, so I have my food on the bike, dehydrated food, and my dog, which you're not supposed to have in bear country. If I do this, I can't get stuck. So I stopped probably 10 miles in. There was a little pull-off and I saw a guy there with a horse trailer. Okay, I'm going to stop. I'm going to ask this guy if he knows anything about the area. And it turns out he's a local. He hadn't done the full road in a long time, but his friend did recently and said that they'd been maintaining it and he could give me a little bit of advice. And he really was sort of like an earth angel in the moment, just like this person that I needed. All along this trip, I, like, ran into people on the side of the road when I was, like, freaking out about something who gave me this sense of calm and let me collect myself, and then I went on my way. He was one of those people. He just said, you know, you've got the bike. You should just do it. It's just like this the rest of the way. Just keep going. I'm like, well, if it's like the last 10 miles, I can do it. So I'm going to go. And I said, can you please just – are you leaving right now? And he's like, no. I'm like, can you give me five minutes to just walk my dog, drink some water, put in my emergency fuel, because I was expecting to see a gas station in three hours, and I'll be on my way. And he's like, don't you worry. Like, I'll wait. I'm like, thank you. So I let Piper out. She walked, went to the bathroom. We both had some water, put her back in her carrier. I filled up the gas tank, and away I went. And it was terrifying and exciting and thrilling and one of the most beautiful places in Yellowstone because there's nobody back there, and it's just these amazing – it's like a twisty road, and it's gravelly, and there are some ruts, but it's not too bad. It's totally manageable on the bike. And then these beautiful open vistas. I mean, it was just – and the sun was setting. So it was difficult because, you know, the sun was setting in my face. And then I got to the other side, and it was like one of the most accomplished feelings I've ever had. It's like making it alive. I didn't drop the bike. Piper's still with me. We're good, and it was so beautiful. I wish I could have been more calm to enjoy it. I thought about going back that way the next day, but I just didn't have enough time to make it to the next camping location. I definitely want to go back and do that road again.

Maggie: I wish you'd had a video. I know.

Wendy: I really wanted to stop to set my camera up, but I didn't feel safe enough to take the time to put the camera on in case some wildlife came out of the woods to eat Piper. That would have been sad.

Maggie: And horrifying. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was great. Any other stories that come to mind?

Wendy: One of the things that I would say about riding in general or just planning a trip, going on a trip, whatever it is, just do it. Just do it. I mean, give your bike a once-through. Make sure it's good to go and there's nothing that's going to go wrong, as far as you can tell, on your bike. Pack what you think you need. There are so many lists online that you can check. Make sure you're packing what you need and just go. It's so worth it because there are so many resources out there now. You have cell phones, but also you get into these small towns and these small places, and people will help you. They will, I mean, for the most part. And it's a life-changing experience. And even when things go wrong, that's when the best stories happen, really. You get caught in rain or, like, getting stuck on that road. It was terrifying at the time, but it's a great story now. When I was riding on that trip, we were in Vermont, my dad and I. We were on this amazingly beautiful road, and there were waterfalls, and I missed a turn an hour back. And so we saw this little gift shop next to a waterfall, and we stopped. And sure enough, the lady there was just like, you have to leave right now, but if you go catch this ferry, you can get across this lake because we needed to get to the other side. It was going to add a bunch of time to, like, ride around it. She's like, but the ferry leaves in seven minutes, and it takes five to get there. Go right now. And so we did. We left right away, and we made it. It was stressful, but we got there at the last minute. We were the last ones on the ferry. And then we were on this ferry, and it was so calm and peaceful. I think it took about an hour to get across, which was way less time than the three or four it was going to take to go around. And we got to see a part of Vermont we weren't going to see otherwise. It was totally worth it. You figure it out. That's part of the adventure of riding.

Maggie: What inspired the move to North Carolina?

Wendy: So I took American Super Camp and made some friends there. And those friends said that they wanted to do a trip in May of 20. Something COVID safe where we'd been quarantining. We rented our own Airbnb. We met there. We brought in our own food, and we just rode our motorcycles during the day. And we went to Knoxville, Tennessee, where we rented the Airbnb and rode the Tail of the Dragon and all that kind of stuff. And it was my first time on the tail, which, by the way, don't recommend. Do it once, get the sticker, but it's not great riding. All of the other roads in the area are so amazingly beautiful. The Terra Halla was probably on my top five roads that I've ridden so far. So I did this trip, and because of weather and stuff like that, I had trailered down. So I'm trailing back. I'm sitting in my car, and I'm just driving back with my bike on the trailer. And I'd left my friends, and I was like, I need more of this in my life. I'm tired of spending winters in Chicago where I can maybe ride a little bit on the ice. I hate being cold, so that's terrible. Or, you know, I'm lucky to have some friends who set up a little indoor track at their shop. But it's not like riding, like taking trips and riding year-round, and I just need more of this in my life. So I just sort of put that out there to the universe, and, man, the universe answered. A few months later, I took a course at the BMW Performance Center at the U.S. Writers Academy. It was a women's-only course. It was one day on-road, one day off-road. They were running a special, like, buy one, get one free. So the price was right, and I just decided to go for it. I had an amazing time. I'd met the instructors a few times before at different BMW MOA rallies. And while I was there, the lead instructor, Erin Rankin, was like, you know, we could really use some more instructors, especially a female instructor. And I was like, that would be really cool. It would be great if I could do that. I'm like, wait a second, I'm working from home right now. I can do it, at least for a little while while I figure it out. So, again, driving home from this class, just thought through all of the things that I would need to do to make this happen, and I thought, you know, I'm going to go down for a few weeks, check out the training program, get started, see how it goes. And on my way down here, my company announced that we were going to go work from home until June 30th. And then I got down here, and I found a permanent apartment right away. And everything just fell into place. So I started the training program to become an instructor at the BMW U.S. Writers Academy, and I love it. I stayed with a friend for a few weeks to sort of get settled in and get the lay of the land. And over Christmas, I went back home, and I just packed everything and moved down. So the reason that I moved was to have more motorcycling in my life and for this opportunity teaching at the Performance Center. I've been down here since the weekend after Christmas, but I trained every weekend between Thanksgiving and Christmas at the Performance Center beforehand. And I've been riding because it's been 50 degrees and something on random days here and there. Living the dream, man.

Maggie: So is Piper all settled in?

Wendy: She is. She loves it. I mean, we were in a three-flat walk-up in Chicago, and I definitely got more exercise. Running up and down those stairs to take her out. But here, I'm still on the second floor, and instead of going down to a sidewalk, she goes down to a nice big yard, and she loves it. She loves it. We haven't been on any rides yet together, but once I get a little more comfortable riding in the mountains, I'll take her with me.

Maggie: So the BMW training, is that where the one video, the one that I saw that I randomly saw of you doing the Jocelyn Snow mount and dismount, is that from that?

Wendy: We dubbed it the fancy mount, but she definitely made it popular. Yes, it is from that. It is easier than it looks. It's all mental. Like most things in motorcycles, the bike can do it. And if the bike can do it, you can do it. Just practice. Yeah, that's what that is from. I've learned so much there in such a short amount of time.

Maggie: What cleared the path leading to your success? How did you get involved with BMW? You became a spokesperson some time ago, and so how did all of that start?

Wendy: I think that a big part is people are finally realizing that women are becoming a large segment in the motorcycle industry. They're recognizing that and giving some attention to it for a change, which is lovely. So that is kind of the start. I mean, it's a really long story how I ended up with a BMW, so I'll save that for another time. At the end of the 2016 model year, I purchased a 2016 F700GS, the white with the red frame. It's beautiful. I love it so much. And I didn't ride it a lot the first year. And then the first summer of 2017, I was going through a lot of personal things. And 2018, I just decided this is my year. I'm getting back on the horse, putting some mileage on and going to events and stuff. And thank goodness I did. I ended up going to the national rally that year, and it was in Des Moines, Iowa. And I actually made friends at IMS the February before, so February of 2018. These two guys, Walt and Monty, they convinced me to go to the rally. And they're like, you know, come out. You can camp next to us. You'll be safe. We can introduce you to people, that sort of thing. And that was all I needed. They were just so lovely, and I had a blast. That just did it for me. It was like meeting everybody at the rally. Everybody was so welcoming and fun and nice. And I met sort of a younger crowd called the Delta House U55, stands for under 55. Met a bunch of people through that. Actually, I think after that rally is when they set up the Facebook group. After that, I just tried to find ways to get more involved, and the MOA reached out to me. When you're an MOA member, or even if you're not, they have something called the Paul B Scholarship. I'm very passionate about continuing education. I try to take classes on a regular basis. And I joined the MOA when I purchased my bike. They had, like, a free trial membership, and I just continued with it. And I had heard about the scholarship while I was at the rally, so I applied for the scholarship. And they paid $250 towards one of my classes. If you're not a member, I think you get $125 towards any class that you'd like to take. You just email, get approval 30 days in advance. They give you a check after you complete the class, whatever. So I went to American Super Camp, and they asked me to write about my experience there. And in the meantime, the magazine decided that they wanted to do just a story on one of their female writing members. They chose me. And so they did an interview instead, so I ended up being in the magazine. And when they came out and did a photo shoot for that article, they asked if they could use the photos for some of their promotional materials. And I was, of course, all about it. I'm happy to promote the MOA. I think they do amazing work. And then I just tried to figure out ways that I could help them, because they're really volunteer-based. They do good stuff. I really wanted to get involved with that, so that's how I got involved with the MOA. I do reviews for the magazine. They do a lot of member-tested products, which I think is a great program for the magazine. And, you know, I just help out in any way I can. And that's really what paved the way to where I'm at now. Getting involved in the MOA and having those amazing photos being put on their banners and things like that has given me exposure to other groups. I learned about the GS Giants. You know, I'm still pretty new. I've only had two or three years. And so I'm learning about all of these subgroups and things that are going on. And the GS Giants, another fantastic organization, it's obviously for people who ride GS motorcycles. They have their own rally, which I'm excited to go to this year. They posted on Facebook that they were looking for someone to help them with their scholarships. They needed a scholarship director, someone to join the board of directors. So that was the next thing that I started working on. I applied. They voted and accepted me. And Danny Walker, the guy that owns Super Camp, says that they are there to help create old motorcycle riders. They want people to grow old in this sport. That's how I feel about it as well. I want people to enjoy this for the rest of their long, long lives. And that's one of the things that drew me to this position on the board of directors. So I'm working with them on that now. This is my first year. I'm pretty excited to see what comes of that. There's some exciting things in the works that I can't really talk about, but it's going to be so fun. Between those two things and then taking the classes and being the social person that I am, like meeting the other instructors and taking the class at the BMW Performance Center.

Maggie: What other big upcoming travel plans are you excited about for 2021? You already mentioned one of the rallies that you're looking forward to.

Wendy: Yeah, it's really all COVID-dependent, of course. If the events are still going on and can be done COVID-safe, then I'm really excited to attend. The GS Giants Go Big Rally is August 5th through the 8th in Colebrook, Connecticut. I don't know that I've ever been to Connecticut. So I'm excited to check that off of my list. From what I understand, they do a lot of really fun events at the rally, like riding competitions and stuff like that. So I'm looking forward to that. Of course, the BMW MOA Rally, it's in Great Falls, Montana, on June 24th through the 27th. And I didn't make it that far. I had big plans when I went out west, man. I was like, I'm going to go touch the coast and ride back. I ran out of time real fast because it's just so expansive, and it takes so long to get across all of these giant states. So I'm excited to go out to Montana. And then there's also the GS Trophy Qualifier. So the GS Trophy is this amazing international competition. We send three men and one female from the United States, and then they compete internationally against other riders. And they do some just amazing, crazy stuff. You cannot be a professional instructor or professional motorcycle rider. So these are just regular people who are super passionate about riding and the GS bikes. And it's just mind-blowing the things that they do and that they endure and go through. So it's pretty awesome. So the qualifiers are this year for the competition, which will be next year. There are rumors that there's going to be one on the west coast and one on the east coast. And so we'll see where it's going to be on the east coast. But hopefully somewhere close by, I can go watch everybody compete.

Maggie: That sounds awesome and inspiring. Well, I think we are at our final question. What's your riding obsession? Oh, man, I'm just obsessed with all of it, to be honest.

Wendy: But my most current recent riding obsession is off-road training at the performance center. And, I mean, I'm super blessed. I get to do it regularly now. But it's just amazing. They have giant hills and they have ruts and they have trees. And so they have trails and they have water crossings and they have rocks. And they have a giant gravel pit and a giant sand pit. And it's just a giant playground. And I'll tell you, I always thought that being on the 700 was, like, the easier bike to ride because it's smaller. The instructors ride 1250s. They're easier to ride. And every instructor in there will tell you that. They told me that a million times. If you are going to the performance center, do not get a smaller bike. They're harder to ride. Definitely get the 1250. Trust me. I was adamant that that was not the case. And now that I'm there riding all the time, it's 100% true. Get the 1250 and then just ride the crap out of it. It is easier to ride. And it is so much fun. And I just love it. So my new riding obsession is, like, being at the performance center on that giant playground. The on-road day is amazing, too. And you learn skills that will really save your life. But the off-road days are my obsession right now.

Maggie: That sounds fun. Now I want to go take it.

Wendy: It's so worth it. It's so good. And it really improves all of my riding. One class right away just improved all of my riding. Of course, I can't recommend it enough. But I feel like everybody should come out and take classes.

Maggie: I agree with you there. Thank you so much for your time. And it was nice to chat with you. Yeah.

Robin: Ask anyone in the Chicago Vintage Motorcycle Collective if they know Wendy Naessens, and you might get mixed results. Ask the same question about Wendy in motion, and smiles will shine with confirmation. Wendy is a proud BMW owner, Motorrad instructor, and MOA ambassador, who's furthering her career within the brand, all while projecting a strong female presence in motorcycling.

Tim: Now it's time for This Month in Motorcycle History.

Robin: Italy's Idai Orioli wins the 1994 Paris-Dakar-Paris motorcycle rally aboard his Ducati-powered Kajiva Elephant.

Travis: Yeah.

Robin: Kajiva Elephant?

Travis: I think it's Kajiva. Kajiva Elephant. His Kajivia is Caviar Elephant.

Tim: Which those are some legit bikes. I've had the opportunity to see a guy riding one of those up in the Northwoods of Wisconsin, and just beating the hell out of the poor bike. It looks kind of like a Funduro.

Travis: Yeah. I mean, from these pictures, it's a 90s Dakar bike. Got some pretty old-school sort of tech, and then a big-ass gas tank, and that's it.

Robin: All right, well it says here, after a grueling and at times life-threatening 8,313 miles, that's 13,375 kilometers, Idai Orioli triumphantly rides into Euro-Disney. Travis, take it away.

Travis: Yeah, I love Euro, it's so 90s, like Euro-Disney. Considered by many to be one of the greatest rally riders, Idai wins the rally that began in Paris on December 28th, giving a snack, a bottle of water, and a nap in Dakar on January 6th, then returns to Paris ten days later in need of a cappuccino and a good wash. Orioli credited his victory to knowing all of the good restaurant spots, having previously won Dakar in 1990.

Robin: How exactly do you come back from something like that and want coffee? I'm thinking, goodnight.

Tim: You be Italian. Yes. Dakar rally firsts in 1994. The number one is a woman. Traditionally, the number one is given to the smallest capacity vehicle. Marianne Bernard is at the controls of her Suzuki 350. And after 15 years, an assistance plane is used to spot and help with mechanical failures and or accidents.

Travis: That's funny that it wasn't until 94 that they used airplanes to like spot.

Robin: Yeah, before that, somebody didn't come back. Oh well, I guess that's an issue.

Tim: Yeah. That old school Dakar race was absolutely amazing. It's still pretty crazy, but that was like, we're going to go hang out with the tribes of the desert in Western Africa, through Mauritania and such.

Robin: Actually, that is Tim Sturridge. I'm surprised you haven't done a Dakar like back and forth. You'd probably be passing those guys up like it was nothing.

Tim: I might have had training wheels on compared to those guys. Yeah, I mean, hey, Charlie Borman did it.

Travis: Yeah. Did he finish? Yeah, he finished. One of his co-writers didn't, but Charlie Borman did finish Dakar. He did it after Long Way Round, before Long Way Down. And there is a series about it. It's called Road to Dakar. If you can find it somewhere, you can watch it. It's pretty interesting. And actually, the story of his co-writer that got stuck in the desert is like really crazy. I suggest you track that one down if you're interested in such things. Heck yeah. Anyway, we got the Model Focus.

Robin: Yeah. Travis, what year, make, and model are we focused on today?

Travis: I want to talk about the new announced for 2021 Honda Rebel 1100. So it looks exactly like the new, so when they revamped the Rebel after whatever, 30-something years, a couple years ago, and did the Rebel 300 and 500, which I always liked. If one fell into my lap, I certainly wouldn't turn my nose up at a Rebel 500 for just a bop around towner. Because even at 6'1", with the 3200, it didn't seem like it's comfortable to sit on. It's not too low. It's not too tiny. And I started, as listeners to the podcast well know, on an original Rebel 250 in 2009. Rebel 250 was my first bike. I did a 900-mile trip from Chicago up to mid-Michigan and back on that. So I thought the new ones were pretty cool. And now they've stuffed the Africa Twin motor into it.

Robin: Seriously? That's what that is?

Travis: Yeah. Is that really the Africa Twin motor? They tuned it for a little more low-end grunt for the cruiser thing. But the Africa Twin's got the 270-degree parallel twin, so it fires like a V-Twin or an L-Twin anyway. Oh, shit.

Robin: I don't see a clutch lever. You're not joking. Wow.

Travis: Yep, and it's available with the DCT, just like the Africa Twin. There's no other bikes that use that right now. No other bikes that use that engine. The DCT is also on the 1300 and the 700 engine platforms. So you can get the Rebel 1100 with the DCT. And supposedly, I saw in the press release, but I haven't seen it on Honda's website yet, you can get it with a bobbered-out trim with just the solo seat. And then you can get it with a touring package where it has a little mini batwing fairing and a passenger seat and some saddlebags. So almost kind of like a Harley-Davidson Sportglide, except it starts around $10,000, like $11,000. Like this is Sportster money. This is new Sportster money.

Tim: Oh, that's a fantastic package at that price.

Travis: Yeah, it's ridiculous. I mean, it makes good power, you know, about 100 horsepower or whatever, 70-something pound-feet of torque, whatever the Africa Twin makes, with the power band just shifted down in the revs a little bit.

Robin: I like to think of it as responsible, considerate, and properly priced. Still profitable, but not rude to the demographic.

Travis: You know what I mean? Yeah. And I mean, like I said, you can get an 1100 for Sportster 883 money, where that makes more power than the Sportster 1200. And it's obviously going to be, I mean, there's something to be said about, like, you want the shake and the noise and the hassle of a Sportster. But, you know, if you actually just want to get a good cruiser that isn't gigantic, that's not 800 pounds, that's going to have power and comfort, I mean, this thing looks pretty awesome. Again, if I had the money, I'd probably buy one to go two up with Laurel, because otherwise I feel like if I'm on anything but a cruiser, you know, the red mist descends and I want to go. It isn't always the best when you have your wife on the back. So, you know, the cruiser kind of makes you cruise. And, too, it has, like, really good lean angle clearances. If I had $10,000 to buy a motorcycle right now, if Honda was like, you can have anything, and here's $10,000 in money, I'd probably buy that. But there's a couple of things I don't like about it. I don't like the color options. It comes in black, on black, with some black, and also parts of it are black, which I think is just – I think it's a boring way to color. Like, it's like if you want to custom, like, air quotes, murder out a bike, that's cool. But it's like I think it just looks dumb when a bike is all black. They're just late to the sun's anarchy game. It doesn't look like anything, you know. Like, you can't see the bike at all. And then you can get it in, like, that gold wing wine color, like that color that Honda uses for some reason. It's like an aubergine with a port stain, like Merlot. Because I remember when the Rebel 300, 500 first came out, you could get, like, high-vis green and safety orange and bright blue and all these cool – like, it came in all these cool colors, you know. And it's only – to the way that it's built, you know, have the frame be black, sure. And it's just like the tank and the fenders, those are the only painted parts.

Tim: Yeah, and they're probably tank covers even. They're probably a standard steel fuel cell with a, like, style over – No, I think it's an actual metal tank.

Travis: Is it? Okay. But, yeah, so it's like why not – but, too, it's a couple of pieces. Why not offer – yeah, it's the front fender, the back fender, and the tank. It's like why doesn't this come in 10 colors?

Robin: And for that, we have the aftermarket.

Travis: So that's one thing I don't like. I mean, obviously, like, exhaust, whatever, the exhaust is blah, but it's got to meet Euro 5. It's going to be too big. It's going to be ugly. But it looks like it'd be super easy to put a slip-on on it. You know, it's got upside-down forks. It's got, like, heavy-duty, you know, tuned suspension. I'm sorry, they're traditional forks, but they're blacked out because they're, like, titanium oxide-coated, which I think looks cool. And it's got piggyback shock. It's got Showa suspension. I mean, for the money in the cruiser world, I think you're hard-pressed to find something like that. But I don't like the colors or the lack of colors. It seems like even with the touring package, that the passenger accommodations are pretty paltry. Like, the seats look a little thin and tiny. But everything's accessible. That's the good thing.

Robin: Like, leave it to Honda to apologize for something as inaccessible for wrenching as the VFR. Not impossible, but difficult to, you know, get to. To apologize with a simple bike that is accessible is, like, turn this bolt, remove this tank.

Travis: Oh, yeah. I mean, and, too, it's like, yeah, it's all, you know, I mean, it's like the Africa Twin without all the crap on it, right? The engine's just sitting there in kind of classic cruiser-y way.

Tim: I mean, you should just buy it for the motor, pull the motor, put it on whatever you want. That is a fine motor, too. It's very compact for the amount of power it puts out. Kind of like looking at this picture, the ergonomics look like they'd be a little cramped for me, but that's fairly common for me with most stock cruiser-type bikes.

Travis: Yeah, I mean, the seat's real low, and it's got mid-pegs, but there's probably forward control or aftermarket will provide forward control options. Yeah, I do think it would look good if it had the, like, magnesium-colored engine covers on it that Honda puts on, like, their CB bikes, the kind of bronzy magnesium look. I think that would jazz this up, and maybe, like, actual Honda red instead of that ugly wine color. And then I really hope this maybe means a return of the ST, and they put this motor in a sport-terrain bike. To bring it back to the theme of TheRidingEducation.com. Oh, sure. Why not do whatever? It's not an Africa Twin. Do, you know, a Euro Twin or something. I don't know what you'd call it.

Robin: Something with a quick profile and the luxury of luggage. You know, not an actual ST1300 vibe or any of that stuff, because that's kind of blimped out. Those are big bikes.

Travis: Well, that's like the new, the ST1300 made sense in a world with the last-generation Goldwing.

Wendy: Yeah.

Travis: But the new-generation Goldwing kind of fills that role. It's lighter and more agile with, like, the luggage and all the stuff of what the old ST did.

Robin: So we can now get, let's get lean and mean again. Take this motor and make it, you know, put it on a pissed-off frame.

Travis: Yeah, because, I mean, the Interceptor is long in the tooth. So, yeah, take this 1100, you know, put it in a sportier, you know, with 17-inch wheels, luggage options. You know, basically just rip off the Tracer 900. Just put this, just, like, build a Honda Tracer 900 and put this motor in it. That's what Honda needs to do. Nice. And, you know, make it Honda style and, you know, make it red. So maybe it's on the horizon that, I mean, they obviously have interest in cross-platforming this motor. So let's hope it happens. Now let's go to the next segment. Tim, this month's new kit. Any new doodads or gizmos or whatchamacallits you've got lined up for this month?

Tim: I have got one thing here. This is not really a big deal, but one of the things I've been getting a kick out of is aftermarket levers. And I have a hard time bringing myself to spend the big dollars for the really fancy big brand names. The last bike that I had was I put these, you know, $36 pair of brake and clutch levers on and had no problems at all with them, really enjoyed them. Have you guys replaced your clutch levers or your levers on your bikes?

Robin: Yeah, like on the Hawk GT, I definitely did. But these look real. I'm bookmarking these. I wonder if they make them for Maggie's bike.

Tim: They probably do. And these are the MZS brand, which I have no idea who they are or where they come from. But I opened up the package. They've come in a nice little package, and they look machined accurately. I think they're going to go on the bike just super clean like the last ones I bought.

Travis: They don't have a lot of play, like a vertical wiggle in them?

Tim: The ones that I put on the Husky were just fine, no more or less than the stock levers.

Travis: Yeah, I'll have to check because I just have some eBay specials on the NC and something that was a little more substantial might be good.

Tim: Yeah. Used to be back on the Dual Sports, I got really attached to short levers, and I would just hacksaw the stock ones and filed off the sharp edges. I like having a two-finger clutch, things like that, especially on a bike that I don't need that much force to pull.

Travis: Yeah, on a middleweight bike or not a big cruiser or something that doesn't have a heavy clutch. I wanted to run handguards on the NC, and you can't run the factory levers with handguards, at least not with aftermarket aluminum. I think I have Tusk ones on there, but Barkbusters, whatever. Honda did make factory just plastic handguards, but I wanted actual aluminum handguards, and regular levers were too long, they wouldn't fit.

Tim: That is one of the things that's in the box waiting to go on the bike, so I haven't tried these out on the new Yamaha yet. So basically, as soon as you're done renovating an entire house— Well, I'm not doing everything before then, but these will get on before spring, I'm sure. We'll be all ready to go. I got this, I got a chin spoiler belly pan, not quite a skid guard or a skid plate for it. Keep the gravel off. Try and avoid having a rock kick up and crack the oil pan, because I have seen that on some of the FZ07s and the XSR700, apparently a little bit vulnerable and low. I got that, I got a center stand to go on.

Travis: That's one of those things, I don't know why any manufacturer sells a street bike without a center stand.

Tim: Yeah, it's because they want to advertise that low weight, and your center stand is going to weigh 10, 15, sometimes 20 pounds. It's just a big hunk of steel that they're deleting from it, so they can say, look, it's under 400 pounds.

Travis: Well, then they can charge you $200 for the factory one to add on. Yeah.

Robin: That's an option. Did you want yours to have wheels and rims? That is an option that will cost you more.

Tim: Did you want it to start? One thing that I would really love is if you're ordering brand new, if you could order them sprung for your weight from the factory. That would be badass. I would love it if they would do that, because I've got to respring every goddamn bike I buy.

Robin: It's the first priority in any purchase, tires and suspension, tires and suspension, tires, right? Yeah, well, I'll burn up the tires that they come with.

Tim: I'm not that picky. I'm not riding track. Well, hold on, except for your scooter. I have been a little aggressive on the scooter, which is pretty entertaining. I was just on a magic road. I had just laid down, I think, that spring. I think they just repaved this road in this canyon, and I had it to myself. It was a warm day. The tires are sticking. So, yeah, I was pushing. I'm a little surprised it didn't scrape anything. BMW scooters got a little more clearance than I was expecting. I did scratch something. You're leaning into the crown of the road and you hit a bump. I did get a scrape on one of those. Did it pick you up diagonal? Not really. Okay. It's one of those ones that always kind of surprises you when it happens, but doesn't really knock you offline, so it's all right. As long as it doesn't have any sharp edges, it's going to dig in, and that'll really throw you.

Travis: Travis, I'm handing it off to you. Listener questions. Anthony Burke asks, Hi, guys. I've loaded a GPX file into my XUMO sat-nav via Basecamp. No issue with that. However, the XUMO divided the route into nine separate routes because of the number of waypoints in the route. This is pretty much useless to me, as it would mean having to start the next route on my device every 10 miles or so. How do I reduce the number of waypoints down to 29 to keep the route as one trip? Thanks in advance. I'm going to hand this over to you guys because I do not deal with that stuff. And it's also ridiculous that 29 waypoints is the limit.

Robin: 29 waypoints doesn't make any sense because, let me tell you, Tim's looking it up right now. He's got experience with this, but with my own Navigator 6, Navigator 5, whatever's on my RS, if I don't... I always use my phone because my phone shows the line and the line remains on the road at all times and the point-to-point-to-point remains completely intact. I don't even get the voice nav that way. And that's what we use for the tours. I have two phones with the maps using RideWithGPS. And then I use the GPS on my bike as a fallback in case there's a true-to-form emergency. And keep in mind, I'm using offline maps on my phone, so it's not like I need a cell connection. The GPS antenna is completely independent of your data antenna. They don't relate to one another in any way, shape, or form.

Travis: So as long as your maps are downloaded, you're good.

Robin: You're fine on a phone, yeah. So the GPS unit that I use as a fallback, if I am to load even a scaled-down GPS track or route, whichever one is the one that's most compliant, it still ends up having to get cut off. The line will just disappear. And if I scale down the number of waypoints, or as Tim is looking up, the track points, whichever there's a difference between the two, it'll go as the crow flies. So yes, it will follow my path of travel, but all of a sudden the line, the purple or green or blue, whatever color line that I'm supposed to be following, will leave the road and cross the forest and the mountain and the hill until it re-reaches the road at that next specific waypoint or track point. This has always been a huge downfall with the independent standalone units because they haven't caught up to what a non-dedicated unit can do, namely a phone. The phones are doing the better job anymore.

Travis: Well, I mean, these Zumo Garmin units, they want to do their thing. You just put in your destination, they tell you how to get there. They don't like being told the route.

Robin: Yeah, very good point. I never even thought about that. They want to lead you. They don't wish to lead you along what you're telling them to lead you along. I could have probably said that better.

Travis: They want to lead you, not guide where you're leading. Yeah, so Tim, what are you finding?

Tim: Base camp is just, like, freaking out my computer right now. It's been a while since I've opened it up, so it's trying to update or something.

Travis: That's a little bit perfect, though. Anthony, what you need to do is throw your Zumo out. No. Get rid of GPS on your phone.

Tim: No, I am one of those ones that I don't like prompts. I don't want turn-by-turn. I want to see a highlighted line on the map. That's it.

Travis: You want to see your route. You want to see where you are, and then you'll take care of the rest, yeah.

Tim: Well, we could disable the notifications. Exactly. So I approach this kind of off-road, dual-sport navigation style. A lot of those are like, here's the track, and they use tracks rather than routes. Usually the track will give you something along the lines of, like, 10,000 points to define the track, and if you import a track that has more than 10,000, you know, if my base camp was listening to me right now, you can click on it, and there is a filter option. You can tell it how many points to filter it down to. So when I took the route that Robin gave me for the full 777's trip, I think it came in at something like 150,000 points. I was able to filter it down to 10,000 points and did not lose any significant detail. When you import them into base camp, sometimes it'll drop a defining point, like every 50 feet or something silly like that, and you really don't need that for navigating.

Robin: Are you saying that it actually maintained the integrity of the path of travel? The line itself didn't get corrupted at all?

Tim: Correct. The filtering has no trouble at all. What happens sometimes, it'll cut a corner. Okay. Just a little bit. So it's not going to perfectly follow exactly the road. But if you come up to a left-hander, you'll see it very clearly.

Robin: Sure. That makes sense. That sort of sings to what I was talking about. The only difference being that if you zoom in too far, like I would use it to zoom in and predict what the road's going to do, and the line would leave the road, which to each his own in terms of what zoom level you want.

Tim: Yeah. I use the Garmin Montana, so it's a little less sophisticated than his Zumo, but the Zumo should handle tracks just as well. Usually, I only use waypoints for points of interest. I'm not using them for navigation.

Robin: Okay. So then, bottom line, our advice for Anthony Burke is get to know the software.

Tim: Yeah. Sadly, Basecamp is not a super user-friendly environment. They've always kind of neglected keeping that up to date. But the units themselves, mine has been rock-solid reliable. I have never had any troubles. I am the one pointing to Robin or stopping before Robin realizes he needs to take a U-turn because I've seen where the line goes, and I didn't have to wait for a voice prompt. But the downside is that I do look at the GPS probably more frequently than Robin does, but I do get to be very comfortable where I'm looking at it. My eyes are only dwelling on it for probably a quarter second before my eyes are back on the road. It does take practice having the display there and not letting it be distracting.

Travis: I would say I just want the map, and I want to know where I am, and I want to know what the route is. I'm used to paper maps, right? I'm used to just looking at a paper map and going, you know, okay, I need to go. It looks like maybe 8, 10 miles. I'm going to pass a road that's called this and then make a left on a road that's called this, and then just looking up. And essentially that's what I'm doing with the GPS function too, is it's like, okay, there's a turn coming up in 1.2 miles. I've got to feel for about how far 1.2 miles is while I'm riding. The road is called this. It's after a right-hand sweeper. I have to make a left, so when I hit that right-hand sweeper, I'm going to make the left, which sounds like a lot when you say it out loud, but it's just a thought in your head.

Tim: It's just a word. I find that doing that, that's very much how I'm approaching it too. If there's a reason you've got to reroute, you can reroute really fast. You don't have your device yelling at you in your ear that you're off track all the time. Recalculating.

Robin: Well, now, hold on. See, that's the thing about it. When I'm up front and leading a ride, then my circumstances are that I'm running delayed apexes and making sure that I'm bulldozing through any hazards up ahead. So I'm looking at the road most of the time, and because we're running these commercial tours, I'm getting notifications in my ear that say, by the way, this next opportunity is lunch. All right? By the way, this is a gas stop, and there's not another one. And it actually says these things to me, because Ride With GPS added a feature where you can type in the alert. Or this next intersection. I don't know, Tim, you remember that one at the bottom of the hill where we stopped because we had to make this weird left-hander up the side of a thing, and it was a hazardous cross? I actually lost one of our customers. Oh, you did? He just rode through that and kept on going. He didn't tell me that yet. I had to chase him down. So this is like, you know, there's a difference between what your tasks are. And plus, in the case of the Navigator 5, if you get off course, it will then take you using only the fastest route to the destination. So it stops. The line is still there, but it's trying to lead you. That's when its voice starts prompting you, and usually I just have the voice off. But the point is, Mr. Burke, as a dedicated user of that particular unit, you're going to want to know that software. Tim, what should people do?

Tim: Email your questions and concerns via our contact form, which is located at tro.email, or by calling 224-358-3010. Ask for Robin. Ask what he's wearing.

Robin: Do not ask me what I'm wearing. You might get an answer. I might actually tell you, and it will really bend your day out of shape.

Tim: And that brings us on to this week's Mess a la Modo, brought to you by the Super Slick Ultra Badass Motorcycle Mega Posse of Incredible Power.

Robin: The Super Slick Ultra Badass Motorcycle Mega Posse of Incredible Power is super slick, ultra badass, and incredibly powerful. Learn more at the Super Slick Ultra Badass Motorcycle Mega Posse of Incredible Power dot com. I'm literally wearing the T-shirt right now. So first off, shout out to Mel Bolt, who just bought his second early 70s CB350. That's a crazy man. He's basically mainlining his wallet. But apparently they still make that engine in India.

Travis: Some, like, knockoff version of it? I mean, it's not the Honda. No, it's supposedly, oh yeah. It's probably some, like, knockoff. I don't think Honda's officially reproducing that air-cooled twin. Maybe.

Tim: They might be, because, like, I have seen some of their, like, their, I know their 125 is still in production.

Robin: Right, and this is for a 74. He's got a 73 or a 74, and they're still making it. They're making the motor. He can get the parts brand new for that engine.

Travis: Let's see. Honda, Honda two wheelers dot India motorcycle. Let's see. That's the official Honda Power Sports site for India. It, I mean, this looks like it, but it also kind of looks like it was made with, like, geocities. There's, like, weird. Weird. I want to see if I can find if there's a comparable. There's also some, like, long-running script on this that doesn't want to load. Yeah, no, this is, like, official. It's official. Yeah, it looks official. It's just really slow. I mean, I'm sure it's on some server in India, so it doesn't want to load here in Wisconsin.

Robin: Well, moving right along, John McGinnis was awarded an MBE. Master of Bachelors, MBE? Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire.

Travis: Oh, yeah, so it's like a knighthood.

Robin: It's not like a knighthood. I think it is a knighthood, which is awesome. Congratulations to the big man up there.

Travis: Oh, here we go. Going back, I found it. It's called the Honda Big Wing CB350. It looks actually really cool. Like, I want one of these. I'm sure this is India market only. It looks like a CB. It's, like, slightly more updated. Like, it's got a cool headlight. It's air-oil cooled, maybe. That is okay. Yeah, yeah, it's actually... That looks really cool. Nice look to it. It kind of reminds me of that Kawasaki 800. Do you think it's still carbureted, or is it injected? Let's see, does it have specs somewhere?

Robin: Scroll down to where it says NSCB350.

Travis: Specifications. Four-stroke SI engine. Maybe that means fuel injection and... PGMFI.

Robin: Yeah, fuel system's PGMFI. So, it's got a lot of the same doodads going on, but it's an injected bike. So, I wonder if it would swap out.

Travis: It might be just the same architecture, but with a throttle body instead of carburetors. LED headlights, cast wheels.

Wendy: What a cool little machine.

Travis: Anyway.

Robin: That's a good-looking little bike. And that transitions perfectly over to my next comment. So, the Dakar Rally now has a speed limit, did I hear? I did not see anything about this. What is going on? Speed checks even at the Dakar. People may not drive faster than 90 kilometers an hour. Isn't that basically like 70-ish? That's like 50.

Tim: Yeah, that's about 50.

Robin: This applies in particular to those areas where the organizers expect a large crowd of people or where villages are traversed.

Travis: Okay, well, I mean, that makes sense if they're in populated areas or...

Robin: But are they enforcing it elsewhere? Like, if your time is too low, have you successfully broken the speed limit or are they giving you hell about it?

Tim: I don't know. Yeah, this is definitely something for the populated spectator areas. Yeah, or maybe the transit legs. Yeah. And you'll see some of those videos where people are in the damn track as the racers are coming down the road and they're scrambling to get out of the way as the big old trophy trucks are running through. So this is hopefully to try and kill fewer spectators?

Robin: No, it's about the riders. So here I got an article here. After the death of two riders in the Dakar Rally in Saudi Arabia in January, organizers are planning a series of measures to make the race safer, including power restrictions to limit top speeds. So they're limited to 450 cc to limit the high speeds of some riders who approach the speed of 200 kilometers an hour on dirt and sand. So it was the deaths of Paolo Goncalves, I think, Goncalves. Paolo Goncalves and Edwin Straver this year.

Tim: Goncalves.

Robin: Okay, thank you, thank you. I'm not a Dakar. I have no idea how to say that. Edwin Straver this year. Organizers now discussing a range of new safety measures. I don't think that's how these races were ever intended to work. As tragic as that is, these guys died doing what they love doing. So it is a little weird to define a race based on speed limits.

Tim: I know Dakar has traditionally been part about speed, it's also about overland navigating. With the exception of some of the special sections where there are kind of defined this is where you go, a lot of it is like open wilderness navigation. So if that's what the challenge is, then, you know, pure speed is not really what you're after.

Robin: The regulations are posted on the Dakar.com site, which is kind of interesting too. It's like the actual PDFs you can download and find out what's what. Curious to find out. I remember that Greg Tiber, who's also an author for the site, he's the one that chimed in. He was pretty livid about the speed limit thing. I don't have an opinion one way or the other so long as people are getting out of it what they put into it, you know? So, okay, next. You can buy a one to two scale plastic R motor that works. And it's just half scale? Is that what one to two means? Of course, yeah. It's a half scale R motor. 30 bucks. It's all plastic and I think it, you know, it's like an electric.

Travis: Yeah. But you can see the valve train work. Yeah, so it looks like it's based off the Airhead, the R90.

Robin: Yeah. Also up was a great video. I'll link to this one. There's a video out there about where do riders look? And they took these eye direction detecting glasses, put them on some real racers, and had them go around the track and you could follow where their eyes were looking. And it didn't change the fact that some riders would now and then look down at the apex to double check their distance from the curb and whatever. But for the most part, they were looking deep into every curve. Very inspiring to watch.

Travis: Yeah, looking out of the curve when they're in it. Like once you're in it, you're already thinking past it.

Robin: Yeah. Also, you guys both know I gots me a bead breaker and a zip tie trick for tires now. I'm still gonna have to get rim tape for all the previous mistakes I've made using the- Tire irons. And that brings me to Travis. The next bit. So free valves. Explain the video you posted and explain how free valves work for anybody who's never heard of this and wants to learn more. Sure, I have to find that video. I don't even know where it went. I think this is- It's linked there. It's linked there under T-Sub and Boip. Oh, great. It goes straight to it.

Travis: Yeah, so free valves, I think, are maybe a trademark of Koenigsegg, the exotic Swedish car manufacturer. But the concept is essentially you have electronically actuated valve trains. This is one of my points I think I've talked about before where the internal combustion engines, whatever, 150, 200 years old, and the only thing that's really improved, the only thing that's changed, really, in how internal combustion engines work is how we get the air in and out, the valve systems. So you have old flatheads where the valves were on the bottom from the combustion chamber. If you look up a flathead, so the valves, it was like a pushrod motor, but they weren't pushrods and rockers. They were just valves being operated by a cam by the crank. And so the valves actually moved with the kind of, not necessarily with the pistons, but like the pistons. So the intake was offset from the piston and there was all this dead combustion space. So look up flatheads. And then there was F-heads where they were sideways. And then they finally got around to overhead valves. So those are like your Harleys or your small block Chevys. And we have pushrods and you have a rocker arm that opens valves from the top. And then they have, they came up with overhead cams was the new thing. So the cams are over top and they operate the valves with like a spring mechanism or a Desmodrive overhead cam system, which is what like Zuccottis have where there's a cam function that's mechanically opening and closing the valves. So if you go out and look at your motorcycle and you have a modern liquid cooled overhead cam engine, you can see where the crank is. You'll see about two to three inches of actual block where the piston is, where all the power is. And then you'll see like 10 or 12 inches of head. Like most of your engine is just the thing that gets the air in and out of it. Like the piston is almost certainly like, unless you have some really, because even my bike that's like over square, it's mostly head. Like the valve train and the cams and the combustion is that, that's half the engine. So the thing with the free valves is, well, can we just like have an electronically controlled valve unit that opens and closes valves? We don't need cams. We don't need chains. We don't need gears. You don't need all this stuff on top of the cylinders to manage getting air in and out. We just have basic valves that are like trying to control that are simple. So the, I believe the Koenigsegg ones are pneumatically, they might be hydraulically actuated. So there's like electronic controlling valves that are hydraulically actuated. And you get hydraulic pressure from somewhere, a vacuum pump, engine oil, whatever, or you pneumatically control them and you use vacuum or a pump. And then there's just electronic controlled valves that moderate the actuation pressure and make the valve open and close on demand, controlled by a computer, instead of opening and closing by a mechanically driven device, like a cam, right? So it's kind of like, you know, they have variable valve timing now, like you can rotate the cam somehow or rotate the drive on the cam.

Robin: Change performance modes.

Travis: Or even like the old Honda VTEC where we'd actually just shift the whole cam shaft over and you'd run on a different lobe.

Robin: And you always wanted that leaned over, really accelerating on that bike.

Travis: Just make sure you're leaned over when the... But so this is like, it's getting rid of all the complexity and just the valves open and close through a non-mechanically connected, to the actual moving parts of the engine. And one of the cool things about that is you can actually control valve, not just like valve duration, so not just like... So usually like on a... I mean, that's kind of like where variable valve... Well, that's like variable valve timing or like VTEC together. So you can do like valve duration. Valve opens at X point in the cycle of the engine and closes at X point in the cycle of the engine, right? But you can also change the degree to which the valve is opening. So you can open it less or open it more. And with the free valve system, essentially your valves become your throttle body. Like you don't need a throttle body.

Robin: So you've eliminated a lot of what was once huge and an entire other component altogether.

Travis: Yeah. And so there's this YouTube video here of a guy who wanted to figure out how this all worked. So he went and bought a Harbor Freight Predator motor and then started 3D printing his own, for like 3D printing his own heads with like a high temperature plastic and using like a pneumatic actuator and some Arduinos and some programming is building his own. So just remove the head completely off of this like overhead valve Harbor Freight motor, put a crank sensor on it and then just programmed it to work with these electronically controlled valve systems. It's crazy.

Robin: It's freaking awesome. Just a wicked concept to goof around, you know, to do with such a low scale little toy machine and just be like, let's see if I can pull this off and see what they're doing here. Maybe come up with his own version of it that doesn't require any proprietary nonsense.

Travis: Yeah, I mean, because that's the thing. It's like, I think Koenigsegg is the only one really at least has publicized anything about it. Super expensive, not super reliable. So it's fine for like a high tech, crazy, you know, hyper car that you don't drive and you pay millions of dollars to repair every year anyway. But like it's a very cool technology if you want to learn more about how that works and it's like it eliminates a lot of the complexity of the internal combustion engine and then gives you a lot more control over efficiency and power. So you can actually get that, you know, you can get fuel efficiency and power all out of the same thing just by being able to manually control that valve action.

Robin: I think it's so fitting that you just talked about all of that and I'm going to talk about this. If you want to downgrade your expectations and still get the most bang for the buck, just go to Google and look up Gixxer Clown Car, GSXR Clown Car.

Travis: Yeah, is it a mini? Oh no, no, no, no, no. That's not a mini. That's a Honda.

Robin: It was an actual clown car that was then shrunk down to nothing and nothing and he threw a Gixxer motor in the back and he was outrunning everybody on the drag strip.

Travis: Yeah, is that like an early gen Civic or is it like a little weird like N something? Yeah, because it's got those wing, it's got the mirrors, it's got the mirrors up on the fender. It's an old 70s like Honda. Okay, here we go. What is it? A 71 Honda H600. So it's a K car.

Robin: The motor's in the back of it.

Travis: Yeah, they did, they pickup trucked this like 70s K car and then put a Gixxer motor in the back. This is freaking killer, man.

Tim: That is funny. Oh my goodness. Yeah, I totally missed this when this got posted.

Travis: Yeah, so there's a nice chop job because it was a sedan and they made it a pickup truck and it looks like the metal works actually really good. I'd drive that to work. Oh yeah.

Robin: And so with that, is everybody ready to close this one out?

Travis: Yeah, yeah, I got some painting to do. That's our episode for this round. Tune in next time for more discussion on all things specific to sport touring or universal to motorcycling as a whole. For TheRidingObsession.com, I'm at Braver Soil Nuts. I'm Kilt Cream. And I'm a Bone Ride. Safe travels, everyone.

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.