Brian: I am Brian Ringer. I'm Robin D. You're listening to radio t r o. Woo,

Robin: T R o, your sport touring Motorbike Fix. We're an ever developing online venue for motorcycle enthusiasts who enjoy responsibly spirited riding along routes less

Brian: traveled, the wizards of twisty, the magicians of mapi and your guides to many mysterious mazy Mary Miles. If you are a lean angle, crackhead, we're your dealers.

Robin: Hey Brian, how have you been? I feel like we haven't spent the past 30 minutes. Together re, you know, recording our interview because they're off celebrating their anniversary. That's a non-reality. So how you been, dude? Tell me what's going on.

Brian: I've been great. Did about 400 miles yesterday. Uh, did a scouting ride?

Robin: Got your email. Meant to Thank you for that. Oh

Brian: God. It's, there's some cool stuff down there. I think you're going, I think, uh, I made some radical changes, but I, I think you'll like it. I don't know. We'll see. This

Robin: episode's gonna be a sorting process is what's gonna happen.

Brian: Yeah. And, um, yeah, but it ended up being like a 400 mile day. So I'm a little, little, little sore in the old, uh, kester, but that's all right. That's, that's how you, that's how you get, that's how you get your butt. Tough,

Robin: man. Let's kick things right into gear. All right. Let's talk about stuff our listeners might ask us if we had any listeners.

Brian: Alright, and if you are a listener, if you'd like us to field your question or just talk about it, email, podcast@t.bike.

Robin: Who's asking us what to date? I

Brian: think I'm gonna pick out of the crowd of, of questions our listeners might ask us, because I think it's related to a later topic. And, uh, talk about really, really narrow roads, like little tiny half lane where like, if a Ford comes the direction you're going to end up as a hood ornament. Um, you know, are, are they actually fun? You know, how do you, do you, should you skip it? Do you keep safe? Uh, what are, you know, what are some of the ways. How do you think about tiny, tiny roads? How do you think about tiny

Robin: roads? I'm immediately pointed to your article about leading the ultimate sport touring ride when it comes to know your audience and keep an eye on your flock. I will say that from experience, one of the roads we've enjoyed in the past, it that is touch and go is the. National Forest Park Road through Red River Gorge, which goes up to not a tunnel and not a tunnel, is a single lane. Mm-hmm. Hole in a mountain. That's a lot of fun to ride through. And the road that gets to it, if you are irresponsible as I am, is an absolute blast. However, If you are with those who have even shown you how you can be semi irresponsible in a socially acceptable way and without getting hurt or into trouble, if they tell you halfway in, yeah, I'm not digging this, you might've picked the wrong road. And, and it, it has happened. There have been times when we've ridden that road and everybody's like, yay. And we've ridden that road. And other times we're like, no, I'll I'll meet you back. Right. Yeah.

Brian: That's a good point. That's a good point. Yeah.

Robin: Branch off of that. You build, you've got this. I know you're the guy with the answer to this. I'm feeding, I'm feeding the fodder here. Food for fodder. I dunno. Whatever. You take it. You got it in N. Yeah.

Brian: Yeah, like I happen to like those little goat paths I to a really unhealthy degree. Like I really enjoy that cow, that kind of stuff. Um, but I've had, uh, yeah, I've had people, I've had complaints, I've had, you know, the thousand yards stare I've had, you know, I've had people traumatized because you're going through this tunnel of trees and. I'm like, oh, did you see such and so? And it's like, no, I was just trying to stay alive, man. And you know, it's just, you know, so you have to, like you said, you have to read your, read the room, read your audience, figure out what's, what's acceptable. Um, and it's also, you really have to ride in a different way. You have to. Keep so much reserve on hand because, and you have to constantly change that because you're constantly losing and gaining sight lines. And so you have to keep a very fluid, uh, instinctive. You can't stare at the road in front of you. You have to, you know, you have to be sucking up every, uh, photon you can get, uh, to see what's going on. Um, It's kind of the most challenging riding there is and for some reason I really like it. Um, but yeah, I'm aware that sometimes that it's like even very experienced riders, you know, especially on a larger bike with bags or whatever, are just like, Nope, this is too nuts. I'm gonna creep. You know, if a Ford comes around that corner, I'm going to die. I am. I don't wanna deal with it.

Robin: Um, that does remind me of an instance. Yeah,

Brian: I've been surprised by G and this, this happens more in dual sport riding. Um, I. On the K L R

Robin: or whatever. Yeah, they, I can, I imagine they're not expecting you. I don't do that much. I haven't done that. Well, when I say I don't do that much, I haven't done it at all. But I could only imagine that if they don't expect anybody else to be out there, they certainly don't expect to have to deal with a situation oncoming four wheel cagers, you know?

Brian: Yeah. You can get a face full of Jeep real quick. Um, and especially on the tiniest and the worst, you know, the worst roads are the best, uh, from that, from that perspective and. You just gotta, you, you really have to stick to the right, uh, and expect others are not gonna do the same. Really creep around, you know, those hair, those hairpins that might be hiding a Jeep or whatever, uh, you know, be ready for 'em. Um, and it has happened. Um, and one of the ride in one of the rides in Kentucky that we've actually written about on CRO bike. Um, you know, we had an instant, it was a, it was a paved road, but it was a very, very narrow road and, and, uh, uh, somebody coming in a car basically ran two, two bikes off the road. Nobody got hurt. Uh, but one of the bikes needed some fixing and the other needed a, a fresh pair of britches, I think. But, uh, did they stop? They did not. They just, They just sailed along. They were like, they were in the middle of the road and they weren't moving and, and they acted like they didn't see, and, and there was plenty of room to see, uh, in that, where that happened. It was just, sometimes you get somebody, some people are just, you know, not nice. They're just not nice. Robin, they're unkind.

Robin: The word is unkind. I do remember during a tour, uh, a lot of the times, even up front, there are different ways to, to do everything right. One of the things I like to do is if the roads are that hectic, I know that whoever's behind me, I've probably watched them riding enough to trust whether or not, or to decide whether or not I trust their judgment. And usually that's the person I went next. And it's a customer. But I trust that they, they seem to get it, and I'm gonna let them have that. So I'll play, I'll place, I'll play Plow is, what I'll say is I will ride quickly enough up ahead to observe anything that is just over the top. Mm-hmm. Sometimes I'll get enough. Distance in front of them that if I come up on a head of deer or, or a, you know, an accident in a corner or somebody with their hazards on that, there's just nowhere else they could be that I can hook the u-turn in my lane, double back, find the next open straight, turn back around, throw my hazards, and get the flock in order again. It's work. Mm-hmm. But it's a doable thing. There was one time when, I think this was at a rally. I think this might've been the Ozarks, uh, I don't even know if you were with that group, but I w went around a blind and a truck was in my lane, and the person behind me said that they saw, so my bike's, I'm on the camera here. If my thumb is pointing down and my fingers are pointing out, my fingers are the luggage and the thumb is the, the point, direction of the rear tire. Okay? As I went around the corner, I, I found my, my line and I found it, and the bumper of the truck. Man. Yeah. This is why, this is why I, I warship the delayed apex open, go wide, open up a view, hook in and make your apex the beginning of the straight. Mm-hmm. You know what I mean? Like when the straight is straight, be on the edge of the road or whatever part of the road makes sense to, you know, maybe you're on the inside line, but you get an open field of view and it, yeah. Whatever

Brian: makes sense. And prioritize your viewing. You know, don't be hanging off or any of that crap. In fact, you know, a lot of times borrowing a little bit of dirt bike technique or the cop motor technique where you're, get your head where you can see, don't worry about, you're not gonna, you're not gonna drag peg and all that crap on a tight, on a tiny, tight road. You shouldn't.

Robin: Did you find a way to get through the corner safely? And did it work? Did it make sense? Did the bike go down? Are you safe? Well, then it worked. That's all. You can ask if you wanna paint the perfect picture of technique. You know, there are people in our, that run with us who are able to say, well, technically I, uh, I took the thing that says that, uh, if you take approach A, approach B and approach C in order, sometimes you were even in C and b. When you get hit, uh, at the funeral, you've won. No, that's not the outcome you want. You want to use all of the tools. Even if somebody told you, look, I'm not gonna tell you that's a tool, but there may be some extra stuff in the box there. You're allowed to use them. Yep. What was the question that we invented for this? I forget.

Brian: Go pass. Yes. Open up to view. The, the other thing, and, and we'll get off this in a minute, but the other thing is, um, uh, I find a lot more enjoyment sometimes, um, uh, like in the early spring or in the, you know, after the leaves have fallen or before the leaves come back. Uh, sometimes it's fun to go visit those and you can actually see quite a bit more, uh,

Robin: It's a preview of what you're gonna see anyhow, right?

Brian: Yeah. And if you're in places like, um, like Missouri, uh, they actually cut back the brush pretty well off the edges of the, of all the letter roads. So you have, that's one of the nice things about Missouri is that they actually spend the money to cut back the brush. And you have a chance, you know, you see deer, but you have a shot in Indiana. No. They're like, screw you. You get pavement. And that is it.

Robin: You did this to yourself. Deal with it. That's terrible. But

Brian: yes, that was a great discussion from a dumb question. That wasn't a dumb question. It was a great

Robin: question, but it's also why we have an outline. 'cause we can do whatever we want and stop whenever we want and know that we've got content for the view we're not doing. Let's not do Mapt Mayhem this episode. We'll do it next week. Or actually we'll be recording it on Thursday, so we'll record on Thursday if you're down. I'm down for Thursday, man. Yeah, yeah. Then we'll go big with it because one thing I did not expect, I mean I kind of, I kind of did. I kind of did, but to your credit, you were detailed enough to come up with multiple prospects. When we do the next episode, it's gonna be a big one from APTA Mayhem. 'cause I'm gonna need your help. I, I'm not gonna be good with the decision. I'm gonna have to ask, okay. How much not curvy Awesome. Do we suffer from if we don't do this variation versus that variation? And you've, Brian emailed me three. Maps and, and these awesome, here's some options and here's some whys and here's some possibilities. But if you think this way or if you think that way, and I'm just going, this is, I, I can't, I don't, I don't think, let's keep this Brian Tastic. I wanna do Tiny Tasty Tools. Tips. All right. Tasty are tiny, tasty.

Brian: And their tool tips.

Robin: But back to you, Brian. Yeah,

Brian: something like that. It's not a podcast unless it's awkward. It's smooth, wasn't it? Smooth. All right, I'll just pick one at random here. Let's see. Um, now. I some bikes, uh, have act, actually have a pretty good toolkit. I've, I've had occasion to, to monkey with BMWs and the toolkit that comes with the bike actually has some pretty good torques wrenches and has some different stuff. You know, you can do some things with it. Um, And, but like Japanese bikes always, uh, skimp on the toolkit. It's just never, never the greatest, anything like that. Uh, one, the, we're getting to the tool tip. I'm, I, I swear we're getting to it. Anyway, the tool tip here is no matter what bike you have, I. The, even if the rest of it is garbage, uh, pull out the spark plug wrench that's in that toolkit and keep it with the rest of your tools. Keep it, or at least keep it with that bike. I don't know why, but like a Suzuki will give you a toolkit with. Like cheddar cheese and sawdust crap in there, and they'll give you this little janky sheet metal spark plug wrench. But it is the most convenient way for reaching the spark plugs without tearing out the radiator and all these other things.

Robin: I'm reminded of zen and the art of motorcycling. The phrase assembly of Japanese bicycle requires great peace of mind.

Brian: Tiny little fingers and great peace of mind. Yeah. Gather mono. Feel your, feel your calm center yourself. Anyway, the tiny tip, what's tiny about it is uh, hang on to the spark plug wrench in whatever kit you get. 'cause it's gonna be the most convenient way to get to the spark plugs if and when you need to do so. Uh, B M W has a good one that comes with theirs, although they're not hard to reach either. They're just pointing at you.

Robin: Here's a busty gal. Everything's right in field of view. It's just two right projections of of it's all right there. It's all right there. That's a the right burlesque show. You might see a B M BMW motorcycle on stage at some point. That's

Brian: a great analogy, Robin. I'm really glad to have that insight into your

Robin: brain. I can't tell if you mean that or if you're patting me on the head, but either way, let's go with it.

Brian: Two tiny tasty tool tips or just one? Let's do two.

Robin: I'm gonna go with you, man. This is your show. I hope that you'll make Murray feel comfortable when he arrives.

Brian: Yes, I will. Um, okay, here's another one. And this is more of a repair tip, but if you break breaking a clutch, cable happens to the best of us. You know, whatever. If it, if you, if you break your clutch cable at one end, it's usually at the lever end. Uh, So, so the way to get off the side of the road is you take the little feral off the end of the cable and just get violent with it. You have to get a pair of pliers or whatever, pull that off, and then you'll see that the cable is made out of like a spiral of wire. And so what you can do is you can actually unwind and then cut off some of that spiral of wire for the cable housing and you can gain access to a couple of extra inches of the cable inside the housing. You know, run that through there. Run it through your, run it through your lever, run it down your lever, clamp onto it with a pair of vice grips. You got a functional clutch again, and you can, you can, you can, you can leave before the vultures. Find you. Not bad. A lot of people, yeah, you break a clutch cable. A lot of people just get a trailer. It's like, no, you don't have to do that. You can, you can, you, you can get a little, get a few extra inches and, and get in there. What I like to

Robin: do is bring an extra clutch cable. Yeah, I Now, my current one is push. It's not push ball, it's hydraulic

Brian: mineral oil. Hydraulic. Yeah.

Robin: So I don't really think, I don't think I have a problem and I, if I'm the, if I'm the, I would, I'm asking you directly if I'm the kind of person who on Maggie's bike, we got an extra clutch cable and you don't have to respect it, but it will get you out of, you can get home. 'cause you've got one waiting there. Mm-hmm. You can wrap it up, you can coil it, you can totally maim it. It's gonna be there and you can order a new one if you don't like what you've done to that when the time comes, but you'll have an extra one. Brian's tip. I like that. I wouldn't have thought. Okay. Yeah. Vice grip that or recoil it. Anything you can do. Mm-hmm. Uh, but my question for you is, with a hydraulic clutch, am I faced with the same mentality that I have? Do I need to have an extra clutch cable? Or is that being fed in a braided line? Learn me something good here. Gooder, if you can.

Brian: Yeah, with the hydraulic clutch, um, the issues you're gonna have on the road are like if you, after a drop or something, uh, sometimes the little, uh, banjo bolt can come loose and it can drip a little bit. Something like that. The gaskets

Robin: or those, those sealer washers in there. The copper ones,

Brian: yeah. Sometimes you can tighten those, you can snug them back up and it'll be fine, you know, or, uh, Once in a while you'll get something like, uh, on a hydraulic clutch. And usually this is something that just neglected maintenance, it builds up over time. So you do have to, they get worked a lot more than a brake master cylinder, so you really have to flush your clutch system a lot more regularly than your brakes. Brakes. Every two years

Robin: it's had the same mineral oil for 90,000 miles. Does it

Brian: turned black?

Robin: No. I mean, maybe I should crack it, but it looks to me like it doesn't, I've been told that if you don't ever have a problem with it, it doesn't ever need to be replaced.

Brian: Well, yeah. And the mineral oil systems are a little different than, uh, most of 'em use brake fluid. It's just a, it, it's just a hydraulic system using brake fluid. So that may be different on brake fluid. Yeah, flush it every year. Uh, 'cause they, they, they can build up and, and get some, there's all signs of noise that gets down in the, uh, uh, slave cylinder and all that stuff. But yeah, on a, with brake fluid, definitely flush up more often. Um, yeah, the only other, like if you spring a leak and, you know, if it just springs a leak out of nowhere, there's not a hell of a lot you can do on the side of the road to be honest. But, uh, There is, um, it is common after, after a drop or something for like one of the banjos to get a little tweaked or something. Sometimes you can just, uh, tighten those up and, and, and carry on. But it's also one of those things to check pretty carefully once you pick the bike back up, you know, okay, oh, well there's some damage on the clutch lever. Does it actually still, you know, if work

Robin: so. I'm a bump shifting or am I gonna be using like I've got a slipper clutch, which helps. I don't know how much damage I've done in my transmission, but I have used the quick shifter on my bike religiously, and so hopefully my clutch is doing good.

Brian: Long as you never screw up, it's fine.

Robin: Nice. I wanna bring somebody in who clearly, we totally didn't record this episode backwards and this person hasn't appeared yet. Who? I got to ride Bare Tooth Pass with. And Big Horn, right? Big Horn. So Murray is telling his side of the story of me riding through Yellowstone to get to Cody, Wyoming, to hang out with Murray and his lovely, amazing wife Mabel, who by the way are celebrating their 25th year married together their their 25 year wedding anniversary today. Uh, and spending time with us on this podcast beforehand. If you haven't heard the previous episode already, Murray and Mabel is one of our monthly production points. They do a dual interview for the hour and a half episode. Have a gander or a listen, I don't know. How's it, how do you gander with your ears?

Murrae: Yeah. You, you had talked about a tire change in Brian and, you know, kind of getting mentored there and I, I was just saying, yeah, there's a young guy that had a, an early F one at the racetrack. And something had happened, uh, to his chain adjusters. And so, you know, he came over and said, can you help me? What do I do? And I said, yeah, gimme a ball peeing hammer. And it was one of those quick fixes that astounded him. And he goes, you can do that. I go, yeah, look, it's all fine now. Just adjust it and go race. You know, it's all, it's all good. Just make sure everything's tore down. But, uh, and that's kinda how life is with this sport that we're involved in. You know, I mean, it's, it, it's friends you never imagined and situations you never imagined. And I, I think it's one of those delightfully adventurous things in life because it can be so predictable.

Robin: I was starting to say that it, it's, you can make friends for life. Through circumstantial debt and ridicule. Of course, just by getting something wrong enough that everybody had to stop in their tracks to befriend you and make it right, you then can bring attention to the next, uh, gathering for forever. On and on and on. Every

Murrae: year there, there's a standing rule of motorcycling that, uh, a bike only falls over when there are enough people around to laugh at you. Oh, yeah. And then

Brian: that's absolutely true.

Murrae: Then, then help you pick it up. But that's, that's kind of one of Murphy's un untold rules of motorcycling. So the, well, so the story goes, we, we, we get over there on Sunday, we kinda take off Saturday afternoon from Greeley. We go part way and we get to Cody Sunday and we unload and do all this stuff and kinda relax and say, yeah, this is gonna be a great ride. And so, you know, Monday we're kinda, you know, waiting for Robin, scratching our heads. I said, yeah, I, I know he said, It's about six and a half hours. And so lys first thing in the morning, uh, we'll see him like one 30 ish, more or less. And so finally, uh, late morning I call mags and uh, I said, Hey, just call him to check on Robin. Uh, because we're thinking depending on where he is, we might go for a ride. And uh, her response was, well go ahead and go. He's still here.

Robin: Oh, here's the picture that I sent to Murray while he was communicating with her.

Brian: Oh, man.

Murrae: Yeah. So

Robin: if I, if I'm gonna, if we're gonna do this like, court of law style, Murray, thanks a lot for that, by the way. Yeah, but

Murrae: I, I, I, no question. It's all good. Uh, I just wanted an e t a so I could go for a ride or not.

Robin: Yeah, so my e t a was vaguely this week.

Murrae: Yeah, if your, if your arrival was eminent, I was gonna sit on the picnic table with a bottle of bourbon and greet you on your way in. I like that. As it turned out, she said, go for a ride. So, you know, Mabel and I, uh, took off for Yellowstone and we thought, ah, we'll go over there. We'll go up to the top of the hill, turn around, come back, just. Get our sea legs. We're at a different altitude. Let the bikes acclimate. You know, that kind of stuff. So we go over there, we head over, we get through with our, we have our senior passes, which are good forever, apparently with all national parks. So we flash those and they say, oh, we love your lights. Uh, have a nice ride. So we take off and then so far it's looking good. Well, we get to the top of the pass and. All of a sudden the clouds roll in, the temperature drops, you know, and we're saying, eh, we don't want to deal with this. Let's just turn around and rock and roll back to Cody. Well, on the way in the storm followed us, caught up to us, and a temperature drop from the low nineties to the low sixties. And we were both soaked because of course the liners were back at the RV because a beautiful day in Cody. And, uh, we got back to the RV and I said, are you okay? And I, she, she said, yeah. I said, are you okay? And I said, well, normally I would say everything's wet except for the crack of my ass. But today, Everything is wet. It was that kind of a storm and it was cold. So yeah, muscled in, you know, drank some bourbon and then, uh, you know, Robin showed up later. It was great. He just kinda rolled in and we had a place for him to sleep and a place to park the bike. And we had this grand plan of, uh, these, these rides and it was phenomenal.

Robin: I, I'm in Mackey, Idaho right now, so I take off and, uh, um, you know, immediately it's like I've got a lot of straight line riding to do, a lot of back road country to just enjoy, get through Yellowstone, and, and the thing I have learned not to do is ever trust the weather here in the p and w, the, the whoever is the weatherman, he should be drinking bourbon when he wakes up because he, he doesn't know he has no shot at this. Right? So I cross into, you know, get through Yellowstone, which by the way, No, riding in Yellowstone is not fun. It's pretty if you're going to see stuff. But if you're looking for a sport touring ride, don't go to yellow. Don't go to a national park. Yeah, no. You know, that's, that's where people, you know, people stop in blind quarters to enjoy view. So I'm taking my time through there. The same buffalo, I said this in the last episode, I. Same buffalo that was there when I went through there with my brother and nephew, and my wife is still there. Only it's turned around and its ass is facing everybody and everybody's still slowing around down to take a picture of the, the buffalo ass Wow. Past the farting buffalo. Make it through the state. I get there and immediately they're just like, Hey, you're there. This is where you got, you got sleep in here. Come on in, have a glass. We sat down, we had a break and, and got ready to go out to dinner. But that's what got me was that in the future, I think everybody knows with Robin, act independently until it gets there. 'cause they waited for me to go to dinner. They were waiting for me so we could all go out to have dinner at like, at like, uh, Thursday on a Wednesday or whenever I got there. You know what I mean? So I get there so late and we, we all go to get Mexican. It was awesome. It was awesome. I got a great photo.

Brian: Cody, Wyoming, I imagine, uh, they roll up the sidewalks and shut the doors pretty early. Uh,

Robin: yeah, but we've found a place. Yeah. More or less.

Murrae: Yeah. But we, we found food. Uh, yeah. But part of it too is I have the commemorative doc holiday whiskey cups, and so, Yeah, that's, that's what we were drinking whiskey out of the whole time that, uh, Robin was there. I dunno if you remember the scene from the movie where he's flipping the cup around, like it's a six shooter. Those are, those are the cups. So, and

Robin: he keeps him frozen? Yes. So he's got two frozen tin cups ready for bourbon, and you pour 'em to the top. They're, that, that's about a finger and a half to two fingers of bourbon. For your enjoyment. It was awesome. It's perfect. Now we're on to day one. We have the tail to tail of the actual ride. Okay.

Brian: I'm looking at Cody, Wyoming. I have no idea where Beartooth, pa. Talk me through it. What's happening?

Murrae: Beartooth Highway should be Route two 12 and it's actually in Montana and it's on a northeast corner of Yellowstone. Okay, so we, we picked, uh, we, we picked the road with the most dots on them to get there and then took that road, uh, yeah, up to, uh, we, we, we just kinda, we, we just kind of cruised and, uh,

Brian: just, just lightly hummed along. No, yeah, no throttles

Murrae: up there. We actually stopped, I'm looking at a map here now. We stopped in, I think it was Cook City for lunch. We did

Robin: lunch in Cook City. Yeah.

Murrae: Yeah. So we stopped in Cook City, which is high up and had, uh, a great burger and there was an expat French waitress, which,

Brian: so whatever. Go for it. Yeah.

Murrae: So, so we actually had a, uh, A nice lunch and then there was, when we went back there was a cutover, which is, uh, route 2 96, which took us back to one 20, which took us back to Cody. So anyway, right. Long story, long story short, I love going fast, uh, but I'm also cautious with. Forestry and animals and you know, wide open range and that kind of stuff.

Brian: And yeah. And the, and sometimes there's farting buffalo, I hear,

Murrae: so there's farting buffalo. So we, we start back and uh, all of a sudden there's these Harley guys behind us, you know, and I kinda look in my mirror and I go, I see Robin back there. And I go, all, alright, well let's see if these guys can keep up. And so I. I, I kind of upped the pace from that little town all the way over to the, to 2 96. And, and so, you know, so I, we, we go through these corners and, uh, yeah, I, I'm racer, so if I get up to a certain speed, I ride certain lines and use certain body positions and it's just second nature. So we get the turnoff and. We pull over and stop because Mabel, being a woman and not having to hold my beer and watch this gene in her d n a, she tends to be more sensible. So, uh, we pull over and, uh, the, uh, yeah, but you pull over after the turns so that,

Robin: I flagged her down

Murrae: so I didn't miss it. Yeah. So this is live, so Robin, Robin flagged you down, so, and we, you knew where it was. So anyway, the Harley guys pull in and, uh, you know, the guy who was able to keep up came up and said, oh, that was awesome dude. And, uh, I forget the quote, but it was at some point I said, and then a couple of other guys, the word

Robin: was madman.

Murrae: Well, okay, so yeah, we were talking about motorcycles and I was talking about the R 1200. The Harley guy said, yeah. I said, I, I just didn't wanna have that heavy a bike. I said, I got a 500 pound bike that makes 130 some odd horsepower, a hundred plus foot pounds of torque. And I just didn't want the. Have your bike. And I said, ever since I turned 70, I went for a sportier lighter ride.

Brian: I grew up a little, yeah, yeah.

Murrae: A guy next to him goes, you're 70. I said, no, actually I'm 74. He said, you're a madman. That, that

Robin: He didn't just say that. He said, there's a lot. There was awkward silence. If I can keep it, if I don't crop it out during post-production, he, there was awkward silence. He was You're a madman. Yeah. Big

Murrae: something. Yeah. And little did he know that that was a reserved pace. I'll put it that way.

Robin: Remind me about that terminology. So, 'cause while you were talking to him, I, I was telling the buddy behind him like, yeah, look, you're about to hear some noise. The fact of matter is that's, that's, uh, that is racer, retired Murray Hayes of arm cred just kick back and watch.

Murrae: So, uh, we had this great ride back to Cody and we actually kinda let the Harley guys pass us and just kind of chilled out on the way back to Cody. And then, uh, It was fam amazing roads, uh, amazing environment. Uh, great riding. Um, I think Mabel had, had not been on those roads on the motorcycle before, and so maybe a long time ago. She's, I can hear the gears. She's here in the background now. Well, I rode to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, then I went through Yellowstone. I went to Yellowstone with a friend on the soft deal, girlfriend on my Harley. Yeah. And then I came out down

Murrae: and to did that Rockefeller Road of Pits. Yeah. So all the way down to Jackson, Wyoming. So she had been around that area on, uh, her soft tail in the late eighties. Uh mm-hmm. So girls been riding forever.

Robin: Brian, did you manage to pull up. Fair Tooth Pass. Have you, did you mention, pull

Brian: that up yet? Uh, I'm looking at, um, yeah, I'm looking at Red Lodge. I'm looking at Cody. I'm looking at 2 96. I'm looking at two 12. I got a little s slobber going here,

Murrae: two 12 between Red Lodge. And, uh, I look at the map here between Red Lodge and Cook City is essentially called the Beartooth Highway. Yeah. And, and it's one of those, Put it on your bucket list rides for folks, especially Harley riders. So then, you know, we, we got back to Cody and had some food and drank some bourbon and told lies and laughed about the day. You, you know, I mean it was, uh, just standard motorcycle operations. You know, what can I tell you?

Brian: Yeah, I know how it

Murrae: works. Yeah. I mean, it's, it's like racing everybody, you know, you bump elbows on the track and then you get off the track and you help each other fix bikes and, and uh, uh, tell lies and drink beer and, you know, that kind of stuff. So it's just, it, it's all the same thing. Mm-hmm.

Robin: Well, so that's his version. And then I remember that at, at the start of that day's ride, I remember that day being everything that Murray said, and then some, because I was following Murray and the whole time I was like, okay, this is day one. I'm not gonna push, this is not a gss. Resources. Suzuki rally Murray expressed that there was a place where I could rest my head. I got to chasing around. While I'm chasing Murray, I can tell you right now that either he's sandbagging or he's, he's kinda letting the edge go. He's letting the edge go. He is either sandbagging and then things picked up a notch. I was like, okay, now eventually I, I said, I'm going to go for it. These guys have been hugging on us too long. So I went around because I knew the Harley guys had something to prove. We had a little bit of fun and stopped, and I had officially caused trouble at no more than the speed limit with Murray Hayes. Murray on his anniversary date. Tell us about day two and we'll release you from your contract and pay you accordingly from our infinite sums. Well, that,

Murrae: that whole area has so much history. And of course the, the main history that people recognize, uh, from there is the little bighorn. Because that's the, the area where Custer lost his scalp and the Lakota nations rose up and said, we've had enough of this crap. And, uh, I guess so the women actually went in and took care of him, which is often the case in tribes is the, the women are the instigators

Robin: so that, I don't get this wrong. How do you say your tribe name? My

Murrae: tribe name? Uh, Ojibwa is primary and. Scottish and I have a, a little western Apache, Apache somewhere back there. So just, just, I, I just grew up around folks and ceremonies and that kind of stuff. I, I think our whole wedding thing is on the other, uh, podcast. Yeah,

Robin: it is. This is all about the ride. This is the weekly episode. Nobody's gonna hear this.

Murrae: Right. And, and so for. The big horn. And so we go out and we go up and uh, we get up to, uh, gray, what was it, gray Bull. A straight shot to Gray. Yeah. It was a straight shot to Gray Bull. And then we took 74 around to 14 and 14 A is an alternative route. We didn't expect that. Well, 14 is a common route and. I, I, I suspect that they built 14 because 14 a just became incredibly challenging. I mean, it's, it's one of the Mabel's wa Mabel's waving her fingers at me. Out Gray Bowl, it starts kind of going down and we go into this beautiful, beautiful canyon, right? Yeah. The canyon right at the beginning. So there's a whole That's still for today. Yeah. Till we get up to the top to Burgess Junction. Right. So we, we leave Gray Bowl and we immediately come into an area that's called Bighorn National Park. Mm-hmm. And the first part of it is this insanely beautiful, small, tight canyon that has. All these, uh, curve and the river is there and there's markings for, you know, geological stuff. And I, it, it is just this cam Mississippi. Yeah. It's, it's just this section out of time. Nice. Right. And so we, we go through there and we, and I'm going, wow, this is just blow my mind. It's been so long since I've been here because when, when I was a kid, my dad brought me up there to hunt antelope. Uh, whitetail of mule deer in that whole area. So I had some familiarity, but it had been years since I had been there. So we work our way through them and we're just like, our minds are blown and we stop and take pictures and, you know, I'm going, yeah, I could put up with this for like the next 48 hours or so, right? And so we don't even need to go into Yellowstone. This is like heaven because there's not a whole lot of traffic and. It's gorgeous. It's a beautiful day. So anyway, we get up to the top, to the junction and we stop there and we run into a guy with this kid who is a, a challenged individual and they're on a soft tail. And he tells us a story of what he's doing, which brought that kind of memories of, um, zen in the yard of motorcycle maintenance where per se took off with his son. So kind of the same, same deal I. Uh, so we take off and as we get up, there's, at one point there's a 10% downhill grade, which is, it was like half of that. Yeah. Which is virtually unheard of, which is why, which is why I think the road was made as a safe alternative. So anyway, uh, we get up to the top and we're kind of rolling downhill, and there's these. Curves that seemed to be okay. Roads a little rough. There were some unpaved areas and uh, at one point I went around the corner and in the apex of a descending radius corner that, I don't think it was off camber, but in the, in the apex there's a cattle guard that's half off out of the road and I'm leaned over and kind of on the gas. And so I just said, okay, just. Loosen up and go with it. We'll

Brian: see what

Murrae: happens. Sneak up on you. And you know, the, I, I give some of that credit to the B m W system with a suspension and everything else. I mean, it, it really controls itself well.

Robin: All pre zero trash bikes, right? Yeah. You hear that Brian? You hear that

Brian: Brian wouldn't have been a problem on the K L R man. No. Anyway, go

Murrae: on. Nothing like the K L R. It's a great motorcycle.

Brian: No it isn't. Anyway, go on.

Murrae: There's lots of pullovers for breaks because, you know, there's trucks up there and there's cars up there, but I think the, the locals kind of had the, the spill on what was going on up there and avoided it. And so, you know, you got tourists in their RVs and whatnot, smoking the brakes down the hill. And so you, you just pick your, your, uh, heart. And so at one point, We come up on this little rise and I can see the downhill all the way down to the bottom of the valley in the turns. And then I see the road and more turns, and I got like six miles that I can see everything. And so, so I just said, uh, okay. Bang. And uh, We, we took off and, uh, I, I think Robin,

Robin: we spelled,

Murrae: I, I think Robin was surprised because, you know, I just, for, for a, a short distance, I, I hit race speed.

Robin: I will say that he, he reached spirited pace. So that there's no fallout on this one. People say, Brian is fast. I've been told I'm fast. Brian and I are not fast back to you, Marie,

Murrae: do it where it's appropriate and safe. And the only reason that happened there is because I could see for so far. And so, yeah, I just made that choice. So and so we kind of have, uh, we owned it a few miles. Yeah. And then we stopped in this little town and had some astoundingly good barbecue, uh, recommended by a local deputy sheriff, and, uh, rode back to the, the RV and drank some more whiskey and took showers and hung around and,

Robin: I would try, I would try to tell the story about how we arrived at that barbecue joint, but I, I also look at the time, and I think you're gonna have an anniversary dinner tonight, and I don't wanna, I don't wanna ruin it for you two. Excellent.

Murrae: I gotta take off here and put some actual pants on and get to the restaurant.

Robin: In our contract, if you're gonna be on this podcast for an interview, you are not allowed to wear pants. They, uh, offer some threats in particular cultures, so we don't allow it. Murray has obeyed this, and I thank you for signing on and, uh, and, and all of this, we, your check's in the mail. But ladies and gentlemen, the one, the only, Murray Hanes with the backdrop of his lovely wife, Mabel Chin. And, and I appreciate you taking the time to tell the story of the writing. It was a blast. Oh, there was a rodeo after. That's all that matters.

Murrae: All I can say is anytime. Let's spin wheels. Anytime I'm up

Robin: for it. I'm gonna get you on the list. Excellent. Let's bring you in on other things we do and invite

Murrae: you there. Sure. That that's a two way street. It goes your way too. So. And now I got a new one with Brian, so it's great.

Brian: Great to meet you, Murray. Have a good one, sir. I was kind of following along on the map here. I had Google maps up here and, uh, looking at 14 and yeah, when you get over here, you can see all the way down that valley. And then he goes into that story. I'm like, oh, okay. A sight to see. Boogieing was done.

Robin: Boogieing was done. We killed disco. It's dead. So with Murray, the lesson that I learned, He provided me with his self-awareness of what he was, what risk he was willing to assess. Mm-hmm. What risk he was willing to acknowledge and take on. And when it opened up, I use it two dimensionally. He just became shorter and that

Brian: way Yeah. If you're behind him, you'll see like a

Robin: redshift. He's on the same bike as me, man. Well, I mean the same engine. I've got the 1200, he's got the 1250, which has like a vtech thing ish going on the, the 1250 version of my engine. They added, uh, cam, uh, cam changes it,

Brian: it wasn't the engine, you know that? Yeah. Yeah.

Robin: This was the guy on it.

Brian: It takes a while to learn to have a selection of what you're doing. You know, like you don't have to be eight out of 10, nine out of 10, you never go to 10. No. You know, you seven, you know, you, you've got like a whole, you've got like a whole dial over time, you know? And it was, I don't know, early on I had like one speed, you know? Later on I'll, you know, I use as much as I feel like at the time and what, you know, whatever factors you have, and that's what, you know, that's, that's what he's learned.

Robin: Yeah. Well, and, and on a level that I don't know that you and I don't, don't spit up your drink thinking about it. Like

Brian: he's a Yeah, he's a

Robin: racer. He is arm, yeah.

Brian: His, his, his, his 10 is, uh, is my 100 or something like that. I'm sure I.

Robin: I try to keep it at 60% max with, you know how we record the audio and there's audio spikes. Mm-hmm. There'll be spikes of eight or nine, but I'm, I'm looking for 66.66666. Like the rule of thirds, I want to be honing at 66% of skillset use, and anytime I spike over that, It is a instant decision making process. How do I feel and do I really got this? And then I'll spike to 75% or 80%, 85%. Bring it back down real quick. 'cause you're assuming a risk one curve at a time. It's very point and shoot. Mm-hmm. Here's this group of curves.

Brian: Bang. Yeah. Don't use all your reserve or, or however you look at it. I had a, I had a, I had a very complex thought and I was like, no. We'll, we'll save that one. I. 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 radio T r o, I'm Brian Ringer.

Robin: And I'm Robin Dean.

Brian: Safe travels everyone.