Robin: Hey Brian. Hey Robin. Did you ride today?

Brian: I absolutely did ride today. Rode to work and then I went out and went rat racing around town. No reason, just out riding. Just random destinations? Yeah. Went down to the hood and got gas, you know, and had to avoid the zombie begging for dollars guy, but that's just, that's part of the game, you know. You gotta get in, get out fast, and then take off before they get to you.

Robin: I had some thoughts on my mind and plans for this conversation, but then the day got ahead of me. Of course, I'm an hour late. Sorry about that. Good to see you. No worries. Good to see you too. Did you ride today? I did not, but Maggie's bike is back. Excellent. And she's going to talk about being that gal, which is kind of cool. Also kind of not. That's kind of the point, right? How about you not do that? But she's going to talk a little bit about her experience with the Triumph. That thing has four safety switches on it. I think we talked about that last time. The side stand, the shift pedal, the clutch lever, and the one that is probably the culprit, the radio antenna to the chip set in her mechanical key with a chip in it. Immobilizer. Apparently in hot temperatures, the antenna swells up and then fails and then you're stuck.

Brian: Nice.

Robin: I believe this is going to take more work than I initially allotted for. Like with the clutch switch, if it were the clutch switch, which by the way, that's what that was the diagnosis. Well, clearly here's your problem because yours truly broke it. But the dealership, big thanks to Triumph Boise for basically letting us store our bike there while we figured out what we were going to do for an entire week. They diagnosed the problem. Let's call that the storage fee because they refunded us the cost of the part that we ordered. It's not that clutch cable. I broke the clutch cable. So when you say here's your problem, it's not always the problem. Well, it's a problem. It's definitely a problem, but I'm going to bypass that. It's just a completed circuit, like a relay circuit. So I'm going to just get the wires together and let her start her bike in neutral if she should so desire. Yeah.

Brian: Yeah. The one thing is on some bikes that does have an effect on how it runs. I don't know about the Triumph at all, but for example, you'll get a different mapping or something in the fuel injection if it thinks the clutch is pulled in, etc.

Robin: Interesting.

Brian: I don't know what it is. I had a V-Strom, an early V-Strom, and if your clutch win, your clutch slits fail because they all failed. You just somehow get the wires together and ignore it from then on. But on a later V-Strom, it affects the mapping and so forth in different gears. So you have to make sure it works.

Robin: Sounds like I should check out the forums. Oh, yeah. Wait a minute. You know who should check out the forums?

Brian: Mrs. Dean. Yeah.

Robin: Thank you for saying that. So that's how that is. It was an $800 day. We jumped in the truck. We drove three and a half hours to Boise. We needed an oil change for the truck, so we drove to a Harbor Freight. I bought a front wheel chock, an adjustable one, and a six-foot ramp, which was a little short, but that's okay. It's the kind you could walk next to the bike up. It folds in on itself. That's pretty cool. So these two items then drove to the Ford dealership to get our truck's oil change, where while they were doing this, I assembled all of these things. Oil truck comes out, plop these in the back, get to the dealership right as they're starting to bring the bikes in, find the nearest downhill slope to back the truck up against for the six-foot ramp, start it up, try to clutch it up. And actually, big thanks to, I think it was Michael at Triumph Boise, which is a huge dealership. It's not just Triumph. There are a whole bunch of things. But he tried to clutch walk it up the ramp. Thank you so much. Halfway up, the bike wasn't having it. So I grabbed the rear luggage rack and gave it a good push and got it set up. And then paranoid, it wasn't, we weren't really prepared. So there was a lot of ratchet strap action. Quick anecdote. So one thing I did do last night as a celebration is I had my first three fingers of whiskey in a week and a half, because job well done. Bike's back. I got my book in my hand. Have you been reading One Man Caravan?

Brian: I have not. I have the book and I've been reading, what's the, The Perfect Vehicle. Oh, cool. Yeah. Melissa Holbrook-Pearson. Where she talks about One Man Caravan. So I feel like I should have read that first.

Robin: Maybe, but then again, you know, potato, potata. That's what we say here in Idaho. That's what we hear Idahoans say. I'm reading the book and I'm, I don't remember. Let's look this up right now. One Man Caravan Motorcycle. If you can hear me click clacking.

Brian: What are you looking up? Like what motorcycle he was using?

Robin: Yeah.

Brian: Wasn't it like a Douglas of some sort?

Robin: You were right. Brian Ringer. Oh, it was a two cylinder. Cool. How many CC's is that machine?

Brian: Oh, 1932 Douglas H32 Mastiff 750 CC. Yeah. In that era it was, there's the page in the, in the chat there. Oh, nice. 20 horsepower, which at that time was a big deal.

Robin: It got him around the world, got him through the desert. There is a point where he puts not motor oil into it because it's all he could figure out. Something viscous. Get me 30 miles, please. Using sign language for the locals because that's the locals don't understand their own locals because every family has its own dialect and they're so far away. They never see each other.

Brian: Right. So he ended up with like camel fat or something. I don't know what it was or some sort of vegetable oil or.

Robin: It was a vegetable oil of some kind, just viscous enough that this bike could stand it and get him where he was going. You know, you're not going to do that with a modern bike. Travis, Travis is ringing true here from the last episode. So yeah, pretty freaking crazy. I was thinking it was gonna be a lesser CC displacement bike. Next anecdotal chitchat about RideWithGPS. So with RideWithGPS.com I knew this, but you forget features, you know, you know how to use something for a while. Then you forget all the features. One thing you can do is you can click on the elevation map, select a section of it, and it will highlight the section of road that you have selected on the actual map. Oh yeah, yeah. Which is useful if you're trying to figure out elevation. Updates, revisits, announcements, corrections, etc. Don Beeren, shout out to Don Beeren, friend of mine. He's been on the podcast before. Don Beeren, listen to our last episode. He laughed his butt off when you'd mentioned seeing a stick and thinking it was a python. He thought that was great. And he related to it. He said, I think what's happening there, that's your lizard brain. It's you trying to protect yourself because you've got nothing else to do. And you know, all the activity going on or the lack thereof, depending. And then you see something like snake. Yeah. Yeah. He called it. I thought that was pretty fantastic. He just figured it was your lizard brain. Totally. I agree with that. Totally a lizard brain moment. He's got a certain sense of humor where I'm sure he laughed to himself. Lizard brain. And he thought it was a snake. A wagga wagga wagga. You know, he's like, hey, we got questions. Excellent. We love questions here. Actual questions from human beings.

Brian: Are you ready for these? I'm ready. We're going in cold. I have no idea. Here we go. All right. Lay it on. Lay it on us.

Robin: Comes from a longtime friend of both you and I. This is the first person I ever felt comfortable riding motorcycles with. He doesn't ride anymore. So this one goes out to Domino Rossi, who just bought a convertible and wants to drive the convertible around Lake Michigan. Now, he texted me about this. He kind of wants to do it a couple days. I think that's not enough time. You got to have at least three days. And that's if you're pushing four or five is nice.

Brian: Yeah. Michigan is big. Wisconsin is big.

Robin: So his question then after that is, are there any must sees that I would recommend? Now, I linked you to our better Lake Michigan circle tour.

Brian: Yeah, I saw that.

Robin: That one is more. Let's start with some Wisconsin curves. Trick number one is you always want to be going clockwise around the lake because then the lake is always right next to you. You want to be in the right lane. The lake is at right there at your view. You're not looking across traffic at the lake. So you want to go clockwise. As for places to stop, things that you must see. Originally, when I wrote this, I was trying to make it as entertaining roads wise as possible. And then it became the tour that my wife and I have come to enjoy. Believe it or not, it's a good round the lake cruise.

Brian: I'm looking at it, too.

Robin: Definitely a lot to see in Door County. Bailey's Harbor, they got rental cabins at Journey's End Motel. Journey's End looks beautiful. And there's Door County Brewing Company, and they got local grass fed burgers and chives food truck. Also, there's little if any light pollution. So stargazing is really nice. Breakfast in the morning, go to Bearded Heart Coffee. That's what I would recommend right then and there for what I would call day one. So you said I skipped Milwaukee. My map wants to get twisty where it can through the parks of Wisconsin on the way to North.

Brian: Right.

Robin: That's why we skip Milwaukee. So, OK, I see what you're talking about. Yes, we do. We skip that. Get us to Door County. Door County is beautiful. You know, this is a vacation for him and his lovely wife, I'm sure. So let's get him up there. Right.

Brian: Back up a little bit. Where the hell is Door County? What's the town in Door County that we're talking? We're targeting?

Robin: Man, it's been so long. I don't even remember. But I'm pretty sure it's like it's the peninsula.

Brian: Yeah. Door County is a peninsula. It's that little a little little pinky finger above Green Bay. Got it. Understood.

Robin: I think that's where the trees are, which is a lovely thing to go see. It's also where there's this crazy warped, curvy road that just is curvy for no reason, which is wonderful, right? Even if it's a public road that's frequented by blue hares who want to take photos. That's OK. It's a beautiful trip. So that I highly recommend.

Brian: Excellent.

Robin: Now, after that, go to Marquette. Just go all the way up to Lake Superior and go to Marquette. It is lovely. There's nothing in my article about it, so I don't remember what's good about it. But you should definitely go there after that. You know, follow that due south and pick the lake back up again. You'll start heading due east over to Mackinac City, where you'll find the Mackinac Bridge, which is awesome. It is a big high angle bridge. If your wife is afraid of heights, you got to do this. It'll be great. The screaming will sound like operatic singing. And then when you land and I do perhaps mean land in Mackinac City, that is a great place to stop. Beautiful things to see there.

Brian: I mean, that's what it's for. Yeah.

Robin: Yeah. This would be day five for us if we were doing the big tour. Yeah. It's a simple path along Route Two. They call it Big Mac. Go figure. But then you can get pasties. Pasties are delish. Yeah. Pastie, by the way, if you don't know, it's a baked pastry, traditional variety of which is particularly associated with the Cornwall in the United Kingdom. It's the original Hot Pocket. And it's delicious. Mackinac down through Petoskey and down to Traverse City. Traverse City is beautiful. Then all the way down to Grand Rapids. And once you dip into.

Brian: Yeah, you do go through a corner of Indiana and that's if you stay on 12, you're next to the dunes. It's not it's not bad, you know, but it's yeah.

Robin: I suggest avoiding Gary.

Brian: Yeah, don't go through Gary. Well, it's a different kind of scenic. I mean, you know, it could get real interesting.

Robin: It's a different kind of odorific.

Brian: Yeah, that too. Let's talk about a couple of things. And then we'll for one, there's a couple of things that some people may want to go see, depending on your tastes. For example, Oshkosh, Wisconsin. There's also there's the big there's a lot of aviation going on there and there's and they make Oshkosh trucks. Some people may want to get a tour and obviously Green Bay. You know, if you're into football, that's all there isn't. You know, you go to Green Bay, it's a stadium and there's like a village around it and that's it. But if you're into football, even if you're a Bears fan, you know, go go see the enemy camp, whatever you call it. So that could be something you'd be interested in. Maybe not. Maybe, maybe not. I don't know. Sports ball. Go see some sports ball places if you like that. But yeah, I yeah. And looking at the map and all the lumpy bits on the map and in northwest Michigan seems like a really cool place to kind of linger.

Robin: The U.P. Yeah.

Brian: Well, no. Across from the U.P. And U.P. definitely, yes. Obviously the U.P. is amazing.

Robin: But if you're just going around the lake, maybe not the U.P. Bit of a detour.

Brian: Yeah, you're not going to get deep into it. You're going to go through it. But and stuff, you know, and I could see making some detours along this. It would be great, you know, spend a little time.

Robin: These are just pinpoint destinations that you can pick and choose from. But if you start a trip around Lake Michigan, the way this article happened was we just wrote about where we decided to stop. This was not planned. It was not definite. And so long as we liked the environment we were in, that's what caused us to say, hey, let's let's take a night. Let's check this out. Let's enjoy it. Let's kick back. And it was worth it every time, even if it is just kind of a cruise, a sport touring cruise branding TRO.Bike. If you're interested in the better Lake Michigan circle tour by my own standards, you want article ID 14420. That's TRO.Bike forward slash question mark P equals 14420, 14420. Check it out. We have another question. You good for this? Sure. The next question, I'll try to keep this non MSFE, but it comes from John Bernthal. John Bernthal, who let's just say just happens to be a person who walks large sums of pavement for grandiose amounts of time and would like something lavish and luxurious on his feets to massage him at every step while he inducts hopefully as many riders into our fellow brethren of ridership as he can on any given weekend. Did that come out right? That came out.

Brian: It came out. Yeah. I'm picking up what you're laying down. Dude wants some nice boots he can ride in and walk in. Yeah.

Robin: The big thing is the walking part. So I've worn over the calf boots on the large sum of pavement. And after a while you find yourself walking like either duck walking or stilt walking or just weird walking because they eat a different part of your leg at some point.

Brian: Yeah.

Robin: Comfortable for lunch? Sure. Comfortable for a jog? Maybe not so much. So we did write an entire article about this. ID is 29771. TRO.Bike forward slash P equals 29771. And I'm going to make that easier for people to feature I promise. But it's new kicks, motorcycle shoes for every occasion. He wants them to be Gore-Tex. That's the big one. That's the big one. So there are two on this article that point directly to that. The Dartwood GTX, which is available on RevZilla. It looks like a leather shoe. It's fully armored and it's over the ankle. Very rigid. So if you do a page search, hit control F and hit in Gore-Tex with an X, then that will point out two shoes. The TCX Dartwood GTX is the one I'm looking at first. Available on RevZilla. I love their sense of humor about it. They say, yes, the names may sound more like a country club and the Dartwoods may resemble hikers or perhaps topsiders. But it's a Gore-Tex smash together. It has a leather look and feel. I want to call it, tell me if you agree with this, it's a Doc Martin mixed with an All-Stars.

Brian: Yeah. And yeah, those are some specific recommendations. What comes to mind for me, and this may be out of left field for you, is this is a really common question for people who ride like dual sport. Because if your bike breaks or whatever, a lot of people will go ride up a trail and then go walk, then go hike a trail. So there's a lot. If you look in the adventure, I hate the word, but if you look in the adventure dual sport world, there are quite a few boots that fit that. You just kind of pick the height that works for you. That was the other thing. Is he looking for something like a short boot or the whole calf high monster Frankenstein thing going on? I suspect he could give up a little bike performance to get better walking.

Robin: I rarely recommend anything under the calf, but in the case of being on the range coaching motorcyclists or anything involving getting your steps in, I recommend over the ankle, but yeah, below the calf. Because if you're going to be on your feet more than you are on the bike, at least you're wearing armor. At least you're wearing something that is bracing your ankle, right?

Brian: One of the recommendations I have, not sponsored, but give us a call, it's a place called Atomic Moto. So atomic-moto.com. And you can actually call them and they will pick up the phone or you can email them with your dilemma and they will help you. And there are actually quite a few, they call them adventure boots that could fit the bill here. And like you mentioned, I think you mentioned the TCX, there's TCX Explorer, more of a touring boot. And then the Seedy Canyons are really good. I really tend to get along with Garnet or Garn or however you say it boots. Like I can walk all day in the things. So there's actually, there's several good brands that are all Gore-Tex. And then there's a Seedy Adventure Mid that kind of, it doesn't go like all the way up the calf, but it's still got a lot of significant protection. And it also has a really good sole Gore-Tex. Nice. Easy to walk in, stuff like that. So, but yeah, these guys, like I said, not sponsored, but hey, give us a call.

Robin: I like that. We're trying to get the sponsors going. I love that.

Brian: Yeah. Yeah. These, these guys are great. Tell them we said, Hey, and if you have a dilemma like this and you're looking for a Goldilocks boot, they can help you out.

Robin: There is another one you mentioned in the article. Cause mostly I was just looking for the ones where it was like a definite, this is a good product. I got my camera right here. The let's see here. Gore-Tex. Yeah. The other boot is a little bit more like motorcycle shoes for camping. But if it's for camping, it means it's for walking and hiking, which means it's going to be a little bit more cush. This one's also a, it is a Gore-Tex boot. It's the range GTX. It's literally called the range GTX it's armored. It's got simple adjustments. It's got the one knob at the top that turns everything down.

Brian: That's a climb. Yeah. It's a climb GT. Yeah. I see it. Okay. Yeah.

Robin: That's it's very Kango, but it's a good shoe. I mean, it's a good motorcycling shoe. It does have a heel, which isn't necessarily a good thing. Usually we don't necessarily want any arch. We want something flat, you know, but I don't know. You want flex. This would do the job. And since you're only riding about 15 to 30 miles, 20 miles an hour, max really on a range. Yeah. Basically when you're walking to that bike to tell that student, they have to go home because they didn't make the cut. These will be comfortable while you do. All right. So that actually just got us through the intro questions.

Brian: Thank you, Domino. Thank you, John. If you'd like us to field your questions, email podcast at TRO.bike. That's podcast at TRO.bike. Please send us your questions. We may answer them if you're lucky. And if we're lucky.

Robin: So now's a perfectly good time to pass the mic over to an already recorded Tim Clark and newcomer Matt Berry for their segment about Iowa's National Motorcycle Museum, which is slated to close down this weekend. As of this podcast episode's publishing date, this is the final weekend. You can go see the incredibly beautiful bikes at that location. The address of the National Motorcycle Museum is 102 Chamber Drive, Anamosa, Iowa, 52205. Tim, Matt, and a few other friends go into detail about all they saw there. Take it away, Tim and Matt.

Tim: So setting the scene. This is Tim Clark. And I am with three fellows that I rode with today. To Anamosa to the National Motorcycle Museum. National Motorcycle Museum.

Matt: Tim was able to manage to string together some pretty good roads that got us all the way to Anamosa. So what did you guys think of the museum? Andy had been there before, but neither Tim nor Aaron had been there. What'd you guys think?

Tim: They had a pretty good selection of bikes. Yeah, they really did.

Matt: It's American cruiser centric. Yes, for sure. American branded center. Lots of Indian, lots of Harley.

Tim: You really expect that in the middle of Iowa.

Matt: They're just on the road from JMP Cycles who does primarily American cruiser centric accessories.

Tim: Yep. But they did have international.

Matt: They had, and I think the guy who started the museum was part of JMP Cycle. Oh, that's my recollection. I'll try and look that up right now while you guys continue.

Andy: The guy who started the museum was the owner of JMP Cycle. He passed away a number of years ago.

Matt: I don't know if you heard that, but Andy said the guy who started the museum, I believe he started it with his personal collection and he was the owner of JMP Cycle. And then other people started to donate to the collection. I know that it had started in downtown Anamosa at some point. And then as it grew, it moved out to the grocery store that it's in now. And a big part of the reason that this trip was spurred on was that it's closing in three weeks. It's closing after Labor Day of 2023. So if you hear this, by the time you hear this, it will be closed already.

Tim: Yep.

Matt: Most likely.

Tim: Yeah.

Matt: So I wanted to go back one more time before it closed. And I invited some, I threw it up on Facebook, made an event and said, who wants to go ride motorbikes with me? Yes. And three crazy dudes showed up. So what'd you guys think?

Andy: What a weekend.

Sam: Yeah, I liked it. It was really cool. I wish there were more dirt bikes, but that's fine.

Matt: They had some Pentons and a Penton 60 I saw.

Sam: Yeah, they had a couple of Hodakas. And a Hodaka. I saw one, maybe there were more. I think there was at least two Hodakas. Cool. Yeah, loved all the board trackers.

Tim: More than I've seen in one place.

Matt: The board track display in this place is really cool. It's a built up corner of a board track where they're coming down off the banking onto the street. And it's built into the corner of the building. So there's what 60, 70 feet of board track built up. And there's a half a dozen bikes on it. I think I remember there being more last time.

Tim: Oh, really?

Matt: I think I remember like a dozen bikes on that. I'd have to look at pictures to check.

Tim: But that's fun.

Matt: But neat old Harley board trackers and flying or a couple of flying Merkles.

Tim: Vincent Prince, the black Prince, the one that's fully fared. Yeah. Like almost, almost streamlined level of yeah.

Matt: Almost very Honda. What was the Hondas? Almost a big version of a Super Cub.

Tim: The Pacific Coast.

Matt: Kind of almost a cross between the Pacific Coast and a Super Cub and just fully covered. Yeah.

Tim: Yeah.

Matt: With a big lever for the center stand. It had a linkage by where your left hand kind of down by your seat would run a lever that ran to a linkage to put the bike on its center stand.

Tim: It's almost, it's a shame that it's fully fared because I'd love to see what's underneath there.

Sam: I don't know. Probably just a regular Vincent.

Matt: I think it's very similar to a black shadow.

Sam: Yeah.

Matt: Underneath, but I'm not sure then, which they had a black shadow, which is a pretty important historical bike. Yes. It's not the black.

Tim: And then they have the coal fired steam bicycle. Oh, yep. That thing looks so sketchy.

Matt: There were a handful of things that look very scary. I mean, look at board trackers.

Sam: Yeah. A lot of those early bikes, the pace bike.

Matt: Oh, the, the, uh, motor pacer for bicycle lapping.

Sam: Yeah. That thing was, I mean, it was a pretty rough looking example of a motorcycle, but it was pretty cool.

Matt: Huge fuel tank.

Sam: Yeah.

Matt: And then it had a roller assembly. So it was used for people trying to set bicycle records or training for bicycling racing. They would follow this motorcycle very closely to get a draft off of it.

Brian: Yeah.

Matt: And it had a little appendage off the back of the bike with a roller on it in case they got too close and bumped it just a little bit, but it wouldn't put the bicyclist down. Yeah.

Sam: Yeah. Yeah. I don't know if those are for like hour records or 24 hour records. I mean, it's they don't know. Yeah.

Matt: I have no idea. But they had some really cool restored and replicas. Tim and I spent quite a bit of time looking at the throttle and timing linkages on a, you remember what year that was? 1909, 1915. Um, it was either 1912, late aughts or very early teens, but it was a 1912.

Tim: I remember it being pre-world war one.

Matt: Yeah. And they had throttle on the left and ignition timing as a twist grip on the right as a lot of older motorcycles had, but they didn't use cables. They had U joints and bell cranks and just an amazing mechanical.

Tim: It was, it was like a seven or eight step linkage system in order to get down there.

Matt: And it was just, it's a contraption in the best sort of award.

Tim: I love, I love seeing the details and like the evolution of those details. And like people are clearly trying to figure out how to make it better, how to make it work.

Matt: I meant to point out to you guys, I was looking at some of the early Harley's and I had, I noticed this because I had seen it on a bike that was at travel stop for our cars and coffee like a couple of weeks ago, early Harley's had an exhaust cutout. So it had the exhaust pipe that came off the cylinder, went down and there was a muffler mounted because these are essentially bicycle frames, right? The mufflers mounted kind of under the crank set of the bicycle or the bottom bracket of the bicycle. And it had a pipe that comes down and goes into the muffler. But then for open country running, there's a little lever by the right side of the fuel tank lift up on it opens a little flapper and it lets it be a straight pipe instead of having to go through the muffler.

Tim: Oh, I love the idea. Yeah.

Matt: And I've seen a guy, there was a guy at throttle stop in Elkhart who had one there and he started it up and ran. And it was, it was an early Harley single. So 1910 ish early 1900s.

Tim: Like I, this is one of those silly things when I had a loud bike, I kind of wish that there was such a thing that they could just hit a, hit a lever, hit a switch and it'd go quiet for running in town.

Matt: They'd make them for cars.

Tim: Yeah. Why would it be lovely?

Matt: Imagine how many lives you could save.

Tim: Oh my goodness. Yeah. Oh, not just, I could choose to not save them too by making it unsafe.

Matt: Yeah.

Tim: No saves.

Matt: So what was your favorite? Oh, the road dog.

Tim: The road dog.

Matt: Yeah. That was a heck of a thing.

Tim: Yeah.

Matt: Who wants to take the crack at trying to describe that? I'll start. It was powered by a General Motors 2.5 liter iron Duke four cylinder for the two speed automatic.

Tim: Yep.

Matt: Yeah. Car tires at both ends.

Tim: Yep.

Matt: Probably at least four shocks at each end. I think.

Tim: Yes.

Sam: Is this the one that was not, uh, there is no like cooling.

Matt: No, I think there, I think it had cooling. It was, it was, as you walked in the front door is way on the left wall. It was along the wall. It was like, how long is it?

Tim: 20 feet long or something like that. It's absurd.

Matt: It has very long linkages from the handlebars up to the leading link or trailing link fork to steer the thing. And it had, yeah.

Tim: Oh yeah. And like the, the front end, the suspension, like pieces were built out of like quarter inch steel plate. Uh, yeah. The front end, just like the front from the fork forward to the ground had to have been, well, you know, 300 pounds each.

Matt: Oh yeah. Hydraulic rams. The kickstands are two hydraulic rams, one mounted on either side of the bike with a hydraulic pump and levers in front of the handlebars. Look up road dog. I think it's R-O-A-D-D-O-G and you may be able to find it.

Tim: It is kind of one of those, you know, if you had the means and the time, I probably still wouldn't be making such a thing.

Matt: No, it looked unrideable.

Tim: Yeah.

Matt: It weighed thousands of pounds.

Tim: Yeah. It's like literally thousands. Yeah.

Matt: Yeah. It's just absurd. Um, now what is the person who buys that going to do with it? So as we speak, the museum is still open in a couple of weeks, it closes. And after it closes, most of the motorcycles and all the memorabilia are going up for auction. Um, most of the bikes are going to be on Mecham. I know this, they all had Mecham tags on them for bikes that were going to be auctioned.

Tim: Yeah. A lot of the decoration and things were tagged as well.

Matt: It looked like a different auction house maybe, but I don't know. I know it was going to be, I know that was going to be an on-site auction.

Andy: Talking about exhaust, I don't want to interrupt, but there is a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde exhaust where you can make the different sounds. So Andy just put this up on his phone.

Matt: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde exhaust.

Andy: And you can make the sounds you want to hear.

Tim: That is funny. That's the, uh, it's the cops hit the quiet switch.

Matt: That's wild. The number one electronically adjustable exhaust system. I wonder how many electronically adjustable exhaust systems there are. Are you, is, are you number one because there's only one?

Tim: I would expect that's very likely the case.

Matt: What were we thinking that was a million dollar bike? You remember a hundred thousand dollar bike?

Sam: Oh, it's gotta be like abrupt superior or...

Matt: That's what it was. The abrupt superiors. There were, which of which are three or four? Yeah. There's a Vincent Black Shadow. Yeah. A couple of Vincent Rapide. Rapide. Rapide. Rapide. Oh yeah. Rapide. Rapido. I don't know. There are some neat stuff somebody's going to get. There's a KLR that's been, that's near and dear to all of our hearts because it's a KLR. Yes. Tim, or I don't know why I call you Tim. Aaron rode his brand new KLR to the museum, but there's a KLR that's been around the world on one oil change, apparently, which just goes to show that if a KLR burns enough oil, you don't have to change it very often.

Tim: Oh, indeed.

Matt: Yeah. What was your favorite bike, Tim?

Tim: Um, that's a tough one because I, I was originally just laughing at the foldable Indian scooter.

Matt: Yeah, there were a couple of foldable scooters there.

Tim: That was crazy. Um, but then there was a Ferrari. That was a board tracker style. Okay. With more like a cafe cowling on the front of it. Okay. That thing was so cute.

Sam: I missed that one. It was this tiny little red thing. Yeah. Oh, it was so cute. So I got a picture of it.

Tim: I thought that thing was neat.

Matt: What was your favorite bike, Andy?

Andy: The 900 Yamaha. It was only made in 1983.

Matt: Okay.

Andy: You see it? Uh, it's all by the Jap bike.

Matt: It's like the Seica looking kind of thing, right? Yeah.

Andy: I realized it was only made one year and it was pretty neat.

Tim: Is that the one that had the really flat angular tank? Oh, cool.

Andy: Yeah.

Tim: Okay.

Andy: Yeah. I didn't know that bike existed.

Tim: No, you know, 83, there was a lot of innovation happening around that time.

Andy: Honda F, that was a one-year model.

Matt: Yeah. They had a, uh, CBX. Did you see that one?

Andy: Yeah, I saw that. Those are kind of common actually. They made a lot of those.

Matt: Well, we saw one at Englehart.

Andy: Right. Yeah.

Matt: Yeah.

Andy: There's actually quite a bit of them.

Matt: I was oddly drawn this time around, even though it's not really my thing. I was oddly drawn to the drag and land speed stuff.

Brian: Yeah.

Matt: They had a couple of, uh, uh, Don, uh, Vesco land speed bike that was twin triumph motored, if I remember right. I don't remember how fast that one went. And then there was another streamliner that was Buell based. I believe that went 180 or 178 or something like that on a single 1300 motor. They had the world's fastest sidecar. Yeah, that's awesome. That was a turbocharged Hayabusa powered. Oh yeah. It was right where the land spit, the two land speed bikes were with the, it was right off the nose cone of the one that was at knee level.

Tim: Okay.

Matt: And you walked up to the left side of it and it just looked like a drag bike. And then you like Aaron walked up to it and I was looking at it and he walked up to it and he's looking at it and he steps a little closer and you can see over the top of it. Oh, it's a sidecar. Yeah. It was pretty wild. I don't know why I was so drawn to that stuff. They had one drag bike that was twin four cylinder two stroke Yamaha, I think snowmobile engine powered and it had two of them and it must've made a hell of a noise.

Sam: Oh my God. Yeah. And you're sitting right on top of that.

Matt: Yeah. Yeah. And they had a top fuel bike, uh, that had gone 606, I think at Indy.

Tim: Yes, yes it was 606.

Matt: Yeah. And it's interesting, you know, you look at the drag bikes and it's all in the pursuit of speed. The, this Yamaha snowmobile engine powered two stroke, you can see the water necks on the engines, but there's nothing connected to them.

Sam: Yeah. It didn't have a cooling system. That's the one I thought you were talking about.

Matt: Yeah. It didn't have a cooling system because drag bikes really don't need cooling systems. You fire it up, you warm it up enough to do the burnout and make the pass and shut it back down.

Sam: And then you rebuild it. Yes.

Matt: Hopefully it survived, but yeah, it was neat.

Sam: I liked the, the hill climber that had the steel band around the rear wheel with angle iron sticking out. I'm just like, Oh, that would just hurt so bad to get caught up in that thing. Oh my goodness.

Matt: Yeah. That bike was probably what thirties era.

Sam: Yeah. Yeah. It was an old Indian, wasn't it?

Matt: I think it was Indian or Harley, you know, battle of the American bikes. There's a lot of that in this museum. Cause that's, that's what it was back then.

Sam: Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Some nice examples of like British bikes, a few BMWs.

Matt: Yeah.

Sam: Yeah.

Matt: But I, I noticed the, just down from the steel band rear tire, there was one that had tire chains, but the, the links that went across the tire were scoops like a sand tire in steel.

Tim: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Is that the one that the, they were roller chain across the tire?

Matt: No, this one was, so there were several bikes that had tire chains that were radially that were roller chain across the tire and the roller chain is what gave the traction.

Sam: Yeah.

Matt: But this one had steel scoops that went across the tire.

Sam: So it was like a sand paddle tire, but they were a removable scoop and chain chain on each side of the tire radially going around like snow chains for your car chains. Yeah. Anybody from Colorado or the Rockies will know exactly what we're talking about. Yeah. Or someone that uses their tractor to plow their driveway in the winter.

Matt: Yes. Yeah. Or someone that uses a truck to plow a frozen Lake or yeah. Um, that was neat. There was, uh, another hill climb bike that was, I don't know what the frame was, but it was, uh, Kawasaki H two seven 52 stroke triple built into a hill climb bike. So it had at the time that it was built, probably late eighties, early nineties, it had modern dirt bike front end grafted to it and twin shocks and an extended swing arm. And I'll bet you that was a heck of a ride.

Tim: Yeah. Yeah. I didn't see the really exaggerated long swing arms that I'm seeing. Yeah.

Robin: Very cool. Okay. I got to say thank you to Matt Berry for spearheading that segment. That was really well done. Thank you very much. And again, Iowa's national motorcycle museum is closing down. As you hear this, the address is one Oh two chamber drive in Anamosa, Iowa, five to two zero five. So please go check it out while you get a chance. Take photos. Remember history is the future is our history is the future.

Brian: All right. I think it's time for Brian's tiny, tasty tool tips. They're tiny. They're tasty. They're tips. They're about tools. One or two per episode.

Robin: I don't even work on commission. I work for donuts.

Brian: All right. If you got a reasonably modern bike, you probably have a hex in like a female hex in the front axle where you have to turn the axle to get the wheel off. Hopefully you don't have to get the wheel off while you're out on the road. So thing one to remember is make sure you have something with you to turn that with. Or, you know, you could be just standing there hoping with your cell phone. One easy way to there is a tool they sell in motorcycle shops. It's got several hex sizes on it. So you can jam it in there and grab the other end of the wrench and get your axle out. But the thing you really want to do is go rummage around a few good hardware stores and look for metric coupling nuts. And basically it's a nut that's like three times as wide as a normal nut. And then what you're looking for is one that, yeah, Robin's showing me the official tool that fits a bunch of them. So you can get a coupling nut that is say 14 millimeter or 19 or whatever it is on your axle that stick it in there and then stick a wrench on the outside and you can and then you can address any issues with your front wheel.

Robin: For those of you on the cheap, if finding the perfect tool, let's say you have a more than one bike in your flock. So you have a multi-bike flock and any given time you might have a different toolkit that is specific to that bike that you want to take with you anywhere you go. One thing you can use for your toolkit is a cheap toiletry bag that has a lot of organized pockets. And it's not technically a toiletry bag if all you're using it for is a thing that organizes things, right? So this one I got on the cheap and it has all these pockets, different size, and I've got all my wrenches, my expanders, my reducers. I built this one specific to the Beamer. That way I probably have what somebody else might need, but I've got Torx, Allen. This is the doozy right here is I've got the Leatherman Wave extension kit. So the Leatherman Wave, yeah, that's pretty cool. Oh, look, it's got 75 Swiss Army Knights, you're a geek, go hiking, whatever. But if you get the extension kit, you've got a bajillion things that come with. Then I've got my tool, my tire repair, all of my sockets, the one that you saw that has the multi-head, all of my extenders and my wrenches, and a set of channel locks, along with Travis's recommended.

Brian: Yeah, adjustable wrench.

Robin: So I've got all that stuff in what a toiletry bag, because it's got lots of clear see-through pockets. It's still a bit of a pain because you got to pull everything out to figure out which one's supposed to fit. Then you realize it's not Hex after all. It's a, yeah, it's not an Allen after all. No, it's a, dang it, it's a Torx. We could do like a whole hour hunk on how to carry tools and bags. Yeah, I love that. The Leatherman Wave extensions were the best. That was one of the best purchases I've bought because it's got like, it's like all half bits. Like it's a Torx, but you're looking at a fraction. It's the shape of an eye, but it's got the bit in there that's just good enough to make the turn and make the tighten. All right. It's kind of punishing you right there. It's like saying, look, this thing fits and it's compact and lightweight, but you did this to yourself. So you deal with it. Don't mess your noise up. Did we do a reheated rehash last time?

Brian: We did.

Robin: Let's do it again this time anyhow, and then we'll get into the tales from Planet That Gal.

Brian: All right. Sounds good.

Robin: Let me get back to the Ten Commandments, the Brian Ringer Ten Commandments of how to lead an insanely fun sports touring motorcycle ride brought to you by our website. That's T-R-O dot bike. Do you wake up in the morning and read them to yourself in the bathroom mirror? Uh, no, that would be, that would be weird. Oh, and yeah, I, yeah, it would be. I don't would.

Brian: All right. We're on commandment four of our tasty leftovers served hot and crusty. Um, yeah. Number one was thou shall stay the hell away from each other. Number two is thou shall pass and be passed, which helps you with number one. Number three is about communication. The number of hand signals shall be only three and three shall be the number of hand signals. And number four, thou shall leave no rider behind. So if you're following the above rules, you'll quickly have riders spread out over a mile or more. It's important for the ride leader to strategically regroup and count headlights at stop signs, turns, and towns so everyone knows where they are. That's just leadership 101, right? But this command also applies, this commandment also applies to everyone. All riders are casually sort of responsible for the rider behind them. Don't stare at your mirrors, but a couple times a mile, take a glance and make sure you can see the following riders headlight and maybe slow way down on a straight and wait a bit if you're really getting away from them. If the following rider doesn't reappear after a decent interval, stop somewhere safe and wait a bit. I usually give this a minute or two, then turn around and go see if they need help. That's enough time for someone to stop and put on a sweatshirt or make an undergarment adjustment. If there is some real problem and everybody follows this protocol, pretty soon you'll have everyone gathered around and maybe, just maybe, one of you remembered to bring a tire patch kit. The no rider left behind policy is also why it's important for anyone leaving the ride to tell others beforehand. If you're going to peel off at the interstate, make sure the rest of them aren't wondering where you went and dredging the ditches. A simple warning ahead of time and a jolly farewell wave are usually all you need. What's your modification here? What do you tell people when you're, what do you tell people when you meet them the first time and you're about to go ride fast motorcycles?

Robin: I got to be very careful how I word this. First, I cover all ground from before this particular commandment, as you call it. Our system follows this to the letter. There is for our commercial tours, especially multi-state, multi-destination tours. At TRO.Bike. At TRO.Bike, the 777 tour is one of them. There is a subclause and that's, look, you're responsible for any scenarios. Once we deal with whatever is to be dealt with, you know, once we make sure you're still one piece, I'm CPR certified and first aid certified, so is the sweep, but assuming that you just low side and maybe your boots scuffed up but your bike ain't going anywhere, we will confirm that your tow truck has arrived and then you are on your own. That is it. We are going to continue our ride. So that is a thing. That's not a modification. That's an add-on. Like I said, subclause. The one modification I'll make isn't suggested. At the very least, the worst version of what Brian has written and outlined in this is still many, many times better than even a fraction of an idea of doing this. Many times better than zero. And that is that you can use a system that is the buddy check. You have one person up front who has gone nuclear hot. They get to a stop sign and it's time to turn. They wait for one person. And when that one person in the rear view acknowledges that they see them, they continue and that person stops. Then they see a person repeat the cycle. They continue. The person behind them stops. In my opinion, that's just too much accordion. It's too spread out, but it is workable. And if you have the most trusted riders who understand this philosophy, if you end up getting to the stop sign and you wait too long, you know, it's time to double back and then you can cover ground. I don't think it's the best way, but it is significantly better than not having any way at all. So communication is key. Everyone understanding one another. But I like the way you do it where it's just like, you know, I want to see one or two people behind me. I want to go quick. And when I have my fun, hey, I'm Captain Commercial here. I'm up front doing my thing. But yeah, I will make sure that, okay, this is the chance for me to slow down and check.

Brian: Yeah. Yeah. And the thing you mentioned, it is, I think it really is a good idea to bunch up and just get a glance because Commandment 8 will get there in I don't know how many months, but we'll get there a while. Whereas thou shalt observe the state of they flock. And if you're leading the ride, you need to get a look at them once in a while and look and see if anybody's, you know, look and see if anybody's mad. Look and see if anybody's having, you know, trouble. Thousand-yard stare. Thousand-yard stare. If they're laying down in a tank, you know, then you can address it before it turns into something. And again, this is for the guy, you know, someone who's leading the way, doing the planning and so forth.

Robin: If you're wondering what the thousand-yard stare looks like as an analogy, when you are talking to somebody who you're concerned about, does it look like they're looking at the back of your head through your eyes? That is a very real thing.

Brian: Yeah. Have some water. You want to share some peanuts, you know, have a little chat, take a whiz, you know, whatever it takes. All right. Call Uncle Fester from episode two. Hey, Brian. Hey, Robin.

Robin: Have you been that guy? I have been that guy. We've all been that guy. We've all ridden with that guy. Let's talk about that gal. That gals are pretty rare, but it happens. Our own Maggie Dean, author for the site, regular writer, sport touring aficionado, experienced track rider, MSF instructor, wonderful human being, the loveliest part of the Dean family household. She had her first that gal and she'd like to talk about it. One second.

Maggie: Hello. How are you?

Brian: I'm good. How are you, Maggie? It's been, I haven't seen you in a long time and talk to, yeah, we had, we had a brief stressful conversation while you sounded stressed and that's what you're here to talk about, I guess, but.

Maggie: Yes. So we had a wonderful beginning of the trip. In retrospect, let me, actually, let me pedal back. The bike has had starting problems. We took it to the shop in 2022, paid a fair amount of money, a thousand bucks to have them check out what's the issue, isolate, figure out why we're having problems starting the bike. Sometimes we could start it, but we would go through this round of things, take off the seat, put back on the seat, tighten up the connections on the battery, double check that it was in neutral, make sure the side stand was down if it's a neutral or up, actually all these things. And they thought it was an issue with the cam tensioner. So they just did that.

Brian: Which makes no sense to me, but yeah, anyway.

Maggie: Yeah. They thought it was that they also did some other maintenance, switched out my spark plugs. I think they looked at the throttle bodies. Since they were taking apart things, they did some of that stuff. So since then, whenever I go riding with Robin, he always has a little mini jump starter in case it happened again, because it happens before when we're out riding. Well, for the most part, it's been starting every once in a while. We'd have to try a few things, but it was starting. So I thought the problem was mostly figured out. The morning that we were going out on the trip, Robin actually had a problem starting the bike. I wasn't aware of that until later on in the day, but he did get it started. And that was another thing we thought, oh, it's the key. You have to turn it like five times, then turn it to park and then turn it back.

Brian: So you're starting to get into like voodoo and magic here.

Maggie: Yeah. Very scientific. But once we had started the trip, we made a couple of stops. No problems. It was running really well. I was feeling good on the bike considering I hadn't ridden in probably three or four months. So what day was it? It was Monday. Monday was a great day. Tuesday, we went and had breakfast. The bikes were parked initially in the shade, but it was sunny by the time we were done. And it was around, I want to say noon, maybe, and the bike wouldn't start. We're in Boise. It was a hundred degree day, not in the shade. And this is where I'm that guy. Robin carries my tools. I don't carry my own tools. He's got his tool.

Brian: He's got more luggage space. Yeah.

Maggie: Yeah. Well, I mean, I have luggage space, but I've always relied on him and let him do that for me. So he has tools. So in part, one of the issues is because I'm not writing as much as he is. I'm not thinking about the bike and what kind of maintenance I need to keep track of. And also I wasn't really confirming that the start issue was actually identified. All of that came together. I've done some Googling on the Google in different forums, because it's a common problem with Triumphs. There's been all kinds of folks with several different issues. And it just so happens that even though I don't consider my bike a new bike, it's a 2016, but it's got an immobilizer. So you can't steal it. It's got the neutral safety switch. It's got a clutch switch. It's got a side stand switch and yeah, side stand switch, the neutral switch and the clutch switch plus the immobilizer.

Brian: Yeah. Yeah. The anti-theft stuff is like on European bikes is required is required in Europe. So that's why they have them. But like a Suzuki sent to the U.S. doesn't, you know, that kind of thing.

Maggie: Well, this bike was sold in the U.S. It was not.

Brian: Yeah. But for some reason, Triumphs come with immobilizers and stuff like that. I've I've run across that kind of thing before where the where the, you know, it has an alarm and the alarm dies. Anyway, go on. Yeah. So there. Yeah.

Maggie: Yeah. Or if it doesn't pick up the chip the right way, because yeah, my keys chipped, then it's not. Yeah. It's not letting anything happen. So the basics of what happened is you turn the key, you'll hear the fuel pump prime and then, you know, the bike will start. It would not prime. We were not hearing it prime.

Brian: Yeah.

Maggie: And they had been sitting in the sun. And so that was I found that a couple of people had that problem. They noticed that if the bike was in the sun or it was hot, they were having that problem, whereas a cooler bike, it would start up for them. Other people, it was ECU issue. Some guy who's got a YouTube channel. So if the battery doesn't have enough juice to start, it's programmed into the ECU and triumph won't say what is enough voltage. So this guy actually had to take his bike and he's a guy that writes on his own stuff. He's got a channel dedicated to it, but he had to bring it his bike into a dealer and they had to they had to change the ECU or something or reset it or something like that. I'm like, well, that's not nice.

Brian: That sounds expensive.

Maggie: Yeah, not cool. Now we do have the dealer tool, which I'm going to carry on my bike from now on. Also, I have the Hanes manual and I had only read bits and pieces when we were doing specific things like when we changed my coolant out last winter. I had not really read the whole thing through and I picked up some knowledge from Robin when he tells me about stuff. But I know how to change the oil. I know how to grease up my chain. But anything beyond that, I haven't done and I haven't read about, especially with a start issue. Definitely the things to start with, obviously, is there voltage on the battery? Is the battery dead? So I'm like, okay, I'm going to carry the dealer tool. I'm going to carry a voltage meter. I'm going to carry all this stuff. The battery was replaced last year as well also. So I didn't think that was the issue. You'd flip it on and you'd see the lights, the horn was working. So those are some of the things that were a problem. So anyway, to round out the that guy's story, after almost two hours, everything we tried, we could not get it to start. So finally, I called a tow truck and we had to find someone who knows how to tow bikes. The person that came out seemed to know how to do bikes. He did it correctly and he towed it to a Triumph dealership in Boise, the only Triumph dealership in Boise.

Brian: Yeah, there's not a lot.

Maggie: Yeah. They're a great shop. They got great guys there. They did a diagnostic. Now, initially I was told, no, you can't bring the bike here. We don't have space for it. We've got a three month out schedule, but we were desperate. So we towed it out there anyway. And they spent a half hour on the diagnostic and they said, oh, it's your clutch. It's your clutch safety switch, which we had broken when we were trying to replace it. We've had a couple conversations since then. And I said, no, no, no, it wasn't broken when we were trying to start the bike. We broke it after the bike wouldn't start.

Brian: Yeah. I mean, like I told Robin, that's a problem. Yes. But it's probably not the only problem or the problem. But yeah, it makes sense. They would kind of focus on that. They don't know what the history was.

Maggie: Yeah. I told them what the history was, but I can't expect that they remember every conversation and all the details of the conversation. So once they had the bike, I asked again, are you sure it wasn't an ECU issue? Are you sure it wasn't a chip issue? And by the way, I lost my spare key. So I only have this one key. And yeah, I forgot. I made a desperate phone call to you as a person that knows bikes really well and has taken apart your bike and put it back together.

Brian: Yeah, that was my that guy. But anyway, yeah, yeah, yeah. I remember you used a phone a friend and I don't think I was really that helpful. It was like you could tell it was a stressful moment. Like it's hot, you got places to be, you know, you're far from your home base. You know, I was like, man, I wish we could. You're 1800 miles away from me. And so I did what I could. But yeah, I don't think it, I don't know if it helped much.

Maggie: It did. Moral of the story was I had to get on the back of the bike with Robin. Most people would not be able to do that. So that was the only saving grace is we didn't have to stay in town.

Brian: Yeah.

Maggie: So that's my that guy story.

Brian: Yeah, that guy, that gal story.

Maggie: It's that guy is the is the moniker, right? It's the title. I don't think it has to be.

Brian: It's kind of maybe it's a genderless. Well, we were talking about how there's like, you know, there's we've got 100 that guy stories and we've been that guy, but we don't have any that gal stories. So and now we have one and it's still ongoing. You're still working on. I think you're basically still trying to know for sure what's going on. And so you can trust this bike. So yeah. Yeah. So that's that's still ongoing. We don't have maybe maybe you'll be able to report on that someday.

Maggie: I will come back for a part two once we have once we've done some stuff.

Brian: Here's what it is. This thing I'm holding aloft. It's done.

Maggie: Well, it was awesome to catch up with you.

Brian: Good to see you again, Maggie. Thanks a lot. Kind of like that girl. Yeah, she seems all right. That's been a hell of an episode.

Robin: Brian, get us out of here.