Robin: This is a special episode because we've been talking about having some fun with all kinds of different people from all kinds of places all over the world. And in this episode, we are... Well, you said people. No, no, no, no.

Brian: Riders.

Robin: Riders. Sport touring riders. Trekky, awesome sport bike type riders. And we are lucky to have the one and only Jasmine Islam here on the show with us this week. Welcome to the show, Jasmine. We're really happy to have you here. You just happen to be a pile of interesting because you're going on sevens. You are a fellow MSF instructor, and I think you've got more track experience than I. I love a good track day, but I think you're the head honcho in this room right now. You've done a lot of track riding, yeah?

Jasmine: I do do a lot of track riding. I'll say I'm not a super fast track rider. All right. But I definitely enjoy going on track, so it's definitely something I like doing.

Brian: Slow is fast, right?

Jasmine: Yeah, pretty much.

Brian: Yeah, and that's something like I've never done a track day.

Jasmine: Oh, you definitely should.

Brian: That's my confession. I've never done a track day, so for the good of the podcast, I'm definitely going to do one as soon as I can next year. Robin has all these plans and so forth, but yeah, you need to talk me into it. You don't need to talk me into it, but...

Robin: I'm just trying to coordinate time and location. Beyond that, I don't know if I'll be a customer or a control rider, but if we can create the convergence, heck, maybe Jasmine might be interested. We can all meet at Road America. It's in the middle. I imagine when Jasmine says she's slow, what she means is that she'll only melt one side of my plastics when she passes.

Jasmine: I'd definitely love to do Road America, but I think with... You're very mobile, so go anywhere, or mostly.

Robin: Mostly.

Jasmine: Yeah.

Robin: The thing is, they're not really designed to go anywhere. So people that know me, they're like, this is a rig that's supposed to be rolling and anywhere you want to go. And it's like, yeah, but then when you park it, you spend about three months. Oh, that bolt came out. Let's put that in because everything... It's a rolling earthquake, always a rolling earthquake.

Jasmine: Yeah, I guess with anything, it's like if you're moving it around, things will jiggle and move around and you got to maintain it and things.

Robin: Yeah. And it's even more true the older I get physically, everywhere I walk, like, oh, that's not the right place anymore. That whole shoulder thing.

Jasmine: Definitely when COVID started, I spent a lot of time looking at van life and RV videos. I still watch a bunch on YouTube. So it's like, definitely want to do that. But it's like, oh, I got to work. So I guess I got to wait. Pay my mortgage, all this stuff.

Robin: Yeah, I remember it well with the condo. Brian, drive this ship. I don't feel that I don't have enough charisma for this. And she's awesome.

Brian: Not to put you on the spot, Jasmine. One minute rant. What's getting on your nerves today about motorcycling?

Robin: Oh, we're in the outline now. You're putting it into the outline.

Brian: I'm going to just jump right the hell in. Let's make it happen. Let's talk about, you have one minute rant about something that happened or didn't happen.

Jasmine: Okay. Yeah. So I'll just say, this is maybe more New York specific. Perfect. Yeah. So New York City specific. I'll say New York City definitely has some weird rules around, and lots of enforcement. So they obviously have a good amount of enforcement, which came out a couple of years ago because of various reasons we don't have to get into. But in essence, the New York Police Department sets up a lot of checkpoints. And in essence, they're very likely to give you a ticket unless you're running some sort of video. And if you're running some sort of video, they'll probably say running video is illegal or something to that effect.

Robin: So... Is it?

Jasmine: Depends on how you have it mounted. So if you have, and sometimes police officers may not always know the rules of things. So certainly if you have something mounted on the helmet, they'll definitely say it's legal. If it's mounted on your bike, less so. Really? But if it's mounted on, yeah, if you have something mounted on your bike, but as long as you avoid bridges and tunnels, because on those they actually have specific signs saying recording anything is illegal. So if they stop you there, then they may give you a ticket for that. But they've definitely had checkpoints where I was doing nothing wrong and gotten tickets for it, which obviously is very annoying, especially because if you have a PBA card. I don't know if they have those around the country or not, but if you have those, they'll let you go and everyone else gets a ticket, even if you're not. And that's why...

Robin: Can you remind our listeners what is a PBA card again?

Jasmine: The Policeman's Benevolent Association. In essence, it's like the union of the police.

Robin: They're like saying if you don't play the back the blue card, they're going to give you a ticket?

Jasmine: No, it's really if you're like friends and family of police officers, you're likely okay. And if you're not, you're getting ticket unless you have a video camera or some sort of recording. So I've definitely gotten stopped, gotten tickets. Since COVID, I haven't been, but prior to COVID, I was actually commuting into the city for work. So I was using my motorcycle as a commuter. So definitely been through lots of checkpoints. And prior to mounting cameras everywhere and turning them on all the time, those would be issues. And then once I started mounting cameras, I just subtly point to my cameras and those not real lane splitting tickets stopped happening. So definitely, if anyone from New York, you should definitely have a camera. And I know lots of friends who ride in the city who run cameras for the same reason, because that does prevent them from giving you tickets. I'm definitely over a minute, I'm sure. But it's definitely a little rant like thing.

Brian: That was well worth extra minutes. Absolutely. I had no idea.

Robin: And I mean, it's like I've got this, all of our videos, all of our promo shots for all the tours, I've got it mounted on the front of the bike. So I guess that's an issue.

Jasmine: Yeah. So eventually I ended up, I think it's one of those, I guess, motorcycle specific. What do you call this? Like webcam? Not a webcam, but...

Robin: Like a GoPro and...

Jasmine: Yeah. So initially I started with GoPros. So I actually had mounted a GoPro and I was using that. And then it was annoying because the battery would run out all the time. When I wanted the recording, the battery was dead. And then I ended up getting the cable for it. When you plug in the cable, sometimes I had a six. Initially, I got an eight. And then afterwards I got a hero eight. And then I got a six. Eight always had a problem. It's like you have to time when you turned it on. And when you plug the wire in, otherwise it would reboot itself.

Robin: It's impossible. I get into a good curve. I'm like, oh, this is going to be fantastic. And I don't have the remote because the remote uses even more battery. I stand up and I lean over the windshield at 70 miles an hour. I press the record button and I'm like, yeah. And I sit down and it straightens out. Yeah. And it's just that way for the next 30 miles. Turn it back off. Just eating battery, getting films and nothing.

Jasmine: Yep. That's how it is.

Robin: But in New York, so as an instructor, we might have a mutual friend, Lynn Vandwater.

Jasmine: Yep. I've definitely met her at MSF events and things like that.

Robin: She was mentioning how that's a state where I think if you're a motorcycle trainer, you're also a driving instructor.

Jasmine: Yes.

Robin: That's a big whammy. It's a lot of work.

Jasmine: Yeah. It wasn't the case before. So up until about, I think two, three years ago, that wasn't the case. You can just be an MSF instructor and you're good. And then they made the rule. Believe it was three years ago, maybe four, where you had to register. So yeah, we had to actually do the test and all of that, all of us had to go through. And then they gave actually a motorcycle specific test. So like the DMV sort of tester came and we actually had to do a motorcycle test again. Then we have these cards that say, hey, you're sort of certified to be instructors. So maybe if I want another job, I can go do that as well.

Robin: Brian has heard me talk about how New York is apparently very special. And then Colorado is apparently very special. And Texas is apparently very special because you have to be Texas certified as New Mexico. And it's a domino effect of, well, we do it different here. And then you look at the cards, it's the same thing everywhere. Well, my quick rant then, Brian, since you asked, no, calm down, I'm working on it. Paint. I can either go to the local guy who will get it done for 300 bucks in less than three years, or I can take it to the guy with a five minute turnaround time. Who's in his own words, his clear coat is very special. And he'll do these three parts for $1,200. There you go. The end. I am alone. I am alone in Texas. There's me, there's my frustration. There's Maggie walking up and solving whatever problems I can't. And then there's just, I can't, I'm not going to get this thing painted. I wanted to get it painted. Luckily Kelly Howard has stepped in. So he's like, Hey, put that thing back together. Drive it here. I'll show you how to paint. We're just going to do the fender. I'm going to clear coat the other parts myself because they're ugly. However, upside quick bit of anecdotal chit chat real quick. I do now have auxiliary power and a bunch of wire nuts holding all the tail light components in place. I like them. Those Wago wire nuts are the jam, man. I see you laughing. They are fantastic. They're these little things. You put bare wire into, you click them shut and they just hold. And I'm happy.

Jasmine: Are those those things with the little doors you push down?

Robin: Yes. Bare wire insert, push the little thing down, do it to both sides. Boom. And if you glue them together, you've got a bus. So I've got a bus full of them. The entire tail section is now bussed and I've got my auxiliary power system for my heated gear and it's all coming back together. All I got to do is remove a giant fastener out of the front of the motor. That's my rant.

Brian: What do you got Brian? Okay. Today I went, uh, I, it was like a 45 minute ride. Really boring. Just straight up a highway to go see a friend I haven't seen in a long time. And on, on the, you know, which was great. I took the motorcycle just because that's what you do. Uh, anyway, on the way back, uh, you know how you kind of catch a road buddy sometimes, and there's like a car that just won't go away. Um, and I don't know why, but there was a kid in this car and he had one of those squish mellows, which is just a giant squishy pillow. That's a cartoon character. And this kid was holding up to squish mellow in the window and waving it at me. And I'm like, yes, I see your toy, your bird or whatever the hell that was this kid. I don't know. The squish mellow was in front of the kid. I never saw the kid. And like, so I'd pass them and then, and then dad would catch up. Like, no daddy, I want this guy to see my squish mellow. And I don't know what was going on, but something, there was something going on where. No, no, you have to see the squish mellow. You didn't see it. They had the window down. The kid was like waving the squish mellow at me with the window open. I don't understand any of it. I don't under there. Nothing dangerous happened. I just really do not understand what the hell happened today. That's all. That's the only rant really today. I can't figure it out. Only in Indianapolis, Indiana, actually just Indiana, right?

Robin: Yeah.

Brian: North of Indy. Yeah. North of Indy on the way to Kokomo, which is a weird place of its own.

Jasmine: Wonder if he was trying to give it to you. It's like, why isn't he taking my squish mellow?

Brian: Why didn't you take the squish mellow, Brian? I should have wrote. Yeah, I should have gone up there and grabbed it with my left hand. Yeah. And then, yeah. And then I would have been unkind. Brian kid.

Jasmine: Yeah. Try to teach him how to share.

Brian: And yeah, you just, or I would have been, you know, this, this horrible beast that stole my, this kid's squish mellow. And well, you don't break the windshield out with a baton and a paper.

Jasmine: Give me the mellow. Give me the mellow right now. Yeah. Medicine, our highways, stealing children's.

Brian: Yeah. One thing, Jasmine, I picked up is like, um, a lot of people who do a lot of track riding are like, I don't ride on the street. I hate riding on the street. And I noticed you were like, no, I ride in fricking New York city, dude.

Robin: Yeah. Yeah. It's going to be a pleasure to have you in this crew for the sevens.

Brian: Nothing scares me. I ride in New York city. Screw all you guys. What are you complaining about? Yeah, go on.

Jasmine: I've scared friends on tours with that. Just cause I'm like super used to and comfortable. Obviously it's like, you know, when you're commuting, you're not sitting in traffic all the time. Um, so you get comfortable being between cars. So it was like, it doesn't matter which direction the cars are going. So it was like, I have scared some friends will maybe are live more. I'd say most people I've toured with are more new Englanders, I guess, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, those sort of folks. Um, so I think just less traffic, um, not used to being like someone being in the middle of the road type of thing where I'm needed to be. Um, but it is something that makes me comfortable, which also means I'm comfortable on track, like passing or being passed all the on track days. You're not racing.

Robin: Um, you're going through the whole rhetoric now. I can hear it.

Jasmine: You're trying to like give, you know, a couple of feet in between people, but it does, it all sort of goes together. Right.

Brian: So yeah, I guess like I haven't ridden in, like I've driven in Manhattan or on Manhattan and, um, yeah, it's, it's like what I imagine a track day is like everybody's there to get something done to get a purpose done. Nobody's there to run into each other. Uh, and the average, the level is pretty high. Uh, I noticed like, you know, you'd, you'd see the fighter pilot glances, you know, people knew what they were doing, even though it was really packed in, I was pretty comfortable there. Um, now you go to downtown Indianapolis, you know, forget it. There are people who have, have not seen a building over two stories before, unless it was a corn silo. Why would anybody live here? I just don't look at all in tall buildings. Whoa. Yeah. I just, I don't understand.

Robin: Why would you do this?

Brian: You get a little, yeah, you get a real mix here. Um, and that's another question. Maybe we could pick up later is, is it, or can it be fun to get right in the city? Sure.

Robin: Oh yeah.

Jasmine: Yeah.

Robin: Yeah. Now, Jasmine, I'm Chicago. So you're in New York.

Jasmine: Yeah.

Robin: Yeah. And I don't mean like the, the suburbs, we were in Rogers park. So yeah, I loved it. I mean, there was some more, you had to pick the right hours. I don't want to be in the freaking loop. Well, yeah, you know? Yeah. Here's a website update, a revisit announcement, a correction from TRO.bike located at TRO.bike. For more information, visit TRO.bike. Okay. So if you use the maintenance area, the maintenance logs area, the members area, the maintenance area for your maintenance of your, my ear bike. You can now export your bike, share it with a friend. If they have the same bike and import that bike, you can't import a machine so that you don't have to create all of the maintenance tasks independently by yourself for that bike. If somebody already has it. So I did this for a friend here who just bought an R 1200 RS. I was like, well, yeah, I know that one a little bit here. Boom. And now he can do that.

Jasmine: I want that bike so much.

Robin: What? The R 1200 RS?

Jasmine: Yes. Every time. Like, uh, seriously, I love that bike. But I looked at the weight when I bought my current touring bike as like, it's a hundred pounds more than the other bike that I ended up with.

Robin: This is a great question. What are you riding? Yeah.

Jasmine: So, uh, so my main touring bike right now is actually a CBR 1000, uh, 2017 where, but I changed the clip-ons to a handlebar.

Robin: Okay.

Jasmine: I got like a super bike kit. So I got a handlebar on it. Um, I'm unusual in terms of, I have very short legs and a taller torso. So I fit on sport bikes actually fairly well and I'm comfortable. And, uh, I have a trunk in the backseat or instead of a backseat, I have a trunk.

Robin: So this sounds a lot like our friend. He's got a VFR. He does the tail bag. No top case side bags. He's more comfortable with a core specific profile.

Jasmine: Yeah. And it's lighter than pretty much any touring bike you can buy because it's like 430 pounds. And I think I was, uh, doing, uh, I think it was a Cabot trail one. One of the ones that is like, uh, we're waiting on the ferry. Cause I think we're in Portland. Maybe it was going to Newfoundland. I was in essence. I'm not sure exactly where, but we're in a ferry or like waiting for the ferry. So we get on the ferry and I'm like sitting in the back, like behind and ours looking at it just like fell in love with it.

Robin: Did you know, was it the 1200 or the 1250?

Jasmine: No, it was the 1200. It was the, uh, it was a little bit older one.

Robin: Better headlights.

Jasmine: Yeah.

Robin: The headlights look better. The 1250 came out and all of a sudden it had like that. It had my, it had my forehead. My bike looks the way I wish I did. So I put a helmet on and I ride it. And then the 1250 came out and it's all of a sudden there's the wincing eyes, just scowling at everybody. And it doesn't even look that good. It's like, you're still nothing changes. The fact that you're an R you're going to be slow a little bit. But Brian, what else he got?

Brian: What are some of your controversial motorcycling opinions? Oh, I've got several. Let's start a fight. Shall we?

Robin: Whatever happens, Jasmine, you're legally obligated to go on the tour. Okay.

Jasmine: Sounds good.

Brian: I'll start and you'll see what I mean. Like what, what is something you believe that's that people complain about? But, uh, this is weird to me. I hate windshields. Like I have an FJ09 and I took the windshield off. I had a Vstrom, uh, formerly. I took the windshield off completely. Just like, I cut it down to like a little sliver that covered the body work and that's it. And people think that's really strange. I also, I leave the stock turn signals on my bikes almost always. Unless like on my dual sport, they just, they break off and you have to replace them. But, um, I'm a KLR, but, uh, but yeah, everything else. I like having those big orange lollipops out there. So those are two controversial opinions. I have people have told me I'm wrong. And some of the lollipops on the vintage bike. Yeah.

Robin: Oh, those are mandatory. Leave those. It's a vintage bike.

Brian: Yeah. Yeah. When you, yeah. When you, yeah. When you get past 25, 30 years old, then whatever happened in the eighties is automatically cool. So yeah. Did you want us to try to bridge off of this? What's your controversial motorcycling opinion?

Robin: Can I riff off of this? I don't even know if I can. Please do. Okay. I will say it's weird. I've seen some of your bikes. He had a Vstrom. He was still outriding half of us. It was on a, you know, a 90 degree V twin. How, whatever he's Brian ringer. And I will say that when, didn't you like rip the windshield? When he just walked up and grabbed it, like you were going to strangle the bike and just yanked to the windshield off.

Brian: No, I did that. I mean, I did that when I bought it.

Robin: Well, it's still, I mean, I love to see pictures of it. Right. Yeah. It, it, it looks, I don't know how to describe this. I have no analogies. It's sort of like shaving my eyebrows off and then trying to have a serious conversation with somebody. It's just like, it looks funky.

Brian: It looked a little weird. Yeah. It looked a little weird.

Jasmine: For a few winters, I had a Ninja 1000 where I put this big humongous windshield on it. Cause I was commuting in, in the middle of winter. And it was like, this might make me feel less cold and look very silly. It made my, my Ninja look like a scooter, like a humongous, super tall scooter. Cause I have this really long windshield on it, but it did keep me warmer. Like when it got to like 15, 18, 20 degrees out there, definitely kept me. Not as cold.

Robin: Still air, right?

Jasmine: It was still cold, but yeah, no, it actually still moved the air. Like I would say maybe like the eye level a little bit. So it was like, it wasn't hitting my chest anymore. So I made a difference in temperature, but it looked very goofy. I mean, I still have it. Cause I still have the Ninja even though like my husband now writes the Ninja. Um, but I still have the windshield. So yeah, it's like, he told me never going to put that back on it. Okay. It's winter time. I'm cold. I'm bundled up anyway. So I'm okay with it. It looks a little silly for a while.

Brian: Yeah. And you're like the only motorcycle out that day. So you're automatically cooler than absolutely everybody else on the road. So who cares?

Jasmine: I'm sure everyone's sitting in their car thinking, why is this moron on a motorcycle?

Robin: We were just talking about that last episode. I just released that today. I was like, it's great to get those looks where they're like, are you crazy? Maggie's got the, the little bikini fairing screen. It's a little thing, but the cool thing about those is, and I've said this before on the podcast that it actually can displace air around you instead of over top of you. Yeah. You know, you get into that FJR concourse fishbowl, the one that has a door and then you've got all this, this bubble of nothing happening. And I think Brian, maybe that's your biggest, you're not a short guy. You're a tall dude. And dirty air. I've heard tons of complaints from tall guys about dirty air. Just beats your head. Yeah. A bobblehead and an earthquake. That's got to be kind of rough. So I get it. No real controversy there. I just think I like it better when you said you cut it down than when you like just removed it. Because then you got these two sticks with open bolt. There's just nothing there. Or you could say it's really, really clean.

Brian: Yeah, I kept cutting it and cutting and cutting it and then finally ended up with like, like something to cover the hardware on the fairing. And that is it. And that's how I wrote it for years. And go bigger. Get some particle board. There you go. Get a couple of two by fours.

Robin: It's a particle board.

Brian: Jasmine, do you have a controversial motorcycling opinion you'd like to bestow upon the world?

Jasmine: I don't know how controversial it is, but I'm definitely a proponent of quiet motorcycling. I do not have, like, none of my motorcycles have exhaust systems in it, for example. I'd like if I could make them quieter, I'd make them quieter.

Brian: Because I like it. I like it.

Jasmine: I don't want people knowing I'm there.

Brian: Yeah, we're going to get along because I have said the same thing. Like there's all my bikes have the stock exhaust, even the KLR 650. Yes, it sounds like Tweety Bird. That's fine. It's fine. We're not going to piss off the squirrels.

Robin: I like it a loud exhaust. My exhaust is shit bird loud. And I'm not changing it. Not because I believe anything about it. I just like it.

Jasmine: Doesn't it like on long tours, if you're, I guess for short hops, it's fine. But if you're riding a long time, doesn't get annoying like the drone?

Brian: What? I can't hear you. What?

Robin: You know, it's behind me. Whoever's behind me is probably upset. And that's usually Dale. You'll meet Dale. He's a heck of a character. And he doesn't care. Dale doesn't care about much. He's a good man. Good guy. He doesn't care.

Brian: Yeah, it does. It does make that it does remind you of like the battle of Britain or like some giant seven cylinder radial strafing Nazis or something. I mean, yeah, it's, it's, it's distinct.

Robin: I'm here to liberate Germany from on one of their own motors. Yeah.

Brian: Yeah. One thing I like, I rode your bike very briefly once. Uh, and yeah, whenever I ride a BMW or like a cruiser or something, I really have to watch it because I'm, you know, I'm used to spinning an engine a lot more, you know, three and four cylinders. And that was, I'm like, Oh wait, I'm going to hit the rev limiter here. I better, I better, I better torque it a bit more.

Robin: So my bike before it was a bandit, which rev to like 16 K. Yeah. I got used to that plenty. It was just a reborn jigsaw motor. And then this one, yeah, it's like I'm redlining at nine, but I'll tell you when you start to hit 8,007, 8,000, it really starts to tell you I'm not good for this. You know, Maggie's street triple R the power to weight ratio just says off the line. I hope I'll be able to find her once the rides over, you know, she's going to beat me there and back because just power to weight and cylinders. But mine is definitely when you got a rhythm for it and you don't have a sore toe from the shift pedal because it's got a quick shifter. That's not so bad. I definitely have fun on it. And to date it's really the rider, right? Yeah. Yeah. Jasmine, let's get back to you for a second here. Tell us about yourself and your riding career.

Jasmine: Okay. I started riding in 03, so just about 20 years now. Started riding when I got to the point where it's like, I have a job now and I could pay for my own things and my parents aren't paying for stuff. So I'm going to go get learned to ride. I wanted to ride forever, you know, looking at motorcycles and things. Definitely was wore gear right from the beginning. So definitely made my mom feel better that at least I'm wearing gear. So that was one of the things, one of the ways. Plus I think I naturally just like, you know, I also don't remove those plastic things were to like hang your license plates and stuff like that. So I like keeping stock bikes. So I'm okay with looking a little nerdy and having, you know, for the longest time, I wore AeroStitch, I wrote an R3, whatever, the one without the lining. So for the longest, for in the beginning, I was just, you know, recreation rider. I got into some friends who were riding more cruisers and things. You know, met a bunch of Hells Angels and all these other like, Hey, sister.

Robin: Hey, brother.

Jasmine: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I was pretty much. So I was even part of a club for a little bit. So did toy runs and all that stuff. And I forget the year now. I think I had a 93 Kawasaki Zephyr.

Robin: Wow.

Jasmine: I don't know about the year, but because that one looks sort of like a monster. And I really wanted a monster. What was that again?

Robin: 1993.

Jasmine: I forget. I forget the year, but it was a Zephyr.

Brian: Yeah. I think it was a 750 Kawasaki, kind of a UJM look.

Jasmine: Yep. Yep. It was definitely a UJM.

Brian: Yeah, no, that's cool.

Jasmine: Yeah. So I had that for a year and a half or so, and then ended up buying a 2003 SV 1000. Um, because I actually wanted a fared bike and when I bought it, it was a leftover, but Suzuki was promoting like, hey, buy this bike and you'll get, we'll give you fairings for it. Uh, cause you know, originally it was sort of this semi naked with a little tail thing.

Robin: Okay. Yeah.

Jasmine: I remember that. Yeah. Yeah. So I rode that thing everywhere. I think I had 80,000 miles on it or something. So anywhere I wrote that to work, uh, I was working at a company where sort of, we were installing software and I took it all over where I could, where if I didn't need to carry an equipment with me, so I'd take the bike places. So I had that for a very long time. Um, and met lots of friends through there. People that I'm friends with, you know, even now, 20 years later, um, by just doing like back then it was like Yahoo groups and things like that where I meet people go and go on rides and things.

Robin: Oh, when meetup.com was still free.

Jasmine: Yeah. So, um, a bunch of people actually, I, I end up, uh, every year I do this track day in Michigan. Um, so, um, and I do this because it's a time for me to hang out with these people that are my friends that I've known since probably Oh four Oh five.

Robin: Yeah.

Jasmine: That I met doing that. Um, and also ended up that got me linked to some friends where I started doing this charity bicycle ride, whereas motor crew for that.

Robin: I was going to say, if you're on a motorcycle for that, you're cheating. That's not, that's not even, that's not even kind.

Jasmine: No, that would be sad, especially if it was in Connecticut, which I'd never knew at so many hills. So Connecticut is filled with hills. So, yeah, no, I feel bad doing that where like these bicycle riders were like killing themselves going up hills and I would just like go up on my bike. Cause I was trying to keep them safe. Um, so I did that for a while and that's how I got into touring because one of my fellow motor crew, uh, he actually, he lives in New Hampshire, so he was doing some tours and he asked me to like, if I wanted to come, uh, and join one of his tours. Um, I forget where you were, it was probably eight, nine years ago. Uh, and at that point I was, I was using my SV still cause I was just using that SV for everything. Uh, and that year he invited me. Uh, I ended up actually, I was coming back from Connecticut, uh, where like, I don't know how it happened, but both happened at the same time, both like wheel bearings. Fortunately, I was like fairly close to my house, but, uh, like the exit of the highway, it's just like turn. That's like a big circle. So I was like leaned over in the circle when the bike started like shaking for, I don't know how I didn't crash, but when I got straight, it was just like wobbling. And then I pulled over, it was like both bearings went at the same time. Just suddenly it was like a mile before then it was fine.

Robin: Okay. I got to check my bearings. I got to check the bearings. I was like, okay.

Jasmine: So once, you know, you're on group chats, I never found out that he got worried. Cause it was like a month later, I'm supposed to go on this Canadian sport tour thing where we rode like 4,000 miles in like a week and a half or something like that.

Robin: Good grief. Yeah. That's a big tour. You know, we're only doing, we're going to be doing a lot of curves.

Jasmine: Yeah. So most of that was curves. Obviously it's like from here to get to like Portland, get on the four area and then you're in like Nova Scotia or stuff where it's like lots of curves or we'd find all the curves. Obviously some, some places you gotta go. Yeah.

Robin: It's a craft.

Jasmine: Yes. Yeah.

Robin: It's an art.

Jasmine: Yes. So but that's how I ended up with the Ninja 1000, which I also wrote for about 60, 70,000 miles.

Robin: That's a ZX, a ZX 1000.

Jasmine: Yes. The ZX 1000, which I guess Ninja 1000, whatever, like lots of different names for it, I think. So got that because like, Hey, I want to go on tour. Like one despite, I don't know, you know, am I going to trust this bike? So I ended up buying that. So like, you know, bought it like maybe two or three days later after I had this incident. Um, so wrote that everywhere. And then I had that until 2019. I mean, I still have it.

Robin: Oh, so you've got a flock.

Jasmine: Yeah. Yeah. So, so I have four bikes currently in the garage.

Robin: Okay. Yeah.

Jasmine: I got all the Japanese brands, I guess.

Robin: Oh yeah. Well, do you have a Benelli?

Jasmine: No, no.

Robin: Wait, that's Chinese.

Jasmine: Yeah, that's Chinese. Although I guess it used to be, was it ever Italian or it was always Chinese?

Robin: It was, they still kind of are. They just got bought by a Chinese parent company, I think.

Jasmine: And although I guess the last one, it was like pretty much all Chinese with the Benelli name on it.

Robin: Oh, she's going to have to be on the episode more often. This kind of digression, we live for this. You speak the language.

Jasmine: Yeah. So 2018, uh, which ended up not happening. And then obviously COVID happened. Um, so, um, yeah, so that's when I got my CBR because it's like time for a new bike. Um, so, and my, the Yamaha is an R6. So that's my, my little baby bike that I do.

Robin: If I could maybe borrow that at the next, I will trade you.

Jasmine: That was not street legal though. Otherwise you're definitely welcome to it.

Robin: No, that's, that's okay. So that's your track ride.

Jasmine: Yeah, that's my track bike. So my R6 is a track bike. Um, which I got from, uh, one of my friends that I've known since 2005. So we started to do this things. Like, I think usually when we're selling something, like the other one has the first right after refusal sort of thing is like, I want to get rid of something. You usually text them or he'll text me as like, Jasmine, do you want this? Or like, I'll ask him. It's like, Hey, do you want this? Uh, and then we like swapped tons of things back and forth that way. Uh, he actually, I bought it for his son and his son found out he doesn't like track writing. He likes more off road stuff.

Brian: So, okay, that's cool. Yeah. And one thing like you've done, you've done, well, you've done a lot of things I've never done, but it sounds like several times you've actually gone into a dealership and did this weird thing called buying a brand new bike. That's another thing I've never done. I've never treated myself to like my ass is the first on that. You know, I, I, gee, what's that like? No. Do you find you just buy them new and just wear them the hell out? Is that, that sounds like what's going on here.

Jasmine: That's pretty much what I've done. Like, uh, I did that with, except for the R six, which is, uh, an older bike. It's an O eight. So it's an older R six. So I think the, they had a newer design from like. Oh, seven on those were field injected. I think that Oh, two or three, those were carbureted bikes, but don't call me out that I'm horrible with years. Uh, so I try to avoid saying anything with years cause I, or distance. I'm like a very bad, I'm very much a girl when it comes to distance. Cause like that's five feet away though. It's not, it's like 20 feet away.

Robin: My wife is kind of the same. So she's Brian made a solid point last at two episodes ago. Like Robin is Maggie, the one kind of running the ship there. And I'm like, yeah. And he was like, good. I kind of detected that. However, spatial awareness, that's an inch. Is that three miles? Not sure. Don't quite know. And she's in the next room, probably swearing at me right now. But point is, yeah, there are people like that. Understood.

Jasmine: Yeah. No, I'm horrible. I was like, I'll say, oh yeah, that thing is like one of my cousin's husband wanted to borrow this table that I had and I like swore to him. It's an eight foot table and it's like, nope, it's five feet.

Robin: Wow. That's awesome. That is awesome.

Brian: All right. Christmas present is a tape measure.

Robin: This may be entertaining. It's not so that I can field any questions. I would like to know, do you have any questions or curiosities about the seven day tour? Just off the top of your head. And if not, I'll just edit that part out. Ain't nothing.

Jasmine: Yeah, no, I think I'm good. Like, I'm looking forward to it. Definitely. I was a little bummed that the last one didn't have enough people to cancel it. Because one thing I'll say is like, you know, for that, why I'm excited about it is, and it is something where, like, I'm looking to try to see if I retire early. And I'll add the big story around it. Because it's like the friends who I did a lot of tours with, like, they got older. Like two of them, two of them are retired. One of them is probably going to retire soon. And it's like, now they have a lot more time. Like, I guess the average person, they work until they retire and they retire. And you think, oh, I have all this time in the world to do motorcycle stuff. And now they have health issues.

Robin: So everything hurts. Yeah.

Jasmine: Yeah. And it's like, or they have vision issues. So they can't do things as much. So it's sort of, it sucks. Like, when you get the time to do all those things you've been looking forward to, and now you can't do all of them because like, you're, you're get tired sooner. You can't see as well.

Robin: I appreciate you saying that. I really appreciate you saying that. Because I've got a lot of frustration, anger issues, tension, difficulties. Because no matter who we are, no matter what the status of our life is, I know I got it good. The thing about having it just living is that if there's a next step that we want to reach for, and it just seems to everything starts to break apart as we reach for it. I think that is a big part of being frustrated in life. And, and it's like, come on. I mean, I'm going to go eat my meal. I have two bikes and I'm traveling. So a person such as me, I got to work on being more grateful. I've been working on that for a long while. I realized I might be working until I've got nothing but stumps attached to my arms, but the stories I have to tell that nobody wants to hear, there are so many. I really appreciate you saying that, that, that kind of hits home. You're going to try to live some life. I think it's brilliant. Yeah.

Jasmine: Looking very much forward to, I guess it's next year, not this year, because this year is not over yet.

Robin: Yeah, no, everything starts next year, which means I got to get on my insurance stuff too. That's going to be the other part. I got to get everything in order. I have to get everything organized for this tour. And because we keep talking so much about the destinations and the hotel names, I need to make sure I call those hotels and give them passcodes to make sure nobody calls up and pranks us by canceling our tours. Yeah. Let's pick another bit of segment and have a little bit more fun. Brian, you're the ringleader. Okay.

Brian: And again, off, you can edit this out.

Robin: No, I don't, I don't edit you. I leave that all in there so that I sound cooler. I edit myself down to an absolute science.

Brian: I, I'm, I'm like a real technical person. I taught was, so we talk about tools and we talk about maintenance and stuff. How, how much of that are you interested in and how much are you, you know, where, where do you stand on that Jasmine?

Jasmine: I think there's a benefit why I gravitate toward Japanese bikes a little bit. Cause it's like, I change the oil. I change brake fluid. I change coolant. And it's probably bad, but I like leave everything else alone. And it's been fine. I know I probably get more power if I change the plugs and do all of that.

Robin: But it's like, have you checked the valves?

Jasmine: I have never, I once paid someone to check the valves. And this, I think my bike had 40,000 miles at that moment and the valves are perfect.

Robin: So I'm going to say then that if you haven't checked valves before, you are 99.999% sport tourer. The last thing you have to do is check shim under bucket valves without ending up with my hairline.

Brian: Polished. Yeah. Well, you don't, you don't have to do it at the roadside. I guess it could be done. Yeah.

Robin: Yeah.

Brian: The tire change on the roadside. That's a Brian. That's a Brian special. Done that several times. Yeah. And that's it. That's the other thing. I think that motorcyclists are more willing to do than anybody else is, is get in there and change your own tires. And another factor is if you're in a bigger city, you probably have a shop that you can actually trust with stuff. You know, in the middle of Texas, it's kind of the wild west. They're in the middle of Indiana.

Jasmine: Yeah. I would say for the longest time, I was, um, there's a, um, a dealer, not, I mean, I have a bunch of dealers next to me, uh, just cause I live in where I live. Um, but I pay them a little bit extra, but it was like, I call them today. Cause I would always forget like my track bike more so, but also my regular bike that I was using for commuting is like, I need new tires. So I'll call them up today is like, I need these tires. And it's like, bring it by tomorrow. We'll change it for you. So it was like, so it was easy. Cause I'd always just do that. Cause I didn't want to bother with it. I'd say. And then it was also like, I mean, my husband will do the hundred pound torquing if we need to. Um, so that's not an issue, but just this probably like six months ago or when the summer season was maybe, uh, July, August, I'd say. So maybe three months ago. Now I finally changed the tires myself on my track bike. And I, I did it once and I got all the tools and things to do it. And now I think I'm not going to do it again. I'm just going to have them do it.

Brian: Yeah.

Jasmine: It's just painful.

Brian: It's just like, I, I, yeah, I've, I've taught a lot. I've taught several people. I don't know. I've taught several people how to change tires. So I've created a lot of people that now know how to change tires. And I think all, but one of them has been like, I don't, I'm not going to change tires. I'm going to, I'm like, Oh, you know, you just blah, blah, blah. And no, no, no. I, I, what I have learned is how to change tires. I have also learned. I don't like changing tires. I will happily pay a professional to do that.

Jasmine: Um, I'm like used to like riding my bike there with the track bike. I had to put it in the truck before for it, or like, I would just change it in the, the track and I would just say, please. And they would like, remove it, remove it, like take it off the bike for me. Cause my husband doesn't go to the track piece. Um, and I, yeah, I'm just used to like taking my whole bike, please change it. And they'll just do it all this time. I did it all. I think taking the wheels were off was fine. Like, that's an okay thing. Just, I think taking the rubber off the rims wasn't the best thing. And I started watching videos of like Robiconda and all these other ones. Oh, I want to spend $600 on one of these things.

Robin: I don't know, man. And I've got the Nomar and I've been in communication with the Robiconda and they were just like, no, we don't need you. We know what we got here. You just go ahead and pretend like you're somebody. I tell you, I'm not a religious guy, but one in four tires, I am screaming at the sky. Whatever's going on up there. You got to answer, you got to talk. We're going to do, I'm mad.

Brian: Yeah. Yeah. It is. It's a steep learning curve. It is cool. Like what's really cool is that you've pretty much like tried everything. Like, you know how the machine works. I think that's more important with motorcycles than with like minivans, you know? And, and you have to know that whether you just, you know, what you, what you decide to do is, is whatever, but you have to know something about how the damn thing works.

Jasmine: Yeah. And I do enjoy that. I definitely enjoy it.

Robin: It's what you do enjoy. You do enjoy wrenching a little bit.

Jasmine: Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So, I mean, you know, like the, the putting on like the super bike parts and stuff like that. Cause I actually had done it on the SV for a little bit as well. Cause it also came with clip-ons, but I went back and forth on that one.

Robin: That's lovely though. Cause you, you see something that could go on your bike. You know, it's compatible. You order the thing and then you do it and you see it become the thing you imagined it would. Yeah. Personalization is nice. Brian and I have discussed this. I only use wood screws on my bike now. Yeah.

Brian: Just drill a hole, run it in. It's fine.

Robin: Gas tank is cheese, Swiss cheese now. We're in the zone here with Brian's tiny tasty tool tips, which I only realized now how creepy that title is, but let's move on with it. Is that what you want to do next? Brian is tool tips or shop tools and practices, or what do you want to do?

Brian: Tiny tasty tool tips. What? You got the jingle? One or two per episode. Excellent. Thank you, sir. What just happened?

Robin: It triggered me. Like I was just, I was reading my book here.

Brian: I was meh. Since Jasmine was talking about the, the exotic practice.

Robin: It's Jasmine, Brian. It's not Jasmine.

Brian: Whoa. All right. Mr. Audio engineer. All right. As Jasmine was discussing earlier, the exotic practice of buying a new motorcycle. Strange territory to me anyway. So when you buy that new motorcycle, if you look under the seat, you're going to find some strange objects, usually in a little crappy vinyl pouch. So make sure you kind of read that weird little book under there and look and see what that weird stuff is in your toolkit.

Jasmine: My CPR didn't come with any of that. I was very disappointed because it was like, I, I took the seat off and I looked for, I was like, it's not there. And then I call up the guy.

Brian: I was like, like, for example, in some toolkits, there's this, there's a hunk of wire with loops on either end. And what the hell is that for? If you look in your manual, assuming you ever got one, sometimes that's used for like compressing the front suspension. So you can get the rear out the rear tire out. Sometimes it's just a helmet lock loop, stuff like that. Um, and a lot of times the, the there'll be an, uh, like a spark plug socket or tool of some sort in the toolkit and on many bikes, that's like the only good way to get the damn thing out of there because there's so little room to work. They'll make like a really crappy sheet metal tool that will fit down inside there. And it's, and it's one of the easiest, it's the best way to get the, uh, spark plug out.

Robin: So, and it looks like it's made out of recycled pop cans. Yeah. You can read the words Pepsi on there somewhere. By the way, this podcast is looking for sponsors. Pepsi looking out.

Brian: Yeah. It's made out of spray cheese or whatever. Um, yeah, anyway, just look at this stuff, figure out what it does. Um, and, and don't let it be a mystery. Um, and the other thing is once you figure that out, some of it, you can probably throw out and, and use better and carry better tools with you like a screwdrivers. Uh, most motorcycles come with a Phillips screwdriver. That's just horrible. Um, you know, throw that away, get something else.

Robin: The best tool roll I've been able to come with so far is sort of like, it's sort of a toiletry bag. It's just this fold up vinyl bag. That's got multiple compartments on it. And it seems to take a scattering of, okay, I need the torques. I need the Allens. Somebody else is going to need that extension. You know it, bring it and it fits. And I have an extra anyhow, that kind of thing that works out really well. And it fits in my top case too. Won't fit under the seat for save my life. It won't. Yeah. But it is better and more accessible. My favorite was way back in the day. I had some old cloth bags. Brian, you're the one that we were helping somebody on the side of the road. He didn't have the tools. You didn't have quite the tools. And I had the, I handed you this tool roll. There wasn't a roll. It was a bag of tools. It was like dripping with oil. And he looked at it. He looked at me. He said, the bag. He just walked away. A mess of useless, unorganized, but it had all the, everything in it.

Brian: It was just, I didn't sort it. This actually sorts it.

Jasmine: Oh yeah.

Brian: You got to find, you got to find your system. Yeah. And, and one thing I can say is that I've, I've worked on several BMWs on the side of the road.

Robin: And that's funny, Brian. I see what you did there. You're funny. Thanks. Thank you.

Brian: And, and they do come with like a decent toolkit. Like they have the L keys with the torques and, and like if someone, not you, uh, dumps their BMW and low sides, their BMW, you can actually, you know, they got the big Torx keys you need to un, you know, to kind of loosen the forks and get them back in the line and, and all that stuff. So yeah, that, that is one like Japanese bikes are like Jasmine said, very, you know, the reliability is amazing and so forth, but, uh, the, the toolkits are just garbage. So maybe there's a relationship there. I don't know.

Jasmine: I can never going to need these anyway.

Brian: Yeah.

Robin: We don't build these bikes. We grow them. They're just organic, naturally functional machines. Very cool. Well, that's a solid hour of me having to edit a lot of you two out so I can hear the sound of my own voice. With that, before we go, I want to thank Jasmine Islam for joining us on this episode. It was a real pleasure having you. You clearly know your stuff and I'm glad to get to interact with you once more. We only had that one brief discussion beforehand and this has been a lot of fun.

Brian: I'll agree. And it was great to meet you, Jasmine. Um, I can't wait to find out more. You kind of skipped over like 20 years of writing career and oh yeah, we did 4,000 miles and I need more. I need more stories. I need to hear more.

Jasmine: Definite. No, definitely looking forward to meeting you more, I guess, or spending more time with you.

Robin: Yeah.

Jasmine: Because I think a lot of fun of sport touring days are you enjoy great roads and then you stop somewhere, you got like to rest, eat some food, have some conversations, which are just the equal amount of fun to spend time with people that are cool. So.

Robin: It's a spiritual journey. Yeah. Something like that. Your laughter again. Thanks, Brian. Thanks for that.

Brian: On the next episode, we'll read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and discuss every page.

Robin: This is where you got to do, you got to do throat singing.