Brian: Grab some water. All right.

Maggie: That doesn't look like water.

Brian: It's water with enhanced something in it. It's got what plants crave. Maggie, how are you doing?

Maggie: I'm great.

Brian: Good to see you again.

Maggie: It's nice to see you too, Brian. How were your holidays?

Brian: Excellent. Had a great time. Good. I usually, like, I'll try, if it's at all possible, I'll try to get out and ride just for a little bit on Christmas Day, if I possibly can.

Maggie: Is that a tradition that you try to maintain?

Brian: I wouldn't dignify it with tradition. It's just basically I gotta get out of the house or I'm gonna start screaming. So if I'm at home, I gotta, you know, I'll try it. But yesterday it was just raining and cold all day. Today I got out for a little bit on my KLR and it was quite nice. Tested out some new tires. It's about eight miles to the nearest gravel road. There's about a half a mile gravel road. So if I'm testing out something on the KLR, I'll go like over this gravel road, go up and down it. Yep. Okay. These work. And then come home.

Maggie: That's a good idea.

Brian: Yeah, kind of did that. And I was like, yeah, I think these will work. And then, uh, and then came back home. So how was Christmas for you guys? I'm sure it's shirtsleeve weather and you're riding motorcycles every day and just paradise and all that.

Maggie: We're not, we haven't ridden motorcycles this week. However, we are going to go out. Uh, the weather's going to be great tomorrow, Saturday and Sunday, and it's going to be in the low eighties by Monday. So yeah, we're climbing and we're in the mid and high seventies starting tomorrow, but I'm limited because I've not yet sold my bike. When I ride, I just take it out for 60 miles at a time and don't turn it off. So not exactly a, you know, a nice long day ride, but I do like getting on it when I can, when the weather's cooperative. And even though it's a short ride, it's still like the, we've got two great routes near us that are plenty twisty.

Brian: Yeah. You're in a great area of Texas. And that's why your house has wheels on it is to get away from this Northern concerns.

Maggie: That's right. Yes. And I am, I do happen to be wearing short sleeves.

Brian: Yeah. I had to put on extra layers, everything, but it wasn't too bad as mid forties today. So I'll take it. So one of the things that we're going to talk about is kind of recap the year, just a little bit. I had the distinct honor of, of, of visiting you and Robin at your rolling home in three different States this last year, came out to New Mexico in April and came up to Wisconsin in, I think it was July. And, and then again, and then you guys stayed in Indiana for a while in October. Yeah. It's a little strange, you know, to me, my house like stays in one place to me, it's just like, Oh, here's the same people in the same house and the same in a totally different context. I mean, New Mexico is the different place possible that you can imagine from Wisconsin. And that's why you do it.

Maggie: Yeah, you're right. That's it's, it's unusual to see anyone, any, any of our friends that many times in a year and even more so because it was in three different States. Wait, was it four times? Cause you went to the track day too.

Brian: Yeah. I went to the track day, but you weren't there, but Robin was obviously. Yeah. So that was Illinois.

Maggie: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Brian: If you want to count States, Robin and I wrote in and you know, there's New Mexico, there's Arizona, there's Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky. And I had to, normally there's some people writing in, in Missouri. And I just, you know, I had so much other writing going on. I just like, I have to, I can't skip work or leave for a weekend anymore. I got to skip one and then we can do the other stuff. But yeah, in Indiana was actually a couple of rides because I met up with Robin in Kentucky. So in Kentucky and Indiana for the tail end of the triple sevens tour. And we all did all that. And then also the Brown County rally that I put together for the vintage riders. And then he came back to Indiana in October and then for our, for the, for the big Kentucky ride, it's kind of my season finale. Yeah. And both times we, we decided to do major, major work on Robin's bike right before leaving the night before. I don't know why we got it to work out.

Maggie: Isn't that one of the not recommended practices before a ride or a bigger, a bigger ride?

Brian: Yeah. Experts only kids don't do this at home. No, I don't know. And then as the drive shaft that we put in, in Indiana finally blew up in Wisconsin. So in the Wisconsin ride, I brought with me the old drive shaft. And so the day before the big ride to next day, guess what we're doing? We're elbow deep in Robin's motorcycle again.

Maggie: Yeah.

Brian: And this was like, if this doesn't work, no more drive shafts.

Maggie: Yeah.

Brian: I don't know what we're going to do. And that's the thing. Your, your year got, got really curtailed by the triumph issues.

Maggie: Yes, it did.

Brian: You were able to get out with us for at, uh, New Mexico. Yeah, that was fun. That was great. And then, uh, for the first day in Wisconsin, that was a lot of fun, even though the weather was kind of crappy, it was still a lot of fun.

Maggie: That first day was nice. I think it was just, no, you're right. I got out for a day of each of those. I skipped the track day. Same with Kentucky. Cause yeah, it's the bike is not reliable. And as you know, you were there, Robin got through, I don't know, 75% of the track day and had to sit out the last one or two sessions.

Brian: Cause it finally just was like, yeah, I think we ended up with seven sessions if I'm not mistaken. And I think he did the first five, four or five, something like that. It crapped out and he's like, okay, I expected this.

Maggie: And then he went over and got a I will say my writing year this year has not been as, uh, there weren't as many like big rides or things that I did. Like I'm looking at, you know, thinking about what you did, you know, you had your first track day and you went out to New Mexico and you know, you had a lot going on this year, which I think is awesome. You had the twisted road experience and I didn't have that for this year. But what I did have was a reckoning with my bike and, uh, you know, we took it apart a few times. It sounds minor, but I've had this bike since 2000 at the end of 2015, you know, I have not switched it up in all that time. I really got to know her or so I thought. And so for me, it was big to finally realize that, okay, I'm ready to move on. We're ready for a break and I want a new bike.

Brian: There are a lot of benefits to a Japanese reliability. Let me tell you.

Maggie: Yeah. You know, and like, of course there's benefits when you know a bike really well and you know how the bike handles or, you know, oh, I can only go on a 60 mile ride because I can't trust to turn it off and that I'll be able to return. I mean, there's benefits of course, to knowing your bike, but it's also, it means that as a writer, I feel like, uh, if you're not getting out and writing in new territories or taking a course in a different style of writing, then how are you being challenged? Like I just, I felt, I realized I wasn't being challenged as a writer. I haven't taken courses in a while. It's been a few years. I was reflecting on that and there's, we've talked about a few courses we each, we both want to take. And I think Robin's going to do something when he gets to New Mexico, which would be super cool if we see it rolled out. I also started to wonder about like how, like I started to have doubts, you know, about how much longer can I ride two wheels? And then I did that little segment on Mary McGee. I thought about other writers that I know that are well into their seventies. And I thought, no, no, no, I can, I can ride as long as I want to, as long as I try to maintain my health. And so my health has been a big thing this year. I've been trying to maintain my health and about my flexibility and my mobility and my strength. That's what I've been focusing on so that I can continue to do all the things I want to do, including riding on two wheels.

Brian: It's a, it's a big motivator. At least for me, it is.

Maggie: Yeah. Updates. We are preparing to leave Texas. We're heading towards New Mexico. And so in preparation for that, a couple, a few things came up. The toy hauler fuel distribution pump has been switched over to a manual pump, less mechanical breakdown that way. Okay. Less mechanical breakdown. And it's a good system. Robin configured something and it's pretty cool. So now I believe we will have a functioning pump again. The fuel had gone bad, probably clogged up the old system, but Robin took it apart and he tried to get it going and he got the fan. There was a fan piece. He got that moving, but it still wasn't functioning the way it's supposed to. We don't use the pump all the time. So that probably, it got clogged up in there. But by the time he, so he had to remove the fuel and it was black. It was a little bit of a challenge of how to dispose of that fuel. Yeah. It's not exactly, you can't take that to AutoZone. The local garbage and refuse and recycling didn't want it. So ultimately we had to burn it. And I'm glad that that got figured out. And the other thing is that, so when we get ready to pack up, the thing that has been the most challenging for Robin to deal with is packing, getting the scooter all tied up and done. Yeah. It wasn't planned for in the same way the motorcycles were. We were specific with the motorcycles. We've got pitbull fans and Robin measured it out. But with the scooter, it doesn't quite fit between the two bikes, even with you back it in. And so the way he's had to do it, it takes a lot. So we thought about getting one of those racks that you see other people put on, that you can attach to the back of a truck. But we decided that probably wasn't a good idea, even though the scooter is maybe 300 pounds. He's come up with a system that we think will work. We're going to take our wheel chalk, which is part of our emergency bike hauling situation.

Brian: Yeah. It goes in the back of the truck if you need it. Yeah.

Maggie: Yeah. Which we had to come up for the Triumph and have used it. That chalk, he's going to fasten it in the back and see if the, well, he already knows the scooter will fit into it. I was like, oh, those little 10 inch wheels go in there. They do. So it's just a matter of securing the rest of the scooter. Because otherwise, I guess the back could get a little wobbly back here. He has to park it perpendicular to the two bikes.

Brian: Yeah. I don't know if origami is the right word. Rubik's cube, something like that, where you have to get it all tucked in just right and the weight distributed correctly.

Maggie: And yeah, it's a bit of Tetris, maybe.

Brian: Tetris. There you go.

Maggie: Yeah.

Brian: Listener questions. We don't have real names. We've got usernames here. I believe if you have a question that you'd like to hear us to deal with in some way, I don't want to, I don't want to use the word answer. That's kind of a strong word. I believe you can go to email.tro.bike and fill out the form there. And we will spew those forth and discuss them at some point in the future. First question we have is from Method. Like, this is what happens when adults get to pick their own names. It's an age old argument. So motor oil for a CB1000R 2009 Honda. Is Motul 7100 10w40 okay? Sure. Yes, it'll be fine. It's oil. That's the short answer. You know, people get really exercised about motor oil motorcycles. You can start an argument when you talk about tires, oil, fork oil, chain lube. You know, it starts a fight every time. So the long answer is yes, it'll be fine. Motul is like really super luxury, premium unicorn tears oil. The big thing you want to look for on the back of any motor oil that you're going to stick in your motorcycle is that it's marked JASO. J-A-S-O. It's a Japanese standards organization of some kind. So JASO M-A or and JASO M-A-2. If it says that on the back, it's safe for wet clutches and it can go in your motorcycle and you can stop arguing there. Um, when you look up that bike, it calls for a 10w30 or a 10w40 motorcycle oil. In this case, it is possible to get a 10w30 oil that is not really good for motorcycle clutches. So you want to be careful about that and make sure you get a motorcycle, something that says JASO M-A-2 on the back or go to your Honda dealer, buy the Honda line oil. They're great stuff. And, uh, they're going to be fully synthetic. I think there are a few semi-synthetics they may be, but, uh, yeah, either one of those will be fine. It's just unheard of for engines to go bad because of oil issues, you know, but it is a thing people worry about. So it's a little bit like tires, you know, buy the good stuff so you can not worry about it. And so you could concentrate on survival. Now the controversial part of my answer, since we're talking about oil, pretty much every make and model of motorcycle, there are a lot of people, myself included, who just go to the, go to Walmart, buy Rotella 5w40 synthetic. It's sold for diesel engines. That may be what you put in your truck. I don't know. Rotella 5w40 and a lot of the Rotella diesel engine oils are actually rated JASO M-A-2. So they're safe to use in motorcycles. They're dirt cheap for a very high quality synthetic. They work great. You know, no one's ever had a problem with them. So that's what I use in my bike, if I'm being honest in my bikes. But if you're not sure, and it's going to be on your mind and then go get motorcycle specific oil, just make sure it's got JASO M-A-2 on the back and you'll be fine. That's a long answer for a simple question.

Maggie: We also use Rotella.

Brian: Yeah, I thought so. Yeah. Yeah. Do you want to fight about oil?

Maggie: No, no, no, no. I don't want to fight about oil. I was just going to say, I think when you're newer and you're just getting to learn your bike, I think it's fine to stick to whatever the manual says. It's sort of like learning the basics. And then once you get it, then you find out, oh, I can use Rotella. You know, you find out from other people or as you get, it's kind of like, you got to learn the basics first and then you can kind of stray a little bit.

Brian: Yeah. Do it the right way. And especially while the bike's under warranty, just buy the oil from Honda or whatever. It's a little bit like being a writer or being a musician. You got to know the rules before you decide where you want to break the rules.

Maggie: Yep. Okay. So Boon Master asks, so I want to be able to work on my bike all on my own. I know some stuff, chain cleaning and oil change, but wanting to know any good YouTubers or websites to check out for good tutorials to do my own maintenance. Do you have an opinion on that, Brian?

Brian: Yeah. The main place to start, and I think Robin brought this up last on the last episode, maybe many times before that, but for every bike, I don't care what it is. There's somebody has set up a forum and they're, and they're talking about and sharing and arguing about that specific bike. So whatever you have, go there and, you know, and dig in. A lot of times I'll have a section with good technical info. Some are better than others, obviously. But yeah, as far as YouTubers and websites and stuff in general, it's really hard because everything, you know, a lot of things when you're dealing with motorcycle work is so specific to that bike that you can really go astray a little bit. If you're, if you're, if you're looking for general stuff, YouTube came along after I was doing all my own motorcycle work, which man, I feel old. But anyway, what I've noticed is if you look kind of the big names in motorcycling, so Motorcyclist Magazine has a channel called MC Garage, and they have a really good batch of videos on basic motorcycle stuff, the how and the why, and it's generalized enough where it works for almost any motorcycle. For example, I think a really good thing every motorcyclist needs to know something about, if not learn how to do, is changing your own tires. You know, whether you want to or not, learn how to do it and then decide you still want to pay someone. But knowing how to do it, you know, could, could be pretty useful someday. Anyway, MC Garage has a, has a pretty decent video on, okay, I've got the tire in front of me, I've got like a blanket on the floor and the most basic of hand tools, and they go through how to change the tires on a, on a sport bike wheel, demount, mount and balance your tires. That's a great place to start. And I think from there, YouTube will feed you all the videos you can stand on motorcycles matters after that. That specific video, they use Windex as a tire mounting lubricant. I mean, I can argue with that. I don't think it's a good idea because Windex is kind of corrosive on metal surfaces, but it works. It's not going to hurt the rubber. And if you don't feel like going out and getting a bottle of actual tire mounting lubricant, it can work. And also look for, like, if you're looking for a suspension setup, look for names you may have heard of like Racetech Suspension. And there are a lot of different suspension shops, things like that. Look for things that match the kind of riding you do. There's a lot of information for like adventure riding that is kind of specific to that because suspension, you know, on taller bikes, suspension is a little different. If you look for a video on suspension setup, you'll find stuff on cruisers and choppers and you'll find stuff on race bikes. And most people are going to want to be somewhere in between, you know, they're street riders.

Maggie: Yeah.

Brian: Take in the information, filter it, have your guard up. Definitely. There's a lot of like bro dudes wearing sunglasses and using, you know, hitting screwdrivers with hammers and doing dumb crap and just don't just filter it. But yeah, there's a lot of good information out there. A lot of bad information.

Maggie: Yeah, I agree. Even mounting a tire, breaking the bead, getting the tire back on, that you can even find different, just even little mini micro videos about. There was, um, we found a video, if you're having trouble getting that, we had a really hardwalled tire. This is, I think, still when we were using the Michelin tires, we saw a guy who basically took, you know, large zip ties and sort of crushed zip tied the side, sidewalls of the tire just to get that distance. So sometimes you can even just find like little hacks like that. But I, I agree with everything you said. Like it's very bike specific. I mean, even to the year, whenever I'm doing a search for something, I am specific about my, my year and model because obviously they changed that they're not even the same CCs now. And there can be some different changes or things that your bike setup, even in a different generation, won't quite be the same. And if you're someone like me who wants to see it exactly the way it's going to, it should go, it helps. It's getting savvy with your search and also like a Haynes manual, they have a paper version. There's the physical for each, each of our bikes, but they also make the online version. That's not horrible. It's searchable and you can get right to the specific thing that you're doing with the, you know, whatever the maintenance thing is changing the spark plug or brake fluids. You just have to get really specific. Like you said, there's the sort of general things that you want to know, like changing a tire, at least you need to know how to get the tire off your bike. But after that, it's all pretty much the same in terms of what you need to do.

Brian: I would say, and definitely be very careful with things like oil changes and so forth, because a very, very common mistake before you really get to know a bike is removing the wrong bolt and some oil comes out, but it's not all the oil, you know, that kind of thing. Things like drain plugs, you know, so yeah, there are a lot of things that are very bike-specific. You want to make sure you get them right and get all, get different angles on the problem. It consists of a little segment we call destination proclamation. And what we're talking about here is site sponsor Twisted Road. And if you go to twisted.tro.bike, we'll hook you up with a great discount on motorcycle rentals. So wherever you are, it's riding season somewhere. Right now we're in the depths of winter, but, you know, in places like, oh, I don't know, Texas, New Mexico, things are looking a little bit better. And so one of the ones we picked out and we noticed is that anytime you get on an airplane, your odds of ending up going through Atlanta are pretty high. ATL just seems to be this place that sucks in every flight eventually. We thought we'd look around there. Plus it's in the, you know, the American South, it tends to have much better weather than the frozen tundra here in the North. And the neat thing about Atlanta is about an hour North of the city, you can get into some just wonderful hills. And then pretty soon you're in the mountains. You're right on the edge of the Appalachian mountains, especially when you get closer to the North Carolina border. Some of the finest riding in the country is in Northern Georgia, Southern North Carolina, and it's a large city, big airport. Why not stay a while? And I think we found something like 45 bikes for rent around ATL. So I wanted to throw it over to you, Maggie. What are the, what are the ones you might pick? I know what I would pick, but let's hear, what would you pick if someone said, you're going to rent a bike in Atlanta, damn it. And you're going to have a good time. Which one would you pick right now?

Maggie: There's a Honda CB500.

Brian: That's a sensible choice, isn't it?

Maggie: Yeah. I'm going to check that out.

Brian: Is sensible what you want?

Maggie: Well, I don't want to, I mean, I want a bike that works. Let's put it that way.

Brian: Oh man. Oh, you're, you're poor triumph. Like the CB500, it has a low seat height and you're a, you're as small as human. Yes. You're used to a leader bike power.

Maggie: Yeah. Yeah.

Brian: It might be a little slow.

Maggie: Oof. But I mean, if it's a possibility, I like to have a choice, you know what I mean? So I like to have like two or three possibilities. So it's Kawasaki, a Z650. This is looking a little better.

Brian: On each bike listing near the top, you'll see bike description and then you'll see a little indicator of the seat height. So that, it's a 2019 Kawasaki Z650. 650 twin, same as the Versys. Fun engine. Kind of a naked bike style. Not the, not the tall one like the Versys. And, and then they have a little stat there. It's 31 inch seat height.

Maggie: Yep. I am leaning towards the Kawasaki. That's the taller bike for me. The Honda is a better seat height for me. That one's 28 inches. There's also this Royal Enfield. It's a GT650. Looks like a little scrambler. Well, not little. I've never ridden one. I haven't been on a Royal Enfield.

Brian: Yeah. I've never been on one.

Maggie: This is also a 31 inch.

Brian: This is Royal Enfield's fuel injected 650 twin. Just a beautiful classic look. None of these are going to be dripping with power. I mean, they're not going to have the leader bike punch that you're used to, but you can have a heck of a lot of fun on any of them.

Maggie: Yeah.

Brian: If you just punch in Atlanta, Georgia at the top, you can, you can see all the bikes that are around the area and then you can get specific with your dates and so forth. If you're actually booking a trip, but if you're just playing around, you can.

Maggie: Also at the bottom of the site, you can, if you're not even sure, you can kind of get an idea. They've got popular cities at the bottom and you can kind of peruse those. You'll see Miami, Florida. Well, I don't know what the writing would be like there. You know, you'll get some other ideas of not just where you can rent a bike, but I might want to get away in January for a three day trip. So the site's really nice, laid out really well. Yeah. I'm going to have to say I'm a little curious, Royal Enfield curious, but I probably would go with the Kawasaki. I'm already used to having to one foot it.

Brian: Yeah. You could one toe it and be just fine. If you really want to go nuts and you sort by pricing. Yeah. Somebody's renting out a Ducati Streetfighter V4. You know, if you really want to just, what are those? 200 horsepower or something? It's something ridiculous. 208 horsepower. Who needs that? And it's got a pipe on it because, you know, I'm sure that didn't make any, I'm sure the noises weren't glorious enough out of that thing.

Maggie: Yeah.

Brian: I think that'd be a little ridiculous and I'd be terrified of it.

Maggie: Yeah. There's quite a few bikes available in Atlanta. So Brian, if you were told that you were going to spend three days out in Atlanta, Georgia, and you were trying to figure out not just what you want to ride, but where would you want to ride? Where would you go?

Brian: I've been to the, like such as Georgia. It used to be, what was it called? A two wheel in or something like that. There was, there was a kind of a stopping point. It was kind of a gathering place for motorcyclists up in the mountains. And if you get up in the Northern Georgia, just a little bit out of town, the Chattahoochee Oconee National Forest area. So there's such as Georgia is really, is actually famous. Wolf Penn Gap Road is quite famous. Highway 60 is famous. Stone Pile Gap, something like that. You know, I can't remember all the names. 19, 129, 80. They're all Vogel State Park. And then actually, then you can get up into North Carolina, Ducktown, things like that. And you can get into Tellico Plains or Robbinsville, North Carolina. You're kind of just south of that area. So Robbinsville is about three hours from Atlanta, just to give you an idea of the scale. So yeah, if I had a few days, I would head straight north and enjoy myself. If you turn on the terrain layer in Google Maps, you'll, you'll see the mountains there and be like, oh, okay. Yeah. This is where I need to be.

Maggie: Okay. What bike would you want to ride in out of Atlanta?

Brian: If I didn't need any luggage and maybe I'm biased, but there's a 2023 Yamaha MT-09 up for rent with the, with the bright Aqua wheels. It's a black bike with those bright blue wheels. And basically you'd need to be traveling. Like I'd need to have like a, maybe a backpack or like a couple of sandwiches. That's it. Cause there's no luggage space. That would be just a hoot. And maybe I'm biased because my bike has the same engine, you know, but it's the sport touring model, not the naked sport model. That's probably the one I would go for something like that. There's such a variety there. You know, you could rent a Grom if you wanted to rent a Grom. I don't know why you'd want to rent a Grom, but it's just to see what that's like as a Triumph Thruxton. You know, there's a lot of, a lot of really interesting stuff all around the city and definitely get something a little sportier with better handling though. That's, that's what you're going to need there.

Maggie: Yeah. No, that makes sense. And it's also nice that, you know, if you're going to do three days, you get a discount, the more days you rent the bike versus like a single day, plus the discount you get from renting through TRO.

Brian: Twisted.tro.bike. So I was mentioning earlier that, uh, I'd like to go for a ride on Christmas if I can, I could do that yesterday, but, but I was able to get out the next day, uh, and to try out some new tires and kind of want to get your take Maggie on some of the strategies for staying warm when it's cold out. You know, we're calling this temperature tango. I don't know if that's a good title or not.

Maggie: I like it. Some alliteration.

Brian: What are your, um, a couple of things, you know, like there's what I can put up with if I'm writing to work, which is about 20 minutes, you know, you can put up with a lot. So like if you're going for 20 minutes or an hour ride or half a day or all day, what, what are kind of your limits there? You're just saying, no, I'm not doing it. I'm just staying home.

Maggie: I like to ride when it's at least in the sixties, knowing it's going to be two degrees lower once you're moving. However, that being said, once you're on the bike at times, depending on how, how long of a ride it is, I have been out there and it's just been cold and I wasn't prepared. So there there's, there's being prepared and having, uh, also like my bike doesn't have heated grips. However, Robin found some nice, you know, a third party aftermarket heated grips Velcro on and actually work. Okay. So I now have heated grips, but I've looked at other people, you know, people that have those hand guards. And I thought about that. And I used to have heated glove liners and the liners didn't fit inside of any gloves that I had. So they didn't do me any good. And we were just talking about a really, really, uh, I think maybe it was the first or second time we rode around Lake Michigan and we were two up, we were up in the UP and I was not prepared well enough. So it was cold. I can handle probably a couple hours and then I need to stop and I need to warm up. But of course you, you think of it, it's, it's out there. You can buy it. Heated sock, heated grips, heated vests, heated everything. Uh, if you're someone who can afford an arrow stitch, I understand those can, you know, keep you somewhat warm, but what if you're just out there and you get caught, you think the temperature is, you're going to be fine. And then you're out riding longer than you thought you would, or it just drops, you're stuck. So there's a few things, you know, like, um, obviously have layers. And if you have luggage, you, you can start out with more stuff and take it off or start out with it in your luggage and put it on. I have, and we both have a neck gaiter. I actually always bring mine just in case.

Brian: It's really amazing how hard it is to find a neck gaiter, like in a store, like you had to find them off season and ski shops and stuff like that. It's like, it's the weirdest thing. That's a really good direction to think about too, is, you know, how do you, how do you deal with it? If you're not prepared, you know, for whatever reason, one thing, a lot of people that doesn't even come into their mind really is, is foraging. What I mean is you go to the wilds of Walmart and you, you know, what can you find wherever you are? There's a Walmart. So especially in rural America.

Maggie: Yeah. Especially in rural America, but even, even the AutoZone, uh, the AutoZone carries those charcoal, hot hands, little hand warmers.

Brian: Yeah.

Maggie: Yeah. Or, and they have it for your feet. So something like that can work.

Brian: Yeah. Stick them in your boots. There are many times I've just stopped at a Walmart and bought a sweatshirt, you know, and that's, that's done the trick or bought some, uh, sweatpants and put them underneath or, you know, things like that. They don't cost that much. Or even, uh, there's one time I even stopped at a Goodwill and bought like a long sleeve. I think that's where I got this. It's, it's something people like, Oh, I didn't bring anything. It's like, well, you're, you know, unless you're like in Mongolia or something and you're not, you know, like you can buy ski gloves or leather gloves at Walmart. You know, you can buy leather gloves that are warm at Walmart anytime of year, that kind of thing. So, or a farm store, stuff like that. It's a good way to do it.

Maggie: Yeah. Before, before the heated grips, I was dealing with some cold hands, uh, riding up in the mountains of New Mexico and something that we tried, which helped a lot was actually just putting on some nitrile or latex gloves and then my normal riding gloves. And that actually helped block a lot of the wind that was getting through my normal riding gloves. So I always keep a pair of latex gloves or nitrile gloves on the bike.

Brian: Yeah. I've got some, like, I've got them in my first aid kit and I've also got them for obvious reasons. Usually I have some of my tool kit somewhere in case I'm doing something too messy. I guess newspapers are less common now, but I've seen people do things like they'll, they'll put a layer of something, newspaper, a shirt, fold up something on their chest, basically get in a layer where air is kind of coming in and in the front to kind of block that and keep your core warm. Put a thin cap, if you can, it depends on your helmet, but if you can get something on over your head, between your head and your helmet, that can help too.

Maggie: Yeah. I also carry a headscarf that can be, it's one of those where you're supposed to be able to wear it in all these different fashionable ways, but I carry it so that I can wrap my head in it. Neither one of us has like an actual balaclava. I don't know that I could fit my head into that and my helmet because of my cheekbones and my helmet is now very, very fit to my head. So I don't think I could actually wear one anyway. I don't think I could fit it anyway, but like a thin, uh, yeah, just a hair wrap or you can wear it as a scarf or anyway, it's the hair I put around my head when it's cold.

Brian: General insulated warmie or the, oh, uh, Thneed, I think is what they were called in the, in the Dr. Zeus. Anyway, the other thing is, uh, just stop more frequently. Um, hot tea, hot cocoa, things like that. That really does help. Although, you know, you can end up getting over-sugared and over-caffeinated, but you also have to balance that because in the winter days are shorter. So you may have to shorten your route. You may have to get there faster, that kind of thing. I've also found it depends on the bike a lot, depends on what kind of fairing the bike has, if any, but there are times I've been really, really cold and I've found that it's, it works better to just stay like stay on the interstate where you can be at a consistent high speed. And you can, you can get that bubble of air around you. If you're just going like 45, 50, you know, the air hits you directly. But if you're getting up, you know, if you're on interstate going a little faster, the air can kind of flow around you. And again, this is very dependent. You know, you just have to pay attention to what's going on and experiment with different body positions, you know, lean down, get small, that kind of thing. I do have like a big floppy foam. They look like Mickey Mouse ears and they go like in front of, they go in the handguards of my KLR to block wind. They help some, but not much. So I'll put them on if I'm really pushing it, but didn't really. But like a friend of mine has, I think they called them Hippo hands, or at least that was one brand of them. Those just make, it was like a complete nest that goes over your controls and everything. And it's got little stiffeners inside, so they don't interfere with your levers. And those actually work really, really well. I mean, it's pretty much just this little insulated nest where your hands are going to go in and you can wear like normal gloves under there. That's really effective. Obviously you had to have them before you leave home. I've never had any heated garments. Have you tried any heated vests, anything like that?

Maggie: I do have a heated vest that was donated by a friend who they didn't need theirs anymore. I haven't tried it out. The tricky thing with some heated garments is sometimes like my particular vest is pretty thick. So I think I can still get my jacket on over it, but I haven't tried it out. It's puffy. And again, it depends on, you know, I've seen, I've seen more streamlined, heated garments, but you're going to pay more. It's like anything else. If it's really designed well, they're going to charge you a lot more for it. But Robin has a heated vest that he knows works well. And I don't think he has heated. I think he just has the heated vest and gloves.

Brian: And with any of these things, you just have to make sure that your motorcycle's charging system can handle it. A lot of vintage bikes and even some modern bikes are pretty limited in what they can put out. So if you have the whole suit, you know, do some math first, ask people who know about your bike. I've seen people like buy the whole entire armored suit of electric everything, plug it into like a Vstrom, which doesn't have a lot of spare electricity and they don't get very far. Unless you're on a Goldwing or something, maybe do some checking first and make sure it can handle. Like heated grips are on all my bikes. I think they're mandatory. Any bike can handle heated grips. They don't draw very much. And then from there, you know, gloves and so forth. Heated seats. I've not tried one of those, but I think that that kind of sounds kind of nice. I don't know. It also sounds kind of gross. I don't know.

Maggie: It sounds nice, but where's that line? Like what happens? You know, you could cross that line easily and now you're in, you know, you're on the other side of the spectrum with swamp and you're dealing with swamp ass and I just don't know about that.

Brian: Yeah, I don't know. It could be bad.

Maggie: The other thing about heated garments to keep in mind is, you know, it's not like you've got wireless heated garments. You're going to have a bunch of wires that you have to figure out. And then there's controls for that, for those heated garments that you also have to figure out. So it's not exactly an easy thing where you're like, oh, I plug it in and it works and it's on. There's a little bit more to that with all the wiring and your controls. And do I want it on super hot or do I want it only on the lowest level of heat and all that stuff? So I feel like it has a bit of complication and I am not someone who wants to be able to say that I rode in negative 10 degree weather. Like that's not one of my life goals. I'm OK with it. So if that is something that you're thinking about, yeah, just keep that in mind too. You've got to the wires have to go somewhere and you've got to figure it out so they don't interfere with your mobility and your other clothing.

Brian: Yeah, you do see people with heated gear like just get off and walk away. So you have to remember it every single time.

Maggie: So let's take a break here and we're going to let Robin recap 2024.

Robin: All right, a lazy waking up Robin Dean here coming at you with the one and only drooling water slobbering gypsy, the dog waking up from an afternoon nap here in beautiful Sanderson, Texas at the Hotel Godin, aka the Desert Air Motel, a location in which we're trying to figure out how to go about hosting a motorcycle rally. It's a cool town. They have an open road race here that we're extremely interested in checking out. Anyhow, I am tasked with revisiting what has been a landmark year for TRO, let alone my own motorcycling career. If for no other reason than the epic volume of intense riding experiences had by yours truly and others. Now I haven't done much to prepare for this. So I'm opening up my computer to look at each individual Radio TRO episode to sort of look back on some of that. But if memory serves, there are certain things that really stand out. Most of them wonderful. Some of them, perhaps not so much, but the density of events and impromptu trips and unexpected visits. It's the first time that I've decided at fall's technical start that I really need to wind things down and take a little break. That's how constant it's been. We are TRO, the riding obsession. And I am obsessed with riding motorcycles, exploring new to me twisty roads, meeting new friends, hosting interviews, hosting the podcast, writing articles, editing other people's articles and publishing them to the website, creating all kinds of interesting digi tools, etc. It's just been so much. And that's never happened to me before. If I try to recap everything off the top of my head, I remember arriving in New Mexico to non-riding longtime friends from my college years who were waiting there for us. They traveled all the way from Montana to beautiful New Mexico, set up in the RV site next door and spent three months just hanging out. Shout out to Nikki and Adam. So if you think about a long lost friend, imagine getting to spend a lengthy duration of time with them right out the gates to start your year. Not too shabby. Then I remember that sort of out of the blue, another friend of mine, a fellow rider, he and his girlfriend, shout out to Paul Rosner and Steph, Paul and his girlfriend pulled into our favorite RV park there and truth of consequences, set up shop a few sites away and we proceeded to enjoy the beautiful roads. In between the arrival of these two sets of friends, I needed to make a 2,000 mile journey to California and back for my brother's memorial. That was a daunting task. I know that I rode 152 all the way up to Devil's Highway, which was the old triple six in Arizona, only to arrive at a hotel that had been snowed in and I had to ride the bike on street tires through the snow. That was a lot of shouting. Then continued on through Jerome and a variety of places I'd never seen before to get to California where I met family, honored his life and then learned that a good friend and regular TRO customer who was suffering from fibromyalgia decided it was time to punch their ticket. This was excruciating from every angle and it was only the beginning of my year. So I kept riding and riding and riding and working and working and working. Come April, my favorite tour that TRO offers actually managed to happen. Most people sign up for our trip sevens tour because of the onslaught, the number of days, the constant hecticness, but my favorite tour has got to be that New Mexico scene and it happened, which was great. Finally got to test the waters. TRO author Kelly Howard showed up on an H2 of all things and discovered very quickly that maybe it was the wrong bike for Devil's Highway. Greg White made a double iron butt ride from Murfreesboro, Tennessee, all the way to Truth or Consequences and back with the tour in between. My Radio TRO co-host Brian flew in, rented a bit of a dog of a bike, but had a great time, rode it down to Truth or Consequences and rode with us as well. It all got done. This was a triumph for us. Speaking of triumph, Maggie's bike started giving us hiccups again and I finally put my foot down and said, we're going to figure this thing out or we're going to get you a new bike. Still working on the new bike part. Eventually it was time to raise anchor in New Mexico to begin making way for Wisconsin. Once we crossed the cheddar curtain, we got ourselves set up and longtime friend Travis Burleson and I started making our way south to run the trip sevens tour. What a week. There were good times, there were bad times. It's like that every tour, but the team of signups really gelled. They seemed to get on pretty well with each other and lots of memories were made. Afterwards, John Barthel, shout out from the New England area, made his way for the umpteenth time to meet up with myself and fellow riders to conquer a whole series of twisty roads all over the nation, not the least of which being the Suzuki GS Resources Brown County Rally. At this point, I had been gone for almost two weeks. It was time for me to get home. At home I went. On my return, I think that is when my sister and her boyfriend were traveling around Lake Michigan, decided to cross the lake as well on a ferry. Once they reached my side of the pond, I got to spend time with them as well. It gets a little vague here for me. I don't remember if the Wisco Disco Tour took place before or after getting to visit with her, but it doesn't matter. The Wisco Disco Tour happened as well. And wow, was I ever reminded that different geography presents different challenges for different tours. Wisconsin roads are fun, but they're rough. I think it's right around the Wisco Disco Tour that I started feeling the fatigue of what had been already this marzipan of a year. Just dense sugar, ice cream for dinner anytime I wanted it. It's rare that you find a motorcyclist who's thinking, you know what I'd like to do today is sit down and write about motorcycling instead of actual riding. But that happens, and I'm no exception. Riding in Wisconsin became the regular thing for me until my birthday came up, my 50th. And wouldn't you know it, a lot of people turned up. Thanks all. From Wisconsin, fall struck and it was time to head south. So we went down to Indiana. Nashville, Indiana to be exact, which is just south of Indianapolis, a little bit north of Brown County. I guess technically that is Brown County. Lots of wineries, lots of shopping, whatever. Touristy. As we pulled into the lot of that particular RV park, one of the struts broke on our rig. So what was going to be a casual visit became a fearful state of stranded. And thanks to my good man, Kevin, a local mobile RV repairman, that fear was subdued. We got to get him on the show. I'm not even sure why, but it needs to happen. Interesting guy. It was good seeing my family in Nashville, Indiana, as I have a brother in Indianapolis. My sister came back down again from Columbus, Ohio. But also I got to spend time with my podcast co-host, Brian, for another version of the word umpteenth. He and I had already gotten to ride a lot together this year, but now it's a little bit more casual. I think it's one of those few moments, a first time perhaps, where the two of us, instead of seeing the bloody gore of the red mist descending on us and attacking roads vengefully, we actually relaxed just enough. Not to slow down all that much, but certainly enough to calm things down. And it was just as fun as anything else. Giving Brian a high five. On to Texas. Kerrville. Love it. Hill country. Kind of place where you can travel a mile out of town and immediately disappear into the rural wilderness. Ride the Twisted Sisters, run the Bandera Loop, take the curves all the way to Fredericksburg and Dripping Springs. But when you want it, you can go into town and get sushi, Indian food, burgers, dog parks that are also bars. Kerrville's a great town. And on this occasion, we even got to run our TX3 tour. Shout out to Murray and Mabel who made it happen. It was great to see them as well. We got to talk riding. We got to talk art. We got to see roads that we'd all seen before, but it was just that much more fun riding them together. We got tangled up in a pack of cruisers. We passed the entire pack and beat them through a red light. We caused trouble. Probably won't do that again, but it sure was fun. We got to talk politics. We got to walk away from the conversation as friends. Sometimes in motorcycling, people can use the word unity as an excuse not to stray too far from the friendship. That's not easy to do in these times. And after a lot of work and a lot of play, finally, the end of the year, here I am in Sanderson with my wife, my good friend, Joe Godin, and his beautiful bride, Jamie, to celebrate all memories unforgettable and some memories elusive. But now let's look back on everything we did this year just for Radio TRO and use it as momentum to make 2025 even better. Let's see here. We learned from Sean Haley how pinstriping and custom graphics with automotive wraps work. Then Eric Shropshire of Quadrant Motors gave us a rare look, a peek into his process for finding rare and obscure motorcycles. We talked about cheap tires, group tour self-assessment, and water crossings. Jason Herheim explained what riders can expect from their first track day with Motovid.com. Brian suggested a custom helmet molding solution similar to how we get custom molded earplugs. We drooled over Suzuki's GSX-8R over multiple episodes. Want? Melissa Holbrook Pearson pointed the compass toward literature, world travel, and unmentionable close calls. Mr. Dylan Code of California Superbike School offered casual discussion on the cognitive science of human attention limits, focusing on in-ride problem solving under specific conditions. Anders Karlsson of Motorcyclist Online gave us a sneak peek at his, and this is the title, FUCKING MOTORCYCLES PODCAST, all while admiring Buell's CR1125, I'm sorry, the 1125CR, plus the frustrations that come along with owning a vintage Honda CB360. Brian and I looked at replacing coolant, that first bike purchase, and must-have garage kit. As stated before, I made the trek to California to bury my brother, turning one of his three volley salutes into a stylus for my bike navigation. Brian helped plan gas and fuel stops for additional routes along our Trip 7s tour. We held a rapid-fire, 60 seconds or less, pick-a-bike challenge with an unpredictable outcome. More than once, we performed heavy maintenance on our bikes the night before a major event. Don't do that. Brian was subjected to my onslaught of forgotten truths from notes along the 7s tour. Hint, warm-up routes are a good thing. Both of us pulled zero punches in a discussion about modern bikes suffocating DIY mechanics with their overblown tech. The entire customer base of this year's 777 tour appeared for an interview about their memories and experiences. Brian explained the many benefits to buying a mostly complete parts bike on the cheap. Travis Burleson and Neil Sullivan joined us for a discussion about Travis and Brian's very first track day. Dr. Crystal Lume, a surgeon who's no stranger to the thrill of motorcycling, outlines the many reasons she wants a Ducati Monster. Jasmine Islam chimes in with back-to-back moments riding the streets of New York City. Brian and I contested the notion that classic sport touring is a fading ritual. Hint, it isn't. John Barthel chimed in about his take on what makes a great Kentucky motorcycle rally. Jamie Pauls stepped out of the shadows to describe his process for linear mechanical problem-solving. I put Brian's roadside remedy methods to the test where resourcing parts is concerned. We convinced Twisted Road to sponsor us and all we have to do is tell you about cool places to go riding. Maggie Dean honored the late, great Mary McGee by highlighting a few of her grandest achievements. Tenured podcast host Tim Clark's photos were featured in a recent AMA article about the Wisconsin Bucky Dual Sport Rally. That's the national AMA magazine. What a year, folks. If next year is comparable, I don't think I'll bother with any recap, or maybe I will. Either way, from our handlebars to yours, Happy New Year. Let's make it a good one.

Brian: We're going to call this one Feeling It Out. Get your mind out of the gutter, we're talking about motorcycles. What inspired this is I slapped a new set of dual sport tires onto my KLR650, took it out for the first ride. This is a brand I haven't tried before, experimenting to see what they're like. It's still really amazing how different things can feel just with changing tires around or doing something different, let alone all the differences between different bikes and so forth. So it's a little bit, how do you kind of feel out a new bike or something new about a bike and know what's okay and what's not okay, other than just figured out and it's experience, you know, whatever. So if you go to tro.bike, search for the word borrowed, you'll find I've got a whole article on riding OPM, other people's motorcycles. It has kind of a step-by-step on how to make sure a motorcycle that you're riding for the first time is safe. That's kind of more, that's kind of important. You know, it's bad form to drop somebody else's bike and to kind of slowly, step-by-step, more rapidly, you know, you're not taking hours to do this, you know, you're very rapidly and systematically figuring out what's different and getting used to it so you can take the bike for an enjoyable ride. I found that there's a lot of variation when you're talking about dual sport tires. I mean, you can get on a KLR650, you can get everything from a full knobby to a street tire and they all feel like wildly different. It's the weirdest thing. And like on a sport bike or most street bikes, pretty much any decent tire, they all feel, they're very close. You know, I don't know if you've ever noticed any differences or they don't really ever feel very different. You know, it's just, let's go, let it ride. Okay. This is maybe old tires, like if they're really worn out, old tires and new tires will feel a little bit different, but you get used to it in five seconds. You know, it's not very, not a very big deal. And also in vintage bikes are kind of in between, like we switch brands of tires. It takes some getting used to, but it's still, you know, it's not bad. Most of them are pretty much the same when they're new. Biggest thing I found my vintage bike is I have to watch the tire age. I don't like to, I don't like to let them go more than three years and I don't ride that bike much anymore. So, but yeah, when you put on new tires, there's really nothing like that feeling. It's fresh tires are just great.

Maggie: I think a little bit of it is mental. Like, you know, that they're new tires until you get out and really test them. When you're first pulling out and you're kind of riding along in a straight line, they don't feel any different. You know, so we've had a few different brands. And for me, for the most part, they felt the same. It's only like, uh, if you're handling, maybe you start getting into some fun roads. If there's a little dampness, you can sort of test, how does this handle in the rain? You know, there's what is claimed and then there's your experience of how it actually handles and what's a little water.

Brian: Definitely different. It's a semi legend about, you should take it easy on new tires because they got this mold release compound. So they'll, you know, when they mold the tires, they'll come out of the mold while they spray them with something, et cetera, and so on. Part of that is not true. They really, on most motorcycle tires, maybe all, there's really nothing on the tire that you have to worry about. What you do have to worry about are tire mounting lube. You know, sometimes like I had to use a lot of tire mounting lube to get these, get these things on my KLR. They're really gnarly, knobby, stiff, you know, they're more macho tires. So they're very hard. So they took a lot of tire mounting lube and I had to, you know, put talc on the tube and all that stuff. So even on something easy, like sport bike tires, there's always a little bit of mounting lube. You want to make sure you take it easy at first. And you also, you just want to get used to how they handle, what it feels like, things like that. You just want to make sure that everything mechanically, you got it all back together correctly. We've all screwed up something or the rotor, you know, we didn't clean off the rotor. You know, I've known people that left a spacer out and had a problem there, or you didn't seat the brakes before you put the wheels back on, things like that. So it's just take it easy, work up to the tire's limits a little slower than you usually would. I will say that like hardcore sport bike tires pretty much are ready to go hard right out of the, right out of the gate. And there are even some of the newer ones that have like a texture built into the tire to make sure that it, you know, there's nothing on there. There's nothing like that. Sneak up on it, take it easy, get used to it, make sure there's nothing on the tire that you put there or ran over or something like that. I don't know why this varies, but a lot of, some tires have those little hairy things, the sprues that come when they're molding the tire, some of the rubber kind of goes up into, or somehow it's injection molded, or I don't know how they do it, this fuzz on the tire. And until that wears off, it definitely causes a little bit of a difference in feel that you want to, so you kind of want to sneak up on it.

Maggie: I don't think I've, I've observed the tire hair before. I don't think I've seen it before. We're not, that's a different thing from the chicken strips, right? You're not talking about the chicken strips. You're talking about, no, no.

Brian: Yeah.

Maggie: Now I'm curious. I want to see it.

Brian: Yeah. You don't see it on a lot of sport bike tires, which I think is mostly what you're used to.

Maggie: Okay.

Brian: Most sport bike tires are pretty much bang them on. And unless you spilled a gallon of tire lube on it, don't worry about it. You know, if I'm being blunt in any case, it's, it's worth taking it a little bit easy and working up to the limits, you know, rather than just heading out and slamming it in turn one, you know, you're going to have the first ride, test the brakes, make sure everything rotates the way it's supposed to put on all your gear. Don't just go, Oh, I'm just going to go around the block with my flip-flops. I've seen that in badly for people. They misconfigure something on the brakes, something like that. Taking the wheels off a car is so easy. Just, you know, you're done taking the wheels off a bike and getting them back on and getting all the brake bits and everything just in the right spot. It's a lot more complicated. So it's another reason to really be cautious until you know that everything's right where it's supposed to be. And it feels correct.

Maggie: Yeah. That's a good point. Definitely more complicated getting a tire changed on a bike. You also have to, it can't go to Walmart. No, no, no, no, no. And you know, you have to make sure the bike is balanced because it's now got one wheel or maybe no wheels. If you need to change both tires, whereas a car, if you've got to change the one tire, you still beyond your Jack, you still have three other tires keeping that thing up a little bit. Like it's, there's a lot more involved.

Brian: Different worlds.

Maggie: Very different worlds. Very different.

Brian: All right.