Brian: In this episode, the topic for today is re-entry riders. If you've been away from motorcycling for a few years, listen up. Some things are the same, but some things are very different in the year 2025. A little later on, we've got gear chick Joanne Dunn to discuss the advancements in riding gear and why your dusty old boots and crusty old helmet from 2005 probably aren't the best idea. And we'll talk about some of the greatest and not so great tech to be found in the latest and late model motorcycles. Maybe worth upgrading, you never know. But I think most importantly, where we're going to spend some time is talking about what it takes to reconstitute the withered, dried up, desiccated, crumbling remnants of your riding skills. Perfectly put. But first, opening banter, corrections, website updates. We've got some stuff to talk about. One thing I'll mention on TRO website update, and I don't know if you have anything else but just wanted to mention the road rubber rankings are regularly updated. It's a great resource. If you are looking for information on sport touring rubber for tires, it covers the standard sizes we use, 180, 55, and 120, 70, 17. Current prices, rebates, reviews, thoughts, if we have them, that kind of thing. Just mentioning that because spring is the traditional time to stare sadly at the horrible remains of your tires and think about, you know, maybe spring is time for some fresh buns on this thing. Absolutely. Yeah. Go to TRO.bike, look under digital tools, and I believe it says road rubber rankings, if I'm not mistaken.

Robin: There's no R, it's road rubba. Road rubba. I like how you said it like a Klingon. Like a Klingon.

Brian: Road rubba. Rubba. Because we're cool like that. Us middle-aged, whatever. Yeah. Through about the end of April, Michelin has a $50 rebate going on and coupled with some price reductions on Michelin's late last year, we're seeing what these sixes are like, you know? That should lower the cost of financing with your bank for the set of tires for your bike. Yeah, they're still not cheap. Yeah, the road six is, yeah, $479 for a set of road sixes. Jasmine likes them, so that's good enough for me. Yeah. And there's a $50 rebate right now. And they last a good long time. No question. They're a great tire.

Robin: They're the tire I would want to buy if they were priced competitively. And they're not. So I personally look elsewhere. But they're excellent. I've always loved the Michelins.

Brian: Yeah, like if I was going to ride out to New Mexico, I would put on a set of those because I know they're going to last a long time. They're going to last a lot longer in these Pirellis. Agreed. Yeah, and one of the things I wanted to just throw out into the universe is if we should cull down this list a little bit, we've got some, like, sport tires. And, you know, there's some sports street sport tires. We don't really have track tires, but we'll think about it. But right now it's a pretty good range.

Robin: I'm not against it. Yeah. If it's something we've actually ridden and used, keep it in there. If it simply isn't accessible or available, we could get rid of that. And the simple fact is we can't afford to test all these tires. And once you find something you really like, we tend to stick to it. So we may never get to them.

Brian: There's also some weird in there. Yeah, I would say it's like Metzeler or Michelin is listening and they want somebody to thrash the absolute pee out of these tires. Yeah, we're right here. We're right here. We're not hard to find. Send them. I have a rabaconda. We'll shred tires in exchange for...

Robin: We'll tour with track day pressures. So we'll just be running around at 28 to 32 the whole time. We do have some other website updates off the top of my head. Everything this episode is off the top of my head because I am not prepared. This is Brian's episode as we alternate. The website does have some newly updated security in place whereby Cloudflare is the new anti-bot and it's working quite well. There was one point where I installed it on all of my clients' websites, then discovered that when it was time for the cookie that supports them being human were to be replaced, all of my clients' websites were going into a boot loop. So that's been remedied. Don't worry. The page will not keep refreshing over and over and over and over and over and over and over. Listen to the end of this episode for more over and over.

Brian: That's all I got. Good deal. Yeah, I've just been working on cars a lot and let's leave it at that. I'm really trying to get some crap cleared off my plate. Get the four-wheelers reliable so I don't have to think about them over the summer. What's it say about a cam phaser? Yeah, if somebody has a Hyundai and their cam phaser goes bad, you tell them to just go straight to hell. Don't get into that. It's a god-awful project. Wow. It's a day and a half. You're going to be sore for a week after that one. Yeah, water pump on my van. There's like a speaker pad. I've got like a squawk list. I need to get down before it gets riding weather. And then I need to put a chain on my Yamaha. This, that, and the other. No big deal. Doing a chain and tires on a motorcycle is fun. Doing crap on grocery getters just sucks.

Robin: Not as fun. Unless it's a scooter. I did some scooter work. Oh, there's some for you. Oh, new tires on Maggie's buddy 125. Gave her an oil change because why not? Going to look at the air filter. I've done some other things, but I think you're going to ask me about that in a second. So I'll wait.

Brian: Yeah. Those buddies are made to like go all over India with no maintenance. So yeah, it's got to be, it's a tough little booger. I'm sure. How's your, your blue streak, your blue devil or whatever you call it, the gixator, how's that treating you?

Robin: The gixator is kicking ass. It's broken in. So there's two stages to the break-in period. And I have a theory about this. I don't know if we talked about it already, but it seems like when you break in a bike, in my case, this one said, Hey, try to keep it under 4,500 RPMs. Oh, oh, oh, LOL. I did. I totally did. So I kept it under 4,500 RPMs for the first.

Brian: And you're like, this bike is a turd. What, what did I, what did I do wrong here? Yeah.

Robin: Well, no, I knew it wasn't a turd. I just knew I was depressed because I was like, oh, this could be if it would just, if I could break my own discipline, if I could undiscipline myself here, but I really wanted to break it in per the manual. I wanted to get it right. Yeah.

Brian: You're, you're a long-termer. Yeah.

Robin: Yeah. I want to, I want to give this bike. It's all. So I kept it under 4,500 RPMs for 600 miles, then checked the manual and discovered that I only needed to do that for 500 miles. Oh, well, whatever. And then I was like, okay, now I can go to 7,500 RPMs for the next 400 miles. And then when I hit the thousand mile marker on the odometer game on, which is where we're at now. I'll get to that in a second, but what I did discover and I liked about the whole manual, whether it does anything or not, who cares? The point is they say, try to keep it under 4,500 for the first 500 miles, try to keep it under 7,500 for the next 500 miles. You actually do get the benefits as a rider in doing this of getting to know the machine in a very graceful and slow going. That's true. It really was quite pleasing. I enjoyed it greatly. Yeah, I'm chugging along in sixth gear. I could go 60 and be sitting at 4,500 RPMs, but it allowed me to slow go every corner, pick my line carefully, understand the response of the bike, which by the way, if you think about turning, it's already doing it for you. It proved worth doing only for the fact that I could begin to get a sense of its response time. It's cornering, the wheelbase, the suspension, all of the things. How's it going to treat me in the long run? And then when it became the 7,500 mile mark, even right then and there, I was still in the habit of, oh, check the RPMs, make sure you don't go over. And it was starting to gradually enter the territory of where I would naturally ride. So this felt normal. It felt good. Now I was able to corner harder. And there were a couple of times I had the tachometer telling me, hey, you're breaking your own rules here. It would blink at me, whatever. It didn't really ever happen. So I was grinding it out. I was also seeding the piston rings by slow roll off on the throttle, let it grind down to 3,000, bring it back up all in the streets in the middle of the desert, which it was just, I was getting into the machine. Then I broke the 1,000 mile mark and, oh boy, just no respect and nothing but bonding. Here's the result. I posted to Facebook. I said, such a pissed off little minx. Already wants to fight all of my battles for me. Still trying to mellow my body English because she's not a battleship scale Lambo. Of course, the high speed option remains. But what was the BMW's battleship anchor weight is now a phantom limp. So the point is, at every curve, she offers profanities before I know I want them. If I were the kind of person who names their bike, and I'm sort of not, her birth certificate would read, hooker be diabolic. The B is for blasphemy or maybe belligerence. Cooking corners, getting in a great time. It's a blast. I'm going through the growing pains of it being a new bike to me and finding my sport touring modifications to suit the situation. That's been a bit of a hangup. I did order the SW Motec top case system. So that's in the mail. I've got the adapter plate. I've already got a bag for it. So we're good.

Brian: You can get your underwear in there and go places with it. Excellent. All right, listener questions. If you'd like us to field your questions, email podcast at tro.bike. We'll pick among the thousands of questions we get and we will give an answer of some sort. Whether it is a correct answer or not, I don't know. Your mileage may vary.

Robin: With that, we have two grain fed organic questions from real human beings. One of which comes directly from KB, who asks, what's your experience with motorcycle designed base layers like moto skivvies? We have an article about this. It's not motorcycle specific, this material, but go athletic apparel. And this was written by Joe Conrarty. So if you go to tro.bike, click on the little search icon there and search for go athletic apparel. There's an article that is dedicated to that product line specifically. That covers it in depth. I'm sure we should both get on this and have something to say about it. My take is this. For me, it's just like long underwear, top and bottom. Everything I get is quick dry, moisture wicking. So I get very comfortable, sometimes pricey underwear that's moisture wicking. And I get really nice, just below the knee socks that are compression, moisture wicking t-shirts. If it's cold, I'll wear long underwear and the long underwear top suffices as sort of like a beatnik grade black shirt for the cafe, whatever. That's all I do. I keep it pretty simple in that light, but there are really well insulated layers of this nature out there. What do you got, Brian?

Brian: Like I don't, you know, as far as specific brands, I haven't found that motorcycle specific stuff really does much a better job. The stuff for outdoor activity is what you want. Synthetic or sometimes merinos. Some people like that merino wool, but yeah, synthetic base layer, no cotton. And whether it's hot or whether it's cold, adjust the thickness. One thing you do want to watch for is where the seams are on the seat of the underwear or the pants. Some things are not made for sitting and long for long periods of time. And there's a seam right where it shouldn't be. Like if there's a seam up the middle, that's better. If there's no seam on the buns where you're sitting, that's going to be a little bit better. But yeah, just something that whatever's on clearance at the outdoor shop, Goodwill, I don't think it makes a hell of a lot of difference if you ask me about it. I bet Joanne would have an opinion on that.

Robin: But what you mentioned about the seams, that really does ring true. So I really like the Adidas Men's Performance three-pack long boxer brief, underwear boxer briefs. They come in three packs and they're super comfortable. They dry crazy fast. They're easy to wash while you're on the road. On the shirt side, I got the B-A-L-E-N-N-Z. Balance workout shirts for men, moisture wicking, quick dry, active athletic men's gym performance t-shirts. And the socks, man, the socks are integral. A-P-T-Y-I-D. A-P-T-Y-I-D, men's moisture wicking, cushioned crew work boot socks. I mean, summer or winter, they are like putting on a massage. It's nice.

Brian: Yeah, pretty picky about the socks. I like a little bit of compression in the sock and kind of something nice and thin. And even in winter, a good merino wool ski sock can work really well. Now, one thing I'll mention, the moto skivvies that KB, whoever this is, the moto skivvies specifically have like a padding layer in the buns. It's a little bit like the principle bicycle shorts, except it's out where your sitting bones are. And that honestly seems like a really good idea. I have not tried those though. Yeah. I've tried like motorcycle specific underwear and it's yeah, whatever, it's fine. I don't even remember. Long distance comfort is one. And they're fine. They're great. You know, things like being able to wash them at night and they're dry in the morning. That's important on a long trip. Yeah, you want something that's going to sit on it. It's not going to bunch up and create seams and problems. Cotton's just right out. You know, no cotton. But yeah, the moto skivvies with the pad looks like a good idea.

Robin: Get your favorite tighty whities and a sharpie and just write moto on the side of it. And they are officially motorcycle underwear.

Brian: I'm at any Walmart for the loom.

Robin: We have another really complex. This one's a lot more complicated. I'm hoping that you can knock this one out quick and we'll move on. But it's a hard, hard question. I was in Phoenix picking up the new bike, meeting a friend. And when you meet a friend, sometimes you meet their friends and they become new friends. Well, Chris asked directly in person about his Honda VTX 1300 that's been sitting for a long time with fuel in the tank. Halfway to full. Who knows? Either way, any amount of fuel that's in there, it ain't necessarily fuel anymore. So he wants to sell it. He wants to know, what steps should I take to get it prepared, given its current status? The VTX 1300 is carburetted. And that means that we could crack the top, crack the petcock, drain it, let it vent out, dry out, maybe wipe it out with a cloth, drain the float bowls on the carburetors, T-clocks, I guess, right? I don't, I wouldn't ever let a bike get to that point. So I don't know how to answer better than that. What do you got?

Brian: Yeah, look inside the tank. And hopefully, you said you, the guy said it was Phoenix. So hopefully it's not, it doesn't look like the, you know, the Titanic's anchored and inside there. And Indiana, it probably would. Yeah, the gas in the tank is no good. So you just have to drain that out. Sometimes you can just use a vacuum pump that you would bleed brakes with to activate the petcock and drain the old fuel out.

Robin: That's assuming it's a vacuum petclock. If it's vacuum-based, has a diaphragm, and it requires engine suction to draw the fuel out, that's one thing.

Brian: Yeah, I don't know. Yeah, that one may have a vacuum-operated fuel pump, something like that. Like, I don't know what it's got. However you need to do it, get the fuel out of that tank. It's done. Hopefully the tank is not rusty inside. If it is, then you have to do some cleaning. Caswell's has a really good kit and 415, I think, is one of the better kits if it's a rusty mess.

Robin: These are two products that will retain the shape of your gas tank if you were to cut it apart. I used Caswell on the Hawk GT. Rare bird, tank needed some love, so I Caswelled it because I wanted to protect it. And in the end, it was a smart investment.

Brian: Yeah, you may need to go that far if it's gotten really bad in there. Okay, next thing is the carburetor. You're going to have to, yeah, you're going to pull the float bowl. I think it's got one carburetor. Yeah, take the carburetor out, and it's probably the idle passages are probably like, you could probably take the float bowl off and get it clean, but you're not going to get the passages inside the carburetor. So yeah, do a pretty thorough cleaning of that. Like on the vintage Suzuki website, gsresources.com, there's a whole series on, and these are, this is a rack of four carburetors. It's a lot more complicated, but there's a whole series on how to get it all clean. Put it in a dip, you know, if you can get dip. Don't put it in a dip for a week. You know, you're not going to have a carburetor left, that kind of thing.

Robin: Let's talk about what this dip is for the person who is not necessarily a wrench. We're talking about an insanely toxic paint can full of hell.

Brian: Yeah.

Robin: Do not stay in a closed environment. Do not huff. It will burn your eyes into the back of your head. So make sure you have serious gloves. Don't, just be very careful using.

Brian: Yeah. Don't even put your fingers in it. Yeah. Even with gloves, it'll go right through the gloves. Most gloves. Yeah. That, and also like there's a seal and the choke and the rubber, you know, just go through the carbs. You know, I can't go into a lot of detail and audio here, but, and it's liquid cooled. So just go ahead and dump the coolant and change the, change the antifreeze.

Robin: There's a point here where we should say this being a universal response to a motorcycle, it's like, this is a sport touring podcast, but we're talking about a VTX. The truth is if all of this, at this point already sounds like, what the hell, then it's okay to take it to the dealership and say, I'm selling this bike and absorb the cost to have a tech deal with it. And then sell the bike with that cost on top.

Brian: Yeah. One important thing, a lot of people really overlook. And I, even if you overlook everything else, flush the brake fluid. Oh man. It's been in there way too long. Yeah. And it's absorbed water. It may be, you know, the water and brake fluid goes down to the bottom of the system and it's causing rust in the calipers and so forth. So flush the brake fluid before you try to go on anywhere. The tires are going to be hard and roached. You know, it's, there's kind of a standard list that you have to go through if a bike's been sitting a long time, you know, to safely ride it. Or if anybody you like is going to ride it. Change all the fluids. But yeah, your main trouble area is going to be in the carburetor. So you got to make sure all the idle passages are cleaned out. I've brought back bikes that were in exactly this condition. They'd sat for years. Little Suzuki 800cc cruiser. They used to call it the intruder. Yep. Friend of mine brought one, rolled it into my garage. You know, we did all this stuff for it. Like the, you know, tires, tubes, it needed a battery. The battery's going to be dead on this VTX too. You got to be carefully go through the carbs. That doesn't cost much. You really don't need to. One thing I will say is do not get a carb rebuild kit. They are junk. They're absolute junk. They're all junk. Do not get a carb rebuild kit. You know, see if you can find just the O-rings and just a little gasket for the bowl or whatever, or just reuse the bowl gasket. There's a couple of brands of carb kits and they are absolute garbage. It will never run right with that. Pretty much once you do all that, flip the key on, it'll fire right up. I think one more thing I would do is go through all the electrical connectors and switches and kind of pull them apart. Make sure there's no creepy green death in there. You know, spray some contact cleaner in there. You know, that's safe for connectors. Just go through all those as you're going through everything else and you'll have a, should fire right up.

Robin: Funny you should say, because I just did that oil change on the scooter, which by the way, if I look back, scooter tires, I knew they were going to either be easier or harder. Guess which one I got? Much harder. Good God. It got done though. I mean, this is a sidebar. I had to deconstruct my entire Ravaconda and reconstruct it like the Lego sets that have other spaceships you can make. Yeah, I had to do that with the thing to get the tech, but I insisted this was the way to go and I got it done. But when you talk about rust and the kit that you were just mentioning.

Brian: Yeah.

Robin: I had not changed the oil on the scooter in so long. I mean, it still had 3,000 miles to go to this oil change I last did. There was no reason to do it. I was fine. I'm going to do it anyhow. So I did the oil change. It's like half a quart of oil. 0.85. And I put a new oil filter on. The new oil filter at the rim was rusted, completely rusted. I was like, I'm using it. So I just lubed it up, you know, jagged it, threw it on there and it just makes me laugh. You were saying?

Brian: Personally, I think it'd be worth getting it, you know, getting it running and safe and you'll get a lot more money for it. If it's a non-running bike, you know, everybody's trying to sell those and it's going to get basically scrap value. Get the tallest ape hangers you can get.

Robin: Oh yeah. There you go. Throw on some 80-20 knobbies. Turn that thing into a track bike. Perfect idea. Perfect.

Brian: Wow. We made it to segment one. As we've previously threatened, we'll call it the riding re-mojo-nation. Getting your mojo back. And the subtitle here is, you don't know how to ride anymore. It's for, you know, if you're coming back to riding after you've been been out for a couple of years, a lot of years, I don't know how long. Whatever you used to be, whatever you used to do, you really have to honestly take stock with yourself. You haven't been on a motorcycle in a year or more. You just don't know how to ride anymore. Robin, is that an extreme position? What do you think? As a trainer, as a coach?

Robin: Oh, I think enough big bolts have rusted off from the memory of what does what that it's really time to look at it that way. Yeah. I agree with you.

Brian: So yeah. Coming at it with a little humility, like, like, yeah. Okay. Yeah. I don't know how to ride anymore. I need to, I need to retrace my steps. Maybe I can get through the steps faster, but it's a, it's a much better starting point than, you know, I used to race blah, blah, blah when I was 13. And what's there to learn? I used to ride dirt bikes. Yeah. Or, you know, I've been to been to the tavern 12 times and start with, we talked about it before, but start with a beginner mind. Like, okay. I don't know what I don't know. Yes. Go through it again. Beautifully put.

Robin: Think of it this way. At the beginning of this episode, somewhere, you heard us talking about our tires page. You know, that we ride a lot. You know, that we shred tires. You also know that I had a difficult time putting on scooter tires. Well, part of that difficulty was doing something that I already know. The time between the last time that you did something you knew and no longer do, it doesn't necessarily have to be something that you don't do often. So when I had to get the bead on those scooter tires to sit, the lips of those tires are so close together that all you hear is air hissing out while you try to set the bead through the compressor. You're putting air into the tire, but it's not going into the tire. It's going underneath the tire and coming right back out. I knew that I needed to take a ratchet strap and do something with that ratchet strap. I didn't remember what the thing to do with the ratchet strap was. Am I supposed to wrap, connect them at different points in the wheel so it looks like a pinwheel? How do I do this? Luckily, my neighbor next door, who's an ag guy, has multiple farms. He's like, Oh, sure. I know exactly what to do. We do this all the time with our little wheels on the things on the farm. He reminds me of something I knew. I knew this. I did not remember at the time. So you take the ratchet strap, you put it in line with the tire around the tire and cinch it down just enough that then when you inflate air, the bead sits. Now, I changed a tire not long ago, but the information was not registering. You've been off a bike for years. Your invite to ride with us is not going to register until we file it. You need to learn. That's where we're at. So there may be terms you don't remember, postures, techniques, approaches to safety that you just don't remember.

Brian: This needs to be puttied over and there are tons of ways to do it. Yeah, and one thing I'll mention is, you know, if you're coming back to riding after a long, you know, you're older, obviously, we age in one direction. So one thing that is common is you do have, I think a lot of people do come at it with a better attitude. You know, if you're a bad out of hell in your 20s and riding around doing dumb stuff and you come back to motorcycling when you're 35 or 40 or whatever, you're probably going to be a little wiser about it. Hopefully in a lot of ways and just stereotyping here. So that's one thing that can be beneficial. Yeah, it can be very beneficial. And some things have changed. It is so much easier now than it was five, 10, 20 years ago to find and get training. MSF courses have always been around or been around a long time. Let's put it that way. You know, I took one 25 years ago or something. That's always a great place to start. Even if you already come at it like you have some skills back in the past. That's a great place to start. Get signed up, show up to a class.

Robin: Take the BRC2U, the Basic Rider Course 2 updated. Tell the instructors that you're already licensed. Hopefully you are. If you're not, go take a BRC and just, you know, enjoy it. You're not going to want to be told to go home in a BRC2 if you don't have your license. But if you let them know that you have your license and you really want to be there and you're there to get your chops back, trust me, Exercise 1 is the hardest thing that the MSF has ever put on paper because it's designed to weed people out who think they deserve to be there and don't. If you are humble and explain to the instructors that you are there for that very reason, they're probably going to take a liking to helping you find your way back in. It is a basic rider course that does come with certain caveats that say you are experienced. Highly recommended. If they tell you to go home, accept that with a smile and get yourself into a BRC and relearn the ropes. There's no harm and no foul in this. If you find, wow, the BRC2 was fun, but I really wanted something more, continue on to the ARC, the A-R-C, where you will get your 360 awareness, all of your defensive chops and higher intensity breaking and evading back in order. And this is just the simplest of structures. It is the entry level of advanced and it'll be great for you. All three of them will have their place if you choose to just go put some putty over the cracks with it.

Brian: Yeah. Yeah. And I'm pretty sure basically rider training is available in every state. It is. I mean, it honestly, it's, it saves more lives than loud pipes. I mean, it's really, it's a bad analogy, but anyway, yeah. So the training is out there. It's an, it's an incredible place to start and you don't have to have a bike yet, I believe. Do you use your own bike for the experienced one or do you use, or it's just a beginner?

Robin: That depends on the state. Most states, in my experience, if you take the basic rider course, you can be on their motorcycle, which will be a sub 300cc machine oftentimes. If you take the BRC2 in the, in my opinion, the better choice for any state is to force the riders to ride their bike. So if you're going to take the BRC2, you are on your machine, which will require that you prove ownership and registration. If you're on an ARC, you definitely want to be on your machine and likely are going to be required to be. That's, that's the way it works typically.

Brian: Okay. Good to know. Yeah. It's a little different than when I actually took the course. You know, you're maybe not your first year back in the saddle, but there are more track days now than ever. Oh yeah. Wherever you, wherever you are, there's a track day near you. That's that we've talked a little bit about this. We won't belabor it, but yeah, some track days are more, some track days are a little more based on instruction and coaching, and that's more what you want. Some of them, some of them are more based on, you know, go fast, shift a lot, that kind of thing.

Robin: I'll highly recommend motovid.com for sure. And we're kind of talking about this a little bit out of order. You want to make sure that you go after the, the retraining or we'll call it training or retraining, whatever you want to say, in that you are searching for coaching. There may be opportunities at track days where you can receive coaching, but you should definitely go through a bit of training before approaching a track day. Cause there are other people there that really know their noise and you don't want to cause any harm to them. Yeah. I get it. This is good. This is very good.

Brian: Yeah. That's for later. And yeah, one thing that's also, and this is, this has always been around, but you know, there are people here and there that do individual coaching. So, you know, you can go to the course, you can get your coaching. If you're willing to accept it, the coaches will absolutely love you. You'll get a lot of great feedback. And this really applies to everything in life. If you think you're good at something, if you think you're good at something, getting another perspective from someone with experience and going into it with humility and acceptance and taking in the feedback can really help you level up. And that's a great way to seek that out. There are people around.

Robin: If you can tell yourself that there's always somebody better, you're being humble, that would suggest that you don't need to know it, but you're probably pretty good. And you don't need to face that truth that you are pretty good because you're humble enough to know that you want to get better. Always be striving to better your skillset and you're going to be looked upon by coaches and students alike with admiration for the fact that you know that you're always taking on new information.

Brian: And the people you ride with, you're going to be a lot safer. I took the Lee Parks Total Control Riding course. Yeah, man. The supplement and all that stuff. One of the neat things about that and one of the neat things about really good training and really good coaching is that they teach you to a large degree how to self-coach. They teach you how to go practice and improve on your own. Total control riding. I got a glimpse of the mountain where I want to be. I got that one second where I could, OK, this is what I'm going for. That mountain of your own making. Yeah, I don't know how philosophical to get with it, but yeah. So that's kind of one of the signs of really good training, really well thought out training and good coaching is, you know something about where you're going and you know a little bit about how to get there and you can work on this on your own because taking that class screwed me up for like two months. I had to work and work and work and work. I was, you know, I had to change a lot of bad stuff, bad habits. And I had to correct a lot of things and I had to do that myself. And I was just screwed up and wobbly for quite a while. And then finally, everything integrated. It became natural. You know, that kind of thing is what you're looking for. And again, this is a years long process. If you're reentry, take those basic courses, get out, you know, get out, get some practice. Try to be humble. Don't try the things you did when you were 22 or 25.

Robin: Or at least don't try them in the same way.

Brian: Yeah, falling off sucks. The older you get, the worse it sucks. So don't do that. So another aspect of this is, you know, what bike are you going to reenter on? Are you going to pull your VTX out of the closet like we just talked about and peel the rest out of the tank and go? Are you going to try to find a bike you used to have? Or are you going to buy new or close to new, you know?

Robin: The question in the notes direct is like, what's a good reentry bike? We've maintained in the past regularly that we can't really decide that for a person. We have ideas. We, you know, you ask that question. Anybody who knows the answer being we can't choose for you also has an answer that they wish they could tell you, you know, like I wish you should totally get the SV, you know, like I'm looking forward to when we have one, that kind of thing. But it's like if I, if I were to just make up an answer based on what I want the answer to be, I'd say sub 600cc linear torque curve, two or three cylinders. A twin is never harmful. Very forgiving. Something that is over square.

Brian: Yeah, not really over square, under square, but like something with a really forgiving engine. And that's, that's one neat thing is there are so many good choices in recent years of all kinds of bikes that are, if you're like, if you're average or smaller size, the 300cc bikes are highly capable. Yeah, there's a bunch of them. I mean, those are, that's like a new thing. Like if you haven't been in motorcycles in a while, there's like a, there's like a scrillion, really good 300cc bikes out there. There's a bunch of really neat stuff coming up in 450. I got the answer here. So now what?

Robin: My good man, Murray Haynes, gentlemen, specialist, motorcycle aficionado. He had informed me that I had it backwards and I'm glad he did because I'm reading right here. Revzilla, who, by the way, they're looking for personalities to market their products. Revzilla has some job opportunities. You might want to go check that out. Right out there, Gates. It says if the bore is larger than the stroke, meaning if the cylinders are wider than they are tall, the engine is considered over square and a smaller bore than stroke is under square. So yes, I most certainly had that wrong for years now. Now I just got to reverse my polarity on that at a constant. That's where we're at with it. There we go. We're going into the armory brought to you by gearchick.com with Joanne Dodd. What do you bring into the table this round in all of your amazingness to explain to people what they can do to not die?

Joanne: Well, I mean, the obvious answer is all of the gear, all the right head to toe, hands, feet, pants, jacket. Yes, pants and pants. People always skip pants.

Brian: Flip flops, armored flip flops.

Joanne: You know, you have to revisit everything that if you saved everything, you want to reevaluate it, especially your helmet. That should go in the trash, especially if it was in a box for 10, 20 years. It doesn't matter that you.

Robin: Or intended for high school football. Yeah.

Joanne: Yeah, don't do that either. You want to invest in all the modern technology and materials and just comfort that we have now with apparel that you that did not exist in the 70s, 80s, even the 90s. Unless you have a maybe a two piece textile suit that's in pristine condition. You know, and the armor hasn't cracked or dried out. You know, and maybe all it needs is an armor refresh. That's reasonable. But you definitely don't want to use your helmet from 20 years ago, no matter how perfect it is, because helmets are like tires. You could have brand new tires on your bike. And, you know, I've talked to, you know, people at Michelin. I've talked to Dunlop. And what I've been told is, look, if you're not storing your bike out in the tundra outside for five years and you're storing it inside in reasonable temperatures and your tires never really hit the point of completely drying out, you know, probably you could probably stretch your tires out five to 10 years, you know. And if you're not putting a lot of high miles, that's not quite the case with a helmet. I guess some could argue it's better to wear one that's old than none at all.

Robin: But do you really want to smell that?

Joanne: Right. Do you want to smell it? But also, why not just invest in a lighter, more comfortable, quieter, easier to wear helmet? Even the best ones, even an Arai from 1999 is not nearly as comfortable as a modern Arai from 2025. You have the money to spend on a $10,000 motorcycle. Well, you have the money to spend $1,000 to at least upgrade half of your closet. You know, take advantage of lighter, more comfortable, more protective. In many cases, there's a lot of materials these days that were developed in the last 10, 20 years that have been borrowed from outdoor climbing, hiking, active sports and incorporated into motorcycling. And it blows my mind that people don't want to take advantage of that. Who says, yeah, I do want to wear a heavier jacket. Yeah, I want my jacket to breathe less. I want my gloves to be more sweaty.

Robin: Do you have any lead weights for my pockets?

Joanne: Yeah, I really want my shoes to be less breathable and I want them to be less comfortable to walk in. No one says that. Give yourself the ability, the access, because now you have so many things available to you that you never had 10, 20 years ago. You should take advantage of it. And some of those things are, like I said, these lighter, more breathable materials. So something that looks really flimsy and light. There's a lot of synthetic and technology baked into that to give you this incredibly high performing garment. It is no different than a cell phone. Who remembers brick phones?

Robin: Coffin phone.

Joanne: Right? Flip phones that you couldn't do anything except text on. The Razr. Now you have a thousand dollar smartphone that can do everything. It is no different. Now, having an emotional attachment to your gear. Sure, keep your awesome Vanson from 1990, but add to your closet some really great pieces, like ventilated, like I said, breathable. And now the best pieces I've seen are helmets, right? They're lighter. They're more vented. They are more aerodynamic. They're more comfortable. They're quieter. They're just better. Yes, they're more expensive. Sorry. But you can still find entry level helmets. You know, you can still find a good helmet for $250. The other thing I've seen that has really come a long way is waterproofing. So, you know, way, way back, the options for waterproof motorcycle gear were very limited and they sucked. There were a few, a few exceptions to that, but for the most part, waterproof options were terrible. So for those of you who say, well, nothing's waterproof. Have you literally tried every brand out there and every product available to you? The answer is no, please. No, you haven't. So you have to do some homework, but you're going to find that now you can spend maybe $300 and get something that's vastly better than what you spent back in 1995, especially with Gore-Tex products. Those have come so far and there's more choices too.

Robin: And if you go to TRN up, I can scroll to the bottom. You'll see a thing that says product promotions and testing. If you want us to test your product, just go there and click on that. We'll happily.

Brian: Yeah, I can make things leak that nobody else can anyway.

Joanne: And a lot of times that happens is because people are taking things that are not meant to do what you need them to do.

Robin: Duct tape.

Joanne: Well, that too. But, you know, taking your fishing rain jacket and expecting it to perform at 70 miles an hour on the freeway for eight hours.

Robin: Balloon man.

Joanne: Yep. You're going to ruin though. Those seams are going to leak. It's all going to leak. Nothing's going to be breathable. So you have to be more thoughtful and you have to be smarter about what you use. But still, the fact remains that technology has come so far that now we have, at least in waterproofing, we have a laminated products and those did not exist, except for the very few people who knew about Ruka. I think they were one of the first climb also. And that was it. You know, we have such better choices now. You don't have to spend an arm and a leg.

Robin: I will say just for the listeners out there, because we try to keep everyone safe. If you're out there and you're functioning on the cheap and you need a base solution, this one's good for fall and spring. It's not going to be good for summer at a high temperature. But the stupid, simple, cheap, built one piece, rubberized body thing. It is pretty waterproof and it works very well as a windbreaker. They can be a hassle to get on. But if you need something now and it's your only shot at, that's a good way to go is just to get the simple rubberized cover. What we're talking about though is a lot more comfortable, a lot more adaptable, integrated.

Joanne: You also need to prioritize. Do you really need to spend $5,000 on a complete suspension setup? Or can you spend half on your suspension setup and then maybe the other half on better gear? Priorities, you know, put together. But yeah, I'd say for reentering folks, you want to start over and be really careful about what you decide to ride in again and ask yourself the question, how comfortable am I crashing in this 20-year-old whatever? Do I trust it? Like really trust it? Because if you don't, then you really need to retire it. I do want to recommend a book for folks over 50 who are reentering. It's called Shifting Gears at 50. It's on Amazon. I'll give you guys a link. You can share it. And it was specifically written toward reentry riders. And I contributed a little column in there about gear. So this is from 2012. This is way back.

Brian: Oh, there it is. OK, got it. I got a paperback.

Joanne: Yeah.

Brian: Motorcycle classics. Yeah.

Joanne: But I also, yeah, I recommend diving back into some training books, you know, a twist of the wrist, take a class, reintroduce yourself, you know, to modern riding techniques.

Robin: And then just throw caution to the wind.

Joanne: Yes, sure. Yeah, that's it. Yeah. But, you know, there's also really cool stuff like wearable airbag vests that you can wear under and over your gear and also gear that incorporates airbag vests inside the jacket. You don't or you don't have to, but wear a separate piece. The other cool thing, there is way more abrasion resistant materials, but technology wise, airbag vests are probably the biggest thing. You can buy them anywhere. They're not as farfetched as they used to be.

Brian: I think helmets have been the thing that impressed me most in the last several years. And armor.

Joanne: Oh, armor is a good one.

Brian: I took an off-road Biff that should have shattered my shoulder in South Dakota. And the D3O just sucked. I mean, I landed directly on a rock with my shoulder. That stuff is amazing. Don't tell Fortnite. Yeah, really.

Joanne: I would add that D3O is not the only option to give you that. I think really what you're getting at is basically the evolution of hard shell armor. So plastic, literal plastic over foam. And that's how it was in the 80s. That was armor. Just like what you think of as stereotypical motocross armor. But for the street, that is not the best choice. For the street now, we have technologies like D3O. That's one example. But pretty much every major brand, Revit, Dainese, Alpine Stars, Forest Field, they're all making these awesome molecular-based armor products that are basically like really fancy rubber so that it absorbs impact and then takes the hit and kind of distributes the force across the piece. Same thing as a Dr. Scholl's insert for your shoes, right? So it absorbs the impact and gives you support. And with modern armor, not only will it absorb the shock and not just deflect it, but it's softer, it's vented. So you're not wearing a block of rubber over your elbows and shoulders and your back. And that can be hot. Body armor's come so far and I can show you things that you can put in your gear and you won't even know they're there. So it's nothing like it was two decades ago. The choices are now endless. So yeah, airbags and armor.

Robin: Similar banter at higher revs can be heard via the Gear Chick podcast. Visit gearchick.com and dig it. How's the scene going? I know you're working with some cool stuff. I bookmarked that. That's part of my new morning.

Joanne: What's part of the morning bookmarks?

Robin: That job board.

Joanne: Oh, yes. So shout out to my friend Jan. She runs an awesome recruiting company that's specifically for power sports. So marine, motorcycle, boat, ATV, just all kinds of power sports called Action Recruiting. And I'm helping her out because she needs help, but it's not my full time gig. I'm just doing a little data entry and research for her and helping her find some potential people who might want to work all across the country in motorcycle shops and for motorcycle companies. So there's everything in there from sales managers, general managers, finance managers, technicians, mechanics, Harley and Metric. So, yeah, if you want to work and they pay well, like I was looking at the list today. I was like, wow, everybody's actually paying really well across the country.

Robin: A master tech is making 100K plus.

Joanne: Yeah. And even the HD, just like the general HD techs are making almost that. The website is action-recruiting.com. Send an email, but you can send an inquiry. And also anyone out there, she has a referral fee. So if you have a friend or someone that you want to refer to action. Yeah.

Robin: We're going to get on with the epic coast to coast motorcycle journey with George Wyman somewhere between Nevada and the Dakotas. I don't even remember where. Here we go. Jordan's got it.

Jordan: So anyways, so for the first 13 miles, it's just hills and valleys and it's wonderful because he's just outside of Sacramento. You know, it's like the hills are alive with the sound of music. He's riding around and everything's OK. He's already ripped off his muffler. Then he gets into the area where they have sheep out on pasture and they have torn up the pavement. Which is not pavement. It's mud and his wheels get stuck and he flies 10 feet over the bars and cracks his first of four cyclometers. What is a cyclometer? A cyclometer is a odometer, but it is more like the little clicker your coach had in track at high school. It has a number, a bunch of numbers on it and it's got a dial on the outside with four little projections on it and they put a stick on one of your spokes and they measure the size of your rim, which is this was 28 inches or 26 inches or whatever. And it is relatively accurate for the times, you know, and it'll measure a mile for you, you know. And so it'll click over, it'll click over. So he breaks the first of four cyclometers and you can go up, Google cyclometer 1903 and you're going to get a picture of this brass gadget with numbers on it that circles around and tell you how many miles you went. He gets really, really good at breaking these things, really good at it. So the final miles, which, you know, as the crow flies or 3,800 miles, we don't really know and he never finds out because he ends up breaking a bunch of these things. And luckily every bicycle store has, so he gets to a big city, buys another one. He breaks his first of many cyclometers. The crash also takes out the oil glass, which is just a window to see how much oil was left in his oil can. He fixes it with tire tape, which must just be rubber tape and it holds. So he hasn't even made the second leg of this trip and he's fixing shit. He's gone over the handlebars. He broke a cyclometer and his oil sight glass. You park it on the side stand or the center stand and you see how much oil is left. His oiling system, it is total loss, just like what I threw the battery is. Along the way he buys oil and oil isn't even standardized yet. There's no different kinds of oil. I mean, I think at one point he gets heavyweight oil. I think he's got to pump it and the crankcase holds four ounces. So it's all by feel. You feel, you know, is the engine sounding different now? Squirt some more oil in it. He's got a pump. I think it's behind his right hand over here and he just pumps it up and it gets to a certain point. But now he doesn't have a sight glass to see where the oil is anymore. So now he's tuning by ear. Actually, if you go to the Wheels Through Time Museum website, we actually have a display for George Wyman there, but it is not the California. There's a Yale, California. I know the vintage guys all know Yale because Yale went down to do big things. Guess where they started? After he crosses America on this motorcycle, Yale buys California motorcycles and that is their foundation to become Yale motorcycles. This is a really big deal. The California was a model that they use as a trunk for everything else they did. And Yale goes on for many years and becomes a big name. So I think there's a lot of things going on in the background before he even takes this trip that come to fruition after the trip is over. I'm getting in this guy's head. I think that there might have actually been discussion between other manufacturers about buying him out. This is what people that become millionaires do. They make something, they build it up, and then they sell it. So California sold out to Yale shortly after this guy crosses America. Who gets to advertise that? That's a big deal. So he goes to Sacramento. This is interesting to me because I'm into cultural stuff too. He states that the farm workers are all Chinese. That's not the case these days. And he rides past the orchards and vineyards and farms and sees these Chinese guys with their Chinese hats on. And he rides past them. This is scenic stuff. He's riding past it. They're having a good time. And so he gets to Vallejo and the locals there tell him that the road to Davisville is good, which is a lie. He calls, they have different words for everything. 122 years ago, they had different words for everything. So he calls them prevaricators, which means they're liars. And I had to look that up. That's the big one. That's a good Scrabble word. And once he gets prevaricators and he gets outside of Vallejo and it's pretty much standing water too deep to cross. And he backtracks four miles and gets on the railroad tracks. This is the day two of this guy's trip and he's already riding the railroad tracks. Go to some rural part of where you live and find some railroad tracks and look at them and say to yourself, can I ride that? And the answer is going to be, yes, you can ride that. They're ties and they've been through ties. There's some sort of rock. And if it's been maintained, it's somewhat level. Can you do it for 3,800 miles on a bicycle with an engine on it? I don't know. By the end of this trip, he's ridden railroad tracks. I'm going to say 60 to 70% of the time was on railroad tracks. What do you need to do to ride railroad tracks? You've got to have either really good spidey senses or have a railroad schedule because between you and the train, the train's going to win. And there are certain scenarios where if the train's going to win, you are no longer on the road. You're someplace else. You're down in a ditch someplace or whatever. It makes it 82 miles. He gets to Sacramento. This is his first full day. He's not yet recording the time of day that he started and the time of day that he stopped. He learns during his trip to start recording the time he starts and the time he stops. He could say, in 13 hours, I went this. You could do the math and figure out what his hourly average was, what was his miles per hour overall. Like I said, the bike will do 25, but these are in absolutely ideal conditions. You'll later on see that the ideal conditions bring out entirely different failures of this vehicle because if you do that for an extended amount of time, other shit breaks. All right. Sacramento to Colfax, day three. He doesn't leave until noon for some reason. I don't know why he doesn't leave until noon. I think at this point he's luxuriating. He thinks he could hang out all morning and enjoy that somebody's paying his way and sit there in the restaurant in the morning and eat his scrambled eggs and say, hey, I'm the guy crossing America on a motorcycle. But he goes on to say that Sacramento is 15 feet above sea level and he goes on to record his elevations. He goes about three and a half miles out of Sacramento and gets to a trestle bridge where he can see the tops of the Sierras where he's heading. The very beginning of this trip, he's very poetic. He evokes a lot when he writes. He's trying to be a good writer. Later on, it doesn't end up being that way as much. He's not as easily inspired because his ass is falling off. But anyways, he says they can see the tops of the Sierras where he's heading and calls it, this is, I'm going to read this verbatim, a desolate country of alkalized sands in broken, irregular billows of forest-crowned hill and charming vale and gets more rugged, rocky, and immense. Bald, hoary peaks whose white, rugged pinnacles seem to penetrate the sky and stand out in ghostly, shadowy outline against the azure depths of space beyond. This shit's about to end. He's about to not be poetic because it becomes damage control for the CMC. He's not getting paid for it. He's trying to get paid for it. Trying to do nationally geographic. So he crosses the American River Bridge and sees Mexican ranchers. So he goes, he says, the ranchers are Mexican. The guys working the fields were Chinese. The ranchers with the cattle and the sheep and the goats and God knows what else, and cows, whatever, are Mexican. With their sombreros and he's got to wait for all their sheep. He looks at the picture because he's got a Kodak pocket camera, which is a thing. 1903, this is cutting edge shit. He got a Kodak camera in his pocket. He takes a picture because he's waiting for about 300 sheep to get off the freaking road. He makes it through to Sacramento. There are other towns in the way. Rocklin, Auburn, and makes it to Colfax, California, 82 miles, one day. We don't know how many hours it was, but he didn't get started until noon. I assume it was maybe eight or nine hour day. Now here's the other thing. This is May 18th. What do they say about weather? The old saying, the rain and so and so, like flowers and so, this is gonna be the rainy season. He's starting out at the middle end of May and he's gonna go into June and July crossing the Rockies. So he's gonna hit weather. It's not frozen, and if you know anybody that lives in these areas, they're skiing in April. And here's the other thing. We have these trade winds that hit the Rockies. The wind stops and the moisture carries over. And once you get past this obstacle to the weather, the moisture takes over and just pounds you. And there's still no roads. The dude is just, he's gonna make it to Reno because he has done that already. He's confident about that. He's following the railroad. The maps of all these areas are railroad maps. Before that, you just had prospectors, trappers and traders. You had, it was anybody's guess. If there was a marking, the word road very loosely here. Native Americans were bending branches on trees and they knew which one to look for. If you make the wrong turn and you think you're on something, I mean, what was a path? What was a path back then? There was something in the way.

Brian: That was amazing.

Robin: We got to round this thing up and there's no better way to do it than to completely drag ass for the next 30 minutes. Helping Brian find a machine to ride.

Joanne: Well, I've got 10 minutes to drag his ass.

Robin: You got 10 minutes to find a bike.

Brian: Okay. So we're going twisted.tro.bike and sign up.

Robin: You'll get something good from Twisted Road. We're going to hook you up. You get a free day riding or some other discount, make it happen.

Brian: So what we're doing is I'm flying in to Albuquerque, New Mexico and I'm going to rent a bike. I'm going to ride down to Truth or Consequences, Wednesday, April 16th. We meet up that evening. We ride for three days and head home on Sunday the 20th.

Robin: And what kind of bike do you want? Do you want an adventure bike, a sport bike, a touring bike, a cruiser, a standard or all styles?

Brian: Should I share my screen so we can be looking at the same thing or we just want everybody to...

Robin: Yeah, share your screen. I've selected all styles because the motorcycle industry doesn't know what style a bike is anymore.

Joanne: Yeah, why not?

Brian: You've had a rant about that, yes.

Joanne: Well, everybody has their own definition, right?

Brian: Okay, I will spend what it takes but I'm not going to get the most expensive bike. Okay. So I think I've already spotted the winner. It's a brand new to the site but I'm going to see if you guys spot it as well. So let's sort by daily price. Okay.

Robin: I'm going to call it the Husky 901.

Joanne: I'm going to go Stelvio.

Robin: Yeah, or there's the CZR 1200.

Joanne: So many choices.

Brian: Yeah, 22 motorcycles for rent. So one thing I'll mention is these BMWs you see, there's a BMW dealer in Albuquerque that has a lot of these bikes or a lot of great bikes for rent that I would like to rent but they're closed like all dealers. They're closed on Sunday and Monday. So I don't have a way to drop the bike off. I would love to rent one of these like this one here, this BMW S looks great.

Joanne: You need to call them and just see, hey, do you have a way to drop off like a drop box or something?

Brian: I did check with them and they are closed and there's not a way to drop it off.

Joanne: Got you. So you want a BMW?

Brian: Not really. I don't really care. Here's the ones that caught my eye.

Joanne: Okay.

Brian: There's a Tenera 700 and it's funny, the picture the guy has of it is the thing is basically buried in sand. Like it's just sticking up to the axles. I like that kind of attitude. Yeah. This Bonneville Bobber is not really on the list. There's a Moto Guzzi Stelvio. Yes. Which is interesting.

Joanne: Looks cozy.

Brian: I looked at that last year, kind of of interest. I think you would enjoy that bike.

Joanne: Are all these Beamers at a dealer?

Brian: A lot of them are. Yeah, like this one here, you can tell it's at the dealer there.

Robin: I like the Husky for you, man. Okay. So the Stelvio, the Husqvarna Norden 901.

Joanne: Norden.

Robin: It's a KTM with better makeup. Then you've got the S.

Joanne: BMWs are not on the list, right? Because they're at a dealer, except for that guy.

Brian: Not on the list. No, no, no. Like, like, no, there's a BMW dealer that rents a bunch of them. But there are several BMWs that other people are renting. Right. That's what I was getting at. The dealer has like 10 bikes, and I'm sure they're wonderful, but they're closed on the days I need to drop it off. You know, I got to get back. Anything in a dealership, clearly in a dealership, is a no-go, I'm guessing. This is in some guy's drive. So, so that's an option. This, this Husqvarna Norden looked really interesting. Yeah, man.

Joanne: That looks awesome. And it's all street, right?

Robin: The R1250GS Adventure is calling too.

Joanne: Ooh, Africa Twin.

Robin: Where was that one?

Joanne: Down.

Robin: It's a CRF1000L Africa Twin. The problem with the Africa Twin on, this is a paved tour. Sure. Ultimately, you might really like that 2024 BMW R. It's an RS. Probably have more fun.

Brian: That's at the dealer. So it's not right. I understand the scheduling is not going to work.

Robin: I would love that. Yes. But the Africa Twin, the problem I see is that when you have that larger front tire, it's an all paved tour with some track grade pavement and some rough pavement. If you don't have dual 17s, the turn in is going to feel strange. Your body English, how the bike steers.

Joanne: Yeah.

Robin: Yeah.

Joanne: There was a BMW in someone's driveway.

Brian: Yeah. What I will say in defense of the Africa Twin, I had a V-Strom 1000. I drive, I ride a KLR. So I am accustomed to, you know, that sort of thing. Yeah. I know what I'm getting into there. This Husqvarna was just so goofy. That's a, that's a contender right there.

Joanne: I think the Beamer would be more fun. Might be. If you're riding a lot of Canyon, you know, if you're doing a lot of twisties, like anything that's not an adventure bike will probably be more fun.

Brian: So like, this is a 2011 BMW and Estelvio. That's interesting. That BMW here.

Joanne: Oh, a Z900. That. I'm going to get really sporty.

Robin: Or the ZZR 1200. I think that's hilarious.

Brian: Oh yeah. We'll get down to that one.

Robin: Just thrash it. Which one?

Brian: See like this one.

Robin: Oh.

Brian: This BMW S is really nice, but it's, it doesn't, the scheduling doesn't work. It's at the dealer. What about the duck? The monster?

Joanne: Where's that? Oh.

Brian: There's a monster, 85 bucks a day for a monster plus.

Joanne: That's fun.

Brian: And then here's a guy with this, here's a 2021 BMW 1250 GS adventure.

Robin: Okay. Wait. That's gotta be the dealership though, isn't it? Is there a chase truck?

Brian: Gotta carry it. Yeah. There's no chase truck.

Joanne: You can't do that monster then. That monster is a no.

Brian: The monster is not going to work. Yeah. The monster and the Z900. Totally right. Like I would buy, I would get that Z900, but there's no luggage space. This has no space, no place to even put saddlebags. Like I could bring saddlebags, but.

Joanne: You have to do like a high tail like that or Krieger packs so that they clear. Yeah. You'd have to pack minimally too.

Brian: Plus it's, it's got a exhaust about the size of a soda can. This is, this is a good choice. Although it's, it's, it's huge.

Robin: It does have luggage, but it's all low center of gravity. The R motor.

Joanne: It'd still be comfortable, but that Stelvio does also look.

Brian: Stelvio is kind of cool, isn't it?

Robin: It's the very first one that comes up obscure. It looks comfortable. It probably purrs. It probably handles. Like I said, the wheels you're, you're prepared to deal with that. It's going to corner differently, but what a lavish choice at such a great price. It really is cool. All you gotta do is convince them to let you ride it.

Brian: So the Norton's pretty cool too, but we kind of run into a luggage problem here. There's like a tail case.

Joanne: Is there camping? No, this is all lodging, right?

Robin: This is all lodging. And you only need the, you really only need the hardware for one night for luggage. You could probably fit if the bag is included and it is pictured, you could ask about it. I would say if you could fit everything into that bag, you're all set and good to go. And it will be nimble.

Brian: Yeah. Not all the stuff I need for the five, four or five days for the stuff to go to Arizona and back. Yeah. No problem.

Robin: That's what I'm talking about. Because you've got, you would have a base of operation here where you could stash it. So I don't know, man.

Brian: I see two contenders so far. So you're saying that, yeah, I won't like the Africa twin. It does have some luggage available. It looks like.

Robin: I think you won't like the Africa twin for the kind of writing we're going to be doing, despite your experience with like a V-Strom and such with that wheelbase or with that, those wheel dimensions. I know this working with Tim Clark on the matter who, you know, he's ridden all over the world on his, but like he did admit that like going into a corner, the front end is arriving in a different zip code before the rear wheel starts to take the cut. So it's just weird, you know, which dance card, what, which dance card are you bringing to the prom with this?

Brian: You know? So this is an even bigger bike. The weights 566 pounds, and this is 520. So this is a little heavier. So we're looking at the Stelvio and the Sierra and the 1100 L Africa twin. There's also the Africa twin is $67 a day. And the Stelvio is a hundred dollars a day.

Robin: If it were me, I'm going to narrow it down to the Stelvio, the BMW GS. I know the R motor will be kind to you. And the last, but certainly not least the Norton.

Brian: What no, no love for this, uh, the BTR ZZR.

Robin: I mean, you know, that bike speaks to my sensibilities for sure. But what kind of raft do you want to leave behind you on that road? You know what I mean? Yeah, really. And look at the pictures. I mean, that's an aftermarket. I don't know what they did to make it into what it is. What's it going to be Brian?

Brian: God, I had to think about this. Okay. It's down to the Africa twin and the Stelvio. So what about, and then there's another one. There's a 2011 BMW R 1200. Joanne, how are you feeling about all this?

Joanne: To be completely honest, I'm personally against personally against any adventure bike for this kind of trip. For me, it would have to be that monster. I know against all the yes logistics, but like, you know, monsters, the 900, like it's got to be something sporty for the kind of writing that you're doing. It just seems like these bikes are too, they're just too clunky for all that wonderful Canyon riding and it'll be more work. But for me, I have a different issue because my center of gravity is so much lower. If I had to ride a GS or, I mean, which I have, I run an R definitely more comfortable, but if I have to ride big bikes like that, big leaders, I have to throw them into the corners and I have to do a lot of counter-steering, a lot more counter-steering depending on the bike. So for me, that's extra work and I don't want it.

Robin: Message received. I totally hear it.

Joanne: It's all about what your comfort is.

Robin: That ZZR is borderline hilarious though.

Joanne: It is hilarious. Someone's taken really good care of it.

Robin: No, they have not. Well, it's still living. That's a fully fared bike and you can see where all the plastics are missing. It's still alive. It is alive. Rideable. Yeah, I'm not fighting you too much on it, but you can see where the plastics once were they naked, they made it a naked bike. They turned it into a skunk ride.

Joanne: It's subjective.

Robin: I mean, I bet you'd be super comfy. It's got apes on it. It is a heavy bike.

Joanne: Just go with what's comfortable for you, Brian. You know, go with what you think you will be more comfortable on riding. Choices like these have to be very specific to the riding you do, the bikes you, you know, what you're used to, you're like, you know, you might love it.

Brian: And Robin was, I rode a V-Strom 1000 for many years. He's seen the V-Strom do things.

Joanne: This is where I must leave you because I have a class to prepare for. I'm also taking classes.

Robin: Joanne, Dawn, you're the best. Thanks for hanging out with us. Next week.

Joanne: Have a good one.

Robin: It's the Stelvio, Brian. It's the Stelvio. All right.