Brian: In this episode, we've got a track day packing checklist, what to bring, what not to bring, that's my problem. Gonna have Joanne's take on our packing checklist. And of course, Mr. Liebman continues to look at the Scott Motorcycle Company. Let's just say it's smooth as silk. I don't know what that means yet.

Robin: Brian, great to see you, man. Did you ride today?

Brian: I did not, I barely left the house today. For shame. I've worked my ass off today. I know it was terrible. This has nothing to do with motorcycles, but I did get to go to a concert last night. Men at work, Christopher Cross and Toto. So it was like, you know, old people like me. There were grandmas in miniskirts, it was cool. But yeah, it was a great time, it was fun. You know, these guys have been out there playing this whole time, you know, they're good. Nice. So Robin, did you ride today?

Robin: You're damn right I did. It was a good day for it. I didn't do a big ride. We had an appointment to get to South of here by about an hour away. It just so happened to take 130 out of Lone Rock. And if you follow 130 out of Lone Rock all the way to 23, I think it is, it's a good ride. It's got mayo and mustard on it, but it's curvy, twisty, foresty, and pretty, and opens up after that and becomes a 20 minute jaunt to the destination. Got to ride that back and forth. Two up with the pretty lady, Maggie Dean on back. I always love it when I can steal the beautiful woman, put her on the back of the bike and take her for a ride. Nice, excellent. I tell you, man, I know you've got this in your notes too, because I'm looking at it now. I have got to cook these tires off, so I'm going to be in Madison all weekend. So that's not the time I'm going to get to do it either, which means I'm going to have to like, go for an early ride tomorrow before I leave, then Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, all of next week, just fry the daylights out of them to the extent that I can.

Brian: Yeah. I don't know what I'm going to do because yeah, I need to change the tires for the track day like you do. And there's at least 500 miles left in the set, probably a lot more. And you kind of feel bad, but they're not going to be up to snuff for track day. So going to have to change them next week.

Robin: You say feel bad. Let's be honest. You and I are cheap. We want good tires at a good price. That's hard to dial in these days. We've nailed it. I think with the Angel STs. Thank you, Pirelli. Yeah. I will have them destroyed by the time we're going to head to road America.

Brian: Nice.

Robin: I was going to intro what I've been up to with the fact that like yesterday, I got through my entire daily agenda. Now the daily agenda I kind of came up with recently, like what are the things that will keep me feeling happy, stacked in order of operation that I can do that also breaks things up so I'm not sitting in front of a computer the entire time. I haven't written a new article in a long time. Some articles have been submitted that were like, meh, all right, we'll put it on the site because it talks about safety or whatever. Cool, good, good. But I am writing again. Cool. I'm not completing an entire article in 10 minutes, but I am in the process of every day. So I'm writing, getting exercise. I am still working a little bit every day on MotorcycleTraining.us, which is coming along nicely. Excellent. One major chore per day, whether it's taking out the trash, whatever. And then editing articles that, I can't call myself a trained writer. Some of my earlier articles, there was a lot of like possessive apostrophe mistakes. I'm systematically going through old articles, keeping their voice, maintaining them for what they were, and also editing them, updating them so that they're a little bit more relevant. Maybe changing some links out to go to products that'll actually make us a buck. Yeah. Then doing any work that needs to be done on our RV, because we're full-time RVers, editing small fragments of our sometimes lengthy podcast recordings, and also trying to sell some bullshit that I have no need to be keeping at this point in time. And that's my entire agenda right there. Write, work out, work on MotorcycleTraining.us, do a chore, edit some old articles, work on the RV, produce the podcast, and sell some crap. And I managed to get through all of it, which is nice to say. When you look at it, you're like, wow. Got through my list for the day, yeah. I've only got one announcement, and then I'll pass the mic to you. Basically, our cross-site AI default is now set for the newly released GPT-5. Only two pages on the entire site, as of this recording, use AI. They are the optional Cyborg Says weather forecast. If you go to the weather forecast and you have a membership and you insert your own OpenAI key, you can get the Cyborg Says summary of your local area weather as it applies to your preferences. And the other one is the Gypsy Obsession. If you scroll to the bottom of the site, you'll see a picture of our beautiful puppy dog. And if you go to that page, it's just the first three paragraphs of our newest article turned into dog speak. We even have an AI policy because honesty is good. So if you scroll to the bottom of the site and click on the AI policy, which is something we did voluntarily, it explains that, you know what? We actually like to write our content. We do it for us. Brian, catch me up. What's good? How's everything in Brian world?

Brian: Well, first off, I had no idea about this, the Gypsy Obsession.

Robin: Oh, man. Yeah. Where is this? Scroll to the bottom of the website and click on the picture of Gypsy. All right. And then scroll down below the video and please read out loud.

Brian: Annunciate. The need to avoid squirrel chasing accidents is a serious puppin' issue, friend. Okay, that's a, I can't do anymore. In 2022, 6,218 pups did a bork and wiped out while chasing those tricky squirrels on zoomy paths. Okay.

Robin: And it mirrors, at the bottom of it, you can click it and it goes to the normal article.

Brian: So up till today, this was an Easter egg. I had no idea. I like it. All right, yeah, well, we talked about, yeah, I gotta cook some rubber. Gotta get some miles in this week, this weekend. And related to that, the last three weekends I've tried to put together a ride, get a friend or two here, go burn some rubber. Oh, I gotta mow my yard. I gotta do this. I gotta blah, blah, blah, blah. I gotta stand in the corner and do this. I gotta stand in the corner and cry. Yeah, I'm like, okay, fine. I don't know what it is about the middle of the summer, but man, everybody's got something else that they gotta do. Damn it, it's annoying. I'm kind of like riding by myself. Billy Idol, what is the?

Robin: Riding by myself, oh, oh.

Brian: And yeah, I just, I wanna change the brake pads and bleed the brakes before we go to Road America. I was really working the brakes a lot harder last time. I kind of cooked the pads a little bit. They're better, you know, they've worn in a little more and they're better, but yeah, I'm just gonna change everything out. I mean, how much pad is left? It's probably at about half. You could always file them. It'd be legal. Yeah, I could sand them or something like that, so. Yeah. Nobody in tech is gonna, you know, send me to jail or anything.

Robin: Well, this is one of those things where if you're too stupid to know, such as me, you just don't know that there's an issue, but the pads keep on producing breakery. You don't have any idea that, hey, you know, the right pads are completely fried and the left ones are fine. All of a sudden, you managed to get through the whole thing because you didn't know that you were in any danger. Ignorance is bliss, I guess. That's not the best. I do not advocate this.

Brian: Do not advocate this, no, no. The official TRO policy is that you should have fresh brake pads at every track day. The last track day, I was like, oh, are they gonna worry about it? And like, nobody cared. No. It'll be fine. I need to do that and it's gonna be due for an oil change in like 300 miles. So I think I could burn through 300 easy enough tomorrow and then I got riding to do. Yeah, what's next? This time around, we've got some questions from the wild and they're sort of paraphrased from other discussions. Yeah. If you'd like us to field your questions, you can visit email.tro.bike in your browser and put electronical signals into our brain pans. We cannot guarantee the accuracy or reliability of answers thereof.

Robin: SG asks, should I disable ABS for my track day? What about traction control? Nope. Next. But there's more to discuss here. There's more to discuss. I won't say that disabling your traction control is a bad thing necessarily. It depends on the power of the bike, how comfortable and confident you are. Confidence and competence. Do you have the skillset to be driving the rear tire faster than the front tire through a corner for any specific reason? If so, well, all right.

Brian: Yeah, it's a little bit like if you need to ask the question, then the answer is no. Oh yeah, that's very fair. But the reason you're asking the question is, hell yeah, I am so much better than this computer at controlling my traction and I like to lay down six skid marks. Yeah, fine, go ahead. The other factor in this, some traction control systems, they're on or off. And some of them, you can dial them in. Like on my bike, it's a 2015. The traction control works really well, but it's on or off. The GSX-8R has three levels, and off.

Robin: So you can do a lot, a little bit, almost none, or we're gonna keep this light on so you know that you've done this, off.

Brian: Yeah, yeah, so that could be really interesting to kind of bring your traction control down. As far as ABS, I mean, again, if you are confident and competent enough and you're breaking to even ask the question, like, am I better than the computer in all circumstances, at all times? Sure, you do you, but I'm leaving it on.

Robin: SG asks, I'm loving the positive, supportive track day atmosphere, but everyone's got advice and some of it is different. How do I figure out which track day advice is good and what I should just smile and nod? Here's the thing, I have seen Robin Dean give advice at a track.

Brian: Yeah, how did that go? I think it was good advice. It was the track walk and- Oh, yeah, yeah. We were walking around this guy doing a track walk and he was baffled at times. That was fun. Anyway, there was some good advice, but you could tell some of it, he was like, um.

Robin: There's your answer right there too, because my response was gonna be, find out who everybody goes to for their advice by way of reputation and the fact that they still have all of their appendages. If they seem cool, confident and competent and they are informative with some emphasis on safety, you're probably not going too far wrong there. I mean, people that don't know me at a track day have given me advice where I was like, no, in my head. Just nope, and nope, and definitely not that. And okay, what's that scene from Parks and Recreation where Offerman is in Home Depot and the guy's like, hi, can I help you? He's like, I know more than you. I'm not gonna outright say that. There are two thirds of the people there easily know more about what's going on than I do. But there's that one third, it's like, this is the wheel, that's the engine. Like, okay, I'm gonna go ahead and cut you off right there. So just, yeah, reputation, I think. What do you got?

Brian: I mean, the easiest thing to do is just smile and nod. But like if someone's wearing a Control Rider shirt, maybe listen to what they have to say, that kind of thing. Figure out who's actually running things and someone you should listen to officially. People have the weirdest ideas and so forth. They mean well, smile and nod. The other thing is people have different methods of communication. And so sometimes people will tell you something that is actually good information, but it's not understandable in the way they put it across. But maybe find someone else to explain something and see if their explanation makes more sense. All right, SP says, I missed the guided track walk, but the track's open. So how can I walk the track by myself and start to put things together? And a follow-up question to that is, do YouTube videos of laps on the track actually help?

Robin: If you're gonna walk a road America, you better bring a rescue beacon.

Brian: That's four damn miles. 4.2 something, 4.25 miles. I'm a newbie to this thing. Okay. The only thing I could really get was like, you can see where the sight lines are, you can pick out references, assuming you don't go out after deep dark and everybody's drunk already. Not that that's ever happened, but yeah, maybe look at some references and look at where the rubber is sitting on the track. You can get a good idea of where the line is and where people tend to be. Totally. Yeah, that would be tough. Now having a guided track walk, I found that incredibly helpful. This guy like built like a barrel. He doesn't lift. He just rides motorcycles to the point where he is a bundle of muscle. Who are you talking about? The dude that we were with last time? The first time at Black Hawk Farms. I don't even remember the guy's name. Okay. Yeah, it sounded like dude bro who like lives there on the track in a little cave underneath and comes out and rides every single day. He had so much good advice, so many good things, pointed out references and so forth. So if you can do a track walk and it's guided or hopefully Road America, they've got a golf cart. I don't know.

Robin: Well, I've seen some outfits will take a truck and a small pull behind trailer that everybody can sit in, depending on the size of the group going. What I can tell you is much like the way I'm hoping to address segment one, since Brian's already entered a bunch of information into it, I've touched nothing. Arrive at the situation and begin to collect all the information you can at a relaxed standstill. So do you have a track map? Can you get a good look at it? First thing, how long is this track? Do I really want to walk this? Because some tracks are longer than others. Kind of judge each corner on paper. How would I set myself up for this turn? If you have that kind of road level experience, you're probably going to eyeball it. Like, okay, start outside here. Oh, that's a hairpin. Start way outside, stay outside and chop in. You'll start thinking through it systematically the way you normally would anywhere else. And of course, if that's not the case, if you're novice, well, you're going to get a long explanation in the classroom anyhow. They're going to take it nice and slow. So if you miss a track walk, it's fine. Don't be stressing out about it. Point is, if you're going to go out for that track walk, it's a reasonable track. You can walk it alone. You can eyeball the track. You can pick sight lines. You can pick objects of reference where you're going to begin your braking, where you're going to begin your turn in, what kind of posture you're going to need. How long is that corner? And where are you going to start it? Where are you going to end it? These are the fun things to do. Don't forget, start to finish. This is a good time. You'll be interrupted by the concerns of things to do for your own safety. But beyond that, it's on you to think your way through it. And it's no big deal. It's going to be great. Yep. Go ride, have fun. We'll let this bleed into segment one, actually, but it's not my show. Totally your show. Okay. So segment one, track day pack up, what to bring, what not to bring. And before we start, I'm going to ask you right now, sir, I've heard you mention the length of the drive you're going to be making to get to Road America. Just to make sure we're clear, did I in any way make you feel like you were obligated to go to Road America? No, you can't make me do nothing, man. For the sake of legal testimony, let it be known that Brian said, well, no, you can't make me do nothing, man. And that is on the record, because I've heard this five hour drive thing a couple of times. I'm like, oh man, that is a long drive.

Brian: It is a long drive. And that's, if I go like straight through, just straight through Chicago, four hours, 57 minutes, 325 miles. Yeah. If I try to avoid Chicago, it's a, this is on the other side of Milwaukee.

Robin: You should avoid Chicago. Take the outside route. I'm telling you, it's just terrible. You've put in a whole list of good things that look like they're in logical order. Somewhat, yeah. As I'm going through the motions, what do I need? I'm arriving there, what do I need? I'm setting up camp, what do I need? All these things.

Brian: Yeah.

Robin: I don't have a center stand to park my bike on. I also don't have a way to transport a center stand or a track stand. I was in a conversation with a mutual friend and I said, hey man, if you're going to be there, can you do me a big favor? Do me a solid, sure, what is it? Can you bring an extra track stand for me in case? It was then explained to me that instead of using zip ties to tie your side stand to the side of the bike so it can't flip down, you can get a length of industrial Velcro, wrap it around, wrap it over itself, set that up so that it's not going anywhere. And every time you need to park, you just undo the Velcro, put your side stand down, and then when it's time to ride again, hold it up, wrap it in Velcro, and off you go.

Brian: And you're going to do all this with one hand from the saddle?

Robin: I can, yes. Okay, left hand, I'm a drummer, man.

Brian: Yeah, if you practice it and feel like it'll work and tech is happy with it, it's stronger than zip ties, really. Yeah. I've got a rear stand, a track stand I could bring with me, but you can do that by yourself. You know, hop off, grab it, one hand, blah, blah, blah. I've done it a million times, but interesting.

Robin: I'm going to need one that has a lot of leverage on it, though, because it's just, the bike's really heavy on my own track stand. It's been fighting me a lot. I'm probably just getting old and weak. Oh, burglars. Comes to us all, sir. You've kicked the crap out of this list already, though.

Brian: So what do you want to talk about on that? I like your approach of looking at it chronologically. So getting there, just think through everything you're going to need to get there with the bike and everything intact and legal and so forth. Like I've got a kind of a standard package of tools that's already in the van at any time, a few parts and special tools, things like that, that I throw in there, that kind of thing. Just kind of be ready. If something basic happens to the tow vehicle, you can still get there, that kind of thing. The toll transponder, I've left home without that before, and you cannot get from here to there without a toll road. It's Illinois. Thanks, Illinois. Little bit of Wisconsin, too. The other thing I kind of bring as a contingency is I'll put the stuff in the van to turn the bike into a street bike. I'll do the track prep while I'm at home, because my bike, you know, like four bolts, the plates, rear signals are gone, two little fasteners. It's real easy to strip everything off, the mirrors and signals off, and the rear light and all that crap. And then from there, it's just taping the headlight and taillight, and a couple zip ties, we're done. But I bring all that stuff because, okay, if I have a breakdown, something weird happens, I need a vehicle. Why, look, here's one here. That's funny you should ask. You brought a second one. And also wheel bearings for trailers, because for some damn reason, nobody can make a wheel bearing. And a spare tire. Very good. So if we're going chronologically, oh, you get there, so you need your paperwork to get in, whatever that is. You got to stop and sign the waiver and all that stuff. And, you know, one of the challenges for me is figuring out from websites or whatever, like where do you stop and do things? And yeah, like, do we stop at this little abandoned hut with nobody in it? Or do we stop at the other abandoned hut with nobody in it? Another one over there, I can see some people in it, but I don't know if they're, it can be a little confusing when you get to the track, because it's a big place. People aren't always where they're supposed to be.

Robin: And a number of times I've ridden the bike to the track day. It's a workable thing. Not necessarily recommended, but doable. I found myself able to get there from wherever I was the morning of even. Now that you've got your paperwork situated, now it's about the sleeping situation. You get your tent, your bedding, air mattress, pump, fan. I think that it'll be nice while we're there, but you never know. It could be a hot night. A phone charger is an excellent one. I've got a jump pack thing that I'll probably bring.

Brian: Yeah, battery pack of some sort. Yeah, and also this time, I will try to remember to bring a pillow and blanket. Oh yeah, did you not last time? You just brought the mattress? I got ahold of Travis, and he brought a pillow and blanket from underneath his kid's bed or something. I don't know. Perfect.

Robin: Now where are we at? I keep going back and re-combing the entire thing. We've got the tow vehicle and trailer. We've got our paperwork at the door. We've got our tent footprint to set up. And now we're going to be hungry. So eating, meals in order, all of it.

Brian: Yeah, plan out meals and so forth. So like when Robin is going to be riding to the track day and I will be driving, we'll just kind of plan out what we're going to eat. And I'll bring some food and something to cook with. And we'll figure out what I owe you, pay you back for all this. I will bring $1 worth of hamburger instead of just throwing a bunch of crap in a bin. Plan out stuff that's going to not cause you physical problems in the morning and the day after. And let's leave it at that. Yeah. And also snacks. You're going to use a lot of energy, bring a few snacks, that kind of thing. I'm going to bring a bunch of water. Coffee is important. We'll have to discuss that.

Robin: When you say hydration stuff, I'm going to put electrolyte tabs.

Brian: Yeah. Like I have a bag of stuff called liquid IV. If you're really having a sweaty, sweaty day, that stuff really does help and it helps quickly. Gatorade with the sugar. Don't make that everything you drink, you know, make sure you drink plain water and mix it up.

Robin: Here's an important one. Don't take little sips of ice water to just keep your palate wet. That is extremely dangerous. If you start to overheat, you're just taking little dabs of ice water. Nope.

Brian: Chug it, take your medicine.

Robin: Drink the bottle.

Brian: Yep. The last track day was extremely hot. And I think they literally had people going around with like a water can and they'd shove it in your mouth if you didn't have a, you know. Yeah. So you get up the next morning, you eat your breakfast. Yes. You drink your coffee. Very important. You need to go through tech. You need to go to your first meeting. If you're whatever, you got to throw on your gear. Here's, I've got like a list here.

Robin: I don't know if we need to go through it all, but you get up in the morning, you throw on your socks, you get on your leathers, you got your helmet and gloves at the ready by the side. You got your leathers on first before your boots. Cause the other way around, kind of difficult.

Brian: Doesn't work. Yeah.

Robin: Brian pours an entire box of giblet powder down his back.

Brian: Oh yeah. One thing I've been looking for, for some reason everybody's out of stock, but I really want one of those, like you pair of slippery pajamas that go underneath the whole thing. Body stock and that noise.

Robin: Just go to your local Lion's Den adult superstore. I'm sure they got something.

Brian: Well, it's made out of latex. And so that's not quite what I need.

Robin: Yeah. That's going on the cover of this episode.

Brian: Latex body suits and giblet powder. Yeah. And so the other thing I put in here is toiletries and maybe there's showers and you want to clean up a little, whatever. And the thing that's easy to forget is your go home clothes. You know, hot, sweaty, horrible day, bikes loaded, everything like that. And I'm like, oh man, I dug another shirt out of my bag, but I really should have just brought a complete outfit because you know, you're going to have to interact with other humans on the five hour drive home and you don't want to repel these people.

Robin: Agreed. Now the other solution is wicking clothing. Don't forget that that is always an option. Couple hours, if you can bring a towel and you can caveman that, then whatever you are wearing in the wicking form, it will tend to ventilate itself into an acceptable, tolerable musk.

Brian: Yeah. And there's stuff like dude wipes or, you know, stuff like that where you can kind of, you know, give yourself a little freshen up with before you go home or just marinate and make people suffer.

Robin: You got a couple of things on here. I'll look at track prep taping, tires, tire pressure, ask, I know my number on track day tire pressure and it's different for everyone because it depends on the way of the bike. You want a certain amount of compression. My track day tire pressure, almost every bike I've ever had, 30, 30. I've never brought a super motard or anything like that. It's never been a light bike. It's never been an overly heavy bike. It's always been a reasonably middleweight bike. So 30, 30 for a guy of my physique. Tire pump is a good idea. The zip ties, I'm going to put in there now though, that industrial Velcro versus track stand or chalk. Got it. Ride to solution.

Brian: Yeah, good idea.

Robin: You don't have to tape the wheel weights, central before, you can.

Brian: I'd look at it some other organizations and track days and some of them do require that. Put some duct tape over your weight, wheel weights and that's it. Not a big deal. Stand, we talked about that. One of the big things that I over, the first track day, I really super overpacked. The second track day, I sort of overpacked. That's the excitement. I really, well, and also because, you know, I had limited, I had some of Robin's crap in there too, but I really brought way too much stuff to rebuild the entire bike. And the truth is, if something goes wrong with the bike, you're very limited in how much time you have to fix whatever happened. Yeah. If you break a clutch cable, for example. You know, like on my bike, it's a clutch cable and I could probably change it. I could, I'd probably miss one session.

Robin: Yeah, I've got my extra. I always keep it on me.

Brian: Yeah, so something like that. Yeah, bring it with you, whatever. If you have like a flat tire, they're not going to let you back on with a plug.

Robin: Right. They do usually have a tire person there. That's one of the things I don't want to say, don't bring that awesome idea of a remedy with you because if everybody doesn't, nobody will have what is necessary to help each other out.

Brian: That's true.

Robin: However, you can always look at things logically and think about this fits my bike. It's probably going to fit some other bikes. This remedy, this solution, this method, this philosophy, it's going to help others as well. And it tends to blend across the community at the track day.

Brian: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, that's almost a whole category. For example, when I bring, I've got a whole bag of liquid IV, it's electrolyte mix. I'm going to bring the whole bag and I'm going to offer it to everybody I see. And the same thing with, you know, like I'm going to bring an electrical meter and we were able, last time we were able to do some diagnosis. It's like, yeah, your battery's screwed. And he went over and bought a battery for some ungodly amount of money. And he was able to, he's able to continue his day. He's now an invested partner at that track. Yeah. And for example, like a control levers, the control levers used on my Yamahas fit a lot of Yamahas. Yeah, compact stuff like that, you know, bring it. Somebody might use it even if you don't. I mean, and that's a lot of the tools I bring on the bike is stuff for other people's bikes. Like I always have Torx tools because even though my bike, none of my bikes use Torx fasteners, but I know people who ride European bikes and need that sometimes.

Robin: Man, is that ever getting into a topic for next week's episode? Let me tell you. We'll talk about that later. What do you got here for staying alive?

Brian: Well, staying alive, like out of the sun. Yes. Sunscreen, canopy, stupid hat, got to have a stupid hat. I was really jealous. I saw a guy in like a giant, gigantic pink sombrero last time.

Robin: He wears that every track day that he attends.

Brian: That is a smart person.

Robin: He's also somebody to look for. He's there professionally. So a lot of the time it's like, look for the person in this hat. He'll direct you and boom.

Brian: Yeah. That's the guy. What I'm bringing in there, I'm bringing a leaf blower this time. So if we come off the track and you're hot, open your leathers, insert leaf blower. I think that'll be nice.

Robin: Yeah. You know, maybe an industrial fan would do better, but I think a leaf blower is exactly that.

Brian: And meds. I always have a first aid kit. Some ibuprofen, but I don't know. I would say I'm so hyped during the day, I don't think I'd even feel any pain, but I have a damaged carcass, a little ibuprofen might be needed at some point. What do we need spares of? A spare pair of gloves, because it's easy to lose one glove and then- Don't jinx me.

Robin: I'm not doing that. I'm not bringing them. And then I'm going to lose one. I always know, it might always go in my helmet. Otherwise, how am I going to collect the sweat in my helmet?

Brian: Yeah. You got to keep it there and let it really marinate. And also, again, this is for the community. There may be someone else needing gloves, you know, or they brought the wrong pair, that kind of thing. Earplugs, I bring a big bag. Again, here you go. Everybody have an earplug. Have two, a bunch of extra water. I mentioned that already. You see people selling stuff at the track sometimes too. So if you want to sell track related junk, it's a good way to do that. And again, I always throw in my street gear in case I need to turn the bike back into a street bike. I have street gear to wear, so I don't have to put on my leather pajamas at the side of the road.

Robin: Yeah, no, it's coming. I got to figure out how to pack my leathers and everything I'm camping in and all of it into my, you know, this is going to be a process. I'm considering whether or not I want to mail this stuff to you. Like that's weird, but might be, you know, might make sense. I don't know how to say that.

Brian: Yeah, yeah. Well, we'll have a process of negotiation and discussion over, like there's stuff I have I could just bring for you and you wouldn't have to bring it. So like, I think I have a tent that works. An extra one? I think I do. Wow. I need to look. And then there's the stuff not to bring. Hey, Joanne. Hi, Joanne. The first track day I did, I brought like everything I would need for a major engine rebuild on the motorcycle in the middle of the day. And that's just, you're not going to have time for that. A loud Bluetooth speaker. Nobody wants to hear that crap. I disagree. It's a beautiful thing. A small Bluetooth speaker.

Robin: Okay. I can do that. I can bring that.

Brian: One that works after midnight. No.

Robin: Tires and tire changing stuff? Yes. I mean, if you need to be able to change a tire out, go ahead. There's probably going to be somebody there that can do it already. But I mean, I brought my Rabiconda last time. Okay. So that is good stuff to bring. You got to be careful what we say. Otherwise nobody will bring anything.

Brian: Yeah. Yeah. And the last two, you know, I had a set of tires laying around. So I threw them in. Who knows? Might help somebody.

Robin: I know who knows. It's time for The Armory. Brought to you by gearchick.com. Our focus discussion here is, Joanne, save us. We have questions. What can we do better? What can we combine? What are we missing? What's too much?

Joanne: We don't bring anything that we know someone there will have. So the track days I've done, there's a suspension person, there's a tire person, there's usually mechanics around. We just bring our toolbox for any specific sizes of nuts and bolts that are specific to our vehicles. That's it. At least from a mechanical standpoint, we don't bring tire changing equipment or stuff like that.

Robin: Bring a whole lathe.

Joanne: No, I'm not going to bring a Nomar tire changer, for example. And we are bougie. So we usually get a hotel room. We typically haven't been able to sleep in our vehicles. So we get a hotel.

Robin: You know, an Airbnb might be worth, Brian.

Joanne: Yeah, because it's physically draining and exhausting to do a track day when you don't do it all the time. You know, if you're doing an occasional track day, like once a year, a couple of times, you know, it's a lot of physical, it's tiring. It's like, it's mentally exhausting. So the last thing I want to do is sleep on the floor. But, you know, we've had the luxury to get a little room. And actually, if you've ever done a track day at New Jersey Motorsports, they have these special rooms that are above the paddock and they cost, at the time, a little more.

Brian: Nice.

Joanne: Because we've done three track days at New Jersey and when we lived in the East Coast, and that was great. Because then we could set up the paddock the night before, because we would rent a garage also below the room, set up our stuff the night before, and then be ready, come down in the morning. Oh, that's the- Take everything down. I know, I don't know how many tracks have accommodations above the paddock. But Virginia- VIR. VIR. I think we say that like a quality in or a comfort in or something, but we've never hustled a track day. But I agree with all your other like gear and accessory things, clothing. If you are really with it, you also have a fan to dry your gear.

Brian: Yeah, I've got like a battery-powered fan that takes Ryobi batteries.

Joanne: Hey.

Brian: And that thing has been very useful and popular. And it runs all day on a battery.

Joanne: You know what, it's also useful just when you get off the bike, right? And it's hot, and so you have a fan.

Brian: He's bringing a leaf blower.

Joanne: Do it.

Brian: Yeah, I'm bringing a leaf blower next time. Open the leathers, insert leaf blower, and I think you're going to have awesome.

Joanne: Right? The fan we actually brought specifically for the garage because there's no air conditioning in there. So just having a fan was also really helpful. The thing I don't see in your gear list is base layers.

Robin: Yeah, we were talking about that. Yeah. Silky sheen.

Joanne: Do not wear your one piece or your two piece without base layers. Don't go in bare, especially on a humid.

Brian: Yeah, we kind of grouped that under unmentionables and underwear, but yeah, you're right. Base layer is a better term.

Joanne: And the key is that it's a technical base layer. We're not talking like a cotton T-shirt and your cotton boxers or your cotton underwear, but a full base layer to your wrist, to your ankle and up to your neck. So we're talking, I'm talking a long sleeve base layer on top and a full length base layer to your ankles or bicycle shorts, but with knee high socks. But honestly, you want all of it covered. Don't break it up like that because you're bending your knee for like eight hours straight and you don't want that kind of discomfort. So I'm a onesie. I bought a D1 Air onesie and it's so comfortable.

Robin: I've got some liners that try to be long underwear, but they're not. They're thin. Are they summer specific? I don't think they are. And that's why I wanted to ask you specifically about something that is gonna be strong enough, but also thin enough.

Joanne: Since you're doing an actual track day, do it right. You're already doing all the other stuff, right? Do a one piece, like an actual one piece summer weight base layer. This one is absolutely fantastic because there's a little bit of mesh in there too.

Robin: Here comes the link.

Joanne: And it's really stretchy and it feels like a Lycra or silk. So the fabric is a spandex feel, smooth, not a fabric feel. Does that make sense?

Brian: Yeah. Here's the thing though. This is a Revit Blast undersuit. The only size available is small. And for some reason, I've actually been looking this summer for an undersuit and for some reason, none of them are actually available. It's kind of strange. What I didn't know is that there, is there some other sport where you have a onesie undersuit and you could repurpose?

Joanne: I doubt it. We can also do a two piece. You don't have to do a one. It's just that you wanna cover everything.

Brian: I've got base layers that cover everything. You know, I've got long sleeve and pants and socks and that cover everything. And that worked pretty well.

Robin: $32 men's spandex bodysuit, long sleeve United zipper dance leotard. Oh, a dance leotard. There we go.

Brian: You first, Robin.

Joanne: Here, do this.

Robin: Hockey performance, one piece undersuit, black junior large, 12 bucks.

Joanne: Are you playing hockey or are you riding motorcycles?

Robin: Riding motorcycles.

Joanne: Okay. Remember, you don't want seams underneath your suit. So the problem is when you wear some non-motorcycle specific base layers, a lot of them have seams and you don't wanna feel that. So if you really wanna save money, do a two piece Axial, which is Revzilla's house brand. And it's $50, $60 total to get the whole outfit. So it's a compression fit. It'll do the job, you know, if you're just doing, like I said, you're doing like a track day. But if you're doing frequent track days, you're probably gonna want a full one piece. They're just more comfortable. But these are inexpensive. Do that if you wanna save. Gonna recommend a onesie. Purpose built. Moto D is the other brand. This is the one I have and it's awesome. Same idea, price point's gonna be a little over $100 because it's a one piece and it's seamless and it's moisture wicking, right? The fabric also makes a huge difference. So the point isn't just that it's a one piece. The point is that the material is gonna help you manage the sweat. Moto D is the most affordable. It's like $80 and you get a really comfortable one piece. There's even a zipper garage for you. Lucky you.

Robin: Seams or no seams, there's the Kortech quick dry air undersuit, XX large black.

Joanne: There you go. Like that's, you know, the Kortech I'd recommend if you're a little shorter stature, but if you need a longer waist, longer arms, longer legs, you're gonna want the Revit or you'll want to do a two piece. I like the Moto D, it's great. What kind of boots are you wearing?

Robin: I'm wearing street boots. Standard high calf, not to the knee though.

Joanne: Some touring.

Robin: All day. And I've done this before. It's all right. It's not as confidence inspiring when you're getting super low as the stuff I used to have, but I'm not going crazy the way I used to. So that's kind of nice to be able to say out loud on air.

Joanne: Let me give you a reason that you wouldn't want to do that just for people who are trying to figure out what to do. If you're new to track days and you're maybe newer riding your sport bike, this is more important for sport bikes that you want a true track boot because you're gonna have to get your toes in between that shifter and that peg really quickly. You're gonna have to transition and make quick left and right turns. And if you have a clunky touring boot with a really thick sole and a thick toe box, you're not gonna be able to do it. You're gonna find yourself getting into really tight corners and not being able to quickly turn left and right unless you slow all the way down. And you probably aren't gonna want to do that. So the reason to not wear your street boots and invest in actual track boots is so that you can learn how to brake better, shift better, transition faster. Same goes for the street, but since you're doing a track day, it's gonna be 10 times more important and 10 times harder to do because you're trying to do this at higher speeds. And the same goes for your gloves. If you're thinking about wearing like, I don't know, just short street gloves, it's the same thing. You're not gonna have the refined control over your braking, your clutch, your throttle that you would if you're wearing an actual track glove with the right comfort and the right fit.

Brian: Gold bullion right there. So now I'm shopping for a onesie and Robin, you're gonna have to look at that. I'm sorry.

Robin: Similar banter at higher revs can be found via the Gear Chick website. Go to gearchick.com and dig in. If you want to reach out to her directly, help at gearchick.com. She'll respond. She's a person with opposable thumbs. She's here for all of us.

Brian: Sigma 3, moments in motorcycle history with Jordan Liebman. The Scott Motorcycle Company got a little weird at one point when the founders started thinking a little too much about the three-wheeled sociable.

Robin: But that's all right, because it does become silky smooth.

Brian: Tell us about it, Jordan.

Jordan: By the way, I'm not a fan of the three-wheeled. In 1912, on the senior TT, the Isle of Man Tourist Trophy races, they're winning. They won the Isle of Man in 1912. The rider was Frank Appleby. And then they had a repeat in 1913 with Tim Wood, who won the Isle of Man. So once you win the Isle of Man twice, back to back, you have a lap record, and then you have a year off. And now we're at 1913. Now he's making sales, all right? These are not cheap bikes. These are actually quite expensive compared to a lot of bikes out there. In 1914, they did not win. But for four years in succession, since 1910, they also had the fastest lap, four years in a row. So these guys are kicking asses and taking names. The engine was noted for having a yowling sound. This is what happens when you have a carbureted engine that the intake is basically tuned like a horn now. You can hear the air rushing into the engine. And this is also the same, the late 50s to early 60s, Yamaha 250s and 350s were known for a yowling sound, almost like a honk. When you open the throttle, you can hear the intake. They were known for that. But back at the time, they were known as smelly, dirty things. They may have been smelly and dirty, but they humiliated larger four-stroke machines. And in most races, they were given a big handicap. Just like the two-strokes were in other sanctioned races against Harley and Indian and everybody else, two-strokes were making more power with less weight and less displacement. They competed in the ISDT, the International Six-Day Trials. They had local one-day events. They had hill climbs. They competed in every type of event there was, scrambles and road racing. And three Scott employees, Walter Smith, Alex Doverner, and Charles Sedars came up with an idea to host a trials on the Yorkshire Moors, AKA probably wet, ground, sandy, grassy, earth, shitty terrain. It was known as the Scott Trials and it became almost as popular as these bikes themselves. Everybody competed in the Scott Trials. So that was a big deal. It was invented by these three gentlemen that worked for Scott. The quote says, from the Motorcycle Magazine, which is a British motorcycle magazine, not the American one, which is already defunct by 1914, it says, the Scott Trials are the most punishing event on the roughest terrain in the UK. That's what they have to say about it. There is another gentleman who was a privateer. We had a lot of privateer racers. They did everything themselves. Lancelot Parker had lots of success with local races, particularly the Westverland Open Hill Climb. And at one point he tuned an engine to allegedly get 200 miles per gallon, which I call bullshit on that. I'm just saying no. There's all kinds of, what do they call it? Dumbfuckery, skullduggery, they call it. You could just as easily take your gas tank and secretly dump another gallon and a half in it and say I made 200 miles per gallon. I call bullshit on that. You'd have a hard time doing that with a Honda 50, let alone a 500cc two-stroke twin. My 500cc two-stroke twin, my T500, would get me 35 miles per gallon no matter what I did to it. 200 miles per gallon on a two-stroke, sketchy. So we got that. And then something terrible happened called World War I. All production ceased at Scott. They did build prototype three-wheeled gun carriers that didn't see action, but they did lead to a similar design that after the war Scott designed and built a three-wheeled passenger vehicle, we're not calling it a car because it has three wheels, called the Sociable. And this is why I tell you this guy was eccentric. He put everything he had into this Sociable. He was determined to make this thing happen. So the war derails the Scott company for a number of years. I'm sure they did things in support of the war, but they weren't building and selling motorcycles much during that time. And during that time, since it was kind of a downtime, Alfred Scott put all of his effort behind this thing. We're gonna call it a trike, but the front wheel is not centered. It is in front of what would be a steering wheel in England on the right side. So it's already awkward. Awkward design, never caught on, but Alfred Scott persevered with his idea. The Motorcycle Magazine, October 1920, stated it was a very complex and painstaking development than any other motorcycle production. All we can say is the Scott Sociable strikes a new note in machines of the motorcycle type. Basically, they're just saying it's different. He's basically taking the idea of a sidecar and making it a unit body. Had a welded perimeter frame and was finished with a fiberglass body and a glass windshield. The edge was mounted to one side. So the edge was mounted on the right side of the vehicle and the passenger sat together like there was a sidecar, but they were not separated. Two wheels in back, one in front on the right side of the vehicle. Odd bird, but this is 1920. I mean, weird things are happening. Some people didn't get the memo. This gentleman, Alfred Scott, went down that rabbit hole. So far, he decided to sell the motorcycle side of the company in 1918 to pursue the Sociable, but all the good guys are still at the company. Unfortunately, production continued with the standard lineup until 1922. They put in a two-speed transmission on a bike called the Squirrel. Now, the Squirrel name becomes synonymous with Scott. They have several versions of things called Squirrel. There's a lot of high school mascots. If mine was the Squirrel, I don't know, a little funny, but it was a 498cc model. And in the meantime, Alfred Scott dies of pneumonia in 1923 at the age of 48. Shit, you're not supposed to die off. He probably neglected himself because he kept trying to perfect this Sociable thing. This company that bought Scott in 1922 launched the Squirrel and as displacement increased in 1926, they added the name Flying Squirrel, which was their most famous model. And they also had a range called Super Squirrel. So everything is squirrel with these guys, but improvements just keep piling out on these things. And they're not cheap. These are expensive bikes comparatively. In the UK, the Depression began. They had their own Depression and it overlapped with ours in America. And the company went into receivership, which means they're going to go bankrupt and was restructured. During that time, Harry Shackleton, the draftsman that they hired back in 1908, designed a three-speed engine and transmission unit. So it was no longer a separate transmission from the engine. It was all in one. Pretty fantastic for 1926. And they went to a girder type fork. So they were no longer using the tube and spring version, but they have a regular girder type fork. I guess that went as far as it could. They remained always competitive, but they never won again at the Isle of Man Tourist Trophy races. But they became known for smoothness and reliability. Imagine that. A two-stroke in the world of four-strokes is known for smoothness and reliability. That says a lot about the competition of the day. But at the same time, we have water jackets. So it's probably quieter than these rattling four-strokes with fins that are dissipating heat. This guy's got a smooth engine. In 1933, they built a water-cooled three-cylinder two-stroke model. It was low production, but it was 38 years before Suzuki put one in the GT 750 Water Buffalo. Some people might say the Water Buffalo was the first water-cooled two-stroke three-cylinder. Uh-uh. These guys did it 38 years earlier. Yeah. Scott also built a custom six-cylinder engine for Aston Martin. Isn't that 007's car? They were taken seriously by the general community. So this was the 1930s. These guys keep getting interrupted by World Wars. World War II interrupted production again, and the company had a few takeovers. And there was spotty production and actually disappeared off the market for a year here and a year there, reappearing a few times through the mid-'40s. So literally, you'd be able to buy them, and then you wouldn't, or you might be able to find a model that hadn't been sold yet, or you're buying used ones, but there were no new models. During the war, the companies that survived were the ones that get the military contracts. You know, Harley-Davidson, BMW and Zundapp, Triumph, whatever, they're the ones that got the military contracts. Everybody else has got to place the port. After World War II, in 1950, production resumed under a gentleman named Matt Holder. He was an enthusiast turned owner. He owned a company called Airco Tool and Jig Company of Birmingham, UK. And they were now building a flying squirrel with a 596cc engine, full with drum brakes, true hydraulic damped telescopic forks. This is good. Two strokes still. Of course, a 600cc two-stroke. They told us in the 60s that the T500 Suzuki was a bike that couldn't be built, but these guys were doing it in the 50s, 25 years earlier. Of course, it was water-cooled. Swing arm frame now, because before we were rigid, but production was dwindling into the 60s. The rest of the world is ramping up, and these guys are extending this design as far as they can. So by the 60s, there were other competing industry innovations that made the Scott look a bit slow in comparison, a little archaic. But they still had a big following. They were a bit of a niche. They had their own fan base. But after World War II, it took until 1956 to reach full production. They designed the Scott Swift, which was another motorcycle with telescopic forks, and they switched from a generator, which makes DC current, to alternators. This was a step forward. A lot of bikes in the old days had generators instead of alternators. Did not need a rectifier to change the AC to DC. They did it with mica and bands on the armature. Armature is the word. So the 60s have come and gone, and we've already been bought out a few times. This Scott that refuses to go away, and there were brands that didn't make it five years. These guys have held on literally since 1901. The guy was building engines in the 1800s, until actually we can say the very last Scott Flying Squirrel was built in 1978. So Robin Dean was alive.

Robin: Oh yes, I was.

Jordan: Rumors of your, oh nevermind. So the company gets bought out again by this gentleman named George Silk. Silk as the fabric. Another guy who was already an enthusiast, and he was an engineer, and he took over in 1972 with Matt Holden, a previous owner, and Maurice Patey, and they called it Silk. Silk is an extension of Scott, almost like the modern Indian Royal Enfields are an extension of the original British Royal Enfield. Okay, but that's all being done in the UK. And so now we have Silk as a brand, but it is a Scott Silk. They were building 700cc engines, called it the 700S, and they were a low production specials with strengthened cranks, a proper oil pump, roller bearing mains and big ends, displacement increased to 636, then 653cc, and higher compression ratio. Now we talk about compression ratios. The compression ratio on George Wyman's bike was probably around two to one. You could probably do two to one in your mouth with your lips closed, okay? That's not a lot of compression. Faster engines are running 10 to one, 12 to one. You see some race bikes with 18 to one and 20 to one compression. This is almost diesel compression. And so they've increased the compression on these to modern standards. They're using lock-keyed disc brakes. Now they're adding expansion chambers. This is what was brought to us by Ernst Degner from East Germany and given to Suzuki based off the science behind the V2 rocket from Germany. We'll get into that later. The bike went over 100 miles per hour, which is double what they lap GT with, made 55 miles per gallon, but at the time was $500 more than a Triumph Bonneville in 75. So they were really only building about 20 to 30 bikes per year. Very exclusive. And production ended on Christmas in 1979. But the very last Scott Flying Squirrel built with Scott parts was built in 1978. Pretty cool. Silk built the last Flying Squirrel in 1978 for a persistent wealthy customer. Persistent, like you still owe me that bike. And the last bikes were built in 1982, they're saying now. So some say it's 1979. Now they're saying 1982. Maybe they were just using up stock. That's the end of Scott. They had so much innovation that was carried over for decades into motorcycling. The first Kickstarter, telescopic forks, internal springs, chain drive, rotary valves, unit construction engines. Absolutely unique design. When everybody was running four strokes, this guy's making water-cooled two strokes in the early 1900s. There are still places that didn't even have roads. He could have been from the future. Servant, eccentric, but he built things that worked and won and people liked. Scott is in the pantheon of great, innovative, early motorcycling. There you have it.

Robin: Outstanding. He still knows everything about this and getting amped up about it too. Time to wind this thing down. If I may, I really wish I wasn't steering the ship next time because these are the things I want to talk about and I want advice and discussion points on this in depth. My tool roll is too heavy. So I want to find and build, for my bike specifically, the lightest but still 100% usable tool roll with lightweight sockets and socket wrenches, spanners, drivers, the works, the roadside kit that we've used in the past. We've saved each other in the past. I have a big old honking axle bolt and I want to be able to not just remove it but torque it back on using tools that are as featherweight as can be that aren't proven to be single use. Meaning you can use it once and then it breaks and now you're screwed.

Brian: So what you're saying is this is going to be a whole episode of Tiny Tasty Tool Tips. One or 500 per episode. We can make that happen.

Robin: Joanne, what do you think? You got any tips for, you guys think we should bring up for that particular topic and discussion?

Joanne: We have a cool little socket set that we bring everywhere and it's really small.

Robin: Nice. Time to get out of here.

Joanne: Mm-hmm.

Robin: Let's go.