Robin: In this episode, boundaries and the scope of reason, ride focals, the four-eyed rider, and a last dip into the 1970 Daytona 200. Brian, good to see you. How are you doing?

Brian: Good to see you, sir. I'm doing well. I did not ride today, but it's January in Indiana, so it's not nice. We don't like it, but it is normal, so.

Robin: Oh, we got purple clouds here. It's raining. Opening announcements, news, corrections, banter, all of that. We got a little bit of everything. First off, on the announcement side, very happy to say we were just discussing this. New toys. I got a new production pipeline for the podcast. Got deep into some code to create some automations to make the production effort easier. Pretty thrilled about how that's turned out and hopefully going to be able to turn that into something a little bit generic for other people out there who produce their own podcasts. Maybe it'll help. Here's some fun. Corrections. This one comes to you from Jordan Liebman. In the episode titled Arc Academy, at the 55 minute and 44 second mark, I state that Bob Hansen had asked Mr. Honda to race the CB750. At that time, he did not know of the CB750. I just wanted to make that correction. That's from Jordan Lieben.

Brian: Jordan, basically, the guy was asking Mr. Honda, hey, I want to get back into racing. He wasn't asking about that specific bike because he didn't, nobody knew it existed.

Robin: Dick Mann was already racing. I think he was just asking Mr. Honda to get back into racing.

Brian: Okay, I got it.

Robin: Are words in there?

Brian: There are words in there.

Robin: News, lots to say. Straight from the BBC, motorcycles worth $40 million seized from FBI Most Wanted Olympic Snowboarder.

Brian: That's a headline that's got everything you want. Just Google it.

Robin: I'm not going to read their materials verbatim, but if you Google motorcycles worth $40 million seized from FBI most wanted Olympic snowboarder.

Brian: That's crazy.

Robin: Mad, mad, mad, mad world.

Brian: Yeah. And the thing is about that story, everybody wants to see the bikes and there's like four blurry photographs from a potato smuggled through, you know, the Mexican federales. Everybody wants to see the bikes and there's like one that's got a fairly clear picture and it does appear to be a legit Ducati race bike.

Robin: Yeah.

Brian: When the photos come out, the moto world is going to erupt. It's going to be, it's going to be very interesting and who knows what the heck's going to happen to all these bikes, where they're going to end up.

Robin: I smell a movie in this somewhere. There's got to be a movie in this specifically about the history of these bikes, how they ended up there. Charming. Stay classy, Cleveland.

Brian: Sounds like a great guy, but apparently had good taste. These things can coexist, you know, rotten guy with...

Robin: Yala Habibi. Fortnite has already appeared everywhere. There's no need for us to have him on the show unless we want to, like, get into the making of the making of the adventure.

Brian: By all accounts, Yalla Habibi is doing well, and they sold out the showings. They added more showings in somewhere, wherever the hell it is in Canada, they ride around in the snow. I actually bought it. I haven't had time to watch it yet. So I bought a Yala Habibi. I paid them their $10 US, but I need to pop an adult soda of some sort and watch it and see what's going on. But it looks great.

Robin: You watch it forward. I'll watch it backwards and then we'll be able to cover it from both angles. Oh, yeah.

Brian: That sounds very coherent. Twisted throttle closing. What's going on with that? I hadn't seen that one.

Robin: Yeah, it caught me off guard too. I don't remember what I was thinking when I found this out, but twisted throttle is closing. Their sister companies such as denali and vision x are fine i really knew them mostly for going there to buy sw motec components aftermarket anything they were my go-to for all that stuff even if it was even if it was the little things that were just built better the twisted throttle was my favorite for let's see if they made that for my bike yet kind of stuff and now that will be no more so i guess it's just going directly to sw motec from here on yeah.

Brian: I i looked at twisted throttles website they're they're they're having like you know going out of business sale or clearance sale anyway they're they're they're having closeouts on everything and so a thing i just bought those bags for my bike is on sale at like half off

Robin: I'm sorry doesn't.

Brian: It just piss you off and i'm like maybe i should buy a second set

Robin: No i.

Brian: Well you could they're like 90 actually less than half off they're 90 dollars And it cost me like $230, $240, something like that for the set I bought, but whatever. Yeah, and I think there was a retirement. I'm not sure. There's, you know, it's a whole mix of things, but yeah, that's too bad. But yeah, they were huge, huge, huge in the dual sport community, big time. And also anybody who, you know, anybody who rides a BMW has probably bought stuff from them. I've bought a lot of stuff from them, from KLRs, Yamahas, stuff like that.

Robin: So they were also good for a laugh. If you had the right bike, anything sort of generic. I know that for like our SV650, I went looking for components that I could get through them. And all that came up was the most generic fits every bike. These fit your SV650. And it's like, that's a bolt. That's a metric hex head. Thank you.

Brian: So what's this about a maintenance app?

Robin: Shout out to whoever the people were that reached out to me almost at the same time about two different maintenance logs apps. One of them was Lookover and Motoshed. If you're listening to this, yeah, I did get your emails. But surprisingly enough, your emails both came on the same day. Which leads me to believe that either both of you are in head-to-head competition with one another. One of you is extremely unlucky enough to have been cut off at the lead by a bot, or both of you are bots. Not sure what to do with this here, but I am going to look into it a little bit more carefully. There may be an automated app builder involved in some of these or not. I don't know. We'll see. Lookover is one. ModaShed is the other. There, you got your mention. I have not checked your stuff out yet, but aim to when time allows. In the meantime, if you have a membership at TRO.bike, you can actually maintain your maintenance logs online through the website, though that is always an improving environment that I'm still working on all the time.

Brian: Nice.

Robin: The only banter I have is that the featured image from the New Year's Eve episode, I tell you, I'm wearing those glasses that I borrowed, so you and I look like brothers. It's a little disconcerting. Oh, is that? It's a little. You ready for some questions?

Brian: I'm ready for one and not quite for the other, but we'll see where it goes. All right.

Robin: I like these. I found these to be inspirational, sir. Questions from the Wild Plus, 404 not found. If you'd like us to field your questions, visit email.tro.bike in your web browser and send us a message.

Brian: AC asks, new rider looking to outfit for commuting. I've got 20 miles, a mix of interstate and back roads. Are there reasonably priced oversuits that provide solid abrasion resistance and are compatible with my TechAir 5 plasma airbag? Interesting requirement there. I'm thinking about alternatives to a jacket and riding jeans, but $1,800 for an AeroStitch is too much for my pocketbook. As long as it has pockets, I can add armor for elbows, knees, hips, et cetera, and so on.

Robin: Definitely sounds like one of us, a modular armor purchaser, somebody who gets their gear based on compatibility and then builds into whatever they can afford. Speaking my language, for sure.

Brian: Yeah. Obviously, Arrow Stitch is kind of the default, but yeah, they have gotten super expensive. You know, you get what you pay for, but damn.

Robin: And some of the other one-piece suits that you can find out there, there aren't a lot of them. If he's looking for the onesie, they go up in price quick. There's not a lot of variety from what I've seen. So it's got to have pockets. Wait, wait, wait. Did they want a onesie?

Brian: So they wanted an oversuit. I took it as a onesie.

Robin: That's what I'm saying.

Brian: Yeah, like an arrow stitch, whatever. And I was looking at stuff like the Tourmaster has, they call it the Centurion. The same idea. And again, we may have misinterpreted. And like the Centurion is, yeah, it's just an oversuit. And I think it has armor. I'm not sure.

Robin: Well, it's Tourmaster. So the price is divided by half. That's for sure.

Brian: The price is, it's about 400 bucks for the suit, which is quite reasonable. Obviously you're not getting the i

Robin: Doubt it's gore.

Brian: You're not getting gore text no right you're getting you're getting a waterproof breathable 600 denier shell poly you know ballistic overlays stretch panels their brand of armor their brand of waterproofing and and so forth 50

Robin: The cost of an arrow stitch means it's 50 dry.

Brian: Well it's like 25 the cost so yeah you'll be 25

Robin: Percent dry it looks good though i think it actually looks pretty good.

Brian: You know something like that and there's also there's a there's a couple of others out there you know i know what joanne would say is spend the damn money but like climb has some one-piece suits the heart anger is their street suit they basically have some suits that are kind of they're i think they're more oriented towards off-road riding or snowmobiling sure But Climb has one called the Hard Anger or Hard Danger. I'm not sure how you're supposed to say it.

Robin: The Hard On.

Brian: But that's $1,400. So it doesn't save you much. It's going to get you up there in that level of quality that Joanne wouldn't like sneer at you.

Robin: I'm telling you right now, I'm kind of stuck on the Tourmaster. It looks relatively street. You could probably buy a color scheme that's a little bit more street than other. They even have it shown next to the Triumph Tiger 800 Sport.

Brian: Yeah.

Robin: Got to get behind that.

Brian: So I think, yeah, so I think the new version of the Tourmaster Centurion is $600. Okay. I think there was an old one on sale for $400. So something like that comes in gray and black and then like a green and black. I'll be honest, I've got a bunch of Tourmaster gear in the closet and it's always done well for me. Oh, yeah. Is it heirloom stuff? No. Is it $1,000 cheaper? Why, yes. Is it pretty damn reasonable for what you get? Sure.

Robin: There's also their onesie oversuit for just rain, just in case that's what they're after. That's what I've got. And it costs like all of a hundred bucks less. You know, it's made out of recycled Ziploc bags.

Brian: There's some stuff. Yeah. It's just basically a rain suit. That's one piece. And again, if you're like a standard humanoid, like Robin, something like that could really work out well for you.

Robin: Extra average.

Brian: Joe average.

Robin: Mysteriously average.

Brian: Coverage you know but like if you need a if you need a bigger top and and or something like that then you'd have to go two-piece another tactic is the first gear thermo and it's basically just an insulated suit so it does give you some abrasion protection i don't know if it even has armor pockets but like if you if you google a first gear thermo it's a one-piece suit and it's pretty much just a cold and wet suit all

Robin: Right 300 bucks.

Brian: And again yeah we also talked about i mean pretty much every brand has a rain suit. Even like the Alpine Stars Hurricane rain suit. Again, it's just a rain layer. It has, you know, it'll just fall apart if you fall down. It's What, $155? Wear your normal or your mesh gear or whatever underneath, that kind of thing.

Robin: So does it have everything you want?

Brian: So no, it's not an aero stitch, but it may let you wear your normal gear and then just put on this onesie when the weather looks cold and wet and get where you're going. Then you go to the office, strip down, hang it up, walk around like you own the place. Heck yeah.

Robin: Very good. Very good. Very professional. Next question. Miko asks, First time changing the chain and I broke the master link. I got frustrated towards the end and gave it a little extra wrenching, which bit me in the ass. So now I'm wondering, can I just order a new master link or does the whole chain need to be replaced again? I was hoping I could still use the chain I just bought, but I know chain issues are serious. I just don't know how bad it would be if I popped off the broken master link and put a new one on. For a bit more context, it's a riveted style master link.

Brian: Just order a new Master Link. It does have to be specific for that chain. That's kind of where you're going with that. They'll be available from wherever you bought the chain. And try again. Order two. They're like eight bucks. It's the odds of you having done something that would mess up the rest of the chain are almost nil. So... Order a new master link and rock on. I will say that that's a very common mistake. Your first time when you rivet a chain, you do need the right tool. And I assume he has, or he or she has that. But yeah, it's really common for people to get a little bit paranoid and really over crank on those things. And really you spread the riveted end out or even cause it to crack and things like that. So it's one of those things where you just need a tiny bit of spread because it's so hard. Like when you're putting it together, you're putting the plate on, it's really hard to press it in like it's held on it's got a pretty good press fit

Robin: Yeah and.

Brian: All you need is just a little bit of spread when you rivet the chain and that's it leave it alone walk away

Robin: And i'm being captain contrarian here with a little bit of over imagination going on where i'm envisioning a situation where how could they wrench on any portion of that and do damage to other portions of the chain i'm not sure i see that happening unless they were using all kinds of leverage that was tweaking links towards each end at the sprocket. And I don't think that putting a master link on involves that kind of leverage. It's mostly just lateral pressure with a tool.

Brian: I think damage to the rest of the chain is something that they would have mentioned. Sure. That would be obvious. Like, oh, wow, I really screwed this up. I need to start all over.

Robin: Yeah.

Brian: Probably what happened is, and again, this is very common, they put the press on the little tool where it has a little nose and it goes in and spreads out the rivet and they probably cranked and cranked and cranked and then the rivet split apart. That's super common, and that's not going to hurt the chain underneath. Take the master link out, throw it in the trash, save the little X-rings or O-rings or whatever. Order up two more. Screw up again. Why not?

Robin: Yeah. Have it on end.

Brian: Like I said, they're cheap.

Robin: There may be some voodoo hoodoo you do that happens when people get a chain and they realize, okay, you're supposed to replace the chain and the sprockets at the same time. So then that subconscious truth is somewhere in the mix where if they break any portion of the process, do I also need to buy a new bike?

Brian: Yeah. Do I need to? I used my car to go get this. Do I need to get a new car? You know, it can get a little, your brain can go places, you know, and again, it's, it's important to take it seriously what you're doing with your bike. But yeah, the chains put up with a lot of crap down there and with, and, and, and they put up with your, you know, with really powerful engines, they're pretty damn tough. And so I really think it's unlikely just by over-tightening a, a master link that anything happened underneath it.

Robin: True though if you do get thwacking they're super strong they are as durable as brian says in two directions however perpendicular to the bike maybe not so much so just keep your eyes on it depending on if it's o-ring or an x-ring or a z-ring or a newly invented russian cyrillic ring the point is, scan it does it feel good does it turn when you roll the rear wheel on the center stand or on any kind of a center stand does it look like it's moving smoothly yeah i think you're gonna be all right, though.

Brian: Yeah.

Robin: We have one more question. This is our newest, yet-to-be-fully-sculpted sub-segment, featuring the brave questions of new writer Angel Marie Kendall. Angel has willingly stepped into the spotlight so that other new writers might know they're not alone. Our own plans for this bit will eventually sit her down with motorcycle instructors from all over, multiple curriculums, different locations, different countries... Today, I actually hopped on the freeway for the first time. And why did I feel safer on the freeway than on the streets? Not sure why. I was going around 65, 70, and I felt safer on the freeway.

Angelmarie: And it was sprinkling.

Brian: Safer on the freeway. That's interesting.

Robin: I personally feel like the freeway feels safer so long as you've left enough space ahead of you to identify potholes. So I was going to ask you, why did you ride into the pothole? And my question was how far were you from the driver or rider ahead of you when that happened? Did you see it coming? Was something obscuring it? I saw it coming but I looked directly at it. I said, oh my gosh, there's a pothole.

Angelmarie: Look, target taxation.

Robin: My theory on the freeway feeling safer is that So long as you're going the speed of traffic, everybody is getting where they're going, and it feels like you're all floating at a standstill. You can observe changes and negotiate those changes almost as if you're not in motion. That's very comforting. With those intersections and citywide traffic, you've got random, it's always crisscross and intersections and lots of things happening. Brian, what do you got?

Brian: Yeah, exactly that. Because speed differentials or path differentials are what cause conflicts and increase your cognitive load. On the freeway, assuming things are going okay, big caveat, you're going to have a five mile an hour speed differential or 10 miles an hour not coming at each other at 30. So there's a 60 mile an hour speed differential. That's a little bit of why that feels better. And also freeways are built to have good sight lines, et cetera, and so on. So as long as you're not freaked out by the wind and noise or whatever, it can feel somewhat more comfortable as long as traffic's, you know, as long as things are going okay. If they're not going okay, they can get really weird really fast.

Robin: Just leave space ahead.

Brian: Let people take that space, you know, don't get too cozy in there.

Robin: Yeah. It's like the trick with tailgaters. When people tailgate you, okay, slow down because whatever mistakes they make, you need to be able to get away from. So you slow down, create more space ahead of you since they're going to take up the space behind. Not road raging on a bike, that's for sure.

Brian: What you said, it makes sense. You're getting more comfortable operating the machine. You know, you're not going to be freaked out by wind pressure. You got good gear on, so it's not going to feel weird. It would make some sense. In some ways, you'd be a lot more comfortable on the freeway with everybody going the same direction than in a very complex urban environment yeah

Robin: So as the experts well that's us.

Brian: Where where

Robin: Do you guys think I hopped on the freeway too early? Should I have waited a little bit longer? It's not for us to judge.

Brian: It's all for you.

Robin: Yeah. If you're comfortable and you can process the rhythm of what's happening around you in traffic, you make that call. I think my mistake is that there's this some sort of timeline that everybody follows. Like, oh, month three, you're hopping on the freeway. Month six, you can do the group riding. By year one, you're doing the track. No, because everybody rides for a different reason. And I heard a comedian talk about how, you know, the average IQ is 100. You have to remember that 50% of the world is below that. So the chaos of the world that you want to watch out for is the infectious stupidity of anybody who isn't going to make sense of you even being there. You are in charge of distancing yourself from those dangers. And in those events where you can't distance yourself as much as you'd like, you are responsible for suppressing any apprehensive responses, using what you love.

Brian: If you want to follow Angels' Wanderings and Learnings, look up 404-clutch-not-found, all one word, on Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok.

Robin: I'm leaving it in.

Brian: Good Lord, no. If you want to follow Angels' Wanderings, look up 404-clutch-not-found, one word, on Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok.

Robin: At the same time, if you'd like us to field your questions, visit email.tro.bike in your web browser and send us a message. All right, this segment one bit, this is an opportunity for something to happen, yet I'm not even sure if I have enough focus to make anything come of it. The joke was in there somewhere. Brian would say, hey, what are we talking about next, Robin? I would say, Brian, boundaries, Brian. What? What did I do? No, really, Brian, the segment is called boundaries. Ha, ha, ha. Yeah, well, boundaries and the scope of reason. From one second to the next, every in-ride change of scenery demands a certain level of adjustment where sensory intake is concerned. What we as riders selectively choose to process or admit, these choices reflect our priorities, if not skill. It's a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. It gets a lot more clear if we admit we're talking about risk versus reward in motorcycling. Skill to risk offset and those horse blinders that we riders and our subconscious have control over. This applies to life, but subjectively. We're focused on riding, wrenching, and reflection. Or deflection?

Brian: Those are some big words, Robin.

Robin: There's a lot, and it's just so foggy.

Brian: Bring us to Earth. Give us an example.

Robin: Riding on some remote, curvy road, one of several dream roads that we sport tourers get to ride, and I find that perfect section of corners. There's no guardrail, and there's a massive cliff to the left, and the mountains, they're beautiful, but I cannot give them my full attention. I can't give them very much attention at all beyond the fact that they're in my periphery. I just like saying periphery. I have to focus on the cornering. I have to focus on the next corner. There's a limit to how many corners I can count with that kind of a threat. There's a limit to how much speed I should be taking on. Boundaries. Boundaries that I should stay within, reshape themselves, change in contour depending on threats, outside threats, personal threats, me being a threat to myself, that repeat arrival at the next decision-making process. Here I am riding, boom, now I got to focus on that corner. Boom, now I got to focus on those three corners. But just beyond that, I can only see so much. We got to wall things off. The same thing happens in the garage. The same thing happens elsewhere. That's one example. What do you think of this?

Brian: Your mental traction circle.

Robin: Fascinating. I'd like to subscribe to your newsletter. Tell me more.

Brian: And it applies to a lot of things, like you said, but in the nuts and bolts of riding a motorcycle places and arriving at those places in one piece, there's so much mental bandwidth that you have. And so you have to make sure you apply and focus that correctly. You have to focus it in the right direction. You have to focus the right amount of attention in the right places. So yeah, there are places in New Mexico that I have little memory of that are so incredibly gorgeous scenery, but we were so focused on enjoying the wiggly little pavement in front of us. And that's part of the fun of riding is that extreme level of focus. It's a transcendence that we can get to.

Robin: As well as the expansion and contraction of perception, our decisions, we're the ones in control of that.

Brian: The thing is, that is one of the skills that you have to learn is being able to switch that on, that higher level, that next level, that transcendent level maybe, but switch on that higher level of perception to expand to everything you need without having to actually turn your eyes and so forth. The opposite of that gets you things like target fixation. Sure. If you screw this up, you get target fixated on that rock that bounced off that beautiful mountain and now is lying on the road. That's like a next-order level skill for people to learn not to do that. You learn that you do go where you look and that kind of thing. And the same thing applies in the garage. I've seen, for example, and this is not you at all, but I've seen other people get very, very, very focused in the garage. We're working on a motorcycle or a car or a lawnmower, and they're focused on stuff like, oh, I don't know what I'm looking at, so I'm going to grab a rag and I'm going to clean this little piece off here. And I'm going to get in the way of what I'm seeing and what I'm trying to learn, diverting focus, things like that.

Robin: Let me give you another take on that. if I run into a fastener or a task that I'm unfamiliar with on the simplest level, why is that Molex connector shaped that way? How are we detaching it? Why does it look like it comes apart in three different locations? None of them are the actual separator. Heck, this isn't even a Molex, you know? Or why does this bolt have this strange collar to it that doesn't seem to, it's not even round. I don't know how to take that off. And I don't know how to find it in the manual. I don't have words to use to describe it other than a photo. It gets into that committee thing where it's just like, man, what the hell is this? Has anybody dealt with this? It becomes deflection in a manner of speaking.

Brian: Yeah. And there's also, and we talked about this before, is there's the art. Obviously, I'm very comfortable in the garage. Managing anxiety.

Robin: Oh, sure.

Brian: Your pride and joy that you're making payments on is in a million pieces all over the place.

Robin: Yes.

Brian: It's a very anxiety-inducing moment.

Robin: I do not get anxiety by that because I've learned enough. I did get anxiety by boundaries in time. It's another version of the very same topic.

Brian: Yeah, it was kind of compressing things a little bit. Yeah, that definitely can play into it.

Robin: Yeah, stay focused, stay calm, stay focused, stay calm. We're running out of time. I'm no longer focused or calm.

Brian: Don't tell me to calm down. I am calm. And that can be a lot of it when you're out on the road and you're riding. I mean, we talked about that a lot. It's in a lot of the articles I've written, you've written, managing how people feel and anxiety and so forth can really alter the course of a day or alter the enjoyment of a day, you know, a nice day on the bike. Everybody has a very different boundary as to what they're willing to take on. You see this a lot in dual sport riding because it can be a lot more challenging. Pretty much anybody can manage to get through any paved road about anywhere. They can manage it somehow but off-road there are legitimately things i can't do that other people that a lot of other people can and vice versa the things i can do that people i've ridden with can't do or that are caused a lot of anxiety there are things i can do now off-road that i couldn't do two or three years ago so

Robin: Your boundaries have changed.

Brian: Yeah they're really like a lot different a lot more fluid and you have to really figure that out like okay what are we going to do today We're going to go, we're going to go up that hill and they'll be like, well, no, we're not. Okay. You know, with somebody, a good friend, I'm not going to force them past their boundaries because that's not, that wouldn't be good for anybody. Best case is they wouldn't have a good time. Worst case is the worst.

Robin: That gets into a sense of compatibility with those boundaries. It also gave me the idea of like, even in a paved environment, when you picture a series of corners and you choose your line for all of them, the instant something feels off, does this Rembrandt fit the canvas I'm on? When you notice something is off about your decisions before you've put them into action, well, off goes the throttle, the bike slows down, remedy the situation. There is a boundary there. Does it fit inside the lines? Do your prospective decisions that have not yet been enacted fit inside the boundaries of what you have in front of you?

Brian: Literally the road. Mail, mustard. Stay in there. Stay in between them, please. Yeah. And the other thing is, you know, imposing something can be pretty interesting and can be fun. For example, one day we're in North Carolina and Tennessee, we're going to go across 129 and there was, there was some sort of incident and there were like cops everywhere scowling at you trying to make a point about something. Oh, okay. I'll throw, I'll put another boundary on a day. So basically my boundary for the day was I would only let my tires stay within the right side wheel track, the right third of the lane.

Robin: So you stay in LP3 the entire time.

Brian: The entire time through. And it was a hoot.

Robin: For those listening in your lane, LP1 is the far left of that lane. LP2 is center and LP3 is to the far right.

Brian: So basically you're under the speed limit. You're at 25 miles an hour. You're cranking monster lean angles. You're working the hell out of the fandle bars because you're not straightening anything out. You're following every little wiggle of the road.

Robin: Steering a monorail.

Brian: That was actually a lot of fun and things like that where you just kind of artificially impose something just to see what, you know, just to experience it is kind of fun.

Robin: You're making a decision to set your boundaries and stay within them. They are enforced even with the safety buffer outside of them. If you had to, you could go outside of them.

Brian: Just to give another example of riding is, especially on a really tall bike like a KLR or when I had a V-Strom, you need to have a boundary where you stay on the right side of the lane because when you're the left-hand tight corner, your head is right at like forward headlight level.

Robin: Yep.

Brian: It can depend on the bike how you kind of have to remember how you're using space and things like that.

Robin: That's not to say that you can't use that area. It's just a matter of, do you know what is coming up? If you do and there's nothing and you're going to use that, then fine. But if it's blind, only ride the road you can see.

Brian: Only ride what you can see. Off-road, you can encounter a Jeep literally anywhere in any part of the road or off the road. Those guys have a talent for just popping up.

Robin: I want to reel this back to garage speak for one second because I have words up here that mention deflection, you know, ignoring drama and task at hand focus. Yeah. This actually does point again to your garage working on the valve check. Here's how much time we have. And once we start, stay strong, stay focused, stay calm to the extent that you can. And I think for the most part, we actually did. There were dramatic unexpected, but these plastics have never been off before. And I didn't miss a beat. At no point did I break a tab. At no point did I yank or struggle or get upset. It was just, nope, nope. Okay. So here's where that says, okay, this is still fighting me. This one is not as easy as I thought. Okay, well, oh, that's, there was an extra push pin. Okay, no big deal. I never tugged on it. It's a decision to not see the car pull into your driveway or to not see that the manual has folded shut because of breeze, whatever, you know, you make a decision, you set your own boundaries, either that or they are imposed on you, but stay within them so you can keep the task at hand moving forward to progress to the next task. Those boundaries also involve how much are you willing to take on with your peripherals, take all the plastics off, pull the regulator rectifier, get to the coolant. If you look at all of those things at the same time, then you're not thinking about one action. You're not smoothly going for one thing to get done. And that is where these boundaries and reason come into play welcome to the philosophy challenge gear chick.com how are you.

Joanne: Pretty good. I'm recovering from a very minor eye surgery I had.

Robin: Congratulations.

Brian: Yeah, it's good. Make sure you rub your eyes some more. Okay, no.

Joanne: I know. I'm like, it's so hard not to because I literally have stitches in my eyes. But it's been two weeks, so it's much better. And it's going to make a huge difference riding because I won't have to wear prescription glasses anymore. I used to just ride with my contacts and sunglasses or my contacts with my Transitions face shields. I started seeing double a few years ago. So you have to wear prescription eyewear to fix that. You can't contact your way out of that. So I was wearing glasses under my goggles in the dirt. It's doable. I mean, I figured out how to do it.

Robin: But now you don't have to do that.

Joanne: Now I don't have to do that. I'll just be able to wear my contacts like a normal, nearsighted, normal blind person.

Robin: Normal blind, not a sight of blind.

Joanne: Just a normal, right, because I have terrible vision. I'm very nearsighted. So I've worn contact since I was in junior high, but the double vision makes it, you have to wear glasses 24 seven. I'm lucky my bathroom is four feet from my bed because that's all I can see. So yeah, it's a whole thing. And I know a lot of people out there wear glasses under their helmet.

Brian: It's funny how many riders I know that save up needed procedures and handle them over the winter.

Joanne: That's exactly what I did. That's exactly what I did to get my eyes done. And it was not LASIK. And it was much more invasive than that. And it was worth every cent. I got squeezed in on Christmas Eve.

Robin: Wow.

Joanne: I know. The surgeon was like, yeah, I'll do it. Thank you. And it's perfect because, you know, wintertime, I'm not driving a lot. I'm not doing a lot except at the computer. So it's just resting. But that's actually a good segue. And I know this isn't initially what I've talked about, but I want to throw out a couple of

Robin: Recommendations for- And that means that it's time for segment two, the Armory brought to you by gearchick.com.

Joanne: I figure it's relevant if you're wearing glasses under your helmet.

Robin: Hell yeah.

Brian: Lay it on us.

Joanne: And it's hard. It's hard to find like glasses, well, both helmets that are comfortable. And a lot of people have a false. They think that you have to wear a modular to wear glasses. And that's just simply not true. The problem is if you're wearing the worst helmet you could have possibly bought for the cheapest price.

Robin: The shark. Spaceballs.

Joanne: Actually, the lighting on a shark is nice.

Robin: Yeah.

Joanne: You know, a rock bottom helmet has basic liners and they're not comfortable and they're not easy to wear with glasses. And it's just like any other feature in gear you want. If you want really good features, you have to pay more than $50. You definitely are limited to wearing either a plastic frame or thin metal frames, flexible frames. Or if you're really fancy, I actually have one pair of prescription glasses that are titanium frames. So they're wire. So they're really easy to wear inside my helmet. I actually had my optician add stiffer the little part that goes over your ear because they were super flexible. And I told him I arrived. He's like, here, let me put these plastic covers. And then it made it easier to slide them into the helmet. Those are exceptionally comfortable. I'm able to wear those all day riding in the helmet because they're titanium thin wire frames, but not everybody can afford that. I want to recommend a really cool place here called Sports Optical.

Robin: Nice.

Joanne: They're not a doctor's office. They're not an optometrist. What they do make is eyewear for all sports, shooting, swimming, you name it. Any athletic outdoor sport where you have to wear glasses or maybe goggles, just eye general eye protection. They will make like prescription protective eyewear for that. Another example is actually dirt goggles they'll make prescription inserts nice yeah so i have them make glasses for me and they are really experts at this they're great but like i said you could just go on like zennioptical.com and get basic plastic frame and get glasses that are just for writing if you have to but the other thing is in addition just having a good thin plastic frame because you don't want like a thick fashion frame pushed up against the side of your temples all day in your helmet. It's just like wearing headphones. So you do need to be conscious and it's just like any other sport. I don't know why people expect that when they are gonna ride motorcycles, oh, they could just wear whatever, do everything the same that they did before. It's not that way in any other sport. You don't walk into the tennis court wearing flip-flops and sweats and play competitive, you know, play tennis. If you're going to play hockey, you're going to buy the right hockey pads, the right skates. You're going to buy a hockey stick. And why do people have these ridiculous expectations of motorcycling when they don't have those kinds of expectations for their technical skills or their career or their hobbies? It's the same thing. You got to get the right equipment if you really want motorcycling to be comfortable and of course safe. Thin flat eyewear and then the other thing is you got to spend more than a hundred dollars on your helmet if you throw down for an awry i'm going to guarantee you can wear any pair of glasses you want in that helmet with the assumption and the caveat that it's fitted correctly so i'm talking you try an awry that's a-r-a-i and it's the right shape it's the right size and you're properly fitted for it i guarantee you can wear any pair of glasses in that helmet because the way they design their liners, there's this huge crease at the temple. It's not specifically for glasses. It's just their liner design that the way that the headliner is separate from the cheek pad and the way it's designed, you can see there's like a little crack there. There's a huge gap. You can see when you see people wearing awry helmets, that is the number one helmet I recommend for people that would come in and they want something comfortable for their glasses. Like, go, well, if you want it specifically comfortable with those glasses and you don't want to change your glasses, then you're going to have to pay for it. And this is how you do it. But you don't have to spend on a Raya. That's just an example. Even if you spend like $300 on a nice HJC or an AGV, the liners are softer. They're more forgiving, right? The materials are nicer. They'll smush more against your glasses so that the liners are... Because cheap liners are really stiff. The foam and the lining is just stiff and hard and really nice quality, like the good quality helmets, name brands, they use good materials. So that at least when you do wear glasses, the foam, the lighting smushes more, you know, around your face and around your eyes and stuff. You do have to spend a little more than just the bare, bare minimum.

Robin: I was Christmas years old when, for Christmas, I was looking for a next size up cheek pad for Maggie's helmet. That was going to be one of my gifts. And I learned that, well, for three shells, they wear the same seashells on the seashore. No, they wear the same pad. And the trick is you can either upgrade the pads or there's a single removable thin layer, a single tearaway layer that maybe this applies to glasses wearers as well.

Joanne: Is that her Arai?

Robin: That's her Arai. She's got the Quantum.

Joanne: That's a five shell helmet. And it's one of the only brands on the market that does five shells. There's like three brands that produce a five shell helmet.

Robin: And she's got the 25 milli. Yeah.

Joanne: And that's another special feature with Arai that you can peel like two millimeters or one millimeter away. And you can't do that on a lot of helmets. It's a very specific Arai thing. Having a nicer helmet with that premium lining, that's what you're paying for. Like you're not just paying for it just to say you have it, but it's to be more comfortable. You're paying for comfort. And I always like to remind people it's the same as any of your cool hobby tools. A Snap-on is not a Harbor Freight. Why do you spend more money? Isn't a Harbor Freight wrench the same as a Snap-on? No, it is not. And that's why you pay, right? It's worth it. Oh, I also wanted to shout out for the Dirk folks and the ADV folks. If you have to wear your goggles over your glasses and you can't afford the fancy prescription insert lenses, You want to look for goggles that have OTG, O for over, T for the, and G for glasses. So when you look for goggles, if they say OTG, that means the manufacturer has intentionally designed them to fit over your glasses. So it's a much deeper recess. I feel bad because I have a really nice pair of goggles or some Italian brand. And I have a small face. You know, I'm a petite woman and my face is not very wide. So my glasses are small and they're like child-sized glasses. So they fit in pretty much any goggle. I don't need an OTT goggle. You know, I'm just thinking about like, well, what if I was like an average-sized man and my glasses are wider? It'd be hard.

Brian: That's a scary thought, Joanne.

Joanne: It is a scary thought. What if I were my husband? You know, what if I were six foot?

Brian: Hi, I'm Joanne.

Joanne: Right? But like his face is wider than mine and bigger, right? He's got a big head. and a big brain.

Brian: I mean, look at this melon.

Joanne: Right? So squeezing your glasses into goggles, it's really hard. And that's, again, another reason why we spend my money and we invest in maybe some 100%, like the nicer ones. They make like 50 different goggles. They make premium. I have their hyper lenses, their hyper goggles.

Robin: Goggins goggles?

Joanne: It's like they're really clear goggles and the lenses are zero distortion. They're amazing. But just like anything else, if you spend more in the goggle brand, you'll get access to the ones that have more layers of foam around your face so that the recess is deeper and, again, you'll get access to the ones that have more layers of foam around your It'll be wider. But OTG is typically how you can find goggles that are designed for over the glasses style. And then, like I said, prescription insert lenses. Because a sports optical isn't the only place. If you Google, if you search, you'll find other places that'll do prescription insert lenses for your goggles. I've seen them for popular brands.

Robin: That's getting closer to what I was curious about. I was like, has anybody ever, I don't think they could pass any kind of the standard safety test if you had a system on the visor that allowed you to mount lenses minus the bridge. I've never seen that. Imagine the visor, the closed visor on a standard street helmet with a mounting system that allows for it. That gets weird quick.

Joanne: That field of view is too big. Like, no, you want to, you really, unfortunately, because you need it closer to your face. You're really better off just getting better glasses that are thinner and flexible. There's that company Flying Eyes. They're a company. They're aviators. So the founders are pilots, and they specifically wanted glasses to wear under their piloting headphones because they're huge. Right? And so their frames are flexible. Dork in the road. Ben, he is an affiliate of Flying Eyes. And so the frames are flexy. My issue with those were not to say that they're not great, is that for riding the magnets on the outer removable options, they have these options where you can just slap on a tinted lens and their magnets, but the magnets were kind of flimsy. So they would pop off a little bit, but not everybody has that problem. That was just something that when I tried them on, I found that to be kind of annoying. That's one example of a company specifically making glasses for people wearing them under their helmets. And that would go for skiing. Like, you know, you're snowboarding, you're skiing, you're wearing your awesome snowboard helmet. And I don't know, you want to wear whatever.

Robin: Or maybe you're snowing and you're skibboarding. Sorry, I just had to.

Joanne: But, you know, outdoors. Shout out to my glasses wearers.

Robin: I think Dork on the Road is on the cover of that website.

Brian: Yeah, yeah. He's the Flying Eyes guy. And there's a couple of others. One thing I'll also mention is Shoei has a They call it PFS, personal fitting system for their helmet. So it's basically a service and you go in and they custom fit the helmet to your weird lumpy cranium.

Joanne: With the liners.

Brian: They can help make sure that, again, it's a high-end helmet brand. It's not that expensive, but it's a little hard to find, but it's just a service where they can do that. So that would be helpful too.

Joanne: They're just walking you through different liner choices and your dealer, they can do that. But the fitment system is much more personal. liner customization. Shoei Arai and Belle has it in a couple of styles, but not every style. Shoei Arai have really specific sizing to where one liner doesn't fit everybody. It's liner-sized to the shell. But with glasses, it's really a combination. You do need to have glasses that are better for wearing in a helmet. Your fashion-thick Gucci's aren't really going to be comfortable.

Robin: I was going to say, look up wbns 10 tv fritz the night owl.

Joanne: Oh lord i that's very obscure i

Robin: Grew up with this guy at midnight he comes on on a friday saturday night i want to wear his glasses under my helmet god yeah.

Joanne: Obscure but yes may not i'm gonna probably guess no the other thing is you know remember too that your sporty glasses like there's certain oakley's that are you know and other fashion ones that are really thick framed to where they block your peripheral vision.

Robin: Yes.

Joanne: Blocking your peripheral vision on a motorcycle is probably the worst thing you can do.

Robin: No happy.

Joanne: Under your helmet for your vision. Why would you want to block your peripheral vision? So whatever glasses you're wearing, check. That you can maintain peripheral vision with the glasses, the sunglasses, even sunglasses, because I have Maui gyms and those things are amazing. But I always am sure to wear a wireframe under my helmet so that I wouldn't lose peripheral vision. And a lot of the fashion ones, they completely block it out. So you have to adjust and put those away for the beach days and find a pair to wear for the motorcycle days. Be willing to compromise a little bit. Really look at what you have and you really do have to adjust yourself. You know, and that goes for motorcycling in general. Like if you expect to ride a motorcycle and everything is going to work perfectly for you, you're in the wrong school. You know, and you're right. And you're expecting that everything's going to bend to your will. You really not shouldn't do this. Go do something else.

Robin: We were that gets into boundaries. We were talking about keep calm. These things aren't getting in. Those things are focused on, you know, priorities.

Joanne: Seriously. And motorcycling is probably one of the most difficult mental health challenges. It's pushed me mentally further than any other activity or experience in my life. It's made me look at all of my issues, anxieties, everything. It really humbles you hard. And with your gear, it's really no different. That's also what you need to look at as well. So I just realized too, the other cool thing I just discovered, sorry, my last thing, again, talking to the 40 pluses out there. If you don't have progressive lenses for the close-up reading and you don't want to go get new ones, I just went on Amazon and I bought these cute little stick-on ones that go inside my cool sunglasses. No one's going to know. And I'll be able to read up close.

Robin: Nice. Which we all know you like to do while you're motorcycling.

Joanne: I don't know. It's like $5.

Robin: Awesome.

Brian: Mind blown.

Robin: That was great.

Brian: As usual.

Robin: Similar banter at higher revs can be found via the Gear Chick website. Visit gearchick.com and dig in. Segment three, Moments in Motorcycle History with Jordan Liebman. This episode marks the last chapter in Jordan's 1970 Daytona 200 deep dive. Last time, he was just about to wave the checkered flag when he remembered not all of Honda's racing story was told. Rolf Bryan, Tommy Robbs, and in his own words, the other guy, didn't finish why exactly? Take it away, Jordan.

Jordan: This is the way it ended. The winner of the race. No, we can't get into that yet. We're going to talk about the other three Hondas that were in the race. We're going to talk about those other three. Rolf Bryans, Tommy Robbs, and the other guy did not finish. 63 engineers from Honda, as a unified force behind their race team, did not listen to Bob Hansen, who said, we have issues with our cam chain tensioner. All three of the other Honda CB750s raced by British, Scottish, and Irish racers did not finish due to failed cam chain tensioners. These bikes were raced at Suzuka. They were raced to capacity that they thought the Daytona race was going to be raced. And all three of the Japanese Honda race team bikes failed due to cam chain tensioners. I remind you that three days before the race, Bob Hansen had Bob Jamison and the other guy tear down the whole engine and find out what was causing this debris in the oil. And they solved it as much as they could. Now, Dick Mann hung back as much as he needed to. Bob Hansen was on the sidelines, in the race, holding up signs, on track. Poster board or on a chalkboard that Dick Mann could see, telling him what speed he could go and still win the race. This was massively controversial for the Honda race team, that somebody outside of the Honda 63 engineers and the entire race effort was coaching the last remaining rider with a functional motorcycle, the speed at which he could still go and still win the race. This is math. This is simple math that Bob Hansen had figured out with Bob Jamison and Bob Young and the other people on their team that basically the cam chain tensioners on the CB750 for the production model going 127 miles per hour holds up just fine and you can't break him. But when you ask him to go 160 some miles per hour for 200 miles without letting go, they grenade. And Bob Hansen had a sign on the side of the racetrack so the dick man could see it saying, this is how fast you can go and still win this race. It reminds me of that scene from Citizen Kane where Orson Welles is told that he's losing X number of dollars per day. And Orson Wells replies or whatever his character says in Kane yeah and at that rate I'll go out of business in a hundred years or something like that he's like I don't give a fuck what you say I'm losing I'm winning so Dick Mann was coached by Bob Hanson on the sidelines to dial it back because he had such a lead he had a 21 second lead over Romero basically Romero ate up 13 seconds of that lead dialed it back to 13 seconds. But at the same time, Dick Mann was dialing it back Allow Romero to catch up and still win the race. So we have a winner here. The only winner on a Honda, which is Dick Mann from Richmond, California. A total of 53 laps. Multiply that by 3.81 and I guess you get something around 200. I don't know. Number two, Gene Romero on a triumph. 53 laps. Number three, Don Castro, Hollister, California, on a triumph. Here's a surprise. Those are the three top winners. Those are the podium finishers, right? There's still plenty of bragging rights left here. Ivan Duhamel, out of Canada, on a Yamaha 350, takes fourth place in 52 laps. They were that far behind, but he was the fourth one across the finish line on a Yamaha 350. against overhead cam 750s. Not too shabby. Number five, from New Zealand, Jeff Perry on a Suzuki T500 two-stroke twin. We have three four-strokes in the 750cc range And two two-strokes in the top five. How is it that these two-strokes of lesser capacity can compete against these big four-strokes? The only Harley-Davidson to finish a KR model, not an XR model, is Walt Fulton from Hacienda Heights, California, taking sixth place. Number seven, we have a Kawasaki. Yet another two-stroke. Ginger Malloy from Huntley, New Zealand. Number eight, here's another big name from On Any Sunday, Buddy Elmore from El Paso, Texas, on a Triumph. This is a funny name. It really ought to be a flavor. Royal Sherbert from Largo, Florida, on a Kawasaki Triple. And number 10 from Chatsworth, California, is Russell Coppedge on a Yamaha 350. We have two Yamaha 350s in the top 10 in 1970. And this is going to set the tone for the future. Now, to wrap this up, this is where we're going with this. Discussion about the British triple shortcomings were addressed in 71 by Dick Mann and Honda. And Dick Mann, in my opinion, it is very likely he was disgusted with Honda and their politics. Because the only bike to finish that race was Honda. The Bob Hansen bike following the rules of his team leader. And in 1971, Dick Mann is not racing for Honda. He won his first Daytona 200 on a Honda 750. And he switches to BSA. And in 1971, he repeats it. Wins the Daytona 200 on a BSA. Which is much improved by engineer Tom Stifton. And now the bike is making well over 80 horsepower. Now, let's move up a little further here. 1972. This gentleman, his name is Don Emdy. Another big name from On Any Sunday. Another famous racer. These guys are probably running races in other cities or whatever. Didn't make it to this race for whatever reason. He was absent completely from the 1970 Daytona 200 list. But in 1972, he won the Daytona 200, and he does it on the tiny but fiercely effective and incredibly fast Yamaha 350cc TR3. 1971 is the end of four strokes, winning the Daytona 200 for a long time. In 1973, a gentleman named Yarno Saarinen wins the Daytona 200 on a Yamaha TR3. 350cc bikes killing 750cc overhead cam multis. All the absentees from the races at Daytona 200 that are conspicuously absent, one of which is the great racer Giacomo Agostini, a.k.a. Ago, who races predominantly for MV Agusta and Honda, but mostly for MV Agusta. In 1974, because he's frustrated with MV Agusta's lack of presence against the new Japanese threat, Giacomo Agostino wins the Daytona 200 in 1974 on a Yamaha TR3. In fact, all of the top finishers in that race in 1974 are on Yamaha TR3s. My side note, other brands barely even mattered. When the sport had begun its evolution to the modern two-stroke era, which had only just begun, Other brands didn't matter in the two-stroke era. Harley Davidson, let's talk about Harley Davidson. Gotta love him. 16 wins in the last 30 years, won more than half of the Daytona 200 races since its exception, would never win another race there again to this very day. End of story.

Robin: How many episodes did it take us to get through that? I love the series episodes. I actually enjoy the stacked back-to-back storytelling. And now that actually people can go into our episode pages and click the times, they can always cycle through them, no problem, if they ever want to recount what he said. Or if he wants to recount what he said.

Brian: And send corrections, yeah.

Robin: What do you want to talk about here? I see words happening. I didn't see these words before. We're discussing what we're going to talk about next week.

Brian: It's winter. It's the season for rumination. I think we need to chew on some more of this philosophical cud. I've got another topic to talk about. It's kind of wide and vague and a little sloppy, you know, just the way we kind of like things. I don't really want to get into the whole why we ride thing. You know, somebody made a movie about that and they never left California. But I do think it's interesting sometimes I want to talk about riding with a theme. You got some sort of mission, some sort of purpose for the day, something you're going to be doing. and it could be as simple as I'm going to go visit mom and that'll help me put up with the 30 minutes of slab I have to ride to get there or whatever. It's an excuse to ride sometimes like I'm going to go connect the dots through all the dairy queens in the southern half of the state and that's your mission for the day so something like that and we can talk about ways we've done that and ways we might do that in the future. A way to structure a ride make it interesting get you through the boring bits and and just maybe discover something new i'm going to go ride around to antique shops or find something new that kind of thing so that's what popped into my head big topic kind of weird kind of wide topic let's talk about it next time cool

Robin: Then great to see y'all everybody ready to get out of here.

Brian: Let's get out of here