Brian: In this episode, writing with a WHY, managing airflow, and the Roper.

Robin: Come and knock on our doors. Oh, God.

Brian: Yeah. Opening announcements, news, corrections, banter, etc.

Robin: If you were subscribed to this podcast through YouTube, that entire podcast has been deleted and rebuilt to make use of new metadata, YouTube sucks. Okay. When it comes to podcasts, they're the only ones that seem to copy entire episodes onto their servers before encoding it to their standards. And then you have no control over the result after the fact. So in order to repair the experiment that I'm considering them to be, I've had to delete the entire podcast, rebuild it and all that stuff. So you'll have to resubscribe if you want the YouTube stuff. Yeah. Action Pack. Brian's amped. I'm trying to talk fast enough that he's not falling asleep on me. The only other announcement is with like links on the website. I can't for the life of me find a good way to get offsite page titles into the descriptive text of links on the website. So if the link goes to a product on Amazon, I'm limited to just saying affiliate link, new window. When really what I want to say is Ryobi jump pack for discounted price. I want it to have the title of the page in the description of the link cover. I've been doing that for years until I got kicked out of AWS.

Brian: Oh, okay.

Robin: Google doesn't give me the information I want. So I got a haircut. There are my announcements. Code nerdery. I will shrink that down for better listener interest.

Brian: Nerd, nerd, nerd. Yeah. Yeah.

Robin: No corrections that I've heard. And in news, Honda might be releasing a CBR 500R. Let me double check that. 2026 Honda CBR 500R. R, R, R, R, R. Yeah 2026 honda cbr 500 super 4 and remember you and i were talking about how they're getting this amazing power out of these four-cylinder lightweights right so this bike looks really really cool different.

Brian: Than the twin or it's a four so what this is the twin cylinder 500 or it's a it's an all-new engine

Robin: From what it's saying really yeah Here's what I'm getting from a random YouTube mock-up is that Honda debuts a CBR 500 R4 and CB 500 Super 4. It's a 502cc four-cylinder engine, 80 horsepower. That's as much. I mean, my bike makes 88 horsepower a peak, so that's cool. E-clutch, five ride modes, diamond-shaped steel frame, so a square tube, I guess. Inverted front fork, Pro-Link monoshock, dual Nissan calibers. I actually like the Nissans. They bite really hard. The Brembo's always nice but nissons they just immediately work a lot of brake action in those things anyhow that's the most news i got and i saw that a flyby along with something else that was a little bit too elegant for us nice.

Brian: I defy you to find a new full-size motorcycle that doesn't have amazing brakes oh maybe that's me being a vintage guy from way back

Robin: Yeah like.

Brian: They're all they're freaking great what What are people complaining about? Oh, I can't. I can't stop. I can't stop you with my left pinky. It's all smushy.

Robin: I just remember that the Beamer was like, okay, I'm stopping. I will brimble. And then Maggie's bike was like that comic scene where the horse just stops and the rider sails over the front.

Brian: Yeah. You know?

Robin: Those brakes work, the Nissans.

Brian: Well, it's also, yeah, much, much lighter bike. There's differences there, but yeah.

Robin: That's my intro. I do have banter to mention, but I think it's your turn to talk. How are you doing? What's your banter, Brian?

Brian: I am doing well. One of the things that, this was actually just yesterday, but I had the deep honor of helping some friends buy bikes, sell bikes, and things like that. And it's a little bit of that midwinter madness setting in, but a friend of mine picked up a Tiger Sport 800, and it's an amazing bike. He's going to pick that up soon. It's going to be great. We're going to do a lot of miles this spring and summer.

Robin: I'm guessing Tim.

Brian: Tim, it's blue.

Robin: Shout out to Tim. Congratulations on your purchase.

Brian: Yeah, very cool. Yeah, it's fun just to go hang around the Triumph dealer and got to do a little riding yesterday. They didn't get the ride to Triumph that had an issue, but something they broke when they were installing accessories. But anyway, I rode down there just because you can't just show up in a motorcycle dealer minivan. I mean, come on. And the other cool thing was there's a friend of mine that lives here locally, and he was sniffing around. Long story short, a friend of mine in northern Indiana was able to, he had a project bike. It's a vintage Suzuki 850, almost ready to go, but he was just like, I just need, you know, he wasn't paying attention to it. Like he could have taken it over the finish line, but he decided, you know, anyway, sold it to another guy who was looking for, who didn't have a lot of time, new baby, et cetera, but he wanted something to do. So anyway, it was a, it was a match made in heaven. We dropped that off. And again, I just showed up and stood around and talked with my pals. I haven't seen in months. So it's good to have some motorcycle activity in January, even if you can't be out riding all that much. Totally. It's always an honor. I love helping people spend money.

Robin: Did you ride today?

Brian: Today, no. Yesterday, yes. Today was nasty. I saw a video yesterday on YouTube that really hit home that I thought was hilarious with Dork on the Road. I believe his name is Ben. He posted a great video. And the question he gets the most is, what bike should I buy? And he posted a video on why he never answers that. He's like, I don't know you.

Robin: Yeah. He was very blunt about it.

Brian: It's like, even people I know very well, I could not pick out a bike for. It's a very personal decision. It's something you'd never do for a stranger or take any responsibility for. Like, if you had asked me in 2024, hey, Brian, pick out a bike for me, Mr. Robin. I mean, I know you very well. You're like a brother. We've ridden together a long time, and I could not have picked out the bike that you ended up with. I would not have gone there. We've ridden together a lot. And even then, I would not dare to pick out your next bike. Like, I probably would have picked out something else. The Tiger Sport, that's pretty damn close to your wheelhouse, I would have thought.

Robin: It is. It's a little tall, but I love that bike. I have a very specific type. Low, sleek, fared sport bike with posture that is halfway between modern, standard, and race proplica. Any bike that does that, I'm probably going to like, but you're right. I am also OC. You might point one out where I'm just like, okay, no, the bars are just I can feel they're three millimeters too high.

Brian: It's freaking hilarious. Dork in the road, Ben. I want to talk to that guy. We need to get in contact. He seems like just kind of an interesting person to talk to. He's out there. He mostly does dual sports stuff. You know, he's out in the dirt a lot,

Robin: But that would be cool.

Brian: Be fun to talk to him. Seems like a real down-to-earth guy. I do watch his videos. What about, what's this all about a yard sale, Robin?

Robin: I typed this out, I think either this morning or yesterday morning.

Brian: Stream of consciousness.

Robin: Yeah, I was like, oh, I'll remember everything I'm thinking about here. And I do, but I don't remember the mood or the dialogue that I had going through my head when I wrote it. EBay notifications. Love it. I can type in a year, make, model. Search. And then there's always a link that says, want to get email about this? Hell yeah, I do. And every morning in my inbox, I basically can find new prospective products for the SV650 MagSbike or my own Suzuki GSX-8R. I really dig it. And what's great, the GSX-8R, it's really starting to pick up. You can get a lot more stuff for it than before for almost nothing. I can get an entire set of aftermarket plastics for very little. And they've got beautiful custom paint jobs on them. Now, are they OEM? No, they are not OEM.

Brian: Not really.

Robin: Some of them are carbon fiber, which means fitment will be an issue. You know, some carbon fiber, it's like, okay, first off, that's not going to last forever. Second off, you're going to have to drill stuff out. And then the shellac, the clear coat is eventually going to fail. It happened to the Beamer. Yeah. And it bothered me to no end. But to this day and age now, it's not that big of a deal. At the same time, I did see some that were full on painted gel molded plastics, the soft stuff, the flexy stuff that you can bend and warp and it'll still pop right back into place. No problem. So my email inbox has full sets of plastic, aftermarket exhausts, different tail tidies, different light systems. And it makes me really happy. But the thing that gets me is all of a sudden that's an awful lot of engine covers that are available. And I'm not talking about the protectors. I'm talking about the actual, you know, oh, that's the starter. That's the harness. That, what is it used? I don't know.

Brian: They're starting to feel concerned. Yeah.

Robin: Yeah. It's sort of like, why are all these particular engine components all of a sudden available? Now, the beautiful thing in the added motor is available on a lot of different platforms, but you get the point. It's like, wow, it's somebody, you know, so there's a lot of yard sale bikes, but then I go to Facebook and I shit you not. There is a stack. There's a, doom scroll stack of dedicated Facebook groups to the Suzuki GSX-8R for racing. Like you'd think they would convene and organize or something, but instead it's like every single person who wants to do it has their own group. I thought that was pretty fantastic. That's all I got. I did go for a ride today. I forgot how happy that makes me. That's how long it's been. I've been busy. I've been keeping busy and I'm trying to keep smiling. But then I threw a leg over the bike today. I was like, I need this. The weather's too good. and damn, that was therapy. Yeah.

Brian: Excellent. Good to know.

Robin: Carry on?

Brian: Let us carry on. Carry on my wavered no.

Robin: From what you've collected so far, plus our newest sub-segment, it would appear that it's time for, sing it, Brian.

Brian: Questions from the Wild and 404 Clutch Not Found. If you'd like us to field your questions, visit email.tro.bike in your web browser to send us a message. All right, we've got a couple of questions from the Wild this week. Robin, why don't you read the first one?

Robin: First one. Falk asks. Sorry, I apologize. F-O-C asks. Any recommendations for a small tire pump? Maybe a manual one for topping up motorcycle tires? I have an air compressor, but it's a pain to drag that thing out just to top up a couple PSI now and then. Does anybody use a bicycle pump for that? I definitely have answers for this.

Brian: Yeah.

Robin: I have two solutions and that's all I need. Well, three if I really had to go big with it.

Brian: A bicycle floor pump is perfect for this kind of thing it's quiet it's fast four or five pumps and you want to get the one that's not like the high pressure one that can do 120 psi for your little spandex whatever bike get the one that's like for mountain bike tires that can go up to like 60 psi that's all you need for motorcycle tires it's high volume it's quiet it's very convenient throw back in a corner and there's no batteries or anything like that. If you have cordless tools, you Maybe look for a pump that uses the same batteries. That's kind of what I have. That's what I use most often. Then there are different ones. You can keep going from there to an actual air compressor, but that's not what we wanted to talk about. What do you got, Robin?

Robin: Going backwards, the air compressor is the one that I'll use for the bead pop, for sure. If I'm changing out my tires, then it's like, okay, cool. Pop, pop. Good. I'm happy.

Brian: Yeah, you need the air tank. Yeah, you need the volume. Yeah, definitely.

Robin: You need beast mode for that kind of noise. But that's not what we're talking about here. We're talking about a quick top up. What I have, I'll try to remember to get the name of this thing here in a second when Brian does some talking. I have a dual diaphragm tire inflator that's good enough to inflate like a truck tire in an emergency situation, certainly enough to inflate a motorcycle tire very quickly after you've gotten it all the way to its general vicinity. So if I come out and find my tires at 30 PSI, this thing will knock them both up to 36 PSI, which is what my bike calls for front and rear. In less than 15 seconds if it's that low. If I'm at like 34 PSI and I'm just going to quick top up, it'll take like all of three seconds. It's done. And it's a really good system with swap out batteries that fit power tools. I like it a lot, but I wouldn't take that with me on the road. I used to take some lithium ion tire inflator, set it and forget it, push button, whatever it was. And it was pretty good. The problem with shaking those things while you're going down the road is it ruins those batteries and the circuitry inside, and eventually the batteries wear out. And it got to the point where I could shake it. I could hear the whole component on the inside of this tube was just, it was like a high bounce ball inside of a vacuum tube. My trick is this, get yourself an extension hose and a hand bicycle pump, and it will pump your motorcycle tires up to 35, 36 PSI, no problem. I mean, even if you had to fill a brand spanking new tire up that you fixed on the side of the road, you're still going to be able to inflate it with a hand pump. It may take a little while, but it'll get done faster than you might expect. You won't like the process, but it'll get done. So five-inch telescopic hand pump that you would normally put on the front down tube of your bicycle will do the job. Keep it on you.

Brian: Eventually, yeah. Some people carry that as a plan B, you know, if they're going off-road, that kind of thing. When you read the next one, I'll take the next one. Why not?

Robin: Why the rhetorical questions, Brian?

Brian: Stop rhetorizing at me. C5E asks, on a scale of one to 10, how hard is it to replace fork seals? I've worked on cars for years in a shop and now I'm just doing personal stuff, but I've not really done any in-depth motorcycle maintenance. This is someone who obviously knows their way around tools and mechanical stuff in general and not afraid to get oily or whatever. I would put this at about a four. So you want to have the instructions in front of you, follow the instructions. The other detail here is this person, they're working on an older bike. So it's a very simple damper rod fork. Upside down forks are an easy six or seven. They are a little more complex and you need some other tools. Once you understand them, it's not a big deal, but it's also, it adds a layer of complication. You need a second person. You need to put down more kitty litter because, you know, oil is going to go everywhere. Get the instructions follow the instructions again for an old school damper rod fork you're going to need you're going to need like a seal driver of some type on some of the skinnier forks you can get away with a piece of pvc pipe called it yep yeah there's some inexpensive seal drivers like there's a tusk seal driver you can get 40 50 bucks around in there that works on a lot of different diameters and there's really not a good substitute for that you really need to have a seal driver to evenly get it down in there i can't you know there's not a lot of good substitutes unless you've got a lathe playing around and anyway the other thing you'll have to make is a way to hold the damper rod and damper rods are different on the top depending on what your bike has someone on a forum somewhere will have will figure it out you know go go buy these nuts yeah weld them onto this piece of all thread hardware store ingenuity hardware store it And then you make a device for setting the oil levels. Again, if you look at the commercial device available from Motion Pro, you're going to think, well, I can build that with a piece of tubing and a syringe. So go to your farm store. And basically, the first time through, you're going to have to make a few tools. You might have to buy a tool. From there on, it's gravy. Just be careful on parts. I've just really given up on aftermarket fork seals. I've had much better luck with OEM fork seals. So just buy them from Honda, Suzuki, whatever. And I've replaced a lot of leaking aftermarket seals. And also an older bike, take a look or just go ahead and replace the clips above the seals. Make sure you get the sealing gasket. If the bike has a lot of miles, make sure you look at the bushings inside the fork. If it's under about 40,000 miles, they're probably okay. Get a look at them or just go ahead and order them just to do a real thorough job.

Robin: I will back Brian on everything. He said, Brian knows what he's talking about. I've never replaced fork seals. Here's what I have to say on the matter, having never done it before. One, I get the feeling I could get through the process, especially if I just consult my friends, not by video, even an email would do, but having witnessed the event several times, this is a callback to our previous episode, namely boundaries. I'm going to suggest to you, based on events witnessed, that if you are too underconfident and you're gently tippy-tapping different points of the seal, and it's kind of going in diagonal, and oop, it creased up there, and oh no, and that's one version. Or if you're overconfident, no, you just give him a really hard throw, just give him a pop. Those two boundaries might not go all that well for you. There's a middle ground that i've seen where it's like okay get the pvc square it up take a couple test thwacks away from the seals yeah bring it back square it up and give it a thunk and you're gonna get it on there probably pretty good too much is too much too little is too much i would go to any of my friends i am that friend it's.

Brian: It's one of those things you just have to stay organized and i you know this this guy's a mechanic so i figured he he knows how to stay organize and follow instructions. So it should be fine. It's not so much the cost of taking something to a shop. It's just an inconvenience. You got to get it there. You got to drop it off. You got to find a ride back home. You got to wait on it. You know, you can do it yourself in a couple hours the first time through, and you'll be a lot faster after that. And now for our newest yet-to-be-fully-sculpted segment, 404 Clutch Not Found. In this segment, we're featuring the brave questions of new rider Angel Marie Kendall. Angel has willingly stepped into the spotlight so that other new riders might know they're not alone. Our own plans for this bit will eventually sit her down with motorcycle instructors from all over to ask the questions that everyone else has on their mind.

Robin: But this round, it's Brian and I's overly verbose and philosophical responses.

Angelmarie: I drive out near the airport and there's a bunch of empty parking lots i set up some cones and i'm doing figure eights i can do the figure eight on the left side really easy leading left but the right side i'm having such a hard time with and then the weaving i'm having a hard time with is that

Robin: common it is a first your throttle is in your right hand clutch left when you're turning and the throttle's now out here, this is more comfortable to deal with when it's far away than what's up when it's against your hip. When you have the throttle right next to your hip and your left hand's out controlling the clutch, this feels more awkward for many people. When you think about it, it sort of makes sense. I can tell you that it gets easier. And humorously speaking, I'm now more challenged by my left-hand high-speed hairpins than I am with my high-speed right hairpins. Did it flip on you? Yes. Well, two things happened. One, physically, I was like, I need to get my right turns up to snuff and did. And now everything's in balance. Then the second thing that happened was fear of oncoming traffic.

Angelmarie: Ooh.

Robin: It became more sensitivity to my environment it gets easier with practice especially when you get your left hand where you want it with clutch control it becomes way way easier and a top secret thing that'll bring into

Angelmarie: the mix which is the rear brake i've got questions about the clutch too we do

Robin: this brake analogy before the quick stop in the msf course not the total control course and it's basically based on you lean on your left foot you start rubbing your your right foot against the ground. All right, you can do that. But as you start to lean on your right foot, it becomes harder and harder to do. That's the analogy we provide for how your front brake works. The grip against the ground with the suspension, it's powerful. Most of your braking power is in your front brake, not your rear. The clutch is a very similar operator in some other analogy, though, whereas if you squeeze the clutch lever all the way to the grip, you're now leaning all the way onto your left foot, your right foot is just dangling in the air. It's easy to move around. The motor running at idle, your right foot is the engine just running around idle, not scraping against anything. And the more you begin to lean on that right foot, meaning the more you begin to release that dimmer switch, that variable release of the clutch, the more the motor is trying to grind into your final drive and get your bike moving. So the further out it is, the more engaged it is. The further in it is, the lesser. One thing I've seen in a lot of students is, okay, I've found the friction zone. Now that I'm beginning to move, it's time to abandon all knowledge of the clutch and just let go of it. No. I'm moving and dump it. Okay, I'm moving. Okay, let go. Oh, it's beginning to do the thing that I was taught about in the class. I don't have to do it anymore. Once I feel it doing something that the instructor said, I can abandon all control and just blah. And then you stall, right? Whereas the truth is, it doesn't have to necessarily be slow. It can be. It's good for practice. The point is, it's going to get quicker. The point is, you will know what it's doing. I'm grinding, I'm grinding, and I'm engaged, and I'm writing, and I'm out, and I'm rolling. You know and then the next gears become easier point is that friction eventually wants to become the final drive both are engaged and moving in the same rate does that make sense that makes sense is best practice to always cover the clutch is that best practice i mean for now why not does it hurt okay once i'm really going and i'm comfortable once i can anticipate the stupidity of the world around me i'm not really doing that i'm over the grip but it takes time do what feels like you've got more control if you feel safer doing it that way. I was going to suggest that you at a standstill, put it in first. Find the friction zone as you feel the bike begin to pull forward and understand that squeeze in. Okay, now I'm not moving. If you wanted to, with a little practice, take your time on this. You don't need to be dropping bikes or taking bad advice from me, but if you wanted to, you could find the friction zone. As long as you're releasing it slowly enough, you will get moving and never

Angelmarie: need your right hand to be on the throttle. He did tell me that last episode.

Robin: Your clutch is better for throttle control in first gear than your right hand ever will be. Unless you're really into it, you got your act together, you've already gotten the balance, you understand it, boom, we're off to the races.

Angelmarie: I'm going to repeat that back to you. You're saying first gear, I can slowly let go of the clutch and not need the throttle and I won't stall? Yes. That's news to me. So long as you are listening to your engine.

Robin: Okay. Feeling it beginning to move, moving with it.

Angelmarie: Okay.

Robin: My analogy that nobody likes, I don't think, is sitting on a bar stool, typing an email. Don't lean on your wrists. Fix your weight directly vertical on the seat, centered. And as you release, the bike will move. You move with it. All of a sudden, you'll be riding in a big open parking lot with no obstructions, no traffic. You will be moving forward. that is in my mind a great way for somebody who's got the competency that you have to practice getting that clutch control under wraps you know that's on my list you just go super slow and feel yourself moving with the bike.

Brian: The essential point is clutch is not an on off switch it's a valve where you can control from zero to 100 the trick is once you get good at this you can do that extremely quickly an experienced rider can take off from a stoplight in a tenth or a quarter of a second the clutch will be all the way out and they're rolling but it's all been very quick but it's very smooth you're getting to that point you know you can ride around and go places without stalling it'll get a lot easier as you go on the left and right thing is very common and it's also very common even with experienced riders i still see people who are have a lot of experience and should know better that are that have that problem so it's it's not unusual and being aware of it is 75% of the battle, you know, just understanding that problem is there. It is a lot of it.

Robin: So you guys just recommend keep practicing those figure eights, those slow 90 degree turns. Yeah.

Brian: Yeah.

Robin: Take a sweet time.

Brian: Robin and I took a class last, this fall where we did slow stuff. You know, it's always good to practice. It's always good to practice that stuff.

Robin: It's fun.

Brian: Yeah, it's fun. And of course the instructor goes, Oh, you guys know what you're doing you know oh yeah yeah that

Angelmarie: Feels i'm sure that felt good.

Brian: Oh yeah If you want to follow Angel's Wanderings, look up 404 Clutch Not Found, one word, on Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok. And if you'd like us to field your questions, visit email.tro.bike in your web browser to put electronical messages into our brain cavities.

Robin: What are we doing?

Brian: All right. So this time, our topic is something, it's a little philosophical, it's a little profound, it's all the above. But I'm talking about writing with a why. And I'm not really talking about why we ride. That's already a movie that someone made. It's a little wide. It's a little sloppy. It's a little vague, but let's talk. Let's kick it around and see where we end up. I'm just talking about why we get on the bike on a certain day. You know, a ride sounds nice. Well, where? Why? What are we doing? So the idea here is kind of how you structure a ride. Whether you go out for 20 minutes, you know, an hour of haul assery, or you're going around the world for 20 months. What's your theme? What's your mission? What's your purpose for this ride? And it doesn't have to be deep. It can be as silly as you want to be and the sillier the better.

Robin: Fun.

Brian: A lot of times it's just an excuse. What's my excuse today? What am I going to do to structure and discover something new today?

Robin: Today, for example, the curves are right there. They're right there. And it's a short 40 minute ride and it starts at the gas station adjacent to me. So I just go fuel up. I have 40 minutes of curves and then I'm back home and back at my desk getting back to work.

Brian: Nice.

Robin: On the simplest of terms, the window of opportunity was there. The bike was sitting next to me. I can see the first turn. The weather was good enough. Got on the bike, had a full tank of fuel, rode the curves, sat back down, got right back to it.

Brian: Nice.

Robin: That's just opportunity, which is one definition of a theme is the opportunity there, but maybe it's not all the time. Maybe we need to manufacture something. Maybe we're in the mood to manufacture something. Maybe that's just a fun, be different.

Brian: Yeah. Well, like yesterday, it was in the forties, but to buy a motorcycle, it would just be rude to show up in a minivan if you could possibly manage it. So that was my mission. It wasn't an exciting ride. It was just downtown Indy, but by God, I was going to ride and I did. Yeah. And I've done stuff like that. Like one day it was, it was in the forties. It was nasty out. It was like December or January. And I hopped on my V-Strom and I rode like four hours, dropped in on my mom, got a lot of points that day. I didn't like, you know, I was there for like an hour and a half, two hours. And then I left because I need to get home before dark. took an entirely you know just wandered took roads north and east to get home there was no point to that it was just like i needed something to do i'm gonna go down to this other end of the state and surprise somebody and yeah it was great yeah no reason wanted to kind of push it and see what i could do too you know because that's a that's a long time to be out in the wind on a on a very cold day and

Robin: That's a seasonal instance whereby you were like i'm up for the challenge 45 degrees ain't got nothing on me plus i get to look at motorcycles it's win-win so long as you are prepared to face the wrath of winter in the midwest.

Brian: Yeah now

Robin: Let's imagine prime season.

Brian: Yeah

Robin: Your friends who don't ride in ST fashion want to go do something on their not-so-ST bikes or whatever. There's so many ideas and options that come with this, especially if you're in the flatlands. Now, Brian wrote an excellent article on TRO called Finding Fun Roads in the Flatlands. So it's all about one kind of mission, and that's how to find those hidden scraps of curvy, scenic amusement we need so desperately. So if you go to TRO.bike, click on the search icon, and then type flatlands, you're going to get all the details about that. It's a pretty good read. Actually, I'm the one who requested that information and decided that this guy should make the article out of it because I was going to have to get to Columbus, Ohio from Illinois. And I actually managed to enjoy that ride thanks to that article. Here are a couple examples I have for thematic ideas, and they're not really anchored in any particular process. So these are loose. But I remember when Burleson and myself, we were riding to the start of sevens. I wanted nothing to do with leading. I knew what was waiting for me at the start of sevens. I'm going to be leading and it's going to be continuous. So I told Travis, get us there. And all of a sudden I noticed this small town, this is some slow shit. This ain't the slab, that's for sure. What are we doing? And Travis in his signature voice, yeah, I mean, I've got it on shortest distance.

Brian: Oh.

Robin: Why did you do that? He said, because it's shortest distance. It's direct. It's more interesting. It's not the slab. It's not the mundane. And I thought, how brilliant is that? I mean, I'm not saying every time. I'm not saying that I would do that if I was heading to sevens on my own. I'm just saying that with friends and kind of basically going the shortest distance, it becomes this scenic sensory overload because maybe you're facing more starts and stops, but you're seeing places you would never see otherwise.

Brian: Nice.

Robin: Another example, call this the anti-poker run. Leave the bars out of it. But if you have any kind of a scavenger hunt approach to curve base riding, like there's no way to get to that point and get that photo unless you take the most hectic, twisty is good time. And you do a variety of those, let's say over the course of a week, you know, one curvy road per day, one destination. If you don't get the photo, it doesn't count. and there's no way you're getting that photo by helicoptering in or parachuting, you know? Like, that's worth it. My personal favorite is this. I keep telling myself I'm going to be that guy and I have yet to do it. Keeping hot sauce on your person for those bland meals at any given, I didn't expect this to be so bland moments. What if you could isolate different locations where they happen to have a really great barbecue sauce or hot sauce or unique food that's in a small container that you can keep on your person, haul back to home after the fact. There's a theme for you. Ride to each destination, test hot saucery and bring it back home. You know, these are ideas.

Brian: Ride to eat, eat to ride. Yeah.

Robin: The last one I got is the dealership doorstep detective.

Brian: All right.

Robin: Create a circuit that suits your available distance and time. The circuit is made up of dealerships, right? To each one of them and have your wristwatch. Everybody's got a Casio watch, right? That's the highest tech there is. So you got your Radio Shack Casio watch. And from the time you walk in the door, start timing and just observe the behavior of the people in this place, for better or worse, good, bad, either, whatever, and just keep track of it. Set a goal for somebody to say, like, can I interest you in? Like, what if those are the key? Can I interest you in? Or anything that you might typically hear. Write down the phrases you hear most at every single dealership. Then leave. How long does it take for every rep to be cool with questions and no assumptions? Or shady, assuming you are deserving of unsolicited advice. Have fun with it. Don't tell them any of this. We don't need to get a defamation suit or anything.

Brian: One of the things I really miss is during the summer, it's a nice warm night. It's dark. This is going to sound weird, but a friend of mine called this rat racing where you just go ride around in the city. I live in a large city, Indianapolis, and you go just poke around the city at night. And for some reason, that can be just super fun, having nothing in mind. And I've had friends go with me, and it's like, this is really kind of silly fun. Like, go all the way downtown, see what's going on down there. You know, go around the circle, hit all the little alleys and back roads.

Robin: Monday through Thursday.

Brian: Don't be out after about 10. Get a little drunk o'clock out. But yeah, just kind of poking around and ratting around in the alleys and the little roads and so forth. KLRs are perfect for this because they can handle the occasional unseen pothole. I don't know why it's dumb as hell but we're yeah we're gonna go downtown we're gonna go to this neighborhood we're gonna explore around others and just just poke around it's kind of stupid it's something to do I live just south of a county where it's kind of the roundabout capital of the of this country Hamilton County in Indiana so yeah a lot of times I'll I'm gonna go to the grocery store so I'll Hop on, empty out, you know, empty out my hard bags and go to the grocery store and I'll hit like every roundabout on the way. You can hit like a hundred roundabouts.

Robin: On the KLR, you're just riding through the center of them, right?

Brian: Yeah, yeah, you can do that right through the artwork in the middle. No, it can actually polish up your low speed precision. You know, you have that approach. Look, look, lean, lean, exit, you know, power out, clean up your low end stuff a little bit. And of course, scouting missions, you know, follow a river, see where it goes, see how close you can get to the river. Dual sport bike is great for that kind of thing because there's a lot of gravel when you get close to the water. There's weird old World War II airports. Go see what's left of them. In Indiana, there's a World War II-era airport that's a giant octagon of concrete.

Robin: What the?

Brian: It's like 3,000 feet across. It's a giant octagon. And it's still there because what are you going to do with it? And one day I'm like, I'm going to go look at this octagon. And sure enough, you know, you can ride out right on it and no one there to stop you. Something stupid you know it was was it a curvy ride no but it was a mission had something fun and the other extreme is you know one day during summer the it was supposed to be like 103 degrees that day and we just looked at we're just decided let's see what we can do let's let's push ourselves a little bit and see what we can do today and so i've got a picture i'm very proud of of tim and i were at a bank sign that reads 106 degrees in front of our motorcycles in salem indiana about 150 miles away so we learned and practiced how to cope and how to how to ride and how to be safe on a day when it's that just got awful out you know like how to hydrate and you know carry water and keep cool and all that stuff and take frequent breaks and i kind of did the same thing when it was not minus five degrees but everything was dry and clear one day i'm like i'm gonna do this i'm going to try it. And so I rode to work and minus five.

Robin: Nice. Cold.

Brian: Yeah. And it's, but you learn, you know, you learn how to, okay, I need to make sure I layer things. I mean, need to make sure I don't wave my arms so I don't open up a little crack and my arm's going to fall off. You know, it's

Robin: Got to breathe through your mouth constantly so you don't collapse your nose. Every time it gets that cold, my nose just caves in on itself.

Brian: Yeah. So just stuff like that. We've got an hour. We're going to ride as hard as we can for this hour. We're going to leave it all in the field. There's a lot of different reasons, a lot of different stupid little missions and fun little missions. And, you know, go see somebody that you haven't seen in a while. There's a lot of great stuff you can do, too. It can be important or unimportant. Come up with the dumbest possible reason and let it be what it is. It's a great way to go out, see the world, let life happen to you, let it wash over you, and have a wonderful experience.

Robin: It's hot sauce. Well, it's time for the Armory brought to you by Joanne Don of gearchick.com.

Brian: How are your eyes doing?

Joanne: They're recovering very well. It's just going to take four to five weeks, I guess, for them to fully recover. But I'm driving, and I'm working, and I'm doing stuff.

Brian: Oh, okay.

Robin: He ran a great segment about creating a theme ride just for shits and giggles.

Joanne: Ice cream run?

Robin: Yeah, ice cream run.

Joanne: Do you guys ever watch years ago, like 10 years ago, there was a show that Alton Brown did. And I can't remember the name of it, but he was on his motorcycle, it was on his BMW, and he would showcase a local eatery in some town, feasting on asphalt.

Robin: Nice.

Joanne: There were three seasons. It was probably 10, over 10 years ago.

Robin: Well, 10 years ago, that food's probably expired by now.

Brian: I mean, that's living the dream, man.

Joanne: Totally living the dream. Probably over 10 years ago. Oh, sorry. 2006. Never mind. Many years ago.

Robin: Oh, well, nobody in this room doesn't feel like 20 years ago feels like 10 years ago. I'm sorry. Like, I'm still in 2008 right now. You've got allergies and you've got itchy eyes. What are we going to do about this if you're on the bike?

Joanne: I'll be honest. I personally have not had crazy issues with allergies on the bike, surprisingly. You would think I would. But I pop allergy medicine like everybody else, non-drowsy, Claritins, the Allegras, and I usually don't have any issues. This is why we wear full-face helmets. That brings up a really good topic, too, of noise. So I think two things can really help with that, right? Keeping wind from coming up into your face and up into your helmet, that means wearing a properly fitted helmet, right? Because the opening at the neckline is a huge tell for how much noise you're going to get, right? So if it's super open on the bottom, that's why dirt helmets are loud, right? Because there's a giant beak, six inches of helmet in front of you, a lot of wind because you're in the dirt and you want ventilation, you want max ventilation. but for a street helmet That's why a lot of helmets, like a Shoei, it's really hard to get on and off if you just try to force it on without opening the entry point. I mean, the same goes for a lot of other helmets, HGCs, whatnot. That's why helmets are shaped kind of closed at the bottom and then more open at the top, like an hourglass, to seal at the neck. That's where noise comes in. That's where it gets loud. That's where wind comes in. if you're an allergic person you want to seal that as much as you can but then you're probably like well how do i get ventilation in the helmet well that's why again we spend more money because the better helmet brands higher quality brands yeah no look and i'm not talking a thousand dollars i'm talking more than 99 this is why we spend 250 or 300 because the top of the helmet it has ventilation. And usually it has pass-through ventilation. So there's a difference between drilling a hole into the EPS, right? And so that air can go up and out. That's just to help with general circulation, right? So that hot air can go someplace. Now a really good quality helmet will do channel venting. So imagine like a tunnel that's going to be Basically goes from the front of the helmet to the back like a tiny little tunnel so that when air comes into the vent on the front it moves through the helmet to the back that's why you see on track helmets and race helmets the crazy spoilers on the back also but that's for air actually outside not really inside but if you cut open like a shoeie or a really high quality helmet sideways, you'll see a channel like a duct in from the front of the helmet all the way to the back so that as you're moving forward, air is moving through it. So those are the helmets you want for air to pass through so that air is circulating right around your helmet and you can breathe and feel. You don't necessarily need a fan in your face to feel cool. You just need that air up top to be circulating and moving beyond just a vertical, like a chimney, I guess is the best way to say. That's not the only kind of venting you want. And the other thing that does too, is those channel vented helmets are also quieter, depending on how they're made, of course. But there are some really good brands out there like, you know, Shoeys and whatnot, HGC. And that way, They're able to control the noise, but it is a balance. Noise level, more air. It's always a constant battle.

Robin: So my question for you then is, with that airflow in the track helmet that you mentioned a minute ago, that airflow is entering the helmet, crossing over your scalp, keeping us cool, and then exiting?

Joanne: It's not going over your scalp, but it's going through the EPS. Shoei has a really nice graphic about ventilation. I think on their technology section where it says inside a Shui helmet and they talk about the EPS.

Robin: Nice. One of my questions about this is that if it is managing to keep us cool, it does have a dehydrating effect. Am I wrong?

Joanne: I don't know if I want to say that. It's moving air through the EPS.

Robin: Okay.

Joanne: So it's not a giant hole in the helmet when you open it and look at it.

Brian: Yeah, it's kind of on the other side of the comfort layer. Yeah.

Joanne: When you take your liner out, you will see tiny little round holes, again, for air to escape out. That's in every helmet probably from the rock bottom to the top of the line but this channel vented method method is more it's more expensive to make the eps like that right i mean this is one example but it's that's the idea right air moves into a vent somewhere in the front or sides of the helmet and then leaves the back now that picture is an x14 or x15 which is their race helmet but street helmets they do a similar channel it just might be shaped different it might not be as big but it's just channeled through the EPS the foam part when I say EPS it's the part of the helmet inside that literally looks like styrofoam but it's way more protective than just styrofoam

Brian: You can't just put a beer cooler on your head, no.

Joanne: You can't, quote, keep cool on your motorcycle, if that makes sense. Like, you can't put on air conditioning, quite literally, right? That's not really a thing, but you can keep comfortable. And the way you do that so that you're not overheating, you're not excessively sweating, is to make sure that there's places for the sweat to go, for your body heat to go, right? So from your head up, that's what those do. With your gear the way that works is when you wear breathable fabrics so that means don't wear a cotton t-shirt which just sucks up all the sweat wear something that has moisture wicking and will absorb the sweat and then wick it because you're trying to keep comfortable well

Robin: This is my chance to use the word disperse.

Joanne: Okay good for you. The other thing is I always wear a neck tube. And I'm talking a winter neck tube. Of course, in the winter, I will wear one. But in the summertime, a summer neck tube. And summer neck tubes are super light. They're not warm. They will keep the wind out. I learned the hard way when I did BDR in Colorado. I was wearing a dirt helmet. So that thing was venting like crazy is I got windburned because yeah, there was a day where we couldn't go up on the trails because of fire danger. So we had to do a freeway day. I chose to do the freeway day because it was either that or do the expert one. And I'm like, I'm not doing that. So we did a lot of pavement and I got so windburned. And I actually didn't, I was wearing goggles. That's why I didn't notice any irritation to my eyes but the neck tube helps because of right cover your skin gentlemen it's good to take care of your skin because your wife looks younger you're pretty yeah you're gonna look older sunscreen but covering the skin covering your nose and face that'll help absolutely

Brian: Similar banter at higher revs can be found via the gear chick website visit gear chick.com and dig in or you can send an email for a personal response to help at gear chick.com Segment three, Moments in Motorcycle History with Jordan Liebman. So a while back, I asked Jordan to tell us about the very first motorcycle. Go all the way back to the Big Bang history and come up with a segment that goes as far back as the Flintstones. I mean, I wanted to hear about the first things that were powered by something other than a rider. And as a favor, boy did Jordan deliver. He unearthed the Roper Steam Velocipede from just after the Civil War. Jordan, take us back to the very first steam-powered

Jordan: So this is what I called the first steampunk rocker. This is the 1867 Roper self-propeller velocipede, the steam-powered mechanism thing. Where are my notes? Okay, 1867 Roper steam velocipede. Sylvester H. Roper was an American born on November 24th, 1823, on a Monday, so it wasn't Thanksgiving, to Merrick Roper and Susan Fairbanks. He had two brothers, one older, one younger, and two sisters, both younger. Well, Vester's dad was a cabinet maker, and his younger brother was a machinist at the Singer Sewing Machines factory, allegedly in Boston, but Wikipedia says that it was in New Jersey, so either way, Mechanical ability and detail-oriented abilities seem to have run in the family. Cabinet maker, machinist, and this guy, Sylvester, at age 12. Age 12. In 1835, he had already designed and built a stationary working, quotation marks, Sterling system, which is the original steam engine designed by Robert Sterling in 1816, age of 12, a stationary working steam engine, despite having never seen one in person. So basically, he had the cliff notes and he says, yeah, I can do that. The model was on display at the Francistown Academy in Francistown, New Hampshire, for two years. And then, by age 14 in 1837, he built a working prototype locomotive steam engine at the Francistown Academy. And at around 16 years or so, he left Francistown, which is New Hampshire, and moved to Nashua, or Nashua, to work as a machinist, and then continued working as a machinist in New York, where at 21, he married Elmira D. Hill in Providence, Rhode Island, where he stayed for nine years. In 1854, he moves back to Massachusetts, where he continued with his inventions. To his credit, he had patents for the first shotgun choke, basically a restriction that could be attached to the end of the barrel or built into the barrel that controls the spray pattern of a shotgun. He is the inventor of that. Also, he... Patented a repeating shotgun. So these guys like guns, guns and motorcycles. They seem to go together since the beginning of time. And he also invented a hand stitch sewing machine, as opposed to a lock stitch or cross stitch, I think it's called. And he invented a padlock and two fire escape systems. And at the age of 38 in 1861, he developed a patent for hot air engines, Which, like steam engines, it doesn't have to be steam, but generally they are, are external combustion engines, where the heat source is outside of the apparatus that makes power. These are all effectively steam engines. So here we are with this Roper gentleman, who is proving he can do it. Roper worked for the Springfield Armory during the Civil War from 1861 to 1865, where he continued with his hot air engine development. After the war and the the birth of his son, Charles Roper, he founded a screw company, i.e. Screw machines, Swiss screw, etc., but not quite that sophisticated yet, which he began and was continued by his son when he was older. Some of his contemporaries were Elias Howe, who invented the lockstitch sewing machine, Elvin Clark, who was an inventor of telescopes and was a big astronomy guy, and another person named Christopher Miner Spencer, Milner Spencer, who was an inventor of repeating rifles, steam engines, themed carriages, and the first fully automatic turret lathe. So now we're talking about machines that can replicate themselves. All of these people were familiar with Roper's work, and Roper shares an 1882 joint patent for an automatic shotgun loader. Christopher Milner Spencer. There you go. Little background, his contemporaries, his equals. Naturally, Roper needed practical applications for his engines, and in 1863, he took his main steam engine and mounted it in a carriage, making it one of the first prototype automobiles. He could be seen driving this contraption around Boston, and one of these steam carriages is on display at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan, where they have, like, the Kitty Hawk display and all that. By 1869, at least 200 of his steam engines were in operational use in various industries throughout the USA. Now to the gist of the story. In 1867s or thereabouts, Roper installed one of his steam engines in a two-wheeled contraption of which he did not apply for a patent, but it was widely published in magazines and newspapers without pedals, then referred to as Velocipede. Okay, so this is different than a bicycle. You know, they pretty much waddle around and push themselves on two wheels. Effectively, it was like an early iteration of a bicycle, but you push it around along with your feet. This and the Michaud Perrault steam velocipede, which is in France, are credited as being the first motorcycles ever, built at around the same time in 1867. So really, they're two companies. is Roper himself in America and another company in France The same year basically came up with parallel designs, about the same, but of course, the engines are completely different. So these two people, Michel Perrault and Roper, are credited, debated to whether one or the other was the first. And there's no way to really nail down which one was or wasn't the very first to put a steam engine in a two-wheeled single-track vehicle. And surprisingly, well, we'll get into it, but surprisingly, this was a lot less contraption than some of the other things we've discussed in the show already. A lot of these features on this thing were very similar to what we do today. Both were built around the same time in 1867. Historians cannot conclude whether Roper or Michel Perrault were the first, nor can they agree that a steam velocipede qualifies as a motorcycle, deferring to the 1885 Daimler-Maybach Reitwagen as a motorcycle with an internal combustion engine. Roper's design, which he called the self-propeller, initially was put into a model of his own construction made of iron and wood, per parentheses, hickory, and consisting of an inverted backbone-type frame with a perimeter subframe in which a brass boiler with two steam-driven pistons were supported directly above that drove the rear wheel via a pair of reciprocating and rotating linkages attached to the two steam pistons, basically like a locomotive. Interestingly, depending on initial rotation, a steam engine can drive wheels in either forward or reverse without the need of gearing simply by stopping and restarting with a direction started in reverse when the drive pistons are just past bottom dead center. So you think about that, you could really go forward or reverse The linkages don't care whether you're going forward or backwards. Intake, compression, and exhaust was accomplished with a top-mounted three-way shuttle valve attached to the drive apparatus. You could pull up the design of that. It is a three-way shuttle valve. I use those in my work even today. The front stem-mounted seat itself served a dual purpose as a water reservoir and a spring-mounted perch for the rider. Wheels were 34 inches in diameter and made of wood with wood spokes and an iron-clad rim. Not a lot of traction. Handlebars were very bicycle-like and mounted to the steering stem with a reverse pivot to control the steam volume, i.e. Speed, and forward pivot to apply the brake spoon, it's a spoon that just basically presses on the rim, to stop the vehicle with the front wheel, simultaneously cutting off the steam power. I call that ingenious. The entire handlebar tipped forward and backwards. I mean, I have bikes like that, but that's not intentional. Usually it has to do with cutting apart a beer can and shimming and the damn thing, but this was intentional for his thing there. The wheelbase was 49 inches, and the wet weight was about 150 pounds, and it generated between 150 and 185 pounds of steam. There is a equation you can do to figure out what that means in horsepower. The earlier version was between 1 and 4 horsepower, and the later version was almost 8 horsepower. The exhaust exited behind the rider via a smokestack, which was not overly pollutive, nor was it obnoxiously loud. Agreeable was the term. So really... It's not that bad. Not loud, makes plenty of power, and didn't pollute the world, so. Roper could be seen regularly making a seven-mile ride from his home in Roxbury to and from the Boston Harbor. He claimed his machine could climb any hill and not run any horse. What are the advantages of steam? Number A, no electricity required. Number B, it operates on a wide variety of fuels, primarily cold, but would operate effectively on anything that burns. And water, which is nearly infinitely available, kind of like what they put in the flux capacitor. Most components are visible. Working parts are largely external. Simple construction. Because the vehicle operates on steam, you could redirect the steam pressure to operate things like whistles and horns and other components.

Robin: Miscellaneous.

Jordan: Miscellaneous. Thank you. Technologia. So, what are some advantages you could think of for steam versus internal combustion? Cleaner combustion, better for the EPA that they didn't have back then. There's fewer moving parts. It is high torque and it is robust. It is less hazardous than solvent fuels, i.e., less likely to blow up. Disadvantages. The steam engine with the boiler is generally a heavier construction. It is less compact. Power is not as instantaneous as it would be with internal combustion, whereas you get the thing started and just start going. You pretty much have to build up a head of steam and let the fire get the boiler going. And it is less efficient in some cases. In 1894, with a new engine and at the age of 72, Roper was approached by Colonel Alpert Augustus Pope, referred to nine years later in the George Wyman story, of the Columbia Bicycle Company in Massachusetts to adapt his newest, most powerful, but now single-cylinder steam engine to one of Columbia's safety-framed bicycles, to which he agreed. He was 72 years old. As previously stated, the engine used in the Columbia bike made as much as eight horsepower and was capable of over 40 miles per hour and ran on rubber pneumatic tires instead of iron-bonded to wood. The exhibition of the finished product was on June 1, 1896, and Roper piloted his safety frame, which is what they call modern bicycles, safety frames, steam cycle to the Charles River bicycle track near Harvard Bridge, Cambridge, our fair city, Massachusetts. At the track, Roper made several laps, pacing professional riders and racers, including champion Tom Butler, none of which could keep up with the steam-powered machine. Roper was clocked at 2 minutes and 14 seconds on the banked concrete track for a lap speed of 40 miles per hour, which assumed a straight-line speed significantly higher than that, probably over 50 miles per hour. Witnesses were in attendance that day, and it was apparent that Roper had become Unstable on the machine. He fell on the track and suffered a head injury. When help arrived, including his son, Charles, who was at the event, he was found dead. The autopsy determined the cause of death was heart failure, although it remained uncertain whether the crash triggered the heart attack or vice versa. Controversies. Again, there was a likely simultaneous French steam velocipede Built and patented in 1867-1869 by Michel Perrault, both words with an X hyphenated, which I may delve into at a later date. Also, some dictionaries define a motorcycle as being driven by an internal combustion engine. Which some claim disqualifies Roper's invention as being a motorcycle. But that is nitpicking in my opinion. Furthermore, some period magazines and newspapers claimed the Roper steam velocipede was invented by another person named W.W. Austin. This was corrected by historians as W.W. Austin did own a Roper steam velocipede and a four-wheeled wagon, carriage, and was cited as being the only one witnessed by the authors of the periodicals actually riding the bike. There was also an article in 1901 where Austin claimed to have been the inventor. People got away with saying a lot of bullshit back then. Once it was in print, the lies became lore to all but those who really were in the know. Roper's self-propelled velocipede was displayed at the first ever New York auto show in 1900 at Madison Square Garden. And again, Austin was listed as the inventor. There is a 1867 to 1869 Roper Velocipede on display at the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. The exhibit is called America on the Move and is listed as the oldest self-propelled vehicle in the Smithsonian and the oldest in America after the Dudgeon Steamer, 1866. It looks more like a fire steam engine. It is very heavy with four wheels. So, what's next? Stay tuned for stories about Daimler-Meibach and maybe the Hildebrand-Wolfmuller and others unless I decide to fake left and go right again. That's what I got.

Robin: The Roper. Interesting to me that it started with what might be considered modern ergos.

Brian: It's all there. Yeah.

Robin: Only to then be ruined by our inventive experimentation from then on. You know, awesome. And now we're at the wind down. I guess. Oh yeah. I'm hosting next. So what are some things we want to talk about next time? I've, I'm giving you three options here. Now I think I know which one we should choose and it might not be any of these.

Brian: Then choose that one.

Robin: Okay. It's all about a book. I've already read this book. Brian is currently reading this book. I'm rereading the book right now, especially given the times, and that's the relaxation response. The book is written by a Harvard cardiologist who broke away from the medical norms to research the effects of meditation on human stress levels. He used the scientific method, complete with control groups, stuck to the science the whole way through. And this book has been a bestseller for years. The foreword is as good as the book itself. It's almost as long as the book itself. It's a very quick read, highly recommended. And in this day and age right now, I think that even as motorcyclists, we can apply it, keeping calm in the face of ignorance in others and ourselves. So let's talk about Zen and the art of motorcycle riding. I don't know what we'll call it yet. We'll come up with a name for it. But I want to talk about that choice we make to maintain our cool, calm, collected mental atmosphere that allows us to do perhaps not so calm and collected things on motorcycles at a variety of different speeds.

Brian: And you had a phrase down there, conflict resolution, and it covers a lot. Managing the conflicts that come from your environment, that come from other people, that come from the world around you.

Robin: Yeah. We'll look at it from that angle.

Brian: Keeping your zen. Motorcycling is meditation. There's a lot there.

Robin: It's a very open room, and there's plenty that can be said there, and we can take it in any direction we want. It seems like we have the most fun when we stay loose. You guys ready to get out of here?

Brian: Let's get out of here.