Brian: Check one, check two, check three, check four. Shut the door. Everybody do the dinosaur.

Robin: I'm keeping that. That's going to be the opening of this episode right there.

Brian: Everybody do the dinosaur. Rawr.

Robin: In this episode, clarity and motion, changing of the garb on road to off, and raise eyebrows via 404 clutch not found.

Brian: Nice. Can't wait.

Robin: This is going to be a good one. Opening announcements, news, corrections, and banter announcements. The podcast feed. I just de-bloated the website by quite a bit. It's already loading much faster. The podcast feed plug-in is now gone in favor of my custom work. Yay. Oh, there's a new link for Apple Podcasts, so update your feeds just in case you can't find us. It's on the website if you just go to any of the podcast episode pages, select your player and go to Apple, and that'll refresh you. Sidebar, given the... Given recent episode recording events, I got to say the world needs an easy to use, best possible quality, biggest possible file audio recording app for your smartphone. Something that just says, I have the app, big dumb button, maxes out the phone's circuitry and abilities, and then creates a WAV file that we can use for the episode. So if you know anything about that, please, by all means, visit email.tro.bike in your web browser and let us know.

Brian: It's got to be out there somewhere.

Robin: Yeah, I will say that in this segment, in this episode, I was surprised to receive a beautiful 16-bit, 48 kilohertz wave file from our guest. I was amazed by this because they actually followed the instructions in our calendar invite. I was anticipating I'd be using the Zoom audio. And lo and behold, I get this link in my inbox saying, hey, here's your audio. So thank you person who shall not yet be named until we get there in a perfect world. We're looking for 24 bit, 48 Hertz, but whatever's closest to that. And then having to explain configuration as a guest spot turnoff. So easy gets the convo going, you know, press button, record that kind of thing.

Brian: Yeah. And, and the thing is, you know, the, the best microphone in any given household is going to be on the, on the, on the phone.

Robin: Surprisingly enough.

Brian: Same camera, you know, best camera, best movie camera. Is going to be on your phone. So why not make use of that?

Robin: In the news, MV Augusta built a five-cylinder motorcycle engine. It's not an inline five either. It's three cylinders up front. It's two cylinders behind. And it's ultra lightweight. So compact trapezoid layout, two cylinders top, three below, 240 horsepower, 16,000 RPM redline under 132 pounds. That beats the Ducati Penigale V4R at 218 horsepower. It's narrower than an inline four, shorter than a V4. I don't even know if they're going to release this thing, but it's like, it's just engineering for the sake of, and I got a shout out to money shift underscore on Instagram for providing me with that middle of the night doom scroll. Holy crap scenario.

Brian: Here's the part that really got me. The pipes, there's three pipes in front. There's two pipes, exhaust pipes in back. And the intake comes down through the valve cover.

Robin: That's...

Brian: I don't know if you noticed that. That's weird.

Robin: It's just beautiful.

Brian: Yeah, that looks downright hateful. We'll see. We'll see what actually comes out. Because that's also a lot of parts. But if they engineered it, if they engineered it, they're there.

Robin: Yeah.

Brian: 16,000 RPM red line. because everybody fricking needs that.

Robin: Also, Sheetree Surgeon, I'm a big fan. I just think that they're cool. A friend of his did the whole thing where you order a motorcycle on Amazon and it was a dirt bike and they're going to beat the living crap out of it and see if it can actually hold up to anything. It's Chinese dirt bike with a Honda knockoff motor. That I think is, looks like it's going to be a lot of fun on that. So if you check out Shaitree Surgeon and watch his update on that, there's going to be an actual movie about that. And that's the thing of it. There are movies that we need to see. This is going to be one of them. An Amazon purchased Chinese bike on a long trip getting just romped on, just beating the crap out of it. Yeah. That ought to be good.

Brian: Nice.

Robin: Yeah. I got to watch the Yala Habibi movie as well. And I'm looking forward to spending some time on the old couch doing my due diligence.

Brian: I do too as well.

Robin: Apparently Verge Motorcycles is making history. This comes from VergeMotorcycles.com intending to make the first. It's an electronic motorcycle that's going to use a solid state battery. The tech out there, those are typically expected to be enormous. I just can't imagine what that's going to be all about. I really am excited because it's way safer. If you put it down low enough, you've got a good center of gravity. This is outstanding.

Brian: Yeah, and it's kind of like solid state. You know, we need like one more leap forward in battery technology to really just make EVs into even more of a no-brainer. Solid state is kind of where a lot of, I mean, there are trillions of dollars and other currencies going into it. Solid state is where things are going. And so if people are getting it figured out and maybe they'll figure it out on smaller versions and motorcycles before they do for cars and things like that.

Robin: So I tell you, I'd like to hear more about it. If there was any one person I can anticipate might be able to talk to us about these things, it might be the person who actually posted about it on the old LinkedIn. I call on the one and only Anders Carlson of, writing power sports and America fame.

Anders: Wow. I have, I have bad news for you. I am neither scientist nor expert on solid state anything, but you get what you pay for. You're talking about 2022 Anders, not 2026 Anders.

Robin: So I only got as far as the posts. I saw you place in the diet Facebook that is LinkedIn.

Anders: Yeah.

Robin: And then convinced myself to actually just go to the Verge motorcycle website to read about whatever. My confusion comes from what I thought was the sheer weight of these batteries. What can you tell me about this thing so far?

Anders: It's a real technology. It's not like cold fusion, which is not real. It's a great idea, Though. I mean, pretty cool. So, I mean, it's a real technology. I think really The question is whether You can make it at scale. Yeah. And then, of course, Details are very scant from Verge, Which may just be sort of a marketing exercise as these products are delivered to customer hands. It's the excitement of what's in the box, you know, the box of mystery or whatever. You know a fair amount about electric bikes, electric cars, whatever. There's a lot of vaporware. So there's skepticism around a the tech is for real but b can they actually deliver a bike that follows through on all these promises before i was going on i was like well i should really learn a little bit more about this but sheree which Is a chinese Engine maker i believe just came out with a shooting brake or a car that they claim. I was on Electrive. Electric is the one that I go to a lot that I see on LinkedIn a lot. But apparently they're coming out with their first electric vehicle with a solid state battery. They're Chinese, obviously. They're launching it this year and it looks very futuristic. It looks like a Hyundai, but for space. I think that other people are thinking the same thing in terms of solid state batteries. There's a lot of advantages to them on paper they're more thermally stable they work better in extreme temperatures like cold and whatnot and apparently they use fewer rare earth minerals so we won't have to occupy several green lens yeah man that seems like a good thing

Robin: Agreed, yes.

Anders: In the real world, if I told everyone what I feel, I would be run out of town on a rail, Angry torch chasing UTV enthusiasts running after me.

Robin: The actual battery tech, how are they storing the energy? I mean, deep cell, it could be sand. And ion has to be something that ends up destroying massive amounts of Earth. Whereas this, it's not a mouse maze full of electric, is it?

Brian: Well, lithium-ion batteries, the big problem is they come in cells. I mean, this is not a lithium-ion battery, but they come in like 2650 or 3150, something like that. They come in a couple of different standard sizes of cells. All that's underneath a Tesla is like a giant battery pack full of Ryobi batteries, and you waste a lot of space. And each one is its own little capsule with all these little materials. It's kind of primitive. And so the solid-state battery, the chemistry is a little different and the way the electrodes work is a little different and everything like that. But basically, yeah, they stick a bunch of electrodes and then they pump in the sludge and it basically fills all the space. It's a lot more stable. Are the solid-state batteries lighter? Is there a

Anders: Big difference in weights?

Brian: They're heavy. If you have a cubic foot of solid-state battery, it's going to be heavier than a cubic foot of whatever. But if you have a certain energy, like I have this amount of energy, it's going to be lighter in a solid state battery because you don't have all the little wrappers and casing for each one, each individual cell. You don't have all the connectors in between them and it's filling all the little space and so forth. You can have a smaller package that weighs less for a given amount of energy. It's still heavy as hell.

Robin: We need to give them a phone call. See, we get somebody on the horn who wants to come on the show and talk about this stuff.

Anders: Well, we do write a lot about a lot of tech forward stuff as far as like side-by-sides and UTVs. But it's a space that's sort of slower and not as ready to embrace EVs and LEVs, but we generally try to keep an eye on it. And if it's even loosely within the power sports space, we'll cover it just because it's interesting.

Robin: Maybe we can bridge that in some manner or another. Riding an electric motorcycle is the most fun I've personally ever had on two wheels. And I've said that many times on this show.

Anders: Oh yeah.

Robin: I got to ride the SR slash F and just took no prisoners for about an hour and a half and then handed it back to him and said, thanks.

Anders: Thanks, might want to charge us up. Yeah. Fun stuff.

Robin: Ladies and gentlemen, Anders Carlson, thank you.

Anders: See you guys later.

Robin: So, Brian, how you doing, man?

Brian: I'm good.

Robin: Here, I'll go first. I'll be that guy and say, banter, it's getting colder here. We are going to see a day where the high is 29 and the low is something for one day.

Brian: Wah.

Robin: I've been working on WebCode. I've been watching BoobTube. Particularly love the Star Trek Brave New Worlds show. Been enjoying the crap out of that from the couch cushions for sure. Have not been writing. This is where I start to fade out. You can see me busting a shining in my notes. No writing. Want writing. Want writing. More when canned. Booga. Booga. That's all I got. Your turn. Tell me what's what.

Brian: Working on an article on the mysteries of electricity, or at least one tiny aspect of the mysteries of electricity on two wheels. On request. We'll see where that goes. I got lots of ideas. It's cold in Indiana. It sucks. We are kind of escaping the snowstorm that's just getting ready to clobber kind of the southeastern part of the U.S., so we're going to stay pretty steady up here. But, man, there are some people that are getting hammered pretty quickly, pretty soon here. Also learned that Subaru dealers don't know how to do oil changes, so that was a messy project. They over-tightened the oil filter and wrinkled up the seal, and there's oil all over the place. Brand-new car. Come on, people.

Robin: Professional. Al.

Brian: We're professionals.

Robin: I do have something.

Brian: Sounds good. What you got there?

Robin: What you got there? I do have, I'm excited about this.

Brian: So what's in the bag?

Robin: This is going to be a topic worth discussing when the time comes. We should probably do an episode that revisits various topics in packing strategies.

Brian: Is this a product review?

Robin: This right here.

Brian: Do we have a product review,

Robin: We do have a product review in the making. I've been trying to shrink my technological footprint in my computer footprint on the bike mid travel. It started when the battery on our Kindle wore out.

Brian: All right.

Robin: I can read for 15 minutes and then it just shuts down on me. So what do I do? Well, first I got Maggie a new iPad and then I thought, well, I want one of those. So I went to max sales.com and ordered the cheapest iPad that has the most up-to-date software on it.

Brian: Okay.

Robin: And I thought that could prospectively replace my laptop on the bike when I'm going down the road. But I was like, well, I can't really work without a keyboard or a trackpad. I thought, well, this is a great opportunity for me to go as modular as possible. This is a keyboard with a trackpad on it.

Brian: Nice.

Robin: We're going to pop this open. There it goes. Okay. So pop this open. Oh, its batteries are already active. Let's turn that off.

Brian: It's going to be connecting to everything. It's loose.

Robin: No joke. That's like, that's enough space for me to actually use my fingers and type well.

Brian: Oh man.

Robin: It's got the trackpad right there.

Brian: Nice.

Robin: It's ultra lightweight. I think it's six ounces is what I read. I don't remember, but this is the iClever something, something with three Bluetooth connections will last all of however long.

Brian: Sure.

Robin: The reviews were good. I added it to my permanent list. This thing is super light. I'm all about it. I think we need to do an episode about that, about shrinking anything that could be multi-purpose, anything that could be combined or multi-use. That's an episode waiting to happen.

Brian: Definitely one there. Just right around here, we're grasping desperately at any scraps of anything two-wheeled related to do. There's like a motorcycle show downtown Indianapolis in February. Every year, I'm like, this is lame. I'm never coming back. And then every February, I'm like, I'm so bored.

Robin: I guess I'll go do that.

Brian: I can't stand it. I guess I'll go walk around in this damn thing.

Robin: I'll go to the Grom show.

Brian: I could get myself a bandana and a leather vest and some patches.

Robin: Somebody made a video of George Thurgood, only the parts where he says, the whole video is.

Brian: Hey, George, what's your name? Why do I know that?

Robin: Ready for some listener questions?

Brian: Sure. Slap me upside the head with a listener question.

Robin: This round, we've got a listener question, a question from the wild, and we're going to have an entire segment later on dedicated to 404 Clutch.Found with a special surprise guest.

Brian: If you'd like us to field your questions, visit email.tro.bike in your web browser to place an electronical message into our brains. Mark asks, I just purchased a 2025 KTM 390 Enduro R, and I'm planning to do a decat on the exhaust. All right. What muffler or silencer would you recommend? I'm leaning toward a shorty and I left out all the bros. So anyway.

Robin: Well done, sir.

Brian: What would you tell bro Mark? I know nothing about the science and reasoning for lauderation and emission-ation.

Robin: It's mostly about the weight shave.

Brian: Well, there's that, yeah.

Robin: The 390 Enduro R, that's an off-road machine, so you also have ground clearance. Decad it, you're shaving a lot of weight with those machines, and you're creating a little bit more rise, anything you want to get over top of. It's not really about loud in this case yet. He just asks about what exhaust you might recommend.

Brian: Shut up, old man. Talk to the guy.

Robin: Assume nothing. If you're going to farm it, meaning cruise around exploring with a touch of slow, get yourself an acro. Go pricey and be happy with the investment. However, if you're going to flog that thing, buy two or three of the most reliable GPRs you can smash to all hell without any change in the dimensions of your grin. You get something that's a known good reliable you know yoshi gpr these are pretty good exhausts decent exhausts i mean i actually like yoshi a lot get the best exhaust you can for destructive use is what i'm saying oh okay but if you're on the farm or you're just kind of putzing around up to the cliff for the pretty view you could get the acro and be very very happy and get the best throughput and the least tune damage because that's the real trick is if you change the exhaust throughput that can have an effect on the air input and then you're dealing with possible lean condition that not every ecu can adjust to i remember with the beamer you remember i had that freaking brap made me so happy but i do know that it met the limits of what the built-in ecu could handle adjusting for, and I just ignored it. Just, there we go.

Brian: Yeah, and we're sort of like with Mark, we're kind of assuming that, for example, if you're going to decat something, there's a lot of trickery you need to do because... The engine ECU is depending on signals from an O2 sensor to adjust things. I'm sort of assuming people have figured out ways around that that don't cause issues. Yeah, Akrapovic is a very high quality brand. They come with like the inserts you need for like if you're really going off-roading, you're going to need a little screen in it to spark arrest or that kind of thing. Some trails are getting noise limits and things like that. So they have inserts. And I don't know if Delcovich makes anything for that bike, but they build really high quality stainless steel, really pretty stuff.

Robin: Nice.

Brian: Or you just get something cheap on T-MU, whatever, I don't know.

Robin: Akrapovic spelled with an at symbol and a C.

Brian: Totallyreal.com.

Robin: Now for a question from the wild. You got it.

Brian: A question from the wild. PPHS, hey y'all, I am trying to... No, wait, I'm not even going to do the voice, I'm sorry. Hey, y'all, I am trying to get stuff for my BF, boyfriend, in young people speak, to be comfortable riding in the winter. I can tell he's getting down about it being colder, and I know he wants to ride. Well spotted. Join the club, sir. Join the club. Do you have any recommendations, particularly for heated grips? For additional context, we are in North Carolina. You think it's cold? Okay. He has heated gloves, and he got the bike this past February.

Robin: When I saw the heated gloves part that inspired something in me because I do have gloves they only take care of the tops of your fingers they don't do much for your palms.

Brian: Heated grips go on every bike I own and a lot of the bikes I just pass by. I mean, they're always there. They're cheap. They're surprisingly effective. You can't go out riding in zero degree weather with rubber gloves on. Like if you have electric gloves to keep the tops warm, the heated grips can help keep the palms warm. So yeah, those always go on everything I need. And there are a lot of different ways to do that. But hands are always the hardest thing, I think, because they're just out there in the wind and your hands need to work in order to do that. There are some good articles on TRO.bike.

Robin: I actually responded to this on Reddit. I'm going to read this verbatim. I said, hello, PPH, nobody for some website here, which I say a lot because it's a lot better than saying I'm Robin Dean for TRO.bike.

Brian: Who?

Robin: Exactly. These three articles cover a good bit on how to keep your core and appendages comfy.

Brian: Yes.

Robin: First up, gloves, vest, and socks. And I know he has the gloves. With the gloves and the vest, you've now taken care of your farthest appendages and your core. That is a lot of what gets the circulation to do what it needs to do. Heat up the oil on the motor and let it channel around a bit. It helps a lot. But honestly, I say screw the socks. They're weird, a total pain. I don't really want to try to clean that. So what I do is I get charcoal foot warmers and they blaze up to a point where if you don't do it right, they can be painful.

Brian: Oh, no.

Robin: This person's question was about heated grips and don't laugh at the cheap nature of what I'm linking to here. All right. I highly recommend the Oxwind 12 volt motorcycle heated grip covers. They're universal handlebar grips, three temperature settings, IP67 waterproof. They're for ATVs, scooters, motorcycle. It's a hand grip heater, warmer, hot with switch and fuse. This is all in the title on Amazon. But if you look up the Oxwind OXWIND 12-volt motorcycle heated grip covers, you're going to find something that I personally subscribe to. Now, don't laugh at the cheap nature of those heated overgrips. And they are overgrips, meaning you don't install them underneath the grip. You wrap them around your grip, and they use high-quality Velcro to fasten to each other. They're super simple, and they do work well. Brian's being super cool, but I can hear my peers laughing. Stop laughing. Stop, I say.

Brian: Stop, I say.

Robin: I went with this solution for their cheap simplicity and haven't looked back since because they're like 34, 40 bucks, whatever. And you just wire them up, plug them in. So it's a headphone jack coax. And the hardest thing I had to deal with was I couldn't tell which color represented which temperature. It's like red is cold, blue is the sun.

Brian: Yeah.

Robin: And green plays music. But they work. They really do.

Brian: Yeah, that's a great cheap option. Yeah. And also what I've seen you do is you can pull those off. Sun's out, gun's out. time for attack mode. I want to feel everything my tire's doing. Peel them back off, stick them back in a tank bag, and go. Yeah, it's a great option. They're cheap. The other thing I will say is that the gear check has touched on staying warm and temperature controlled many times in the segments on past podcasts.

Robin: Yes.

Brian: And a specific tip that she gave that I took to heart, you know, she tells me to spend money. I'm like, okay, I'll go spend money, is to get a Primaloft mid-layer jacket. It looks like a puffer jacket, except it's thin, and it's made with a primal loft, and it's a mid-layer intended for hiking and outdoor sports. The only reason I bought it is I found it for like $30 on clearance.

Robin: Nice.

Brian: Like, you barely know you have it on. It doesn't take up a lot of thickness, but it really adds a lot of that core warmth, keeps that warmth in, and it'll keep your hands and feet warm as well as you go.

Robin: Yeah. I subscribe heavily to get your hands warm, get your feet warm, and if you heat your core, you're never going to have to suffer at all.

Brian: Yeah.

Robin: All the way down to the late 30s, maybe even the mid-30s.

Brian: Nice.

Robin: Are you ready to get super heavy? Because there's no notes here at all.

Brian: Action, reaction.

Robin: So this week, based on one subject, a single book, I've read it before, halfway through it again.

Brian: I'm almost done with it, if I'm being very honest.

Robin: A while back, I wrote an article about solid motorcycle reading. And when you bring up books about motorcycling, everybody's all over that with, oh yeah, twist the wrist. Oh yeah, proficient motorcycling. Oh yeah, this, yada, that. There's a stack of amazing reads and movies. We all hold near and dear. And with the right writers, it's all just rhetorical discussion because we all mentioned the same stuff. But I also think there are some books in this world that have nothing to do with motorcycling, that have everything to do with motorcycling. And one of those books is written by Herbert Benson. Hi, Herbert.

Brian: Sorry.

Robin: I'm a high-strung individual with a hell of a chaotic headspace, and my pop noticed it. He was a super chill guy, God rest his soul. He knew where I came from, why I am the way I am. And in my early professional career, he handed me this book and said, here, I think you're going to like this. And this book, The Relaxation Response, before we call it anything voodoo, who do you do, It's important to note that all of his writing was based on the scientific method. So we had control groups, case studies, and trying to mix it all about. Herbert Benson of Harvard University, a cardiologist and medical practitioner who taught cardiology and medical practice to medical students at Harvard, decided to break away from the medical norms. He held the scientific method as tight as could be, broke a wave, and did a multi-year in-depth study on the benefits of what we typically would refer to as transcendental meditations. His research wasn't about that term. His research was about the result of it. Now, some of us have heard of the fight or flight response.

Brian: Right?

Robin: Making the sudden subconscious decision whether or not you are going to do battle or retreat from a given situation or an unexpected scenario. This book discusses the opposite effect of the fight or flight response, namely the relaxation response, hence the title. This book, you think I'm wackadoo now. I'm significantly better than I might've been had I not read this. Every day, twice a day, 20 minutes, just sit up comfortably and meditate. I'm reading it for the second time. Brian's reading it for the first time. In this social climate, I've reached out to a variety of people from all walks of life saying, hey, these are mentally overstimulating times. I hope this can help dial it down for you.

Brian: The thing that's striking about this book is it could have been a pamphlet. And I mean that in the best way possible. This guy could have handed out cards on a street corner with the instructions. Meditation has all this reputation for being all, woo, woo, you know, I'm going to align my chakra or whatever.

Robin: Your aura.

Brian: I'm going to rub a crystal or something. So the reason it's a book and not a pamphlet or a postcard is that he actually explains everything that's going on, explains the research. They did research. It boils down to take time, 20 minutes twice a day, that's pretty good. Regularly take time to really just stop is what it comes down to. Sit down, stop, empty yourself, empty your thought out, control your breathing, physically turn down or shut off, physically stop, and let your brain rest a little bit, I think is a lot of it.

Robin: Yeah.

Brian: If you don't sleep, your brain doesn't work. And if you don't let your brain stop, you know, if that squirrel just keeps running and running and running, never stops and looks around, then that's very unhealthy. The way to do this, it's not religious. It can be if you want it to be. You know, it's not tied into any belief system at all. It's not tied into any woo-woo, align your fields or anything like that. It's just stop and rest and let your brain rest. And then there's a lot of the book that goes into all the details and all the research into how it affects your physical health.

Robin: Alpha waves, man.

Brian: Yeah, they have numbers. They have, you know, they've got brain scans. They've got, and it's really funny how he focuses a lot. I mean, he's a cardiologist, obviously, but he focuses on blood pressure as the big mechanism that they pay attention to. It may be in the first chapter. I'd have to look, but yeah, here's what to do. And you can just stop there and go do that. It's simple. And here's why in the rest of the book. Here's how. Here's how. Here's why. Here's why it works.

Robin: He repeats the process that you go through many times over and then addresses the different mindsets that during his research, legitimate scientific research, might have stepped to him about spirituality or religion or the lack thereof. And he just had to keep loading up these comments and perspectives. While he was rolling up the pamphlet that you were talking about on the street corner and just repeatedly smacking you in the face with the science behind the study that he successfully got through and made proof of that made it into scientific journals all over the world. Think about what that can do for you behind the handlebars. If you have clarity, 10 minutes of actual meditation. I don't care if you're a crunchy, granola-eating hippie or if you're a factory worker who's got multiple appendages chopped off by the machinery that they don't report safety on. My point is your mindset has no effect on the proof of the outcome, which is that 10 minutes to 20 minutes of actual doing-my-best meditation is better than roughly three hours of sleep. It is not a replacement by any means, but the benefits, if you do this twice a day at a carefully planned moment, I think another example is the opposite direction of it, where if you've ever had an agenda ahead of you that there's no way you were going to get out of, and you arrive at that moment where you stop, your eyes wide open go into a slight state of REM, and you forget what the hell you were doing or why you were there because of exhaustion. Your body is actually forcing you to induce a similar state. You're just standing there looking at something, not knowing where you are and flinching out. Whereas this is where you can induce that so that you can rejuvenate. Now this affects your riding. It affects your clarity. It affects your perspective on the bike. Ooh, butter. It's a fantastic thing. I will take a break on my own mid ride and just chill out, pick something to look at, take a deep breath pick a sound and focus on it and, Every time one of those responsibility or concerning or even aspiring thoughts enters my head, I just say, no, push it out and continue to not acknowledge it. It's not a fight. It's just a decision to not go there long enough to find your way to a little bit more awareness. And then you return to the world and it's like, bang on, you could swing a leg over the bike and just cruise along, kick an ass.

Brian: Yeah. Yeah, and one of the things he points out in the book is this is all a skill that improves with practice. It's also something you can immediately just sit down, follow the simple instructions, lie down if you want to, whatever. Take that time, kind of let your brain wash out, and whatever you do next, you're going to be better at. You're going to enjoy more. For example, you're on day four of a 777s trip. You're lost on a dirt road, and things are getting stressful and things like that. This is a random example, but that's one of those times where it's totally random, but That's one of those times it's kind of the opposite. And the more you do of stopping and bringing things down, the better you're able to handle those things like that. The more you can rest, the more you can relax. Helps you sleep better, pressure breath. He spends a lot of the book talking about blood pressure. That's one of those indicators of mental and physical stress. You know, you're getting a fight or flight response from bills in the mail, you know, or something your boss did. It's not the cave days, so you can't just directly deal with the problems with a club. You have to bring that in. So that's a lot of it there is just dealing with stress. One of the things that struck me too is that I think there's a very related process that happens when you get into a state of mental flow. You can get into a very similar state on the motorcycle. When you're really flowing, when it's really cranking, your awareness expands, you get into that elevated state.

Robin: You got to read the foreword when you read the book. Do not skip the foreword.

Brian: About a third of the book is a foreword, but yeah.

Robin: There's nothing to this book and there's everything in it. The data's there. Runners get it. Bicyclists. Anybody who practices something that they enjoy doing regularly, once they get a pace going and a sense of stride, you can induce the same effect even while you're being physically active.

Brian: Yeah, definitely. I mean, that's a large part of why I ride it. You shut off everything. I mean, you keep the parts awake that you need, obviously, but you shut off everything. And that's a lot of it. It really, it flushes out whatever that is. You know, it flushes out the other stuff. You know, it is one of those things that I kind of feel sorry for people who don't do something at a high level like that, if that makes sense.

Robin: Yeah.

Brian: Something anything there are people who just slog through life and don't have access to that for whatever reason and i you know but so i think i it's not the same thing i think i think being still is its own thing and it goes deeper but there's also that getting into that state of mental flow is is so good for you and it's so good for me it's you know it's a big part of why i ride and you know you can go out and do that anytime so this is unrelated to anything but i think people instinctively realize they need that space. Somebody asked this question the other day, and I genuinely think the answer is they need to meditate. They need their space.

Robin: For those of you listening to all this, which has been clearly edited, we don't know how this will be bridged. The relaxation response, the way this works is by activating your body's natural off switch to the stress-induced fight-or-flight system, slowing your heart rate, lowering your blood pressure, decreasing metabolism, and reducing stress hormones like cortisol, creating a deep state of rest that counteracts chronic stress, affects and promotes healing, often triggered by practices like meditation, deep breathing, yoga, or prayer. It does not require any subscription to any particular religion. Whatever you need to hold on to while you're doing it, mentally speaking, is going to contribute to the success of it. It counteracts stress. When stressed, your body releases adrenaline, increases heart rate and breathing, tightens muscles, slows digestion. The relaxation response, which again, the name of the book, by Herbert Benson, the relaxation response, this reverses those effects by activating your parasympathetic nervous system, bringing the body back to a healthier balance.

Brian: Nice.

Robin: I highly recommend it.

Brian: I said this could be a pamphlet or a business card. We haven't shared this yet. What should be on that business card? It's super simple.

Robin: Four steps.

Brian: How to bring forth the relaxation response, okay?

Robin: One, find yourself a quiet place to be.

Brian: Two, a mental device. To shift the mind from logical, external thought. You need like a sound word or phrase, repeated silently or aloud, something to focus on.

Robin: Motorcycles.

Brian: Motorcycles, motorcycles. motorcycles home v4 you want that v5 yes you want the v5 that sucks air through its valve cover what the yeah

Robin: Who's who's making that mv augusta.

Brian: There you go yeah obviously it can it can be stupid it can be something that's meaningful for you it can be meaningless yeah number three a passive attitude don't sit there and like i'm gonna relax i'm gonna relax i'm

Anders: So fucking relaxed

Brian: Fuck off. I'm relaxing. Anyway.

Robin: So no, I, here's the trick. Part of the passive attitude is a constant forgiveness of self.

Brian: Right?

Robin: So when you let thoughts find their way in and you start thinking about that spreadsheet or that bolt that needs to be properly torqued or whatever it is, you allow yourself to say, I'm not going to think about that right now. And you kick the thought away and just continue on. You don't need to say, oh, I didn't do that good. You do not, you never focus on how well you're doing. You simply return to the process, return to the mantra and return to the breathing and carry on.

Brian: Fourth step is real, real, real simple. A comfortable position. Sit somewhere comfortable, lie down, whatever is most comfortable.

Robin: Whatever your favorite seated posture is, find that posture, take a deep breath, slowly exhale, say your mantra, and whatever enters your head, forgive yourself for it and let it go. Continue on and wait till the 20-minute alarm tells you to chill.

Brian: It does say most people recommend sitting because there's a tendency to fall asleep if you're lying down. I'm like, well, that may not be the worst outcome, but yeah, this book could be a business card or you can dig in and really learn why it works, how it works, and, you know, why it's something everybody can do in their own way.

Robin: Joanne Don just entered. This means, of course, that it's time for The Armory, brought to you by GearChick.com.

Joanne: Moving from on-road to off-road, the trick is this, because you can, of course, wear your street garb when you go off-road. You can. Should you? Probably not. The difference is going to be how much time are you going to spend off-road. So that's going to give you an idea of what kind of gear to buy. So let's throw out an example. Brian, question. Do you have an adventure motorcycle?

Brian: I do.

Joanne: Okay, what is it?

Brian: It is a KLR 650. May it please the court.

Joanne: And would you say that on any average ride to go off-road, what percentage of the day are you going to spend off-road?

Brian: Well, in Indiana, off-road, no. But in South Dakota, West Virginia, I'd be hoping for, to be brutally honest, I'd be hoping like 30, 40% would be a good day. Okay. In Indiana, like off-pavement is about the best you can hope for. Everything is a road.

Joanne: Okay.

Brian: Some of them are barely roads.

Joanne: So you are a 70-30 kind of guy. 70 on, 30 off. Okay, that's perfect because not everybody's 50-50 and not everybody has to be. There are no rules here, right? You might be a 70-30, I might be a 50. Okay, so you're 70-30. So what that tells me is that your gear should be designed for clothing. Predominantly on-road experience with some off-road features built in versus a outfit that's 100% geared toward off-road 100% of the time. So that's how you want to match or figure out and maybe narrow down the choice of gear. And already by that, we know you should not be buying dirt jerseys and dirt pants.

Brian: Exactly.

Joanne: But now when you go out into the venture gear, there's also a subset of product. Starts at 50-50. Half my day off-road, half my day on-road. You're 70-30 on to off, so that means your gear should still be designed to fit you off-road. Maybe kind of that traditional three-quarter length adventure jacket style that we all see, which also looks like a touring jacket, because touring clothes look the same. But here's the difference. The touring clothes have zero thought to higher ventilation and a lower weight. When you're going off-road, you actually have to do some work. If you're just going to be on an iron butt or you're just going to be on paved roads 100% of the time, what are you doing the whole time? Sitting. You're never moving from sitting to standing. You're not going over hard terrain. All you're doing is sitting, Swiveling your head, moving your fingers, maybe moving your feet and your toes and your legs, but you're not standing and sitting. You're not moving your whole body. Because let's be honest, when you go off-road, you really should be standing some of the time, depending on what you're doing, depending on the terrain. So your gear has to move with that. So the first thing is when you walk into a store, if you're shopping online, is you want to make sure that the product description mentions some amount of off-roading in that outfit. And pure touring street clothes don't mention it. They don't talk about it. They don't market it. And there's nothing in the marketing or the tags to say this is an adventure focused outfit an adventure in gear now there's a huge debate on what that means in the offered community and we're not going to do that debate here that's another show But in gear and in manufacturers, adventure implies a mix of pavement and dirt. Okay, so you're a 70-30. So I would be looking for you a jacket that has much higher ventilation options than your touring clothes. So if you have, say, I'm going to say an AeroStitch jacket, they're really not designed to optimally ventilate when you're off-road. They're great to ventilate when you're statically sitting on the street. Yes, and I'm sure some other models have more vents. Not to say that street clothes don't have a lot of vents, but adventure clothes are designed with the thought that you're going to be working. You might have to stand up for this hill. You might have to stand up for this corner. You might have to get on your knees and pivot and shift your weight for a corner or for a terrain. That requires work and active movement. and you get hotter, faster. Now compound that with maybe you run hot. So now that exacerbates it because you already are a hot-blooded person. Now imagine wearing your heavy touring clothes while you're trying to manage a twisty switchback dirt road where you have to stand up and you need to constantly counterweight, you need to pivot and you're moving back and forth. That gear feels heavier and we're talking ounces here and I know that when you weigh say a street jacket versus maybe an adventure coat it could be eight ounces or a pound we're not talking about a 10 pound difference but that small amount of weight makes a huge difference when it's up against your body While you're sweating. So you want to make sure that your gear has ventilation so that air actually comes into your body somehow. Either perforations under the armpit, a zipper under the armpit, vents at the chest where you get hot at your core. The other tell for Adventure product is your upper sleeves have ventilation. Why? Because you stand up. You need air to hit your upper body when you're standing up on the pegs and you're slightly tilted forward. And that's proper body positioning when you're standing on your pegs. You're not standing up like Evo Knievel. So if the vents are like at your belly or on the sides of your arms, not in the front of your body, how are you going to get that airflow? Same with perforation and mesh, same with other venting features. So think about the fact that you're going to be standing a lot. So your leg vents, they should not be directly on the back of your thighs. How are you going to get the airflow if there's a vent on the back of your leg and not the front of it or maybe the side of your leg? That's how you want to kind of think through the product. And of course, more ventilation is not a terrible thing. But here's the other thing. When you start to get into something that's too dirt oriented, what happens is you start to lose abrasion resistance. So if you're 70% pavement Your gear has to have some, if not more, abrasion resistance than a true 50-50 product. It's hard to find 50-50 product that is light enough and still abrasion resistant. There are some amazing brands that do. And yes, those cost more money because that's the unicorn. I need 50-50 on an off-road fit and comfort and weight, but I also need that high ventilation and abrasion. All the things in one outfit is going to cost you all the dollar signs. But that moderate level also for you being a 70-30 person, you also know that your gear will probably also be a little more affordable because the less you have to ventilate the product, the less you have to make it the lightest possible street choice, then the less money you're going to spend. The more off-road you're going to go, the lighter and the more ventilated and the more breathable your product should be. Not that you're not supposed to have any ventilation or breathability on road. That's not what I'm saying. It should be way more ventilated, more breathable, more lightweight, the more off-road you go. So it's a spectrum. You know, it's kind of like a, I guess like an XY axis. So your X axis would be the more off-road and then your Y might be the ventilation. It's going to be an upward line from left to right. It's just going to be a nice 45 degree angle. I sucked at math, so what do I do?

Brian: All right. Similar banter at higher revs can be found via the Gear Chick website or by emailing Joanne directly. The email address is help at gearcheck.com.

Robin: C-H-I-C, email her. All right. So Jordan Lehman is working up some inspiration on a next topic. Not sure what it's going to be. He'll be back soon. This time around for segment three, it's 404 Clutch Not Found. 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 plan is for her to either interview motorcycle instructors from all over or get overly verbose with our in-house philosophical blatherings. This is a special moment. This is our first go with a real sit-down with a real motorcycle instructor, not just any motorcycle instructor, but one who owns and operates a motorcycle training provider out of Loveland, Colorado. It's also special because this is a long time coming, long time podcast veteran. She finally walked back in the door, kicked me out of my chair and said, that's mine. I'm sitting my butt down.

Angelmarie: I've been riding for two months now. I bought my Ninja 400 in November. I guess I'll just go right into it. I'm having a really hard time entering curves. So I wanted to ask you, what tips do you have when it comes to entering curves? What gear should I be in? I'm hearing different things from different people.

Armené: That's my problem right now. Because I'm hearing different things from multiple

Angelmarie: people, from Instagram comments to people on YouTube and my comments just telling me I'm sucking with gear shifting. So what advice do you have as an instructor on how I can be better at entering those curves?

Armené: Oh, I like that. This is a great question. Okay. Curves are, as we all know, where most motorcyclists get in trouble because most motorcyclists don't know how to enter into curves. So I like to say slow in out with a grin Okay, it is better to go in too slow And then be able to make those corrections Than to go in too fast And have those butt pucker moments Where things feel out of control Unfortunately, There is no secret sauce to gears It all depends on how fast the speed limit is For one, right? Some curves will tell you 30 miles an hour. Some will say you can take this at 45. That's a great place to start is the suggested speed limit. And then you can always back off from there. I always slow down before I get into my curb. And if that means I need to downshift to match my engine speed, then I downshift. I'm always looking for the end of my curve. And yes, I'm also scanning, right? We're doing that far near side to side. We're making sure there's no debris. We're also looking for signs that other people have gotten in trouble in that curve. I'm looking for banged up railings. I'm looking for skid marks. And if I can't see around the curve, I'm going to actually go a little bit slower until I can completely see around the curve. The way that I was taught to take a curve in the very beginning was getting my face as close to the mirror as I can. So I'm really leaning into that curve. You have to sort of look, press, and lean as much as you're comfortable with. And if you feel like you're going way wide, you're gonna look, press, and lean even more. I like to say lean into your fear. I don't like to look straight down. I don't like to hyper-focus. So if I see some debris on the right side of the road, I'm not going to stare at the debris and panic You want to go slow enough Into the curve where if it's possible, you don't have to use your brakes If you're using your brakes in a curve, you've entered the curve too quickly Try to slow down before you get into that curve. Look where you want to go. Press and lean. And I just like to say lean into your fear because the first dozen and a half times that you get into a curve is going to be some fear. The last thing we want to do is panic. You don't want to grab the clutch. You don't want to grab the brakes. You don't want to do any of those types of things. That's why in the training we teach you originally that we're going to have all four fingers around the throttle instead of covering the brakes, because as a new rider, it's not abnormal to panic and to grab for things. So I like to say if it's possible to keep the clutch out, you should, because if you're squeezing the clutch in, we've removed power. And then once we do finally get through the curve, we're sort of forced to figure out how to match that clutch with the engine. I know it's a lot, but what I did was I found a big parking lot and I did a boatload of figure eights. I just figure eighted until I could figure eight no more. And I didn't start on really, really hard, tight curves. I kind of worked my way up. I was going to ask you that question.

Angelmarie: When you were a new rider, what were you doing to better your skills? I mean, you've been writing for a while now and now you're an instructor. You're teaching the instructors. What were you doing to get better?

Armené: Funny, my son plays the saxophone and really quickly he went from that squeaky, horrible sound that you hear from their bedroom to like playing with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra as a 14-year-old kid. I was like, how did you get so good? And he's like, mom, I practice 10, 12 hours a day. And not that we all have time for that, Any free opportunity that I had to practice, I was practicing. I also rode with people that were better than me that could give me tips and tricks. Like they'd watch me ride. We'd pull over and they'd say, okay, you really need to lean in more to this curve. You really need to watch when we get tense, our shoulders kind of go up to our ears. You really got to work on relaxing your body. So it was really just a lot of practice. I didn't do a lot of YouTubing. and I think part of the reason for that is because there are so many conflicting opinions. I didn't ride with people who were not skilled riders. I think one of the most dangerous things that you can do as a new rider is go on a group ride. You don't know their skill level. They don't know your skill level. You don't know how they're gonna respond if something happens that's out of your control. Maybe you'll react appropriately and they won't and then all of a sudden we have an accident. So I always ride with skilled riders and never more than two.

Angelmarie: Skilled riders. How do you identify a skilled rider?

Armené: Oh, that's such a good question. I hate to say that time makes a good rider because somebody could be riding for 45 years, but they only ride their bike three times a year and they're not that great at it. I sought out instructors. I sought out people who had taken multiple MSF or total control classes. I became part of the motorcycle community and I tried to find other people that really did ride. Riding was a passion, not just side hobby thing. Like they were kind of as insanely addicted to it as I was. And then I also just, after a ride or two with them, I knew if they were full of crap, I could tell. If they look like they're going to dump their bike every time we take a curve, I'm not going to trust what they had to say, but you find your community. Where are you finding these people? Are you going to the cycle care meetups? I'm having a Extra class that I could take, I took. So I took a class in California. Actually, I flew out to California and it is called Street Masters. I don't know if it's still around. Before I became an instructor, I traveled all over the country to sort of seek out people who were holding these events and asking them things like, could I ride with you? I actually paid someone to fly out to Colorado to ride behind me, and we put our headsets on. And while I was riding, he was sort of critiquing my ride. We would go to parking lots and he would have me do all of these drills. I try to avoid riding with people who haven't taken at least some safety class because it's a mindset thing. Yes, I could have had my uncle teach me how to ride and I could have done a test out. But since I'm pretty safety minded, I have kids, I have family, and I want to be able to come home safely. I sought out other safety minded individuals. So sometimes just conversations like, oh, what? Have you taken any classes? If they say no. Red flag. Yeah.

Angelmarie: Switching subjects, I was on the freeway last week, and I probably hop on the freeway too prematurely given my experience level. And I'm going straight on the freeway, and all of a sudden my bike's just going right. Do you happen to know maybe what was going on? I was looking straight. I wanted to go straight, but my bike was just going right and just going through all the lanes. Thank God the freeway was empty. Was it target fixation that could lead to something like that?

Armené: There are a couple things. Were you target fixating?

Angelmarie: Possibly. But I was looking straight. I was like, okay, I'm going to look through the apex of this curve that's up ahead, but my bike was just going right.

Armené: And what's the quickest way to fix that? I mean, I would say quickest way is do a body check. One of the things that I like to do with my students is I'll have them sit on their bike and I'll have them put their feet up on the pegs and I'll kind of steady the bike with my knees. The way that we do it, your balance controls whether the bike drops. And of course, I've never let anybody drop, but you can start to see the bike lean. Everything that you do has an impact on the bike. Have you ever seen that commercial where it's half man, half motorcycle? Yeah. It's pretty great. So that's the idea. Up top, we're supposed to be really loose. Nothing is supposed to be tight and tense. For example, how do you sit on your motorcycle? I know it's a ninja, but do you sit your butt way back on the seat or with your parts touching the tank?

Angelmarie: Parts touching the tank, squeeze legs, and I was told keep your abs engaged and then arms loose, lean a little bit forward.

Armené: I can tell you right now I don't super engage my abs. It's tiring. Thank goodness. It's tiring. Yeah. I can't be doing like, no, I can't engage abs while I'm doing a four-hour ride. I like to say the arms should be loose like you should be able to do the chicken dance. Your shoulders should be nice and relaxed. And I know too that when you're first riding or when you're riding in a stressful situation like a highway, we tend to tense up. And so we find that our shoulders are creeping up towards our ears and we death grip the heck out of the hand grips. Any amount of pressure on one hand grip or the other is gonna make that bike move in one direction or the other. Anytime I start to feel like, man, this ride is not comfortable for me, I'll do a body scan. Okay, are my shoulders down? Relax them. Are my arms tense and tight? Are they straight? Or do I have some bend? Can I do the chicken dance? Are my hands death gripping? My hand grips, okay, relax. And then as I go lower, my knees are nice and tight to the tank. I put the balls of my feet on my pegs. I have a joke in my class where I tell everybody that balls are best, but only for motorcycle riding. So I put the balls of my feet on my pegs. I make sure that my feet aren't pointing straight down or pointing out because you can be pressing on one peg or the other and that can actually make your bike head in that direction. Just pressing slightly with your feet. So it could be any of those things. Do a quick body check and just relax it all. I like to say woosah, relax it.

Angelmarie: And where's your placement on the seat? Are you all the way at the tank? Are you near the back of the seat?

Armené: I like to say you put your front butt on the tank. Okay. My daughter came up with front butt when she was a very little child. Obviously going to be a little different. I've ridden everything. I've had a Ducati. I've had an Aprilia RSV4. I've had a Triumph. I've had a big old bagger, Indian Chieftain. And with the Indian Chieftain, it was sort of forcing me to sit back just based on the way that the seat was, which is part of why I hated that bike, because it really does feel more natural for me to have kind of everything nice and tucked in tight.

Angelmarie: What's your favorite bike to ride? You've ridden everything. What's your favorite one?

Armené: The Aprilia RSV4 was my most favorite bike in the entire world, but I was not able to behave. I was pushing myself. And I was talking myself into sort of bad behavior. Yeah, I sold that bike because I was having a really hard time telling people, you got to be safe. You have a family at home. You need to ride whatever. And then being an idiot. And so that was my favorite bike. I would say my second favorite bike is my Triumph. It's got like a really classy look. It doesn't get me into any trouble. It's really fun to ride. Not a lot of people can do that. That leads me into

Angelmarie: my next question. How do you, as a writer, catch yourself? You sold wife because you knew that we weren't being too safe on it. I'm on my 400 and I'm already like, oh, I want to upgrade. But I've only been writing for two months. How do you catch yourself and what do you do so you don't stay comfortable so that you're continuously learning even after all this time? That's a great question too.

Armené: I had the good fortune. I had this particular coach whom was a Loveland police officer and he came in to work one day and he looked like absolute crap. I asked him like, hey, is everything okay? What's going on? He said, I had to clean up a motorcycle accident yesterday and when I went to the house to deliver the news to the family, a two-year-old little girl opened the door. I have five kids. I think I was convincing myself, oh, they're older, they won't need their mom, but that's just the craziest thing. And so as soon as I started to realize that I was making these excuses in my own head. Honestly, it's sort of like an addict. I'm like, ah, it's one drinker. It's one whatever. I just realized that I was putting my life at risk for absolutely no reason. What are the pros of this? Don't get me wrong. It's not like I was wheelieing and I just was feeling this, yeah, I could race this whatever at the stoplight. They're revving their engine. I could totally smoke them. I had this moment where I was like, grow up. So what I've done since, corny as it sounds, I taped a picture of my kids next to my speedometer. That seemed to do it for me, just sort of holding myself accountable in that way. I ride less alone now than I used to. And I think knowing that I have other people that are relying on me to be a safe rider kind of put me in my place too.

Angelmarie: I asked Brian and Robin this question, but is there anything that you still kind

Armené: of struggle with even now? I don't think that I do. I can't wait to be at that place. That is actually kind of why I switched bikes as often as I did for a while because I was getting, I don't want to say bored. I sort of wanted to challenge myself. And so if that was new riding position or more engine power or anything like that, that's how I got better was this like stair-step approach. I am sure that I've gotten myself into some situations where I'm like, but not like a consistent thing that really is hard for me.

Angelmarie: Last question, I promise. What is the quickest way to recover from a stall? I find myself stalling. Not often, maybe once every going out on a ride, but my recovery time is a little slow. What's the fastest way to recover from that? It's funny because I think when

Armené: we stall the bike, Our rat brain goes back to learning the beginner, turn the engine off, hit this button, hit that button, do this thing. Yeah. Honestly, the quickest way is squeezing the clutch, hit the starter button, and you're good to go. If stalling is an issue for you, I would say you can always start out with a little bit of throttle before you begin to release the clutch. Because sometimes it's just that we don't have enough power and we're releasing that clutch too quickly. Start with that throttle. And also, I know it looks really cool to start with a leg up. Actually taking a couple of steps and starting with both feet down can almost dissolve the stalling issue. Okay. Is getting those steps, getting that momentum.

Angelmarie: One more question because you said something really interesting. How can you tell someone is a new rider? You're out in public, you're riding around, you're like, yep, that's a new rider.

Armené: I can tell new riders in a curve just based on body position and a nervous look. But the other way that I can tell is when we come to a stop and they put both feet down, boop, together at the same time. Because then you know they're not using their back brake. I always come to a stop, you know, with my foot on the brake. And then when I'm completely stopped, I will put my foot down or keep my foot on that rear brake just so that I have the red light on the back of my bike for people behind me to see me. Gotcha. Thank you. Great questions. I'm only sweating a little bit.

Brian: If you'd like to follow Angels' Wanderings, look up 404-CLUTCH-NOT-FOUND, all one word. 404-CLUTCH-NOT-FOUND,

Robin: So what do you want to talk about next week, man?

Brian: I've got an idea. So we've gone in with vague ideas, so let's talk about it. It's a big topic. It's a loose topic, but let's talk about it. It's winter. Let's chew it up a little bit. But the idea is OPM and OPM. And that means other people's money, other people's motorcycles. One of the great things about motorcycling is when you get social and you get to help other people spend their money. You get to help other people make their bikes better. Sometimes it's about buying the bike sometimes it's about fixing the bike sometimes once in a while if you're lucky someone will toss the keys and it's and it's about riding the bikes nice let's talk about other people's motorcycles and other people's money i'm

Robin: Into it everybody ready get out of here.

Brian: Let's get out of here