Episode 022 - Motorcycle Mania

David & Jaime discuss their interest in motorcycles.  David explains how got into riding motorcycles, and how he came to acquire the Harley owns currently.

David's Bike:

• 2009 Harley FXCWC (Rocker C)
• Key Features:
  • Unique Design: The Rocker C stands out with its raked-out front end, long wheelbase, and distinctive styling. 
  • Hidden Passenger Pillions: The Rocker C features a "Trick seat design" where the passenger pillion folds out from under the solo seat, allowing for two-up riding. 
  • Chrome Accents: Many components, including the headlamp, handlebar riser, fork lowers, and tank console, are chrome-plated. 
  • Twin Cam 96 Engine: The Rocker C is powered by a 96 cubic inch Twin Cam 96 engine, delivering 92 foot-pounds of torque. 
  • Six-Speed Transmission: The bike utilizes a six-speed transmission. 
  • Deluxe Pinstripe Flames: Deluxe pinstripe flames are standard on the Rocker C. 
  • Optional Smart Security System: The bike is available with an optional Smart Security System

Jaime's Bike:

• 2003 Harley FXD (Dyna Super Glide)
• Key Features and Specifications:
  • Engine: 1450cc (88.0 cubic inches) Twin Cam 88® engine, vibration isolation-mounted.
  • Transmission: 5-speed.
  • Frame: "Dyna" frame with a rubber-mounted engine for reduced vibrations.
  • Fuel System: 40mm Constant Velocity Carburetor with Enrichner and Accelerator Pump.
  • Exhaust: Staggered Shorty Duals.
  • Seat Height: 26.5 inches.
  • Dry Weight: 639 lbs
  • 100th Anniversary Edition: Some 2003 models were part of the 100th anniversary celebration

They discuss modifications or accessories for their respective bikes.

Motorcycle Maintenance:

• They discuss their maintenance schedules.
• Cost
• Repair/Replace

Tips to look out for when riding.

Issue a verdict.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:03

If by some chance, some stroke of luck, or some act of God, you have stumbled upon this broadcast, you are listening to The Chivalry Chronicles with your host, Dr. DLH.

SPEAKER_02: 0:29

I'm a damn doctor!

SPEAKER_00: 0:31

David. We're going to bring the tea.

SPEAKER_01: 0:33

I refuse to not drink during the podcast.

SPEAKER_00: 0:36

Yeah. And me, Jaime. They need to make podcast equipment a lot more expensive to get some of these clowns off the air. Gather around as we discuss a modern manly approach to chivalry. So I hope you're ready because I know we are. So let's get into it. Yes, sir. You hear the roar of that engine? We're coming to you from the chivalry clubhouse. That's what we're going to call it. The chivalry clubhouse. So today, since we have a little time, I figured David and I would discuss, you know, we'll do a little motorcycle talk. David rides a motorcycle as well as I do, and we wanted to talk about it. You know, kind of give you some tips, figure out how David got into it. You'll hear about how I got into it. It's one that I've I know I've been wanting to do for since we started the podcast. There's not a lot of well, it's a lot more information out there now. But growing up, there wasn't a lot of information. Either you knew someone with a motorcycle or you is really nowhere else to get it from. Right. So let's let's get into it. David. I guess, do you want to do your intro on your bike or do you want to tell me how you got interested in motorcycles? I mean, what got you into it? Because I hear that engine right now and I want to turn this podcast off, go jump on the bike and go ride up in the freaking hills somewhere and ride till the freaking sun goes down.

SPEAKER_01: 2:22

You know what's funny with that engine sound that you'll learn is it's Not the stock sound. So I always thought before I got up into motorcycles, I always thought that that sound just meant Harley. Like I thought that's their signature sound. And I always associated Harley with that sound. And lo and behold, I start looking at motorcycles and go to the dealers and they Turn theirs on, and it's just like... And I'm like, this doesn't sound like Harley. Did you guys change it? And he said, no, this is the stock sound. And I said, well, what about that deep, sound and you go oh okay no that's that's aftermarket pipes oh yeah and i'm like what the heck the whole time i thought it was the harley sound and it's it's not it's aftermarket pipes no that you put on but i don't know that you can necessarily put them on on just any bike

SPEAKER_00: 3:23

right no no it's a distinct sound yeah with the with the motorcycle with the actual engine but it is you need at least a stage one kit for it to sound like a harley like what you what everyone associates the sound absolutely absolutely yeah the actual pop i guess the you That's the actual sound of the engine, but you can only hear it with the stage one kit. That's exhaust, maybe an air cleaner. And then you can go from there. You can do a cam, switch out the cam. You can have bigger... boar heads and stuff like that. I mean, it, it goes, it's endless from there, but you need at least a stage one kit.

SPEAKER_01: 4:02

Yeah. But anyway, we're getting ahead. Yeah, absolutely. Because, uh, you know, I know whenever it comes to like technical details of, of specific bikes and so forth, that is not something that I'm very, uh, versed in. However, I, uh, kind of to kick things off and how I got into, to motorcycle riding in general is I was already an adult, uh, in my thirties and my, um, Almost mid-30s at

SPEAKER_00: 4:28

the time. You know what? I've never heard this. Now I'm interested because I

SPEAKER_01: 4:30

didn't know that. So, essentially, I was pushed to get into it. Really? And I say that because I had always told myself, hey, if I make bukus of money, because the one thing that I did know about Harleys is if I were to ride a motorcycle, it's going to have to be a Harley. I saw all these other motorcycles. Why? But... it wasn't a harley and i didn't like it and part of it is the whole the sound of the harley the feel what you see in the in the movies kind of the yeah the glamorization of it and unfortunately some of it is on on the negative side but just that just that that free rugged um Right. Yes. Right. I'll get into motorcycle riding, specifically a Harley. I'll get a Harley, but I'm not going to ride it on a highway because I wouldn't be too scared. I'm just going to ride it in residential areas, which I'd probably get in trouble overall. But that was my mentality. Wow. picked up a hobby as a result, but I was going through a divorce and trying to save my marriage at the time. And one of the things that my ex had remembered when she was younger is her dad taking her on a motorcycle. And she kind of wanted to get into riding a motorcycle as a result. So in that course, I come home one day and We're still trying to work things out. I come home one day and she's all, guess what I got? And she opens the garage and lo and behold, she's got a brand new Harley motorcycle sitting in the garage. And I'm like, what the heck? And I just kept my cool and she's all, yeah, I got it earlier today and blah, blah, blah. And I got my motorcycle license now. And she had did all of this all within a matter of three days without without I don't want to say without me knowing it was something that she was indicating she was going to do. I just didn't know she was physically doing actively pursuing it. Right. And so she gets that motorcycle and I am like. Okay, well, I don't know how to ride a motorcycle, and I'm sure as heck not going to ride on the back of a motorcycle with you. So I'm going to have to take some classes. So within, I don't know, maybe a week or two weeks after that. What did she get, though? She got a Sportster.

SPEAKER_00: 7:43

Okay, 1,200, 800? Yeah, or you

SPEAKER_01: 7:47

know what? I don't remember the specs. Probably a 1,200 is what I'd imagine.

SPEAKER_00: 7:50

So the smallest bike that Harley, other than the Buell, which is still Harley, but okay, so the smallest bike. Yeah. Okay, gotcha.

SPEAKER_01: 8:00

Yeah, so she got it. What year was this? It had to be 2012 or 2013, somewhere along there. Okay. So anyways, as that happened... And I said, well, okay, if this is a hobby we're going to do together, I'm going to go take the classes so I know how to ride. And so I signed up for a motorcycle class. And like I said, this was within a week or two weeks after. Wow.

SPEAKER_00: 8:28

One of the dealerships or how?

SPEAKER_01: 8:29

No, I went to, it was just a motorcycle school. Okay. Show up to that motorcycle school over the course of a weekend. It was like a Friday, Saturday thing.

SPEAKER_00: 8:39

Yeah,

SPEAKER_01: 8:40

pretty much. And, of course, all their bikes, I don't even remember what bikes they had, but you could pick it up with one hand. They're small. Yeah, you could pick them up with one hand. So I spent that weekend getting my license, then took her bike out a few times, and then said, well, if she wants to– essentially drive her motorcycle ride. Yeah. Or she wants, she wants to, she wants to ride, but she's not wanting to necessarily take the back seat either. I'm not taking the back seat. So it was like, okay, I need a bike. I need a bike now. Wow. So now within a month, I'm looking at, uh, some used Harleys. We go to a few dealerships. Um, I start leaning towards a V-Rod, uh,

SPEAKER_00: 9:33

Okay, yeah. I was leaning towards a V-Rod,

SPEAKER_01: 9:37

and only because it had the term rod in it is why I gravitated to it. Because your last name is Rodriguez. Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. So it's a very cheesy way of choosing a bike. But I went to a dealership, hopped on a V-Rod, and they had a... I'm trying to remember. They had two lines within the V-Rod. One was like a midnight or something like that. And then the other one is the general one. That's the more general one. But the midnight one is the one that I liked the most. They just didn't have a used one at the time.

SPEAKER_00: 10:15

Right.

SPEAKER_01: 10:16

And

SPEAKER_00: 10:17

they sound tinny. If I want to explain this, they sound like a Harley, but it's tinny. It's like you're in a can of tin. Yeah,

SPEAKER_01: 10:26

and they're essentially more a race bike. A V-Rod is more of a race bike, and they're cooled. They have their own coolant and stuff like that. So that's what sets them apart. And most of them are silver. The ones

SPEAKER_00: 10:40

that I saw were silver. They have that real kind of bigger tank. It's almost like a cap over the tank. Yeah, I had a small model of that. A V-Rod that I think my wife got me for Christmas one day after I'd gotten my bike. But go ahead. Go ahead with your story.

SPEAKER_01: 10:58

So anyways, I end up not purchasing a bike at the dealers. There was this, I'm trying to remember the motorcycle, but it was called a something night train. Do you know what I'm

SPEAKER_00: 11:12

talking about? Yeah, Harley Night Train. Yes. It's a soft

SPEAKER_01: 11:15

tail. I thought it was called something else. No, it's a Night Train. Night Train. Yeah. Those are awesome. But it was customized really nice. Now, the only downside to this Night Train that I didn't like is it was purple. And I'm not a fan of purple. Never. But it was almost like that black purple. So it was like, ah, could I get away with it? But it was customized the way that I would really like. Yeah. But anyways, I decided to just hold off. And later in that week... I looked at Craigslist and I saw this posting of this beautiful freaking bike. And a guy was selling this bike and said they just had the pictures. And I'm like, oh, my God, this is a beautiful bike. Like, I want to see this. I've never even really thought of purchasing from just a particular person as opposed to a dealership. I've always, even with general cards, I've always gravitated to I'm going to go to a dealership where something's bad on it. Maybe I could sue them or something like that. I don't know what it is. But anyways, we go out to this guy's house. He's got 10 Harleys in his garage. Nice. He's got them all racked up. He's got like an elevator lift that rolls up three or four of them on this lift. That was really cool. And he said, yeah, I had an agreement with my wife. I'm on blood thinners. And she's scared that one of these days I'm going to drop the bike and I'm going to bleed to death. And so I made an agreement with her. Yeah. He goes, I made an agreement with her that I would sell a couple of my bikes and get a trike. And he goes, I wasn't really leaning towards a trike, but check out my trike. And I go and check out this trike and it's got More features than a Cadillac times 10. Really nice. So anyways, he's like, that's why I'm selling this bike and this bike. And I was like, well, this particular bike is the one that I'm interested in. He's like, here, take the keys, go for a ride. And funny story on this, I go for that little test ride. I'm still a newbie to riding. It's a lot bigger now. Yeah. It's a lot bigger

SPEAKER_00: 13:30

than the Sportster. Yeah, it's a big old tire. I

SPEAKER_01: 13:33

go just literally around the block, and as I'm pulling to the stop sign, I don't remember what happened, but I dropped the freaking bike. Oh, no way. I dropped the freaking bike. Oh, my God. And this bike had zero scratches all throughout. He talked about, I oil after every ride. I oil every crevice, blah, blah, blah. And he's just talking about... how he keeps all his bikes in impeccable condition. And it looked that way. All his bikes looked like that. So I dropped the bike. I could see in the distance that he was talking to my ex-wife. And I'm like, oh, I got to pick this bike up before he sees me. Yeah. Did it turn off? Yes, it turned off. I was trying to pick up the bike manually. It was too heavy. Then I remembered from motorcycle school that This is how you pick up a motorcycle. Turn around and then lift back. And that's how I picked it up. So I pick it up. I picked it up. My heart's pounding. He's still not paying attention. And I see I left a nice little scratch in the pipe. And I'm like, I still really like the bike, but now I'm scared.

SPEAKER_00: 14:47

It fell to your right.

SPEAKER_01: 14:48

Yeah. Now I'm scared like crazy. is this bike just too big for me? Like it even felt like I couldn't reach the pedals. It was almost like as a kid where you go from the, from that little bike and then you get the upgrade and now you kind of have to reach a little bit more. And it just, I was just really scared from that point. So I didn't really dry. I didn't really do much of a test ride, but I go to his house and I'm like feeling obligated. Now I, I, I, better buy this bike maybe i'll just sell it maybe i'll just immediately turn around and sell it myself i felt like an idiot i'm scared and i said yeah i'll take it so um i go is that the reason you took it or you just no i i love the bike was beautiful to me uh but anyways i i go get the check all that other stuff and now i have to take it from the north side of san antonio As fearful as I was just driving around the block, and I have to take it from far north central San Antonio all the way to my house over almost nearly southwest San Antonio. And did that ride, just my heart pounding the whole time saying, just stay straight. Don't do anything drastic. Just get it to the house and park it. Were the pedals forward to a straight leg or mid? They were forward but not fully extended on the straight leg. Not fully extended. In my mind, they were. In my mind, it was like, man, I'm too short. I'm too short

SPEAKER_00: 16:20

for this

SPEAKER_01: 16:21

bike

SPEAKER_00: 16:21

is what I was doing. Mine are made right below my feet. But yeah, but go ahead.

SPEAKER_01: 16:28

So yes, I get to my house. I then end up telling my ex like, hey, this happened. She's like, really? And I said, yeah, you see the scratch? That was me. And I just felt really scared to ride my bike for about that first month. And then I got on it again, just kept riding and discovered how comfortable it is. Not necessarily for long runs, but it was comfortable.

SPEAKER_00: 16:53

It's an editor process, right? The more you ride, the more you get comfortable with it. Case in point, like if you get your bike and it turns winter, you kind of don't ride it as much. The first time you take it out in the spring... you kind of have to get back into the two controls, the brakes, the gears, before you kind of start leaning right into it.

SPEAKER_01: 17:19

Yeah, and the big difference, too, is what I practiced in, Like I mentioned earlier. Yeah, it's a small bike. Yeah, I could stop with my foot just like I did with my bicycle. You stuck your front foot in a front tire. Exactly, exactly. And so now this bike is a lot heavier, but I'm learning. So to kind of end the story on how I got there, ultimately what I got was a 2009 Honda. harley rocker c now they they made this motorcycle for only five years and it was during the it was around that time period that the uh what was that show uh the occ or the american choppers or whatever i want to say that's what inspired the bike uh the chopper style was coming into into fashion and uh harley said we want to mass produce a chopper style motorcycle and they came up with the harley rocker c now what the the particular guy did to this motorcycle is beyond the stock so my my front my front wheel is a custom wheel my back wheel is a custom wheel uh um

SPEAKER_00: 18:31

yeah it's a it's a big old tire in the back yeah a big big fat and the forks are long they're kind of rigged out a little bit

SPEAKER_01: 18:37

more so it kind of looks like an american chopper style if if those of you that don't necessarily know what it is if you If you've seen an American Chopper episode, it's kind of like that style is what it looks like. So the customizations are there. Everything was there. And to this day, I think my bike is beautiful.

SPEAKER_00: 19:00

No, it's really nice. It has a great paint job. It does have a unique style. You don't see those a lot. I think I've seen a couple in a row, but you just don't see that particular style. out on the road. Okay, so that's what got you interested and you told us how you got your license. You told us why you picked that particular one and how you decided on it. I guess I'll tell you my story. So you started in your mid thirties, right? Mid thirties,

SPEAKER_01: 19:35

midlife crisis.

SPEAKER_00: 19:37

I can tell you. The first quarter. I can tell you when I wanted a bike. And I was five years old. My mom gave me like a spiral notebook and had a motorcycle on the cover. And I was like, what is that? And I want one. And that's when it started. I can trace it back to that moment. I wanted a motorcycle ever since then. I was probably like five years old, six years old maybe. And then, of course, you know, we were talking before we started recording. And I've said this before, you know, I listen to metal, heavy metal music since I was probably like seven, eight. And so heavy metal culture is kind of close to motorcycle culture. You wear the leather. I had a motorcycle jacket when I was in when I bought it when I was 14 years old. Assless chaps. Yeah, I had the chaps. Actually, I did buy some, but I had the long hair, the skulls. I had a blue jean vest, you know, with the patches. Now, I mean, they retroactively started calling them battle vests, but at the time. I didn't, I hadn't heard that. At the time when we wore them, I had one, my brother had one. You just wore this vest that had patches of the different bands. Now, motorcycle culture, they have their, motorcycle club and they have their club stuff on it. We had just motors. We had a band, heavy metal band patches, which were, you know, I had mine had Iron Maiden, my brother had Metallica or whatever, and we'd wear them to concerts and that's just kind of where I'm the school. So I, I kind of heavy metal culture is kind of akin to motorcycle culture. I, when I was probably like 12, I bought a, um, a poster of a motorcycle and, And it was a Deuce. It's a soft tail motorcycle. And it was right over the bed. So when you went to sleep, you're looking up at a motorcycle. And I said, the same thing as you, because when you find out how much they are, you're like, damn, I'm going to have to do something. And I wanted one. So I've wanted one since I was a kid. After I graduated from college, you know, I'm in civil engineering and we have to take an exam to become a professional engineer with a, with a stamp, right? You become a PE professional engineer. Usually when you get your PE, you do get some form of a raise, right? It just, it just comes with it because now you're a professional. They, they get to, the company gets to bill you as a PE. Yep. And so now they get your stamps worth some money now. So I'll tell my wife, I said, when I passed the PE exam, I'm getting a bike. No questions asked. That's what I'm doing. She's like, okay. So this was around, I passed the exam. I think it was like 2004. And I went and got a bike, right? I had already researched bikes. If you know me, you know I do extensive research on anything I buy that's worthwhile. And I had been doing, you know, all kinds of research. Not just on Harley too. Because I was like, do I want a Harley? My inner self, my 13-year-old self says yes. But my practical self, I think I was, what, almost 30 at the time? Yeah, something like that. Or a little over 30. When I was doing research, I was kind of in that age range. I said, well, my practical self knows that Harley's come up with a lot of issues. There's the oil pan leaks. There's a lot more maintenance. And then you're like, okay, well, let me look at Yamaha's. And I looked at Yamahas. And then I also remember Indian. You know, Indian bikes look so cool. So let me look at those. Then I started just kind of going back and forth. And I finally, after all my research, it looked like the Yamaha V-Star was the best motorcycle at that time. Very low maintenance. You know, it's a very good motorcycle. And so I go to Alamo City Cycleplex, right? And they had one there and I sit on it. And I was like, okay, yeah. And then that 14-year-old, right, was like, what are you doing? What are you doing? And, you know, I think, who is it? Cat Williams says this. He says, you know, what is it? What is that car? The Chrysler 3000 looks like a Phantom until a Phantom pulls up. And you're like, man, I don't even want to be on the street. Then you turn. So then I pictured myself on this Yamaha V star pulling up to a light and a Harley pulls up what I still feel. And there's no freaking way you feel at that level.

SPEAKER_01: 24:41

Yeah. I, I, I think, I believe I had without that definitiveness that you had that I think was my barrier. Yeah. Like if I'm going to spend money on a bike, whenever it's not like, the first thing that I want to do when I wake up naturally, it's gotta be the right bike.

SPEAKER_00: 25:03

It's gotta be,

SPEAKER_01: 25:04

it's, it's, it's gotta be, it's gotta feel, it's gotta be the thing that attracted me to even have that desire.

SPEAKER_00: 25:11

Yeah. Uh, to, to, to do it. Yeah. My practical mind, my, my, uh, analytical, I guess that says everything checks out that it needs to be this bike, but my love for that sound, my love for a Harley Davidson would not let me, Forget that. And my 14-year-old self would have been upset with me if I finally had the opportunity. You kind of make a pact with yourself, right? My sister and I did this with the Cowboys fan. And my sister and I was like, man, if we ever get enough money, we're going to be season ticket holders. I don't care what it takes. And my sister and I looked in each other's eyes. We're going to do it. And we were probably around the same age, 10, 11, 12, 13. And we finally did. And when you do it, when you make that type of decision, when you finally do it, you don't force it. Yeah. Yeah. You feel good. You're like, man, I finally did something. So that was the same thing with the bike. And so I get off this bike, I set it down and the guy's like, Hey, do you want to? I was like, Nope, I'm out. And I just walked right out, went, drove to the heart. And I said, okay, we're ready. Let's go. And, and that's how it happened. Like, you know, it, I, I went to, um, Hardy Davidson, um, And I was looking for a particular bike. I wanted a Dyna Superglide, which is a step up over the Sportster. It has the same engine that the bigger bikes have, but it's not as bulky as the bigger bikes. You know, it's a V2N engine. And that's what I wanted. And then you get into the logistics of it, right? Well, you know, if you order it now, you may be able to get it in like three or four months. And I'm like, man, I was like, I finally made the decision. I finally know what I want. I want it now. And so he goes, well, you have to pay for shipping. You have to pay for this. You have to pay for that. Oh, I said, okay. And he goes, or, you know, you could, we have used bikes over here. So if you want to, you can take a look at them. And I said, okay. So I started looking at the used bikes and I found my bike. That was a year, less than a year old. The guy that bought it, bought it and then rode it around and then wanted a bigger one. So then I ended up with a 2003 Dyna Superglide. It's called an FXD. And I bought it about 2000, I want to say it was like 2004 because it was less than a year old. And with the bike came the riding lessons. So you just got them free. I think it's not that much. It's like$400,$300. Yeah,

SPEAKER_01: 27:54

they're making that money on that bike anyway.

SPEAKER_00: 27:57

Oh, yeah, no, no. So they're like, hey, if you don't have a license and you want to get one, buy the bike, and then we'll give you the license for free. And I had to go to another Harley dealership. And they did the same thing. It was like a small Buell bike that you practice on. And it was funny that... Saturday, we went Friday night and Saturday it rained all day. And then they were like, well, you weren't expecting rain, but we'll give you like 30, 40% off on any rain gear. So ended up buying pants and a jacket, you know, because you, if not, then you're sitting there in the rain. He goes, we're not stopping this class. You're going to encounter rain. So we're going to do all these obstacles in the rain.

SPEAKER_01: 28:40

Now, I think it would be that I want you to continue your story, but I think it'd be, um, interesting for those that haven't ridden to understand how rain feels. Cause I think it's a very unique experience whenever it starts raining and you're exposed on a motorcycle, uh, to those elements.

SPEAKER_00: 29:00

It is, um, I will say this, have both helmets, right? Have a full face helmet and have a half shell. Because if you don't wear a full face helmet in the, in the rain, it, hurts people call me a B or whatever but it hurts now I wear a helmet every time I ride that's just safety first right I know it looks cool without one and I want to you know I'd love to do that but the stuff that you encounter on the road rain being one of them now What I did originally is I didn't wear any kind of face mask or anything like that, but I did get caught in the rain a couple of times. And now if I go out, I either wear a face mask, like a bandana wrapped around my face. I have the little neoprene face mask, shades, or even clear glasses, and either the half shell or the full. And I have both. They're bulky and all that, and I get it. But getting up behind the dump truck and you have rocks flown at you, bugs that hit you in the face. Texas bugs. Texas bugs that are huge. So, yeah. No, it's everything. And so I was, you know, I was happy afterwards that we did it in the rain, that we rode around in the rain. Yeah, because it exposed you to that. Yeah. Get it out of the way earlier. Your bike slides all over the place in the rain. You know, I rode home. at like 2 a.m. one time, and it was pouring down raining, and I was on the highway. And it's even worse because you don't have windshield wipers on your shades. So you have to wipe them. I mean, I was wearing boots. I wear riding boots. And water was in my boot. That's how much it was raining to where it was seeping through my jeans and into my boot. I finally got smart, and I was like, why am I still on the highway? Let me just take the freaking– Apprentice Road, right? But I was like, I was trying to get home as soon as possible. And what happens, the faster you ride, the more you get wet. Because now you're hitting those raindrops a lot faster. It's physics, guys. I figured it out by math. But yeah, that's one of the things. And we can get to that. But that's how I decided on that particular bike. Now... Say your bike once again for everybody. 2003 Dyna Superglide.

SPEAKER_01: 31:37

Now, when you got that bike, that was right around the same time that Sons of Anarchy came out?

SPEAKER_00: 31:43

Afterwards. I think Sons of Anarchy came out in 2008. So you got the bike after? I'd like to make a proclamation right now that I got the bike before Sons of Anarchy. Okay, before. But, yeah, if you watch Sons of Anarchy, Jax Teller, the main character... And his friend, Opie, and pretty much all the other guys ride Dynas. And they don't make them anymore. Like, for some odd reason. Well, I know why. Money. But Harley discontinued that line. And I love that bike. You know, it's a sleek, sporty bike. It has the same, you know, it's a V-twin, all that stuff. But it's just, it doesn't have the huge front end like the other big bikes. which I didn't like. I didn't want a bulky bike. I wanted something that you could handle. I mean, it's, it's an 88 cubic inch bike. It's about 70 horsepower. I mean, it's plenty fast and because it's, it's lighter and it's faster, right? Yep.

SPEAKER_01: 32:48

Those are the bikes that typically when you go to motorcycle shows and they're doing tricks. Yes. They're on dinos.

SPEAKER_00: 32:54

Absolutely. And they, Oh, I take that back. Like, If you watch Sons of Anarchy, Texas actually does an FXDX, which is the Harley T-Sport. It's kind of the level up. It has a little bit more racing modifications to it. I want to say Sons of Anarchy came out in 2008. So what I was telling David, I said, when you get a bike, right, when you start riding Harleys, and I've wanted a bike forever, you don't want to be a gatekeeper in no way, but you do want to, you do feel a little bit like somebody's encroaching in your realm. When Sons of Anarchy came out, you started seeing those bikes everywhere. And it's like, damn it, my bike was unique, but now my bike looks like one of those bikes. And so I do have a fairing on it, and the fairing does help. It's not just for looks. It does help because before the fairing, you felt that wind in your chest. And I had drag bars just like they have them on the show, but I had them before. And you are holding on to those things. And then you get this fairing, and it just pushes the air over you. And you're not just...

SPEAKER_01: 34:21

It makes a big difference. Mine doesn't have anything like that. I think my bike would look ugly with one, which is why I just won't even bother. Yeah. But I know it makes a significant difference because even just from the wind standpoint, if I go on a long ride and I haven't ridden for, let's say, a month, my neck's going to be all... It's going to go through a workout

SPEAKER_00: 34:47

on that ride. I know I've ridden behind an 18-wheeler, right? And then 18-wheelers are good because sometimes they block the sun, and so you can just ride in the shade for a little bit, and you can just draft off of them. But then sometimes you're like, you know what? Screw this. Let me get past this mug. And then you try to pass them, and that wind hits you because they're blocking the wind too, and it pushes your bike. Oh, yeah. So there's certain things that, that, that you have to be. And we do want to give you some kind of some tips about when you ride the things to look out for. But anyway, that's how I decided on that bike, that particular bike. Now here recently I've had, well, I have that bike over about 20 years now and I've, you know, kind of done all kinds of modifications on it. Not anything crazy, but it definitely looks a lot different than it did originally because I've changed everything from adding the fairing to changing the turn signals, all four of them. Sissy Bar took that off. The headlight, it had the old style headlight. I put an LED headlight, you know, because the old headlight is not that bright. And when you ride in the dark, and especially where I live, there's deer everywhere. You want to be able to see that stuff. So is there anything as far as, or modifications that you've done to your bike that you would say, man, you probably need these.

SPEAKER_01: 36:15

Yeah, definitely the headlight from a need. But I'm going to say this is a need, even though in reality it's not. And that is, to me, it's got to have your signature on it. Yes. And so like mine, my mechanic is the one that actually gave me the idea. But as I was talking with him, I said... He was just asking things about me, and we breached the topic that I was in a fraternity and did stuff with our alumni association, blah, blah, blah.

SPEAKER_00: 36:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 36:50

And he said, oh, you know what would be really cool is if you had your letters or something about you guys on your bike. Yes. yeah, that'd be really cool. I would just want it to look nice. And my motorcycle had a custom plate extension. So instead of it just sitting on the very back fender, there was an extension made where it kicked out on that left side of the bike. And he goes, you know what would be really cool is if you could change out this extender and you could put your letters on here. And I was like, Huh? I don't know if it'd be, if it looked good. And he goes, I think it looked really good. And I said, okay, well give it a shot. Give it a shot. Let's do it. And so he, uh, he welded out, uh, our letters and then he, uh, what is it? Uh, where they, they paint it in the, not that powder, powder, powder coat, powder coat. Yeah. He powder coated, uh, paint the letters red, uh, And then he put that as my extension bar for that license plate holder. And I was like, yes, this is cool.

SPEAKER_00: 38:04

So was it really you or was it him?

SPEAKER_01: 38:07

It was me talking about wanting to do something that had my signature on it, essentially. Or had something of me on it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 38:17

I do that with all my vehicles. You know, I drive a Chevy Trail Boss and I've done... so many changes that if you just look at it, it doesn't look like much, but I can tell you, I've switched out the, the rear, the rear brake lights. You know, I've turned them to led, the turn signals, the front led, which is what I did on the bike. I added a fairing. I added led turn signals that are on the handlebars as opposed to the little lights on the bottom. I took those off. Um, the rear brake light has the turn signals and I took the turn signals off. Um, The pedals, they look almost like motocross pedals. They have little spikes sticking out. It's just different stuff like that. You need to make it. Well, you don't need to, but it's fun to make it your own, to make it not look... Because you want your bike to be unique. Absolutely. And it has to be you. It has to scream you, right? And so I've done so much to it that when you look at it, it's just like a regular bike. But somebody that... we'll see, ah, you changed this, you changed that. You've added this, you've taken this away. Like I wanted mine streamlined. So anything that stuck out, I got rid of it. You know, like, like for example, the, the rear brake lights, I mean the rear turn signals and that type of stuff. So modifications are always, I mean, you can do whatever little, little things like changing out your lights. I did change out the headlights, like I said, to an led, but it's, you have mods that are, you know, you can go to Amazon and just order all kinds of stuff, or you can go to the actual retailers. You're going to pay a little bit more, but it's always fun. It's fun to do it. And especially if you do it yourself, all the stuff that I've done on my bike, I've done myself. YouTube is your friend. You know, I like the kid that said, I'm a, I'm a YouTube master mechanic. If it's on YouTube, I'll have to watch that thing probably a good 20 times. And then I'll, I'll get geared up to do it. But yeah, It is fun to make your bike you. Now, here recently, my bike is like a gunmetal blue. It's kind of like a pearl. It kind of shimmers and stuff. Kind of like yours. Yours is red. And it kind of is like glittery sometimes. Like the sun hits it right. It's got that pearl or whatever it's called. Man, I've been sitting here thinking the past couple of months. I'm like, I'm just going to paint it a glossy black. I just want it to just go black. Quick story. My neighbor across the street, we're talking, and he's like, hey, how many of you have a bike? I was like, yes, sir. And he's going to go look at it. I was like, yeah, come do whatever you want. So he comes over, and he's like, I'm thinking about getting a bike. I was like, okay, do it. Anybody that tells me I'm thinking about getting a bike, I'm like, do it. Get rid of that itch. Do it. You'll love it. And if you don't, you can get rid of the bike. No big deal. So anyway, he comes over, and he's like, man, I love chrome. And I was like, you know what, man? I said... I used to love chrome and then when I got my bike, I just wanted everything matte black. The Nitron actually is one of the first bikes that I saw that was all black. And then something happened in the late 2000s, maybe it was with Sons of Anarchy, but then everything turned black. Like every bike you saw out there was all matte black. And I'm like, what the, like you didn't, the reason I didn't want chrome and all that because I wanted something different was was to have it a matte black. And now that everything's matte black, now I'm like, man, that's kind of encroaching in my realm. So anyway, I was telling my neighbor, I was like, I kind of want, if I were to do it, I'd get one that's all matte black, everything black. And he's like, oh, okay. I was like, man, I don't know about that. I think I like chrome. I was like, hey, choose whatever you want to do. But if you really are thinking about it, do it. So anyway, calls me a couple months later. He's like, hey, come outside. I was like, cool. And he starts opening this garage. And the garage starts slowly coming up. And the bike that he had was all matte black. Because I wanted you to see it. I was like, are you sorry, son of a gun? I was like, man, this is it. This is the bike right here. And it looked really good. If everybody that's a Marvel fan, it's basically the bike that Captain America is riding. at the end of, I believe it's, what movie is that? I can't think of it. But he's riding a motorcycle at the end. That's the same one, because that's the year that one came out. And he, man, it looks so good. And this guy was a retired military guy, was a pilot, and he freaking decked it out. Vans and Heinz, you know, mufflers, He had everything that I basically told the dealership. I want this, this, and this, and this changed. I'll be back in a couple of weeks. I want all that stuff done. Nice. It was such a good bike. We'd go out on rides. He'd just call me on Sunday. Hey, let's go. If we leave now, we can be back by dinner. I was like, done. And I had to ride to his left because if I rode on his right, I couldn't even hear my bike to switch gears. I know. It was loud, man. It sounded so good. But anyway, yeah, that was my neighbor. He kind of stole my idea.

SPEAKER_01: 43:44

So, you know, speaking of that, if you had to switch bikes or if you wanted to switch bikes, what would you switch to? If I were to buy a brand new bike now? Yeah, well, let's say whether it was brand new or used or whatever. I'd stick with Dynas. Dynas?

SPEAKER_00: 44:02

Yeah. I like that bike. I love it. The... The look of it is what was in my head as a kid. Like if I drew a motorcycle, it's basically what my bike looks like. And for those that don't know, the Dynas, the shocks are on the outside. It kind of looks like a sports chair because the shocks are on the outside, but it's bigger. It's a bigger bike.

SPEAKER_02: 44:32

Yep.

SPEAKER_00: 44:32

Um, your soft tails, the, the, the shocks are underneath the seat, so you don't see them. So it's a sleeker look. Um, but I just, you know, I kind of thought they were, I didn't, they look cool. Don't get me wrong. Most of the hardies look really nice, but I kind of settled on dying. And that's kind of what, what I want. I have looked at the, uh, the new Indians, uh, I don't know if you've seen them, but they look kind of like a Dyna. I think Indian looked at Hardy no longer producing Dynas, and they said, you know what, there's a market here for

SPEAKER_01: 45:14

a Dyna. Especially if you're going on motorcycle shows and they're doing tricks and all that kind of stuff in that particular bike. You know there's going to be a subset of people there that are going to gravitate specifically for that reason.

SPEAKER_00: 45:31

Yeah, and if y'all want to look it up, it's called the Sport Chief, and it's an Indian. And if you pull it up, it basically looks like a Dyna bike. It has the shocks on the outside. It has a little fairing on it, and it has basically all the modifications you would do to a Dyna. with the mid controls, which the controls are like right below you as opposed to forward controls that are like, if you, if you look at old Harley videos and people that are in clubs, you know, the other feet kind of in front of them with their legs stretched out, those are forward controls. I couldn't do that. Yeah. I feel like I'd lose control like that. And, but the sport chief Indian, I was like, man, man, No, they're expensive. They're like a good 20 grand minimum.

SPEAKER_01: 46:23

Yeah, so this has already been years ago, but I had already had my motorcycle, but I stopped at one of the Indian dealerships. I love going there, yeah. And this was after, who was the big, was it Kawasaki that bought them? Or Polestar? Yeah. Or Polaris. Yes. Polaris, I believe, owns Indian, and they're the kind of, Save the brand because it kept going into bankruptcy and then getting out and then going back right into bankruptcy. But they purchased it. And whenever they purchased it, they had the money to spend to make it right. And one of the big things that they did that was a bit of a trip, especially being on a Harley and then going and filling that, was it had zero vibration. Whatever they did to hold or absorb the vibration of the engine on that particular bike, was crazy because it was like there's no vibration. Like, yes, you're getting the sound because they have the aftermarket pipes and everything on it. But at the same time, it's like it's not vibrating. It's just

SPEAKER_00: 47:30

smooth. You're like, I want the vibration.

SPEAKER_01: 47:32

Yeah. It was a little different. But I thought it was really cool. I kind of don't know that I particularly like that it's owned by Polaris. Yeah. But I understand Polaris. I understand the reasoning, but at the same, you know, this is a American iconic brand. Yeah. And whenever, whenever it's just being brought up by a mass producer, it's right. It loses, it loses a little bit of allure allure.

SPEAKER_00: 47:59

Yeah. So, so the, the other types of bikes that I know my little brother and I were talking about it and he said, man, your bike's fine. You know, he's your brother. So they're, they're never really going to, give you compliments about anything, right? He says, your bike's okay. But the bike I really like, if you're back to Sons of Anarchy, he goes, there's also the opposing club, which is the Mayans. It is the Mayans bikes. I love the Mayans bike. That's me. They would look so good. And I was like, I agree with you. Those bikes look awesome. They're heritage soft tails with the bigger bikes with the raised handlebars. I

SPEAKER_01: 48:40

love the front fenders, how it kind of wraps around that tire. Yes. And has that classic look. So I gravitate to, even though I've, well, I guess I technically had a lowrider because I did make my Mustang one, but not true lowrider. But anyway, that lowrider style motorcycle. It looks badass. I love it. And so the Mayans is more of where I lean the heritage, uh, uh, specifically, uh, the other, the other bike that I would get is this, uh, is the road glide, but it needs to have bigger. It needs to have the, the, uh, what are those back things called? Uh, uh, where the, your storage space, the, the, uh, what are those? Those are saddlebags. Well, they're saddlebags, but I thought they had a particular name to them. But, you know, they sit on the back and I just, I like the way, the way it looks on that bike. It just, it looks, I don't know. They're

SPEAKER_00: 49:41

just huge, man.

SPEAKER_01: 49:43

They are. I would probably be intimidated, but I also would lean

SPEAKER_00: 49:49

back into. But I heard that they're so comfortable. Yes. Like my bike is not geared for. Long runs. Like, you know, those are touring bikes, right? Those you're talking about. Yep. My bike is geared for kind of everyday type, not a long ride. Now, have I taken them on a... I've taken it on about a three-hour ride, and I didn't have a problem with it. A three-hour tour. Yeah, I was younger then. Don't get me wrong. I was younger. This is probably like 15, 16 years ago. But those... I think the biggest I would go is probably one of those Mayan motorcycle bikes. Heritage. They look... They're big. but they're also kind of not as big as some of the bigger bikes that Harley has. They look cool. I don't know how much I would like with ape hangers, as tall as they are, like 14 inches. Yeah,

SPEAKER_01: 50:46

and you know what's funny with the ape hangers? I've sat in some display bikes and put my hands up, but for long periods of time, I hear it's better. Really? So your arms don't fall asleep. Depending on how high they are. Yeah, that's the thing that comes to mind for me. Would my arms fall asleep? Because my hands already go numb with my current bike. So I know I have to wear gloves, and it kind of helps that.

SPEAKER_00: 51:15

You should always wear gloves, though, sir.

SPEAKER_01: 51:17

Yeah, I don't always wear gloves. Now, my bike, similar to yours, it's not necessarily meant for these long rides. You should wear gloves all the time.

SPEAKER_00: 51:44

but not continuously. This ride was a three-hour continuous. Yeah, I've done that, but you're

SPEAKER_01: 51:51

going to run out of gas.

SPEAKER_00: 51:52

Yeah, your hands do feel a little. Yeah, they start

SPEAKER_01: 51:54

getting numb or whatever, and it's weird. It just happens that way.

SPEAKER_00: 52:00

So we were talking about particular types of bikes, but then maintenance. If we want to get back into why you picked that bike. Expensive. Yeah. What do you do as far as maintenance for your bike? Like, is there a routine you have? Is it every six months? Is it every three months? Is it every time you ride it? What do you do specifically to keep your bike running? Well, you know, a whale doll machine, I guess.

SPEAKER_01: 52:28

I think with, with me, it's, it's just your, what you do. Which you should be doing with any vehicle that runs on engine oil or, I'm sorry, on gas, but leverages oil. Right. You want to check those levels, look at that kind of stuff. I'm not a mechanic. obviously by trade, but also I'm a novice whenever it comes to getting in depth, but it's just overall looking at the bike, seeing things or noticing sounds.

SPEAKER_00: 52:53

But that's the question. How often do you get it? Do you change the oil? Yeah. So, uh, does it cost you?

SPEAKER_01: 52:58

It, it, it depends on how much I'm writing, but, uh, I just did, uh, this summer I did the engine overhaul or where the, the full maintenance stuff. So draining all the, all the different oils and, and such, uh, getting that done. That runs about 400 bucks for all that. I just had my tires replaced. My tires had a lot of thread, but they were old tires. And so the mechanic said, hey, FYI, you have some old tires here. They have plenty of thread, but at the same time... How much did you pay for that? I paid almost the

SPEAKER_02: 53:39

same...

SPEAKER_01: 53:40

I paid about$200 less than I paid for a set of four tires on my Ram pickup. Wow. So you're talking about$1,200? I paid all in with the changing of the tires and stuff about$900. For my set of four tires on my Ram pickup, it was$1,200. I paid$1,450

SPEAKER_00: 54:02

for mine.

SPEAKER_01: 54:05

Yeah. I could not believe how expensive... And I picked up my tires... Cheaper than what I was anticipating to pay. But then I was like, oh, now I wonder how much I'm going to be charged for them to switch out the tire. And unfortunately for me, my particular bike is a B to change the back tire. And so that was$280 just to

SPEAKER_00: 54:33

change out the two tires. So then I got up pretty clean, Nick, because I think I spent$700 less on... switched out both tires on my bike yeah um it was total like tire balance uh replacing it putting it back um it was seven hundred dollars period

SPEAKER_01: 54:52

yeah

SPEAKER_00: 54:52

and even now i was bitching because i mean that's a lot of money but yeah but i needed tires because and then when you get tires oh my god you feel that bike grip the damn pavement so much because you you get used to um riding on slick tires sometimes that when, when you, I was like, Oh my, I can lean this thing about as far over as possible. Like it felt so good to ride on brand new tires. But like I said, mine was a little bit, a little bit cheaper just cause it's an, it's not a, it's not a, what do you call it? It's a regular bike, not a, you know, kind of a custom bike like you have. For me, like oil changes, I'll do them. you know, maybe a couple of times a year, depending on how much I ride. But for me, for an oil change is about$80. Cause that's how much oil, um, the filter and in any kind of the little, I

SPEAKER_01: 55:48

know if I did it cause you have the benefit of being able to know how to do it yourself. Right. Um, I know with that$400 that I'm talking about, it's also all the lines. So the brake lines and everything, they bleed all that out. Okay. They, uh, do that type of stuff to it. They oil all the chains up. There's other stuff that they're doing within that$400. But it's expensive. And overall, I think when you're not riding, of course, you're still paying insurance on that dang thing. And it's just sitting in your garage or whatever.

SPEAKER_00: 56:22

I've done the brakes. And I've bled the brakes. And I've replaced the brake fluid. The only thing I haven't tackled... is the fluid that goes into your front forks. Because you have to take out basically that whole entire front end. There's a bolt on top, you take that out. And I don't think, yeah. There's a meme where it has... Matthew McConaughey that looks like Jesus Christ and he's smoking a cigarette. He's like looking real worried. You know what?

SPEAKER_01: 56:56

I know what meme you're talking about. I didn't realize it's Matthew McConaughey.

SPEAKER_00: 57:00

It looks like him. I think it is, yeah. And I posted that before. It goes, this is God looking at me because I've done all my maintenance on my motorcycle. They're like, man, this guy doesn't know. He's a death around the corner. So maintenance is a little expensive, especially because you have to go take it to somewhere. And minimum, I think the cheapest I've seen it is$80 an hour to work on it. Harley will charge you anywhere between 100 to 120. So if you take it to a dealership, you are going to get a little bit more like as assurance, but you're going to pay for it. Now, I used to have a guy up the street. He had a cool name for his garage. It was called Bucketheads. And I have Bucketheads, koozies, and all kinds of stuff. Because he's like, oh, here, grab some koozies. Because I would take my bike there to get anything that went wrong with it. Until I started figuring out, I mean, I can do some of this stuff myself. But they shut down. And so now, that's why I asked you for your guy. I was like, man, because I need them to check something. And I don't have the time to do it right now. And I'd rather just take it somewhere, have them fix it, and then just come pick it up. I think I know what it is. But it's going to take me to kind of take everything out of the gas tank. Yeah. Because it has to do with like a fuel filter or like a fuel pump-ish type thing. Because it starts and everything's fine when you give it gas. But if you don't give it gas, there's something with the fuel system. Start coughing out

SPEAKER_01: 58:33

blood.

SPEAKER_00: 58:34

Yeah. So maintenance is, I

SPEAKER_01: 58:37

mean... It is a pain, but I think, and I know we're deep into our conversation here. I knew it was going to happen. I think at the end of the day, though, yes, you are putting in money. And if it's not going to be a Harley, I think it's, if you're curious about riding a motorcycle, the experience on the bike is crazy. so worthwhile. It's awesome. It's amazing. The way I tell people, the reason it feels so exhilarating is because it's activating all of your senses. It's America, Jack. Every single one of your senses is is being activated in a motorcycle ride, you see things that you would never see in a car. Even if you were in a convertible top or whatever with the top down, you see things because you have so much more view whenever you're on a motorcycle. You're kind of exposed to the world a bit more. You see the cracks on the pavement. You get tunnel vision sometimes. I remember seeing a tarantula walking across the highway. I'm going to have recorded it because I know I've never in my life have I seen something like that and I'm just doing a curve so it's only like I'm maybe going 20 miles an hour at that on that Twisted Sisters and to my left there's just all the big hill country just opens up beautiful and then I see a tarantula about the size of my hand just walking across the street like nothing and that was just So amazing. But your scent or the different smells that come in. Yes, there is. If you get behind a dump truck or something like that, there's the unpleasant

SPEAKER_00: 1:00:25

smell. You're going to smell like gas when you get off that.

SPEAKER_01: 1:00:29

But you smell that fresh air coming in. And the other thing that's really tripped out is you could be you can be riding and you're just, let's say, on a straight highway. It'll be warm air. Let's say you're riding in the summer. And then just for a split second, there's like this burst of cold air. And it's like, where did it come from? In some cases, it can correlate to, oh, I'm about to pass a stream. But in other cases, you don't have it. So it engages every one of your senses. And that is what I think takes it to a different level of than the other types of hobbies and things that I enjoy doing. I think that's what elevates that riding a motorcycle experience does to me.

SPEAKER_00: 1:01:17

Absolutely. I don't think it's something that I've ever regretted getting. So when I, some people do call me and ask me, you know, Hey, I'm thinking about doing, I always say, do it now. Have I gotten into an accident? Yes, I did get into, I dropped a bike. basically less than a year into having it, which is usually when it's going to happen. And it was at, it was raining. I had gone to, I drove, you know, I rode it to work and then I went to go get my haircut. And then I'm riding home. It's probably like a Thursday. It was like a really uneventful day. And I get on the bike and I'm riding home and it starts raining. And this is the dumb part of what I did because I just hadn't gotten my haircut. I didn't want to put my helmet on because I didn't want hair in my helmet. But it started raining. So then I pulled over and I got under an overpass and I put my helmet back on, right? So I was smart with that. But then what I did, I was like, you know what? I need gas anyway. It's raining. It started raining really, really hard. And I said, you know what? I'm just going to stop by the gas stations right up the street. And... What happens with gas stations when it rains is that there's gas everywhere and it's slippery. And so as I go to turn into the gas station, my back tire swings around and I drop it one way and I slide for a good, you know, 10

SPEAKER_02: 1:02:47

yards.

SPEAKER_00: 1:02:48

And, you know, I get up and I pick up the bike and I can't get any leverage because my boots are slipping. So I start walking slowly, right? Trying to push the bike. And yeah, I called my wife and I told her I'm fine, but this is what happened. Which gets into kind of what you need to look out for. I think David and I were talking and I was like, I get cut off. You're gonna get cut off. That's just the way it is. Is there any tips that you wanna give the listeners that will think about getting a bike that they need to look out for when they're riding. I'll look to, we'll go through some statistics. I pulled up some statistics about accidents and motorcycles. Cause inevitably when you get a bike, when you think about getting a bike, you are going to get videos about people, you know, getting into accidents. Cause I know I did and people are going to try to talk you out of it. And I'm going to ease your mind a little bit. If you're concerned at about 70%, I'll get you to a 65 about some of these accidents, but, Do you have any tips?

SPEAKER_01: 1:03:50

Yeah, I think the biggest thing is you have to be– remember, all your senses are engaged, and you need every one of those senses when you're writing. You need to be aware of what's going on around you. You need to be aware of what's in front of you. You need to be aware that– the other person may or may not be thinking they may or may not be on their phone. They may or may not be arguing with somebody got laid off. Yeah. They may be going through all. So whenever you're, you've gone through defensive driving where they essentially, the reason why it's called defensive driving is you got to be on the defense. Yeah. So you just have to be aware of all those situations and therefore it requires you to pay attention. Now the, the, the good part in that is you don't, generally will pay attention because once again you're all your senses are engaged when you're riding it's not like oh let me check my phone i'm kind of bored here is there you're moving

SPEAKER_00: 1:04:50

is there a particular lane you

SPEAKER_01: 1:04:51

ride in i'm going to tell you the lane i ride i i ride in i ride in the in the fast lane uh because of the shoulder absolutely so i try to i try to do shoulder

SPEAKER_00: 1:05:01

the far left lane because you have the middle or the median i guess not the median but there's between that lane and the concrete barriers, there's a space to where if you get cut off, you just roll into that one. I never try to ride in the middle lane because that's dangerous for a motorcyclist. So either ride in the far left lane or the far right lane. Because you have a way out and you will get cut off. Don't ride in people's blind spots, just like in a car. Now, my bike has a horn. But it's a very like, it's like a, it's not terrible. Yeah, mine's pretty cheesy too. And so horn doesn't work. And because you're such a small surface area, I guess, you're a lot smaller than the car. And what sucks is that people are used to seeing two headlights. And so they associate two headlights with a vehicle. They see one headlight, they don't really know what to do with that. Yeah. Most crashes, they say, are in intersections. And that makes sense. And a lot of the wrecks, I know when I took the course, they said a lot of the accidents happen in parking lots because people are backing up or going in or trying to get that spot and you're coming in and you're too small for them to see

SPEAKER_01: 1:06:28

you.

SPEAKER_00: 1:06:30

Now, some of these accidents... Now, recently, I think they've spiked up for whatever reason. And you do have a lot of fatalities. Like I always, you know, perk up a little bit when we get up in the morning and we're watching the news and it's like there is a fatal motorcycle accident on, you know, Highway 10 or I-35 and it was at 3 a.m. And I'm going to tell you right now, here's why they happen. Fatalities, like fatal accidents. It's speeding. It's alcohol. And most of the time, it's unlicensed drivers. And sometimes it's all three. It's speeding, alcohol, and unlicensed drivers. So if you eliminate that, don't drink. Have I drank? Yes. Have I had a couple beers? Yes. But don't do it. You know what I'm saying? Like I think I limited it. I think it was like two or three. And then I'm done. I'm like, man, I'm on the bike. I'm not going to drink anymore. Wear a helmet. Wear a helmet. Wear gloves. Wear all the protective gear because if you get into an accident and you're not wearing gloves, say goodbye to your hands, man. That first layer of skin is gone. But when I started looking at statistics because you kind of want to look at them, it was alcohol and speeding and unlicensed drivers. If you're not one of those, then you know what? I think you're good and be a defensive driver. Anything else you can think of? No, I

SPEAKER_01: 1:08:02

think those hit the high points. I mean, those really do hit the high points. So I think it's time to come to a board approval.

SPEAKER_00: 1:08:11

So board approved. Is it a good idea to go get a motorcycle? Well, let's make it better because we both think yes.

SPEAKER_01: 1:08:23

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00: 1:08:24

Right. So maybe... Board-approved safety gear? I don't know. I don't want it to be a simple yes. I think it is a simple

SPEAKER_01: 1:08:36

yes. No, I guess I would motion that riding a motorcycle is an enjoyable hobby to have as long as you're taking the proper precautions to make it happen.

SPEAKER_00: 1:08:53

I'll agree with that. Okay, so there you go. Board-approved. Get that hammer. MC Hammer. So there you have it, folks. Board approved. Yeah, so that concludes. Thank you for listening. If you enjoyed this episode and you'd like to help support the podcast, please share it with others. Post about it on your social media and or leave a rating and review. To catch all the latest from us, you can follow us on Instagram and X. So thanks again, and we'll see you next time.