False Neutral

This week, Pete, Garrett, and Eric start off talking about cars before discussing the demise of Victory, Triumphs new Street Triples, the Hooniverse Car of the Year winner, along with your questions about long trips and bad engineering. We also give you a peek into what subjects we might be covering in future episodes.

We're back from our holiday hiatus and Cam Vanderhorst, host of our HPN sister podcast Cammed & Tubbed, joins us to kick off the new year. It takes us about fifteen minutes for us to get around to talking about motorcycles (Because Cam). Once we finish talking about our cars and gifts, we discuss Sportsters, helmets, and Eddie Lawson replicas. Afterwards, Cam, Eric and Garrett compete as contestants on Pete's game show, "What's The Ask?" You can play along, so it's especially worthwhile to visit our Hooniverse post for this episode this week to see the photos we used in the game.

First off, the three of us devote some attention to the 2017 Honda Rebel 300 & 500. We then briefly discuss a couple of other newly-introduced bikes that none of our listeners will ever buy, or likely even see. Finally, each of us names the motorcycle heroes — past or present — we'd most wish we could sit down and have a conversation with.  Garrett's Internet connection continued to have bandwidth issues in a few spots, but just convince yourself that he's a cyborg.

NOTE: We'll be taking a break for few weeks over the Holidays. We'll resume our regular weekly schedule January 10th, 2017.

This week we look at how motorcycles are portrayed in Hollywood films. From the good to the bad and the ugly, we discuss what bike-related movie tropes get two thumbs up, and which ones make us groan. After a tangental side-trip into who does the biker wave to whom, and why, we get back on topic to close out with a list of our favorite motorcycle documentary films.

The new-bike show season continues, with another crop of new models just announced at the EICMA show in Milan. Eric, Garrett and Pete discuss the hottest (and in a few cases, not so remarkable) new models for 2017, plus a couple of concept bikes you may or may not ever find at your dealer. It's no surprise that we disagree on a few of 'em, but we do so politely, of course.

Eric and Garrett welcome part-time bike tester, full-time motorcyclist, professional musician, and all-around cool guy Thai Long Ly to the podcast. Thai is not only a recurring member of the Motorcycle.com's bike video crew but an accomplished bass player, songwriter, recording engineer and music producer. He eloquently speaks about the similarities between making music and riding a motorcycle. Garrett had some bandwidth issues that makes him sound like a cyborg in a few spots, but it doesn't last long.

The last couple of episodes have focused exclusively on motorcycles. But the machine is only half of the magic of riding, the other part is the perfect road. Is there someplace you dream of riding to, or through, or around? Regardless if it's the curves, the scenery or the destination, we all dream of that ride we're going to do "someday." Eric and Pete share theirs, and Garrett's, too, even though he was not able to be with us.

As promised, we took reader suggestions and talk about which bikes we believe will — and won't — appreciate in value over the next five to ten years. Our suggestions may surprise you; we surprised each other with a couple of them. We also discuss what respectable 50cc options there are for a middle aged man to commute on. Don't forget that photos of all the bikes we discuss can be found at Hooniverse.com.

Pete, Eric and Garrett get technical, discussing alternative motorcycle suspension and steering technology. From springer and girder front ends to leading link forks to anti-dive devices, we talk about what worked, what didn't work, and what the motorcycle industry has abandoned and come back to later.

We didn't have a defined theme or subject for this week's episode, so the topic is either nothing or everything. We re-examine what reliable bikes can be had for $2000 or so that are suitable for occasional two-up riding. Then Garrett confesses the lust he has in his heart for the Aprilia Tuono V4, which leads us to wonder about evolution of the term "naked bike." We go on to opine that the adventure bike segment is oversaturated. In between all this, we invite you to tell us what bikes you think are poised to skyrocket in value. Reach out to us via Facebook, Twitter, or by replying at our weekly post on Hooniverse.com, and we might discuss your investment bike suggestion in a couple of weeks.

As with every episode, photos of nearly all the bikes we talk about are at this week's podcast post on the Hooniverse website, too.