False Neutral

This week Garrett is off on his group ride for his birthday and the guest we had hoped to book fell through, so Eric flys solo.  Since it's only Eric, it's a short show, about 20 minutes, and he talks about two topics, The Motor Company possibly buying Ducati and this past weekend's MotoGP race at the legendary Assen track.

This week Garrett and Eric talk about internet lore, or old wives tails when it comes to motorcycle maintenance.  Garrett also discusses his friend with the old Kawasaki, and how he talked him out of taking it on their upcoming four-day ride.

Garrett and Eric are rolling without Pete to quarterback the show for the first time, so, we are just freestyling it and catching up since it's been a few weeks.  Garrett talks about his new to him FZ1 and a former bike that found it's way back into the garage.  Garrett is also planning for a four-day 1,000-mile ride with friends in the next few weeks.

Eric brings us up to date with his XS400 project bike and an interesting observation from a recent trip to North Georgia.  We also take a few minutes to talk about Nicky Hayden and his passing.

This week the gang is back together, but that's a story unto its self!  Garrett has a new bike, we have news from Harley-Davidson, Kawasaki, and KTM, and we ask for your help in determining the future direction of the show. 

This week's episode features England's Steve Ledsham, the man behind JAL Restorations. We wanted to have Steve on based on the stunning catalog bikes he has built and restored. Unfortunately, this episode was fraught with production issues. First, Garrett on the west coast had to wake up at 5 AM to address the transatlantic time difference. Secondly, the sound quality is marginal. Steve sounds like he's talking to us from under the Atlantic, even after hours of trying to massage the audio to make the voices more distinct. Add in Steve's British accent and you have a podcast you'll have to listen to closely. But do it, because Steve is a true master craftsman, with a wealth of knowledge and great stories to tell.

After revisiting a couple of old topics (The Tmax's odd engine, the Vitpilen 401's long gestation period, and our impressons of the new Harley Street Rod) we discuss Garrett's stable of bikes, which is suddenly smaller, and his cash reserves, which are commensurately larger. The three of us put our heads together to come up with the perfect bike for him and his $6000 +/- bike-buying budget. After more than a dozen suggestions, we appeal to our readers to help Garrett find the perfect bike.

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Garrett's back! Yay! We have a lot to catch up on with him this week, so our episode is longer than they've been lately. After we update each other on what's been going on, we debate the question of how many bikes a motorcyclist needs. What is the optimal number, and how many is too many? There's obviously no single answer for all riders, but we have fun discussing it even if we don't definitively answer the question. Along the way, we relate owning bikes to firearms, personal watercraft, houses and children. We also debate when a parts bike ceases to count as a motorcycle, and the merits and pitfalls a Turo-style bike rental app would present.

Garrett's still AWOL this week, so Eric and Pete keep this episode a bit briefer than usual. Our topic is a bit obscure: horizontal-cylinder engines. We start with Guzzi's Falcone and Nuovo Falcone. Then, we fawn all over the Ducati Supermono, explain how reciprocating counterweights work, and school Ducati on what the Scrambler Sixty2 should have been, and why. All this leads Pete to a sudden epiphany regarding Honda's worst bike ever. Moving from thumpers to multi-cylinder bikes, we wrap up with BMW K-bikes and the obscure, Aermacchi-based Linto racer.

It's just Eric and me this week, and we touch on a veritable smorgasbord of different topics in this episode. We debrief Eric's solo professional roadrace update in episode #53, then talk about what what's gone on in our workshops. (Thanks to Garrett, it's actually something!) After a quick update on several new 2017 models that are just hitting the streets, we actually answer a few listener questions. A big thanks to those who sent queries and comments in!

This week Eric rides solo and talks MotoGP with David Emmitt of motomatters.com.  We talk about pre-season testing, a look ahead at the 2017 season, and a run down of the riders and the machines they will pilot in 2017.  At the end, we touch on the Moto2 and Moto3 categories as well.

Let us know if you like this kind of race talk or if you prefer for us to stick to our standard subject matter.  Enjoy!