This episode is a great chat with Darren Waite, who not only is a fellow motorcyclist, but used to club race motorcycles in Australia, and has worked in the motorsports industry for 25 years. Darren is responsible for bringing the racing, track riding, motocross, adventure and street riding products of Italian based Forma Boots to the Australian and the US markets. We talk in depth about the Forma Ice Pro boots that I recently purchased for street and track riding, the technology behind them, why they are used by MotoGP racer Danilo Petrucci, and how Forma’s technology and approach to boot design, development and manufacturing is applied to the products they supply for all disciplines of motorcycle riding.

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Special Guest: Darren Waite.

This episode is a cool discussion with Jason Madama, a motorcycle racer with 17 years of experience, who has been racing in the MotoAmerica Twins Cup series since 2018. Jason, who is known by the nickname “Hammer”, is also a freelance graphics designer and has his own graphics design company, Syndicate Graphics, which does a lot of graphics and livery design for other club and professional level racers.

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Special Guest: Jason Madama.

This episode is a cool chat with Jordan Long from J.L. Unlimited. Jordan is a motorcycle enthusiast, club racer, track day coach and motorcycle podcaster. We cover everything from how he got started riding, to how he found riding again when he was in the Navy stationed in Honolulu, Hawaii, and how he eventually got hooked on racing his Yamaha R6 at the club level. We talk quite a bit about MotoAmerica, and the prior history of motorcycle road racing in the US, with the AMA Pro Series and the days when Daytona Motorsports Group (DMG) ran professional motorcycle road racing in this country. We also talk about his 9-year-old daughter’s interest in motorcycles and how he is looking to get her set up with an Ohvale GP-0. And we end off speculating about when the COVID-19 pandemic will be better under control, and when we might expect to return to some sense of normalcy regarding track days and road racing...and we reflect on how lucky we are that the MotoAmerica road racing series takes place in a single country, and that it will be much easier for the organizers to get things back up and running than it will be for the international based series like MotoGP and WorldSBK.

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Special Guest: Jordan Long.

This episode is a great discussion with Jon DelVecchio, a family-man and high school educator who also owns the Street Skills LLC motorcycle school that he founded in 2015, which is a New York State licensed driving school and an AMA chartered organization. Jon has combined his passion for motorcycles, his 20 years of riding experience, and his 10 years as a Motorcycle Safety Foundation Rider Coach to build his motorcycle school and to develop his “Cornering Confidence” method of motorcycle street rider instruction. In his “Cornering Confidence” book, curriculum, and online course, Jon has taken to heart the MSF motto of "the more you know, the better it gets", to help riders enjoy their riding more, get better control of their motorcycle, and thus reduce rider anxiety and make them more successful riders on the street. His method is designed to get students up to speed, step by step, on trail braking and other techniques to make them safer riders in the corners. “Cornering Confidence” is self-paced education, with direct support from Jon as needed. This is a unique approach to motorcycle skills development which dovetails in with the other teaching methods and schools that you may already be familiar with.

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Special Guest: Jon DelVecchio.

This episode discusses the experience that Gina and I had attending Daytona Bike Week right before the you know what hit the fan regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. We originally had plans to see the Daytona 200 and American Flat Track TT double header races that weekend at Daytona International Speedway, but for obvious reasons those plans did not quite pan out. So, we made the best of the situation, had a great trip anyway, and got to experience something we otherwise would not have. I also talk about meeting Todd McNabney from Heroic Racing Apparel in person and buying a pair of Forma race boots from him at a great price. I also discuss the #RideItOut campaign that some people are backing and my approach to motorcycle riding in these challenging times. Finally, I spend some time discussing a topic near and dear to my heart…and one that a couple months ago took up quite a bit of my time…and that was my “Quest to Find a Helmet that Fits Properly.” I have written a blog article about my experience discovering that the helmets I already owned did not fit properly, and how I set about getting a new helmet with a proper fit. That article will be released on my web site soon and will probably be the transcript for an upcoming podcast episode on the same topic.

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This episode is a great discussion with Todd McNabney, the owner and lead designer at HEROIC Racing Apparel, and his motorcycle racing buddy, Chris Onwiler, who in addition to being an accomplished racer, track day coach and writer, is also a customer and huge advocate of HEROIC’s motorcycle racing gear. I met Todd at the International Motorcycle Show in New York City last December, when I bought a pair of his HEROIC SP-R Pro racing gloves as the first item in my new kit of gear for doing track days this season. I was very impressed with Heroic’s products, the message behind their products, and their loyal customer base, and thought it would be cool to bring you the story behind HEROIC Racing and how the company got started. And for those listeners only interested in riding on the street, in addition to their products for the race track, HEROIC applies the same ingenuity and care that they put into protecting riders on the track into their line of motorcycle gear for street riders, such as their street gloves and Kevlar hoodie.

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Special Guests: Chris "K3" Onwiler and Todd McNabney.

This episode has the latest news including the trip that Gina and I took recently to California and getting the chance to meet up with Larry Lanes and Brian Hunnicutt from the Throttled podcast, seeing the Re-Cycled Garage in sunny Santa Cruz and getting to hang out with Fast Eddie from Motojitsu. I also ask for listener feedback for some new ideas I have for the podcast. And lastly, I talk about all of my observations and thoughts about the Progressive International Motorcycle Show that Gina and I attended back in December.

SAVE $ on your purchase of Bohn Body Armor!

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This episode gave me a great opportunity to get to know former motorcycle racer and burgeoning motorsports cinematographer Gray Pham. Gray started racing motorcycles when he was 12 years old and had a successful racing career through 2017, including competing in the MotoAmerica KTM RC 390 Cup Series. After making it through a string of bad luck, including having to recover from a major racing-related injury, Gray decided to hang up his leathers for a while and focus on starting his college career. During his first year of college, he also started playing around with shooting video at some local motocross tracks. His videos started to get a lot of attention and, in the Summer of 2018, a former racing sponsor approached Gray about shooting some video of motorcycle racer Ashton Yates on his Kawasaki Ninja 400. As the saying goes, the rest was history. Gray formed his own video production company, GP Industries, and decided to put college on hold for a little while so he can devote his full attention and energy to his passion for video creation and further honing his skills as a cinematographer and visual story teller. All of which aligns with Gray’s intense passion to help support, promote and grow the sport of motorcycle racing in America, and led to the creation of his motorcycle racing documentary series "America Racing".

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Special Guest: Gray Pham.

In this episode I start by talking about why it's been 3 weeks since I released the last episode…a water boiler leak in our Levitt house, shopping for my new Arai helmet (and more importantly getting a good fit), and all the activities surrounding the holidays. I also thank my new podcast supporters and announce the new Podcast Supporter page on my web site and the various support levels. I revisit Shane Patilla's question on shopping for gear, and I talk about helmet standards and helmet shelf life as well as provide some guidelines on the basic gear a rider needs…helmet, jacket, pants, boots and gloves. I mention things to consider when shopping for gear, including close-out deals and counterfeits. And I discuss my New Year’s resolutions regarding the podcast and my own riding this year. I cover my first ride of the new year on the Isle of Man(hattan) ride. And I go over my plans for the podcast and my plans for California Superbike School, other rider training and Motojitsu. I cover my plans for the motorcycle races I want to attend in 2020 and end off with some tips on heated gear that fits snugly, avoiding hypothermia, and choosing and modifying gear so it is easy to use with your riding gloves on.

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In this episode I have a really cool chat with Robby Cichielo Jr, in which we discuss how he got into motorcycling, why he prefers riding on the track, and the amazing experiences he has had as an endurance racer, as a racer in the MotoAmerica Twins Cup Series, and as an instructor and coach for N2 Track Days. We also talk about how motorcycles are the great equalizer and how motorcycling brings people together from all kinds of backgrounds and all walks of life. The shared love of motorcycles and motorcycling seems to know no boundaries and melts away differences in gender, race, religion, nationality, economics and the other things that sometimes put up barriers between people. In a nutshell, when true motorcyclists put on their gear and throw a leg over their bike, they are all very much of the same heart and spirit, and they all share a very special bond, one with another.

We talk about Robby's experience riding motorcycles, including starting on a Suzuki SV650 at age 14, about 13 years ago. He had a Suzuki GSX-R for a while and eventually bought back his original SV650, which then led to getting started racing in the MotoAmerica Twins Cup Series. We go over how Twins Cup is very much a builder series and how riders and mechanics take bikes like the SV650 and other street bikes which are really designed and intended to be daily commuters and turn them into race machines with souped-up motors and more torque.

We also talk about how Robby had to learn how to race the SV650, as it's not a pure race bike and requires a slightly different technique. And we talk about Robby's experience in endurance racing as a member of the 4 Dudes on a Twin race team.

I also mention that now that I have read quite a few books about motorcycles and riding technique, I decided it is time to put my understanding to the test and see how well I can apply what I've learned. That's why I want to start riding on the track, and why I recently signed up for the 2-Day Camp with California Superbike School at New Jersey Motorsports Park in May 2020.

Robby talks about the fact that often it is easier to teach less experienced street riders good riding technique on the track, as they haven't developed a lot of bad habits that can be hard to get people to break. He sometimes runs into "beginner techniques" that are taught in some basic rider training classes that then have to be unlearned. On the same theme, we talk about how strider bikes have been a great improvement over the bicycles with training wheels that many of us had when we learned to ride on two wheels, as strider bikes are two wheel vehicles and behave like two wheel vehicles, so kids learn balance and counter-steering. Whereas tricycles and bicycles with training wheels behave differently and don't teach the skills needed to ride a two wheeled vehicle.

Robby and I also touch upon how buying and owning good, quality riding or track gear is an investment in yourself!

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Special Guest: Robby Cichielo Jr..