Bike Trips & Moto Photography with VonGasphalt #432

What is up, everyone, and welcome back to the Fast Life Podcast.

On today's episode, I'm sitting down with New York City-based photographer Vaughn Gassfalt,

who is currently on a motorcycle trip, possibly across the country.

But he left New York City, came down here to Dallas.

We spent the whole weekend shooting photos, talking about photography, and just having

an all-around good time.

We recorded this episode, which was one of many, many great conversations that we had

that I'm very thankful for.

So hopefully you enjoy it.

Before we get into it, please take a moment to check out our sponsors, 1-800-LAWTIGERS.

If you or someone you know has been in an accident, they'll get you taken care of

in the right direction, in the right manner.

Check them out.

Also, if you need some cool shit for your motorcycle, RLS motorcycles has the

cool-ass parts that you're going to need, and you're going to want.

Also, if you need to get your lights dialed in on your bike, headlights, tail lights, and

everything in between, Custom Dynamics is the one I use, and I recommend them to you.

Check them out.

Also, if you need a newer used motorcycle, don't hesitate to check out Cowboy Harley-Davidson

down in Austin, Texas.

They have a great selection of new and used motorcycles that get you going down

the road.

All right, let's get into it with Vaughn Gassfalt.

Hey, guys.

You ready to let the dogs out?

Well, I don't know how we're going to do this, man.

Seriously, I think that, you know, we've done like seven podcasts in the town.

I was thinking the same, like, so we can, I mean, just we'll have to probably

recap some of the conversations and whatnot.

But I think for, yeah, what are we on?

Like, what's the what's the agenda?

What's the hope of this trip?

Dude, that is a very deep first question.

The hope of this trip is to do different things versus what I've done.

I think to test different side of what a road trip is, I think I've always thought

of road trip in a very conventional way because I was just going from point A to

point B to point C on my motorcycle and everything was always pretty seamless

and pretty smooth despite the occasional breakdowns and all of that good stuff.

I think this trip has been an absolute curveball of a trip.

Nothing worked the way it was supposed to work.

And he almost became an exercise in.

PMA, positive mental attitude.

It became an exercise in finding silver linings when things get tough.

It became an exercise of finding plan B's when plan A doesn't work

and still finding a way to make things interesting where everything that I had

imagined this trip would be kind of unraveled before my eyes in a few days.

Yeah, so it really became more of a philosophical exercise,

more than a trip itself, I would say.

Maybe I'll backtrack just a little bit because that's a lot of strong statements.

That trip was always supposed to be a regular trip.

The difference between this one and the previous ones was I was going

to be on a different motorcycle, so not on my usual dyna, but on a fully

built 2024 Street Glide that I have built over the course of the winter

and spring alongside with my friend and FXDLS Brooklyn on the road glide.

And that was a six months process of, you know, taking stock

bikes and putting them together and bringing them to, you know, the best level

we could with our respective means and visions.

And with that trip was a lot of expectation tied up as far as the

the riding we're going to do, the content we're going to do,

like the events we're going to bring these bikes to.

So I had six months of like imagination of what this trip was going to be,

like six months of, OK, I'm going to do all this kind of stuff.

The bike is the street light is going to be super sick.

And then, unfortunately, on days three of the of the trip,

like I ended up catching a death wobble because of geometric issues on the bike.

And I went down in Milwaukee and the bike was trashed.

I mean, it's not trashed, actually, it's pretty good, but not rideable.

And so and I broke my finger also.

And so I couldn't keep riding because I needed my finger to heal.

And and I had all these events lined up.

I had homecoming, I had Sturgis.

I had something I needed to shoot for Holly in Oregon in Idaho.

And I was like, how am I going to do all this?

And should I just go home?

Should I just cancel everything?

And I kind of forced myself to stay out there, find ways to make things

work that were just not what I thought it was going to be.

Be at peace that all the plans that I had made for six months

were just in the trash can and that I needed to make new plans

and find a way to remain engaged in the trip, interested,

open minded enough to meet people, even though deep in my head,

I had dark thoughts and and kind of go roll with the punches.

And that's the first time I that trip was very hard because of that.

Sorry, that's a long and square question.

Yeah, no. But and this was a trip

that initially was going to kick off for on the way to homecoming in Sturgis.

Correct. So yeah, we left New York with the cursed crew.

We'll talk about curse later, like a bunch of our friends

and like for three days we were on the road and we were all going to Milwaukee.

And it was a good time, like very good time.

And then like most of our friends would go home and then Alex and I

would keep pushing.

He was he ended up doing what he was supposed to do on Israel.

Glad with his dad.

They went to the Pacific and back

while I was going to go to Oregon to shoot stuff for Harley on the street light.

And then we would meet together somewhere in California and ride back to Sturgis.

And obviously none of that happened.

But this yeah, this trip was like it was it was the culmination of everything.

Alex, Alex Deersbrook, and I have been working for for six months.

And and so it took me a lot of effort to get out of my own head and be like,

OK, everything I had in mind is not going to happen the way I planned it.

How can I be OK with that?

And how can I?

How can I find a way to still have a good time and still do great stuff?

And because I didn't have the day, nothing of this matters.

Like it's just a bike.

It's how can I still enjoy my time and how can I still make content

that's going to be interesting, et cetera?

And so in the end, the content ended up being pretty cool.

It was and we've talked about this last year.

It ended up just not being about me, which is more actually more interesting,

I think. Yeah.

So I'm actually somewhat, I guess you could say,

proud of myself, was not trying to sound pretentious,

but I'm I'm happy with myself that I'm usually a fairly pessimistic person.

But for once, I was able to force myself to be optimistic.

And for once, I was able to force myself to be really

somewhat vulnerable, but also yet outgoing to meet people,

to say yes to people that offered opportunities during this trip

and and to still make the best of it in the way that I could at least.

So when you did you go home after Sturgis and then basically

like that's when it was like, you know what?

I'm going to jump on the dyna and I'm going to do my own trip.

Yes. So I went.

The only reason I went home after Sturgis is because

and that's the saddest part of this wreck.

When I when I went down with the death wobble,

my 100 to 500 lens got busted

and I had to send it to Canon for repair and they shipped it back home.

And so I had to get home to get the lens

because I had to go to Ohio to shoot the race last week.

And so I had to be in New York at some point.

And then I was like, well, my finger is doing better.

It's been three weeks, four weeks almost since it was broken.

So I can probably get on the dyna and I can probably

go there with the data.

I was also trying to save money because renting cars

have been renting cars for like three weeks is not a cheap thing to do.

Yeah. So I was like, OK, I'll get on the dyna.

And it was a bit of a it's a bit of an open ended trip.

I knew I had to be in Ohio.

And after that, I was like, well, I'm in Ohio.

Where should I go?

And then I went to Indiana police with Andy King and Crown.

Then Ben get that motto was like, come to Nashville.

I was like, OK, then I knew I needed to put you in Texas at some point.

And so we chatted and a few other people we chatted to.

And I was like, OK, I'll come to Texas.

And then I see what I don't know where I'm going

after in three days from there.

But the dyna, as always, has worked really well.

So so far so good. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, that's that's that's interesting because, you know, you're.

I understand the concept of like creating a lot of expectations,

especially when you have a lot of

collaborations going on with the bike build, you know,

like the way you guys were doing with the the roguelite and street glide.

And so these collaborations become obligations.

And when those obligations go go south, it's like you don't feel

like you're fulfilling your end of the bargain, which creates a bit of a

I don't know, like I wouldn't say uncertainty, but like it just makes

you feel like, fuck, I didn't come through.

I felt terrible.

Integrity becomes a question.

You know, I felt more terrible about that specific part

you mentioned than my own health and my own wreck.

Like the part that really bothered me the most was that I was letting down

the people that I told that I would create cost of four.

In a similar way, when I did my trip last summer, when we first met,

I talked about it so much on the podcast and through the channels that I have

that I felt so like I wasn't getting the things I wanted.

And I felt like I was having that same thing, that same feeling that you had

about like providing the thing that you set out to do.

And you kind of promised everybody.

So because of that, I've tried to be less vocal about the plans

and things I want to do on here.

So that if things change or if things fall through, I don't feel so like,

well, guys, I know I said I was going to do this, you know, because

for a long time, I mean, that was kind of like my thing is that I wanted

to be the dude that every time I said I was going to do something, I did it.

Yeah.

And I mean, I still did the trip.

Yeah, I did it.

I haven't done the book yet.

Yeah.

But now I feel like even if I don't have the same desire to make the

book, I have to.

Yeah.

Because I said you would.

Yeah.

And so finding a way to be able to be open and communicate the things and

goals that I have, but without putting it out there so much or in a way that

I feel like I'm trapped within them.

Does that make sense?

Yeah, totally.

And I think that's very fair.

I'll say that to be honest, I was kind of blown away by, I called

every single person the day after and I told them, guys, I'm sorry.

Like I will do everything I said I would, but it's going to take a

bit more time.

And now coming from a different line of work with different types of

industry, I was fully prepared to hear like some not so nice things.

Like, and I was kind of bracing myself for it, to be honest.

And none of this happened.

Like everybody was shockingly nice and supportive to almost to the

point that I was like, I mean, I was truly surprised by some of what

I've, some of what I've heard from some people.

And that's in a way that was kind of heartwarming because yeah, it is

not what I expected.

But I think that's fair to say that maybe going forward, like less

promises and or more discrete promises is probably an easier way

for you to conduct what you have to conduct.

And that's why it's funny that I just think of this when I did

my very first thousand mile in the day, I never advertised it until

it was done, for example, because I do want to put myself in a

position that I would start advertising it and then I would

have to stop it and then people would be like, oh, what the hell

he didn't even finish it.

And I think it's kind of the same sentiment in a way, like

give yourself breathing room, like to do things.

Yeah, sometimes it feels better to say, man, you know,

after you've done the 1000 miles, like, Hey guys, the 1000

miles, that was sick.

Yeah, exactly.

As opposed to it's four in the morning.

Doing 1000 miles a day.

And then you don't do it or whatever.

Cause then I mean, it does create a sense of like excitement to

see if you get done, like for the viewer, like, I want to see

if, if, uh, if the curse crew makes 1000 miles a day, right?

And then when you're giving the updates all day long, it's

fun to follow along on social media.

And then if something happens, it's more like, Oh, I

understand.

Yeah, I mean, um, but yeah, I guess what I'm getting at is

like, I just, I felt very trapped within my own vision, visions

that I put out there and expectations.

And so when I started trying to, uh, like course correct or,

or anything, I felt like I was like cheating on my ideas.

You know, it's like, I don't, it's a mindful of what I'm

even, I feel like I'm even saying, but it's for context

of the listeners, like when you're, if you're just jumping

on a bike, not just, but if you're going to jump on a

bike and go on a bike trip across the country, um, you're

going to have expectations of like what you want to do, see,

experience, all that stuff, right?

On this side of the table, I think we're doing the same

thing, but we also have like some obligations as being a

part of the motorcycle industry to do, whether it's

photo shoots, uh, make content or for me do podcasts and

those obligations become, have to be part of those other

things that you want to do.

And so you just, you, you have to think about all the

other stuff going on is what I'm getting at.

And it gets kind of, uh, difficult and, you know, not

trying to woe is me, uh, oh, right across country, you

know, like it's a privilege to do all these things.

That's what I was going to get at with what you

just said while ago.

It's like, it's probably hard to be optimistic after a wreck

and it's now just trashed all your plans, but there's

still this aspect of like, I'm in Sturgis.

Yeah, exactly.

You know, and I'm so glad I forced myself a little bit to

go, uh, because it ended up being by far the best

Sturgis, the best homecoming and the best, in a way, the

best trip, I guess you could say, as far as like meeting

people, opportunities, interesting conversations,

like, artistic, I mean, artistic emulation as a whole.

Uh, and I would have missed out on so much if I had just

crawled back to Brooklyn and kind of like lick my

wounds kind of thing.

I'm really, really, and my initial instinct was to do

just that, but I'm really happy that I didn't.

And I'm really happy that I, even if it wasn't a car,

I'm really happy that I drove across the US, uh, to

go see rodeos and meet people, et cetera.

That was my way of trying to make it interesting and

nothing that, that worked pretty well.

So yeah, it was really an exercise in style.

And it's, it's the first time that usually my plans

happened the way I want them to happen.

I guess I've always been quite lucky.

It was the first time that nothing worked.

And I just can't, had to find, not solution, but just

had to find plan B's on the go.

It wasn't perfect.

If I had to do it again, there's a few things

that I would do differently, but all together, I

think it's as good as it was going to be.

And the outcome is pretty good.

You know, we talked about this in one of our many

conversations we had over the last couple of days.

Do you think that I know that because of the type

of personalities, I think you and I both share that when

plans go the way we expected that it's, we are, we

kind of expected this.

So it feels good that it was, that it happened the

way we wanted it to.

But what if like you didn't have expectations and so

you didn't know what, where's the, where's the

ceiling at for this experience?

Does that make sense?

Yeah.

And if you go into things with like such low

expectations or like go on a trip with basically

kind of like you're doing now where you're, you

don't really have an agenda or you have one, we

have one deadline.

I need to be back in New York by this time.

And so you don't know what's going to happen or

what's going to be the higher low because you

haven't set any expectations.

That's, that's, that's closer to, I guess, the

definition of freedom in a way.

And I think a lot of my past trips, I set a lot

of boundaries and guidelines for myself, whether

it's through intense itineraries or places

I have to be, people I have to see.

And I think this trip, what you just said, like,

especially this trip as of a week ago on the

diner, the other trip was on the car and, and

the rental glides and everything was different.

But this trip on the diner, my philosophy is just

don't say no.

And like if, like, for example, the Texas

Hills guys were like, come to Austin when

you're done with Dallas and like, okay, I'll

come to Austin.

And like these other guys like, yeah, come

to North Carolina.

Okay, I'll go to North Carolina.

So it's, it's, and I think it's closer to

maybe the efforts of, you know, freedom on

the road kind of thing of also like just being

you and your bike and just, yeah, you're

not trying to crush a thousand miles.

You're not trying to impress anyone.

You're not trying to do, you're just trying

to make meaningful connections and learn

about people and see things in a more

intimate, intimate way as what you would.

I think like this couple of days we've

spent together, to me are a really good

benchmark of what I would like to evolve

my motorcycle travels to be a little bit

more like most of my motorcycle travels.

If you look back, if I look back over

the past six, seven years, I've always

been placed A, B, C, D, E very fast.

And then like not superficially seeing

the local culture, but like not seeing it

that deep, not spending much meaningful

time maybe with as many people as I

could, oftentimes also being more like

on my own or with a very small group

of people.

I think I probably missed out on embedding

myself into culture in a way.

And I think, you know, and we talked

about this last year a little bit, like

as I mature a little bit, like age a little

bit, I think for me the ideal trip is

less so about, you know, 1000 miles

this and that, that is just 200 or 300

miles a day, finding like great

conversation, good people, seeing

things through the eyes of the people

that live where I am, rather than

seeing it on my own and thinking I've

seen, I've discovered something where

actually I've missed a lot of what I

could have seen.

It's a long-winded answer, but I think

I've really started to reshape the way

I think of motorcycle trips a little

bit and the coast to coast will

always has its appeal, because it's

romantic in a way, and also the West

is just that badass that I love to

spend time there, but there's beauty

everywhere and if you're on your

own, you're probably just going to

miss a lot of things, but seeing

yes, seeing people spending time with

people, being open to being out of your

comfort zone, which for me means

meeting people sometimes, because I'm

not the most outgoing person

necessarily, I think to me that's kind

of the next stage of what I would

like to do when it comes to this type

of trips.

1-800-LAWTIGERS is the number you need

to save on your phone. If you or

anyone you know has been in a

motorcycle accident, the first call

to make is to LAWTIGERS. Their

job is to help you take the proper

steps in the unfortunate event of an

accident. They have helped many of my

personal friends over the years, and

they can do the same for you. Across

the nation, LAWTIGERS has been a major

supporter of our motorcycles culture

and events, and we are excited to

have this new partnership here on the

Fast Life podcast. Remember 1-800-LAWTIGERS

also check them out www.lawtigers.com

Arlennes is a one-stop shop for

some of the baddest custom

motorcycle parts in the industry. I have

had the opportunity to ride with many

of their products, including their

forged wheels, plug-and-play bagger

mid-controls, air cleaners, and some

of my favorites have been their

custom brake calipers. From my

bagger to lowrider ST and now my

FXR chopper, Nes has me covered with

high quality parts and accessories

to keep me performing and looking

badass. If you head on over to

www.arlennes.com and enter the code

FastLife10 you'll save 10% on your

purchase. For decades the Nes family

has pushed custom motorcycle culture

through innovation and style so hit the

link in the description and check out

their vast product catalog to start

building your dream motorcycle.

Yeah you couldn't have said it better man

like that's what I've realized when I

started traveling across the country on

bikes you know a long time ago it

was like very short amount of time and

so very tunnel vision laser focused

on getting to the destination yeah you

know you're you're basically just

stopping at the state signs to take a

picture with the New Mexico sign the

Arizona the California and that's

really all you got to show for it at

the end of the trip and then once

you've done the trip and you feel

what it feels like to be on the road

then I think that over time for

myself I've been able to slow down

more and more and more and more

because you just kind of like see

things and opportunities and I want to

see where that road goes and yeah I'd

really like to hang out with this

person in their area you know it's like

I mean really sickly how how often do

you think people get to be like to do

like kind of what maybe I we've done

is like hey let me show you let me

just show you where we go yeah exactly

like this is where I go I mean there's

a lot of cool spots in Dallas but

this is where I go yeah you know what

I mean yeah and just being like you

said embedded into someone else's world

as a way of being a student like we

were talking about before we turned the

microphones on where it's like you

know I want to be here like that's what

I when I go to New York that's what I

want I want to be I don't want to try

to figure out where to go eat I want

yeah the people there to like what

vibe you want I'm like man I just

like chill stuff got you let's go

like that's what you want I want to

be the in their culture you know

I mean it's funny because you know

before doing marketing I did a

bachelor in sociology and sociology is

the study of people yeah and I think

I've always been passionate by that

but in always in a very bookworm kind of

way yeah like I've read a lot about it

but not doing it necessarily myself I've

always had this kind of guardrail

between me and people a little bit

maybe that comes from the black metal

stuff where you always standoffish

and distant I don't know but I've

always been somewhat standoffish

and I mean not standoffish because

it comes across wrong like just

like you know a little bit reserved

reserved yes that's the way

that's the world I'm looking for and I

think even I was looking at the book

that you showed me from Todd what's his

nice blue ball some room like this

interaction that he has in the book

where like he talks to the gas station

clock for like 15 minutes and he

talks to this random dude that has a

random flag in his in his yard and

he learns about like that's the type

of stuff I would never ever ever do

and even if these people came to me

and started a conversation I would not

engage much and I think I with time

I want to try to do more things like

that so that even something that's as

superficial as a 15 minute encounter as

a gas station or a two-day with you in

Texas I think I see them both as the

same opportunity to try to really

you know share something meaningful

or not with someone but live with a

deeper appreciation for the place I

mean and the people that are in

there

whereas in the past I would just be

go go go and at the end I would

maybe see pretty things but I would

miss out on the culture that surrounds

these things

yeah and that book I think like I

haven't finished it but like whatever

the half I've read this morning what

really made an impression on me

especially on that front like the

fact that he is able to connect with

so many different people in so many

different ways I think that's pretty

cool

yeah I mean that book was impactful

for me whenever I found it and

you know I've tried to implement as

much of the idea ideas in it as

possible I'm I'm very I can be

standoffish too you know but

like when I'm in a comfortable space

I'm very open and you know hey this is

hey check this out watch this you know

but like I'm still not really the

person that's probably gonna engage

too much in that conversation with the

gas station store clerk you know I

might pass a couple words back and

forth but I'm not gonna just put

my groceries down and say yeah man

how what's the weather like like I'm

probably not that way yeah but I think

that over time I think I will I think

maybe with age you get to a point

where you know you like we're kind of

similar in age so it's like now I've

lived half my life in this way well

what if I change some things about my

the way I view the world and the way

that I interact with the world to

see if life would also feel different

yes you know what I mean yes and

then you know honestly like through

the the aspect of photography that's

probably been the most awakening

that I've had in like those kind of

things is understanding you know talking

with Brian Helm and Todd and you know

Joss Kirbyus and and you know Tim O'Keeffe

and these guys that I'm all extremely

inspired by you know you find that

like their connection to people is

what gets them access to shoot

what I'm in love with and so I'm

looking at it like a technical thing

like I have the camera

there's the person how do I get that

shot and it's not as much technical as

it is psychological yeah you know

knowing you know there's it's really

hard to explain but it's like that's

the difference between it all they have

a connection to a photo that means

something to them and you're looking

at like yeah I don't get it man but

to them they're like do this this you

know for me this is what the photo

does this is what it represents and I

think that's just like a connection to

the art that they're creating and

testament to the integrity of it

because they could easily just turn

down that picture of that that person

or that bike or whatever and go right

over there to those massive titties

and take a picture of those and it's

going to do way better on all platforms

I think that's kind of what I'm

trying to evolve a little bit when

it comes to photography because

I think over the a lot of what I

used to do was very staged a lot

of what I used to do was very

anonymous as well it's a lot of

even not about me but

helmets and people hiding themselves

behind their bikes and their helmets

and recently in this trip actually

before the streetlight mishap

when I was posting about the day I

was actually doing like 10 or 15

photos and most of the photos were

just random snippets of gas station

moments and people some of my friends

eating food or joking around and I

was I was like this is the type of

stuff I want to try to incorporate

more and I think obviously I have

access to them because I know them

very well but the capacity of being

able to generate that same kind of

connection with strangers so that

they will open up enough to let you

snag a photo that has soul I guess

is something that I don't think I

could do now but I would I would

strive to at some point be able to

do and some of these photos in

these books and the other books

that you've been showing me you

can clearly see through the eyes of

the night you can see the soul of

these people in a way and it's

it's harder than it's I think

taking photos of people with helmet

is actually very simple

I think and I think the next level

for me is to try to take real

portraits capture emotions whether

it's through motion which I've done

a lot this year or through that new

level which is actually portraits

people faces gestures interactions

of a couple etc and yeah that's

something I want to do more about

more off for sure yeah I mean you

and I both I mean it's it's I think

it's a you know a goal or maybe some

somewhat dream of mine is to be able

to go out like some of the books I've

shown you and just hang out at a

shop or a person's place with them

knowing that I want to capture and

photograph a lot of the everyday

things that they're doing without

having to tell them like because

I don't know that if it's for

anything like yeah maybe this is

just like a personal a passion

project of like I want to go capture

this and maybe something come out of

the other end it goes back to what we're

talking about like not trying to put

all these expectations on the table to

the other people like hey I want to

come in just kind of follow you around

and photograph you for some time and

you know what I'm not trying to

not like I'm not trying to not exist

in the moment like I want to talk to

you but I'd love to just watch you

work in photography you know ask

you some questions get to know you

in that in that manner

um because at first they're gonna pose

I mean yeah you pull the camera out on

me

I'm gonna like oh how you know I'm gonna

pose for a minute but after a while we

said this last night at dinner

after a while both you and I will get

comfortable with that camera existing

between us and things will start to

get natural yeah you know what I mean

but at first yeah it's a little bit

yeah for sure you know and so that's

kind of like the that's like the

trust the process kind of thing is

that like you just kind of have to do it

and then at the my wife told me this a

while back and I might have said on a

podcast many times but I really

credited this because it was helpful

for me

of getting over the anxiety of pulling

a camera out to shoot people or things

and she just said you know we

appreciate it

yeah exactly and I'm like man that

that that's awesome because I never

thought of it that way I thought of

it

very maybe egotistical

like I wonder if they think I'm a good

photographer

I wonder if they think that

you know you know like that imposter

syndrome comes into play

right and so when she said that

it made me feel like oh well you know

like

I'm the one creating all these

expectations and this this thing this

this narrative that doesn't technically

exist

in my head and it's making me

very self-conscious about pulling

my camera out and taking pictures of

things

you know

and then I try to feel I would try to

figure out ways to do it but like

remove myself from the situation like

like I'm gonna put headphones in

so no one will talk to me

so they'll do that yeah I've done it

but I thought it you know I felt

like man like I shouldn't do I

shouldn't yeah I shouldn't cut myself

off I should just

say hey you know I did it was a

so it was an experiment I did and

once again I've already said this

under times to you

I have a whole like album of

shots I did from this but

Terry shanks is a knife maker he moved

from Dallas he's now in in Arizona but

he lives in Dallas

and I got to meet him through a mutual

friend

and he was on one of the episodes of

the Mamoa thing that we talked about

last night

and literally some in Todd Blubos

shot a lot of the film and the

and the photos for that

and some of the most epic shots of

my man just like

hitting the four like forging

these knives and beating them with

hammers and just fucking so cool right

so I got to meet

Terry shanks and we started hanging

out and we came pretty close friends

well then I'm like hey man I

really want to just come hang out

while you're working

and I got some of my favorite

photos of that interaction

but he knew that I was going to be

there taking pictures of him

and so he just did his thing

he was telling me stories

and I was shooting him

why I was telling the stories

and like I can show you the whole

album in the beginning of the album

I'm very far away

yeah and then you get through

and then I got closer

and I got some shots of him that

if I was to put a portfolio together

they would be in it

yeah you know what I'm saying

it's funny because

I was literally before you said that

piece about getting closer

my mind was going through

a similar vein of like

I used to think that

being a photographer was to hide

yourself behind the camera

and that's also like long lenses

because you don't need to get so close

to people

but I think the real

real magic happens

on the 15 to 35

when you're very close

and when you've built a relationship

that it's okay to be that close

and that you can really start

to really show the people

what they really are basically

and I never should

at 15 to 35

but I should

and I think that's what

that's what street photography is so interesting

because

it forces you to

to kind of get close to people

and ask them

to you know

take pictures of them etc etc

which

yeah

it's tough

it's it's tough

but it's also a good exercise for

you know like

getting out of your

existential

you know

recluse-ness

if that makes sense

you know

and that's what it's been for me this year

since the last podcast

last podcast we did

like I consciously

force myself

whether it's in the race world

or like

with my friends

or with people like

randomly meet

to kind of like

engage much more

take pictures

but also like

initiate friendships etc

and be more just open to people

and

it's been

it's been very gratifying

it's one of the most gratifying things

I think I've done this year

it's really just

be more open to things

and opportunities and people

and and be

like you said

the students of

whatever it is they're doing

like I met this guy in

upstate New York

who welds his things in his shop

and we spent like

30 minutes

45 minutes with him

because he was fixing something

on my friend's bike

and I took photos of him

doing it

and I was asking him

or he's doing it etc

and that was a very random

interaction

but like

I left this place being like

okay this

this was super cool

and now we chat quite a bit

and he wants to do something

from my bike

because my bike

always needs work

so yeah

it's

these connections are like

they're great

and

I'm glad that I'm

I'm doing this more

I think I missed out

on these opportunities

over the past

four or five years

but now

looking at things

quite differently

well I think it's

like a testament to you

and your photography

and

how short you

like short lived

it's been

you know

which

is a

is a compliment

because

like it's so well

and so good

and so thoughtful

I also like the fact that you

maybe you want

a lot of lenses

and a lot of big cameras

but you do it with

a modest

like

or wait no

you've

you had the

R

EOS R first right

I had no

I had the M 50

Oh that's right

that's what it was

yeah

for the longest time

my only had two cameras

I had the M 50

with a 50 prime

that was it for a year

and I had this

I had a like

small telephoto

like I think the

seven it's

the 55 to 220 or something

like a very cheap

telephoto

but it's kind of

really cool

I had that

then did away with that

and I have my current setup

which is R6 Mach 2

24105 f4

which is 90%

of my shots

and then

the 100 to 500

when it's not busted

so that's my current setup

I would love

since I've tried

your 72.7

202.8

I'm like oh

this is a good lens

well that's what

what I'm getting is like

I love the fact that

and this is

this is what I did

I mean

it's kind of good now

because I have all the

the equipment

but

I got so gear conscious

where I felt like everything

to get better

and better

I needed more and more

and so I was always

buying shit

and it was through

buying new lenses

that made me want to shoot more

but until I found that book

and started diving down

the photography books

and them

and buying the magazines

that are more photography centric

I was

I would probably

just still be trying

to buy more

shit for photography

yeah

so I have

other than the 100 to 500

that I actually consulted

with you at

about before I bought

I haven't been purchasing

any camera equipment

because I have the tools

now I need to do the work

yeah

and I think

so myself included

was like this for so long

but some of the best

photographers out there

like Tim O'Keeffe

Todd shoots

Todd Blueboss shoot

or was shooting

when we

we did a podcast

with the same

5D Mark II

that Tim O'Keeffe shot with

in 2000

fucking

24 when I was talking to him

yeah

I mean that's a

almost a 20 year old

digital camera

and they're getting

amazing things

so it's like

yeah

I need to stop thinking

that the tools

are gonna make me a better

photographer

and start being a better

photographer

by doing what we talked about

before this

getting connections

can

you know

finding a way to get access

to people and things

and that's

I think that's the part of

photography

that if we were to make a

YouTube video about it

five things

to make you a better

photographer

you need

to get close to people

and be personable

like

none of that shit

sounds salacious and fun

yeah

you know

it sounds like

an anxiety attack

yeah

so for real

it's funny

my brothers

my brother

is a professional

photographer

as always

word by size

yeah

he's

much better than I'll ever be

he shoots on a 5D

and like

that's it

and he crushes it

so I

completely subscribe

which a 5D

like you can get the

the most latest version

of a 5D

which is a full frame

Canon camera

I mean

I've seen these cameras

going for like 500 bucks

yeah

or less

and I'm like

dude at your level

you could upgrade

like you

shoot upgrade most likely

and he's like

no

I'm good

I'm fine

he rents lenses

from time to time

for different shoots

but

I agree

and I'm always looking at

you know

marketplace and lenses

and stuff

but I force myself

to not buy

anything

and I've realized that

the stuff I buy

and I haven't

I've never bought lenses

I don't use

I only have two of

three two lenses

the ones I mentioned

but I did buy the DJI Osmo

Pocket 3 recently

nice

and I don't use it

and I

must use it

because it is very impressive

it could

that thing can do a lot of things

but I'm just like

it just doesn't come natural from

I am so focused on the camera

that it just doesn't come natural

for me to

bust it

and start

filming with it

and everything

yeah

and I

it's funny my buddy Tim

from

Tim Holland

from fit from now

for an Opsi

fit for an Opsi

Tim Halley

yes

Halley sorry

did buy that same camera

a year ago

the DJI Pocket 3

and him and I

were riding in Sturgis

and he said the exact same thing

he's like

I have it

but I never use it

and I think

this idea of always

getting more gear

for more things

at the end of the day is

not necessarily

I bought it

I bought that

that same one

that that DJI Osmo Pocket 3

I bought it in like

June

April of last year

because it's a really cool camera

and it's really good

but I found myself the same way

like I just couldn't find a way

to use it

effectively for the way

that I operate

yeah

so

I actually sold it

to my buddy

Renny from Easy Rider Cycle

and he's been

actually using it

and making some content

on YouTube with it

which is

fucking perfect

because that's what

it needs to happen

with that great tool

but I found it

like for me like

like

not not a GoPro

but kind of the same thing

as a GoPro

the DJI

action

5 is what I use

I've just

like all the YouTube videos

I've been doing lately

is all with that

I've been trying not to use

my big camera

for the YouTube stuff

only use the

that camera

because you have

I remember we talked about it

like when I considered buying it

I did buy it by the way

and I don't use it

the the gimbal

the RS3 Pro

something

yeah yeah

so I will use it

it's just such a production

like I've used it

for a few videos

I've done with FXDLS Brooklyn

like we wanted to do

professional

and so I busted the gimbal

but it just takes me 10 minutes

to set it up

and it's just

did you use it or

I've used it a couple times

but like I said

the reason why

I have to stick with the DJI

like the GoPro style

camera to make videos right now

is that

I can get so

deep

and nerd out

on trying to create

cinematic stuff

with like

the equipment that I have

that I lose context

of the point

yeah I can see that

so I have a cool shot

that has no

nothing to do

with anything going on

yeah right

so

in my opinion

it's like

I'm still in such a learning phase

of doing youtube videos

I'm trying to be better

with speaking on camera

I'm trying to get better with

articulating

my ideas

as concisely as possible

so that

I'm not tripping on my words

and saying like

and um

and you know what I'm saying

and fucking

you know what I mean

like

getting it out there

saying it

and I feel like

once I get better at that

because I know that it's a

it's the other end of

time plus effort

equals results right

so I'm trying to just do that

and stay making

some kind of videos

and

not get so hung up right now

on like

what I could do

yeah

you know because in my head

I know that I could

do it

but

I don't think it's going to

make or break things

right now

and I think I need to be a better

I need to be better on camera

before I

start nerding out so much

I'm trying to make it look so

perfect

yeah I think that makes sense

I mean you got the most

important part that

the most important part

dialed in

you have the sex resort

and all of that good stuff

so that's

that's what the viewer won't see

is like

I think the videos were pretty

cool because they were very

of

like

they were seemed very

I mean they seemed I guess

they are

very genuine and authentic

to the trip

like it

I think it didn't look

mass it didn't look very like

it looked very much like

genuine to what was happening

in a way

yeah there was no staging

I mean

yeah exactly

that's what I'm trying to say

like

sometimes when you produce things

you lose that kind of connection

authenticity

everything looks very staged

I mean your videos looked very

like exactly how a trip

is supposed to go

which I think

has a lot of

interest for me at least

it's always a tricky thing

like when you try to

overproduce things

then

everything becomes a little bit

like for me

every time I see a beautiful shot

of like some dude doing YouTube

at a higher level of edits

for example

and it's like

the camera is already in the hotel

room

and he's opening the door

and getting into the hotel room

every time I see this

I'm like okay this is kind of cool

but also it's so very very staged

for example

and like or

the same shots of like

him writing on an empty road

and you know like

there's a lot of stuff

that makes me think

okay it's very set up

and it's less often

it's to me it loses a bit

of the authenticity

I think it's a fine line

obviously to to walk

but also I don't do YouTube

as you all know

off-road lighting

has become a huge deal

in the motorcycle scene

but as those trends rise

so has enforcement

of DOT regulations

you don't want to be stuck

out on hundreds

if not thousands of dollars

in lighting

that will get you pulled over

find and possibly have

your motorcycle impounded

custom dynamics has the solution

with their shark demon

headlight

which is designed

for motorcycles

and is available

for all current

Harley-Davidson models

as well as various sizes

for custom applications

along with turn signals

for the roguelite applications

all DOT compliant

and still offering

that badass look

invisibility

you're after

custom dynamics

has been providing

custom lighting solutions

to the motorcycle world

for over 20 years

a small company

and team

based out of North Carolina

offering some of the best

customer service

in the industry

so check out their website

at www.customdynamics.com

and don't hesitate to hit the link

in the description below

and hit up the custom dynamics team

with any questions

regarding your bike's

lighting upgrades

located in South Austin

Cowboy Harley-Davidson

has become a hub

for killer events

and provides a place

for the motorcycle community

to call home

Cowboy Harley

has something for you

every weekend of the month

on the first Saturday

they will host a cars

and coffee style meet

and hang

then on the second Saturday

it's ink and iron

a local artist's show

where tattooers, painters

pinstripers

and all artists are welcome

to come showcase their work and art

the third Saturday of each month

features a bike show

with a different bike category

every month

offering a 500-hour gift card

for the top prize

finally the fourth week of the month

will have a Thursday

night bike night

check them out at

www.cowboyharleyaustin.com

and give them a follow

on Instagram

at Cowboy HD Austin

we had that concept

that whole setting up the shot

and

like you said

putting the camera in the hotel room

and then walking in

and throwing all your stuff down

like it does create

like context to a video

but at that point you're acting

exactly

that's exactly

you know

and so that for me

which I think

I've done that

I mean literally

earlier this year

or like the end of last year

or earlier this year

I did a video

I did two videos

and these two videos were

all big cameras

I set up my

big camera in my van

and I'm driving to work

telling

so today we're going to do this

blah blah blah

and then

I got to work

I took the camera out

and set it up

and then

drove the van off

and then came back

and pulled into the thing

and then

stuck the camera in the shop

and opened the door

and it's like

all these different things

for like a

20-second

like sequence

which

looked cool

but

I don't think that the videos

I'm making right now

that fits into that world

right now

like the type of videos

I think connect to

like what I'm doing

is

is like

it's just a diary

yeah

you know what I mean

exactly

yeah

you know like

the one that I just put out

like

with

you know

working on the bike

trying to get it done

like there was a lot of ups

and downs in that process

and so on the downs

I didn't record

you know

so I had to find a way to

convey the

the emotion in a recap

and use what I had

and kind of piece together

stuff

I looked at that whole video

the one I just put out

is more of a learning curve

of like how can I

how can I salvage

an unfinished video

and I think that

FXDLS Brooklyn

like when y'all did that video

with me last year

in surges

I thought it was

uniquely

nice to see

how

you guys

put content together

and how he created that video

with the context

about me

and things like that

yeah

and you know

I'm like okay

that that actually made me feel

more like

okay I could

I see

I saw how that sauce was made

so now I kind of feel like

okay I'm more open to doing

different things

and not feel like

I have to be Peter McKinnon

yeah

you know

or stuff like that

so

I love making videos

but I love

taking photos

and I find that I have a hard time

doing both

yeah

at the same time

that's what I've realized

because I intend

at some point

to do video

more video

and I've started to double with it

a little bit

and

FXDLS Brooklyn

has been really pushing me

to start a YouTube channel

which the channel exists

but he has five shorts on it

and that's it

but hopefully

in a year from now

they'll

I'll have done a few things on that

and if I haven't

send me a DM

to say what the fuck

but

I think

yeah it's

my intention was to do video stuff

on this trip

and I didn't do any

yeah

I just

it's hard to do both

and I feel also

that when you do video

you really have to think more

about what

like photos

you can always patch together

and find some kind of red thread

to a story you're telling

yeah

I think video

like if you're not intentional

in what you shoot

and how you shoot it

it's very hard to

to have a cohesive approach

at the end

and at least

for my few experimentations

I will

I've never been happy

with really what I have done

so I never end up using it

yeah to shoot everything

yeah exactly

yeah

which can kind of suck sometimes

because it feels like you're being

like you're

you're hijacking

maybe a great moment

yeah I can see that

you know like say

last night we were at dinner

and Ramon shows up

and we're all sitting out there

if I just whipped out the camera

all right guys we're here

another espresso martini

it's a good time

and you know

like

even though

maybe there's not a lot of context to that

but it

it's still given

like when I come back to edit

now I have something

in that space to kind of

yeah

contextual

continue to

the story down the line

so like the

the trip I did

I had to

go

I had to be that way the whole time

be conscious of that

yeah

if I pulled the camera

out to shoot something

I had to

hey all right so

I found this great spot

on the backside

of the Griffith Observatory

I got a good shot

to downtown Los Angeles

I got the 100, 500

I'm gonna go try to get some

shots out of this

so you have to be mindful

to do that

shit

and then

you know

shoot the photos

yeah

and there was plenty of times

where like

I'd like

didn't record something

and I

and I was like

man I wish I would have

recorded that

yeah

you know

I'm glad I got the sex motel

that was

money

the but

you know like I said

you have to think about it

like you said it's

it's

to your point too

what you just said

was something that

it made me remember

I've got a

I'll show you my toolbox

at home I've got like

20 fucking go pros

well not 20

I got like

six go pros

I would buy a go pro

every year

this year

I'm going to start doing

a youtube channel

from 2018

until 2023

because that's the first year

I actually finally made

a youtube video

I would buy a go pro

and I would do a bike trip

and I would start filming

and then the second day

I stopped

yeah

and I would never do

anything else

and then

you know

just

you have to

when you go make a

bike trip

or do a bike trip

or do a bike thing

with the expectations

to capture it

you

you kind of

have to have an expectation

you know

that's where I give

like

people like

FXDLS Brooklyn

or even Cody

from the Iron Pony show

that I was writing

with a little bit

a lot of credit

because like

they're super consistent

that they're captured

like Alex FXDLS Brooklyn

like I've obviously

read a lot with him like

since the day I've met

he never let go

like he's always on it

he's always like

thinking of

what do I need to capture

and at first

to be honest

I was like

wow that's a lot

but like

to your point

that's what

if you're gonna do this right

that's what you need to do

and at first

it was very foreign to me

I was like

we don't need to

film ourselves eating pancakes

well actually

it makes some good footage

yeah

so yeah

it's just a very different mindset I think

when you're around people

that's also either

playing into it with you

or they're also doing

a version of it for themselves

it does kind of get a little bit

easier to be the person

to pull it out

yeah

the camera out

but at the same time

like that's

if you if

if I'm going on a bike trip

across the country

and some friends are going

but they don't do

anything like that

I just tell

like look

this is what I have to do

and I would appreciate it

you know

if you guys want to be a part

of it to

to go with the flow

if I need to stop

and get these shots

you know

I appreciate it

if you didn't get pissed

you know

so finding the right people

to stay in that groove

with is important too

but I

I wish that

sometimes I had more

careful what I wish for

there's times I wish

I had someone here more

at the shop

that I could bounce

video stuff with

like today

so and so and I are in the shop

we're going to mess with this

and like

he might film me

a little bit

while I'm doing something

and it's kind of what

thrashing does

they pass around

one GoPro

and everybody films each other

and then they get these

this footage right

or the same thing

with like cruisey

and and

Trent out there

but like

I'm alone all day long

so I gotta

I kind of have to set the tripod up

and well guys

it's Tuesday

so

you know what I mean

yeah when you're alone

everything becomes much

much harder

for sure

especially for videography

I think

yeah it's difficult man

but it's

it's also like it's

it's difficult

but so many people do it

and a lot of people do it

very well

and if they can do it

I gotta figure out how to do it

fair you know

and so

there's

I think that we're all looking

for that cheat code

yeah

this has got to be easy

and it's not

but it does get easier

the more you do

you know what I mean

and that's kind of where

where I'm kind of

I'm trusting the process

like I know that if I keep doing

this

it will get easy

so like what's the next big

video for you

like

I mean yeah

getting this chopper done

for Born Free

I have

I filmed

and this is the problem

I filmed all with a big camera

us doing the

hardtail on this bike

and my buddy Devin

loudmouth Devin

he helped film

B-roll shots

and so when I got home

and I put all the files

in the computer

to start looking at

like what I had to do

to make the video

I was just overwhelmed

with with clips

yeah

so

I just kind of like

I got the

there's a

there's a complete story there

I just need to

really separate everything

and organize

all the video footage

go through and listen

to all the dialogue

and figure out what works

and doesn't work

and put that out

that's the next video

and then yesterday

when I was at Corey's

and we were doing the gas tank

we filmed

I filmed all that

obviously it was just the

the little GoPro deal

so I want to put

a couple videos together

or at least one or two

or three

of the process of building

this chopper

the same way I just did

and I'm not trying to keep up

with a weekly drop

I'm just trying to

I'm just trying to do the

work on the bike

and then capture it

and then put something out

on it

but the

the project I want

is the trip

after Born Free

that I've talked to you about

that's the one

that I really

in a perfect

what would be on that chopper

that would be

right now that's kind of a

bucket list thing for me

and it's the more I talk

about it the more it's like

I feel it boiling me

like I'm so excited to do it

you know

and do you think that by then

you would still do it

like GoPro iPhone style

yeah

I would do it GoPro

the foot it's just easier

to capture the footage that way

like it's hard to carry

a big camera around

and video yourself

as opposed to the

the GoPro style

you know what I mean

but I would probably try to mix

some of the

some more cinematic shots in there

of not cinematic shots

I would

what I want to do

with all the videos

is figure out how to

incorporate my photography

and what I do for a living

as far as like the paint work

and the customizing bikes

and some lifestyle into it

so it's all

like you feel like you're getting

a glimpse inside

this world or whatever

and some perspective

you know

the YouTube video is the teaching

yeah

even though I don't want to be the teacher

I just need to be the

I just need to show you

what I'm doing

I'm not trying to say

it's the right way

or the wrong way

or the only way

just this is what I'm doing

yeah

you know

but that's the plan

what about you like what's

for you I mean

as far as just in general

like I mean

what are you hoping to

I mean

I mean you got some great

opportunities with photography

right now

yeah

you know

shooting some Harley stuff

some other brands

Lindahl I think is one

you know

the photography thing has been

I'll start with the photography thing

quick

yes there's been lots of amazing

opportunities

I'm super grateful

definitely the racing world

is where I want to do much more

and keep focusing my efforts on

like I think just to me

back when we talked a year ago

I had never been to a racetrack

and I ended up going in

the last race of the last season

2024 in New Jersey

and that completely blew my mind

it like felt like

it felt like the day I discovered

metal

like it felt like the first time

I listened to Metallica

Oh the first time you went and

shot racing

yeah I was just

just blown away by like

everything

everywhere I looked was amazing

everything looked so cool

so rad

and so

I've really

it was one of my big objectives

this year to kind of

find a way to get

to get into this world

and to shoot that world

a little bit more

at first I just did it on my own

and now I've been lucky that

the Lindor M3

Tobacco Harley team

has been like cool with me

to be like yeah you can come

and shoot with us etc

so now I'm kind of working with

them for the last few races

of the season

so I'll be in Coda

and I'll be back in New Jersey

with them

and I think

really like that's been

super gratifying

just to shoot more motion stuff

shoot like all kinds of

different things

like the paddock stuff

everything it's been

it's been a great learning

opportunity

and a great way to discover a

world from the inside

with the people that are

making that world

come to life

other than that for photography

I think it's like we said

more portraits

more people and everything

videography wise I've really

I have this commitment to myself

that by the end of this year

I will have put up a couple

of YouTube videos

and they will probably not

perform

I think what I want to do

is not what would perform

the most

yeah we'll do it for yourself

yeah exactly

and that's

that's kind of my mantra

is like

I want to try to do like

take a song

that I really really love

yeah yeah

and and and overlay images

of the motorcycle world

but not only that

also maybe also

like other things

and cut like a music video

that would be the best

of what I could do

with my limited knowledge

of editing for video

but I know a few things

and I would like to do that

consistently

like if I could put like

once a month

like

five minute

music video

to a song that I really love

and being able to capture

the emotion of the song

through the footage

that I'll put together

and illustrate that song

through the

through the footage

I'll put together

I would consider this

a big victory

and achievement for me

I think

I would talk very briefly

about

no filmmakers that I love

so

Terence Malik

Darren Aronofsky

these guys

that have a very visual universe

where sound and images

are intimately intertwined together

I think that's

the type of things

I would strive for

on YouTube

so very very far

from the typical

motor vlogger

or the typical

motorcycle thing

I think motorcycle

would definitely be a part of it

because it's my center of interest

and it's how I

von Gasfeld come to life online

so it would be the

through line of everything

of course

but

deeper than that

I think it would be trying to vehicle

to bring to life

that raw emotion of that song

in a visual way

that would be enticing to me

and that

probably realistically

don't have the skills to do

what I aspire to do

so I think the first few videos

will not be that great

but as good as I can be

I have

I see them in my head

I know the songs

and I see

I know what I want to do

question mark on whether or not

I'll be able to pull it off

but I

when I come home

sometime in September

that's

I want to dedicate time to this

and really like

spend the time

don't take the camera with me

my traditional camera

take the DJI

or whatever I end up doing

and try to

and maybe I'll shoot with my camera

actually because it's a great camera

for shooting too

and try to start putting something

like this together

it's probably

it's very ambitious

versus

the level of my current skills

and so

knowing myself

and never being satisfied with what I do

there's a high likelihood

that I won't put it out

because I will be like

this is not

as good as it must be

to be put out

but I think that's where I have to force myself to

actually put it out

but yeah

we'll see

but that's

for me that's the next frontier

I almost like I said very

conscious that this is not

typically the type of content

that performs on YouTube

but that's the content I want to make

so

we'll see

well yeah

it kind of

goes hand in hand with the

I think the first conversation you and I kind of kicked off

when you got here to town was

if we only do the things that perform

then how would we

how how will evolution ever take place in our

our deal because

you know like we

we were saying this before we

it's like

it's like in order for culture to shift

whether it's like photography

or

videography

or capturing

YouTube being on

motorcycling

something has to

someone has to do something different

and it's got to feel foreign

and almost like

it's almost like people

might not like it at first

because it's not what they're used to

but it's kind of every time

iPhone comes out with a new

like

things are different

like the

the shit doesn't work the way it worked on the old

operating system

and then

you quickly adapt to it because

it does end up being better

it becomes the evolution of what it was

whether it's better or not is completely up to the user right

and they're

experienced with it

well that's the thing about like creating stuff

but if all we do is always make the same

shit that everybody else is doing

but we're doing it different because

we're

we're all different

you know what I mean like it's not going to

move the needle

and people aren't going to grow

so

I agree

you know what it's funny because when I think of this

emotional motorcycle music videos

there's one that actually

comes to mind

which I don't know how well known that video is

but it's

a video that Kirk Pierce actually put on YouTube

like 10 or 11 years ago

and it's just that one song that is very monotonous

I think it's called Ride the Locust

and he just cuts footage on it

and it's not really overproduced or anything

but

it has such a strong vibe to it

and it has just such a strong emotional intensity to it

that I don't know

I don't think this video did really well necessarily

but I just remember when I first saw it

I was like

oh wow that is very different from what everybody has done

and I would not do it this way

I would have some time of different types of edits

and everything but

I think like

trying to convey emotion

through motorcycle related footage online

would be would be really cool

not that it doesn't exist

some people already do it very well

like I don't mean to say that no one does

emotional motorcycle content

because there's a lot of great emotional motorcycle content online

I think to me it's just the balance between

music

and visuals

and how integrated both can be

that I would love to really focus on the most

if yeah

yeah we'll see

we'll see it's a bit

it's it's it will take some of the

I actually want to shoot a few things in Dallas

because there's a few monuments in Dallas

that I would like to have

we talked about the Thanksgiving Chapel

which is one of the most beautiful monument

I think in in Dallas

but yeah I think if you ever look at a

Terence Malick movie

specifically

Hidden Life

The Tree of Life

or the Fin Red Line

that is also very famous

you'll see his type of editing is insane

and I would never obviously

remotely even think that I could be

five percent as good as he is

but I think that type of editing

like thousands of different cuts put together

in a very flowy way

and a very ethereal way

almost is the type of things

because I think you need to accumulate

an insane amount of footage

yeah

to then just be able to do a massive patchwork

that somehow is going to become coherent

but at first may not be coherent

and I think what brings the coherence

is also the music

and the emotion of the music

and you cut it

like he has this amazing scene of

he takes the Moldau by Smetana

who is a very famous classical song

and he overlays footage on top of it

that flows the way the song flows

it's a very flowy

I mean I don't know how to describe it

anyways

it's just insanely beautiful

and I would love

I would strive to recreate

at a very different skill level

something like that

that would be awesome

oh that's awesome

yeah I mean

that's being inspired

yeah

wanting to go out and

and channel that inspiration

but through like the way you see it

yeah

and with your experience

and to the music you love

yeah that's dude

that's that's classic textbook inspiration

yeah

being inspired by something

and wanting to be proactive about

being a creator

yeah

of some you know

sort

you know what I mean

yeah

like I've noticed this about you that

that like uh

I thought that I actually think is cool

like you you

you you plan big

yeah

you know

like when you were telling me about

the ideas of

shooting the urban cowboys

yeah

you know I'm like

you're like well I want to get

I want to do this on like a

massive street

and block everything off

and get the bikes and

the cowboys and have them like

you know flank each other and

and I'm like

that's I mean I'm seeing in my head

like you're explaining to me

I'm like yeah that's going to be sick

I'm like but then the

the practical side of my brain is like

how are you going to get

like access to the street

how are you going to get this

how are you going to get that like

and it's overwhelming to me

I'm like I ain't going to fuck with it

but I love that you think that way

I plan big but I don't always deliver

to be honest

like my I shoot very high

and then I end up sometimes

missing the mark

but at least it's as high as it's

going to be

I think specifically

for that specific idea there's

at first I wanted to do it in New York

and like

I looked into the complexities of

bringing a horse into Manhattan

and just that

it's already overwhelming

like you do not bring a horse

into Manhattan easily

and so then I

where you park a horse trailer

yeah exactly

and because my idea originally

was to do it in Grand Central

I was like

like Grand Central

the horse riding

the bike flanking

and I was like

it's going to be the sickest shot

but then I was like

I don't know

so it may end up that idea

and it will just be like

in a field

but it will still be cool

I like

that's one of my strength

and one of my weaknesses

I dream very big

and sometimes I struggle to achieve

the vision

and then I get like

underwhelmed by

whatever I put out

and I end up not putting it out

and like there's a lot of stuff

that I have on my computer

that will never see light of day

because

it is not what I thought it should be originally

and maybe

I should have a little bit more grace with myself

and just release more things

but you know

it's kind of like

even when I was playing a lot of music

and everything

like

it's just releasing something

was always a big deal for me

and so

it's a huge vulnerability

yes exactly

and especially when you spend so much time on something

like a photo is a photo

it's fine

like a track, an album, an EP

is maybe for you a paint job

like we're talking like hundreds of hours

or like a significant amount of time

for you to release something

that takes that much of you creatively

in the world is a big vulnerability

and there's a lot of demos and stuff

that I never released for that exact reason

not that I don't think they were great

but just

I was like

I don't know

and

it's always easier in a band

because in a band there's more of you

and therefore there's the collective force of the band

and so

when you play in a band it's easier

but

a lot of the stuff I recorded

was like what you would call one-man bands

and therefore it's me doing everything

and that is where like the true vulnerability piece comes

because it's 100% you

everything is you

for better and worse

yeah you can't deflect any of that

failure

or perceived failure

onto anybody else

yeah

like it's the grunt of your

like you have to take all that

exactly

no 100% that's

I mean that's kind of what it feels sometimes

like when you

I think you make a YouTube video

like

you

I mean

for me at least

because I'm not

that good at it

like as far as editing

and

and even shooting

and a lot of stuff

you'll do a video

where you spend

like I did two videos

earlier this year

and those two videos

like one of them

doing the shop tour video

I

wasn't really great

at my

delivery of

talking about

the different things

so

in order to

get past

all my insecurities

about the video

try to make the best

piece of work as like

I could

and then put it out

is like this massive amount of

vulnerability

you know

and

fortunately

like I feel like a lot of

at least in my world

because I don't want

like put

things out there

as a like

a matter of fact

I try not to be

so

poll

polarizing might be the wrong word

I'm not trying to like

make statements

this is how you do it

you

we run this here

yeah

you know

I don't want make

I don't want to make people

feel like they

they have to choose

my side or another

I just want to expose them of

what

what is

here right

so I don't get a lot of

negative

comments and feedback

on my youtube

unless it's literally just

some stupid shit I said on a

podcast

or something on a podcast right

so

fortunately that vulnerability

of putting something like that

out there

it's really only met

with positive reinforcement of

like with the comments

and the people that did

watch it

but then there's always that

that

that number

that

that view count

or that like

or that whatever

that has so much power

psychologically over us

to our worth

for sure

you know

and that's where

remember I asked you

I don't know if it was

last time the night before

like would you rather

Harley

repost your work

would you rather

Harley

like

do a

showing of your work at the

art museum

or the

the Harley Davidson Museum

I mean

it wouldn't be a question

like a thousand percent

I would rather they have it

at the museum

you know so there's like this

this point where like

I think that's

it goes into a lot of the

conversations that you and I

have had over the last two

days which I'm sorry guys

we're

we're referring to that

a lot here

but

that's why I'm

so like really wanting to

find ways to

show the world the things

that that

I create or you create

or anybody creates

without

with removing that

the screen in front of you

and the fact that

you can only see at this size

I mean like you sitting here

in the studio

and seeing this photo behind

me and the one behind you

it's like

I mean you were like

staring at the one behind

you of Curpias

and looking in the reflection

of the

of the primary

and I'm like

and you all you can see

you I was like

I never even noticed that

but

to me like seeing it on that

scale is like so much better

to me

that's why my house is full

of big pictures

you know

hell when I piss every day

there's that

I have that six over poster

and the reason it's there

is because there's three

photo shots

that I love

and they're all photos

that I never would

think to take

yeah that poster is great by the way

yeah super cool

and I don't I don't know

what the movie is about

or anything but

the same guy that made

21 days under the sky

he made that first

and it's kind of a

it's really hard to watch

because it's not hard to watch

like it's not good

it's hard to physically

find

find it

because you can't buy it

and

Dice magazine kind of

owns the rights to it

and every once in a while

they'll release it

in a way you can watch it on

like

YouTube or whatever

or something

it's it's complicated

I

it used to be on like

Prime and Netflix

or something like that

a long time ago

but

it's a really cool

documentary too

really cool

tell me

whenever

yeah

whenever it's available

if I could ever

get my hands on it

I will

I'd spend

I'd spend over 100 bucks

to get it

like in one way

or another

because I do love it

I own the

21 days

which is also hard to get

yeah

so I

like they

they sold it on Amazon once

like on a Prime

yeah you bought it at the time

yeah

it's marked

but yeah

so like

finding a way to

to get to where people can

interact with like

whether it's the motorcycles

or the photography

or the art

or just the interactions of

people like without

that value

added to

like some counter

next to a video

or a picture

or song

or whatever

you know what I mean

because if it's

it's where you're gonna have to

put this heart together

yeah

well you're gonna probably have to

help now

because you already offered

I would help

for sure

I would love to

that would be super cool

no I mean

it's funny because I've never

printed my own

things until recently

actually

and we've talked about this

last year

like through your input

actually

the year where the

driving force

that got me to actually

start printing anything

based on one comment

that you put on one photo

once

and since then

I've printed a fair amount

and since then

people have hit me up

and say

hey could you print for me

that photo you took of me

and I've realized

recently actually

I've done quite a few

of these one-offs

where like

just someone likes the photo

and

and then they send me photos

of my own print

in their living rooms

etc

and that's

that's very

that's very rad

and almost humbling

in many ways

that's really

you know your photo is

in somebody's living room

spoiler thing

two of my prints

are in FxDLS

parents living room

which is also

always makes me smile

it's the

most gratifying thing

you could really think of

I am in

actually one of the photos

so really

I am in their living room

which is insane

but like

yeah

it's

we've been really

forced to look at

photography

through such a narrow lens

vertical shots

Instagram

like

it would be great to be able

to break that apart

a little bit

and go back to

actually just horizontal shots

to start with

I think like recently

I was shooting stuff

in Sturgis

with a

Justin

Warfork bike

and Jason

who owns the

Glencoe Camground

they have both had like

a Panamerican

and a 1942

a WLA

and so they were both bikes

together

like it was cool shot

and I was like

none of this looks great

in

in vertical format

like everything should be

horizontal

it would look

so much more cinematic

and so

I ended up shooting it both ways

but obviously

everything that we ended up

putting on Instagram is

is vertical

it's a shame because

as I was shooting it

I was like

I should shoot

much more in horizontal

and I barely shoot

anything in horizontal

because I'm so formatted

to think vertical

whereas my friend Olivier Touran

who is obviously

a professional photographer

and that is

lips and bound

better than I'll ever be

shoots everything

horizontal

yeah

because he's been

trained this way

and he knows that it just looks

better from a composition

standpoint and everything

and then he will end up

cropping things

if he has to

yeah

so I don't know

I think we're

I speak for myself

no one else

but I think I am

somewhat

I came to photography

through the era of Instagram

and therefore

everything I know

about photography

outside of the books

that I own

is taught to me

through the lens of

social media

and I think

I like what you do

of having all these old books

etc

to look at

a different way of

photography

like

I have a lot of books

on war photography

because I ended

I'm very interested in history

and so

I look at these photographs

of Kappa

as we were talking today

or

a few other guys

and

and I realize

none of them are vertical

for example

and and the way

they shot is so different

obviously the surroundings

are excessively different

but so

I think it's good

to be inspired

by other things

and

an art show

or something else

goes in that direction

as well so

hmm

yeah vertical shooting

like

tends to work well for like

like

I mean think about it

like a lot of like

Instagram shots

like you want to fill

the space

with

the the bike

or the product

or the thing

right

so

if you have a vertical shot

or a horizontal shot

I'm sorry

they kind of

fit like

gives you a perspective

of of the environment

exactly

and the subject is super

small

it's not impactful

but if you see that

like

on printed

it's very impactful

because you see a scale

and you see

you're immersed in

a different way

and um

you know

like don't be wrong

I'm the same as you

like Instagram

is what really

I mean I'd always had a

love for photography

but I never

would try it

I just

lie like

it's cool

I like

that exists

I used to have all the bikes

that

I would build back in the day

would get shot for magazines

and I would always be friends

with the photographers

but I never would like

would pick up a camera

and do it

you know

but Instagram was kind of

an inspiration

among many other things

that I've talked about

on this

on these

episodes before but

and so you get kind of conditioned

to like

I'm trying to shoot stuff for Instagram

and

then over time

you

you uh

you know

like

like I'm proud of it

but now like

I want to shoot for something else

yeah

you know

I want to shoot for a different

thing

I want to experience this

in a different way

and a lot of that came

when

I got to go to

Michael Lichter's house

and see

photography printed

and photo books

and things like that

and it

changed my perspective

yeah

and um

and then like

if if I only consume Instagram

for inspiration

then I'm only going to be

regurgitating

the same thing

over and over again

I'm not going to be able to look

at something

or bring a fresh idea

even if the idea

is old as hell

yeah

you know

but I'm

I found inspiration

from a photo from 1940

that I'm finding a way

to use in my

current way I'm shooting

to show

motorcycling

in a different light

yeah

you know what I mean

like you got to look outside

to to reinvent inside

or something

you know

that's very true

I think for me

it's also been

able to kind of

to your earlier points

be a little bit more okay

with

letting go of numbers

and letting go of

you know

criterias of performance

and giving myself

the room to be like

I know this is not going

to perform necessarily

because it's not front and center

on the bike

but

this is still a cool shot

and that's what I'm going to do

and that Anna like it this way

I used to be very drawn by

especially when I started

so five six years ago

I was like very like

looking at my analytics

and my numbers a lot

a lot a lot

over the past

I would say two years

a year and a half

I've

tried to tune that out

a little bit more

and now

I try to shoot things

that I know will not perform

but that I think are very

are cool to me

and

it's been creatively

I think it's giving me a lot of

also room to reinvent

things a little bit

especially focusing more

on surroundings

rather than necessarily

just motorcycles itself

and

trying to paint a picture

that has a little bit more depth

than just focused on the bike

but just try to

to show more things itself

or adding more motion

to things etc

and

it's been great

I think

it's a little step

in a bigger step

that is deconstructing

what social media

does

to the way we look at photography

and like

one thing is

the numbers

another thing is

how do you think of

what a photo should be

and it's

I think it's a

long form

it's a process for me

that I am going through right now

but

it's a good one

do you think printing

your photography

made you

helped you see it

in a different way to where

like I've had photos

that I think look

really great

on Instagram

but they don't

I don't think they would look good

as a print

I don't think I've had that

because I haven't printed

so many of them

I've maybe printed

maybe like

20 to 30

as a whole

most of the ones I've printed

I was

very happy with

well I mean like those shots

like the print

that I have from you

the Brooklyn bridge shots

oh man like

that was a

but that's kind of

what I want to do more

is like this kind of

and we talked about this a little bit

like the

to paraphrase Peter McKinnon

it's from like

taking a photo

to making a photo

and trying to

think more of a production

and an idea

and like make it happen

rather than just

snapping away

on a regular Tuesday morning

right or whatever

and like that

that shot of

the burnout on the

the bridge

was the first time that

I was like okay

let's try to

think of what we're going to do

before we do it

and let's try to

produce it

to the best of my abilities

and there's been a few more

that I've done since

that are in that direction

but not enough

and I really want to try to

to transition to something like this

and maybe that means I'll post

less things

because it will take me longer

to produce them and

and put them together

but I would really really want

I'm very inspired by like

the work of like

people like

you know

the iron brim all of the world

etc

because you can tell that

they thought of what

they're putting out there

yeah

and I think

that is the next level of my

one of the levels of evolution is

transitioning from

taking something on the go

to really thinking of the story

you're going to tell and

bringing it that

that could be

that could be very

putting yourself in a box as well

fair

and that contradicts

some of the stuff we discussed

earlier on spontaneity

and everything

but I kind of went through a similar

like

conversation in my head

you know

I can't remember if it was a year ago

or two years ago

or you know

I know it was a couple years ago

both styles of photography

have their place

right

I would think that

if you have an idea for a shoot

making that photo as you said

is 100% the way you got to do it

I mean that happens

but then

going out there

and being able to see

and capture things

is also very important

because you have to be able to

recognize

photography everywhere

it might be

yeah yeah

you're right

I don't think one excludes the other

because you know

when you go cat

when you go

like photograph an event

you know

for brand

for Harley

you're not making that

you're capturing something to exist

yeah

and so that muscle needs to be worked out

when you go

and Harley's like

hey

ride this new roguelide

take some cool creative shots

you have to go make photos

yes

there

that's true

right

and even photography

is much harder than I thought it would be

and I've done a few this year

like

for Harley or even just to

entertain myself

in local bagnites

in Brooklyn

and

it is hard to make anything look good

because there's just busy events

there's just so many people

it's a great muscle

to your point

and it's a great thing

to exercise yourself

and

I really

have respect for people

that are able to take

like

even waiting for those

I mean waiting for those

you know

it's a whole different game

but like

making these kind of big events

look cinematic

and cool is just

is

it's much harder than I thought it would be

and I think that's where the whole idea of

of like

practicing like you said

to go out to there

and start to recognize

and like

immerse yourself in it

to where it's like

what is it about this

that makes me

like

like how do I make this feel

like

yeah

you know

like

Lictor was good at this

or is good at this

and some of his early work

like capturing

like the crowd

at the Buffalo Chip

while the light

like the light

photos yeah

you know like those kind of shots are like

and he's like

we were on the bridge

and we're thinking about

jumping out on the side

to get this angle right

you know

Lictor's always looking for that perspective

that's different

to show scale and

and emotion

and fucking shit like that

and that's where I think

that's good to do that

but it's also good to be in a studio

and know how to

sculpt light

make it work

do this

like there's so many facets of photography

that you can kind of

go in

and I

I think that

maybe if I

like you were just saying

if

I just stuck to

making photos

or

taking photos

like going out and just

you know

capturing whatever is

like

you could probably

grow in that space better

but I like the versatility

of being able to take my camera

everywhere

and walk away

with something usable

yeah

something that

can tell a story

you know

if

if I need to

showcase this new

Arleness part

or custom dynamics light

then I have the ability to shoot it

for them

because they need to use it for marketing

but I can also like

go out

in Sturgis

walk around

and see their products

on someone I don't know

and find a way to capture it

in

an everyday use scenario

where it's also valued to them

yeah

you know what I mean

yeah I think versatility

especially these days in age

where things are changing

very fast

I think

in the photography world

like

versatility

will be even more needed

and I think

to some extent

the field of photography

that might actually have

the more

of a

obvious future to me

is probably

the one that has to do with

authenticity and event

rather than

mass

very produced shots

where AI

will be able to do it

much faster than you can

whereas an event

a bike night

or an Indian Larry

block party

you're always

most likely

need someone

that is able to capture it

in a good way

so

yeah

you need to

have both

and

it used to be that

for me the most exciting part

was always like

the produced thing

but I think

this year

because of the race stuff

and then because

I kind of forced myself

to go to these events

and try to see

what I can get out of them

I've definitely started

to grow that muscle

of like

trying to bring

a polished version

of an event

or something that I think

looks good to my standards

in my own ways

to life

and it's been

it's been a good

it's been a good evolution

at the end

if you look like

and I think

I've done right

on one of things

that I said

last year on the podcast

which was

my Instagram

will not so much be

about me anymore

yeah

and I think

I'm proud

I'm happy that

I was able to take

that

that departure

from what I've done

for so long

which was solely about me

to now

almost not

so much being

about me anymore

and more about the people

I meet

the events I go to

the places I see

and I've grown a lot

through that

so that's

it's been a good process

yeah that's what I

I mean I

I definitely

can attest to that

because when I

started shooting

you know

yeah

I wanted to shoot

my own bikes

and my own projects

and my own stuff

but like

man it's just something

about shooting

everyone else

and everything else

and

that's why I had to start a

separate page

because

I didn't want to confuse

people

if I shot

a bike

that someone had

that was really cool

but someone else

built it

or painted it

I don't want to put that

on the fast side garage

yes

and it seemed like

I'm taking credit

for someone else's stuff

so my

photography page

became this catch-all

for photography

that doesn't have anything

to do with my brand

sometimes it does

but for the most part

it's just

it's the world

that I get to be a part of

you know

what are you doing now

like

like what's some of the

maybe a

a plan

or an idea

for like

once the bike

gets back on the road

like what is something

you want to do

with the road glide

the street

I'm street glad sorry

I think I'll do

what I wanted to do

with it originally

which is driving it cross-country

I'll probably drive it

differently than what I

I think my original plan

was to crush

highway miles

and all of that

and I think

maybe when the bike is fun

well actually

sorry

let me backtrack

most likely

the first thing I'll do

is to try to

which goes against

a lot of things

I said earlier

the first thing

I'll probably do

is try to beat

my cost to cost record time

with a friend of mine

with it

which would most likely

happen in October

or November

if the bike is back

together by then

I've mentioned

last time we did the podcast

I've I've done the Florida

to California

cost to cost in 46 hours

that was my best time

then my friend Kevin

destroyed this

by doing it

I think in 42 43 hours

I can't remember

that he did

way much faster than I did

this is like Jacksonville

to San Diego

Jacksonville to San Diego

I did mine by

and I slept

on the 46 hours

I slept seven hours

and I had a

whole lot of mechanical issues

with my gear shifter

so I feel very confident that

I can bring below 40

and I know Kevin feels

how does that

like

run me through that

what is it

so you

what time do you leave

like Jacksonville

yeah

so when I did it

I left Jacksonville

at like

five a.m.

kind of thing

maybe even four

like it was early for sure

I was in Texas

I was in Houston

for rush hour

which was not fun

um

and I slept in

Ozona, Texas

basically in the middle

almost a little bit further west

than Austin

maybe two

after between Van Horn

and Austin

I slept there for six

seven hours

and then I finished the rest

basically and I arrived

in San Diego

with the time difference

the three hour time difference

I was in San Diego

by 10 p.m.

I believe the next day

the next day

so 46 hours all in

like I said

if I didn't sleep

and if I didn't have mechanical issues

I think it would have been much faster

but at the time

my goal was to do it below 48

I didn't really have a goal

to go faster than anything

I was just trying to do it below 48

so it was a fun ride

actually

it was just very cold

because it was in January

but he did gear

and it was fine

so Kevin did much better than I did

on the dyna as well

so I did it on mine

and we both did it on 2016

low rider races

and so the goal this year

would be to do it together this time

because we ride together often

I mean as much as we can

it is in North Carolina

and to do it below 40 together

would be the objective

and most likely that will be the first bike

the first ride I will do on the street light

if it's done by then

if it's fixed by then

from there

I would most likely resume

the original plan

which was to bring it

to a lot of cold locations in the US

and shoot all the great content

and all of that

but I think I would do it differently

than what I had originally planned

through the lens of the trip I just

I am currently on

which would be probably less

stakanovist

when it comes to miles

more back roads

less highways

more time

more everything

so I think that would be the plan

just try to ride it as much as I can

it's unfortunate because I'm I

I really want to bring the dyna to 100,000 miles

right now I'm at 85

so I still need to put 15 miles

15,000 on it at some point

and if I switch fully to the street glide

it's going to have to take a back seat

but it is what it is

yeah so

I ride it across the country

ideally I would love to ride it to Canada

if I can

but yeah basically riding it

riding it until it breaks

is probably the plan

yeah

yeah that'd be cool

so what you did

a street glide

you did you did a big motor in there

didn't you

yeah with the 135

which is absolutely not needed

when you live in New York City

actually

but it's it's it's a

I mean obviously it's a great motor

and like it's funny

because I've never felt like

like my dyna

which is a 110

was underpowered

but now like I'm like

oh wow it is

it is a leap

of difference between both

the 135 is much smoother

and reliable

than I thought it would be

I was a little bit

like on the fence personally

about getting the 135 on this

like FxDLs Brooklyn

was really the one driving it

because he had a 131

and so he wanted a 135

I personally wasn't so much into

necessarily doing this

but then I was like okay why not

and I must say

I was very pleasantly surprised by

how the motor handles

again I don't have that much time on the bike

because I only barely did

maybe 2.500 miles on it

so far

but these 2.500 were very smooth

so it's been it's been fun

it's a fun motor

especially in sports mode

like I didn't realize

how much of a difference

the modes do to the way the bike reacts

but just switching it from like

the whatever the highway mode

to the sports mode

like it becomes a very fun bike

to ride

I think I've only ridden

the newer bikes in sport mode

and I think that the own

like my biggest gripe with it all

is like I don't like how loose the throttle feels

like it's it's too

there's no resistance

yeah there's none

yeah for sure

I don't know

like that part I don't like

but that's why I like throttle cables

because you feel it pulling back

and so it's like you're fighting it

yeah yeah yeah

which 100%

comfort over long haul

and you're like just holding that

I get that

but that like when you're like

trying to ride hard

like I feel like I need

some kind of a

I'm tense

yeah you know

like I want to fucking fight something

you know

not like

I hit a bump in my arm

like the weight of my elbow

like gives a gas

yeah I mean

but no I'd

like I said I'm still in that boat too

where I

I know that next year

next spring is probably going to be time

to jump back on a new modern bike

I don't know yet

if it

I'm kind of more leaning towards

like a low rider ST

the newest version

that that's been really appealing to me lately

I've already had one

but I haven't had one with like the new motor

yeah

that which

the high output thing

yeah the how

the high output motor is just so much more appealing to me

because of how much power it makes

and

with the new the

I think it's an oval port head situation

that's like making a lot more power

and I don't just interesting me

I want to be able to have that

130 horsepower range

with just a cam

that way I don't have to worry about

the heat and all the crazy shit

not that I ever had any issues with my 131s

when I had them

I love the motors

but

when you have a big ass motor in your bike

they're still like you're leaving

every time you go on a trip it's like

should be good

that's that's exactly how I felt

and obviously I mean I can't really say much about it

because I only did a few thousand miles

but if I look at FXZ as Brooklyn

he just did 10,000 miles on it

and he had zero issue

yeah that's so that's so fucking cool

that's pretty awesome for you

the um

yeah but you were also talking about maybe an FXR

I mean that is I used the word new frontier a lot

in this past hour we spent together

but that is a true

so yeah the backstory on this is

my friend Wilson

who was the the blue FXR

built by Badfoot in New York

sent me one day a story of

Rob world-class dirtbag on Instagram

who was looking for a photographer

for the east coast FXR jam

yeah and I don't know anything about FXR as much

but I just said hey I'll do it if you want

and so him and I really heated up

and like we became good friends

I've spent time with him afterwards

and so I had like a really really like a true

initiation to the world of FXR

of these all this time I spent with him

within the FXR jam first for three days

where I met the whole community

shot everybody portraits of everyone

da da da

and then even more so when I stood at his place

during Laconia and him and I just rode around

yeah kind of shit

and I must say like

it is a very endearing culture

and so different from the

I mean I maybe not so different

but different from what I know of the

more sacred culture until then

like the amount of dedication

and obsessiveness of these guys

when they build these bikes etc

was super cool especially Rob

who is so knowledgeable

like spending time with him

who was explaining me

how this period correct thing works

versus this and how he's trying

to source all the right parts

of the right time and

I don't know it was just super cool

and he made I met a bunch of

his friends and anyways

he was like at some point he's like

oh maybe you should get an FXR

and we should do the

what they call the triple crown

which is this idea of

you have to build your FXR

or at least you have to have

not build you have to have an FXR

and then you have to ride it

to three different rallies

over the course of the same year

so that would be the east coast

FXR jam in New York state

Sturgis

and then the west coast

FXR jam in Lake Tahoe

and if you do all these three

within a year you become

a triple crown finisher

or yeah and there's only a few people

that do it because obviously

it's it's a rough ride on FXR

my friend Wilson just did it

Rob has done it

and so he was like oh maybe

you should consider it

and I actually am considering it

because I think it's it would be

such a different way to

look at motorcycles and adventure and

oh yeah so I don't know

I mean nope like I said

no financial position to buy

another bike but maybe

maybe I'll sell the sport store

that is not getting a lot of miles

and maybe I'll try to find a cheap FXR

and see what's great what can do

I think what I find really enticing

was it more than the idea of the ride

is the idea that it would force me

to finally become more knowledgeable

on mechanics because obviously

I mean I've had a lot of issues

on my dyna but

I'm not the one that fixes

the dyna most times

I mean I can trouble shoot a few things

and I can get it to the dealership

or the shop that's gonna help me fix it

but I don't necessarily have the knowledge

to you know fix it myself all the time

I think if I was on an FXR

I would just have to learn much more

just because it would probably break

more often and I would have to know

how to bolt stuff different

like I would have to know a lot more

about my own bike in a way

and that's something that has always

been on my on the list of things

I should do but I think I always

kind of put it on the back burner

a little bit by convenience

so by whatever

and so I think that would be a

welcome development to be much more

knowledgeable about

about my own bike basically

like I said I think I know my dyna

fairly well but

I think there's a difference between

knowing and knowing how to fix

having all the tools with you

etc etc so I would welcome that

because I think that would be a good

way to think of travel differently

be more self-reliable of like etc

so we'll see it would be fun

it would be really fun and

it would be different

so for sure

like you were saying like

when you're gonna have your chopper

you're not gonna try it

you're not gonna do 110 on the highway

and that's fine it's not built for that

I think if I have an FXR same

I mean you ride fast on your FXR

maybe I will ride fast I don't know

but I feel like it would be

I'm only riding fast I thought

you wanted to ride fast

I feel like it would be a different

type of

maybe it would be a different type of

riding a different type of trip

and Rob is a really great guy

that I really came

come to appreciate a lot so

I feel like I've met him but I don't know if I've really

I've met a lot of really really great dudes

in the FXR world and it

like the ones that I've just kind of like

become more friends with

have been like Chris Harry

and you know Joe Kidd

and you know the Clems guys

and so like there's a lot of dudes

out there that I think are

straight fucking ambassadors of FXRs

that I would love to get to know more

bring on the podcast and stuff

but I don't like doing phone podcasts

yeah I mean yeah and

I've been wanting to go to the

I think the hardest thing

I think what's hard about the

the Triple Crown

is the spacing of the events

yeah it's not easy for sure

because literally in the course of two months

you almost

depending on where you're at in the country

you almost have to do three

cross-country trips

yeah I agree

it's not it's

it's a time commitment

and depending on your work or anything

it's hard I just hard to take the time

to do it

yeah that's very it's almost like

if you lived by the west coast jam

or the east coast jam like you

you're in the best position

yeah but if you're in the middle

it's tough

yeah so for you to go to new york

is not or to go to the new york

or the east coast jam in new york

is not too bad

to go to the west one

is the biggest undertaking

and then to go to Sturgis and back

is also a big undertaking but

it's two out of three

versus

the closest one to maybe me here

is 1,100 miles

yeah you're really out

you're I mean

and then it's like

1,800 miles to each of the other ones

the only worst place would be florida

but

yes that would be the worst

so there is

there is worse

but yeah no you're right actually

it's I I I agree

it's it's it's not an easy

I mean it's not an easy thing to pull off

I think that's probably why also there's

so few people that

and that's what makes it cool

like I'm not

I'm not saying that

like I think it should be easier

I think doing

we've talked about this a lot

that

having

doing hard things is very important

and I feel like we should all be trying to find

ways to

accomplish harder things

you know whether that is personal goals

of like trying to

learn something or develop more

or

how to bike that's not easy

you know like

it's so rewarding

you know what I mean

hard things is

and it's kind of like the underlying thing that

I think it is Brooklyn and I have

talked a lot about as well

and like that

we're trying to bring to life

we've cursed this brand that we've created

which is all about like

doing the hard shit

and going through the hard things

instead of trying to find a detour

to make things easy

I agree

and that's also the appeal maybe of

you know

FXRs and things like that

I always felt like that

like what the writing I do was pretty hard in a ways

because I get rained on all the time

and I'll do all these kind of cost to cost stuff

but

it definitely is like

it is but I think

what you're about to do on a chopper

is probably all of the version of it

like I think it's good to

to see different sides of

what more adventures on motorcycle can look like

and I think that

that would be a good evolution

well you

I think maybe the chopper you can't

if you have a modern bike

the suffering isn't long

yeah

you know what I mean

like you can just turn the throttle back

and put more miles down the day but

I don't look at any of his suffering

I just look at it as a challenge like

you know

I want to experience

things on every

you know on a motorcycle

that is appealing to me

at the time

you know

and right now it's a chopper

to to see what the road feels like to

you know

you're going to see hard feelings

oh yeah

honestly I'm not

the riding part is not what bothers me

it's the fact that like

this is only going to have a kick start

there's no starter

so

you know

I'm hoping that

I can learn enough

and dial this thing in enough

so that

it starts

yeah

every time

the bar is very low

the

yeah

get the motorcycle to start

yeah

I think that makes sense

for sure

and and you know

like that's kind of where the challenge is

because it's a very unfamiliar place to me

and to learn how to

operate or

push myself through that

that part of it is

is the hard part

you know

like

the riding part is the easy part

no matter what it feels like

yeah

that's easy

that's familiar

I've done that a million times

yeah yeah yeah

yeah it's probably going to be

there'll probably be other ways

that are more uncomfortable

but the same thing like

if you ride that bike

that I have downstairs

I just finished

and then you ride my FXR chopper

I think you might find that

my chopper is more comfortable

really

yeah

it's

I mean we're kind of

the similar height

it's just

everything's in the right spot

yeah

and when you sit on it

you feel good

you know

and it just

it just works

like I literally

I could ride my FXR chopper

anywhere

really

well you did

actually

there are times

like it

like pushing it to a thousand miles

in a day is

pretty tough

like I think the most I've ever done

on that bike is 800 miles

in a day

I mean on that bike

it's already

yeah

a lot

on a bagger

it

baggers are more comfortable

then we were

I think that

maybe this FXR down here

is technically more comfortable

but

I feel more comfortable

on my FXR chopper

like the riding position

the seat

all that stuff

you know

but I'm also probably just used to it

yeah

it's making me get used to like

sucky bikes

traveling on so

when I do ride the chopper

hopefully Lord willing

that I'll be able to

I'll already be used to it

I'll be acclimated to the

the pain

if you will

well you'll do back roads and stuff

I mean it's a different kind of trip

I guess

you'll have to do it

and

you know the scariest thing

about doing a jockey shift

and no front brake is

is going to San Francisco

oh yeah

with the heels and everything

dude

that's what I

I don't know why I want to do that

I mean seriously

you're looking for trouble

yeah

because you're going to do no front

oh yeah

that's insane

good luck

it'll be fun

there'll be some good content

no matter what

you know

I'll be sitting sideways

and in streets

yeah yeah

while I'm waiting for the light to turn

and then I'll turn back up

but

I mean like that's the point

it's like

that

it's just

it's cool to do

and

doing hard shit

the same way it

feels cool to do a thousand miles

or to do

cross country and

under x amount of hours

like those are

those are just challenging things

that I think that we

all are different points

where we find

what challenges us

and what's calling us to

you know

conquer

and

for me it's a bike

and

maybe for you

it's that

that time frame

you know

yeah

finishing that

that challenge

we'll see

yeah

it's very

what would be really challenging

would be to do

the cross country

on the FXR under

in under

46 hours

that would be a real

challenge

but

I won't do that

but yeah

we'll see

we'll see how it goes

but

I mean

talking back to

your point about

the podcast

like

I hope

that you meet with Rob

he's coming to born 3

born 3

and he's building

he's being a really cool

he's doing the FXR tour yeah

the problem is he needs to come here

I'm sure you

yeah it's like

like I don't do podcasts

at events

I mean we did it

last year at Sturgis

but it was like before

the rally

it's just hard

like

there's nowhere at

Born Free Texas

to sit down and do a podcast

yeah

you know

and I'm running a booth

he's going to probably run a

booth as well for

you know

the booth that he gets for Born

Free

and so

it's just not the place to do it

yeah

you know

but

you know

like I

I try to be

the thing is

I just don't know enough people

going east

to couch surf

like I do when I go west

because otherwise I'd go to New York

all the time

yeah

we'll have very tiny

apartments also

but yeah

that's the thing is like

it's not even that it's not

it's not that you wouldn't

love to let me stay there

it's like

there's no room

you're welcome to stay on the

couch

if you want

but like

and I know like

actually you know

like I'm sure we could find

something

like between like

the group we have of

our friends

like that wouldn't be an issue

I'm sure

but yeah it's

yeah it's different

very small footprints over there

but usually

it's the last

in generalary blog party

yeah I'm

I'm going to try to fly out there

they fly out there

yeah

it'll be a good time

like I'm excited

like it's

it's such a cool event

like

last year was like

insane

like it was just

so rowdy

and everything

it seemed

I mean

last year

was coming off of the year

that they did the burnout

on top of the

uh container

yeah the container

that was also pretty

I didn't know if you could top that

yeah no last year they had

east coasting

they had like

burlesque dancers

doing like

a burlesque show

while the east coasting guys

were doing rolling burnouts

next to them

and wheelies and everything

that's crazy

it was like

it was very very cool

like it's insane to think

that something like this

can still happen in New York City

like it is such a controlled

environment

like I get kicked out everywhere

when I try to take pictures

unless it's a Sunday morning

at 6 a.m.

and the fact that they're able

to pull that off still

in the neighborhood

that has been gentrifying

that quickly

and that level of

readiness

even though it's a little bit

more guarded

than it used to be

I think there's a little bit

more security

and everything

it's just

a really good time

and he almost feels

anachronic in a way

versus the way the city is

and what they're able to bring

it just feels like

I never

I didn't live in New York in the 90s

but like

it just feels like

you bring a little bit back

of that sense of greediness

and danger

which I think is super cool

and that's why

it's such an enduring event

and I say it's gonna be the last

it's just a rumor

who knows

maybe it will be

maybe it won't be

but it's definitely like

something to attend

if anyone can

it's a great event

yeah I've only been once

and that was in 2020

and it was a

I mean I don't know if

it can be topped

because of being in the city during

during covid

but before

vaccine passports

yeah

you know what I mean

that was the year

where they had like

the whole

you remember like

what they wrote on this

on the sidewalk

like the massive thing

that they wrote

that you could read

from the drone upstairs

yeah that was insane

it was wild

but you know

you know like I said

we were talking

you know me and the wife

were thinking about flying out there

and

having a day or two

to have to us

just to explore new york city

but also do that

and

it's all

will it's all

based on the fact

that how far I am

along

that's why it's kind of

scary to buy plane tickets

now

yeah

when I don't know

what kind of time

I'm gonna have

at the end

you know this is like

middle to end of

September

which is gonna be

like literally

when

any other block party

goes on

it will only be

a month left until

born free

and if it was just like

building the bike

the chopper

and that's all I had to do

till now

oh yeah fine

but

you know

I gotta paint bikes

helmets

I gotta

get all of our stuff ready

for our vendor space

new t-shirt design

things like that

they're

it's just difficult

and I try not to get

on these podcasts

or in social media

and just talk about like

oh it's just me

but you know it is

and it's like

it does get difficult

sometimes to do it all

and

once again

we've had this conversation

when you came out here

it's like

too much of my stuff

is things that I personally

have to do

or that I feel like

I need to have to do

because I haven't

got someone to do it

to the level that I

need it done

or that I know

that I can do it

you know

and so I end up

just doing it

yeah

and uh

it's a lot to manage

yeah it's like

you know we leave here

we're gonna go

spend the rest of the night

shooting photos and

you know whatever

and then tomorrow

I come back in here

I start working

and then tomorrow night

I get off

and I go back home

and I start editing

photos and podcasts

and start working on

the next YouTube video

and next day you know

it's three in the morning

and then you wake up at

eight

back at work at nine

what's the hardest thing

for you to do

like the editing

the podcasting

the YouTube

the podcasting is the easiest

the YouTube is

maybe the most

engaging right now

because it's the newest

the paint

is the thing that needs

the most attention

because it's the thing

that really does

it's my livelihood

yeah right

and

it's also the thing

that's more like a job

so I have to

really find ways

to be motivated in it

you know

like uh

like ever like

I mean I guess

if you work somewhere

it probably makes sense

but like

I've worked for myself

my entire adulthood

right so

I don't know what it's like

to be at a job

and only want to

go work

on something else

but you can't

until you get done with this

yeah yeah yeah

other

I mean I do have that same

feeling here sometimes

but I

genuinely try not to

think like that

or have that

feeling because

I need my

I need that positive energy

in me to be on

whatever project

I'm working on

so

it does get difficult

sometimes when you

really want to go work

on a YouTube video

but you also

got to do a helmet

yeah

and the helmets

not really calling you

the same way the YouTube video

or the podcast

or a photo shoot

or

you know

or some

something else is calling you

so

I try to

I try to just

maybe

if it's

that overpowering

I might just go do the other thing

because I

do want to put

like real

passion into everything I do here

and uh

yeah sometimes it happens

like that

that's why I can only paint

like

20 helmets a year

you know

instead of like

like Poland

who is one of my favorite painters

paints like 80 something helmets a year

plus a couple motorcycles

like I paint maybe

seven maybe 10 bikes a year

maybe

and then I'm

probably do 20 helmets

that's that's it

you know

and so

I don't know

like less is more for me

and I'd rather do less

but have

more work that I'm proud of

than produce more

not saying that

Poland's not

putting out bad ass paint

jobs every time he does it

I'm just

I couldn't

produce that

that

amount

yeah

you know

and travel

and paint

and do this

and

try to put an art show together

and

keep a bike night going

and

fucking

you know

be a husband

and

you know a dad

how's the back night going

you think

like it's been for years right

because I remember

it's been years

yeah

it's a

it's operating

and it's good

and we got people there

but it's kind of

it's still right now in my opinion

like for me

I'm kind of bored

you know

and I don't know what it is

that needs

I don't know what it needs

but

we have a great location

and we have great people there

but I just

I don't know

like I don't

something's missing on my

like

maybe something I need

that I don't know what that is

so when I'm saying that

I don't want people to take that

is

it's something

it's someone else's problem

it could be my own

my own thing

like my own

shit

you know

so I got to figure out what it is

that

I need out of it

or

perspective

you started it in what 2019

2019

the beginning of 2018

oh yeah

yeah yes

it's been a long time

and it's every week

yep

that's impressive

people show up every week

every week for seven

seven years

that's rad

I can't think of something

I mean actually

there's a

something similar in New York

it's called

two-wheel Tuesday

but it's not really

it's not very

Harley centric

I mean there are some

Harley's

but it's more like

a lot of

other bikes too

like a lot of

I mean a lot of everything

yeah

but in general

I rehosted one recently

so I went

and that was kind of cool

actually

but yeah

that's an impressive longevity

at the very least

well the

goal was always to

create something

that was

that just happened

and like

it could happen

whether I exist here or not

you know

like it'd be so sick if like

I moved away

I moved to New York

for 10 years

and then came back to Dallas

and the bike night

was still going on

you know that

to me that would be like

that'd be sick

yeah

you know

like and

not so I can come

and go I started this

yeah

just to

just to see that an idea

and a premise

could

could outlive

like

you know

the creators

of it or whatever

you know

and right now

I feel like it could

I mean I think that

the people that come along

that you know

we've had

iterations of people

that come to bike night

some kind of like

the high school thing

I was talking about

like

freshmen

you know

sophomore senior

and then

they're gone

and some

some stick around forever

some don't

you know

like I'm the only really

the only original dude

that started bike night

that still goes to bike night

yeah

it's like the black metal bands

like there's only one guy

from the original band

and then everything

but that's normal

I guess in any case

like

would you say

most people stay for

what's the average length

of a stay of like

it's like a few years

or like is there like

is there an average

if anything

yeah I think

I think that for most people

in motorcycling in general

it's

like five years is that

is that threshold

if you can do

motorcycling

for more than five years

I think you

it tends to be more

like embedded into your

your life

not to say that

you can't fall out of love

with it after five years

but I think

it you tend to be more

a for life guy

if you can manage it

for five years

stay interested for five years

but also

I think a lot of that

has to do with

like

the intentions of

why you're into motorcycles

and

you know

and and the right

combination of

of like

finding people

to enjoy it with

yeah

not saying that

there aren't people out there

that have no friends

that ride

and no other connection

to humans

but also

absolutely love motorcycles

and travel

and do all kinds of

shit

I think that when you

find a good

good group of people

when you start pushing

yourselves

and you know

having goals

within yourselves

to do bigger things

like the cross-country trips

or the

you know

36 hours

coast to coast

or some shit like that

you know

like those things

build bonds

yeah

and it helps people

stay more connected to it

like

me and my boys

up there on the

on the wall

like

we traveled a lot of this

country together

you know

like

some of the dude

all the dudes

are still into motorcycles

but they're all

like

most of them

are in different spaces

you know

so we don't have

the connection

that we had once

but

I cherish those moments

that we did that

together you know

and the group of the

back night people

like you guys

like you meet every week

but do you ride together

or it's just

we meet for drinks

and everybody goes

I don't

we just kind of

meet at bike night

bike night is not

bike night is just

a place to congregate

and I think it's

a place to go

and make plans

right

yeah

you know

there are people

that have

like oh

why don't we

meet a bike

and go ride it

where it's like dude

it's

it's 7 p.m

we live in a

major city

like

we're not

this isn't the back roads

where we can go

have a nice cruise

every once in a while

we might cruise across

some of the bridges

at the end of bike night

and then I'll go

our separate ways

on home

but man

like I don't

that that's

that's

or that takes

organizing orchestration

yeah

you know

like

this is where we're gonna be

at this time

come go

as you please

it's happening every week

easy peasy

that's cool

we're not doing giveaways

there's no band

there's no fucking

there's no vendors

it's just a

it's just a place

that people

you can know that on Tuesday

there's gonna be

other bikers there

yeah

you know

and

it's simple

you know

now

we don't have

like some massive numbers

it's not like

bike night consists

of like

a hundred people every time

sometimes it's

there's times

when it's four of us

and those are the best

fucking times

yeah

this is the best

and there's times

where there's 80 people

there are

30 or 20

it's like

I always tell people

that

that would hit us up

about wanting to do

a bike night

it's like

don't

make bike night

in your head

a success

or a failure

based on how many people show up

make it a success on how

you feel being there

and how the people

that did show up

feel being there

and if people love it

and they keep coming back

and it's a part of them

then that's like

that's success

but if you're trying

to build a party

you're trying to build a vent

then

say that

this is an event

this isn't a bike night

yeah

I see what you mean

you know

like if you need

200 people

to show up to this event

so that it could be successful

that's an event

you know

a bike night

is just a hang

it's just a connection

it's a

I've seen bike nights

take place in gas station

parking lots

it's all

it doesn't

you don't need anything

you just need the ability

to connect to other riders

and then

from there

you guys can

conversate

maybe have a drink

maybe have

a sandwich

or a taco

or whatever

and

plan bigger things

you know

whatever

hey

this weekend

what are you doing

I'm free

man

I've been wanting to check out this

this

this bar

this restaurant

or this

this place

I saw on

on

you know

some riding app

or something like that

bam

bike night

was now successful

yeah

it created something

it brought two people together

to do a bigger thing

on a motorcycle

you know

it's a good way to put it

I mean

you know

riding on the bridge

of the data skyline

was one of my first

like

spiritual experience

on motorcycles

like because when I lived here

I started riding there

I remember the first time

I ended up on that

on the bridge

that goes towards

the design district

I think

yeah

and

looking at the skyline

I was like

oh wow

this is

this is why

I got into riding motorcycles

just to be there

at night

the wind in my hair

I mean

not hair

like the wind

and then

just looking at the skyline

and it was super cool

I remember that moment

quite vividly

like it's

it's such a beautiful city

and this

it's been great to be back here for

so I used to live here 10 years ago

for two years and a half

and I really really loved

Dallas as a city

I really love Texas as a state

specifically Dallas as a city

because I felt there was

such a momentum

of people working together

to bring Dallas

on the map

of culture

of culinary

for restaurants

of arts

I think Dallas Art Fair

does a lot of great things

I think

even from

I don't know

it just felt like

everybody was proud of being here

and wanted people

to see Dallas

as a city that is the equal of

an LA or Miami etc

from all these perspectives

and I

because of my work

ended up being part of this

movement

for a few years

and then I moved to New York

and I

obviously did not see the same thing

there because

it's much closer to

big cosmopolitan city

like Paris

and everything

with a lot of infighting

and a lot more differences

and it's already on the map

so

there's no common drive

to put it on the map

it's already there

and I always miss that dynamism

that I found for a couple years

in Dallas

that I found so refreshing

and being back here

for the past couple days

I have been back for work

a couple of times

but like this is the first time

I actually

spend time hanging out

instead of working

and I got to

be back in Fort Worth

with you

we rode through Dallas

and just seeing how the city

seems

the both cities

seemed to have blossomed

as much as road work

seems to be blossoming

oh yeah

yeah

it's kind of cool

to see like that

you know

everything is growing

and

it seems to be successful

and everything

these are

such a great place to be

yeah I think

there was a recent post

like on

on instagram

thing about like

someone like

seemed like a bullshit post

but it was like

like

Dallas is a new great

destination for vacationing

we're all like

what?

I don't know about a vacation spot

I wouldn't come to me

as first but

yeah but if like you

it's a great travel spot

yeah

like if you want to go travel

somewhere

and this is a place

it's a great place to stop

through

on your journey somewhere

but I wouldn't fly here

you know what I mean

there's a lot of great things

to see though

I mean I just from a cultural

perspective

as far as

my info are probably a little

bit dated now

but I just remember like

the museums are great

the restaurants

were definitely getting much

better

like

I think if you look at what people

are expecting now

from vacations

I think there's a lot of box

you check with Dallas

like

we just don't have any nature

you don't have nature

you don't have the scenery

yeah

but you do have

I think first

I think Texas

Western culture

you could all do

Dallas is not really Western

in the sense that

for worth it

yeah yeah

but I think that

culture

is having a moment nationwide

if not worldwide

because of the shows

and Yellowstone

I think people

want to come to Texas

to to see this

and everything

so I think

yes there's no

no nature

even Austin has much more

to offer

yeah

Dallas when it comes to this

but I think

it's an easy city to travel to

it's easy to get from

and to anyways

and and there's a lot of

great things to do here

so

I don't know

I could I guess actually

I could see why people would say

Dallas is a place to vacation

even though I agree

instinctively

I wouldn't think of it this way

yeah

but maybe actually

if you like to get drunk

and eat

and shop

we have all that

I remember back

when I moved to Dallas

so that was 2014

I remember seeing the statistics

I don't know if that was true

that Dallas was the city

that had the most restaurant per

capita

in the United States

if not the world

I don't know if that was true

but I remember it like what

that was really surprising

I always remember like

like

we always had this great patio

culture

in restaurants

and like bars

and like it was just something

that like

I was like man

this is awesome

and then when I would go to New York

or

not New York

but like LA

and San Francisco

I was like

where are the patios at

and like

they don't have that out here

and it's

so I mean they do

but not like

what I feel like we had

I think it's

I think it's definitely come a long

way and I see it

like Phoenix always had good patio

culture

like restaurants and bars and stuff

I don't know

it's just

but also

I have a limited perspective

because it's not like I'm

everywhere in LA to be

be able to say

we have it all

here in LA doesn't

you know

but

we have

we have just easier

it's easier to navigate

this city

because it's not as big as

the Chicago

or New York

or in LA

or San Francisco

or even a Houston

but

it's easier to navigate

and go from

you know

one place to another

and find good food

you know

there's

there's just more

access to that

when in New York

I'm sure that if you live there

it's

it's probably easier

because you know the spots

but

if you're on the outside

looking in

you're in New York

like let's find a good

restaurant

like let me look something

up on Yelp real quick

and on the block

you're at

there's 400

fucking restaurants

yeah

you know

it's overwhelming a bit

it's overwhelming

it's hard to kind of

pick

it's just so much

it's like

I don't know

it's like

I mean

then again

I also had some of the

best Italian food I've ever had

at a fucking

bar

in like

Long Island City

or something like that

oh really

it's just random

I think it was

Long Island City or something

like

what

it's Williamsburg

and then there's like a

yeah yeah

that's Long Island City

yeah

I'm not even gonna ask

what you were doing there

but

like

what were you doing

no it's called

no offense

I mean actually

Long Island Cities

is definitely booming

has crazy cool views

of the skyline

you've done a lot of shots

there

they're supposed to be great

and the fact that

there is a Michelin star restaurant

in Long Island City

says a lot about

how far Long Island City

has come as a city

so that's good for them

I think

the same way that

the fact that

you know there's

now luxury resorts in Dallas

like Aubergh and everything

like we were talking

about a couple days ago

really our proofs

that the city is doing well as for

if it's on the map

of these types of groups

there are no invested

serious amounts of cash

to build these properties

well we have a

universal studios coming here

oh you mentioned

and like in Frisco

so Frisco like I was saying

is like just such a booming place

and there's still

even though it's

definitely overcrowded

up there now

compared to what we're used to

there's still a lot of vacant land

that can be developed

into these

like major attractions

so

you know

we've always been a sports town

with the Cowboys

and baseball

and basketball

and hockey

if you're into those kind of things

and you know

like with all the studio stuff

they're doing now with

the Tyler Sheridan dudes

like opening a big film studio

in Fort Worth

and you know

the universal thing coming

I think it's just going to attract

more of those type of things

where

if you really think about Orlando

it has nothing to offer

but then you flop

Disneyland there

and then you throw

universal studios there

and all of a sudden

it's one of the

vacation spots

the most vacation spot in America

for you know

families and stuff

you know

so

once we have enough attractions

it becomes that but

you know

I don't know

I hope the city doesn't go that

that way

I don't want to be a vacation spot

I want to be a

a vibe

it's a vibe

yeah

I don't know

I mean the Texas

Texas vibe is definitely popular

these days

and yeah

I don't know

I mean

I'm very happy to be back

and I'm very happy to see the city

doing so well

I just find it

very

endearing

I don't know if that's the right word

but like

it's cool to see that

basically the

the plans that I was hearing

about 10 years ago

came to fruition

and were

delivered so successfully

that's cool

I'm

stoked for it

like

for sure

all right

we need to

we need to go ride some bikes

and take pictures

before it gets dark again

on us

about right

yeah

well

I've enjoyed you coming out

here in stand

and you know

you're more than welcome

to stay as long as you need

yeah dude

it's been awesome

like

I do feel like

we should have just started

recording our

our conversations

as soon as you got here

though

I would have been a 15 hour

podcast

yeah

yeah thanks for having me

it's always an honor

like

I mean

truly

and

yeah

I mean

yeah

it's another

thank you

well thank you

bud

let's go

let's go play motorcycles

all right

well I hope you

enjoyed that guys

I had a great time

spending the weekend

with

von Gasfalt

and

very excited about

all the things

that he has going on

and

the way he's pushing

the boundaries and

photography

in a great way

yeah

I'm a

I'm a big fan

glad to

call him a friend

and I hope you guys

enjoyed it

if you guys

want to support this

podcast

you know

you can do so

by checking out

our Patreon

where we have a

online community

that

is there

for your

and

you know

entertainment

no

it's a

it's a great place

to connect with people

get some

unreleased podcast

and

share some of your

own

stuff that you

got going on

via our group chats

also please

take a moment

to check out our sponsors

they help keep this show

alive and going

and I really appreciate them

and you

for listening to these podcasts

so

got another great one

coming for you guys

next week

with my buddy

Cody Childress

talking about

his born free

Texas build

and speaking of

born free Texas

you know that

shit's coming up

and I hope you're

trying to make it

down there

because it's literally

one of

my

absolute favorite

events of the year

and it's one of the

best ways to

end the year

if that's

gonna be your last

trip

you know

so

born free Texas

October 16th

through the 19th

I believe is the dates

we are also hosting

the pre-party

for born free Texas

here in Dallas

Fort Worth

at the legendary

Strokers Dallas

that will be on

Wednesday

kicking off around

four or five p.m.

we'll

we'll put more

detailed dates

out soon

anyway

hope to see you in there

and uh

yeah

I got a chopper to build

amongst a lot of other

shit

so

we'll see you guys

on the next one

you have a good one

peace

you

Bike Trips & Moto Photography with VonGasphalt #432

Audi Rs3

BMW M3

Lancia Kappa

Alpine A110

7 Even Austin

About this episode

Original notes