00:00
Welcome to the season finale of High Side, Low Side.
00:05
This is episode 12 of season 10.
00:08
I'm Spurge, I'm joined by Zach, and today we are going to be joined by Garrett Gerloff, who is a World Superbike Motorcycle Racer,
00:15
and, as you will learn, scooter aficionado.
00:19
In addition to that, we might also talk about Marc Marquez's underpants, but before we do anything that wacky,
00:25
we first must get into word from our sponsor.
00:28
This is the part where I remind you that Motul is the biggest supporter of High Side, Low Side, and you should buy its products.
00:34
But, maybe you already do buy Motul products.
00:37
You're thinking, I'm already putting Motul oil in my motorcycles and bathing myself in chain cleaner.
00:42
What more can I do?
00:45
And I'll just remind you that Motul also makes, for example, diesel system cleaner,
00:49
for use in all types of diesel injection systems in cars, trucks, RVs, and even military spec KLRs.
00:57
To see all of Motul's products, check out RevZilla.com slash Motul, that's RevZilla.com slash M-O-T-U-L.
01:04
And when you're over there on RevZilla.com, just keep in mind that every time you make a purchase with RevZilla,
01:10
a little bit of that money goes back into funding the programs that you enjoy.
01:14
Whether it's Zach and I sitting here talking with you on High Side, Low Side,
01:17
or the shenanigans that people get into when you're out riding for a CTXP episode,
01:22
or maybe you just appreciate the gear reviews and the product information.
01:26
RevZilla gives back to riders because that's who we all are, riders.
01:31
So keep that in mind next time you need to make a purchase for your motorcycle,
01:34
from cruisers to sport bikes to adventure bikes and everything in between.
01:37
We've got you covered at RevZilla.com.
01:43
Okie doke everybody, welcome to Season 10 Episode 12, the grand finale of Season 10 everybody.
01:51
It's hard to believe we survived another season, Spurjo.
01:54
Before we jump into talking about Spurjo's shirt.
01:57
I mean, it's a little bit early to say that we survived the season
02:00
because we still have to get through the next two and a half hours.
02:03
We're only 11, 12th of the way through.
02:05
But as it stands right now, we want to remind you that Episode 12,
02:10
the grand finale of High Side, Low Side is typical in this case in so much
02:15
as we will be reviewing some of the things we talked about over the course of Season 10.
02:20
We talked about Chinese motorcycles, the Honda Goldwing, the Alamantiti
02:24
and many more things with our very special guest, Garrett Gerloff.
02:27
But before we invite Garrett in here, Spurjo, it's been a while since we recorded an episode.
02:35
Yeah, you've been halfway across the country and back to ride adventure bikes.
02:39
But the first thing I need to talk about is this shirt that you're wearing.
02:43
I know you're famous for your flamboyant Hawaiian shirts,
02:46
but even this one is bright.
02:48
You can probably hear it.
02:49
Even if you're not watching the video, you can probably hear this shirt.
02:53
If you hear a very high-pitched noise, almost like some sort of device to scare away rodents,
02:57
it's probably Spurgeon's shirt.
02:59
And can you explain to everyone?
03:01
So it's very flowery.
03:02
There are palm trees and bright colors.
03:06
It says Turbo Spurge on it.
03:08
And there's some sort of insignia.
03:13
I thought it was like a crass.
03:16
I went out and I participated in Get on Adventure Fest.
03:19
And on the very first night of Get on Adventure Fest,
03:22
I walk in and there is a very excited gentleman named John.
03:28
And John rums up to me and he does the Zac Court's Spurgeon Dunbar voice.
03:33
He tackles me and he's like,
03:35
can I give you a hug?
03:36
And I was like, yeah, man, give me a hug.
03:37
And he gives me a big bear hug.
03:39
And we had the new high-side low-side shirts.
03:42
And I was like, hey, do you want a high-side low-side shirt?
03:44
And I got him a new high-side low-side shirt.
03:46
And he was wearing a really wild, loud shirt.
03:50
And I was like, hey, man, I love your shirt.
03:52
And he had a little cattle insignia on it.
03:54
And it turns out that John presumably kills cows for living or raises cows or farms.
04:02
Perhaps both, right.
04:04
And he's like, well, this is my brand of the ranch that I have.
04:08
And I was like, I would like one of those shirts.
04:10
And he was like, oh, I'll get you a special one.
04:12
And so literally earlier this week, it showed up in the mail.
04:16
For those of you that are listening, it is very Hawaiian.
04:21
And it has turbo spurge embroidered on it with a turbo.
04:25
And he's like, we'll get you to love turbos yet because Zach's right.
04:28
So it is someone that's a fan of the podcast, is a fan of your point of view
04:33
and wanted to brand me to be a little bit more on team Zachary.
04:38
Well, I suppose I deserve to give him a tip of the cap then
04:41
for trying to bring you over to the dark side of turbo motorcycles,
04:45
which don't really exist yet.
04:49
Well, that's a great story.
04:51
And I want to say it's a great shirt, but let me just, I'll stop short of that
04:54
and I'll say that it's a very bright shirt.
04:56
And I think it suits you because I don't know if he knew that you like
04:59
Hawaiian shirts, but it's very, it's a very Spurgeon Dunbar shirt.
05:02
It fits perfectly too.
05:03
And I told him, I called him right away and I was like,
05:05
I'm going to wear this on the finale episode.
05:09
And I was telling him that we were going to, you know, talk with Garrett.
05:12
And I think the last time that I saw Garrett was in Texas
05:15
and I was probably wearing something much more formal.
05:17
So when we, when we originally talked with Garrett, he was like,
05:20
I got to ask you about your shirt.
05:21
I'm like, you'll hear all about it. I'm sure.
05:25
Well, on that topic, shall we dive into this,
05:29
this conversation about motorcycles with our very special guest?
05:33
It is Mr. Garrett Goriloff.
05:35
Garrett is for those of you not familiar,
05:37
a Moto America super sport champion, a world super bike rider,
05:42
a MotoGP race competitor.
05:45
He is 30 years old.
05:48
He's extremely good looking,
05:50
which really takes us down a peg or two.
05:53
You stole the one thing that I had on my list.
05:55
But without further ado, we'll invite Garrett in here.
05:59
He's been waiting in the green room listening to us talk about Spurgeon shirt.
06:02
Thank you so much for joining us.
06:06
I can't butter me up like that.
06:09
Well, listen, you know, I'm sure I left some things out, right?
06:12
You have, you have some other thing, other qualities.
06:15
Anyone that follows you on social media knows what you look like.
06:19
They know that we're not low on smoke.
06:21
They know I wear helmet most of the time.
06:27
You cover your face.
06:30
Well, as we said, we have,
06:32
we have a whole gamut of questions for you.
06:34
Did I miss anything in your, if someone,
06:36
if someone met you in an elevator and they said, you know,
06:39
who are you and what do you do?
06:40
And he had 30 seconds to describe it.
06:42
You would probably talk about your Moto America resume,
06:44
perhaps your world tour bike racing, perhaps your MotoGP race starts
06:50
But what else would you say?
06:54
Did I cover it all?
06:55
I don't know if I'd bring any of that up.
06:57
I got some Texas pride.
07:00
A big long horn fan.
07:01
I see the long horn.
07:03
I need to get you one of these shirts so that you can wear it
07:08
You got to give me his, whatever he does is.
07:11
I'll hook you up with John.
07:13
But I don't know what else.
07:18
I mean, I'm old peddler.
07:23
We're gonna have to get into that.
07:25
Do you have a moat?
07:26
Do you have a moat peddler right now?
07:27
I don't, which is, yeah.
07:28
But it's like somebody that loves dogs,
07:30
but you know, they're not in the stage of life where
07:32
a dog is kind of where I'm in.
07:35
Moat pedds require a lot of tenderloin care.
07:38
We want to jump in.
07:39
We want to jump into a lightning round,
07:41
but I just want to remind everybody,
07:43
so the way the episode is going to go is we have a couple
07:47
of questions from each episode.
07:49
So we're going to kind of like walk through the entire
07:51
high side, low side season with you and give you a
07:53
chance to participate in each of the topics as we go along.
07:56
But before we do that, we wanted to jump in with
08:00
just quick lightning round of questions for people to
08:03
get to know you outside of your racing resume.
08:06
Zach, anything before I just jump in to kicking off
08:10
the lightning round?
08:12
If you couldn't, if motorcycling was never a thing,
08:16
right, you never rode a motorcycle,
08:18
what would you be doing for a living instead?
08:21
I thought about this a lot lately because I just
08:26
So things are a great way to start.
08:30
Probably, I've been thinking about being like a pilot,
08:33
you know, because you like airline, like airline pilot,
08:36
something like that, whether it's commercial or,
08:38
you know, private or I'm not sure yet,
08:41
but kind of have the same man and machine vibe,
08:43
you know, that I like and considering that maybe.
08:47
That's a good answer.
08:48
That's a good answer.
08:51
There's a lot of crossover between motorcycle road racers
08:55
and being pilots in my experience.
08:57
Have you noticed that too?
08:58
Yeah, Steve Wrapp, I think.
09:00
Yeah, famously a pilot and a racer.
09:03
But lots of people have been into flying planes
09:07
on the side as racers.
09:08
And I think you're right.
09:09
It's like a very, it's a controlling.
09:10
Have you done it at all?
09:11
Have you flown planes or taken any lessons or anything?
09:14
So I went on a, what do they call it,
09:17
a discovery flight on one of like a,
09:19
it was a four seater Cezna or something like that,
09:22
single engine, a prop plane.
09:25
And it actually wasn't a discovery flight for me.
09:28
It was a discovery flight for my,
09:30
my buddy's girlfriend.
09:32
And he was too scared to get in the plane with her,
09:35
but she was scared to get in the plane.
09:36
And so he was like, we all went and he's like,
09:38
Hey, just go with her cause she doesn't want to go alone.
09:41
So I went in the discovery flight.
09:43
They let her take off the plane.
09:45
And dude, he was like, okay,
09:47
pull the stick back, you know,
09:48
as we're going up to take off.
09:50
And she pulled the thing all the way back.
09:52
And we go like, we started going up so steep that we're about to
09:56
stall. There's like red lights going off in the dash.
09:58
And I'm like, I'm in the back seat.
10:04
I'm not looking forward to the,
10:07
the learning part in a small plane.
10:09
They move around too much.
10:10
They're a little scary, but I'll be fine.
10:13
Yeah. Yeah, that's fair.
10:14
I got a buddy who's a,
10:15
who's a hobbyist pilot and is fairly accomplished.
10:20
But every time I ride one of those small planes,
10:22
I'm always reminded that like the, yeah,
10:24
it's like a different kind of turbulence.
10:25
Like you're sliding from side to side in the air.
10:27
And it's like, it feels very kind of janky.
10:30
It's like, it's like being on a moped behind a semi truck
10:33
on the freeway instead of a hard, you know what I'm saying?
10:37
It was, it was funny.
10:39
I was actually, we had,
10:40
we had Peter Egan on the podcast a couple of seasons ago.
10:43
And Peter is a world famous motorcycle journalist.
10:45
And he actually has a book coming out.
10:47
He had reached out to me recently.
10:49
He has a book coming out about his exploits in being a pilot.
10:54
back to Zach's point and what you guys were talking about,
10:56
like there's definitely seems to be the crossover of like,
10:59
you know, motorcycles and racing or going fast or flying
11:03
or whatever it ends up being.
11:04
It seems like there's that crossover.
11:05
They need lots of maintenance.
11:07
people are good at spinning wrenches on a motorcycle.
11:08
You got spin wrenches on the plane.
11:10
I think there's a, there's a lot of crossover there.
11:12
I'm not going to be touching a plane.
11:18
I'm going to do motorcycles a little bit.
11:19
I saw on your website,
11:23
there's a little anecdote in there about how you begged your dad
11:27
to buy you a motorcycle when you were four years old.
11:30
I don't know the story of the genesis of your,
11:32
of your motorcycling career.
11:34
can you tell us that story and can you tell us like what,
11:36
how, how did your motorcycling journey begin?
11:39
and was it on racetrack or,
11:41
or off-road or what?
11:44
Is that the lightning round on one question?
11:47
We're still, we're still lightning round.
11:56
my dad raced motocross grown up.
11:58
he like tried to be a professional from what I understand the story to be.
12:03
get into professional supercross motocross back in the 80s,
12:08
I'm not wrong with that.
12:12
I always saw him riding,
12:14
you know, we, we'd go to the track with him when I was like two,
12:18
And I guess it never crossed my mind that there was bikes that were even
12:23
small enough for me to ride until I saw like a CRF 50 going around.
12:27
And then that's when it,
12:28
that's when I was like,
12:29
I need a bike, you know?
12:31
And so I begged for a year and on my fourth birthday,
12:35
my dad got me a PW 50.
12:37
And so that was kind of the genesis of my love for motorcycles,
12:41
but it's kind of funny because I,
12:43
I liked motorcycles,
12:45
but I also didn't really care to always ride.
12:49
You know, like I had so many things in my life that I love doing
12:53
motorcycles just happen to be one of them.
12:56
you know, playing football with my friends.
12:58
You know, I loved playing video games.
13:01
Like it was just one of the things that sometimes I'd pick it,
13:04
but sometimes I wouldn't pick it.
13:05
I'd pick something else to do.
13:08
a crazy big passion for a long time.
13:11
Did you have a lot of friends in your younger age
13:13
that rode motorcycles too?
13:14
Like obviously you're,
13:15
you got the Texas background.
13:16
So a lot of people are out playing football, right?
13:18
Did you have friends that were also riding motorcycles?
13:20
Not a ton, honestly, from what I remember.
13:22
Like no, I was just, I was going to,
13:24
you know, elementary school in KD, Texas,
13:26
and just had friends that I'd want to just hang out with.
13:30
And yeah, I play football and on a field and,
13:33
you know, play video games.
13:35
And that was more fun to me a lot of times
13:37
than being drug out to the track.
13:39
And it's 100 degrees with my dad, you know,
13:42
as a five, six, seven year old.
13:46
So I hope this question makes sense,
13:50
because now you're a professional racer
13:53
and I'm curious if,
13:55
did you get kind of addicted to motorcycles first
13:59
or was there a moment when it was clear
14:04
that you were very good at riding a motorcycle
14:07
and the success sort of pushed you forward?
14:11
Does that make sense?
14:12
Like, were you like, did you love it more first
14:14
or did your skills show in a way that people were like,
14:17
well, you got to keep doing this?
14:19
My skills didn't show for a really long time.
14:21
So, no, I feel like my skills were all developed.
14:27
They weren't, like I had to develop them.
14:29
They weren't just there from my perspective.
14:33
But no, I mean, I didn't really have a big desire
14:40
to be a professional rider.
14:41
I didn't really even kind of know that it was a possibility
14:44
or like it could be a possibility.
14:46
And so motorcycles, to me,
14:48
were always just kind of like another thing that I did,
14:50
but it wasn't like who I was or it wasn't, you know,
14:54
that all kind of changed when I moved
14:56
from Katie, Texas to Alabama.
14:59
My dad got a job, a promotion there.
15:01
And so we had to move.
15:02
And so like all of the friends that I had growing up
15:05
from when I was like four years old to fifth grade,
15:08
which was like 10 years old maybe.
15:10
Like all of those friends, I ended up, you know,
15:13
I had to move through a different state.
15:14
So like I ended up having to start over in middle school,
15:17
which was even worse, you know,
15:18
because you go from elementary to middle school,
15:21
puberty, all that stuff, things get weird.
15:23
I had a difficult time making friends, honestly.
15:26
So I moved to Alabama.
15:29
I was struggling to make friends, which, you know,
15:33
And so one of the things that started becoming more
15:37
like interesting was motorcycles.
15:39
It kind of like, it replaced the part of me that like,
15:42
I wanted to make friends.
15:43
I wanted to have that same group of people that I did stuff
15:46
with like I did in Texas, but because I didn't have it.
15:49
And I was struggling.
15:50
I just like pivoted to motorcycles.
15:52
That was kind of like the,
15:53
I kind of filled the void a little bit.
15:55
Not trying to get too deep here.
15:56
But no, no, no, that's, that's super interesting.
15:58
Yeah. So, um, and so then I started just kind of diving
16:02
all the way into it.
16:03
This is still a motocross, by the way, like I'm still,
16:05
so I started diving into motocross being like, you know what,
16:07
I'm going to, I want to actually make this,
16:09
I want to try to do this.
16:10
And I was probably, I was like 12 years old
16:13
when, when I started really diving into motocross.
16:16
And, you know, I wasn't like, it wasn't bad at it,
16:20
but I wasn't amazing at it.
16:22
And my, my dad was still riding at this point,
16:25
but he was getting pretty beat up riding motocross.
16:27
So his, his body was just taking a beating.
16:29
His back was, you know, my dad still got back issues from it.
16:32
And, and so he was looking for something to do that would be
16:37
easier on his body. He thought.
16:39
And so lower impact.
16:41
The impact. Yeah. Yeah.
16:43
The dealership, the car dealership, the BMW dealership
16:46
that he was working for sponsored Barbara Motorsports Park.
16:49
And so we would get free tickets to go out there
16:51
and watch racing that happened,
16:52
whether it was car, motorcycle, whatever.
16:54
And so we ended up going out there in 2006
16:57
to one of the AMA races out there.
17:00
I don't know if you guys remember this,
17:02
but there was a crash that happened in the last corner
17:04
at Barbara Motorsports Park where I think it was,
17:06
it was number two on a Kawasaki in 2006.
17:09
And forgive me, I don't remember who that is,
17:11
but he, he low sided.
17:13
And then somebody adjacent to Solvo jumped his bike
17:16
in the, in the super sport class.
17:20
Anyway, I remember that because I was there
17:22
watching it live, you know, and I was getting,
17:24
I mean, it was cool.
17:25
I was all amped up on road racing.
17:27
I didn't even know what it was.
17:28
You know, I had no idea what it was at that point.
17:30
My dad, I didn't know this,
17:32
but my dad had already planned to buy a bike
17:34
that was for sale at the track
17:36
and leathers and everything.
17:38
So we go out there just thinking we're going to watch
17:41
and we come back with a truck full
17:43
of everything you need to start road racing.
17:46
For him, for my dad.
17:48
Just for my dad, just for my dad
17:50
and my mom's pissed off, you know,
17:53
like didn't know that that was going to happen.
17:55
But, you know, it was all good.
17:58
And my brother was like, I had 100% want to road race.
18:01
He was never super into motocross and stuff.
18:04
And so he was like, yeah, I want to road race.
18:07
Is he older or younger than you, your brother?
18:09
Two years younger than me.
18:13
So they have like metric it bikes,
18:15
I think it's still a brand,
18:16
but they have like smaller bikes.
18:19
So there's two strokes or they wore two strokes.
18:21
So he gets like a 12 inch metric it's 72 CC two stroke bike.
18:27
And I'm like, no, that's dumb.
18:29
Like road racing is dumb.
18:30
You know, it's not cool.
18:31
You don't do any jumps.
18:32
You don't, you know,
18:33
you're still on the motocross track.
18:38
I'm still full motocross.
18:39
I'm like, you guys are dumb.
18:40
You guys, that's just like stupid.
18:41
You just, you just go left and you go right.
18:43
And you go left and you go right.
18:44
Like that's what's the fun in that, you know.
18:46
And, and so like, we had, I'm, if I'm being,
18:50
if I'm saying too much,
18:51
I'm like talking too long.
18:54
I'm on the edge of my seat.
18:56
we're in middle school
18:57
and you're not even interested in racing yet.
18:59
And we're talking to a professional racer.
19:00
So I'm wondering when the tide's going to turn.
19:06
I'm still on the motocross,
19:08
we went to church in Alabama
19:10
and there was a parking,
19:11
a big parking lot in the church that we went to.
19:13
And it was triple tiered.
19:15
I think it was Crosspoint in Trustville, Alabama.
19:17
If anybody wants to look it up,
19:19
there was a three tiered parking lot
19:21
and they were all connected.
19:22
So we had like mini corkscrews everywhere.
19:24
And my dad would go out there with my brother and they,
19:27
and my brother would ride his little metric it around
19:30
the parking lot with his gear on and stuff
19:32
and try to drag me.
19:34
And I finally went out there with him and was like,
19:37
all right, I'll, you know,
19:38
let me ride the bike.
19:40
I had motocross gear on with knee pads.
19:42
So like, I didn't even have leathers,
19:45
But I rode it around and I was like, okay,
19:49
You know, like, all right,
19:52
and so it took a while,
19:54
but then I was like, all right,
19:56
I kind of do want to try this road racing thing.
19:58
Like it is pretty fun.
19:59
You guys are having a good time.
20:05
I started riding in that parking lot more.
20:07
I ended up high siding in that parking lot.
20:10
I was still motocrossing.
20:12
So I was using too much rear brake.
20:13
And so I entered one of the corners like full rear brake
20:15
and just lost the rear and I did myself
20:17
destroying my brother's bike.
20:19
But anyway, I started,
20:21
but after I crashed and I was fine,
20:22
I was like, okay, well,
20:24
not as scary to crash anymore,
20:26
which helped a lot mentally.
20:29
had you had any big crashes in,
20:31
on the motocross side of things at that point or like,
20:33
when you high side,
20:34
so like the high side on a,
20:36
on the street asphalt type thing was like your first big
20:38
experience like that.
20:39
That was my first like big, like,
20:42
I was in, I was in the air.
20:45
And that's still just like knee pads and motocross gear.
20:47
I had leathers at that point.
20:49
So that was luckily, otherwise,
20:56
I honestly don't remember when I was like,
21:00
like I don't remember when exactly I picked it,
21:02
but it just kind of started being more fun to me.
21:07
I just kind of want a road race.
21:08
And so I got a 17 inch wheel metric,
21:12
And we started racing.
21:15
we're a southeast races.
21:18
Just doing like mini races and stuff like that.
21:23
I wasn't too special.
21:27
over six months to get a podium.
21:30
in a class of like eight riders.
21:33
did your brother follow you into racing or did your
21:35
brother take a different path?
21:37
like he was the one that drug me in the road racing,
21:41
we like race side by side,
21:42
although sometimes in different classes,
21:44
because I stepped up to a 125 earlier than he did.
21:46
So we kind of weren't always in the same class,
21:51
he decided that it kind of wasn't for him.
21:55
obviously we were spending a lot of money on racing.
21:58
And also at this point,
22:00
we're getting into like,
22:02
or like the recession that,
22:05
my dad ended up losing his job,
22:08
like ended up being pretty stressful to try to keep racing,
22:11
but there was actually like after,
22:13
after I got into a 125,
22:15
not the first year I was on a 125,
22:17
but the second year I was on a 125,
22:18
there was kind of like,
22:19
Hey, you know what,
22:22
maybe I could actually make it to be in a professional.
22:26
so we try to keep pushing through my dad not having a job
22:32
a little bit of time and not,
22:34
making a ton of money to where we could like,
22:36
comfortably pay for everything.
22:38
Like I know my parents were on credit cards and stuff,
22:43
And so this is a to,
22:47
this is like a RS 125 Honda
22:51
or some sort of like customer GP 125.
23:02
So I was racing minis.
23:03
And then 2008 was my first year
23:05
was my first year on a RS 125 and did most of that year
23:10
but also there was a more walkie 250.
23:12
I don't know if you guys remember those,
23:15
it was a more walkie.
23:16
It was supposed to be like a comparable bike, right?
23:19
two 54 stroke as opposed to 125 two stroke.
23:21
And it was same size,
23:22
like little GP bike kind of thing.
23:26
And actually that class,
23:27
the more walkie class was something that came to us GP,
23:31
Which was like this,
23:39
it was supposed to be sort of like elite club racing
23:42
in a Grand Prix style.
23:44
and two 52 stroke GP bikes
23:46
and that kind of thing, right?
23:49
it was like the national series.
23:50
It was like where PJ Jacobson was like,
23:52
kind of got his momentum
23:54
and his start from there and stuff.
23:57
you had credibility.
24:02
and the more walkie,
24:03
but the more walkie class was cool
24:04
because there was a big prize money,
24:07
there was like two grand to win
24:10
just being a 12 year old kid
24:11
or a 13 year old kid
24:12
and my parents paying for everything.
24:16
that was going to keep us racing,
24:19
And so I didn't do,
24:20
I didn't do much in that class the first year,
24:21
but the second class,
24:22
we actually like raked in a decent amount of
24:24
more walkie prize money,
24:25
which kept us going.
24:28
2009 is like the first time I actually showed
24:30
that I could be a professional racer
24:34
Professional racer.
24:35
Like I started winning USGPRU races.
24:37
I won a championship in USGPRU,
24:40
and so like that was,
24:44
I think it was the more walkie class
24:48
I was 14 and I stepped up to 600s.
24:51
I was on the Suzuki GSXR 600
24:54
racing against Benny Solis,
24:56
who was on the factory Yamaha
24:59
team as a 15 year old,
25:01
because he was supposed to be his warm-up
25:03
for going professional when he turned 16.
25:05
So there was the big Graves truck
25:08
the big semi truck and stuff at the amateur races.
25:12
This is weird southeast still.
25:14
This is weird nationals now.
25:17
I'm skipping over all kinds of stuff.
25:18
No, no, no, it's okay.
25:19
And we're going to,
25:20
we're going to pivot in different direction here anyway,
25:22
but I think this is great context for like,
25:25
who you are and how you started.
25:28
what's really interesting is that it sounds like,
25:30
if I'm doing my math correctly,
25:32
by like 12 years old,
25:34
Oh, I might want to try racing a motorcycle on the street
25:37
and get away from motocross.
25:38
And then by 14 years old,
25:40
you're racing a 600cc in nationals.
25:43
Is that about like a two year timeline?
25:46
And already you're doing that.
25:48
No, it was a two year timeline.
25:53
I started getting into wanting to race something,
25:54
like motocross first and then transition.
25:59
I'm going to ask one more lightning round questions,
26:01
if it pleases the court and then we'll pivot out and we'll move on.
26:04
But that was the really genuinely interesting.
26:08
I'm always so curious when people are,
26:10
you have a job in motorcycling,
26:11
obviously has a professional racer,
26:13
but anytime people get interested in bikes,
26:15
I'm always just so curious how they,
26:16
and sometimes it's very obvious.
26:20
my dad wrote and he bought me a minibike and then I was into it
26:21
or something like that.
26:24
Spurge and I are lifelong motorcyclists,
26:25
and I'm curious how we got into it.
26:27
it's so interesting to hear you were just sort of like a,
26:28
a motocross kid who just didn't have any interest in doing that
26:31
until randomly you kind of got like sucked into it.
26:36
like traveling the world and getting paid to race against the,
26:38
the race with and be one of the best riders in the world.
26:44
my takeaway was that you both race in the same class and Garrett's doing what he's doing.
26:46
And you're stuck here with me,
26:48
interviewing guys like Garrett.
26:49
I was actually just thinking that I raced in USGPRU in 2000,
26:52
2005 or six or something like that.
26:54
So I was, I was, I was ahead of the game.
26:56
I was there before you obviously,
26:57
because I'm whatever,
26:59
12 years older than you are.
27:01
and here I am riding a desk for a living instead of,
27:03
riding super bikes for a living.
27:06
just for all you kids,
27:07
for all you kids listening,
27:08
it doesn't always turn out as glamorous.
27:10
You might end up being like Zach.
27:13
you could end up a loser at a desk like that.
27:18
through all your racing,
27:19
I know that racers are superstitious people sometimes.
27:25
superstitions that have grown into your racing?
27:33
the same helmet through a whole race weekend or,
27:35
put your right glove on first every time,
27:37
anything like that,
27:38
that you've developed as a,
27:39
as a professional racer.
27:41
I've always tried to fight it.
27:43
I've always tried to be like that.
27:45
You want to be above it?
27:49
I just don't want it to be like something that ever affects me,
27:57
like I still constantly do stuff that,
27:58
that counteracts any superstition that I might have building,
28:03
if I'm always put my right glove on first,
28:04
I'll start putting my left glove on first just to like,
28:08
just to prove that there's nothing there.
28:13
most of the time it has proved that it's not there.
28:18
you have anti superstitions then you have like,
28:21
you have measures in place to avoid superstition so that it doesn't.
28:26
maybe that's a superstition in and of itself.
28:38
I think what we're excited with Garrett is that there's like,
28:41
one of the things that Zach and I are talking about is that like,
28:43
you are obviously a professional racer,
28:46
in my short time getting to talk to you,
28:48
and I know you and Zach probably know what you're a little bit better,
28:51
you really appreciate motorcycling, right?
28:55
you like motorcycles in general.
28:56
You're talking about riding mopeds.
29:01
in episode one of this season,
29:03
exciting new motorcycle releases for 2025.
29:07
and our kickoff question here is,
29:09
what motorcycles are you most excited about that have been
29:12
released in the last 12 to 18 months?
29:15
If you had to go out and buy an off the rack motorcycle,
29:17
what's the most exciting thing for you right now?
29:24
that's a tough one.
29:25
Obviously I have kind of a bias because I'm contracted and I work,
29:29
I work for kind of technically Kawasaki.
29:32
I'll start with that.
29:36
the versus 1100 I really like.
29:40
I like that bike a lot.
29:42
I like touring bikes.
29:44
yeah, this is like,
29:45
this is a quick sidebar I want to point out.
29:50
Instagram message interactions where you have revealed to me
29:51
basically that like,
29:52
you kind of like sport touring bikes.
29:53
Like you're like interested in like riding on the road.
29:57
you're not addicted to like,
29:58
you don't want to sport bike on the road.
30:00
you like want something that makes sense.
30:01
And so I think that's a pretty fun kind of,
30:06
your dispositions about motorcycles.
30:08
So have you ridden a versus 1100?
30:10
Or are you just sort of like that kind of bike?
30:13
but I know I have that kind of bike.
30:15
I have like a ton of different bikes over the years.
30:17
And they're not always related to like who I'm riding for.
30:22
last year I bought a,
30:26
So I love that thing.
30:27
The thing is sweet.
30:28
Uh, before that I had like a KTM 890 adventure.
30:31
That thing was sweet.
30:32
I was a big fan of that.
30:35
Spurge is an 890 adventure owner.
30:39
Zach says that it's an ugly bike.
30:40
I think that the 890 looks nice.
30:44
It's kind of weird.
30:47
I think it looks nice.
30:49
like an SC project exhaust on it and it was popping and banging.
30:54
and then before that I had a BMW C 400 X scooter.
31:03
I'm not just saying that I,
31:06
So you're walking the walk.
31:09
I had a Zuma before that.
31:14
that's what got me into being a street rider also,
31:17
not just like that.
31:18
Where were you riding?
31:19
Were you riding when you lived in Europe?
31:21
I was around here in Texas.
31:27
Where every road is 55 miles an hour and I'm barely keeping up,
31:30
So that kind of got me into like,
31:33
Get a hundred miles per gallon,
31:34
go wherever I want,
31:35
park wherever I want.
31:37
that got me into street riding specific.
31:39
I was never in street ride until that.
31:42
I'll try to six the question.
31:46
didn't you have a Zuma too?
31:48
I thought you had a Zuma,
31:49
Spencer and Ari each had a Zuma.
31:50
I had an Aprilia scooter that I sold.
31:54
those are cool man.
31:57
The Aprilia two strokes?
32:01
those were like epic in the paddock and you had one of those.
32:06
that's kind of why I had it when I was like a club racer.
32:08
It was like my pit bike.
32:09
would take it home and use it as a city bike, so.
32:11
Anyway, well, yeah, I mean, this is a,
32:14
we're not gonna ask you to tell us
32:16
what bikes you've got on your own in Kawasaki.
32:18
Yeah, exactly, that's not our point.
32:20
What I would say is, if anyone from Kawasaki is listening,
32:23
get this Man of Versus 1100 for crying out loud.
32:26
Like, how have you not tried a...
32:29
I am gonna get a, one of the Ninja 500s, so.
32:34
Pretty good about that.
32:36
Just as a street bike to ride around, like.
32:38
Yeah, not to ride around, I'm gonna, like,
32:40
strip it down and make it a car track bike,
32:43
which I might do a YouTube video on, so.
32:46
That's actually a good plug for your YouTube channel.
32:48
If you're not already subscribed,
32:50
Garrett, you do have a pretty cool little YouTube channel
32:54
Yeah, I feel bad because I haven't,
32:57
just was costing me too much money to keep it going.
32:59
My buddy Brad is the one that was doing all the shooting
33:02
and editing, and he does an unreal job,
33:04
and he deserves to make a lot of money.
33:06
I just couldn't keep paying him,
33:07
and paying for flights and stuff like that.
33:10
So it's tapered off.
33:11
But yeah, I mean, I like doing the videos and stuff.
33:15
It's nice to, I can look back on them now
33:16
and be like, yeah, that was a cool time.
33:18
Yeah, yeah, it's fun, kind of like journal entry
33:22
Okay, well, I'm gonna move on.
33:25
Our episode two, we interviewed a guy named Matt Oxley,
33:27
who's a MotoGP journalist,
33:31
and an Isle of Man, a former racer
33:34
and Isle of Man sort of journalist.
33:37
And we talked to him all about the history
33:38
of the Isle of Man TT and that kind of thing.
33:39
And being that you're a road racer,
33:42
I think I feel like I know what your vibe
33:44
will be around the Isle of Man.
33:45
But I'm curious, have you been to Isle of Man?
33:47
Would you be interested in going?
33:48
Like, do you have any curiosity about the course
33:50
or even racing there?
33:52
Or is it just like a no-go for you?
33:56
Yeah, I wanna go and watch, for sure.
33:58
Well, I'm kind of conflicted,
33:59
because I wanna go and watch,
34:00
but I definitely don't wanna see anything
34:01
that I'm gonna regret seeing,
34:03
if you know what I mean.
34:06
I'm good friends with Taryn McKenzie and Brad Ray,
34:08
who raced on World Superbike.
34:11
Taryn still races there,
34:12
but Brad's now leading the championship in BSB.
34:16
But they've gone to the Isle of Man quite a few times,
34:19
and they were showing me all the videos on their phone,
34:21
of them just ripping past right there,
34:24
next to the wall and stuff.
34:27
It's too sketchy for me to wanna try to do the race,
34:30
but I think it'd be fun to go out to the Isle of Man
34:33
and rent a bike and go ride the track.
34:35
Slowly and just check it out and stuff.
34:37
I think that would be cool.
34:39
But no, I mean, I think those guys are nuts.
34:42
I think even when we talked to Matt,
34:45
Zach, correct me if I'm wrong,
34:46
but didn't Matt get started with vintage bikes,
34:48
or wasn't it like something,
34:49
because it was a much smaller displacement, wasn't it?
34:52
Yeah, well, yeah, he did.
34:54
I think it was 250 production class in the 80s,
34:56
so he was riding like a,
34:58
I don't wanna downplay it too much,
35:00
but I feel like it was like a 40 horsepower,
35:03
50 horsepower, two-stroke street bike
35:05
that had got turned into a race bike.
35:07
And not to suggest that what he did wasn't badass,
35:10
because he technically won a race at Isle of Man,
35:12
which is pretty dope.
35:16
But yeah, he was a smaller,
35:17
he wasn't racing super bikes.
35:20
He wasn't even racing like super twins,
35:23
that's like a mid-sized twins cup kind of class,
35:25
I think it's like 650 twins or something like that.
35:28
he was his classes,
35:30
the class he raced in was smaller.
35:31
And he, I think he even admitted that it was like,
35:34
the only way he felt like he could rationalize it
35:36
because the bikes weren't as fast.
35:38
So, any displacement is too much displacement for me.
35:41
I'm with Garrett as far as like,
35:43
it's one thing to go and observe,
35:45
it's another thing to compete.
35:46
I will say, Garrett,
35:47
given your off-road background,
35:49
I know when Zach was there,
35:52
we talked about this a little bit on the episode,
35:54
he and Ari filmed an episode
35:55
where they actually just rode dirt bikes
35:57
on the inside of the course
35:58
to like look at it in different ways.
36:00
So you actually might be,
36:01
that might be right up your alley
36:02
and just like riding dirt bikes
36:03
across the inside of the course.
36:06
I can hook you up with the guy that we,
36:08
that we rented bikes from too,
36:11
if you're interested.
36:11
He's like, he's a homegrown dude.
36:15
He's from Isle of Man
36:16
and he has like a few dirt bikes in his garage
36:18
and you can like rent
36:19
and he like showed us around.
36:23
we went inside the course and you're like,
36:25
it's a huge loop that's 37 miles around or whatever.
36:27
And all the sort of like pastures and trails
36:30
and private land and stuff that's in the middle,
36:33
you can, some of it,
36:34
you can ride dirt bikes across
36:35
and you can get to like certain points in the track
36:36
and like walk down through the forest
36:38
and watch where there's no one else is around.
36:40
It's really, really cool.
36:41
And actually because you're like a four motor cross guy,
36:44
you know, you're a dirt bike guy
36:45
and you're obviously competent on a bike
36:46
so you'd be able to do it.
36:47
But that'd be a cool thing for you to do.
36:50
Heck yeah. All right.
36:51
Yeah, send me that.
36:53
I'm gonna hook you up with David
36:55
and you'll have the best vacation ever.
36:59
I think it's very common for, you know,
37:01
actual road users to look at Isle of Man
37:03
and be like, I can't imagine doing that.
37:04
And that's kind of, even though I've not raced
37:07
even close to at your level,
37:08
but even just being a club racer
37:14
and looking at Isle of Man,
37:15
I'm sort of like, I wouldn't even want to try
37:16
to go around as fast as I can go,
37:19
which wouldn't be like world championship pace or anything,
37:21
but it would still be way too scary and sketchy to try.
37:26
Yeah, I mean, no, I got massive respect for those guys.
37:28
And I know Davey Todd,
37:30
who won last year or was it last year,
37:32
this year on the BMW and like I talked to him
37:36
and he's just like a normal dude.
37:38
I met him at Brands Hatch at a BSB race.
37:40
Just normal dude, he was out there racing
37:42
and you just don't realize that he's got a switch
37:45
that, you know, he can flip and yeah, it's crazy.
37:50
I want to jump ahead, Zach.
37:51
So let's, I think we're going to jump to episode four
37:54
if that's okay with you.
37:57
So on episode four, we talked about,
37:59
you know, does riding different motorcycles
38:02
make you a better rider?
38:03
And, you know, I think, you know, Garrett,
38:05
even just in the short time we've been talking,
38:07
you've ridden a variety of different motorcycles
38:09
and different types of motorcycles.
38:11
You know, how do you cross train as a racer
38:15
and what does that bring to you
38:17
and your specific riding style?
38:20
I mean, I'd still ride a lot of motocross, you know,
38:22
I got a KX250 that I try to ride as much as I can.
38:25
And yeah, I feel like, yeah, just being on two wheels
38:29
in general, I feel like you're learning something always.
38:32
I used to train on trials bikes and, you know,
38:35
work on balance and slow speed maneuver,
38:37
clutch control, stuff like that.
38:39
I mean, you're not really doing a whole lot
38:40
of clutch control on the bikes that I race,
38:41
but I feel like just being on two wheels,
38:43
you're always just kind of figuring something out
38:45
that maybe you wouldn't have figured out
38:47
if you're just doing the same thing all the time.
38:49
On a road race bike.
38:51
So I've ridden Ovales and those things are super twitchy
38:56
and like, you know, it gives you a different perspective.
38:59
Motocross gives you a different perspective,
39:02
you know, having like a lot less grip
39:04
and having to use, like staying in ruts
39:07
and stuff like that, you learn something new.
39:09
Even, I just, I gotta bring up a moped again,
39:13
the Zuma, when I had a Zuma, man.
39:14
Like now I have a rear brake on my clutch hand
39:18
on the super bike, you know.
39:20
So like, since I went to world super bike,
39:23
I've always had a rear brake on my left handlebar
39:26
that I use with my index finger, my left index finger.
39:29
And so, but I feel like I'm pretty good at using it
39:32
because I used to rip the Zuma around the paddock
39:35
and just, you know, rip skids and stuff, you know.
39:39
And on a Zuma, the left lever is not a clutch
39:42
because it's a CVT scooter, it's the rear brake.
39:44
Yeah, that's interesting.
39:46
So did you, I know that this is gonna be
39:48
like a little bit of a nerdy road racing deep dive.
39:51
So it's spurred, pardon me.
39:52
But historically, the rear brake on the handlebar,
39:58
which we don't need to go into the whole history
39:59
of how it happened as far as I understand it,
40:01
but it was often a thumb brake.
40:03
And is there a reason you chose the finger?
40:05
Was it just sort of like what you felt more comfortable with
40:07
or have you tried a thumb brake on that side
40:09
and you didn't like it or?
40:10
Yeah, I've tried a thumb brake, but I can't get the,
40:13
I just don't like the way it feels.
40:14
It doesn't feel natural to me.
40:15
And I also feel like leverage-wise, it feels weird.
40:19
And for me, it's easier just to,
40:21
and I just feel like I know where I met more
40:22
with using my finger.
40:25
It just feels more natural, so I stuck with that.
40:27
Do you use it on corner entry, I assume?
40:31
And do you also use it on the throttle?
40:33
Like do you use it for like mitigating slides
40:36
or like to catch slides or mitigate wheel spin at all?
40:40
Or is it all corner entry that use the rear brake?
40:42
Yeah, all the time.
40:43
I'm always just using it.
40:44
So to fight wheelie, to try to keep the front wheel down,
40:47
I use it, especially coming out of like right-hand corners.
40:50
Cause I got like, I don't have a weird body position,
40:52
but I just, I'm not able to use my rear brake
40:56
in right corners like I want to.
40:57
Like Mark Marquez is super good about using his foot
41:00
going into right-hand corners.
41:02
You can see him modulate and stuff,
41:05
but I just don't feel like I have that same kind of,
41:08
how I put my body weight on the bike,
41:10
I just can't do that.
41:11
So corner entry for sure.
41:12
But then also like on the exit,
41:14
I don't have my foot close to the rear brake.
41:15
So I use the, the finger brake too
41:17
to kind of fight wheelie and stuff.
41:21
You know, you're mentioning, you know,
41:22
two wheels as a training piece.
41:24
And you know, one of the things that I talked about
41:26
during episode four was, you know,
41:29
my wife and I moved this year
41:30
and I'm not close to the off-road riding that I like.
41:33
And I ended up buying a mountain bike.
41:34
And it's my first time as an adult buying a bicycle.
41:37
And I've really enjoyed it.
41:38
It's given, like I'm having a lot of fun
41:40
riding a bicycle around the first big boy bike.
41:42
We're all very proud of you.
41:43
Yeah. But my point is I know that you train
41:46
physically quite a bit Garrett.
41:47
I know that you do some road biking.
41:50
What is your training mentality when it comes to,
41:54
whether it's hopping on a bicycle
41:56
or your workout aesthetic
41:57
and how does that relate to, you know,
42:00
your physical endurance when it comes to motorcycling?
42:03
I mean, yeah, it's at the,
42:06
like once you get past a certain level,
42:07
I mean, our races are like 35 minutes long.
42:10
And like the track we were just at in Hungary,
42:13
I mean, it's slow and technical,
42:15
but you have so many transitions that you got to do
42:17
where you got to pull the bike from side to side.
42:19
And, you know, it was like physically tough a lot.
42:24
So I try to like focus on all the training that I do.
42:26
I like to do like higher intensity stuff,
42:29
whether it's like sprint intervals running
42:31
or, you know, intervals on a bicycle
42:34
or just like hit training in the gym.
42:37
I like to do like that kind of stuff and focus on that
42:40
and keep it under an hour.
42:42
So a lot of these, like a lot of guys that train,
42:44
they'll try to jump on a bicycle
42:46
and they'll ride for four hours.
42:48
And I'm not saying you shouldn't do that
42:49
or you can't do that, but for me, it's like,
42:51
my races are always less than an hour.
42:53
I'm trying to be as good as I can in that range.
42:56
And so that's what I, that's what I kind of stick to.
42:59
But yeah, the high intensity stuff is not easy,
43:02
but it's what I feel like has given me the best,
43:06
like the best condition for me to be like
43:08
the most mentally clear when I ride, you know?
43:12
And so I just kind of stick to that stuff.
43:16
Well, you heard it here first, everybody,
43:17
the best way to become a World Speed Bike Racer
43:19
is to train on a Zoom of 125.
43:21
Because I'm just saying, I'm just,
43:23
I'm trying to tie it all together.
43:24
No, no, you're tying it together, man.
43:26
You're talking my language.
43:30
All right, so I'm gonna ask you a question
43:32
based on episode five of our season this year,
43:33
which was the best way to rent a motorcycle
43:38
I feel like I can assume that you're,
43:39
you're not like about to start a motorcycle rental company
43:44
or anything like that,
43:45
because you have your hands full with other things.
43:46
But I'm curious, if you were going to fly anywhere
43:49
in the world and rent a bike and take a ride,
43:52
and we said like, you know, gun to your head,
43:54
you're leaving tomorrow morning, where are you going?
43:56
Do you have any like,
43:58
any places that you've always been eyeballing
44:02
Sardania, Italy, Sardinia looks unreal.
44:05
And there's like apparently a big rental market
44:07
out there for bikes anyway,
44:08
but it's supposed to be some of the best riding in the world.
44:11
And I'm actually going next week.
44:14
Are you renting a bike?
44:16
I'm not going to rent a bike.
44:18
My team owner has a yacht there,
44:21
so I'm gonna go hang out with him.
44:23
Nice shirt, that's.
44:24
Which is also gonna be cool,
44:25
but I'm taking it out.
44:27
I wish producer Chase had a yacht
44:29
because he hasn't invited me anywhere, my God.
44:33
I mean, I've never been down there,
44:35
so I don't know what it's gonna be like,
44:36
but yeah, but I'm gonna try to rent a bike,
44:39
rent something and just go ride around.
44:41
And hopefully you don't have any new stories that,
44:43
that there was an issue, but yeah, we'll see.
44:47
American catches restaurant on fire
44:49
when he crashes Zuma into by a school rack outside.
44:52
Yeah, maybe you can at least rent a scooter
44:54
and look around or something like that.
44:55
Well, right, I hope you get to,
44:56
I've never ridden Sardinia,
44:57
but I know that there have been some like
44:58
press events over the years on the island
45:01
and I've seen photos and stuff and it does look magical.
45:04
So I imagine being on a yacht would be cool too.
45:07
I'll bring up one more spot.
45:08
Like I know you're exactly in LA, right?
45:12
But the mountains and stuff around there
45:14
are supposed to be unreal.
45:15
Like it'd be cool to go out there
45:17
and do like a little tour or something.
45:19
And I do have a sponsor, Moto California,
45:21
who does tours out there.
45:22
So. Oh, that's right.
45:23
Yeah, yeah. Full shout out.
45:24
Right, right, shout out to them, yeah.
45:26
Well, that being the case, you wouldn't need my help,
45:29
but if you're ever in LA, man, let me know.
45:31
I can probably even line up a Kawasaki for you
45:34
He says that, but he's going to get you a Zuma 125
45:36
and you'll be stuck riding around that.
45:39
So I actually, I was in Sardinia
45:42
for the Ducati Desert X launch,
45:44
so if you get a chance. Oh, is that what it was?
45:46
Yeah. Oh, right, okay.
45:46
So if you get a chance to rent,
45:48
there's a really cool spot on the island
45:50
that you can kind of take like little dirt roads up to.
45:52
And it's like this like windmill farm
45:55
on like these bluffs on the top of the island.
45:57
It's actually a really cool little trip.
45:58
So if you get a chance to rent something,
46:00
it makes it, you know, a couple hours up
46:02
and you get to kind of like, you know,
46:03
explore these little windmills on the top of the island.
46:05
Well, I mean, was it good?
46:06
Like, was a good ride out there?
46:07
Riding is cool. Yeah. Super ride.
46:10
So my answer is good or my answer is not good?
46:11
Oh, your answer is good, man.
46:12
No, I think, yeah, especially cause like,
46:14
it's one of those places where like very few people
46:16
will get to ride a motorcycle, you know?
46:18
So I think it's, if you have that experience,
46:20
I think that's really cool.
46:21
Yeah, it's a good way to put it.
46:22
But you know, don't, don't snub the team owner
46:24
with the yacht either.
46:25
Cause I imagine being on the yacht would be kind of cool.
46:27
So have you, have you ever rented a motorcycle before?
46:29
Have you ever done anything like that before?
46:31
Where you just showed up somewhere and said,
46:32
you know what, I have a few days to kill.
46:33
I'm just going to run a bike and are,
46:35
are you just have so many free motorcycles?
46:36
You don't have to worry about that.
46:37
No, I've rented, I really hate how much this is coming up,
46:41
but I've rented scooters everywhere.
46:42
Cause you can rent, you can rent them so cheap
46:46
and just get rid of them. Yeah, exactly.
46:47
I, and people, I'm so glad you're saying this, man,
46:50
because this is really validating for me
46:52
because I have people like,
46:54
because I'm not as cool as you are,
46:55
but I have a job where I get to ride motorcycles
46:58
around all the time and, and people, you know,
47:00
assume that I want like the biggest, baddest, fastest thing.
47:03
And like I was stuck.
47:04
I hadn't been stuck.
47:05
I was whatever, I had a layover or like I was sort of stuck.
47:08
I guess I was in Southern France.
47:10
I was in Nice for like 18 hours.
47:13
I didn't have anything to do.
47:14
And I was like, I just went down to a scooter shop
47:15
and I rented a scooter and I rode along the coast
47:18
and like got a soda and a sandwich
47:21
and then I rode back and I just thought it was so cool.
47:23
And people were like, oh, I can't believe
47:24
you'd ride a scooter, like a little 125, you know,
47:28
podunk thing when you like your job is to like ride fast bikes
47:31
or like test expensive fancy things.
47:33
And I'm like, I don't want, that's not why I'm in it.
47:35
I'm in it because I like riding on two wheels.
47:37
So it's super validating to hear you say that like,
47:40
you know, you spend time at 200 miles an hour
47:42
and you're just like, yeah, man,
47:42
I just want to get on a scooter.
47:44
And you're a hundred percent right
47:45
that like it's affordable.
47:46
And like so many people don't realize
47:47
that like if you're on vacation somewhere,
47:49
like it's such a fun way
47:50
to just get around and explore a city, you know?
47:53
Especially in Europe and stuff.
47:54
I mean, like it's the way to go.
47:56
There's no parking there.
47:57
So you just park the thing anywhere.
47:59
Gas is hella expensive.
48:00
So you just don't pay for gas.
48:02
The year that Zach and I met you in Austin,
48:06
that whole trip, aside from like taking a rental car
48:09
down to the track and back,
48:10
we would just rent those little bird scooters
48:11
around town because like Austin is littered
48:13
with those bird scooters.
48:14
And Zach and I are like just ripping around Austin
48:16
at night, which and like there's definitely people.
48:20
There's definitely people that rent those bird scooters
48:22
where Zach and I are like, you should not be on that.
48:24
Like you're gonna have, you're gonna eat shit.
48:26
Have you, have you ridden,
48:27
have you ridden one of those electric thingamajigs
48:28
that we're talking about?
48:29
Like that's just sort of stand up
48:30
like lime scooter versus scooter.
48:31
Is it, as a professional motorcycle racer,
48:34
are they not, they handle bad, right?
48:39
I'm trying to like take a hand off
48:40
to like adjust to something and get into like a tank.
48:46
No, I don't recommend that scooter, scooter,
48:50
Scooter all the way, right.
48:50
Like a Zoomer scooter.
48:51
So I think I interrupted you, whatever,
48:54
three minutes ago at this point.
48:55
You were gonna tell a story
48:56
about how you rented a scooter somewhere.
48:57
So was there a particularly good,
48:59
scooter rental experience that you had?
49:01
Or you were just talking in general.
49:02
I was just gonna say that like,
49:04
people do not understand that on the street,
49:07
you do not need more than like 40 horsepower.
49:10
And so it's like, my favorite bikes on earth
49:12
are 500 cc's and less for the street,
49:16
like to ride around the street.
49:17
Just because you can, you can ride the pig of them
49:20
and you're not gonna get, you know, arrested.
49:22
And I just, I wish more people would understand that, you know?
49:26
I mean, it does suck.
49:27
I wish that more brands,
49:29
and I've like pitched this to Kawasaki,
49:31
I wish that more brands would put like more tech
49:33
into their smaller bikes, you know,
49:34
because people still want cruise control.
49:37
People still want heated seats and stuff
49:38
on like smaller bikes,
49:39
but they, they're only gonna get them
49:41
on the higher end bikes and stuff.
49:43
But yeah, anyway, the small bikes are so fun.
49:47
Hot take, I love this.
49:48
Cruise control, heated grips, heated whatever on 500 cc bikes.
49:54
I have a, I have a-
49:55
That's why, sorry, that's why I like the versus 1100
49:58
more than the versus 650
49:59
because the 650 doesn't come with cruise control
50:01
and stuff like that.
50:02
And I think that's a big miss in my opinion.
50:04
I have a brand new Honda trans out in the garage right now
50:08
that I just got from our editor, Lance Oliver.
50:11
And, you know, he just wrapped up like a couple
50:14
of like 600 mile days and he's like,
50:15
yeah, it doesn't have cruise control.
50:16
I'm like, that's insane.
50:17
It has a quick shifter.
50:19
It's a 750 cc touring adventure bike.
50:22
Right, it has a quick shifter, but not cruise control.
50:26
And it's just like, it's just, it's such a miss to me.
50:30
I think any bike with ride by wire throttle
50:32
has to have cruise control, some kind of cruise control.
50:34
Even just the set button.
50:36
It doesn't have to be adjustable, just a set button.
50:38
Like, why do you not have it?
50:39
This is the man after my own heart here.
50:41
All right, well, put it on a Zoom of 125 folks.
50:44
You're gonna sell at least two scooters
50:48
Okay, we're gonna do one more question here.
50:51
Let me take a quick break.
50:52
Episode six, we had Kayli Yakov on the program.
50:58
A young lady who's racing in Moto America.
51:02
Perhaps you're familiar to some extent
51:04
with her career and what she's up to.
51:07
I'm curious if you have any other sort of musings
51:11
on her, on her career, on her riding, her style,
51:15
her successes, whatever.
51:16
But I'm gonna start with a real direct question here for you.
51:21
Will a woman win a world superbike race in your lifetime?
51:28
Oh, I feel like this could be a very controversial question.
51:31
I'm not trying to set you up for failure
51:34
to say something awkward.
51:35
It's like, it hasn't really,
51:38
there have been very, very few glimmers of hope here.
51:40
And I feel like in the female motorcycling world,
51:43
especially in the competition side,
51:45
and I feel like Kayli is one of those glimmers of hope.
51:48
And I'm curious if you've spent a lot of time
51:50
traveling the world and on the world superbike calendar,
51:53
I know there's a women's championship that's happening now.
51:55
And I'm just kind of curious what your take is.
51:58
And I don't think you can say the wrong thing here.
51:59
Like there's just an open opinion.
52:04
I mean, if anybody on the world superbike grid
52:07
has a shot at winning.
52:08
So yes, I mean, yes to your question.
52:11
Like if you're on the grid,
52:12
you do have a statistical chance of winning
52:15
and maybe that's even higher in different conditions
52:17
and stuff like that.
52:18
But it'd definitely be difficult.
52:21
I think it's, they have a disadvantage.
52:26
Females have a disadvantage when it comes to like
52:28
bone density, muscle mass, like stuff like that.
52:31
If you don't have any kind of like hormonal help, I guess.
52:35
So that makes it difficult.
52:36
It's not impossible, but you got more things
52:40
to overcome, which I think is awesome
52:43
that Kayla's even out there trying to show
52:46
that she's overcoming those things.
52:48
You know what I mean?
52:49
So it's like, and I think, I mean, we had Anna Karosco
52:53
who won a world championship in the 300 super sport class
52:56
in my championship, you know,
52:59
and that was something that was monumental and epic.
53:02
I mean, she beat 40 guys or something like that
53:04
for that whole year.
53:06
So yeah, there's unbelievable talent out there,
53:11
And I think they definitely need to have the ability
53:16
to show what they got, you know?
53:18
And I think the younger, the younger anybody starts
53:20
the better chance they're gonna have
53:21
to hone their skills and stuff.
53:22
And so it's cool that she's only 17, is that right?
53:25
Yeah, yeah, someone got, yeah, exactly.
53:26
And, you know, she's already been on the podium,
53:28
you know, in Moto America.
53:29
I think if not, if not once, more than once.
53:33
And so, I mean, she's definitely got,
53:35
she does have a rad style.
53:37
She's got like a cool, you know,
53:39
like elbow down style and stuff,
53:41
which is not an easy style to hone, you know?
53:44
So I think she's got a lot going for her 100%.
53:48
And I'm not trying to say, like I said,
53:49
I'm not trying to say anything bad,
53:50
but I mean, I think there is like a reality
53:52
when it comes to women being like smaller stature
53:55
and stuff like that.
53:55
But then you got, you have guys like Danny Pedroza,
53:58
who was like five two, you know?
54:00
And 125 pounds and he got it done.
54:03
So yeah, it's gonna be tougher,
54:06
but yeah, not impossible, no.
54:08
Yeah, I think that's totally fair take.
54:10
And we asked her the same question
54:11
and she had some of the similar answers, you know?
54:12
Like that there's like both physically and culturally
54:16
there are things to overcome, you know?
54:18
Like it's just sort of like statistically a little bit
54:23
But even cooler when you do it.
54:26
I was gonna say it seems like you share her outlook,
54:28
which is that like, that doesn't mean it can't be done.
54:32
No, it's underdog, it's like an underdog story.
54:34
And those are the best stories.
54:36
Yeah, yeah, right on.
54:37
All right, well, Spurge Joe, should we take quick break
54:40
to make sure that our contracts are covered here?
54:46
We don't have to say anything about Kawasaki,
54:49
but we do have to get an award from our sponsor Motul.
54:53
It's hard to believe that high side, low side
54:55
has been around for 10 seasons.
54:57
It's truly remarkable to take a minute
54:59
and look back and see how far we've come.
55:01
So much of which wouldn't have been possible
55:03
without the sponsorship of Motul,
55:05
who has supported us since season three.
55:08
Not only has Motul been an amazing supporter
55:10
of this podcast and motorcycling in general,
55:13
but they've given me free reign
55:14
to come up with wacky ads as I see fit.
55:17
They never balked when I referred
55:19
to a Stallone classic over the top
55:21
to let folks know that their oil tasted like shit.
55:24
Or when I researched neon green drinks
55:26
like the fuzzy leprechaun and hammered Hulk
55:29
to drive home the dangers
55:30
of confusing their 300V oil for a cocktail.
55:34
They weren't fazed when I found a way
55:36
to work in British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's nickname
55:39
of Thatcher the Milk Snatcher to promote lubricants.
55:42
And they should have cringed, but they didn't,
55:45
and my poem about bugs
55:47
to introduce their line of cleaning products.
55:49
So please take a minute to join me
55:51
in giving the old high side, low side,
55:53
tip of the cap to Motul for everything they've done
55:56
to help us make it through 10 seasons of this podcast
55:59
and for everything they do
56:00
for all motorcyclists out there.
56:05
All right, well, during that break,
56:09
I actually Googled Sardinia to make sure
56:12
that I was actually remembering my geography correct.
56:14
And I was, but I just want everybody to know,
56:16
like I'm doing my double checking here too.
56:19
You're doing your research real time.
56:21
Well, while you're Googling-
56:23
I don't want to embarrass myself in front of Garrett.
56:25
I'm like, if I didn't go to Sardinia
56:26
to ride a motorcycle, he's going to be looking
56:28
for windmills and he's not going to find them.
56:33
Well, while you're on Google Maps, Spurge,
56:35
I'm going to ask Garrett a couple of questions
56:36
about World Speed Bike Racing,
56:37
because I just can't help myself, you know how I get.
56:39
I think this ties in like, we asked Kayla in episode six
56:42
a bunch of questions about racing.
56:43
So now we're going to pivot to some of the questions
56:46
for Garrett that I know you're dying to ask him.
56:54
you raced S1000RRBMW for two seasons, is that right?
56:59
The M1000RRR, yeah, yeah.
57:01
The M1000RRR, excuse me, excuse me, excuse me.
57:07
And then you transitioned to the Kawasaki team
57:11
riding the ZX-10, correct?
57:14
And the ZX-10 historically has had a lot of success
57:16
in the World Speed Bike Championship with Tom Sykes
57:20
and with Johnny Ray famously.
57:24
But I know there's like so much nuance to racing
57:27
and like rules and things change
57:29
and there are like little tweaks
57:30
and people said that, you know,
57:33
the Yamaha would never win in World Speed Bike
57:35
because of XYZ reason and then it did.
57:38
And I'm just curious, your transition from a BMW
57:41
to a Kawasaki is going to be much different
57:43
than anyone's transition from that bike
57:46
from a BMW to a Kawasaki that they buy at a dealership
57:49
because you're working on a completely different level.
57:50
But how do the bikes compare
57:52
and what are some of the things
57:53
that you've liked about moving to the Kawasaki
57:55
and maybe some things you struggled with?
57:57
Yeah, good question.
57:58
I mean, I actually get asked this a lot.
58:00
So I got a couple of them.
58:02
Yeah, I'm sorry to stand in line
58:03
and ask this like dorky racing question of like...
58:06
But how many people have asked you about Zuma Scooters?
58:09
I mean, that's really...
58:10
That's what hurts me the most.
58:15
No, I mean, it was nice having two years
58:18
to get used to the BMW.
58:19
And it was a difficult bike
58:22
to kind of understand in the beginning
58:24
because it had so much power, you know?
58:26
But it had really good electronics too
58:28
that kind of almost made it difficult
58:32
to understand what I was doing with my inputs
58:35
because the electronics kind of masked it.
58:40
And so I ended up getting to a lot better place
58:44
with that bike, understanding it more
58:45
and was able to use its strengths better
58:48
and that was all good.
58:51
I'm kind of in a similar place right now
58:53
with the Kawasaki where I'm trying
58:54
to understand its strengths
58:55
so that I can make the most out of the package
58:58
that I got and the strengths of the bike
59:01
are it's so good at like stop and go style riding.
59:05
So it's not something that I've tried.
59:08
I'm more of a corner speed guy to begin with
59:10
just especially with my pass with 125s and stuff.
59:13
Yeah, yeah, with small bikes, yeah, yeah.
59:15
So I've always liked having kind of more corner speed
59:18
but I've struggled with the Kawasaki
59:19
to ride in that way just because it's not,
59:22
that's just not how it wants to be ridden.
59:25
So like if I have more corner speed at full lean angle
59:27
and I'm trying to like pick up the gas,
59:32
it just doesn't have like the edge grip right there
59:35
that I would like it to have.
59:38
But then if I like changed my riding style
59:40
and I break a little bit later,
59:43
run it a bit more in on the front,
59:45
stop the bike more and then touch the gas
59:48
and pick the bike up at the same time,
59:51
it's got unbelievable drive grip.
59:52
So it's like, it's like just trying to figure out
59:55
what the strengths are and using that to my advantage
59:57
instead of trying to ride it
59:59
how like I would want to ride it.
00:02
But even though there's things that we can do
00:03
that push in that direction
00:05
of something that like I would like to ride more,
00:08
it's just like, hey, we know this works as it is
00:12
because of, yeah, all the success that Johnny had
00:14
and Tom and stuff like that,
00:16
even though that was like a while ago.
00:18
I mean, it's still last year with Alex Lowe's,
00:20
I mean, he was on the podium almost every weekend.
00:22
So there's merit to what they're telling me.
00:26
I'm just still trying to figure it out
00:27
because it's not like natural to me.
00:29
So I'm gonna, I just wanna ask,
00:30
I'm sorry, I just wanna ask you a question
00:31
because for you guys are racers
00:33
and I wanna play the role of our audience
00:36
that might not be racers.
00:37
So when you say stop and go riding,
00:40
is it just more of like all throttle, harder break
00:44
and then on the throttle a little bit sooner?
00:46
Like when you say stop and go racing
00:48
as a different style and varying from you,
00:50
can you just help our audience
00:52
and laymans like myself understand that a little bit more?
00:56
So the way stop and go style is if you look at a corner,
00:58
and it's like 180 degrees like that,
01:01
this would be like more of like a roll, roll speed style.
01:04
It's just kind of like following the radius,
01:06
even though you're, you know, you have,
01:07
you still have a race line,
01:09
but you follow the radius a bit more
01:11
and try to like maximize your corner speed.
01:13
Stop and go is to like kind of triangulate it more
01:16
and maybe you run a bit more wide mid corner,
01:21
but, and you're going a little bit more slow
01:22
at the apex of the corner,
01:25
but then you're kind of like on a more direct line
01:28
for the exit, which is where you can use less lean angle,
01:32
more meat of the tire
01:33
and hopefully have less electronics intervening
01:38
And so it's, yeah, it's kind of,
01:40
but what I've had a difficulty doing
01:43
is that obviously not every corner is 180 degrees
01:45
and not every corner is like,
01:47
can be triangulated like that
01:50
and be able to stop and go corner.
01:51
So I've tried to kind of just figure out
01:55
what I need to do better in that, in those corners.
01:58
And I'm still kind of struggling,
02:00
but I'm getting better.
02:02
I appreciate the explanation.
02:03
You are signed on to race on that team next year.
02:09
So I'll be back next year.
02:11
And do you think that you have,
02:14
do you feel like you've made strides this year
02:16
that will help for next year?
02:18
Like for like specific tracks
02:20
or even just sort of like wrapping your head
02:22
around how the bike works, that kind of thing.
02:23
You mentioned that you appreciated having two years
02:25
to get used to the BMW
02:26
and it seems like you'll be in the same situation here.
02:30
Yeah, yeah, I'm really thankful.
02:32
I mean, it wasn't the best start to the year
02:34
as probably, yeah, it was a really difficult start for me.
02:36
And so I'm really thankful that they have faith in me
02:39
to keep me on for another year,
02:40
even when maybe they didn't need to.
02:43
So, yeah, big thanks to them for that.
02:46
But we have made like a lot of progress
02:48
from the beginning to the middle of the year
02:51
with not just results,
02:53
but you know, lap times, consistency, all of that.
02:55
And it's a lot of it has been me.
03:00
They've resisted changing a lot.
03:02
And so they want me to really understand the bike
03:05
and get to know the bike and ride it
03:08
as it is set up currently,
03:09
which is kind of the first time
03:11
that I've been in that situation.
03:13
The last few teams that I've ridden for,
03:15
I've had the same crew chief,
03:17
Les Pearson, who is an awesome guy,
03:19
but we kind of attack it together as like,
03:21
hey, let's change the bike into what we want it to be.
03:25
And we've had support from Yamaha and BMW when we did that.
03:29
But I'm with a different crew chief now,
03:31
just because it just didn't work out
03:32
that I could bring Les with me, even though I wanted to.
03:35
And so I'm with a different crew chief, different team,
03:39
still a lot of Japanese input,
03:41
and they want me to just understand the bike as it is.
03:44
So it's the first time that I've had to wrap my head
03:47
around that and try to like adjust me.
03:50
And so the biggest thing stride that we've made
03:54
is me understanding the bike more.
03:57
But I'm going to, I leave tomorrow actually
04:00
to go to Aragon for a two-day test.
04:02
And we have some different parts to try
04:05
when it comes to like chassis and stuff like that
04:06
to maybe see if there's a way that we could like,
04:10
combine the two styles.
04:12
Because in my opinion, everything has gone way more
04:15
in a corner speed direction
04:17
and not like a stop and go style
04:20
versus how world superbike used to be.
04:23
Especially with like Bullega on the Ducati
04:25
and Toprack and what he's doing on the BMW.
04:28
It seems like it's all going that direction.
04:30
So it seems like the Kawasaki's past successes
04:34
perhaps built the machine into something
04:36
that isn't as sharp a tool for the championship
04:40
as it stands right now.
04:41
And you're going to hopefully adjust that.
04:44
Yeah, or I just can't ride it
04:47
the way that I should ride it.
04:49
So yeah, it could be one of those two things
04:51
but I hope it's neither.
04:53
And that, you know, we're just kind of
04:54
just getting used to each other.
04:56
Yeah, yeah, fair enough, fair enough, man.
04:58
Well, I will, I will, I'll stop asking you
05:03
your racing questions
05:03
that everyone's already asked you a hundred thousand times
05:06
And obviously we're all rooting for you
05:08
and hoping that you can make friends with that ZX10
05:12
as soon as possible.
05:14
And I know you've had some good results so far
05:16
but you've also had some bad luck.
05:18
So hopefully it'll turn for you a little bit.
05:20
I want to throw out one racing question
05:22
just before we move on to the next episode question here.
05:27
There's just not a lot of American racers
05:30
on the world stage.
05:32
Like what does it mean for you
05:33
to be a motorcycle racer from America?
05:37
And like, how does that play into, you know
05:41
maybe some of the mental stuff going on for you
05:43
when you enter, you know, the racetrack?
05:45
Yeah, I mean, it means a lot for me
05:47
to kind of be carrying the flag for the country.
05:50
You know, it's, I want to do everybody,
05:53
you know, I want to do a good job for everybody.
05:55
I want to represent, you know, the U.S.
05:57
the best that I can
05:58
and sometimes I feel like I am,
05:59
sometimes I feel like I'm not.
06:01
But yeah, it's like maybe like a bit of added pressure
06:05
but it's funny because I just got off the phone
06:07
before I was, before talking to you guys
06:10
I was talking to Joe Roberts
06:11
because he's in Hungary right now
06:12
at a track that I just raced at.
06:14
So we were talking about some stuff that.
06:16
Oh, that's right. The Balaton Park there, right?
06:17
That's, yeah, yeah.
06:20
But we're like the only two Americans out there, you know
06:22
and so like it's cool to have a bit of camaraderie
06:24
between the two of us.
06:26
But I definitely wish that there was more opportunities
06:29
but you know, it's just, it's difficult.
06:31
Geographically we're far away from kind of where
06:33
the center is of motorcycle racing in Europe.
06:36
And so, you know, it's a,
06:38
we have to make more sacrifices
06:40
than the Europeans that you know
06:43
that are in the world championship to begin with.
06:45
Kind of like the Aussies.
06:46
The Aussies make a ton of sacrifices to go race
06:48
and we're not the only country
06:51
that has a more difficult time of it.
06:53
But yeah, it's just tough to get eyes on us too
06:58
because I mean, a lot of people watch Moto America
07:01
but maybe not the teams that we hope watch
07:05
to give us an opportunity.
07:06
And so I had to be pretty vocal.
07:08
I had to be pretty,
07:10
I went to Europe like quite a few times
07:12
just talking to people,
07:12
trying to find like a way that I could work myself
07:15
into a championship.
07:16
And I had to take a massive pay cut to go there.
07:20
But it was like, it was worth it to me
07:21
because I wanted to,
07:23
I wanted to see if I could do it.
07:24
That was my biggest curiosity is like,
07:26
hey, am I actually, do I think I'm good?
07:29
Or like, is there more for me to learn?
07:30
Like, you know, can I do it?
07:32
Like I had to answer the questions
07:34
or I had to have an answer for those questions.
07:35
So that's kind of why I did it.
07:36
But yeah, you got to make big sacrifices to go there.
07:42
Super interesting background.
07:45
Well, I want to move on to...
07:50
You know, let's be honest.
07:51
You don't want to move on?
07:51
If we can sit here and just...
07:52
No, I really don't.
07:53
I have more questions for him.
07:54
Like, what did he learn on the World Speedway stage?
07:59
Episode seven of season 10 this year was about,
08:03
was a deep dive on the Honda Gold Wing motorcycle,
08:06
which you're probably familiar with,
08:07
Garrett since you're a man of the people.
08:12
well, first of all, a basic questions for you,
08:14
have you ever ridden a Gold Wing
08:15
or would you ever ride one?
08:16
But I'm gonna kind of add a little bit of a twist
08:21
I'm curious if you've ever ridden one of what you thought.
08:23
But also my question is,
08:25
can you imagine an older, slower,
08:30
perhaps more rickety, some gray in his hair,
08:32
Garrett Gerloff, who just wants a big,
08:35
comfortable couch of a bike to ride
08:38
and wants to, you know,
08:39
see the world or see the country or something like that.
08:42
Yeah. I mean, no lie.
08:43
I looked at buying one last year.
08:48
I almost went to the Southern Honda.
08:50
What was the impetus?
08:51
You just, cause you were curious or what?
08:54
I just, I freaking like bikes.
08:56
I like motorcycles.
08:59
He already has a zoom of 125.
09:00
So let's go in the complete opposite direction.
09:03
But I haven't ridden one now,
09:05
but I think it's like the DCT thing is cool, you know?
09:08
And I mean, that's why I like sport touring bikes
09:11
cause I don't like getting blown around, you know,
09:14
excessively if I can avoid it in the wind and stuff, you know?
09:17
So it's like, it's nice to got my HAC helmet
09:20
with the Bluetooth system.
09:21
And, you know, I can't hear my music as good
09:23
if the winds always hit me in the face.
09:24
So having a big windscreen is nice.
09:26
Like I'm an old man riding a ride.
09:29
You're an old soul.
09:31
I think it's interesting that you mentioned the DCT.
09:32
Like one of the things that we talked about
09:33
on the episode was that, you know,
09:35
when Honda was talking about their stats,
09:37
it was like the Goldwing, the Africa Twin,
09:40
and I think it was the Rebel 1100,
09:43
the three main bikes that have DCT in North America.
09:46
It made up like, I don't know, Zach,
09:48
was it 60 or 70% of sales?
09:52
Like let's say 70% of sales,
09:53
people were opting for the DCT version.
09:56
So it's really interesting to me that, you know,
09:59
someone of your pedigree that's like using a clutch
10:01
and like you're using a finger for the rear brake
10:04
and like you've got so much talent in your two hands
10:07
that you would be interested in the DCT.
10:10
Yeah, I mean, I like convenience, you know?
10:13
I like conveniences and also like,
10:15
if I'm gonna buy a bike, I wanna use it.
10:18
And so, you know, if I don't have a place
10:21
to put my phone or I don't have a place
10:23
to put my helmet when I park or I, you know,
10:25
I can't sip my iced coffee while I'm riding, you know?
10:30
You want the cup holder.
10:31
You want the Kiriakan cup holder
10:32
right there in the park?
10:34
You wanna go into like the Dunkin Donuts parking lot
10:36
and be able to get like your big golf coffee?
10:39
It's nice to have some convenience, you know?
10:41
Which is why I think it's cool, like Kawasaki.
10:43
You did, Zach, you rode the hybrid Kawasaki, right?
10:48
That thing's an automatic, isn't it?
10:53
Yeah, well, it's sort of like a semi-automatic.
10:56
It's like you can, it will shift for you
10:58
or you can use triggers with your fingers
11:02
to like shift through the gears.
11:03
So it's kind of interesting.
11:05
But yeah, it is ultimately the,
11:08
there's no, there's no foot control for the shifter.
11:12
It like, it is an automated system
11:14
that you can control electronically with your fingers
11:16
or just let the bike do the thing, yeah.
11:18
This is the Ninja Hybrid for the audience, correct?
11:20
The Ninja 7 Hybrid, yeah.
11:21
I think that's what you're talking about right there.
11:22
Yeah, exactly, yeah, yeah.
11:24
I just like that more manufacturers are bringing that in
11:27
because at the end of the day,
11:28
I want more people to ride, you know?
11:30
And so it's, especially in the US,
11:33
nobody can even drive a stick shift car anymore.
11:35
And so it's like, you know.
11:37
I just think it's, and in general,
11:39
I mean, I think the whole future
11:42
is single person transportation in general, you know?
11:44
I think, or closer to that, because I mean, if you got,
11:47
I mean, everybody on the road,
11:49
the traffic here in Houston is horrible.
11:50
And in LA, I know it's real bad too.
11:54
Because damn near everybody is just a single person
11:56
in a vehicle taking up a sh** out of space.
11:58
And it's like, you don't, that doesn't need to,
12:00
that doesn't need to be the case.
12:01
If everybody's like more on single person transport,
12:04
like transportation, I mean,
12:06
you can get the same million people
12:07
on a way smaller footprint.
12:09
It's like, why, why would that not be the way forward
12:13
We were just having a worked in our last night.
12:14
He's a world super bike racer.
12:16
He's a civil engineer.
12:17
There's nothing this kid can't do, I'm telling you.
12:19
No, we were literally just having a,
12:20
so I'm in Philadelphia
12:22
and they're having a big transit budget problem.
12:25
They're going to be shutting down
12:26
a bunch of the buses and a bunch of the railways.
12:28
And one of the things they were talking about
12:30
was like traffic is going to be,
12:31
I mean, it's not good in Philadelphia
12:33
and it's going to get a lot worse with this.
12:35
And we were talking about just like lane splitting
12:37
in general, which was one of the topics
12:38
that we've talked about in previous seasons.
12:40
And, you know, you're mentioning Houston
12:42
and single person transportation.
12:44
Like one of the things that we talk about
12:46
a lot in the podcast is Zach has an advantage
12:48
to so many people because in California,
12:49
you can lane split.
12:51
And if you have a motorcycle,
12:52
getting through traffic is so much easier.
12:54
Have you, have you done the whole,
12:56
I mean, obviously with Europe and things,
12:57
have you done the whole lane splitting thing?
12:59
Like where do you stand on like pro or con for lane splitting?
13:04
Yeah, I'm fully for it.
13:05
I cannot stand the fact.
13:06
Like that's why I hate riding here sometimes
13:08
because I can't, you have no advantage
13:10
being on a, you know, a motorcycle here.
13:12
And I sometimes even have a disadvantage, right?
13:14
Because you get, you like bake in the heat or whatever.
13:18
Yeah, it's a hundred degrees out right now.
13:19
You know, I want to be able to keep moving,
13:20
keep some airflow on me and stuff.
13:22
I mean, I won't lie.
13:23
I do lane split all the time.
13:25
But I think it's like kind of careful, you know,
13:28
only when there's like standstill traffic and stuff.
13:30
Officer, I'm a professional.
13:32
Yeah, yeah, that's never worked.
13:36
We'll circle back to that later.
13:39
Yeah, but I mean, no, I'm fully for it.
13:42
I lived in Andorra,
13:43
which is like this little country between Spain and France,
13:45
but I was in France and Spain all the time.
13:49
And I had a scooter over there.
13:52
And now it's lane split.
13:53
I mean, it's, you just have every advantage.
13:56
You have every advantage and you can,
13:58
like I said, you can park anywhere.
13:59
It's like, I mean, yeah, I,
14:01
I wish I didn't need like a truck sometimes
14:03
because I wish I could just be on a bike the whole time.
14:08
No, we talked about that a lot with like,
14:09
with like not being able to do it.
14:10
And it's like, okay, well, I'm going to drive to work today.
14:12
Do I take the truck where there's where it's air conditioned
14:15
when it's 102 degrees out or do I take the motorcycle?
14:17
And it's hard to justify the motorcycle
14:18
when you're just, you know, sitting in highway traffic.
14:22
But I do, I want to petition that every state
14:24
should allow lane splitting under 20 miles an hour
14:28
That should be a given.
14:28
It's like, it's legal.
14:31
I've traveled all over the damn world.
14:33
It's legal everywhere.
14:34
The only place that's not legal
14:36
is 49 states in the US.
14:38
Is the land of the free.
14:43
That's a, you, you continue to impress us
14:46
with your, with your hot takes and lane splitting.
14:51
We did an episode eight, it was about group rides.
14:53
And in some ways, well, I'll just start with the basics.
14:58
You started this conversation by telling us
15:00
how you got into motorcycling
15:00
and how you sort of like, you were fractured
15:02
from your friend group when you were a child,
15:04
not to make light of that trauma,
15:06
but you, you looked at motorcycling
15:07
and you found a lot, you found a community there
15:09
and eventually a profession, which is amazing.
15:11
And I'm curious, you don't strike me
15:14
as the type of person who would,
15:16
would really like do a lot of group,
15:17
who like go on a street ride with other people.
15:20
Like, do you ever do that or no?
15:23
I mean, I, my brother has a bunch of groms.
15:26
And so like, we'll go, we'll go rip around the Woodlands,
15:30
which is, you know, North Houston
15:31
and we'll go mob around me and, you know, him
15:35
and two other friends and or whoever.
15:38
I mean, we'll put our girlfriends on the back and,
15:40
you know, it's, yeah, 100%.
15:42
I get nervous because like that is,
15:45
like group rides is like probably the number one place
15:48
where you're going to end up
15:49
getting like act by somebody.
15:50
And then somebody's looking around
15:54
and doesn't see you stopped in front of them.
15:55
And, you know, like that all kind of sketches me out, but yeah.
15:59
And so that my next,
16:00
my next part of this question was like a world tour bike race
16:03
is like in some ways the ultimate group ride
16:06
because there's a whole pile of you
16:08
going into turn one and two.
16:09
In fact, you got caught up in a melee in turn one, right?
16:13
Yeah, like three weeks ago, I still feel it.
16:19
And what track was that?
16:20
Was it, was it Cremona or most or?
16:23
That was the hungry track, Balaton Park.
16:25
Oh, that was Balaton Park.
16:27
Right, right, gotcha, gotcha.
16:29
And so there's probably like,
16:31
you had that experience getting whatever,
16:34
big pile of people and it sucked
16:36
and you got slapped on the ground.
16:37
And like, do you think about that kind of thing
16:39
when you're riding around on little minibikes,
16:41
on Groms with your brother?
16:43
You're sort of like,
16:44
yeah, I don't want to turn one situation here.
16:45
That's basically it, right?
16:46
Yeah, I definitely don't want to turn one situation.
16:48
But I mean, it's like here,
16:50
I'm mainly looking at all the big trucks everywhere.
16:52
It's Texas, so there's trucks everywhere
16:54
and everybody's got an F-250.
16:56
especially if you're on like a little Kawasaki Z125
16:59
or a Grom or something, I mean,
17:00
dude, they can't see you at all.
17:01
That's what I'm mainly just looking at people's eyes,
17:04
like trying to find people's eyes
17:05
and where they're looking and stuff
17:06
and where the front wheels are pointed.
17:08
Who's, so you, I know that your brother,
17:11
you know, you guys started around the same time
17:15
Who's a better rider?
17:16
Is your brother, has he kept up to you?
17:20
He's, I've had more practice over the years.
17:23
And so I think more practice sequels,
17:25
more potentially more skilled.
17:28
So maybe it's a practice issue.
17:31
Fair enough, fair enough.
17:32
Well, that's a very diplomatic way to put that.
17:35
I want to, on the topic of crashing actually,
17:39
because we mentioned that turn one pile up,
17:41
episode nine of our season,
17:44
this season was talking to some folks
17:46
who had some really horrific motorcycle crashes.
17:50
Some of them didn't even remember what happened.
17:54
And most of them, in fact,
17:56
all the people we talked to were amputees
17:58
of one type or another.
17:59
So they had, these are like really, really horrific,
18:03
And I guess I think-
18:04
But they all came back from it.
18:06
They didn't get back on the bike.
18:07
So passionate for riding
18:08
that they wanted to come back and ride again.
18:13
you luckily have not had anything quite to that extent,
18:15
but you, being a racer, you've had crashes.
18:18
And I think broadly,
18:19
and Spurge will kind of let you take it after this question,
18:21
but we're curious how you come back from a crash
18:23
and how you get back in the saddle
18:27
and think like, I can do this.
18:29
Whether it was your fault or not your fault,
18:31
like there's always a little bit of angst, I think,
18:32
around getting back on the bike
18:34
and trying to do it again.
18:35
And do you have a mental checklist
18:37
or how do you handle that kind of thing?
18:40
I mean, I'm not gonna lie.
18:43
I haven't really thought about it a whole lot.
18:45
As far as like, I mean, it's my job.
18:52
And so, you know, if I'm not racing,
18:54
I'm not getting paid for one.
18:56
I mean, if I miss a certain amount of races,
18:58
I could potentially lose a certain amount of my pay.
19:01
So there's a pretty big financial incentive to race.
19:05
And so like that's, you know, there's that part.
19:08
Also like I'm fighting for championship positions
19:11
and every point that I can get.
19:12
And you know, I wanna keep furthering my career.
19:16
I wanna keep getting opportunities.
19:18
And so if I'm not performing, if I'm not getting points,
19:20
if I'm not close to that top 10
19:22
or in the top 10 of the championship,
19:24
like I want all of those things, you know?
19:27
And so that's like kind of where I put myself, I guess.
19:30
Like I'm just, I'm getting it done.
19:32
Like this is my job, you know?
19:38
Well, I mean, I guess there's only been,
19:44
I've been lucky enough to not have
19:46
any like really serious crashes.
19:48
I mean, I broke my femur at Daytona when I was 16
19:53
and that was a big one.
19:54
Like that was the first bone I ever broke, you know?
19:56
So like after that one, I had,
19:59
I definitely had a hesitation of like, you know,
20:01
well, when I, after I broke it,
20:03
they put a rod in my leg and stuff.
20:04
And you know, as a kid,
20:06
I'm like, am I ever going to be able to walk again?
20:08
You know, like I was concerned about stuff like that.
20:11
And so like, I definitely had some,
20:13
some like hesitations getting back into the racing
20:16
as far as like not having it in the back of my head
20:19
as an issue or like as something
20:22
that was holding me back speed wise.
20:24
So I did have to get over that.
20:26
What got over that is me crashing again,
20:28
landing on the exact same leg
20:30
that I had just broke like 12 months before
20:33
and having everything be okay.
20:35
And I was like, oh, all right, I'm, you know, it's fine.
20:37
And so like from that point on, it's been, you know,
20:42
but I like, I always, I love riding obviously,
20:45
like I love being on two wheels and stuff.
20:46
So like I would always want to try to get back on
20:49
or like try to ride.
20:50
I'm more talking about
20:51
from a racing competitive perspective
20:54
than not like street riding.
20:57
Whether it's, sorry, I was just saying,
20:58
whether it's like that crash or another crash, like
21:01
do you, and let's stick with the racing mentality
21:04
Cause I think that that's kind of apropos here,
21:06
but it doesn't have to not play in discreet riding
21:08
whether you're crashing on the discreet track,
21:10
but like, are there takeaways for you?
21:13
Like when you go down, like, like, do you,
21:15
do you think about like, what would I learn here
21:17
and how do I use this to make me faster?
21:19
And like, whether it was maybe the crash
21:21
where you broke your leg, like,
21:23
are you always thinking about like,
21:24
how to learn from the experience?
21:25
Or is it something where you're just trying
21:26
to like brush yourself up and get back on the bike?
21:30
I'm always thinking like, what the hell just happened?
21:31
Like, what did I just do?
21:32
What did I just do?
21:33
Or what did I just hit?
21:35
Or who just hit me?
21:36
Or like, you know, like all that,
21:38
like I'm always trying to figure out what went wrong
21:40
because obviously if you're on the ground,
21:41
something went wrong.
21:42
And so that's, that's always like the first thing
21:44
going through my head is like, is it my fault?
21:46
Cause if it's my fault, my team's not going to be
21:49
So let me try to figure out if it's like,
21:51
what I'm walking into.
21:53
Or, you know, something went wrong with the bike.
21:56
But yeah, I'm never, I've never, like I said,
22:00
besides breaking my femur,
22:01
I've never had a crash and then been like,
22:04
Oh, like, do I actually want to get back on the bike
22:07
That's never crossed my mind.
22:10
Like every time I've crashed,
22:11
I've always been like, where's my bike?
22:15
Well, yeah, I mean, I think we get,
22:16
I certainly get a fair number of messages
22:18
from people talking about, you know,
22:19
getting spooked, you know, like say they're on a ride
22:22
and they go through a corner and they,
22:25
I don't know, they hit some leaves
22:26
or maybe they even just like, you know,
22:27
they sort of like low side and they don't know why
22:30
or they run off the outside of the curve
22:33
because they were going too fast
22:34
and then they're just like really spooked by that.
22:36
And it sounds like, I mean,
22:37
if I don't want to put words in your mouth,
22:38
but tell me if I'm on the right track here.
22:41
What I'm hearing from you is kind of like,
22:42
you have an inherent confidence
22:44
in both your love of riding
22:46
and your skill set on a motorcycle.
22:49
So if you go into a corner at a racetrack, say,
22:51
and you lose the front end and you slide,
22:54
you know, you tuck the front
22:54
and you slide off into the gravel trap
22:56
and you're like, why just, I made a mistake.
22:58
I like, I went into that corner too fast
22:59
or like I did something that was wrong
23:00
and now I'm in the gravel trap.
23:02
The next time you go into that left-hand corner,
23:04
it's not a matter of like,
23:06
like you can't afford the doubt basically.
23:08
Like you have an inherent belief that like, I can do it.
23:13
Like I can go through this corner at that speed
23:15
or close to it or whatever and successfully navigate it
23:18
and like, you know, make it around the next lap
23:21
and through the next race.
23:22
And it's not like a, it's not a fracture
23:25
in any kind of like overall confidence
23:27
you have in your ability on a bike.
23:29
Yeah, I guess one of the things I forgot to like
23:31
put into the equation is that like,
23:33
I feel safe in what I'm wearing,
23:35
like with my gear and stuff like that.
23:37
Like, I got like an Alpine Star airbag, Alpine Star suit,
23:41
gloves, boots, HAC helmet.
23:43
Like I feel safe in all the stuff that I'm in.
23:46
And so I've, you know, like I'm not scared to crash at all
23:51
because the likelihood of me coming out of it fine
23:54
is so high that I don't really have any issue
23:58
with the like me potentially crashing.
24:02
Right, the consequences are basically.
24:04
Yeah, it's like the consequences
24:06
are going to be pretty low for the most part.
24:08
Yeah, is it so possible that I get seriously hurt for sure?
24:11
But I mean, it's like, I'm just confident
24:12
in all the protective gear that I'm wearing.
24:15
And so like crashing and I'm not worried about hitting a tree.
24:18
I'm not worried about running off the road.
24:19
Like you're talking about, you know, it's like,
24:22
I'm worried about other people running me over.
24:25
But there's like, there's more body work
24:26
and more foot pegs and more handlebars
24:27
back in the garage.
24:28
The bike will get fixed.
24:29
You'll back up on the track.
24:30
Like it's a, it is in some ways a different like sort of
24:34
financial and psychological environment for you
24:36
than it is for someone on the street.
24:38
And I totally appreciate that.
24:39
But it is interesting.
24:39
I think still to hear your take on it,
24:41
which is like you both, you both like it.
24:44
And you know, you, you're like determined to do it.
24:47
And so you don't let it affect you.
24:50
And it's like, and I have a totally different mindset
24:52
when I ride on the street.
24:52
Like when I ride on the street,
24:54
I'm as cautious as I can be.
24:55
I'm always looking to see what other people
24:57
are doing in their cars and stuff.
24:59
Like, oh, you know, I ride on the street.
25:02
Like I only live once in the negative sense.
25:04
And that's, you know, I don't want to destroy my bike
25:08
that I paid a bunch of money for and stuff like that.
25:10
So I like, I have a totally different mindset
25:12
when I'm riding on the street.
25:14
I'm not pushing, I'm not trying to,
25:16
I think more people should get into track riding
25:18
just so that they can get out all of the stuff
25:20
that they want to try on the street.
25:22
Just go to track, get a cheap bike, you know,
25:26
that you can get on Facebook marketplace,
25:28
something like that, you know, for a couple grand,
25:30
get out there, you know, try to get your knee down
25:32
and all that stuff.
25:33
And then get back on your normal bike and chill.
25:35
Back on your scooter.
25:36
Just, yeah, whatever it is, and just chill, you know,
25:39
have fun, you know, win in your face like.
25:43
Just backing up for one second,
25:44
because it's something we've been talking on,
25:46
you know, a lot about in the last couple of years,
25:47
but like how has the introduction of, of like airbag
25:51
technology changed, you know,
25:53
that comfort level of safety for you on a motorcycle?
25:56
Because I'm assuming when you started out in your career,
25:58
you maybe presumably didn't have airbags
26:01
and then you were kind of like working your way
26:03
through the evolution where now you're racing
26:04
with a full airbag system.
26:05
How has that changed from a mental standpoint
26:08
with that new technology kind of entering the equation?
26:11
Yeah, massive change.
26:12
I mean, I have all my leathers actually
26:14
from like my whole, you know, racing career.
26:17
And so like I'll go back and pick up the leathers
26:19
that I was wearing on a super bike in America.
26:21
And I'm like, dude, how was I okay with wearing that?
26:25
You know, like it's a, yeah,
26:28
getting wearing a suit now without an airbag
26:30
just doesn't feel right.
26:31
And I definitely have more going through my brain of like,
26:34
Hey, you know, yeah.
26:36
So having an airbag now takes away a lot of the kind of
26:40
maybe doubt that could be there.
26:41
Now that I know what it's like to crash with an airbag,
26:44
like I'll never forget it was a Magny Core 2021.
26:47
It was a practice that was rained out.
26:50
So we were, we were riding in the rain
26:52
and I high-sided in one of the third gear corners.
26:56
And I remember like I left the bike, was in the air,
26:59
the airbag went off in the air and I landed on the,
27:05
I landed on the ground, but like it legit felt like nothing.
27:10
I mean, it was like my heels hit the ground kind of hard,
27:13
but like it was nothing like in the rain and stuff too,
27:16
when you land, you slide more.
27:18
Right, so slippery, yeah.
27:20
So it's like, so it's combination of the raining, the airbag.
27:23
I mean, it was literally like, I didn't even,
27:24
it felt like I didn't even crash.
27:26
That's not every situations I'll put that out there,
27:28
but like in that situation, I was like,
27:29
dude, this is unreal.
27:30
I can't believe that I just high-sided.
27:33
I mean, it's cool that they have things where events
27:37
where they like let people feel an airbag going off on them.
27:39
And obviously you'd never want to chuck someone out
27:41
of a moving car so that they could feel what it's like.
27:44
But it is like, it is transformative
27:47
when you actually hit the ground,
27:50
actually fall off a motorcycle and have it go off
27:51
and be like, oh, whoa.
27:53
There's like a, it feels so different.
27:56
And it's like really cool that you're able to remember that
27:58
and explain it, because that's a, that is a,
28:00
and it's a great question, Spurge,
28:01
to even just the psychology of a racer.
28:04
And as you pointed out, Garrett,
28:05
not that people should think that they're invincible
28:07
when they're hanging an airbag,
28:08
but like it is such a massive step forward in safety.
28:12
And now Alpine Star has that tech air system
28:15
for street riding and stuff with like a street algorithm.
28:17
So it's not going to go off all the time early.
28:21
And like, I have one of those and I wear it
28:24
when I ride on the street and makes me feel safer.
28:27
I'm still not going to be an idiot.
28:28
Like I'm still not going to do anything crazy,
28:31
but like, at least I know if God forbid a car hits me
28:35
or something, like at least I got something
28:37
that is going to be between me and that car.
28:40
Or if you and your brother head back
28:41
to that church parking lot and you high side again.
28:49
We only got a couple of things left here
28:50
and then we'll do it in sound guessing game
28:52
and let you get on with the rest of your life.
28:53
But we do have a couple of things we wanted to ask you.
28:57
Episode 10 was about the rise of Chinese motorcycles
29:03
and we talked about a few different ways
29:08
that Chinese motorcycles are entering the marketplace,
29:12
specifically the US market,
29:13
because that's what we're sort of most familiar with.
29:15
Whether it's companies that are really just sort of like,
29:17
you know, hanging out their own shingle
29:18
and making their own bikes in the same way
29:19
that KTM or BMW or Honda does.
29:21
And then other business models
29:23
where they'll ship you a motorcycle in a crate from China
29:26
and there's no dealer network
29:27
and there's no help or anything,
29:28
but here you go, you can have a cheap motorcycle.
29:30
There's a variety of things.
29:32
I know that like CFMoto, for example,
29:35
is a Chinese motorcycle company
29:37
that we talked about a fair amount in that podcast.
29:40
CFMoto is spending money on the world championship side.
29:45
I think they're spending, they have a Moto3 team
29:47
that's not a CFMoto bike,
29:48
but is a CFMoto sponsored bike
29:49
and there's CFMoto blasted all over the Moto3 paddock.
29:54
And I guess I'm curious if you have thought
29:57
about Chinese motorcycles at all
29:58
and you think that that's something
30:02
where that industry will creep into world championship racing
30:06
or maybe even a Chinese bike will make its way
30:10
Any thoughts on the subject?
30:11
Yeah, I mean, there's a...
30:13
Well, I guess to start with,
30:15
they are more price competitive, yeah?
30:17
I mean, they end up being cheaper in a lot of ways, you know?
30:21
I don't really know about reliability and stuff like that,
30:24
but if it's gonna help people get into motorcycling,
30:28
like I'm all about it, you know?
30:30
If somebody can get a lower price point
30:33
where they wouldn't normally buy a motorcycle,
30:34
but now that it's in their price range,
30:36
like I think that's awesome
30:37
just to get more people on bikes.
30:38
So I'm fully for it, you know, for that.
30:41
But yeah, like in racing, there's a QJ motors
30:44
that is a Chinese brand that's out there
30:47
in the Supersport class.
30:49
Sorry, this is 300, Supersport 300, is that right?
30:53
No, it's the middle, I don't know what they call it now.
30:55
It's not really 600s anymore,
30:56
but like, yeah, the Supersport 600 class,
30:59
the middle way class.
31:00
Okay, gotcha, gotcha.
31:01
I didn't realize that, right?
31:02
Not a championship.
31:03
Yeah, so my team owner is actually in charge
31:06
Like I actually kind of have a close view of everything.
31:11
And I mean, from what I'm just relaying
31:13
what my team owner says,
31:14
he just, he says he can't believe how quick they are
31:18
to get things done, you know, like they needed it.
31:22
They were having issues with the bike.
31:26
The bike is heavy right now.
31:27
And within like a month,
31:29
they brought out a fully new chassis that was like,
31:32
I don't know, close to 10 kilos lighter
31:35
or something like that than the one that they started the year
31:38
with, but like, they're just,
31:39
it might not always be the right thing,
31:41
but they're so quick at getting stuff done.
31:43
Like that sounds cool with somebody that likes to tinker
31:46
and try new stuff for the racing side.
31:49
Like that's cool for them, I guess.
31:50
But yeah, I mean, I think competition is better
31:53
in general, you know?
31:54
So if there's more manufacturers,
31:56
they're producing quality stuff or good stuff
31:58
or it's gonna push everybody else to make better stuff,
32:03
be more price competitive, like all of that.
32:05
So I think that's not like necessarily a bad deal.
32:08
Garrett, I know we-
32:09
Will I ever buy one?
32:10
Probably not, not anytime soon.
32:12
I mean, I'm, you know, I like my Japanese stuff.
32:15
I like, you know, German stuff.
32:19
I know you travel the world a lot more than Zach and I do.
32:25
You know, do you see when you're in different markets,
32:27
when you're looking for a scooter to rent
32:29
in a different country, do you see a lot more,
32:33
you know, permeation of Chinese motorcycles
32:35
and marketplaces around the world than you do in the US,
32:38
just based on, you know, your anecdotal experiences?
32:42
For when it comes to like, like something
32:43
that I'm gonna rent in a city, yeah,
32:45
they're almost always like,
32:46
if not a Chinese brand, like Chinese made, you know,
32:50
like I think Piaggio is like the Piaggio group.
32:55
They own a Prily and stuff like that.
32:57
Like a lot of their scooters are made in China
32:59
if I'm not mistaken.
32:59
So it's like, you know,
33:00
that's like a Italian brand.
33:03
It's still made in China.
33:05
From what I understand, the C400X that I had,
33:09
the BMW scooter, that thing was made in China.
33:12
It was like a Kimco.
33:15
No, I think Kimco, I think is Korean.
33:20
It's something, I think it might be Taiwan.
33:25
But yeah, point being they're globally sourced machines
33:29
whether they're branded as such or not, right?
33:32
I think that's kind of what you're getting at.
33:35
I mean, like I said, if quality stays the same
33:38
and price goes down,
33:39
I think that's better for everybody.
33:41
What I don't want to see is price go down
33:42
and then everything get worse.
33:44
And then, you know,
33:45
and then you get into a situation
33:46
to where everybody is losing.
33:49
Well, I think it becomes discouraging, right?
33:50
Cause you talked about like if quality stays high
33:52
but price goes down,
33:52
you can bring new people in the market.
33:54
They get excited about riding.
33:56
one of the things that we had talked about
33:57
in this particular episode was that
33:59
if you're introducing a new rider to motorcycling
34:02
and they have a poor experience with the motorcycle
34:04
because the motorcycle is just not good,
34:07
then all of a sudden that person's like,
34:08
well, I don't want to do this anymore.
34:09
I want to go back to my Honda Civic
34:10
and just, you know, turn the air conditioning on
34:12
and, you know, pop a cassette deck,
34:14
you know, cassette tape on my deck.
34:18
like the kids like to do.
34:18
Yeah, yeah, we're tired.
34:19
Well, no, I'm saying the kids today
34:21
or they're coming back with tapes.
34:22
They're coming back.
34:23
Everything is old is new again.
34:27
No, that's true, that's true.
34:28
I mean, I would think that you've got to know
34:30
when you buy something like,
34:31
if you're buying something that's cheaper,
34:32
you got to think there's a reason for it, you know?
34:34
So it's like, if they did have a poor experience,
34:36
you kind of got to put that on yourself.
34:38
You got to self-reflect a little bit, you know?
34:40
I don't think we're living in a society
34:41
where most kids are self-reflecting, Garrett,
34:44
You might be giving people too much credit.
34:46
It's easier to point the finger at somebody else.
34:49
Well, I'm most excited about this one.
34:51
I'm asking this question.
34:52
All right, so you mentioned,
34:54
you mentioned this is from episode 11.
34:57
Episode 11 was our comments episode.
34:59
And we basically spent the entire episode
35:01
going through and answering questions from our audience.
35:05
And we saved a question for you
35:08
because we know that you like to ride
35:09
your motorcycle on the street.
35:10
And a few questions ago,
35:11
you actually alluded to maybe having some dead ends
35:14
So our question that came in from the audience was,
35:19
I've wondered this for a while,
35:21
but this question was originally directed at Zach and I.
35:25
What is RevZilla's ticket policy?
35:29
If you were or if you were Zach were to get a ticket,
35:31
you know, I've watched daily rider episodes
35:33
multiple times in the podcast
35:35
where quote unquote, top speed is mentioned.
35:38
I've re-listened to the 100th episode
35:40
and Ari said something about setting the cruise control
35:43
at 130 miles per hour in S1000XR.
35:47
Riding motorcycles,
35:48
it's easy to go past the speed limit.
35:50
What is the policy for,
35:54
you know, a misunderstanding with a ticket?
35:56
So I know this question was directed at Zach and I
35:59
and potentially Ari with the RevZilla side,
36:02
but Garrett, what's the policy?
36:05
If you were, first of all,
36:07
have you ever gotten a ticket
36:09
and what's your fun story with a run-in with the law
36:13
So I've never gotten a motorcycle ticket ever.
36:17
So that is all I mean.
36:18
Knock on wood, knock on wood, yeah, I'm just saying.
36:21
But I got pulled over one time
36:24
and it's funny because I think it was actually
36:26
right after I had met you guys on Sunday at Kota two years ago.
36:31
Okay, we're at Kota?
36:33
No, no, so I was riding for BMW at the time
36:36
and like I went to Kota in 2023 to do video stuff for them.
36:40
And so I rode the M1000RR on the track
36:44
and did like a video for them there.
36:45
But anyway, as kind of a joke and kind of like,
36:48
hey, I'm a BMW guy, I rode my scooter,
36:51
my BMW scooter from Houston to Austin for the race weekend.
36:55
And so like I, so I rode it there.
36:58
I did all the stuff I had to do during Kota
37:01
and then I was there late on Sunday
37:04
and I rode back Sunday night, but like super late.
37:07
And so I was probably, I was 20 miles from home
37:10
at like one in the morning, Monday morning.
37:13
And I'm, you know, I'm not doing,
37:15
I'm not going 15 over in a 50.
37:18
So I'm just trying to get on that.
37:19
And you're in Texas, like that's allowed, right?
37:22
Yeah, that's what I would have thought, you know?
37:24
But when the lights came on, I thought maybe not.
37:27
And so anyway, a cop pulled me over,
37:31
but he was, he was cool in the end.
37:33
But I mean, it's like one in the morning.
37:34
So I was like, hey, I'm sorry.
37:36
Like I'm not trying to do anything crazy.
37:38
I'm just trying to get home.
37:39
I had like a bag and everything tied to the back.
37:42
And, you know, I had all this stuff
37:43
with my backpack in between my legs, you know?
37:45
So he knew I was like, I knew I wasn't lying.
37:48
I'm on a damn scooter.
37:49
So it's like, anyway, so he ended up letting me go.
37:53
But that was, that's like the only run in I've had.
37:56
Did you, and did that conversation,
38:00
was it just sort of an apology
38:01
and like, hey, man, I'm just trying to get home thing?
38:02
Or did it come up that you're a professional racer
38:05
and like, did you pull any strings?
38:06
Like, did you try to like throw anything at him or?
38:09
No, I've never tried to pull that out
38:12
because I'm scared that it's going to end up backfiring.
38:14
And he's like, oh, you're a racer.
38:15
So you like to go fast, you know?
38:17
Oh, you're gonna pay for that, buddy.
38:19
Yeah, I don't want it to like come back and bite me.
38:21
So I kind of just like,
38:23
and I kind of learned that lesson
38:24
when I took my motorcycle safety school,
38:26
when I got my motorcycle license,
38:28
I had brought up that I was a racer
38:30
and stuff thinking that it would help me
38:32
to be like, to like breeze through the course.
38:34
And they made it so much harder for me.
38:36
Like, they made it tougher for me to pass
38:37
because they're like, oh, you're a big motorcycle guy.
38:39
Like, oh, you're a big fancy motorcycle guy.
38:42
Were you, when you did that,
38:43
were you racing Moto America,
38:44
are you racing AMA, whatever, Moto America at that time?
38:46
Yeah, yeah, I think it was like 2016,
38:48
maybe 2016, 2017, something like that.
38:50
And I rode to the class and back every day.
38:53
And they were like, you can't do that.
38:54
I'm like, ah, it's fine.
38:58
You're like, you're here to get your license,
38:59
you can't ride to them.
39:02
Well, Garrett, I know one of the things
39:03
that Zach and I were talking about,
39:04
like I know with certain,
39:05
and obviously you're in a very specific industry,
39:09
but like with certain athletes,
39:12
there's clauses in their contracts.
39:13
They're not allowed to ride a motorcycle
39:15
because they don't want them to be injured
39:17
and they want them on the field on Sunday.
39:19
You know, for yourself,
39:20
like do you have any rules about like riding on the street
39:23
or like how you, you know,
39:26
participate in motor sports when you're not on the racetrack?
39:28
Is that anything that's ever come up for you
39:31
as a professional athlete?
39:32
Yeah, the biggest thing that I've always had an issue
39:35
with or like a clause about is motocross.
39:37
So like, they just don't want us doing jumps and stuff.
39:40
Obviously like it is dangerous.
39:42
A lot of guys, a lot of road race guys
39:43
do get hurt on motocross bikes.
39:44
So I get where it comes from,
39:47
but I love riding motocross.
39:50
And so, you know, I end up talking to them about it
39:53
and it ends up being okay to where I do a lot of my riding
39:57
during the winter months
39:57
when there's not like a lot of racing going on.
40:00
But that seems to be the biggest thing that the,
40:03
and they don't want me skateboarding
40:05
and going to half pipes.
40:06
And I mean, there's like clauses like that.
40:08
But when it comes to riding on the street,
40:10
I've never, I've never had a clause
40:12
that I can't ride on the street actually.
40:13
So, I mean, I think it kind of defeats the purpose too,
40:16
because I mean, the whole idea behind racing,
40:19
the reason why it exists is to sell bikes,
40:23
you know, that people ride on the street, really.
40:24
I mean, so it's like, yeah, it kind of defeats the purpose
40:28
if you're not going to do that, you know.
40:30
And so I, I keep doing it.
40:34
Zach, how about you?
40:35
Do you have a ticket story?
40:37
Do you have any reckless riding
40:38
that you got pulled over for?
40:39
Have you ever crashed on the street?
40:42
Have I ever crashed on the street?
40:44
Yeah, I have, oh yeah.
40:45
Definitely, have you?
40:46
So actually, that was, so that's,
40:48
and I don't have any awesome ticket stories
40:51
just to touch on that.
40:53
I have, yeah, I've never had like,
40:56
I've had, in general, when I've been pulled over
40:59
by a motorcycle cop on a motorcycle,
41:02
I've had them be pretty reasonable,
41:03
especially reasonable, because you're sort of like,
41:05
there's a little bit of like, you know,
41:07
brotherly bond there, you're sort of like, okay, cool.
41:09
And once they see that you're not a total jack wagon
41:12
they're like, they're pretty, pretty cool in general.
41:16
But I'm, well, I'll borrow a story that Ari has
41:20
about getting pulled over.
41:21
He got pulled over one time years and years ago
41:23
and the guy, the guy pulled him over
41:24
and they pulled his helmet off
41:25
and he was like, oh, you're Ari Hennig
41:26
from Motorcycles Magazine.
41:28
I like followed your, and like,
41:29
is this your project bike?
41:30
I've been following the magazine.
41:30
It was really cool.
41:31
And Ari was like, oh, cool.
41:32
This guy knows who I am.
41:33
Like, he get, he get, like, he knows the bike
41:35
and he knows me and he knows the magazine
41:36
and he knows what I'm doing here
41:37
and this is my job.
41:38
And at the end, the guy was like, anyway,
41:39
here's your $450 ticket.
41:41
And he was like, what the,
41:43
like, I wouldn't have been so friendly to you
41:45
if you ended up in here.
41:45
You're just gonna burn me down in the end.
41:48
So yeah, to your point, it doesn't always work.
41:51
But I have crashed on the street
41:52
and I'm actually not to retread too much
41:54
of our conversation, but I'm curious.
41:55
You know, we were talking about crashing
41:58
and you were talking about the airbag on the track
42:00
and you said, well, I ride in the street.
42:01
It's a totally different thing.
42:02
I have a totally different mindset,
42:03
which is fair and accurate as far as I'm concerned
42:06
about the difference between riding, you know,
42:08
on the track and street.
42:09
But what is your street crash story?
42:11
He asked you first.
42:13
He asked you first.
42:13
Oh, yeah, I get it.
42:14
You tell us yours first and then we'll get Garrett's.
42:16
Which one do you want?
42:19
God, do I have one that's good?
42:20
The worst, the most memorable one.
42:24
Or embarrassing, yeah.
42:25
The most embarrassing one.
42:27
Yeah, I did have a,
42:29
I had like a break check crash one time
42:30
where like I was riding with,
42:31
actually with Aerie and another former colleague of ours
42:35
and we got into like, whatever.
42:38
Someone like, they jumped on the brakes in front of me
42:39
and like, and then Aerie got in the brakes
42:41
and then I didn't see him.
42:42
And then I got on the brakes and then I crashed
42:43
and then I ended up in a ditch and it was really dumb.
42:46
But I think, right.
42:50
Did you say group rise?
42:50
Yeah, exactly right.
42:51
You can't trust your friends.
42:55
And I mean, that was a good lesson.
42:56
I've been talking on the podcast before.
42:57
It was a good lesson in sort of like,
42:58
if you're, if you have people behind you
43:00
and you see the turn you're supposed to make,
43:01
like don't fricking slam on the brakes.
43:02
Like just, just miss the turn.
43:03
Do your turn to like take your time
43:06
take a breath, don't do whatever.
43:08
That one's pretty embarrassing.
43:09
I mean, the worst street crash I've had, I think
43:11
was actually a rear end incident where like I,
43:18
well, this is a little bit anticlimactic,
43:19
but I'm pretty sure someone cut in front of me
43:22
and then they got on the brakes and then I didn't,
43:24
I couldn't stop, but I don't remember sadly
43:27
because I rang my bell pretty good.
43:30
And I ended up like, you know,
43:31
I ended up taking a ride in the ambulance to hospital
43:35
and I believe the, what was it?
43:38
I'm trying to remember the medical term.
43:40
I don't know if I can, it was hemorrhaging
43:41
of the testicles is the essentially what happened.
43:45
I had a lot of internal bleeding
43:46
and as you can imagine, quite a bit of pain.
43:50
Yeah, they're doing your favors at all.
43:53
No, sadly, no, my pelvis was not broken in the end,
43:59
which is what I thought had happened.
44:01
So that was a real win.
44:03
If you can take it away.
44:04
But yeah, there's a friendship.
44:05
I never know you're ruptured to testicles.
44:08
No, not ruptured hemorrhaging, internal bleeding,
44:10
I think was the, and based on the color that they turned,
44:13
I think that the internal bleeding
44:14
was an accurate diagnosis.
44:16
Anyway, what about you, Gary?
44:18
What's your, what's your street crash story?
44:21
does it pertain to the previous conversation we had?
44:25
Yeah, well, I mean, mine's embarrassing.
44:27
Like it was, it was during COVID
44:29
and I had that damn BMW scooter.
44:31
So I had the scooter and I thought racing was over.
44:35
Like I thought COVID was going to bring the end to racing as a,
44:38
I mean, I thought everything was kind of like, it was good.
44:40
It was all weird, you know?
44:41
Like they cut the championship off to where I didn't think
44:44
we were going to have a championship for that year.
44:46
So like if there's no championship, I'm not getting paid.
44:48
I ended up getting a job and during COVID.
44:51
And so like I had to ride,
44:54
I was riding the work every day, you know?
44:57
And so I left early one morning.
45:00
It was like 45 degrees outside.
45:02
And I'm like, there's a light at the end of my neighborhood
45:05
And this is the one time that it was still green.
45:08
And so I was trying to make the light
45:09
where I have to take a right, you know?
45:12
So relatable, yeah, yeah.
45:13
You know, because like there's always so many cars going,
45:15
you have to wait forever to take a right.
45:18
And so anyway, so like the thing's green.
45:20
I'm like, I'm going to make it.
45:21
And then it goes yellow right as I'm coming up to it,
45:23
but like still a ways back, you know?
45:24
And so it's cold outside.
45:26
You know, I just fired the thing up.
45:29
And I've ridden maybe a mile down the street.
45:32
Break hard, I go into the corner
45:35
and like it kind of rains, but not rains.
45:37
So there was like a strip of water
45:40
that was coming out into the intersection.
45:42
So cold tires, a strip of like moist asphalt
45:45
that was out into the intersection.
45:47
And there was a motorcycle dude
45:48
that was waiting at the light to go, right?
45:51
And so like I'm like,
45:53
the tires have always been fine on that thing.
45:55
Like I kind of, you know, I'm always,
45:57
they always have a grip.
45:58
And so I wasn't super concerned.
46:00
So I break hard, you know, I start going to the corner.
46:02
I see the motorcycle guy and I give him a wave.
46:05
Oh, you give him a wave one hand off the bar, okay.
46:09
And as I give him the wave,
46:11
I like go to put my hand back on the bar
46:12
and I go over that water
46:14
and I lose the front on that water
46:17
on a yellow now red light.
46:19
And I end up spinning out into the intersection.
46:23
And I mean, I've never,
46:25
I didn't let go the handlebars,
46:26
but I've never picked up a bike so fast in my life.
46:29
I mean, before I'm even like stop, slide,
46:31
and I pick the thing up and I, you know,
46:33
restart and take off.
46:33
Wave at him, wave at him again.
46:34
You're like, I'm good, I'm good, I'm good, I'm good.
46:37
Well, what happened is that I was stuck at the light
46:40
at the next intersection, right down the road.
46:42
And the dude caught up to me
46:44
and like you can't see the lanes, like I said.
46:46
So he's like, he caught up to me
46:48
and I'm just sitting there, you know,
46:49
with my tail tucked and stuff.
46:51
And I was only wearing jeans and a sweatshirt,
46:53
So I mean like, and like some motocross gloves.
46:55
So I did not have the right gear on,
46:57
but like I was all fine, luckily.
46:59
But he comes up to me and he's like,
47:01
dude, like something to the effect of like,
47:04
man, I really think you should like
47:05
take a motorcycle safety school.
47:07
So that, you know, because he just like, you know,
47:10
saw me as somebody who didn't know
47:11
what the hell I was doing.
47:13
And I fully capitulated.
47:15
I was like, all right, yeah, a hundred percent.
47:16
Like, can you give me a place to go?
47:19
Like give me a name or something.
47:21
And light turned green, I took off.
47:24
There's nothing worse than crashing
47:26
in front of other motorcyclists.
47:29
I was at, I think it was the launch
47:31
for when Triumph introduced the Scrambler 1200.
47:35
And we were in Portugal,
47:37
and they gathered everybody around,
47:39
because it was raining.
47:40
It was like eight o'clock in the morning,
47:41
it was raining, and they gathered everybody
47:42
in the front parking lot and they're like, listen,
47:44
the roads in Portugal are like ice when it rains.
47:46
Everybody, we're just gonna keep the pace low,
47:48
we're gonna take it easy until the rain stops,
47:50
and nobody's gonna get hurt.
47:51
And everybody's like, yeah, sure, absolutely.
47:53
And we literally leave the parking lot
47:56
and we're making like a right hand turn
47:58
at like 15 miles an hour.
48:00
And this was one of the few crashes I've had where I'm like,
48:03
I still have no idea.
48:04
It just like, the whole front end just washed out
48:06
and we were going fast enough
48:07
that I just slid across the asphalt.
48:09
And the same thing, like I was the last person,
48:12
there was like a ride leader guy behind me
48:14
and he came up, he's like, what happened?
48:16
I'm like, I don't know.
48:17
And like no one was hurt,
48:18
but like I picked the bike up
48:19
and like these like scratches all on the side
48:21
and like my knee braces took the brunt of it.
48:24
But it was like, that was probably my most embarrassing crash
48:26
cause they had just given everybody this speech.
48:29
And like, and it wasn't like we were doing anything stupid.
48:32
It was just like, we're just going through the corner
48:33
and just the front end just just slid right out.
48:35
And the guy was like, are you okay?
48:36
And I'm like, yeah, he's like, what happened?
48:38
I'm like, I don't know.
48:39
You're like, I'm not very good at this.
48:41
And you just knew it was all credibility immediately.
48:44
Just out the window.
48:46
He was like, you should go take a motorcycle safety course.
48:49
Yeah, I'll see you there.
48:52
That's a great story.
48:55
And I'm like, obviously glad you're okay.
48:57
Both of you, but especially you, Garrett,
48:59
with the, you know, crashing like that is, you know.
49:03
I mean, that's what I get for being done on the screen.
49:06
Yeah, there you go.
49:07
The important thing is you never hemorrhaged your testicles.
49:09
That's the takeaway for today's episode.
49:11
You guys thought you had embarrassing stories, but.
49:13
That's a good point.
49:15
They've had a hard knock before.
49:16
I've stood into the gravel before flying V.
49:20
And I'll tell you what, some of those rocks are pretty big
49:23
in the air for that, so.
49:26
Right, right, right.
49:30
Glad we're all 10 fingers, 10 toes here,
49:32
and we can laugh about it.
49:34
Speaking of laughing at each other.
49:36
Well, that was just so clear.
49:37
That was the comment, the comment for episode 11,
49:40
the comment that we saved came in from Chase.
49:42
So Chase, thank you for the question.
49:44
Not producer Chase, non-producer Chase.
49:46
We know that we still owe you an answer
49:49
on Revzilla's ticket policy.
49:50
We'll have to figure that out.
49:51
As of right now, I've never heard that we have a policy
49:54
where if we get a speed ticket, we get in trouble.
49:55
But that's not to say that our bosses couldn't come up
49:58
with one if they listened to this episode.
50:00
But Chase, we will get you a high-side, low-side t-shirt.
50:02
Shoot us an email to highsideloosideatrevzilla.com
50:05
if you recognize your question
50:07
and we will make sure you get a t-shirt.
50:08
But now, Zach, take us into America's favorite game.
50:13
We warned you about this, leading up to it.
50:15
Garrett, we're gonna listen to an engine sound.
50:17
It's called the engine sound guessing game.
50:19
We're gonna listen to a clip here.
50:21
I believe producer Chase has shared it with you.
50:24
It is approximately 30 seconds long.
50:26
We're gonna hear a bike start, rev a few times.
50:30
And then we're all gonna try to guess.
50:32
As a reminder, Spurge, myself,
50:33
we have not heard this sound before.
50:36
We're walking in blind, same as you.
50:38
Without further ado, does everybody have this?
50:40
No, stop it because Garrett is familiar
50:43
with the fact that we have sponsorships.
50:45
We wanna take a second.
50:48
See, this is why I'm not a professional racer.
50:49
I'm so bad at this.
50:51
We wanna take a second and thank Acropovich
50:53
for being the sponsor of the Highside,
50:55
Lowside Engine Sound guessing game for season 10.
50:59
We hope that they join us
51:01
as we embark on season 11 here shortly.
51:04
But if you are looking for a premium exhaust
51:06
for your motorcycle, Acropovich is a brand
51:09
that Zach and I both have experience
51:12
with on our personal motorcycles
51:13
and hopefully you would be willing to give them a try.
51:15
Now, without any further ado.
51:18
No, they're on my bike.
51:26
I wouldn't lie to you.
51:27
Would a guy in a shirt this loud
51:28
lie to you about how to pronounce Acropovich?
51:31
Well, anyway, they're on my race bike too
51:34
See, you can be as fast as Garrett
51:37
on a race bike or a scooter
51:38
if you haven't Acropovich exhaust.
51:43
Without further ado,
51:44
does everybody have their sound clip ready to go?
52:20
I think I was wrong with my first analysis.
52:23
I think that was off camera.
52:24
So no one has to know.
52:25
I want us to know you cheated.
52:28
Guest honors, Garrett.
52:29
You get the first...
52:30
Or it's not even guest honors, actually.
52:32
It's like, it's guest curse.
52:33
You have to go first
52:34
and tell them what you think it is.
52:35
And then everyone else can, you know...
52:36
Let's start with...
52:37
We're going to have some hints for you.
52:38
So, yeah, do you have an idea
52:40
of how many cylinders you're hearing?
52:42
I thought, initially, I thought it was two,
52:45
but I won one, so I'm pretty confident.
52:49
I like that one here.
52:50
Yes, I hear one cylinder.
52:52
I think it's air cooled.
52:53
It might be air cooled.
52:58
I'm not going to go against you, too.
53:03
And you're sort of like...
53:04
No, like, I do not hear multiple cylinders.
53:08
I could potentially, like,
53:09
if it was like a 360 crank,
53:11
P-20 or something like that,
53:12
but like, I'm pretty sure
53:13
it sounds kind of like a single cylinder.
53:15
So what about displacement, Garrett?
53:17
Do you think in big single, small single?
53:21
Air cooled, maybe it's sort of...
53:22
Suggest you maybe think of something smaller.
53:26
I'm going to say, like, roughly 300 CC, maybe.
53:31
Right down the middle.
53:32
Right down the middle, so I was the riddle.
53:37
Further contributions?
53:38
It sounds small in displacement to me.
53:40
Yeah, it doesn't sound like it's a 650.
53:43
I'm not hearing, like, Honda XR.
53:45
I'm not hearing KLR.
53:51
Yeah, I think it could even be smaller.
53:53
Maybe even like, you know, 125, 150.
53:56
Yeah, it could be a zoom of 125.
54:01
So, Garrett, production case.
54:03
Garrett's got a lot of experience with a zoom of 125.
54:07
All right, the first hint.
54:09
So this is going to be hint number one
54:12
for the three of us.
54:13
Hint number one, it is 50 CCs.
54:18
So far, look at what's wrong with me, man.
54:21
Okay, so it's now a zoom of 125.
54:23
Let's take a second for the audience.
54:25
Let's play it one more time.
54:27
We're all going to listen one more time
54:28
and then we will take another round of guessing.
54:43
Can I throw an observation out?
55:03
If it was a 50 CC scooter, would it not,
55:08
like you wouldn't really be able to rev it, right?
55:10
Because it would have a centrifugal clutch,
55:13
presumably it would just start to want to go.
55:14
Well, but we could be on the center stand,
55:17
which I think I might hear in the final rev,
55:19
I might hear the wheel turning a little bit.
55:21
I was thinking maybe, I was thinking maybe,
55:24
but I should have known, it does have a fast idle,
55:27
which I should have known is like, yeah, smaller.
55:30
But what about, so hang on, I'm thinking of,
55:32
okay, so Garrett, you started on a PW 50.
55:36
Zach, you have a CRF 50 in your garage right now,
55:42
Are we hearing anything like that?
55:44
So we're not hearing like small.
55:46
I think it's a scooter and I'm trying to figure out,
55:49
because producer Chase is very good about sourcing this kind
55:52
of thing, but like, I don't think he knew.
55:53
Did he know about Garrett's love of scooters
55:55
before this started?
55:55
Could he have known?
55:56
Is this a Ruckus, I think it's like a Ruckus 50
55:59
or Honda Metropolitan 50, right?
56:01
Those are the only two 50 CC four strokes.
56:03
It doesn't sound like a Metropolitan to me though.
56:04
Like I've had a Metropolitan,
56:05
it doesn't sound like that to me.
56:06
I remember Ruckus being more quiet though.
56:09
Yeah, that sounds like a thumb to it.
56:11
This has like a throaty sound.
56:12
Maybe there's a crop of itch exhaust,
56:14
like a Honda Metropolitan and we're all full.
56:18
Well, I got it, I'm like Ruckus.
56:21
So I thought genuinely when I heard it,
56:23
I was like, oh, it could be Zuma 125.
56:24
And then obviously 50 CCs blew that out of the water.
56:26
I was way off on the size of the engine.
56:28
I'm like Ruckus, Honda Ruckus 50 is my,
56:31
I think that's where I'm at right now.
56:33
Can anybody dismantle my logic?
56:35
We have one more hand.
56:35
I'm thinking Italian.
56:37
Hang on, we have a hand.
56:39
So we're going to get one more hand
56:40
and then everybody's going to get to get a final guess.
56:43
I do want to just reiterate,
56:44
like producer Chase is a wily, wily character and he does his research.
56:50
So hint number two for the audience,
56:53
this engine, not motorcycle,
56:56
this engine is the little brother of Garrett's
57:01
and this partisan quotes of Garrett's first street bike.
57:07
So this engine is the little brother
57:10
of Garrett's first street bike.
57:14
Wait, is this an on the, did he just write that?
57:16
No, no, this is before.
57:20
So he did, you talked, you must have talked about,
57:22
like when I say this, like producer Chase has probably spent hours
57:26
listening to other podcasts.
57:29
He's been on reading interviews
57:30
because like he researches the out of our guests
57:33
to try and bring it back around.
57:34
So what is, what is, what was your first street bike?
57:40
I think I said it, a Zuma 125.
57:42
It's the first thing I was like riding around on the street,
57:44
at least I'm trying to like think of.
57:46
So what would be the little brother of a Zuma 125?
57:49
Is there a Zuma 50?
57:49
Is there a four stroke Zuma 50?
57:50
I think there was, I think there was a,
57:52
yeah, four stroke Zuma 50.
57:53
They go like 35 miles an hour.
57:55
I don't know why anybody buys them.
57:58
And that's going for the scooter bike.
57:59
I mean, I don't, I don't know, maybe, maybe.
58:05
Zack's, Zack's looking at pictures.
58:08
He is, for those of you listening,
58:10
whenever Zack has this look of wonder on his face,
58:13
his jaw gets a little slack, you can tell it easily.
58:15
Yeah, he's just looking at photos on the internet.
58:16
That's, that's the only thing that it can be.
58:18
So I know that like Zuma, there was a Zuma 50
58:21
that was a two stroke,
58:22
but this is obviously not a two stroke.
58:24
We can all hear that.
58:24
It's not a two stroke stroke.
58:27
There was a Zuma 54 stroke, there was.
58:30
I didn't know that, but that's, that's got to be it.
58:33
That's got to be the, I think-
58:35
That's got to be it.
58:36
Well, here is the answer for the audience listening.
58:41
Unless this was just Tahlil or something else.
58:43
The answer is a 20 or 2009 Yamaha C3.
58:50
Wait, producer Chase is throwing his hands up in the air.
58:54
What the heck is that?
58:58
The 50 C, the 50 C C four stroke engine
59:03
can also be found in the Yamaha Zuma 50 F.
59:08
So you are correct.
59:10
So we will, we'll, we'll give you a,
59:14
we'll give you a win on that one, Garrett.
59:16
Cause producer Chase, while it is a different bike,
59:19
the engine is the same.
59:20
And I want to thank Jonathan for sending in the sound
59:25
clip of his personal 2009 Yamaha C3.
59:29
I'm looking up a Yamaha C3 right now.
59:31
You know what it is?
59:32
You guys, it's a, it's a Yamaha Metropolitan, basically.
59:38
Is that what it is?
59:39
I mean, no, not really, but it's like,
59:41
it's, I did, I did see the hit for Yamaha C3 piano,
59:45
but the C3 XF 50 YR C3.
59:50
So it's like a, it's a little, yeah, it kind of,
59:52
it almost looks like a Honda Metropolitan,
59:53
but not quite as, not quite as Italian in the design.
59:57
It's like a boxy little thing
59:59
with a 50 C C four stroke and a round headlight.
00:01
It's a little scooter.
00:02
It's a little 50 C C scooter.
00:03
That reminds me though of one of my favorite memes
00:05
of all time where the guy walks into the Yamaha dealership
00:07
and he's like, I'm here to buy a motorcycle.
00:09
And the Yamaha salesman is like, well, you know,
00:12
what would you like?
00:13
We've got all these Yamaha motorcycles here.
00:14
And he goes, well, you know, I want a motorcycle,
00:17
but I also really want to get a piano too.
00:18
And he's like, well, you're never going to believe this.
00:21
You're flipping lucky day.
00:25
Well, I learned something today, you guys.
00:26
I didn't know that a Yamaha C3
00:29
was a 50 C C four stroke scooter that existed.
00:32
And I think that we have a,
00:33
we have basically a scooter aficionado
00:35
on the podcast with us in Garrett Gerloff.
00:37
And you've never heard of this either.
00:40
Yeah, a hundred percent.
00:41
No, I'm definitely, definitely a big scooter.
00:42
Small engine, anything small engine and two wheels.
00:46
So my final, my final question for you, Garrett,
00:48
is an exact, if you would like to answer,
00:52
is there a Yamaha C3 scooter in your future?
00:56
I think it's a no for me.
00:58
I need at least a hundred CCs at least.
01:05
It is pretty damning, I will say,
01:08
that you've talked so much about how you like little bikes.
01:11
You're like, you don't need very much horsepower.
01:13
And then someone's like,
01:13
here's my 50 C C four stroke scooter.
01:15
And you're like, no, man, that's not enough.
01:16
You're doing it wrong.
01:17
There's a sweet spot, man, come on, come on.
01:20
There's a sweet spot.
01:21
You're like a hundred percent.
01:23
No, I can't, having owned a 50 C C two stroke scooter,
01:26
I would never get a 50 C C four stroke scooter now.
01:29
But a hundred, but a 125 or something?
01:34
Calisthenics easy 125.
01:35
I'm thinking about that one.
01:37
Well, I know we've come to the end of the podcast
01:40
and Garrett, I very much want to take a second to say,
01:43
thank you for your time.
01:44
I know you're busy.
01:45
I know you're packing for a flight out tomorrow
01:47
and you get other things on your brain.
01:48
But Zach and I have been trying
01:49
to have you on for a while now
01:51
and we're very excited to have you.
01:53
I do want to give Zach an opportunity.
01:55
Zach, if there's any last questions
01:57
you'd like to leave the audience with for Garrett
01:59
and his racing career, I'm happy to extend this courtesy
02:03
to you as a co-host and having someone like Garrett on.
02:06
No, I do appreciate that.
02:09
But he doesn't need any more questions about racing.
02:11
He's about to jump back into the media pit
02:13
of the World Speed Bike Paddock.
02:15
And we got a lot of great background on you, Garrett,
02:19
with your Metricit days, your Honda RS 125 days
02:24
and even got to ask a little bit about World Speed Bike.
02:27
So my thirst is quenched for that for now.
02:31
I think we should let everybody get back
02:34
to their day, you specifically, Garrett.
02:36
And I guess, I don't think I have anything else to add.
02:38
I can just say like, thanks so much for joining us, man.
02:40
It was a super fun conversation.
02:42
I learned a lot and I hope that we'll,
02:45
you know, our paths will cross again in the future.
02:48
If you guys want to come to a World Speed Bike race,
02:50
let me know, get that set up easy.
02:53
Zack's going to want to get on your bike though.
02:55
It's like, I'm reading a lot of children's books right now.
02:58
And like, if you give a moose a muffin,
03:00
he's going to want a glass of milk or some some sh** like that.
03:03
If you give Zack an invitation to a World Speed Bike race,
03:06
he's going to want to take a few laps around.
03:08
So be careful with that.
03:10
It could be a new daily rider episode.
03:12
Hey, oh, you already, you just got a text.
03:15
You just got a text message, I just sent it to you.
03:18
What if you guys did like a Common Thread episode
03:21
where you come to Europe, do something in Europe
03:23
and use your end destinations of World Speed Bike.
03:29
Zack, don't stand up right now.
03:30
With the camera, I got all the wrinkles out now.
03:34
We got to move on, we got to move on.
03:36
You're too kind, you're as generous and as sweet
03:40
as you are good looking.
03:41
Garrett, thank you so much for joining us.
03:45
And you will be getting a text or email
03:48
about going to a World Speed Bike race.
03:50
That sounds awesome.
03:51
I like it, I like it.
03:52
Everybody leave comments below what it's like to do.
03:56
Thank you, Garrett.
03:57
We will, we will see you soon.
03:59
Well, there we have it.
04:00
Garrett Gerloff, just a genuinely nice guy,
04:05
whether you are in the motorcycle racing or not,
04:07
hopefully you enjoyed that conversation.
04:08
And hopefully you got a few laughs
04:11
because we definitely got a few laughs.
04:13
Yeah, he's a good egg, man.
04:14
He's a, he seems like a good guy with a good heart
04:18
and is interested in cool stuff.
04:20
And it's rad to, like as a fan of world championship racing,
04:25
it's like really fun for me to have someone
04:28
I feel like I can root for.
04:29
And it sounds like he might let you ride
04:31
his motorcycle if you ask nicely.
04:33
Yeah, he's probably gonna get an email
04:35
or a text about that whole like,
04:36
do you want to come to the paddock
04:37
and do a daily rider on a World Speed Bike?
04:39
Yeah, I probably do.
04:40
Stop offering our motorcycle to this guy
04:43
that couldn't even cut it in the 125 class
04:47
But yeah, a big thank you to Gary
04:51
for taking the time to talk to us.
04:54
That was super fun.
04:55
And with any luck, we'll get his face
05:00
and his voice back on the pod at some point.
05:03
Spurge, what do we got left to do?
05:04
I'm assuming you're rooting for Kawasaki now, right?
05:07
Like you're team green all the way, you know?
05:09
You have to say that publicly
05:10
to get out there on that bike.
05:12
I'm team, team Gary Griloff.
05:13
Oh, I see, to ride the bike.
05:14
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, no,
05:16
the X10 is always my favorite bike, I appreciate it.
05:19
All right, we are now going to give away a t-shirt.
05:21
We're not gonna, we are not gonna do a comment
05:23
because we did the comment, Chase,
05:27
when we were asking Garrett if he's gotten any speed tickets,
05:29
we got some answers there.
05:30
So Chase already got a t-shirt,
05:31
but for those of you out there
05:33
leaving us an Apple podcast review,
05:37
As a reminder, we are very cognizant
05:39
of our Spotify audience as well.
05:43
We are checking the comments on Spotify.
05:46
But this comment, this winner,
05:48
Bus Driver Jeff did come in from an Apple podcast review.
05:52
So please, it still benefits us in the podcast.
05:56
If you have an opportunity to leave an Apple podcast review,
05:58
especially a favorable one, we would very much appreciate it.
06:01
But Bus Driver Jeff is the winner today.
06:04
Zachary, what did Bus Driver Jeff have to say?
06:08
Bus Driver Jeff says, and I quote,
06:09
please do an engine sound guessing game compilation.
06:13
It would provide lots of fun
06:15
for bikers getting together,
06:16
drinking beer, partying and stuff.
06:18
Come on, make it happen.
06:19
So I think what Bus Driver Jeff's here is saying
06:22
is just take all the engine sound guessing game clips,
06:24
all the audio clips we have,
06:26
and just like stack it all together
06:27
so that it's like one big party game
06:29
where people can sit around
06:31
and try to guess what the engine is.
06:32
And there'd be 12 per season.
06:34
And I don't think it's that bad an idea, Jeff.
06:38
Especially if you're doing it
06:40
with your high side, low side engine sound,
06:42
or not the engine sound,
06:43
the drinking game t-shirt.
06:44
You're out there drinking beer with your buddies.
06:46
You gotta be wearing a drinking game t-shirt,
06:50
which you've just won the t-shirt, Bus Driver Jeff.
06:54
You just need to send us your address and shirt size
06:56
to highside, lowside, at revzilla.com.
06:58
In addition to trying to make your dreams happen,
07:02
we're also looking for other ideas
07:04
to fill the void in between season 10
07:07
wrapping up in season 11.
07:08
We've got some other ideas.
07:09
Maybe we resurface some older episodes.
07:12
Maybe we stick together some engine sounds
07:16
for you to listen to in the off season.
07:18
But we're probably gonna try
07:19
and put some additional ancillary content
07:22
So if you do have any ideas
07:25
to what you would wanna hear from high side, low side
07:27
in the six to eight week absence
07:30
before we return towards the end of October,
07:34
It's always good to hear from our audience
07:39
And you can leave a comment on YouTube.
07:40
You can shoot an email to highsidelowside at revzilla.com
07:43
or if you're over there on Spotify,
07:45
you can leave us a comment there.
07:46
And as always, please, if you have not shared
07:50
your love of highside, lowside
07:51
with one of your riding buddies,
07:54
please pass along the podcast to people you know.
07:56
One of the easiest ways for our podcast audience to grow
07:59
is for you, the audience that listens
08:01
to share the podcast with people
08:03
that you know enjoy motorcycling.
08:08
Well said, Spur Joe.
08:09
Thank you, bus driver Jeff,
08:11
for your podcast review and your creative feedback.
08:18
That's, you know, I'm laughing
08:20
but it's actually great to hear what people want
08:24
from this pod and from the media that we released
08:27
because that's, I feel like how we get better.
08:32
We've come to the end of another season
08:34
of highside, lowside.
08:35
And what we like to do at the end of every episode
08:36
is do a little reflection on the episode.
08:38
And I will say to you,
08:39
do you have any key takeaways from either this episode
08:43
that you'd like to pontificate on
08:45
or perhaps any takeaways from the season as a whole?
08:50
Gosh, you know, because this episode,
08:53
a lot of this episode was a retread
08:56
of the whole season that we did.
09:02
Maybe I'm trying to think about anything really specific.
09:05
I think that my favorite piece from this whole episode
09:11
was that story about Garrett crashing
09:14
on his cold tire scooter
09:16
and then having the guy on the motorcycle say,
09:18
like, hey man, you should really take
09:19
like a riding course or something.
09:21
And he was a, even being a World Street Bike Racer
09:23
was humble enough to be like, yeah, you know,
09:25
you're probably right.
09:26
Can you give me a name?
09:26
And I think that that's, you know,
09:29
that's a funny story and a fun story and everything.
09:31
But the big takeaway for me there is,
09:36
goes back to another answer that Garrett gave,
09:38
which is about the cross training thing
09:39
and how, you know, he might ride a trials bike around
09:41
at five miles an hour and work on clutch control.
09:43
He's a World Street Bike Racer.
09:45
He doesn't even use the clutch
09:46
when he's riding his World Street Bike.
09:48
And he's certainly not riding around at five miles an hour.
09:51
He's going much, much faster than that.
09:53
So what do you learn?
09:55
Well, you learn something every time you get on a bike.
09:58
And I think I really liked those two,
10:01
those two kind of stories and, you know,
10:03
anecdotes and takeaways from Garrett's time with us today
10:06
really reminded me that if you have your head screwed
10:09
on straight, which I think he does,
10:11
it doesn't matter how good a rider you are,
10:13
you're always learning stuff, you know?
10:15
And that's like a good, it's a good thing for us
10:18
to take away, I think at the end of a season
10:20
when we won't be in your ear for quite as long,
10:23
you have the fall of 2025 here to go out
10:27
and enjoy riding your motorcycle.
10:28
And hopefully you'll take that opportunity to, you know,
10:31
try something or at least when you're on the bike,
10:34
take in new information and learn something.
10:36
What about you, Spurjo?
10:37
Any big takeaways here?
10:40
I'm actually just going back and like,
10:42
you're looking at some of the questions
10:44
that we had asked Garrett
10:45
and then how that relates back to the seasons.
10:48
And it's always interesting to me
10:50
when we come to the end of a season
10:52
because time moves fast and it's weird.
10:56
And like, even when we were starting this episode,
10:58
we were talking about the fact that like,
10:59
we haven't sat down to record an episode
11:01
in over four weeks, right?
11:03
Because of the way that we record them
11:04
and then they release.
11:05
And we've just, we've gotten to talk
11:08
to a lot of really cool people this season.
11:13
We've had some really interesting guests on
11:16
and, you know, this is still one of my favorite parts
11:18
of the job and the time always just kind of flies.
11:20
And then you go back and, you know,
11:22
people sometimes will ask like,
11:23
do you go back and re-listen to episodes
11:25
and I listen to them usually once is like a,
11:29
we review them before they grow out.
11:30
But I'm always impressed at like how you'll say something
11:35
and I'll laugh and we can kind of crack each other up.
11:38
It's a very natural experience
11:41
and I'm really fortunate that we get to do this.
11:43
I think what I would like to leave the audience with
11:46
if you would be so willing is we had talked to Garrett
11:50
about, you know, motorcycle superstitions
11:53
and in pre-production, you were telling a story
11:57
that we all got a laugh out of.
11:58
And I'm thinking back to all the times
12:01
I laugh when I listen to your stories
12:03
and I'm wondering if you would be willing
12:06
to share with the audience a time
12:08
when a younger Zac courts was interviewing a racer
12:11
and he told a story about his superstition
12:15
and maybe some people that were listening were like,
12:20
oh man, I wish I wouldn't have told that story
12:21
but you actually found it enjoyable.
12:23
I do love that story.
12:24
So thank you for teaming me up, Spurge.
12:27
I went to Circuit of the Americas in 2013, I think it was.
12:36
Gosh, when before the first MotoGP
12:40
at Circuit of the Americas had ever taken place
12:42
and there was a private test with the factory Yamaha team
12:46
and the factory Honda team
12:48
and maybe like a satellite Honda team or something like that.
12:51
And they were there to test the circuit
12:53
to make sure it was okay.
12:54
And obviously they used that as an opportunity
12:56
to test the bike and get to know the circuit a little bit.
12:59
And I interviewed one Marc Marquez
13:03
before he had ever taken part in a MotoGP race
13:06
which was a cool opportunity,
13:07
especially in retrospect considering,
13:08
I mean, he was already an amazing talent at that point
13:11
and everyone in MotoGP was looking at him thinking
13:14
they were worried because he was obviously so good.
13:17
But it was before he had ever taken a green flag in MotoGP
13:20
and I asked him the question about superstitions.
13:22
I said, do you have any superstitions?
13:23
And he said, oh, not really.
13:27
Well, I do, I wear blue underwear on Friday and Saturday
13:33
and then I wear red underwear on Sunday
13:38
because at the time MotoGP had the thing
13:42
and like the timing screens was like,
13:43
you know, if it was like a blue helmet
13:45
next to your name on the timing screen,
13:48
it was that it meant like your personal fastest lap.
13:50
And then if it was like a red helmet,
13:52
it meant fastest lap of the session
13:54
or something like that or something like that.
13:58
And I was like, that's a fantastic answer.
14:01
Like I just learned that Marc Marquez
14:03
changes the color of his underwear
14:05
so that he goes extra fast on Sunday.
14:07
And you knew what an underwear color
14:08
he was wearing right then, based on the day.
14:10
Yeah, I didn't ask him what color underwear do you wear
14:14
when you get interviewed by some journalist from America.
14:18
But anyway, afterward, yeah, one of the Honda reps
14:21
came up to you and he was like, God, I'm really like,
14:24
I don't know, I'm sorry that he talked about his underwear
14:26
and like, that's really inappropriate, you know?
14:27
And I was obviously like, that's an amazing story.
14:30
Like, that's incredible.
14:31
I couldn't have hoped, I thought he might say like,
14:33
I always like, you know, I touch my forehead
14:35
and I think of my mother before I go on the track
14:37
because like, I love my mother.
14:38
And you'd be like, okay, great,
14:39
whatever, everybody loves their mother.
14:41
Anyway, that was a super fun interaction
14:44
and, you know, not to tear down Garrett's answer,
14:48
which was sort of like, no, no, I don't wanna do that.
14:50
But I did, I do love that story
14:53
and I think it's a really fun window into the mind
14:56
of, you know, was one of the greatest racers
14:59
of all time before he was on the biggest stage of his life.
15:03
So thanks for choosing me.
15:05
No, when you told that story,
15:06
I think it's always interesting to see how like
15:08
the OEMs react or like the rep from Honda was like,
15:10
I wish you wouldn't have said that.
15:11
It's like, why would you not want him to say like,
15:13
it humanizes people, right?
15:14
It totally humanizes them.
15:16
Like some of these OEMs are just so like,
15:18
no, it has to be this box and we have to fit it in here.
15:21
It's just like, yeah.
15:22
Yeah, exactly, right.
15:23
And I don't have like, I'm not,
15:25
I don't know Mark Mark has personally at all.
15:28
But I think that's one of the things
15:29
that he's really, really good at is being personable.
15:32
You know, like his being a human being.
15:33
It's like when he answers questions,
15:34
he's real about stuff, you know?
15:36
I think it's one of the things
15:37
that made Valentino Rossi so popular.
15:39
And that's just in the little window
15:41
of international road racing, you know?
15:42
But I think being human is like a, such a big thing.
15:45
We saw it with Garrett today, right?
15:46
He's like so easy to root for.
15:47
When you talk to him, you're like,
15:48
oh, he's like a real person who cares about stuff
15:52
aside from riding around on motorbikes.
15:54
Not that that isn't fun and cool,
15:55
but like there's other stuff in the world
15:59
Well, speaking of all the humans in the world,
16:01
thank you to all the high-side low-side listeners.
16:03
This really truly is one of the cool parts of our job.
16:08
Zach and I talk about it a lot.
16:09
We're really fortunate to have the opportunity
16:11
to do this podcast with you
16:12
and to have you, you know, join us on these episodes.
16:16
You know, this season we got to talk to Matt Oxley
16:19
and to Chris Northover and to Kale Yakov
16:21
and to Garrett today.
16:23
And we're excited to see what episode
16:26
or what season 11 has in store.
16:28
We will be back within the next six to eight weeks.
16:31
And in the meantime, if you've got some suggestions
16:33
for us for season 11, shoot us an email
16:35
to thehighsidelowsideatrevzula.com
16:38
and we cannot wait to see what is next for this podcast.