Seeking Challenges on Motorcycles with Kris Ziemlo #460
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Term
gravel road
Gravel roads are not paved—they’re loose rock. Your tires don’t grip as well as on pavement, so it’s easier to slide and you have to ride more carefully.
Term
oil change
An oil change is routine maintenance where used engine oil is drained and replaced with fresh oil (and typically a new oil filter). On long, remote trips, doing it right before departure helps reduce the risk of engine wear and breakdown.
Term
frost heaves
When the ground freezes, water in the soil expands and pushes the road up. When it thaws, the surface can get uneven and slippery, so your bike can feel sketchy even if you’re going slow.
Term
tire grip
Grip is how well your tires can “hold” the ground. If the surface turns into slick sludge or ice-like slime, your tires can lose that grip fast.
Concept
Arctic Circle
The Arctic Circle is a very far-north area. It’s usually cold enough that riding gets harder—tires grip less and you need better cold-weather gear.
Brand
Kabuto
Kabuto makes motorcycle helmets. They’re known for safety-focused designs, and the host is talking about their helmets being more available in the U.S.
Term
bear spray
Bear spray is like a special kind of pepper spray made to scare off bears. Rules can be different depending on where you’re traveling, so you might have to buy it in one place and not be allowed to bring it back.
Concept
Dempster Highway
The Dempster Highway is a very remote northern road in Canada. Because it’s so far out and the conditions can change fast, riding a motorcycle there can be tough.
Concept
paving timeline (fully paved by 2028)
Whether a road is paved or not makes a big difference for motorcycle traction and control. Even bad pavement is usually easier to ride than mud.
Car
Tesla Semi
The Tesla Semi is a big electric truck used to move goods on highways. Because it’s so large, the wind and rain around it can make driving feel different for cars following behind. That’s why it might be mentioned when talking about tough weather.
Concept
no guardrails
They’re saying the road had no safety barrier. If you make a mistake, there’s nothing to stop you from going off the side, which is why it’s so dangerous.
Term
WD-40
WD-40 is a penetrating lubricant/water-displacing spray used to free stuck parts and reduce friction. It’s often used as an emergency measure to get seized linkages moving again, though it’s not a permanent fix for corrosion or mechanical wear.
Brand
Harley Davidson
Harley-Davidson is a famous motorcycle company. They make a lot of the big, classic-style bikes you see on the road, and this ad is talking about buying and servicing those bikes.
Term
helmet
A helmet is the safety gear you wear on a motorcycle to protect your head if you crash. It’s something riders put on before riding and take off when they stop.
Term
MRE
MREs are pre-packaged meals designed for situations where you can’t easily cook. The host is basically saying their dinner was similar to that kind of ready-to-eat food.
Concept
road trip
A road trip is just a longer drive where you stop along the way. Here, they’re saying it’s easy to get stressed if you’re constantly thinking about posting instead of enjoying the ride.
Concept
off pavement
“Off pavement” means you’re not riding on regular paved streets. It could be dirt, gravel, or other rough surfaces.
Concept
Trans-America Trail
It’s a big adventure route for motorcycle riders that goes across the U.S. instead of just riding on regular paved roads. People do it for the challenge and the scenery.
Concept
Key West
Key West is at the very southern end of Florida. It’s a popular destination for trips, and they’re using it as a big travel milestone.
Concept
moto camping
Moto camping means taking camping gear on your motorcycle for overnight trips. You have to pack smart because you can’t carry everything like you would in a car.
Concept
glamping
Glamping is camping, but with nicer comforts—like a more comfortable setup than a basic tent. For motorcycle trips, it usually means bringing the right gear so you can enjoy the ride and still sleep comfortably.
Concept
Mexico
They’re talking about wanting to ride into Mexico, but also mentioning there are serious concerns. It’s a reminder that travel plans depend on safety and conditions.
Concept
temporary import permit
It’s a form that lets you bring your vehicle into another country for a short trip. You usually have to show you’ll take it back out when you’re done.
Concept
Mexican insurance
It’s the insurance you need to legally ride/drive in Mexico. The speaker is saying you can’t just show up—you have to arrange it.
Concept
Marine Corps boot camp
They’re talking about Marine Corps boot camp as something they want to visit. It’s a personal milestone tied to their military background, not a car or bike detail.
Term
Roswell
Roswell is a town in New Mexico that’s well-known for UFO stories. People visit it because of the “alien” history, and the host is talking about stopping there on a road trip.
Term
Area 51
Area 51 is a very secretive military area in Nevada that people associate with UFO rumors. The speaker is saying when they went, there wasn’t much to see in person.
Concept
diagnosing it
Diagnosing means trying to figure out what’s wrong. Instead of guessing, you check likely causes until you find the real problem.
Term
break this thing in
“Break-in” means you ride a new bike gently at first, then gradually push it more as you rack up miles. It helps you learn the bike and spot any problems before you’re far from help.
Concept
Geiger counters
A Geiger counter is a device that can detect radiation. It’s used to check whether the air or ground has unsafe radiation levels.
Concept
Fukushima nuclear disaster
Fukushima was a major nuclear accident in Japan. It caused radiation problems that affected the area for years.
Concept
bucket list
A “bucket list” just means a list of things you really want to do someday. Here, they’re saying visiting that place would be a big dream trip.
Concept
Japanese car culture
“Japanese car culture” is the community and events in Japan where car fans hang out and share their builds. It also includes how visitors should act respectfully while they’re there.
Concept
bedbugs
They’re talking about bedbugs—tiny pests that can bite and get into your belongings. If a hotel has them, it can be a nightmare to bring that problem home.
LIVE
What is up everyone and welcome back to the fast side podcast after this episode I'm sitting
down with Chris Simlow who I've known for many years but more importantly this dude
has done some amazing things on this road glide that is on the cover photo of this podcast.
He literally rode this thing around the BRL track for a full year in the early days of
the Bagger Racing League and then turned around and changed the entire bike up and decided to
ride it to the hardest parts of America Alaska all the way up there and back and in this podcast
we're kind of talking about some of the thought process and the challenges that was a part of
this type of journey and got me super inspired by listening to him talk about this. Also while
we're recording while I'm recording this right now Chris is down in the middle of Mexico doing
another amazing road trip so follow along there's a link to him in the description this is a rad
dude and hopefully you'll get as inspired as I did listening to this but before we jump into it
please take a moment to check out our sponsors. Our next motorcycles has you covered on some of
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they're going to get you on the right path give them a call. Also and lastly my guys at Kabuto
motorcycle helmets down there they're in New Braunfels but they're really from Osaka Japan
really badass helmets I've been rocking them for the last year just one king of the baggers here
in Kota in Austin Texas check them out links in the description now let's get into this episode.
Hey guys you ready to let the dogs out?
Chris what's up dude it's been a long time coming yeah I would agree yeah it's uh what was the
first camp out you came to um I don't know maybe your third one but it starts it starts before
that for real yeah you were you at the uh Sturgis 2019 okay so you're at the house Starbucks yeah
I wasn't at the house um I think it was Eddie Rosen Chamberlain Kyle Cliff uh we all met at
that Starbucks in Bedwood we took that photo uh-huh everybody was running walking back and forth
because it was like a line of 10 or 12 bikes it was like the only performance baggers in Sturgis
at the time at the time I would agree and it was just a row of Olens uh hanging off I took a photo
that Kyle's butt I got a I do have a photo of Kyle's butt so but I took a photo of the row of
Olens and like Olens themselves have used it yeah they've used it multiple times yeah you know what
I mean they asked so it's all good but like yeah that was an iconic year man like it was a me and
Steve kind of we had our own fucking crazy story getting there that that year yeah that was the ticket
yeah I remember a lot it was with uh Shredder Bob Shredder Bob Parker yeah
that was a long time ago it was a damn near seven years ago almost yeah you know what I mean
it's crazy a lot has changed oh shit yeah yeah so the third camp out that would have been the
2021 then huh uh because we did it
we did it in 18 19 and then yeah 2020 I think it's the third okay so 20 or 2021 I'm not really
sure okay yeah um but no that's crazy man but you know I really you know I'm glad that you're
kind of passing through here on the way on the on this current trip you're on because like I was
saying earlier I feel like this is such a great conversation to have about the travels that you've
done and the travels you're on at this time because it's like the time of the season where
everybody's getting amped up to be out on bikes and doing their trips and you know we're coming
up on May and June where most people are taking their motorcycle trips across the place so you
know what I mean I do um I just I'm glad it worked out this has been a great day so far I've had
great weather very little traffic nothing too crazy got to see Justin today and uh I'm just
so glad this worked out because I think we talked about uh doing something that mama tried it yeah
last year the year before uh it was a while ago yeah I've always wanted to stop through uh the
northern Illinois area because you're more rockford area right um I'm like 30 miles outside
okay so that it's it's right off the highway Chicago yeah that's right we were talking about
everyone avoid Chicago like to play I want to go to Chicago and spend time there so bad
because I got you dude I just you just got to have a local you got to be with somebody that
knows the city to know where to take you because it's one of those cities in my opinion that you
could quickly fall in tourist traps oh yeah you know what I mean like where to go where's
where's the cool bars the cool food or the great food and you know like I don't just the local dives
kind of thing you know I got you when you come yeah whatever you need I want to do it so bad
we're I'm out in the burbs now a little bit so depending on how traffic is or what day
it can be 35 minutes to downtown or it can be two hours yeah but there's ways to get around stuff
yeah the the uh the boys at da performance once they that's the only time I've ever got off the
highway in Chicago uh-huh they're in elsep I think yeah so I wrote with him he took me through a
couple little spots and we ended up having some pizza somewhere I have no idea where it was but
it was pretty close to downtown just it's it's like a mini new york but not really that small
you know what I mean it's very it'll take you a long time to get around yeah but it has its own
little pockets just like every other major city or hub
downtown really can be a tourist trap it's one of those things where like nine o'clock it shuts down
oh and then the out yeah and there's not really anything there anymore so everything's kind of
moved out to the chicago land area okay yeah and the food is what yeah I keep I always say man
the food dude that's the what's what's your favorite like when you say the food out there
what's what's your go-to if you're if someone's come to town and you want to get the chicago
experience where you taking the um usually everybody wants some kind of tourist trap pizza the big
thick stuff yeah not really big fan um if I was to make it hey you want to try some pizza like
let's go to lumonades or birds or something like that yeah and then um you know they everyone
wants I want the Italian beef so you could go to the staples you know there's johnny's there's
al's there there's a bunch it really all I always ask what do you what do you want
because I know you already have an idea yeah and I'll try to give somebody a direction on on where
they're in a burger phase so there's you know alcheval and kuma's corner and all these different
little things you can go to but I'm a foodie at heart dude I love food and when everybody comes
in like oh we're gonna go do the the sears tower we're gonna go on the observation deck I'm like
all right well we want to eat though yeah that's what I think breaking bread and eating food is
like one of the best chances to you know solidify friendships and and good times you know what I mean
like because you're you're you're present in that moment sitting at a table eating
conversing things like it's a small portion of time that you're not staring at a device
exactly because that's kind of like a problem where yeah under hey let's have a conversation and then
someone pulls her phone out you know no one can take the eight seconds to breathe you know what
yeah it's wild yeah Devin's like the master of barbecue here because anytime people come to
Texas they want barbecue and I'm just not I'm not saying I don't like barbecue I do like it but I
just don't know shit about it I'd love to try some of the the staples just like you know you go
anywhere yeah but um you know there's barbecues awesome you can get it all over the place but
there's a certain like staple if you're coming to Texas you gotta try the barbecue what's the
uh like she's like a grandma or a mom what what what is it called so there's a couple snows as
snows is one in Lexington which is down by Austin and it's an old woman by the name of Totsi she's
been doing it forever that's the one yeah yeah and like there's like a line and she gives you
beer in the line yeah beer at that they do that and they do Tito's mixed drinks free you just you
just tip the bartender and like you're in line at four or five in the morning and then they open
the bar at eight and they don't start serving to like nine I think it's like between nine and ten
so yeah so like by the time you get up there you're like hammered yeah you've been up and it's
everything tastes delicious at that point I just don't know that like I'm I'm not a line guy you
know what I mean I'm yeah I have a problem with the line stuff and that's probably one of my biggest
turnoffs about doing the barbecue things when there's a huge line to get in I'd rather it just
like like set a reservation up and so so here's the thing with the barbecue thing though with the
line what's nice about it it's not just the food it's the experience because when you're standing
you're committed you know when we did that I did with Jaden and we're there and we met probably
people from they came from Europe like it was this big deal and like you by the time you're
eating you're more excited to see how they're gonna enjoy it because they're even more invested than
you and it really is you you meet people and that's the thing is the joy of it the tradition the fact
that it was a very cheap cut of meat and people have passed down their family traditions to make
this what it is that's what I think is interesting about it for a long time barbecue wasn't something
you could take you can learn in college you had to like you to learn a family secret and how to do
it so that I feel like the Americana of it is really interesting as well so that's that's kind
of my that's a good point yeah yeah there's a I like a I think they shut it down but in Phoenix
I've talked about it before is this place called uh Durant's and it was like this steakhouse that
you had to walk through the kitchen to get into it's like an old mob style place and apparently
I was talking to the guys at FXR division took me there one of the best steaks I've ever had in my
life and um they said that something got closed down or something been open for like 50 years or
some crazy shit man it's wild but I get it there's an experience so I think I just haven't had that
experience and because I grew up here that like barbecue is you know it's just part of like I
know exactly what you mean it's the same thing with pizza like on taverns I'm like that's regular
pizza dude yeah it's regular that you just named it something else yeah so I like fusion foods when
people do like different fusions of like like I've talked about this before too so I apologize but uh
sacks took me to eat sushi in Salt Lake and apparently it's a huge thing out there that like
they fly in or I don't know what they do but basically it's a hub for sushi in Salt Lake City
and I had these like fusion style like it's so far from the coast yeah I know right like Mexican
flavored sushi and it was I still to this day think about it and like man I would love to have that
again you know like a green salsa verde on like a sushi roll it was just it was delicious man have
you tried the sushi burritos yet it's you got to get something crunchy in there otherwise there's
like one big soft thing you're like this is too much soft you're like yeah this seaweed or something
that's weird yeah but uh yeah there's a couple like Korean joints that do the fusion so they're
like yeah get the sushi burrito I'm like put something crunchy in there so do you incorporate
this type of stuff like the foodie type aspect to your trips when you go places oh yeah yeah um
usually I have something in mind if I'm going somewhere I'm like okay if I'm going here I want
to try this or that you know it's just something to look forward to so the the one trip before we
get into the current trip yeah the Alaska trip right okay to me that was a pretty wow one because
you changed the bike up quite a bit the roguelite up quite a bit because you took it from basically
being a race bike yeah it was like a street bike and then um in you know our mutual friends with
like Bob and stuff he's like come race yeah all right so he kind of helped me along and took me
under his wing and then I we did it whole year uh with Steve and all that stuff did uh BRL and then
I had this goal in my head of like I'm gonna take it there I'm like the bike's doing fine it didn't
blow up you know I'll throw some navies on it and you know go do some some gravel road how would
like you pretty much knew that you were gonna have to swap the tires out was there a plan to
go on the roads that weren't paved or is there a paved road all the way to Alaska I mean how does
that work okay so there's the lots unpack there um sorry my compressor's on for my airbrush it's
okay uh I'm not at my best today I'm a little tired but it's all good going from memory basically
it was 6,200 miles the route I took on street tires it was pretty much all pavement I I stayed
on pavement like 99.99% all the way to Fairbanks there was a small portion in Glacier National Park
that was like 11 miles of gravel brutal excuse me and um I made it all the way up there I so I sent
I knew I was going all the way to the top no matter what yeah it was at Prudhoe Bay or something so
yeah Prudhoe Bay or Dead Horse and that's from Fairbanks it's called the Hall Road or the Dalton
Highway they have a bunch of names uh America's deadliest highway whatever ice road truck whatever
ice road trucker says you know what I mean um but the goal was to just go as far as I could uh
and that's that's it was just go as far as I you could go and see if I could make it and being
self-reliant and all that kind of thing um so two weeks ahead of time I had sent
knobbies up to Fairbanks it's kind of a thing you do a little research you start realizing there's
kind of tips and tricks um and I set the tires ahead of time the thing is is they know people
are doing the stuff so you're kind of like Hawaii Alaska they're separated yeah things
become way more expensive so I got up there like yeah we'll do an oil change and we'll mount your
tires and like $1,700 and I'm like oh my god you know and then they took a look at my bike and they
were like do you want to work on it yeah I was like um well that saved me some money he's like yeah
we'll cut it down I'm like all right so they rolled it on the lift they mounted the tires for me I
did the oil change I'm out of my fender a little higher because I didn't want the mud to stick in
there um kind of off track now but the adult and highway is made from calcium chloride it's like
a concrete hardener and they just basically mold it during the year um when it's not snow and ice
and they have two seasons much like everyone else construction and winter and so um
is it mainly like oil or something they were finding up there or piping down yeah so there's a
pipeline there's so nobody actually lives in Dead Horse yeah um it's kind of like you go up
there for two weeks then you fly home two weeks three weeks whatever thing they have a couple
different companies and a couple different like barracks style things yeah um yeah there's a we're
going into a bunch different directions I'm trying to stay on track what was the question again
what just like details about this trip man like so when you went up to the you know when you ride
like how long is that road like to go from Fairbanks to say so it's like 515 miles
I think that's what it was really like on that trip so you leave Fairbanks and you make it about
a hundred something and uh there's like a little camp um I knew that their services were few and
far between I also have a 124 that's thirsty you know oh yeah so that's kind of a problem yeah um
and man I was cruising I had like good weather I was uh it was like solid and the road was
almost pavement-ish like and there's don't get me wrong people are going to tell you that it's
all dirt it's all gravel it's all mud there's a lot of sections that are paved yeah um it comes
and goes it's in poor shape um the ground freezes you'll get to know what frost heaves are and it
will change your life um that's why they make like bumper stickers like I love frost heaves I got a
bunch of those um so there's like a camp I missed that camp I completely missed it I don't know how
I I spaced uh and I blew right past it um I brought a three gallon roto packs with me
and I made it I started looking down ago I should have hit this camp by now
stop pulled over I'll never forget there was like a eagle I think it was not a hawk but I think it
was an eagle took a picture of it and I'm sitting here constantly I'm like what did I do wrong
I missed this I can't go back yeah so I filled it up and I made it with fumes to a spot called
coldfoot and it's generally what people say is like kind of like the middle okay it's another camp
um the only thing there is like the DOT guys okay you know like uh they maintain the road and all
the kind of stuff because that road really is it's not for adventure riders it's it's a work road
it's for the truckers to take supplies back and forth we're on their road yeah yeah so
they really don't have any obligation to slow down or just yeah acknowledge you're there
you're on their road this is their life so most of them were great um had a couple experiences
that were sketchy to say the least um and by the way I wasn't the only one doing this
there was another guy named uh Zach I'm gonna butcher his name Sobrowski and that dude's an
animal makes me look like nothing yeah um I'll get to him a little later um but yeah so I got to
coldfoot I was it started raining and the road deteriorated fast like it that calcium chloride
turns to like sludge slime oh and then it's like slime on like butter on ice there's no grip there's
nothing and I really wish I would have chose a different tread pattern yeah because the shinkos
were not good at mud uh road glide is a terrible dirt bike so if you're like I'm taking I'm gonna
take a Harley up there actually I just don't yeah just don't don't do something else yeah take it from
me it sucks it's hard it makes it very like I I just bought a adventure style bike uh it'd be like
wondering if I'm gonna die just dump this thing you know 200 miles from somebody break your leg
and what's the uh what's the terrain like on this road is it something where it's kind of like more
vast plains kind of openness or is it it looks like oh it's it's it's a couple different things
so you're crossing into the Arctic Circle um and the beginning of it is kind of plains like
and then it starts getting into more mountainous the best thing I could think of would be
if you've ever seen the movie like Prometheus like the alien type movie where it's got like that
kind of terrain I think it's it is up north I'm not sure where they shot it but that's all I
kept thinking was it's like it looked alien to you it's it's super cool um and then from I mean
there's other stuff to say about coldfoot I met these two cool dudes um I was just sitting there
having a beer and they're staring at me wet and they're like yeah right dude I'm like yeah I gotta
go set up my tent in the rain he's like hey we got a conic box do you want to go sleep in there
I'm like oh fuck yeah you know yeah I I met so many great people on this trip um and uh that's
how they treat human trafficking they put you in a conic spot yeah right he just takes off
yeah I really wish I could start farther back but um I can go back too but if you're ready to
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I met these two dudes they showed me their gun collection and let me wash my bike and I let
me sleep inside a context box set my cot up I didn't sleep in the bed that's on there and woke up
the next day and it was raining again and from cold foot it starts getting mountainous so from
there you have to go over the Brooks range which is like the highest pass in Alaska and you're
talking 12 to 16 percent grades in the mud so is this where the ice road trucker stuff is
filming crazy shit I've never watched the show I've never watched either I've just seen clips of
yeah I just always some kind of random I should catch the commercial where everyone is always
gonna almost wreck yeah well it's funny like the first major up the guardrails are just like
wracked like somebody went off that thing you know and I'm just going slow I'm trying to not get
sucked into a rut and get pulled right off the road you know it just gets really sketchy real
fast when it's wet and it's two completely different roads when it's dry it's almost like
a fire road where you can do it like you really yeah you know you've written some of the back
roads you're like oh this sucks but you could probably do 40 50 60 miles an hour right yeah
the wet you're like man I don't really want to go faster than 35 like if I come down do I feel
like I want to crash at 35 or 60 you know it's gonna hurt I'm sure it's gonna be in your mind
too like like you said you're alone nowhere so like you even something small you like break your
leg you're not getting help anytime and when someone you see let's say you let's say you don't
even get hurt let's say you're you're okay and you break your bike am I willing to walk 65 miles
am I willing and that's it well I mean there is people going on the road it's it's a work road
I was I did it on like a Sunday so there was like nobody and yeah so I kept going north you go to
like this I think it's finger ridge I think it was and it's finger something and it's like a big
rock on top of a hill took a picture at the top my phone was kind of busted so that wasn't super
clear it's kind of bummed out about that and then I made it to the Arctic Circle side and most people
turn around there because you get your yeah made it to the Arctic Circle you know
because what's the point of going all the way to the end it's not exactly it's all work yeah yeah
it's there's how many more miles is it past the Arctic Circle
160 something maybe I'm going by memory here I'm probably wrong is it like you get to the edge of
it and it's just like a coastline and you're just looking at no no it's so once you get over
the Brooks Range it's flat again and then it turns into like a shit paved road and it's all frost
heaves and then out of nowhere smoothest pavement I've ever ridden out my life it's like the the
ground is still frozen it doesn't unthaw so I was doing like 90 it was so smooth which was stupid
because yeah you know it was like pavement once you hit a certain point and all the way to to
Prudhoe Bay and then when you get there I said nobody lives there you need to make reservations
ahead of time to actually so the coastline is owned by the oil company you have to take a tour
mm-hmm and you can stay at like Dead Horse Camp or Aurora I think there's like four places now
and it's not cheap I think the Aurora was like 350 a night yeah but it's 24 hours they have like
because the sun doesn't really go down so they have like sunshades in the rooms and it was like
being back in the Marine Corps dude like they have a it's like a barracks style there's people
doing laundry there's a mess hall that's going like 24 hours because the shifts yeah and you can
just walk in and grab food at any time of the day it's the food was awesome it was it was so good
they make they make sure those guys stay happy because they're up there you know you're secluded
you don't want disgruntled people in the you know and I think that's the plot of a movie you know
the thing or whatever and uh no the food was awesome um I slept great and then I woke up the
next day and rode to Dead Horse Camp and got on the tour bus and we got to see the bear that
they're rewarding us about at the barracks they're like don't go outside because you can't they don't
let you tent camp up there because the bears it's a problem and um are they just normal like brown
bears or polar bears up there not polar bears brown bears yeah but they just they're roman dude
which is kind of funny what so I mean when you're riding though I mean do you see them
I did not see a bear um that would freak me out just seeing I saw the bear on the tour they were
just walking around yeah but I didn't see it while I was on my bike but I wonder if like all the noise
from like the road might push I don't know not in my experience with bears I've seen bears on the road
a lot of times I just didn't see it at that point um to go back to the Arctic Circle sign so
I was like well I gotta take a picture next to the Arctic Circle right now
dude I pulled into this little spot kind of like you know normal observation area you'd find in
the smokies or whatever the sign and telling about the um there's like a little tourist thing
it was kind of nice and um it was slippery as not and I put my foot down and I just dropped the
bike and the bike's so loaded it's so heavy you're getting attacked by mosquitoes they're
they're huge so the the the time frame for the mosquitoes yeah they go hard yeah because they
only have like a small amount of time to get you know get their blood and their not get out you
know yeah and and they're huge so I got my little mosquito net on I'm like looking at my bike I'm
like well this is stupid I'm I haven't seen a truck in maybe an hour I don't hear anything
on the road I gotta get this bike up and I don't know if I can do it so I gotta do something
and take all my shit off the bike all the bags everything now it's just a bike and it's still
heavy I'm sliding and slippery and all of a sudden I hear shit in the woods like like something huge
just going through the woods I'm like yeah is it a moose is it a bear yeah whatever it is
it's probably gonna fucking eat me and you can't bring anything into like Canada so there's a whole
kind of problematic thing where um you can spend a couple hundred dollars and get bear spray so you
can you can't bring bear spray into Canada but you can buy it there you can bring it into Alaska
and when you gotta go back you gotta throw it out again and buy it in Canada like so you end
up spending like 200 dollars and you may never use it so I'm like fuck this I'll just die like a man
I got my knife you know um so I'm like rushing to get my stuff back on the bike I get it upwards
I'm just beat you know so I didn't see the bear my my imagination was like I there's something
right there damn so it was kind of funny um but yeah I didn't see any bears on the road but as soon
as I got on the tour not to keep bouncing around yeah um yeah there was bears crawling around there
was all warnings on the doors like watch out for they had a name um if I went back to my photos
I'm sure I could tell you the name so overall like with you know of all the places you could go in
like Alaska that that's more of a bucket list like I want to go to the very top part yeah it's just
you know that's for somebody that wants to push it to the end yeah and I forgot how much the tour
was but they take you out to the water on a tour bus and then I would say while I was there
half the tour went in the water they put their toes in or their ankles and there was like three
dudes they're like I went all this way I'm going in and so I had a guy hold my phone I go I'm going
in dude ran in jumped in the water it was like 41 or 42 degrees and the water it really wasn't
the worst yeah I thought it was gonna be so much worse but you know adrenaline spot but
they gave you a towel and there's a the tour guide he does it every time just like three times a day
he goes in the water I'm like dude you're a polar bear man yeah really nice guy um so what was the
idea like what was the like just the push for the trip in general like even before he left like
I just want to go as far as I could go there's I've the saying is don't go to Alaska as a young man
because it'll ruin you it's that epic it's that gorgeous up there it can the the the journey there
will definitely change you it'll make you feel very small like going through the Yukon going
through the expanse um just you you're staring at a mountain like let's say outside Calgary
going up there I mean or in just in Alaska itself and you'll you're staring at it and you're like
man it's a big mountain and you keep riding towards it riding towards it and just keeps
getting bigger and bigger until it's the only thing you see you feel so small you're like
we are just little things on this planet you know it really it really humbles you and the nature the
views glaciers you know all the things just kind of add in and if you have the opportunity to go
I always say you should go but remember you're you're gonna want to go back and I can't wait to
go back the goal is is to ride up there with my son that'd be wild yeah would you do the
Prudhoe Bay again would you go like do the some of the more I would do the I would do the Dempster
Highway okay because I've already done that the Dempster Highway is the one that goes to the tunnel
right to like a it's like a there's a train track on the road no no the Dempster is like Prudhoe
okay um but it's not a haul road it goes to uh I'm gonna butcher the name uh
Tayatuk or something like that and um you can actually just it's just a beach you don't have
to take a tour you don't have to do that stuff um and there's actually people live up there okay
you know like the Eskimo people and uh that would be what I would probably do with him as opposed to
the the Dalton the plan I think last I saw was it's supposed to be fully paved by like 2028
that'd be good yeah there was a large portions that were paved um terrible pavement but still
better than mud I wonder what it's like paving on on you don't have I mean that's a long stretch of
highways that's the frosty so you'll be riding and then all of a sudden it's a peak like I've jumped
that bike like literally air jumped yeah um I broke so many things uh my mom how did the bike handle
like um that trip I'm blown away to stay together for real yeah uh but for the most part it did stay
together um on the way back was a problem um when I left so I went to sleep at the Aurora
and I woke up and I'm like all right most people do two days up two days back that's what I had in
my head um and when I left it was dry ish yeah enough so that man I was cruising I was like 65 70
miles an hour I was really pushing it and I've made it to go back over Attigan Pass which is at
Brooks Range yeah and it got real slimy it it never did stop raining oh yeah so it was even worse now
and uh there was a moment I so I was stuck behind a truck and a rock came up hit my shield like
cracked my shield I was pretty upset um and it's just constant slime you know wiping your stuff
and I'm like I gotta get around this guy I gotta be in front of him at least you followed a semi in
the rain you know it just sucks yeah the wind the the rain then the slime you're like I I can't do this
I gotta get around him so I go around him which probably was a problem in his head yeah don't
pass me this is my road you know yeah and um I get around him and I end up slowing down a little
bit because now I'm going uphill and I look at my and he's right on my ass I'm like oh fuck dude
like if I do anything there's no time for him to stop he's he's running me over yeah and in my head
I was like dude if I make a mistake this is over I'm not making it home and at this point there's
no guardrails it's just you're dropping yeah it's it's there's a reason it's dangerous um
and that's why I say I'm like if you have the opportunity to not take a Harley on it don't
do that yeah yeah take something that can handle it um but this was the start of my journey of
mentally dialing back my own ego I almost killed myself because of my ego I had to get around him
you know that whole thing and I put my life at risk where people depend on me I've got
two small boys and a wife at home yeah and I had to get around you know I put myself in a real
predicament and I was able to pull over and he blew past me I mean I have it on video where
I barely made it out of the way yeah I was like oh my god I stopped and there was an edge there
and there was no guardrail like I almost went yeah off and I'm like man what the fuck am I doing
what the fuck am I doing and at this point I was beat tired and I made it down slowly
off attic and pass and I made it to cold foot I got fuel and it was just slime I was miserable
I'm like I don't want to be on this road anymore and I'm looking at the sky I'm like man it's
still gonna be light out like it's the sun doesn't go down it's never gonna go go like all the way
down like I'm just gonna see if I can how far I can make it I got my tent if I gotta pull over I will
you know and um so I kept going and I did the whole thing in one shot damn and I made all
the way back to Fairbanks and my bike was making terrible noises like fuck yeah I am so far from
home and I know that Harley's gonna kill you like I don't know what I'm gonna do right now this is
making terrible noises and remember I told you it was a Sunday and um like I'm just gonna go back
to that Harley dealer we'll figure something out I'm like man my primary is fucked something
something happened all my linkage isn't working I was really upset and um again my ego had pushed me
to a point where I didn't I didn't think it all out I was tired there's a lot of reasons but
I kept justifying things yeah and I was going like really fast when I hit the pavement
before I made it to Fairbanks and just kind of being stupid yeah and um I power washed the bike
not enough and all that calcium chloride just like I said it's a concrete hardener
locked up all my linkages the bikes making fucked up noises I'm going back to Fairbanks Harley
and I'm like they open up in like four hours I'm just gonna park near it and I'm exhausted I just
lay down in the dirt underneath my bike the sun got brighter and brighter and brighter
and I woke up and I'm like all right let's go and I went to hit the directions because I didn't
stay right by it I went down the road and it's like an abandoned gravel parking lot and uh
they didn't open up they're closed on Mondays dude oh fuck I'm like fuck what am I gonna do
so I'm like all right I gotta figure something out so I found I'm like auto zone something
yeah I uh because nothing's moving I'm like I gotta free this stuff up dude maybe I'll go power
wash it again I make it to an auto zone I grab some WD-40 and I just start spraying everything
my bike's like littered in WD-40 speaking of which there was a trick that I learned I
pammed my bike panned yeah so that pammed yeah cooking oil yeah so that that shit wouldn't stick
to everything and I was like I'm using too much I don't want to get the shit on my tires you know
yeah I I pammed a lot of it and uh it's a good thing I did but I should have done more I dialed
it back I didn't use the whole can you know and um that stuff so it doesn't doesn't stick to your
bike kind of got that people had already talked about that was a problem yeah yeah so try to do
as much I try to know like everything that I can know before and someone's okay you gotta
pan your bike so it doesn't stick to it you know and smoking you know off the pipe and shit but um
yeah if I had done it more it probably would have been better but I I lubed everything up
just kept working it working it working it and I kept limping it a little bit
and by the time I made it to north pole Alaska I'm like I gotta do something they're closed I got
I'll head south yeah and uh it all kind of freed up and all the noises went away nice yeah yeah
and uh so I just kept pushing the bike harder and harder I'm like if it's gonna break it's gonna
break yeah here in Texas when you're ready to level up your ride there's only one dealership
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call you make how much like from so fare banks like what's anchorage do you go through anchorage
at all no no it's further south right yeah it's further south and west if you're looking at it
that way yeah but you know that wasn't the whole highlight of the trip like alaska and the dalton
highway that was pure discomfort that was only this is what i came here for i'm doing this but
just getting to fare banks was a whole different other story thing um i work we're going way out
of time i would have loved to start like in the beginning but um one of the highlights was i was
in somewhere in canada and i was rolling up in a small town and i pull up to a light in this old
dude on an adventure bike i think it was 1200 uh uh gs gs yeah but an older one like an rt i think
it is and he's just staring at me i'm like okay yeah all right what's up dude and we both take off
and he's just still staring at me i'm like what the fuck you know okay we're on the same road
you know a lot of people are doing it doesn't seem a million motorcycles and she keeps flagging me to
you know pull over pull over all right whatever let's see i'm an extrovert i'd like to meet new
people fucking i'll talk to this guy and we pull over and we just happened to pull over and it was
a beautiful like everywhere you pull over up north uh is some kind of adventure beautiful
thing right there and scenic stuff something like yourself it doesn't matter like there's
mcdonald's right there and then it's like the most beautiful waterfowl university and that's
what it was it was like a gorgeous waterfall and we started talking to this guy he's like where you
from where you going what you doing he's like i just saw your bike and it was so different
and i was like yeah you know uh the bags were out of necessity because i needed to carry shit
and i needed to strap it the Harley bags wasn't going to happen and they were already wrecked
when i crashed on Daytona yeah so there'd be a hole in the side of it i'm like i i got to do
something and their knuckle paul's like i got a whole setup i'm like let's go yeah and i was
like i'll put my 10s and all that kind of stuff started talking with this guy his name was craig
and um he's like where you going like going up to fairbanks he goes well i'm going to to toke
i'm like well it's on the way and um immediately from here i was going to get on what's called
the cassier highway uh so the cassier highway is the longest stretch without cell service in north
america it's nine to ten hours without any cell service it is the middle of fucking nowhere
yeah um it's a two lane road very pretty uh there's only one gas station in the middle
that's it and they close it like five yeah i think uh uh when i did that podcast with uh
were you running the cameras we did that one with uh chase and his dad no i was not so he had
did the uh what was that thing called the hoka hey and he talked about that little section there
because he had to go all the way to alaska as well on that gotcha yeah there's two different routes
you could take the l-can highway uh and the cassier i decided to take the cassier up in the l-can back
and we can get some different yeah yeah um so if you follow like my route it's like a different
thing yeah might not see as much as you can and um so he's like i'll go with you i'm like okay just
met you like fucking five minutes ago but well it's probably good to have a travel buddy that in
my head i'm like it's not the worst idea yeah yeah so we make it like 30 minutes and and he flags me
over pull over all right we there's nothing out here just you and me now dude like uh oh yeah and
he we pull into this little thing takes his helmet off we're getting you know mosquitoes and stuff
i'm like what's up dude like everything okay he's like i was here 35 years ago he was uh i guess
i should have said he's he's an older guy yeah and um so i felt kind of safe you know it wasn't
so like i could probably fight him yeah and um it's like i was here 35 years ago when i used to have
a camper on my truck and i pulled over here she starts telling me the story and i'm like try to be
listen and uh he's like sasquatch is real man like oh fuck this dude's gonna murder me in the woods
like what's going on right now he's like i saw this burrow and all of a sudden it was gone i packed my
shit up that night i got out of here was hearing weird noises in the woods and i'm like all right
i'm traveling with this guy for the next 10 hours let's go and uh we made it to the gas station i made
it within 15 minutes of close damn and they have a little conics box set up and this was my first
experience of the sun not going down okay it was like 11 30 and we're outside pretty bright out
and i'm making you know my uh not mre but kind of like that style if you know we pour water in the
the 20 dollar ones you get it like fucking dicks and uh we're just eating dinner he's got his own
dinner and we're just bullshitting and i'm like so what's your story dude you know what are you
doing on the road where are you going like because i'm going home i go okay you know i told him mine
you know i'm trying to get up to the top he's like ah i've did it you know a couple times it's
pretty rough he goes you're gonna have a really bad time on that bike i go all right thanks
appreciate it dude and uh he was telling me the story and this is that he started opening up you
know you're sitting there not by candlelight but kind of cooking our dinners and um he used to keep
the bike in the states his son lived in the states and uh it was not to be a downer here but um
he was bringing the bike back because his son had committed suicide and he had no one to ride
within the states anymore and he was going through some real headspace yeah you know and
he needed somebody and i was going through my own stuff that was also another part of the trip is
i needed to kind of get away i was going through a rough patch mentally as well
and so we kind of fed off each other talked to each other and really kind of confided a little bit
and i spent a thousand miles with this guy yeah and
he needed someone to talk to and listen and i needed someone as well and
more than once i caught myself up in my feelings you know and he was like
you all right man i'm like i'm getting through it dude you know and he was getting through it too
and uh we shared a lot of stuff we saw a lot of animals i saw my first moose
dude i have been chasing i i have ridden all over the fucking world and i've been in moose
territory i see the moose signs and i've always i'm like where's they don't exist yeah they don't
exist i've never seen a moose and i'm like what the fuck i saw my first moose and it was like
majestic it was amazing it was one of the best moments on a motorcycle i've ever had because
it was just standing was like a bull in the middle of the road i was like this is so big
damn yeah they are massive it is so you're like is it gonna charge me i was way back and it just
kind of looked at me like all right i'm like you know it just kind of looked at me like i was
nothing just walked in the woods just trees get out of the way yeah i mean it's they're huge dude
and um i saw a couple more after that but it like was the highlight of my trip i was like
where the fuck are these moose you know upper minnesota i have ridden yeah everywhere and uh
not everywhere it's bad way to say but a lot of moose territory finally saw one it was such a
highlight um anyway um we made it to toke we split and i just found out like six months ago he uh
he lost his battle with his uh his demons and ended up doing the same dance yeah and it was
kind of rough i mean he was like a god fearing dude like rough neck that dude was tough and it
really i had to start dealing with my own stuff and so i've been on this journey of like
going through my own headspace and that's that was a big thing with this trip as well like my
wife understands that you have a whole world going on around you i need this head this the
headspace the helmet time so that was kind of one of the big factors in getting you on the road
for that trip that's old asca trip as well yeah i've done plenty of other solo trips but that
was like something where i needed to prove something to myself i needed to push myself
farther and farther and farther until i knew what my limits were you never know how far your
limits are until you push them yeah you know what do you think about like the trip itself that
you know without getting into any details of like what's going on but like how do you think the trip
helps the mind spot the mind space being comfortable being uncomfortable is a big thing
mm-hmm i kind of shoot for discomfort now pushing myself farther and farther
seeing what i can get away with i'm tired you can go a little bit more yeah you know it's
not so much testing yourself as it is just trying to understand what your limits are
and without going too far you know and that was a big motivator the trip was
am i gonna make it to fair banks and quit yeah am i gonna make it to cold foot and quit
am i gonna am i what am i gonna do when it gets too hard yeah am i gonna be able to do it
and so that was a big motivator for the trip yeah there's a lot of things i mean in a sense
a lot of things are in your control on a trip but at the same token we were just talking about
the past you know sometimes things are out of your control the road conditions the other things
and that that diversity brings a version of you out yeah like yes it how do you deal with things
like just my second gas stop i lost all my camping shit like how do you deal with that yeah
or you give up you go home you know how do you deal with things not going your way
that's how life is yeah you know it's it's all like all tied together would you say you're the
kind of guy that uh really plans out something to tea no absolutely okay no i like to be prepared
yeah but no i enjoy winging it yeah i'm getting more into that space i've always been a very
over planner you know real controlling kind of thing of like wanting to know okay we're here
tonight we're there tonight we're there to the night you know and on my last couple of years i
haven't i didn't travel much last year it was probably the least i've traveled in the last
10 years but the last couple years prior to that my trips have that's one of the things i've been
trying to break about myself they get looser is to is to kind of go and allow whatever the
experience is to be instead of trying to control it all and force these cool opportunities you
know what i mean i have found that the best moments of my life have been unplanned yeah
i didn't think i was going to meet this guy yeah you know like i could have just said whatever
yeah i don't need to do this but you'll see that not to be there is like the fate thing but
you'll see the signs of the universe like hey just let it happen like just let things how it's gonna
be yeah and uh a good audiobook is the art of letting go who wrote that one uh offhand i'd have
to look at my thing but um another one is uh ego is the enemy i got a lot of these from austin you
remember austin yeah yeah yeah and we talk all the time about you know helping and yeah brain
it's he's getting me he's like dude journal's good yeah yeah and um great dude by the way
uh yeah just trying to fix things and be the best version of myself you know
and uh like you said letting things be like i gotta be here like what happens if you don't
yeah you know yesterday i wanted to be somewhere it wasn't gonna happen and i had a great night
i got the chinese food i got the yeah i had a great night yeah you know and i could have pushed it
farther and the times i know when i force it when i force these things
it's not the best time it could have been or it's even bad you know so if you can work on that
keep working on it yes definitely been the the the thing i've been trying to work on because
say say for instance a trip for me right there is definitely the aspect of like i need the
headspace i need the chance to be out but so much of like the business is wrapped up in that
trip huge problem in it and so i just don't i say this i don't feel like i have the luxury of
going on a motorcycle trip fully completely disconnected from what i do for a living and
i don't think i'm i can fully understand what you're saying i don't know that i'm able to let go of
that yet right i want to but it's like if i'm if i'm out on a bike going across the country
and i'm you know i want to take a photo i want to bring my camera i want to have these conversations
so it's like it's not as much work as it technically is but it's like one of those things where
if i do this big trip yeah like like when i did my seven-week trip i was on the road the anxiety
that was coming on while on the trip because i was like feeling like i didn't get enough podcast
or i don't know if i shot anything of value or any good photos like i start weighing what i
leveraged to be on the trip versus what i feel like i'm getting and i'm like this is this is a loss
i just had that conversation with justin today was without social media i would still do this
yeah yeah i mean i would that's without it i was doing it regardless and it's
my decision to share it you know what i mean i don't have a business i don't have anything you
know and i can i can understand from your portion that you have to this is your industry you know
what i mean you have to take the picture i think one of the worst thing that ruins road trips for
me is be going down the road and i'll see like a cool firework stand or some old thing i'm like
that'd be a great photo and i'd get a bunch of likes or something you know what i mean yeah and
if that's what you're thinking about and you're not lost in your head going down the road
and all you're thinking about is those things are you really doing it for the right reasons yeah
yeah you know and i can see how that could be anxiety ridden almost debilitating to where you're
like i have to do this i have to do this i have to be here yeah yeah i would say if you can
try to do one without having any business contacts try yeah just you know what you're going to right
you're gonna take the purple bike yeah but that's that's i'm making a whole i'm trying to make a two
and a half hour three hour whole video on that trip you know like yeah that's a problem the thing is
that i do have joy out of the creation of this other stuff right it it's also it it's like it
i don't want to look at it as bad there's part there's parts of traveling that yes i want to
be able to do that without the need to do these other things but i want to photograph it period
for my own like not just forward line for the memories i mean most of us you know devin will
probably tell you as well it's like we we photograph us photographers or people that love taking photos
instagram isn't where they live i mean it's not a place you really want to put photos it's like i
put it there that's a very fair point like i like this i like i want my photos printed i want them
on the wall i want people to see them and feel them in a different way so but i mean back to what
i was saying um there's like say when i'd ride the shovel head like it goes a lot with what
you were just saying of like the challenge like there's a brand new roguelite right there yeah
you know what i mean but there's there's something unknown about that shovel head
there's a discomfort in the longevity of being on it all day there's a there's a lot of limitations
as to how fast it'll go and and there's a lot you have to pay attention to and all those things add
into a way more visceral experience and when i tried to explain that to so many people it's like
most people are chasing making things easier and more proficient and i feel like i'm just trying
to go with the most experience based like not experience the most uh i want the most out of it
like mentally and physically and you know what i mean that's the right you're trying to connect
with the yeah that's the right direction yeah um the only thing i can think would maybe be like
an analogy have you heard the thing where like if you like cars don't work on them for a living
kind of thing oh yeah you know what i mean that's that's kind of i'm feeling the same analogy for
like the road trip thing you're like like road trips don't do it for a living yeah but no i think
that's the right direction because you're gonna get a completely different experience out of it
because you've done all the road glide stuff you did the the nice bikes um that fxr probably
you're going even farther back now yeah so you're getting all the motorcycle experience yeah and i
want i i really want that uh that that kind of experience you know it's uh when i sit down with
and do podcasts with the old heads they talk about what they used to do i'm like
like even me doing it like on a style bike that they did i still have a cell phone yeah i still
have like so much comfort there's a gas station every 50 miles yeah my knowns aren't there yeah it's
like you jump on a bike like that and you you break down the middle nowhere like the road has to
provide you know even though i'm on a bike and i'm ribbon you know going pretty quick yeah things are
blowing by fast yeah the world is different slowing down it is and with that bike riding slowing down
you're gonna get more out of it than yeah me blasting interstate it's a difference between
riding highway and too late exactly you know what i mean you're gonna have you're not gonna want to
be on the highway exactly you're gonna be on the you're gonna want to be on the too late yeah and
you're gonna you're gonna see the ball the giant ball of yarn and that's yeah that's exactly that's
part of the experience and i think you're gonna enjoy it more but i i think that for myself
not that i have all the time in the world for bait to be on the road but like
as i've gotten to an appointment where i can take two weeks off work pretty consistently
or maybe even push it to three weeks every once in a while i you know like i'm not gonna jump on
that bike and ride it all the way to washington it would i need a month to do that right to really
enjoy it but to ride to la go hit a little mexico come back home that's a two two and a half week
trip like that'll be a good one right you don't want to feel rushed yeah i want the time to stop
and and i want to go to the town like i i i just like uh what i was getting at is that i've i've
already blasted all the interstates to get from here to there and i've seen a lot of it and i'm
not saying that because once i ride that bike to cali and come back three weeks later i'm just up
on the road gliding going back to cali and that time i'll probably just blast it in there just
so that i can make it there you know and i'm gonna enjoy every moment of it i'm still on a bike it's
still sick but i just think that for slowing down and experiencing the road in a different way like
there's you said it best like that different speed changes how you see things and experience
things and that you can ride the same roads for the rest of your life but if you change the bike
you're on you change the experience look at how fast paced all of life is yeah phones going off
i need to immediately respond to this message otherwise i'm going to miss something there's
vomo everywhere for everything all that gone you're slowing down it's it's like detaching yeah you
know i think you're gonna have a phenomenal time on it too i'm excited about it you know to bring
it back to what i was getting at or what i was talking about with like um managing the expectations
of things like i do want to have an outline of where i want to go and what i want to see but
and i just want to be more loose on controlling the narratives of like every day every moment
right instead of like we're sitting here having a great conversation but i'm like like you were
saying with justin earlier we were hanging out we were having a good conversation but i was like
man i need to get to dallas tonight yeah so having a little bit more freedom it is a bummer
to to to open that window a little bit longer or shut it down be able to do whatever feels right
you know you're in la you're like man i'm having a good time and these people just inviting me to
something tomorrow i was planning on leaving tomorrow be cool if i could just stay be a little bit
more loose with it yeah um ironically it goes back to i was saying earlier about the whole ego
thing is like you're managing your expectations um a lot of people like myself i would catch myself
getting upset or like my kids or we're getting upset in general because i was putting my expectations
and expecting other people yeah to adhere to my expectations and it was i met i was i was getting
mad at them but i was really mad at myself yeah because i was putting their their expectations
aren't my expectations yeah you know what i mean so i have these expectations so i gotta be here i
gotta be there you know it's like i'm getting mad at myself because i'm not doing the things that
i said i was going to do yeah or i'm not going to be there the time i was going to be not going to
be there some of the guys i talked to that are loose like that so dude they're just chill as fuck
yeah you know yep i know i know a handful of them and i'm like dude i would love to just be able
to turn your worldview on in my head all the time or just whenever i want i mean i like the way i am
got me where i'm at in life and i'm not i don't hate that right but there are aspects where
i want to enjoy certain things with a different mindset of than what i currently you know and
programmed with the current operating system i fight with it all yeah you know but yeah that you
know the trips thing it's like i also noticed it for myself like um when i last year i built two
bikes right and i spent which ones were they the the brown fxr and the purple bike okay so i spent
most of last year working on bikes and there was a similar satisfaction of discovery completing
you know building you know seeing something come to life yeah the closure of it there was something
like i won't say it can replace the traveling for me being on a bike being on the road
but it gave me a unique experience or feel that like i'd really you know i don't i don't have it
that often right um to building to those depths that i did on those bikes but now it's like you
know when i'm customizing a bike i'm always daydreaming about where i want to ride this bike
too or like i envision myself on pch or that's probably why your bikes turn out so good is
because you have them in your head of what is this bike gonna do yeah how should it look how
should it perform where is it going yeah and you build it to that yeah that's probably why it turns
out like that i appreciate that i think that's a good way to look at it because some people just
bolt shit on right yeah i mean there's i mean the roguelite is going to be a lot of bolt-on stuff
you know there's a there's a you're not doing bolt-on stuff right now right well i mean those bikes
weren't bolt-on stuff well i mean like modern bikes i mean it's really i'm not gonna say it's hard i
mean justin's doing a lot of crazy stuff on his bike for born free but it it's just inherently
those bikes are technically bolt-on bikes it's not saying that it's it's bad i'm not trying to
like negate that but i think that's why i got so wrapped up in loving the chopper stuff
because everything is custom fitted custom done you know yeah it's it's more of a skill thing yeah
and there's more of an appreciation when you see one like that because you're now seeing how much
work it goes to put in you're like looking at someone's trees that are one off and you're like
okay i tried doing that earlier and it took a really like i fucking threw a set away you know
whatever you know um it's just a differentiating it yeah it's just a different experience man like
the roguelites the the low rider st all the all the bikes that i've had over the last 10 years
said that they've really been great i've loved every moment of riding them you know but i mean
ah it like i was gonna ask you like what you jump you have an adventure bike now right i mean
you're on the road glide i'm on the road glide but i didn't want a replacement for the road glide
okay uh you wanted a different experience yeah so i've been moving towards off pavement for
a while um i really fell in love with it when i was going up north you know and i've always been
kind of thinking about it there's a the trans-american trail yeah you know i've been talking about that
forever um but now i'm getting my son involved so last year did you see the trip when i went to
colorado uh no i didn't okay um i don't know if your your stuff's falling like landing in my
algorithm or whatever that's okay i i yeah you didn't even know about my japan trip i yeah i
didn't until you said uh or europe or any of that stuff um no but last year uh well when my son's
12 now yeah so two years ago it's always i mean you got kids yeah you know you it's kind of like a
love you're sharing your love of what you enjoy with them it could be anything well for us it's
motorcycles probably you know um or customization or whatever and i've been waiting since the day
was born to take my kid on the motorcycle trip yeah and uh i'm sorry if this is not close enough but
um i took him around lake michigan oh i've done it like six times but i wanted him to fall in love
with it with traveling yeah not necessarily the motorcycle part but i knew the traps of being
stuck in one small spot that's how i grew up and the closed-mindedness of it until i started traveling
the world that i realized that this is a small place people are great you know not being stuck
damon yeah um so i wanted to share that with him so i took him around lake michigan and i
just treated him like a king every night had a hotel with a pool uh rode horses on mac and island
took him on a helicopter oh dude everything right and he before the trip was even over he's like
we gotta go somewhere else it worked right yeah i was like yes i'm gonna share this with my son
it's dude the bond you i never had a father so i i have to realize that i didn't want to give him
everything i didn't have because i'm kind of giving myself everything i didn't have you know
but i wanted to teach him all the things and show him all the things that i wish somebody
would show to me yeah and so um i got into the love of travel the kid's been in like more states
and like countries than most people you know nice and uh so i started doing other trips with him i
took him to speed dealer we took the back roads and we made it right at the end of the show we didn't
even like i gave like austin a high five yeah like right we are at set home and um i also took him
to so i took him to the southern most point you know in key west he was well there's a little
spot up in northern minnesota it's a northern most point you have to go through canada to get there
oh yeah yeah so i got to like stop and see hoffman set up and all it was it was awesome
so he's been to both points nice you know and on the way to colorado we stopped in the middle
so he's been to like the top the middle and the southern most point and he's like you know
11 years old at this point and i'm you know cruising online i don't know how i saw it somebody
was sharing something on like 1k a day or iron butt and saw the record was held by a 12 year old
hey dude you're 11 yeah what do you think i want to push you into this you know but
do you want to try you know it's your choice because it's dude this is going to be real hard
and uh we rode from our house to colorado springs 1009 miles in like oh i can't remember
was it 20 hours 20 hours something's changed and you know he got the award for the
1k in a day you know young kid he's got his name on it so even for the smallest amount of time
somebody will break the record but he could say when he's 30 years old how was the youngest
kid to do a thousand miles in a day you know it was so cool and so the goal is now not to go so wide
out um we're going to ride the adventure bike and we're going to take the trans wisconsin trail
there's our first trip up to you know canada all off-road there's like a crash plane in the woods
we'll camp a moto camp you know it so we're going to start doing more adventure stuff and then
you know without giving away all my secrets you know because you know you start talking about
people end up doing it but there's a trans labrador highway there's a
trans american trail you know i got work i got kids i can't do it all in one shot it's like
27 days ago coast to coast so yeah i could do one portion here one portion there but if i can
incorporate it with him and show him all the things and the the beauty that is nature and
i'm just in love with sharing time with him that i didn't really grow up i grew up in the city
you know what i mean so i grew up in the city chicago it's like uh i remember the first time
i went camping as an adult it was giddy up oh okay like we rode to giddy up and my first camping
was a moto camping thing i i over packed i had the biggest stuff i mean you would have thought i was
bringing a i was glamping with all the shit that was on my dyna but and i just i was thinking to
myself like man i wish i would have experienced this as a kid exactly simple yeah the bike right
like simplifying stuff i don't need the hotel and also like i can and it's harder when you're
older but yeah and i mean there's an appreciation to yeah i've i've taken my son camping my daughter
camping i like to take him on road trips across the country you know it's the same yeah yeah
haven't had a chance to do one in a while uh definitely need to re-open something yeah
definitely want to um yeah so this go ahead i'm sorry i was gonna ask you so you're doing this
trip with the you're chasing the experience but you've been all over where do you want to go
um where do you dream about going i mean honestly dude like america's sick like it is awesome
there's there's to to me it's like i i'm pretty content writing i just want to ride different
bikes in different places like i want to i want to so not necessarily the location but
the motorcycle and the and the location like there i can see i could appreciate you know like
there's uh because like i said there's like a different feeling when you as you would you
could say this i mean you built your bike when you build your bike and then you have this thing
that was a vision now it's a reality and now this reality is sitting on the coastline in gold
beach organ i did this you're like it it's the an amazing kind of uh circle of life kind of
yeah when it all comes together you're like i remember when that was a frame yeah and now it's
here yep i so there's i mean there's things like i would love to do europe some different stuff in
europe uh i think the one thing i want to owe to myself is to do the entire all the way down the
bottom of south america the art yeah it's also that's kind of like if i never ride anywhere if i
never get to do japan thing or something like that if i could just do that one trip um that i
think that i would be completely content with like my motorcycle life you know i'm not as i'm not as
like hell bent on what about south america is i don't know if it's just the the i haven't i mean
i've watched the long way up i've i've watched all danger dance things when he did all that stuff and
i followed a lot of different things i haven't like deep dived it or i haven't dove into it
too deep in certain areas but you know like the salt flats in bolivia you know riding through
the andes or i don't know if you write down around the peru so bad you know those kind of things are
and i was just curious did you fall in love with their experiences or is this like something that
you wanted to do i think that there's a i mean it's it probably is something that i saw them do
mm-hmm and i'm developing more and more reasons for myself to do it now that i've seen that it
exists there's just so many things that i don't really know like you don't know it it's out there
you know you don't know it's an opportunity that is exactly what the alaska trip started out for
real yeah i saw a video and i was like i bet you that's really fucking hard yeah and i don't have
money for another bike i'm gonna do it on whatever i got yeah there was no like oh i'm gonna prove that
i could do it this is what i have this is what i'm using i've turned that bike it said 10 different
lives just like i've had 10 different lives yeah you know that's why it's all scratched up and all
fucked up because those are memories yeah you know that's what i was trying to get to that point was
not to lead you on but it was the same thing i fell in love with another experience it wasn't
like a goal like i want to go up there was like i saw someone else do that and i fell in love with
chasing that experience that someone else did yeah because you can't really do anything new anymore
yeah i don't think there's anything wrong with being inspired by other people i mean that's
literally like you know your favorite bands are usually inspired by three other bands prior to
that so it's like there's i've always said this you know like everything that you absorb and take
in creates something unique and different on the other end right of you yeah so the way that i have
fell in love with motorcycle travel is kind of unique to me and trying to share this kind of
these conversations with people to hopefully inspire somebody you know maybe they don't jump
and go all the way to the pruto bay but they're like you know what no you have you definitely have
i can't tell you how many people i've spoke to that they look forward to the camp out or whatever
and that's just a short thing but in the time frame you have influenced a lot of people you
have inspired a lot of people to just get out on their bike yeah yeah well i mean the camp out
thing is is unique uh i i never knew it became its own thing right yeah when people started
doing the convoys and the traveling to the camp out and it's and they show up i know i like these
yeah with these amazing stories of how they got there and what what happened i'm like man like
that's that's inherently what the camp out really was it was just a reason to go travel on your bike
yeah you know i think you achieved that goal i i did not have that goal at the beginning i just
was trying to get drunk in the woods with people on bikes but it became that through the way people
chose to to attack it you know what i mean and it just it got real big and it got really complicated
to run and it started losing it started to lose that i really i've said this many times and i won't
drag it out but like when you're riding your bike across the country to come party with us in the
woods and you have to drive or ride your bike through a sea of trailers and rvs i think that
was the end that was the end when you could get trailers delivered yeah which because it's like
okay well we're not all we're not we're not all in the same playing field now because we were all
sleeping in the mud it was kind of funny yeah when i woke up and like the water like crept up to the
time i was like oh this is yeah this is a thing the whole that was great yeah it was it was a
perfect event for the time you know what i mean like when we were all the the culture of performance
barriers was still young and everybody was finding it and there was this hub that everybody could go
to and ride and test themselves on the talamina against other riders and all kinds of stuff man
you know it was a lot of things and you know i'm glad it it just you know it existed and you know
something out there it did a good thing and now you're continuing on yeah yeah there's other
stuff i want to do man you know yeah what uh so this trip you're on now man like where's the whole
like did you choose did you do you see all the conflict going in mexico and go i want to go
ride into mexico right now all right there's a whole whole big caveat to that so i have been trying
so when i got back from alaska you know while i was on alaska and other trips
i've always wanted to go to mexico i i have really like some parts of motorcycle culture
meeting people and seeing it around the world like i got to see japanese motorcycle culture european
you know motorcycle culture canadian motorcycle culture and they all have their own little things
to it and i've always wanted to go experience mexico like i think we're trying to do for like
four years and every time i talk myself out of it again another thing i'm holding myself back like
most of us do we talk ourselves out of stuff we usually talk ourselves into stuff too but
no i get the sensationalism from other people no no no like something happens you know politics
from ice yeah it's always cartel it's always something yeah and usually there's other things
i want to do and i'm trying to incorporate way too much like i was telling you earlier like i want
to go i can only do so much i can't leave for weeks and weeks and weeks you know yeah i have a full
time job two kids everybody depends on me you know um and things lined up this time and so i try to
explain they're like aren't you worried about this and then i go it'll be fine like people are
vacationing in florida minnesota's on fire yeah like it's not the whole country you know
that whole Puerto Vallarta and like on fire in this net have you heard anything sense
not a fucking thing yeah it happens every time every year it just happened to be right when
i wanted to go yeah like some shit i'm like oh fuck this this is too big of a risk you know
and it just worked out time wise my wife's like yeah and she's like you're gonna do it or the
fuck you want to do anyway you know so yeah so leading into this trip like what are the like
what are the like serious concerns that you you have or or like you're putting on the table
for yourself as you go yeah i'm not stupid you know um i'm i there's concerns some of the roads
that i'm choosing are known for like extortion kidnapping stuff like that but a lot of it is
people that are looking for trouble i'm not looking for trouble uh there's you know it
other motorcycle guys there's a certain respect that goes with it and i'm not banking on that
yeah but that i made a couple contacts down there um through friends yeah and
maybe they'll call ahead let me through or it's actually there's something going on right now
there's like a trucker's union that's trying to shut down highways so i'm like leery of which
highways i'm gonna go on because they're gonna shut it down like i don't know if you saw sand
of all yeah just went i don't know if you watch that thing it was it's really good you did a great
job um it was very entertaining and he got stuck behind some road closures and stuff and um my concerns
are obviously there's corruption in this net but that's it's everywhere or yeah yeah you know
there's certain parts of like chicago like you're not supposed to go there you know and i'm like
go there all time like i don't feel unsafe um i know when you're keeping your head on a swivel
you know that kind of thing don't be stupid don't be flashing money um
people are generally not in groups good people and from what i've heard what i've read
people will go out of their way to help you whether you're here there but definitely there
and i don't really have a concern i don't think i'm gonna have a problem yeah i think that if
something was to happen people will go out of their way to help me i feel like the kind of
it's like the overthinking of like almost manifesting a problem i think the media and i think
just everything out there wants to keep you scared yeah yeah in a grand scheme keep people
all the time they're just scared to leave their homes scared to do scared to do things
and you lose out on a lot of stuff oh you know i'll do it when i retire i'll do it's like dude
it gets harder yeah it does it gets harder yeah do the stuff now you know um i wish i could do that
one day like what's stopping you yeah i just want to go skydiving we'll then go yeah a lot of you
know you're never gonna get over it unless you do it so that's that's part of it is another thing
is like i've always wanted to do this so if it works let's go yeah i think you you're kind of
doing a similar route the danger dan has done a couple times where they'll go down i have no idea
what routes he's taken they usually go down to some point there's like a rally that goes on
yep that's where i'm going so there's the uh mazatlant beach party yeah motorcycle beach party
yeah um lords gas town guys are there and i heard that it's like good time yeah yeah yeah so it's
the only reservation i made nice it's the only place i had to be between the ninth and the 12th
you know so what kind of like what's like once you hit the border what's there what are you excited
about between the border and say the beach party the food the food um and then i make the the
terrible joke of the big booty latinas i made that joke too many times my wife doesn't appreciate
that joke anymore it was good the first time not anymore um no so i'm you know like we have route
66 right yeah and there's uh one of the trouble areas like port de vire that was on fire was
renosa and they're like oh it's kind of unsafe you know that people uh between the border crossing
and the toll road like it's not a good neighborhood yeah it's like okay if you go in through laredo
i guess um you're not going end to end you're now it's like starting the route 66 in st louis
like you missed a whole section dude you know i want to go whether that's smart or not i want to
do it for you and and kind of thing so that's why i'm gonna i guess it's a little bit of a risk but
then i went to the mexican consulate in chicago to because it's a whole thing you can't just cross
yeah like canada's like yeah hey buddy hey buddy guy you know like they let it it's not a problem
unless you have uh yeah but i don't have to do anything mexico's like a whole thing i have to
mexican insurance i have to have a tip a temporary import permit um then they gotta let you in like
and that's all costs money and all has to be done either at the border or at a time so i went to the
mexican consulate chicago when i'm talking to the guy i just want to never um anybody that might
have been to mexico i just keep asking you know what's their experience and um whether it makes
me feel good or bad i'm getting an honest opinion and the guy that was doing my thing is like i'm
from rinosa i'm like what do you think where would you cross laredo rinosa and he's like
i'm from rinosa i think she's like okay well that's what you were crossing what should i cross
you know and um it's like you'll be fine so i'm gonna go into rinosa and i'm gonna take
the toll road now the toll road is all new well maintained there's like national guard on it
up and down you know if you see them you see dudes with big guns you're doing all right yeah
it's when you're in the middle of nowhere when things can get funky there's a all right so there's
a guy um on instagram young dude i think his name's landon i can't remember his last name
he just took his dirt bike and just started riding all the states of mexico it's awesome
it's so cool and all his experiences and all the little things that he's posted he's like
it came to the same conclusion it made me feel so much better was just getting that sensationalism
pushed back and accepting that people are good and he has some great stories like obviously
ran into a couple roadblocks and this and that but most of it is citizens that are trying to keep
the cartel out yeah i don't know it's it's a complicated complicated and complex situation
you know yeah yeah what's intertwined and what's not and i have no idea you know
i'm not i don't even speak spanish that well we're doing a duel and go you know don't do
nostalgia biblioteca um but yeah he shows like true culture that everyone's nice and wants to help
so i'm gonna try to do 40 um through saltio and then monterey and go to durango and then from
durango there's a road 23 and it goes south and then it cuts over to like ruiz and it's hard
to show on a map but it's remote there's people but there's no services so no place to stay
no gas just barrel gas so if you're familiar with barrel gas if you if you're not um
they get gas from the gas stations and they bring it to their town if you need gas you're getting
it out of like a milk jug you know what i mean yeah hence the three gallon motopad yeah so i'm like
i'm gonna bring my own gas from durango just in case but it's not it's maybe six hours
it's like the road of 3000 turns or something and then from there go up to mazatlán get into the
that mazatlán is like a
like any other tourist kind of thing you know the big hotels and the beaches and stuff
and then they have the motorcycle beach party and i'll get there and i want to go do
40 the libre road and then 40d is the toll so the toll has like the highest bridge in Mexico
and all these cool tunnels and stuff and well maintained and supposedly safe and then the
libre the free road um it's got all the curves it's like the they call the devil's backbone okay
so those are the three roads that i'm going after i'm trying to get an introduction to
Mexico because i plan on coming back so just like going to Alaska like i'm i'm scouting all
these things i want to do with either my kid or someone else or do again i've always wanted to
kind of go down the entire california baja yeah like kind of how you're hopping over and then coming
up it i think that'd be a unique experience too just being able to every time i've ever gone on a
trip and we've put our bikes on like a ferry or something like that it's just a gnarly experience
it's so cool like when you go to Canada you're just on a ferry all time yeah to get to certain
places i love the experience yeah i even did it with my suburban ones there's a there's an island
in wisconsin called washington island and people live there yeah it's super it's super gnarly um
yeah and then come back to mazatlán hang out with you know meet people and whatever and
see what the whole so you get was it lapaz or something down there at the bottom so it goes
from mazatlán to uh lapaz okay and then lapaz is like two hours north of cabo so there's like
a loop you can do i'm gonna go down to cabo and you know i guess you could say bragging rights
but i'm gonna go to the tip yeah try to jump in the water or something you know i don't know
and then take it all the way up you know and go through ensanada and tijuana tijuana not tijuana
tijuana trying to say shit right it doesn't sound like an idiot and then um go to san diego uh i
want to go to m crd like the marine corps bootcamp yeah so i've been able to go to almost this will
be the last one i as a civilian i've gone to every place that i was in the marine corps oh nice so i
was able to get to camp fuji in japan i take that back i didn't make it to okinawa yet but i'm going
back oh nice but i will get to okinawa again um but i want to go to the bootcamp it's kind of
like a thing for me and then san diego customs and uh maybe the fast and furious thing oh the tuna
no cross thing oh yeah the i want to do a little touristy things why not yeah you know and then
i'm from venice originally so i'd like to go back and see venice mm-hmm last time i was in venice i
met danie trail for who yeah yeah i was uh in a in a movie it's like venice knights or something
okay i'm like i want to get a tattoo and i roll into this tattoo parlor and uh danie trails and
they're shooting a movie i like you want to be an extra in the back like yeah okay i don't think
i was even in the movie they cut that scene dude but it was cool to say you know i met him i got a
picture with him and said and then uh maybe go up to the nep tunes that have never been there
yeah so go check it's a good experience yeah and then cut over to um san bernino um maybe
people aren't gonna i want to go see kevin kevin's done cool shit for me i can run in his shocks
or one-offs you know um see his shop mm-hmm i really want i i think this trip is gonna turn
into something different um where it's not about me so i'm changing the way that i'm with this
journaling and stuff that i'm doing is maybe it's about the experiences of when i'm meeting
people seeing how they are like i'm here with you i saw justin i've been to kiles and steve a bunch
but there's other people i'm gonna go visit yeah and shops i'm gonna go visit and
my interpretation of what coming in cold and seeing their stuff yeah um
and either appreciating their friendship their experience them showing me the round
and then i don't know we'll see i haven't figured it out yet i got a lot of time to figure it out
and then from there um a goal of mine is always to do i like the alien shit you know yeah the world is
it's a big world man and then you think about it gets wild we're just rock floating in space and
shit so i'm like i want to go to the extraterrestrial highway i don't have time to do that so i'm
gonna stop and stop in roswell and try to camp in roswell okay i thought i saw an alien when i was
a kid i feel like roswell roswell has way more to offer in that regard than riding the extraterrestrial
highway and going to like where technically area 51 is yeah we went there and we were like
there's like a little gas like a little kiosk store and like it's it's it's so underwhelming
there's a mailbox everybody goes to check out you know i don't know there's a mailbox still there
it was there a couple years ago i mean it's been it's been a couple years since we've been there but
i got a bunch of little things saved you know it's it's cool like i've had to i think i was
either talking to devin about this or somebody but i've had to like really tone down like when
someone tells me about a trip they're doing i immediately start saying no don't do that the
highway sucks don't do that but it's like there's something about they need to experience that for
first and i'm i'm trying to like get myself to stay out of the way of someone doing that
but it's like if you come here and you like hey man the first time i'm going to california i i got
all this planned out and you're just telling me and i'm like fuck i wouldn't do that i wouldn't do
that and when it comes from a traffic's gonna be brutal right it comes from a good place but he's
always just like no no no you don't want to do that you do this and it's because he's being helpful
in here yeah because it is but it's not it's not necessarily someone that asked me hey what do you
think about this trip i'm planning because you could potentially ruin their experience maybe
possibly they need they need that that's why so i love like take going on trips with new people
like you said you asked earlier like what kind of stuff was like dude i could i love meeting somebody
that's hungry for this stuff and going like man i want to ride to california it's like well i'm
riding next month if you want to go i'll show it i will i love being i love showing someone
something for the first time oh it's the best that's the like you yeah you take someone to get
something to eat and just watching them yeah i mean do you enjoy it is it as good i don't know it
does it it kind of there's a fulfilling aspect of that like a little bit of a host mentality i do
like to you know facilitate a good time for people but um but yeah like i gotta stop being that way
where i'm like oh that shit sucks you know because everybody's their bucket list rides are usually
i want to do a million dollar highway i want to do pch i want to do you know said road you know
tele-dragon and all those things you kind of need to do it yeah but it's like when i'm thinking of
million dollar highways the number one for me that i'm like waste of time there's 10 times
cooler shit on the outskirts of it go do bear tooth go do bear tooth dude go ride uh the grand
mesa i thought was a way more fun ride i just did million dollar like with my kid yeah it's cool
yeah it's pessimistic but you're trying to be helpful it comes from a good spot i get it yeah
i get it you're trying to help me like hey me don't don't waste time but they need to yeah
because then they'll never check it off i just never know i'll always put the down there just
yeah they're just listening to someone else you know it's the same thing of like don't go to
mexico dude don't you're gonna get killed like yeah there's i guess my fear of it is that like
save monument valley right that's one of my most favorite places and it's not like a ride that you're
like oh my god the twist season turns it's just this like feeling in this place and these these sites
and the way it feels it's so it's so unexplainable right i i know what you're saying and that's how
i feel about up there yeah there's a feeling you feel small yeah and there's a hotel called the San
Juan Inn that it's on my little thing you stay there and all these little green pins everywhere on
my the stars are gnarly the the you know it's just a i've got some amazing experiences at that hotel
with good friends and to me i'm like man if if they go ride million dollar highway and they never try
to come check this out they are i'm like you you might not ever come back here because i you know
being in motorcycle thing for as long as i have man people usually they'll invest five years into
this and if they don't really get hooked or like sold on this stuff then they're out they'll go get a
jet ski or a fucking art that's what they want to do that's not for sure that's what they want to do
but if i can help facilitate helping them find what is truly or what i think is truly amazing
about this stuff but if they do all the epic stuff without any discomfort it's kind of like
flying to a spot and be like oh that's cool but you didn't get any of the stuff in between you
didn't ride in the rain part of the journey is the discomfort i think i am 100 that way mentally
but there's so many people out there that are just the other they're the completely opposite
where they want to have the experience of going to said location but they don't want the they want
to be able to go there fly there get in there go do the thing i think ruins it i do as well but
like i'm i'm just it's just a way still appreciate i'm not looking down on them it's just a way that
like i think they're wired but i think that's the social media era people want the picture at the
spot they don't want the trip to the spot yeah that's the the impulsive you know quick yeah what's
the word i'm looking for the the satisfaction the dope mean drop whatever whatever you want to say
get get it and get out kind of thing yeah but tell me that some of your best memories aren't
all of of your friends riding through a shit rainstorm yeah and at the end of the day you're
like dude that sucked and you never forgot it i don't remember the sunny days a lot we i remember
the shit days yeah though you need that because it's kind of like you always remember who you
took the trip with when it sucked all the the the weather was perfect everything was perfect
those kind of just fade into the in the memory bank oh yeah yeah that was a good time but you
don't you don't always remember those details yeah because it wasn't as not that it wasn't a good time
but it doesn't stay in the memory bank the same well nobody cares about the man last week
loose guys the whole time yeah 70 degrees beautiful you were there you were talking about
the barbecue was better because you were waiting in line and you were hungry yeah right you earned
the end of that journey you didn't just get there so it's like you walked up the
snows and you're like oh yeah it was a good sandwich but the experience was better because
you waited in line for two hours yeah you know what i'm saying yeah i think if you're gonna
put it in that kind of respect oh one yeah 100 man that's definitely the i guess it gets difficult
trying to uh you know because i don't think the goal is to go look for adversity it's to go out
there on the trip and let whatever happens happens right yeah like i'm not you know because we all
say that the i don't aim for the thunderstorms dude yeah i mean i don't want to have to go through
this you know um i would prefer to leave and avoid as much of it as possible but you know it's just
like um you know the breakdowns or you know the the on the side of the road fixes or whatever the
case may be like those things are i don't want them to happen i'm not gonna like leave a bolt
halfway out so that i can have a good time later on like it's none of that but but also just being
the the kind of person that's capable of overcoming obstacles yeah and you know sometimes you don't
know what you're capable of i mean going right back to what i was talking about earlier when i
rolled my shovel head down to awesom last weekend and it's the first time i had a breakdown on a
bike where i literally i couldn't fix it on the road i'm like well fuck you met your limit yeah
well i'm like okay well and it's a new problem better because of it yeah and that's what i was
telling everybody it's like i'm glad this happened because what happened is something i've never
experienced on like like as a problem on a bike and i'm still kind of diagnosing it right now
but what happened and like looks great by the way thank you whatever ends up being the problem
like i'll it'll never be a problem again you know what i mean so that's kind of like what i'm
telling people like i'm doing all these little little 150 200 mile uh trips so that i can really
break this thing in and learn it so that if i'm in the middle of you know nowhere going to california
or in mexico on it like and something happens like all right i know what i know what's going on i
know what i need to do you know what i mean i know exactly so what you mean because that's what
i've been trying to say the whole time yeah like pushing it to where i can get make myself better
you know what i mean yep no that's exactly it man it's a it's a great i don't know i can't
change anyone else and i don't want to and that's but that's what i can control is myself yeah and
if i can respond to adversity discomfort in a way that is letting go or whatever
i can control that yeah pushing myself i think that that's the main goal of a lot of this stuff
yeah nothing what was uh what was riding
japan like that was part of my uh thing i do with my wife so every five years i take her somewhere
and make because you know i do these solo trips but i'm trying to incorporate because we used to
ride all the time before games so it's kind of hard to get away um japan was awesome dude
it was so good um we flew to tokyo i rented a gs phenomenal bike and we went all over the country
it started off kind of funky we got there and uh hurricane typhoon yeah so our plans were
immediately fucked they were going to cancel everything the guys like i had one guy cancel
i don't trust you i don't know i'm like look dude you go look like i'm not afraid of rain dude
yeah like just whatever i'll take care of the bike he's like i don't go i had this guy he just
left it there i'm like i got it dude yeah so we made our own plans i just rode more um and we went
and saw things that most people don't get to go do i wanted when people go like uh europeans come
here are they like so what's america like and they go to like new york like that's not you forgot i
yeah there's there's more to the country there's so much more to digest and so i wanted to see that
so we we didn't just stay in big cities and do the whole tokyo and kiyoto thing we went to
middle nowhere bob's road in the middle of the mountains up in no nowhere'sville no service no
nothing and just got lost we saw the beaches um mountains uh it was so good um we went to hiroshima
we went to fu kashima where they have like the geiger counters on the street and shit where
they had the nuclear disaster and we there's there's so much i mean i can go on about the whole
thing but we spent 18 days and every night we stayed in like an onset so we had like a hot spring
or like a little hot duty was luxury for sure yeah but you know i got my wife with me yeah i
wouldn't enjoy it's supposed to be a vacation not i don't want her going through the hardship
yes i hey we take a bike yeah that's your hard thing so we'll stay in a nice spot every
and it was multi course meals for dinner every night and you know by the end of it i was kind
of tired of traditional japanese breakfast i'll be honest with you so like the last time like
they're like they're giving me all kinds of stuff 27 course thing and i'm like can you make me some
bacon and eggs yeah and it was phenomenal it was so good the bacon and eggs were so good they do
everything so much better than us yeah it's so funny like we try to pack it make it quicker
and we lose the love of the thing whereas japan is in love with the thing kind of like the choppers
in the car scene yeah i don't mean to say they do things better than us but they seem to appreciate
the process more so their products come out better like i went to joyride speed shop that
dude's cool as fuck he's racing over there like it's like we do the like the brl thing
he's doing it on a shovel fxr it's gnarly as hell dude yeah and they're out there he's got
one of the most famous actors and he's a race he's a racer at harleys how cool is that yeah
dude we got we got to see so much stuff and it would be an hour of just explaining all the cool
stuff we went to some winging it we're just cruising down a road right and uh like man i
think i was at a pizza shop i never had japanese pizza let's go check this out they have like
prosciutto and all this kind of stuff on the pizza and i'm driving there's a fucking tank on the
road like a world war two tank i'm like what the hell was that we pull in and it was like a world
war two style museum uh-huh and you go look up on the reviews and like everyone there hates it
because no one wants to be shown in a bad light this guy set up this whole museum and the reviews
are crazy dude and it shows the japanese not in a proud culture but the actual truth it was seeing
what their war was with korea what their war was from the other perspective we all know the
perspective of propaganda america side right yeah how about from the japanese side experiencing
their view you know seeing their propaganda posters and their war pictures and camps and so was it
like completely unedited like so japanese open truth about themselves or about the way it was
just the way it was with from their perspective okay yeah and it doesn't show them in the best
light and a lot of people don't like that but other people appreciate the truth and it was
we were getting kind of looks but it's kind of weird for they don't want foreigners to see them in
that light yeah you know everybody's proud of their stuff just like we're proud of the stuff
so we're like looking at us all weird you know like looking at stuff taking a picture you know
they got the this thing about the guy that he stayed in the in the jungle for like 27 years and
know the war was over yeah and they have some cool stuff man they have like parts of a b 52 that
crashed and they got stuff i mean it's like a junkyard he just found shit from all over the
place just brought it to his property yeah it was super cool and it's just cool i like history
yeah yeah i think going there would be that's definitely a bucket list it's just you should
i don't know i don't know which way i want to experience it like i would love to do on a motorcycle
that should that'd be the best you know but you know i don't know it's just so much to take in i
feel like i would need it's yeah it's jumping in feet first yeah um i would say go sooner rather
than later because they're trying to the way that the the value of the yen versus the dollar
right now it's in our favor and it will be for a while and they're trying to implement like foreign
taxes because of that big differentiator differentiator if i'm saying that right um like
it costs us five dollars to go to their museum or their castle but it costs them 20 you know what
i mean they're like ah we could put more taxes on if you're not if you're not a citizen kind of
thing um which is going to kind of hurt tourism but at the same time they're also doing free domestic
flights so if you fly there and then you can fly to other parts like Sapporo and oh yeah so i think
you should go sooner rather than later yeah um then just jump in feet first i can get you in
contact with people that i've met there and dude they were all like straight culture vibe it's so
good yeah they were um i think everybody who goes to japan says the exact same thing yeah i mean
just so many things that i've been into in my life is kind of you gotta go bro you know like i grew
up into the japanese car culture so it was yeah moon eyes all that stuff yeah i know i really wanted
i just i couldn't make the time work i really wanted to go to like you know see the the the
things you know and we ended up doing our own thing but um set us if you're doing it by yourself
it can be done on the cheaper side you can do it with the trains the public transportation
everything works better yeah you know it's not like here like you get on a bus to like
you just have to understand that you're in their country and loudmouth americans and all that kind
of stuff you just respect what they're yeah i'm not i'm not that extroverted when i'm in places i'm
not not uncomfortable but like you know i'm loud at the buffalo i wings in my hometown yeah i mean
yeah i i'm not saying you would i'm just i'm yeah you know like you know the train everything's quiet
where you have like idiots like you know it's like no this is their place dude you're you're a guest
here respect their stuff i don't know what the limits or the available things are with
my relationship with harley tatwitson but it's like you know you have bikes at all these places
like what if i was so bummed when i saw they sent like people like influencer they were like like
dude i just paid everything out of pocket that would have been awesome to ride a harley there
come on you couldn't hook me up there was like right after i did it too like what the hell man
it would have saved me a bunch of money it would have been cool to do it on harley instead of a
gs but i also was really happy i did the gs because i kind of got my feet wet with the
adventure cell bike and i was like i really like it's a really good bike it's a really good bike
i remember i see why everyone like loves it yeah in 2019 or 2018 when i bought my i was literally
really considering going the gs route other than the new roguelite but then they came out with the
lowers they're like the lower sides that you have and i was like oh that's so sick because
i already had a roguelite i was like i'm kind of over it already um but i was really close to
going the gs and then we had the international motorcycle show they used to still go on and
so they had one here and i tried to sit on a gs and i couldn't touch the ground anywhere
in any kind of way i was like fuck that dude like i'm just i'm the short inseam thing is always a
thing but i'm used to it now yeah now i'm used to it i like low stuff man like i still you know i
i never i would do suspension on my bike but i never jacked them up in the air you know what
i mean i don't even remember i don't know if i ever have but i don't even remember what's like to
be like flat-footed on a motorcycle yeah it's so uncomfortable i'm so used to being uncomfortable
it's so funny i sit side settle on everything you know the mic is fucking jacked up to the moon
it's like four over now yeah it's stupid that's probably why i mean obviously that's makes it
really hard to pick up off the ground if it falls over like and it did in alaska i'm an
idiot yeah i'm i'm literally an idiot now i'm about to do this again yeah but hopefully you'll
find uh the roads are probably more maintained yeah they are it's all paved for the most part i
might get a little bit of gravel somewhere the big thing is the topos the speed bumps yeah in
small towns uh the potholes and fucking livestock that's they don't tell you to not ride at night
because well i mean part of it is you know cartel shit but the main thing is the potholes the
topos and the fucking livestock you'll go around a blind curve right into a cow yeah there's no
fences dude like they all just cruise out and then they go on the road because the road's warm oh so
like yeah don't ride at night that's just maybe like just don't ride at night yeah if everything
feels smooth so that bothers me because i have to cut my time down yeah i can't even break into sun
sunset you know we um we went out last year with the intention of doing el diablo run like devin
myself and two other friends from here and we all kind of like had our own trip and we were
meeting in san diego basically i mean we're gonna do el diablo uh one of our buddies couldn't get
his passport in in time so we and we were having such a good time in san diego we just decided to
stay and stay with the people we were with but and then this year um this is the last year the
el diablo run um i was not gonna do this and then my wife because it's literally on the day
may 15th is me and my wife's 10 year anniversary congratulations yeah thank you i mean that's a
big thing dude so i'm gonna be in mexico partying with the homies i missed easter yeah yeah same
so i had i just wrote it off like i'm not i'm not even gonna attempt to have it and we were talking
about it one day and she was like yeah i don't like because we're gonna do our own like anniversary
thing on the way to born free gotcha so the the hope that everything everything in the life lines
that well i was on a ride to san francisco do some podcasts do some things i need to do then she was
gonna fly into san francisco and then we were gonna go stay up on the coastline and just slow
roll it down to la because she likes going to born free she likes the the event and she's from la
area so like we'll be down there seeing family and shit like that so that's all gonna work out
yeah i think it'd be fun um you know like i've had we've we've road tripped up and done monoray
and things like that but there's some stuff above san francisco that i've i did on my my solo trip
that i really would love to do with her on the bike not so much the roads just the place those
little small towns off on on you know pch essentially because there's really no small
towns on pch south of monoray like you got monoray and san louis abizbo and that's kind of like
nothing in between big sir basically and that's just like a camping tourist kind of town right
but when you go north of san francisco there's like little towns on california the stuff you
see in like 80s and 90s movies exactly like i'm not allowed to do that stuff without my wife
yeah so that's a portion of why this trip got cut down too nice was she's like you can't go there
without me like i want to go see the redwoods i want to go see astoria and up and wait like i
need to go do that yeah you can't do that alone so she got real upset when i was like i'll make it
work so the original trip was going to be like through well if i wasn't doing mexico i always
have a plan b kind of thing but i was gonna like go to california with my boy because he wants to
go to california he's hungry now yeah and then he would fly home my wife would fly in and then i'd
take her to california all the way up to like canada she'd fly back i'd go into canada check out
cool shit up there and um then bomb home you know boring shit home but logistics dude yeah but i'm
not allowed to do that northern stuff either so i it's cool you've done it you know where to go
yeah kind of i was talking earlier with the scouting thing so you're gonna show her a good
time you're gonna host yeah and that's that's kind of what i want to do is just find some unique
places and you know uh see what they're like overnight you know there's usually towns and things
have like the daytime version of it and then the nighttime version so okay you know figure out what
it is it might be cool it might be not but you know it'll be a good time i heard either way
so that's kind of the hope if everything goes well you know we don't get into world war three
or whatever the hell else is going on so well cool man some people's plan is like
the world's gonna end yeah yeah i'm gonna i'm gonna ride i'm gonna be on some bike
trips all the way up until like right all right now like oh they're there i'm keeping an eye on
like what's going on i don't need to start getting back homes to start defend the castle kind of
shit but well cool man i'm glad we were able to do this and i'm already pretty excited about like
getting out and uh doing some travels on myself i haven't it's been a slow last year was pretty
slow for me on the bike so i want to really get those numbers up get back out there and experience
it so you've done some big trips i've like i said i've done it but look before we there's this like
weird thing that like when you start being known for traveling a lot and like you feel like you have
yeah like okay if i don't do it then am i you know i mean it just kind of feels like i i've had
the yeah i've had the same feeling like oh i have to one up myself every time yeah for what expectation
other people's expectations are my own am i doing this trip for them or for me yeah yeah i know what
you mean it's a mental thing like oh i gotta keep my my what i show the world who i am up and it's like
really i mean i really i can't i mean even if i want i mean i want to do all kinds of trips but
like i just can't i can't really afford it you know it's been a different economy for the last
two years than it was you know covid was awesome for everybody as far as like financially for the
most part and the two years following was pretty sick and then now it's kind of like tightening up on
a lot of things you know so but you know still making it yeah i was not expecting fuel to be
like five dollars everywhere i go dude yeah is it bad down in Mexico with the fuel the fuel is
more expensive it is but the peso to us dollars strong so might even out oh that's cool yeah and
then as long as i can see friends and hang out with them and save the two hundred dollars or
hundred and fifty on a hotel i mean because everything's nothing's 40 bucks anymore yeah yeah
so if i can keep doing that it'll be all right yeah i had to everyone's been so cool i had to
book some uh my hotel for uh scott um Louisiana for that rally that i gotta go shoot and not not
a lot of nice hotels down there dude and they're expensive and you look at the reviews and it's
like bedbugs and blah blah blah off dude because i'm like i'm gonna be here four nights so i don't
really want a shitty shitty hotel and i also don't want to spend you know a thousand dollars on
four night stay somewhere you know it's crazy yeah that's insane bring the time in Louisiana yes
yeah yeah maybe i'm wrong alligators rolling right up into that shit i can't tell you how
many people sent me that video when i was doing alaska did you see the one where they the guy like
opens up the tent there's like a bear is like oh no i got sent that like 10 times on the tree yeah
i that's bears scare the fuck out of me dude i've never seen what a bear looks like without hair
yeah i saw something uh once it was like that's probably what they thought sasquatch was
scariest scariest thing on the planet anyway sorry i'm good man you good oh always hell yeah
all right well uh do you post a lot of your like pictures and stuff online so people can
kind of follow along with what you got going on or things like that i know you're not doing it for
the gram but is there an aspect that gets shown through it um like everyone else that kind of
show the the highlights yeah um no one will ever see the experiences of like stopping in the gas
station and somebody praying for you or something just stay the other experiences but i do post the
pictures most of the highlights the stuff that i think people would enjoy um i just try not to get
caught up in doing a making doing it for it yeah you know what i mean i feel like that ruins my
experience and if i get and it's it's hard to fight that urge to be like oh yeah that'll be good
you know yeah i'm i'm really trying to bust my ass this year to be really uh you're doing it for
the art aspect well couldn't yeah i am always trying to do it for the art but like being
consistent with doing the vlog stuff because i do enjoy doing that i've always wanted to show people
kind of like the experiences of what it's out it's like out there doing these things but
it this has been the thing forever it's like do you enjoy the moment or do you stop what you're
doing so you can capture the moment and i'm starting to feel like i'm getting okay at being able to
there's a balance capture it without having to alter anything for the moment so
it's like i'm not just like walking up to you and throwing a camera in your face going
would you think about that like i'm finding ways to do it more naturally so that it feels
a little bit more organic in the moment you know sometimes yeah you don't if you do that you get a
lot more context to put in a video but you got to find a balance of like not ruining the the
moment it's a ton of work you know it's a ton of work people don't appreciate it and like i tried
to do it because i'm like oh yeah maybe this won't be that bad and i tried to like make cool stuff
it's really hard and so when i see other people make things
and i'm like oh you know i have this thought like oh that's it's cringy you're doing it for this
but it's a lot of work dude it's really hard and so the people that are good at it
and the people that you enjoy their videos kind of like the parts yeah and the choppers and you
know well learning the world all that stuff you get an appreciation for it so i'm really enjoying
the youtube stuff and the long-form stuff i personally think social media is going to
implode and i think people are going to be looking for more i don't know if you saw the whole thing
with youtube where they demotinized all the ai shit that's good they're they're way ahead of the
curve dude youtube is going to be the thing and that's why i've been leaning in the youtube more
over the last two years instagram's even pushing it they're like no more short stuff do the carousel
stuff which i didn't know that was the thing until i saw the word somewhere but yeah the instagram thing
is weird man it's like i still have a you know i try not to get too much on it on the podcast a lot
because people are probably tired of me bitching about it a lot of people's relationship with
social media is purely uh as a user of it a lot of times like yes everybody is technically making
some form of content for it but like somewhere along the line of the last 15 years we just
started using this to promote our business because it was free easy and it was very lucrative and
they've been slowly pulling back the ability to connect with the people that chose to follow us
without us having to jump through hoops or pay for oh yeah they changed the thing you gotta like
change the fee and all this kind of stuff well it's like um if they would say hey look you know
you pay us 25 or 100 or 500 a month we'll we'll make sure it's crazy well i mean for us well you
have to do it yeah i guess i would spend it if like if i could post something and the people
that already chose to follow me would see it then yeah i'd do it 100 but because the algorithms
choosing what is going in your feed in my feed based on like what i looked at for more than four
seconds you know i'm saying yeah it really takes it it fucks it up um there is a button where you
can go to following yeah i saw that and i've started to like find people's content that i like whenever
i'm in this mindset yeah you can change there's like an algorithm setting where you can like
more of this less of this yes but it's like it is too much i liked it better when you're like this
is my day i took a picture of this remember how stupid we're making fun of people like this is my
food yeah yeah that was kind of better i i think we're all going back to that right yeah that's
what you were saying people are craving truth and not things just for the other aspect yeah
and i think that'll be better it's like everybody knows that authenticity is what's
going to work on instagram so it feels like a lot of inauthentic people are trying to be authentic
now and it's like oh say that one again yeah yeah it's like you're whatever the algorithm tells you
to be it's like i like photography and i want to just be able to post a picture that i took that i
enjoy and i hope somebody else likes it right i've enjoyed a lot of your pictures thank you and it's
like that's all i want to do like that's what i started doing this instagram app i don't really
want to make videos for instagram like the context that i want to put in a video it just works in a
horizontal format it just works better on youtube something that can be played out it didn't have
to be an hour you know something a 10 minute long video that's something like that to me
i connect with that more you know and when i'm thinking about what i'm creating and putting
out there that's where i want the video side of whatever i make to live not in this instagram kind
of hook you in a second do this do that like i don't i just don't want to play that game and i don't
maybe i'm old i don't know what it is i'm on the exact same page you know uh it just it sucks but
it's gotten i don't know i guess in the mindsets that we've been talking about in this in this podcast
applying that to social media has helped me it's it's allowed me to stop expecting certain things
when i'm if you know you're not going to get this here so leave i spend more time on pinterest now
honestly there's like i've never been on pinterest it's it's another algorithm but it's an algorithm
that seems to really like as you interact with the app and look at things it really puts together
much more interesting thing for myself stuff you're interested not just pushing thirst traps yeah i
can't get it off my phone yeah i don't follow a single like thing of that yeah it it won't go away
like go away yeah yeah go away it's like i checked the the algorithm think there's not no big titty
chicks on there no no stop pushing this dude no no but what happened was because social media the
way it's designed is you give it authorization to listen and everything you look at right whether
you're on instagram or not so you made the joke earlier about mexico and the big booty latinas
right so your phone heard that so it's like oh he wants to see big booty yeah so so it's going
to just keep pushing that and there's other people that thought that you follow that look at that yeah
so it's like okay cool this is what he wants to see we'll just keep putting it towards well they
they are trying to assume something so they take a an amalgamation or how do you say that word yeah
of everybody that's your age and your gender and your demographic oh he's a dude he likes this
we were talking to one of our group chats where it was like it was all every single but every
person's algorithm was like big titty goth chicks yeah and nobody was looking for it yeah it was
like everybody on instagram they were pushing that specifically like ai ones that like what the
fuck so the only reason why i'm not interested the only i am but i'm not i knew about the phone
creeping thing was we were at bike night one night and you were talking about but i'm not searching
for it you were talking about your algorithm being full of like the videos of the chicks with the fake
babies doing like the whole like milking well they yeah they pushed that thing dude all of a sudden
like rogan was talking about it i was like what the fuck is this where did this even come from
and then i remember we had been talking about the night before a bike night i was like
this spine-ass phone yeah so all the things that i like on pinterest i mean i do i so it's not
pushing all that stuff no i mean like i do there's some like uh like you you get on there and you
you know i do like photography of models like but it's not you know what i mean so i have things
that are on that was a tasteful yeah there's a lot of like mid-century modern architecture
there's a lot of design stuff like that's cool there's a lot more things on there that i think that
when i look at it i i get inspired which is what i want to come and happen to me on social
media that's what you want out of it yeah okay and the thing is that like that's how instagram
was for me at first like a lot of the things that i'm into i'm into because i found out it
existed through instagram in the early days yeah i went on there because i was doing cool cars i
wanted to share my cool cars with my friends and other people and i was proud of what i had built
and instagram was a completely different place yeah back then and it's just turned into some
big monster now which you know i do i'm like trying to get in better shape and like you know
it's not all big yeah it's like weightlifting stuff now and you know that that's kind of you
just kind of sit through more shit yeah yeah yeah it's it's like work i don't want to put the work
into the weeds what's that you you end up in the weeds real quick you hit that you hit that yeah
it just search button it's like you're right you're like right there and it just it falls off the
edge yeah like so easily i'm sorry i keep bumping in this there's also the thing of like there's
so much content now i mean youtube in general there's like i think for the first for the if you
are not a youtube person like watching it and you first get on there it could probably be a lot
to sift through and figure out where you want to go i just saw something i don't know how the metric
is but it just said that there's more ai content than real content yeah yeah 100 i had no idea if
that's true or not but i did see that i'm like that's fucking scary yeah the ai stuff is just i
think that i think that the whole world is it's been shoved down everybody's throat it's like
no one's really asking for it there are things that ai you know does like there's things like
chat gpt does that i'm like oh that's helpful yeah you know if it uses a tool yeah as a tool but i
don't need it to create art for me you know and that's the one thing that i think uh is is key
and i i i say this i'm gonna keep saying it if you use ai to make a flyer for your event your
event's not fucking real you know i mean if you can't make the if you can't figure out how to make
a real flyer if it's too much work to put a flyer together or ask somebody else how to do it right
why the fuck if you can't put in any effort why that that shows me everything that you put about
your your business in this thing you don't care enough i mean remember when band posters used
to be sick and they still are in a lot of ways like yeah they'll be a sick poster for the for
you know tool at at the granada theater in dallas right and it's like people collect them so i'm
gonna push i'll push back a little bit on that i can what's annoying is when you look at a flyer
online and you can tell that someone took the minimal amount of effort they just said make me a
bike flyer right if you if you can't even invest the time to because ai can be a very useful tool
if you know how to use it and you actually put some thought into how you want it designed and
they will alter it you can have like different versions to make it better where you want it to
be but if you're not gonna do the effort on that it just is the same if it looks like everyone
else's flyer yours will always be shit yeah i i mean when i was doing band shit we i paid like a
bunch of money to an artist and it was like it was like work yeah and he appreciated it i
appreciated his work now that image that i paid like 400 bucks for back in the day
done you know i don't even know if it would it probably be good i have no idea
but yeah i know what you mean it's it's taken the love of the game out of it
it's like gratification of just that's what i was trying to say earlier the people the
instant gratification of like flying somewhere getting the end of it and then like coming home
well it's so used to it now it's it's proving that those services are in need because people
still want to have flyers and have all this stuff made and done right but what it's also doing is
it's made i mean maybe it's also like okay well the people that create those kind of things need to
be more available more in a spot to be able to help people create flyers and things like that or
whatever like i guess if you want to put on an event and like where do i even figure out how to
get a flyer made like that's a question right it is but that's one of those problems that i think
that like man like i want to do this event i want to have a cool flyer i need to figure out who i
want to have do this or see what it's going to cost me or do or whatever this is going to be a weird
question have you seen ai art and motorcycle painting yet um is that is that a thing that you
might be worried about in the future i'm not hey about it i want this paint job can you do this
paint job and it's an ai creative i i i know you wouldn't do it what i'm saying is do you have a
worry or do you think you're gonna see this i think that uh painting industry because art is
kind of like people are worried about it well i mean what what i see going on right now is i i
see more and more of these sticker in rat places getting more prevalent on motorcycles um and
to be fair like i get it like you know not everyone can afford an eight thousand dollar paint job yeah
and and that's fine you know and that's it's not supposed to be affordable for everybody you know
what i mean there's a reason why certain things cost more than other things and if everybody could
afford it it wouldn't be fucking cool yeah that's it loses you know its uniqueness um speciality
there and then also like there is a guy out there that's doing it for three grand that's
trying to get his name out there and he's trying to get his skills up and there's there's a place
for all that i was at that point once uh sometimes i feel like i'm still at that point but you know
there is that growth aspect of it but i i honestly think that like the ai stuff for maybe the art
side of our motorcycle thing i don't see it really being uh it might help people figure out design
stuff but the hand's still going to have to do all the work right so what i wouldn't want
if you take me and sprinkle for instance both very skilled in a lot and pretty much the same
field but we have a different style right so if you go to him and you tell him your ideas you're
going to get his style of paint work and if you come to me and you tell me your ideas you're going
to get my style of your vision right and that's what you're paying for that's what you're looking
it's not like the same paint job that's just everywhere like with the tattoo artist exactly
and so i think that um if you're allowing it's like there used to be guys and they still might do it
that would like design paint jobs like someone have a rendering done you know in the car world
getting the rendering done yeah so there's guys that would like render out a custom paint job and
then pay them i've actually yeah done you do like airbrush and stuff well yeah like i used to sketch
out bike paint jobs for people and sell them and then somebody else would do the paint job no way
yeah i did it quite a bit for a while and then that was more of the big wool stuff days like
people were doing stuff like that but yeah that you know because somebody would be like well i
want to paint job and my painter can do the work but he just doesn't have he does not design stuff
so we would design the paint job and then said person would paint it right that doesn't really
happen anymore as much i feel like uh you know the performance bag of world is definitely it
there's there's some good paint jobs out there and there's a lot of them that just like
how many colors can we make yeah it's just it hasn't i don't know i'm not talking shit about
it's its own unique thing um it just feels like it i don't know it people they don't want to justify
paying for a high quality paint job but then you see the difference between like a lucky strike doing
something or or polin or like some of these guys that are really good versus like the guy that's
doing a version of all their paint jobs or our paint jobs that doesn't have his own style that's
just trying to and that's what you see a lot of these bikes that you know they'll spend all the
money they got the all the swing arms and all the all the horsepower in the world and they got this
janky ass paint job on their bike and it just devalues the entire project yeah they just throw
a bunch of colors on it so that it will stand out thought out you know but it doesn't it doesn't
flow it doesn't make sense and yeah i don't know i was just curious if ai was if it was if you had
seen it creeping in anyway in any way it's just it the whole thing is like it would it help you
no i don't see how i mean i was just curious like you're like hey i'm staring at this i don't know
maybe i'm just here i don't know well ai is just it it's all pulling from something that already
exists yeah so that's the other thing it's already out there yeah so it may never make anything new
yeah and that's there between you know uh general intelligence and super intelligence or whatever
the hell it is that they say agi or agi yeah so like right now there there is it's not creating
anything that doesn't already exist it's good point there's no taste making it's just regurgitating
yeah that's a good point so there there shouldn't be any concern it's just a really really good
search is what it is so it's it's doing what the other painter was you were saying no i mean just
enjoying from all the other paint jobs or whatever yeah but i don't even i mean i've never asked it
to like design a paint job for me so i don't know how that would look because there's but in in i
kind of want to try now when i was curious what i'm curious what it would do but like hey show me
what this would you know i mean i've used it for like i i've used it for like like a logo
like direction ideas okay you know what i mean uh show me fast live garage in a mid-century modern
atomic era style logo i did the same thing you know what i mean i sent kyle one for a t-shirt
idea i was like can you do forever dad for lines that sell one like father's day or some
shit and i sent them these ai logos he's like stop sending me ai garbage it's ai slop i'm like i'm
just fucking with you i thought it was a cool idea if i just say it but this is kind of like a picture
you know and it was that atomic 50s i thought that was kind of cool so that's kind of that's
something i've i've done for like to get an idea of direction but i also do that with a pinterest
you know what i mean because there's a lot of great design stuff on there and i can find inspiration
like this current logo on the back of this is just a recreation of a classic vans logo
like the vans shoes logo it's from the 70s vans all time you know so you know
it's just inspired by i think and it's a logo that's like or the way it's done with the checker
like it's just common it's it's not groundbreaking but it's clean it's simple um you know we wanted
to do a shirt that like you could uh you know the first thought that wasn't just black shirts
yeah that's the first thing i said like i don't i can't pick they're all black
yeah i need a different one that's why i like the clean moto one because it's like pink and teal
and then like steve's got the head the purple one uh huh yeah so just having different stuff it's
kind of the gold cool well cool man i think we're like over time no idea what time we're at two
seventeen six well cool chris i appreciate i'm glad we finally got to do this thanks for having
me by dude yeah and uh it's pretty awesome those trips man i get pretty i want to do the alaska
thing but i don't know how much i want i want to do a part of alaska i don't know if i want to do the
only the top though don't yeah i don't just it sucks dude you know just you should go explore
alaska and i didn't even see all i'm going back to sea because there's so much other things yeah um
but there's so much to see in the uconn even without alaska like stopping at leard hot springs
and just stopping and just taking a soak like that's where i saw a bear i walked right up on a baby
bear dude oh fuck yeah it was so cool like there's you know when you ask me like what do you put
online i'm like that you can't like explain that to somebody yeah walking up on a baby bear while
walking to a hot spring you know what i mean and so you can't just put six hundred hours of content
you have to make a highlight of something you know well life is yeah it's all highlights man
it really is so so when people like compare themselves it's like what do they say a comparison
is the thief of joy kind of thing like don't feel bad because you don't have this or didn't do that
or didn't take the like roll your own lane don't compare yourself to other people because what
they're doing is posting all the best of their shit and sometimes it's only for that appreciation
yeah so don't be so hard on yourself yeah show the gratitude for what you have it took me a long
time to figure that out it was like stop being so hard on myself that's it that's what this
motorcycle time this helmet time is for is having the conversations with yourself you know that's why
you never see one of the a motorcycle and a therapist's office you know what i mean so all
all right i appreciate it really appreciate you guys listen to that i hope you enjoyed it
and i want to thank chris again he had been on the road all day before he sat down in the studio
with us to do this podcast so thank you chris for sharing all this previous road trips and current
road trip stuff very inspired ready to get out there and do stuff myself guys we uh we dropped
the online store we had some t-shirts on there um i don't know how much are left i didn't have it
checked the inventory but uh if you go to foreverthefastlife.com you can get you a t-shirt from us
we appreciate it to help support everything we got going on um really looking forward to dropping
some more merch hats things like that here in the near future we're still in the beginning stages of
getting that website and that online store rocking and rolling so uh yeah i appreciate you guys listening
please check out our sponsors down in the description there's great stuff for you guys
great opportunities if you're looking for motorcycles and uh if you you know have been
been in a bad accident you know there's lawtigers there for you and hopefully you were in a cabuto
helmet if you went down we're gonna see you guys on the next episode i appreciate you listening
and uh we'll catch you back on the next one all right peace
About this episode
Kris Ziemlo (Chris Simlow) shares the mindset and real-world logistics behind extreme motorcycle travel, from a Road Glide’s year of bagger racing to a brutal Alaska push to Prudhoe Bay/Dead Horse. The conversation covers tire planning, frost heaves, self-reliance, mechanical survival (calcium chloride sludge), and the mental work of dialing back ego. They also swap travel philosophy and food culture, then pivot to Kris’s current Mexico ride—balancing safety concerns, route choices, and the joy of meeting people. Social media, discomfort, and “letting go” come up throughout.
Original notes
Since the early Days of performance baggers, Kris has been a familiar face, and in today's episode, you're going to hear about how he took his Road Glide around the track for a full year of the Bagger Racing League, then did a 180 and rode it to some of the most remote and sketchy places in the Americas. First to Alaska's Prudhoe Bay and now through Mexico.
Kris Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kzeliminator/
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