Turns Out Being a Female Bike Reviewer is TOUGH ! Ft. @UsernameKate & The Stalker ! | Ep 81 | Drive Torque Podcast

Welcome back to the world of trials where it leads this time. Yes, first time ever completely different stadium

big challenges

Quite a few issues along the route, but yeah, no a very different come here, but yeah good to have you back. He's no

easy now

Yeah

Hey guys and welcome back to the drive talk podcast now this year

We wanted to go to some venues and get some really cool backdrops and I think

We've nailed it on the first one. Have we oh

Did you not spot that I didn't even know I didn't even know although we were trying to get a bit more Michelin branding

Yes, but we are here in I nearly said Sheffield then that was last year

We're here in leads at the first director in leads for X trail

Which is indoor trials?

We've got the eight best indoor trials riders in the world including Tony boo thirty eight times world champion greedy

And we came to the Dougie Lampkin event last year and it was just brilliant

And we had to put it on the calendar. Yeah, and we're back again, but we're also not alone. Are we make we're not

We are joined by

Oh

That was that keying me out we're joined by the wonderful user name Kate. Oh, yeah username Kate. That's me apparently last time I checked

So a quick question. How did you come up with the name username Kate?

Unfortunately, I am just into deep now like when Instagram became a thing probably about 13 or 14 years ago

It said username and it's put one in and I was like username you use the name

Oh, literally literally just that and since I've done like polls on my YouTube saying do I change it something more like motorcycle related and

They're like, no, it's you now and I'm just stuck with it

I think there's like 1300 people that were like keep it. So that's me now

It's brilliant. I've been I've been watching your content since

Covid like basically I think March 2020 is when I started watching and

And I've always only ever known you and I've met you once before a track day event

And I've always only ever known you as username Kate. Yeah, so when we're getting the joining instructions

Yeah, yeah, yeah, well, that's what I thought and then we got the joining instructions from James for this event

And I saw your real name. I was like, no, that's ruined

The illusion's gone. Um, I think what would be a good way to start with you Kate is um

Our audience is predominantly car people

Although I'm trying to influence a bit more bike stuff in there and we're at a bike event

For those of our audience that don't know who you are

Could you just give us a little summary of who you are and what you do?

Yes, yeah, so I am basically a youtuber blogger blogger

I go by many many titles to be fair. Um, but yeah, um, I started content creation

Oh, gosh, I don't actually know how long ago it was but I went full time four years ago

So I was like doing it youtube in alongside my full-time sales job in a BMW dealership. You like that. Yes

God not another one. Sorry

And yeah, just progressed from there went full time four years ago took the leap and just been doing it ever since as my day job

Which is quite terrifying because when you do take that leap there is no youtuber job description out there

No, you've got to make your own. Yeah or talk to other people that are doing it

But then we're all making our own way up. Yeah, a lot of them quite secretive. Yes

They don't share the trade secrets because they've forged their own way and they're like you got to work for it. Okay. Yeah

Yeah, there's a lot of uh, there is a lot of friction

We talked to we all went out for dinner last night. It was great

And um, we talked a bit about that sort of the industry in general and there is

It's funny because you meet like pet and I met were eight nine years ago

And um, we got on straight away and I was watching your stuff before that

I knew who you were

But we got on straight away and I'm very open with pet and he's very open with me with you know, we're friends

But there are people that you meet in the industry and you're like, oh, they're really nice

They seem to like me but then they just won't do anything to

Help you because in their head, it's like if I help you then you're going to be taking stuff away from me

And it's just it's a shame really no idea who you're talking about

I've got one or two one or two people in my mind

Yeah, all good. Um, but that's interesting about the full time stuff because I think we all

I I went full time in 20 middle of 21. You went full time three four years ago now, so so all of us pretty similar

Yeah, um, and it is a big leap of faith

Uh, for sure and it puts a lot of pressure on you. I I I was fascinated with what we started talking about last night

with the logistics of

Being a bike because I've had a few press bikes

But I happen to live five minutes from Silverstone, which is where ktm

And jucati are based and I'm about an hour away from bmw drive

Okay, because in most cases in the bikes that I've loan or borrowed

Uh, you have to go and pick up the bikes whereas most of the cars we get they're delivered

But can you just give us an example of

What goes into filming? Oh, is it Suzuki that's far away from you? Which one is everything?

Everything so based in Manchester. Yeah, so we're more like Bolton

But we just say Manchester because a lot of people know Manchester United

So when you say that to like people abroad like oh, Manchester United, so they know

Yeah, um, but yeah, so Bolton

But if we want to get a bike from say Suzuki or ktm or

You know any of those kind of bronze are based down there. It's like a 350 mile round trip

to get the bike and

You know because it's so far away and

I mean, I'm really fortunate

I have a very very good partner called Mike who's basically my chauffeur my bike washer

My everything really like there's a saying everyone needs a mic that I've come up with because

We want a mic now because he was out for dinner with us last night and we're like I need a mic in my life

Everyone needs a mic. It's just I'm sure I can hire him out

His accent the only thing is his accent for this for us

Southerners his accent was a bit strong to start with and we're in that busy

bar having and I was like

I can't like I can't quite hear you and I can't quite understand yet and by the end of the night

I was like I completely understand google translate out to see if price is right. He can come with a translate

so

But um, yeah, so fortunately for me having a mic I can stay at home edit

Which is where the moneymaker is because I've got to get the videos out and Mike

Thankfully will set off at like 5 a.m. He's going to set off on Monday to go and pick up some ktms

Going to set off at 5 get there for opening

And then he's got to come back and then take me

An hour out my way to drop me off with another journalist

He's then going to ferry my butt to Heathrow for a launch. So wow. Yeah, he's crazy his non-stop

and you do it in all weathers as well because I think I've got the luxury of

Well, I'm somewhat older than you and I'm new to biking

So I love I love this. I love riding in nice weather and when it rains I can just jump in a car

But even we were complaining. I think in the last podcast about filming cars in the winter time

It's bad. Yeah, and so

Yeah, well, I saw you know, you've been posting stuff up this week

I think just like out on muddy trails and

And I'm sure it's it's fun once you're wet and and sort of you know past that point

But it's a lot of commitment and I don't think yeah, again people probably very

Underestimate what goes into making a 20 minute bike video. It's not 20 minutes of your time

It's a it's a week a week and a half of

Of preparing but yeah, nice. How did you get into bikes?

Have you have you always loved them or is it uh?

Um, so this picture's on like my mum's fridge with a little magnet on of me as a wee nipper with like a sponge in my hand

Washing my dad's really old police bike that um because he was a police officer when I was like this big and um

Yeah, just always been around them

He's always had pictures all over the walls of like his his idols and stuff, you know like Jeff Duke and stuff like that

And then when I got to like high school age

You'd take me on the back to school and I'd feel like the baddest kid there and I'm like I want a bit of this myself

So, yeah, it just progressed as soon as I was 16. I was like boom get a moped

And it was terrible. I think my dad bought it from like a police auction for like 50 quid a summer

It was a boatian. I remember it clearly. I've never even heard of that me neither

It was blue. It had sticker flames going up the side

Nice the seat wouldn't lock so that every time I went over a speed bump it'd like smack you on the back side

It would start without a key. You could just kick it and go

But it got me on the road

How I'm still alive today is a mystery because I was a liability the first time I ever set foot on a scooter

Like literally just going round bends too hot like

Um, so yeah, how I'm I'm here is a miracle, but

Yeah, it's just what I learned on and then just progressed to one two fives

Like, uh, I think my first one was a really quirky TW Yamaha

Which has a really tiny tank and a really massive chunky back wheel

And then I swapped that for a cbr one two

Sorry cbr one two five. Yeah, and then yeah, that was more like a normal one two five

And then from there it just progressed to the next like six fifties and onwards

And now you ride pretty much everything. I mean even

One of your recent videos or probably wasn't recent now. It's probably last summer

The honda gold goldwing. Yeah. Oh, that was yeah 2025. Yeah

You rode a goldwing because you are tiny. Yeah

How the hell did you ride a golden? They were like about a tonne and a half, right?

Yeah, without sounding funny like even just getting your leg over something like that like it's like

Is that intimidating because even like they wait, what's that 300 kilos more if it's low enough?

It's not that intimidating. Okay. Yeah, because you've got two feet down

You've got two feet down and you're just a bit careful with it. You should be all right. Don't get me wrong

There's some moments where you're like, ah, but you just hope that you don't drop it

Yeah, you've seen the video of joe dropping the bike, haven't you? Oh, which one? Oh, exactly, which one? Yeah

No, it's brilliant. I stalled her

Yeah, exactly. It's so funny. I was trying to like it was just

I just passed my test and then I borrowed a

1250 gs from nil at BMW UK

And shout out to nil and

And I was trying to do this clip where I walked up to the bike because I thought because I was all new to leathers

And I was like, oh, I look cool in like I'm feel cool like I'm top gun or something

And so I'm walking up to the bike like this and I'm poor lose filming it

And I get to the bike and I get on it and then I just wanted to pull off

So I started it up and as I pulled out

I stalled it like literally so I've turned drop the bike a little bit go on to accelerate and I've just stalled it

And and so of course all the momentum's gone and then it just falls down. I mean, it's yeah, it was really bad, doesn't it?

All right, it gave gave you a good giggle and there might be some

Oh, mate, this is just cool. Yeah, so basically behind us all the brandings. We haven't put that there just for us

It's actually part of one of the stages that we're hopefully going to get to walk around a bit later

Maybe on camera as well. Um, but yeah, they're actually all the competitors are actually getting walked over at the moment

I think Dougie and his guys are sort of talking through the safety aspect of it

Because for those of you that aren't familiar with trials, um, you you don't get a practice run. Do you don't know?

So it's like the competition starts when the competition starts

So although they can walk over obstacles, they can spend a lot of time looking at them

Um with their spotters because most of these top riders in fact all of them have spotters

Uh, which do a number of jobs, especially keeping them safe. Um, but that's what they're doing

That the hysterical thing is is these guys they're walking over these containers behind us. Yeah

There's the main man there, man. Mr. Dougie. Yeah, come and say hello just for two seconds, Dougie

I haven't got time to say hello. Is this practice or is this real? No, it's real. It's real. Yeah

The world's best trials riders behind us. So they're going to ride their bikes over this structure behind us

They're struggling to walk over it. Yeah, it's terrifying. Yeah

It is here. He comes now. I would I would literally get um, altitude sickness up there

Yeah, it looks it does look horribly high, doesn't it? He's going to jump there. He's going to jump. No

Wow, these guys they're like little spring box

Unbelievable and the tires are jumping down on two. So they're all off like um big earth movers and stuff, aren't they?

They are about 8,000 pounds a tire. Wow. Yeah

Yeah, yeah

Eight grand a tire and and we worked out there's there's over a hundred grand worth of tires just on that

Structure bill up below

Brilliant. This is cool. We have literally got the world's best

trials riders all around the podcast table perfect timing

All kind of looking at it going. I think that's is that Tony bill up there? Yeah, is it? Oh, yeah. Yeah

Oh my god

We are amongst greatness. So yeah, so we've not been so distracted about this at all. Yeah back back to back to

But yeah, so we're we're we're going to have a walk around

the the course a bit later, but honestly the the

Obstacles you would struggle to walk over them or climb over them. You're going to ride a bike

We've actually borrowed a bike just over there just to have a shot. That's one of the Hemingway brothers bikes

Yeah, um, obviously naturally on Michelin tires. Yeah, well, they're all yeah

And they're they I think remember from last time there's only one tire, isn't there?

He's the same tire for everything indoors outdoors just one tire. Yeah, which is really impressive

And and that boggles my mind. I'm sure it boggles your mind because there's a bike here

But it's like yeah, you think you think that a really good dry indoor tire will be useless outside in the way

But it has to be good at everything. Yeah, I suppose they're running like proper low pressures out there in this kind of stuff

So that's got to help. Yeah, but I think oh in fact, here we go. This is the main man. We might get him on camera

We'll look. That's the Tony Boo

Joe's getting a picture

It's got to be done. Yeah

Tony boo attempting to jump down without his bike ladies and gentlemen

Oh

Giant step for mankind, but if you're the only step for Tony boo

It's probably worth saying this is one of these podcasts where if you're listening to it on an audio podcast platform

You really do need to head over to youtube

Yes, and watch it on youtube. Joe's getting distracted. He's getting a selfie with Tony. That's a great

That's a great idea and I want one too

Brilliant here we go. He's gone. He's gone. Oh, man. Yeah, anyway, we're getting

So head over to youtube and just type in dive talk podcast and while you're there

Please hit the subscribe button and give us a follow

Also, while you're on youtube head over to use name Kate and give her a follow as well

Even if you don't like bike content

I watched some of your stuff this morning. There's a brilliant reel of you

Oh the guy walking the grief guy. No, the Jehovah's Witness going up. Yeah. Yeah

It's so you are so tolerant. You're just like, oh, yeah, it's very nice. Thanks

Do you know what like I saw her in envelope and I knew my camera was rolling. I thought

Where's this going to go? Like I don't even know but I'll just roll with it and hopefully it won't make me feel too uncomfortable

And he goes on and the minute he said like

Do you know about the great Jehovah? Oh, whatever he said. Yeah. I was like, here we go. Here we go

So, you know, see a little comic, you know comedic timings glance to the camera. Yeah, I had it all sussed

I was like, this is gold

It is funny though and we were talking about over breakfast

There's like this rule whenever you're filming out in public

So if you park your car in an empty car park and you've got some cameras set up

Yeah

The second you turn the camera on a car is going to drive into the car park. Yep

And park behind you not in all the other space in the car right next to you. Yeah

Yeah, or and then they'll get out and start having a conversation. Yeah on camera shot. Yeah, and you're like, yeah

How does it happen on bikes with you a lot? Um, like you're pulling to a lay by or spot where the Jehovah's Witness guy came up to me

Yeah, I could have so many bloopers the bloopers could be longer than the video

Because of how many people would walk to the gate behind me

It's like a real nice place, but there was a gate in the way and people

They don't have any awareness and that is fair enough. Whatever. They wouldn't walk around it. They just like go behind you

Yeah, or walk in front of the cameras. Yes. Yeah

When you're like, I don't know a car show or something and you've got a count and someone they don't see the cameras

Walk straight in front. Yeah, I was on a launch recently and we're in the courtyard thing

I've moved a bike I'd got on my own setup

And uh, I'm I'm sat well stood in front of the camera and I'm doing all this for me

I'm so it's not like, you know, I'm just there just maybe they thought yeah

And then this is one guy and he's just on his phone. It's la so he's got his oh my god

Of like on loudspeaker like yeah, I think that would be like amazing for the business

Like we should really go ahead with that and I'm like

Do you mind?

Very good. Impressive. It is a very good accent. Well, you know, I grew up watching my MTV and the hills

So I'm basically American right now

But can I say oh my god. Oh my god. It's amazing. You should start start another channel

You use the channel. No use the name katie. His name katie. I feel like that has such a ring to it

Literally you should just I reckon every bike from two videos

Just do one in a proper american accent

Yeah, yeah, but take your practical sort of leathers off or whatever and put like god

No, something you see on a fashion show or something like

On a kind of practical note you guys both make videos about bikes. Okay

You may be more successful

When I'm filming with a car right

Cameras and audio and wind noise is like really hard sometimes how on earth

Do you do that on a bike?

Yeah, what's your what's your secret? It's good equipment

Yeah, because you're you've got when you're your bits to camera when you're driving a lot or riding along rather

There's no wind noise at all. Do you AI any of that out or is just just a really good mic? It's just a really good mic

um

It was expensive if it makes me feel sick in the mouth when I think about what I paid

It's just like it's a lapel mic. It's like 300 pound job here, but obviously, you know, it's part of the business

So I need it and the other microphones just kind of weren't cutting the mustard. They weren't clearing off

They were crackles in your helmet. Yeah, so I put it to an external recorder which is in my pocket

So I often wear this jacket riding because I've actually got all my armor in there right now

It's a full-blown bike jacket. Oh nice

Um, right you could go and do a quick lap of the course then. No, no

I've already broke three fracture free ribs. I don't mean

Oh, was that part of me getting on a press trip? Maybe maybe anyway carry on

Yeah, so I've got an external recorder

I run the wire up there and then I thread it up here and then clip it on my breath guard on my shower

Yep, um, and then just shut it and then it's a great mic for clarity

But one thing that I would like is for it to pick up a bit more ambient sound because like if you're on a really sexy bike

And it's sounding ruckus beneath you you want to capture it and sometimes you can and

But you can't please everyone because then if you do that, they're like, oh, we can't hear you

And so you can never win so you've just got to do what you're happy with

Can you put like a secondary mic behind a fairing and just take a bit

I mean, it's like

It just everything like adds to a process and I'm trying to simplify it as much as possible because I haven't like

Had any of this training or like a background in media or anything. I am just like

Winning it a wing at wilgard. I've joined the club man. Yeah, we've been doing that for 10 years

So if I can find something simple that works like I'll stick to it, but I'll just be really consistent

Would you call your would you call yourself?

an

influencer

or

Well, how do you because I know I've seen you rant about that and we are the same

How would you describe yourself?

Because because none of us are actual journalists never call myself but but we but I think all three of us

approach

Vehicles with a journalistic approach

Because we're there we're there to give an honest opinion and we try and review something as well as we can and give give that to our audience

And that's that so we're doing what a journalist would do, but we're not we're not we're not trained journalists. We're not trained journalists, but then

We are it's funny because I I don't almost have a journalist because I don't want to upset journalists

Yeah, if that makes sense. Yeah, but I know that what we do

to 90 percent of people

We're car or bike journalists

By hate influencer as well. So yeah, uh, yeah, what's your take on?

It's tricky because I feel like there's a lot of people

Particularly those that populate facebook. That's quite a grumpy social media platform

They hear the word influencer and then they automatically think you're freeloading scum of the earth

And they won't give you the time of day. Yeah

And there is a lot of influencer culture that can create that stereotype and you can kind of understand it a little bit

But there are lots of influencers that kind of do it right in my opinion

Everyone just kind of gets tired with that brush

um, that people are seeing the shocking stuff and are the lazy stuff other

unethical stuff for the views and the clicks because

And they just lump us in in that category. So, you know, I mean, I don't really think I could

Influence anyone I could probably influence what people have for breakfast because what post on my star is in Easter

Hey, that's about it. But no, but I think we all

How many people have bought a bike? Yeah, the background. So that's the thing is don't don't do yourself the service

No, I was just serve, you know, I'm just being a bit of a gimp there

But like Mike for example, he's just started youtube. He's on like 2000 subscribers

He has people messaging saying I love this review. I've just bought honda

gba 350 on the back of it. It's like damn. There's literally like power in

Of course, man. Yeah. It's crazy

But then you do sometimes if you've done a review and you've you've highlighted like some of the bad things about a bike

It weren't necessarily your favorite bike and then someone's like, oh my god. I bought that bike based off your your review and you're like

Yes

Um, do you like it and you're like sweating and then they're like

Yeah, I love it and I'm like, oh, thank god. I'm really glad that it was good

So it does like worry a little bit where they come up to you. But yeah

Yeah, when you know that your review wasn't particularly positive super enthused. Yeah

I mean, they don't really make a bad bike nowadays. Do you know what I mean?

That's the same with cars unless they're from china

No, I can't say that. No, no, no, but we need to actually ask we need to talk about chinese bikes

But before we do that, what's your what's your opinion on the?

Give us an honest opinion here. Kate. Yeah, sure. Oh, here we might not talk tonight. Um, uh f 900 gs

Oh, yeah, I love it

But you know, I love it because I because I own one

Obviously, obviously the main reason

Um, I rode it in I think it was portugal. Yes took it off road a little bit with tim rody

Yeah, yes big shout out tim. We're going to get you on the podcast one day. Yes

And yeah, I just I really enjoyed it. It was great. It was great on road

Like handle mint. Um, didn't expect it to handle so well with that front skinny, you know 21 inch. Yes, but

Yeah, it was it was flying around the bends. Nice and it's good off road. I do like it. Yeah, I need to get mine off road

That's really bad. Yeah, I had it a year and that's not even been into a puddle get it on the road to be good as well

Quick question. So in the car space there are a number of female creators

and they they kind of

Sometimes have a bit of a hard time. What's it like in the bike space as a female creator? Because

are there many for a start and

Have you had any pushback from

Whether that's brands or other journalists or the audience? What's what's generally like being a a

um a girl bike content creator

So being a lady lady

I'm a lady

Yeah, so it does have its benefits in my opinion with manufacturers if I'm being completely honest

I think there is a little thing called positive discrimination, which I very much do benefit from on occasion

I'm well aware of that. I'm not naive enough to be like no

It's on my merit and my skill and stuff because there are some companies that do just want more female representation

And by default last time I checked our qualify

so

Do you know what I mean?

So that's obviously gonna benefit and there are some brands that are very good at being inclusive and working with

Female influencers Honda are very good at it. Try it for very good at it. Um, they're probably ahead of the game

Yeah, but also it's not at the at the compromise and the sake of the males as well

They're they're just getting everyone involved

Yeah, it is really great

And um, I've been fortunate enough to to go on some like all female

Like a track event at Port Amal with Honda riding a FireBly to like come on like

Please positively discriminate me all day long if I get tired of FireBly

I'm not saying Honda do but you know, I suppose it's just like an inadvertent thing, isn't it?

They want to get more girls in there you go on the track. Um, so yeah

I've had some some amazing opportunities from being a female. I guess that my male counterparts wouldn't necessarily get

So yeah, that is a benefit in some ways

um

In other ways you do have like some more like old school brands

Some more like boys club kind of brands that do just kind of you see the faces and they're all kind of guys

But then I do wonder if that's because you know, there isn't many

female

options, I'm not saying that

Disrespectfully, but in the sense that there are a lot of females that they do more of the real stuff as in

r e e l like yes

Far from the truth of the week. Yeah

Do you know what I mean? So they do like that kind of stuff and that's their focus

Like their main goal going out to create content is to get maybe like two minutes worth of

Portrait clips that they can put out. They might not even be able to ride a bike

potentially

Yeah, some of them I can think of

I was at the media event at Goodwood last year and there were like at least half a dozen people there that couldn't actually drive a car

Yeah, yeah

They just have a phone. Oh, yeah, some of them don't even have licenses. No, they just have taken in front of the car or yeah

Yeah

It's crazy. So and you're yeah, because you're again a bit like us. You're much more long form. That's your that's your staple

That's what you you you enjoy doing

Because it's telling that story and you can't do that in one minute or two minutes. Can you

As fun as it is to make something work because me and you are like I can't get the case and you'll get a real one

It's like, oh, it's done really well. Why is that time? I don't know

You've kind of got to hit three pillars, haven't you? And it comes to long form. You've either got to be entertaining

Uh inspirational or educational

And if you can hit that then you know that you've got something of value or you know something that someone's going to want to watch

So they're more likely to

Yeah, I haven't got any of them. Oh, no. No. No, I don't what if you don't have any of them?

Um

Good luck. Yeah, I think you'll you'll be right because you're sort of of the age

You're entertainment because you're just a barrel of laughs a minute

He's a bit more. He's a bit more serious on his channel. I mean, he's fun as

Yeah, no, he's he's gotta come he's never had a compliment on the podcast before so he's

Come again

Yes makes a change makes a change in the focus someone's not being horrible to me. Oh, no

All right. Well, let's let's let's just change the subject slightly. Let's have a look at your new shoes. Oh, yeah

Peds shoes are always a part of the podcast. Can you see can you see from there? Kate? Yeah, I can

Yeah, there's a bottle opener on the bottom of my shoes. Yeah, it's pretty cool

So I was halfway taking the mickey out of them last night when ped was like, oh, it doesn't matter what they look like

They've got a bottle opener on the bottom of them. Yeah, cool. Yeah, so

It's just really handy. I haven't used it yet though. I need to have a go you could take them to your where did you go so far?

You've been so far. Yeah, but they'd be handy out there as well. Yeah, very. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, anyway, we got

Digressed. Yeah, digressed. Yeah. Um, what's your what's your

Okay, this was a question that I had written down. Um

And we we sometimes do it with car people. So with a bike person

What's your if one bike for the rest of your life? Super Duke. Oh

Did I stutter? No. Nope. Oh, what was that? Super Duke. Super Duke. Yeah, ktm

I've actually got them on my socks

No way

And why why that bike in particular? Um, because when you rev it the earth turns a little faster

Oh, cool. Can you slow the turning earth down a bit so that we yeah, so peak peak doesn't get too too old too quickly

Oh, no, the torque the torque of a super duke is it's just a sexy feeling. I've never ridden one

Is it really?

Yeah

Like you can be like

You can be like

Just giving it the gentlest of rev over like a nice little humpback bridge and you're just like, what?

It's just mint. Wow

Not that I condone that. No, but that's so that's okay. So that's

Bang, you just that was that was like I hadn't even finished asking the question

1390 haven't they just bought our new one? Is that the 1390? Okay, I wouldn't care. Okay. You're not fussy. No, okay

No, and and what bike do you do you own?

I actually own a 2002

Ducati or Ducati. Yep, uh 750 s

Mont a monster. No. Oh no. Oh the 750 s that was a sports bike

I like took the fairing off it and put a single headlight on and exposed all the trellis free

And because there's a funny story that I can be quite quick with but

To me that was my bike that got away

Okay, so when I crashed my first bike, unfortunately in sv 650 curvy car pulled out

Wait one second. Was that

Curvy what's curvy was that the name of the bike? No, no, there's a curvy sv 650

Okay, so that the curvy I thought that was like northern slang. I was like, what was this?

Yeah, but we're having to do some translate. There's subtitles. Sorry subtitles are available. Okay. There's a curvy version

Yeah, curvy sv. That's all right. I should know more about these

No, I mean it's proper old. Yeah, wreck of the bike. You're like a mad man

They were correct when I was great. The couriers would use sv 650s a lot, I think

Yeah, I've been around the Nurburgring on an sv 650. Nice

Random little segue there. Um, but yeah, so where was we going with this? Uh, we would take it

I have yeah, so crash that needed a bike for Europe to go on a holiday with my dad

Yep, and I was like, oh, I was in the stretcher and they were and dad's like, you're right. I'm like, no

I need a bike for the trip. Mom's like having kittens like next to me

Oh, Steve and that was my priority. Wait, your mom was having kittens because she was worried about you not having a bike

Or you're not being not being a good thing being on a stretch. Oh, okay. That's good. Okay. Yeah

Yeah, her beloved child. Yes. Yes. Um, so

Yeah, I got a bike. Um, I ended up with uh, an xj6 and yamaha, which was a bit boring and I didn't really like it

Yep, but what I wanted was this chopped up jucati that I saw online on ebay

I was like dad. I really really want it

He's like not a chance on earth

Are you buying an old chopped up rickety jucati to go to Europe on the up break down?

You're getting something modern and I had the picture for years and years and then bike show

Who are one of my like main channel sponsors? They said like do you want to do some kind of project?

It's like what do you want to do? I said let me buy

The bike turn it into the bike that got away and then ride it back to its motherland in italy

And um, it broke down in southern germany, of course it did. Oh, so you're gonna say southern england

Okay, so it got halfway there then. Yeah, I mean to be fair. I could have probably pushed on

Yeah, it was a giveaway bike

So someone was going to win it at the end and I didn't want to do the the engine any damage more than it needed to

But in a twist of fate the woman that won it

You know, she she literally entered the competition on a win hadn't ridden in 20 years wasn't particularly interested

In riding it. I pulled up. She wasn't very excited. I'm fine

And then I just had a feeling that she wasn't gonna keep it and I said look

If you don't want it, please give me like the opportunity to buy it back because like

I've chopped it up. I know what's gone into it. I like it's my kind of dream bike

Even though it's a bit of a I can't say the word

You can you can with that far in you can say shit bit of a shitter bit of a shitter

Um, but I was like you had brought an email you on anyway. Sorry carry on that's another story

I was like this bike means, you know something so please give me the opportunity

Anyway, she was like, yeah, just give me a year with it. I was like a year

Oh a week later

Hi, Kate. Do you want to? Yeah

Yeah, so we went back in the same van up to the lake district collected it and now it's in my garage. Nice

So I did have a gs before that in our 1200 gs, but

And it was pretty it's triple black. It was a mintery lid, but it was a garage ornament

Okay

Because like you may know when you've got something on finance. You don't want to run them miles

So

Not outing you at all

um

So yeah, it just became a bit of a that situation and and also having like the wonderful opportunity to ride all the press bikes that I do

It seems silly paying monthly for something that I wasn't really making the most of it's sad really sad life

I wanted it to go and live its best life

But then that that for us is like the

It's such a hard to get in the press car every day or every week rather. Yeah, but sometimes it's yeah, but sometimes it's

Yeah, it's like then you look at something like tim schmee who's got like what 30 cars in his collection now

And you'll have the occasional long term a press card

And it's interestingly his channel name is a bit like you he just entered it into a messaging platform

That was his that was his handle with schmee 150. Yeah, and that's how he then he used it when he started youtube couldn't mean anything

No, and then it's like the you know, his whole dynastic

Identity is schmee. Yeah museum. Yeah, muella. Sure. Yeah, and I just used my name. Yeah, I'm quite simple

Yeah, that's good though. Yeah, I wish I'd done that

It's a wicked name

um going back to the

The the the the real that you talked about that whether jahuvus witness came out and walked to you

can you can you

Have you had any like creepy scenarios?

I'm sure you have but can you can you tell us about one blink twice if you're safe?

Literally, it's been some crazy situation. I has a yeah. Yeah. I had one. I'm going to change names for this star

Yeah, just to protect everybody's identity even though they should be outed and held accountable for their behavior

Calling john smiths in this situation. John smith you belling

Yeah, don't hold back. So yeah, I had it where um like I have a patron or patron

I can never say it very well

And you know, there's a few tiers. It's like a pound patron five pound patron ten pound patron

And and I'm very grateful for anything anybody, you know chooses to

To send my way so I can put fuel in the tank. I'm always grateful whether it is, you know

That lower end or whatever and everyone gets to see the same like kind of behind the scenes stuff

There's everyone else. They just know that it's just a way to support me

There's not necessarily a benefit of being this or that etc

And there was john smith

Who was there?

and

John smith had a youtube and he said in the patreon

Hi, k. Um, so he was a pound patron and again nothing wrong with that. But there's a reason why I'm bringing that up

He was like, I've got a youtube. Can you look at a video and let me know, you know what it's like and

I looked at it. Oh no

And the positive that I could deliver was that the audio was good. It was clear. Okay, so I went with that, you know

It's a nice little thing. Well, um, john smith has a very

Unique interesting voice that you can pick up anywhere. It's it he's just got a tone to his voice, right?

So then I get a message you're going to be at the London bike show and I'm like, yeah, Rob. I'll be there. It'd be nice to say

Hi

So I'm I'm working. I'm filming with a another

like influencer

And I get a tap on the shoulder and I get a hello, okay

So instantly recognize the voice. So I turn around and I'm like, oh, hello, john

Oh big mistake then he literally he goes on to like

Oh, you don't realize how special you are. You're going to be a star. I can feel it. I can sense it

They're going to be a star and I'm like, oh, thanks, john. Yep. Thanks. Thanks. I think and

And then he put something in my hand

Thankfully it wasn't what you're thinking

And I I looked and it was a rolled up piece of paper

Right, and I was like, okay

And I opened it and it was his name his channel name then his mobile number and I said

john

Why have you given me this like, you know, naivety and he's like, oh, just in case you need me for anything in the future

You've got my number. You've got my number and I'm like, oh, okay. Okay. So then he was like, I've got to go

So he went off then was walking to lunch

He flanked me

Flanked me royally in in this busy bike show

Busy bike show

And the other influencer and her cameraman at this point were just like not this guy again and just left me

Nice

Thanks for that

So I'm like, okay, I've got to tackle him alone

And he I'm walking and he says

Kate I've got to tell you something and I'm like, oh god

And he like he grabs my shoulder to spin me around to stop me from walking forward

Like to like have this moment with me and he's like

I just want to let you know if you ever split up with mike. I might be 63, but I'm very rich

Oh my god

It wasn't you was it pet? No, no, I'm 53

And I just he didn't respond to my dm

No, yes, and I just went

Oh, well

Wow, people pleaser at the mistaken. I've been with mike for 10 years now. This is at time 13 now

He needs a medal. Yeah, I've been like 10 years now. I can't really see that changing anytime soon

I'm walking away. Well, you can at least lie to me. You can tell me that you're going through troubling times

Oh

My god, and I'm like

John protection order not a liar

Yeah, and he he just went

Um

It was like, oh, okay, and then he went to give me a hug and I felt so uncomfortable

So I thought it's in front of everyone. It's making a bit of a scene now

I'm gonna step back and just stick my hand out for a hand. Yeah, worst thing I could have done

Oh, did he grab it?

Oh my god

It makes me sick in the mouth

Oh my god, he kissed me on the hand a lingering

Sloppy one and ever and you feel like with his tongue

Oh, you feel like all the eyes are on you. You know what I mean like and the tongue

So I'm just like

To anyone that will watch like I am not like about this though

And but then after that I was getting an onslaught of

Patreon messages from him. That was the thing. That's why I mentioned he was a pound patron

Because he's telling me how rich he is. Did he like I think it was only fans or something. I don't know

but then it was weird because

Like I blocked I blocked him on the patron and then I would get

um

John green message in me instead of John Smith in the same text mannerisms

You know my friend John Smith, but the funny thing is when he used to write his name

My surname was capitalized

So it's a bit of a telltale that it's a and then he's messaging from a John green

Also capitalized and the smith is capitalized and I'm like

John, I know what you leave me alone

But then the final straw came when he sent me a very inappropriate message

I literally just um. Oh, that was another thing. He's like, I've got an idea

Your father is ex-police. My friend is also ex-police. He can vouch for me. What are we vouching for?

I don't like you. Oh my god

Like stop trying to force this thing that's never going to happen in any reality in any universe

Is in all seriousness so that I mean that for a start that's stalking when I start a crib. Yeah

You should report him to the police, but that's bad

That is but then the messages came through I want to apologize

I'd like to buy you either a gold or silver necklace

And it's like what aren't you understanding like I don't care about your money. Leave me alone

But yeah, the final straw was a really inappropriate message where I just posted a selfie just innocently and um

He commented saying something about my

Koitial stare

That's pre-sex, isn't it?

I don't know and

What that it's I think I'm sure it's something to do with like a

Thing that happens before you kind of get jiggy with it. Oh, oh, right post-coital

He's trying to say I think it's post-coital cigarette used to be like having a fag after you've made love. Yeah. Yeah, so I think it's yeah, exactly

Oh, right. Can you can you show us what that is? Yeah?

Oh, yeah. Yeah, it's pretty smoldering. That's a bit fair

Yeah, definitely watch that on youtube

Oh, I hope john smith isn't watching

Yeah, so so that happened

I've had another case where I used to work at a dealership and there was one guy who was very angry at me for doing

33 miles an hour in a 30 and realistically I use my google maps a lot and uh

Speedos always about yeah, they're always tempting and and also naively

I didn't realize that actually if you do park in a cycle box waiting for the lights to change as a motorcyclist

That is technically three points on your license and you shouldn't be doing it

But I didn't know but instead of saying like

Just heads up. Yeah, that's the situation

Um at the dealership you would say to the delivery driver

Um that username case wildly pissing me off. I'm going to compile evidence against her

Who does she think she's doing 33 miles an hour in a 30 and parking in the cycle box before she sets off?

And I'm just like, what have I done to this man?

Yeah, like I don't even I didn't even know it sounds from even someone online as I go at you

Before he started but being on the internet you do open yourself up to this kind of ridicule and

character assassination and all sorts

But there's a line right? I mean, I don't mind people having to go up my driving or if I'm speeding or whatever but but

Or your shoes or my shoes. Yeah, I just leave that to you mate. Yeah, um

But following you to an event that's

It's a bit scary creepy. Um, we're going to get kicked off here in about four minutes because um

Because they're going to be using this area and they're going to make test and lie and sound tests and stuff. Um, but uh

Before we go. Are you are you a car person at all?

Do you like your cars? Do you know what? I like to look at them. I like the older stuff. Um, like

If I was to win the lottery, I might get like a persho 205 gti

Oh, okay. When you when you when you when you said when you said if I win the lottery

I was like, yeah, I might get myself a persho and I was like, oh and then you said 255 gti. I was like, ah

Okay

Or maybe like apparently they're terrible, but I really love the old pandas like boxy

We talked about this in the last podcast

Yeah, especially the original the original ones. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah the coffee table windscreen. Yes

I love them. You're so gangster. Yeah, I'll bring it. Oh, so you are a car. That is I would I'm going to give you a car box

Yeah, there you go. Yeah, exactly. Um, cool guys. I hope you've enjoyed this. Uh, there's been a lot going on around us

It's also been, you know, hard first

And I did go on a tangent about crazy starker. So I apologize. No, but I know I line that up. So it's um, no it's yeah

I'm sorry to hear about john smith and his friend john smith

Um, but it's been an absolute honor getting you on. Yeah, you're having me. No, it's been really cool

and like I said, I've watched your content for five or six years and um, you are definitely a small part of

Of the reason that I ended up getting my license in 22

Um, and if you haven't watched Kate stuff and as ped said earlier on, even if you're not into bikes

There's there's a certain level of uh comedy in in most of your videos as well

Yeah, it's um, there's always little cheeky things in there little easter eggs. So check out Kate

We'll put her stuff in the description below. Um, and check out um extra leads because I assume it'll be happening again next year

Obviously by the time you're watching this it'll be too late

But um, it's an amazing arena down here and we're all looking forward to watching it

Yeah, and with a bit of luck we might don't know yet, but we might now show you a bit of the walk round

We might and if we don't then we'll see you at the next podcast

Cheers guys. Thanks guys. Cheers. Bye

So you so I'm so I'm presenting as well. You are presenting. We're gonna sit here and do nothing, right?

How'd it play boys you two? Anyway

Welcome back. Welcome back to the world of trials

Would it lead this time? Yes first time ever completely different stadium

big challenges

Quite a few issues along the route, but yeah, no very different come here, but yeah good to have you back

So we're going from dl12 the year round for years. Yeah, and now this is a completely new event

Yeah, and also in motor world championship

So there's a lot more things to consider a big organization obviously make a lot of rules

They want to check everything. They want a lot of info a lot more goes into it. Yep

Um, obviously they decide the riders a bit, but it's still great. We've still got, you know, the people that we want

So that's worked out great

Few different rules. Yeah some complicated not too complicated, but yeah, no all good

It's great to be in a new stadium new it feels feels great. Yeah, and then we got to

This is the nemesis of the last three days. This looks really simple to make though. See what we'll do

What we'll do is we'll we'll get four containers and we'll just we'll put them in like lego and cover them in tires

Brilliant meeting. Yeah. Yeah

How much do those tires weigh?

Uh

About 1.5 tons of the bigger ones

And they're about what we talked about this in the pod they're about eight to ten grand each or something

What's interesting is that the one on top of the angle container. Yeah, we lifted it onto the bottom

Yeah, we lifted it onto the bottom of the angle. Yeah, and we pushed it up with a pair of forks on the fork truck

And then we put another one up and push it up further and then we dragged one off

Three hours just to get that up to get that there

the way

And so

They have to be right. Everyone's going to do it in one direction. Yeah in the heat everybody goes in one direction

Each of the six sections. Yeah

And in the final they do each of the six sections in reverse

Okay

In the heat they've got six minutes to complete the lot

Yep

And in the final the top four go through and they get one minute each a section they go around on mass

So everybody arrived the first one everybody arrived the second and the final is on here on me actually

And is it harder in reverse or everything's harder?

Okay, wow

I mean we're watching the guys walking the course and earlier on when we were filming the pod

It looks hard climbing over it

when you're not on a bike

When you're on a bike

Well, I think I remember you saying last and last year's podcast you said a lot of the riders including maybe yourself

Find it easier on a bike than walking somewhere. The problem is walking you see all the holes where you don't want to be

I don't want to fall off there that'll but on your bike you just

Some places it's easier. I don't want to ride over it. I weren't happy walking over it

I bet they love climbing up there

Yeah, no, it's great. It's uh

And how big's the crowd because we're here like a good couple of hours before the event starts and it's rammed already

Yeah, well, we've got the expo out in the uh in the foyer there

So it's all glass fronted of this lovely building. So there's I think there's 30 stand holders out there

So they can all come in at two o'clock have a look around there

Now you can see that we're on it's pad at walk which is open to all the guests

Yeah, they can see the riders getting ready

I'm not sure how pleased they'll be about it because they've got a process

They've got a plan they walk everything the mind of who cuts the catching

He knows where he wants to be

Where he wants his catcher to be where he wants to drink in the six minutes everything's to mapped out absolutely perfect

So there just building up now from probably about two to 30 until five

Start getting warmed up start doing the tray their pre-race routine and

And then that's it when the lights drop and it comes on

You've got six minutes to deliver

And and uh just the last one

I'm guessing 38 time world champion tony booze the man to be again. He's always a man to be. Yeah. It's absolutely sensational

You know, I I won 12 seven outdoor and five indoor

Absolutely delighted with that. Yeah 38

Unbelievable mad it feels like because he'll stop winning when he stops. Yeah

And that there's nobody in the world like that in any discipline. No, they might never be again. That's it

Yeah, and it's a really nice bloke as well. If you're really annoying

Because I hate him a bit, but he is and it's not he's a really nice boat. He always wants everything harder

Everything no matter how hard it is. He wants you to go again

Have to give him a little cuddle. Yeah go just ride the trail

And we've got he's got a lot of respect for me. I've always done very very well with him

Even though he pinched me right off honda, but anyway, that's another song

Tuggy uh, i'm seo g awesome see you mate. Thank you very much. I love your time. Cheers. Yeah. We'll see you good wood

See you good wood. Yeah, always at good wood. We'll have to get this kind of

Thing going this year. Yeah, we've always we've always got various things going on

We've always got we need to have a day out on the bikes. We said that last time

We'll probably say it next year james ishland. Yeah, he's over there. We'll definitely do yeah

Can we go when sun comes out of it? Yeah, fair weather riders. Yeah, I'll do me

Near the pub. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah

We're gonna go now we're gonna go and have a beer now

You go and enjoy yourselves have a day off leave me with the crap get back to work. See you later

Thanks guys. I hope you really enjoyed that real bonus see duggies honestly the nicest guy on the planet and uh

I'm really excited about tonight. Yeah, no wait. All right. Let's go watch it. He's an owl. He's an owl

Turns Out Being a Female Bike Reviewer is TOUGH ! Ft. @UsernameKate & The Stalker ! | Ep 81 | Drive Torque Podcast

About this episode

BMW

Ducati

KTM

Suzuki

Yamaha TW

Honda CBR

Honda Gold Wing

tonne

kilo

BMW R 1250 GS

Honda

track event

Fireblade

KTM Super Duke

Ducati 750

trellis frame

SV650

Mclaren 650S

Yamaha XJ6

Jaguar XJ6

Peugeot 205 GTI

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