🏍️ "To all the bikes we've loved before..." | Best Motorcycle Roads: Episode 015

Join Tom and Todd as they share essential gear reviews and vital riding tips to make your motorcycle adventures unforgettable! If you're planning a trip or looking for the best motorcycle gear, this episode is packed with insights from over 65 years of combined riding experience.

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Featured Gear and Tools:

Compact toolkits for road emergencies

Essential maintenance tools: Allen wrenches, metric wrenches, chain lube

Safety must-haves: tire pressure gauges, cleaning solutions

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⏰ Episode Timecodes:

0:00 Intro & Gear Talk

1:14 The Toolkit Overview

3:13 Ride Wise Safety Tips

6:24 Mile Marker: Riding Different Types of Bikes

16:10 Roadside Q&A: Protecting Your Bike

20:26 The Last Mile: Reflections

22:59 Closer and Thanks

#MotorcycleVlog #RiderSafety #GearReview

About Best Motorcycle Roads:

Tom and Todd bring you along on their two-wheeled adventures, sharing the joys of motorcycling and the freedom it offers. Whether it’s a short ride around town or a long journey across states, each episode is designed to help you ride better and safer.

Episode 015 - To all the bikes we've loved before | Best Motorcycle Roads Podcast - YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a38Bkym9jyc

Transcript:

(00:42) from essential prep to Unforgettable Roots we've got you covered before we kick start today's Journey we ask you to sign up for our BMR Rider alerts it's our way of keeping you in the loop with the latest rides tips and stories we promise no spam only the essentials to enhance your motorcycle Adventures join the BMR crew today we'll put a link in the show notes this segment about motorcycle gear reviews and tips we call the toolkit let's talk literal toolkits um it's something that's really small and you

(01:44) of you know usually metric wrenches anymore um if you have a bike that has a chain which is probably rare uh you know you'll need some chain lube just in case and then just always having a few Rags is nice cleaners in cleaning solution if you want it especially um what I've noticed there is like you know cleaning the windshield um at times or just you know it depends on how you're riding but it is nice to have a rag something dripping or dropping them and then a tire pressure gauge um and then as far as

(02:44) works yeah that that would work fine but I like that idea then you're not like you said taking half your toolbox with you and yeah and then a flashlight is usually a good idea as well sometimes you're getting out there at night and uh you just can't I can't see in the day so I need I show you a head lamp oh yeah you do better yeah yeah so it's always good be prepared yep agree ridewise is the section we focus on planning and safety tips when riding with all the different types of bikes um some things

(03:47) man not no 40 miles and you know you just wanted to stand up at that point it was awful uh you know some other things are like the fuel mileage or the range I should say not mileage the range um you know before you're heading on a trip make sure you kind of know in your group how far everyone can go on a on a tank right well and I think we've talked about this a little bit before but it has to do with like if someone has that potato chip seat and they can only ride for 40 minutes even though you want to

(04:51) 53 but the range is the same yeah you know so it really is important to think about that and then knowing also a little bit when the weather is different like if you're riding into the wind everyone's fuel mileage is going to be much worse you know you just you just get tugged down by that and it's it's a difference yeah in highway speeds too if you're out on the Interstate 65 70 75 miles per hour you might yeah you might lose 10 miles per gallon and then you know two up you know again or if you're

(05:55) no it's it's joking but yeah you you'll eat a lot more bugs when your windshield's smaller yeah that's true or you don't have a windshield yeah well it's technically had one yeah right I just wouldn't recommend it for a long trip not to have one the next segment is what we call the mile marker it's our story segment for the mile marker story today we're going to talk about a suggestion U made by Interceptor Moto heads up to Interceptor Moto he said you know like how is it different um taking

(06:55) usually kind of like a dual sport or adventure bike kind of on off-road um you know one of the things that's funny when you talk about that is that like really thing that makes the Dual Sport the Dual Sport is the tires and so like if you're on something that's comfortable on the street it's probably not going to be very effective if you get off the road but there are some options there so when you think about that you're thinking about the the vrom you're thinking about the um the Kawasaki versus which is a little

(07:55) is a completely different look than when you're riding on the north side of Lake Superior and that's pretty fun but you know there's a lot of great rides across the US Wisconsin has what they call the trans Wisconsin Trail a lot of jeeps and advv bikes go on that there's the Trans America Trail too which lots of gravels lots of off-road uh private party land that's been you know asked you know people have got permission um so you know ADV riding is pretty cool it it's fun if you're into that sort of thing um

(09:04) it's not good for a guy my size to be riding that bike period let alone Thousand Miles um so I remember seeing photos of you laying flat on your back in a parking lot to recover from that was we it was a three-day trip that was day three and I remember it 10 o'clock in the morning we stopped at a at just a gas station and both Brad and I were just laying on the concrete thinking we're as far away from home as we can be dang near and so yeah you know funny thing I remember we get back on and then

(10:07) standard bikes are probably like pretty nice bike to ride on like Universal if you were just had to have one bike forever maybe that'd be a good one to have so yeah what about Cruisers Todd yeah I think one of my first long multi-day trips anyway uh was on a cruiser uh I had a I think I mentioned already the 99 uh Yamaha Royal Star um you know and I had the highway pegs I had a windshield I had you know bags on locking bags on the sides but um I think I had replaced the seat before that first trip maybe not I maybe that's

(11:20) into the corners like that and so um I just remember like the end of the day is like neck tired shoulders tired arms tired just from so much work it was just a lot of work um you know the center of gravity was probably a little higher on that bike too because it was a you know like a V V4 engine on that so um that didn't help but even though there was a lot of storage you know the good things were the bike had a lot of weight to it so on the highway I didn't get blown around by trucks you know that that kind

(12:27) it was you're right uh that was a v twin but I didn't I didn't go on multi-day trips with that one if I remember correctly but the thing I didn't like about that one I just I felt like I was on a like a John Deere tractor was like that yeah it was a v twin yeah not a low of pick up I don't know I just didn't I did feel like I was down in the bike though it was a cruiser swep back handlebars you sat down low yep uh you kind of lean back a little bit feet out in front of you so that was fine I just

(13:28) they're just less leaning so you're more manhandling true so I know that we were up um you know we went up to like a lacrosse Lac Crescent area and he he was like oh I'm ready for a break and I was like oh I didn't think about that you know so so I know that like you said feels steady feels beefy nice in the bike feel little more work yeah sure a little more work mhm and then I guess lastly is probably what you and I would consider the very best it's just touring bikes um I think like the

(14:44) talking I think over the last few episodes like Android auto is starting to be you know a carplay so you're having like phone connections put the phone in the back you get a nice screen I mean they're just becoming more advanced technologically as well I think that's where you're seeing more technology show up on the touring bikes built in GPS yeah all that stuff it's pretty cool um yeah for it's by far my favorite bike I wish I would have bought one a lot a long time ago I mean I didn't need all the other bikes just

(15:44) don't buzz around town I guess that much so uh true yeah but you know so as far as that goes I said I'd probably I'd probably say I'd like the the touring break as well so but yeah we pretty much just ride touring we're not riding too much commuting or anything I mean if you're commuting I'm sure you're going to want something that's a little tighter easier to get around with more like a standard yep yeah the podcast can be found on best motorcycleroads.

(16:42) yeah um I don't know for me Tom I don't know in in 25 years I haven't or 30 years I haven't really worried about that you know and I don't know if it's maybe the we're staying kind of in smaller towns or we're staying on the outskirts of town we're not you know down in cities or or anything like that so you know I've never really worried about it I mean I do take my GPS off the bike if it's on the handlebars I'll take my phone in of course y you know carry my helmet in because usually I'm

(17:40) a couple times CU I didn't like it I was really I downtown Iowa City and I'm thinking great this is perfect somebody will steal it then I can get a new one they didn't I think if you're concerned about it there's a couple things that's interesting so a lot of times you're going to mount the GPS's with a Ram Mount And so there's either the the RAM mount brand or there's some other brands that have a I guess you'd call it a it's a special key or something yeah um you

(18:36) at night time if you want to take it in you can pop it off um we may have talked about this in the past but another good um short-term solution for when you're like going to you know going to walk around in a town or if you're going to a restaurant you can get one of the um the bike locks like for a bicycle um they usually have a cable and then you can string that through your helmet and you can string it through your jacket and then if you have bags you could string it through your bags if they're

(19:33) something that we use for um for protection at night but also you know kind of out of sight out of mind throw the cover over the bike and most people are not going to Monkey around with getting in it if they if they can't see it um you know so if you throw a cover on they've got full covers half covers and those cover up everything and then they're not looking at it and they're just you know yeah I throw a half cover on at night as well and yeah you know like you said if if if it's more work to

(20:26) I've really enjoyed you know I know you guys make fun of me because I change bikes you know more than my underwear maybe but I've enjoyed the different motorcycles um I actually even have like a little scooter that I sometimes write around like it's a Honda 600 there's a they're a onepe you know I think it's fun just to experience all the different bikes um I can't say that I'd want to own one of them all because I don't think I would drive them that much but it's been fun just learning about them

(21:26) we were there and I may have told this before but we met met this old guy and he had an old Kawasaki you know bike and a bubble windshield and it was just fun like that guy was just enjoying life and I don't know you know it's a joke or not but the worst day riding a motorcycle sometimes feels like the best day not and so for me it's just enjoying them all but you know yeah it's fun yeah and uh you know hearing you say that reminded me one of my favorite bikes that I ever had was really my first bike

(22:28) Cruiser you know has really revolutionized things or not Cruiser sorry touring bike and uh um you know but it's it it was probably a nice stepping stone to go through the smaller bikes and then work my way up to I and honestly like the older you get the more Comforts feel better abolutely even after our most recent ride I think my hands hurt for a couple days and I have these big comfy grips on there you know so it's fun you know that's it's awesome so if this episode revved up your day don't keep it to yourself please like