Episode 006 - Tom and Todd of 'Best Motorcycle Roads' delve into the heart of motorcycling: the people and experiences encountered on the road. They emphasize the importance of comfortable seating, with a detailed discussion on various seat types and enhancements like the Air Hawk. The episode highlights the value of being open to new experiences and people, sharing memorable stories from their rides, including unexpected encounters and the joy of meeting new friends along the way.

Episode 006 - The People and Experiences We Have Had Riding

Transcript:

(00:41) prep to Unforgettable routes we've got you covered before we Kickstart 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 today I think we should talk about seats Todd yeah let's talk about seats pretty

(01:47) um yeah and and there's a big difference between them there's a huge difference I know that um on every bike I've had up until right now actually I've always replaced the seat now I'm currently riding a 2002 Gold Wing and uh the seat for the first probably 12 years was fine uh but now it's kind of broken down a little bit I definitely need a new seat but I might just get a different bike uh before I do that but anyway you would get a different seat then well I would get a different seat

(02:45) an Air Hawk and then kind of beads and and um like sheep skins that's your kind of second tier then you get into that replacement seat Um Mustang saddleman are two of the kind of mid tier great great Advan ment from what you're yep I've used the the Mustang before as well great seat usually gives you just a little bit more back in the tailbone section and then it doesn't usually have a back rest but it has a like you kind of bump up to that back and it's a pseudo back rest I guess I would call it

(03:43) are drooping down so when you get in the ultimate seat you're probably talking about a $700 seat maybe a, and then you can go full-on crazy not crazy they're great I mean you're talking about um you know custom yeah Russell day long there's a couple other good on we can put those in show notes but now you're talking about you send in your stock seat you take pictures of you on the bike they customize it just for youh and man I've had not one made for me but a but a a Russell dayong game Cher

(04:47) that lower you know it's like a lumbar support right there and boy those make it nice and I know there's people that they say they don't like them because they feel like they can't swing their leg over their seat you know get out like a normal most of them will fold down fold down yeah most of fold flat yeah and uh that's been a game changer for well and I most of those will just so you can kind of you can get a little more or a little less so even in the middle of the day if you're getting a

(05:37) you know if you're just trying your first one maybe try one of the Air Hawks um but I think it's it won't take long and you want to get kind of a fullon seat tons of research can be done here tons of opinions I'm sure you'll hear it all when you do the research ridewise is the section we focus on planning and safety tips and uh I want to talk about the importance of being open to new experiences and people during uh your road trips um you know when you're when you're out on a motorcycle ride with a

(06:38) talking to people along the way I know when we stop it uh to fill up with fuel Tom you can just guarantee that Tom is going to break into a conversation with the next person that walks out of the convenience story he going to how you doing and uh oh boy he just gets these conversations going with people and you know they know you're out from out of town and they some sometimes just want to tell you about their town you know that hey you should go eat at this place you should go take a look at this park you know we've got some great overlooks

(07:34) it's pretty easy to you know and people are willing to talk to you I think most of the time it's it's a whole lot of fun people like to talk about themselves right so yeah what the heck yeah ask good questions and and you know I just want to say have respect you for people you know if they don't want to talk that's fine too uh but you know by talking to people you know you just you get a feel for different cultures and and um you know you you can make a great great impression on them they can make a

(08:27) special it's your special tea [Laughter] you have a neck for that oh my gosh the number of times sometime it's always happens every time every time every time the next segment is what we call the mile marker it's our story segment yeah do you want to talk about Dave well so I have a friend that lives up in uh Northern Minnesota and um we were going to ride through Minnesota and I kind of wanted to stop and see him I hadn't seen him in in quite a few years and uh told them we were coming on our way and uh

(09:29) point it was a way to you know it get to know somebody that was and it was fun just to go he took us out to eat to a place he liked and that was cool too yeah that was great um you know funny thing we were at in Wisconsin I think was it Oshkosh Oshkosh yeah yeah you guys wanted to go see uh hairball we did so everyone went to hairball and I bowed out early um you were there to start with well there's barbecue oh yeah so I said I'm going to take off I grabbed Uber home and then you guys later on after you were done having a good time

(10:36) Grill yeah um from the start of the night to the end of the night was great I think it was the first time we said hey let's let's grab an Uber you know then we don't have to drive the bikes it'll be good we can have a beer or whatever so we did that then we end up there with a great waitress and then the owner comes in he's like I'm making my own lemon cellos right like we should all have those we got to back up you're get you're getting too far ahead so this this was another one of those times I

(11:31) we're having fun with everyone we're everything's going well yeah and then you guys are always giving given the the weight staff a hard time in in fun I mean they they were laughing right along with us but then you know it's like oh let's get an Uber home and there were no Ubers they were done they were done for the night this like it's not like it's 2: in the morning this was like 9 8 we couldn't find an Uber I don't think lft was around then but yeah we there was no rides home there was no taxis in in town

(12:37) money in his hand and not only at the at the restaurant uh gave this huge tip yeah which she cried I remember it made her day but then when we wrote in I thought it was my jokes the crying part yeah but then when we rode in this this van that obviously needed a lot of work um then everybody just threw in a bunch money and and tipped her we didn't have any other way to get home so it was very nice for her to yeah we were in trouble offer her fan up that was that was cool so if you're ever in if you ever find yourself in St

(13:38) in a previous job and uh you know he he had he's he was always talking the whole time we were there he's like I'm buying a tiny house I'm living off the grid I'm like whatever Mike um Mike is also the guy that one time was sleeping in the warehouse racks with a sleeping bag but Mike you know you did it so anyway that's a so he's accustomed to small spaces is what I'm trying to say but so we went down and I I don't remember I have it saved on my maps I don't remember what town it was by it was kind

(14:36) these gold wings well I had a Gold Wing I was borrowing breads oh that's right you were on a Gold Wing and we're like there's no way I mean we're going to bottom out we're going to wreck our bikes or crash going down this hill and I'm on a borrowed bike and I remember coming in hot and I hit the grass if you I don't know if you remember that do I ended up like going yeah the the roads are different down there yeah and so luckily for thank God I didn't put the bike down right there yeah so we stopped we

(15:34) here you know picking up hitchers I just remember Canadian Randy and Randy we met on the side of the road in ky ky Illinois uh my ex- brother-in-law and I were doing an Iron Butt our th000 miles in 24 hours and we were 20 20 hours in so we had plenty of time and we were just a mile away from the place we had to check in so there was a a guy pushing his bike down the side of the road and he broke his chain and turns out that Randy is in Canada he's a cool guy we've I've you know since kept up with Randy

(16:41) just it's cool and you know now I follow this guy on Facebook chat with him that guy rides all over the place Randy you know who you are so um yeah so that was that was pretty cool just a something I always remember it was in Spring and uh I just remember him pushing that bike he was running it down the road just trying to get to where where everyone was at you know um where this rally was at so it was cool yeah it one of my alltime favorite stories has to be in Nashville uh we we took a trip down to Nashville oh it was Memphis I'm Sor

(17:42) Memphis uh you know Memphis day or what Memphis day whatever on our t-shirts and we're walking down this alley and we walked over to the Rendevous and it was closed so we turned around and started walking back and here comes this guy down the alley and he said uh hi y'all doing he said uh he said uh like you want you want the best barbecue in Memphis when Rendevous is closed and we said sure and so we started he said follow me and he takes us continuing down that that alley he didn't know us we didn't know him and pretty soon he

(18:50) down this the set of steps down into the basement and one of the guys in our group was like guys I'm going to stay up up here he said you know if if you need me just yell start yelling so he stayed up at the top of the stairs and this guy takes us in and he opens the vault door and it you know it's one of these old vaults you know couple couple feet thick and we start to walk in and he flips the lights on and this was his private office and the walls were lined with photos of this guy who we don't even

(19:57) we were and um what an experience that was and just looking through all those it was amazing those photos Junior Wells and BB King and you know you name it they he was on the wall standing next to him you know yeah it that was cool yeah and you know again I mean just happen stance yeah you know I mean you could have easily said you know get out of my way guy you know like but you know you just that's that what we talk about is just being nice being open smiling and seeing what happens you know yeah and I

(20:59) course after we got home from the trip then I had to look him up you know and wow he was he was a big I mean he was well known very well known you know and it wasn't just that place that he had so yeah it was cool it was really neat yeah right on the podcast can be found on best motorcyc roads.com podcast all the information you need will be there uh but you can subscribe on Spotify Amazon music apple pocketcast and YouTube this is the interactive segment we will be looking for input from you we want you to send us your

(21:58) talked talked about this in previous episodes but I like to plan the route ahead of time like I like to get it done like to have it in the GPS so I don't have to think as much when we go that's my thing but so yes you actually can use maps and you can bring the maps too and Trust meing about paper maps right paper maps or you know laminated but they they stink they're hard to read you're looking down and you need to go forward so but some other suggestions that we have read about online is there's

(22:51) reason why I use Garmin Bas Camp is it's their their software it's a little clunky to use but it really Imports well into garment Garmin to Garmin and it works well so like if you're just a Garmin it's a little bit hard to get the learning curve but once you learn it it isn't too bad and then one of the best ones is that it's called the Harley ride planner I think it's maps.

(23:40) Maps and how to really get it working better for you but uh but basically for Google Maps is what what gets people hung up the most is you can get that map looking right but when you um move that map on your phone you move that map onto a garment the the way points they will change you know and then and then when you're doing it on your phone the one thing the super tip that we found is the first place you want to put is your location literally right in your location because it will always be where you are at that moment

(24:38) haven't cuz you always check well you always pick two-lane roads or small roads yeah and then you always zoom in to make sure we're not turning onto a gravel road right yeah and it's hard I mean that's the one thing about Google Maps is it will take you on gravel roads yeah it'll take you on a u I've had it want to take me on a um like a uh what do they call those the national park like a mining Road like it'll take you on weird roads that you probably shouldn't be on in a car

(25:34) place to eat or a secret place to visit so I would say smile at people talk to them say hi tell them where you're from what are you looking for and uh you never know what you might find yeah and for me it's be nice smile listen to what people have to say like just ask a silly question like what you doing today you like I don't know it doesn't matter people like to talk and you know if you're nice smileing at them they're usually nice and if they're not someone else behind them is yeah that's right so