Episode 006 - The People and Experiences We Have Had Riding

Transcript:

(00:01) sometimes you just have to pick up [Music] hitchhikers hello and welcome to best motorcycle roads I'm Tom and I'm Todd we have over 30 years of motorcycling experience and 15 years of planning and riding motorcycle trips we're here to share with you everything we've learned over those years our goal at best motorcycle roads is simple make your next motorcycle trip the best it can be we'll dive into technology planning packing the routes and other tips and everything in between from essential

(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

(01:12) much outside of Harley I think I think Harley will have a decent stock seat everything else in the world that I've ever had stock seats are just horrible like they always say it's made for a 5' 725 pound man who you know I that was probably second grade for me so so yeah so seats I mean you can spend about as much as you want to on a seat um so but I would say that there's kind of the you got your stock seat I'd say you got your midlevel seat maybe your mid high and then you got your premium M

(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

(02:15) yeah you're right but yeah I think it's time uh that I I replace mine I've I've gone to putting a like a bubble pad on it yeah Air Hawk yeah the airhawk and uh that works pretty well um you know it's put a couple more years of life into it but it's it's wor nice wide flat seat you like a couch you know works well yeah I think the differences are see if stock seat and then usually like an Air Hawk which is like an air pad that you could kind of medium yeah there's some that have water in them that are similar to

(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

(03:15) yeah saddleman very similar seat and then then things get there's a premium seat that's that's what's on the bike that I have I'm running a 22 22 Gold Wing that's an ultimate seat so like now we're talking about something that's it's not completely custom but it's really really good yeah outside edges of those thighs are what really start to break down I think what I noticed is longer ride your middle of your bottom starts hurting because you're you're kind of flexing over that seat your legs

(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

(04:15) literally day long riding seats yeah um so yeah I mean seats are so important um to the whole whole thing one thing that's really helped me too that I added to my bike that it didn't come with is I added a back rest yes uh they're not too bad to install yourself if you're a little bit handy and you have some tools um especially if you're going to go on a lot of long rides um you know 4 500 600 day or mile days geez that's like two years but uh you know just having especially in the middle of your back

(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

(05:11) little more you can get a little more or get a little less it kind of that's nice too yeah and then don't forget if you're riding two up a lot you know like a lot of these will sell you just the the driver's seat but you can also get a passenger seat that's helpful and then if you're getting that far then also not all bikes have passenger armrest or they won't have Deluxe yeah and that's nice uh for when the passenger riding for a long time you know they're in a tight spot too so yeah so seats are great um

(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

(06:06) group uh group of friends uh group of strangers try something new you know uh you know try some foods that you haven't tried you know go ziplining if you're afraid of Hypes uh walk on a swinging bridge you know one of those rope Bridges uh ride a mountain slide coaster go listen to some live music you know play some new games those experiences uh are are just Priceless and I think uh the more you can do like that the more fun you're going to have the more camaraderie you're going to build absolutely and um you know in

(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

(07:08) um you know I know you always ask them about uh you know if you see them fueling and they're they're you know like what about their car if it's a interesting car what year is that and sometimes they're pulling trailers you know what kind of boat is that you know where'd you get that tractor you're pulling and uh yeah you have just like really been able to pull a lot of great information out of people and uh it's just really enance the trip and um I I would say just don't be shy you know

(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

(08:01) great impression on you yeah it's one of my favorite things about Trav especially traveling with you because you always try to make the you know the weight staff when we stop at uh restaurants laugh you know by by all your antics by ordering normal things that they never out well that's one thing it never never never ever ceases I don't know how you have the ability to do that but like Tom will order and they don't have that they're out of that they're out of this and they're it's your

(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

(08:58) wherever we stopped at a hotel or whatever for the night and he came to pick us up to take us out for dinner and lo and behold he pulls up in this 1990s uh VW Camper van that was in just fantastic shape and as it turns out you're a huge VW fan uh you're you know your dad had been a VW repair guy for forever um I don't know how many dozens of vws you've owned so all of a sudden you didn't even know him and you you broke into this conversation about vws and you know it was just a great talking

(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

(10:04) yeah after an hour and a half or so we we went and found an Uber to we're in the Uber riding home and you know we said which hotel we were going to and she said oh I I took a guy over there earlier sure enough we're in the same Uber that you were the same person driving so that was that was a fun conversation too she talked all about you hey we were we were having a good time so I think one of the most memorable restaurant that I can think of is is a place that we were in St Charles Missouri oh yeah uh salvator's Italian

(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

(11:01) remember this distinctly you ordered something and she left you know came back 5 minutes like we don't have that anymore okay well then you ordered this she left came back I'm sorry we don't have that either and I think you went through like three dishes like just bring me whatever you have tonight do you have anything I kind of felt like the owner felt bad about the whole thing go ahead he came on so then he offered homemade lemon cellos um unbelievable yeah it was fantastic and so then you know we have a good time

(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

(11:58) so so then go ahead so our waitress is like well you can take my vehicle like not take it but someone will give you a ride yeah and oh my gosh um I've been around Ford wind Stars before but this may been the most broken down Ford winded I think we did stop and get oil for the vehicle I we did we stopped and got a CT of oil it CU it was not well it was rough I think we we could see the ground through the floorboard if I remember right yeah but the nice thing was that uh I remember Chris right Chris was carrying a lot of

(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

(13:09) Charles Missouri look up salvator's Italian Grill I actually reent and looked at it before we hear I guess they have live bands and everything there all the time they didn't have it that night not that night no but uh definitely look it up it's a great place we'll put a link to that Facebook page in our show Notes too so so yeah then you and I took a trip out uh kind of to the southeast and we ended up in North Carolina where a friend of mine Mike um is at not the Mike we ride bikes with but a guy I used to work with

(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

(14:07) of in the middle of nowhere but Mike had bought an old he bought some property and it had an old tobacco shed on it um that he was starting he was in the process while we were there was turning into a house and he was trying to go off grid and he had solar and this gantic Pond it was cool it was cool I remember when we got there uh to get down to where his house you could see the house and you could see the pond but the road was like rocks and boulders and it was steep in one area and you know we've got

(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

(15:03) stopped at the top and walked in walked to his house that point yeah yeah so what a beautiful cool place though I mean my kind of first experience really was someone that with that I knew with a tiny home and what a cool place I mean the guy they were living in the the van remember oh yeah yeah they lived in a van for a year yeah so what a what a cool experience though but he was doing things with solar and all that kind of stuff and really making that tobacco drying shed into aable house yeah it's really cool um kind of to the teaser

(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

(16:11) but it's just like these are the stories I love because it's like oh here's a guy that's broken down we ended up um getting a hold of him figuring out what bike he had and my brother-in-law actually ran to the local store we called they had a chain went and got it for him brought it back and he was able to repair his bike um in the parking lot um of the hotel so it's just another one of those cool things when you see people um you know you want to stop and help him out you know like I don't know it's

(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

(17:12) Memphis it was Memphis went down to Memphis and we had always heard about the rendevu for barbecue so we best barbecue in best barbecue in so we need to get to the rendevu well the rendevu for those who don't know it's the only way to enter it is in an alley it's down in an alley so you're you're walking down a small alley what we didn't realize at the time is rendevu is not open on Monday it's not open uh here we are in we we were wearing matching t-shirts that day because it was our

(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

(18:18) comes around the side of this this Bank uh you know it was deserted closed Bank yeah a closed bank and we go through kind of a side door and he doesn't turn the lights on and you can just tell I don't know that they worked I mean it looked like you're walking into a haunted building because there was cobwebs and there was nothing in there you know the old bank teller stations were in there and he's going follow me and and now we're getting a little nervous because who is this guy what does he want and he starts heading

(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

(19:23) know who he is yet and every Blues artist I think that's ever been in the Memphis area it was amazing it was amazing and he says my name is Tommy Peters and I'm the president CEO of U BB Kings B Kings yeah blues and barbecue blues and barbecue and he hands us his card and not only does he hand us his card but he gives us coupons or certificates for dinners and drinks and desserts at his place and he said dinners on me tonight you know what a nice guy he was I mean he didn't have to do it do that for us he didn't know who

(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

(20:26) think were you wearing a hat that day like one of your I was uh a Iowa hat but it was like a bucket you know that's right yeah bucket hat yeah and it's funny when you wear your your Hawkeye hat all around you always get someone that you know will yell gohawks at you so right um that's always fun too you totally yeah yeah so unfortunately Tommy Tommy passed away actually during uh pandemic I I read that he had Co and 2021 but yeah you know and the funny thing was you know he he told us you know who he was and that and then of

(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

(21:29) questions and suggestions for roads topics and anything else you have on your mind today's roadside Q&A comes from Olivia and Olivia ask what software do you use uh for planning trips and Tom we've tried a bunch but do you want to kind of talk about since you're you're kind of our trip planner so you probably have the most experience with this so basically what I would say first and if you ask for opinions on this you'll get always every time you don't need anything but maps and you know we've

(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

(22:22) another one called FK knot I checked it out um it's kind of cool um I'm not sure if anyone's used it but you you can actually put in start date or start location end location is it a round trip put your dates in it'll actually start it'll kind of plan it for you for motorcycles um car motorcycle all it's it's cool so I'd suggest giving that a shot check it out see what you think give us some comments um you know but also then another good one a lot of people use the Garmin base camp and the

(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.

(23:13) harleydavidson.com there's so many predefined rides in this thing it's it's just amazing um I would highly recommend going out and checking that out search for anything you're searching for and someone has built a ride around it um wow so yeah check that out even if you don't I don't know that you're really planning routes on there but you can find routes and find waypoints on there and then my go-to is really just Google Maps and we'll probably do an in-depth thing on Google

(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

(24:12) in time and take you to that first step so that was kind of the hack that we found and the other hack I would just say is like once you get all those waypoints put in I just save the URL put it in email and and that seems to be the best thing it's not perfect um by no match but it's very fible very easy to tweak and change so yeah and I know that one thing you always do when you're when you're looking at map especially when we're out of state you zoom in a lot in the Earth view and just to make sure you

(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

(25:05) let alone a bike so but yeah I think Google map's pretty good too it just it's good you know you kind of bring it all together and hope that it turns out you learn more as you go yeah there's some tricks to it too absolutely so well we've reached the last mile it's kind of our way to close each episode with our Reflections Todd what's your reflection for today yeah you never know who you're going to meet uh on your next trip um you're going to meet someone interesting someone uh that can tell you a a secret

(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

(26:03) um the next episode will be another root highlight our 2019 trip to North Carolina to visit the Andy Griffith Museum if this episode revved up your day don't just keep it to yourself like subscribe and share it with your crew we're all about the thrill of the ride and the bond it creates keep the spirit of Adventure alive and remember bikes friends and endless roads the stories ride from forever take [Music] care