Latest / JUSTRIDE Podcast / The Truth About Motorcycle Gear | Ed from BikerHeadz | JUSTRIDE Podcast Ep.10
Transcript
- Audio: So welcome back to Just Ride where we talk all things motorcycling, the bikes, the stories and occasionally the arguments around what gear we should actually be wearing. And tonight we're wearing modeling the new Just Ride merchandise, which you can get on the store, And they are pretty good, they? Pretty good. And we've got somebody with us tonight who knows a lot about clothing and we're going to really deep in. deep deep dive into all of that. But today's guest is someone who's been around motorcycles pretty much his entire life. Ed Miles started riding at four years old, was selling motorcycle clothing by the age of 14, although he reckons it was 16, but on here it says 14. And it's the only job he's ever had. Over the years, he's worked with top brands like Rukka, Shuberth and Halverson's, helping improve rider knowledge, dealer understanding. and influencing how motorcycle gear is actually developed and tested. But beyond the industry side, he's just a proper lifelong biker from motorcross and track riding to touring France on his VTR and growing up surrounded by bikes, racing and the British super bikes. And judging by his questionnaire that he sent a couple of weeks ago, this might also become the episode where we accidentally start an argument about Gore-Tex carbon helmets. and why Pinlock is both overrated and underrated at the same time. That'll be interesting. Ed Miles, welcome to Just Ride. Where do we start with that, Four year old, four year old, you started riding the bike. mean, was it an S1000 there? Welcome to the show, by the way. ⁓ I know you've brought loads of stuff. You should see what's down here. What's down here is a bag of goodies. We've been having a bit of a... Before we went on air, we've been playing around with gloves and stuff and we're hoping we're going to get some massive discount for the stuff that we won. Did I mention? Are we live? We are live and you So it's going to be an interesting show. We're going to talk about all sorts of things about clothing and you've got some stuff to get out, which is great. But come on, tell us how at four-year-old... Did you start riding? So the road I grew up on had an enormous amount of motorcycles essentially. So there's about 40, 45 houses on the road. But in those houses we had a huge amount of motorcycles. My best friend growing up, his father's a scrambler and he builds BSA Victor Cheney framed scramble bikes. So both his sons were trials riders and my best friend growing up had a PW50, which I was allowed to have a go on. Now most people my sort of age probably if they started riding that small was on a PW50. ⁓ his dad just told me to just not turn throttle too hard. turned it too hard, wrote up a tree, landed on me and that's how I started riding. So I haven't really got much better at it. ⁓ So you've got all the gear, no idea. ⁓ that. I a joke in early. I look good on bike. ⁓ I used to on the PW 50s to take the little screw out so you could turn the full throttle. yeah. Yeah, yeah. don't think the screw is in on this one. Yeah. I'm surprised you're not a Moto GP rider if you're riding since you were four years old. As a, well, the person who owned the bike could have been me on the other hand, didn't have the talent. So it sounds like, it sounds very much that you basically, walked out your front door and you were in a paddock. You were in a Moto GP paddock with all the bikes and the people on the road. Well, house had a lot of bikes because his dad built them. His engine still does to this day, builds the bills of the bikes himself. But my dad also rode. So we always had a C90 in the back garden. And then we had, I think the most we had was about six bikes at one time. me and my brother both had one. Did you put the C90 up a tree as well? No, no, I didn't. I love an AR 50 as one of my first rides. Yeah. Again, people my age. That's what you have. Yeah. Because you can put an AR 80 engine. Yeah. So riding bikes and should foyer old and then by 14 you were selling motorcycle clothing. I don't think that's actually legal. It's 30 years ago, so think it's okay. It can't be that long ago. It beats a paper round, doesn't These guys definitely want a free kit. ⁓ Loads. ⁓ So yeah, I didn't want to do a paper round, is what it boils down to, because it's too cold and hard. ⁓ I decided it doesn't pay enough. So essentially I walked into the local bike shop, just asked the manager if he had a job. And yeah, he said, we start next weekend. Wow. ⁓ yeah, so my first hour, day one in about the first hour. Just a guy came in, sent him after an hour I got the manager over and said he needs an hour I and the guy went well sell him one. So that was my first sale and you know in the 90s hour I was basically the number one helmet across the board if you were buying a decent helmet it was going to be an hour I. Showy would just start to come up but it was still really hour I or AGV maybe. you remember how much he paid for his helmet at that point? ⁓ Threatens. I mean I could say a number that wasn't far off, probably around 300 would be my guess. Yes. Shillings. Ed doesn't look that old, come on. Yeah, they've always been a premium helmet haven't they? If you look at it, they haven't gone up that much, really. I know you get thousand pound helmets now, but specifically our eye, they haven't gone up that much compared to what they were back then. Yeah. tell you what, if Scott Allandry walked in, you could have sold him 10 helmets. Well, judging by how he's got down there, I think I'm going to win. I don't have a checkbook, but know, they're definitely going to be spending more money than I'm allowed. Double pay? You've got to be careful by saying what he's got down there and pointing him to the desk. It's a family friendly show. It's not like that at all. It's OK. He's got gloves. Gloves. So, OK, we see you started doing that. Obviously you were particularly good at it, otherwise you wouldn't be doing what you're doing now. So that was probably a good grounding, wasn't it, for a really understanding kit? How did that whole kind of thing evolve from? my, think, is my third manager at J &S at Newbury. Mick, who's now working with me again. was... Shout out to Mick. He was a top guy. Well, he's a TT racer. So he won two TTs as a sidecar passenger of Rob Fisher. And he did GP racing as well. If we had an accident and broke his femur, so he decided to quit at that point. He was a motorcycle city employee back in the 90s, early 90s, and they were very keen on getting everyone trained to high standards. They knew the kit. So his whole thing was learning about the kit, knowing everything about the kit. So you knew how to sell. And that sort of separated us from lot of the other stores in the area. So we actually got all the manufacturers in to train us. And that I found that's really interesting, exciting. It was about bikes, which is I like doing. So why not do it for living? And I talk nonsense constantly. we'll get into the kind of you behind or certainly working with manufacturers on the kind of development of chlorine. We'll get into a little bit later on, but let's talk about your bikes. So your first road bike and your first off road bike. What do you remember about those early years? Well, if we talk about the first road bike, the AR50, we said, if we talk about actual bike, not because that's class of the moped of course, was an RS125 SP. Pretty a silver one. It was the racer who'd ordered to them and just decided not to race from Chris Clark in North Norfolk Oh, yes, Norwich. Yeah, so he'd ordered them in for this racer then gave up so weirdly a friend of mine at schools reading through my own psychic news and spotted these two RS-125s for sale for about a thousand pounds off each So me and my friend got in my dad's car drove up and bought them both immediately So we ended up these two RS-125 SPs. What a great dad you have I do have a good day. Talk about him later. Nor Tom. There were 3,800 think at the time. So yeah, I love that bike. Beautiful. And never let me down for an Aprilia. Everyone said it would. Never went wrong. It's perfect. I it. I'd have it back now. Shame I sold it. we've all got those stories. Yeah, yeah, yeah. course. I haven't. Off-road was a CR125, so both two strokes. So it basically talking about the Honda off-road version of the RS125. So that was my first race bike off road, the CL125, which I got from somewhere down in the Southwest. Can't remember then in the shop, but yeah, it's a beautiful bike. I love riding it, lightweight, easy for me to ride. Cause as I say, the talent isn't that good. So less power is good. And you obviously rode those road and dirt. What out of those two kind of riding conditions was your favorite or is your favorite? Definitely road. Definitely road. Yeah. Well, cause I was motocrossing, it's really hard work. It's exhausting. It's physically exhausting and by the end just shattered. Yes, you get it's exciting and the adrenaline's flowing but in terms of having a relaxing day out that is not what that is Yeah, it's a young man's game. Really. Yeah, that's my friend proved the other day. We won't go into that But yeah, it's a it's great fun for a day. But a day in day out road riding is I haven't done any off-road in but I prefer the road at the moment until we do well We are we are we've got something planned to go off-road. We're gonna gonna take some cameras. We're gonna go and learn ride off road I don't want to do it but we're gonna do it we're do it we'll be fine but but you prefer the road and where if you're gonna go because obviously you're from down Newbury I was close where's the kind of best place that you Newbury bypasses. it? I've been down it once. There was still protesters. Yeah, it's the only thing people know about Newbury so I thought I'd be very proud to bring it up. No, riding on track would be Donington Park for road track by mile. National circuit, not GP, because the Melbourne loops are waste of time really. It's just there to make the distance. I love the Melbourne loop though. Heavy braking and wobbling around. You might be better than me. No, no, no. You've roared it. I've never roared it. But as spectator, I really like the Melbourne Loop at the bottom. I really like it. But I agree with you. I think it's a wonderful, wonderful circuit, isn't it? Yeah, dropping down through Craner Curves and up through Swanses and all that is just amazing. I ⁓ think I've ever got the line right because it's really hard unless you're a really good rider. And if you're an amateur like me, it's very difficult to get it And it's good on small capacity bikes. So I had RGVs for ages and was riding RGVs on that track. Beautiful to ride. ⁓ And you ride alone. ⁓ quite a bit Donnie and there was something I picked up on is that you you and I'll quote just you and you alone explain that feeling why do you? Why do I ride or moan? It's a mental health thing I guess and also you can focus on what you're doing you're not worried about the people around you and where they are and what they're up to and what they're saying on the comms or ⁓ you know where they're going the right way waiting for people those things which shows I like to just ride or moan and completely blank mind essentially focus on riding and I think it's good just switching off really from everything else so ⁓ it's quite nice. And I bet that's riding with all the best kit, isn't it as well? I'm never cold or or wet. It's really quiet and nice. Everything's working. We are going to get onto the kit a little bit later on. yeah, it's interesting because we talk about where we go quite a bit. And obviously we've got our local stuff. But I mean, the newbie bypass is absolutely brilliant. where do you get into Wales from where you are then? Yeah, it's easy to in South Wales, which obviously isn't. isn't the best part of Wales, but yeah, can move to the north and you can do the roads from where I am. It's only about an hour and a half from where live to Wales, till you're out of the bit that's awful on the M4. ⁓ So we can get into those bits and road riding, obviously people ride around the local area, don't they? A lot. That's where you ride. I've got a two year old, so I can't go out for five or six hours. It's an hour here, an there to ride. ⁓ And then if I'm going abroad, obviously do the same sort of thing as most people down through France and Spain. you do spend quite a bit in Europe, John, you're going to some of the partners that you work Yeah, I mean, there's not much riding going on. There's a lot of sitting in offices talking about a kit, which, you know, there's worse jobs. But essentially, I go to all the manufacturers that we deal with. We talk about how they're going to move forward with the products in the future, their ideas, our ideas, what we want, what we don't want. They talk about new technologies, think so should be in or whatever. But it's an interesting job. We go all over a lot of time in Scandinavia and Germany. You got to the Moxagos show in ⁓ Angama. I ⁓ Ike was insane if you haven't been. It's running from hall to hall, trying to get to all the meetings you have to have essentially. ⁓ It's big, isn't it? It's a massive place. 19 odd different halls to go into. And ⁓ there's halls just with Chinese products, halls just with ⁓ Indian and Pakistani products. And then There's the vehicles with the Hondas and the Amahals and stuff. Yeah, it's crazy. But if you get the chance to go, it's definitely worth going because you'll see things you haven't seen before, bikes you haven't seen before. I was going say, so how long have you been in the industry now? 30th year. 31 years. what would you say, what do you enjoy the most? Well, I like the motorcycle industry. What about the industry, working in the industry? I like the people, I like the products. But yeah, really I like products. That's what I'm into, is the truth. I do like a lot of the people and that we can talk about bikes and you talk about your hobby and all those sort of things. Products in motorcycle clothing are extremely interesting. are people that argue they haven't moved on that much, but when you look at the detail, they haven't moved on quite a lot in the last few years. mean, a helmet is still a shell, and a piece, and a comfort lining. jacket is still two arms and a zip, which is one of the retail's favorite expression when I'm sharing a new product. He's like, it's just two arms and a zip, same as all of them. And you don't use comms, do you? No. Yeah, I mean, that's weird for us, literally comms is everything that we do, isn't it? Because we like it. Sometimes we wish that we didn't. Well, there's that. ⁓ can never find the mute button to mute these people. But I just want to ask a question because I know that from reading a little bit of the bio stuff before today's pod, I want to know about the ⁓ Donington and also the Norton's, the Norton's all those years back and how did they inspire you as well? my first race meeting I ever went to, road racing, was ⁓ I think it was at Thruxton, I can never quite remember. I've got the program at home still from 1988. I think it was, and I think the Nortons were, ⁓ the JPS Nortons, the black ones, so they just entered. Brian Crichton developed the sea spray and trevination, and they were dominating everything. And when you're a seven year old, you just pick the best, you? I guess, you if you haven't got a local football team, you're gonna pick the best team at the time. They're gonna be your team, because they're winning. But I thought the JPS guys looked amazing. The bikes sounded incredible. Very fast, British. It takes a lot of boxes and you know they were just dominating the racing so it really got me into road racing them and then we went to the GP the year after with Kevin Swanson on the Pepsi Suzuki. ⁓ yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah and you will as well Scott you remember the the Norton's as well won't you and all of the fanfare around them when they came back in. ⁓ And it was, it was, I know we're all glued to our TVs at point one where you were looking up to be there. They sort of changed the game. They bought a big truck to the events with all the merchandise in, which no one was doing that a big professional unit with all stuff. And it just, it really, they led the way in that. think certainly in the UK scene, a hundred percent. And it seems like not doing the same thing again. Yes. They seem to, you know, have a release for that. One of their new bikes. Yeah. So No one's looked the reviews out yet though. No, no, it's not allowed. We saw some of their bikes at Norton Motorcycle Live. They had a stand-up motorcycle live and they looked amazing. have to say, great to see Norton back, given what happened a few years ago. But yeah, we will talk about it. But it's good to see them back. Worth a visit to the factory. Yes, I've been told that. Obviously the new ones aren't 100 % made there, but it's all worth going out and all the pinstriping they do and all that. a Commando up there around two years ago. Definitely worth a visit. Do they have like a visitor centre or something like that? Yeah, you can book it and they'll take you around the factory and take you for a tour around. Did not know that. We had someone on the show last week who's I think we're, oh I don't know whether that was announced yet, but hopefully he'll get us in to the Norton factory. I've said it. Anyway. I'm talking in middles again. Sorry to that person. We'll get in. We'll get in guys. We'll go and have a look and hopefully take our cameras in with us. Yeah, and I'm going to Triumph Factory this year as well. Have you ever been? No, never been. I've been. Yeah, so I'm going to the Triumph Factory this year. ⁓ Yeah, so it was ⁓ bought as a gift for me. So I'm going to go with my wife and I'm going to go and enjoy the experience. It is. that for your special It was for my special birthday. Yes, my 40th birthday. ⁓ We all know that's not true. Well, you have been milking your special. We've had more trips to the ivory tree than. Yeah. Got that new bike yet? But so tell us about clothing then. OK, you've worked with some of the huge motorcycle brands. What do most riders fundamentally misunderstand about? about gear and we're going to get really into gear tonight and you're going to get some of your wisdom but what do you think people misunderstand about gear? lots of things they misunderstand I mean you sort of have to go into them when you shy a little bit there's a couple of topics we can talk about first of all I've got a couple of bits down here that I'll show you in a second so if we talk about helmets helmets are generally good to be frank about it they have to pass EC2206 now so if you're buying a helmet from a reputable company It's going to be a good helmet now. EC2206 isn't an easy standard to pass. So you're going to get a decent product if you buy it from a good company. As long as you're not buying off eBay from someone you've not heard of, you're going to get a decent product. But as you go through helmets, you get more features that are important to riding. So the thing most people misunderstand is they think they're buying kit for safety. They're not. Most people think that's why they're buying it. The reason we bought all our kit, or specifically our helmets, wasn't because it's the safest one on the market. We bought it because it's the one that looks the nicest, it fits the best. feels the nicest, the right price. Or it's got the right comfort features. It doesn't make your head look like a ping-pong ball. we don't talk about that anymore. But you're right, we've done that. We've gone for it. I mean, because there's a certain standard you think might rule. Yeah, if you're buying a top-brand helmet, you're assuming the safety is there anyway, aren't you? You're assuming if you buy a Shoei, an Aria, Shoei, a Scorpion, an HJC, a Shark, I won't mention all of them, but loads of brands are good brands that make good... good quality products, you're gonna get a safe product. Then you're down to polycarbonate fibreglass carbon. Polycarbonate is cheaper. It doesn't perform as well in high-speed impacts but performs very well in low-speed impacts, weirdly, because it flexes more. Then you get fibreglass, which is the middle, which the majority of helmets are made of, and then you get carbon at the top end, price points, and carbon, the benefit of carbon is it's a lot lighter. But apparently not all carbon helmets are the same. That was a nice segue, wasn't it? That was really good, Carbon helmets, when you buy a carbon helmet, you're not carbon fiber as we see on our bikes. When you buy most carbon fiber helmets, they're built in the same way as a fiberglass helmet, which is essentially you get a sheet of the carbon material, you put it into a mold, you put a balloon into it, so you put the resin in first, then you put the balloon in, then you shut it. The pressure and the heat forms the shell, basically. That's how you make a helmet, give or take, every time, apart from polycarbonates. The second way of doing it is the way Schubert do it. And I know I work for Shubertz that will sound like a sales pitch, but I'll talk about the way they do it slightly different. The way Shubertz do it is they use an autoclave and they use pre-impregnated resin. So the benefit of that is essentially they line the shells with the carbon, the molds with the carbon, then they put it into a wrap, a vacuum pulls all the air out, goes into an autoclave. That takes about 30 minutes to cook the shell. When you use a blue method, it takes about three minutes. So 30 minutes gives you a much better quality of product. And the key with that is... When I said they pour the resin in, you can't be exact about where the resin goes within the shell. So when you use pre-impregnated resin, you get a perfect shell every time because it's it's exacting. So. Does that mean then it's in that respect, it's stronger and more stable? It's more stable and it's more balanced. So when when a shoe berth comes on the production line, a standard shoe berth, not a carbon one, which is ⁓ a form with DFP processing. My answer today, it's just a way of putting the materials into the mold essentially. When the resin goes in, just fills the holes between all the fibers, but they don't know where the resin goes. So it isn't exact. So when it comes off, it goes into a machine that measures where it goes. There's little red and green dots on this thing. Every shell goes through it, every single one. And if it's wrong and there's too much resin in one place, the helmet's unbalanced, it gets rejected. Or if there's too little, so it's dangerous, it gets rejected. I don't know how many manufacturers have done this. Shubert's the only one I've seen doing it. ⁓ So that gives you an idea that there are tolerances, so you're not getting infection. when you get the carbon shells, are essentially coming out perfect. And this is what they use for the mattress, that happens. Helmet F1, for example. Okay. So you're going to get your helmet on your viewers. Very long. Oh, is. I get the shell out first. So this is a carbon shell made with autoclave technology. One thing I will mention to this and some of you've got carbon helmets and some of you will definitely have carbon helmets. If they're playing carbon without a graphic on, have a look around the visor area around the vent area. You'll see black spray marks around those areas. because that's where it's not finished perfectly. So they use the paint to cover the imperfections and the finish. When you buy a Schubert carbon, it's perfect. So there are no black spray marks. And as far as I can tell, it's the only helmet on the market that is built like this. You're definitely going to have to have some noise cancelling with that. The wind noise and that's a lot of horrendous. So I do have one of these here, if you can pick me up. This is a Schubert S3. This is not available yet. So this is unreleased unreleased should be coming out a few weeks. I think roughly into the UK market So you are seeing it here first? Yep seeing it first. This is full carbon shell s3 It's gonna be the lightest full-face touring helmet with a drop down some visor on the market Obviously comes a pinlock and those things but as you can see, there's no particularly on the visors No, they spray marks that's because it's a hundred percent carbon fiber Most carbon fiber shells have fiberglass. That looks like very, very, very, You can see that it's light the way you're holding it because it's really light. Yeah, so super lightweight and it's F1 technology essentially so only I think it's three or four manufacturers are allowed to make F1 helmets. Does that make you go faster because it's F1? Correct, very light. I do like the Schuberth helmets I have done since I had my S2. It's just the noise cancellation as in... the way they made, because obviously they're putting the wind tunnel for testing. Yeah, every Schuberth is wind tunnel tested in design. It's designed to be the lowest noise and zero lift at 100 km an hour. So you should get no lift at all on the helmets as well. ⁓ So it's important with the Schuberth that they are the most aerodynamic and aerocoustic helmets. I need to use mine more. So I know some other brands, put the nice flashy lights and everything in here. But obviously what we've got here is obviously the ventilation for the airflow to come through. Yeah, it draws through so you get an area of negative pressure. There's no air so pulls the through. That is beautiful. Just so you know, with that shell, obviously at home you can't feel how light it is. That's got the speakers in it as well. So it's got speakers and all the cabling built in as standard, all Schuberts do. So when you look at the weights compared to others, Schuberts only have the speakers in. I like the fact it's on the side there because I know sometimes with, you're trying to like... and you'd open up your vents rather than pull that down. It's quality. As I was saying, these are made, these are made in the shells are made in Italy. The helmets themselves are made, uh, together in Germany is what I'm looking for. Uh, Schubert bought a factory in Italy that was a specialist in also clay carbon. Uh, this is a large, you've got an extra large head. Oh, I'm sure, I'm sure it's probably bought an extra large so it doesn't fit any of us. largest my size thanks to Steph thanks to Steph now I know that won't fit me it is a beautiful helmet it is lovely it is incredible yeah so I noticed we were we were having a conversation about pinlocks yeah the pinlock in so what's your advice about pinlocks okay so pinlocks they're overrated and underrated yes my view is when the late 90s I'm gonna say fog city bought out an anti fog thing you stuck in your visor essentially And then Pinlock, it took it to another level where it is on pin so you can change it and replace it easily because FOXX said it was a nightmare. Especially if you had the arrow events in the visor, lining it all up was always a nightmare. So Pinlock essentially, in my view, is one of the safest innovations in the last 30 years because you can now see when it's wet. Whereas before you couldn't, people used potatoes and onions and all sorts of nonsense. I mean, I still do. So as soon as it rained, had to either lift your visor open so you got air in your eyes so you couldn't see or you kept it down so it misted up so you couldn't see. So Pinlock, my view, or Fog City slash Pinlock, is the biggest improvement in safety and motorcycling, which you wouldn't think for such a small, essentially cheap product, there's Equator over there. And why they're overrated is because when you take out in the summer, you can see better and no one does. So everyone leaves them in all year, take them out and you'll be seeing an HD because it drops the optical quality of the visor dramatically having this sheet of pinlock plastic on the inside. did not know that. Yeah. Didn't you do that this week? Yeah, I tried. ⁓ I read something about it online. So I thought I'd try it and it's right. It is completely different. Do the viewers at home know this? Is this is one of the best kept secrets or does everybody do it? Do you take your pinlock out in the summer? I've never taken mine out. I would recommend having a smoke device on a clear one. keep the pinlock in the clear, keep the smoke to that. Makes sense. Tomorrow, Tom. When we're out testing the app, we're going to wear. So the new helmet will be available in rapid world daily ships in coming weeks? Yeah, I'm not sure what the actual dates are off the top of head, but it should be available before the end, by the end of June. So very, very soon. Do you know the price point? You know I don't. Let's say around a thousand pounds. It is a beautiful I mean towards 500 thing with with helmets now is that's about that's about par for the course for a pretty Yeah, and it is premium. Yeah It's about right and this this isn't with these helmets and the C4 we do C5 in carbon So flip which has a has a polycarbonate chamber, right? We're going to why but it is important it does and there's an e2 which is one of the peak with a polycarbonate chamber that comes in a carbon So we three different helmets in carbon as well the C5 need to have been available for a while and this just launching this year. Yeah What's this whole thing about ANC that's... mean, is it Shubertz that's been paying you? So it's a Cardo product. So it's made by Cardo in Cardo Labs. Shubertz are a Cardo partner. So we do kits already for all our helmets. And we can get a really deep rabbit hole with this. We'll take up the whole podcast. We won't, we'll do ANC very quickly. So ANC active noise cancelling, like you get with your Bose or your Apple headphones on the plane. With Shubertz, it's going to be built into a C5 shell. So going to be C5 ANC, you have to have the ANC version, you can't put it into an old C5 because the speakers are 52mm I think, so they're enormous. Really big speakers that won't fit in normal helmets to cover the air. What it'll do is it'll cancel out all the harmful noises from your helmet, so it sends a frequency the opposite way to the frequency coming in and it gets rid of the frequency. So Schubert have tuned it with Cardo to get rid of all the frequencies that aren't necessary for riding. They could have made it silent, but that's dangerous. So you want to hear ambulances, cars around you, your engine probably. and all those things, they've tuned it so the bit in the middle, isn't ambulances or your engine, is taken away and you're much, much quieter helmet. Unless you're on an EV. True. Then you're just not good. It'll drop it around 10 decibels, which is a lot because decibels are logarithmic as well, so it's a huge amount. Most helmets are running around 100, 105 decibels. 100. You can see the sound engineer over there. It's just nodding. appreciate frequencies. very, very technical. Like I said earlier, I know how quiet the Schubert helmets are. Yeah. So obviously with that added to it. It's a natural partnership. And we're doing a flip and Cardo doing their own helmet, but it's a full face. Right. So ours will be the flip, theirs will be the full face. Nice. So helmets to one side then, because we could talk about helmets all night long. GORE-TEX. Tell us the myths. Very small topic. of our friendly industry people in has told people that the Gore-Tex can't be waterproof and breathable at the same time, which it can be. So I can prove that with a physical test. It uses the energy from inside. As long as it's colder outside, the moisture will move. So you can be. Again, we could do a test. Did you ask us if we had a bath full of cold water? That's I always like. We still talk about Gore-Tex. we go. Come on. Gore-Tex. So let's just assume I'm right and that you can essentially put a wet hand into a Gore-Tex glove, put it into a bucket of water, move your hand to create energy, and that will push the moisture out from the inside the outside. You take your hand out and it's dry. So even in 100 % moisture outside, it will still move the moisture from the outside incredible. As long as it's not warm water, because then there isn't a heat differential between the So if you go to Brazil, I totally agree you're struggling. But we're not in Brazil. Well, some of the viewers might be, don't know, but it's certainly up here where we are now. It's all Gore-Tex the same? No, all Gore-Tex isn't the same, unfortunately. And it's just changed in the last few months. there's new regulations where you can't have... Gore-Tex is made of EPTFE. You can't have the F. So it's expanded polytetrafluorethylene. You can't have the fluorons anymore because they're forever chemicals. So now it's going to be EPE, which is more environmentally friendly. The concern is that that means when you take out the forever chemicals, it'll degrade quicker. But gore have been testing for about 10 years and it will outlast the jacket. So it's not an issue in terms of its performance. The only problem you'll have, I'll say problem, the only negative is going forward. well all gore jackets and most jackets have what they call a DWR on the outside so the water runs off. And you will have to reactivate that more often. So you'll have to wash your jackets more. Or for most people, once. because that was more than those people wash their jackets, which is never. yeah, I it's more than proof if I wash it, it's not going to come off. I didn't know that by the way. I wouldn't have thought of washing my jacket. I that that would have made it worse. You guys need to read the instructions. Instructions? Have you seen the instructions? It's so small, you can't read them. I've done video on how to your rucker jackets. We'll drop that link in. Now that's really interesting because I know that when I've been to the sports bike shop and I'd look at the Rukka jackets, I mean, again, a quality brand. And again, the price point is probably the top end of some of those. But I imagine obviously because of the materials and the technology and everything, that's why you're paying the price that you are. You can buy less expensive things, but they probably won't last the length of time. The big reason for the Gore price is people will say Gore's patent ran out, know, 10, 15, whatever it was years ago. But the difference is that Gore have invested in a testing procedure that manufacturers have to adhere to. So what you're getting is a secondary level of guarantee, which you don't get with any other membrane. So every other membrane is made in a, normally a third party factory, not their own factories. ⁓ And you just go and buy the membrane, get them to fill your jacket, and it ends up on your back after the CE testing. But that doesn't test waterproofing. With a Gore jacket, someone like Rucker would have to make a prototype, send it to Gore. They will put it through their testing regime. And if it fails, they can't put the Gore-Tex label on. That's the machinery that's used to make it has to be gore approved technicians have to be trained the scene taping has to be done within the right temperature in the room the ambient temperature The materials on the outside the materials on the inside all has to be okayed by gore else It will fail that test so What you're gonna get with gore is something that isn't gonna leak because of the membrane or the seam taping and if it does gore guaranteeing it for life Yeah, so that's where your money's going with gore text really everyone else They're relying on the fact she's do the right thing Yeah, doing that with go and specifically Rukka because they own their own factory. Yeah, you can call it Rukka or Rukka is absolutely fine Yeah, Rukka own their own factory in China now, so they own the facility It's quite a small facility, but they can watch all the quality control most other manufacturers using third-party factory Are there many manufacturers actually using go? I know we know Rukka is yeah, obviously I'm trying to think ⁓ I thought years ago and it's got the Gore label on it. yeah. So there's about, I don't know what the number is. mean, motorcycle stuff. Six or seven. You've got, I can go through them. There's Klim or Klim. Yeah. Yeah. Ruck or Rooker. So Rooker, Klim, Revit, Danezy, Alpinestar, Risha. RSC? ⁓ Halvorsons don't have a license. No. So it's normally one per country. ⁓ okay. So there isn't a British one. Stadler, which is a German brand, which you don't have in the UK really, do it as well. So there's a few out there that do it. There was a room in the day and they needed to their license, but I think that's true. think they've still got it. Good friend of the show, Andy Fishburne, swears by his rookie jacket and I followed him all the way around Europe and he kept looking at I was wearing going, I didn't really understand what he was on about, but I think I'm beginning to get it now. We get a lot of our customer retention is really good with rookies, so they buy it they buy another one. They sort of stick with it and don't really change. And quite often when they change, they come back afterwards. And they are built to last. They are. Yeah, they're not the most exciting product to look at, but they work. And that's what people want on a bike. In my view, they want something they can put on and be guaranteed when they get off, they're to be dry and happy. So, and if they fall off, it's going to do the job as Sorry, just going back about the use of potato, I say potato, the Rooker jacket. Does it have a chest plate in that one as well? What's the best selling jacket? So the best selling jacket is Nivala. It's a bit big to be showing here, but the best ones in a Nevala 3 which came out is just about to come out It's out, but only very limited numbers in the moment the the supplies really difficult for it But that is by far the best-sewn Rooker jacket and that's got full D3O armor which we can go through as well. So We can do you know, I've got a question about level 2 armor myths, but yeah So this is a Rooker protector from D3O British company which sort of pioneered these of non-Newtonian armors I've seen that when I've taken them out with me jackets and it's got that D3. So Reeshee used it as well. It's one of the big ones. And now RST as well. The key with the chest protector part of this is this is a shoulder protector. The chest protectors get level two, you have to have a polycarbonate sheet on the front. So when you look at the D3O level two, it's got a black plastic piece on the front essentially. So when you test armour like this, they'll put an anvil into it and it will give a reading of amount of forces transmitted. when you have a chest protector, you have a black plate on the front, they put over a column, drop the weight and it's not allowed to extend into the column. So you have to have that solid piece. So it doesn't crush your chest. So yeah, level two, level one can just be standard E3. And that's really to protect you, obviously in an impact being impaled on the... Yeah, and a lot of injuries now are here. That's why the MotoGP guys, you see them just before they go out on track, they'll slide it in. zip up. Yeah, I because a lot of people have airbag ready airbagging now if they're not airbags, they've normally got a back protector and decent armour in and it's you're getting a lot of coverage everywhere. But then you've got this bit where your heart is your lungs. Important, quite important bits and you got this bike that's going to smash you into the chest. So yeah, it's quite a useful thing to have. this is is level two. I believe it is. We've got to check before I go. This is this is slightly different. This is Diablo. So there's three different types of D3O. Yes, level two I it was. So there's three different types, there's two of them. This is Diablo, this is foam based. Foam based is still the most protective, which is what Rocky used. Diablo is injection molded, highly breathable, very flexible. Rion do an armor based stimulus, this as well, which is another company we deal with. And then they do ghost as well, all level two, but they're all different ratings. So this just passes level two, this exceeds it quite dramatically. So when you're reading a spec on a website, just get says level two armor. By the way, these are both shoulder protectors. Yeah, yeah, this is CE. This is the CE size that you have to have by law. Okay. This is a size rocker put in by choice. Right. This is again where some of your money goes. Wow. So I a question then for you Ed, with regard to obviously the armor and stuff. See, we, me and Andy are big MotoGP fans. Obviously, there was the accident with Alec Marquez on the weekend. And ⁓ They will have that type of release of that type of armor or is it a completely different? They tend to have stronger sort of a firmer armor. I don't know what Alpine stars are using in the most GP guy suits. I'd have to check with them. They've launched one called Plasma, which is a soft armor a bit like this. I don't think it's in the Moto GP suits. think they're a sort of solid, more solid armor if that makes sense because comfort is probably lower down the scale of what they want would be my guess, but I'd have to check the Alpine stars because I can find out it's not a problem. And I know that you wear An airbag. Yeah, yeah. In motion. In a motion. In a motion. Mine is furigan. So that my airbag jacket is supplied by furigan. that has that in there. it's, I can't fault it, honestly. And it's like wearing. Well, it's just additional. Yeah. Protection, isn't it? of mind. Yeah. And I know that you started wearing that after what happened to you. your accident. For the rest of us, we don't wear them, but I know it's something that's probably on all of our minds of, hang on, maybe, I know we've spoken to a few people that use the airbags and wear the airbags, and we've heard some funny stories about airbags going off when they shouldn't go off and having to get recharges, et cetera, et cetera, but it is something that I'm giving some serious thought to. Yeah, and it's interesting, isn't it, because we all wear protective gear, but we all wear slightly different stuff, and would you say people buy gear for protection, or do you think People buy gear for different reasons. it for the image again? bit like the helmet? It's everything. Yes, exactly the same helmets. I don't think people are buying it for protection generally because else we'd all be in Daytona's security, even boots, RFX race, five gloves and a massive beaker, leather suit with an airbag. Except for we can't all afford it. can't afford it, but that would be what we would wear by choice and no one's wearing. Not many people are taking that choice. Most people are buying jeans. Most people. Most people are buying textiles or mesh. know, people like Knox are doing good business with their mesh stuff. particularly and so so a clim and record a lot of mesh now as well so interesting yeah so I think people are buying it for comfort and my view in terms of clothing is as we've talked about before base I want people to go out on bikes and I genuinely don't care what you wear it's up to you completely what you're very much a freedom guy you wear what you want it might not be a good idea mm-hmm but that doesn't mean I think you should have that choice taken away and I think you know we've got the law to wear a helmet which is great and I think you should wear the kit but I'm not worried about you know So can ask question with that then? So obviously we know legally everybody has to wear a helmet. If you were going to say, well, we've all got to wear a helmet, what other piece of gear would you say don't skimp on? Obviously helmets number one and then it's probably going to be your gloves because they're going to hit the floor first. So any slow speed accident, you lose all skin on your hands if you fall off. So that's quite important. And then it'd be jacket and then you just pray your legs. Everyone leaves boots till last. But again, if we're talking about motor GP, if you look at that accident that Zarko had this weekend, you know, it could have been a lot worse, probably if he wasn't wearing the right kit. yeah. I mean, I've always said when I was younger, I wore helmet, a padded jacket, a pair of gloves and a pair of Levi's and a pair of Nike's or whatever, because I'm 16, 17 and you're invincible. But I just pulled my bike out on road. There was no, where's my kit? How long is it to take to get on? And my cold just went out and I was riding it for loving riding. And the coolest guys have ever ridden bikes, didn't wear any kit, unfortunately. don't think it's Steve McQueen or Jacob De Niro. All those guys, they just wore a t-shirt and jeans. that's because the motorcycle thing is about freedom and being able to get out and ride. Again, it's not good idea, but it does. If it gets more people riding, then get out and ride. Can I just ask question about protection as well? So just like you mentioned, I bought jeans with protection in them and it's that sort of yellow. formy stuff that's inside them inside the in the hips and also in the knees and I don't know what level of protection that is by the way but I could I would imagine I would be able to go and buy these sort of products and just switch them out I'm not so sure to make them better jeans but might make them more protective in those areas it'll make them more comfortable more the yellow stuff if it's the I think I know which is which we're talking about it's not breathable so there's no breathability in it there's very little flexible it's gonna be curved to sit in a shape it won't be and it won't be very breathable. So if it hits level two, it's going to hit probably this level. The only thing I would say is there are some, I'm trying to pick my words right, there are some yellow armour specifically that if you look at them, you won't find it with things like D3M because it's a quality company that has a reputation to keep. But you'll see these little bits in it that haven't got any armour in, like holes almost, like craters where there's bubbling or air in the process. Well, that isn't going to pass the standard. So there's a quality control issue there. So when you're buying an armor, if it hasn't got a reputable brand like D3O or Rion or Knox or something like that, then just whip the armor out, check it, make sure there's no bits of armor missing. How do they get away with it then with it being put on the market? So obviously look at helmets, they have to go through a rigorous test. So what about the jeans and stuff? Clothing has to go through a testing now, but it's all prototypes testing obviously. And then it goes into production and... people with trading standards and the rest haven't got the resources to go around testing a lot of motorcycle gear to be absolutely honest with you. We're very lucky in the UK that we have people like Paul Vansvery and ⁓ John Milbank and people like that that are on it and are fighting the corners to make sure the kit that you're buying, so even though I say I'm happy with people riding anything, I think if you've decided you want a protective piece of kit it should do what it says on the tin, so if you buy this level two it should pass level two. And luckily in the UK we have got those people that are out there doing that. extremely difficult work to try and make sure the brands are out there that are lying essentially are getting pulled off the shelves. So what's the worst piece of gear advice you constantly hear then? Worst piece? Yeah. I don't remember. The classic which everyone said probably people around this table have said, which is scary, isn't it? Is dressed for the slide, not for the ride. It's something everyone says. What we've got to remember is 99 % of the time you're not sliding. If your number one issue is safety, should get a Volvo. And be done with it. for me, riding is about freedom, enjoyment. Yes, you should get the best kit you can, but it shouldn't affect that I can't be bothered to get my bike out because I can't bother to put the kit on. It shouldn't be I'm riding around too hot all time, too cold all the time. This is uncomfortable. This is annoying. It should be fun, free and enjoyable. you can get kit, and actually I've got a down here that I'll show you in a second, that makes riding enjoyable, comfortable and hopefully brings that freedom back, is important to me. So it's gonna really upset people that I don't like that phrase, but that's And one of the things that people always forget, a lot of the kit, even the armour stuff, it's only gonna protect against abrasion. It's not gonna protect against breaks particularly. This stuff, this will protect against a certain amount of that. Yeah, it's not gonna stop your arm or leg getting broken though. Not if it bends the wrong way obviously. Yeah, but it will top it on impact point of view. But as again, there's a very famous Canadian YouTuber ⁓ who says just take all your arm around, don't wear it. I've seen that video. I've seen that video too. And I said, I watched it and just thought, well, I'll tell you what, we'll both put, I'll put my arm on, you can have bare knees and both fall onto a concrete floor just from standing up and falling. And we'll see who stands up and who doesn't because this stuff does work and is worth using. And it's obvious in my view that these should be wearing this if you can, if it's comfortable and it keeps you riding. I'm just thinking about what you said there though, Martin, and about, about you could break, still break your leg. I know that there are boots and inner boots, which you can get. Ed might have something to show you because your legs better going to repair sooner and far easier if the leg breaks further up. And it's not your ankle. That's for sure. Well, one thing when we talk about sort of really thinking about the clothing that we're wearing and obviously we've got our first time for myself. I haven't got a full piece of leather kit. I've got obviously trousers and that, but I'm looking for something that because I wear base layers quite a bit. With a back protector? Yes, then. You know, I think we're all looking to try and wear things a little bit more comfortable because the point that you've made there as well is that, you know, people tend to Oh, can't be bothered because I've got to put all this on. Is the things coming now and I think you've got something to show us that actually can bring that comfort so that, you know, you are going to be able to do those longer journeys and actually still get the protection. Yeah, so there's there's. I'll get to in a second. Just get it. you're getting it. You've been dying to show us that. This is one of my favourite new products on the UK. It's been out for a couple of years in the UK. We found it at Eichmann a couple of years ago. I looked at who makes products in Europe. High-end product because that's what we specialize in our end. Yeah comes come to go both X told my boss about he said I don't get it He said I don't understand what you're talking about I don't see why people buy that and then at the end of the icon We went over to the stand and showed it to him within 10 minutes when we have to do this product and he'd completely switched by the time you've seen it So it's a brand called Botox. It's Belgian brand Manufactured in Portugal the arms manufactured in Germany. So he went as much of its made in Europe as possible The guy runs a company decide went on a trip to Australia and just decided he hated motorcycle clothing, didn't like it at all, uncomfortable, too hot, looked bad, wasn't fashionable, and he's a fashionable Belgian guy. And imagine he has a monster and stands around smoking cigarettes himself, is great. Is that okay? I think it's okay. ⁓ So he developed this. is a Botex Elite base layer. So this weighs about a kilogram. ⁓ Level two armor in it and is AAA rated, which is the highest safety rating currently within the UK market. So this is going to be... Safe in a slide, it's made of 100 % Dyneema, which is an ultra heavyweight molecular polyurethane, I think that's right. it's good enough, it's good enough. So as you can see, it's super light. You can pack it up, put it in your top box, put it in your backpack and it's gonna give And you'd wear that underneath or over the top? You can wear that on its own. On its own? Yeah, and then it's built to put a hoodie or denim jacket over the top or whatever you want. That's so old. So they do that for men and ladies, so we do a triple A, exactly the same for women. and we do leggings for men and women. Most men will wear the leggings under a jean. Women will wear the legging on their own. Wow. Sarah Lozito, who lots of people haven't heard of, who's probably the one of the biggest motorcycle influencers in the world. Nine point nine, 10 million followers. What does a typical jacket wear? Oh, it can be three or four times that way. Yeah. Yeah. So it's not waterproof. It's a summer product. So have to wear waterproof over the top. It needs to be dry. So you've got you've got your zips in there. Yeah. But see, I live five minutes away from my office and I'd love to go on the bike, but I can't be bothered to put all the gear on. Something like that would be perfect because I know that, you know, although it's five minutes away, if the worst does happen, something like that is nice. I can put it on over my regular gear and still get some level of protection. Well, the standard now is, if you look at most textiles, it's AA. I mean, the best selling jacket in the country is a single A. Really? I'm not going into that. Next time, next time. It's certainly one of the best selling because there's no figures but it sells a be looking in our garage. That is a AAA which is going to rival in theory a lot of leathers. mean leathers are still more protective. But it is hitting the highest level of safety in terms of the standards that are currently available. Level 2 armour, SASTEC which is German. producer Tom's query, he's looking at how thin it is and said that can't be No, there's one protector missing so I'll start with that. But I know that my wife's looking for some kit and she would wear that. I would wear that. I'd put you over the top. I'd wear that. I'd freeze And precisely for what Ed said earlier on, sometimes when you're looking for some gear as well, you still want to look reasonable, don't you? don't want to look like that. And I know my wife is quite conscious about what you end up wearing, but that's going to give her all the protection she needs. it's... It's lightweight. If I go back to what I was saying about the airbag vest, it's not sexy because it's safety. It's not sexy, but because it's under my furigan leather jacket, it still look good. But I know I've got the protection, but that that's another level. Yeah. Yeah. For me. And we sell as many women's as we do men's. It's about the same. Can we get those branded? I just thought the same thing. Great minds. You obviously can because the bow text reflect on the front. It's just a looks like just you know, we've got a shop. You know, we've got a shop check out the shop just ride dash.com just put your t-shirt or you can't buy them on there. Not yet. They're available. All good retailers. Wear this. Put your hoodie on or t-shirt. That's my thought. Especially when you're doing like something in summertime where it's that we do too. They do that one and we do an optimal. That's the elite. The elites are triple A with an optimal double A slightly heavier. but it's £100 cheaper so it does depend which way you want to go. We're looking to go to Portugal in November so something like that would be, could be ideal couldn't it? Strangely, obviously that the jacket is available in good retailers but I would probably walk past it inside the shop. Yeah, yeah. If you look at it in store it looks awful. I thought it was a base layer. yeah, yeah, absolutely. You need someone to show it to 100%, you're not just going to be like, that looks good. I'll buy it. Can our viewers book you and your time then to show them? I think last time was a thousand pounds an hour. That's what you're paying me for this isn't it? Tom, check his contract. You're on the roll then. What else have you got? So we've done helmets, we've done gore-tex, we've done armour, we've done jackets. ⁓ Let's have a look at glucks. have been excited. I nearly got a clavate, I'm not allowed to you. Again, I checked with five yesterday and I'm still not... Yeah, we've seen it and it is unbelievable. lot gloves are interesting because there you need people always say to me I'd like a glove that does all year but that doesn't exist forget that get out yet You need three pairs minimum in the UK. All right, okay I need three pairs. So you need a summer you need a winter in the midseason. That's absolutely if you're riding all year That's the minimum or maybe even heated instead of the winter. So it's very fun to go Five is a brand we picked up again about two years ago. They're the only glove manufacturer there is in terms of that's what they do as their principal business. So if you look at Alpine starters, they're a boot manufacturer. That's what they started as, that's what they do. And now they're airbag people. probably the best airbags on the market. Certainly one of them. But Fire and Daytona do boots and our I do helmets. RST do all these kind of things. Yeah. So, but these guys just do gloves. Yeah. That's it. Nothing else. The whole thing is about gloves. Guy can Frank Fazio start the brand and this is his little baby. They bought out this had the fastest ever motor GP crash I think of 300 clones an Irish that sort of speed It's quite fast at the end of the Magello straight and no injuries to the hand. These are 450 pounds retail But when you put them on the comfort level compared to any other glove on the market is about 20 % better tolerances than any other glove on the market has thermoset carbon on the back which ⁓ doesn't melt as quickly as other carbons do. if you get trapped under the bike, it won't melt the glove. Carbon sliders, Kevlar, Kangaroo, all these things are built into it. I'm not gonna go through the features, but when you put a pair of these on, they blow everything else away. I think you guys tried them on earlier, but they- How many components in one About 170 pieces. Wow. know, lot goes into this and most people aren't gonna buy this glove just strictly because the price point is not waterproof. There's lots of things it doesn't do, that other gloves do. But if you're on track- Yeah. Or you've got to go to work on Monday and you know, do plumbing or something with your hands or your doctor. Yeah. You need the best gloves you can. If you to do track days as well. And this is pretty much the best glove on the market. ⁓ it's certainly the most expensive race glove on the market. and it does a lot though. A of other gloves don't do. Five also do gloves down to 200 for a race glove is the lowest level of race. And then the high end roads about 150. So this is sort of the glove that the guys on BSB and, All the wrist series are actually using a lot of TT guys use this they're using five a lot of short guys we use the short circuit guys. Yes. Stand up. They will use the RFX one Evo, which is the model down which is 270 pounds because it's a more flexible, bit lighter. this and it It works with phisomarketing a true to the This glove's about six and a half years old now, the RFX one's only been out a couple of years. And there will be another one that comes between the two at some point in September as well. So there'll be another one to use. So you might see that on racers being tested now as well. Quick thing about gloves, about CE standards on gloves, when you're looking to buy a pair of gloves, there's two standards, KP1, KP2, or one and two. KP stands for knuckle protection, level one, level two. Just so you know, there aren't many level two gloves on the market. Almost. Almost none. is level two the best? Level two is the best and there's only really race gloves apart from this one, which is a waterproof level two glove. So it's the only KP level two waterproof glove on the market except a Merlin heated one, which weirdly is KP level two as well. Even they're not sure why, but it is. So this is the only level two waterproof glove on the market as well, which is TFX one GTX. They're nice looking gloves. They are, they're lovely. And what's that retail for? These are two 30. They call gore grip full gore grip. So it means that the gore takes is laminated the interior So it's as thin as you can make a waterproof glove gore actually own the technology for laminated gloves So again, that's why they're close to it better. You know, all I can hear in my head is because you know five do gloves down to 40 euros They're not very interesting. No, you know, if we've got an hour and half or whatever it is, then yeah We've already been on air for three hours. So know we haven't see what fits like glove you've been dying to say that all day long i should press the button on there go yeah if you do that really quickly you're a terrorist yeah that one's the new touring range that was gt1 that's got gorgrip and ⁓ primaloft aerogel so they're the only company allowed to use primaloft aerogel which is 70 grams I think it is and if that weight it's 20 % more effective than Primaloft gold which is the best insulator for gloves. So what season would this be? You can run that into the mild winter I would say not the deep winter. The one that caught my eye earlier was that one. Yeah we were looking at that one. So here is the short version of the TFX this is TFX1 airflow no membrane in it at all so this is the short version of this summer version so if you're going away touring if you bought those two with you you'd be spending a lot of money and also you'd have fun with the hot weather and then when it gets cooler in the evenings that I sell them quite often as a as a combo it shows and it's that one waterproof no this one's for airflow so you can see the ventilation through the top all the five gloves all these knuckle pieces are custom for them nobody else has them yeah if you look at most brands they share knuckles with other manufacturers because they're just factory knuckles whereas with five all these are custom made parts so that is a true summer glove yeah and if we're going off-road again talking about the the Botex earlier on. could we wear that and those off road? You could wear them, they're class and adventure gloves. So could wear them off road. If you do hard off road and like Enduro style, proper Enduro-ing and like WRs and stuff, you want something in there and lighter. So if you're doing stuff on maybe a GS or a Tron Venture or a Tenere 700, something like that, you could wear that and do some road work as well. That's ideal. Okay. And you said that sometimes it shows you sell that product along with that product at the same time. there... Is that to the public or is that to wholesalers? Public, to If someone told me they were going on a tour to Europe and they're doing mountain work and hot southern European work, you need those two because you need that for the hot southern bit and then when you into the mountain it's cold so you need the windproof and the ultimate side. She never thought about that. Ka-ching, ka-ching. You can do it, they do a level down from this. So they do a TFX2. Yes please. So you're looking at about half the price, doesn't have the Gore-Tex as their own memory. And then there's then there's Ed's discount as well. So I think we might be getting five of those. Stop being grubby gentlemen, stop being grubby. Sorry, we didn't mean to be your best mate like. Ed is my best mate by the way. A bit creepy. I've only got one more thing, throw you product wise, so shoot that quickly. Yeah, let's get all the products out. did talk about boots briefly. So this may be the oldest product in the industry. This is Daytona Security though. It was Obviously developed in Germany by Daytona Daytona are solely a boot manufacturer in 90,000 boots here and that's it They're not making any more. They don't plan to ever make any more They sell them all and that's it and they make boots properly and they don't cut corners So this is their race boot If you look at the TT, you'll see a lot of riders wearing this again short circuits Not so much because Daytona don't pay people. It's that easy really. Yeah, so you've got a full arabic fiber inner boot what you'll find is that You can't break your ankle. So what it does is it forces you to break your leg as you were saying earlier. It forces you to break your leg because then this bit doesn't heal. Whereas legs tend to heal or you can have them plated or bolted or whatever. And then you full toe protection on it as well. So that's going to give you protection. That's full kangaroo outer. That plate is because when you low side your foot peg can sometimes go through that part. So stop your foot peg going through your boot. And then you have a ceramic slider on it which will last a BSP rider about a season. and then they go back to Daytona and they factory fit the next set of sliders. So you're not in the pits adding your own sliders. Just custom cutters across the board so you can have any color you like. You have your name put on them if you want, your race number, all that sort of thing. They're not the cheapest boots on the market, but again, if you've got to get up after doing a track day and go to work, it's worth the investment. I wouldn't talk about other brands normally, but if you look at Alpine Star Super Tech, it's a great boot. If you can't afford something like this, That's a great product to go for on a track as well. That's what I've been looking at is the Supertech. Really comfortable. My friends will say, what track boots should I buy? And I normally recommend that because this for most people is over killing out of the price budget. One of the problems I have, and when you go looking for boots and we all do that, don't we? We all go to that shop and we click and we get them all coming down. The problem I have is my calf muscle. I find it really difficult to find boots. I can zip all the way up. Well, you, it depends what you're buying, but if you went for a daytona touring boot, we do five whip fittings in one of our boots. So we go from extra narrow to extra wide. Also, there's a double zip system on that boot that means that one of the zips on one side simply there so you can do the other zip up. Yeah, so I can show you a pair of them in a minute. But we do a boot called a Roadstar, and that's by far our best selling boot in terms of touring boots, definitely. And it's an amazing product. And if you haven't tried a Daytona Roadstar on, once you try it on, you might be 500 quid lighter. But we could wear that in Portugal. It might be warm, possibly. Or if you're doing adventure, it's probably going to be not the right boot either. So it depends what you do and not with it, because it's a pure touring boot. It's for people that are doing commuting. Or for an enduro boot. Yeah, you might want some protection on some other areas that you need, especially if you're going to be... when you're off road you might be dabbing your foot to stop the front end falling away. A bit more like what Robbie's got in his picture up there I'd imagine. Yeah I'd imagine we'll all look just like that. Gay Urn by the way which is what he wears are fantastic, unbelievable boots really I wore them when I was motocrossing and they're absolutely stunning. Italian Sillimate in Italy as well. Well interestingly Robbie's coming to the EBR Festival which is this month. He winks as we are in June. I'll make a joke about that. Are you going to be here this year? Yeah, so the company I for Bikeheads is the headline sponsor. So has been for the last few years. So the Bikeheads stage is the main stage. I'll be there on my little stand, which is quite a nice little court-wide stand. We'll have all the new products. We tend to bring a selective range. It's quite big. We have quite a big range of what we do. So we'll bring selective products on mannequins. We'll bring the five gloves, all the boots and helmets and stuff. We're working with Shubert directly as well. I remember trying on helmets last year and they were so helpful. I didn't buy one. You didn't speak to me then? They went to Scorpion. That was us, That was us. That wouldn't have been And we'll have our technical guys there for Bluetooth questions and queries. And we'll have next to us will be the Shubert tents. They've got a factory. This year where they'll be try on helmets. They'll hopefully have ANC They tell us they are but we haven't received our yet. So hopefully they're ANC to use as well and try Certainly they'll have all their technical guys there Jonathan's incredible. He's one of our marketing guys that knows everything about how so some of the kit we've looked at tonight We'd be selling that a BR we don't sell anything to public. It's all through retailers That we will have retailers there selling it. So I think infinity their helmet city there. Yeah, and some other ones as well Yeah, for the right people. I'm sure we've got outstanding. I think I definitely know last year how much it's in infinity. Both took five certainly. ⁓ But the ABR such a great event because it's not really about selling and buying. It's about a good time and having good time. Given the way the industry has been evolving and changing, do you think to some extent adventure motorcycling has kind of saved the industry the last few years? And do you think that's the way People are going to continue to, because the Surgeon Adventure motorcycle is just incredible. Yeah, it means it's been going for years now since Charlie and Ewan, essentially, which was the catalyst for all of it really, as far as I'm concerned. I said, I watched it and I was like, that's the way everyone's going to want to do now, because that looks amazing. So that's what people do. But the Chinese guys are bringing back sports bikes for affordable prices. Sports bikes are a young man's game, really, for all honest, because when you sit on a sports bike, it gets harder every year. think producer Tom showed me a sports bike the other day and I looked at him and he was 6 foot 4 right and actually did some research and the research come and said no. You're getting too old Tom sorry. Also the manufacturers are bringing lower capacity. Yes, lower capacity, cheaper price points you know 6 grand, 5 grand that sort of money and up to the sort of a pre-RF 660 type which are a bit more expensive but beautiful as well. So the sports bikes come back in adventure riding is obviously still at high and I think this... I don't think that's going anywhere. The retro thing maybe has peaked a little bit possibly, which everyone thought it would at some point. But those three sort of particularly venture and retro have sort of saved the industry a little bit. EV? EV, I love EVs. I drive an EV car, which people will hate on Yeah, noticed that you parked out on the drive next to my EV. Charging, you're charging, yeah. You know I'm charging for the charging overnight. Come off the feet. He drives a hard bargain. Electric bikes I would like a Stark. I'm gonna try and ride one at ABR. The Stark Vagie X. gonna go and get a couple of people at Stark. Which are amazing. You guys have been riding electrics as well. Well, the Avenra, I have to say we had Paul Cummins on the show and we were very surprised by that one. We took it out and it was quick. By the I got it... He's like use most of the power, but it was still quick. was quick, you know, and it was you could throw it around a bit and was the first time on the me. Obviously I've driving a V and put a put a 1300 I rest. I like that, you know, but it did surprise me in just how easy it was to ride. You know, I think there's always I think the electric is going to be difficult for bikes because the range issue. You can't put a massive battery on them, obviously. Yeah. And they just get heavy and people don't want heavy either. So that's a bit of an issue. But I think when you look at things like the smaller ones, if I just I want to start because I get I just want something I can pull up the garage ride and not worry about it. I don't do servicing on it or anything like that. I just want to ride it and get out and do that. I've got other bikes for that. And the event was a good bike, isn't it? Yeah, was incredible. I think they were about to launch and I think was we were very surprised to be fair and it was great. I think more like I think cars will mostly go electric eventually. think that's inevitable. But I think bikes will stay. The two of them will be there together. And if I was a youngster at 16, 17, why wouldn't you get an electric? So get to college or wherever you go and get your first job on, it's simple. just plug it in every night and go and it'd be cheaper than fuel. Plug it into your college polo. Exactly right. So I think as the younger people come up through, they'll start on them and then the bigger stuff will probably sell on, I would think. Obviously being a two-stroke guy, it's quite far away from an electric bike. You can still buy a nice lawn mower and start that. Doesn't have the same effect though. Just a bit of fun because again, reading your bio, you described yourself as bad at golf. Is that your biggest failure outside of bike? did mention a I've had a few crashes. I played sport my whole life. So, uh, I went to my school, I went to boarding school and I I was the only person ever allowed a motorcycle there for a start. So I had my bike at school with me. And then I played sport all the way through my life because academically not gifted or lazy one or the other or both probably. So sports are my saviour in that world. I played rugby and all the rest of it, cricket, hockey, all these things, basketball. And as I got older, obviously rugby's gone now at 45. I think that's... think that's too hard these days. The kids are too big and strong and too fast so I can't really play that anymore. So I play golf and I'm bad at it and that's fine because everyone's bad at golf and I think that's a reason position to be in. I played the other day and it was dreadful and it's the total opposite of riding a bike obviously. But it has a similar thing where you're out there, it's quiet, you're walking about, you're focused on that and all the sort of issues with life go away a little bit for a little while. So there is that similarity and it's same sort of time frame, three to four hours, two to three hours. There are a few similarities and it's frustrating when you're at it, same as motorcycling. Do you get to do any business on the golf course? Yes, there's quite a lot of it still. So we used to have a full golf day at Tran Am, which was the previous name for Bikeheads. We used to have a whole industry come down and do a whole golf day. That was the previous owner. But there is talks of rekindling that. Have you heard of 4Business? F-O-R-E Business? Yeah, look at him up. Good friend of the show, Sean, he created 4Business, which is exactly on the golf course. Look them up, they're a great bunch of guys. So you've tested, just getting onto a bit of fun here before we ask certain questions. I know you've got a competition we're going to talk about, which we'll go to. But you've tested loads of over the years. What is the weirdest product you've ever used? I haven't used it. Let me be clear about that. But the weirdest product out there is the helmet visor. It's the one that's the weirdest thing I've ever seen on a helmet. Apparently it works really well. I can't, I got into bikes one reason because I thought it was a cool thing to do. That's like the opposite. It works well. It's it works. really efficient, but it's not cool. No one's looking at you. That's a cool guy. They do sell quite a few of them. They use them. So they work well, but that's not for me. Almost like the polite jackets. Yeah, similar to the polite jacket. And I've also seen another, there's another brand that does airbag jeans at the moment, which I think is a bit odd. Airbag jeans? I'm sure they work, but there's an airbag in a jean that again goes off when you come off your bike. Which I'm sure again works, but it does look a bit odd. Where's the airbag placed? Where's the canister? look like a codpiece, they, by the time it goes off? I've seen, we had a Nolan helmet that had a university... I don't know it a doctor or something, but they designed the visor system and was massively over engineered, helmet. It looked like an egg. It was an X-901 and it was amazing to wear and the visor system was brilliant, but it just looked so weird. No one bought it. The Schubertz golf ball helmet's a weird one as well. They did one that looked like a golf ball, so it had all the dimples on it. brilliant aerodynamics. No one bought it. Is that the one you tried on? Possibly. There's lots of weird stuff that has been tried, but people, can't remember what the term for it where you have something and it can't be too different. It has to be new, new, new, I can't remember the phrases, but it just has to be new, but has to be familiar to people. Yes. they won't buy it. So before we do the quick fire questions, which is Andy's piece of the show that he enjoys doing and asking all of our guests. So you mentioned something about a bit of a competition you want to do at the ABR Festival that obviously we're going to as well. do you want to, mean, you've got to make this really simple. because of your because you know you have to it, to our audience. So tell us about what you want to do with with a little bit of a competition. so 5 has a new brand for us so we'd like you guys to go on our socials which is a standard thing Instagram Facebook like our socials like these guys socials as well the first person that comes up to me at AVR and shows they've liked those both those socials We will, I will give a free pair of gloves from five away too. And just to remind us what your socials are. Our socials are bikeheads.co.uk. The website which you can't like, but it's Bikeheads. was on Instagram and Facebook, it's just Bikeheads with a Z. yeah. With a Z, you'll find it. And the after like, ours as well, yeah. After like yours as well. just RideOfficial. Yeah, Tom will drop those into the into the up to 150 pounds retail and then I'll give some alpine earplugs away to the next five people that turn up as well which are a bit of money as well good quality earplugs as a sort of thanks for coming and saying hello. If you want to top up what it what we'll do is I've spoken to infinity who will provide you with the gloves so you can just go on to their stand try the gloves you want on. If it costs a little bit more, can top up that value or we can talk about it on the day. You know, if it's a five or 10, if you want the 450 pound ones, you will have to contribute. Ask ed really, really nicely. I've paid 150 pounds currently, but there's a lot of beer, maybe also maybe some flexibility. No, no, no, no, Yeah, absolutely. mean, great. And thanks for doing that. And I'm sure we're going to have a lot of fun at ABR. Yeah, we'll just leave that there. It'll be someone on the first day, I'm sure, comes and finds me. No industry people. You're going to hide, aren't you? No industry people. No industry people. And I'll make the decision if you're an industry person. Well, you know pretty much everybody in the industry. You've known everyone since you were four years old. Someone loves glasses and a nose on them. You talk about me. This is my own nose. It's not a box nose. Anyway, before we go into the green room, think, yeah, mean, Ed, thanks for coming and talking to about all of this stuff, which again, some of it we didn't know. I don't know whether you did either of the viewers, but we've learned a lot and we're to be spending a lot. Wives. But yes, over to you, my co-host. Yeah. So as we do for all of the pods and all of our guests that come on, we're going to wrap up with a few questions. I think we're going to do something slightly different this week. because I think we're going to share the questions. So Martin and Scott can get involved as well. I'll start then. Are we allowed to get involved? You're breaking protocol here. I didn't know you two could reach. Well, I'm going to go first then. Let me go first. So Ed, if money was no object, what bike would you buy? This is quite an easy question for me because I'm a race fan and I'm a Honda fan, so it'd be an RC213VS. So it's the most GP replica they launched. Some people say it was underpowered, which is obviously nonsense because every bike in the world now is too fast any sports bike Any bike that's made by HRC for me is a winner. Yes, I I ride a VFR 750 RC 36, which is a little bit different from our little bit quicker. Yeah But I'd love an RC 45 and all that stuff. So really Honda race bikes are one of my passions and yeah for me Yeah, and head and shoulders factory built. Yeah, actually, yeah precision engineering. Yeah Great answer. If you've videos of Casey Stoner and people like that that's always cool, isn't it? Yeah, yeah. Okay, so who is your motorcycle hero? So in terms of racing, I'll stick with the JPS guys and Steve Spray, who was the first champion I saw. VSB got me into road racing really and motorcycle racing at all. So he rode the JPS Norton, which we spoke about earlier. In terms of personal life, it's obviously my dad, which, you know, because he rode every day to pay the bills. So he rode... to work him back every day on the VFR I now own, which is kind of nice. So he inherited, he was gonna sell it and I inherited it off him. So he had it from you. So that's probably the two people I'd pick in my life, which I think is excellent. So I'm gonna ask about your favorite place to ride your bike. You can't answer the Newbury Bypass. you've got to give us, where in the world would be your favorite place to take your bike? I have ridden or that I will ride? It's up to you. Well, have written, as you said, out of Donington Park race circuit UK, which I love riding around, but I think I'd like to ride to Phillip Island would be a real. That's a real shame that they've stopped it for next year as well. Isn't that as a real shame? And I know it's quite contentious. ⁓ Phillip Island. What's the racing there? It's amazing. How many can be a bit wet. but the track's unbelievable. Well you've got the gear that you won't get wet anyway, so you know. Not allowed to wear it on the track, unfortunately. But yeah, I'd love to ride there. And if I had the talent off-road, I'd like to do the sort of things everyone would do, like the Romanian acts and all that stuff, which is crazy. I just, there's no way I've got the talents to get through those sort of days, but I would love to do that. But I think if money was no object and I could do a bit of off-roading, I'd do a bit in the States or in the deserts and all that sort of thing, do some desert riding, so I've never done that. I think it'd be interesting to see how that... works and you can buy kit now that keep you cool in those conditions. Is this another trip that we're going to have to think about me in a couple of years? we all going to go to the States? Vegas. I like that. I like that. We'll get that in the diary. I'm going to use the time of shaking his hand. that's a good one from Tom. So Tom just asked the question. What's the sketchiest moment you've had on your bike? The sketchiest of it. Well, I've crashed loads. if it's an air crash, it's different. biggest crash on track I had was at Rockingham. story. Actually, I was working for Tran Am. We used to be the Dunlop Tire distributor. And we got invited to Rockingham for a test day to launch the, I think it was the Road Smarts, the originals. We weren't allowed to ride. We were just going to go and support the dealers. But obviously, I bought my leathers and I said to Jamie at Dunlop, it's fine, isn't it, if I ride you in the air? Think about four laps later I was high siding on one of the corners at about 120 and broke off the R6. And yeah, I was fine, luckily. But Dunlop wrote to my boss and said it's gonna be 6,000 for the repair on the bike. So he called me into the office and went, so it's 6,000 pounds on a day you weren't meant to be riding on. I was probably in my late 20s at this point. And I went, well, I've got six grand, so I can't pay that. And he just went, well, luckily I'm only joking, but I did tell you when I was fucking riding. Sorry, you're not surprised. We'll bleep that out. Anyway, so that's the biggest crash on track I've had. Wow. I rode up here at Lamp Post once, about 45, 50 miles an leg. That was one the worst road ones. Is that why you're not allowed to ride anymore? I'm terrible. Bad golf, bad rider. rider. So the last question, Ed, and this is probably a little bit of difficult question. So what do really give the man that's got absolutely everything? Kit wise. Kit wise. So favorite accessory, what we all... if you had a few extra pounds left in the pocket, what would you buy? doesn't necessarily have to be kit. What would you buy? No. So obviously I, I don't remember the last time I bought any kit. that's it. I have to buy some stuff. Well, we don't, we don't, don't do race letters, for example, at our place. So I'd have to go and get them from somewhere else. But, um, it wouldn't be care obviously. Cause that's what I do for fruit. living but I think in terms of an accessory I'd buy probably some Olin suspension for my VFR after 68,000 miles 70,000 miles whatever it's done now with no I think it's had the forks rebuilt maybe and it's definitely had new oil in them but I think it needs a new rear shock and new front suspension so probably that which is a safe and boring answer but it's the right answer I think. It's for the bike isn't it? Pretty yellow suspension. Well Ed it's been an absolute privilege and I'm really pleased you came up all the way from the Newby Bypass to be here. I know it's your favourite road, and you've told me it was your I am the south side of Newbury, so is the... No, no, so thank you for coming on the show tonight, and I hope the viewers have learnt something. We've certainly learnt something. And add your comments. I mean, you're going to do the bit that I always forget to do, aren't you? Am I? Yes, you are. You know, we rehearsed this earlier, didn't you? You've forgotten already. Anyway, so we want you to like and subscribe and comment. He's off the I think he needs to go to the green room for a beer. think you're bit worn out. We've taxed you too much with the questions. But no, I generally I've really enjoyed you having on the show and thank you so much for coming this way. We'll go and talk more, Kit, and you're going to show us what you're not allowed to. We're going to look at that in the green room. So, Ed Miles, thank you for being on Just Ride. And we're clear. So what? Hey, so do you wanna do we do the competition thing again?