Latest / B 4EVA Kool "Race A Motorcycle" Podcast / Look ahead at MotoGP in Portugal & World SuperSport discussed in S5 Ep 39

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Look ahead at MotoGP in Portugal & World SuperSport discussed in S5 Ep 39 · B 4EVA Kool "Race A Motorcycle" Podcast

• 0:00
  Voter GPS happening, Mark Marquez is out, Martine is out,
• 0:04
  Maverick is he's going to show up.
• 0:07
  Do you think ratings will suffer because these top tier riders
• 0:11
  are not going to be there at the Portugal round, which is, you
• 0:14
  know, that part of the world, man, And motorcycle racing is
• 0:17
  huge. What are your thoughts on what
• 0:19
  Bulaga, what we might see from Bulaga?
• 0:22
  Let's talk about Honda. And it's perfect because it's
• 0:25
  about Marquez. I've seen on social media some
• 0:29
  folks talk about, you know, Honda's doing really well for
• 0:34
  what they're doing, for how quickly they're coming back.
• 0:36
  But Mir and Luca is not the writer to bring them over the
• 0:40
  hump. We need to find a Mark Marquez.
• 0:43
  And you know, since Louis, you have described, you know, how
• 0:47
  unreplaceable Marquez is. Please, one of you guys, all of
• 0:51
  you can just jump in at different times.
• 0:53
  Where is the next Mark Marquez to be signed for Honda?
• 0:56
  He's sitting on a KTM right now. Yeah, that's it.
• 1:00
  He's sitting there on KTM. It's Acosta.
• 1:02
  The finance side of of KTM and Ducati, I didn't, I didn't mean
• 1:06
  to stack them against each other because for the last three
• 1:09
  years, Ducati's made over a billion a year in revenue, which
• 1:12
  is which is pretty impressive. Is that a huge for the
• 1:15
  motorcycle industry to for A and they so like, I don't know,
• 1:19
  under 60,000 bikes. So it's not like they sold, you
• 1:22
  know, 20 billion bikes or anything like that.
• 1:24
  Is that a huge deal for Ducati to be able to do that?
• 1:27
  Let's talk about KTM wolves. You know, it looks like the
• 1:31
  majority stake owner maybe looking to try to move the their
• 1:36
  shares this white noise. How is this good for the team
• 1:39
  and is can as KTM as we know it. And I know Smitty already said
• 1:45
  KTM is going to be done in three years.
• 1:47
  So is is this what we're looking at like another brand that that
• 1:50
  may not be around in the next decade?
• 1:52
  Before we go into super sport, let's talk about the triple
• 1:56
  engine. I find that the the triple
• 1:59
  engine does not get the same respect that the twins and the V
• 2:04
  fours and the inline 4/4 get. Is it just because they just
• 2:09
  haven't been an on and off sport bikes?
• 2:11
  I mean, in NB Augusta, you know, we got Yamaha, obviously we got
• 2:15
  Triumph, which is probably well known.
• 2:17
  I find that you know, like you know, people love twins, they
• 2:21
  love the inline fours and the V fours, but the triple engine
• 2:24
  seems to struggle with you guys thoughts on on the triple
• 2:27
  engine? Should it be up there with all
• 2:30
  the characteristics of the ones I mentioned?
• 2:33
  It's to be forever cool podcast and I'm your host for X 45.
• 2:36
  Join me tonight where we talk about Portugal GP coming this
• 2:40
  weekend, the business of Moto GP riders leaving world Super bike
• 2:45
  and more. But before I we get started, let
• 2:47
  me introduce my guests in this order.
• 2:51
  Welcome to the show, Smitty. How you doing tonight?
• 2:54
  Pretty good yourself. And, you know, living the dream,
• 2:58
  you know, we're talking about motorcycle racing.
• 3:00
  I rode my bike yesterday. So, you know, with everything
• 3:04
  else that's going on in the world, it's nice when I can talk
• 3:07
  about motorcycles or, you know, ride 1.
• 3:11
  So how about yourself, man? So for me ride season is done.
• 3:16
  Had my last race 2 weeks ago. The where were GNF which I
• 3:21
  couldn't race because I had car trouble so that was a wash.
• 3:24
  I drove all the way to Barber 2 1/2 hours started car won't
• 3:28
  start. Then I got to start drove back
• 3:31
  home with the dealership. So trouble weekend actually.
• 3:34
  So little waste of time, but I'm here downtime.
• 3:38
  That's it. Man, I've, I've, I, at least you
• 3:42
  haven't totaled your car going to a race.
• 3:46
  I've done that. I've backed up 395 in the DC
• 3:50
  area for hours. Reese, welcome to the show, man.
• 3:56
  How you doing tonight? What's good, man?
• 3:58
  What's going on, man? It's good to be here, you know,
• 4:00
  up here in Jersey for a little bit for my parents, but all good
• 4:03
  all. Right.
• 4:04
  You know, I was, I was going to say something about that 70s
• 4:07
  Show background you got going on New Jersey, right?
• 4:14
  You got to visit the parents, man, You got to visit the
• 4:16
  parents. No, no doubt.
• 4:19
  I got to do that myself in a couple of weeks.
• 4:21
  It is what it is man. It's, it's part of the course.
• 4:23
  How you doing other than that? Well, I'm doing good man, can't
• 4:26
  complain. Just like you say.
• 4:28
  Living a dream, man, living a dream.
• 4:30
  No doubt man, I'm excited for tonight, tonight's show and
• 4:34
  what's to come this weekend because they keep when we think
• 4:37
  it's going to be boring, they keep adding more things for us
• 4:39
  to see Bulaga and and the Portugal GP should be very
• 4:43
  interesting. Yeah, that should be something
• 4:45
  to see. I'm looking forward to it.
• 4:47
  No doubt, Lewis, man, what's going on?
• 4:50
  Welcome to the show. How you doing tonight?
• 4:51
  I'm doing good, doing good man. Just here for another night with
• 4:54
  you, talking to talk. So don't sound so down, Lewis,
• 4:59
  man, it's. Been good, it's been good.
• 5:01
  Last couple of weeks have been good.
• 5:02
  We've had a good amount of back and forth and fun and I'm
• 5:06
  looking for another good night tonight with the guys on and
• 5:09
  talking to talk. No doubt I I completely agree.
• 5:13
  So let's get it going. And like Lewis mentioned, if you
• 5:16
  haven't checked out the interview with Bobby Fong, be
• 5:20
  Forever Cool's platform. Go check it out 'cause it was a
• 5:23
  really dope interview. It's good to hear the rider side
• 5:27
  and and give that perspective to our viewers and stuff like that.
• 5:30
  So definitely check out be forever, cool.com or just put it
• 5:33
  in your search bar. With that said, guys, voter GPS
• 5:39
  happening. Mark Marquez is out.
• 5:41
  Martine is out. Maverick is he's going to show
• 5:45
  up. I mean, do you do you guys think
• 5:48
  we'll start with Smitty? Do you think ratings will suffer
• 5:51
  because these top tier riders are not going to be the at the
• 5:55
  Portugal round, which is you know that that part of the world
• 5:58
  man and motorcycle racing is huge.
• 6:01
  I mean, yeah, for sure. I mean, you talk about the two
• 6:03
  top guys, you know, the the two last champions not racing.
• 6:06
  Yeah, of course they'll suffer. However, in my opinion, it's
• 6:11
  just me, but I think it's better without Marquez at times because
• 6:14
  when he's there, you know, like it's Mark, it's marking my cash
• 6:17
  show against everybody else and it's it's too easy to tell who's
• 6:20
  going to win. When he's not there, it's like,
• 6:22
  OK, you have no clue what's going on.
• 6:23
  It's more exciting, more random. So I enjoyed that part of it.
• 6:27
  But he's not racing, honestly. But I think all sports need that
• 6:30
  one great person to bring people in.
• 6:33
  So it's kind of a hit or miss, you know, but.
• 6:36
  OK. All right.
• 6:37
  That's what's up. Reece, what are your thoughts on
• 6:40
  on those three guys not being there?
• 6:43
  You're, you're a die hard. It's in your veins at this
• 6:46
  point. So I I I think if it was Bugs
• 6:50
  Bunny and his crew, you'll still watch Moto GP.
• 6:54
  I mean, pretty much it's in your veins.
• 6:55
  I mean, I think it'll suffer a little bit, but I don't think
• 6:57
  it's going to suffer that much. I mean, I think the the guys are
• 7:00
  still going to show up. I think fans are going to show
• 7:02
  up. I think their fans are still
• 7:04
  wanting to see somebody else win.
• 7:05
  It's been it's kind of nice to see someone else besides, you
• 7:08
  know, the Marquez show up there, you know, to see like an Acosta
• 7:13
  maybe to see some Pekka come up there and actually take over
• 7:16
  maybe. So, you know, they still got a
• 7:19
  lot of fans out there that's going to come out and support
• 7:21
  and watch. I mean, you know, the VR46 boys
• 7:24
  are you know, there. So that's that's a show in
• 7:28
  itself. So you got to think about that.
• 7:31
  You know Ross, he never was not a showmanship.
• 7:33
  So he knows how to put on a show.
• 7:36
  So do the boys. I mean, I, I, I think it's the
• 7:39
  Jersey Air, man. I think you said something nice
• 7:41
  about Petco. I got to give it, you know, you
• 7:46
  got to, you got to, you got to just hope for the best for the
• 7:49
  guy. You know, it sucks, but listen,
• 7:53
  I got to just hope for the best for the guy.
• 7:56
  You know? The sun shines on the dog's ass
• 7:57
  every once in a blue moon. Lewis is going on man Mark
• 8:04
  Marquez, Martine, I mean, he didn't race all year, but
• 8:07
  nonetheless, he he did win the championship last year and
• 8:13
  that's huge. Vinales, who I think he was the
• 8:16
  shining light in KTM until Acosta is doing he's doing his
• 8:21
  last couple of rounds. What are your thoughts on on
• 8:24
  those guys not being there this round and, and, and, and
• 8:27
  especially in a place like Portugal?
• 8:30
  Portugal is going to have a great turn out.
• 8:32
  All the European rounds this year seem to have really, really
• 8:34
  strong audience attendance. Does it suck to not have the
• 8:37
  superstars there? Yeah, but you know, there's
• 8:40
  plenty of other riders There's, there's going to be some new
• 8:42
  faces out there. I think it'll still be a really
• 8:46
  interesting round. I I think they'll still get a
• 8:47
  really good turn out. The last couple of years at
• 8:51
  Puerto Mao have been pretty decent turn out.
• 8:54
  And I think this year with all things given, I think that the
• 8:57
  turn out will be on par, if not maybe a little bit up just
• 9:03
  because this year the attendance has been up on the European
• 9:05
  rounds overall. So I think they'll continue that
• 9:08
  streak in Porto. Mao, even without Maverick, even
• 9:12
  without Martine, even without Benales, the show still goes on.
• 9:16
  Eventually these guys are going to retire, other guys are going
• 9:18
  to come in like the show is still the show.
• 9:20
  If you put on a good show, I think it'll be a good weekend
• 9:23
  overall in attendance and fan engagement.
• 9:27
  And again, if the race is good, that's really what counts.
• 9:30
  As long as the racing's good. At the end of the day, the
• 9:32
  show's good and everybody has a good time.
• 9:35
  You can still have fun without stars.
• 9:38
  Yeah. Except in the NBA.
• 9:42
  Come on. Come on, don't do that.
• 9:44
  Don't do that. Everyone's a star in the NBA.
• 9:50
  It doesn't take much. It doesn't take much before we
• 9:54
  dive further into what may happen from some of these other
• 9:57
  riders that are going to be there because they can show up
• 9:59
  and they don't have any health issues.
• 10:02
  One of the big names that's replacing Mark, that's replacing
• 10:05
  Marquez Buluga. What do you guys think?
• 10:09
  On Buluga? We saw what Polo Spargo did
• 10:12
  these last few rounds for KTM, you know, making it to Q2.
• 10:16
  I think both both rounds and he crashed out and you know, he
• 10:21
  was, I think he was in the top ten.
• 10:23
  What are your thoughts on what Bulaga what what we might see
• 10:27
  from Bulaga Smitty? I mean, you know, these these
• 10:32
  were I thought riders from WSBK coming into Moto GP for one
• 10:35
  round it it never happens much at all to, you know, do much.
• 10:40
  So I'll probably say 15th ish at best, but not much.
• 10:44
  John Smith expect he's good but too short notice to, you know,
• 10:48
  to ride a bike, to learn the bike, to learn the track.
• 10:50
  Well, you know what? The track.
• 10:52
  He already knows the track, yeah, He's been in that Moto
• 10:55
  Moto 2 paddock, Moto slash Moto GP paddock for some years.
• 10:59
  So he's not like some OK, you don't see much so. 15 that best?
• 11:04
  15 that I mean. You know what he he might beat
• 11:07
  Peko, but that's. Why I like like?
• 11:11
  You got that. You got that Orlando air over
• 11:14
  there in in Atlanta. How are your thoughts, Reese?
• 11:20
  I mean you know you you just came from over in world super
• 11:24
  bike with with attack Yamaha and Bobby.
• 11:27
  You know what do you is is Smitty on par or what to expect
• 11:32
  from back from from back Jesus Bulgug Babbitt names tonight.
• 11:39
  Bad. No, I mean, I I kind of agree
• 11:41
  with Smitty a little bit. I mean, I don't see him per SE
• 11:44
  doing too much. I mean, I've seen him out there
• 11:46
  having a couple of test days with the bike.
• 11:48
  So I mean, he still takes a while to learn the bike and
• 11:50
  still figure it out. But I mean, barring some
• 11:56
  craziness, I mean, I still see him top 15.
• 11:59
  I don't see him getting up past he may get from may get to 10th,
• 12:04
  but I don't know. I just don't see it not yet.
• 12:07
  Maybe, maybe not, but it's it's one of those weird calls.
• 12:12
  I mean Bulliga, Bulliga, but you know, there's a reason why he's
• 12:15
  in World Super Bike. Right.
• 12:18
  Yeah, OK, there is a reason, but you know, it might have been
• 12:23
  more administrative. What are your thoughts Lewis on
• 12:26
  on Bulaga? First first, let's get the
• 12:29
  wording right. If this was him coming in for
• 12:32
  Pekobegnaya, then it would be he's replacing Pekobegnaya, he's
• 12:37
  filling in for Marc Marquez. He's not replacing Marc Marquez,
• 12:42
  right? There's no replacing that guy.
• 12:43
  If it was Peko Bagnaya that he was coming in for, he could
• 12:47
  possibly be replacing Peko Bagnaya.
• 12:49
  So let's not use the like every time I see replacing Marquez
• 12:53
  replace, there's no replacing him, man, you filling in for
• 12:57
  somebody, you filling in for like the best guy out there.
• 13:01
  Now, as far as what he's going to do, I think he's going to
• 13:04
  finish in the top 15. Like I legit think that this guy
• 13:08
  has a lot of talent. Ducati's going to give him
• 13:13
  everything he needs to fill in quickly.
• 13:15
  He's not coming onto a shit box bike.
• 13:17
  So he's not in a top rack situation where he's going to be
• 13:20
  in the paddock next to Miller. He's in a situation where he's
• 13:24
  on the factory team, on the factory bike and they're going
• 13:27
  to give him everything he possibly needs to try to make
• 13:30
  sure that he takes advantage of this opportunity because again,
• 13:34
  this is a a possible star of tomorrow.
• 13:37
  This is an opportunity for maybe a little bit of a test run for
• 13:42
  him to show Ducati, hey, after I'm done with this thing over
• 13:45
  here in World Super Bike in another year, you guys have a
• 13:47
  seat opening up. Maybe this is an audition, you
• 13:54
  know, and he has to take this as an audition.
• 13:56
  He has to take every single opportunity he has because
• 13:59
  remember, he hasn't been in this paddock in a long time.
• 14:02
  You know, he got booted out of this paddock.
• 14:04
  He didn't have a seat, he didn't have a ride, he had nothing to
• 14:07
  do and that's why he ended up back in World Super Sport.
• 14:10
  Now he's back in his paddock and even it's only two events.
• 14:13
  He's going to shake hands and kiss babies like nobody's ever
• 14:17
  seen. He's going to be walking around
• 14:18
  with a smile. He's going to be doing all the
• 14:20
  right things to ingratiate himself not just to the Ducati
• 14:24
  squad but to as many of these teams as possible because if he
• 14:28
  ever wants to set foot in a world Moto GP paddock again,
• 14:32
  this is his first foot in that door.
• 14:36
  OK so you know this again this is motorcycle racing is more
• 14:40
  politics then sometimes it is just talent because there's some
• 14:44
  non talented riders that get into Moto GP and there's some
• 14:48
  talented riders that never do. Yeah, I, I hate that.
• 14:52
  You know, there's a good movie called The Replacements, man,
• 14:54
  you know it came out. The best movie ever made.
• 14:57
  The best football movie ever made.
• 15:01
  I watch it at least five times a year.
• 15:03
  I I didn't know. I didn't realize.
• 15:04
  We have to check, you know, how we, we classify Marc Marquez.
• 15:08
  I mean, this is serious. I mean, you know.
• 15:11
  When, when, when Michael Jordan got on the bench, the guy that
• 15:15
  took his place was subbing for Michael Jordan.
• 15:17
  He wasn't replacing Michael Jordan.
• 15:20
  Same thing here. He's subbing for Marc Marquez.
• 15:24
  He ain't replacing him. Hey Brady sub for Litzo.
• 15:31
  And you know, this is like life happened.
• 15:33
  But we'll, we'll carry on. We digress.
• 15:40
  So let's talk about Honda. I've, I've, you know, and, and,
• 15:45
  and it's perfect because it's about Marquez.
• 15:48
  I've, I've seen on social media some folks talk about, you know,
• 15:52
  Honda is doing really well for what they're doing, for how
• 15:56
  quickly they're coming back, But Mayor and Luca is not the writer
• 16:01
  to bring them over the hump. We need to find a Mark Marquez.
• 16:05
  And you know, since Lewis, you have described, you know, how
• 16:08
  unreplaceable Marquez is. Please, one of you guys, all of
• 16:12
  you can just jump in at different times.
• 16:14
  Where is the next Mark Marquez to be signed for Honda?
• 16:18
  He's sitting on a KTM right now, yeah.
• 16:20
  That's it. He's standing in on KTM.
• 16:22
  It's Acosta, we all. Agree the same thing, Pedro.
• 16:26
  Yep. So that's that's that's.
• 16:28
  A quick, quick subject. So but do you?
• 16:31
  Well, let's ask a little further.
• 16:34
  Do you think that Mayor and Luca can't and can't bring these guys
• 16:39
  over the hump? I mean, mayor is the world's
• 16:41
  champion and, you know, mayor in his own right and also Motor
• 16:45
  Moto 2 champion. Mayor in his own right is a, is
• 16:48
  a fairly, you know, you know, he he's, you know.
• 16:51
  I wouldn't say on paper he's better than Danny Pedrosa, but
• 16:54
  Mayor can ride wait. He but.
• 16:58
  He's a subpar rider. Danny doesn't have a title.
• 17:02
  Danny can have a bad time. Honestly, Danny.
• 17:04
  Hold on, I agree. I agree Danny has the worst luck
• 17:07
  out of everybody. I'm not disputing any of that.
• 17:09
  But he. Had the worst luck, but Danny
• 17:11
  came up with a whole bunch of great writers.
• 17:13
  Yeah, you know, Mirror. Mirror got a championship by
• 17:17
  some bullshit at luck. But not crashing, right?
• 17:21
  No, he got, he got by luck and by us having a whole pandemic
• 17:25
  going on. As you you know, he got a
• 17:27
  pandemic championship. I just checked, World champion
• 17:31
  is still world champion whether you win by one point or 100
• 17:35
  points. He's not wrong, but he's not.
• 17:38
  Better you win, Yeah, if you win by an inch or a mile, yeah, but
• 17:41
  you know, at least the championship get a championship
• 17:44
  could go back up in the top five.
• 17:46
  You can't even scratch the top five right now.
• 17:48
  Time I turn around you in the you eating gravel.
• 17:52
  So question but the year that may have won, I'm probably
• 17:55
  wrong, but he ain't been. He ain't been not, not one race,
• 17:57
  right? He won one race, he won one.
• 18:00
  Yep, he won one race. No, and there's other riders who
• 18:04
  have won world titles that can't have similar resumes like whom
• 18:11
  you got to. Go a little further back.
• 18:12
  It's not in the last 15 years you got to go back to the 90s,
• 18:16
  but if you go back to the 90s, there's a couple of guys that.
• 18:19
  How how many races did Nikki Haley win?
• 18:22
  Maybe 333 or 4. Yeah.
• 18:27
  Look, Mirror just happened to be in the right place at the right
• 18:31
  time. Yeah, and he was what we call
• 18:35
  Mr. Consistency. That's it.
• 18:38
  OK. All right.
• 18:40
  That's it. Consistency still wins you
• 18:43
  championships, man. You know at the end of the year
• 18:46
  you have to finish it. It's the number one rule of the
• 18:49
  race and you got to finish the race to win.
• 18:51
  And if you do races, if he ain't finished enough races while
• 18:55
  Martine and Quadraro and Pekko and all these other guys were
• 19:01
  eating gravel and and again, if Marc Marquez wasn't injured and
• 19:06
  this and that and a million other things, but at the end of
• 19:08
  the year, he still got that check and he still got that
• 19:11
  championship belt. Yeah.
• 19:14
  You. Got to put some spec.
• 19:15
  On can you as a? Spec on his name.
• 19:19
  OK. But Lou, as a writer, can you
• 19:22
  really sit there and say I feel great about that championship?
• 19:25
  I tell you what, man, when I visit my bank account, I could
• 19:28
  care less what you have to say. That mega account has probably
• 19:31
  dwindled by now. When I see that deposit, that
• 19:34
  one time deposit that. Big listen, I don't care what?
• 19:39
  Reason has to say. Vanilla Ice is a good example of
• 19:42
  that. He didn't like performing that
• 19:43
  song, but that paycheck and what he's been able to do with it, he
• 19:47
  gets there and he puts his heart into it every time he performs
• 19:49
  it. And so he says, So it is what it
• 19:54
  is, is, you know, you guys, all you know, said Pedro.
• 20:00
  Is there a shot for Pedro to get signed to Honda?
• 20:03
  I mean, you know. Absolutely.
• 20:06
  Absolutely. Do you?
• 20:07
  So do you think that's where Paige could, you know, we, you
• 20:09
  know, as we look and see on social media, it seems like he's
• 20:12
  has a good shot with VR46 as well.
• 20:14
  I mean, obviously Honda's money's longer.
• 20:17
  I mean, what we should all take a time to each answer this.
• 20:20
  So we start with Smitty because we we see that, we see the logo
• 20:24
  on his hat. So he's going to go hard in the
• 20:26
  paint on this one. No, no, listen, listen.
• 20:29
  You know he's a Honda trying to do true and blue.
• 20:32
  I've been hoping he was in high for the past damn year, 2 years
• 20:35
  but it didn't happen yet. But with KTM and their money
• 20:37
  problems it was big for a while and it died and it didn't died
• 20:41
  away. Now it's coming back up again.
• 20:43
  To be honest I don't think KTM is going to be in GP and
• 20:46
  probably in three in next like 3 years probably.
• 20:49
  Honestly, hold that thought because that's on the list to
• 20:52
  talk about. So definitely there.
• 20:55
  So we, we, we heard Smitty's point of view.
• 20:59
  Reese, what are your thoughts on that?
• 21:00
  I mean, can do you think we're Acosta is right now as far as
• 21:05
  wanting to win? And we know Ducati's the bike
• 21:08
  to, to, to win. I mean, I, I think until
• 21:11
  probably 28 if you ask me, you know, Acosta wants to go to a
• 21:15
  team that he knows he can win. So what are your thoughts on on
• 21:18
  him Honda signing him after his contract is up?
• 21:24
  I mean, once his contract is up, I mean, I think it's a pretty
• 21:26
  good chance. I mean, yeah, you know, like
• 21:28
  they say, Honda's money is very long and go very deep.
• 21:33
  You know, with versus KTM, yeah. I mean, VR 4016 has a good shot
• 21:40
  at signing him. I mean, they have a good package
• 21:42
  under them. But at the same time, I mean,
• 21:45
  it's a lot of these young kids are going to where the money's
• 21:49
  at. But then you got to look at it
• 21:50
  like this. When we come to 27, everybody's
• 21:53
  kind of starting out on a similar platform.
• 21:55
  You know, everybody's going to start on that same platform and
• 21:58
  the 850CC. So you got to see, you got to
• 22:02
  you got to take take a chance on where you're going.
• 22:05
  But I think Honda has a very good shot to go will.
• 22:08
  Right, no doubt. Let's let's all right, Louis,
• 22:11
  your turn. And I'll say this because you're
• 22:13
  the money guy. It's it's on record that, you
• 22:16
  know, Pedro still lives at home with his mother and still drives
• 22:19
  to be around. So he ain't up, doesn't seem to
• 22:21
  be looking for the money as much.
• 22:24
  Just because you don't spend money doesn't mean you don't
• 22:26
  want money. You know, it was funny.
• 22:29
  I was actually listening to an interview with Charles Barkley.
• 22:35
  About what I think was Julius Irvin had told him why do you
• 22:41
  have 5 cars? And Charles Barkley is like, you
• 22:44
  know, can you drive all 5 at the same time?
• 22:47
  No. Then why do you have 5 cars?
• 22:50
  Because when you get out of the car, everybody knows who you
• 22:52
  are. So you just buying those cars
• 22:53
  for the people. So just because you don't spend
• 22:57
  the money doesn't mean you don't want the money.
• 23:00
  And you have to think of it this way also.
• 23:03
  Do you want to be the number one rider on a number two team?
• 23:06
  Because the VR46 is a satellite team.
• 23:08
  It's not a factory team. So as much as they say they get
• 23:10
  factory support and this and that, it's still a satellite
• 23:13
  team. Come on, man.
• 23:15
  Look, Martine won on a satellite team.
• 23:18
  A win is a win. Come on.
• 23:19
  A win is a win. But they go one way, you know?
• 23:23
  Let me tell you something. There's a big difference in
• 23:27
  certain things when you're on a factory team versus when you're
• 23:30
  on a satellite team. With a factory team, you have
• 23:33
  more opportunities to make more money as well as more
• 23:39
  relationships because you're you're unlimited.
• 23:43
  You know when, when you're on a satellite team, even if it's a
• 23:46
  very popular team, it's still a satellite team.
• 23:49
  Like they still have a little bit more budget constraints.
• 23:51
  They still have a little bit more of this and that.
• 23:54
  Yeah, but there's one caveat. Which is.
• 23:57
  Valentino Rossi is the big boss. He is the big boss, but you
• 24:01
  barely see him at the track. So to have someone like that
• 24:04
  come as, as we have said, like, you know, Marquez or Jordan,
• 24:09
  anybody, you have somebody come and have a conversation with
• 24:12
  you. And we've we've heard stories of
• 24:14
  Jordan doing this to people and stuff like that that's changed
• 24:18
  people's lives. So, you know, if anyone can
• 24:21
  convince Acosta to come to a satellite team, it would be
• 24:25
  Rossi. He could convince him, but
• 24:29
  again. And he knows what it takes to
• 24:30
  sign a rider like that because he is that.
• 24:33
  So he already know, you know what I'm saying?
• 24:35
  He's not right. He.
• 24:37
  Is, but at the same time did he resign his own brother?
• 24:42
  He he told him to stay with the thing, but he wanted to go on
• 24:45
  the factory team, I mean. Yeah, exactly.
• 24:47
  And his own brother even knew that being on a satellite team
• 24:51
  is not what you want. I think that's a.
• 24:54
  Rider All riders want to be on factory teams, and if the
• 24:56
  opportunity presents itself, it should.
• 24:59
  But once a ride to be has been on a factory team like Acosta,
• 25:02
  like Marquez, and Marquez went to a satellite team to refixes
• 25:06
  himself. So let's put it this way.
• 25:09
  Would do you think that a cost of winning on a Ducati satellite
• 25:15
  bike versus winning on a factory Honda bike, Which one is going
• 25:20
  to be more important for legacy if take money out of it, put it
• 25:23
  for legacy? I think at the moment Acosta
• 25:26
  going to to Ducati with VR46 is like KD going to the Suns.
• 25:32
  You're on a team that you're on a machine that's been winning
• 25:35
  for the last four years and you can probably and they probably
• 25:40
  going to win next year and probably win good has a probably
• 25:43
  have a pretty good shot to fight in 27 for the for the title as
• 25:47
  well. I think for Acosta, that's, I
• 25:50
  mean, Honda still has to prove itself.
• 25:52
  I mean, that's how this whole thing started.
• 25:53
  Honda still has to prove itself. I think as a Spaniard going to
• 25:57
  the Honda team with a Spanish team manager, with all the
• 26:03
  Spanish people that are in and around Honda, because Honda is
• 26:07
  very Spanish centric now because of the people that are running
• 26:10
  the team, I think it behooves him to go that route versus to
• 26:15
  go the Rossi route on a team that's run by Italians that's
• 26:20
  heavily Italian influenced. And that might not necessarily
• 26:25
  because again, man, the VR46 squad doesn't have the greatest
• 26:30
  relationship with Spaniards for some reason, you know, Do you
• 26:34
  think being Acosta, you want to go into that hellscape of an
• 26:37
  environment that's a little bit toxic, to be honest with you?
• 26:41
  Wow, man. I mean, look, I don't know.
• 26:43
  I you know, I think that Marquez went, he went.
• 26:46
  So he he. He went because he's Marquez and
• 26:50
  he didn't. He didn't go to the VR46 team,
• 26:53
  he went to the Grazini team. Right.
• 26:55
  But, but, but VR46 actually won Acosta and Acosta and Valentino
• 26:59
  have a pretty decent relationship, unlike on on.
• 27:05
  Yeah. I mean, he's gone to the ranch
• 27:06
  and and wrote at the ranch. I mean, if he didn't like the
• 27:08
  man, he wouldn't show up. I don't.
• 27:10
  Think Marquez. Marquez ran at the ranch, too.
• 27:12
  No, yeah, now. And guess what?
• 27:14
  He beat Rossi's Addis as his ranch and all of a sudden their
• 27:16
  relationship went to shit. You know, but you know, you know
• 27:20
  what I mean. I from, from what we can tell,
• 27:22
  because obviously I, I, we don't know personally, but they had,
• 27:25
  there's no rift between Rossi and Acosta.
• 27:28
  And it sounds like they they if KTM would have allowed Acosta to
• 27:32
  go out of his contract, Acosta would have signed the VR46.
• 27:37
  Absolutely. But the fact that he did it and
• 27:39
  the fact that it's going to be another year before he can, I
• 27:42
  think this gives Honda another year to build closer to a
• 27:46
  package that could attract Acosta to that team.
• 27:49
  Because as Smitty said, I don't see KTM participating at the
• 27:54
  level that they're participating right now going forward.
• 27:56
  And we'll talk about it later, but Acosta's got to find his way
• 28:00
  out. Right.
• 28:01
  You know, he, he knows that the bike is limited, he knows that
• 28:04
  the funny is not going to be there.
• 28:05
  He's got to find a way out. And his two options are a year
• 28:08
  from now go to Yamaha, which means he's going to go even
• 28:11
  slower, go to Ducati with the VR46 team because I doubt the
• 28:15
  Grassini team would would hire him to be honest with you.
• 28:19
  I just. I just don't think that that'll
• 28:20
  mesh well because even though there's Spaniards, I don't think
• 28:25
  the Acosta's and the Marquez's of the world are on the best of
• 28:29
  terms sometimes. That's just the way that's my
• 28:33
  personal feeling. And and, and I think in a year
• 28:36
  from now, you know, Mir will be out at Honda.
• 28:40
  I think they'll keep Marini and that'll be his spot to slide
• 28:46
  into man all. Right, no doubt.
• 28:48
  All right. We'll keep, we'll, we'll keep it
• 28:50
  moving. But we're going to stick with
• 28:51
  the, the finance side of, of KTM and Ducati.
• 28:55
  I, I mean, it's, it's, it's, I didn't, I didn't mean to stack
• 28:58
  them against each other because for the last three years,
• 29:02
  Ducati's made over a billion a year in revenue, which is, which
• 29:06
  is pretty impressive. KTM has lost 3 billion a year in
• 29:09
  revenue. So, so KTM has lost three for
• 29:13
  Ducati. It's pretty impressive to be
• 29:15
  able to do that. Is that a huge for the
• 29:18
  motorcycle industry to for A and they sold like, I don't know,
• 29:23
  under 60,000 bikes. So it's not like they sold, you
• 29:27
  know, 20 billion bikes or anything like that.
• 29:29
  Is that a huge deal for Ducati to be able to do that and
• 29:32
  you're. Just money, you know, the more
• 29:34
  money you make, the better company could do, you know,
• 29:39
  currently in the future. So yeah, huge deal and
• 29:42
  especially being AKTM losing money, you know it is a huge
• 29:45
  deal. Honda still making money.
• 29:48
  So is Ducati, Aprilia. I don't know where I don't know
• 29:52
  how to make money because because to be honest, on the
• 29:53
  streets, I don't see anybody at all really.
• 29:56
  Maybe it's me just not being out in the in that, you know, zone
• 29:59
  anymore, but I never seen anybody on any preliminary
• 30:02
  streets at all. Do you see?
• 30:04
  But they're. Still there racing so.
• 30:06
  Do you see Piaggio's school money?
• 30:09
  Do you see Piaggio? You tell me.
• 30:12
  I'm at That's so good. I got a Piaggio, man, yeah.
• 30:14
  I got yeah. Take it down.
• 30:17
  You can't hear me. I think you might not be able to
• 30:21
  hear us. Yeah, Yeah, I think I don't
• 30:23
  hear. Me.
• 30:24
  Yeah, we can hear you. That's weird.
• 30:28
  Yeah, I mean that you might have to just pull out and and and,
• 30:33
  yeah, just remove yourself and add yourself.
• 30:37
  He can't hear us right. I see Piaggio's everywhere.
• 30:41
  Yeah, so I I'm. In California.
• 30:44
  I'm not in California, I'm in Florida.
• 30:47
  I mean, you see, I'm sure you see Vestas everywhere.
• 30:50
  Exactly. I see the.
• 30:52
  Still don't hear shit? That's unfortunate.
• 30:57
  That's that. That's that Atlanta shit.
• 30:58
  That's that Atlanta shit. What are your thoughts, Reese,
• 31:04
  on on what Ducati's doing has done financially, being able to
• 31:08
  do that for a small company not too much bigger than what
• 31:14
  Aprilia? Is OK, so let me see I'm
• 31:19
  approach this one for you. So I mean it is great to see
• 31:23
  them do that. You know it is one out of a feat
• 31:25
  for a motorcycle industry to see them.
• 31:28
  Is it good for the motorcycle industry?
• 31:30
  Yes and no, because it doesn't do nothing for the other four
• 31:33
  big brands. But I could say this coming from
• 31:39
  a dealer perspective, you know, working in a dealership for so
• 31:42
  many years and seeing it then it's the same old added question
• 31:47
  that you get, you know, people and Lou probably will know the
• 31:51
  same thing. But a lot of the the young guys
• 31:55
  coming up or even the old guys coming in when they go to buy a
• 32:00
  jet brand, you know, and we're at what for an R1 or ACBR where
• 32:07
  18,000 some odd $1000, you know, after tax fees and all that,
• 32:11
  you're like 20 grand. So the added is why, why should
• 32:16
  I buy this R1 or Gixxer or CBR when I can go spend a couple
• 32:22
  more $1000 and be part of what they call the elite brand of the
• 32:27
  Ducati and have a faster bike? So that's always what's
• 32:31
  happened. A lot of guys will buy the, the
• 32:34
  elite brand instead of the old brand because nothing has
• 32:37
  changed. And so for Ducati to do what
• 32:41
  they have done to sell it, yes, it's, it's great because people
• 32:44
  are buying it. And, you know, I respected with
• 32:47
  their household and everything they've done.
• 32:49
  And you know, it, it, it makes everybody else step their game
• 32:52
  up a little bit or try to. But it also is nice for Ducati
• 32:57
  when you got that Volkswagen company with Lamborghini sitting
• 33:01
  behind you, you know? Splotting out a.
• 33:03
  Whole bunch of cash and not be like, no, they're not.
• 33:06
  I'm like, well, you got to look how many Lamborghini editions
• 33:08
  they put out and trust me, they sell out every year that
• 33:13
  Lamborghini edition comes. Yeah, no, I, I, I think Ducati
• 33:18
  lucked out being purchased by a car company or a company that
• 33:24
  actually want them to succeed because, you know, we've seen
• 33:28
  other companies get bought and ripped apart and sold and, and.
• 33:32
  Well, there's a lot of car companies at home.
• 33:35
  Manufacturers. Like the rights or like I found
• 33:38
  out I didn't even know for years.
• 33:40
  You know, Toyota owns part of Yamaha.
• 33:45
  Yeah. Yeah.
• 33:47
  So what do you think? Well, where they at?
• 33:50
  Oh, your thoughts, Mr. Mr. Finance?
• 33:54
  All right, so let me get a little bit.
• 33:56
  So what Ducati's done is impressive, but you do have to
• 34:00
  understand that overall sales compared to the year prior were
• 34:04
  down about 6%. So even though they sold over
• 34:07
  50,000 units in 2024, they were down 6% from 2023.
• 34:14
  Now 2022 and 2023 had, especially in the US market,
• 34:18
  which is a very big market for Ducati, we had that influx of
• 34:23
  fake money due to COVID and so forth, and a lot of people had
• 34:26
  pent up spending anguish. They just want to get money out
• 34:30
  in 2122 even trickled over a little to 2324.
• 34:35
  Even though they crested over 50,000 units sold, they were
• 34:38
  still down about 6% from the previous year.
• 34:41
  But it still shows that there is a market for these specific
• 34:46
  bikes. You know, they keep investing
• 34:49
  these bikes and giving people a reason to buy these motorcycles.
• 34:53
  And 50,000 units might not seem like a lot, but it is a huge
• 34:58
  amount when you think about the fact that the average price of a
• 35:01
  Ducati is almost $20,000. So, you know, it's not like
• 35:05
  you're buying 7 or $8000 CBR 5 hundreds or Ninja 4 hundreds or
• 35:13
  things like that, like you're buying a premium motorcycle.
• 35:16
  You're spending on average about $20,000.
• 35:19
  So 50,000 motorcycles at $20,000 on average is a very good return
• 35:25
  on investment. And if they can keep that 50,000
• 35:28
  unit average, they'll do very, very well for the next two, 3-4
• 35:32
  years. The thing is that's helping them
• 35:34
  is they're the only company that's actively constantly
• 35:38
  developing bikes in this segment on top of all the other segments
• 35:43
  they're getting into. You know, now they have a, a
• 35:45
  motocross bike or a dirt bike, and that's going to have a
• 35:48
  couple of different variants. It's going to have a trail
• 35:50
  version. It's going to have this, it's
• 35:51
  going to have that. They keep investing in the right
• 35:55
  markets. Their Multi Strata is adaptable
• 35:58
  to a couple of different types of riding their V2 motor and
• 36:02
  their V4 motor is going are going into a lot of different
• 36:05
  platforms and this is what they're doing that nobody else
• 36:08
  is doing. None of the Jack bike companies
• 36:10
  are doing this. All the Jack bike companies are
• 36:12
  focusing on volume at a lower price versus quality and
• 36:16
  technology and performance at a higher price.
• 36:19
  Because at $20,000 this is this has always been the problem.
• 36:22
  At $20,000 would you rather buy a Ducati V4 or buy a fucking 15
• 36:29
  year old piece of shit R1 again? Right.
• 36:31
  I mean, listen, when you know Wendy's meal is 15 bucks today,
• 36:36
  there's a lot of inflation happening.
• 36:38
  So I mean, how much of that is inflation versus just having a
• 36:43
  more expensive brand because? Yeah, but you can't blame it all
• 36:46
  on inflation because if you rolling out the same old shit
• 36:48
  box for 15 years and telling me it cost more to make it, well
• 36:54
  how's this company making something better and newer and
• 36:57
  more different for that? You know, and this is this is
• 37:00
  where the used bike market comes in.
• 37:02
  People always complain, oh you don't go to if you want to vote,
• 37:05
  vote with your dollars, go to the dealership and buy a bike.
• 37:08
  Well guess what man, if I buy today's bike, I could buy 8 year
• 37:11
  old bike that looks exactly like today's bike.
• 37:14
  But. How long now you've seen?
• 37:15
  Which almost all this? Man this shit got a fucking ZX6
• 37:20
  front end and two wings. It's the same shit box
• 37:23
  underneath. I like it's a fucking wing.
• 37:26
  ZX10 this shit got a ZX6 front end and two wings that look like
• 37:30
  they got them from T MU. Bullshit, man.
• 37:36
  Yeah, but you know, we'll, we'll talk about KTM after this.
• 37:39
  But I'll say this, the used motorcycle market, because I do
• 37:43
  pay attention to it, it needs to, it needs to come down
• 37:48
  because the prices are so close to brand new.
• 37:50
  When you say 8 year old bike, the 8 year old bikes that are
• 37:52
  like 3 grand less than a new bike.
• 37:55
  You're not. And and that's that I mean that
• 37:57
  is another that's a positive and a negative because if the price
• 38:00
  is high and I can get a new bike for 3000, more than you're going
• 38:05
  to probably sell a new bike in place of that.
• 38:08
  But also if the prices are high in the used market it deters new
• 38:12
  riders from getting into the market.
• 38:14
  Because I I would like to get an RR 6 but people are still asking
• 38:18
  15 grand for a 7 year old R6. I I can't get ACBR 600 because
• 38:25
  they don't exist. So I got to buy what a 2009 CBR
• 38:30
  600 that's beat to shit and they still want $7000 for it?
• 38:35
  Like this is the problem, man. Like we don't have a used market
• 38:39
  that can pull in new people and we don't have a new market
• 38:43
  priced competitive to give people a reason to buy new.
• 38:47
  And it's all the Japanese brands, whereas Ducati, even
• 38:51
  though they're a little bit more expensive, every couple years
• 38:54
  they give you a reason to buy a new Ducati.
• 38:56
  We went from AV2 to AV4. We went from AV4 this to AV4
• 39:00
  that. We do, you know, they actually
• 39:02
  hurt themselves because they're constantly bringing out so many
• 39:05
  new models that they devalue the products that are old.
• 39:08
  But that's also a good thing, because when they devalue the
• 39:11
  products that are old, this gives somebody a pathway to get
• 39:14
  a used Ducati, to start on the used Ducati and eventually buy a
• 39:18
  new Ducati. Right, right.
• 39:20
  Till they get to that Desmo service and then want to sell
• 39:22
  that, yeah. Until they get hit with that one
• 39:24
  Desmond, they'd be like, what it's.
• 39:28
  Not bad, it's not bad. It's.
• 39:29
  Not bad, so. Let's talk about KTM wolves.
• 39:33
  You know it, it looks like the majority stake owner may be
• 39:37
  looking to try to move the their shares.
• 39:41
  It looks like they're, you know, they're they're following suit
• 39:44
  with maybe Amazon and laying off some of these CEO, these white
• 39:47
  collar workers, you know, with this white noise.
• 39:53
  How is this good for the team? And is can as KTM as we know it,
• 39:58
  and I know Smitty already said KTM is going to be done in three
• 40:01
  years. So is, is this what we're
• 40:03
  looking at like another brand that that may not be around in
• 40:07
  the next decade? So.
• 40:07
  Yeah, so I think their problems are going to just keep them
• 40:10
  alive for the next couple years. But I think even right now
• 40:12
  currently to hear the hey, you know, we're bankrupt, laying off
• 40:17
  like but like it's a mental distraction and guys don't want
• 40:22
  that, you know, especially, you know, the rider.
• 40:24
  It's like, OK, well, next year, you know, should I stay here?
• 40:27
  Everybody going to be better where they have money.
• 40:29
  So just you want to just leave early while you can before you
• 40:32
  get stuck, stuck on a bad team and know, right.
• 40:34
  So Pedro should be gone. Honestly, in my opinion, it's
• 40:39
  based on the rumors he's having and just the feelings of having
• 40:41
  not it's like you feel it's uncertain, you know what I'm
• 40:46
  saying? And I don't feel good.
• 40:48
  Yeah, no, I I agree it's tough when you work for a organization
• 40:52
  and you and you hear about the financial woes and you're still
• 40:56
  supposed to wake up and, and give 110% and you don't know
• 41:00
  what's going to happen. So it it, it's a, it's a weird
• 41:04
  space to be in if if you've been in a space like that, because
• 41:08
  I'm in that. Space now shit.
• 41:10
  Yes, yes, you, yes, you are. And and you know, you're you're
• 41:15
  essential and and and critical piece to making this thing flow
• 41:20
  it, you know, so it's like, yeah, you get right.
• 41:23
  You know, I, I, I don't, I don't want to necessarily put that out
• 41:25
  on the on the show, but you know, how do you, how, how do
• 41:28
  you stay motivated, man? It takes six days.
• 41:31
  It's like you go to work, you don't get paid.
• 41:34
  Payday was last week. My tech said zero, you're going
• 41:36
  to take 0 next week. But aircraft still got to fly.
• 41:39
  So that's what air traffic controllers do, you know, make
• 41:41
  air, keep the keep the air safe. So that's it.
• 41:45
  Got you, got you. So I, you know, what you're
• 41:46
  saying is that you just, regardless of whatever it is,
• 41:49
  you just got to, you know, put your head down and still give
• 41:51
  110. Maybe 90?
• 41:56
  So I can blame you for all the delays and my delay today.
• 41:59
  You know what I'm saying? No, because.
• 42:02
  No, because we're short staffed and Chris staffing triggers.
• 42:05
  Yeah, I was going to say yeah, yeah.
• 42:06
  And and if you know, if everyone's giving 90%, then
• 42:09
  eventually, you know it, it goes.
• 42:12
  But I will move on. I'm, I'm gonna need you to give
• 42:14
  100% man next time. I'm tired of being late in
• 42:16
  Monday's place, man, you know? You know, we're going to, we're
• 42:20
  going to have to get you some gift cards, Smitty or something
• 42:23
  to, to, to get you motivated. You know work, right?
• 42:28
  Yeah. What are what are your thoughts,
• 42:29
  Reese man on KTM woes? And is it just noise or this is
• 42:33
  this can't be noise at this point, right?
• 42:34
  You're at some point you got to start saying, you know, you know
• 42:38
  there's a problem. I mean, I don't think it's
• 42:41
  noise. I think it's, you know, it can
• 42:42
  be a problem. I mean, it's going to cause a
• 42:44
  distraction with the team, you know, I mean as as, as after a
• 42:49
  while you got to start looking at it and be like, man, what's
• 42:51
  really going on? Are we going to have a job?
• 42:53
  Are we going to get, you know what, what's what's the deal?
• 42:59
  You know what I mean? What's the deal like this?
• 43:01
  It's it caused a distraction for the riders and team.
• 43:05
  You know what I mean? You're not putting your you're
• 43:07
  not fully focused. You know, it is.
• 43:08
  It does hurt you, man. It, it really does.
• 43:11
  You know, I don't see them being around for, you know, the next
• 43:14
  after the next three years. They may be, you know, you know,
• 43:20
  the problem the, the problem I see is we don't know, we're
• 43:24
  going into a whole new, it's really not a whole new era on
• 43:27
  the 27th, you know what I mean? But it's kind of a different
• 43:31
  approach. You know, we're instead of, you
• 43:33
  know, how much are we going to either save spend or what are we
• 43:36
  doing? Because we're coming down from
• 43:38
  1000 to an 850, you know, so what's the deal there where
• 43:41
  we're going? So, you know, it's a whole bunch
• 43:44
  of different errors on everything.
• 43:45
  So that that could be a saving grace.
• 43:48
  All right. And do you, do you think it's
• 43:51
  more corporate people at KTM than it is motorcyclists or, you
• 43:59
  know, enthusiasts or racers at heart?
• 44:01
  Because, you know, to spend a lot of money to go racing, you
• 44:05
  got to love it. You can't.
• 44:09
  There's nothing else. I mean, do you think, you know,
• 44:11
  you know, stakeholders are just kind of saying, hey, we need to
• 44:14
  show profit. I need, I need, I, I, you know,
• 44:17
  I need some return on my investments.
• 44:20
  No, I mean, it's just like even, you know, anybody, you know, all
• 44:23
  the, when you get the new guys in, the big guys in, they're
• 44:25
  looking to see where they can save money.
• 44:27
  Slash money here, slash money here, save money here.
• 44:29
  You know, budget cut there, budget cut there.
• 44:31
  You know, it's always when the new guys come in, they're trying
• 44:34
  to do budget cuts and save as much money as they can, you
• 44:37
  know, not understanding certain perspective.
• 44:41
  And you know, unfortunately, hopefully this guy understands
• 44:45
  that, you know, if you don't race, someone's really buying
• 44:47
  your product. It's like, you know, without
• 44:49
  somebody race, without your brand of in this industry of
• 44:53
  sports, if you don't race and no one sees it, how are you
• 44:57
  expecting to sell anything? You know, you're not going to
• 45:00
  sell anything. You're just going to be left in
• 45:01
  the dust, kind of. And Lewis, man, is it, is it
• 45:05
  time to start, you know, brushing up the resume or do we
• 45:09
  do you give 90% like Smitty? I mean, it sucks to be working
• 45:16
  for a company that is in this kind of financial straits that
• 45:19
  they are right now. I mean, obviously they're trying
• 45:21
  to work their way out of it. They're restructuring.
• 45:24
  The hardest thing in the world is try to restructure debt.
• 45:27
  You know, you have to work with banks, you have to work with
• 45:29
  lenders, creditors, investors. Everybody has to be on the same
• 45:33
  page and everybody has to be willing to save the product, not
• 45:37
  just save their own asses. And you know, you only need one
• 45:41
  group to say, well, we only want to save our own asses and kind
• 45:44
  of throw the whole thing into turmoil.
• 45:46
  Like everybody has to be in agreement.
• 45:47
  Look, we've already lost this much.
• 45:49
  How much more are we willing to lose before we pull the plug on
• 45:52
  this? Do I think KTM will survive as a
• 45:55
  brand? I think the brand will survive.
• 45:57
  I think what we'll see from the brand will change significantly.
• 46:01
  I mean, they're still trying to innovate.
• 46:03
  They just launched a new bike. They've been showing production
• 46:06
  videos of the RC. This is, you know, what they
• 46:09
  believe is going to be their first step in kind of moving
• 46:13
  back into the market with a new product at a great price point.
• 46:17
  I mean, I've looked at the bike, I've looked at some of the
• 46:19
  specs. What they're selling at that
• 46:20
  price is pretty nice, man. It's it's what's the price?
• 46:24
  Point because I know they had that.
• 46:25
  What is it? The RC8 that was like 60 grand.
• 46:28
  No, no, no. So they have an RC, What is it
• 46:32
  9? At the 890. 890.
• 46:39
  OK. Oh, OK.
• 46:39
  That's like, yeah, yeah. Yeah.
• 46:41
  And I mean, again, this is you're looking at something
• 46:44
  that's more along the lines of, I mean, what's considered now
• 46:48
  super sport. You know, three years ago it'd
• 46:52
  be a a twins bike, but it's considered a super sport and
• 46:57
  early sales projections on that seem pretty positive.
• 47:00
  You know, early sales projections on it have it, you
• 47:03
  know, selling decently well to launch.
• 47:07
  But the biggest problem with KTM is they've been known as an off
• 47:10
  road brand for almost their entire life.
• 47:12
  And then they got onto on road motorcycles outside of like
• 47:15
  their super adventure and so forth, they were always
• 47:18
  considered an off road dual sport type of bike.
• 47:21
  They get into the road market. They don't get into the road
• 47:25
  market with some of the best products.
• 47:27
  That RC390 everybody thought was a great bike until they started
• 47:31
  to realize it wasn't as great as everybody thought it was.
• 47:33
  Hey come on man, I have two of them.
• 47:36
  That's your fault, not mine. I love them, I love them, I love
• 47:40
  them. But if you crash them, they're
• 47:43
  not the most friendly bikes to fix.
• 47:45
  And unfortunately, crashing is part of building a cheap bike,
• 47:49
  you know, so you have to build it.
• 47:51
  You know when you build a uniframe body bike, a trellis
• 47:55
  frame and a subframe is welded onto the mainframe and you
• 47:58
  crash, your whole bike is totaled.
• 48:01
  This is why unconventional sport bikes you have a subframe that
• 48:05
  connects one part of the bike to the mainframe, and even where
• 48:09
  you connect the rear sets to the bike, they're not welded pieces
• 48:12
  for the most part, they're pieces that are on the mainframe
• 48:16
  and the rear sets are designed to bend before the frame bends.
• 48:19
  Whereas KTM built a bike kind of made to only survive one crash,
• 48:24
  if that. The bike is 50 or 100 bucks man.
• 48:26
  Come on, let's. Well, that's all it's worth, but
• 48:32
  I think I think they learned from the the RC390.
• 48:36
  This new bike looks like it has a lot of different pieces that
• 48:39
  address a lot of the concerns that the RC390 presented.
• 48:43
  So I think that they're going in the right direction.
• 48:46
  Again, it's how long do these investors, how long do these
• 48:49
  creditors, how long do all these people that are putting money
• 48:52
  into it want to keep pumping money into something before they
• 48:57
  see some positive returns, before they start pulling the
• 48:59
  plug. And the first thing you got to
• 49:01
  do is you got to cut expenses, you got to cut corners.
• 49:04
  You know, right now they're talking about moving all
• 49:06
  production to the Asian markets, to Indonesia and places like
• 49:10
  that to try to get the cost down, trying to reduce overlap
• 49:14
  in development people. So instead of having 20
• 49:17
  development people, maybe cut it down to 8 development people.
• 49:19
  They're cut here, cut there, like they're trying to find ways
• 49:23
  to stay profitable, cut overall spending and keep coming to the
• 49:27
  market. If they don't go positive in the
• 49:30
  next 36 months, then that's when you really got to start to
• 49:35
  worry. And the GP front, I don't, I
• 49:38
  mean, the one saving grace on the GP front is the new owner of
• 49:41
  Tech 3. The new owner of Tech 3 comes in
• 49:43
  with a lot of money, and he came in and bought Tech 3 knowing
• 49:47
  that they're on a KTM. So he's going to want to pump
• 49:50
  money in to make sure that KTM keeps making Moto GP bikes, at
• 49:55
  least for the next two or three years until he can work out a
• 49:57
  deal to maybe get another manufacturer.
• 49:59
  To step right, I was going to say yeah, yeah.
• 50:01
  Yeah, so. So I don't think they're going
• 50:04
  anywhere, but I don't know if their development is going to
• 50:06
  stay at the peak where everybody else is.
• 50:09
  You know, I think they're going to have to cut some corners
• 50:11
  somewhere. A little bit less carbon fiber,
• 50:15
  a little more plastic, a little less titanium, a little bit more
• 50:19
  stainless steel. You know what?
• 50:20
  You're probably right, but at that point, you know, if cutting
• 50:23
  corners was the point of staying in GP, his GP is the whole point
• 50:27
  of not cutting corners, you know, so why stay?
• 50:29
  Because if the guy in Tech 3 is cutting big ass checks, you want
• 50:33
  to stay in Cape in the in the in the GP game because this guy's
• 50:36
  paying for the GP bikes he's bringing.
• 50:39
  For it, right and bringing you R&D?
• 50:42
  Yep. OK.
• 50:44
  So that's the biggest. Yeah.
• 50:46
  And and this is the way most companies justify going racing.
• 50:51
  You know, we're going to take this budget and it's not just
• 50:53
  coming from this one pool of marketing, it's coming from
• 50:56
  marketing research and development.
• 50:59
  It's coming from this other part over here.
• 51:01
  So all these different, even though it's the same checkbook,
• 51:04
  when you can slice it up across different segments of the
• 51:08
  checkbook, different accounts payable segments, you can
• 51:11
  justify, hey, we spent 1,000,000 bucks, but marketing only spent
• 51:15
  250,000, R&D spent 320. You know, this other department
• 51:20
  spent 245. I mean, that's accounting.
• 51:23
  It's it's a funny game and you know, you get one big number,
• 51:27
  but when you cut it up into seven different departments, ah,
• 51:29
  it's not that big. Not that big a deal.
• 51:33
  Speaking of cutting up, before we go into super sport, let's
• 51:36
  talk about the triple engine. I find that the the triple
• 51:41
  engine does not get the same respect that the twins and the V
• 51:46
  fours and the inline 4/4 get. Is it just because they just
• 51:51
  haven't been an on enough sport bikes?
• 51:53
  I mean in MV Augusta, you know, we got Yamaha, obviously we got
• 51:57
  Triumph, which is probably well known.
• 51:59
  I find that you know, like you know, people love twins, they
• 52:03
  love the inline fours and the V fours, but the triple engine
• 52:07
  seems to struggle. What are you guys thoughts on on
• 52:09
  the triple engine? Should it be up there with all
• 52:12
  the characteristics of the ones I mentioned?
• 52:16
  I mean, it should be, but because it's in the middle, it
• 52:19
  doesn't have saying the same. You know, the you know, the twin
• 52:22
  has that deep throaty sound in my force have the high pitch,
• 52:27
  high reverend sound. The trip was just like it's
• 52:29
  stuck in the middle. It's like, you know, the middle
• 52:31
  child, almost no one likes it really.
• 52:34
  You know, the you know, like, yeah, it's like, you know, the
• 52:36
  kid that's the oldest 1, you know, is in charge.
• 52:40
  The young kid is the baby gets spoiled.
• 52:42
  The middle kids like yo, hello I'm here.
• 52:44
  That's how the triple is. No one cares about it.
• 52:47
  I'm glad I'm the youngest. Because it's not, it's not.
• 52:50
  It's not like the best of both worlds.
• 52:51
  It's just stuck in the middle of both worlds.
• 52:54
  So. No.
• 52:56
  And it's a good bike, you know, but it's.
• 52:57
  Just I know. A triple No one cares.
• 53:01
  The reason your thoughts on you know, you've been in sales,
• 53:04
  you've been in racing, you're a fan of the triple Moto.
• 53:07
  Well, your thoughts on the on the triple engine race.
• 53:09
  I mean, you got one in your back, in your, in your, in your,
• 53:12
  your race garage. Nah, I don't want to my race
• 53:16
  guys, not yet, but I'm working on one, I'm working on another,
• 53:19
  you know, another one. So but I mean, I think the
• 53:22
  triple is a good bike, man. I mean, everyone sits there and
• 53:25
  sleeps on it and and and takes it for granted, but at the the
• 53:29
  power that it can actually produce and you know, for the
• 53:32
  low end torque coming out of a hole is actually good, you know,
• 53:37
  and then, like I said, with the R9, I mean, we actually have
• 53:40
  them on the same. We have the same power as the R6
• 53:42
  almost that we built up. I mean, you got to look what
• 53:44
  they're trying to do. They're trying to take a lot of
• 53:46
  RPMS away from the R9. So I mean the sleep and then
• 53:51
  what Spinny says, it's true to me.
• 53:53
  It's like it's, it's, it's somewhere in the middle, you
• 53:55
  know, that the triple, but the sound that it actually has, it's
• 53:59
  like almost like a, a buzzing sound.
• 54:00
  It's like a weird buzz to it, which actually sounds unique.
• 54:04
  And it's the same thing as what people used to say when the R1
• 54:09
  came out. You know, it's oh, it sounds
• 54:10
  like a Ducati now. Everybody loves the sound.
• 54:13
  It's like, you know, it, it eventually grows on people, you
• 54:16
  know, So I think people are sitting there sleeping on a
• 54:18
  triple is is actually kind of insane.
• 54:21
  This could what it puts out and produce.
• 54:23
  It's it's something different. I do like.
• 54:27
  All what sound though I do like it.
• 54:29
  See point in case I proved my point it.
• 54:34
  Does sound good. What are your thoughts Louis on
• 54:38
  the on the triple engine and why?
• 54:40
  And more people should go go purchase one.
• 54:43
  I mean the triple engine, if you know the bikes that have used it
• 54:47
  over the past 15 years or so, I mean the most common triple that
• 54:55
  was out there for a long time was the Triumph.
• 54:57
  Like Triumph was known as the company to buy a triple from.
• 55:01
  They had a great motor. It was super reliable.
• 55:04
  It produced really clean power, good torque, like it had all the
• 55:08
  positives of AV Twin and none of it, none of the negatives and it
• 55:12
  had a lot of the positive, but in line 4 and none of the
• 55:15
  negatives. You know the biggest drawback of
• 55:17
  the triple was it kind of had a cap on horsepower for a long
• 55:21
  time like it could only produce so much without going to a
• 55:24
  bigger CC motor or you know going.
• 55:27
  I think that the the tiger triple or something was like
• 55:29
  1200 CCS like you really need to bore it out to try to get power,
• 55:33
  but now they can build a lot of power out of a triple like
• 55:36
  A800CC triple can you know produce 130 plus horsepower and
• 55:42
  right now in Moto 2, you know all the motors are triples and
• 55:45
  you see that the bikes are fast man.
• 55:47
  I mean everybody says that the bikes are way better than when
• 55:50
  they had the CBR600RR inline 4 when Honda was producing the
• 55:55
  motors for Moto 2. So I think it's just a matter
• 55:58
  that not enough people are have been introduced to a triple and
• 56:03
  now they're kind of being introduced to a triple and some
• 56:06
  of them are adopting it and some of them are just fighting
• 56:08
  against it because they only want a 4 cylinder or they only
• 56:12
  want AV twin. You know, they kind of want to
• 56:14
  stay away from like this weird 3 cylinder thing, but it's a clean
• 56:20
  motor. It creates great torque, is very
• 56:22
  linear power. It doesn't destroy rear tires as
• 56:26
  much as like a twin does because twins put down a lot of torque.
• 56:29
  So they tear up rear tires. I think as more people get used
• 56:33
  to them, as more manufacturers build them and they build them
• 56:35
  the right way. Like you can't just build a
• 56:37
  triple without good power, without good power output,
• 56:41
  without linear torque. If you build the right triple,
• 56:45
  it'll sell, But if you build the wrong triple or you build the
• 56:48
  right triple and put it in the wrong bike, it doesn't help the
• 56:51
  bike and it doesn't help the motor because people are just
• 56:54
  going to assume because the bike sucks while the motor sucks.
• 56:58
  And it could just be that the bike sucks.
• 57:00
  Like the bike is just not a well built bike, doesn't have the
• 57:02
  right components, doesn't have a strong triple tree, doesn't have
• 57:05
  good forks, doesn't have good brakes, whatever it is.
• 57:08
  And now all of a sudden because this motor in that bike,
• 57:11
  everything sucks. It's not just the motor.
• 57:14
  True. That's true.
• 57:16
  I hate that I want one. I'm going to get one.
• 57:21
  Not yet. I mean, I had three.
• 57:23
  KTMSII called it my closest thing to a triple, but the
• 57:28
  single cylinders. Michael Ruben Rinaldi leaving
• 57:34
  World Super Bike full time Agador is going back to Super
• 57:38
  Sport where he's won two titles. This is a part of motorcycle
• 57:43
  racing. Obviously we saw Ray, but raise
• 57:46
  Korea is completely different than these other guys.
• 57:48
  Obviously with the six world titles and stuff like that.
• 57:51
  You know, Ronaldo was nice on the Ducati for a while.
• 57:54
  I mean, he had, you know, Davis as his teammate and Davis was on
• 57:57
  fire and and unfortunately he's had some really, I don't want to
• 58:02
  sit here and say he, you know, he has some really tough team
• 58:05
  mates that that can really ride. So he never got a chance to
• 58:08
  really shine the way he did. And, you know, after, you know,
• 58:12
  the red ends and the batistas and all these guys came over
• 58:15
  from Moto GP, he kind of just got pushed out of the the Ducati
• 58:19
  brand and and, you know, he tried other brands, but I think
• 58:22
  he just, you know, struggle like all these other riders.
• 58:25
  Well, you guys thoughts on on Agatha going back to world super
• 58:28
  bike, not getting a ride or maybe not getting a ride that,
• 58:31
  you know, seem to make sense because we saw Schultz go go
• 58:35
  back to super sport here in the US, You know, instead of instead
• 58:39
  of trying to get into a a super bike seat that may have cost him
• 58:42
  more than he might have won. But what you guys thoughts on
• 58:45
  Ronaldi, which was a nice he's a nice rider.
• 58:47
  I I don't remember if he won a super sport or not.
• 58:49
  I got to look that up. What are your thoughts Smitty?
• 58:52
  I'm not sure, but sometimes you just got to keep a job, you
• 58:55
  know, riding the sport is cutthroat.
• 58:57
  And you thought about seats. You got 20 rides and 50 seats
• 59:01
  like playing. What's that game called?
• 59:03
  Let me just go chairs, you know, sometimes seats not there.
• 59:06
  So we got to go down to class, ride for like a year or two,
• 59:09
  show that, show that you still got it, then hopefully move back
• 59:13
  up. So I think sculpts is something
• 59:14
  we we talked about like a little bit.
• 59:17
  We'll probably be back into a bike next year so but we'll see.
• 59:21
  But as turns up, Agador and Rinaldi, yeah, I think super
• 59:25
  sport for like a year or two because it's the take the stress
• 59:28
  off, go down, ride, just earn some money, just show the hey, I
• 59:33
  can still ride a bike, you know. So wait, wait for that seat to
• 59:36
  open back up. What are your thoughts?
• 59:39
  Yeah. I mean, my thought is the same
• 59:42
  thing. I mean, I mean to the answer
• 59:45
  Smitty, I mean Sculpt is in a super bike next year.
• 59:50
  But to not give too much insight of certain things.
• 59:55
  There's always things that fans don't see.
• 59:59
  There's more things behind the scenes as Lou would know, where
• 1:00:03
  it comes down to contracts. It comes down to the money.
• 1:00:05
  It comes down to certain scenarios.
• 1:00:08
  You know, if I go to Super Bike, where am I going to do or am I
• 1:00:12
  going to have a one year deal and then be out or versus stay
• 1:00:15
  in Super Bike and have a longer term career and and go here and
• 1:00:19
  then maybe move to Super Bike to have a longer term there.
• 1:00:22
  So we don't know what was going on behind the scenes.
• 1:00:26
  Like, there were things going on with sculpts that made him, you
• 1:00:29
  know, the first year, of course, he went down to the Super sport.
• 1:00:32
  But there was other things that played into his second year, you
• 1:00:35
  know, to where he had to take care of certain things.
• 1:00:40
  But I think, you know, people going down the Super sport, it's
• 1:00:44
  just like the Spinney says, it's just to keep a job.
• 1:00:47
  And then, you know, when you show that you still got certain
• 1:00:49
  things, yeah, you can move back up or seats open up, you know,
• 1:00:54
  you you slot right in there and then then you kind of stay.
• 1:00:58
  Look at Lorenzo Baltazar. He's coming.
• 1:01:00
  And maybe he took his seat. He's coming back next year,
• 1:01:02
  right? He was in bottle E.
• 1:01:05
  Right. So I mean it, there's a lot of,
• 1:01:07
  there's a lot of things that go on behind the scenes and a lot
• 1:01:09
  of things that goes on that you know, that will make you drop
• 1:01:13
  down. Is it a smarter decision?
• 1:01:15
  Maybe, you know, for you, maybe it's a smart decision that we
• 1:01:18
  just don't know about. We're, you know, we will never
• 1:01:20
  know the insides unless you are on the inside.
• 1:01:23
  Like there were things I know about that, you know, that work
• 1:01:25
  with sculpts, you know, the thing that is there.
• 1:01:29
  It's classified. It isn't my paycheck to say.
• 1:01:36
  No doubt, Louis, what are your thoughts, man, Ronaldi?
• 1:01:39
  And which is a bigger deal? I think because he's leaving
• 1:01:42
  full time, leaving world super sport.
• 1:01:44
  Oh, the Super bike paddock where at least Agatha may get a
• 1:01:48
  chance. But he's a double world title,
• 1:01:50
  so I, you know, champion. So it it it's kind of hard that
• 1:01:53
  he can't find a job. I mean, there's only so many
• 1:01:56
  seats, you know, the, the world super bike is having similar
• 1:01:59
  issues with our own super bike here where the grid isn't packed
• 1:02:03
  with, you know, 27 or 28 bikes. There's a minimum amount of
• 1:02:08
  seats. There's minimum amount of seats
• 1:02:10
  that go the entire year. I mean even Scott Redding
• 1:02:13
  started the year World Super Bike and ended the year in BSB
• 1:02:16
  because the team was pretty much running out of money.
• 1:02:21
  If he can't find a quality ride then as a competitor do you want
• 1:02:25
  to just ride around in 20th and maybe hurt your stock because
• 1:02:29
  you're not on a great bike and people see you struggling to
• 1:02:32
  stay in the top 20? Or are you better off taking a
• 1:02:36
  step back, maybe taking a job as a test rider or riding in a
• 1:02:42
  regional championship? Because I mean, he's been in
• 1:02:45
  CEV, he's been in the European Championship.
• 1:02:48
  Like it's not like he can't find a ride.
• 1:02:50
  He's just taking this step back and see maybe what opens up next
• 1:02:55
  year. Because he's, he's not a old
• 1:02:56
  guy. I mean, he's he's, he's barely
• 1:02:58
  in his 30s. He just turned 31 or he's about
• 1:03:04
  to turn 31. Like he's, he's not a old guy.
• 1:03:06
  He's still got a lot of racing with him, he's still a quality
• 1:03:09
  rider. It's not like he forgot how to
• 1:03:11
  ride. He's just had some missed
• 1:03:13
  opportunities with the teams he'd been on, with the bike,
• 1:03:15
  with the equipment, with this, with that.
• 1:03:17
  He did have a couple of crashes, missed some races.
• 1:03:21
  So he just had this unsteady career over the last few years
• 1:03:25
  where it's had some peaks, it had some valleys.
• 1:03:28
  He didn't find a ride for next year, so he's just taking a step
• 1:03:30
  back and I think he will throw his hat back into the rider
• 1:03:34
  market when the rider market makes itself available.
• 1:03:37
  And if he gets opportunity, he gets an opportunity.
• 1:03:39
  You know, you never know what can happen in racing.
• 1:03:42
  I mean, he could be sitting home, somebody gets hurt,
• 1:03:44
  somebody calls him up, all of a sudden he comes back.
• 1:03:46
  He's in great shape to ride and he does great on that as a
• 1:03:49
  filling rider. Again, not a replacement, just
• 1:03:53
  filling in. But again, it's an audition to
• 1:03:58
  show people, hey, I'm still here, I'm still a quality rider.
• 1:04:01
  I still know how to go fast and, you know, get an opportunity
• 1:04:04
  somewhere else down the road. I, I would hate to think that at
• 1:04:08
  his age, it's over for him because it's not like he has
• 1:04:11
  some debilitating injury that's keeping him from riding.
• 1:04:14
  His only injury right now is he can't find a quality ride.
• 1:04:17
  He couldn't get signed and so he has to sit out for a year.
• 1:04:21
  Right now, guys, does he does? Is it time for him to start
• 1:04:24
  looking at the US? Is it, you know, maybe we're
• 1:04:27
  talking about this before the show started?
• 1:04:29
  Is it, you know, should these younger riders that are and not
• 1:04:33
  getting rides start to look at, you know, different country
• 1:04:36
  championships instead of maybe trying to stay in World Super
• 1:04:40
  Bike or Moto GP? Because we saw what Petrucci was
• 1:04:43
  able to come and do you know, we see some of these other riders
• 1:04:46
  coming over. You finished second in the
• 1:04:49
  championship. What are you talking about?
• 1:04:51
  I mean, win, look. We thought.
• 1:04:54
  Just crowd. Initially, No, no, no, hold on,
• 1:04:57
  hold on initially. Hey, you know Moto GP guy coming
• 1:05:01
  down to no America, he got to mop everybody up on a good bike.
• 1:05:05
  It didn't happen and he came in and got and Jake bust his ass
• 1:05:08
  man straight up. But one rider it doesn't.
• 1:05:12
  Matter. He and Jake bust everybody
• 1:05:15
  there. Yeah, Jake does bust everybody.
• 1:05:17
  Yeah. You got it.
• 1:05:19
  My gosh thought that that, that he came here and been
• 1:05:22
  unbeatable. Well, I mean, listen, it's it's,
• 1:05:24
  it's his. I'll defend him a little bit and
• 1:05:26
  we'll move on. But you know, it's his first
• 1:05:29
  year here learning the tracks, all that and he still finished
• 1:05:34
  second place in the championship.
• 1:05:36
  It's not like he finished 10th and.
• 1:05:39
  We got some shit tires in Dunlop.
• 1:05:41
  You know, I mean, like, it's it's that's pretty impressive to
• 1:05:44
  finish, you know, second in the championship for your first
• 1:05:48
  year. And, you know, I mean, Redden
• 1:05:49
  did better at BSB because he won a champion.
• 1:05:51
  But OK, no man off with his head, Smitty, right?
• 1:05:55
  Even he thought he would have come here and whoop everybody
• 1:05:57
  ass when he came in confident as hell.
• 1:05:59
  And I understand it happens. And then next year they came the
• 1:06:02
  short guy, Hector Barber. He busts everybody's ass but one
• 1:06:05
  person. Come on.
• 1:06:06
  Like it's like, you know, it's not like, like, you know what's
• 1:06:11
  up, You know the. Europeans think over here is a
• 1:06:14
  joke and it's not a joke. Man, that's all I'm saying.
• 1:06:17
  Fair enough. I, I didn't, I didn't get that
• 1:06:19
  You, you, you, you were, you were there.
• 1:06:22
  But is, is it accurate what Smitty's saying that you know,
• 1:06:26
  Petrucci is over here whistling at all all our women?
• 1:06:33
  I mean, it's the same thing if we go over there, you know what
• 1:06:36
  I mean? It's it's learn a different
• 1:06:38
  track, learn a different, you know, the style of racing.
• 1:06:42
  And then like, you know, Lewis knows the biggest factor is the
• 1:06:44
  tires. You know, that's a big factor.
• 1:06:47
  The tires is a big factor. A lot of people don't understand
• 1:06:49
  that, you know, they're coming from top notch quality Pirellis
• 1:06:52
  and we're coming to bowling ball Dunlops, you know, so I mean
• 1:06:58
  we'll see what the new spec has, but you know that that that
• 1:07:02
  plays a factor in your setup with the bike.
• 1:07:04
  You know that does you know, Bobby told y'all, you know,
• 1:07:08
  riding from the Pirellis to the Dunlops.
• 1:07:10
  He was just like, yo, this this complete night and day.
• 1:07:13
  It is a complete night and day game.
• 1:07:17
  You know, he test Rd. the Pirellis and he was like, Yo,
• 1:07:19
  can we get these like UCS over here?
• 1:07:22
  You know, and so it's it's it's a whole nother game, you know,
• 1:07:26
  and you you got to come over here and learn this track, learn
• 1:07:30
  the style of riding. Then you're trying to get the
• 1:07:32
  crew, you know, learn the crew, then different bike, the
• 1:07:35
  different setup, the different gearing.
• 1:07:37
  And this is a whole nother game man all.
• 1:07:41
  Right. So, OK, Lewis, I mean, you know,
• 1:07:46
  you know you, you. That's who was trying to come
• 1:07:49
  into my world playing basketball.
• 1:07:50
  I'm going to bust his ass. If I come in second, I still did
• 1:07:56
  as good as Petrucci. Listen, I I know that's the
• 1:08:02
  first loser, but come on man, that that check is still the
• 1:08:05
  second biggest. They did Nelly say it too.
• 1:08:09
  Nobody remembers. And Speaking of checks, this is
• 1:08:12
  a, a big thing to think about when guys from Europe want to
• 1:08:16
  come to the US, You know, we don't have the deepest pockets
• 1:08:19
  in the world here. You know, the, the pockets here
• 1:08:22
  a little bit shallower. They don't go as deep, they
• 1:08:25
  don't have as much green. Whereas, you know, the guys that
• 1:08:28
  are currently in world super bike and other and these other
• 1:08:31
  world class championships, they're used to getting checks
• 1:08:34
  that are pretty decent. You know, they're used to
• 1:08:36
  getting the expenses of travel, getting paid for.
• 1:08:39
  They're used to a lot of things. And when you come to the US, you
• 1:08:42
  know, what is it? What will it take you as a top
• 1:08:45
  rider? And I'm not saying like a
• 1:08:47
  Valentino Rossi, because if all the teams in the paddock got all
• 1:08:50
  their checks together, I don't think they can get Valentino
• 1:08:52
  Rossi to come here and rate one race here for one season.
• 1:08:58
  But like Adanolo Petrucci, how much do you think it actually
• 1:09:01
  took between Ducati and his team to pay him to justify him coming
• 1:09:06
  here to race for a year? He got a Gillette Razor deal,
• 1:09:09
  didn't he? Well he didn't use it because
• 1:09:12
  he's heavy as shit, but I'm saying he should have got a
• 1:09:17
  manscape deal. He was from a bank on that.
• 1:09:20
  What what What are the numbers looking like roughly for for to
• 1:09:24
  get a ride like that? Roughly, they got to have the
• 1:09:27
  opportunity to walk away with half 1,000,000 bucks.
• 1:09:33
  Like walk away with a half 1,000,000 bucks because you got
• 1:09:36
  to justify living here for, like I said earlier, 8 months out of
• 1:09:40
  the year because you got to come here, you got to stay here, you
• 1:09:42
  got to test here, you got to ride here, you got to test here.
• 1:09:45
  You know, everything you got to do is here.
• 1:09:46
  So for eight or nine months, you got to uproot yourself and maybe
• 1:09:50
  your family or you come by yourself.
• 1:09:52
  You leave your wife and your kids over there and you got to
• 1:09:53
  travel back and forth a couple of times a month.
• 1:09:57
  You got housing expenses, you got this, you got that.
• 1:09:59
  And what a lot of people don't realize is a lot of the races in
• 1:10:02
  the US, they're considered independent contractors.
• 1:10:06
  So you're not an employee, you're an independent
• 1:10:08
  contractor. You get paid as an independent
• 1:10:10
  contractor, which means the companies that are paying you
• 1:10:13
  aren't paying for your health insurance.
• 1:10:14
  So now you got to cover that expense.
• 1:10:16
  The companies that are paying for you aren't necessarily
• 1:10:19
  paying for your flight and your travel.
• 1:10:20
  You got to pay that expense. They might not be paying for
• 1:10:23
  your hotel. You got to pay that expense.
• 1:10:26
  So if you don't have the right contract that 400,000 after
• 1:10:30
  taxes, especially if you're based here in the US and you
• 1:10:33
  live in California, that 400,000 right off the bat is not
• 1:10:36
  400,000. It's about 200,000, maybe about
• 1:10:38
  180,000. Doesn't weigh the same.
• 1:10:42
  And that 180,000, now you take away food, travel expenses,
• 1:10:47
  housing, blah blah blah blah blah.
• 1:10:49
  That 180 just became like 110. So unless you got a good
• 1:10:53
  contingency package to get you back up over like at $400,000,
• 1:10:58
  is it even worth to come to the US and race a season?
• 1:11:03
  You know, for us, for me and you, you give me $400,000, man,
• 1:11:06
  you'll have to pay me another 300 to get off the track.
• 1:11:09
  For these guys that are doing this full time to come here for
• 1:11:13
  400,000 and walk away with maybe 180 grand.
• 1:11:17
  Like I'd rather stay in Europe and race in one of their
• 1:11:19
  regional championships. I can make the same amount of
• 1:11:21
  money and I don't have to travel halfway across the world, learn
• 1:11:24
  new tracks, ride on shittier tires, be in a paddock that you
• 1:11:28
  know is not bringing me more opportunities.
• 1:11:33
  Man, it's, it's going to be tough to, but, you know, I mean,
• 1:11:40
  obviously we, we see Bradley Smith, we Lois Baz and, and
• 1:11:45
  we've seen other writers come through.
• 1:11:46
  So it seems like some teams are able to get one or two people to
• 1:11:50
  come over, but not a lot. I know we can, we can keep going
• 1:11:54
  on that topic a little bit longer, but we're going to get,
• 1:11:56
  we have to get out of here. Yeah, I was going to say,
• 1:11:59
  fellas, I got to go. So I got to take off all.
• 1:12:01
  Right, no doubt. We'll we'll, we'll, we'll piece
• 1:12:03
  it out there then, man. It's the Be forever Cool
• 1:12:07
  podcast. My name is Rex 45 on Thanks
• 1:12:10
  Smitty, Reese and Lewis and for coming on peace.
• 1:12:14
  Peace.