Latest / BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show / Yamaha's Curse and Snake Shopping with a Pornstar

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Yamaha's Curse and Snake Shopping with a Pornstar · BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show

0:00
John Summers is the motoring historian.
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He was a company car thrashing, technology sales rep that turned into
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a fairly inept sports bike rider.
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Hailing from California, he collects cars and bikes built with plenty of
0:12
cheap and fast, and not much reliable.
0:15
On his show, he gets together with various co hosts to talk about new
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and old cars, driving, motorbikes, motor racing, and motoring travel.
0:33
Good day, good morning, good afternoon, wherever you may be.
0:36
It's John Summers, the motoring historian, um, with his old school friend, Mark Gami.
0:41
How are you, Mark?
0:43
Cheers.
0:43
Pretty good.
0:45
And, uh, today we have California.
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Filipino friend, John Garcia joining us.
0:51
Say hello, John.
0:52
Hi.
0:54
Um, so look, right, we're going to talk about motorcycles because
0:58
John's mostly about motorcycles.
1:00
Um, why don't we begin at the beginning with a cursed navy blue Yamaha XS650.
1:13
Now, do you know this story, Mark Gami?
1:16
Uh, no.
1:18
Right.
1:19
When I remember when I first moved to California, I knew
1:21
one person, Mark Newton, right?
1:23
And Mark Newton said to me when I was first in California, Um, what are
1:31
you going to do about cars or, you know, bikes or like getting around?
1:35
And I was like, I don't know.
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And he went, Oh, I've got this Yamaha XS650.
1:41
If you want, it's just outside my shop.
1:46
Looking back, right, that was ominous, right?
1:49
Because what had happened was Mark had got pissed off with it,
1:52
constantly draining the battery.
1:55
But he didn't say that to me at the time, right?
1:59
So I put a new battery on it, I put a new regulator rectifier on it, it
2:03
was So it's a parallel twin, it's like a Yamaha's version of a Triumph.
2:08
And, and it was, Mark had got it from somebody at PG& E, and it was the
2:14
bike for flat track, that's why he thought it was, he thought it was cool.
2:18
But I'd come from jigsaws, so the fact that this thing could only do about 100
2:21
miles an hour flat out, and like at about 65, or certainly anywhere near 80, it
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felt like World was going to end and you were going to be plucked off the back
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of it and it was going to it was going to fall apart that I wasn't into all
2:36
the bikes then so I didn't I not only was it cursed, but I actually didn't
2:42
get that kind of bike then so for me the low point with this bike was was I done
2:50
all the battery and all the regulator rectifier on it was all ready to go.
2:55
Mark and I We're going to fleet week.
2:59
So we rode from Santa Rosa, him on his ex police Harley with the high bars and
3:04
the, the tank shift and the foot clutch.
3:07
Right.
3:07
And me on this excess, right?
3:10
Well, Santa Rosa is about an hour and a half North of San Francisco, right?
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And you got the throttle wide open then so the bike's generator or
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whatever it's charging with is going like the clappers, right?
3:23
Heavy traffic across the Bay Brit across the Golden Gate, right?
3:27
The splitting cars across the Golden Gate.
3:30
When I came out of the gas, it died, right?
3:33
And I bump started it, but it was clear it had no charge.
3:38
By the time, like I was in San Francisco and then you, I'm not sure
3:43
John, if you know this story, marina Green, this is the first time Marina
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Mar.
3:48
Marina Green.
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Marina Green Threeway Intersection where G Great place to watch Fleet Week.
3:55
Right?
3:56
Well, it had stalled more times, but you know, well the long and short
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was I needed to kickstart it at a stop sign, three-Way intersection.
4:05
And, uh, I, I sort of.
4:08
Electric started it into the intersection, but it died.
4:11
And then I was trying to kickstart it, fell over and it fell on me, which I
4:15
know is kind of a signature move of mine being pinned by my own motorcycle
4:22
and not being able to kickstart.
4:23
That's what happened.
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Well, Mark parked up and went to try and help me, but a policeman
4:29
was like, you can't park there.
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So he was like, I'm not parking there.
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I'm trying to help my friend.
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So there's me under the bike.
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All the traffic stopped and Mark virtually having a fist fight with the policeman.
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So, after all of that, right, I just left it in the marina for about a week.
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Being like, fuck you, right, basically.
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But, you know, and then around about the same time, I won that Gixxer
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750 in the SA competition, which is a whole separate story, right.
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And that was why I was out of love with the XS.
5:09
So, John feels bad for the XS, which is parked up in the street at this
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time of year, pissing with rain all the time, and it was San Francisco,
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so it was on a hill, and the bike was being knocked over all the time, so
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he feels bad for it, he puts a note on it, and the note was like, you know,
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it was sort of halfway between a note saying, can I buy your bike, I like it.
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And a love letter, I would have said, it was like, there were a
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couple of paragraphs, you know, it was like properly, it was
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like a properly structured thing.
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So I, I read it and I sat on it for 24 hours and I thought to myself, because
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I needed somewhere to store the jigsaw because it didn't have a garage, brand
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new bike, can't street park it, what am I going to do to, to, so then I thought,
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you know, any bloke who's written this kind of notes, probably a trustworthy
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person, one, I just tell him I'll give him the excess, he can have it.
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If I, cause I want rid of the fucking thing.
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Um, he can have that if I can store my jigsaw with him.
6:11
Um, so that's what happened.
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Cause he, and it turned out he lived just a couple of houses up the street.
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And, uh, I think that's how we became friends.
6:19
I think the note read, that's not the way to take care of a bike.
6:24
That's what I remember saying, sort of.
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Yeah, but you expressed it in a much more gentle way.
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Yeah.
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You were like, you buffoon.
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Yeah.
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This Yeah, hey dick nozzle, stop dropping your fucking bike on me.
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This In the street with a stream of rainbow colored gasoline and oil
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running down the street from it, which is, uh, which is what it was.
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It had mag wheels, didn't it?
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It had those black smoke.
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Black spoked mag wheels and broad handlebars.
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It was a good looking bike, but my word, we, we, uh, what we think
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was that there was like a short circuit on the frame or something,
7:03
which was why it always eternally.
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Drained charge.
7:09
So I did write it all the way to Laguna Seca to watch MotoGP.
7:14
Yeah.
7:14
Yeah.
7:14
Remember that?
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I remember it very well.
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People tried to steal my jigsaw, sabotaging it.
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And I didn't get home until six o'clock in the morning.
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Yeah.
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And what happened to you?
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I got stuck on the side of the freeway.
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I had to work the next day.
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And, uh, this was, it was around one.
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Like I was stuck on the side of the freeway.
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With the XS.
7:38
With the XS, yeah.
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Yeah.
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It was dark and I, uh, I had to figure it out.
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Basically, I just had to wait.
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I had to wait it out because I didn't have a phone, right?
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Didn't have, oh, probably did, but it's probably dead.
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The battery is probably dead.
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So I just waited, then kick started it, kick started it, kick started it.
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And then eventually it went and I rode it home.
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But that took like three hours.
8:08
Hahaha That's brutal man.
8:12
Yeah, yeah.
8:14
That was uh, I wonder where it is now.
8:18
Yeah, you moved to Hawaii and left it.
8:20
I wonder which freeway it's on the side of today.
8:22
Hahahaha Yeah, yeah.
8:34
So basically what you're saying is you have a thing with Yamahas, huh?
8:39
Well, also, also the other thing was just like, that's good.
8:43
No, you, you also, you, you notice the, the thing that I always say to people
8:46
is, is if you look very closely at Dana's engagement ring, very closely into the
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heart of it, you will see a Yamaha R1.
8:57
Because that's what I was going to buy with that money.
9:02
Um, so yeah, so I, I missed with the, uh, I missed with, um, with
9:09
the R1 and the XS was just the most pain in the ass motorcycle ever.
9:15
But yeah, I won the Gixxer on account of having a Gixxer at home.
9:20
So that's why the garage is full of Gixxers, uh, 15 years later.
9:25
Um, so.
9:27
Let me move on to my next little topic on the list.
9:31
Um, and this is thoughts on electric bikes.
9:35
And let's begin, John, with, I did this open garage thing the other day.
9:39
And, uh, one of the guys on the street was like, Oh, you know, Scout Troop,
9:43
another dad built an electric bike.
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Can he come?
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I was like, yeah, whatever.
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And then thinking he probably wouldn't show.
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Well, the guy did show when I didn't have enough seats and I, I didn't have
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enough beer and I'd not organized the, the, the evening very well, but it
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turns out this bloke competed in the Paris Dakar as you do, as you do, you
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know, three or four years, then he ran some teams as you do, you know.
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Just because, you know, did John and the other guy rides who's also
10:13
got a home built electric bike.
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Did John and the other guy want to have a go on, uh, on the electric bike now?
10:19
I've not talked to you about it.
10:21
But your expression was not dissimilar to when you inadvertently pulled a wheelie
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on a gixxer in the street some years ago.
10:30
No, it was fine.
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It was, uh, it was very torquey and it was light.
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So what was it?
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What do you mean?
10:36
What was the bike?
10:38
It was like a KTM 125 SX that had like a, I don't know what the size of
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the motor was, but It was big enough to like, make it really torquey.
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It just, it was snappy, and it was clean, it was a clean, it was a clean ride.
10:57
Yeah, you know what Jason said about it, the other guy that rode it was
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like, Hmm, reminded me how much I don't like knobbly tires on wet pavement.
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Ha ha ha ha ha.
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He's focusing.
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Yeah.
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Yeah, yeah, uh, um.
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I want one.
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Like I really want one.
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And when he was saying was what, what is a bike like his or how to like
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one, all he did was get the frame off the KTM 125, went to a website and
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grabbed all the parts for that bike.
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Well, so there's a website you can go to where you where it'll
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be like package up the right electric kit So you can electrify
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like I've got I've got a TTR 125.
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Can you you know anything you buy?
11:43
No, you like an LS what?
11:45
No, he had to fabricate the frame if you have a welder like you can easily do it
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It's just the motor the motor fits in the frame and you kind of have Grinded and
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just weld some mounts and that's pretty much it Do you remember the website?
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I guess we could ask him, couldn't we?
12:01
Yeah, yeah.
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That's typical for this, like, we talk about something and then can't point
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people, anybody unfortunate enough to be listening, can't point them
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to the right place to, uh, anyway.
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Um.
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Well, it's quite interesting.
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Um.
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All right, favorite bike of the moment and why?
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Favorite bike of the moment?
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I don't mind starting.
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Um, I'm going to start with the CRF50 that we've recently bought for my boy and how
12:36
I just love the way it so wants to run.
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It's so, it's the easiest bike ever to be kick started, he can kick start
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it, and the way it runs, it's like, it's like, it's like a small dog with
12:52
a lot of fight in them, it's like tiny, but it's a real motorcycle, make no
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mistake, and, and, uh, I bloody love it.
12:59
So that's my favorite.
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For me, it's the The DT250 converted into a cafe eraser.
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It's raining today, but if it wasn't raining, I was going to write it.
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So just, so this, I, I, when I see this by, um, Gary, I always think
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of it as the meth special, right?
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Because, like, why don't I leave it like that?
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And John, why don't you talk about where you got it from?
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And, uh.
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Yeah, so I went to Clear Lake.
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Clear Lake is the best capital.
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We'll put some pictures.
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We'll put some pictures.
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Yeah, I'm looking for a picture.
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But yeah, so Clear Lake is the best capital of California, right?
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And when I saw this posting in Clear Lake, I was like, I want this bike.
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I've seen this bike several times.
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I know who built it.
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I know the parts that are on it.
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And basically what ended up happening was this guy on
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Facebook was trying to sell it.
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And he wasn't able to sell it for about a year.
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And this guy in Clear Lake bought it.
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Put it in his living room and didn't really do anything until he had to move
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But that's what he told me and Clear Lake is about two and a half hours away from
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San Francisco And I felt like I was gonna get robbed right because the way this guy
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was giving me the address It's like it's it wasn't like a street address It was
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like we're gonna meet here in this alley somewhere and like residential area slash
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commercial area And I'm like, okay, I'm gonna drive two and a half hours with
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my dog Remus If anything goes south, it's not gonna have to deal with me,
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it's gonna have to deal with Remus also.
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But anyway, it turns out it was in his living room.
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Went to his house, it was in his living room, and I ended up buying it.
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Everything was new.
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You looked at it right in his living room?
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Yeah.
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Yeah, that's how we got it out.
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Didn't you lose a girlfriend over a motorcycle in the living room?
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I mean, that wasn't the exact reason for it, I mean that was probably part of it.
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But that, I wish I had that bike, to be honest with you.
15:13
Not the girlfriend, the bike.
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I'd still have, no, the girlfriend too, the girlfriend, yeah.
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I mean, that's probably a toss up, but that bike was a, that was a Black Bomber.
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It's like one of the first bikes that were imported to the U.
15:27
S.
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in 64, 63.
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Mm hmm.
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That was meant to compete with the, uh, the British market.
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The Black Bomber, as they called it.
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And it was, it was the Black Bomber.
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It had the chrome tank sides, and the guy was moving to Japan, and
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he was selling all his collection.
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And I didn't have any space, and I asked Morgan, Morgan was the
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ex girlfriend, I was like, Can we put this in the living room?
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She was like, Absolutely not.
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David was like, No wonder!
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No wonder!
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Like, what on earth?
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I mean, it's not unreasonable to ask.
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I mean, yeah, yeah, yeah.
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It's only February.
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I'm always reminded of that story.
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When, when I hear about bikes and living room, I'm always reminded of that story
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about a bloke who built a turbo Gixxer 750 and in the magazine interview, they
16:24
said to him, why did you build a turbo?
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Why did you build a 750 not a 1000 or an 1100 and he went well The 1000s or
16:33
the 1100s, they'll get into the hallway, but they don't make it round the corner
16:39
into the dining room But the 750s I can get them into the dining room.
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So that's why I built a 750 Legit.
16:47
Yeah, it's a good reason, right?
16:51
Um favorite rider All time favorite rider?
16:59
Me, Nicky Hayden, all three of us.
17:01
Nicky Hayden.
17:04
Oh, good choice.
17:06
You know what?
17:07
I have a very, very memorable moment with Nicky Hayden.
17:10
You do?
17:10
Yeah.
17:11
I was in Emoto GP Laguna 2013.
17:14
Mm-Hmm.
17:15
. And I was working at BMW at that time, and he had given me a.
17:20
A pass.
17:20
I thought it was a regular pass.
17:22
Who had given you a pass?
17:23
The general manager, Larry Sines.
17:24
Okay.
17:25
BMW.
17:25
He's friends with Randy Momoda.
17:27
Oh, cool.
17:28
And, um, I don't know, he has that connection, so.
17:30
I went with a group, right?
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Mm hmm.
17:32
Super bike freak group and I had a buddy that was there.
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It was like kind of cheesy for me.
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Mm hmm.
17:37
It's like they ride in the group and they were all, they
17:40
were all handing the tickets.
17:41
Mm hmm.
17:42
And when it came to me, I showed him the badge.
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It's like, oh, you go here.
17:45
Mm hmm.
17:46
And all of a sudden, you know, in the lunchroom, having lunch with
17:49
the racers and it was just like a really, really good experience.
17:52
But anyway, we were back in the paddock and Nicky was there, right?
17:58
And to be honest, I was really, I still am a Rossi fan.
18:02
You know, I was waiting for Rossi in front of his trailer.
18:05
And then Nicky comes.
18:07
And um, this guy asked me to take a picture of him and Nicky.
18:10
I was like, yeah, sure.
18:11
And he was just standing there like, Hey, do you want a picture?
18:16
And I was just like, he didn't say that.
18:19
I'm just like, maybe that's what he was thinking, you know?
18:22
Cause the other guy was like, oh, Nicky can't take a picture.
18:26
But, super nice guy.
18:28
Just, that small interaction.
18:30
Yeah.
18:31
He was just like, he took time.
18:33
He was just very respectful.
18:35
I just thought he was cool.
18:37
He was always cool.
18:37
Whenever you saw him interviewed, he was nice and smiling and chilled out.
18:41
And that year he won the championship.
18:43
Um, I bet on him.
18:45
He was, I think he was like 11 to two or something like that.
18:48
Um, odds at the start of the season.
18:49
I was like, look, this, if he's going to win it, this is the year.
18:52
Cause like the Honda was really good that year.
18:53
And it's like, he could do it this year.
18:55
He's the number one rider there.
18:56
Or he'd like, he's got a fair crack of the whip and then.
18:59
He did, he had a sort of period in the middle where he went on about four races
19:02
back to back and he's doing really well.
19:04
Um, and then there was that massive pile up, wasn't it?
19:08
Was it, was that the one where someone went into the, into the, into the brake
19:11
lever and the thing went end over end?
19:12
There was a lot of smashed up bikes and stuff at the start of that race.
19:15
Um, But either way, that 2005 2006, that's when Rossi blew it, blew the engine.
19:21
Yeah, but it was one.
19:22
Yeah, exactly.
19:24
So, but in the middle of the season, there was a reason why
19:26
some people were out for a while.
19:27
And I remember looking at it, thinking, well, hold on a sec.
19:29
Hayden then put the next one on pole and won it.
19:31
And then put, and then put the next one on pole and won it as well.
19:34
And he was still 4 to 1.
19:36
I was like, look, I like the guy, I'm betting on him.
19:38
So I bet on him.
19:39
And then he built up to about a 30 something point lead.
19:42
And then Pedrosa took him off.
19:44
When he was leaving, his fucking teammate took him off when he was
19:48
leading, which meant he wouldn't Yeah, yeah, no, I remember that.
19:50
He said, I've never, I've never, I've never felt pain
19:53
like that in my entire life.
19:54
I was ready to kill that fucking little bastard.
19:57
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
19:58
But, uh, he was like eight points behind, didn't he?
20:02
Yeah.
20:02
And I had 250 quid, right?
20:04
Not even winning it.
20:05
And he, I mean, I was a Rossi fan as well, don't get me wrong, Rossi's cool.
20:08
And I thought it was really nice the way that Rossi went around
20:11
and gave him a pat on the back.
20:12
And said in the interview afterwards, look, if I've got to lose, it might
20:15
as well be someone I really like.
20:17
So, you know, it was cool, but that was his year.
20:20
And I mean, it was, um, yeah, yeah, it was really, he was a top guy.
20:23
So just from a cool factor, I think he deserved it.
20:25
Yeah, because Tony Elias knocked off Rossi.
20:28
That's why he lost by five points.
20:31
Yeah, because he got back on and was touring around, wasn't he?
20:34
But like, yeah.
20:35
Yeah.
20:36
Yeah.
20:38
Was that the one that, did Bayliss win the last race?
20:40
Because he was chasing him down and then afterwards he was
20:42
like, I don't need to anymore.
20:43
Like, second or third or whatever it was is going to be fine.
20:46
Yeah.
20:46
Rocky's in about 17th.
20:48
Yeah, yeah.
20:49
But yeah.
20:50
Yeah, cool.
20:51
He's a cool guy.
20:52
I was on holiday in Italy when the news came through about him
20:57
having the accident that he had.
21:00
And we were In a part of Italy where it was like in the hills and there
21:05
were a lot of cyclists around and the roads are really narrow and it
21:11
I'd been just earlier in the day.
21:14
It had occurred to me that if you were really meaning it on a downhill and
21:18
if somebody in a car placed themselves in the wrong way, you could just come
21:22
around the corner and head on a car.
21:24
I don't know exactly what happened to Hayden, but I knew it was a
21:29
cycling accident which took place in Italy whilst I was at that vacation.
21:33
So yeah, Godspeed Nikki Hayden.
21:41
Gary McCoy would be the guy that I would, uh, would draw attention to.
21:46
I just remember cause I was getting into MotoGP at the time when he
21:49
was, um, doing the two strokes and everyone else at the four strokes.
21:53
And that was just a interesting, cool thing.
21:56
I, I, uh, and I think if we were going to go back in time, I'd talk about Jimmy
22:01
Guthrie, I feel that Guthrie, all the photos of Guthrie, he looks like such
22:06
a tough guy and the sport was so tough.
22:09
In I feel like the thirties were interesting, right?
22:12
Because the, the sport was still as tough almost as it had been in
22:16
the twenties in the early years, but now the bikes actually could
22:20
do 100 miles an hour and more.
22:21
And you know what I mean?
22:22
It was, uh, it was, it was quite a thing.
22:25
So, yeah, um, mine would be, uh, coincidentally,
22:34
this guy just got a t shirt.
22:36
Joey Dunlop t shirt.
22:38
Um, for the technical aspect of it as a technician, he, you.
22:45
He didn't like other mechanics working on his bike and if you think about it,
22:52
it kind of makes you faster because you have all that confidence in yourself.
22:55
You don't have to think about, well, did that guy actually torque
22:57
my axle right or anything else?
23:00
You know it was done right because that's the American car guy attitude, isn't it?
23:04
Is that if you didn't build it yourself, you don't really know what you're doing.
23:08
They see it as very dilettante to like have a mechanic build
23:13
the car and then well, yeah, for him, he wanted to do it himself.
23:17
He was a very good mechanic, and I think that's what made him really faster too.
23:22
So that's given us a pivot onto our main topic for, for, for the day.
23:27
Right.
23:27
Which, which I is why I, I was like, I sort of interrupted.
23:32
Um, I don't wanna say normal service, but Right.
23:36
It looks as if real road racing in Ireland is over.
23:42
No, I don't think so.
23:43
And it looks as if, it looks as if it's over on the grounds of insurance.
23:50
Certainly in 2023.
23:53
There will not be any road racing.
23:56
There'll still be the Ulster Grand Prix, the North West 200, there'll still be
24:00
Isle of Man, but so what, and I guess for me, right, the reason why I wanted
24:05
to have this round table is that I think that you've seen the beginning
24:11
of the end for road racing, right?
24:14
When road racing stops, it will be on the horns of insurance.
24:18
So in other words, right, when somebody Kills a bunch of spectators at the Isle
24:23
of Man TT, then nobody will want to insure that event and that will be the end.
24:28
That's Well, I, I'm not sure.
24:35
Right.
24:35
That's why I'm having this like, let's, what do you think they say from Isle of
24:39
Man and what he said was they're actually trying to, they're expecting to grow the
24:45
number of tourists from 40, 000 to 500, 000, 500, 000 people to watch that race.
24:52
That's what they're targeting.
24:54
Right.
24:57
Jesus, but the problem that they're having is majority of the people that
25:01
are there, the youngest that you're going to see are all in their 40s.
25:06
So it's changing.
25:07
It's mostly like a different generation.
25:10
Yeah, which makes the whole like monster garage sponsoring, you
25:15
know, that Richard Rawlings toss pot sponsoring Peter Hickman.
25:20
That, I thought that was a really interesting tie.
25:25
Gary, you have sort of ethical problems with it as a blood
25:29
sport nowadays, don't you?
25:31
Um, I suppose on the basis that as you get older you get a bit more sober
25:36
and reflective about these things.
25:37
And if you've been watching that sort of sport for a while, you've now got a list
25:41
of people you supported who are dead.
25:44
And that's a bit sobering.
25:45
Um, you know, Dave Jeffries, love Dave Jeffries.
25:49
Well, I was going to make fun of you when you say DJ.
25:51
I was going to mention DJ with, uh, with, but, but, but so, so, but even
25:57
if, so, but even if the Isle of Man events survive, Irish road racing,
26:04
the old fashioned Three, the triangle, the town to town triangle where
26:11
you close the roads and you do it.
26:12
And you know, the public, the local publicans make a lot more money
26:16
than they otherwise would have done.
26:18
And, and, you know, Gammy, you've been to, I'm not even going
26:21
to try and say it properly.
26:22
Reams, Rams, whatever the, the strike in France.
26:25
I mean, that's the ultimate three court triangle, three town triangle.
26:30
That is what motor racing used to be.
26:35
You know, for, for certainly on the continent, right?
26:39
You can still drive basically in the circuit.
26:40
It's worth going.
26:41
It's the end, it's, it's the end of that though, if, if we allow
26:45
Irish road racing to go away.
26:46
And the other thing is, is my understanding is the premium was 400, 000.
26:51
Wasn't even that much money in the grand scheme.
26:56
I mean, in crazy levels.
26:57
It's like, you know, I'm sure it's a bit more, you know, it's a super
27:02
professional sport and obviously the manufacturers involved and so forth.
27:06
Um, But I'm not sure, I would imagine, given that that number is relatively
27:12
low, the margins are still reasonably tight for those guys running the teams.
27:17
Um, so, I, just finding an extra whatever, half million or whatever it is, that you
27:24
ain't getting back, um, you know, that's a pretty big hat you're going around with
27:29
to beg for the extra change, isn't it?
27:30
So.
27:33
Well, I mean, it is in terms of like an amateur volunteer sport.
27:39
It doesn't seem like very much money in terms of how much money, you know,
27:44
BMW's marketing budget is, or Gas Monkey Garage's marketing budget.
27:50
Yeah, but you just said yourself, it's old farts like us watching it, you know,
27:54
the young, if the younger kids aren't watching it, then, and if you look at
27:59
what, what are the alternative products at the moment, well, super bikes, where
28:03
the racing's amazing and no one dies.
28:06
Um, and MoGP, where the Ducatis are amazing, and generally
28:11
speaking, no one dies.
28:13
Um, so, you know what I mean, there's, there are, there is racing
28:16
and high skills, thrills action on two wheels if you want it.
28:19
Um, but I mean, look, yeah, it'll be a shame if it, if it, if it runs,
28:23
if it sort of, if its course is up.
28:25
Um, but it sort of felt like watching the BBC coverage of, you
28:31
know, stuff like the Cookstown 100.
28:33
And things like that, that, I mean, they are really nadgery little back roads that
28:39
they are rinsing those bikes round against grass verges and stuff, you know, oh dude,
28:45
like, yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean the two pillows they've thrown in front of the
28:49
500 year oak tree ain't saving no one.
28:51
I mean, so, yeah, that is the risk.
28:56
Um, I still watch it.
28:57
I love it.
28:58
I mean, I, they're the guys are heroes, but it's, um, and lasses, they were
29:02
lasses riding as well, but still.
29:06
Yeah.
29:06
I, I, uh, I, I, I think one thing that's interesting in our conversation
29:11
is that clearly there's a difference between the Manchester United, Chelsea.
29:18
Forty niners, you know, New York Giants of, uh, the Isle of
29:24
Man TT and even the Northwest.
29:26
And, you know, the local dirt track ness of the Tandragi 100.
29:33
You're looking at different kinds of, they are different events.
29:37
And something I thought was, something I thought was interesting in that
29:40
article that I forwarded, that I'll put a link in, in the, you know, whatever.
29:44
Um.
29:46
In that, what it talked about was how there's a bunch of efficiencies
29:50
that can be made because, you know, there's still like two
29:54
bodies that look after road racing.
29:56
In Ireland, there's one for Northern Ireland and one for Southern Ireland, and
29:59
whilst you can appreciate why that exists, you can see that that makes it much harder
30:04
to, like, coordinate efforts together to show the kind of economies of scale that
30:09
an insurance company might want to see for you to be able to carry on with it.
30:14
I just feel like, you know, I look for signs for the end of our hobby.
30:19
Um, you know, I believe that what I'll take.
30:22
The cars and bikes that we love off the roads is fluids, the fluids will go away
30:27
first, you won't be able to get tyres, you won't be able to get the right oil,
30:30
that's what really, and gas will be harder and harder and harder to get.
30:35
It'll be insurance, we'll take road racing off the road, it'll be insurance,
30:40
it will be administrated, it will be strangled by creeping administration.
30:50
Yeah, I think we ought to mouth survive, because.
30:52
It's where it is and the government makes too much money out of it.
30:56
So, unless you get a Le Mans 55, I think it survives.
31:05
Alright, so let's talk about the difference between riding in
31:08
England to riding in California to riding in the Philippines.
31:16
So, let's talk about the difference between California
31:19
and the Philippines first.
31:23
So, Philippines is, uh, it's not really conducive to riding a motorcycle safely.
31:32
Some jeeps, specifically, will go out of their way To cut you off.
31:39
So it's, uh, you have to be on alert.
31:44
Um, I think that's the main reason why
31:49
a lot of like the Irish guys, they talk about asking like, what makes you
31:52
so comfortable riding in California?
31:55
They're like, in Ireland, the roads are shitty.
31:58
It's all gravel and narrow and you get used to that and
32:03
then you get to California.
32:04
It's like, yeah, and and just just, uh, to that, um, you know, there is a road.
32:13
A couple of hours north of here called Skag Springs, which is,
32:18
it feels like closed racetrack.
32:21
It was built by the Army Corps of Engineers.
32:23
It is wide.
32:26
It curves from one hillside to another hillside.
32:29
It goes fucking nowhere.
32:32
Goes to a bridge and on the other side of the bridge, the road surface is shitty.
32:36
And there's a shitty like English B road, like one way B road, kind of Devon
32:42
country lane kind of affair until you get out to the coast, which is like.
32:47
Fucking hours from from the spot that you are.
32:49
So there's no traffic on skag springs whatsoever It is the perfect it's
32:54
like a closed racetrack, isn't it?
32:55
It's perfectly well, it kind of depends if you're coming from point
33:00
stewart For the first few miles, it's like really shitty road.
33:04
Like it's what you know, you're describing single road Um, but after
33:09
that opens up it becomes a racetrack.
33:11
It's all clean.
33:13
I was actually there recently a couple of weeks ago You, um, you did Death
33:17
Valley recently as well, didn't you?
33:19
Yeah.
33:19
Yeah, yeah.
33:22
The thing about Death Valley is you don't have any reference point.
33:25
So if you're going fast, you're not, you don't, it doesn't seem fast.
33:29
Because you don't see the rush.
33:31
It didn't seem, it didn't seem fast, my lad.
33:34
Yeah.
33:36
It felt like when we were driving on that plane over Alaska, John, and you
33:40
were looking down at the crevasses, and you're like, is that 50 feet across?
33:43
500 feet down or is that 500 feet across and 10,000?
33:47
I have.
33:48
I couldn't tell you.
33:49
I just dunno.
33:50
We flew up to Mount Denali on the east nine cylinder de h and beavers.
33:56
Mm-Hmm.
33:56
seaplanes.
33:57
So you like took off in Fairbanks and then you flew towards the mountain.
34:01
The mountain looked big, but really all the proportions were peculiar.
34:05
You, uh, you know, you thought the mountain was, you know, normal sized and.
34:11
20 miles away.
34:13
But actually, it was fucking huge and 200 miles away.
34:17
Miles away, yeah.
34:20
Yeah, really, uh, uh, Isn't it like 22, 000 or something like that?
34:24
But up from the floor.
34:26
So, there's a lot of mountain right there.
34:29
Whereas the ones in the Himalayas, they're taller, but they start from like 15, 000
34:34
feet, where everything is, if you like.
34:36
Uh, at that location, so.
34:38
But yeah, it's um, it was cool.
34:43
When you used to live in L.
34:44
A., did you ever used to write, um, The Canyon Roads and Add to the Rock store?
34:49
I wrote all over.
34:50
I wrote all over.
34:51
Like, you name it in L.
34:52
A.
34:53
That's why I'm that rich.
34:54
It's like, I'm like this.
34:58
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
35:00
I wrote all over L.
35:01
A.
35:01
I met Tom and all the other writers.
35:03
Oh, okay.
35:04
You went through bikes.
35:06
Oh yeah.
35:07
So we, so I used to ride to Panga a lot, which is like North, you know, which for
35:13
Margie's and for, and for the listeners, it's, um, they're breaking down the third
35:18
wall that it's, um, North from like.
35:22
PCH north from the Pacific Coast, um, towards, uh, towards 101, like
35:27
over the Bridger Hills, which is separates what the San Fernando
35:31
Valley from the Los Angeles Valley.
35:36
That's where I live, San Fernando, North Hollywood, the pouring capital.
35:41
Yeah.
35:41
Yeah.
35:43
Dana had a friend whose roommate said to her, Oh, I have a friend coming over.
35:48
We're going to make porn.
35:50
We'll give you a hundred bucks to go out to the cinema, or
35:52
you can stay and join in.
35:54
And I was like, welcome to Los Angeles.
35:59
Welcome to fucking Los Angeles.
36:04
Yeah.
36:05
Yeah.
36:05
Yeah.
36:06
Yeah.
36:06
I remember when I used to live there, I went to a pet store.
36:09
I was with my cousin.
36:10
Um, you met him, Gerald.
36:12
Yeah, oh yeah, yeah.
36:13
I was at a pet store.
36:15
We were in a pet store.
36:17
And, um, you were looking at this small snake, right?
36:21
It's like a red, red tailed boa.
36:24
It's like the, the golden retrievers of snakes because my cousin wanted to
36:27
get one and he was holding the snake and this one, this one dude is like,
36:32
Oh, I always wanted to get one, but my mom didn't really want me to get one.
36:36
You know, it's just, it's just black dude with a hat and we started chatting.
36:41
It's like, yeah, well, you know what?
36:42
Sometimes it's better to just get it.
36:44
It's like, yeah, I don't know what I'm going to say.
36:46
And then he leaves, right?
36:49
And then my cousin was just like, Do you know who that is?
36:51
I was like, I don't know who that is.
36:54
That's the porn guy!
36:58
Yeah, I don't know who that guy is, but The porn guy gave advice on snakes.
37:04
I suppose that's appropriate.
37:08
But it was just like a regular guy Yeah, yeah, yeah, it definitely, yeah, it
37:15
definitely is the do the go to business in the San Fernando Valley, isn't it?
37:20
Um, Angeles Crest.
37:24
Did you write that road?
37:25
Yeah, I always rated that road.
37:27
Yeah, that's the first time I actually slid going fast.
37:31
Like I slid right after coming out of a tunnel.
37:36
And I just picked up, maybe, I just picked up the R1 at that
37:39
time, so I'm not, I wasn't that used to it, that much power yet.
37:44
Um, and when you go through a tunnel at a fast pace, there's a crosswind at the end.
37:51
And that's when I felt it slid.
37:53
Right, I told my buddy Tom, I was like, yeah man, I felt it.
37:55
I was like, wow, probably a few feet.
37:59
He's like, yeah man, you kind of have to get used to it.
38:03
That's what he said.
38:04
It's like, yeah, but that is a really, really fast, fun ride.
38:13
Um, Mulholland, too much traffic.
38:17
All the history, but too much traffic.
38:21
Um, I have enjoyed Mulholland.
38:24
I, many, many years ago, watched an MMA fight and then drove out along
38:31
Mulholland late at night and Mulholland was good and I saw how it was, you
38:36
know, years ago when it was the place.
38:38
But I think, um, I think Angeles, because it's quiet, it's an asshole to get
38:43
to, because it's quiet in the LA area.
38:45
That's probably the, the best road.
38:47
And Gammy, if you're in Los Angeles, that, that road is worth looking
38:52
out and, uh, and, and driving.
38:54
Not least because it's rather like Topanga Canyon in, in, uh,
38:58
you'll be like, hang on a minute.
38:59
I've seen that corner in that car advert.
39:02
Like in that Lexus advert, like, oh yeah, like that's like,
39:06
you can, uh, you can offer it.
39:08
It's, uh, cause all the, you know, media companies are in LA, so
39:12
they're near, you know, nearby.
39:13
So they all go to the same, uh, same spot.
39:16
So, um.
39:18
On the theme of the canyon roads, I wanted to share this old chestnut with you.
39:24
Um, remember, um, I have a CBR, that CBR600 race bike that used
39:29
to be down in LA all the time.
39:31
I used to ride the canyon roads with Mark.
39:33
Mark used to have like a 650, uh, XR650, like a super motard.
39:40
Baja bike, like a Honda 650, like a beast of a thing.
39:45
I couldn't kickstart it, but I mean, wheelie, wheelie machine, but only
39:49
do about 85 miles an hour flat out.
39:52
So I would ride the Canyon roads with, with, with, uh, with him one day we're
39:57
riding, we come around one corner, right?
39:59
And I'm paying attention because there's a lot of gravel on
40:01
the road and I'm not right.
40:02
And I'm riding very much with, within myself, right?
40:06
And, um, on one of the turnouts, there's a chick.
40:10
With a ZX6, a lady, a female rider with a ZX6 parked up at the side, right?
40:17
And Mark's gotten a long way ahead of me.
40:19
So as, as I dropped down towards PCH at the end of, of, of the road, there
40:26
is a cop who comes past me at a high rate of knots and Mark is stopped at
40:31
the side, uh, is stopped at the corner.
40:33
So I hop off.
40:34
Mark spoke, has spoken to the cop and said to me, did I see?
40:39
Anybody pulled over at the side of the road and I was like,
40:43
yeah, that was like, he was like, how many people I was like one.
40:48
It was like, yeah, I thought I only saw one person as well.
40:52
It was a girl, right?
40:54
And I was like, yeah, with a ZX6, and he went, yeah, her husband had a ZX10.
40:58
They reckon he's gone off the edge.
41:00
That's, uh, that's unfortunate.
41:03
Yeah, yeah, so, uh.
41:14
Yeah, so, uh, I, I, I remember riding back along PCH there thinking, you know,
41:19
you were right when you saw some gravel on the road just to pick it up and let
41:23
Mark get way ahead of you, you know, you were right to just, uh, just, just relax.
41:29
So I'm gonna, um, um, whilst we're talking about riding
41:35
these, these canyon roads, um.
41:39
When Mark lived up in Topanga, um, we were on Topanga making our way up
41:44
towards the house, been out, it was sort of lunchtime, and uh, in that moment,
41:51
sweeping around a corner, there was maybe a hundred yards straight, and at
41:57
the corner there was like a, where the road bore, we'd We'd gone to the left.
42:02
The road was going to bear to the right.
42:03
It was a, as I say, uphill, 100 yards, maybe we'd come out of the
42:07
turn and we're climbing up the hill.
42:09
Um, and, and there's shops over on the left and, and so on.
42:14
And then there is a bag of Harley upside down, flying through the air, landing
42:21
on the back of a Volvo station wagon.
42:24
I mean, landing like In the trunk space of the Volvo station wagon, I, I mean,
42:32
and then there's a bloke tumbling and, and the next thing I know, we're like at
42:37
the car park, uh, at the parking lot and Mark's out of the parking lot and dealing
42:42
with the guy who miraculously wasn't hurt.
42:47
It seemed just didn't know how to lean a motorcycle over.
42:50
He just flown in from another part of America and had ridden dirt
42:56
bikes before, but not a Harley.
42:58
So we learned this afterwards.
43:00
Um, the woman, a woman came along.
43:03
I was like there when I was like stood around like a spare part when the
43:08
woman with the Volvo came out of the supermarket and was like, When there's
43:13
like a gog when she sees like the Harley has basically merged with uh quite
43:19
nice actually previously Volvo 940.
43:23
So that's, uh, so the upside down Harley, um, and, and I have another upside
43:30
down motorcycle story many years ago, mark the a four, your stomping ground.
43:37
So this is a great thing when you're riding in Europe, if they've built a
43:41
motorway or an auto route or some main highway, especially if it's a toll road,
43:47
if you ride the roads parallel to it.
43:50
They're often really quiet, but they're really good sweeping roads and the A4
43:55
parallel to the M4 is is one of those.
43:57
It's a well known biker road.
44:00
I used to live not far from it.
44:01
So I used to get be on it quite often.
44:04
I was riding home one day.
44:07
Um, and I, I want to say near Hungerford, but I'm not really sure that that it was.
44:14
And Gammy, you might I've heard me tell this story before is that the eyes I'm on
44:19
my back and yellow jigsaw my first bike.
44:21
I'm approaching a turn and as I'm approaching a turn, I see a
44:26
group of bikers standing around.
44:29
I don't know what it was that made me stop, but I did stop and they
44:34
were all as I pulled over, they were all like looking over above me.
44:40
As I got off the bike, I realized there were three guys, but only two bikes.
44:46
And then I looked over my shoulder and there in the tree upside down was a Honda
44:53
fire blade, like a 2002, 2003, like what we'd call in America, nine fifty four
44:59
blade with the lights that are upside down in the tree, black and yellow.
45:04
In the tree.
45:06
I'm like, how the fuck did that happen?
45:09
They're like, we don't know.
45:10
The bloke's like, they're like, they're like, this is the bloke that rode it.
45:15
I'm like, how the fuck did that happen?
45:16
He's like, I don't know.
45:18
Like, I don't know.
45:19
Like, I'm still walking.
45:20
Like, look, I'm, my arms, look.
45:22
He's like a bit scuffed up and there's a scuff on his helmet.
45:25
But he's like, look, look, he's still like, like, like buzzing
45:28
from being like, this bike is.
45:30
Not like, you know, it's like 15 feet off the ground.
45:34
He's not falling out of the tree.
45:35
It is In the tree like, you know, like in the tree.
45:41
So there we go.
45:42
Those are my two.
45:43
Um, upside down bike stories Um john you have you said you
45:54
mentioned earlier you work for bmw.
45:56
Mm hmm Um, we're sitting here looking at one of your honda cbs.
46:00
There's Three more in one of my storage units.
46:04
I don't know how many you have around your different facilities.
46:09
Um, CB or BMW, which and why, what are the pros and cons?
46:18
It kind of depends what you're going to do.
46:20
If you're going to be long distance riding, it's hands down BMW.
46:24
I mean, they're just, I like them both.
46:26
It's just depending on what you're going to do.
46:30
Um, as far as BMW just because of all the safety features, you
46:35
know, all the things that you read.
46:38
Read on the newspaper, it's like confidence inspiring, ABS, traction
46:43
control, all those safety features.
46:46
They do work and they come in handy, but
46:53
I'd say favorite bike or just between CB, Honda or BMW?
47:01
Yeah, if there could be only one.
47:03
If you had to get rid of all the CBs and could have only BMWs, or if you
47:06
had to get rid of all the BMWs and could have only CBs, which would it be?
47:13
I'd keep them both.
47:15
Yeah.
47:17
Yeah.
47:18
I can't just have one done.
47:19
That's the problem that I have and thank you for keeping some of the bikes.
47:25
Alright, let's do these quick fires and then we can uh can wrap this up.
47:32
Okay.
47:33
Um, alright.
47:34
So, quick fire.
47:36
Um what's your first bike?
47:38
Honda Cub Ninety.
47:40
Awesome.
47:41
RG
47:44
250 two stroke Suzuki and uh oh two GSXR 600.
47:50
That black and yellow one was the first bike I ever had.
47:53
What a sensible place to start that was.
47:56
What was the last bike you bought?
48:01
So I'm on a moratorium right now, so it might take some time.
48:04
I think the last bike I bought was that scooter.
48:08
I think that was it.
48:09
Which scooter?
48:10
The one that you have.
48:11
The Zuma?
48:11
That was the last one you bought?
48:13
I think so.
48:15
What was the last bike you bought?
48:16
The CBR again?
48:17
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
48:18
The CBR 600, yeah.
48:19
The last one I bought was the Zuma as well.
48:21
Oh no, what was the last one I bought?
48:22
No, the last one I bought was Ollie's CRF.
48:24
Yeah.
48:25
Yeah.
48:25
Yeah.
48:26
Yeah.
48:26
Um, alright.
48:28
And the next question.
48:30
Um, alright.
48:32
Now, the one that got away.
48:35
Story of one that got away.
48:37
Let me tell you the one that got away.
48:39
You're the guy on your street that used to do the road racing.
48:42
Neil, Neil had a 99 Hayabusa.
48:51
I wasn't riding at the time and I looked at that bike and I was tempted to buy it
48:55
even though I wasn't riding at the time.
48:58
And I wish I bought it because that he wanted 3, 000 for it.
49:02
And.
49:03
Those bikes have just left the building ever since.
49:05
That was a 99 bike, one of the original ones, that could do 200
49:09
That was I remember that day.
49:11
Yeah.
49:12
Yeah, that was In the world of motorcycles, I don't have too
49:16
many that have gone away, but that one was one that got away.
49:22
For me, it was a Black Bomber in Hawaii.
49:24
The 64 Black Bomber Honda.
49:26
Yeah.
49:27
Yeah, the one that I had to put a living room.
49:30
Yeah.
49:32
Alright, um, best bike you ever owned, Mark?
49:39
Um, probably the CBR, to be honest.
49:43
It's just brilliant at everything.
49:45
Um, and really like, all top end fizzy and I know it's like not that much power
49:51
really by modern bike standards, but.
49:54
It's so lovely handling, it really is, um, yeah.
49:58
Although, in my heart, it's probably still the Honda C90.
50:01
I love that bike.
50:02
I used to ride that all weathers, snow, farm, through shit, all sorts of stuff.
50:07
We took it dirt tracking.
50:09
It was amazing.
50:12
Best bike you've ever owned, John?
50:15
BMW R1200GS.
50:17
BMW.
50:18
Think that's, isn't that the one you got rid of?
50:22
'cause of the, you associated it with a particular lady friend who didn't quite
50:26
work out the way you were ? Sort of, yeah.
50:31
Yeah.
50:31
But in general, the 1200 GS is just like such a very, very civilized pride.
50:37
It doesn't make you a hooligan.
50:38
It's very capable.
50:41
It's uh, it kind of suits my personality.
50:43
I like the way it rides, it's precise.
50:46
Yeah, it's a very smooth ride.
50:49
Yeah.
50:50
Um, I think the best bike I own is the two grand 05 Gix 1000 K5 that I have.
51:00
I think as an all rounder I just There is a reason why
51:07
people go on and on about them.
51:09
And it's because it's got everything that the earlier jigs have in terms of the,
51:13
you know, terrifying license losing like, you know, line of cocaine performance.
51:19
But it's packaged up in a way that you can sit on it and ride it easily
51:25
and the fueling works properly.
51:27
And, you know.
51:28
You can, I, I, uh, I used it.
51:30
I, I tried to fire up the moped to do a rundown to the post office just earlier
51:36
this week and the moped wouldn't kick.
51:40
And I was just like, it's not taxed.
51:42
And I was like, fuck you, really Fuck you Yamaha again.
51:47
Right?
51:47
I had Vision 50 I'll, and I fired.
51:50
I fired up that black jigs a foul, gimme three gigs, and I wrote
51:53
it down that, and you know what?
51:54
Mark Ga, this is the first time, three gigs for a dollar.
51:57
How's it going to start up in three weeks?
51:59
I've got it running since.
52:02
Right?
52:02
I'm not taking that bet.
52:04
I'm just making the point that once again the Yamaha that I bought in order
52:09
to have a moped that worked doesn't.
52:12
And the Gixxer that's done 55, 000 miles and so on, I rode it down
52:16
into the post office and back.
52:18
You know, I didn't get into third gear.
52:20
I did take second, you know, just but, you know, then I decided
52:24
I preferred the engine braking of first and then, you know.
52:27
So, yeah, so that's my favorite bike at the moment.
52:30
Um, well that's my, uh, uh, the best bike I've owned.
52:33
What is the worst, uh, I mean, not yet.
52:36
Excess is the worst bike I've owned.
52:40
I mean, how much time do you guys have?
52:44
I don't think you wanna hear it.
52:45
Like I've, yeah, all that.
52:50
What about you?
52:50
Um, oh, let me do, I've had that many bikes.
52:53
I mean, I had a ZX six R, but that was a great bike.
52:56
I don't think I've ever been faster for 1, 500 pounds.
52:59
I mean, it was, uh, with the slip on, it had 99.
53:03
8 horsepower.
53:05
The guy said to me, we ran it twice on the dyno.
53:07
We really wanted 100 for you, but it wouldn't get there.
53:09
That's shit.
53:11
But, uh So 9 6 96.
53:14
It was a bit set up and beg, wasn't it, but our monster comfy exhaust
53:17
note and it was in the right green.
53:19
Oh yeah.
53:20
And comfy man.
53:22
And it handled pretty well.
53:22
Yeah.
53:23
Yeah.
53:24
And that's the thing about that era of bike is they are significantly more
53:29
comfortable than, um, you know, we're not jigs and seven fifties from that era.
53:34
They're really bloody uncomfortable.
53:37
But, um, yeah, a lot of pegs and stuff.
53:38
Yeah.
53:38
Yeah.
53:39
Yeah, it's not just the pegs.
53:40
It's the handlebars and yeah, the whole like seating position is you.
53:45
You feel like you're on a medieval rack with them.
53:48
Um, uh, all right, final question.
53:55
If you could ride like anyone, who would it be?
54:03
I'll go first.
54:04
Gary McCoy.
54:06
I mentioned him before the way that bloke could slide it,
54:09
the confidence, the swagger.
54:11
If I could ride like anyone, it would be Gary McCoy.
54:13
I
54:18
mean, I don't want to sound arrogant.
54:19
Obviously, I want to ride with I admire a lot of people who ride a certain way, like
54:25
Rossi, Dunlop, and all the other racers.
54:27
But honestly, I want to ride like myself.
54:32
Like, I don't Good answer, Joe.
54:34
Good answer.
54:34
I don't know anyone else.
54:37
Mark?
54:38
Oh, I'd pick some, one of the Dakar boys.
54:41
Um, Sam Sunderland or some, you know, someone like that.
54:44
I mean, on the basis that I think that's such a transferable skill that I
54:47
don't have any of really at the moment.
54:49
Or at least, you know, I mean, if they're in the upper, the Himalaya
54:52
tops, I'm down in, you know, fruiting around in the, in the, uh, but
54:55
in the, in the, in the foothills.
54:58
So yeah, I just think that'd be a real sort of instant matrix
55:03
style download of a skill set.
55:04
That'd be pretty cool to have that uploaded.
55:08
All right.
55:10
Well, gents, thanks for your time today.
55:12
Yeah.
55:14
Until the next time.
55:15
Cheers.
55:26
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