Racing Roots and Riding Community: A Journey with Matt and Terri Lynn

Join Matt and Terri Lynn as they dive into the exhilarating world of motorcycling in the latest episode of the Throttle Stop Motorcycle Podcast! This episode features lively conversations about their extensive experiences in the motorsports industry, touching on everything from road racing to the evolving landscape of electric bikes. The duo shares personal stories, including their insights on the transition from racing to professional roles in companies like Triumph and KTM.

Listeners will get a glimpse into their passion for riding and how they are actively contributing to their local motorcycle community, including initiatives like Cherry Log Adventures, aimed at supporting riders and promoting local businesses. With humor and camaraderie, Matt and Terri Lynn highlight the importance of inclusivity in the riding community, the thrill of adventure in the Southeast, and the need for stewardship of riding trails.

Tune in for a blend of motorcycle culture, industry insights, and a shared love for the open road—perfect for enthusiasts and newcomers alike! Don’t forget to subscribe to hear more engaging discussions and keep the riding spirit alive!

https://www.pandorasmotorsports.com/

Transcript

Well, welcome to the Throttle stop Motorcycle podcast. This is Matt. He has a very bad potty mouth. I'm going to wash out with soap later.

 Morning everyone.



 Hey, what's up guys? How are y'all? Thanks for joining us today.



 Two of my favorite people. Matt's smiling already. We'll put him on the spot here in just a second.

 Matt and Matt show.

 Matt and Matt. Yeah.



 We'll get it done.

 Please on that side.

 What's up?

 There's a Matt and Matt on that side.

 Yeah. See, I should have sat on that side and then we could have introduced it as welcome to the Throttle Stop podcast between two matt's. Kind of like Zach Galifianakis between two ferns.

 Is that a Matt sandwich thing?

 I don't know about this. I don't like where this is going.

 Yeah, you had Clinton on there saying like, you look like a space librarian.



 So yeah, like I said, two of my favorite people, Matt and Terri Lynn and I will, this will be fun. Matt's going to introduce Terri and Terri's going to introduce Matt.



 This is Terri Lynn. She's pretty much a boss.



 She's worked for a lot of awesome companies within the industry, including Triumph KTM. Now she's at Troy Lee Designs and I get to, you know, I married this beautiful individual, so I get to claim her as mine.



 We have a wonderful daughter together. Not only is she awesome within the motorcycle industry, she's awesome outside of the industry, loves being outdoors. Daughter of Terri. Terri. Okay. The daughter's pretty awesome too. It's like a mini version of Terri. Yeah, she loves being outside on anything with two wheels or exploring nature.



 Did that.

 Yeah, we get it. That was a very safe introduction. It was.

 Okay.

 You can also sleep in front of the room.

 I think he knows I get to go next. Yeah.

 All right, Terry, your turn.

 Yeah, absolutely. I'll see what I can do. Gosh, the first time I



 knew of Matt, it was because I was a road race fan and I love to watch AMA Superbike. So my introduction to Matt was when he was racing for Corona Honda, although his racing career started much earlier than that. In the 90s.

 No, no. He's not that old. Not that I'm old, but I'm not that old.

 Corona sponsored Honda that long.

 They did.

 Okay.

 Corona extra Honda. Yeah. Okay.

 Yeah. So our first introduction actually was in early 2008.



 At that point in time, I was working for a helmet company and I made some funny little joke about his helmet size because he had a red Mohawk. I don't know. Funny story there. But nonetheless, Matt is now working at Pier New Mobility, which you guys know is a division of the KTM North America group. And he is the field service rep for the US for

 bicycles.



 What Matt didn't say is that Terry here works for Troy Lee. And I know that this partnership doesn't work anymore because Troy Lee has gone ways with Ducati.



 It's still red. And this is more about them because he's working more on like the gas gas bicycle side. She works on the Troy Lee side, which we talked, we talked earlier. It's not just gas, gas bicycles. You do. It's, it's the whole group of them.

 Yeah. Which is kind of morphed a little bit. Cause now felt is peeled off into their own. I don't want to say entity cause they're still kind of, they're like our cousin now as opposed to our siblings. So I work primarily with Husqvarna and gas, gas, e-bikes, yep. And the dealers and help support them and technical troubleshoot and take care of any kind of issues that they have.

 So when I've got an issue on a bicycle, I circumvent everybody else and just call Matt.

 That's how it works. I think that happens a lot actually. I'm sure I'm not the only one. Yeah.

 That's what people have a tendency to do. Like, you know, when people, when Matt introduces them to people next time they go to buy a bike, I mean, sorry, introduce yourself to people. That's true. They go to Matt and it's like, you know, you're not going to get as good of a customer experience dealing with the guy who's dealing with 15 other things. Um, so we always try to like direct back to salesman cause like, they're the ones who like, it's their full time job to focus on that customer.

 Well, and I mean, you're going to get a lot better deal from somebody other than me.

 You have all the KTI's in mind.

 I'm not the, I'm not the right guy to come do for a deal. Cause I see all the bills.

 Yeah.

 That's good to know. Yeah. Yeah.

 So obviously you were in the motorsports world because of racing, uh, super bikes. Were you racing super bike or were we racing super sport?

 Yeah, I started, uh, just like most people doing motocross and stuff just locally. And then we actually had some, some friends where I grew up in, in Canton, Georgia. Um, it was the Suzuki of Canton Yamaha can shop. Um, Rob Homery and Mark Edwards and those guys there, uh, kind of got me into road racing. Uh, they, um, Mark, uh, own the team was at Penn's oil team, extreme Penn's oil at the time, endurance team. And, um, then they kind of transitioned into team Maxis team, extreme Maxis. Uh, and they did a lot of the Wira endurance racing stuff. And so, um, they got me into road racing. They, they said, Hey, the dirt's for planting potatoes. You should come try road racing. And so, uh, at the time I have a twin brother and at the time we were both motocross racing and he kind of had gotten beat up a little bit. He had a couple of crashes and he was into, I think he broke his finger or his collarbone one time. And he was super into playing guitar. Um, musically way more gifted than me.



 Um, and so he, he was kind of like, Hey, I want to stop motocross racing. And that kind of opened the door for some road racing because it, the costs go up with that stuff and all that. And my dad at the time, trying to pay for both of us.

 So do you injure yourself more on the motor, motor cross track or on the tarmac?

 Man, I crashed a lot on the tarmac, but I'd say as far as injuries, probably more motocross. Um, I probably had more, more shoulder industry, uh, injuries, road racing just from, from that type of stuff. But, um, yeah, so that's kind of what got us into it was that. And then I had a little GS 500 that we got from, uh, Matt Kramer at blaze cycle works back in the day. He had like a, yeah, like, uh, you know, he would buy stuff and fix it and then sell it if it was salvaged or whatever. And so I guess like a motorcycle salvage deal is kind of what he did. And, um, he'd sell parts and all that. And so we bought a GS 500 that was, uh, pretty beat up and just started working on it. And you know, did the typical stuff. And my dad, my dad's a metal fabricator. So he, we had some little one off stuff. Like he made, he made some rear sets for it. We made an under the tail exhaust for it. It had a TZ two 50 tail section. And so he made this custom, like under the seat exhaust for it. Um, and then racing on a GS 500. Yeah. GS 500 was the first, that was like the gateway and it was right as the SV six 50 was coming in. So it was totally not competitive. Right. Um, but it got me, it got me into it. Uh, I think like one of my first race days, I promptly blew the engine up at Talladega GP. And then, uh, yeah. And then we, we actually ended up driving back to the house. We, um, which is probably four, four hour, two and a half, probably like three hours away. Uh, we drove back to our house, put a new motor in the bike and then drove back out to the track the next day. And I ended up racing and did, did a couple of races out there. That was one of my first, first kind of events was at Talladega. But yeah, so that got me into it. And then I got an inline four from Matt at a play cycle works and a GS XR 600. And then, I don't know, it just naturally clicked for me road racing. I felt like there was so much traction out on the track, like compared to motocross where you're fighting, you're fighting to find traction, you know? And so it was like, wow, I can, there's this whole track, you know, and it's got consistent consistent at the time, consistent traction, but you figure out as you go faster that it's, it's not so consistent.

 Yeah. Because you're riding at the limits of it all the, all, all the, all the time. So, um, so you end up with a, um, so this sport bike riding background where you're doing a lot of that.



 So you want to 600. Did you ever go to the 1000 class or?

 Yeah. So I actually, I won a bunch of championships for doing Wira my novice year. Um, and Mike Embry,



 that team Embry motorsports like Jeff May and Brian Stokes had written for him, but he, they were at the, on the super bike level and he kind of wanted to come back down and bring, you know, do something in the amateur, so to speak. So he happened to be at the GNF and I had done pretty well. And so he approached us. Um, and I would say Mike was kind of the first person that I ever signed a contract with, um, basically gave us the equipment and a, and a fuel card and then everything else was on us. Um, but yeah, so we had some good, some good sponsorship at the time. And we had, um, kind of met Brian Drebber, um, who used to do a lot of the announcing for the super bike series at that time, whenever it was speed vision. And so he helped kind of connect some of the dots with some sponsors and stuff. And he was always around helping. It was kind of like his speed, the speed vision thing, it kind of slowed down for him because they brought new people into the booth. But, um, he was always a big part of our program, just helping out whether it was wiping tires or you know, getting stuff done. So I miss speed vision. Yeah, I was like,

 yeah, it was



 speed vision to speed. Yep. And then I guess Fox Sports took over as Fox Sports one or whatever.



 But man, I miss that. So anyway, during this time you meet Terry.

 Yeah. Well, so some years later, um,



 if we fast, yeah, that was like 2000, that was actually 2004. And so I raced for team Embry for 2004 and five, um, 2005 was like, we did all the AMA,



 kind of the national series of super bike series. Yeah. And, um, and then, so I kind of, I don't know when that magazine article came out, but, uh, there was a, we'll get to that. There was a magazine article that my, that came out on Terry some year, might've been the next year or something. Anyways, 2007, I raced for auto for Archie and I'm via Gusta. And then in 2008, um, I raced for Corona Honda. And so, yeah. And so that's whenever Terry and I met was at, um, to L a Utah at Miller motorsports park for the first time we met, but we weren't like, I don't know. We just met each other through Melissa. Um, she was concerned that your mohawk would fit under your head.

 And that was her opening lines. Can't imagine this guy professional looking like, I won't say clean cut. Obviously you still have the beard, but like,

 I mean, I can't imagine the red mohawk. Yeah. That was, that was, that was more than 20 years ago.

 I mean, 20 years ago.

 Yeah, we have a picture. Sure.

 We could share that. To come up with some pictures. Yeah. And you said most, most, most

 of Paris, yeah. Most of Paris Hayes. Um, so Josh and Melissa kind of introduced us. And then it was a couple of years, a couple of rounds later, but yeah. So the, the ramp to a thousand CCs, because Mike from at, at Embry wanted to race, go race thousands. And I had been on six hundreds as a novice and then kind of transitioned. He had thousands and that's what he wanted to race. Yeah. So we were going to go race AMA the next year on thousands. And it was a steep learning curve. It was like, I went from six hundreds to thousands. I loved it. It was fun. Like you're talking about here. This would have been 0405. Okay.

 Like you're so, oh five control or just starting to get involved probably with some of the bike.

 It was, yeah, it was super like there was that one year at Barbara Motorsports Park, I think it was 06.



 Everybody could tell what was going on, but the AMA didn't know how to find it. Like you could hear Milad and speeds all you could hear them actually, you know, Yosh ramping up with the traction control. You could hear it. Yeah. But it wasn't like a lot of other other teams didn't have it. We certainly didn't have it. I learned how to, you know, traction, your traction control was right here and your slipper clutch was right here. And that was kind of

 how I learned to Indianapolis for their inaugural GP, whatever. I think that was either like 2007 or eight. But I remember seeing Nikki Hayden going around a corner and him just grabbing everything it had. And you see the back start to slide and you hear pop. You go, what pop what? Yeah.

 As they're going around. They leaned on like electronics then and the electronics were really rudimentary. So they were, they just, the bike sounded broken all the time. Yeah. Especially, especially a GP bike. And I think, you know, what y'all were hearing was just the ignition interrupting. They were. Corners and it was crazy.

 And so like, oh, seven, we, I had traction control on the MV and we actually ended up, I ended up turning it off most of the time. And then I, whenever I race for



 Honda Corona Honda, we had some HRC stuff that worked so poorly. It was, it was really bad. Like I ended up turning it off most of the time too, because it just, there was some issues.



 I went and did a couple super world, super bike rounds for a Honda team filled in for them. And it was the same. They had some HRC electronics and it was the same thing. It was so, but like water got into it. One of the Donington and the bike was so dangerous to ride. Like you'd be going down the front straight away and I'd be wide open. And one minute it would be ripping. The next minute it would just fall flat on its nose. And then it was just like this constant huck a buck. Yeah. I ended up just pulling out of the, one of the qualifying sessions. Cause it was so bad

 back then. You'd really didn't have the lean angle sensitive stuff. You just had it where if the rear wheel went faster than the front, it knew you were sliding. So it'd cut the ignition. So that's what the popular hearing.

 I think, yeah. And they, I mean, yeah, to my knowledge, there's probably other people that are, have way more Intel cause they worked at these teams, but it was like for the AMA super bike stuff, it seemed like Yosh was way ahead of everybody. I mean, you could hear it. You could see it. You could, they, they probably had some stuff. I mean, I rode with a kit.

 We're actually using it to race and you don't see that a lot in earlier days of trash control. Or if they did have any levels, they'd turn it down to level one and just use it very minimally.

 Yeah. Crazy as now it's like stock on customer. Yeah. Off the showroom floor.

 All kinds of crazy. I go out here and look at it and I'm like, dude, it's like an Xbox controller up on the thing.

 So, and I think Yoshimura back then was, was looking at, uh, like spikes in RPM, you couldn't have wheel speed since it was on back then. Cause the trash control wasn't legal. They were looking at just like the new dirt bikes do because they're,

 yeah, they had to have been working off crank, crankshaft counters counter countershaft speed. I don't know something. They had some stuff going on. That was working. I rode with a kit box that I had gotten second hand, um, for a super stock bike. And the guy that gave it to me was like, look, it's going to feel weird, but just go in there and start and like grab more throttle than your normal pickup points. And it you'll go faster. Like if you ride it a little more, like against what your mind is telling you, like a little more sloppy, you're going to, it's going to go faster and it, it for sure works. Like you could go in and pick up the throttle earlier than I would with my stock ECU. And it would, it would drive a little bit, but it wouldn't like, you didn't have to worry about just totally flicking yourself off.

 So we talked about whenever my dad was on the podcast, um, we'd go all the way back. My grandfather was raising and lowering float level, depending on where he was on the track. And like progressively we get the, the motorcycles get better and better. And the rider has to do less and less. And so you're depending on the electronics and that in that situation to not just slide everywhere.

 Yeah. I was called the ghost in the machine. That's what it feels like. You're just depending upon that little ghost in the machine to keep you safe.

 What's interesting, you know, we talk about our daughter, you mentioned our daughter earlier, like she's growing up in this completely different age and era of learning to ride. She, she started on an electric, um, while Stasek actually. And so now the, the equipment that comes off the showroom floor for riders of this generation, it's so crazy. It's completely different than different feel, different everything. Um, it's interesting to just think through that and what the future industry is going to look like.

 I looked at, um, the video that was a 44 teeth, I believe it was that was doing a review on the SXE five whenever it first launched. And the kid that was riding it had an SX 50 and rode both of them back to back. And you know, their, their lap times were fairly comparable. I don't remember which one won, but it wasn't a major advantage. Um, but he said he preferred riding the electric because he didn't have to worry about where he was in the RPM range. Yeah. Uh, the power, there was no meat of the power. It's just dependent on where your throttle position is on the hand.



 Um, so that's really interesting. Like it's a totally different mindset going into it. Cause you know, whenever I was on 85, when I got my first, um, 85, it was, uh, they call me bog zap shift because every time that I was,



 every time that actually get into the meat of the power on the pipe, I'd shift because I was scared of it. Yeah, for sure.



 Um, but, uh, anyway, so you were racing for a long time. So as you get out of racing into the professional world, where did you go?



 Where did I go, man? That's, that's like one of those things where you're transitioning from something that I, you know, I loved racing. It was like, that was a dream as a kid. That's what I wanted to do was race motorcycles. And I got paid a little bit enough to pay my bills at the time, but you know, I got to experience that probably while everybody else was going to college and being, you know, getting their degrees, I was racing and having fun and traveling. So I got to see a lot of the country. I wouldn't trade any of that because it was great experience. But then Terry and I met no eight. And then, um, I proposed to her in 2009. Uh, and then we got married in 2010. So, uh, 2009, so like the global housing Christ, like the financial crisis or whatever happened in 08, it was percolating what? Oh, seven, oh eight. And then 09, it really, that's whenever the slack came out of the rope for racing. So I went and bought whoever was paying the best contingency, which happened to be Kawasaki. I bought three motorcycles and then went around and, um, chased contingency money. And she was my crew chief. That's how I should have introduced you as my crew chief.



 Um, so in 2009, I had racing and life. Yeah. In racing and life for sure. So I just went and chased contingency money. Um, and, and then it was like, after that was done, cause Kawasaki, you know, pulled all their contingency back from the following year to 2010. It was like, all right, I got to get a real job. So I kind of went and worked with my dad a little bit at his metal fabrication shop. Um, did that. And then you got a real job. And then I, yeah, I got a real job doing that. He, I've always kind of been in and out of there, like as it's, as it's needed. Um, I also, between races when you need the money. Yeah. And then, yeah, for sure between races. And then I did some suspension work with the guy at the time who was doing my suspension, um, thermos man. Like I would just help rebuild some forks here and there to, to make money. But then it was like, okay, it's time to like have a real job. Um, I ended up starting out as an independent sales rep.



 Um, I was carrying Troy Lee designs, Liet, uh, a sonic bicycle products, uh, CD boots. I had like a, a small line cause the independent rep for those he had vacated. So, uh, that's kind of what got me into it. I would, I'd kind of jokingly say I did what everybody does after they get done racing, like they go into sales or something. Cause that's, you know, a lot of us, a lot of racers do go into sales.

 Get out of the industry. Once you've made all these contacts as you do when you're racing, you're, you're networking because you're looking for sponsors constantly. And you're, uh, you know, eventually whenever you, it's time to stop racing, you've got to go somewhere. So you again, hit up these contacts you've made as you go on, gone on throughout everything.

 So, so I did that. And then for like kind of, uh, the guy who was the Tucker Rocky distribution rep in the area, uh, shortly after I'd started that, yeah, like he got to know me cause I was in the shops and stuff. And so Larry Klein was his name and, um, I ended up, he recommended me for his territory. So I worked for Tucker Rocky for about three years and then just kind of rolled into some other, I worked for altimotors, um, electric dirt bikes. Yep. Yep. I was working for altimotors. So I worked for Stacey around your legs. Yeah. Yeah. That was from my Yamaha, not from an Alta, but, um, yeah. So just kinda have been in the industry, you know, as Terry can say, she's.

 Yeah. While you were still road racing simultaneously, I was getting ready to get out of the Marine Corps. Actually I was in the Marine Corps for over nine years as an aircraft engine mechanic. And during that time though, I got introduced to kind of power sports motorcycle world on a recreational level. I grew up on a farm and ranch and we always had ATV UTV. So we could go fix fence. Um, and there was little dirt bikes around, but they never ran. Um, but I had some buddies when I was in the Marine Corps that, uh, would go out to the desert and what have you. And my buddy Ryan Stromboli, we have, was his nickname, but he said, if you can start it, you can ride it. And I'm like, well, what kind of challenge is that? Um, so I started this big old Yamaha 426 and then proceeded to ride it around the Pee Wee track. Those weren't easy to start.

 No, it's terrible.

 But I did it. That's why he said that. Cause they didn't think you could start it.

 I started. So anyways, it was, um, it kind of all started from there. Uh, same as Matt, actually, I did some, uh, motocross racing out there in Southern California when I was stationed out there and then randomly ended up doing a track day at California Speedway. And I actually also like you felt more comfortable out there and a couple of the instructors were like, Hey, you're pretty good at this. And I, I just enjoyed that, that piece of it. And so my first road race ever actually was at Robling road here in Georgia. I met some people and they invited me out and put me on a bike. And so that was 2002, uh, started road racing out in Southern California and, and mostly West coast stuff. And I always say I, I accidentally crashed my way into the motorcycle industry because I had a pretty big rack at Willow Springs. And, um, unfortunately for the plan that I had to stay in the Marine Corps for 20 years, I ended up having to get out. Um, but was working with parts unlimited icon at the time to help develop the mil spec best, which is it's the vest that you wear to get on military basis. So I had some contacts there basically said to them, uh, I have to get out the Marine Corps due to my injuries. Is there anything that you guys, any contacts for me or any job opening? So I was able to step into the apparel space, um, early on. And gosh, was doing that for a large majority of my career. So when Matt and I met in 2008, I was working for a helmet company at the time.



 So, um, I kind of made my way back into apparel with my most recent move to Trulley designs after being at KTM North America. And as what?

 You're at KTM North America as,

 oh yeah, I was the national sales manager there for two years.

 Want to brag on herself.

 No, I was going to say no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, just

 national sales manager, you know, in charge of KTM who's foreign to gas gas. Yeah.

 Yeah.

 Anything else? Were you in charge of bicycles at that time too?

 You know, only at the very beginning. Um, and then we ended up staffing up the entire bicycle side of that division. Um, but actually during my time at KTM group, I started in, uh, gas gas and Husqvarna and I was your district sales manager at the time.

 Yeah.

 And did that role for two years and thoroughly enjoyed working with you guys. So you are also some of our favorite people. Um, but when we were given the opportunity or always given the opportunity to step in the national sales manager role, that's when we picked up the family and moved to California. So we had that adventure for two years and now we're back in Georgia. It was actually, we're right on the year mark of being back in Georgia. So a little over a year for me at Trulley designs and KTM, um, fear and no mobility was accommodating so that Matt could do a remote position in, in his, um, customer service role. So it's been great. Um, being back in the Southeast, there's so much stuff happening in the Southeast in terms of, uh, dual sport riding, um, just riding groups in general and seeing people out on the road. And it's been fun.

 I think ultimately like going out and doing those big things in California, it's really nice. It's really luxurious, but ultimately home is home. Agreed. And like, uh, I know that, uh, you want to be back in blue Ridge. Um, but, uh, yeah, I'm glad. So then you ended up with Troy Lee allowed you to, uh, come back and, you know, be back home. Did you, did you move into the same house? It wasn't that convenient, was it?



 But we sure wish we could have. The interest rate was way better.

 Yeah, it was. That's for sure.

 When, and you guys, I mean, we had talked about you guys renting that house while you were in California and, and you know, that you were in prior to moving out there, but,

 uh, but you don't make the move across the country when you're in a role with a short term mindset. And Matt said it to me, you know, we debated, are we going to move to California? Cause we had such a nice network of friends and family close here in the Southeast. And Matt said, I'm not going to be the one that holds you back for your, your goal and this opportunity. And I was really excited and, and proud of the work that I had done. And obviously KTM, um, great organization, really performance mindset, bracing organization. It was a great opportunity for us. Um, but at the end of the day, like you said, home is home. And so we made our way back. And, um, when I started with Troy Lee designs, actually there were private equity owned. So one of the big advantages to me being on the East coast and the way it would, the organization was structured at the time, there was, um, West coast sales director, East coast sales director, uh, in June of last year, the West coast sales director resigned. He had some health concerns and wanted to take a little less stressful role, which I can completely understand. So I inherited at that point in time, all of North America for, um, the sales side of things on Troy Lee designs. Then, um, last year I would have said, unfortunately, but now it will say fortunately we were going through a change in ownership. So the private equity company out of Leon France no longer wanted to, um,



 build out the development of Troy Lee designs. So they basically walked away from us and we had 48 hours to find a buyer for the company. And Troy himself, uh, did a lot of legwork and, and he said, I don't want to see my, my brand go through this again. Um, so he purchased it back. So now Troy's a hundred percent owner and, um, it's really fun. It's a lot of work. We've completely changed the way the business is, um, going to conduct itself in the market moving forward. Um, but the reality is, is getting back to the roots, getting back to the community, getting back to supporting brick and mortar, because a lot of what I would say got broken during the COVID era was just that customer relationship and being in the community. And you know, we have all this ability to be connected through social media and text messages and podcasts and all of that stuff, but are we really part of a community if we don't get together and break bread and ride motorcycles and, um, tell stories. So that's the part that is a core value of Troy Lee designs. And that really resonates with me because on a smaller scale, that's really what we want to do in the Southeast in our local community is just get more people riding, whether it's, um, you know, it doesn't matter to me if they're on a bicycle or if they're on a motorcycle or I don't even discriminate if they're in a side by side, it's just coming together and, and being outside and, and being in this industry is, is so rejuvenating for me. And it's, um, what brought our family together too.

 I think we're seeing a bit of a resurgence of brick and mortar, um, in the motorcycle industry. I mean, obviously I feel like the online sales are necessary, like having a website, all of that in the beginning, it wasn't, I used to, if there was a brand that was competing with me online, I wasn't going to sell that brand. Like if you want to buy that brand, go buy that brand online. Um, because it really does take some research on our part, some, um, you know, some investment in the inventory, some research into like some training on our side. So in some support, whenever there's a customer who bought a helmet from us and Hey, the cheek pad fell out or whatever. Um, so it wasn't worth my time to deal with somebody who was, you know, going to take my helmet and put it in a Walmart. Um, so I think that we've seen a little bit more of that return. Obviously just about every brand out there now has an online website. Like at a certain point, I'm not going to win every customer, but it's another element to be able to come into the dealership, try it on, um, and just make sure it fits, make sure it works for you because you know, I have brands of helmets, like because of your head shape, I can't fit you in that helmet.

 Right.

 Um, so it's good to have that awareness as a dealership.

 Yeah.

 And that's like one of those, I feel like, uh,



 what do they call that? Like a self fulfilling prophecy or something. If you don't stock it because you're competing against it, but the customers want it in a way, it's kind of like they're coming in looking for it, but maybe you don't have it because they're selling it online.

 You better have an alternative. That's you know, going to match quality and all that.

 Because I like, I think of my own purchase habits and it's like, if I want something, I'm going to go to the brick and mortar first because it's, and I mean, I'm, I'm not like everybody out there. I recognize that, but I will go to the brick and mortar and support that. Like we both prefer to support the brick and mortar more, more or less. But if they don't have it, then it's like, I'm forced to go here to go get it.

 You know, I went to Home Depot just a couple of weeks ago to grab some, uh, grab these little caster wheels. I can get them online for 15 bucks. I paid 30 because I wanted them to day.

 That's well, that's the thing. It's a little bit of that instant gratification. I'm working on this project right now. I don't want to wait. Yeah.

 Speaking of projects, obviously you two are super motivated.



 And here you kind of mentioned kind of getting back to the roots and maybe the grassroots things.



 And so y'all've got a little project that you started, um, cheerio log adventures. So what's, what's up with that?

 Well, it's really just leaning into, um, supporting a community that's supporting, supporting us, I guess. Um, so the BDR back country discovery routes is creating these phenomenal routes all over the country. And right as we moved home, there was the talk of the BDRX, the Chattahoochee BDRX. It literally is two miles from our doorstep. And so first of all, from a selfish perspective, I'm like, wow, so exciting to be able to be here and kind of ride on it whenever we want. But then putting myself in a rider's shoes, that's maybe not from here. So I've ridden a lot in other areas of the country and it's like you get a flat tire or you run out of gas or you make a bad corner and end up in the ditch. Like who do you call? And so we've created something where we're accessible. We're right there. So if somebody needs, you know, to be picked up on the trail and needs a tube delivered, maybe they even need a bike. So we're, we're, it just started super infancy, but we really want to be a resource for those riders because I think the farthest point of the Chattahoochee BDRX is maybe three hours from us. So we just want to offer our support of that community and see it grow. And also for our local economy, it's nice because the backcountry discovery routes does a lot to highlight local small businesses, local restaurants, just kind of gems within the community. And we live there because we love it and we want more people to know about it.

 So I just saw on Facebook where somebody was looking, they were, I think, from Florida and they were looking for somewhere to park, you know, asking on Facebook where to park safely. And you jumped on there and you're like, call me. And I don't know if he did or not, but it was a big truck.

 It was like a, it was basically a tractor trailer.

 He was, it was a bunch of his friends. Yeah.

 We did get them squared away. Okay. I'll bear a gap. He ended up working there.

 So, which Kate and help me out. I'm drawing to blank Andrew. Thank you.



 They were, they were bicycle centric for years. Really cool. Not really a bed and breakfast, but cabins, but they did serve breakfast and lunch. I think I had a, had a bicycle shop and now they're kind of breakfast.

 That's nice.

 Yeah. Well, they've got like a, like a barn for like a better term, right? That's kind of a common area. And that's where they, where they serve mills. And



 they were what the D and G and G and G and G is through there. They do a bunch with that, but now they're transitioning. Obviously the bicycle stuff is staying, but they're transitioning into the BDR and the, the, you're riding on the motorcycles and, which is really cool. And that's, I mean, how that's, that can't be too far from,

 I think you guys, yeah, I think Kate three minutes door to door. I spent a lot of time over there. I think they

 would see some of the motorcycles come over there and they had some questions and it's like, I, I actually worked over there for a little bit in between, in between, uh, in between jobs. Like whenever we first moved up there, I was helping those guys out and I would ride my motorcycle over there. And I think Kate kind of started asking me a little bit about stuff. And I was like, yeah, that we basically ride. There's so much riding in North Georgia and Tennessee, and you can get to a lot of things from around here. And it's similar to gravel. It's similar to their bike packing stuff they were doing only you're covering more ground. So they're actually, you know,



 getting interested in motorcycles and shopping for motorcycles and shopping for gear and collecting stuff and trying to, you know, get on the motorcycle wagon. So yeah, serve that community. So it's, uh, it's pretty exciting.

 I think that's a general theme. Uh, when I look, you know, there's an awful lot of talk about what happened during COVID and how do we recover from COVID, et cetera, et cetera. But I really like the thought process of looking forward. And so Kate and Andrew have done that a lot. So Mulberry Gap is a really nice microcosm of maybe what the greater industry, two wheel industry could do is adapt and move forward because they somewhat inherited that business from their parents and it really was bicycle focused at the beginning. Then they got into ultra running and now they see this opportunity with, um, with the BDR being there and, and off-road motorcycles. And so moving forward, it's like, how do we keep people engaged in the outdoor? How do we keep our riding areas and hiking areas and biking areas so that they're accessible to everyone and we can co-habitate and they're taken care of. And, you know, we follow a couple of, um, different social media platforms, but one specifically is what's going on out in Moab, where the government's trying to shut down some of these places that are so iconic.



 Colorado Trail Alliance is another one. I have the opportunity in September to go speak at the Colorado 600 and that's keeping their trails so we can ride. And so it's really important, I think, not only as leaders in the industry, but also just customers and riders. We need to help fight for that so that we can have this as our businesses moving forward.

 For sure. I think it was interesting. We went to the BDR launch for the Southeast BDR, which was super cool. I've never done anything like that. So it was cool just to see, you know, other people in the industry. I mean, I kind of like to just stay up on my mountain in my shop and just, you know, jump on the motorcycle and go ride. So it was cool to kind of mingle. And we saw Paul Wright from KTM world down there and just, you know, other people and so it was a, but one of the lines that they said that kind of like rung true with me was their mission is to open these BDRs and continue to support these businesses and continue to support the stuff because the more people that we have riding on these forest service roads and going out and riding these trails, the more users there are, then they're going to keep those trails open. There's not a, you know, if we see more, more user, more use of them, then there's the chance of them closing them down becomes a smaller, I don't want to say smaller, but it does become like we're seeing more, more useful impact of people actually the money, the money following all of it and everything.

 So there's like, if you have more people on it, there's more chance for someone to go out there and be stupid. Right.

 That's true.

 And as long as we, you know, make it worth the while talking about the BDR, if it can worth the while of the communities around, they'll recognize that that's just one idiot.

 Yeah, for sure. I mean, yeah, that can be said.

 I mean, look at Bill's gap, right? I mean, that look at what it's kind of, not kind of turned into what it absolutely has no reason to go out there. I mean, I, I think the critical part to keeping these areas open is all the different groups cohabitating nicely and playing nicely together, whether it be the runners or the, or the guys on the gravel bikes, the guys on the motorcycles, the, the folks on horses. Um, when you, it's kind of goes back to the, uh, the ski resorts when snowboards first came up, right? And all the skiers hated snowboarders. And like it took years and years and years to get past that or somebody surfing in somebody's, you know, on somebody's beach or whatever. And like, we've all got to get along. Uh, and that's where all these advocacy advocacy groups are important. You know, locally, we've got sort of a, um, we've got wild trails on the, on the running side. I don't know. Maybe I should, but I'm sure there's a equestrian, uh, around here.

 And when, um, it's interesting you say that because like, I would say like yourself, Terry, Jeff, I'm not sure like your extracurriculars. Um, but like we all spent, like you spend time riding bicycles, you ride bicycles, you run,



 you hike, you ride bicycles, you ride motorcycles. I ride bicycles. I ride motorcycles.



 And so there's a lot of commonality between the user groups, but sometimes it can get met with some resistance, you know, and it's like, to your point, we should all kind of work together. Cause at the end of the day, the people riding horses are out there for the same reasons that I'm out there on my motorcycle. It's to enjoy being out like, yeah, I'm, you know, I don't want anything to do with horses.

 No, they got them out of their own.

 Exactly. I'd rather be on my motorcycle. But I'm, you know, I think it comes to, to your point, like the respect side of things, like on motorcycles, you know, we do know some people that don't like bicycles. They'll see gravel bikes out there, you know, they'll see these types of users and it, you know, it's just being respectful of those people. Slow down a little bit. Don't roost them. Same thing with horses. Like I just, I always turn my motorcycle off whenever I see horses, wait for them to say, Hey, it's all good. You know, it's just, comes down to just like kind of putting yourself in that person's position, I think, and treating them like if you were on a bicycle or you were hiking or you were on a horse,

 how would, like a metaphor for life though.

 It is, but I mean, to Jeff's point, there, you know, there's like people that are always just kind of those people that don't, those are the bad apples that could ruin it for everybody.

 There's always going to be the bicycle rider who hates the motorcyclist passing by him or the motorcyclist that hates that bicyclist is in their way.



 And it also, the bicyclists have a point where they're saying like the, the guys on the motorcycles are running up the trails and things like that. It gets, we have to realize that trail maintenance is everybody's responsibility. Yeah. It's not something that you can just go out there and tear up and just leave for the next person. I think we've all written in a trail. That's just like completely rutted up. The rain ruts have started to come in and it gets to a point where it's even unrideable on a motorcycle.



 And so I get it when a bicyclist gets upset, if they've seen that kind of situation. Yeah. But as long as we keep in mind that this is everybody's responsibility, then, you know, can move forward and get along.

 But from the, sorry, from the motorcyclist point of view, you know, and I get it because I'm both the, the, the guy that doesn't ride bicycles doesn't pedal. Feels like, you know, the guy on the bicycle has got all these areas that are bicycle only. Why doesn't he, like, why do I have to fight this? Right? Why, why doesn't he go there and ride so I can ride my motorcycle here and not have this, this conflict?

 Edward's point, Edward's point was a place that was built by motorcyclists. Right. Like, you know, we talked about Hunter. Hunter went out there and he helped cut some of the trails. We have Whitmire's up there that own part of the land. And now they're not able to ride on the trails that they built because bicyclists came in, they enjoyed riding out there. They had user conflicts. They had user conflicts. And, you know, ultimately, government recognizes the bicyclists weren't the ones that were doing the harm.



 And that's, again, if you want to maintain your right to be on a trail, you got to take some responsibility in maintaining it as well.

 And that's why I say that it's critical for everybody, like to get along and work together and figure out how to meet the common gold and understand that you, you know, you can't go ride everywhere on everything or go, you know, necessarily, you know, you can't go hike on a downhill,



 you know, one of the dedicated downhills at Walnut Ridge, you're here locally, right? It's one, it's a, there's bicycles coming off the mountain. You better be fast. 30 mile an hour at head height because they're that far in the air. So yeah, I mean, it's just respecting each other. And just like, here, you said anything in life, right?

 Yeah, but I think that's where it comes full circle and bringing it back to brick and mortar dealers. You guys sell both. You guys talk about both. You recreate both. This is a now an opportunity to speak to your customers of, hey, we're going to, we're going to bring the group together and work on this trail, you know, on this date, be there if you can. And so I think as stewards of all the aspects of recreating on two wheels, that's somewhat of our, our responsibility to be the thought leaders of how we're going to do that. And, you know, the motorcycle industry council does a really good job fighting for us in DC. And I think they do work for us that we don't even know they're doing, but if they weren't doing it, we'd certainly understand that people for bikes does a lot for the same thing. Cycling industry, again, if they weren't doing it, we'd notice, but they're taking care of things that just make us happy and we're just plugging along. And so sharing that information back with our, with our consumers is super important. And I think at the end of the day, that's for cherry log adventures, that's kind of what I want to do on a smaller scale is just open the eyes of the opportunity and have some shared experiences and get more kids riding motorcycles and bicycles, make it more accessible to women. I feel like little by little we're growing that the female ridership in, in both motorcycles and bicycles, bicycles has happened faster. Motorcycles is a little bit slower, but to me, it's like, man, I just want more girls to ride with. I can't always keep up with this guy unless he's in a incredibly patient mood.

 So



 well, it's kind of interesting now that you say, did you kind of put that on with the whole cherry log, a DV thing is like, cause you got, you've been doing that. Like whenever we went to Blue Ridge, you started the pedal pixies thing. And so it was like, they had, um, this, this was like right around COVID, like entering into COVID and so we had been involved with little Bellas, little Bellas down in Canton. And so then they started like an outdoor meetup of the pedal pixies. And that was like the stuff in, uh, Ella Jay and Blue Ridge and kind of the mountain bike trails there where you get all, you get little girls, you know, out with fairy wings on riding the trails, doing their thing.

 It was pretty cool.

 It was super cool

 and terrifying. Cause the first day 27 little girls showed up and I thought, Oh snap, how am I going to manage this? Fortunately, a lot of the moms were mountain bikers. So it was helpful. Again, though, the, the moms that have kids that ride, of course the kids are going to be involved in that, but there are a lot of kids out there that I think would be interested in it, but they just aren't accessible. Cause especially if it's like a single mom, she's not going to walk into a dealership and buy a motorcycle. I mean, she might. And if she does, she's rad and I want to meet her. But the reality is I think that barrier to entry is there. And so how can we make that more accessible? And there's a lot of foundations working on it. It's just, how do we amplify that and continue to do that in our individual communities? And it's a struggle.

 Yeah.



 And again, it, you know, we try to be welcoming. We, I like to think that we are, we're probably not perfect as good at it as I think we are sometimes. But I think there is a hesitation with maybe especially females, but not just females, just people in general to walk into a motorcycle store or a bicycle store. And they feel uneducated and they think everybody in there is a pro racer and like it, we're not like, I would like to think that I am, but I'm definitely not.



 But yeah, I mean, I think the, the, the positive aspect to the brick and mortar stuff and Jerry log adventures and everything that you guys are doing is the, the welcoming aspect of just introducing people, new people to it potentially. And, and it being a friendly environment from them to walk into instead of scary. That's what I think a lot of people.

 That is what we're doing here. Like we find ourselves in a unique position where we're a motorcycle dealership that has been selling bicycles. Well, now we're starting this bicycle shop over here. And that's the set that we're in right now. We're in an active construction zone, by the way,



 but yeah, we got the gas gas bicycles behind us just to kind of make a, a foreground, but our background and yeah, we're building out the bicycle shop because there's a lot of times where people just don't feel completely welcome walking into a motorcycle shop to buy a bicycle. You don't think about those being paired together, but honestly, we're finding more and more that they're a gateway drug to each other.

 Yeah.



 Yeah. 100%.

 And I think there's challenges too. Matt will probably could speak more to this than I could, but, uh, during my time at KTM, when we first started selling Husqvarna e-bikes was first,



 you know, when I think about motorcycle dealerships and you guys can chime in on this, it's like, what's the primary area of revenue generation? And, and during COVID there, a lot of dealers were adding stuff to create more revenue because the primary avenue for creation of revenue was like low on stock. So let's add some more stuff. Well, now we're out of that and we're in a completely different market than we've ever been. You have bicycles and you have motorcycles. How are you differentiating yourself from all of those out there? And so, um, you guys have the, the bicycle mavens within your store yourself and Carla, um, you have the, the motorcycle mavens over on that side. And I think that speaks to the individual customer. It's creating that customer experience that is welcoming. And, um, you, the idea of this premium brick and mortar and having a good buying experience, that's how you maintain those customers. And you guys for sure do that. You do events, you have this podcast. I mean, that's, that's creating this community that's sustainable. There was this thing I read a long time ago. It was like, what's the value of your customer? And over the course of a lifetime of a customer, that's, I mean, could be half a million dollars, especially if you have a motorcycle habit, like the Lynn family, right?



 Bicycle habit too.

 Yeah.

 Things with two wheels in general.



 So, I mean, at the end of the day, it's like the effort you put into it to create this community, to create the separate doors for the separate customer to, to make it accessible is so important to the future.



 So we've, uh, we, me and you have lined up against each other.

 Oh yeah.

 I was wondering if that was going to race with each other. Well, the three of us have raced with each other. So at very mountain, 24 hour race, um, one of you two, I'm not sure who put a team together. Um, when you, when Terry, you were with ATM Husky gas, gas and, uh, yeah, we all race together. You

 my toenail has never been the same.

 No. So, so Terry went out on your first step.

 Yeah.

 So six person, five or six person team. I don't remember.

 I can't remember. Somebody backed out. I think it was supposed to be six and it was five Matt, Matt, Tim, Terry.

 Yeah.

 Yeah.

 I'm going to be five. Yeah. So I don't know. Here you went out like third stat, right? Everybody else, like two of us already done a hour, hour and a half now, whatever. Um, and you found the, I think only muddy spot. Well, until Matt found all the muddy spots the next morning, but, um, you found the only muddy spot on the whole 10 mile course or whatever it was. Got your gloves, muddy drop the bike, got your gloves, muddy during the crash, went to pick the bike up handlebar slipped out of your hand, on my toe fell on your toe and you, you kind of, what kind of boots are you wearing?



 So finish the lap and came down for a boot sponsor,



 came down pit road and you're like, I don't think my toes, I think my toes messed up. And we're like, you know, none of us knew what was going on at the time. And you took your boot off. Somebody else went out and, and you took your boot off and it looked like somebody had stepped on a grape. It was, it was rough. You're, if I remember that your toenails were painted and you could see where it looked like the toner had grown out, but it was definitely out, but it wasn't because it had grown out. Like there was a paint line, it popped the end 16th of an inch. Yeah. It was, it was, did you do another stand after that?

 I can't remember if you went to go do another lap or if you, no, I did not know your toes.

 I think she provided nutrition for the rest of us. Yeah. You looked

 green whenever you came in though.



 Like you were like pretty sick to your stomach.

 And I think the motorcycle was not set up because you, you did some changes to the bike after that. Yeah, but you went back out.

 I don't know. I think you did. Cause I lowered the handlebars. Remember you said you were fighting it. I feel like you went back out and did one more ride.

 That was a demo motorcycle by the way. I had a race.

 Never the same.

 I raced it at the sandblast rally. So we had it set up for that. And then very shortly after then we went and did this and it was just the wrong setup. I don't think I went back out. You went out and

 I just know we had these risers on there. So whenever you're, and I was like, this is insane. Like the handlebars feel like they're up here and I'm trying to turn through the woods.

 I do. I do remember we

 pulled, we pulled the top triple clamp off, slammed it down. We had to fudge some bolts cause

 you've got all kinds of things like that. But you, um,



 it started raining. It probably,

 I still feel bad about that by the way. It was the



 last session. And I think I was supposed to take it. Like it was like, I was like, I pulled in or whatever to get some fuel or whatever. And I was like, I was just taking an extra lap or something. And I still feel bad about it. Matt's missing the riding.

 It was probably glad it was the devil motorcycle and not his.

 Yeah. Like three o'clock in the morning, it started raining, uh, on one of my stance and like three o'clock in the morning, I'm never awake at three o'clock in the morning and I'm never ever riding the motorcycle at three o'clock in the morning except once a year at period mountains. So it's always so weird, but there's that like area where it's like hard pack play. Yep. And it started raining and it was, I mean, it was slick and like the shadows at night are weird. And so anyway,



 fast forward four hours and sun's coming up. Yeah. It's raining even harder. There's motor. It looks like a bomb went off on every hillside. It looks like a bomb went off in the middle of showroom. There's motors. There's motorcycles on every,

 they're just laying like, just, oh no, everywhere.

 And Matt, you made a very heroic ride and kept me, I was fine that you didn't fit in because I think you did like three or four.

 Yeah, it was, it was pretty rough though. Cause it was that it was, it was to your point, it was raining so much that it was fine while it was raining. Cause it was like kind of washing the mud off or whatever, you know, it was keeping it okay. And then it started, I think about it started like, it stopped raining and it started tacking up. And then it just got, there was, I, whenever I got that bike back home, I took it complete blew it completely apart and had the wheels off. I was washing stuff and I was still finding like dirt in places. It was insane. That was the Fe 350, right? Yeah. That was the S model. It was a street model. It had a horn on it.

 So funny story about the horn. Did you use it?



 So we're, I don't, I don't know where we were. I think it was a sort of race. It may have been a jeans. I think it was a sorts race. It was. And I guess we're, I guess we were on the same row and



 that was after, I know that was after Perry mountain. We had already got re we sold that bike.

 Oh, this is a different, a different bike with blinkers horns. Yeah.

 I bought another one to go do the tour of Idaho with. So that's whenever I first got it, I was like, Oh, I'm going to go do the source. Yeah. But the stock suspension. Yeah.

 So you, uh, didn't get a good start. And it's this down like this, this just barely downhill, but on the right hand side of the trail, it's as smooth as this floor. Yeah. On the left hand side is like, it's a Jeep trail. Everybody was in. Well, and, and well, everybody's on the right hand side, except for this guy. Um, and I just remember there was two lines and one of them was, it wasn't aligned. That's why you were the only guy in it. It seemed like lines. So I'm in, you know, I'm up towards the, for anyway, you gotta, you gotta, I got a better start than you did. But then I hear horn coming from behind me on my left side and you're like full sin down this hill through this, these rain ruts on the left. It was somewhere where you shouldn't ever probably anyway. And I'm watching all, there's a, like a 90 left at the bottom of the hill, like stop the motorcycle, get off, pick the bike back of it up. It was that, that sharp. And I was like, I'm, I'm like seeing blinkers just like they're, they're hitting the tire and then they're hitting the seat and hit the tire and the horn's still wide open. And I realized it was you. And I was like, there is no way he's going to make this left hand. And somehow you got it wowed down and it stuck. Yeah. Uh, I remember that.

 And then, then I probably crashed three turns later.

 I think you did. Cause I passed you again, sure. There, I mean, you were, you were on stalks as pension, expecting a lot out of it.

 Dude. I remember coming over right there at the end, they had those rollers or something. And I remember coming over one of those rollers and I just, I saw Jesus, I saw Jesus like it. I jumped, I came out of it and I bottomed that thing out so hard. I was like, I'm, I'm, I'm dead. I'm dying.

 And I'll, I'll never forget first hearing the horn and thinking, who is that idiot? And then, and then I know that it comes by and blinkers, you know, touching themselves on each every time. Yeah.

 So we're a Matt coming by me, a Highland park on one of the altos. And you just hear all

 the chains. So

 that's when me and you first met was when you were repping for Alton, you brought it by the old shop.

 I did bring it by the old shop and you guys wrote it around.

 Yeah.

 We kind of, I don't even think Jeff wrote us. I wasn't here. You came by the nearby Griffith cycle too. And I wrote it there. Did you? Oh, you did write it. Yeah. Yeah. Um, man, he was playing us off each other.

 I just, you know, the funny thing was, is we were just trying to get, we were just looking for like deal. We were just looking for people that would ride it and believe in it, you know? And I mean, the product did really good. I think arguably in my mind, it was what has set up. It was the first competitive electric dirt bike. It was in my mind really good.

 I think it was just ahead of its time. It was. It's like anything. It's like, it's got to be the right time at the right price at the right.

 And it does it victim of COVID. Like as a victim, it ended before COVID, but it was, uh, it was a victim of Harley Davidson. It was kind of like, yeah, it was a victim of the

 board, you know, the board of investors, the boring advisors, whatever you want to call it, boring advisors, advise you to be boring. Yeah. They, uh, yeah, I, you know, it was just a victim of that. Just some and, and scalability, I think is really one of the things it was.



 I raced at some of the source races on it. I can never finish a race because it wouldn't, it didn't have enough gas in the tank, but the three laps that I would do would be the most fun laps that I would ever do. You know, um, they were super, it was a fun bike to race. And I actually raced, uh,



 with one of our local, one of the dealers that we had max motorsports. They did a lot of the seca there, the, what do they call it? Did they call that seca? Sica, Sica, Sica, like Southeastern cross country, something, but they do a two moto format. So you have like an hour or something and you have it.

 Yeah.

 So you had enough time to charge it in between. And, um, that was it. That was really cool. Like, I think if the new stuff with Stark and maybe they're faster charging, like maybe it would work out a little bit better.



 Um,



 that have y'all had a chance to like look and ride maybe like the who's far enough pioneer or, uh,

 I got to ride that at babes in the dirt.

 Yeah. Is it, what's it like? Is it a competitive, like a 500 or is it more like a two 50?

 Like it's interesting that you asked that. So number one, I out in the desert, it's such a different feel and the suspension was pretty soft. So I didn't really get too aggressive with it because of the big whoops that I was on out there. It felt pretty squishy. Um, it's also set up and I don't know all the tech specs. It's been a minute since I had to learn all the tech and speck of them for, of the different motorcycles, but it's a smaller chassis. So, um, comparatively speaking, the, you know, the weight distribution is a little bit lower. It was fun to ride. It felt super nimble. Um, like any electric, anything that worked right off the, the rip was pretty good. Um, I do love the fact that you can get a license plate on it now though. That's fantastic. So I think it's, I don't think it's fair to compare it to a 500. I think it's going to serve at different.

 I think it's a plus one. Like you have this bike in your garage and then you add that.

 Yeah.

 I mean, they're fun. Like I just like e-bikes, they're fun and they have a place and you know, ripping them on the trails is an awesome experience. You know, they're just, we went and like, uh, one of the Casselli ride days we did, it was a previous generation free ride and we rode the trails and helped clean the stuff up. And it was, they're so fun just to like ride stop. If you need to lay it over, you just lay it out. Like it, you know, it doesn't fit every bill, but I think it, it does a lot and there's a lot you can do with it, especially if you have a little bit of property or something and you just want to make some trails or you have some something behind your house that you, you know, it reminds me of being a kid again, like a kid, whenever you're like used to play in those weird areas in between neighborhoods where they have creeks and stuff. Like that's what's just new. That would be perfect for it. Something like that, where you're just like riding around.

 But I like, like you're talking about what didn't work for Alta. Obviously you're trying to get into a dealer and it's hard to get a lot of buy-in because you know, you're asking for someone to stock something that's more expensive than a typical dirt bike in the same category. And I think that KTM who's foreign to GASGAS, the Pure Mobility Group has gone about it the right way by starting with the kids and starting with like the, now we have the two, three and five pick your color.



 I've got a three for my son, the MCE3, and I've got to sit in my office right now. Like it's kind of cool. Like I got it here by thrown in the back of my wife's Ford Flex. Like it's, you don't have to worry about it being upright. You don't have to tell her to, you know, don't only grab the bike, but grab the spark plugs of gas and all this other stuff to go with it. So I think that that's the better angle to come at it from, from a manufacturer standpoint, because you're not charging $15,000 for a bike that's untested. You have the ability to kind of grow with the bike.

 Yeah. It's, I mean, and our daughter had an SXE5. Yeah. And that was, she went from a Stasic to an SXE5 to a 65. But with the 65, you know, we put a recluse clutch in it to help her out. And it, you know, that was a good transition. Like she, she, you know, it got her into motorcycles.

 Are they still running the Z-Start Pro on the recluse on the 65 or is it the?

 No, it's whatever the new, they haven't made the Z-Start for a while.

 I knew they hadn't, but they kept that Z-Start around for a long time on the 65 specifically, because there was a lot of people who that's a good transition point for a lot of people. Now it's going to be the transition point because you have the electrics up to that point.

 Yeah.

 And, you know,



 KTM at the meeting in 2022 said that they wanted to have a bike from the ages,



 you know, all the way up to 12.



 I couldn't think about the beginning age. I think they said four, but all the way up to 12 years old. So that has me at the back of my mind, expecting a 65 version of an electric.

 If they had an 85 version of it, I would already bought it. I mean, we would have weak because.

 And that freeride is so close because it's on 85 suspension. It's almost 85 size. A little bit

 lower. It's a little tall. It's a little tall right now, but like our daughter loved it, you know, she loved it. Didn't your point, if they would have had a 65 version, we probably would have just rolled her into a 65 electric than an 85 because from a standpoint of. No, like the noise, I think once she got on the two stroke, you know, it was the noise thing was a little different. The vibration was a little different.



 But I mean, she wrote that we wrote the S X in the desert. We did trails with it. We did all sorts of stuff in it. It were motocross track. It worked as a general thing, bike and ownership and the gateway into it. I could see any parent having that for their kid because it it's so easy to own. Yeah, it's just really easy to. Here you go. And the adjustable height that they did on the frames and everything. I mean, you can.

 I tell you, if I had tried to get my son on like a 50 junior like they used to have, he probably wouldn't have touched it. Yeah. This this kid skittish. So I actually had him out at we were riding last Thursday and up at Alan's place and he started going down a hill. Totally forgot he had breaks. I remember he had a throttle.



 So that was the first time I really had a freak out moment with him. Like he gets off the bike while he's under the bike. Sorry. And he his foot has turned backward. So I'm like, oh, he's broken his leg. So I get I get him up and I take the bike off him and I and I set him up right. And he's standing there with his foot backwards.



 And so I turn it around and I'm like, dude, you're fine. Like, what are you doing to me?



 If you're paying attention. But yeah, make sure your kids wearing the proper gear.



 But anyway,

 yeah, I mean, I think the electric stuff is going to be important in the future. But for now, the maintenance aspect of it is really nice, isn't it?

 That's the biggest thing. I mean, it doesn't fit every use case, you know, I mean, but the maintenance like the ease of ownership. And that was a big thing with the Altus too. And even, you know, the KTM's, the Huskies, any of the ones pick what color you want. That's electric. It's the ease of ownership. It's just there. The air filter. You don't have to do anything, but tighten the chain.

 And as a dealer, like I'm not super excited about it because it, you know, kills the service department. But yeah, I mean, these little bikes aren't our bread and butter anyway. But look in five years or 10 years down the road, they will be because that's the direction it's going. There will be a 65 and then 85.

 And then where do we see the use case for those? Like, I mean, are they for me looking at it like racing wise, right? Like, I guess that's the lens in which we look through a lot of things. So are they going to make a class for them or are they going to lower the laps? Are they going to, because I think right now, if you had an electric bike and a gas bike, like they're, they're competitive. The electric has the advantage in some areas, but then longevity wise, range wise, right? I mean, the gas is going to win. Well, gas can go out and do a 30 plus two moto, but you can't do a 32 plus moto.

 You can do that on the new five. And that was the point of making it water cooled was get the longevity out of the battery so that you could do that. And the charge time between moto's, depending on if you're doing it the same day or afterward, they're trying to get that down as well.



 I think that the machine advances to be able to compete rather than waiting for the class to change to a company.

 Well, didn't I mean, didn't they have some accommodations early on with some of them? Didn't they lower some laps and stuff like that?

 Yeah, for like the e-l or ease and the fives. Yeah.



 But there's been a little bit of drama with the AMA in regards to all that because they, they didn't want the gassers racing with the electric. They're afraid of a fire and all kinds of stuff like that is the worst argument. You know, I know. But yeah, there was some drama.

 But we're seeing it, you know, like at the hair scrambles, they're, you know, the, they're running the kids.



 They can't run it on like, ha, they can't run it in six,



 but they're running in three and four. And even there's, you know, moto dads are right there. They're putting these auxiliary battery packs in lock.



 They can run them like in five and six and get a full, full, a full race out of them. But but ingenuity. Yeah. With the kids at a source race, you know, that's a mall,



 a mile and a half lap.



 And there's parents everywhere. So if the battery dies, you know, there's somebody there to help them. So it's obviously you want to get to finish, you know, with the battery die, but if it does, it's not, it's not a big deal. Now, if the battery dies, you know, 10 miles from the truck, yeah, trail ride, that's kind of a, that's a problem.

 Well, that's a Perry mountain. That's who, that's who our fifth rider was, was taught on the altar. Yeah. Yeah. The flux capacitor. What was it? Five, four pistons in a flux capacitor.

 Was that her name?



 And you see a lot of things happening. Like, I know zero had like the interchangeable batteries. Yeah. And they ran a 24 hour.



 So you see a lot of that. And then on the, on the fives, you have a battery, you have four bolts to change out and it's not that difficult to change out. For sure.



 We need to wrap this up. We're getting over our time a little bit, but any last minute things to say,

 we'll just have to do it again and talk about all the stuff we didn't talk about.

 Yeah. We missed some, I don't know if we missed anything. We covered a lot of topics, but I can just, we could keep going on.

 Yeah. I think my closing remark is you guys do such a good job in the community and posting events and getting people on bikes. And I appreciate just who you are in the Southeast and glad to be closer to y'all.

 Thank you. We're glad you're, we're glad y'all are here. Yeah.

 Well, thank you everybody for listening. If you haven't already subscribed to the channel and YouTube, we got it on Spotify, Apple, Apple podcasts, but wherever you listen to it. Also, if you have anything to say, put it in the comment section below, give us your snide remarks, your questions, all of that. We want to hear it. Thank you guys. Thanks.