Ramblestream Podcast

What Is Habit, Really?

• Janus Motorcycles

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0:00 | 55:33

What if your habits are the truest version of you, what shows up when there’s no time to think? We dive straight into that idea and test it against real motorcycle moments: the instant a car cuts across your lane, the ritual of gearing up, the subtle ways practice turns intention into instinct. Along the way, Richard reads A.E. Stallings’ Pencil, a poem that flips certainty into revision, and we nerd out on fountain-pen ink as a metaphor for tools that shape behavior. It sounds small, but it opens a bigger door: you don’t become a careful rider by wishing. You become one by doing the careful things until they feel automatic.

We also bring the garage to the mic with featured builds, a Phoenix 250 with low bars and a Paragon logo throwback, a 10th Anniversary Halcyon 250 in super chrome with elegant hand-painted striping, and talk about why craft choices matter. Just like good cornering lines and smooth braking, design details are habits of attention. They tell a story about what we value and how we want to ride. We contrast habits with routines without getting lost in semantics, grounding the conversation in real cues, defaults, and the identity-based choices that quietly transform both rider and ride.

And yes, we address the elephant in the room: bad habits. Wanting to wake early or maintain your bike on schedule won’t change anything by itself. But changing the environment, choosing a simpler first step, and repeating it until the body learns can. That’s true for throttle discipline, pre-ride checks, and even the order you gear up. When it matters, you won’t rise to your goals, you’ll fall to your habits. 

Stick around for community shout-outs, live Q&A, and announcements: a Ramblestream special at the Rye'd or Die show on February 14, winter motocamp plans, and production goals as we scale. 

If this resonated, tap follow, share with a rider who gets it, and leave a review so more folks can find the show. What habit defines you on the bike right now?

SPEAKER_00:

Hello everyone, welcome to the Ramble Stream Podcast.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm Richard. And I'm Jansen. Each week we sit down for rambling conversations about motorcycles, the experience of riding, design, and whatever else catches our fancy. Bring a beverage of your choice or stories, and we'll see where this takes us.

SPEAKER_00:

If you're interested in thoughtful conversations, friendly and informative banter with fellow riders, and the latest dispatches from Janus Motorcycles headquarters, you're in the right place. Let's get started.

SPEAKER_01:

My name is Jansen. I'm also coming to you live from Goshen at the Ramble Stream Studio. What a beautiful place to be.

SPEAKER_00:

I didn't actually say what I was sipping on either. Go ahead. You go. I don't remember what it was. Wolfort. Wolfert Reserve 23 starter. They have a whole line with different um automotive and motorcycle themes. I think one's called clutch. And uh maybe uh uh starter fuel. Is that what this is? Different things. Magneto. No, I don't I can't remember the rest of them, but they're uh check them out. Uh they're cool. Uh and that's what we're sipping on. And Mr. John Wolford has a housing on 450. He does, and it's beautiful.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. It's got a nice copper pinch. It's good. But we're glad you're here. This is episode 114. We are going to be talking about um what really is a habit? What's a habit? And we're gonna try really hard to stay within that question. We're gonna figure out what it is, and then we're not gonna talk about anything else.

SPEAKER_00:

Anything else? Nothing else. Because we're gonna save more conversations about this for the next two ramble streams. Yes. So this is we're we're gonna we're trying, instead of to just like ramble about everything in one episode and make it kind of nonsensical, focus it a little bit more. Right. And like we were saying before the ramble stream started on the pre-ramble, by the way. Jansen, a little plug.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, if you guys want to join the pre-ramble, you can do so by hitting the join button down below. It's$6.99 a month. You get uh pre-ramble, which is 30 minutes of us uh setting up the stream and having conversation beforehand. Uh you get a week early access to the videos that are coming out, and you get members only shorts.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you very much. Um, but like we were saying on the pre-ramble. Let's just download it. Go on, let's just keep it hold it together. Yeah, yeah. Um, we were talking about what we were asking ourselves, what is the goal of the ramble? And the goal of the ramble, Jansen, is to answer two questions. Two questions.

SPEAKER_01:

What is it? Yeah. And how does it fit? Yeah. And when we say fit, meaning like how does it fit into rambling? Right.

SPEAKER_00:

So that will be our goal as we talk about habits this evening. Um where do we go from here?

SPEAKER_01:

Uh, I think we should just get into some comments here. Um uh I know that we posted the link super, super early.

SPEAKER_00:

Staying on topic instead of derailing. Well, we can't guarantee derail. Yeah, no guarantees here. We're gonna really try our darndest. Go back to the bottom real quick on the comments. Uh Gary had something about the video being out of sync. Oh, had to restart my phone video and audio is okay now. Okay. Okay, I think we're good. Okay. Okay. Back to the top.

SPEAKER_01:

Video is choppy. Guys, I don't know what's going on. Video is jumping now. Let me uh let me try something. If you want to just kind of go through those comments, Richard, while I try to do that. We'll go through the bottom ones.

SPEAKER_00:

Um we got okay. Speed ra thanks for this tip, speed racer. I'm not able to go through all these, but let me hear it. Let go I'll go to the top here. If I can make Jansen's mouse work with my left hand. I'm using my left hand. Like Iniga Montoya. Um or Wesley, sorry. Um Straw Dog, first. Greetings. Halcyon 250 number 769 in Wisconsin, sipping on coffee. Kelly is second again. John Gover says House on 450 number 119 in North Carolina with some snow remaining. Okay, so y'all are coming out of the snow. Speed Racer 95, Maryland, Hartford County, House on 250 number 1209, at least several times a week. I go in the garage and look at Jeannie. Why you ask? Because she's beautiful and magical. Well, one of the questions I I asked is um kind of leading up to the stream, is tell us in the comments also a little bit about some of the habits that you all have. Whether they're unique or if they're just something that um you find yourself doing or intentionally doing, oh um, repeating.

SPEAKER_01:

Tell us about the your habits. I think the camera was overheating. Overheating? I left the the back screen closed.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, yeah. Okay. It's always something. Okay, let's keep let's keep going with the comments. Gosh dang it. We're good. We're good.

SPEAKER_01:

All right. So where'd you where'd you leave off, Richard? Right there. Right at uh Speed Racer?

SPEAKER_00:

Yep. Did you read Speed Racers or did you? Yeah, I did. Okay. Uh my habit is modifying. This is Johnny Gover. My habit is modifying motorcycles. In fact, I was reading the canned diagnostic data on Friday from my H450 to use to build a logger for the engine performance just before the winter storm hit. He is definitely into uh modding. That's great. That's pretty cool. Very nice, John. Uh Arlsberg's on. I'm not sure why we have an episode on the clothing of religious orders, but I'm sure the guys will make it interesting. Well, we will we will we'll try. We'll get there. We'll do our darndest. Not being of the cloth myself, I'm in possession of new habits. Well, that's not the habits are not only restricted to our clothing.

SPEAKER_01:

Many, many, many work, many versions of this work here.

SPEAKER_00:

Habits that we practice are not restricted from clothing. Can be part of our clothing.

SPEAKER_01:

Eric Green. Eric without law in Vancouver, Washington, drinking water. Exciting news on the We Funder. Good stuff.

SPEAKER_00:

Keeps progressing.

SPEAKER_01:

Listen to you, Richard.

SPEAKER_00:

I'll allow you though. MC Rider. Halcyon 450 number 331, H250 number 569 from the frigid wasteland that is Michigan. Thankful I got my January rides in. January rides. Golly. Oh, yeah, yeah. We're gonna be going riding this weekend. We are still be January.

SPEAKER_01:

We are. That's fair. That's fair. That feels like different riding, though. This is a new name or a name that's unfamiliar to me.

SPEAKER_00:

H. Monik. Monick, yeah. He's in. He's a fellow Richmonder like myself. Uh Halcyon 450, number 318. Melo drinking an athletic, non-alcoholic, hazy IPA in Richmond, Virginia, hunkered down in the ice storm. Aren't we all? And when ice storms hit Richmond, things kind of come to a grinding halt. I would imagine. For a slippery slippery halt.

SPEAKER_01:

There's news on the Wii Funder? There is. Some news. There's always news. We'll get to that later in the show. You've got to stay tuned though. We've got Michael Webster. Hello from Michigan. How you doing, Michael? We've got Charles Olaf from oh gosh, Montana. LOO, Maryland, Eastern Shore. I rambled with Griffin 450 number four. Halcyon 250 number 454, and Phoenix 250 number 30. Drinking H2O. Nothing like a little bit of water, you know? Got Kelly here. We've got Gary Smith here. Gary, I'm going to read yours. Hi from East Lansing, Michigan. Housey on 50 number 11. Halcyon 250 number 79. Halcyon 450 number three. Phoenix 250 number 79. Griffin 250 number 163. Phoenix 250 number 1020. A 1972 Triumph Trident. A 1980 Honda CM200, a 1990 Harley Davidson 83 Sports, a 2017-year-old gear up sitting on Dr. Pepper. A classic. We've got Kurt Wise here, winner of the half off. I think he's getting a Griffin for his daughter, right? Anxious. Yep, there we go. Greetings from I should just read his comment. Greetings from Southeast Iowa, wrenching on Houseyon 250 number 487 and waiting anxiously for Griffin 250 number who knows from the Janice Dream Build event. Again, Kurt, congratulations. You did it. You did it. See what participation gets you? The chance to win half of us. We've got Joe here. Joe in Chicago, champagne velvet from Upland Brewing. I'm sure that's delicious. You know what time it is, Richard. I do. I do. It is a fan favorite segment called Poems with Richard.

SPEAKER_00:

Is that what it's called, Bill? Poems with Poems with Richard. All right. This is on um, I think it'll be appropriate given maybe yeah, everything we'll see. What's the poem called? The poem is called Pencil. And it is by um a Ramble Stream favorite, A. E. Stallings. Really lovely book here. This is from her collection Like. Pencil by A.E. Stallings. Once you loved permanence, indelible. You'd sink your thoughts in a black well and call the error ink. And then you crossed it out. You cancelled as you went. But you craved permanence and honored the intent. Perfection was a blot that could not be undone. You honored what was not, and it was legion. And you were sure, so sure. But now you cannot stay sure. You turn the point around and honor the erasure. Rubber stubs the page, the heart, a stiletto of lead, and all that was black and white is in between instead. All scratch, all sketch, all note, all tentative, all tensile, line that is not broken, but people pauses with the pencil. And all choice multiple, the quiz that gives no quarter, and time the other implement that sharpens and grows shorter. That's pretty good.

SPEAKER_01:

That's pretty good.

SPEAKER_00:

So many similes.

SPEAKER_01:

I like the uh the flip it around, the eraser part. This is small.

SPEAKER_00:

I think the little bit at the end that sharpens and grows shorter. Don't we all sharpen shorter?

SPEAKER_01:

Don't we all? What um for A.E. Stallings, like what made you pick up that book? I think we talked about it a little bit.

SPEAKER_00:

This one was actually a friend of mine gifted me, I want to say it was like last Christmas. Okay. Um, a subscription to a uh Substack. Yeah. Uh from the it's called like Poetry Poem of the Day. Uh-huh. And um they they're the poems that this guy recommends are just they're very much up my alley, let's just say, and recommended something from um from A. Stallings. And I was like, whoa, what is that? That sounds uh actually what happens was that sounds like Richard Wilbur. And uh and she's very much in the vein of Richard Wilbur. Uh this is like these very classical similes and word play. It's really like it's like playing with words. Yeah. She really obviously you can see that poem, it's like every word has a two two meanings. It's just like I think in the rap world they call that a uh double entendre. Maybe they don't just call that in the rap world. Other places as well.

SPEAKER_01:

Specifically rap. Yeah. That yeah, I I think it's I like that both. That one that one's good. There's some something about a permanence, the the permanence of a pen, but also the we gave it up for the pencil.

SPEAKER_00:

But but isn't that so cool? Well, that's what she's saying, right? She's sort of saying it's like we know we want to be certain, but we don't really want to be certain.

SPEAKER_01:

We have the ability to change our mind, which is I think uh uh I like writing with a pen.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. I I find writing with a pencil really problematic. Uh for one, because I'm pretty sloppy, uh. And also because just gets like smudged. And it I like to erase. I I when I draw with a pencil, I like to go over with a pen and erase the lead. Interesting. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Interesting. Hmm. Now on to our we're like kind of cruising along. Let's let's let's chill here. Richard, chill out. I'm all worked up with our cameras. Why don't you buy the yammy bike from Spite, put it in the showroom, and invite anyone who sees his video to come out and ride it?

SPEAKER_00:

Uh we have a a customer who purchased the bike, and they are they have their own plans with it. I think they're one of the plans is that he wants to like raise funds to give it to um Doodle. Yeah. Um, wait, that's not the same bike though, is it? I'm getting confused. So the Yami bike? The the bike bike. Oh, that bike doesn't belong. I guess we could buy it from Spike, but he bought it. It's his bike. I don't know if he's he's got plans for it. Sorry, he's getting confused. No, he's not selling it, he's actually putting a kit on it. Uh he's kidding it out and like doing his own content with it.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, you guys should follow him. Spite's corner. Sorry, I'm getting confused. Yummy with with Doodle. Um yeah, uh Spite's Corner. That's it, that's his YouTube channel, right? You guys should go follow him. He's got some really good content, good motorcycling content, uh, that's really fun to watch. Um, and he yeah, he bought a Janice. I get all these YouTube influencers confused, you know.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, you know I was gonna say something rude, but I decided not because I think he's gonna have some interesting content with hopping it up, let's just say. Yeah, souping it up. I agree.

SPEAKER_01:

What is the iron pen? What is the iron pen? Is that a reference to the poem Speed Racer? I I didn't catch that one. I was too busy focusing on the eraser. I don't know what the iron pen is. The iron pen. It feels very serious though, if you ask me. Does it say anything in there about iron pen?

SPEAKER_00:

I don't think so. I mean, the nib on a pen is often made of steel. Not iron. Not iron smith.

SPEAKER_01:

Spite is one of you guys from Chicago. Yeah, technically. That's right, he is from Chicago. He's one of us. He drinks uh Malort. Malort, thank you. The best drink ever. Now on to our fan favorite segment. Another fan favorite. Another fan favorite. We've got Builds of the Week brought to you by Mitch McLean. Up first, we've got two Nicholas's two Nicks. Two Nicks. This is uh Nicholas's Phoenix 250. This is Phoenix uh 103. Do you want to talk a little bit about the night the naming scheme and why there's a 10?

SPEAKER_00:

Um it is a 10 because this is the third 10th anniversary um uh bikes. So this one, uh, we usually guess the color. Um however, actually we can guess the color of this bike because a lot of the 10th anniversaries it might be a limited choice, but it might be different. I actually I I know the answer to this one. Uh so I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna not eat say, but this is a really cool bike.

SPEAKER_01:

Um I'm just gonna guess it's gonna it's frame matched. That feels like the simple answer. It feels like and you know normally what what's simple is true. So nine times. This is a this is a this is a pretty cool build. The look on Richard's face makes we think otherwise. Well, you shall see.

SPEAKER_00:

Let's get going here. So we got a um soft tail 250, just like our griffins.

SPEAKER_01:

There's a little swing arm action. What is that little uh that little piece of plastic here?

SPEAKER_00:

That little piece of Delta? That's actually uh I think that's actually like Teflon plastic, but it's um that is the chain slider. Got it. So that that catches the chain from hitting the swing arm.

SPEAKER_01:

So what are you thinking? What are you thinking? You know, I'm thinking I'm changing my mind here real quick. I don't know why. I just got a feeling that it's actually super chrome.

SPEAKER_00:

That's gonna look so cool. Well, this is not the only cool thing about this bike.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

These are the lowest bars we offer on the Phoenix. They have a slight drop.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, you can just see it there. That's a good uh a good picture to see the drop.

SPEAKER_00:

Just low enough to give you a little bit of a pain in the wrist. Look you there.

SPEAKER_01:

Tide downs? Some tie downs. Beautiful.

SPEAKER_00:

So this bike, this bike is not this is not featured builds of the week. This is featured builds. So this build was actually done a while back. This is this is a that has been picked up by Nick.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes. This uh uh uh what do you call it? Just a nice little slip. This is uh a featured build. But uh, do you notice something about that tank? I did, and we just kind of glossed right over it because I was talking about feature builds. What is that, Richard?

SPEAKER_00:

So this is keep going forward. Um, this is the uh Paragon logo that would have been found on our first bike we ever built before Janus was created. So Nick uh commissioned this from um, I think working with Grant. Oh, cool. And he wanted to get this to look like the Griffin. So it has the same, well, close to the same green. He decided to go with indie racing green instead of British racing green. Okay. It's a little different. Look at that. Um, but pretty neat. Look at that. Looks at all right.

SPEAKER_01:

That's way better than frame matched.

SPEAKER_00:

It's pretty beautiful.

SPEAKER_01:

The 10th anniversary logo on the it's in black? Is that in black? Yeah, it looks really good in black. I like that choice too. Really sharp spike. I like that choice. Man, that's pretty sharp. Did you guys guess that? Because I did it. Paragon lettering? What? What is that? Is that uh that logo? Is that hand drawn by you guys?

SPEAKER_00:

I did that in like 2010 on my drafting desk. See when I was still at Notre Dame. That's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_01:

That's pretty cool. I like the squared out fins on the cylinder.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, that's something that we offer on the 250 as an upgrade. On the 450, it comes stock.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh a soft tail is soft. Shocks compared to hard tail. Your ass springs and seat is your shocks. Completely different techniques of riding. All right, old school. Hi, old school. Glad you're here. Whoa, hold on. We've got JKRZC, a new YouTube member. I also don't recognize the name. I don't recognize the name either. Thank you so much for joining.

SPEAKER_00:

What's that logo picture of? It's like, I can't tell. I can't tell you. Well, anyway, welcome. And uh we'll see you on the pre-ramble.

SPEAKER_01:

We'll see you on the pre-ramble. Cheers. Cheers. Thank you. Where's somehow see whereas the house yellow is a hard tail?

SPEAKER_00:

Correct.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, Mark, you Yes, that's correct.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Uh the Griffin and the Phoenix 250s are um soft tails, as well as the Phoenix 450.

SPEAKER_00:

Uh, that's also a soft tail. And the House Yans.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Did I did I say Phoenix? Bro, my my mind is just always on the Phoenix.

SPEAKER_00:

The only bike that we make, including if we include the Phoenix 450, is uh the only hard tail is the Halcyon 250.

SPEAKER_01:

Up next, we've got friend of the show. Nick. I believe this is Nick Gillespie, and that's his username, so I I don't think he'd care if I shared that. But uh, this is Halcyon 250, number 123. Super Chrome.

SPEAKER_00:

We're getting a lot of these 10th anniversaries coming through. I I love them. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. Now we can we can we can uh take some guesses on the pink color. No, it's likely super chrome. That's a pretty good guess. I'm gonna But it could be something different. I'm gonna guess. I'm going with super chrome just because it's just an easy guess.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm gonna guess vintage red.

unknown:

Okay.

SPEAKER_01:

Feels like wild.

SPEAKER_00:

You're your own guess. You're your own man, Jansen. You can guess however you want. I can't back down. You can guess wrong if you want to. I can't back down now.

SPEAKER_01:

It's vintage red for sure. Super gosh, that looks so that looks really sharp.

SPEAKER_00:

These super chrome bikes just look so good.

SPEAKER_01:

I love the contrast of the black. Parts too on the super chrome. Oh nice little uh fork tie downs tie downs here. You gotta have it. Book rack on there. Nice. I like pox. Ooh, the highway bars too. Mm-hmm. That's a lot of chrome. That's a lot of chrome. Chrome handlebars.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, the suspense is killing me. So I think that the chrome highway bars and chrome handlebars were an extra cost. This person added. I don't think you usually get those.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, I don't see an advantage right there.

SPEAKER_00:

I don't even see the super chrome. Is it blue? It's got to be blue. It's blue. Oh, yeah, I have seen some. It's blue. It's blue. Nice. With a white and good. That white makes me film. And a silver pinstripe. That looks how how I mean I just I don't mean to harp on this, but isn't it nice to have a monitor if you can tell like the white things are?

SPEAKER_01:

It's Richard. Oh, that's a really good close-up of the uh hand painted.

SPEAKER_00:

Look at that. You can see the little edges of the paint. That's sharp. That's what I'm talking about there. I love these close-ups. Yeah, that's great. That is not a decal, folks. Very, very sharp. Oh my goodness. Wow. Yep. I've seen this bike. That's way beautiful. Vintage red. Yeah, it is. It's good. It's really sharp.

SPEAKER_01:

Man. That looks super, super good. With it's also got um that copper ducktail fenders on it. Oh, does it? Oh, yeah, it does. Oh my goodness. That copper is a good choice there, too. That oh yeah, copper with the saddle brown leather. Yeah, that that looks super sharp. Confidia, what's up, man? That looks fantastic. It sure does. Josh says, I'm interested in the Griffin 250, but want to see one in person here in southern Nevada. Is there any? Uh, Jeff, give us a call, or you can go on our website and there is a uh form. Gosh, I wish I could figure out uh mentally how to navigate you there.

SPEAKER_00:

The best thing I would say, Jeff, is give us a call, or you can just send us an email right here at Rambling at JanS Motorcycles, and I can put you in touch with Mitch, our salesman. Yeah. And we have um ambassadors all over the country, and we'll try and find somebody close to you. I'm sure there are some griffins in your neck of the woods that we could put you in touch with. We'd love to make that happen. So yeah, rambling at gnsmotorcycles.com. Shoot, shoot us an email, or of course give the shop a call tomorrow. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

We all we're always answering. Uh, not what I'd buy for myself, but full respects for how good that's well, yeah. Yeah, that's why I wanted to pull it up because like we're not don't you're not fooling anybody. Well, how about when you get a GNS, you can tell us what you buy for yourself? We're glad you're here, Confed Yank. Our only and our only Twitch viewer, our our only Twitch uh moderator as well. All right, we got a black halcyon. Yes, this who's this belong to this is Kent. Kent.

SPEAKER_00:

This is Halcyon 10 3, as opposed to is a 10th anniversary. Continuing on. Well, we I think you all missed some of the beautiful photographs of that bike, and I do apologize.

SPEAKER_01:

No, I I think they were able to see them. It's just the camera that's that's going going down. Oh yeah, okay, yeah. Janice McGrath sent me a rolling eyes face. Come on, man. You know, I'm out here trying my best. Mark likes the 10th anniversary caps. Me too. Yeah, they look they look super sharp. Only user and I mean Len, maybe. Is the timer or the camera set to on? No, I don't think so. I haven't changed any settings. That's what's weird. Good. Thanks, Mark. I'm glad you can see the bike. Yes, thank you, Mark. Uh, I'll have to look into my settings, y'all. We'll have to we'll figure it out. This isn't a you problem, this is a me problem, and I'm aware of. Looks it's now uh us problem on his face. Maybe throw a handful of snow on the camera. That'll cool it. There you go. Maybe. Um, what is a thing, Richard?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, a thing. A thing is something that bears the test of time. And it is something that doesn't bore you. Coming up with a new we're we're riffing on this. It's something that it's like a Christmas present you get. You know, the ones that you get, and then you like play with it for like a week and then it's just like you never see it again. Uh that's not a thing. A thing is the opposite of that. A thing is like the thing that you go, wow, this is really cool. And then two weeks later you use it and you go, oh, wow, this is really cool. And then five years later, you find yourself going, this is one of the best things I've ever gotten. Like, I'm so glad I got this. And I remember whoever got me this is a was a beautiful person.

SPEAKER_01:

And I remember exactly when I got it.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

That's a that's fair. That's fair. What thing did you bring uh for us today?

SPEAKER_00:

Today, I forgot that I was having too much fun eating pizza with Jansen ahead of time. And so I had to whip this one out. But um, I just ordered this. I think it's something brilliant. Uh I just I just ordered this uh last week. Oh, that's pretty sure. And this is a beautiful little um bottle of ink. This is made by the Sailor Ink Company, which is a Japanese company. And this is, I forget what this is actually, the name of it's like a really cool Japanese name. But this is a the reason I got it is that the ink I've been using, which is a pelican ink, which is like a um German ink, very nice ink too, uh, is water based or water, it's not water resistant. So if I go over it with a highlighter, uh, it smears. So I decided to get uh uh waterproof ink, but this is actually it's like water resistant, it's not fully waterproof. Um, and it's just really nice to use. The only problem is that whatever they put in certain kinds of highlighters is like uh alcohol. It's still smears.

SPEAKER_01:

So is but if I use water, it doesn't. So is the bottle the thing or is the ink the thing?

SPEAKER_00:

I think it's the it's the whole package. I mean, the the part the reason that you want a nice ink bottle and why they're usually nice is that you you they they need to function really well uh when you're dipping the pen in it. So it's part of the whole experience is the container. Okay. Because as that ink gets lower, you want it to still be able to pick up ink at the bottom. So some of some this one has a lower point at the bottom. Some of them you'll actually find some ink bottles, they come to a point at the bottom. So you dip the pin in that, and then you can always get the last bit of ink thing. Other pens have a well at the top, and so you do like this, and it fills up and it fills a little well, and so it's always got the same amount of ink in it. Huh. Don't taste it, Jansen.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh you know, just anyway. I was thinking about it. But it doesn't hurt that it's such a beautiful thing. It is gorgeous. And it sets on your desk and you're like, oh, that looks like it just this just makes me want to write.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. So uh I've gone through two bottles of ink since starting Janus motorcycles. Only two. Two bottles of ink? This is like 50 milliliters.

SPEAKER_01:

I have absolutely no reference for how much ink. That takes a long time.

SPEAKER_00:

A lot of writing.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, like I don't know, 15 years, give or take.

SPEAKER_00:

Uh yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

How long has Janus been around? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

So anyway, that's the thing for tonight. And I thought it was fun that the poem talks about. Yeah, so it's really it it's all coming together. It's all coming together.

SPEAKER_01:

How it makes sense. Uh what when you look at an ink, or like when you're writing with an ink, other than it, its ability to smear or inability to smear, like what makes a good ink a good ink? Uh a couple of things. Because to me, to for reference, ink is ink.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, yeah, but you know, you know the difference if you use a ballpoint pen or a gel pen, the difference in the way that it writes, right? Like ballpoint pen. It likes the feel, but I've always attributed that to the pen itself. Yeah, but you know how a ballpoint pen smok smudges pins. Um that's because it's uh oil-based ink. That's actually the only way that a ballpoint pin works. Because it needs to because it has to have capillary action, so you can write upside down with it. If it didn't, you the old original ballpoint pins you had to write like almost perfectly vertically, and they would still like they're really spotty. That would take me off. And the machining to make it work properly was like only possible in like, you know, Germany or something. You know, no one talks about the science of ballpoint pens. But when they figured out how to do they really the technology was they they started using an oil-based ink that just flowed better, and they didn't have to worry as much about the precision. Um, but when you're talking about ink, it's oftentimes like how well it flows, yeah, and how well it um how wet it is. They actually talk about the wetness of ink.

SPEAKER_01:

Like is there what is what is the word? Is there like a special word? There, I'm sure there is.

SPEAKER_00:

Like, look up some go on YouTube and look up found pen, like web, you know, uh channels. Yeah, they'll they'll do like a they'll review a pen and then they'll tell you, they'll write with it and they'll tell you what ink they were using and how well it flows and like how supple the nib is. And just all the it's really cool.

SPEAKER_01:

I love people that um are like really into what they do. Like that's one of my favorite things to watch. Uh, it doesn't matter if I have like absolutely zero interest in the hobby itself. It's it's so cool to to watch people who care what they do. You know what I mean? Yeah, like it it's it it it it fuels me to care about what I do. That's that's kind of make it a thing, right? Viscosity, Bert says. Yeah, yeah, but like is there like a pen pen related specific terminology? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Let's see, what other comments do we got here? Mark says we all had the Mont Blancs in the 80s. Well, Mont Blanc is a uh typically a very expensive pen. Okay. Speaking of the yuppies, like Mark's Y. Uh yeah, like like Mark. And more suspenders. Yeah, yuppies.

SPEAKER_01:

There it is. Junk over. I once uh was doing work in a titanium foundry, and we had to surrender any and all ballpoint pens due to the potential for tungsten contamination. Seemed a bit far-fetched to me. Do they use tungsten to I don't know.

SPEAKER_00:

I don't know, but the maybe there's like I have no idea. I don't know enough about um it's true.

SPEAKER_01:

So smart well and uh you're a good sport, Mark. And a little round spectacle. That's because he's the architectural profession. Right, right. I was about to say, don't you have round spectacles now? Well, I I think it'd be a good time to kind of transition into uh the the what what the stream is titled. What is a habit? What is a habit? So, Richard, I've come into this conversation without doing any research on purpose.

SPEAKER_00:

I understand you said that, but when we were preparing for this, you you seem pretty adamant. You you had it more figured out than I did. I thought that there being differences between habits and routine, uh, like what defines a habit versus other things. And so one of the things that we're gonna try and do over the next 20 minutes? 20 minutes, and then also the next two weeks is break this conversation out a little bit. And we're gonna try not to range too far. We're just gonna talk about what a habit is. We want to take it in chunks, and then maybe next week we can talk about what we're talking about, what a routine is.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, routines. Routines, and how sometimes they our habits influence our routines. And then finally, how they transform us. Yeah, how how how routines and habits transform both our minds and our our bodies.

SPEAKER_00:

Getting real philosophical, but we're gonna try, we're gonna try and stick to the point.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh-huh. What is it? What is it? And how does it fit? It's perfect. It's perfect. So, in in your mind, I don't know if you want to talk about like before you research or or after, like what you think now.

SPEAKER_00:

Because I think Well, maybe start with, yeah, I'll start before I I didn't mean research. I just read a little bit. Right. Um, but when I think of a habit, I think of I was kind of conflating it with routines. Like it's kind of the same thing. It's like something you do over and over and over again. And I think that's true on some level. Uh-huh. Um what what about you? What are you what are you thinking about what a habit is?

SPEAKER_01:

I I think a habit is something. Oh that's funny. I just saw Texas Rebel Tracy say a habit is something you do without thinking about it. But I personally think that a habit is something that takes intentionality. Um maybe it's because I think about habits in the positive sense and not necessarily the negative sense of like, I want to start a habit of waking up early. Uh I don't. First off, I don't at all want to start a habit. You don't want to wake up early. Okay. No. Um, but that that takes intention, right? Like you don't wake up early on accident. Uh, or if it's not waking up early, maybe it's like I want to start a habit of of going to the gym. Like it's an action that requires intention, is I think what a habit is. Um so that's interesting.

SPEAKER_00:

I think, yeah, and I think I would tend to agree with you, but like I said last week, when we were on Friday, we kind of we get we spent a little time in the morning talking about what we're gonna planning and what we're gonna talk about for the ramble stream. We're getting better at this. Um and we're trying. One of the points that I brought up, if you remember, Jansen, is that we don't just have good habits. And so we also have bad habits. Right. And I think maybe we have more bad habits than we have good ones, probably. Um and so in that sense, if if you s if you take what a bad habit you say, oh that's a bad habit I have of doing that, it doesn't is that something that you're intending to do?

SPEAKER_01:

When you first smoke a cigarette, are you intentionally smoking that cigarette? Are you thinking not necessarily about man, I really want to put pick up the habit of ingesting tobacco through smoke? You're you're not saying like I want to do that, but like is your intention to smoke the cigarette?

SPEAKER_00:

Yes. It has to be unless you're just completely mindless. There's intention. I see what you're saying. But but but it can happen into a happen. Yeah, but but but then there's also like that the fact that let's say you taking your example, you want to wake up early in the morning, but you don't. And so most days you get up 10 minutes before work, throw some clothes on, and run to work. Sounds like a great. Okay. That, but you really want, you need you're you're not showing up like you're not ready to go, you're not getting there on time, you're late, you're and you're and you're upset with yourself. Right. That's a bad habit that you don't really, yes. I think I'm actually gonna this is where I'm going with this, is you want to do something different. The hope is no, you intend. You even maybe when you go to bed, you're like, I'm gonna wake up early. And then you just like can't quite do it.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

That's exactly where we're talking about like what it is to be human being, is there's this like you can have a desire to do something, but it doesn't necessarily actually mean that you do it. So I think where I'm going with this is that a habit is something that you you do.

SPEAKER_01:

It's just it's just what something that you do.

SPEAKER_00:

It's just something you do. Interesting. And so it's a good thing or a bad thing. Right. But you choose. Right. And Jeff, uh I don't know if it's I I don't think we can always say it's a positive.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Yeah, no, I I agree that they're not always positive. Jeff Gell says you can't force something into a habit. What do you think about that?

SPEAKER_00:

Um I disagree. Why? Because that's the nature of uh a hat changing a habit is one of the hardest things you can do. But it's the the way that you do it is you do something different. Yeah. Like that that question of like wanting to do something and doing it, the only way that you don't do it is you the only way you you change the way you are is by changing what you do. Right. Does that make sense? Right. And so if you do change what you do for a long enough period of time, we talked a little bit about this, I think, before, like what how long it takes. Right. If you do it long enough, oh we're talking about tradition. How long it takes to become a tradition, you do it long enough, then that becomes who you are. Right. Right. Then maybe that's controversial.

SPEAKER_01:

That's a routine though, Jeff Kell says. But I don't think it is. I I think we can talk about routines later. Uh that's a good but I I like Jeff Jeff's poking at it. But I but I I understand your your your thinking, uh, Jeff. I I think the habit, and I don't know if we want to go there now. We can talk about it a little later next week. I'm not I'm not gonna do it. I'm not gonna just Jeff, it I I don't think it's a routine. I don't think uh uh doing the same habit over and over again is a routine. I I think that really what it comes down to after I think my mind has changed a little bit. It's interesting that you can have a bad habit even though your intentions are good.

unknown:

Right.

SPEAKER_00:

That's the key though to understand that. And so how do you change a habit? And what what why would you want to? Right. So maybe one thing that we can Oh, hold up.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, therefore Ride Scrambled Pegs. Yes, became a YouTube member. Thank you so much. We recognize that name. I do too. We'll see you on the pre-ramble next week.

SPEAKER_00:

Nice. I think that that that's a very informative plan where he says, yeah, it's all it's a it's just something a monk wears, but it all comes from the same word. Unpack that a little bit. So uh black screen becoming a hat. Yeah, it is. Um uh it's interesting, like what the the the I was telling Jason when I was start looking at looking into habits, and the first thing that I started stumbling upon was monks because ascetics are that's what they base a lot of their existence around, and their life is very rigorous habits and routines. They have two different directions of those. Um, but the habit is like originally the word the the root, the Latin root of the word, it comes down to like character. Huh. Yeah. So your habits are your character. That's really that I mean that makes sense. And so one of the the reason that a monk wears a why it's called a habit is that it's like it's very rigorous and it there is no differentiation. They all look exactly the same, right? So it is a habit that they are all putting on this, they're wearing their character, right? Huh. Um in a in a interesting way. So I think maybe that kind of influences what we're what we're talking about, and like we've we're kind of talking about like what is it?

SPEAKER_01:

What is yeah, I think if we if and now we can kind of maybe shift over a little bit? Yeah, what well what I think I would like to hear like what a habit is something uh that requires intention. Yes. No, sometimes though, sometimes you miss it.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, no, I think a habit is just who you are.

SPEAKER_01:

A habit is your character, but the character is defined by the things that you do, whether intentional or your actions. Habit is your character defined by your actions.

SPEAKER_00:

What you do, yes.

SPEAKER_01:

Not what you want to do. Right. So the okay, I I understand. Uh I've always thought that habits um you can shift your habits. Yes, full control of your character. You can shift your character and what you uh you you have the ability to choose. Uh, and I think that's the second time that I've said that exact sentence. You have the ability to choose. You have the ability to choose who you want to be. Right. And I think that is incredibly powerful. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00:

But how one of the most powerful things I ever said. Does this fit into rambling? Right. So maybe one way we can step back a little bit, uh, we look at like, what are some habits we have with motorcycling? Well, the first one would be we ride motorcycles. That's a habit riding that definitely defines who we are. Right. In a lot of ways. A lot of people, I think a lot part of their identity is I hope it's not completely wrapped up in motorcycles, but a portion of it is. A portion of it is, right? Um, yeah, there's like this shared experience. Shared experience.

SPEAKER_01:

And there's also even like the gear. It's like it is a habit, right? That you put on you put up the gear, you do the ritual and you you can't put your you can't. Put your gloves on before your helmet. Or I mean I've done it many times. Um because then you look like an idiot taking your gloves off to buckle up your helmet, you know, right.

SPEAKER_00:

But so riding a motorcycle is a habit, uh-huh, but then there are habits that we do when we ride a motorcycle. There are bad habits we have when riding a motorcycle. Maybe you're a little too too too twisty with the wristy.

SPEAKER_01:

Or no, a wheelie.

SPEAKER_00:

My front wheel is up. Whoa. Or maybe there are good habits that we've we've developed very carefully through practice, uh-huh, which is a word that practice is action. It's doing the thing over and over and over again, is how so it's like this is where I think we start thinking more about what a habit is, yeah, is it's like a muscle memory. Yeah. So when you okay, I want to I mean, I I hate to use this the example of waking up in the morning because I I it's just like it's so stupid. But let's just let's just go with it. It's an easy you want to wake up early in the morning. Uh uh the the way you do that is not say write uh New Year's intention that says every day of 2026, I'm gonna wake up early and then fail miserably. Right. The way you do it is every day you wake up.

unknown:

Right.

SPEAKER_00:

When the alarm goes off, you get out of bed. Right. And then when you do that a number of times, you develop the understanding of the the muscle memory becomes it, it gets easy, it does get easier to do, right? It gets much easier to do.

SPEAKER_01:

There's have you read the book Atomic Habits by chance? Okay, so James Clear, I believe, is the author, and he talks about um this is squirreling us a little bit, still no habit topic, but um I think it's important. We talked about like okay, actions or habits are your actions and that decides your character, right? It's it's who you are. Um, James Clear proposes that uh you have to choose who you want to be first, and then you have to decide what does the person that I want to be, what do they do? So people who are strong go to the gym. So if I want to be strong, what do I have to do? Go to the gym. Right. Or it's like that is the action that's required, yeah. Right. Yeah. And I think that that is an interesting way to like, and and that's where my thinking comes from. I think like at processing through it has been influenced a lot by that book of like I can change and I can choose the habits that I want. Like, okay, do I have bad habits? Yeah, but I'm not gonna think about those. I'm gonna think about the ones that I want to do. Right. And and focus on uh uh the things that I can control because there's this this idea that habits are subconscious.

SPEAKER_00:

Chris Smith had a question for me.

SPEAKER_01:

Where is Chris's question here? Scroll back. Scroll back, scroll back.

SPEAKER_00:

Keep going, keep going, keep going. I don't want to go too fast. I don't see Chris's question. We skipped it. Oh, Chris, when are you guys gonna come and be on the Cleveland Bio Podcast? Uh you set up the time, Chris, and we'll let's talk. We'll be there. I want to be on it. Yeah, well, we'll both go. I mean, you can go. I don't have to be there. I can sit behind the scenes. I just want to. Yes, so so Janice MC writer says they are subconscious, and I think that Yes, they are. I They do become subconscious, but I don't think they have to be. And I don't think it's I I I I'm starting to think that they that they are subconscious, and this is why I say that. Yeah. I want to I want to do the second part of the question. How does it fit? Like we're kind of getting into woo-woo, self-improvement territory. It's kind of annoying. Oh, let's let's get out of that territory. Let's get into motorcycles. I love it. If you've done it over and over and over. Because when when that car pulls out in front of you, it doesn't matter what you intend, doesn't matter what is going through your head that you want to do. What what are you gonna do?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

What are you gonna do? Yeah. I mean, no, seriously, what are you gonna do? You're gonna do what you always do.

SPEAKER_01:

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00:

Subconsciously, you're gonna do what your body does. Right. And so the only way that that that that habit is inculcated is actually doing it. So that's where I kind of say yes, habits are more internal.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

And there are things that you'd that you that are more subconscious. Yeah. And so, like, excuse me, um, when it comes to riding, the the habits we form, like it's even the fact that like if you've ridden every day, like a you know, or three times a month or once a week, and you do that enough, right? You start getting a little antsy if you don't get out and ride. Right. And it's it's part of who you are. Or if you like me, if I go, I've made a habit, it is part of who I am. I mentioned in the video we did that I wear gloves when I ride. Uh, that doesn't mean that I do it every single time. Uh-huh. There may be once in a blue moon when I'm like testing a bike and I don't have the gloves nearby and I'm like, oh, whatever. Right. But I feel wrong. Right. Um, almost the same with helmets. Yeah. I mean with helmets, yeah, I just don't, I do not feel comfortable riding with that one. Um, but like those are those are habits that I have, yes, I intended to do that, but now it's become something that is more internalized. And the same thing is true of how we corner and how we how we all the things that we enjoy about motorcycle riding, I would claim are the fact that we are we're we're developing habits. Yeah. And they're and it's the choice that we have of developing ones that improve us and that transform us into whatever we define as better at what we're doing or better as who we are, that are good habits. Just like there are bad habits, and they're really bad ones too.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. I was sorry.

SPEAKER_00:

No, no, it's worth it.

SPEAKER_01:

Jason, thank you. I'm terribly late to the stream. Fighting a big truck diesel with dead batteries in 10 degrees Fahrenheit. That sounds terrible. Just got it started after two hours. Jamie said my Phoenix is ready. Did I make builds of the week? Not this time. Not this week. But we will be featuring your bike.

SPEAKER_00:

We gotta make sure we do.

SPEAKER_01:

There are featured builds that are coming your way, Jason, that are your name on it while I'll uh make sure that we get yours on.

SPEAKER_00:

Should we should we call that one a wrap and do some announcements?

SPEAKER_01:

I I think so. I think that's a wrap. I I am fully convinced that uh my thinking has been wrong, not overall. Well, I'm done here, but the uh the the fact that uh we can choose to look at the habits that form us to be better people. Um and oftentimes uh we need to reflect and look at like, okay, what are the the bad habits in my life that I need to change? And that's where the intentionality comes from, not the habits themselves. Ride or die. We got a motorcycle show coming up on Valentine's Day. Isn't that so cool? Richard and I were talking. Do we do we spoil it for the the people? We should freaking do it. Let's do it. Let's do it. Are we gonna do it? We're gonna do it. We're gonna do a rainl stream special at the ride or die show. February 14th. February 14th. It's on a Saturday, it's Valentine's Day.

SPEAKER_00:

Um, if you're in the area, if you're not in the area, so far, I think we have a dozen custom builders signed up already. That's super cool. So we're gonna we're we're shooting for twice that. So at least 24 custom bikes. Some of them I hear are gonna be some Janus motorcycle. Let's go. We're super excited about that. Onwards. Uh we're looking, we're looking for we're gonna have some special ramble stream. Who knows? We might even have our significant others on the ramble stream. It feels right for Valentine's Day.

SPEAKER_01:

I don't know. Uh I think it's gonna take some convincing on my end. I'm sure Amy's gonna be up for it. I'm sure she will. Uh, but uh Danny, my wife, she just have her say hi. She'll say hi. She'll be on. You don't really want to talk too much.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Um okay. Uh, what other announcements do we've got uh the WeFunder. WeFunder is doing swimmingly? Swimmingly. Um do you have any updates there? Other than we're just still just shy of 400. Um, we've made some updates on the platform. Go check out the updates. Yeah, we are very excited for a big 2026. Yeah, we've been sharing a whole bunch of information on that. Um, we are gearing up to hit 12 motorcycles a week in production. Um it's gonna be it's gonna be a big push. Yeah, but that is that is what we're we're we're um very excited about doing. We've been building our supply chain out. We've taken on a lot of investment in the last year. Uh our board is fully supportive of what we're doing. We've got an incredible group of investors and shareholders, we've got an incredible team. We've got an awesome podcast called the Ramble Stream Podcast.

SPEAKER_01:

What a I mean, not a little biased, but it's the best podcast out there, you know.

SPEAKER_00:

And we have an awesome group of customers and supporters and you all. So stay tuned for all the fun things we have for 2026, including tons of new video content coming out from Jansen and also from uh cuts of clips of this show coming out regularly. So any other updates on the agenda? I mean, we are going to motocamp. Oh, yeah, this this coming weekend. We're getting winning to winter motocamp the weekend after. No, this weekend. This weekend. This weekend. Uh this weekend we're heading up to Michigan for winter motocamp, where we will be treading around in the snow. We're also bringing two Rivian trucks. Yeah. Electric trucks. It's gonna be exciting. We're gonna be partnering with Rivian. Um actually, the guy who is hosting the event is a employee of the uh former electric truck company Bollinger. Oh, I didn't know. They had two cyber trucks there last week last year. So we're gonna be playing in the snow with some fun things. And we have uh Neil, our own Neil Carlson has put uh skis on a Griffin 450, which I was ripping around on. You're gonna freeze your carburetor set off. Uh it's okay. We went we you you that we were trying to explain it to some folks at the shop, trying to convince them to come. It's not like you're riding forever. You are around a big fire, uh-huh. Hang out, eat food, drink things. Uh that wraps up this episode of the Ramblestream Podcast. Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed the show, subscribe wherever you listen, share it with a fellow rambler, and please consider leaving a rating. And join us live every Monday at 7 p.m. on YouTube for our weekly Ramble Stream. You can also find us at ramblestreampod.com and on social at ramblestream. We'll be back next week with more conversations, more stories, and of course, more rambling. And remember, many of those who ramble may very well be lost, but that's probably the point.