Ramblestream Podcast
Welcome to Ramblestream, the podcast where we share the stories behind our simple, beautiful machines and the people who craft them. Rooted in Northern Indiana’s manufacturing spirit, we explore how we blend timeless, globally sourced components with a personal, built-to-order approach that connects us directly to every rider. Join us for conversations with makers and owners alike as we dive into craftsmanship, community, and the joy of riding something truly your own.
Ramblestream Podcast
Multi-Tool Motorcycles: The Trap of Practical Design
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The pursuit of the "do-it-all" vehicle is a profit-draining compromise that leaves riders with sterile, over-engineered machines trying to please everyone at once. In a modern market obsessed with turning every sports car into a crossover and every motorcycle into a heavy, dual-sport SUV, we are losing the raw joy of riding a machine built with singular intentionality. In this episode, hosts Richard Worsham and Jansen Utech break down why fighting for hyper-focused, purpose-built design matters right now in an industry bogged down by commercial compromise.
We sit down to unpack Richard's recent weekend running the gauntlet on everything from a high-performance sport bike to a utilitarian dual-sport, mapping out exactly how a machine’s mechanical layout dictating your mental presence on the road. The conversation digs into the historical design iterations of leather saddlebags, the upcoming 250th anniversary custom builds, and the physical reality of riding bandwidth versus the illusion of comfort. We also explore the unique manufacturing hurdles of navigating erratic global supply chains and erratic parts delivery while maintaining artisanal quality at headquarters.
The hard reality of vehicle design is that when you force a tool to carry every job, you strip it of its soul and its ability to deliver genuine excitement. A great bike shouldn't strive to be a sensible commuter option for rainy highway logistics; it should be an uncompromising vehicle optimized for the exact range of experience it was forged to dominate. You will walk away from this discussion with a sharper framework for evaluating your garage based on raw mechanical purpose rather than speculative, jack-of-all-trades marketing promises.
If you care about motorcycle aesthetics, uncompromised chassis engineering, and the unfiltered lifestyle of two-wheeled travel, you’ll get a lot from this conversation. Subscribe to the Ramblestream podcast and share this episode with a fellow rider who respects the craft. We want to hear from you in the comments below: what is the most useless piece of "practical" compromise you have ever seen bolted onto a motorcycle?
Hello everyone. Welcome to the Ramble Stream Podcast.
SPEAKER_02I'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_01If you're interested in thoughtful conversations, friendly and informative banter with fellow riders, and the latest dispatches from Janice Motorcycles headquarters, you're in the right place. Let's get started. Good evening. Hello. And welcome back for another Rambo stream. This time we're here for episode 133. Nice timing there. No, we're happy to be back. Um, we've got a really good program this evening. Great. I'm excited about it. It's gonna be very open-ended. We're already reading the chats. You're all wrong. That's just so you know. Everyone's wrong. Everyone's wrong. Um even if you're right, you're wrong. Uh and there's no room for disagreement.
SPEAKER_02No, nothing all, no conversation needs to happen here. All right. We're glad to see you guys. Um, yeah, it's gonna be a great show. We kind of changed it up. Uh, Richard had an experience of riding uh a few different motorcycles over the weekend. Uh, and I don't know, I guess I don't know why I'm speaking for you.
SPEAKER_01No, it's good. I like it.
SPEAKER_02Um and uh thought it was interesting uh that each motorcycle felt very, very differently. Um, and it felt as almost as if they had different jobs. Um, and then also inspired by another Jay Leno clip, which I wish now that I'm saying it out loud, I would have had ready to play.
SPEAKER_01Well, it's okay because it's not really applicable, but it got my brain thinking.
SPEAKER_02It's the last line that he says. Yeah, it's the last line. He's talking about um Ferrari Luce.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So which is this if you're not familiar, it kind of made the rounds online of Go EV. Uh it was very um polarizing, shall we say? But it's Ferrari's new electric, it's hideous, stupid. Because it's electric. No, just in general. Um but anyway, he was talking about it. I'm joking. I don't have really any thoughts on it all other than it's kind of predictable. Um, but Jalina was talking about the Ferrari, and he basically was saying that it's very difficult to be a manufacturer right now because on the one hand, you have tariffs that this week are 25%, and this week they don't exist, and this week they're 50%, and the supply chains are really difficult, and everybody wants everything to do everything. Um, so he was talking about like, you know, like you have a minivan that handles like a sports car that can also tow a you know trailer that you know everything has to do everything at once. Right. And he was just saying, I don't want that. A Ferrari is supposed to look good and go fast, and I want a sports car to be a sports car and a station wagon to be a station wagon, and each thing has its purpose and it's good at one thing, right? And I thought that was an interesting thought because I obviously there's there's an argument for the opposite, right? That you want a thing that is good at everything, something that's well rounded and perfect and can do everything well enough.
SPEAKER_02An electric SUV, an electric pickup truck. It's wonderful. We got a good show for you. For those of you who don't know, we'll be being uh we'll be uh guest guests on the Cleveland Moto podcast, which it's kind of cool if we could put post a link up.
SPEAKER_01Um, but I don't know if we can do that yet. Uh well but anyway, if you go take a look, Cleveland Moto Podcast. We're gonna be on there this week. Yes.
SPEAKER_02You want to get uh a poem first, or do you want to do voicemails?
SPEAKER_01Let's do a poem. Yeah, let's get a poem. Let's start this off right. So uh this is a poem that just arrived in my email today. Okay. Um I thought I had uh had it in my book of Seamus Heaney, but I don't. So we're gonna read it off my phone. Nice. Um but uh it was sent to me because um I mean it definitely deals with rambling. And see if you all can uh catch on. This is um this is uh Seamus Heaney Postscript is the name of the poem, and it's from 100 poems, his book. And sometime make the time to drive out west into County Clare along the flaggy shore in September or October, when the wind and the light are working off each other, so that the ocean on one side is wild with foam and glitter, and inland among stones the surface of a slate gray lake is lit by the earthed lightning of a flock of swans, their feathers roughed and ruffling, white on white, their fully grown headstrong looking heads tucked or cresting or busy underwater. Unless to think you'll park and capture it more thoroughly, you are neither here nor there. A hurry through which known and strange things pass, as big soft buffetings come at the car sideways and catch the heart off guard and blow it open.
SPEAKER_02I like that one. Thanks. Oh, I love I love a good poem. It really kind of centers you, you know. Uh we did have a couple voicemails come in. We had a couple voicemails come in. Uh I'm not sure who the first one is, but the second one is is well we should mention that he left two voicemails.
SPEAKER_01Yes. And one was about the buckles on our bags. And we'll let the email go.
SPEAKER_02So we'll we'll play the uh the first one here. Okay.
SPEAKER_03So I left a message about the buckle that you used. The next question I have is how did you come up with design towards or whether I noticed a paddle bank that can come for a couple of different iterations? And it's a curiosity. So there you go. There's a couple. Oh, thanks.
SPEAKER_01It's a great question. The buckles. The buckles. We'll start with the buckles. The buckles on our leather bags started off as um regular buckles. Like that you would you know, like a belt buckle. Yeah, yeah. And then if you look at all the 50s, the house hand 50s, they'll have those kinds of buckles. And so we'll kind of come back to that when we talk about the bag design. But then in 2014, Devin and I, I think just partly out of a kind of a passion project, and partly because we thought it was something we could sell at Janice. We started working with the same guy who made our seats and bags, um, an Amishman named Mark, um on a range of like wax canvas and leather bags. So a messenger bag, uh backpacks, um tote bags, which is a whole bunch of things. You you probably have seen them go on our website. We still sell them all uh in a wide variety of colors and options. But when we launched those, I I don't know, I had just been thinking about the simplicity of how you could make a buckle that would be that we can make our own hardware instead of buying it. And so what we ended up with was using aluminum, laser-cut aluminum, just cheeks. And I had seen some designs that I was emulating. Uh-huh. But the bag, the buckle on the bags has uh two slots. So you put the leather through it and back out, and then it has a hook that you attach onto the bag. And we just thought it was nice that we could make our own bags and hardware. And it's nice and simple too. Like it's very, very simple.
SPEAKER_02It feels way more usable to just like slide the little hook out than like having to fiddle with two hands and get right. Right.
SPEAKER_01Now, some people complain about that they're difficult to use. Just kind of you have to have to be broken in. Right. Um, I find them pretty quick to use, yeah, but um, they're adjustable. Um, that's the story on the buckles. If you look at our bags, you'll see variations on those buckles, especially the backpack has like multi-directional ones. It's kind of cool.
SPEAKER_02I that those wax canvas bags are so cool.
SPEAKER_01It got it's one of those kind of things that makes me excited. It scratched an itch. Yes. Um, but as far as the bag designs, we started looking. I mean, I basically had a bag designed for the halcyon model before the bike was built. Really? Like even the initial sketches of the halcyon show a bag. Now, the original bag was actually located where the air box is now. Okay. Because we didn't have an air, I didn't know we needed an airbox. Right. Um, we had well, we had a 50 and it had a uh carburetor just without an airbox, it had a little plastic airbox on the 50s. Um, but then we put an oil tank there. But uh I knew there wouldn't I wanted a bag there based on I've mentioned Falcon motorcycles, they had a really neat bag on their bike and it made me think about it. But then I was starting to look at more motorcycle leather goods and I looked at Bruff Superior. And Bruff uses the they actually have a metal housing that the bag fits in. I've never had a chance to like study one enough in person, but uh they have a really the shape of the bag fits the bike. Yeah, it's not just a square bag, right? And so when we designed the saddle bags for the halcyon, we wanted the shape to look like it belonged there. And so that's where you have that those slant sides that sort of fit the radius of the wheel. Um, they at least they speak to it. And the first bags were very small on the 50, they were probably enough for like an oil can, but that was it. Right. Um, and then we went to the 250, we expanded the size, and we've done some variants where they're square and deeper, but they don't look good when they get much bigger. Yeah. I like when we when you go bigger, like the wax canvas makes more sense. Right. Um, but uh yeah, that's kind of the brief story behind it. And we always wanted a leather bag. Yeah. Um, I think that just goes with the seat and the having it be able to match, and that's why we go with the leather battery cap, it's so that it all ties together. Right.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it I I think it it's it adds to the motorcycle for sure. Like uh I think some bags, uh, especially like big metal panniers, uh, can take away from I'm speaking to 68 here, can take away from the overall motorcycle. Uh, but those leather bags, man, they just they add to it, especially since it ties into everything and they weather nicely.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, they break in.
SPEAKER_02Kelly's asking, Richard, how's production going? How many, how many a week?
SPEAKER_01Uh right now we are cruising. We've got uh SWM engines and engine components in, and we are trying to build out all the 450s that have been delayed because of um engine supply chain issues. So we are moving and grooving right now. Probably the biggest constraint is fenders. Yeah. Um, so yeah, we're moving. Thank you.
SPEAKER_02Um, I've got a few comments here from Cut Fiddyc. Uh I've got I I got back shortly after my ride, but I also have apes that takes pressure off my shoulders. Couldn't do a naked for a good long while. And then he follows up with after his crash. Uh and then he says, fun fact, high sides. When did you crash? Was that recently?
SPEAKER_01Because sorry to hear that.
SPEAKER_02That sucks. Jansen, would you prefer an Indian classic with bags or a Honda Night Hawk 750? Man, could I say neither? Indian classic? I don't want an Indian classic.
SPEAKER_01The the oh yeah.
SPEAKER_02I mean the vintage, the chief vintage would be pretty that's sick. I I don't think I want an Indian. I don't know. Really? I mean FTR is the only Indian that I'll ride. FTR is pretty cool.
SPEAKER_01Indians, all of them are pretty nice. I don't know, not all of them, but I've I've ridden the the chief vintage, very nice. Uh-huh. Um, actually I've ridden quite a few of them, but the FTR definitely it's it's a fun bike.
SPEAKER_02It looks so good, too. That's that's the great thing. Um let's listen to uh let's listen to another another voicemail. Speaking of Confed Yank, this is this is him.
SPEAKER_04This is him? We get to hear him in person. Howdy. So I have kind of a multi-part question here. Is why don't we consider motorcycles as transportation? When we evaluate for transportation, we may consider automatic versus manual, which C US distinctively does automatic. Why? And with that, why do we consider not consider expense of maintenance and fuel account? Do consider all of it. Have a good one.
SPEAKER_01Awesome. Oh, there's our reburb. Sorry. Um, that's a great question. Or series of questions. I mean, we have we may have to kind of like stumble through it a little bit because we're trying to understand the question.
SPEAKER_02This is brought question brought out of the reel we posted on Friday about how I we made a video that like motorcycles are terrible transportation. The way that our American eyes view transportation, uh they're not comfortable, can't carry anything, uh, terrible in the rain, hard to ride with two people, like all these things that make transportation in America nice, motorcycles don't have. So, like, why do we why do we ride motorcycles still? Um, and I I can't remember exactly what Khan Fed Yenk lest left as a comment, but what he was speaking about, uh it's like ties in with that. It ties in.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah well I mean I think that the the the first thing is the question of why do we not treat motorcycles as transportation? I mean, there that we we say that with with sort of uh either our tongue in cheeks or tongue in cheeks, or or just given the way that they're used here in the US. Um now you're always gonna get this one person. Oh, well, I ride my motorcycle every day to work and it's the only thing I have. Oh, great, that's awesome. I mean, like seriously, that's amazing. I wish I wish I would do that. But for the majority of people, it's actually more efficient and practical. I always kind of give the joke of like you can get a you know clapped out Altima and it does the job a lot better than a motorcycle. The worst vehicle on the road. Sorry if I'm insulting anyone. But um, but that's what we mean when we say that. Now, that doesn't mean that in in in other parts of the world, a motorcycle is by far the most efficient means of getting around um and practical. Now, to the point of um manual versus automatic, I think that just ties into the same thing. It's like if you look at uh Europe, when I went over to Italy to visit SWM, guess what car I rented? There was like the one that they had was a Fiat Panda manual. And like left-handed, no, they're not their right-hand drive in in um Italy. Um, that would have been interesting in England to get a um, but like yeah, that the there's a different approach, there's a different way of driving. Yeah, it's just uh it's a different, and here in the eights, it's like I think we re we overfocus on comfort and ease in, but also it's sort of maybe like the difference between an English saddle and a western saddle and horseback riding. Like if you're familiar with riding, uh, English saddle is like a Ducati. It's it's much smaller. It's like ducati of horseback riding, really. And then if you think of like a Western style saddle, it's like the heart, it's like the Harley Davidson. It's like more you more than it's got like the pommel on it, it's got the stirrups, you sit down, you kind of like lean in there for the long haul. You got like forward controls, you know. Whereas, no, seriously, on a on like an English style, your feet are back, it's like rear sets. Yeah, yeah. And you know, there's a lot more work you do. That's a funny comparison, right? Right. Um, but uh but we do focus more on like comfort and convenience and like you know, like bench seats. Right. Like you don't you're not gonna get a bench seat in your fiat conda. You know, it's like doesn't work doesn't work that way.
SPEAKER_02No, but I I I think, yeah, to your point, it this is definitely like uh we we view transportation uh through motorcycling uh just a little differently. I think it yes, a motorcycle can transport you, it does the job well, yeah uh for for the most part, uh, but oftentimes it doesn't make sense. And that's why we do it. Because it's not efficient, right?
SPEAKER_01Because it's not like well, maybe a different way of saying it is that like because in much of say the United States, we we do choose motorcycling more at least as a leisure activity, right as opposed to a practical activity. For the most part, you know, like obviously there are individual examples of people using it for everything, which is wonderful. But since we choose to do so, it it it it helps in some ways to underline the beauty of what a motorcycle does in this sort of uh it offers uh uh uh a sort of escape from the daily churn. Right. Now, I would say that if you did ride a motorcycle every day, you're gonna probably live a more fulfilling life. For sure. There's nothing that like we we joke about, you know, like the you know, um Wally chairs flooding around with you know drinks or like glue to their screen. That is sort of the the that is a stereotype of it, the US. Right. And the way that we engage with reality. Right. Um so if you unplug from that, you're gonna have a more interesting, it may not be easy, but you're gonna have an interesting existence. More fun number two for sure. As far as the question of efficiency and ease of maintenance, I'm not sure if you're talking about just in general or as it were relates to a manual transmission. Yeah. Um typically a manual transmission is gonna be um more efficient. Uh you're gonna get better gas mileage and potentially lower maintenance. I don't know if that's really true, but um, there's a why there's a variety of reasons for that. But I think here in the States, it's like AC uh automatic transmission beats that fuel efficiency. And if you look at like the even like like the difference between European and American cars, like big, heavy, light, small, uh, they're gonna be more efficient or more worried about that. And the price of fuel is higher.
SPEAKER_02So yeah, yeah. And there's so many different ramifications too that uh because we are such a a car-dependent uh culture here in America that affects how our cities are laid out and uh things become less walkable, and like there's there's so many layers to it. Um but it it is an interesting thought uh uh exercise to kind of go.
SPEAKER_01Uh Arlsberg says Americans have always had an aspirational bent where the only reason you could would opt out of convenience is because you can afford it. And that there's some truth to that. It's definitely more of a consumer culture than than um than not.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Uh sedan bodied cars are now a dying breed, and even they're more convenient than two wheels.
SPEAKER_01I was just thinking about that, about like how sedans well like Ford doesn't make sedans, they make the Mustang, and that's a cool. That's not a sedan, yeah. Like the sedan is a kind of like interesting thing.
SPEAKER_02That's what used to be most cars. Now it's like crossovers. Again, kind of getting into this this category of trying to do more stuff, everything that you could never possibly want. Um, the only reason I ride a motorcycle is for fun, says Kelly. Can't can't can't quibble with the man. I've I'm sure you have a lot of fun. I have no doubt. I wish I uh when I when I had my motorcycle, there were times I'm regretting now uh when I would wake up and be like, I don't want to ride into work today. I should have written into work, man. I should have written it to work. Uh let's move on here. Uh, thank you so much for your questions. Again, if you guys uh would like to send uh those voicemails 574-501-3830. Boom. Memory, everybody. Man, one day, one day I'll log it in. One day I'll log it in. That's why you guys tune into the ramble stream anyway for technical difficulties. Because that's exactly why you do it. The technical difficulty stream. The technical difficulty stream is is what it's called. Um stream. Thanks, buddy Hank. Appreciate it. Uh yeah, sorry about the no-cyp. Nice. That's really funny. Hey, uh, that is normally our intro to things of this world, and it has a fun little song that's kind of quirky and weird. Um it's all Jansen. It's all me. I will claim it. Uh, but what's our thing?
SPEAKER_01Our thing is actually really fitting for what we were talking about. Okay. We talked about bags. Okay. Well, we did talk about bags. Do better the design of the bags. Do better. And he says, hey, he's coming in.
SPEAKER_02I'm so sorry. I'm so Oh sorry.
SPEAKER_01Whoa, Eddie. You know what? You're right. You're right. I should be better. No, uh this evening I have can I do like a uh reveal of this? Oh yeah. So I'm doing it away. Uh yeah. So this is this is uh Janice saddlebag. It looks normal. This is the back of it. But there's something different. Oh, wait, there's tell us if you can spot the difference. Whoa! Very cool. Um this is a saddlebag with tassels.
SPEAKER_02Well, okay, that's the thing segment. See you guys later. Later.
SPEAKER_01What is it? What is it though? No, this is uh a regular saddlebag and the added tassels to it. Um this is going to be part of our 250th anniversary edition. So if you buy the 250 anniversary edition, you can get it with tassels. And the tassels are not just on the saddlebags. There are other places. The tassels also come on the seat and the handlebars. Heck yeah. And the handlebar tassels are not messing around. No, they're for real. They're for real. Um, but yeah, this is uh this is our saddlebag. Uh, this is the the standard 250 version um size that we were talking about earlier and see how the sides kind of slant in a little bit. Arlesberg has a very good question.
SPEAKER_02At what point do you cross the line from fringe into tassel size? Is there a specific length?
SPEAKER_01Uh I mean a fringe does sort of like it's like kind of like the edge of a rug. Uh-huh. Maybe if you trip over it, it's a tassel. Okay. I'm just making up things like that. I think tassels there takes a certain length. Maybe like this feels very tassel. This is tassel y. Fringe feels like uh maybe just kind of like a scuffed up edge.
SPEAKER_02Maybe.
SPEAKER_01Whereas if it was about if it was like two inches long, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But these are tassels. Um anyway, we will be featuring more uh of the 250th anniversary bikes as soon as they are done. Yes. Which needs to happen before the 4th of July because we want to launch it well before then. There seems to be a request for a shotgun scabbard. A shotgun scabbard. Um, well, you know, there's who knows what it comes in.
SPEAKER_02There's lots of leather out there that we could make whatever we want, or you could. Oh, it seems like uh Mission Road was the first one to uh to suggest that. Uh Chris says yikes. Is that a positive yikes or a negative yikes? Because it it's a positive yikes for me.
SPEAKER_01I mean, you don't have you don't have to like tassels. I'm not a big tassel guy, but that sure is cool.
SPEAKER_02Uh Havert says, more 250 teasers, please. Fringe is tactical.
SPEAKER_01Tassels are for fun. Yeah, tassels are like party in the back. Yeah, fringe up fringe, fringe for business up front. Fringe tassels in the back.
SPEAKER_02It's the mullet. It's the mullet of motorcycling. Detlift's kind of. People with tassels are living beyond the fringe. Uh, good one. Russell, how you doing? Detlift 450 number 86. Question: Have you worked on the kickstand bot bending issue on the early bikes?
SPEAKER_01Kickstand bending issue. Uh maybe on the 450s. Uh if he does mean, if you mean on the 450s, um, Russ, yes. It's been fixed. Yeah. It is unfortunately. Wait, can it be retrofitted? I'd have to double check and see if it can be retrofitted, but but uh it is it has been addressed. Yes, cool.
SPEAKER_02Uh silver dollars and rhinestones. That's we gotta add it all to the all to the list. Thank you all so much for your great ideas. And turquoise. I I suggested turquoise, but that maybe you have to add pay extra for that. That's a great thing. Uh real real daisy dukes have fringe.
SPEAKER_01Man, that I wasn't expecting such a such a response. I had tassels on my Vulcan drifter's brake levers, couldn't take them off quick enough. Yeah, that's one thing I I maybe I'm just ignorant. Uh-huh. But that the whips and the tassels on the lever, uh-huh. Wouldn't that isn't that like just a massive safety hazard?
SPEAKER_02Like what if like it gets caught on like a anything branch or a sign? Like if you're going too close to the flip over the handlebars ripped off the road. See you later.
SPEAKER_01That's what I always think. Daisy D. Dukes and Crocs do not go together. I mean, it says who?
SPEAKER_02You can prove us wrong. I'm not good. I'm not gonna do that. Hey, that's for members only. If you want to join person, if you could do so by hitting the join button below. Has anybody ever rigged a jockey shifter on a halcyon before?
SPEAKER_01Not that I'm aware of, but I'm going to. On my chopper.
SPEAKER_02It's gonna be cool. Uh what news we got going on, Richard?
SPEAKER_01What what what is well this weekend we have a massive uh it's called it's a call to discovery day, but we're calling it a mini rally because we have uh I think we have a herd of people coming in. 20, 25. Current riders, current owners, and new prospective riders. Yeah. All coming together on Saturday. It's gonna be a blast. We also are Friday. We're having, I think we're having the police over. Yeah, I think a little lunch, you know, a little pam off ahead of time. You know, we just gotta get ahead of the get ahead of the yeah, make friends first here. Um I just purchased a new Ducati.
SPEAKER_02Um I'm picture.
SPEAKER_01I have three foot tassels on my bar ends. Once in a while, they whip me in the face. Nice. That's how you know you're alive. And Jason says his pan hit is jockey shift.
SPEAKER_02That's cool. That's really cool. Yeah, so we we've got uh a big discovery day coming up. Uh this this weekend. I believe we can still you get it. We want everybody to be here. Um, we we'd love to bring your body, bring your motorcycle. We provide lunch. It's gonna be great. I believe it's free for uh existing riders. So uh come on out. Uh the Ramblers Roundup is happening in September. We're really excited for that. You guys can get your tickets on our website. Uh the George Wyman ride is happening. George Wyman ride is happening uh next weekend.
SPEAKER_01Is it next weekend? When after this, I think. I think it's or the one after that. I think it's the last weekend of June. It's happening, it's on our calendar. If you are a Janus owner and you're somewhat close by, please come down and join us. This is a historic event. It's gonna be a ton of fun. We're gonna ride from Janice to the event. Um, Tim Masterson from the Iron Bud Association will be there. Uh, he is the founder of the George Wyman Memorial Foundation. Yeah, we're celebrating the first motorcyclist to cross the country, the first person to cross the country on a motorized vehicle and the kind of originator of long-distance motorcycling in 1903. And he rode through Goshen in in uh ligoneer.
SPEAKER_02What are the chances? It's really neat. What are the chances? Uh, yeah, we're really excited for that. So uh that's what we got going on. We're gonna have one mil one more little break. One more little break, and oh hopefully this one has sound. Let's get to our main topic. We've already had some good conversation about it already in the chat. Um what all right, can a motorcycle in this example have too many jobs? I'm asking you the question.
SPEAKER_01Is that a theoretical question? No, I I would like to well that's a that is a that's a question that was kind of spurred on by my weekend kind of riding different motorcycles.
SPEAKER_02Well, you gotta tell them about the wallet.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah, yeah. So this is a little bit of a uh side quest. And if you're on the pre-ramble, you've already heard it. But I went out riding on the new Ducati, the old Ducati that's new to me. And I've I spent the last couple of days just up late at night, changing the belts, changing the oil, putting new tires on it, changing the fluid, new spark plugs, just like go sorting the bike out, making sure all the lights work. Yeah. And um I was like, the bike is ready. Ready? We're gonna go rip on it and see how it does. And I decided I'm gonna wear my armored jeans, I'm gonna wear my motor motorcycle boots, I'm gonna have my jacket on, we're gonna gear up for this. Got my nice new helmet on. Um, and then I was like, you know what? My wallet in the back pocket, it's always just makes me nervous. It was a little sketchy. So I'm gonna put it in the jacket pocket. So I put it in my jacket pocket and I proceed to go on a little ride. And about 10 or 15 miles down the road, I look down and realize that my jacket pocket is unzipped. And my wallet is not in it. Uh-oh. So I then turn around and go back and retrace the route, and then I do it again, and then I did it again, and it was gone. So I said, you know what? Forget it. I'm gonna go on this ride and see how fast this motorcycle goes and all that stuff. It goes very fast. Um the speed limit.
SPEAKER_02Um it gets up to the speed limit very quickly.
SPEAKER_01Anyway, then I went, I got back back home, and I'm like, you know what? My wife and my um daughter decided we're gonna go out and just drive around and see if all three of us looking out the windows of the truck can spot this thing. But I was like, you know what? There's gotta be a good chance that someone is gonna be a good Samaritan and they're gonna find this wallet. Like, if I found a wallet on the ground, I would open it up and see who it belonged to and give them a call at least and say, I left it under this tree. So we're driving along and my phone rings, and it's a local number. I'm like, oh, and this guy answers um in just this real, really nice, you could tell, kind of twang to his voice. Hey buddy, I got your wallet. Uh are you Richard? Um, and he found my wallet. And so he he volunteered to meet me halfway from where he lived because he had had to drive on home. And we meet up at a local way point, and he, of course, rolls in on his Harley Davidson um with like a you know, ski mask or not ski mask, but like a you know, bandana with like a skull face on it. And he was just the nicest guy, Norman. Um Norman and he just I said, Can I give you anything? He was like, No, no, buddy, a brother. Brother, brother. Uh, I just you do, I just we all expect that we'd all do the same thing if I was in your shoes. I'm like, absolutely. That is just so we had a wonderful little conversation. I invited him up to Janice. And um, but no, the part of the story I missed is that I to run down there, I realized on the right of the Ducati that the headlight burned out, fuse blue. So I hopped on the KLR and just like hopped on it and blasted down to and I'm like on the street, and I'm all of a sudden going, This is totally different motorcycle from the Ducati. So what is going on? Uh, you know. Well, it's like you go from here to like sport bike to tractor, right? Um, and so that that experience of riding two different, completely different machines back to back. And then, of course, I rode a Griffin 450 and a House Ann 250 and a House Yan 450 as well over the weekend. So I was just riding a bunch of different bikes. Some previous weekends I've ridden some different Indians and Triumphs. So I've been riding a lot of bikes lately. Yeah. And it just the thought in my head was just that well, first the first thought that came into my mind is this Ducati is far, far less practical than a Halcyon 250. Yeah. Um and probably than a Griffin or then a KLR. Um but the KLR introduces an interesting mix to this because it is sort of a do-it-all motorcycle, right?
SPEAKER_02It is, that's what it's kind of would you say it's marketed as that?
SPEAKER_01Yes, yes. Um, but then you have the halcyon, which is very, I would think many people would describe the halcyon as like a single function motorcycle. It's like, oh, it's just for this one particular thing when you don't really need to go fast. But I'm I have found in riding these different bikes that the halcyon experience, whether it's 250 or 450, is actually what I would describe is the the bandwidth is very broad. Yeah. I think when we were talking about it this morning, you were saying it's like you almost have a wider field of vision. Right. Because when you're on the a faster bike or like a something like a Ducati, your your hands are close together, your body is leaned forward, and you're and you're looking at where you're going. And if you take your eyes off that for more than a little bit of time, you're you're going fast enough that it doesn't make sense. You can't do that and survive.
SPEAKER_02You've got to be very focused. It's an intense amount of focus for a short amount of time. Right.
SPEAKER_01And on top of that, uh, while you can get used to the riding position, it is not the most comfortable thing. Right. It's so much and I would even say that the suspension system is very, it's a very good suspension system for track use, but it is not comfortable at all. Don't go over a railroad truck. Yeah, it's like worse than a house can 250 of a railroad truck. I'm not even kidding, which is a crazy thing to say. Yeah, you're a rear in it, you have rear suspension, but like the front is just going, oh my god, and the bike is like shaking and it just it doesn't, it feels like wrong, right?
SPEAKER_02Uh you know, the bike is not gonna be that like it it should be nice, it should be a little nice. Well, it's it's I would love to do some kind of test. I don't know if we can do it. Uh you know those shock absorbers that they put on the dummies and mythbusters to like indicate how much force it has received. It I wonder if we could do something like that with a hard tail. You know those packing ones to go on the packing box and just break it for the LCON 250 versus your Ducati and say, like, listen, this this hardtail thing, it's not too bad.
SPEAKER_01Well, the one half of it is you you also like I found myself going slower over the tracks on the Ducati than I do when I'm on a hardtail house. Like with a hard standard I can just go and just like zoom over to the track. Nothing happened. But on the bike is like the Ducati you have to really slow down, just take it easy because the whole thing is shaking around. Right. You have to tame the beast.
SPEAKER_02Very, very different. So, what job do you think the Halseyon achieves versus your Ducati, for example?
SPEAKER_01Well, I mean, I think there's a couple more things to be said first. Yeah, and that is just that that idea of bandwidth. Because the bandwidth on the sport bike, let's just say, on the Ducati in my experience, is uh very exhilarating. Like the acceleration is very thrilling, right? Right. That's what it's good at. It's good at you when you're when you're on the road going 55 miles an hour in a straight line or in curved, whatever, it's like, okay, where's the next car to pass? Right. Like, give me, give me a car. Oh, there's a car up there.
SPEAKER_02We're gonna blast past right. Oh, I can get up there real quick.
SPEAKER_01Whereas on the Halcyon, the what I mean by the bandwidth being broader is you are enjoying more of the experience, whether you're on a gravel road or in the city or on the two-lane country road. Right. You're it you enjoy more of it. And part of that is the seating position. You're upright, you can see, you can physically see more. And I didn't notice that on the KLR. That was the main thing I noticed is I was like, I felt like I was in a recliner, like the hands are up here, really comfortable. There's no weight on them, like on the Ducati. It's got a nice seat that you're relatively comfortable on. The foot position is like it's not forward controls, but it's not like rear sets. Um, and and also the way that the bike handles, like on a KLR, like one of my favorite things to do is to kind of go like this in the road in your lane, and the whole bike kind of bounces from one side to the other, and you gotta hop. When you do it on the ducati, it's just like this. It's just like it just carves. It's like a scene. It's not really that fun. I mean, it's fun going through a corner, but when you're doing that on a on the Ducati, it's like it wants to lean further. Yeah, yeah. And it just doesn't have that experience, and it's not as nimble. Yeah, it's not actually. I mean, the turning radius on it is hilarious. That's really interesting. It's like I think an F-150 can turn around in a smaller circle than it would be.
SPEAKER_02That's it right now.
SPEAKER_01At least this the 750. Yeah. Um, where then, of course, you have the halcyon that just goes very tight turning radius. Right. Same with a KLR. Um, but uh in general, I think that the the the range of experience that you can enjoy on it is wider. Now, what's interesting is that yeah, I think a lot of people would say that it's the use case, if they didn't, if they haven't ridden one, is very limited because you only get to use it when you're not going planning on going fast. And I've just experienced like it takes me quite a while to get to the point where I need where I can go fast enough to take advantage of the Ducati. Yeah, when you're rumbling around town, it's kind of cool because it's really loud and but it's it's also just not very happy in it's increment, it's extremely never gonna first gear.
SPEAKER_02Right. And what's the point other than being like yo, looking cool, right? But you look cool on a GS too.
SPEAKER_01Right. Um, no, let's talk about the KLR, which you mentioned earlier is kind of like a jack of all trades. Everything bike. I I I joke about the KLR that it's pretty good at everything and not very good at anything.
SPEAKER_02Right?
SPEAKER_01What uh it's first of all, it's not pretty. It's a jack of all trades, master of none. It's it's pretty dumpy looking. I mean, I find them attractive in a sort of loving way. I'll like a bless your heart kind of way. Uh bless your heart, but also kind of it's like a fine wine. You it takes a specific taste that you develop over a long period of time.
SPEAKER_02Um that's a really nice way of saying it's ugly. But it's not designed to be pretty. Right, right. It's utilitarian.
SPEAKER_01Whereas the Ducati is just even the Pierre Treblanche bubble uh plastics that I have are it's beautiful. It's it's literally has hips. Like the under the seat, it has these like like swells that come back to the tail light. Uh-huh. And if you open the seat, there's no purpose to those things. There is not a storage compartment, there's no wiring. It's literally just to get good.
SPEAKER_02It's like a didn't he explain I can't remember one of his one of the designs that he made. It was like he made it to look like a woman.
SPEAKER_01Well, these definitely have the base of it. Very curvy, curvaceous lines.
SPEAKER_02Um yeah, well, it's it's interesting. What am I even to say voluptuous? Ah, well, that's a that's an adjective.
SPEAKER_01But you cannot, and then the halcyon, we all know from the look at the comments, like take one out on, put it in the back of your pickup truck, and you're gonna be stopped. Stop at a gas station. Everyone just finds it beautiful, right? Um, and I'm not just trumping our own horn when I say that. They are be pretty, they're bikes that are designed to look as good as they ride. Right. Um the KLR. Doesn't look like they did not put any. I can't imagine they put much thought into the way it looks. Yeah. And if they did, it was sort of like, well, maybe it looks a little bit more like a BMW if we put like the angle kind of mean looking lights on the gen two. Yeah, it feels like what RVs are. But the Gen 1s, like, it's just like the most practical possible clothing. And there's a certain beauty in that. Right. But I think um it does fulfill a very certain kind of riding, but it but it it too has a wide bandwidth that it encompasses.
SPEAKER_02Um so I mean we come back to the original question then, right? Like, can a motorcycle have too many jobs? Because you're describing the KLR and it's saying you're saying, like, yeah, it's it's all right at everything, uh, but not great at no anything.
SPEAKER_01Is that really good off-road? It's not really good on the asphalt. But it's pretty good at both those.
SPEAKER_02What do you lose then because of that, besides just looks?
SPEAKER_01Well, you lose power. You it's it it not only is it pretty low power, it's reasonably heavy compared to a Halcyon. Um, you don't get the aesthetics. Nobody's like gonna stop you and flag you down on a KLR. Um, unless they're like a KLR fan. Like, so if I see a KR, I'm like, look, there's a KLR. It's a Gen 1. I see it. I love that color scheme. Respect you, man. Um, but that's a separate thing. Right, right. Um, whereas there's a kind of a universal language of beauty that non-motorcyclists, when they see a certain kind of bike, they're gonna go, oh, look at that.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_01And that's what a Janice tries to hone in on.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_01And it's also what a Janus in the the ride is something that's like, we're trying to make a bike that for the kind of riding that we do most of the time, that's where its powerband is. That's the perfect motorcycle for that. That's its thing. It's good at where we try and ride. And it and if we were to try and make a halcyon that was good at everything, so uh heavier for wind, more powerful for the highway, lightweight for uh ease of you know riding and moving around, and nimble and hardtailed because this, and soft tailed because this, then you'd end up with the crossover, the Ferrari Luce of um the crossover SUV, it's kind of lifeless like KLR, which I'm not knocking the KLR, but it it it it you get bogged down with practicality. And guess what? We're not designing motorcycles to be practical, we're designing them to be thrilling because like we were. Talking about in the pre ramble, one of the reasons we was it just the pre-ramble we were talking about the well like the idea that the um that was brought up in the chat of oh no it was the it was here it was here yeah the idea having a bad tool doing a different job is that what you're talking about uh well the idea that the yeah the the voicemail the idea of oh yeah of um recruit of a vehicle for practical reasons like at least we're we're not designing a bike to be necessarily practical we're trying to design it to be this thing that's uh that that enhances the experience of rambling right does that make sense?
SPEAKER_02Yeah that makes a lot of sense and and I I am a firm believer that uh we have the most fun on vehicles that have an intentional purpose behind them. Uh I think Ducades do a great job with that. I think Janice does a great job at that. Like I think there are a few motorcycles that have a uh the ability to say this is what I'm good at and I'm not mad about it. I would even say the the 10-year uh the Yamaha 10 year 700, like I think that's a as far as an adventure bike goes, that's that's the most like hey, I'm kind of like those guys say they're adventure bikes. I am an adventure bike. Like that's my view on it, and that's why it's so popular.
SPEAKER_01Right. Um so I think you can the GS, the B the big giant BWGS, is like people make fun of GS riders, like, oh well, they're never taking them off-road. Well, that's not what most of them are doing, right? They're taking them on gravel. It is a bike that it's like an it's like an SUV or a or a truck in the sense that you can blast down the highway in perfect comfortable comfort with your cruise control, or you can go on a rocky road. And some people, if they have a lot of skill, can take it in more off-road scenarios, but you're that's a big bike. A heavy, a heavy motorcycle in tight corners it has its own bandwidth for a specific kind of riding. Right. And our argument that will that I'm gonna stick by is that we're trying to make a motorcycle that that opens the fun of riding to all of us in our everyday. So it takes this thrilling leisure activity and makes it more universal. Yeah. Um, I say the same thing about I mean, I've said mentioned this before, but like do you want a really big sailboat that can sail across the Atlantic Ocean? Or do you want a little dinghy that you can throw in the water on a weekend? Which one do you think you're gonna sail more? Right. Which one are you gonna have more adventures on?
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_01It's a pretty, I mean, it's almost self-evident the answer to that question. Right. Um so that's the reason we do it. But any off of just Janice, this idea of sh can a bike do too many things? I think they can.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think so too. Um and that's why we all need to have multiple bikes that do different things. Anyway, we've it's been a pleasure having all of you all on, and may your garages grow larger.
SPEAKER_02With tools with purpose. Uh yes. We'll see you next week. We'll see you next week.
SPEAKER_01For episode 134. See you then. 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.