Danger Dan Hardick | Custom Bikes, Shop Life & Real Motorcycle Talk

ShopTalk Episode 331 brings the heat with special guest Danger Dan Hardick—motorcycle lifer, shop owner, podcast host, and all-around solid human. As the voice behind Danger Dan’s Talk Shop and the founder of MC ShopT’s, Dan knows the grind of shop life, the culture behind the builds, and what it takes to survive in the motorcycle industry.

We also break down a killer custom motorcycle built by Jesse Srpan of Raw Iron Choppers, dive into shop culture, custom bikes, the business side of motorcycles, and stack the episode with the kind of unfiltered, no-BS conversation that’s made ShopTalk America’s first and favorite motorcycle talk show.

If you’re into custom choppers, real shop talk, motorcycle culture, and unscripted conversations, this episode is built for you.

🔥 Custom motorcycles & choppers
🔥 Motorcycle shop life & industry insight
🔥 No scripts. No filters. Just bikes.

Transcript

SPEAKER_10: 1:06

Oh my goodness. X AN, the man. Magger Bader in the house. Full Thronal magazine. What's up, dude? We are coming to your neighborhood so close from now. La and da bears? Oh man, you guys. Nick Hildebrittle in the house. Hey, listen, man, I'm not sure who made it across the line first tonight. You guys gotta help me out. Who's in first? My my chat thing screwed me, so. Evil, evil Rick is here behind Rudy's fairy. What's up, everybody? Are you guys watching football? Don't talk at football bullshit right now. It's time for motorcycles. Oh. Oh, but I know a little girl in the studio that's hoping that uh some nasty boys from the New England area win tonight.

SPEAKER_08: 1:53

Are they playing tonight?

SPEAKER_10: 1:55

Yep. Yeah, too late for you to call in. Big in the house. What's up, buddy? Who was in first tonight? Heather, you know. X-In? Uh-huh. Right on. Jason Holm and Dub Bears. Dub and now I get it. Duh Bears. Mark, did you see what he did there?

SPEAKER_08: 2:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_10: 2:18

Dub Bears.

SPEAKER_08: 2:19

Tom Banks is in the house.

SPEAKER_10: 2:21

Hey, Mr. Banks. Good to see you, buddy. So we got a killer show tonight, man. Um, unexpectedly, we managed at the last minute to get the first half of our year in review winners. So we're gonna be doing some announcements.

SPEAKER_08: 2:35

Nobody's more surprised than Chris.

SPEAKER_10: 2:37

Yeah, honestly, and I'm the one that did the fucking videos. It was touch and go in the studio today, boy. God. New England won. It's already over. Aww. Oh Heather. Heather. Here, that's a little love from Pittsburgh. Paul Adams, Fort City, checking in. Hope you're uns is staying warm. Listen, it's cold, buddy. It's cold here. Jason Holman unexpectedly. Yeah, that's right. That's how it goes sometimes. Look, we got Danger Dan coming in tonight. If you guys have not spent time with this cat, he is one of my favorite dudes to talk to on the planet in the motorcycle world. Awful lot of fun. And when you get to be with him in person, always a character. Barbie the Welders here, hey, from Daytona. Minnesota's colder. You got that shit right. We ain't even tough enough to talk about that. People up there, they say people are protesting in Minnesota over some political boy. It ain't it has nothing to do with politics. They're protesting because it's so goddamn cold Minnesota. Telling you right now. We got a minute and 21, and we're going live with this one. But it's uh, this is what you can do for us, man. If you want to help out here, we're on episode number 321 of this fine 330. I'm sorry. Of this fine Sunday night show that we do. Um, you can help out by sharing it while you're waiting for us to start this show. Take the link, share it onto your Facebook page, share it on your YouTube page, tell everybody we're going live with Chop Talk, like we do every Sunday at 9 p.m. And then grab a drink, kick back, relax, get ready. We're one minute away. One minute until we go live with this week's episode of America's first and favorite two-wheel motorcycle talk show. 35 seconds? Is it time? Do we do we dare? Are we ready? We ready to do this? Alright, let's get this one on the station up on the tracks. Let's go live with this week's episode of Jump Talk.

SPEAKER_07: 4:47

Every week, the lights with miners, builders, legends, and celebrities bringing you long stories, wild rides, and real talk from the road in the garage. Custom builds to killer events. We're covering the culture that keeps your videos cutting through the week. New episodes drop every Sunday. Watch on YouTube or listen wherever you get your podcast. This is more than a show. It's the sound of wrenches, the times, and the open road. This is Top Talk. Now available on Cycle Source TV through Roku, Fire Stick, Apple TV, Android TV, iOS, and Android.

SPEAKER_10: 5:27

Okay, scooter tramps and chopper jockeys all across the land. It is just after 9 p.m. A couple minutes. Um listen, even more surprised than me getting all the videos done for the first half of the year in review is the fact that we made it here by 9.04, because that was even a bigger feat. But I am Chris Cowell with Cycle Source Magazine and be your host for the next 90 to 120 minutes, all the two-wheel bullshit we can fit. Doug Robinson in the house, Josh Collins, Lisa Bobo, so many people here tonight. It's crazy. Off the hook, even my crew has showed updy in the cold studio. Did Holman have the audacity to say it was 59 degrees? I know he's like it's frigid down here. Isn't he from up here? Where are you from Detroit? You better straighten up, man. People from Detroit right now going, man, the next time he comes home to visit that bitch in a ball spot ass.

SPEAKER_08: 6:19

Did you see FU Bob's here?

SPEAKER_10: 6:21

F you Bob, shut up.

SPEAKER_08: 6:22

Few Bob is here.

SPEAKER_10: 6:24

So I gotta tell you about F you Bob. Oh boy.

SPEAKER_08: 6:27

That's not actually his name.

SPEAKER_10: 6:28

You know how sometimes a guy will be hanging around and he comes in with his uh a nickname that either he gave himself or somebody else gave him.

SPEAKER_03: 6:37

Shut up.

SPEAKER_10: 6:43

Oh here we go. You're gonna ruin my punchline, goddammit. Yeah. Well, like our here is an example, our boy Worm. When Wormfro showed up, we was like, look, worm doesn't worm doesn't really fit you, man. We're gonna call you Roach, because Roach at the time, Roach fit him much better than Worm. Later on, we would have discovered that Worm was perfect. Worm through and through, poor boy. But F you Bob, when we first met him, people gave had given him the name of A B Bob. And I was like, A B Bob. And I said, I took a guy aside. I said, Hey Tom, what is A B about? And he goes, anal B. And he started trying to tell me the reason behind that. And I said, Yeah, that's I don't even I don't even want to hear nothing. I don't want to hear nothing. Like don't get way too much information.

SPEAKER_08: 7:33

Oh, is anybody else hearing an echo? Poppy says he's got an echo. Anybody else? I don't have one.

SPEAKER_10: 7:40

We don't have one on the There's nothing nothing on the studio monitor, so waiting three, two, one about the echo. No.

SPEAKER_08: 7:50

Anyone?

SPEAKER_10: 7:52

And we're off. Steve says it's gone. Glad you fixed that. Scooter.

SPEAKER_08: 8:00

Scooter? Let me tell you what happened.

SPEAKER_10: 8:02

I love I love Poppy, but I do shit like this too. Here's what happened. Poppy had his phone and his TV going at the same time. It wasn't an echo, goddammit. You had two things running. Okay.

SPEAKER_08: 8:14

So I totally so today my phone rings, right? It's Amelia. And he's trying to answer it with his headset.

SPEAKER_10: 8:21

Nice.

SPEAKER_08: 8:22

He's trying to answer my phone with his headset.

SPEAKER_10: 8:25

I can't believe you just pulled me, pull me down right there.

SPEAKER_08: 8:29

He's like, what the F? Why isn't this stupid thing working? I'm like, um, because it's my phone.

SPEAKER_10: 8:34

Yeah, that's right. So let's go back to A B Bob. So they're trying to explain to me what the anal bead thing is.

SPEAKER_08: 8:41

I do know the story.

SPEAKER_10: 8:42

I'm not down for that. I don't care. Do you want to tell everybody what was A B Bob?

SPEAKER_08: 8:46

It's because he had one of those seats with the wooden rolly balls on it, and it came undone while he was going down the remote.

SPEAKER_10: 8:53

My point is no grown man should call another grown man anal bead anything unless that's not somebody you hang out with all the time.

SPEAKER_08: 8:59

So F you Bob is so much better.

SPEAKER_10: 9:03

It fits better.

SPEAKER_08: 9:04

Poor Bob.

SPEAKER_10: 9:05

So anyway, um, we changed his name to F U Bob. Because I was like, look, you know, those guys that try to get give you the anal bead name, you gotta tell them to fuck themselves. Uh big D in the house. It's good to see all you guys. Like I said, it's gonna be a great show. Dan's here with us. Um looking forward to it. Dan's Dan's always entertaining. Right.

SPEAKER_02: 9:26

Even in the pre-show, man, just like hanging talking with him is great. He's like one of the greatest people to spend an afternoon with. He's so much fun.

SPEAKER_10: 9:33

So we were talking, he's he's fresh back from a buffalo hunt. This dude has like this is this is the Ted Nugent of the new generation, right? My man, like more adventures than you even know what to do with. But uh, we're gonna be talking with him. It's snowing outside here, so the only thing we got going on is stuff inside the garage, which is exactly what you should be doing too, because Daytona is super, super early this year and we're super super late. Tim Stall asked the question who's gonna be riding choppers this summer? All of us. All of us.

SPEAKER_08: 10:13

Choppers forever.

SPEAKER_10: 10:15

Or for now.

SPEAKER_08: 10:16

Tim Stall likes your cool glasses, Mark.

SPEAKER_10: 10:18

My cool glasses?

SPEAKER_08: 10:19

Yeah. They look like sunglasses when you're looking down because you're at that.

SPEAKER_10: 10:23

That's good. F you Bob cab driver seat.

SPEAKER_08: 10:27

Oh, Kelly Chavez from Costa Rica's in the house. Hey Kelly, thank you so much for watching.

SPEAKER_02: 10:32

We should do a show from her place.

SPEAKER_10: 10:33

Oh shit. Hey, so listen, we are doing a show here from Street Level, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the headquarters of Cycle Source magazine. Um, in print officially, this issue that we're working on right now marks the complete bookend of 29 years. So we are, and again, nobody's more surprised than me.

SPEAKER_02: 10:56

But um the definition of insanity.

SPEAKER_08: 10:59

Yeah, I'm gonna I'm gonna brag on you just for a little bit. Uh button. I have to, I have to, because 29 years, you've never through COVID, through the ups and downs of the newsstand, you've never even thought about going out of print.

SPEAKER_10: 11:14

Oh no, I've thought about going out of print. Every single issue. Every single issue. Yeah, 27 years ago. Let me tell you, let me tell you, in there between year eight and year nine, when we were rolling change and shit and rolling drunks. Wow. Oh my god. I just said that out loud. Tim Tim Stall's coming to visit this week.

SPEAKER_03: 11:39

Come on up, what do you think right on? Very good.

SPEAKER_10: 11:42

So, yeah, 29 years this year, and uh every year since 2007, when we started it, we do a whole issue dedicated to looking back. You know, it's called the year in review issue. We give awards for the best of the year. We do the whole deal, and uh tonight we have announcements to make on your choices for some of the best of awards. Now, the way we do this, we ask you to make the nomination. So we give a whole month of you guys making nominations for best man, woman, artist, builder, everything, right? Then we put it all out on social media in the magazine, and we let you guys vote. We get that whole month. After that month, we tally up the votes, we decide who uh who won. And uh we do a write-up, we put it in the magazine, and we are gonna start the show off right now by doing two of these awards. We're gonna do Man of the Year and Woman of the Year before we have our guest on. So this year's 2025, the best of the motorcycle industry by you, the Cyclesource magazine readers. Let's start with Man of the Year.

SPEAKER_00: 12:56

John Jessup is one of those builders who lets the work do the talking. For the past six years, he's led a bicycle drive that has put thousands of kids on two wheels, proving his impact reaches far beyond motorcycles. That same vision, hustle, and heart have helped build dream rides into a standout dealership, earning Jessup the Drag Specialties Dealer of the Year honor. Those achievements, both in business and in giving back to the community, reflect what this industry is truly about. For those reasons, John Jessup is being recognized as the 2025 Cycle Source Reader's Man of the Year in Motorcycling.

SPEAKER_10: 13:39

John Jessup, ladies and gentlemen, couldn't couldn't think of somebody better for this award, honestly, because like you know, like we said, there with the bicycle drives and you know, just his story, like his backstory, man, about coming up, and you know, he has a very similar thing to me with the whole, you know, motorcycles kind of saved his life and motorcycle people, and really, really good to be able to announce that. It fits. Yep. So let's do one of the year? Yes. You guys are killing me tonight. Sorry. Somebody say something.

SPEAKER_08: 14:13

Oh, big Matt noticed that we have uh a padded room with a blue glow tonight. I said the lights are new, the padding on the walls is necessary most times.

SPEAKER_02: 14:23

Yeah, that pad's been following us around for years. You guys are too 29 years, padded room. 25, woman of the year.

SPEAKER_00: 14:43

After a life-changing near-miss on the road, Alicia turned her experience into purpose, creating riding apparel that blends visibility, safety, and style. Beyond her brand, she has been an active voice in the riding community, inspiring women and riders of all backgrounds while showing what modern motorcycling can look like. For all of these reasons, we are proud to announce Alicia Nori as the 2025 Cycle Source Reader's Woman of the Year.

SPEAKER_08: 15:16

So Alicia, I don't, I think I've met her in passing once or twice, but she's even cooler than I thought. Like to take what could have been a tragedy tragedy and turn it into something that's stylish and cool, like and will save your life, I think that's pretty rad.

SPEAKER_02: 15:33

Yeah, most people would have most people would have walked away and she pushed forward and made a difference.

SPEAKER_08: 15:38

Yeah, and literally helped others. Yep. And it's actually kind of cool. Like a lot of times you see that safety orange with the white stripes really cool.

SPEAKER_10: 15:49

So listen, man, we have four more of those that we're gonna do throughout the night. Um, maybe we'll do some with Dan when he comes on. Oh, cool. Get him get his take on some of this stuff. Um, but like I said, this is half of them. We're gonna do half next week. And then if you want to see the full list of awards and you know everything that we say about the the year that was 2025 in the motorcycle industry, the magazine will be on the newsstand shortly. It'll be almost immediately by next week. It'll be hitting mailboxes of subscribers, which you should be. Yes, if the post office.com. Um so yeah, Shop Talk. Every Sunday, 9 p.m., we go live with this show. Appreciate you guys being here. We start the whole thing off the way we do every week with a little thing we call Dundu. This is so sad to talk about, man. Like one of our very first friends inside on the inside of Capitol Hill with the government, Ben Knighthorse Campbell, is has passed away. And I I didn't even know this happened, man. Heather told me about it. So the AMA announced uh the and the morning of and death of Senator Ben Knighthorse Campbell at the age 92 and highlights his introduction to AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame for his longstanding support of motorcycle and riders' rights. Like I can't even tell you how many times throughout the years his name came up. Every time there was a subject about motorcycle rights that was going through Congress. This cat was always on our side.

SPEAKER_02: 17:30

They didn't even know him. Nobody even you know the guy wasn't super popular. That's the weird part about it.

SPEAKER_10: 17:37

Right on. So moving on to the Cycle Source Magazine news blog, Harley Davidson debuts new 26 Grand American Touring Trike, Adventure, and Custom Vehicle Operations Motorcycles. Jesus. That was a long title. That was like an entire can of alphabet soup.

SPEAKER_08: 17:58

What the hell? What do you think about the city?

SPEAKER_02: 18:00

Touring and adventure vehicles.

SPEAKER_08: 18:02

They released a whole bunch of cool new stuff this year.

SPEAKER_02: 18:04

Yeah, what an adventure vehicle. Is that you just you you summed it up just like that?

SPEAKER_08: 18:08

That's it, other that's the gist of it.

SPEAKER_10: 18:10

I'd like a I'd like an adventure vehicle. So expanded 26 model lineup, Harley Davidson unveiled 13 new motorcycles for 26, including evolved Grand American touring bikes, like the Street Glide Limited, Rogue Glide Limited Plus, new trike models, and you know what's funny about that? There was a lot of people, I guess, talking about how they weren't gonna do the trike this year. You know, and some people even saying it, oh, you know, they were bitching ahead of time, like it's bullshit that Harley's not doing that, and then they come out and it's like so.

SPEAKER_08: 18:40

I still want to know when they're gonna introduce a true entry-level motorcycle. Like, I'm waiting for that. I'm hoping that's a good one. Don't you bait me?

SPEAKER_10: 18:49

Don't you bait me on this?

SPEAKER_08: 18:50

No, I gotta say, I'm really hoping that's something that Artie gets to push push through. Like they need an they need an entry-level motorcycle.

SPEAKER_10: 19:00

I'm gonna put it out there again that like we're waiting to have an interview with Artie. The new head man over at Harley Davidson. I hear that he's he's doing amazing things. He's got a lot of stuff, you know, in the pocket, ready to go. Um we're pooling for you. We want to see good things come out of Harley Davidson.

SPEAKER_08: 19:19

I think one of the hardest things is everybody is so excited at the potential change that he could bring that we forget he's only been there for like not even three months yet, I think.

SPEAKER_02: 19:31

Yeah, they built him up so much.

SPEAKER_08: 19:33

Yeah, and we're all just well, and he's just already so much better than Jay-Z. I'm sorry. He just is.

SPEAKER_10: 19:39

All right, this last piece coming in from the um motorcycle power sports news, and this is about the National Motorcycle Safety Fund offering ten grants of five thousand dollars each for projects that could enhance the safety of motorcycles. Not even uh sure how I feel about that. I don't know if I want motorcycles to be more safe, but

SPEAKER_08: 20:00

I think it also applies to things like Alicia did with peripheral apparel. I think that would be a great candidate.

SPEAKER_10: 20:09

Okay, I guess you got me there, Heather. You got me there. Uh the National Motorcycle Safety Fund is offering 10 grants, 5,000 each for projects, enhancing motorcycle safety. Applications open through March 31st. Funding can support various efforts from rider safety and education, increasing awareness among car and truck drivers, projects benefiting veterans, helping broken motorcycle safety impact, and on.

SPEAKER_02: 20:32

So in other words, you said that they're gonna want to put a seatbelt in the motorcycle. Real nice.

SPEAKER_10: 20:36

I think this is the sticker program. This is where all those stickers come from. The look twice. Oh, yeah, got them.

SPEAKER_02: 20:42

It's possible, but it's possible. You may have a point there.

SPEAKER_10: 20:45

Hey, listen, man. The show rolls on. We got Danger Dan in the house. The man, Danger Dan, getting ready to come on shop talk with us and talk.

SPEAKER_02: 20:54

And he was saying that when we were on the pre-show, he was saying that all of his bikes are broken. Show that picture again.

SPEAKER_10: 21:02

I wonder why that is. No idea.

SPEAKER_02: 21:05

This motherfucker rides. He doesn't play no games. That's for damn sure.

SPEAKER_10: 21:08

Anything he's riding, dude. If it's not straight up and down, it's nose in the ground.

SPEAKER_02: 21:13

It's not doing it right.

SPEAKER_10: 21:14

We're gonna check out a feature bike real quick. When we come back on the other side, Dan is waiting in the wings to come on this show and talk to you guys. So get ready. You're watching Shop Talk here on the Dennis Kirk Motorcycle Studio Network. Don't go anywhere. We're gonna be right back after this feature bike.

SPEAKER_07: 21:30

Out of Focus is brought to you by Garage Build. Submit your build. Share your passion. Powered by Dennis Kirk.

SPEAKER_01: 21:57

My name is Jesse Serpan. I own raw iron choppers located out of Perry, Ohio. It's about 35 minutes east of Cleveland, Ohio. This bike's got a cool story behind it. The motor was a 93-inch S crate motor, and that motor actually was out of the 2014 Discovery bike. And the whole reason it ended up in this bike was I went out of Daytona, I think, 2015, rode, got really busy, ran through seafog, and just let the bike sit for like eight or nine months. And you can imagine how it looked. It was it was just everything was just done, corroded, nasty. And then also the crazy thing is it's pretty close to original you know reproduction. The heads would leak like crazy. Um, so I I tore it down, re-powder coated top end, had Doug polish some stuff. So I wanted that motor. I really wanted to do something with a nuck that was like a skinny bike, a good feel. The trans is out of it. I wanted to do a hydraulic foot clutch, kind of the days of like no one really talks about. Indian Larry was doing hydraulic foot clutches in 2002, 2003, and I wanted to do that with some Brembo stuff, but the six speed's nice. It's like driving a Mac truck. I mean a four speed's nice, the sling gears, but that Franken tranny is pretty cool. But the whole thing about me with this bike is I wanted to build my first Springer. Uh, the only thing I used for designing the Springer was CAD just to get all the curves, but I drew everything out with a radius little finder and French curves, and I put it on a table and I just set bars there and I was like, yep, this looks cool, Rides was here. So I really did old school, and the mindset of that was like I didn't want technology. I kind of want to do like when I built this for what's the skinny from Michael's exhibit in 2019, I wanted to do it like old school. Grinders, band saws, hacksaws, you know. So it looks all machine, but I made the template, contact cemented it from uh CAD, and then I just cut it and I roughed it in and I sat there and I just ground it with a four-inch grinder and I took my uh drill press and all I did was just whittle this and clean it all up and match it, and then I did use a mill to plunge everything through, but that was the first springer ever built. The paint, Mike Valentine did from Val Air, I kind of did like the kind of like a cholo, kind of like the Dyna Bro look. I wanted something kind of different with it. I usually do silver leaf and striping, so I wanted something different. The part on here that's all at a 304 stainless and has a brass piece on it. That is actually the motor mount from the original Discovery bike. So that was the one piece I wanted to steal to put back on this bike just for like kind of a cool factor and ask have people ask why that's randomly on there because it doesn't match any any other part of the bike. But uh the knobbies, that was a Bill Dodge thing. I was like, let's try it. It sounds like there's a freaking four-wheeler behind me every time I ride. I just hear just drone sounds, so it's something kind of different, you know, but uh just clean, simple. I I wanted it kind of like a Schwin bicycle, I wanted uh no levers, no anything. That dental mirror is Harbor Freight. I snip the end of it off, put a set screw in a bolt, and I just use that just to say I got a mirror. But besides that, man, I just just clean and simple. That's all the bike was about. And you know, um never wrap my pipes, I very rarely do that, but I just wanted something kind of cool. Um, I didn't want the pipes to take away from all of the tubing work and stuff. So rides good, strong as can be, and uh, you know, it's fun as fun as possible, man. My name is Jesse Serpan. This is Raw Iron Choppers, located out of Perry, Ohio, and I'm a Dennis Kirk garage builder.

SPEAKER_09: 25:38

In a world full of ordinary, there's still a place where motorcycles are built with soul, where craftsmanship matters, where every bike is a story waiting to be told. And in 2026, Cycles Showcase St. Louis returns to where it all began: the pageant. The original home of this now iconic show. Every machine handpicked, every build a masterpiece of design, engineering, and passion. It's not just a show, it's a gathering, a chance to meet the makers, hear their stories, and feel the heartbeat of true motorcycle culture. Motorcycles, art, community. All under one legendary roof. Cycle Showcase St. Louis, February 7th and 8th, 2026. Back at the pageant. Celebrate the art of the motorcycle.

SPEAKER_10: 26:32

Of the trash, trust performance, you're watching Shop Talk.

SPEAKER_06: 26:36

All right. Yeah, man, so excited.

SPEAKER_02: 26:43

Got a new build?

SPEAKER_06: 26:44

I do. It's uh it's a you follow yappy?

SPEAKER_10: 26:48

No, I've never met the guy. But I do know you can uh get all of his uh products at Dennis Kirk.com. There you go. Just me? Awesome. Thanks, brother. Appreciate you. Have a good one.

SPEAKER_06: 27:00

Listen to not Paul Yaffi. Get all your Bagger Nation products right now at Dennis Kirk.com.

SPEAKER_10: 27:06

Okay, welcome back to the Dennis Kirk Motorcycle Studio. You are watching Shop Talk here in Cycles Magazine headquarters, street level in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. And uh one step. Just one step, that's it. Up one step. One step. One step. It's cold as hell tonight, but um we're gonna do a shameless plug real quick. What? I know, yeah. It's just one quick shameless plug. Um that video that you saw Jesse Serpan and his killer knucklehead, that is part of uh we went up and spent a whole day with Jesse and we did a a um shop hop and episode with him. And you can see right now on Cycle Source TV that is set to go in 11 hours, 33 minutes, and 44 seconds. Um that's exciting. Pretty great thing about you know, about a 45-minute program that that we go through a bunch of Jesse's past and you know how he came up. Like there was a time where that cat was what 15 years old and he was out, you know, showing motorcycles that he was building, teaching welding classes by the time he was 18 or some shit like that.

SPEAKER_02: 28:07

How cool is it? He's still, I mean, in all reality, considered a young builder, and already he's using, you know, he can name drop all he wants if he does it like that. Indian Larry, the hydraulic clutch, yeah, yeah. Bill Dodge, like to take all that and build a bike by hand with no big technology. That's huge. I mean, that's super cool for a young guy like him, you know, that's still making a difference showing that you can still do it with a hand grinder, you know.

SPEAKER_08: 28:33

Big Rick is here. Oh, Rick, that makes me so happy.

SPEAKER_10: 28:37

Dude, so glad to see you on. Um, so yeah, listen, man, tonight's guest you know, doesn't need my introduction at all. He is rather infamous, accomplished on track, off track, on the seat of the motorcycle, over the handlebars, right, on the ground. But uh the the world famous traveling, world roaming, danger Dan. Let's get him on. Dan, what's up, man? How are you guys doing tonight?

SPEAKER_08: 29:12

Dude, hi Dan.

SPEAKER_10: 29:14

I'm jealous because I want to I want a buffalo hunt. I want to do buffalo hunting.

SPEAKER_12: 29:20

I know a spot.

SPEAKER_10: 29:24

Dude, earlier we were getting Dan ready in in uh pre-show, and he said, I said, what are you what are you up to? And he goes, Oh, nothing, man. You know, it's winter. And I'm like, there is no winter in Texas. There's not winter. And then I then I think about like it actually gets it actually gets cold enough there to piss you off. Yeah.

SPEAKER_14: 29:43

Yeah, absolutely it does. Today was beautiful though. I mean, the last week has been beautiful. Uh, we got a little cold snap. It just comes in to remind us that it's winter every once in a while.

SPEAKER_02: 29:53

Yeah, yeah, just let you know. Still has control.

SPEAKER_12: 29:56

But I get out. Uh, you know, I don't spend the whole winter in Texas. So I experience it a little bit.

SPEAKER_02: 30:02

Yeah, you're never in the same place too long. So, I mean, weather-wise doesn't really matter to you.

SPEAKER_12: 30:08

No, no, I'm moving.

SPEAKER_10: 30:11

So, what's what's the uh what's the latest adventure?

SPEAKER_14: 30:15

The latest adventure, man. I'm really uh I've been around the house pretty much all year, you know? Uh getting ready for 26. I've been putting dates on the calendar for the I'm gonna do the international kickstar competition again this year. Uh all over the country. I'd love to get um your event in September on the lineup too and bring the winner to Texas to compete in the grand finale if you're good with that.

SPEAKER_10: 30:41

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_14: 30:42

Oh, that'd be awesome.

SPEAKER_10: 30:43

Um hey, is there so what what goes on with you around that time of year this year? What's your schedule look like?

SPEAKER_08: 30:51

Yes, I ask every year.

SPEAKER_10: 30:53

I would I would love it.

SPEAKER_14: 30:54

I've only done party at the pin once. Uh this last year I did the the Trans-America motorcycle run. Well, trans motorcycle Trans-America endurance one, which was fucking incredible. We were talking about Kansas earlier. Uh, riding across Kansas on a hundred-year-old motorcycle was fucking incredible.

SPEAKER_10: 31:15

See, and that would be a completely different story.

SPEAKER_14: 31:18

It was, dude, rolling into Dodge City. Yeah, uh, dude, it was it was so good. Whose bike were you on? Kelly Modland, he's got this sick motorcycle museum, and I think it's in Augusta. Yeah, I think that's right. Augusta. Dude, it was incredible. Yeah. And the whole fucking competition distributing racing team, Tom Banks, Wingman, G Man.

SPEAKER_10: 31:42

G, huh? Dude, G, G's my boy. Now you're talking, now you're talking homeschool here, but yeah. G is my man. That is our dude.

SPEAKER_14: 31:51

Dude, we had so much fucking fun on that trip. It really, you know, I definitely underestimated. Like, I knew it was going to be fun. We're riding motorcycles coast to coast. Um, I never thought about going 45 miles an hour one day.

SPEAKER_05: 32:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_14: 32:08

That kind of set in after a day or two. Like, okay, this is this is a different pace. Uh, doing it with G-Man right next to me, man, was fucking so we had so much fun, dude. He was cracking me up the whole time.

SPEAKER_10: 32:19

Dude, and his knowledge, like the amount of knowledge that cat carries around in his skull is incredible.

SPEAKER_14: 32:24

Oh, him and everybody on that run. And what was really cool was like how helpful everybody was, you know, like if I was fixing something, they wouldn't come over and tell me I was doing it wrong. They would just let me do it wrong until I asked, how do I do it right? And then they would jump through hoops, not only to tell me how to, you know, time the magnet, whatever it was, they would take their time, they would draw a diagram out to show me how the charging system works, just to like make sure that not that I didn't ask them again, but just to hopefully I would retain the information because they genuinely cared about that information, you know, being carried on. Right. Uh the guys that were out there were I mean, they were all wrenches in their own right to some degree, whether they were riding or even the people driving the chase vehicles. There was so much knowledge, and I learned I learned so much on that trip. Uh I can't yeah, I can't express how fortunate I was and like you know, that was a special trip.

SPEAKER_02: 33:19

You took my question away because I was gonna ask you, you know, normally you're doing 140 mile an hour, questionably even on the seat of the bike at that point, yet to go, you know, flipping it to go with the competition, Tom Banks crew, the whole it's a whole different world. I was gonna ask, like, you know, what what was that?

SPEAKER_10: 33:38

What the what did you have extra time to do?

SPEAKER_02: 33:40

Yeah, like did you was there did it take you a minute to get used to that? Like, I mean, I can't even imagine.

SPEAKER_14: 33:45

G-Man, we were stopping for sandwiches and ice cream shops. You know, everybody was worried about getting to the next hotel each day. Me and George Banks were like just looking for the roadside attractions the whole way. Um, and and here's the thing is that bike I was on would fucking run. Yeah, you know, the first day, I'm me and George are fucking passing everybody, dude, just just just grinning at each other shoulder to shoulder. And finally, Bill Page came up to me and he was just kind of laughing. You know, he's in a a sidecar. He's got his daughter Amy with him, you know, powered by a JD. And he comes up to me and he's just smiling. I'd passed him like three times that day because we would pass everybody and then we'd fuck around somewhere and everybody'd pass us and then we'd pass them again. But Bill comes up to me, he's like, Yeah, man, these J models, they're fucking great. They'll, you know, they'll go fast, they'll go real fast. They just won't do it for 22 days. Yeah, right. Okay. We gotta slow her down because I want to make it to the end. I wanted to, you know, I was I was set on, you know, really I was just set on doing it. Uh but yeah, you want to make it to the end. And I was arrested after a few days, the bike was running right. And you know, it doesn't take much to fucking pull yourself out of that race by by going too fast, not paying attention, running over some shit. When you're going 40, you can easily get distracted by looking at shit and not worry about what's in front of you because you think, oh, you're only going 40 miles an hour. Like, there's what could you know what could possibly come? Famous lesson. Next thing you know, you're on the fucking tail of the dragon, dude. And there's like supercars fucking drifting into your lane, and I'm trying to drag pegs on a hundred-year-old Harley.

SPEAKER_10: 35:27

Yeah, right. Dude, usually when I say something like that, like, what could go wrong as slow as I'm going? Uh a deer will come out of the fucking trees punching a karate kid in the side of the dog. Yeah, like, and I'm like, really? I didn't even get the whole question out. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_14: 35:43

I had to watch out for G-Man's chain kept popping up like a fucking rattlesnake. Oh no shit. We're riding side by side and that thing just go rolling down the fucking road. Oh, whose bike were you on?

SPEAKER_08: 35:54

Was that yours?

SPEAKER_14: 35:57

My what?

SPEAKER_08: 35:58

The bike, the bike that you rode on the Trans Amos I think.

SPEAKER_14: 36:01

Oh no, that was Tom's bike. No, I do not have one of those. No, it's insane that Tom even let me ride that bike. Yeah, that's way that's nicer than all the bikes I own combined.

SPEAKER_10: 36:11

You know, you know, though, that's like honestly, dude, that's that's all about Tom because he's he's another one of those guys that he gets a lot of joy out of the stuff that he has by by other people's experience with it. You know what I mean? Like not only that, you know, you're a you're a freaking rider's rider.

SPEAKER_02: 36:29

You can ride anything. I mean, don't get me wrong, you're freaking psycho, but on the flip side of that, you have respect for you know, you know, the culture. And uh, I mean it's obvious he Tom sees that.

SPEAKER_14: 36:38

So Yeah, it's that, or either he felt bad. The first time he let me ride it, the fucking handlebars came out of the ditch. You know?

SPEAKER_02: 36:48

So he was that was payback, he was giving back. Well, dude.

SPEAKER_14: 36:53

So funny, we were laughing so hard. I felt so bad. I'm like, oh my god, he's never gonna let me ride this again, dude. You know, the bars come out, I'm trying to stab him in, and next thing you know, I'm fucking riding off into a ditch. He's behind me on his knucklehead, the bike's just like revving to the moon, I'm in shock. And put the handlebars back in it and rode it back to the shop.

SPEAKER_10: 37:15

I mean, one of the things you've really become synonymous with is like there's there's almost no challenge. You know, you've been on the track at Sunday speed, you know, no matter what motorcycle somebody gives you, yeah, like you you grab it and and and wail on it. Like, you know, when you said that about being in the ditch, I remember you at at TMMR on this motorcycle, and like, man, you you were really gonna prove to Harley Davidson whether their bike was worth the shit or not.

SPEAKER_14: 37:44

Dude, it's it's funny. So that story, so I run into that track. So I had just gotten that bike, I literally I rode it home, I took it apart, I fucking dropped it, I broke some shit, I took the tins to my friend and the plastics, and and I told my buddy Scott, you know, he's like, How much time do I have? And I was like, You got fucking 10 days, you know? And he's like, Yeah, I'm fucking right, you know. Anyways, he does it, I put it together, and I ride it to Tennessee. It was my first time to write it. And I uh and and I didn't enjoy it at all. I just kept thinking this is fucking retarded. And I'm like, I bet I can build a real cool chopper out of this.

SPEAKER_05: 38:21

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_14: 38:22

And I get to Tennessee, the Tennessee motorcycle music revival, the Red Lens Ranch, right? Legendary fucking dirt bike racing spot. And uh, you know, I'm pretty busy at this event, and it came to a point where I'm like, fuck it, I got some time. I'd been just kind of cruising around, and I and I cruised up to the Harley tent, and I was talking to one of the engineers, and he was like, uh, so what do you think of that thing? And I was like, I, you know, I I don't know, I haven't really got to use it, right? And at that same time, this guy on a Yamaha tenera, like he starts talking shit like off to the side, like you know, asking if I can keep up, you know, he's just egging me out. Look at this guy from Harley, I'm like, I'll be right back. I take off, and this dude takes me on some sick ass virus, and he keeps looking behind me, he's like, Holy fuck, you know, you're still there. Dude, uh, and I had so much fun. I was like, put the bike in its element, it did so funny. Yeah, and we get we pop out miles from the ranch and we get on the pavement, and I pull up next to that dude, and he's shaking his head, and then I just fucking gun it. And I'm like, Yeah, now you can't keep up. I just left him in the dust. I slow down, we get to the ranch, he pulls up, he's laughing, he takes me over to the dirt bike guys, he's bragging about the bike, you know. I'm kind of like, I'm fucking stoked, dude. Like, I'm really like that was the first ride I really got to try it out. And I'm pulling into the ranch and he's behind me, and all of a sudden this truck does something funny, and I he slows down, and I'm like, you know, like this bike can go around him real fast, and I got it, and then realize that he's turning. I gun it even more, the front wheel goes in the air and he fucking hits me or I hit him. Just smash that bike. You know, I get up and just take off running. I just assume it's fucking done. I come back around, the kids got it picked up, and I'm fucking like, holy shit. The guy's apologizing. I'm like, dude, that was my fault. He's got paper plates on his truck. I've got paper plates on the bike. So I get on that bike and I'm scared to even press the start button, dude. So I roll down the hill and I'm and I'm rolling right by that Harley Davidson tent and I look over, my arm's just bleeding. Oh yeah. The bike's not running. It's all fucked up. And that guy just looks at me like, oh, damn it, you know?

SPEAKER_13: 40:42

It was.

SPEAKER_14: 40:44

I get past the tent and I'm like, well, I need to know. Yeah. I hit the button and it fires right the fuck up. I'll just like so whose picture was it?

SPEAKER_10: 40:53

Was that a Michael Lichter picture of you with the blood on your arm and pushing out? Like somebody caught that regularly.

SPEAKER_14: 41:01

Yeah, Michael Lichter was right. Dude, I went and parked it at the river, and I literally just walked in fully clothed, and then some Indian lady came up to me and started pulling weeds out of the ground and sticking them on my arm and tying them on with a bandana. And then Lichter found me at the bar and just started taking photos, you know? And what's funny is like he was supposed to take a picture of that, like the first picture of that bike, you know, since I got it painted and brought it there the next day. And I'm like, well, fuck, I can't, you know. Crash car had bent the radiator hose into the exhaust. So I knew I couldn't ride like that all day long. So that night, fucking ZZ Top's on stage, and and I'm there with Josh Kerpius and my buddy Carlos, who now works at SpaceX. And I'm like, you know, we got to fix this bike. I gotta go ride tomorrow. And they're like, Josh is like, dude, this is this. You just bought a brand new bike. You can't just like fit, it's not like a chopper, you can't just fix these things on the side of the road. I'm like, no, fuck that. We're fixing this right now. And he's like, what are we gonna use? Like, what's in our hands? And I'm like, yeah, dude, and he's got a modello can. So we both those guys like make their own heat chills out of Modello cans. We fucking cram them on there, technique radiator, and and it was like that all the way to the bottom of South America, dude.

SPEAKER_10: 42:14

Wow, dude. You guys need to get a modello commercial for that. I can hear it, you know, with the Roger playing.

SPEAKER_03: 42:19

Doo-doo-doo doo doo.

SPEAKER_10: 42:21

So here's what I love about that, Mark. I love the fact that, like, in the middle of one of his stories, I get an image in my head of Jim Morrison doing peyote telling this story.

SPEAKER_05: 42:32

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_13: 42:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_10: 42:34

No shit. So listen, Tom Banks is on.

SPEAKER_13: 42:37

That's a bottle of peyote I brought back from Mexico last year.

SPEAKER_10: 42:40

Yeah. Tom Banks is on, and he says that you were actually the first person to ride the 21 coast to coast. The bike failed twice before. So you did it. You did it. That's it. I got lucky.

SPEAKER_14: 42:52

That fucker quit running as soon as I crossed that checkered flag. We couldn't get it started up again. Dude, that bike said we're fucking down. You know, oh my God.

SPEAKER_08: 42:59

But you made it across the line. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_10: 43:01

Oh, yeah, dude.

SPEAKER_14: 43:02

It was incredible. That whole thing was fucking incredible.

SPEAKER_10: 43:06

We we've been lucky enough over the years. Like we did uh for especially through COVID, we did like five different shows like this a week during COVID. And one of them was with the all the guys from the Cannonball and the Chase, and you know, Banks was part of all that stuff, and we got to interview a bunch of those guys, like one person at a time, you know, and just be in on those interviews and like listen to all their stories. And man, the the the commitment like you said about these guys wanting to see that knowledge go on and want because they know down to down to the thread pitch, man. They know everything about these motorcycles and like and they don't want anything to be easy, like Banks himself. Banks did the the the uh the not to cross country, he did the cannonball on a single, he pedaled a motorcycle across the fucking country. Yeah, that's insane, dude. That's love, that's what that is.

SPEAKER_14: 44:00

I gotta tell you a story because we were like three days from the end of that race. And Tom comes up to me, you know, and he's just smiling, he's hanging out of this van, and and he's like, Dan, you're fixing to make it all the way across the country. And I'm like, Well, shut the fuck up, Tom. I'm not there.

SPEAKER_05: 44:16

I'm not gonna boot it.

SPEAKER_14: 44:18

And he's like, No, man, like, you know, I tried to do it, man, and I brought some mechanics with me and an extra motor, and and I didn't make it. And then we we brought Jody along, and she brought some mechanics and and she didn't make it. And then, you know, you come along and you bring a photographer with a fucking espresso machine in his saddleback, and you continue to make it all the way across the country.

SPEAKER_02: 44:45

Oh my god, he's fucking killing, didn't he? That's funny. Hey, you know, if nothing else, you did it your way. Fuck that. Oh god, that's so good.

SPEAKER_08: 44:53

Just for the record, Tom says the bike's still not running. Still not running. I saw that.

SPEAKER_02: 44:57

Yeah, that's funny.

SPEAKER_08: 44:59

Still not running.

SPEAKER_02: 45:00

It made it. It made it though, Dan. You're golden.

SPEAKER_10: 45:02

I want to make sure everybody knows real quick, and then I'll turn it back over to you guys. Um, if if you have anything you want to to ask Dan or just make comments about, that box over there, I'm always pointing in the wrong direction. That box over there, wherever you're watching this from, any of the 15 channels that we broadcast, Cycle Source through, just put your comments in right there. They'll come up in that box and we'll uh we'll try to get to them throughout the show. But lots and lots of people commenting, man, and giving you the hell yes and stuff. So we'll try to keep them coming to you as we go down.

SPEAKER_14: 45:31

Yeah, I can't hardly read that shit over there.

SPEAKER_02: 45:34

Me neither.

SPEAKER_08: 45:36

So now I know you've been a lot of really rad places on your bike. Where's the coolest place you think you've been to?

SPEAKER_12: 45:48

Cool.

SPEAKER_14: 45:48

I mean, in Mexico. I think Mexico year after year. Uh I stare at the map all the time. I mean, that's what I was doing today while I was you know waiting on this to get here, just looking at the map of Mexico, like, where am I going next? How can I make it from this spot to this spot, going a different route? Um and it's in my backyard. Uh, and the first time I went down there, I couldn't fucking believe nobody had been like, hey, you should go ride Mexico. It's right there. Because it was it's incredible. Like, you know, the tail of the dragon, yeah, that's sweet. There's there's a couple roads I know, there's lots of them actually, but there's two specifically real close to my house that it's like the tail of the dragon for three days. Yeah, you know, like you literally don't see more than a hundred yards down the road for three days. Yeah, yeah, you know, that's fucking incredible, and it's right there, and they're really nice pavement. You know, you gotta watch out for the speed bumps. Uh, you know, there's it really feels like an adventure down there, too, you know.

SPEAKER_10: 46:48

Yeah, we live we live in the mountains of Pennsylvania, man. Like, people tell us about you gotta come ride the roads here, and we're like, Yeah, we're probably good. Yeah, we I mean we've done that. We'll come and ride, it'll be cool.

SPEAKER_02: 46:57

But like, you know, we got we got it was always one of the jokes because a lot of people, oh, we're gonna come ride with you guys, and then they get here and we have bikes, no front brakes, this, that, long front ends, and they're like, What? How the hell do you ride those things? You guys are and and at the end of the ride, like seven of the nine wrecked, and you know, we're like, dude, keep up, and you know, so to have those cool roads, yeah. We've it's been us more than once. But one of the cool things about you is dude, you make everything an adventure. That's like yes, that's something that I gotta give you. Living that shit, you know, living being a little bit older than you, we started out like that. It was balls out every time we left the house. We had to make a story. We didn't have to make a story, it turned into a story. And to watch you, you know, dude, we've loved every minute.

SPEAKER_10: 47:44

And to get to hang out with you a little here, a little there is just dude, it's like like I said, you know, half half dressed like Jim Morrison on on Peyote, he almost looks like a an Ed Roth character there. Yeah, right. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_14: 47:58

And you never Brian Helm, dude. I think he's been trying to get that picture for a minute with my face under the handlebars where you can actually make out the smile. He was pr I mean, Ospretty stoked about too, but Brian was real stoked when he got that one.

SPEAKER_10: 48:10

Yeah. But seriously, dude, like, you know, on a on a metaphysical level, you know, not to not to take this off the rails or anything, but we were talking about last week on the show, because I I did my editorial for the magazine based on a study of uh Stanford University and and London University, and they're talking about the effects of our perception of time based on how much input overload we have all the time and how we literally since 2000 now our perception of time has changed, and time is literally getting faster and faster because the amount of you know touch points that we're putting down of significant happenings in our in our in our brains has changed the science of our of our perception of time. But anyway, like all of this leads to the fact that naturally motorcycles provide a relief from that. You know what I mean? And it's it's cats like you that are are doing this, you know, coming back with that picture and saying, look, it's right there. It's right there. All you have to do is be willing to not worry about who in the hell is on Instagram for a little bit, not worry about who's gonna be trying to call you or what you might be missing. That's right. Put your FOMO down and get after it. I love it.

SPEAKER_14: 49:23

Yeah, you got real metaphysical there, dude. I've done my share of peyote.

SPEAKER_10: 49:29

Yeah, listen, I'm serious about this. I'll send you a link to it. There's a there's a sign.

SPEAKER_14: 49:34

No, I believe it. It's already moving fast enough. I got all those points coming at me all the time, uh as well. Uh yeah. One thing I do want to say, Chris, while I'm thinking about it is congratulations, dude. 29 years. That's fucking awesome, dude. I mean, that's work. I mean, you've been putting it in, and you've gotta want it, you know, and I really appreciate that. And I know that a lot of other people do too, as well. Oh, thank you. You should be proud.

SPEAKER_10: 50:01

Thank you so much, dude. But you know, honestly, that that story is not about me. That's what I you know, what I was saying, the deal like, you know, about motorcycles naturally give us a relief from that. Naturally, motorcycles, any motorcycle ride that you take, you are it's you and the bike and the focus of the road and like what you're doing. You are you are present. You know what I mean? And like the great things that I've seen and the grid, the things that were way beyond what I ever thought would happen in my life, all through motorcycles and those stories, that's a common thread that we're all on.

SPEAKER_02: 50:32

You know, and that's sort of that's my point of what I had said before is what we wanted to do, technology wasn't that advanced when it first started 35 years ago, whatever 29 just being documented, I guess. But you know, the I think one of the things that impresses me about you otherwise, and you're just a a a really good person to hang out with. You're you are your family's great, your kids are great. You didn't take advantage of the technology and use it for yourself, you still go out there and and make the fucking story. And the story isn't on your phone, you tell the story it when it's over. Maybe you have a picture here and there, and and everybody knows, like I said, your ball's out everything that you do, and that's how it was before we had to start loading everything in trailers and hauling back and forth. But to see somebody it still doing it like you're doing it, that's super freaking cool. I'm a little bit jealous, you know, not hating, just saying that's I mean, that was what we wanted to do, and you know, we it sort of went away a bit to watch you keep running with it's freaking cool as shit.

SPEAKER_14: 51:34

Like, you know, I like how you were talking about it's an escape. I think that's one reason I've drifted to more like off-road adventures, and like even I've been riding a lot of single track when I can get out on my dirt bike because I love that that quick problem solving that I've got to do, or like riding through traffic on my chopper. I can't be thinking about any fucking thing else except for what everybody else is taking in and assessing the entire situation that's happening at 80 miles an hour as I'm going down the interstate, and like to get in that zone where I'm like, you know, I don't I'm I mean I'm betting on a lot, and just you just gotta be in it or you will fucking die out.

SPEAKER_10: 52:11

Right.

SPEAKER_14: 52:11

That's it, right? That's it. I fucking love that shit. I mean, I love riding through fucking traffic as as retarded as that may be, uh, especially with the family. Fuck riding through Peru on a big ass fucking bike, dude, like hearing your bag scrape up against the cars as you're trying to squeeze through. Yeah. Oh, dude. Yep. It's so sick.

SPEAKER_08: 52:33

When you were a kid, like daydreaming about that day that you were gonna have your own motorcycle, did you ever think that the motorcycle would take you to places like Peru and Nepal and like you've literally been all over?

SPEAKER_14: 52:46

I thought I was gonna go to Peru just to like eat ayahuasca and find more drugs. But then when I got down there, I went to this place on a fucking motorcycle where they do, you know, these ayahuasca ceremonies, right? So I show up at this fucking weird hospital in the middle of the fucking rainforest, and and the guy's like, hey, we don't normally do this to people that just show up, but you seem cool, man. Do you want to go do an ayahuasca ceremony with us? And I like, and I look over at the fucking shared kitchen facilities and it's just nasty, and there's dirty dishes, and then I'm like, nah, I don't think I want to go to the jungle and do drugs with you guys. This ain't I'm not fucking, you know. And I didn't even go do any of those drugs when I was in the rainforest, so I just rode my motorcycle. Okay, yeah, that was the drum. Never never dreamt that motorcycles would take me to the places that they have. Uh no, I was just trying to go places. I yeah, there was there's not a whole lot of thought that's been put into it. I mean, I wound up in Peru on accident.

SPEAKER_08: 53:45

So how do you wind up in Peru on accident? Listen, I get it.

SPEAKER_02: 53:50

Yeah, me too. Yeah, most definitely.

SPEAKER_10: 53:53

Wait, this is a this was a two-part question. You you first I have to tell you, my wife is the purest thing I've ever had in my life. Like, including a pack of socks that I've had from last Christmas that I haven't even opened. Like, she's the purest thing. So as you're telling this whole amazing story, her question was somebody has to tell me what ayahuasca is.

SPEAKER_11: 54:21

We don't have time for that. You know, ask Chris off air. It is something incredible.

SPEAKER_10: 54:26

Okay, dude, one day, this is I love doing this shit. Like, we'll we'll be riding down the road. And I always say to her, I'm like, baby, baby, I got this great idea for a business. She's like, here we go. And I'm like, no, this is gonna be awesome. And she goes, Okay, let's hear it. And I said, We're gonna start an energy drink company. And she's like, What in the hell do you actually know about energy drinks? I said, nothing. I said, but I got an incredible brand name. I said, the name is the whole deal. And she goes, Okay, what's the name? I said, I said, gaggers. And she didn't laugh. And I was like, you have no idea why that's funny, do you? You're missing.

SPEAKER_08: 55:04

The thing is, he didn't tell me. So he told that every time he told that same story. About six months later, I finally asked, I'm like, okay, I still don't understand.

SPEAKER_11: 55:17

That's just mean.

SPEAKER_02: 55:18

I know, right? That's just mean, dude. It's it's what is it, the only way he can get back at her? I haven't quite figured out why he does that to her.

SPEAKER_08: 55:26

Oh, yeah, he does it all the time. It's just amazing. I mean, for me, dude, like any of that for me, you are a unicorn.

SPEAKER_10: 55:33

Yeah. You're not kidding. A hot woman with blonde curly hair that doesn't know what gaggers are? Yeah. You never took a dollar bill into your G string in your life, right on.

SPEAKER_02: 55:46

Thank God.

SPEAKER_03: 55:48

Oh man.

SPEAKER_02: 55:50

Well, here's an odd question. So they're talking about, you know, where motorcycles, you know, were thinking that where they brought you. What was Dan supposed to be? What did you think you were going to do for a living? What did you think was gonna end up being Dan? You know what I mean? Like, did you ever imagine you were gonna end up being who you are right now?

SPEAKER_13: 56:09

No, I thought I was gonna be a fucking dead rock and roll star at the 80 27. But I tried to get there, dude. I really did.

SPEAKER_02: 56:16

Did you give it your best shot? What the dead or the rock star? Which one?

SPEAKER_13: 56:19

Well, I dead. You know, the rock star thing, fuck, you know.

SPEAKER_14: 56:23

Still working. I lean more into the fucking let's just make it to 27. Yeah, right. And now I'm at 41.

SPEAKER_10: 56:30

Yeah. Yeah. How about uh well that's that's super cool. What have you done? What and you and you kill you kill it on those things, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02: 56:41

What job-wise, what like what what have you done? What what do you do? What do I do? He's dangered ant.

SPEAKER_14: 56:47

I know, but I'm in plants for about 10, about 15 years.

SPEAKER_04: 56:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_14: 56:52

You know, when I was in high school, I met this guy, he had a nursery, and he had these Mexican ladies propagating lantana. And I was like, oh, that's you, that's how you grow weed, you know, you get the mother plant. And I was like, I should figure this out. So I started working there immediately. And then next thing you know, I was running, I had 29 greenhouses and like 30 acres of trees. No shit. When they legalized weed, I'd have, you know, I knew where to get dirt, I knew where to get the pots, I had the Mexicans ready to do the work. Uh and then I found out plants don't take time off.

SPEAKER_05: 57:23

So I was like, Yeah, screw that.

SPEAKER_14: 57:29

I literally don't. Like I would I had a fucking alarm on these greenhouses in the wintertime that would, if the temperature got to a certain point, it would call my fucking house at 2 30 in the morning and I'd have to go fix a gas heater, you know? No bird and save$30,000 worth of fucking petunias or something. Yeah, right. Um so at some point, uh, the owner of the company, he was like, dude, you show up high and smoke weed all day long, every day. And that's great. He's like, but if you fuck up, I lose like I could lose half a million dollars in a couple of days. Right. You have to buy into this business.

SPEAKER_12: 58:02

Like, you gotta have skin in the game. And I was like, I quit.

SPEAKER_02: 58:06

Yeah, that's it. Yeah, that's what I would have done.

SPEAKER_10: 58:10

Hey, so listen, Dan, you want to take two seconds here with us and help us celebrate our our year and review stuff. We're gonna we're gonna um announce two more of the winners for the Cycle Source Magazine Readers Awards, and we're gonna start with Artist and Builder, who are gonna be our next two. So let's check out the 2025 Cycle Source Magazine Readers Choice of Artist of the Year.

SPEAKER_00: 58:41

Darren McKeague of McKeague Art is one of the most respected and prolific artists in the motorcycle world today, known for his hand-painted enamel pieces, detailed illustrations, pinstriping, helmet and tank art, and work that lives and breathes the culture of riding. He spent decades capturing the spirit of bikes and riders with a style deeply rooted in tattoo, moto culture, and fine illustration, creating work that's instantly recognizable and endlessly inspiring. Many consider him this generation's David Mann, a nod to the legendary biker artist whose work defines motorcycle culture for a whole era, because Darren's imagery similarly encapsulates the soul of the lifestyle for today's community. His impact on motorcycle art and culture is exactly what's being celebrated with the Source Awards Artist of the Year Honor.

SPEAKER_10: 59:35

All right, ladies and gentlemen, Darren McKegg, our brother.

SPEAKER_14: 59:39

I can love that guy.

SPEAKER_10: 59:40

Oh, dude.

SPEAKER_14: 59:41

How do you not? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_10: 59:43

You know, and and like I said, that that that whole thing about this generation's uh David man, there's there's no doubt. Definitely. There's no doubt.

SPEAKER_14: 59:51

Yeah, he's great. I mean, he's one of the hardest working guys out there. He uses he he makes art out of anything that he can get his hands on, dude.

SPEAKER_02: 59:58

The cigarette, the the

SPEAKER_14: 1:00:00

Helmet behind me, I was wearing it and sturgis, and he was like, Hey, I want to paint on that. He was like, I want to paint on your helmet. I was like, Well, let me go get my helmet. This one isn't mine. And he was like, even better, dude.

SPEAKER_02: 1:00:10

Let me write your name on his little match packs. Oh, that was drawings on the dollars and the match packs were absolutely the best.

SPEAKER_10: 1:00:19

Like he did an entire collection on on like what six or eight match packs.

SPEAKER_08: 1:00:24

And he's he's never not creating art. He's sitting there having coffee. He's doing a sketch. He's con the fact that he has that much creative ability and vision in his brain is.

SPEAKER_10: 1:00:54

Next up is the Psychosource magazine 2025 choice for Builder of the Year and Y. Here we go.

SPEAKER_00: 1:01:08

Cody Childress has earned his reputation through decades of consistency, resilience, and undeniable talent. Active in the motorcycle industry since 2001, he is a three-time winner of the Sturgis FXR, Dyna Mixer, two FXRs, and one Dyno, and was featured on the cover of Hot Bike magazine in 2017. After surviving serious health battles, including a life-threatening case of sepsis in 2024, Cody returned with the Texas rattlestick. Built and shown at Born Free Texas in under five months, and now invited to Born Free California 2026. Cody Childress is being honored as the 2025 Source Awards Custom Builder of the Year.

SPEAKER_10: 1:01:55

Yeah, buddy. Congratulations, Cody. What what a great, what a great story. I mean, like a lot of us that have been close to this cat and watched the stuff that he was going through with his health and everything, you know, it was it was it was terrifying. Never lost his drive. Absolutely. And a solid dude too, man. So congratulations to him.

SPEAKER_12: 1:02:30

Congratulations, Cody.

SPEAKER_08: 1:02:31

I have a danger.

SPEAKER_12: 1:02:32

I didn't get to see any of those FXRs in Texas.

SPEAKER_08: 1:02:35

No, you're probably too busy out there.

SPEAKER_12: 1:02:37

I was fucking on one this last year.

SPEAKER_14: 1:02:42

I showed up a week ahead of time. You know, you guys have seen me at most events. I don't fucking, I don't put on events. I don't I try and just hang out and like be a part of the event or like, you know, uh participate. In Texas, I've taken it upon myself to like go above and beyond and do as much as I can to contribute to that event. It's kind of like just yeah, just my way of helping that event out. You know, I put on an art show this year, uh, I did a race in the woods.

SPEAKER_12: 1:03:10

Um yeah, I built a I built a whole space in the woods that week before with the help of some friends. Uh yeah, I was a little busy.

SPEAKER_08: 1:03:20

You're like, um, that whole event promotion thing. No.

SPEAKER_10: 1:03:24

Uh, you know what though, man?

SPEAKER_02: 1:03:26

I was gonna say, do you like doing that? Do you want to do more of that, or would you rather just be?

SPEAKER_14: 1:03:30

No, no, no, no, no. That's that's it. I mean that that one event is good.

SPEAKER_02: 1:03:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_14: 1:03:34

And I love like, you know, I I just try and do something creative. So I always like end up biting off more than I can chew and thinking, oh, it's just gonna be a couple days' work, and then I spend like, you know, I couldn't have done it if there wouldn't have been people that show up and help that I didn't even plan on having.

SPEAKER_08: 1:03:50

So we never do things like that. We're like, oh, we got those.

SPEAKER_14: 1:03:53

I'm gonna do it again next year. Uh dude, so two years ago at Born Free, I I have got six people to build shovel heads and then show up. We went on a ride, they all swapped bikes, took turns riding each other's bikes, and then on Saturday night they rolled dice and all went home with somebody else's bike.

SPEAKER_03: 1:04:13

Really?

SPEAKER_14: 1:04:15

Uh and we're gonna do that again this year, too. Wow.

SPEAKER_08: 1:04:18

Holy moly.

SPEAKER_14: 1:04:19

And then the Kickstar competition we did that Friday and Saturday. Dude, I'll tell you. There's a lot going on out of Texas. There's dude, Born Free Texas is such a fucking great event. It's like, and nothing against Born Free California. That's a that's a great event too. But like Texas is so fucking different than what's totally different. The whole event venue itself, the racing's right there, the riding, you can hang out there, you're camping there. Uh, dude, it's fucking incredible.

SPEAKER_02: 1:04:49

And I sort of love that idea. I like the idea of, like you're saying, California and Texas, like to do those events in different places and see the different culture input and all that, dude. That makes the event even better in that.

SPEAKER_10: 1:05:02

That used to be one of the most important things about like being from the East Coast, man, and heading out to to the love ride, or you know, like doing stuff on the west coast, the differences in the culture when we would go down into St. Louis and shit, like up into the Midwest, the differences in the culture, and that's stuff still still not lost.

SPEAKER_02: 1:05:20

No, not at all.

SPEAKER_14: 1:05:20

Mike and Grant, when they sh when they came to Texas the Born Free, they were so just like, whatever you guys want to do, you know, like it they were just they were very welcoming to any ideas, anybody that wanted to contribute, you know, they were like, come on, you know, this is this is y'all's event. So it's been really cool to see it grow into what it is now, and that venue, the Yellow Rose Canyon. I mean, it's so cool to go back there, and I could go there a couple times a year, and to see the money that people go out there and spend just go right back into the facilities.

SPEAKER_08: 1:05:53

Right, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_14: 1:05:54

You know, all the buildings. I mean, when they first got that place, it was in shambles, and it is fucking nice now, dude. And Oliver's hand-painted signs all over the place. I just saw they opened up cabins for rent now. The stage got an upgrade this year. There's a new sick-ass bar in front of the stage. Um, the track they just keep putting work into, and then I cut a whole new track in every year in the woods. So there's tons of trails out there.

SPEAKER_02: 1:06:22

And that's cool that they're, you know, they want to bring it back. They want the people to come. Yeah, just sort of like what goes on with the smoke out to to push back into the event to give the people even a more intense experience of living the life. Because, in all reality, the life that we enjoyed, like we were talking about before years ago, does not fucking exist anymore. It doesn't. It's literally a show that you have to put on and give to them, you know, and and to see these people putting back in just more art.

SPEAKER_10: 1:06:49

I think that's the I think that's the thing about giving the platform like Born Free Texas, like Smoke Out Rally. And there's there's a lot of other ones, you know. We're we're naming these out. TMMR is another one, you know, where it's not so much where where you're watching, you're an observer. You know, there's things like you can you can jump in and you can be part of this, man. You can start making those memories, you can be part of this. That's it. You know, that's that's hitting the reset on all that shit, man. It couldn't happen a sooner time.

SPEAKER_14: 1:07:16

Well, dude, and the and the events are so important, you know, and I and I respect what you guys do with the smoke out and everybody who puts on an event because a lot of people they do, they just need an excuse or a place or a reason or just an invite to get out and ride their fucking motorcycle. Yeah, and as soon as they do that, all is right with the world. But some people I need like an invitation to come home, you know, like my wife is constantly saying, hey, come back. I know a lot of people they just need like a just a little bit of motivation. Like, come on, let's go here, let's go there, let's ride. And the events get people out and get them to you know to push the limits and try to go to new places that they've never been before. And that's so fucking important to keep people riding and you know, and it's important for them. Like I people get, you know, I don't know how you can um, you know, people get a lot out of it, you know. Yeah, even when especially when they got to work hard to make it happen, you know.

SPEAKER_02: 1:08:10

When that was one of our BMRs, when our first BMR started, there was no cell service, and it was so freaking fantastic.

SPEAKER_10: 1:08:17

People used to bitch like crazy, like, there's no cell service here. And we're like, yep, there's the point.

SPEAKER_08: 1:08:22

By the end of the weekend, by the end of the weekend, they were so thankful to not have the cell service because they were so present, they were meeting new people and they were having conversations and they were kidding around about they didn't have to worry about ruining their phone, getting in the river on tube, you know, crap like that.

SPEAKER_03: 1:08:38

Yeah, it was great.

SPEAKER_02: 1:08:39

But yeah, like you're saying, Dan, to have those people actually feel that it's it's almost like a bit of a drug in itself. It's adrenaline. You want to go back and do it again and again, you know? Which is the fun part.

SPEAKER_08: 1:08:52

Mark, do you have you heard my danger dan story?

SPEAKER_02: 1:08:55

No. Oh boy.

SPEAKER_08: 1:08:57

I love my danger dance story. Well, Danger Dan almost killed me. When you almost killed me at the Bandango.

SPEAKER_02: 1:09:06

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_08: 1:09:06

The back to that again.

SPEAKER_14: 1:09:12

I mean, a little dirt.

SPEAKER_08: 1:09:15

It was so good though. It was so good though, because I got the shot, I didn't die, and we terrified all like 4,000 people in the stands watching. It was so good.

SPEAKER_10: 1:09:27

That was the coolest part of it because I had no, I had no doubt that Dan that Dan was in control of the motorcycle and that Heather know Heather well.

SPEAKER_14: 1:09:34

Oh no, I'm giving you I'm giving you credit. No idea any of this was going. I'm always just full gas, dude. Yeah, that's it.

SPEAKER_10: 1:09:41

I'm also giving her credit because she knows she knows how to take care of herself. The greatest thing, dude, was like all at once the entire four or five thousand people just went, oh yeah.

SPEAKER_08: 1:09:53

So I dropped a link in the comments to the series of pictures. If anybody wants, because Michael, of course, Michael, who's there for everything, was right there and he caught the whole series.

SPEAKER_10: 1:10:08

Hang on, I'll bring it up.

SPEAKER_14: 1:10:10

You're definitely luckier than some other photographers out there following the side of the phone.

SPEAKER_12: 1:10:16

But it was literally only by late I'm trying to race in the dirt drag.

SPEAKER_08: 1:10:19

Oh, yeah, look how close.

SPEAKER_02: 1:10:23

Hey, that's the change.

SPEAKER_08: 1:10:29

Yeah, right. I think the best part. He's just giving me the little day. Chris was flying in the drone and he was watching his little screen, so he couldn't really see who it was.

SPEAKER_14: 1:10:40

It's a dance move right there, like when you play Twister.

SPEAKER_08: 1:10:43

Right? And I get off the track and I know he's gonna be mad. So I like my phone rings and I hand it to Clinton Wallace. I'm like, here, take it. And he's like, Yep, yep, she's here. So I avoid him for a few minutes and he finds me. He's like, Was that you out on that goddamn track and broken? I'm like, I'm fine. I said, but I got the shot.

SPEAKER_02: 1:11:04

You know, that's probably the cool part about it. And like it, you know, not to keep Harvin and bring him back to live that life, to go out there and do it and take the chance. Yeah, buddy. You know what I mean? You went out there, and I think that's probably what brought you in when you first started coming around into the circle. Was number one, you were real, 100% real. Number two, you fit in so well. You didn't take anything personal. Number three, I think one of the first times that we actually hung out, you came up to me and said your pants were ripped completely open, and you said, dude, they're the only pants I brought. We were there like eight days. We're like, dude, they're the only pants I brought. We're like, I think actually, Dana, me and Dana were gonna sew your pants for you because they were so ripped. It was at the the uh steel pony parking lot in Sturgis.

SPEAKER_11: 1:11:48

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_02: 1:11:49

And I think me and you actually I I had my foot was messed up. You kick started um Twisted T-Bike, and me and you rode up to the Steve Broyles show.

SPEAKER_10: 1:11:57

Yep.

SPEAKER_02: 1:11:58

So we left and rode up there, and like, dude, you were like, you came in, you're like, I don't even know what the fuck to expect. My pants are ripped, I don't know what's going on. Like, take your pants off. We're gonna sew your pants for you right now. That was freaking awesome.

SPEAKER_14: 1:12:10

That sounds about right.

SPEAKER_02: 1:12:11

Yeah, yeah, it fits perfectly. And and then we went to the Steve Breill show, and I don't think I had really drank much. I think we had like five drinks that day. So yeah, we had that it was it was a good day. You're always fun to hang out with, man. You're there it's never drama, it's always fun, and that was I think one of the reasons why you just exploded on the scene into everybody, man. You're just the real deal.

SPEAKER_14: 1:12:32

You know, well, and I I've I've been fortunate enough to run into like a bunch of really cool people with cameras uh that have caught some you know, some shots like we just saw. Um, you know, Michael Lichter and Brian Helm, just to name a couple of them. Uh you know, but Brian, it's so funny, like Brian or I think Josh Kirby's was the first person to like really be like, dude, you know, like just couldn't believe that I would do something and there'd be somebody with a camera and I wouldn't set up for the like, you know, like like no, I'm doing it. If you're not, you know, if we can't capture the photo, like I'm not that's not the reason I just fucking did that. Right, right.

SPEAKER_02: 1:13:08

Well, I think Josh had some happening anyway. Josh had some really good practice because when his fingers were still getting callous from pushing those buttons, he followed me and Chris and Pat and the LED sled crew, and boy, he figured out where to stand in rights buck because we gave him so much.

SPEAKER_10: 1:13:24

That poor kid. So listen, God, when Josh Kirpius first got out of college, like literally, he was actually still in college when we started taking him around. We abused that kid's liver so bad. And he was I have to do it. Dude, he was so fresh and young and just like you know, like a little angel when he came out. And man, we drugged that kid through the mud. We so much shit that like we eventually had to buy him a camera.

SPEAKER_02: 1:13:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_10: 1:13:49

Because we just destroyed his shit.

SPEAKER_02: 1:13:51

Like he'd he'd lose his shit and leave the places, yeah, would pick it up and take it back and give it to him the next morning. I have a picture of him at Patterson's 40th birthday party thrown up on the side of some guy's pickup truck, and I'm taking pictures of him with his camera, you know. And Josh was a trooper, dude. So naive, dude. No, I mean, I'm telling you, look look where he's gone. You know what I mean? Yeah, this is what he wanted, and he learned. I remember loading his first motorcycle and a computer from you into the back of a Dodge Neon. I remember putting the motor, me and Pat put the motor in the front seat and seat belted that son of a bitch into the front seat of a, I think it was his mom's Dodge Neon.

SPEAKER_10: 1:14:31

Hey, and to his to his credit, oh dude, he's come a long way. To his credit, he's he's kept it, he's kept it real. You know what I mean? Like he's managed. You think about that. That cat's done some amazing hardcore corporate work for Harley Davidson, and he still Josh kept his feet on the ground.

SPEAKER_02: 1:14:49

Still freaking Josh.

SPEAKER_10: 1:14:50

Good for him. I hope he had so much fun with it. I hope our abuse had a little part of that. That's all. I'm just saying, I hope it did.

SPEAKER_14: 1:14:56

I think you can take a little credit for that.

SPEAKER_10: 1:14:58

Yeah, yeah, right. So this is this is actually some of the footage, right?

SPEAKER_14: 1:15:03

Yeah, that's that's G-Man right there fixing that chain that tried to take me out. That's Bill Page.

SPEAKER_10: 1:15:09

Dude, now how about Bill Page too? He's another one that's just amazing.

SPEAKER_14: 1:15:13

Oh, there's the Texas boys. G-Man fucking dropped his bike on me and broke his windshield. Those are the guys from Italy right there by the Roma truck. I heard the driving meter I found. We just we were draining our fucking crank right there in the gravel. Yeah, you gotta fucking find a place to drain the oil out of those fucking things every day. That's a hardware store that just brought us in. They were like, literally, don't work in the sun. They opened up the door. We went inside the hardware store. Brian brought his fucking bagger in there and made everybody espresso. Look at a G-Man dude peeling out in the dirt.

SPEAKER_10: 1:15:49

G money. Right there.

SPEAKER_08: 1:15:51

So do you have like what's the bucket list thing like a trip for you? Do you have one? Do you have a place that you're like, I need to ride motorcycles here?

SPEAKER_14: 1:16:01

Uh there's there is one spot that keeps like coming up, and this place called the Death Acre. Um you familiar with I think it's called it's called Vaughn now, or maybe it's called Meta. Now it's called Vana magazine. And they're more like dirt bike off-road. Yeah, they got an article that these two guys they rode these vintage fucking dirt bikes, like an XR and an XT to the Death Acre, which is this spot in Namibia where you gotta time it right when the tide's out, and you ride in between the waves crashing in the sand dunes that just are mountains. The water recedes, and you gotta get like 30 or 40 miles down this fucking beach before the fucking tide comes back in, and you can't climb the dunes, and the fucking ocean takes you out.

SPEAKER_08: 1:16:54

Wow, look at that.

SPEAKER_14: 1:16:55

And it sounds incredible to ride in between sand dunes and epic.

SPEAKER_08: 1:17:04

Look at that. Okay.

SPEAKER_14: 1:17:09

That's pretty random. Oh yeah. It's funny, they talk about yeah, that's cool, that was tough, but just getting to that spot.

SPEAKER_10: 1:17:16

Man, that just looks like West Texas.

SPEAKER_14: 1:17:20

It does. It really does. No, I uh you know, so I've I've gone some really cool places, and and this last year I I uh you know, I've also amassed a bunch of friends all over the country. And and I've I had a bunch of people ask me last year, like, when am I gonna get to go on a ride? Like I, you know, like I haven't invited them, they're getting bummed that I haven't, you know, invited everybody I know to go on a motorcycle ride. Um so I this winter I decided that I would just go ahead and start a tour company. So DMT, Dangerous Motorcycle Tours. Nice. Okay just to try and do that. So I'd like to fucking you know. I know there's a ton of other people that would love to do some shit that just need a couple of other guys to go do it with, you know, and a little motivation and inspiration. Dude, I wanna I wanna do a tour. Motivation is like, don't go to the bar for fucking one or two nights a week, save up some fucking money, and go out. We'll go ride the Death Acre in Africa. You know, like I'll put it together. Um, I think what's gonna be different than most companies is you know, I'm not gonna do this full time, but uh there's gonna be like a vetting process. So like the first thing I'm doing is I'm bringing the first group of guys to Texas. Everybody's got to ride with me for two days out in West Texas.

SPEAKER_04: 1:18:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_14: 1:18:38

You know, we're kind of like that picture about my big band.

SPEAKER_04: 1:18:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_14: 1:18:40

You know, and not so that I can make sure you're a good enough rider, but really so that I can just make sure that your attitude's right and that you want to fucking hang out with me, you know.

SPEAKER_10: 1:18:49

Well, yeah, dude, because the last thing you want to do is end up babysitting a ball bag for the biggest. Yeah, you were taking the words right out of the country for Christ's right.

SPEAKER_02: 1:18:57

Right. Yeah, no question. I mean, you were taking it. That was gonna be my next question. Uh, where are you gonna bury the body? You gotta make sure you go somewhere to bury the body before somebody freaking pisses you off when you're in the middle of nowhere. No shit. I mean, I was gonna say right out to invite people on those rides takes the freaking fun out of it half the time because you always invite one guy who apparently should have brought his wife. Yeah, you know what I mean? So to know I was gonna ask, how are you gonna narrow those people out of that? That's a perfect idea.

SPEAKER_14: 1:19:26

Yeah, you know, here's the deal probably it's gonna happen naturally. After a couple days with me, you're either gonna want to go or not gonna want to go. You know, I don't feel like I'm gonna have to be no, you know.

SPEAKER_02: 1:19:36

They'll they should answer that question for you.

SPEAKER_14: 1:19:39

And where I'm gonna go, like, I don't know. I'm gonna see what the people want to do. You know, what do you I'm gonna try to do? I mean, for some people, just riding those roads in Mexico Texas, tell you where I've been, what we can do. You know, the options are endless. Bears doing tours in Nepal. Uh fucking round the world Doug is now doing them over in Sri Lanka. I've got a girl, she's doing them down in Excel. Ecuador, where you like go out and fucking you take supplies to these scientists in the jungle on dirt bikes.

SPEAKER_08: 1:20:06

That's cool.

SPEAKER_14: 1:20:07

Mexico's in my backyard, and I love going there. That's probably I mean, most of these will leave Texas or California on our own bikes, and then sometimes we'll you know my mom just flew to Pan or she moved to Panama, so I was down there this winter with my family. I found a fleet of bikes down there. Costa Rica's sick, dude, riding around the Nicoya Peninsula. Yeah. Just fucking going from surf spot to surf spot. The food's incredible.

SPEAKER_02: 1:20:32

That was gonna be my that was gonna be my next thing.

SPEAKER_14: 1:20:35

When you got fucking monkeys yelling at you as you ride by crossing, I mean Yeah, that would be my next thing.

SPEAKER_02: 1:20:42

Like to the destination, not only the ride, but some of that food. I mean, it's gotta be off the chart. Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_14: 1:20:49

Mexico's still the best, though. It's crazy. Like you go through Mexico and the food's incredible, and it just starts getting worse and worse the further to get away from it. Like the tortilla literally leaves the plate in Central America and then it comes back in South America as like a weird corn cake, you know? Like but it's all the same ingredients, they're just like prepared differently. They don't they're not as hot, they're like less spicy the further you get away from Mexico, too. Yeah.

SPEAKER_08: 1:21:14

So DMT, how do how do people find information about DMT? Is it like is it live? Is it actually a thing yet?

SPEAKER_14: 1:21:20

It is. Yeah, just dangerdance talkshop.com. There's a DMT link. You just go there, put your email in, and I'll send you like a questionnaire and then we'll get on a phone call.

SPEAKER_10: 1:21:30

We should uh we should make sure to talk about all of that because we got um all the links here. Heather's gonna put up, you know, Danger Dan on Instagram, his um Danger Dance Talk Shop. Like you gotta check this out. If you haven't listened to this cat's interviews and the time he spends with people, it's priceless. Really, really good stuff. MC Shop Tees, this was this was one of the things I thought was coolest, like that that you did. I thought this was I thought this was such a great thing, man. Yep. So so cool. Because back back when we were kids, like that was the shit. Whoever had a a Harley or a bike shop, a chopper shop uh t-shirt from the furthest away, you ruled your neighborhood. Yeah, right. You ruled a neighborhood with what you had, man. And that that whole program that you run, that's about it. No, it's so cool.

SPEAKER_14: 1:22:17

Featuring shops, I mean, working with different artists, putting out you know, they're one-off shirts, they all got a date and attack, they're never gonna be printed again. And I feature, you know, people hit me up all the time. What's it cost to get my shop featured? I'm like, dude, just keep doing what you're doing. Like, I all these shops I found because they've they've helped me out along the way, or they've helped somebody else out. When somebody says, dude, I broke down here and fucking Burks V twin got me back on the road. I'm like, well, you know, now I want to feature Burks V twin, you know? Speed deluxe. He does a thing called the vintage 1000, works on old vintage dirt bikes and takes people on trips across America and and down in the Baja on old fucking twin shock dirt bikes. Yeah. And he has a shop where he works on old dirt bikes, something unique.

SPEAKER_04: 1:23:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_10: 1:23:06

Well, listen, we only have, you might as you might as well stick with us here for just a minute. We only have uh two two things to let loose for the first half of the cycle source readers awards from this year. So if you don't care, Dan, I'm gonna go to those last two and we'll come back and talk about those, and then we'll let you we'll let you loose. The first one is gonna be um the Cycle Source Readers Choice for 2025 production motorcycle of the year.

SPEAKER_00: 1:23:40

The Harley Davidson Road Glide ST is a fantastic example of how modern performance and touring capability can be woven into a production motorcycle that still feels alive on the road. Powered by a Milwaukee 8 121 high-output engine with strong horsepower and torque numbers, and built with lightweight materials, advanced suspension, and race-inspired electronics deliver confidence-inspiring performance with real rider engagement. For its blend of high-end engineering, real-world capability, and unmistakable presence on the road, the Harley Davidson Road Glide ST is being honored as the 2025 Source Awards production bike of the year.

SPEAKER_10: 1:24:22

Okay, so I don't know if that last picture was a road glide or not. We might have got our signals crossed on that one, but hey, let's totally didn't. I'm sorry. I didn't even see we love to give Harley Davidson shit, but uh, you know, I'm sorry, Harley Davidson. They continue to make motorcycles better. We might want to bitch and complain because for me, a 49 panhead is where it's at. Unfortunately.

SPEAKER_08: 1:24:47

How did a 49 pan head get in that thing? How did it get in there? I don't know.

SPEAKER_10: 1:24:51

No, it wasn't that wasn't a 49 panhead. I thought pretty sure it was a street lab picture. Oh, why didn't I totally miss that one? But like I said, you good luck getting a 49 pan head past EPA compliance and all the shit that it takes to be a manufacturer today. And if you haven't ridden one of those M8 motorcycles, good God, fast bikes.

SPEAKER_14: 1:25:10

Yeah, they're sick. I but I don't know how you I don't know how the RR didn't win, that race ready bike. I mean it's pretty much the same thing with even more badass shit. And there was a big thing.

SPEAKER_08: 1:25:19

I think because it was such a limited edition. I think because it was on obtaining for the regular people, right?

SPEAKER_14: 1:25:27

So when we do that bike was so I'm so glad that they did that in a small run. Yeah, I love the idea of like just shorter runs, fucking more specialty. I thought that bike was bad as fuck.

SPEAKER_04: 1:25:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_14: 1:25:38

I thought honestly, I thought they charged too little for it. Like it was like 131 inch, they made 131 of them. They should have just charged 131,000 for it, you know? Yeah.

SPEAKER_10: 1:25:48

No, and you know, I I had my I have my own issues with it. Like, the only thing I would have wished is like, yeah, I want Harley to do stuff like that, but I also want them to do shit like bring back the 883 so we can get young guys on bikes again. Right. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_14: 1:26:01

Dude, there's so many fucking sportsters on Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace. I mean, that's where you get your level buy.

SPEAKER_10: 1:26:08

You know what the bitch is? You know what the bitch is? If you get if you get your young guy on one of those bikes from Craigslist, you can't take him to the Harley dealership. Right. Which, I mean, that's not that big of a deal.

SPEAKER_13: 1:26:18

He's gonna learn more not going to the Harley dealership.

SPEAKER_10: 1:26:20

In the long run, yes.

SPEAKER_14: 1:26:24

I mean, for real.

SPEAKER_02: 1:26:25

I agree. I totally agree with you.

SPEAKER_14: 1:26:27

If you can't you can't figure out how to check the oil, then putting that sportster out and shutting down the the other sportster line, you know, it's just devolution. Everybody always gets upset when the new thing comes up and they get rid of whatever they were doing before. But the motor company does have one of the most challenging jobs out there. It's like putting out something new that's fucking cool, you know. Like the the shit that they've already done is it is fucking cool already. But for them to like progress and do something that like gets the younger, the new audience engaged while not pissing off the old guys, right? I mean, it's fucking tough. Hey, listen, they've done they've done a lot of cool shit.

SPEAKER_10: 1:27:02

They've done a lot of cool shit, and that's not my issue with it. Just at sixteen thousand dollars, there's not too many fucking young people that can afford to appreciate it. Yeah, you know what I mean? Like, that's the that's the thing. Let's let's keep it real.

SPEAKER_14: 1:27:14

But yeah, but you could get a five three thousand dollar soptail right now, amen. That will get you down the road, and it will fucking start that love for that fucking company in that motorcycle.

SPEAKER_02: 1:27:26

And I agree with you. I think if you can't figure out how to play with it and work it on your own, you should questionably be not riding it in the first place.

SPEAKER_14: 1:27:32

Yeah, I think that that's gonna engage you more. It's just kind of like getting somebody to go ride.

SPEAKER_10: 1:27:37

I don't know.

SPEAKER_14: 1:27:37

Get that bike, and if you have to work on it a little bit, like that's right, I think it's gonna be good for you as a person. I don't know.

SPEAKER_10: 1:27:43

Listen, there's a there's a small percentage of the people out there that that are the guys that you guys are talking about. But if you think about this this generation's approach to shit, yeah, they don't approach it that way. That was that was us, man. That was us doing that shit. And the generation behind us was still doing a pretty hardcore. And there's a few people doing that shit today, but today, like, it's different. They want a fucking app that they can order up a motorcycle for a half hour. Well, that's the problem.

SPEAKER_14: 1:28:08

Well, the sports are not solving that problem. Like keeping that thing up like they should do something new. If they're gonna do something like an entry level, like how about a fucking 700 or a 400? Right. It's yeah, well that there's actually. They're stuck trying to stay true to that V twin fucking thing that we all love, and it's like keeping them from actually progressing. Right. And that's what I love when they brought the Pan America. I mean, that's why I went and bought that bike right out of the gate. It's because they were doing something new. I never thought I would want a brand new heart. And dude, on the Pan America, they actually they actually scored with that. They actually scored with the Pan America the problem the old mindset that it's gotta be a V-twin and go but up but up. Absolutely not.

SPEAKER_10: 1:28:49

Listen, I I was one of the guys when when Buell moved to the fucking Rotax motor, I was all about it, dude. That was badass. But see what Buell fucked up when Buell went to the uh what was their little one-cylinder thing? Oh, the uh B or something. It was like Buell's entry level, right? And the thing that they did is by the time they like it didn't even matter that it was one cylinder, I was okay with that, but it was so cheap.

SPEAKER_02: 1:29:15

Yeah, it was jumping.

SPEAKER_10: 1:29:16

It was so cheap. Everything was plastic and bullshit, and it was like, you know, you're trying too hard to make this an entry level. You look at bikes like the Royal Enfield 650 GT and the shit that Triumph's doing, those are real motorcycles. You want to talk about that? I don't give a fuck if it's a V-twin or not. Right. Make a real bike, yeah, right?

SPEAKER_11: 1:29:33

Isn't that the Buell Blast? I agree.

SPEAKER_10: 1:29:35

It was the Buell Blast.

SPEAKER_02: 1:29:38

Yeah, and Royal Enfield came out freaking throwing punches with what they did.

SPEAKER_10: 1:29:41

I mean, Royal was cool as shit. I'd I'd have that bike today. I'd have that bike in my garage. Yep, my biggest.

SPEAKER_14: 1:29:47

Oh, but that's one of the other few companies that has like as much heritage as fucking.

SPEAKER_04: 1:29:52

Yeah, right. Totally agree.

SPEAKER_14: 1:29:54

Obviously, it's a different heritage and a different country and culture, but you know, and they dude, those bikes are fucking they're turds, but goddamn, they do exactly what they're supposed to do. That's right. Yep, you know, they fucking work, you know. That's all that matters. They sell so many of those motherfuckers. Oh yeah, they sell a ton of them.

SPEAKER_10: 1:30:11

Hey, but I I agree with you about you know the the air-cooled sports are isn't solving a lot of these issues, but I think the I think the economy thing is a big thing, and I think that for a lot of shit. I mean, today, like, think about paying a hundred thousand dollars for a fucking pickup truck. Yeah, where's how far do we have to get our heads up our asses right now? How do you expect a working man? Of course he's gotta be a working man to go out and pay a hundred thousand dollars for a pickup for Christ's sake.

SPEAKER_14: 1:30:36

Well, I mean, and everybody bitches about the price of brand new Harleys, but like look at the price of a brand new truck 20 years ago and look at the price of a brand new. I know they have not gone up very much. Like, they're really the trucks have gone up like 300%. Harleys have gone up like you know, 25, 50%. So I don't know how the fuck they do it anyway. Like, for real.

SPEAKER_10: 1:30:58

It's ridiculous.

SPEAKER_14: 1:30:59

You can buy a big twin Harley Davidson for less than 20 grand at a fucking dealership. I mean, with an M8 motor in it that will do what the fuck is some dude did a hundred thousand miles in a hundred days.

SPEAKER_04: 1:31:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_14: 1:31:10

I mean, I just bought it in 2019 because I'm like, I'm getting I'm building a fucking chopper out of that motor because that motor is fucking great. I mean, it's as close, it's almost like a fucking Evo, except for it's got eight valves in it.

SPEAKER_04: 1:31:21

Yeah, right, right.

SPEAKER_10: 1:31:23

Yeah, and everybody expected early on, that's a funny thing. Everybody expected early on that those things were gonna be hand grenades and you heard all the horror stories. Where's that shit, where's that shit happening? You know what I mean? Because you I you know, I know I know a few of them that have blown up and people push the push them to the limits. But like you said, there's a lot more stories about long distance going on and people beating the dog shit out of them.

SPEAKER_12: 1:31:45

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_14: 1:31:47

They get a lot of horsepower out of them for next to nothing, you know, like yeah, and then fucking worse magneto just puts out the mag kit. I'm fixing to have an MA and I'm gonna rip all the fucking wires off of it. I'm gonna put a carburetor on it, yeah, and I'm gonna have a starter button, and then it's just gonna run until it runs out of gas. I'm no fucking computer codes or nothing. I'm fucking stoked about it.

SPEAKER_10: 1:32:07

I love it. That's that that right there sums up our whole generation. Right. Harley Davidson has engineers and scientists, they've gone to school to learn how to make this shit better and cutting edge technology and plug it all in there. And the first thing we do is get it, rip that shit all out. Right.

SPEAKER_05: 1:32:26

That's it.

SPEAKER_14: 1:32:26

Well, they're only doing that for like liability and EPN. That's the only reason. If they could fucking, you know, do whatever they want. Hopefully they would do something that's a lot more fucking simple. But it's not that simple being a manufacturer today. No, I just it's like, you know, I mean, what I think the bikes that they've been putting out, like while Jay-Z was in power, you know, or the like the bikes that came out the last four years are the coolest bikes they put out in the past fucking I don't know, a long fucking time with those revival cycles, like the throwback paint jobs, the Pan America, the ST, you know, like those are the coolest fucking bikes I've seen them put out in a long time. And that race ready, you know. Um, killing it considering the circumstances.

SPEAKER_02: 1:33:11

Yeah, there's no doubt about it. Hopefully it gets better with this new guy now, but they're listening.

SPEAKER_14: 1:33:15

Yeah, I mean, he's got a I mean, that's a tough spot to be in. I mean, I honestly think that there's you know, we've seen so many dealerships shut down. Like, what I hate is like the ones that have the real characters shutting down because it's fucking tough. There's you know, there's too many fucking dealerships, probably, you know. They're probably even making too many fucking bikes, you know. Well, and that's a first thing. You know, that's the first thing. It's gonna be a long fucking time before we run out of Harley Davidson's, you know, like they just they just cut production. The numbers are adjusting and what sucks right now, it's the big conglomerates are the only ones that are able to hang on and keep these dealers alive. Yeah, so you're seeing some of the really cool independent shops shut the doors because their number one priority hasn't been just making money, it's been helping the fucking community around.

SPEAKER_08: 1:33:56

And that's that's the bummer because the community is price.

SPEAKER_14: 1:33:59

And Harley is is you know suffering because of that as well. But they're you can also tell that they're aware of that. You know, they've been doing things to highlight some of those shops that are out there, and they've, you know, I know people that have you know that work for the company, and that's been their job is to go find those dealers that are that have been owned by a family and been around and they're inspiring in the community, and they're trying to highlight them because they know that those are fucking important and they don't want to lose.

SPEAKER_10: 1:34:21

They f they finally know. They know they finally know because dude, we we live through a time where they shit on that story. They wanted they wanted new and streamlined and out by the highway and fuck all that heritage.

SPEAKER_08: 1:34:31

Like, Chris, when you started Cycle Source magazine, how many Harley dealers were in the Pittsburgh area?

SPEAKER_10: 1:34:37

In a hundred mile radius of Pittsburgh, and that was why we why we started this here. The motorcycle heritage was crazy. Yep. In a hundred mile radius of Pittsburgh, there was 17 dealerships in this area and 35 aftermarket shops.

SPEAKER_08: 1:34:51

And how many of them are there now?

SPEAKER_10: 1:34:52

Oh shit. God I can't even it's it's single-digit on the dealerships.

SPEAKER_02: 1:34:56

Yeah, and it's pretty close to single digit on freaking aftermarket on the aftermarket shops too.

SPEAKER_10: 1:35:01

And they're starving, you know.

SPEAKER_08: 1:35:02

Yeah, but I completely agree with you, Dan. The the shops that are closing are the ones that were key to the motorcycle community and they are. Yeah, kept it alive. They are the mom and pop shops that can't stand up to the dude.

SPEAKER_14: 1:35:16

To the I mean, that's why I started MC Shop T's was the highlight the mom pop independent shops all around the country because I know that you know they're doing it because they love it and they know nothing else. Not because they're making a fucking bunch of money, it's because they really enjoy keeping people in the wind, and that's a beautiful thing. And I uh that's just kind of my part to say thank you.

SPEAKER_10: 1:35:36

Hey, and listen, that was, you know, I I come up around the motor, the motorcycle thing, you know, from from a young age and the dirt and the you know, before there was even motocross, and it was still called hair scrambles. Yeah, and like seriously, watching that transition that happened between when two strokes, when they outlawed two strokes pretty much, you know, and and ever all the racing sanctions turned to the four-stroke, it it drove a wedge right in the community. Yeah, you know, like racing the motorcycle racing was the the natural starting point for every father to take his son and families and like gathering around a track. And when the four-stroke thing came in, you took a proposition of a guy could go to the track, and if his kid blew the top end off of a bike for 60 bucks with a piece of glass and sandpaper, he could top end that bike right on the side of the track on it, and that shit went away. All of a sudden, it was a$1,500 top end, yeah, and and less people could afford to race. And because of that, we lost the inroads. We lost some of the inroads, and that's that's really all I'm talking about with the the entry level, the need for a solid entry level bike is get more people coming in, you know, because a lot of people don't have the balls to grab something used or jump in with some guys and do stuff. They want to get a bike, have a payment, you know what I mean? Park it in a garage, have their nice little cover for it and shit.

SPEAKER_14: 1:36:53

Yeah, I just guess I don't think everybody deserves it. No, right, exactly. You gotta fucking want it, dude. That's right.

SPEAKER_02: 1:37:00

I know you have to fight for it.

SPEAKER_12: 1:37:02

I know that's you know, that may not be if you don't, it shows the best opinion, but I really I'm not trying to make it much easier because you're gonna it'll fucking kill you if you don't really want it.

SPEAKER_14: 1:37:12

That's right.

SPEAKER_10: 1:37:13

And listen, that's a that's a good thing. It's it's unfortunate the generations have turned away they have, but dude, that's what we had to do. Oh most man, we had to when it was rough. It was rough when we started going around motorcycle people. Yeah, you could get your ass handed to you real quick. You know what I mean? So I get that whole thing.

SPEAKER_14: 1:37:29

They were on the fucking street wheel.

SPEAKER_10: 1:37:31

Yeah, damn, exactly. Damn right, yeah, or the cars, or the truck drivers that are pissed off.

SPEAKER_02: 1:37:36

Or one of the one of the things that everybody forgot about is that word respect. You had to respect everything, yeah the people, the street, the bike you're on, the person you're with. Like, if not, you're you're putting yourself in a bad spot. That doesn't exist anymore.

SPEAKER_10: 1:37:49

So, dude, I gotta tell you though, like you gotta you gotta come on more often. Yes, like seriously, this is this is some of the best conversation we've had in in quite a while. Like, it's really, really good for the soul.

SPEAKER_02: 1:38:01

Yeah, good service.

SPEAKER_12: 1:38:02

I appreciate you guys. I'm glad that you guys are doing this, and I appreciate you reaching out, and absolutely I will come on again.

SPEAKER_08: 1:38:07

Yeah, we need to do this like quarterly at least.

SPEAKER_02: 1:38:10

You know, and here's the other thing, too, is like, dude, you you're like our opinions are the same, so it flows really well. You know?

SPEAKER_08: 1:38:16

And I want you to come to Smoke Out this year, yeah. September 10th through 13th.

SPEAKER_10: 1:38:21

We listen, wherever else you're at, we'll f we'll fly you in.

SPEAKER_14: 1:38:24

Yeah. Okay. The smoke out. Okay, okay. Let's talk. Let's not do this right now. I'm I'll I'm just putting it out there.

SPEAKER_10: 1:38:31

So we got we got one we got peer pressure.

SPEAKER_08: 1:38:33

Everybody's gonna be like, Dan, are you coming to the smoke?

SPEAKER_10: 1:38:35

We got to do that.

SPEAKER_14: 1:38:36

I know I think it's the same. So there's a fucking event in Mexico in Always Caliethes, and I think it's that we'll we'll look. We'll look later. We'll look later.

SPEAKER_10: 1:38:44

We got one more um of our readers' awards to give out. So let's let's go to what is this one? Sportsman of the year. And then we're done for until next week.

SPEAKER_00: 1:39:01

James Ritzpoly earned Cycle Source magazine's best sportsman of 2025 by delivering a season defined by results, resilience, and hard-earned respect. Racing in Moto America's mission super hooligan class, James battled back from early setbacks to mount a dominant late season run that secured the national championship. With multiple race wins and relentless consistency, he proved he could rise when the pressure was on. Off the track, his professionalism, accessibility, and deep roots in motorcycle racing made him a true ambassador for the sport. For that, we are stoked to name Ritz Coley as 2025 Cycle Source Reader's Motorcycling Sportsman of the Year.

SPEAKER_10: 1:39:50

So I had the chance in Vegas in 24 when uh when they came out with that the CVOST to watch this cat, and he was new to team. Harley Davidson that year. But to watch him ride on the track, like not up in the stands, watch him like watch him from the side of the track. He is absolutely insane. He rides beyond the edge most of the time that he's riding. Just a pleasure to watch a cat like that on a machine that goes that fast.

SPEAKER_14: 1:40:19

Dude, the way those guys are working those fucking baggers is nice.

SPEAKER_10: 1:40:22

It's nuts.

SPEAKER_14: 1:40:22

What do you guys think about the Moto GP series next year?

SPEAKER_10: 1:40:27

Have you looked into this much? You mean Harley Day or uh King of the Baggers going to the international scene or what? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_14: 1:40:34

So there's gonna be a Harley Davidson class in Moto GP. They're not doing all the races. I think there's like five different countries they're gonna race in. But it's just gonna be Harley's and it's gonna be a team from like each country. Like Australia will have a team, America will have a team, you know. So he's actually UK will have a team, and then so each country will be racing each other at five different races across the world next year. That's pretty fucking cool, right?

SPEAKER_10: 1:41:00

Dude, it's it's the coolest. It's the coolest. Like when so when Rob Bidos and Fred Fox first started bringing the the bagger racing thing around, the the first people to do that, that's that's who was responsible for that. It answered such a call for so many of us because like I used to say this all the time. Like back in the day, man, when Harley Davidson was racing the VR 1000 and an AMA super bike, I didn't care that that bike broke down 80% of the time that it ever got on the track. It was there. Harley Davidson still had a semi-truck in manufacturer's row with all of the other manufacturers, and I was proud of that. And I showed up to those races with my Harley team Harley shirt on, and I wanted Harley Davidson to be there. To see them come back and do the shit that they're doing now, and they're seconds away from the fastest bikes out there climbing all the time. I couldn't be more excited about it. Yeah, super cool.

SPEAKER_14: 1:41:54

Dude, I was I'm the complete opposite. I thought it was the dumbest fucking thing I've ever heard of. I mean, really, I was like, racing fucking baggers like hooligan wasn't ridiculous enough. Now we're gonna race baggers, move like, and you know, dude, it's fucking insane what they watch those freaking dudes. And just fucking pushing the limits. Uh it's gotta be creating a better product for all of us. Oh, most definitely buying right along the streets, you know. Well, like you said initially, I think today that they're getting RD and they're providing some form of entertainment and competition, you know. And I'm still kind of like unsure about it, but I love the idea of like a bunch of different countries racing each other and the you know that kind of competition and being able to go. Have you gotten a chance to watch a team America against the rest of the fucking world, dude? You know, like and fly that fucking flag there and be stoked. Have you gotten a chance to see? Somebody in the in the world loves Harley Davidson for lots of reasons. And one of them is because it like represents a lot of things, like fucking freedom. That's it.

SPEAKER_04: 1:43:01

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_14: 1:43:02

Cannot get a name, man! Like that's I mean, to show up as Team America, we better go beat all these motherfuckers. Absolutely, dude. All these are. Like, if America's low GP to see like those bikes coming within seconds of whatever fucking sport bike crotch rocket is racing. And that's the coolest part.

SPEAKER_08: 1:43:24

Like, I was kind of with you. I thought it was ridiculous in the beginning until I went to a race.

SPEAKER_05: 1:43:30

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 1:43:32

Have you watched one yet?

SPEAKER_08: 1:43:33

And to and like you said, to know that they were literally like first races, seven seconds behind the superbike guys.

SPEAKER_10: 1:43:41

Yeah, that was not super. That was a Moto GP race. Yeah. That was in Cal that was in uh uh what was it? Texas no, it was Infineon, I think, the first the first time.

SPEAKER_02: 1:43:55

I can't remember.

SPEAKER_10: 1:43:57

Where's the elevator? That's Infineon in California. But it was a Moto GP race, and they they they like gave them, you know, yeah, we'll let you run one of your little races, and everybody at the track was was busting their balls and making fun of it, and they knew all the bikes were gonna be on the side of the track and puddles of oil, and when they weren't, yeah, everybody was like, What in the fuck is this?

SPEAKER_02: 1:44:20

To watch those guys throw those around, you know what I mean? It to actually see it in person, the the watching on TV or whatever doesn't do any justice, man. To watch those guys throw those bikes is super cool, definitely worth it.

SPEAKER_14: 1:44:36

That fucking Pan Am I have is like 150 fucking horsepower, and it goes so fucking fast. Uh I just can't imagine racing those things and then doing it with the baggers. I mean, because those things are pushing 150 plus horsepower, I think, as well. And they weigh more than the Panama. Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_08: 1:44:54

All right, so Danger Dan, I have a question.

SPEAKER_03: 1:44:56

Uh oh.

SPEAKER_08: 1:44:56

Isle of Man.

SPEAKER_03: 1:44:58

Oh.

SPEAKER_14: 1:44:59

What was it? Isle of Man. Would you do it? Would I do it? Yeah. I mean, I would do it like Doug. I would fucking go on an adventure and ride over there.

SPEAKER_10: 1:45:09

Oh, yeah. No, that's I won't, I want to be there. That is a lifetime. And I think any real motorcycle guy, right? Yeah, most definitely.

SPEAKER_14: 1:45:17

Yeah, would I race that? I mean, yeah, way fucking slower than everybody else. I'd be like, thanks. Can I take your 21? You could probably fucking, you know, see what kind of clothes I'm wearing as I go by. You know, not I wouldn't, you know, I would be a danger. I would be dangerous to everybody else. That's right.

SPEAKER_02: 1:45:37

You'd be a danger to everyone on the truck. I feel the same way, yeah.

SPEAKER_10: 1:45:40

There there is no way.

SPEAKER_02: 1:45:41

That doesn't mean I don't want to be there.

SPEAKER_10: 1:45:43

I've listened I've I've been in GNCC races, like with with big time professionals coming past me, Barry Hawk and like people like that. There's no way I'm getting on a on Moto or on uh on Isle Man.

SPEAKER_14: 1:45:56

No way. I want to do fucking Dakar, dude. Oh I want to do fucking Baja. I mean, I've done the Baja, not the race, but like ridden the Baja. And it's sick because you could, I mean, the Baja's just fucking awesome. Uh, but I think racing the Dakar, dude, just days riding through fucking sand dunes and dodging camels. You know, because I wouldn't want to just go joyride over there because I'm not much for that fucking weird food. And that culture's not as great as like the culture on the Baja, but I could see racing the sand dunes in Saudi Arabia. That would be fucking sick. If I had a full-on fucking race team that was helping me out every day and I've got to get away from the city gas through the sand dunes, it'd be so sick.

SPEAKER_10: 1:46:39

So uh one of one of our viewers here, longtime viewer with us every week, Nick Hilde Brittle said first King of the Baggers race was October 2020, Weather Tech Raceway, Laguna Sega, California, marking the debut of the popular Moto America series for big modified touring bikes.

SPEAKER_08: 1:46:55

Thank you, Chat GPT.

SPEAKER_10: 1:46:59

We know your secret bitch. All right, well, Dan, listen, man. Thank you so like you you've been here with us all night. I feel I feel guilty that we kept you this long, dude, but this was such a great conversation. There was no way to pull out, like we could keep going for hours though.

SPEAKER_14: 1:47:16

I enjoy catching up with you guys. Thank you once again for having me on. And let's do it again. Thank you very much. I'm dangerous.

SPEAKER_10: 1:47:25

All right, buddy. Take it easy, Dan. We'll catch you on the flip. And it's so good to uh so good to catch up with him. Go go follow this dude. Go follow this dude. This this ain't somebody that's a that's an influencer, you know, this bullshit. Like this is a guy that's living his life in motorcycles, and he's taking you on the ride. So check him out.

SPEAKER_02: 1:47:43

What a great person to hang out with. You're not missing anything.

SPEAKER_08: 1:47:46

No, he's a blast.

SPEAKER_10: 1:47:48

So for us, man, we've had you guys on overtime. We're almost at the full 120 this week. Oh my god, that never happened. And dude, I got like looking at the numbers up on the screen, everybody has stayed. Yeah, right. So good jokes. Loving that.

SPEAKER_08: 1:48:02

Well, he's just funny as hell. I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_02: 1:48:04

Again, he's so much fun to be on.

SPEAKER_10: 1:48:06

And he's no yes, like next next week coming back. Let's talk about uh let's talk about what's going on next week. Heather.

SPEAKER_08: 1:48:13

Oh, next week we're gonna we're gonna be at NVP next week, and we've got the Ives Brothers.

SPEAKER_10: 1:48:20

Yeah, Ives Brothers in the house next week, and we'll have the other half of the uh Psychosource Readers Awards for 2025. And um Andre what my pull-out game is kind of weak, Rudy. So uh yeah, and I think we're gonna start announcing the um the second part of the smoke out garage build-off. Yeah.

SPEAKER_08: 1:48:45

I'm sorry, guys, I told you it would be this week, but we out of town. We out of town.

SPEAKER_10: 1:48:50

So we're gonna hit it, man. Thank you guys for for lending us some space and uh thanks for Dan for the spirit of conversation tonight. We will catch you next time. Till then, we want you to be out in the garage. Do something with your motorcycle, stay out of the cold because it's bullshit. We'll see you back here next week. Same chopper time.

SPEAKER_08: 1:49:11

Same chopper channel.

SPEAKER_02: 1:49:13

Thanks for staying up late, Felicia.