Episodes
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It's the most wonderful time of the year for motorcyclists. This week, in Milan, Italy, the EICMA motorcycle show ran, with manufacturers from around the world showing off their new bikes. Podcast host Neil Graham and guests Zac Kurylyk (ADVrider managing editor) and Michael Uhlarik (veteran motorcycle designer) all have some thoughts on the show's good, bad and ugly machines.
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Bike shows are dying. And bike shows are thriving. Thor and Tori Drake of Portland’s The One Motorcycle Show give The Lowdown the lowdown on making a bike show succeed amid the ashes.
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Missing episodes?
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Ryan Egusquiza from Bend, Oregon’s Giant Loop is our guest this week and we talk hard cases (not head cases) vs. soft bags and the art of leaving LA.
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A half-dozen years ago flat track racing was having the most unusual resurgence. The most American—and the most cultish—of all motorcycle sport had superstars like Marc Marquez and Valentino Rossi under its spell. But then something happened. The grids shrunk, the riders began to feud with management, and the spectators stayed away. This week Cory Texter, a former champion in the sport and a long-time critic, is our guest as we try to unpack how something with so much momentum hit the skids with such ferocity.
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As the 2024 riding season winds down, Neil and ADVrider managing editor Zac Kurylyk meet up to talk about the different bikes they rode this summer (new and old), including Zac's time on the new Royal Enfield Himalyan 450. He thinks it's stiff competition for the KLR650 and DR650.
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Who built the first ADV bike? Was it the BMW R80 G/S, or was there another dual sport/travel bike hybrid before that machine? This week, designer/industry insider Michael Uhlarik returns to The Lowdown Podcast to talk about another brand that has a solid claim to the title of first to the ADV segment.
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Motorcycling’s most happening man. Paul d’Orleans is a historian, curator, author, and founder of The Vintagent, the go-to for motorcycle culture online. He’s also funny, shrewd, a keen lover of all things obscure, and a natty dresser.
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From building choppers in the decadent 1990s to amassing more than a million kilometres in the past 15 years, Paul Stewart doesn’t hang about. But Stewart’s more than just about hammering his way across continents. For his latest expedition, he pottered across America on a Honda 125 retracing the steps of a man who, 120 years ago, headed into the wilds on a bicycle with a clip-on motor as the very first ADV rider. Add to this a passion for helping stray dogs and perpetual struggles with his vision—he’s had multiple eye surgeries—Stewart is not a man to be held back.
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Eric Hougen has a lifetime in the ADV riding aftermarket scene, founding Wolfman Luggage from nothing and equipping thousands of riders for adventures around the world. Today, he talks with host Neil Graham about the challenges of the business and what he's up to now, with his new Threadworks project.
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In the early 2000s, Royal Enfield was a niche company, an India-based oddity building crude bikes that were basically unchanged since the mid-20th century. Now, they're a fully up-to-date manufacturer, with ABS, traction control and other modern electronics, and they have a wide range of products from cruisers to retros to scramblers to adventure bikes. How did they make this all happen? Mark Wells, the company's UK-based head of design, is here to tell us how Royal Enfield transformed themselves into the mid-sized motorcycle market leader.
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Neil sits down with special guest Scott Acheson from the US BMW Challenge Team ahead of his trip to Namibia.
Can he and a group of other ADV-ers bring GS Challenge Gold Back to America? -
The Bear, based in Australia, has been a valued forum member on ADVrider for a long, long time, and is one of the site's most valued contributors. He's been working for motorcycle magazines since 1978, and has a lifetime of adventure on machines ranging from a World War II-era Harley-Davidson WLA to BMW adventure bikes and everything in between. Tune in to hear his experiences from decades of adventure, including an incident where he and his slightly off-kilter riding companion feared they'd get a visit from a Japanese fighter-bomber after their turbocharged CX650 broke down!
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The Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum houses the world's biggest motorcycle collection, as well as a roadracing track that's built to an aesthetic standard you won't find anywhere else in North America. Oh yes, and a vintage motorcycle festival that's a must-visit event every fall. Still not convinced to make the trip to Birmingham, Alabama to take in the museum? By the end of this week's episode with communications director Robert Pandya, you will be!
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Eva Rupert is a motelier, an overland adventurer, a Baja devotee, and a woman who once, while naked, cut the head off a boa constrictor and ate it—the body, not the head. At least we don't think she ate the head. She’s chock full of advice about riding in Mexico and the American West, and offers candid views on adventure riding’s "awkward teenage phase."
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Cynical about coffee shops that align themselves with motorcycling? Jim Vandekas’s Flying Squirrel Motorcycle is a café with a difference. They host OEM test days, they built the Moto Craft custom bike show, and they’ve only just begun.
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If you think the Dos Equis spokesman is the most interesting man in the world, you’re wrong. That honor goes to ADVRider.com founder Chris MacAskill. From a hardscrabble childhood to Stanford to a career as a geophysicist to working with Steve Jobs to his own little family run startup that he sold for a cool $100 million, Chris is one of us and yet not one of us.
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From Brittany to Milwaukee: French engineer Chloe Lerin has followed an unusual career path. Rebuked by KTM and BMW, she elected to stay in America after school, working for Cummins diesel and John Deere before landing at her current gig developing powertrains for Harley-Davidson. A racing enthusiast, Lerin also works with Harley’s entry in King of the Baggers, the madcap racing series where Indian and Harley cruisers are modified to go at ungodly speeds. Lerin—never one to sit idle—is also a data engineer for a Suzuki-backed road-racing team in MotoAmerica.
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When the Cold War ended, schoolteacher Austin Vince and his friends rode around the world on Suzuki DR350s, and did something nobody had done before: They made an adventure movie about their trip, called Mondo Enduro. Millions saw their film and its follow-ups, and thousands were inspired to start their own ADV riding careers. Yet, it was an uphill battle to even get their film on television, as it was rejected by every single broadcaster.
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Sarah Schilke is the ultimate motorcycle industry insider, with a career that had stops at various gearmakers as well as BMW Motorrad. On top of that, she's one of the people behind Women Riders Now, one of the longest-running female-focused motorcycle websites out there. Oh yes, and she loves riding dual sport bikes!
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This summer, The Bikeriders plays in theaters across North America, sharing the story of a fictional motorcycle club that's based in reality. The storyline and even much of the filmography is inspired by Danny Lyon's classic photo book of the same name. But is it really an honest look at motorcycle culture? Neil Graham and ADVrider managing editor Zac Kurylyk discuss their thoughts on the film.
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