Crackerjack Prizes & Motorcycle Zines: Ryan Snelson's Print Revolution

Hey everybody welcome to episode 91. Can you believe it? Of the arrive alive
podcast. This is gonna be a special episode but I want to ask you if you remember
a TV show on Saturday mornings called The Land of the Lost or you may remember the
movie and I think was a little feral in that Land of the Lost movie but anyway
there was a movie called Land of the Lost. Now there was a time in the mid to
80s and 90s and early 2000s called in my sense the land of the lost of motorcycle
magazines because those times that decade was probably the golden age of motorcycle
magazines and you know there was motorcyclist and cycle world and cycle and there
was rider magazine and then there was dirt bike magazines and let me tell you
something if you like motorcycles back then. You didn't get just one. Sometimes you
got two magazines, sometimes you got three, and hopefully they didn't come all the
same day, so throughout the month you could flip the pages and read about your
favorite rides, your favorite destinations, and from your favorite authors and editors,
people like Art Friedman and Mitch Bohm, they were, you know, I read them growing
up and they were just so genuine in their love of riding,
describing riding and kind of giving advice on what to buy and it was just
wonderful. Now today it's a lot different but we're getting back to the golden age
because we have a very special person. His name is Ryan and he is a founder of a
motorcycle maga zine with the emphasis on zine. We'll tell you more about him in a
second. First, I want to say a big thank you to the folks over at the Hammond Law
Firm. They are all riders, their attorneys, but the most important thing is if you
go down, they will help you back up. And by that, I mean they will represent you
in a court of law. They will help you In whatever way, you know need to hopefully
you're not injured, but you may be injured and you will need some Support and
resources to get back to help and I'm not just saying that because I've used them
in the past when I was hit And so as a friend of mine who is now in India, but
coming back to the United States, so call 1 -800 -HAY -MOND I hope you never need
them, but if you do they can help you out all across the country. Okay, and now I
feel like I should have the dating game theme music on, but now we have Ryan
Snelson. He's from Brooklyn, New York, and he loves going to bullfights on acid.
No, I'm just kidding. That's a caddy check reference. But anyway, Ryan Snelson is
the brains, the founder, and the creator of Moto Valley Motorcycle Magazine.
And like the magazines of your it's sure to put a smile on your face for anyone
that loves and embraces riding on two wheels with an engine and gasoline and the
smell of oil and and just enjoying the open road. So I think I hear Ryan walk in
his motorcycle up right about now Ryan so good to have you here Thanks for taking
the time to be on episode 91. - Dude, thank you for having me. - So that is the
exact right answer. And, you know, we were just talking before and before we get
into the magazines 'cause we used to love motorcycle magazines. You worked at a
company that's near and dear to a lot of our hearts, Myspace. So my first question
is, A, Did you know or hang out with Tom and B? Did he ride?
No, and no
No, and no If Tom did ride what kind of motorcycle do you think you would ride?
You know, I heard last I heard he was in Hawaii taking pictures So he would
probably have to have an ADV bike of some kind All right, that sounds cool. Well,
as we said in the intro, so you are the founder and editor and the creative genius
behind a motorcycle magazine, believe it or not, folks, they still exist. It's called
Moto Valley. And Ryan, why don't you just tell us a little bit about, you know,
how it started, what it is. It's a little bit different than the motorcycle
magazines of the 90s, but tell everybody what it's about. Sure. Sure, it's not about
everything that you know about motorcycles already because you get that for free on
the internet. Yeah It is a monthly Zine It's become a zine.
It started out as a magazine started as a passion project that turned into a
magazine That's now a monthly zine. Yeah, and one subscriber described it as a
cracker jack prize Like I didn't know what I was gonna get and So how many, well,
what year did you start it? I started in 2018 as a late night side project and
the, uh, the first three were 100 page books,
um, that were about the local New York motorcycle community and a bunch of random
stuff to
the site. You better put a link in there. You better have a big, fat get into it.
And then now this one is not 100 pages. I'll tell you that. No, that's a, that's
a, that's a zine. That's a straight up quick ephemeral piece of print you're holding
my friend. And you know, in the 90s, zines were very, very popular, right? Online
zines. Yeah. I used to be friends with this guy. This girl on, on AOL and her
name was Bonnie Burton. And I'm going to send this episode to her. She had a zine
called Tom G R R R L and she was kind of like the typical 90s,
you know, rocker chick with the funky glasses and the bangs. And you know,
what was that? What was the name of that girl that's singer with the from the 90s?
She had the glasses. You say, Oh, yeah, I should know this one. So Lisa Loeb.
Yeah, Lisa Loeb, like he's rocking the Lisa Loeb with, with, with, with jet black
hair kind between Lisa Loeb and and Betty Page and Elvira kind of combined into one
fun and she had a freaking great z and I have to and she's now living I think
she's to work for Apple I gotta double check that okay so it's a little bit
smaller now you have writers you have photographers and I you print it out at home
right yeah so I do all the production myself um which is one of the really great
parts about this. It's very DIY, but I take a very serious design approach to it
and sometimes I have to work hard to make it not look so good.
And that's fun, actually. So what was the question again?
You printed it home, you designed Yeah. You have contributors? Or is it all you?
Yeah. So there is contributors. And the best part about it is the people that read
it are the people that are a part of it. And I say, if you get this, like you
get this line, if you get it and you want to do something, we do something. And
we do whatever it is that you feel you want to do. And I help guide you and make
it really fun for everybody. And there's a new sticker that comes out every month
that you get. That's always different. It's always fun. Um, but yes, contributors,
artists, photographers, not as many writers these days, um, but,
and there's interviews. Sometimes I'll do an interview where the old school magazine
that I did, that was a lot of interview where I would actually go riding with
people. The format was this. I would ride with people, take Take them wherever they
go. Right. That was the whole thing wherever it is that you go I'll go and we'll
hang out and we'll talk about stuff and then We'll make a story about that if
there's a story there And that's how the whole thing started because I needed more
riding friends. I mean, you know this Yeah, riding comes in and out of your life,
but not a lot of people stay with it for a bunch of different reasons And I
wanted to always ride. So I started this project as a way to ride more. And now
the project is, I treat it more like a business, like a startup. Like even though
there is this little thing, this little special moment that you get every month, I
feel like there's going to be more to Motivelli. And no advertising, right? No
advertising, no. You think you'll take advertising in the future? So I haven't yet.
I get a lot of people that hit me up for ads that don't know what I'm doing.
They don't, they don't read it. They're not around here. They don't say hello. And
they want me to like, shill their socks. And I'm like, yeah, no, I mean, if I
wear them and I think they're amazing, yeah, maybe I'll just talk about them
organically. But, but so far, I haven't done the advertising route. I would rather
give someone else motive alley and they can shill it for me. So,
my mom's 82 years old, she came on the back of my bike once, and if she was with
us right now, and she's still alive, thank God, if she were to say to you, "Hey,
what's the most memorable or favorite article or interview you've done in Motivelli
to date? What would that be? The most favorite ones that I've done are The
collaborations where people just they they have something that they want to get out
and any specific one the person You know the one that comes to the top of mind is
Douglas Thompson. Who's a who's the guy with the balloons? You've seen him at the
distinguished gentleman's ride, I'm sure and He he's really into it. He's been a
super fan and I have his his sticker that we made together on my mug right now So
that's why it came on. Oh, very nice, yeah, very cool. - And we did an issue that
was just a small, quick comic panel and no words. And the entire thing was
essentially, I open up my phone and all I see is doom. There's no words on this,
right? This is all illustration. All I see is doom.
And I can choose to turn this off. I don't have to be in the mindset of things
going to hell. I want to be happier and I'm going to do that by getting on my
bike and that we just use the balloons at the end for just this exit out of
staring at the phone and staring at all the notifications that come up. It's a very
layered story that we came up with, but it's very, very simple. It's quick.
It's Calvin and Hobbes for motorcycle riding and without the words it was just you
know I really liked that one. That was one of my favorite now over some of your
favorite Motorcycle magazines that you used to get back You know in the 90s and
2000s. Yeah, so I used to go get dirt bike magazine and dirt rider magazine And
that was and I would cut out all the pictures and put them on my wall when I was
a kid and I absolutely loved it because that was the only place that you could
find anything, right? I mean, I look at magazines still in the way that I looked
at them when I was a kid, except now I deliver different things that people don't
expect because you can find anything you want online, right? But I say, what's the
best dirt bike right now for wherever? I could go on Reddit, find it in a hot
second, do a search, find anything I need to know about anything And then watch a
thousand reviews on it, sliced a thousand billion ways. So now to me,
getting that stuff served in the way that we used to do with magazines is
incredibly boring. And I don't want to do that. I don't do reviews. I don't do
gear stuff. I talk about it on my TikTok, but I don't present it to the community
the way that magazines used to present things to to the community, if that makes
sense. - I remember, you know, if it was a Friday and like the late 90s in the
winter and if I got Wired Magazine and Motorcyclist and Road Rider on the same
Friday, man, my weekend. You know, and then, you know, on TNT, for the people that
remember cable TV, right? Almost every Saturday in the winter, TNT would play house,
you know, at three o 'clock roadhouse. Yeah. Crazy. Yeah, I probably see that movie
like 45 times because you know, the during the channel surfing days and that was
that was great. You know, I used to cut out articles from Art Friedman and a few
other of the the editors and art, you know, he had these sayings. One of the
sayings was
A motorcycle will get you through times without a girlfriend, but a girlfriend won't
get you through times without a motorcycle. I love that. Yeah, what's your reaction
to that phrase that saying? I have to say I like that phrase, but I tuned out as
soon as you said wired because I think I think I texted you a while back ago when
I met you this wired I found in Manhattan on the street from '98 or '97 with
Steve Jobs on the cover. I think I still have that one. Yeah, I have it. I was
like, this is amazing. And then this is where, by the way, this is where my ADD
and coffee and excitement for being here is going to kick in. So bear with me.
When I think of Motivell, I don't think of motorcycle magazines the way we think of
them. I think of Motorcycles is a topic overall. I think of National Geographic and
I think of Mad Magazine. So those three things, you get satire, you get,
you know, being out in the world and then you get just being and guiding around
the love of bikes. And that's the fusion for me. Those three things are a big
influence. Motorcycles spy versus spy. Do you remember that? Not only do I remember
that I made a character in the second issue that was based on the DMV clip art
for how to ride a motorcycle Oh, yeah, and I made him a failed Everything in
modern technology going through life trying to figure it out and I made comic strips
about him He was called the DMV or the DM vlogger He was literally a clip art of
the how to ride a motorcycle in New Wow. Oh, let's talk about that in a minute.
Yeah. And remember when they used to have the folding pages where you would fold
the page to thirds and then a new photo. Do that with the next issue is the best.
I've done that before. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You're new land. You're
in for the welcome to the insanity. You got one and you're like, where what's going
on here? You're going to get a lot. I know you don't check your mail often, but
you get your key chain. - Keychain? - What? - You get your keychain? - Oh, that mail,
no, yeah, well, no. - Yeah, there we go. - I have a pile, I have a pile. Yeah, I
need to do that. All right, that's cool. So, all right, we'll stay on, all right,
so about how do people, other than this and your TikTok, so how do people hear
about it, number one, and if you're allowed to say approximately how many subscribers
you have? - Well, I want drivers, I'm going to keep my numbers tight these days
because I'm trying to grow it like a startup. Is it just U .S.? You mail
internationally? Sorry, I just started doing international.
I've got to figure that out a little bit better. You have a boatload of listeners
in China, by the way. Do we? Yeah. It's like the United States and China beats
Canada some months. Well, you know, it's funny. Originally, I was thinking, because
the word magazine comes with so much baggage, you think, "Oh, maybe this is a
coffee table thing. Maybe this should go in a shop. Maybe this should be here or
there." But I actually think it's more effective when it comes direct to the rider,
when they get it directly and they stay your surprise because they don't know what's
coming. I don't have a chance to flip through it and see, "Oh, do I want to get
this?" You're buying into this experience. So I'm doubling down on my internet usage.
I'm doubling down on my TikTok shop. I'm doubling down on how I approach Instagram
these days. Because I want people to see it because it works with the internet. It
is, I do a lot of things with the community, like the last issue, when you get
it, when you open it, and there's no spoilers, but I already mentioned the key
chain, But you get a key chain and it's part of the group ride and part of the
group ride is that you get to Upload your group ride from this year and I'll put
it in the next issue So we're doing things like this where where it's not me
talking at somebody being like oh, hey I think this and therefore that's the way it
is and we're done. It's we're doing this together we're going through the same thing
riding around here and We're and we're gonna experience it together and we're gonna
share in those inside jokes together about riding and it's okay that nobody else
gets it because that's the point. You get it because you're a lifelong rider and I
get it and that's all that matters and that's why we're here. - Awesome. You know,
I saw a funny meme on there's a motorcycle. You know, I'll link to you later.
There's like this motorcycle group on LinkedIn LinkedIn has like 30 ,000 people and
she definitely posts a snippet or something like that. I'm sure you'll get a ton.
And then there's also a dealer group or motorcycle industry professionals,
which you are. And now I'm losing my train of thought, which sucks. - Sorry, let's
go all over the place. - Definitely looks forward to the key chain. And we're gonna
talk about safety. Well, let's get right into the bike. - Yeah, let's do it. - So
when did you get, So you, I guess you grew up on dirt bite. Where'd you grow up?
I grew up in North Jersey, family all around New Jersey, Manhattan, Long Island,
Queens. And Jersey diner would be. Yeah. I love Jersey diner.
Oh, like Tik Tok on three. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I mean, any of them really, like,
especially the Greek ones, you just go in, I remember when you could smoke in them
and, you know, it's like the smoking section would be just like a wood panel that
was separate than that smoking section. But yeah, so like Jersey was cool because I
guess you got to start on bicycles. That's really the origin of all of my bike
story is that bicycles, playing Excitebike on Nintendo, watching Rad on VHS,
trying to mimic the stuff that I saw in those magazines or on TV or in the video
games with my friends because that's what we did. We lived on a dead end street
and you would ride your bikes and then you would just keep riding your bikes and
as you got bigger, you would grow out of your bike, hit another bike, but then one
day, I heard (imitates bike engine)
What is that? You know, follow the sound and sure, there they are. There's some
kids in dirt bikes riding around and it was at that point that I started watching
them and I started seeing other people show up in these like sand pit areas and
these orchards that were like geared up. Like they looked like they were practicing
for something. So I would take pictures of them with a little 35 and then I would
borrow my dad's camcorder and watch them and then show my friends and be like, "You
don't understand. This guy hit that jump. You remember the thing that we, he went
from here to there. And then, you know, our brains were exploded with this.
And all I wanted to do is ride. I got on a mini bike when I was like seven
pullstart crashed into a curb. I crashed into a fury to come to engine.
And I lived on a dead end block too, Ricky Paladoro. And we Uh,
it was a very high, uh, curb at the end of our dead end block and it had a cut
out for a wheelchair, but it was kind of like a cup version. So it kind of made
a nice little ramp and I had a Ross Apollo five speed with kind of like not
really eight bar, but you know, the higher handlebars, you know, freaking pretend I
was evil. Can evil, you know, back and he had the wide world of sports and things
like that. And yeah, and we used to put, of course, the baseball cards in our
wheels to make it sound like a motorcycle. - I still do that sometimes. - And then
I got my first bike, Kawasaki 440 LTD at a police auction with my friend Neil,
who I'm still friends with to this day.
And my mom didn't know about it. And then I split a Harley -Davidson Sportster 1
,000 that was made during the AMF years, which were like the bad terrible years for
Harley. And when we would put that bike on its side stand, all the oil would come
out, you know? - Of course. All the carbs were flooded and you got to shake it.
- Yeah, but yeah, that was really fun. But the Harley really taught me a lot about
kind of being in the moment because you had to be aware of everything there and I
didn't take Training let's talk about when did you get when did you get your? When
did you get on a Harley for the first time like 19? Oh, you were 19? Yeah, so
you had your license then or no? You were yeah, no, I did I did you know my
friend Steve he He was also a muscle car guy, and he had a Chevelle Super Sports
69 with with with tires like wider than your body,
like two of your bodies and bicycle tires on the front, basically roll cage on the
back. And that thing would, you know, he would take that on sunrise highway and do
some quarter miles and down Jones beach. And, and, and that was a great freaking
car. But anyway, so you got your first street bike when? - '99. - And what ZX6 are
well. Oh, wow. Okay. Bike type guy, Len,
do you like do you like my sound effects? Not really
Not it's I'm not I'm not gonna do them. I thought it was good with the mic and a
famous comedian You know sound effects. I was just hoping someone was listening with
really good headphones And maybe my mic was actually doing it and
- I got my first street bike in '99. - When you got it. - Oh, I don't know, I'm
47 now, so. - All right, so whatever that is. - Whatever that is, we'll do the
math. - And this was in Jersey, you were living at home, still? - Yeah, yeah, so I
got the bike. I had grown up on dirt bikes, two strokes. I rode bicycles for a
long time. I took my test on a scooter, found someone on the WAN Yeah.
And they're like, yeah, we'll meet you at the DMV with a scooter. And it was the
easiest test I've ever taken in my life. And I remember thinking, I can't believe
I'm allowed to get on a ZX6R. I got it used. I didn't know what I was getting
into. It was my first street motorcycle. And the one thing I remember, the first
time I went around a turn, was exactly what I remembered on the minibike. There was
no forgiveness. The tire locked in the line, like I held the line so well.
You know what I mean? There was no forgiveness. Whereas on a dirt bike, you could
move the handlebars. You could slide the back out. That's the way you ride it. The
street bike was on rails. I remember that feeling specifically, thinking like, this
is a whole nother world of motorcycle riding, but no, I haven't always been in the
sport bikes. I had a 99 CX6R at a 04 Triumph Thruxton. I had a 73 CB 350F.
Wow. I had a 2007 Ducati monster 695 and now I have the Yamaha FC09.
Got it. Are you like a, you know, I love going away. I'm going up to Rochester
and Niagara Falls in a week or two. I'm going to go to Vermont in three weeks or
four weeks. Like, are you, do you like taking trips? I know you're married. Do you
have a kid? Did your wife enjoy riding on the back? Does she have her own
motorcycle? She used to, but the, my current bike, she does not like riding on the
back at all. It's very uncomfortable. Um, but I'm getting giddy about asking about
the trip because I just got back and I, from the Rocky mountains and I did Pikes
Peak. Oh, wow. And I want to talk about it constantly to everyone that asks me
about it. - Did you rent a bike for that? - I did, yeah. I flew into Denver with
one of my childhood friends. We went to Eagle Rider.
I got a Yamaha Tracer 900, which is essentially the sport touring version of my
bike. And we did days in the Rocky Mountains. We did Rocky Mountain National Park.
We did that really long paved road at the we did Pikes Peak. It was no,
it was, it was incredible, Len.
Incredible. Let's talk a little bit about training. So did you have other than
whatever, you know, remedial training you had when you first started? Have you done
any advanced rider courses, track days, that type of thing? No, not one. And I was
just thinking about it the other day. I was going up Storm King. I did, I did a
post on TikTok about this, I think, where I was just really feeling my bike. I was
in the zone, I'd been riding for a while. You know the difference between when you
start your day out versus when you're in the middle of your day and your comfort
level is really good. And I said to myself, this is the bike, I love this bike.
I'm feeling really good. I've never taken a technical course about
I'm, you know, I guess you would say I'm self -taught, but I was thinking how much
I practice riding. Like, when I go riding, I think of it as practice time. The
more time you're on the bike, the better you get, the better situational you are.
But I think that, you know, as I move into this next phase of life, whatever you
want to call it, I think it would be great to do a fun course, to do a track
day, to do any of those things. Hey, we'll be right back with the rest of the
show but first I want to tell you about a friend of the show and her name is
Donna Serdula. She lives just outside of Philadelphia but she's got a business that
serves the whole country. Her business is called LinkedIn Makeover and her specialty
is revamping and redoing LinkedIn profiles and resumes and she's an expert in the
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So should you be looking for a new job or just want to revamp your resume or your
profile, go to LinkedIn -makeover .com. We'll put a link in the show notes and Donna
also offers free consultations to the listeners of our show. And now let's pick up
where we left off.
Yeah, their track day, the Keith code, the advanced rider course, which is four
hours classroom for, I mean, I used to do it every other year. It's been about
three or four years. Not only do you get a break on your insurance number one, but
you kind of, you know, and people like the, you know, we had a, I don't know if
you know Alonzo Bowden. He's a pretty famous standup comedian. He's on NPR. He's had
four Amazon specials. He was in scary movie one, two and three, I think. And he's
a big old African American comedian from Roosevelt Queens.
Didn't live in it on the West Coast for years. I had him on the show. You had
him on the show. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And you know, he I said, what about training?
He's like, well, you know, in the seventies, he said, you went to the dealer, they
gave you the keys. They said, this is the break. This is the throttle. This is the
clutch. And if you got home in one piece. Hey, you were trained. You know, that
was, uh, but he's also a big proponent of training and track days. He's got a full
big guy, full tracks. And he used to be, uh, a Harley.
No, now he's got a Harley, but he's also a Ducati guy. He likes go fast, but not
like the, the racer, Ducati's like the bigger kind of cruiser style,
uh, Ducati's and, um, and he's a big advocate of training now and I think we all
should be in there's a place in Jersey the Bronx has one and I had and even you
said practice right my parents live in uh on Long Island and when I you know visit
them on the way back instead of just getting down the LIE I'll go to the Long
Island railroad station which you know on a Sunday has no party nobody in the
parking lot and I'll just practice you know sometimes I'll even put my phone on a
cone or something and record myself doing some your race, you know, hard front
braking, your bike has ABS? No, I never had ABS on any bike except that revs a
bike. That's one of the reasons why I got a BMW in the 90s, because in the city,
it definitely comes in handy. It really does. Are you using. So you. So all right.
In the last 90 days, other than your trip out west on your motorcycle,
what percent of your riding is in like within the five boroughs in New Jersey
versus out in the country. So I think about my motorcycle. So it's funny,
you were saying like track days and all this stuff. I don't really have a desire
to be on the track. I don't, I don't think of myself as I want to go get super
technical on the track. What I like to do is I like to explore places. I like to
go out and be out in the world and be out in nature and and explore places. I
think I'm probably more of a sport touring person built into like a hooligan bike.
That's kind of the way I think about myself now. But when I am in the five
boroughs, I'm on my e -bike that you saw yesterday at 2L Tuesday, or I'm on my
bicycle mostly. That's the fastest way I can get around.
When I'm getting out of the city, I'll do late night rides after hours,
or I'll do very early morning rides on the weekend. That's kind of where I've been
in the last 90 days. - Got it. And all right, so for the motorcycle,
what's your kind of, what are you wearing? Are you wearing, you know, what type of
gear are you wearing?
Reflective, high vis, what's your philosophy there? - So, ATGAT is the philosophy.
I wear riding pants with pads in them. I wear a riding jacket with back protector,
shoulders, elbows, and a full face helmet. And that's me,
every time. Even in the hottest day that we had a couple weeks ago, that really
hot stretch, I did a group ride after Two Wheel Tuesday. We were all geared up.
I mean, There's a couple of guys in T -shirts, but I was geared up. - That's great.
I used to be that way in the last few years. I kind of stopped being that way. I
want to try to get better. I mean, if I'm going to the bear mountain or out to
the beach or something like that, I'll do that. And on the upcoming trip, I have a
nice mesh, kind of summer mid -weight jacket. I'll totally wear it. You have to keep
hydrated. I had Alisa Clickinger on the show. She's been on the show twice and soon
to third time. And she's a big, you know, kind of proponent of being hydrated
because when you're dehydrated, your mind starts wandering and people with ADD like
us, it's even worse. You know, so I always like have some water before I ride,
make sure I stop. And and but yeah, I feel like I'm on a magic carpet.
That's how I describe it to people. Yeah, going upstate, going to Rochester,
Syracuse, the Poconos, that type of thing. I just love it. But I would like to do
a track day just once, just to see what it's like, not on my bike, but on
somebody else's bike. - Yeah, just to open it up a little bit and feel like you
have the safety rails in a sense. Like you can push it as you need to as you're
capable of pushing it without worrying about external factors as much. But to answer
your high vis question, I like high vis in hits, right? So most of my gear is
darker, but even in, I think it was three issues ago, you can't see stars from the
city. I sent everybody high vis reflective stars for their helmets and bikes and
stuff. So those little hits go a long way. Like cyclists will tell you, if you put
a little high vis on your ankle sock when you're moving because the thing moves,
right? It's because your feet are moving that it's more visible at night when it's
something is stagnant it's not as great but if you put something on your helmet and
you're always doing head check so I'm always doing head check right all the audio
files out here I'm gonna go left and right like this but you know then you can
see it so I have a couple of hi -vis hit spots on my helmet but that's about it
do you so so since you ride a lot on your e -bike around town,
you probably see a lot of people kind of making mistakes. - The worst mistakes.
- What are the top three mistakes that you're seeing motorcycle riders make in your
journeys around town? - This one I can bucket into a lot of different ways,
but I see a lot of people that shouldn't be on bikes, on bikes. I see a lot of
scooter delivery guys that are literally almost clipping pedestrians.
I mean, it's really bad line. I used to think it was cool in the beginning when
COVID started. I was like, "Oh, look at this. This is nice. Everybody's getting
their food delivered. Isn't that great?" I can't curse on the show. I know you have
no cursing rule.
It's insane. They have no sense of awareness of anyone else on the road.
I mean, I'm just talking basic things. Like the walk sign has been, you know,
bright for five seconds. Okay, I'm gonna walk my kid across the street. Choo! It's
like, you gotta be kidding me. That's one. Number two, city bike riders. They are
complete idiots. I'm sorry if you ride a city bike and you're listening. They have
no idea what they're doing. It's because they pick up these up these rentals,
especially the e -bike ones, they, they don't even look at where they're turning,
dude. And they're texting too. And they're texting. And I'm like, you got to be
kidding me. And I'm, and I'm a cyclist. I'm, I have an e -bike and I have a
motorcycle. I, no one advocates for safe streets for more than me, but the hypocrisy
of cyclists to be like, we need all the bike lanes and we're not going to follow
any of the rules, like people were getting mad that they were like, you know, going
after people for running red lights. And I'm thinking to myself, how about just stop
at the red? Yeah, like it's easy. And what about motorcyclists that you're seeing?
Like, you know, the typical 27 squids, huh? Squids. Yeah. Is that what they're
called squids? Yeah, squids. Okay. Is that a young motorcyclist? Squid is like, uh,
yeah. A young motorcyclists with a sport bike that has no idea what they're doing.
And they're erratic. They're squids, they move erratically. So they, they, they, they
wrap the throttle, they slam the brakes, squids, they, they split lanes at 120,
right? In shorts, squids. Got it. I mean, look, I say ride your own ride,
but like that doesn't help the cause for motorcycles. When we see that type of
behavior, it's not a good look. - Yeah, I think, you know, what I would,
you know, if I had to pick like one or two things that I'm seeing, it's definitely
the cell phone, right? On the handlebars. And I think that's number one. I tried it
once and thank God for ABS goes in the midtown tunnel. And I just checked the
phone for a second and I almost went right into the back of a FedEx truck. Thank
God for the... Yeah. Well, the whole thing with technology on your handlebars is,
it seems like a great idea, right? But it is so distracting. I mean,
it's distracting in a car. It's really bad in a car because you feel like you're
safe and it doesn't matter. On a motorcycle, if you drift off in your mind and
you're
The the map for example you have a high cognitive load in your brain. It can't
really process it now That's not to say there's not a time and place if you get
lost to throw your GPS on and go I actually don't run my phone on my bars at all
I've been here for the last three years I hand write my directions and I made them
mounts little prototype mount that I I keep on my bars and I just glance at the
milestones that I know and it helps me remember the roads for the next time and it
gives me the clues that I need to make it around and I just write it doesn't
drain my phone it doesn't ruin my shake my camera out you know what I mean yeah
it's literally a piece of paper with turn right here go left here have fun yeah
and I also think that a lot of people are not smooth. I try to be very smooth
and not like herky jerky. And, you know, I'll get directions on my phone,
but it's in my pocket and I listened to it on the headphones. And I used to not
even be a fan of that. But now with the speed cameras and the red light cameras,
I like hearing waves, you know, telling me, you know, to look out. Have you ever
done the zombie voice on Waze? No, you got to check it out. Go on your settings,
maybe not for riding, because it might be a little distracting, but put the zombie
voice on and go a couple blocks with it. And you'll laugh. Give it a try. It's
really fun. And I don't know if you're familiar with the book, The Power of Now by
Eckhart Tolle. No, should I? Yeah, it's about living in the moment and just kind of
being cognizant of what you're doing. And so I try to apply that to motorcycling.
And he talks, you know, He's not a motorcyclist himself, but you know, feel the
vibration of the motorcycle, feel your hands on the handlebars. You know,
the scanning, right? Be very aware of being in the moment, because when you're not
in the moment and you're thinking about, oh, I got to take the kid out, or I got
to do some work and do a spreadsheet, that is prime time that you're going to have
an accident. And I actually ran over an Uber driver, Uber bike rider because my
mind was eight minutes ahead of me. He's like two some two summers ago. Thankful.
And I did the tank wobble. I didn't go down. He went down. I doubled back, of
course, and and went to his aid and we called the ambulance. He turned out to be
fine. Just had some bruising, but we're still like friends on Instagram because I
would check up on him. Yeah. Wow. And actually Uber gave him like a week's paid,
you know, not with tips, but a week's like hourly pay just to kind of recover from
that. I thought that was very nice. So the, the, the fees that you pay for Uber
for delivery charges, you know, that's well worth it in that sense. So, yeah. So
when, like, let's, I like this part because, um, you know, you, you gave me this
like thing to think about to prep and I've been listening to your, your, um, your
podcast and, um, You talk about like, uh, and I'm sorry if I'm jumping ahead. I'm
sorry if I'm going over your helmet, like in space balls.
But I just, I just watched it. I just watched it.
So the combination is one, two, the one thing for me is the pre -ride jitters.
And if I, if I don't shake them off and if I don't give myself the time to
reset, um, to reset, then I don't feel good and I wanna pull back.
I can't ever push it if I get those jitters. I need them to go away and the way
that I do that is I pull back all the way, I don't try to split.
I usually don't unless it's very, very, very slow, but I just ease back and I'm
much more passive when I ride. And then as time goes by, it'll all work itself out
and I'll be back on the bike and it'll help me focus. But what you just said is
so true, going out when you're not ready and your mind is all over the place. I've
done that in the garage before I leave where my mind is all over the place. I'm
like, I just need to lube the chain and then I end up dropping my bike because
I'm not, I'm just scattered, I'm moving too fast. You know what I mean? So I'm
aware that riding requires a focused mind and I try to talk about that with people
so I'm glad that you talk about it too. Yeah, that's part of my pre -ride is like
I try to imagine you one of the reasons why I started the show is I had a little
problem. I'm a zesty Italian as they say. I'm have zesty. There you go and and You
know, I know people that used to carry and maybe still do rolls of pennies in
their pockets to throw at cars that, you know, cut them off. I was never that bad,
but I do have a good voice. - You have a great, dude, wait, stop. You have a
great voice. Every time I put you on a breakfast the other day, I'm like, everybody
listen to this podcast. I was like, I feel like I'm listening to my favorite radio
show. - Thank you very much. I remember this one time, I was in North Shore Long
Island and this woman had a Mercedes S class with a sunroof and she was texting
and talking like I love how people use the speakerphone and they hold the phone in
their hands when driving and this may sound a little sexist but if you would have
saw this woman typical North Shore Long Island kind of super wealthy woman and she
almost cut me off and we finally hit a red light And I said to her, I said, I
opened up my face and I said, your husband bought you a hundred and thirty thousand
dollar car. You think he could have bought you a twenty dollar headset? And she,
you know, her long island. I bought this car myself. What are you talking about?
You're a blah, blah, blah. And I said, well, you almost cut me off, you freaking
whatever. You know, so and also around in the city, I ride in the city a lot more
than you do. And I can get a little sarcastic too. And I have a module modular
helmet, which I like sometimes run with the with the shield up and the whole thing
up. And so people cross against the lights, I get it, but they don't even look.
And when they don't, and I have like fog lights, so I have three lights and my
headlight, which we should talk about is important, I have a headlight that modulates
in the daytime to really be seen. So it's not like they're not seeing me. And
they're crossing and then they look at me and I have the green light and they look
at me like I'm the bad guy So I'll say to them. Hey, I wonder what that red hand
means on this on the look You know and then they kind of shrug it off or blah
blah blah and I don't know how these people even make it And you know what people
text and walk on the sidewalk. That's fine But when they text and walk even if
they have the green light, there's a lot of idiots out there, Uber drivers that are
texting trying to get their next ride. And they sometimes run red lights. You should
definitely look. So anyway, enough about that. No, I look, I let I think it's
important to talk about. So I send you this, I don't know if you got a chance to
go through all of them, but I have 120 videos in my safety playlist alone on Tik
Tok. And most of those videos are are of me riding in the city. So I have a mic
on, I motovlog, and I just report the situation in front of me and you can see
it. I don't interpret it in any other way other than here's what's happening.
Exactly what you just said, right? And the amount of times I see people on their
phones, especially at night because you could see the glow, and I'm guilty of it.
I've been in a car before where I've been playing with my phone and I'm like, I
got to put this down. The amount of times I see people on phones weaving, making
last minute decisions because their map, they can't parse it. So they do a quick,
quick turn or they slam the brakes on or something. And, and that's where I try to
advocate for the splitting as a escape, right? Because you can move,
you can move out of the way, especially if the cars are, you know, kind of in
traffic or 10 miles an hour or whatever. But the amount of reliance on the phone
in the vehicles is really bad for road safety.
I, you know, if you go over, well, when clutch moto was around, we used to go
into Bayonne a lot and they would always have this big sign that was one of these
digital signs before you go over the Bayonne bridge that said distracting driving
kills. it was always there. And I was like, why don't they change that to get off
your phone? Why don't they make it so specific as opposed to, Hey, distracted
driving kills. What am I distracted? Cause I dropped a Cheerio. No, no, no, I'm
looking at a phone. Get off your phone, right? Don't be on your phone when you're
driving or at least set it and forget it or wear a headpiece or put it on audio
or something. You know, that's a good point because we had Amy Chang, who's been on
the show and helped on the show in the past, she's a five foot four woman from
Taiwan. She rides a Royal Enfield. She hit a deer a year and a half ago and she
got another motorcycle six months later. But what she used to say when I first met
her like five years ago is that she wouldn't ride after 10 on a Friday or a
Saturday, 'cause that's when the drunk drivers. But now today, I'd actually, I'd
rather be around drunk drivers with no phone because they're kind of a little bit
more cognizant where, you know, and so now there's really no safe time to ride
unless you're on a two lane highway by yourself and that's-- - I found the safe
time to ride. - What-- - Wait, wait, wait, Len, I found the safe time. - What? - I
found the safe time to ride. - Tell me. - Leave leave at 5 .30 AM. - That's
absolutely freaking right. You're absolutely right. - You gotta come next time. We did
a 6 .30 ride. Everyone met at the spot at 6 .30. So you get out of the city your
own way and your own time. And you meet on the way and it was super early. Like
no one had to backtrack or whatever. And it was great. And everyone was back early
afternoon, no traffic. - Where do you meet on the Palisades at that mobile station?
- Yeah, so we'll do a Palisades mobile and it's great. Yeah. The early birds that
get it, you know, that really want to ride and enjoy their time without having to
battle the city, they'll, they'll commit to it. Yep. No, I agree. I agree. But I,
I love that thinking about not going after 10.
Well, what kind of pipe you got on your bike? Is it stock? It is not. It is a
Kropovich and it is pretty loud. I didn't take the DB killers out,
but I don't get an inspected like that. Yeah, I mean, it's it's a past inspection.
I pass. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I got to get my bike inspected. You know what it is?
You can you can layer on that. If I if I wanted to, I can I can sound like an
idiot. I could really I could sound like an idiot. But in the city, I'm very
mindful of it. I don't rev bomb. I PM is very low when I'm in neighborhoods,
right? You know, you know, two well Tuesday we have the no rev bombing rule. Um,
and, but when I'm out on the, on the bigger roads and in the mountains, I can
hear the bike. I can hear the motor. I can listen to where it is. Other cars can
hear me where it is. Again, it's not screaming obnoxious, but it's enough to know
that there's a bike there. In the next year, you'll probably come out with another
12 issues of the zine, right? - Yep. - In the next year, what one or two aspects
of your riding would you like to see improve?
- So I am all about the riding behavior piece and I just wanna double down on the
jitters part. I think that technically I feel good, I feel confident, I'm
situationally aware, obviously I could always get better and not be distracted.
I think knowing and saying that I'm going out, I'm going to go,
I'm going to have a good time and I'm going to get home safe is my mantra for
riding. I just want to do it more. I just want to say that more and be and tell
people that more so that they can do it. Have you ever been caught in a bad
rainstorm? Yes.
it was all rain, but I had a pretty good gear.
So I wear exactly what I told you that I wear, plus a rain jacket and then I
have rain pants. But the problem was my rain pants didn't have the elastic around
the bottom of the boot. So I got a little spot in the boot that would come in
and that was a little uncomfortable. But I didn't mind riding in the rain. I mean,
it wasn't all rain. I mean there was snow at the top of Pike's Peak. It was
bananas. What advice would you give to people that maybe they're 27, 28, 30 on
their first or second bike and they're up in Hunter Mountain or out by the beach
and they get caught by rainstorm? What advice would you give to them? I would say
it's just water. Don't panic. If you really feel uncomfortable, find an underpass and
just pull over and just Let it happen. Let it happen otherwise go slow and put
your hazards on go in the right lane Yeah, and put your hazards on that's what I
do every time no matter what But you know the tires these days are pretty good If
you're going straight and you're not getting after you you're gonna be fine Just put
the hazards on so other cars will know that you exist because they don't see us
anyway They definitely don't see us in the rain. Yeah, I would say, so funny you
mentioned an underpass when I was like 25, 26, I had this guy, older guy friend
that I worked with, Bill Zaleski, and he was, I think he was a Vietnam vet,
but he was very calm and he had a nice Honda, and I was going on a trip down
south, I think it was maybe North Carolina, and then he said, I said, "Bill, what's
a good tip I should have to know and he said well when it gets cloudy put on
your rain suit I'm like that's it it's like yeah because when it gets cloudy it'll
probably rain and even if it doesn't that's fine because you better be prepared so
I'm in Pennsylvania somewhere in bum whatever Pennsylvania and one of these two lane
roads and every mile or so was an underpass And when I take the trips,
I make sure I never have to be anywhere. I can do 80 miles a day or 380 miles a
day. So I had no place to go that I had to be, but I was getting cloudy and
humid. And, but I said to myself, well, you know what? If it rains, I'll just make
it to an underpass and then I'll put my rain suit on. Sure enough, as soon as I
got out from under one underpass, gather the animals two by two type rain,
torrential, but I couldn't even make it a mile to the next underpass. That's how
hard it was to stop and decide right now. The good thing about those summer showers
is they usually don't last more than, you know, nine to 20 minutes, typically. But
for nine freaking minutes, every oracle was wet and people,
and then of course when it stopped a little bit, I went to the underpass, then I
put on my stupid rage suit while I was still wet, which was the stupidest thing to
do, but I held it open, I zipped it open, so I got drives, and thank god it was
a nice summer day. And I remember this one time I was in Maine, and this was the
one time that I did have to be, and a shout out to Meg Goldberg, because I was
going to see her, my college friend, and it was in Maine, and it was cold, and
this was before I didn't have a fog, defogger on my shield. And so this was my
choices. Okay, it was cold rain. And when my shield would fog up,
I would have to open my shield. But when I opened my shield, the rain felt like
you would put 1000 pins in your freezer. And they just felt like on my face.
I'm madly in 1000 pin. And that happened every 40 seconds for about - Oh wow.
- Until I made it to Boston.
But yeah, so one thing I would say is, rain suits are not that expensive, and even
talking about the cost, right? 'Cause I get a lot of emails of people, "I wanna
ride all the gear, I wanna wear all the gear," but it's like, "I don't have $700
for a suit." - You don't need it, Amazon. - You don't need it. - You just get, just
put it right over. Just put it right over, yeah. - Or your local thrift store, even
just leather jackets, your local thrift store, these people, Especially the boomers as
they get older you can find freaking great golf clubs great things because these
guys are turned 70 They're getting out of the sport and they're giving their stuff
away Yeah I want to also just mention that that's like a like riding gears is
usually expensive But if you if you invest in the the good jacket the good pants
for regular riding, right when it rains Get yourself an inexpensive pair of rain
pants. That's all it is, it's rain pants just goes over, you know, get the strap
at the bottom so your boot stays nice and tight. And then the rain jacket over
your regular jacket, because especially in summer storms, which by the way, in a
summer storm, I just get soaked and I air dry. If it's, if it's like, oh, hey,
we're, we're out in the Rocky Mountains and it's going to be like three hours of
rain now. Yeah, you got to keep it on and, and, and move into that headspace, but,
but I agree with you. Like something to invest in, he could pack it in your bag.
It's super lightweight. - In the last 10 years, give me your most happy,
memorable time on a motorcycle.
- I want to go with Colorado trip, but I have to tell you, - Let's do another one
since we've talked about that. - Listen, I'll tell you this and I'm not blowing
smoke. Every time I'm on my bike, I am a little kid. I am the happiest person.
I like to say this to people, I'm stupid happy. So I'm just happy to be out. I'm
just grateful to be getting home safe in one piece. And to me, and that is one of
the reasons and one of the, besides behind Motivelli is celebrating the little wins
in riding, right? Because when you're younger and you're getting into bikes, you come
at it from all these different angles, right? But eventually you reach a point where
you just get way more zen about it. And you're just like, this makes me so happy.
I want to do it as long as I can. What do I need to do to do that, you know?
- Well, you talk about feeling like a kid. And I met your son yesterday. He was
riding the bike with you, the bicycle. You know, when he turns 15, 16, 17,
I I have a daughter who's 21, she kind of wants a bike or a scooter, and it's
almost like that story from Channel 11 here in New York years ago, interviewed the
head of the Flying Walendas, the famous Trapeze family, and the father said he
didn't want his kids being involved in Trapeze because it's so dangerous, and I'm
not I would want, well, I don't know if my daughter could stop using her cell
phone long enough to ride a motorcycle, although she will tell you when she's 21
now, but when she's like 15 or 16, I took her for a 45 minute ride out to the
beach and she said, two things to me, she said, that felt really cathartic,
number one, and she said, I think this is the longest time I've ever not held my
cell phone in my hand while awake, 45 minutes. Is that crazy? But how would you,
if your son at 15, 16 wants a bike, what are you gonna do? Especially since you
have no training, you better make sure he gets freaking out. - Well, you know, I
mean-- - And not from you. - I have training. - A little bit from you. - I have
training in the sense that I practice, I love it, I learn from it,
you know? But he rides, so we ride our bikes together, we ride bicycles together.
He's six now, he's on his third bicycle. He's like sneakers. He just grows out of
them.
Actually, this summer, because it's summer break and everything, we've been spending
more time together and it's been wonderful and we'll go bicycle riding in the
mornings. He went around the entire loop in Prospect Park the other day,
except we had to walk up the big hill. He said to me, He said, "Dad, this is the
best." I said, "Oh, I'm so glad you're into it." And so to answer your question, I
don't think he's gonna one day be 15 or 16, and it's gonna be, I want a
motorcycle out of the blue. I think it'll be a gradual evolution where he's around
it enough to feel and unsee the dangerous points and the joyful points,
and then we'll cross that bridge when we get there. I don't ever want to deprive
him of, hey, riding is so great. It's been so wonderful for me. But I can tell
you, when I was teen, early 20s, riding dirt bikes,
I had two concussions. I ended up in the hospital, two concussions. I had amnesia
for a couple nights. I couldn't remember things. It messed me up. And I got that
out of my system early on in my motorcycle journey, that I understand what it means
to go down and I don't want to go down. So I'm trying to advocate safety and fun,
which is a tricky thing with a little kid. But I want them to do it,
but I would want them to do it in a way that makes sense. I wouldn't say, "Hey,
get yourself a ninja as your first bike." Honestly, the way that these kids are
evolving with bikes. They're going right from pedal bikes to e -bikes.
That's like their jump, right? When we went, we crashed mini bikes, right? We got
on these little teeny motors that you had the throttle and different controls. E
-bikes are so much gradual, or I don't even know that a word. (laughing) It's a
smoother way to get on, especially if it still has pedals. So I don't really know
know what, what his, you know, formative years of biking will look like,
if, if anything, he, he might end up hating it. He might be like, my dad rides
and so I don't want to ride because everything my parents do is not cool. Who
knows, who knows, you know?
But I, I want to, I want to expose him to it because he likes to do it and we
do it together and it's something fun. I never force him to do it, you know?
- Kind of. - We're coming up to the top of the hour. I know you have things to do
and this is the middle of my work day, but this has been great. Let's just talk a
little bit. Let's just kind of end a little bit also on Motive Valley. I didn't
even know you had a TikTok. So you have TikTok, Instagram. We'll put links in
there.
And people can subscribe. We'll put a link to, and how much is it a month again?
I mean, I know, but I want you to know. - You can get it as low as 429 if you
do the yearly. - And they get one each month. With the each month. The stickers are
amazing. I'll open my mail within the next 48 hours, I promise you. Let's definitely
do one of the early morning, right? Because I wake up very, very early, which I
like. Me too. Which time are you getting up? Between 5 .30 and 6 .15. Yeah,
dad life. So people will put links for people to find you. So continue success with
the Zine, with TikTok, and we'll put links and thanks for being on the show.
- Thanks, Lion. It was really fun.
- You know, Ryan was right. That was really fun. And, you know, in the '60s, there
was an advertising campaign for the Honda Motorcycle Company that said, "You meet the
nicest people on a Honda." Well, I would like to addend that to say,
"You meet the nicest people as guests on your podcast. And you can tell Ryan is
passionate about life, about his son, about his family, and about building and
creating and making this motorcycle magazine for us,
for his subscribers, his readers. So it's not a lot of money. I would definitely
recommend that you give it a try. And if I were to summarize Some of the things
that we talked about that Ryan emphasized is Minimize your distractions and you've
heard me say this a number of times If you've been riding less than five years,
there is no reason on God's green earth that your phone Belongs anywhere on a
handlebar and I'm way more than 30 years old whatever I just said and I don't even
have now I have a GPS and it's nice and it's big but keep the phone in your
pocket use your headphones if you want to find out where the speed traps are and
all that but minimize distractions as much as you can that also means don't worry
about your GoPro or whatever you're doing and you're filming get to where you want
to go in one piece and he also talked about all the gear and I'm trying to do
that myself and And I don't do it all the time, I will say that. But I'm trying
to get to that place and airbag vests and jackets and now even the pants are
getting more comfortable and more available at different price ranges. I saw Amazon
had an airbag vest for about $90. And when you think about it,
all you're buying is a cartridge of CO2 and some plastic basically so that is my
next purchase right is some type of airbag garment whether it be for the legs or
for the for the top and now I also want to thank you the listener the last
episode that we just did viewer mail was one of the top episodes of the year even
though we had not had a show in about four months so thank you for listening Thank
you for sharing. Keep it going. If you want to be on the show, shoot me an email
at arrivealivepodcast, all one word,
arrivealivepodcast @gmail .com. I also want to thank Mr. Music, our Senior Vice
President of Music, and that is Rob McDonald of, guess what I'm going to say?
The West Coast Hearts. Look for them on Apple and Spotify. They have a new album.
I like their old music as well as their new music and also to Mr. Liam Murray. He
is the vice president of our commercial music production. So have a great rest of
the week whenever you're listening to this and look for another episode soon. We're
going to talk about how to stay limber and pain -free on long Rides,
okay? My name is Len Belello. You're a happy and humble host.
Take care.