World SuperBike discussed in S5 Ep 34

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
You're listening to the Beep Forever Cool podcast.
My name is Rex 45 and tonight, man, we got some cool people in
the building. It's going to be fun.
World Super bike was in Esterrell.
Shout out to Bobby Fung and and attack Yamaha.
The boy had that Yamaha sliding sideways.
But I'm not doing the show by myself.

(00:20):
Let me bring in the folks and introduce them.
TJ, what's going on, man? How you doing tonight?
And hanging in there looking in the the New England weather,
it's cold up here, so low depression season's kind of
coming to an end. But still watching that race.
And it was a good weekend with the world Super Bike and see if

(00:43):
I'll be falling out there and Garrett Gerloff.
And like, it's tough some Americans, you know?
Listen, man, come on down, man. Florida is nice.
You know, it was 60 something this morning.
I got up to the 80s. Good motorcycle riding weather,
you know what I'm saying? Come on down, man.
That's all I got to say about that.
But yeah, you're right. World Super bike, crazy stuff.

(01:05):
It's cool. We'll talk about what it, you
know, what it means to have moreriders in Motor America.
I mean, in World Super Bike as well.
Not just World Super Bike, but hopefully Moto GP.
But let's keep the lineup going.Bobby Shakes was good, man.
Welcome back, man. Man, like 4-4 days in a row,
man. What's good, man, you know?
I mean, I mean, this is what happens when, when, when you're

(01:25):
the Yamaha blue guy, right? When, when you're, when, when
you're, you're, you're the Yamaha fake blue guy.
I know nothing about Yamaha, butI dressed the part.
Look at that. I got the you know how I got
this, though? Do tell you know how I got this
Yamaha stuff? So Chad Reed is it?

(01:47):
Chad Reed, the dirt bike rider. I'll go with that.
I I I'm bad with names? I hope it's Chad Reed.
He came to the dealership and weand I did a full documentary on
dirt bike riding, put out the video and they played it at
Gillette Stadium during the dirtbike race.
So while the race is going on inbetween the races it would show

(02:09):
my a short film on motorcycle races and and Yamaha was like yo
man give it give this guy all the gear makes good movies.
So it's it's it's motocross, notdirt bike race.
Dirt bike race is what you do inyour backyard with your friends
motocross. But I appreciate the Yamaha, you

(02:29):
know what I'm saying? I'm definitely a fan.
But let's keep it going because we got this show to go.
Luis Ortega, the numbers guy. What's going on, man?
What's Scott? What's up, man?
Yes, here working remotely again.
So I'm coming in remotely. So if everybody's just be a
little patient with my audio. But I'm out here in California
doing a couple of things, meeting a couple of people and

(02:52):
getting some really good info that I'll share later on in the
show about attendance, about Motor America, about how things
are looking and how things are going both on and off the track
for a lot of things. Wow, man, I mean, you know, I
want to say you like, you know, Michael Irvin, man, you do the
show from anywhere. Definitely appreciate that for

(03:14):
sure. And we're going to keep it
locked and moving. So let's just get into it.
World Super Bike and Esther, allguys.
You know, there was 1 champion that came out of the weekend.
I I think Top Rock was hoping hegot that.
That didn't happen. So it looks like it's going down
to the last round. I mean it's it's an uphill

(03:35):
battle for Bulgoga for sure, butyou know before I don't even
know. I'll leave this up to you guys.
What you want to talk about? You want to talk about attack
Yamaha and what they did in world super bike first before we
talk about the rest of the championship or we follow that
up. We start with TJ, man.
You know how you want to kick itoff.

(03:56):
Yeah, man, I think we should start with Attack Yamaha
because, you know, I mean, what an experience to to get the
chance to go to World Super black for the last two rounds,
you know, like so we still got achance to watch Bobby entertain
us and and for himself to improve and one more round
that's still crucial because we still have to get a champion,

(04:18):
you know, so and for him to be out there, he's already seen a
lot, you know, like he got the tires smoking even like I think
it was race one. He's a crazy term one incident
that he just avoided. But it's good to have attack
Yamaha get that experience and bring that data over to the US

(04:40):
It's very good. Good to see.
I, I completely agree, Bobby Shakes.
You know, I, I, I know you're Auk born and bred guy.
You know, I, I don't know if you're saying king at this point
or still saying queen because I think the queen still lives on.
But what does it mean for, you know, a team like attack Yamaha

(05:02):
to go from motor America to to go spend a couple of rounds at
the world super bike level? I mean, we're seeing this in car
racing and people are trying to I don't necessarily move up, but
it'd be cool to see attack Yamaha and world super bike
permanently. What are your thoughts?
This is this is how we grow the sport.
This is how we grow attendance. This is how we put out more

(05:22):
bikes is how the manufacturer grows.
It's, it's just an upward swing.It's all the big manufacturers
have to participate because we want listen, and I hate to be
the bearer of brand news, the motorcycle industry declines 1%
a year, every year. I I don't know why we have to

(05:45):
get seriously tight and and playdefense mode now because the
bikes are so damn expensive, right?
I mean, Harley's a 40 grand. What are you going to buy a
brand new Harley? You going to buy a car for 40
grand, right? The sport bikes used to be
something that you could buy wheelie and crash and buy
another one. You can't do that anymore.

(06:08):
We have to grow the sport, and how we grow the sport is by
getting all manufacturers in. We get them in at the race level
with the technology, and all that stuff will trickle down.
Not like wealth, right? Race technology is the only
thing in the inhumanity that really does trickle down to us
for people. But I think we need it.
It's good for Yamaha, it's good for the sports, for attendance

(06:29):
and just just good for irrelevance.
Yeah, I I completely agree, man.I completely agree.
And we're going to hear more about the attendance and stuff
like that from the US. But Lewis, man, what are your
thoughts on your boy Bobby and how he did this first round in
Esterel? I mean, it's huge for Daneze is
is huge all around attack Yamaha.

(06:49):
I mean, and I there's, there's not a sad story unless it was
another not having another team from the US.
Yeah, I mean, it's it's used forDaneze either way, because the
two guys at the front are both rocking our gear.
So we're doing great. And then we've got a couple
other guys rocking our gear. And as far as like, to me, the
biggest part of this weekend, obviously I'm looking at Top

(07:11):
Rack. I'm wondering if Top Rack's
going to lock it away this weekend.
But Bulaga is just, he's got a dog in him.
He doesn't want to give it up. If there's an opportunity, he's
going to take it. And even though they battled
hard, you look at the racing, they're battling hard, but
they're battling clean. Nobody can really say that
somebody is, you know, taking meout, pushing me off my line.
Like, you know, they battle hard, but it's it's it's almost

(07:33):
like they have a, a mutual respect battling hard.
Like, I'm not going to take it easy on you, but I also respect
you as a rioter and you know, I'm going to put it on you, but
I'm not going to put it on you. You know.
That's the one side. There Because, you know, that's
top rock doing all that pushing and jumping into spots that he
really can't fit. And Bulgar is just, you know,

(07:56):
well, he's he's he's leaving. He's leaving.
Well, he understands that, you know, there's different dynamics
working here. So if you're on the outside, the
inside, you know how you take the corner a little bit
differently based on the dynamics of your bike.
So maybe the way his bike works is a little bit different than
Top Rack's bike. So he has to give that spot, not
because he wants to, but becausethe Ducati works in a certain

(08:19):
way and it leaves that spot openand Top Rack haven't packed.
Those two guys haven't raced each other so much over the past
two years. They know the dance.
You know, if you really are thattop level of racing and you're
racing the same couple of guys, you know what, everybody's
dances, you know everybody's style, you know everybody's
weaknesses, everybody's strength, not just the rider,

(08:41):
but the bike. So you look for these
opportunities. It's just the top rack bounces
on every opportunity. And I'll give you this much.
So does Bulaga. Bulaga, you leave the door open.
My man is not going to wait for you to close it.
He's going to kick the door in. So, you know, yeah, Top Rack's
getting the best out of it rightnow.
But, you know, Buluga is still adog in a fight.

(09:01):
He's won that race that he needed to win.
He stayed competitive all weekend.
He did what he had to do. And then on the upper other end
of the spectrum, you know, we have our boy Bobby Fong, man.
And the one thing I can say about Bobby is, you know, he
went in there knowing that he just wanted to finish in the top
20, and he finished every race in the top 20.

(09:24):
And every single race he improved by one spot, you know,
so, so if you look at what his free practice one time is to his
final time at the end of the sessions or at the end of the
he, he improved by close to 3 1/2 seconds from his practice 1
to where he did as fast as lap time.

(09:48):
And you got to think about it, man, at the pointy end of the
sword improving 3 seconds is a lot, man.
When you're a beginner and you're going to the track and
you go from beginner to intermediate, you could jump 15
seconds. But when you're at that very top
echelon, like, yo, 3 seconds is a lot man to find and.

(10:08):
It's his first time there and you know, we've seen it with
with other guys. So he has to, I mean, you know,
regardless of how this next round comes away, I think
overall the whole team has to come away, you know, feeling
good going into next season in Motor America.
I know for sure. I mean, the one downside they
have is I'm sure they wish they could bring a truckload of

(10:29):
Pirelli tires back with them because, you know, they see what
these Pirelli tires can do. And trust me, once you, once you
ride on a Pirelli and then you have to go back to Dunlop, you
know, you, you're like, damn, bro, there's a difference.
Yeah, once you got that grip, man, it's like, so this is how a

(10:50):
tire's supposed to work. Damn.
All right, let's go back to these shitty ass Dunlops.
But you know what, Jim and the Attack, the whole Attack team
had nothing to be ashamed of. They went out there, they showed
up, they finished the weekend, they finished every race.
I mean, there was a lot of DNFS throughout the weekend and they

(11:13):
weren't one of them, man. They stayed on the bike, they
stayed up on twos. They made it through the weekend
and every single race, race one,the Sprint race and race 2, they
kept improving their position. They kept moving up from 1 to
the next to the next. So they have nothing to be
ashamed of. And they go into this last round
again, man. They've got nothing to lose.

(11:33):
They've got everything to gain. And I think the experience that
the team and Bobby and everybodyis getting right now is
unbelievable, man. I think they they walk away with
a lot of WS. I don't see any Elsie.
I see a lot of WS. Right.
Right now. Let me ask this, TJ, do you
think that, you know, world super bike motor America should
have more, more wild cards? And I I put it to see all you

(11:54):
guys and, you know, the ones that want to speak on the
financial part of that speak on it.
But as far as it's like, you know, it wouldn't be cool to to
have a a a a, you know, like, and I would say like almost like
what the NFL does, but more thanone more than two rounds, right.
You know, I mean, if it's something that can happen
throughout the season, where where is a team from the USI
know, scheduling, you know, may play a part in that, but it'll

(12:16):
be pretty good luck. What are your thoughts, TJ, on
that? Seeing more American teams in
the world. Yeah, I mean, I definitely think
we should have more wild cards. Like I don't know if the last
two rounds like, you know, wouldwork, but obviously with the
scheduling and stuff that that'swhat fits the best.

(12:37):
But I think definitely at least two manufacturers should be
eligible to be in a wild card toto see more Americans.
Like, you know, our point of view is different.
Like we want to see Americans over there competing and finally
get our foot in the door again. But you know, we want to how
about their point of view? They probably want to also see
more Americans come in and see what we got, you know, So the

(13:00):
more that we bring over there, the more fans that can
participate in and in the whole.So I think it's definitely not
just one because, you know, we're just focusing on Bobby at
this point. We're everything around.
But like, if there's more than one, you know, we got something
to actually kind of, you know, put forward and put them on the

(13:21):
table. Right, right.
What are your thoughts shakes onthat?
I mean, you know, it's, you know, you're a numbers guy
you're talking about another numbers guy you're talking
about, you know, the motorcycle industry dropping 1% every year.
I assume you're going from the 80s when it was beautiful and
everybody's making money. But what are your thoughts on

(13:41):
that? Is it is it is does it?
How much does it, how much wouldit help the racing community by
having more American teams in the USI mean in motor, in world,
in World Suite Wide? Again, it's when we look at the
NFL. The NFL has ran out of athletes

(14:03):
in America. Like there's just no more
athletes in America. So now there's the NFL.
Africa it it now that's the new farm system.
How many countries are in Africa, right?
What does that do? That then opens the sport up and
makes it more worldwide. Right.
Right when you have the NBA, theNBA is great.
We got Jordan jumping around andwinning championships.

(14:26):
But I would like to see the numbers.
Who did more for the NBA, Michael Jordan or the the very
tall dude for the Houston chat? What was his name?
The. Chao Ming, right?
Who did more for bringing the sport to a more national level?
Was it Jordan or Yao Ming? Because remember what?
Once Yao Ming came in and we cracked because the Chinese

(14:47):
market was tough. They loved this.
They were locked in. But when Yao Ming came over, it
just blew that apart. These are things that are
necessary for sports to grow, the business to grow.
We can scale by letting in good riders, excuse me.
And we don't want to water down the sport, right?
That they there has to be a a second, a second like these are

(15:12):
the seconds in and you can't be that meant seconds over.
And then that allows you to comein because we still want to keep
the quality of the sport quality, but it it can't help to
expand. And where are most of your sales
coming from? Yamaha and and and and all you
guys like where are your sales coming from in America?

(15:32):
I remember when I was a young, young lad in in England, you
couldn't just go to a dealershipand buy 1000.
You have to start with a 20 and a 30 and you got to take tests
and you can go. But America?
And you're talking about lawn mowers?
Yeah, Yeah. I mean in America it's a free
for all if you as long as you can, as long as you got the
money to go buy the bike. But we don't want people killing

(15:53):
each other. But we also try to move bikes
too. So you get they got to figure
out what market for them is lacking.
And I think they do a lot of, I think they do more sales in
America than they do globally. You have to, to push the sport
here and you have to get it on the ground level.
It's, it's, it's, it's very simple.

(16:14):
It's AAU, it's football in Europe.
It's, it's, it's, we expand. We look for new blood, right?
And you can see that especially in football now.
Well, my football is, you know, you have a slew of Africans, you
have a slew of Spaniards, have aslew of Italians, have a slew of
Brazilians because they're expanding the sport out and
they're just grabbing. You didn't say English.

(16:37):
We're terrible. I mean, we suck.
All, we all English, all US English people have to do with
this one job. Keep all the tracks dry.
We just got to keep the tracks out.
That's all people asking for. And we screw that up.
So that just tells you how we are.
I don't know how you follow that, but you, you heard a lot

(16:57):
there. There's some things to unpack,
you know, is it, is it doable? Should it be done?
I, I could try to unpack that, but I'm, I'm still trying to
wrap my head around it. So Yao Ming as an example, he
did open the market up to a verybig market.
China is the one of the biggest markets in the world because of

(17:18):
the amount of people, just the population.
But if I were to go anywhere in the world and say Yao Ming or
anywhere in the world and say Michael Jordan, 9 times out of
10, somebody's going to know whoMichael Jordan is. 99 times out
of 100, they're not going to know who the fuck Yao Ming is

(17:39):
because there's a difference between a regional star and a
global star. And Yao Min was a huge star to
get us into China. But Michael Jordan is that next
level. He's that Valentino Rossi.
He's that name that's recognizedaround the world.
And as far as where the most motorcycles are sold,
motorcycles, the highest volume of motorcycles that are sold for

(18:01):
the Asian brands is not sold in the US.
They're sold in smaller displacements in countries all
around the world. This is why they don't put a lot
of focus because nobody's buying.
You know, there's no reason theyare kind of discontinuing the
R1. It's not because they want to.
It's because they don't feel like investing in a platform
that's not bringing them back the ROI that they want.

(18:23):
I can either invest millions of dollars to build a new motor
just for the R1, or I can take all that money and I can build
more smaller displacement bikes that I can sell in Indonesia and
Malaysia and all these Asian anddeveloping countries where these
are places that eventually in the future, they're going to
increase their ability to, to, to buy.

(18:46):
Their buying power gets bigger, they're able to buy a larger
bike. So I'm, I'm getting them and
indoctrinating them into my brand at a very low price, at a
very low. And this is what they did in the
US through the 80s and 90s and even in the early 2000s and then
in the in the mid 2000s when themarket here went to shit, it
never recovered because this newgeneration is not looking to

(19:09):
invest in these products again. And the price of the products
has gone up. Is the only company that has a
different market strategy is Ducati.
Ducati doesn't make small displacement motorcycles for
Malaysia and for all these places because they're not
building in value. They're building to a certain
amount because this is the profitability that they want to
maintain. So they don't mind selling a

(19:30):
$30,000 motorcycle because they only need to sell 3000 of those
$30,000 motorcycles to make whatYamaha's making selling $30,300
motorcycles. So this is all the mathematics
of why is Ducati doing more in racing?
Because that's their bread and butter.
Yamaha, Suzuki, Honda, Kawasaki racing is not their bread and

(19:54):
butter. Racing is a nice place to
display their name and put theirname out there, but their bread
and butter is a smaller displacements and trying to go
into developing markets. So I think that explains a
little bit of some of the stuff that shapes was saying.
I can't wrap my head around all of it because it was a lot.

(20:15):
But now back to the racing part of it.
The reason that we only get wildcards at the end of the season
is because we don't have a worldsuper bike race in the US during
the season. If we had one round in the US
during the season, you would probably see two or three or
maybe four people participate inthat race because they don't

(20:36):
have to pay the expense of shipping their bikes and
everything else across the worldto race in Europe or race
somewhere else. Also during the season.
Do you really want your rider that you paid for to race this
year in this class going to Europe and possibly hurting
themselves and screwing your opportunity up here because you

(20:56):
do have sponsors that you're responsible to in the US?
So these are all the little nuanced pieces that people have
to look at. The biggest piece that's missing
is what I said in the last podcast.
World Super Bike needs to bring back one round to the US and
they need to make that round available to not only Super Bike

(21:19):
guys, but I would like to see a two or three of our Super Sport
guys. We're competing in Super Sport.
If they don't have to ship theirbikes or mechanics and all their
stuff around the world and they just got to travel to Laguna
Seca or Coda or someplace else, then that's an opportunity for
our racers to race on those platforms, on tracks that they

(21:41):
already know, where they might be a little bit more
competitive, where they don't have a learning curve and they
don't have to worry about a hugetime change.
They don't have to worry about bringing different mechanics or
it becomes a little bit more of a level playing field.
They're probably still not goingto be competing at the top
level, but they will be more competitive and they'll be more
engagement. You know, I'm looking at some

(22:03):
numbers right now and you know, we'll discuss them later, but
the the opportunity is there forWorld Super Bike to bring the
platform here and let our ridersuse that platform to elevate
their names. And who knows, maybe one of our
riders, two of our riders catch the interest of some of these
bigger teams. And now the teams that say, hey,

(22:24):
you know, that guy that raced inthe US, maybe that's an
opportunity to get AUS rider into our team so that we can
expand ourselves even more. Because right now World Super
Bike is contracting. They're doing less races,
they're going to less countries.They're, you know, they're in
this weird little space where they're actually becomes
smaller, not bigger. And whereas Moto GP keeps adding

(22:46):
rounds, it seems like World Super Bike keeps taking away
rounds or keeps taking away destination points to try to
keep the cost down. And it's going to hurt them
eventually. Like there's there's no need to
them to go to a place where they're not going to make a lot
of attendance, but to not come to the US or not come to South
America where you have fanatic motorcycle racers.

(23:09):
Like you're leaving out two big opportunities to get in front of
a lot of fans and continue to grow your brand instead of
shrink your brand. So do you want to be the
European Championship or do you truly want to be the World
Championship? Because you're going to fucking
Australia and that's fucking far, bro.
It's not cheap to go to Australia.
So you can go to Australia and you can't come to the US.

(23:30):
It's like an 82,000 hour flight to Australia, bro.
It's it's faster to go to the moon and back.
Well, I I got to assume that, you know, somebody over there is
jumping off a big fat check to doing A to make it happen to
show up, you know, so but let's talk about the race a little
bit, guys. You know, it was it seems like
it was a battle between just toprack and Lewis touched on it

(23:52):
initially. You know, it wasn't the race, TJ
that you thought was going to happen.
Or did you think that you know, Bouliger was going to, you know,
fight back even more? He got one race he finished
second, which was the cleanest racing he's done in a few
without, you know, bad starts and and and not getting very
good grid positions. But you know, what are your

(24:13):
thoughts overall? And we we can talk about the
Lowell's brothers in that and, and Petrucci who broke his hand
and still gold is the top independent rider sitting out
the next two. Well, this past round, the next
round. So what are your thoughts, CJ?
Yeah, I mean, overall I thought it was good track, good round.

(24:34):
I mean, they were saying that ithad low grip and all that good
stuff, but Talbrak and Bogle haddefinitely put on a good fight
for all three races. I mean, we was talking earlier,
I've never seen S Brock in a while start the way he did where
he had to actually fight to get back to the front all three

(24:55):
races. And that's I felt that he was
just being a little bully. You know, he's being clean, but
a little bully just getting around people, knocking off
people's lines and just to get to the front.
But he made his way, took him only one lap, so it wasn't like
too aggressive. But for him to pull out the 1st

(25:18):
2 was was really crucial for himto to sustain his championship.
And Bulaga is trying really hard.
So it's very important for him to get that last one.
Still got a chance. That's all you want.
And just looking at last year, they they, they had the same
fight, they pulled out the same results basically.
Top Rock took two, Bulaga took one.

(25:39):
So. Right.
Yeah, I mean. It was a rookie last year, so.
Yeah, I mean, Top Rank only walked away 6 more points
though. I mean, that's, that's as good a
fight as you can get without winning all the races and taking
away some points. Lewis, what are your thoughts on
on on the weekend as well? You know, you know, it, it's it,

(26:02):
those are both you guys because they're, they're rocking to die
in a suit. So I mean, on one hand, it
doesn't matter who wins. You know it's a win, win.
Yeah, I mean, it matters who wins.
I mean, we you know, I personally, I would I want top
rag to win because I want him toleave world super bike on top
right. But it but if Buliga wins, like

(26:24):
I, you know, I want Buliga to also have a championship because
this is a guy that's had a long journey to get to where he's at
and to have this opportunity andto kind of know some of the
background stuff that he's gone through to get to where he's at.
I want to see him hit that like the top of the mountain.
I want to see him hit that pinnacle.
So you're the guy that wins. I'm super happy for them.

(26:47):
And I'm not actually sad for theother rider because if top rack
were to lose, he's still going to Moto GP.
He's getting his dream. He's getting his opportunity to
race with the greatest guys and really see where he stacks up
with the fastest guys in the world on the fastest equipment
in the world. If Bulgar loses, he has nothing
to be ashamed of because he is literally racing what I can

(27:08):
consider one of the greatest super bike racers to ever exist,
even though he only has one title or two titles.
What top rack can do on a bike, jumping from manufacturer to
manufacturer, being in manufacturers that nobody else
thought even had an opportunity to win.
And taking the Yamaha and being competitive with the Yamaha and

(27:31):
winning on a Kawasaki and takinga BMW that had little shots of
brilliance here and there. Like maybe one guy raced a
little bit and had a good time. And but think about all the guys
that have raced for BMW since BMW went in there.
You got Marco Melandry, ex Moto GP Star never got a
championship. You got Scott ready.
Moto GP star never got a champion.

(27:52):
I mean, there's a long list of guys that have been on BMW and
could never do what Top Rack did.
Like Top Rack will go down in BMW history as the guy that
brought them their first world Super Bike championship.
There's. Always going to that SO 54 bike.
There's trust me man, he is morethan welcomed in any BMW
dealership in the country. I guarantee you that he's going

(28:15):
to have a brand new BMW in his house every couple years for the
rest of his life like he did something for them that you, you
can't buy that kind of publicity.
You can't. You have to earn it.
Listen, that withdrawal next season, Oh, they, they, they,
they, they're going to be under the bridges.
They're going to realize when when they put when they put the

(28:36):
guys that they have next year onthe BMW, they're going to
realize how special top rack wasbecause nobody else has been
able to do what he did. And he does it on a consistent
basis. Not a one off.
It's not a Scott Redding one because it was raining.
It's not a Marco Malangi one because it's his home track and
imolar. This happened.

(28:57):
This guy raced the best against the best at a time that the best
are really high on a bike that nobody else can do it on.
And he did it. And B and BM WS get two former 1
slim Moto GP right now riders, so they're no slouches on their
own. Both factory riders.
So you know it it it's going to be we'll see at the end of the

(29:19):
season if you know how good of arider Top Rock was in in in
World Super bike. What are your thoughts?
Shake on top rock. DJ what's she going?
To say no, you want to say just Mr. Ortiz, he he rose so well
that they still couldn't even win the the team championship.

(29:40):
You know, Zuccotti got it, Ruby.So I mean the the amount of work
that he put in busts his ass basically won every race for the
past. Like I don't know how many races
are just being on the podium so much that they still couldn't
win the 10 championships. So next year, like you said,
like it's going to be a eye opening.

(30:02):
Like I don't know who they're going to have on that BMW to
they can't replace it, but they even try to get close.
They've got Miguel Lavera and who else do they have?
Rexy. I know they got Miguel Lavera
and Petrucci. No, no, no.
I thought Petrucci was going to the factory Ducati team.
No BMW. No, it's Ika.

(30:24):
Luka Ono's going to BMWI mean you're going to Ducati Iko.
Oh, OK, so all right, so but knowing that it's Oliveira,
Petrucci BMW is going to suck next year.
There you go. They ain't going to do Jack
shit. Oliveira is going to be lucky
and nobody hits him. And Petrucci, I mean, I hate to
say it, the guy is got flashes of brilliance, but he's well

(30:48):
past the twilight of his career,man.
Like they should, they should have looked, they should have
looked at a hungry little tiger in World Super Sport and got a
hungry guy from World Super Sport and getting that spot,
giving Petrucci that spot. I mean, fourth in the
championship, man. I'm not come on, man.
He's he's 4th in the championship and he's hurt and

(31:08):
was hurt earlier in the in, in one of the rounds and he jacked
up himself. And as far as Oliveira, I think
Oliveira is in in a similar boatto Bulaga because he's had such
bad luck in Moto GP in the last few years.
I think Oliver is looking, Oliver is looking for a place
where it's, it's like, you know,he's, he's Grand Hill.

(31:29):
Right. He needs a fresh start.
Yeah, yeah, he needs to get traded to another team, get a
fresh start, new coach, new players around him and get an
opportunity. I and Petrucci being 4th in the
championship, that's not that's more of a slight on the level of
competition after first one and two than it is that Petrucci has

(31:49):
done so good to be in fourth. Come on, come on.
No, no, no, no, no. He was nice in Moto GP, man.
No, he was nice. He was nice on the factory team.
You know, he got one year on thefactory and I I, you know, he's
and ah, yeah, Nah, he's, he's nice.
He's and he's a late bloomer because he was a cop before he
he got, he came into Moto GP. Remember he he had stepped away

(32:11):
for a little bit and then he wasa little cop in Italy.
When he came back, when he came and jumped on what?
Whatever the Aventi, Aventi, whatever.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. The, the, what do you call it?
The CRT team or. Whatever.
Yeah. So.
So I mean, you know, but again, he had to, he had to work his
way up there. He he he he didn't come in like

(32:34):
Olivier did and so forth. And, and, and even, I mean, I
don't think Ducati wanted to give him a two year deal factory
and he wanted A2 year deal and BMW gave him that.
So I mean, I think he had a chance for factory too, but
just, I think it was just cominglike another one year deal for
him. But we will see.
I mean, they're, they're both talented writers and, you know,

(32:54):
if somebody takes all of your out, then, you know, I, I think
he needs to sell insurance. If, when, say when, Don't say if
when somebody takes Oliver out. Right, a movie called wrong
place, wrong time for him because so many.
So let's talk about the as you, as you said, the the discrepancy

(33:17):
between 1:00 and 2:00 and the rest of the field.
We see a Noni and Noni says he he has a ride for next year.
He hasn't said with who yet. He's shown flashes of
brilliance. I mean, but this is an older
guy, Eco Eco, even though he signed to Ducati and coming off
an injury, he still decide to race that Honda.
He seems like, you know, I thinkhim and Zarko want to win so bad

(33:40):
And and I'll put Acosta into this that, you know, they kind
of just push a little bit more than what that bike want to give
them. And Eco, you know, crashed out a
bunch, but he looked as he looked strong on the Honda.
You know what you guys thought about those those guys and, and
some of the other guys I haven'tmentioned, but you know, we're
also fighting, you know, Batista, you know, he looked

(34:01):
good even though he was struggling because he got three
third places for the weekend. It was entertaining overall, but
you know, the the the star of the show was Bulgar and and Tap
Rock and they did not disappoint.
What are your thoughts, TJ? Yeah, I mean he had a little
fight. I mean just like mid pack.

(34:26):
Yeah, like the the lowest brothers and I want to say
Bautista, I felt like he was just being annoying a little bit
holding up a pack of riders. And as you know, they, as they
say, as the race goes on, his bike gets lighter and, and, you

(34:46):
know, he doesn't use as much tire so he can still keep a good
pace. So he's kind of a little all
over the place in in a couple ofcorners.
But he was able to maintain, youknow, 3 podiums as third place.
But the pack of the riders I felt still had a good chance to
to get up there, you know, equals one of them.

(35:10):
And yeah, I thought, Jonathan. Ray.
Was Jonathan? Yeah, I was going to say, yeah,
Jonathan Ray actually, you know,had a had a taste for 1/3 and
then, you know, the second-half of the race is just they just
drops off. But it's still good to see him
up there. It was just a good fight after
one and two fighting for like third and down when I felt like

(35:35):
Alvarez didn't have the have thebest pace.
But like that Ducati coming out of the corners, it just just
saved them basically, where he was able just to pull away out
of each corner where other riders just couldn't catch up to
him in enough time and didn't want to dive on, you know, So,
But yeah, I think Eco had a goodweekend for keeping it up at

(35:57):
least and getting the results that he had.
But, you know, it was good to see, I guess.
However, again, in three points in a row at his age, still
seeing showing that he still gotit.
And he is a good backup writer, I'd say, and still gets you
those points when you need them and has the intelligence to to
keep it going, you know. But I don't see him as a number

(36:18):
one writer. All right, right, Shakes I'm I'm
going to give you a file of words so I know you have to get
out of here in a few. It look like you're already
trying to sneak out the the the the house to where you're
looking like it's sliding alongside the building.
No. No, no, no, no.
I was. I was.
Something caught my attention onthe on the monitor.

(36:40):
Sounds like looking at the monitor.
I can't. I need my glasses.
I can't see shit. I'm like, what's going on?
Because I'm checking my focus because I'm on the manual focus,
blah blah blah. No, you got you got you.
Yeah, But you know, what are your thoughts on, you know,
these older guys in World Super Bike that struggling a little
bit? You know, we known a who you

(37:01):
know, he this is a second year World Super Bike.
He had a full year ban from MotoGP for illegal substance.
You know, you got Petrucci who'slooking good, but he's breaking
himself up and some of these other guys.
I know I don't know if he had a chance to catch world super bike
overall, but we had thoughts of,you know, the, the, the Yamahas

(37:23):
and and and the the satellite Ducati's.
Hey, listen, if you're not cheating, you're not trying.
But we said this last Wednesday,as you get older, this is this
is not basketball, this is not football.
A cognitive nervous system startto deteriorate.
It's harder to see stuff, harderspace.

(37:45):
It's it's a brain thing and nobody beats father time.
And that's what sucks about this, this and F1 is just the
cognitive just starts to disintegrate with the G forces
and the training that it takes to even stay on those things and
hold on. You show that to us just now,
your monitor and what you're trying to see.
Yeah, exactly. There it is. 20 years ago, I

(38:09):
could have sat back here and sawthe monitor, you know?
Now I'm like, oh, let's go. There it is.
There, there it is. I'm 51.
It's over. It's over.
Nervous system is gone. Eyesight gone.
Hearing is gone. And you know what happens as you
get older? Fear comes in right when you're

(38:31):
20 and you crash, no big deal. Some die, that's not good.
But nine times out of 10, you can walk, you can stand up.
You do a bad crash at 20, now you're 5060.
You're like, I'm going to take my time down these steps, just

(38:51):
like racing. I've done this a long time.
I remember that crash I had and I was 15 and I hated the way
that felt. Now I'm a little bit older.
I don't want to take that risk anymore.
And in this sport, it's on the edge.
So it looks bad, but the body's competitive, the brain isn't.

(39:13):
And like we said last week, you just deteriorate fast.
Even in F1, you're watching Lewis Hamilton.
You just deteriorate. It.
It's, it's, it sucks and it's overnight, right?
It's it's sad, but God bless them and you got to keep doing
what you love. And you know what?
Fuck it. Do you have to win?
Do you have to win? Do you have to have money?
Do you have to have all the girls?

(39:35):
You just got to win. I don't know about the money
part. Yeah, but I don't think you have
to win. I think as you get older you
just want to compete still. You want to prove that I could
survive the generations, so go out there and have.
Fun You coming out for hot dogs?What you say you come up for
hot? Dogs.
I mean, come on. I mean, sometimes you're still
competitive, but you don't have it.

(39:56):
I don't think you should hang itup.
You think Enzo Ferrari had that philosophy at his elder age?
I mean, and so and so Ferrari thought he was a shit so he
died. He would get an F1 car at 103
years old. They could even start it.
But yeah. I see your point, though.

(40:16):
I see your point. You're right.
If you don't, if you, if you cannot maintain that
fearlessness as you go into yourtwilight ages or as you get
older and stuff like that, yeah,you do have to walk away from
these extreme sports. And it is an it is an extreme
sports. All right, I have to get at it.

(40:38):
But my hands are up. Ortega was dropping bombs
tonight. Like you, calling out riders.
You ain't good. My hands up.
Don't shoot at me. My hands is up.
Hands up. I'm not.
Going I don't drop a bombs. Right there.
I, I carpet bomb, yo, I don't drive smart missiles, man.

(40:58):
I, I just carpet bomb. I know everybody's going to get
some collateral damage. I know.
I I thought you were just takingout the nucleus.
I didn't know you'd take it out.Now watch it too.
Eyeshakes man, peace man, nice man can.
You campaign, good seeing you. So Lewis, man, let's talk about

(41:21):
what how Kawasaki is right now and what they're doing.
You mean the the bimoto guy struggled, Gerlov struggled.
You know, is, is it a matter of just not having enough finance
to put into this bike? You know, is it, is it, is it
just more time? The Bimotos will probably do

(41:41):
better next season. Well, the Bimotos have a little
bit more than the Kawasaki Direct, which is weird because
Kawasaki themselves this year kind of threw their hands up
from my understanding, and really hasn't provided Garrett
or anybody on a Kawasaki any support.
Like they almost threw their hands up this year.

(42:01):
Like, yo, just ride what you have and you know, do the best
you can with what you have. To my understanding, they're
supposed to do a little bit morenext year.
They're supposed to provide a little bit more support, but
that's kind of a wait and see, you know, are they going to do
that? Because just like the R1, the
ZX10 is now very long the tooth,just like the Suzuki, just like

(42:22):
the CBR. And like I said, it's these
these Japanese brands do not have a huge, huge emphasis on
developing new super bike motorsbecause that's not where the
money is at the consumer retail level.
It's still important for them togo racing and have their name
out there. But until they get that emphasis
on wanting to have competitive motorcycles there, I don't see

(42:47):
it happening. You know, I see Honda making
more strides than anyone else right now.
I think Yamaha has kept pushing out the same help bike for a
long time. And now it's kind of coming to
the end of its run where it's like, all right now, it really
is starting to lose a lot of momentum.
It's not as competitive. It's not this, it's not that.

(43:09):
But Kawasaki, it seems like it gave up a long time ago.
You know, it's one of the reasons Jonathan Ray left
Kawasaki is they, they gave up like seems like 5 or 6 years
ago. And it's not even, not even just
at the world super bike level club racing, you see these club
racing like like the Kawi was, was, was the bike, you know, for
a little bit to, to kind of, youknow, face off against the
R120151617. And, and now you see those guys,

(43:34):
you know, some of these guys areswitching to BMWs and, and
different manufacturers. And I mean, Ducati, BMW kind of
deal, which is, which is, it's almost, you know, you know,
like, I don't know if they didn't understand that was going
to happen. Maybe they thought people would
still buy bikes if they didn't throw anything into it.
But it it's tough when you, you know, you're, you're putting up
18/19/20 grand. If you want to get really fancy

(43:57):
and get the 28 grand Cowie, you know, it's not, you know, put
more investment in. And that's the thing.
If you're going to raise the price on something, you got to
raise the value of the thing that you're raising the price
on. And you got to show that that
value is there. You know, I can keep raising the
price on something, but if I don't really change it, if I can
just say, well, the price is going up because costs are going

(44:19):
up, that doesn't really registerto a consumer because they're
like, well, last year I could have bought that same bike for
$2000 less. So you know what I'm going to
do? I'm going to buy a used 1.
So now you start losing the new buyer and you convert what
should be a new buyer into a used by buyer and now they go to
the used market. And now as a manufacturer, I

(44:40):
don't see the sales anymore because that consumer is not
buying my new product, they're buying my used product.
And that used product doesn't bring any money back to me as
the manufacturer. So then I'm like, well, wait a
second, this isn't selling. Why isn't it selling?
I'm selling less, so now I need to increase the price to make up
the difference for what I lost. And then all you keep doing is

(45:03):
taking that new buyer and pushing them back to the youth.
So you become part of your own fulfilling, self fulfilling
prophecy. You're pushing the new buyer
away because you keep raising the price, but you don't keep
raising the value and you don't show the value because you don't
support it by going into racing or doing these other things.
So it becomes as very secular thing that the only, the only

(45:24):
thing that can stop it is the company decides we're going to
make a new bike, we're going to set the price here and we're
going to invest this much into getting the bike in front of
consumers so they can see how good the bike is.
And unfortunately the Japanese manufacturers aren't in that
mindset. The only one that seems to kind
of be coming back around to thatmindset is Honda.

(45:45):
But again, we'll wait and see because the CBRRRRRRRSPR has
been around for a while now and it's shown a couple of flashes
of brilliance here and there, but it's not competitive week
in, week out. You know, it's starting to do
some things, but it's not there yet.
It's not there TJ with your thoughts on that.

(46:07):
I mean, you know, Honda, Yamaha and and Kawasaki and Suzuki,
your brands. You got a Yamaha, you got a
Suzuki. I got a, I got a, I got 2
Yamahas. You know, it's like you, you
heard Lewis say, you know, they're starting to come around
Honda. It's a little bit too late.
I mean, we do see the flashes ofthat in, in motor America.

(46:29):
If you look at some of the European rounds and BSB rounds
and stuff like that, We see Honda at World Super Bike.
We see it the Honda's gotten on the podium.
But is it too late for the fans?I know if Smitty was on on air
he'll probably say no because he's he's die hard Honda guy,
but we're not seeing that trickle down to a lot of CB

(46:50):
CBR1000 RRRI. Mean I, I don't want to say it's
too late. Everyone likes to see
improvement. So when you do better as the
season go on, like you can, you know, you can get a grasp on it
and say, hey, it just brings youmore attention to yourself.

(47:12):
But what I'll say is it's like next season, if the same thing
happens where Honda doesn't findthemselves to like the end of
the season, it's just like, you know, you guys just, I don't
know, just developing too late. It can't keep up.
But I don't think it's too late.And, you know, I'm not a super
big Honda fan, but I just know just being on the podcast with

(47:34):
Smithy, I just know how happy heis right now.
Just seeing just seeing this Honda actually being a little
relevant and getting finishes and just looking good overall
compared to like how they started.
So it's like, it's good to see that.
But yeah, I don't think it's toolate.
But as far as like being competitive, like, yeah, they

(47:55):
have nothing to really shoot for, but it's always to get
better results each time out. And just like slightly going
back to Kawasaki, like and Gary Gerloff.
And I just feel so bad for for him this season.
And I think he resigned again, but I just remember the yet like

(48:19):
he hasn't really had any good results this year and just being
top rocks teammate the year before on BMW, even though top
rock killed it, like he was ableto still find good finishes here
and there. And like right now it's just
like, I don't know what's going on.
And and like Lewis is saying, like they they just gave up.

(48:40):
And it just, it just sucks to see that when you're a rider
trying to, you know, get better results, as long as they kind of
still paying you and and whatever, but still you don't
want to be always in the back ofthe pack.
You know you. Heard.
You heard what Shake said about winning.
You know, I think, you know, like Cam and these guys that

(49:02):
raced in Moto 2 and and and evenMoto GP and then come over to a
different category and you know,you go from the middle of the
pack or, you know, top 15 to, you know, top five.
You know, it feels good to walk around being top five, top
three. So you know, I mean how you
know, girl off, you know, if he came back to the States, you
know he's he's what you know, he's like who's number one.

(49:26):
I mean, you can even you can even see the levels.
I mean like like where we sit asAmericans like in our level.
So you go to World Super Bike. Obviously it's I think Bobby's
first time and you know, the bike's not too developed as you
know, like you know what Bulaga and and and and Tom Brach's
doing, but you know, he was still in the back of the pack.

(49:49):
Like he still has a lot of work to do.
You know, it's not like he just went over there.
It was just mid pack because of his skill level.
So it's just still like, you know, it's, it's still, you
know, you want to see improvement and you know, just
to be in the back, right. You're, you're right, it's not
just Bobby Fong. I mean, it's the whole team,

(50:10):
right? Because it, you know, it's, it's
one thing to be the top team in,in your, in your arena of field
or in this case the US and then seeing how those guys are moving
over there and stuff like that. So I think overall the whole
team, which I think is cool to see because last year I believe
only Gillum and and maybe a couple of people went over when

(50:34):
he when he rode, he didn't therewas not like the whole team from
the US. So to have that whole team come
over and, and Reese is over there as well.
So you know, I think you know, the teams from Kanye and, and,
and Bobby over there. So I got to assume, you know,
when they come back, you know they're going to, they're going
to have a little extra. I believe that.

(50:56):
I believe that for sure. I mean it's just like I said,
the two rounds is really good, you know, where you kind of can
feel comfortable to like, you know, just not want it done and
like wait till next year. You know, like he can actually
like all right, I know these riders tendencies now, at least
the pack that he was riding withBobby and like, all right, let's

(51:17):
see if I can stay with them nexttime and see what they can do
with this track to see what I can do with these tires.
Like you have another chance andit's just good to see you and
hopefully next year we get 2 rounds again and maybe like
Lewis said, some some super sport riders and hopefully they
can come to the US but. Right.
Yeah, no, it's, it's crazy to see.
And I know I'll move to Lewis and just add this.

(51:38):
I mean, Bobby's pretty lucky, right?
Because, you know, Ganya has wonso much with with the with that
team. And if it if it was a difference
in the points this year, it might have been Gandhi on that
bike instead of Bobby. So, you know, to be a first year
guy on a team and, and, and, andto do that and then get this
opportunity and it's going to make him even a better rider for
for next year is a beautiful thing.

(52:01):
But Louis, you said you had somethings that you wanted to touch
on and about what's, you know, things to come in the numbers in
Motor America and such. Yeah.
So I wanted to go through. So I got a early draft of what
Motor America is going to put out soon, just overall numbers
for the season, overall number for attendance, how things were

(52:24):
from event to event. And I got to kind of look at a
just a quick snapshot today. The official information I think
will get released like the end of this week.
But overall, like Moto America had a very big increase in
attendance overall for the year,which is great, you know,
considering the tracks that theywent to.

(52:46):
And you know, some tracks had better attendance than others.
But overall, the attendance thisyear, the participation, the
engagement this year did increase dramatically from last
year. And even last year was a good
step up from the year before. So since COVID, we've seen this
steady increase in Motor Americaattendance year over year.

(53:09):
This year it was a little bit more than just a steady
increase. And a lot of it, as much as
people like to shit on the baggers, a lot of it is can be
directly contributed to the baggers.
Any event where there was baggers scheduled to attend had
significantly higher attendance than any event that did not have

(53:32):
the baggers scheduled to attend.And that's, that's an eye
opening thing that is you're reaching out to a new fan base
that is not a normal fan base for Rd. racing.
You're engaging with them and they're willing to come out and
watch the races, which is crazy to me because we got all these

(53:54):
Moto I, I didn't realize how many Moto GP superstars and
financial Wizards we have on theInternet.
We have millions in the USI mean, I, I'm surprised I have a
job with all these geniuses thatare out here on the Internet
spewing all their dumb shit about why they think Motor
America is failing when actuallyMotor America is doing very

(54:15):
well. It's just that they refuse to
admit that baggers are a big part of why Motor America is
doing very well. And you know, I think just
looking at the data, I think you're going to see baggers have
more races next year because they're going to want to
capitalize on the fact that baggers have 6 rounds in Moto

(54:36):
GP. The first round.
Well, no, they have 6 Moto GP rounds that have baggers in
them. Right.
No, it's 12. No, it's six.
It's 6 events. Well, I thought it was 12 events
for the next season. No, it's 6 events.
It's Coda. Yeah, Yeah, it's Coda Majello.
It's 6 events. And all the events are pretty

(54:57):
much in Europe because they don't want to fly the bikes to
Asia and Indonesia and all theseother places.
But at those particular events, I think even in Europe, they're
going to start seeing some significant turn out because the
big thing with these events is Harley-Davidson goes in and
spends a lot of money when they go to these events in 2024.

(55:20):
And again, these are estimates that I was given, so taken with
a grain of salt, it's estimated that Harley-Davidson invested
about $400,000 in attending MotoGP in 2024.
Between between what they did atthe track, which was a massive
activation, and what they did atevents around Austin during the

(55:41):
weekend of Moto GP, which is, you know, $400,000 is not
peanuts. It's a lot of money, and you and
I were at Moto GP this year. I can tell you that the
attendance this year was visually smaller than it was
last year when the baggers were there.
When the baggers were there, there was hardly any place to

(56:02):
park motorcycles because there was Harley Davidson's parked
everywhere. And this year you could walk
around and you could visually see the area where
Harley-Davidson was that had so many less people.
And overall, just walking aroundyou can visually see there is so
much less engagement in this particular fan base of

(56:23):
motorcycling that doesn't reallycare about sport bikes.
Right. So Motor America or anything to
just have Harley-Davidson at every round.
They should. Well, not at every round because
even with baggers, there's some rounds that Motor America does
that. I'm not going to say they're a
loss, but they will never have the attendance at those rounds
unfortunately. Like when they go to Coda,

(56:45):
they're never going to get a massive attendance at Coda only
because Coda is the site of MotoGP.
And at that particular track, ifyou get 40,000 people that come
out, it looks like 8 people showup because the track is so big
that 40,000 people looks like nothing.
Yeah, you're walking for days. You, you and me.
Been there, man. Like you, You're like, damn, if

(57:07):
I ever, if there was ever a place to have a scooter, this is
it. Right.
Seriously, get them shoes with the wheels in the in the bottom,
yeah? What are they called?
Wheelies. Helix.
The other event that doesn't show up a lot of people is The
Ridge. Yeah, the, the, the attendance
at the Ridge is not that great. The attendance this year at VIR

(57:30):
was good, but you got to remember they hadn't been to VIR
in a couple years. So it's, it's a little hit and
miss because if you don't go on a regular basis, you see a
decline. And then the other place that
they had a little bit of a decline and, and it's because of
the scheduling they had Barber and then they immediately had
Rhode Atlanta. And from Rhode Atlanta to Barber

(57:51):
is only about a four and a half five hour drive.
So you're taking from the same pool of people and you want them
to go to this track from one weekend and then two weeks later
go to another track. So you're, you're cannibalizing
your audience because you're notgoing to pull as many people to
one location when you divide it over 2 locations that were that
were then a four and a half fivehour driving distance.

(58:15):
Wisconsin Rd. America biggest turn out.
You want to guess why? What's in Wisconsin, dude?
The home of Harley fucking Davidson.
And you know what else they had at Wisconsin?
Baggers. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that.
Makes sense, massive turn out because you're in Harley

(58:35):
Davidson's backyard, so they're going to invest.
So this is one of the things that people need to really, they
need to stop shitting on the baggers and understand that the
baggers are bringing attention to the sport, whether you like
them or not. And what I would like to see is
I would like to see more baggersout there.
However, there's news that just broke.

(58:55):
Did it? Did it breaking news, India just
got sold. Polaris no longer owns Indian
and they're going to sell it. They sold it to a group that's
being an equity group. So that's always good news.
They sold it. They sold it to an equity group,
and it's headed by the former president of Vance and Hein.

(59:21):
OK. See, this is a motorcycle guy.
He actually did work for them for a long time.
And before that he was AVP at Harley-Davidson.
OK, so it might be a good fit. You know, they're, they're,
they're spitting it off into itsown company to try to be a
little bit more of a direct competitor with Harley-Davidson,

(59:44):
But we'll see what happens. Yeah, and they had their
moments. I mean, don't get me wrong.
Like, you know, I, the people are buying them.
I, I, I don't know if they thought, I don't know what they
thought because there was a goodamount of people that were
buying them instead of buying, you know, some of these Harleys
and some of these other bikes and, and didn't, who didn't want
the big BMWs and stuff like that.
So I'm surprised that they were struggling.

(01:00:05):
And, and you know, I think, you know, in the last five years,
the, the, they, they, I don't see a lot of Indians as, as I
was seeing like, you know, before the pandemic.
I think what they need to do is that one, they they have better
technology in their bikes than Harley does.
I know Harley is doing a lot of changes now and they're kind of

(01:00:26):
changing their line up and they're going to bring back a
sub $10,000 Harley-Davidson to try to get that entry level
rider. So they're doing a lot of good
things like the new president ofHarley-Davidson has a little bit
of an eye and a ball for the future.
And they need, they understand that they need to start that by
having an entry level motorcyclethat's well equipped, under
10,000 bucks to get their consumers at an earlier age into

(01:00:50):
Harley-Davidson and indoctrinatethem into the Harley-Davidson
culture. India needs to kind of go back
to the same thing because Indians started making bikes
that were way too expensive, over engineered and all this
other things. They need to go back to building
a motorcycle that is for the masses, that is at a price point

(01:01:12):
that has the Indian styling, theIndian heritage, and try to get
back to, you know, indoctrinating these guys and
these girls in their teens, in their 20s and so forth and so
on. And I think they haven't, they
have an incredible opportunity because they're going to come
into this market not in a lot ofdebt.
You know, they're going to come into this market with a company

(01:01:34):
that from what I understand is very, you know, has a very deep
portfolio and has very deep pockets.
And if this company invests in Indian the right way, invest in
the dealer, the network the right way, makes it affordable
and profitable for dealers to carry Indian.
Because remember, this is another place where Indian and
Harley vastly different. Harley wants you to be an only

(01:01:57):
Harley dealer, whereas Indian does not mind if you put a
Ducati or BMW next to an Indian because to them it opens up to
more opportunities for more dealers.
So I think Indian if they play their cards right, if they come
up with the right line up and they place it in the right
dealers and have the right support and the right

(01:02:18):
infrastructure, they can quicklysee their their sales turn
around and increase their their market value.
But again, I just got a text about this from somebody just
telling me Hey Indian just got sold.
Wow, that is. Hot off the press.
And so so. So real quick, why, why, why
won't there be more motor bikes on the grid?

(01:02:40):
Or you said less bikes. Well, the problem is if Indian
gets sold, Indian was supportinga lot of the people racing on
the Indian racing team. So before when Polaris owned
them, they already had a preset budget for raising a preset
budget for this preset budget for that.
Now this new company came in, isthis company going to be

(01:03:00):
interested in going racing and if they are, how much are they
willing to invest upfront? Whereas Polaris in the fast was
kind of floating the bill for Indian to go racing, now Indian
has to float that bill all by themselves under an indie's new
ownership. And you have to look at the
numbers, you know, if it's goingto cost me two and a half,
$1,000,000 to go racing, is that2 and a half million dollars

(01:03:22):
that I'd rather invest somewhereelse as a company that's now,
it's your now your own, your ownstand alone company.
You don't have somebody else's Piggy Bank to dig money out of.
Well, I mean, the fact that the fact that they did all what they
did was maybe in the process of being sold or in the guise of
being sold, like kind of what wesaw Moto GP doing.

(01:03:44):
And they were overhauling their website, getting rid of some of
these old big contract guys, bringing all these young guys in
and signing them at, at, you know, lower cost, obviously, and
stuff like that. You know, so maybe Indian was
already, you know, I've been through a couple of companies
that in hindsight, the writing was on the wall.
When you see people pull out there measuring tape, you think

(01:04:05):
they're just going to be hangingplants.
Most most company buyouts like this typically take about 2 1/2
to three years. Like that's when you're at this
size of a company and I've, I'veknown, you know, I've been with
several companies that have beenbought and sold.
It's usually about a 2 1/2 to three-year process between
looking at the books, setting upthe sale properly, making sure

(01:04:28):
your EBITDA is in the right way.And for those of you who don't
know what EBITDA is, don't worryabout it, but it sucks.
But if you're in business, you got to know what your EBITDA is
and making the numbers work so that when the next buyer picks
it up, they kind of can pick up the ball and keep rolling with
it. And usually there's a transition
phase where for six or eight months, the top level executives

(01:04:49):
of the old companies stay in place to kind of hand the baton
off to the new executive. And after about a year, all
those old executives get their final buyout and the new
executives take the ball and keep running.
So there is a possibility that the Indian team and the racing
department is going to stay as is, but there's also
opportunity. Maybe it'll grow.
Right. Well, we hope that we, we

(01:05:10):
because we like to see the most likely industry grow and
Speaking of go and grow, we're going to get out of here.
But who's going to you know what's what's going to happen in
Phillip Island this weekend, coming weekend?
Yeah, let's. See, well, you know, there's
pigeons. Oh, by the way, we, we still

(01:05:31):
talk about our super bike. No.
So yeah, we're back in Moto GP and it's going to be an exciting
weekend because we don't have Mark out there.
Like you said, we don't have a couple of riders.
Yeah, it's going to be interesting.
Like I don't know if Bez is going to be 100% like that's
like Mark Bez and and they're like the the top front runners

(01:05:54):
hit. Hey, listen, somebody want that
bonus money, man, Come on. I don't know.
That's that's big money right there.
You know, and I want to say I want to say Fabio's finally
going to come on his own and andand pull something out of his
ass. And you know, it is a fast track
and I know it's going to be hardto keep the pace, but you know,

(01:06:16):
there's those top riders are just not not there.
I don't know if Pekko can can keep that Ducati and and and
stay in front of everybody. So but it would it would be nice
to see him back on the podium with nobody out there.
Well, there's a lot of riders out there.
You know what I'm trying to say,the Champions not out there,
Martinez not out there, Mavericks not out there.

(01:06:39):
So, but yeah, I'll say, I'll say.
If Reese was here, he'd say Petco's not out there, even
though he's out there. He's he's only there for 4th and
5th. Yeah, yeah.
So hopefully if you change that the third maybe, but yeah, it
would be good to say like Fabio maybe one of the Honda guys

(01:07:03):
definitely actually want to say the VR46 Academy, so.
Yeah, yeah, I'll say I'll, you know, I'll, I'll say this and
then I'll ask Lewis. I, I think it's any like the the
top ten guys in the last round, like all those guys, you know,
had a chance and had their moment if they, if they get the

(01:07:23):
set up right. I think any of those guys
because I'd like like, you know,like what you see.
And, and we, we know that, you know, the top guys are not there
and, and, and so here's a chanceto to steal one for your
thoughts, Lewis. I want to go, young man.
I want to go. I want to go Acosta, I want to
go. Raul.
Raul, I want to go young man. I want to see these guys that

(01:07:47):
kind of showed up at the Aldeguerre.
Like I want to see these young guys back up there, man.
You know, don't don't make it a one off.
Like, you know, show up and and do two in a row show that you
can. You know, this wasn't a fluke,
man. I've been in this place for a
while now. Let's do it.
You know, the KTM should should do well to this track because

(01:08:09):
they've got the grunt down the straightaway.
Aldegare should do well because he's been showing now that he
can, like we said earlier, he needed to put a complete race
together, get the bike to work at the beginning as good as it
works at the end, and run a complete race.
And this past time he showed, hey, I got the bike to work in
the beginning and it works just as good as the end and I was

(01:08:30):
able to run a complete race. And look what I did, man.
In two races I was right there. And you know, Acosta is hot
because he wanted, he wants, he got it.
He's hot because I would be hot.I'm like he.
I got, I got nipped by a rookie.I'm hot.
I'm hot. He don't even have, he don't
even have a nickname yet. He haven't got a nickname yet.

(01:08:53):
What is? What is that?
What is the cost of the shark? The shark.
Dude. He just got here with a killer
whale like killer. Whale the constant's like yo,
but I I'm the shark. I mean this guy doesn't even
have a nickname, bro, he's he don't even have his own style.
He uses a a yellow 54 that that that top rack is trying to buy

(01:09:15):
for him for for like 50,000 bucks.
He's a. Lucky guy he's.
Mr. Nobody too. Yeah, I'm like, yo, I got beat
by by nobody that that didn't doanything in Moto 2.
Like, I'm a Moto 2 champion, youknow?
So I think him, him and I. And again, I think if Bez isn't

(01:09:39):
at a 100%, then Aprilia's next best chance is Raul.
Yeah, Yeah, that's true. You know Raul, Raul is running,
running the shit out of that bike right now, man.
Yeah, it's going to be fun. Young guns.
Let's see, let's see, man. Young guns.
That's what I want. Young, young faces on the
podium, you know, just can't even drink the Prosecco because

(01:10:00):
they're not even of age, right? It's funny to say and they can't
drink. They just clinking bottles and
putting them down. Clicking bottles and giving them
milk. Like here's your milk man, you
can't drink this. This is for adults.
Oh, my name is Rex 45. It's the Be Forever Cool
podcast. We got TJ from 2 Wheels and

(01:10:20):
Coffee. We got the Rio.
Luis Ortega, the numbers guy. Peace.
Peace.