Childhood, Choppers, and the ICE test with Ola Stenegärd and Andrea Hiott

What it Takes: How to become an Astronaut with legendary motorcycle designer Ola Stenegärd. The dialogue explores Ola's journey from a young child growing up in the Swedish countryside to becoming a renowned figure in the motorcycle industry. Key topics include the thrill of creating and riding motorcycles, the importance of design in creating vehicles, Ola's journey to becoming a designer, and the future of motorcycles in a world that has to rethink the sustainability of motoring. The interview emphasizes the role of passion and determination in achieving one's dreams, using Ola's career as a testament.

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Ola Stenegärd on Instagram

Indian Motorcycles

Forever Motoring

Featuring:

brothers and the Easy Rider scene in Sweden

Skateboard disasters

Truck engines in tractors

How being a farmer mean being creative

Why a farm is like a workshop

Riding horses and riding bikes

The liviing machine

„breathing life into the engine is like breathing soul into it“
"...especially when it is an engine you built yourself..."

Hard to find something as exciting as figuring out a paticular bike and what makes its engine tick

Ola’s first Chopper which he created when he was about 14 years old

that first moment of flow, realizing the power of drawing before building

Winning first in his class at this show where all the people and bikes he had been seeing in magazines were suddenly there in real life--what other dream can be so rich?

The importance of teachers and their encouragement

How one sentence or even just a couple of words can change a life

ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena…seeing all these famous people in magazines who had built cars and bikes and who had gone there, it felt impossible to ever get there himself, like going to the moon or becoming an astronaut…

How others help us by seeing the best of us, often what we cannot see in ourselves

Though he has experienced a lot of good luck and grace, he also has a lot of passion and dedicated himself to this hard work and obsession…

Selling all his motorcycles to pay his way through art school

Greg Brew

Polaris industries

Church of Choppers

Forever Two Wheels

Remember who you are designing for (the rider, the customer, the person living day to day life with this bike)

“you pour a lot into that vehicle because you know its going to mean a lot to the person who buys it”

Syd Mead

A different take on what it will mean to create ecological motoring…

How far can you throw the ball? The balance of innovation and finding better ways to motor.

Electric should not be an excuse for being weird.

Ola’s ICE test.

He offers a different view than previous guests because he points out that a lot of things like the fuel tank might seem redundant (now that it is not alays used for fuel for example) but have actually evolved to have different purposes and should not be done away with just because we are doing away with other conventions.

Bringing it back to the basics—to the rider and the bike and their intimate relationship, that is the real pivot and always will be in ecological motoring.

Business advice

Living and breath