From early memories of seeing a turquoise and white Harley-Davidson as a child to hosting more than 465 episodes of Motorcycle Men Podcast, Ted Kettler has built a life around motorcycles, storytelling and staying curious.
In this episode, host Heather Wilson Schiltz talks with Ted about his connection to Harley-Davidson, what he has learned through podcasting and why he decided to write The Road Most Traveled.
They also talk about the challenges of booking podcast guests, what makes an interview work, and why documenting an interstate motorcycle trip felt worth turning into a book.
🎧 What You’ll Hear in This Episode:
- Buying his first bike while serving in Guantanamo Bay
- The story behind working 18 months in exchange for a Harley-Davidson Sportster
- What inspired him to start Motorcycle Men Podcast
- Lessons learned from recording more than 465 podcast episodes
- How his ride from New Jersey to the Florida Keys became The Road Most Traveled
📲 Follow Ted Kettler on YouTube and Facebook
🌐 Learn more at Motorcycle Men Podcast: motomenpc.com
🌐 Find The Road Most Traveled on Amazon and Audible
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:05):
Welcome to Momentum, a motorsports podcast powered by High Gear Success.
I'm your host, Heather Wilson Schiltz.
Here we share the stories and strategies that keep the world of motorsports movingforward.
And today's guest is Ted Kettler, host of Motorcycle Men podcast, Ride with Ted YouTubechannel, and author of The Road Most Traveled.
(00:25):
So Ted, thank you for joining me.
Thank you for having me.
I appreciate it.
I was just on your podcast.
It's probably been about maybe a month or so ago now.
Plus we also had the, uh, uh, auspicious, uh, uh, uh, bill, you know, moment where we wereon a Drew's podcast, that show for him.
Yes, lots of MotoPodcasters.
So we had essentially Motorcycle Trivia or Motorcycle Jeopardy that you put us through thepaces on and you were kind of the spearhead of that coming up with all the questions and
(00:54):
categories and ideas.
So while we're on that topic, do you like to kind of research and find those random factsor how did that idea for Motorcycle Jeopardy come about?
Well, you know, as on my own podcast, I was looking for something to get the other, myother cohost to engage a little bit more.
(01:15):
And for a while we were doing a Harley history on the show and that got, you know, somegreat involvement and people seem to like that.
So I decided to expand on that idea.
And I decided to go the jeopardy route in the early years of doing that.
was horrible.
I openly admit.
(01:35):
It was absolutely abysmal.
But eventually I, you know, I figured out the proper formula and I started creating the,the Jeopardy shows.
was five categories, five rows of, know, all the, all the numbers trying to figureeverything out.
But I did all that research on my own.
(01:55):
It took me hours and hours to do all that stuff.
But yeah, it was fun.
I think that we're like most people you're pretty awful when you first start something butI mean, it's worth starting right?
I can't you can't get better unless you start something.
You got to start from zero and then just work your way up.
That's that's the way it works And you know everybody finds their niche eventually it wasbad in the beginning, and then you go okay?
(02:20):
Well this works that that works this doesn't work that you know and you work your waythrough it and eventually comes together You hope anyway?
If it was straight Harley trivia for me, that would be very, very challenging becausethat's probably the brand that I know the least amount of.
And I'm guessing for you, if it was straight KTM dirt bike trivia, that might be a littlechallenging for you.
(02:42):
my God, it would be horrible.
Actually, I have a list here somewhere of all the topics and categories you did not likeand that you wanted.
One of them was MSRP.
absolutely hated that.
Growing up in the industry and working in the industry there are some definite perks andso paying MSRP was rare for me.
I would say that might change a little bit now that my parents no longer own a dealership.
(03:06):
I guess I don't look at prices of stuff that often like new bikes or new gear.
Like I'm kind of a person that once I have something I keep it for a long time.
So I'm not constantly upgrading or buying new but you don't know.
No.
When the latest thing comes out you go, oh, that's much better than what I have.
I got to go get that.
Nope, if it still fits, fits is the key.
(03:27):
If you go up and down and weight, like as long as the gear still fits, then it's good togo.
helmet though.
You're supposed to replace a helmet every time.
I have replaced a couple of times over the years and I am due for a new one of those soon.
that though, because you get the helmet, it's comfortable, it fits just the way you likeit.
And then you know, the five year mark comes along as well.
(03:47):
I'm supposed to get rid of this now.
Yes, I think they're like kind of extending it a little bit sometimes like five to sevenyears.
Some are even like five to eight And i'm also a very unusual size.
So I wear an extra small helmet Which you can't find in Store anywhere.
You have to like order it online and i've tried i'm like this can't be true like surely Ineed a small but i've tried a small and they don't fit they are too large.
(04:13):
Yeah So yep kind of funnyI know I have uh I'm a scorpion guy and I've had this one scorpion helmet the the st-1400
it was a carbon element really lightweight and I loved it I loved it and then there's likeokay well you've had it for six years now and you really should replace it okay fine so
they sent me a new one and it doesn't feel as good as the original one maybe it's and Idon't know
(04:45):
The padding, would say, like makes a huge difference in helmets as far as comfort goes.
all helmets pass that DOT testing, right?
But as far as comfort goes, there's a lot of difference between different brands anddifferent price ranges.
Primarily, I've worn Shoei for dirt bike and street bike stuff.
(05:07):
I think I have a Troy Lee dirt bike one right now.
And I'm looking at the 6D, like their adventure helmet, the adventure style.
So I've had a few different brands over the years.
Yeah, I've never tried to Shoei helmet so I have no idea if they're comfortable.
(05:42):
When I lived in California for a year, I actually went to Shoei headquarters and they likemeasured my head.
And that's how I found out I was an extra small because yeah, that was a long time ago.
So going back to your early days of motorcycling, you got your first bike when you wereserving in the military and stationed in Guantanamo Bay.
So where did that spark for wanting to get a motorcycle originate?
I blame that on my uncle John, uh, back in the early, early seventies, he had a, uh, hehad a Harley sports store and he, he came over to my parents' house one time and I went
(06:10):
like, Ooh, you know, but actually, yeah, actually probably goes back further than that.
And I was a kid.
can remember I was standing now.
This is way back.
We're talking.
Okay.
I'm dating myself.
This is probably in early early 60s way back and I was standing I remember standing on thefront seat of my mother's car and we were going somewhere.
(06:33):
That's right I was not in the car seat.
I was not buckled in I was standing on the front seat of my mother's car We were goingsomewhere and I was hanging out the window just leaning out the window and a motorcycle
pulled up in the lane next to us and was just just ahead and I said mom, what's that?
And my mom just said that's a Harley DavidsonI was like, wow, that image.
(06:55):
I can remember, I can remember distinctly it was, it was turquoise and white, had lots ofchrome on it.
And you know, it rumbled and he took off and it was like, wow, I thought that was amazing.
And from that point on, I judged every motorcycle based on what I saw.
So, so when the Hondas and the Kawasaki's and all those started showing up in the U S Iwas like, yeah, but I saw that Harley Davidson.
(07:20):
It was so much cooler.
SoI think that's where it started for me.
How did your parents feel about motorcycling?
they didn't really, uh, they based all their knowledge on motorcycles on my uncle John'shistory with motorcycles, which was not good at all.
(07:42):
He dumped that thing.
Oh my God.
Three or four times.
And, so he eventually got rid of it for one reason or another, but, yeah, he, he'scertain.
He's certainly solidified the notion, you know, I want to get Harley,Do you think the structure of the military and kind of the freedom of motorcycling gave
you different things in life?
(08:43):
The military taught me a lot of things about, of course, discipline andYou know, just I think the discipline aspect of it was really important because when I was
in the military, my main job, I was a firefighter and we were trained specifically tocheck, double check, triple check everything.
(09:06):
And there was there was routine and there was there was that, like you had said, structureto doing the way you have to do things.
Things have to be done a certain way.
that did carry over for me.
when I finally did get a motorcycle because, I have to do these things.
And it actually transformed for me when I first got my driver's license in that I waschecking the oil almost every day and checking the tire pressure almost every day.
(09:34):
All these things that I did, know, of course I had my license when I was in the military,but it carried over.
And like from that point on, I would always do that.
And even to this day,I'm always doing that to my vehicles.
like very meticulously maintained.
Yeah, everything, you know, it's just making sure.
And again, and this some this is something that drives people crazy in my life.
(09:58):
um Keeping things, especially my vehicles, keeping them neat and orderly.
I despise a dirty motorcycle.
It just makes me insane.
And same thing with my vehicles.
My truck, you could eat off the mats under my truck.
So I just like my vehicle.
Not that I recommend you do that.
But I like to keep my vehicles clean, which is it irritates a lot.
(10:22):
I always feel like when I go dirt biking, I come back and I immediately wash my dirt bike.
Like that's just part of the same day.
Now on the flip side, my adventure bike, I don't necessarily wash after every ride.
So it's funny that my street bike is often dirtier than my dirt bike.
Wow, I wonder why.
(10:42):
I don't know.
guess like the dirt bike, just gets like, when it gets muddy, it gets real muddy.
And sometimes the longer you leave it on there, you know, the worst it is to clean later.
Whereas like the adventure bike, yeah, maybe get into some dirt, but it's not necessarilymud when I take it out.
Well, you know, it's like if I look at this way, if your vehicle is dirty all the time,how do you know when something's broken?
(11:06):
You know, you know, the the cleanliness of it, if it's clean, you can see if there'ssomething wrong or you can certainly detect it, you know.
So wash your adventure.
Well, my husband's a mechanic and his least favorite thing is when he gets suspension andit hasn't been cleaned, it hasn't been washed.
They just pulled it off the race machines and sent it in a box and yeah, real nightmare.
(11:30):
So your mechanics, mean, whether you're doing it yourself or taking it to a dealership or,I know somebody appreciate a clean motorcycle.
absolutely.
my gosh.
Yeah.
So you got the motorcycle.
What was your, your first motorcycle that you.
Yeah, that was a I may have the the actual numbers wrong, but maybe you can correct youwould probably know Suzuki TC 125.
(12:00):
So this is going way back.
It was red.
Not that that matters or anything like that.
But a guy on the base, he was he was he was shipping out and he had the motorcycle on thebase and he says, are you selling it?
And I'm like, Oh, really?
How much do you want for it?
And he says, 400 bucks.
I said,All right, you cause I wanted to get a motorcycle.
So I said, okay, so I bought it from him.
(12:21):
I knew nothing about motorcycles, nothing.
I knew how to operate the clutch and make it go.
That's about it.
But I knew nothing about motorcycle maintenance, nothing.
And so that was it.
And I didn't have it.
Well, I would say you're ahead of the game in today's standards because people don't drivemanual cars anymore for the most part, right?
(12:43):
So they don't even understand the clutch operation.
So at least you had that going for you versus some of the students today that I teach.
That's a whole new concept to unlock.
Oh jeez.
That's not very reassuring.
Because the, I don't know if it's like the nicest way to put it, but as the technologygets better, the people get dumber.
(13:09):
Because you just don't have to know as much or like learn different things.
I think everybody's first car should always be a manual transmission.
You drive, you've mastered that for a year and we'll give you an automatic.
I think that's good.
Let somebody like that sit in traffic for an hour that moves along, that creeps along atfive miles an hour, stop and go, stop and go, and then put them at a stoplight on a hill.
(13:37):
And so many of the motorcycles over the years have gone from carbureted to fuel injected.
So that's a piece of technology that people don't know and understand.
Now a lot of the motorcycles are having automatic or e-clutches.
yeah, it's every year brings something a little different.
Yeah.
kind of not a fan of the automatic transmission on a motorcycle.
(14:01):
torn because I think you like you and I are probably more traditionalist like we like thefeel it's like part of the feel of riding a motorcycle like part of the essence of it.
Yeah, that's and I'll use my one of my most hated words visceral because that's whatyou're actually you're interacting with it when you just get on there.
(14:22):
It's kind of like scooter ish.
You with a scooter you just turn and twist on a throttle you're doing nothing else and itmakes it go but no no thank you I'd rather operate the clutch.
So after you got that motorcycle, you rode for a while, but then you stepped away fornearly two decades and then came back to riding in the early 2000s.
(14:43):
So what pulled you back after taking some time off?
Well, it wasn't intentional time off uh that first motorcycle that Suzuki I only had thatfor about Seriously, I might have had it six months and then I sold it to another guy It
was I just wasn't riding it But after that when I after I got out of the Navy and I cameback to the States It was all finances for me then I had no money.
(15:13):
I was broke I had jobs, but I made just enough to surviveI had a massive desire to just buy a sportster Cause back in 1985, you could buy a brand
new sportster for $3,500 brand new.
And I had this desire that I wanted to buy one and ride across the country.
(15:36):
knew nothing about doing that, but that's what I want.
Um, but I didn't honestly get my motorcycle endorsement until 1987.
So when I finally got that, then I said, okay,In fact, I got the gentleman who helped me train.
He rode a, uh, an early, uh, Goldwing, one of the early, one of the first models ofGoldwing when they came out and that was the bike he trained me on.
(16:03):
Yeah.
Yeah.
And was, it was really cool.
I, I just let it go that it was a Honda, you know, okay, whatever.
But I got my, I got my endorsement, but again, it just came back down to finances.
I couldn't, I couldn't get a bike.
I couldn't afford to buy one.
when I finally did, uh, get one, it was a funny experience, uh, and certainly a strangesituation.
(16:27):
I, at the time I was working for this gentleman and it was a interior design firm.
I was their draftsman artist as you, whatever you want to call it, but that's what I didfor him.
And he ordered the, this is back in a day when, uh, if you wanted a Harley Davidson, youhad to order it and wait for it to come in.
So he ordered a 1994 sportsterAnd a year, just about 18 months later, showed up and, and he rarely rode it.
(16:56):
I mean, literally, I would, I would go to work.
said, Hey, you've been riding a bike as no, it's in the garage.
got flat tires, you know, and then I'd ask him a couple of months later, how's the bike?
Oh, the battery's dead.
I'm not riding.
So this went on for a good 10 years like that.
He brought it to his house in Florida, figuring if he was down to Florida, he would rideit more and he didn't.
(17:17):
So one day I came to work and he goes to me, how many hours would you work for me forfree?
And I give you the motorcycle.
And so we came up with a deal and I, for 18 months, I worked for him for nothing.
And this was at this point, I was working part time for him, but I worked for 18 monthsfor nothing.
And he just gave me the keys for the bike.
And then I just had to go pick it up in Delray Beach, Florida.
(17:39):
That was it.
And that was my first real motorcycle.
A Harley got my Sportster and I immediately took it to the Harley dealer and say,whatever's broken, fix it.
And they had it for like, they had it for a couple of weeks and they worked on it and thengot it all back together.
And that was it.
I had that bike for 10 years.
(17:59):
Did he let you ride it while you were working off your time or you had to wait?
No, actually what happened was uh he says, okay, you can have the bike, I'm gonna give ityou and here's the keys and all that, but you gotta go get it.
You have to come down to Delray Beach, Florida and pick it up.
So uh I was planning to go to a mountain bike festival uh on my vacation week in July.
(18:20):
And so I said, tell you what, that festival's only three days.
So what I'll do is I'll leave on Saturday before, drive down to you, pick up the bike,come back and then go to the mountain bike festival.
So that's the way that worked.
I had the bike.
or while I was working it off.
Yeah.
I feel like that's a true test of patience too, from talking about like ordering a bikeand waiting 18 months for it to even come in.
(18:43):
Like people today would lose their minds because they just want to walk in and leave witha bike the same day, right?
And seriously, think it needs to go back to that.
I really think it does because in my mind, I'm thinking, well, the market is flooded withso many motorcycles right now.
(19:07):
And yet the prices are a little too high.
But if people had to order a motorcycle and wait for it, think the companies might dobetter.
I don't know.
It's just my weird way of thinking.
I think it would be interesting to see that happen again.
uhI feel like for me, I'm a person that like researches and thinks about it and then like
researches some more and then thinks about it some more.
(19:32):
Like I would have to be so sure that I wanted that bike, right?
Because once you order it, it's a long time to wait for something that you better be surethat you want it.
I know.
my God.
I do that with guitars.
my goodness.
Yeah, it's a crazy hobby.
(19:53):
So you had that bike you said for 10 years.
Yeah.
And then you sold it.
Well, no, didn't sell it.
I did eventually sell it.
But uh as we do, you know, we always browse the the, uh you know, the cycle trader thingand the used motorcycle market, we browse and we look because we're stupid in that way.
(20:17):
And I just happen to be looking on the cycle trader or chopper exchange.
It might have been one of those two.
But I saw my current bike.
2003 Harley Davidson Heritage Classic it's the anniversary model.
And it was it just had these beautiful big spoke wheels and just gorgeous.
I was like, hmm.
(20:37):
So I just I'm gonna go look at it.
Once I said I'm gonna go look at I already knew what was gonna happen.
Yeah, so and it was that Oh, dear, I forget the name of the dealership.
It was in Langford, Pennsylvania.
I can't remember the name of it.
But anyway, but that's, went down there.
I took it for a test ride.
was, it was early December and it was like 30 degrees out.
(21:03):
And I took the spike for a test ride and man, I was so cold.
But, uh, yeah, I decided then there after I told her, saw like, I want to buy it.
I did.
So yeah.
And you've owned multiple Harleys then.
So is that like your brand of choice?
(21:23):
everything goes back to that one Harley that you saw as a kid.
Yep.
That's right.
And you know, and the thing is I've, I've ridden other bikes and I get off them and I go,yeah, it doesn't do anything for me.
when I was at Sturgis, uh, two years ago, I rode, the Indian chieftain and the Indianscout and I got off both the bikes.
(21:48):
I was like, man, that's all right.
ButWhen I ride a Harley, something about it, I don't know.
just like, yeah, feels great.
I love it.
You know, I don't know.
I think that's what's so cool about motorcycling culture is that people get...
I mean, some people will flip from brand to brand to brand and there's no brand loyaltywhatsoever.
They'll ride anything.
(22:08):
But then you have people that just love a brand for what it is.
And again, it might have memories tied to it.
It might have that feeling tied to it.
So everybody's got their thing.
Well, you got uh your KTM, right?
And that's been and is that because you grew up in the KTM environment or is it becauseyou've ridden that bike and that's the bike you like?
(22:31):
Or it could be something as stupid as color, you know?
you know, as kids, we had a bunch of used motorcycles of various brands growing up.
And so it just kind of was like the thing to get you to the next step of dirt bike.
Right.
But then, obviously as an adult, like KTM was my my first brand of choice, but I've I'veridden other stuff, too.
(22:53):
Like you said, and it's like, that's cool.
But like, would I go out and purchase one?
Maybe.
But for right now, like I'm happy with the bikes that I have.
Yeah.
But then when you get back on your own KTM, you go, ah, I'm home.
Right?
Yeah.
That's the same thing with me.
It's like, you know, I mean, I've test ridden put it this way.
I've tested with every single Harley Davidson model out there.
(23:15):
But when I get on a heritage, I go, okay, I feel better.
It's, it's, silly, but you know, you know, cause I wonder what if instead of thatturquoise Harley Davidson that I saw when I was five years old, what if it was
What if it was a red Honda?
(23:36):
Would that have done the same thing for me?
I don't know.
Possibly, yeah.
I really honestly don't You know, I have no idea.
If my uncle drove up in front of my house on a Kawasaki, what I'd go, wow, cool.
I don't think so.
(23:56):
I don't know.
I know.
I remember in high school kids raving about the KZ 1000 and or the or the Honda Honda CBCB 750.
It's like, oh, wow.
OK.
They're like, what is that?
You know, I didn't know what that was.
That's a Honda.
It's a motorcycle.
OK, what is it though?
It's a CB 750.
What does that mean?
(24:17):
I don't know.
But when somebody says to me, you know, it's a it's a it's a Harley electra glide.
I know what they mean.
If they say of it's a heritage classic, I know what they mean.
You know, so I guess it was the combination of num letters and numbers that made no senseto me.
I guess it's silly little thing.
I don't know.
So after all these years of riding, then you started Motorcycle Men podcast.
(24:42):
So what inspired you to start a podcast specifically around motorcycling?
Uh, I'm a, I'm a cyclist.
So I have my, I would have my bicycle on an indoor trainer and I would ride to this.
It's a fitness thing and just to train and all that.
And while I would do that, I would listen to podcasts or I'd watch YouTube, but I wouldlisten to podcasts and I would, I would focus on the motorcycle podcasts.
(25:06):
And at the time there was the pace podcast, um, motorcycles and Misfits.
was a Cleveland moto.
and a few others and I would listen to them and not that they are anti cruiser, but theyweren't fans of cruisers and they weren't fans of Harley Davidson's.
You know, they, uh, and I would be like, you know, why is everybody always bashingHarleys?
(25:30):
And I'm like, you know what?
I'm going to start my own podcast and it's going to be a cruiser based Harley basedpodcast.
And we don't.
That's just it.
don't.
We're very accepting of every motorcycle out there.
We may poke fun in a way, but we know we're we're just idiots anyway, but doesn't matter.
we don't.
(25:50):
That's just the thing.
We don't we don't talk about talk down about any of the other brands.
Well, maybe the Can-Am Spyder, right?
But that's about it.
And certainly the slingshot, because we know it's not a motorcycle, but.
That is not motorcycle in any way, or form.
No, not why some states classify it as a motorcycle.
I have no idea.
(26:11):
But yeah, so I learned what I could about the podcasting and how to do it what's required.
And then I just dove into it.
uh The early as you as you had said earlier, you know, when you start something in thebeginning, you're pretty bad at it usually.
And then you eventually find your way.
And have I found my way in 10 years of doing this?
(26:32):
Maybe.
Yeah, more than 450 episodes.
mean, that's an incredible number.
Yeah, actually, I, before we started this interview, I just recorded uh episode number466.
Yeah, that's impressive.
mean, that's commitment too, to keep doing something for that long.
(26:54):
There are, know, there are, uh, motorcycles and misfits has over 600 Cleveland moto isclosing in on 600 episodes.
And there's a couple other podcasts that are even there's one, and I can't remember thename of it.
Um, but it's, there we have over a thousand episodes, but they started as a radio stationfirst.
So I know if that counts.
Yeah.
So, but yeah, it's quite a commitment.
Um, I do it every week.
(27:18):
If I, if I can, if I don't have a guest line up, then there's nothing, but I hate that.
But yeah, my saying is they'll have to pry the microphone out of my cold dead hands beforeI stop.
Getting guests is probably one of the most tedious task.
Yes.
(27:38):
The interview part for me is easy.
It's the booking the guests that's the challenge.
Yeah, I don't it's not so much to scheduling scheduling is that's easy.
That's the easy part.
oh Even coming up with the questions is is relatively easy.
It's it's getting them and getting them to respond.
First of all, if you can, you you got the contact information, you shoot off the email oryou make the phone call and then you wait and you wait and you wait.
(28:06):
Sometimes they cancel on you and they reschedule and they don't show up and so...
Well, I don't mind the rescheduling.
I don't mind the postponing.
uh What I do mind is when we have it scheduled and I'm sitting here on the microphone andI got my invitation window open and nobody's there.
(28:27):
And I wait and then I have to send an email.
Where are you?
I forgot, you know, or they just don't show up at all.
That's happened to me probably on four or five occasions that's happened.
And, you know, but yeah, that's the hard part.
I my general rule is I give every potential guest three chances.
(28:50):
And if they blow me off on the after the third chance, that's done.
Yep, that's a good rule.
Yeah, that's it.
If you wanted to be on my show, you wouldn't give me a hard time.
Yes.
What have you learned about kind of the storytelling through podcasting that you didn'texpect?
(29:10):
Like whether it's your interview techniques or just what people will tell you.
ah What have I learned?
uh I think over the years, it's I've learned what to ask and what not to ask.
If it's if I never asked anybody anything personal, that's that's not that's not cool atall.
(29:32):
But I as far as goes for the the guests themselves, if they're if they're in the industry,if they're they are parts of manufacturing, if they're a tour company, whatever.
I've learned that asking them questions that pertain to something that they're proud of,gets their interest more.
(29:53):
And they're certainly more receptive to talking about anything at that point.
Uh, you just have to, I've learned that you just gotta compliment them on what they do.
And I think that's, that's very important.
Just, and, and, and also understand what they do.
There's nothing worse than going into an interview having no clue what your guest does.
(30:16):
And then you're like fumbling and, know, it should come out sound like an idiot.
uh absolutely.
ah Sometimes it's funny, especially I mentor a lot of college students in marketing andjournalism.
And when I tell them I have a podcast, they think that's like the coolest thing ever.
I'm like, I mean, yeah, I guess that's cool.
(30:39):
But like, anybody can do it.
Like, literally anybody can start a podcast.
There are like no qualifications or stipulations.
However, not everybody can do it well.
So I feel like if you'reYou know, if you're a good interviewer, if your uh attention to detail, like the
production element, the sounds good, like that does make a difference.
(31:00):
I think that's the number one thing for most podcast listeners, is that your audio qualityis good.
That's really, really important.
I mean, I've had a couple episodes myself where the audio quality was horrible and Ididn't realize it until after the episode was recorded.
And these guys, what do do?
What do do?
mean, so you just, you just, you just drop it anyway and let, let it, let happen whateverhappens.
(31:25):
And then there are times where you just go, I can't, I mean, I've have.
on occasion recorded a podcast where it was either the either the interview was bad or theaudio quality was so bad that I just I can't release this and then I just would just like
drop it and that's horrible.
I hate doing that because then you can't call the guest back and say, you know, I kind ofscrewed up and we're going to have to record the interview over again and that's that does
(31:52):
not go well.
Yeah, I've come close to that.
I've had a few nightmare episodes, I would call them, the technology and like you said, asyou're recording, you don't realize that things are going wrong until you watch it back
later or listen back later and you're like, oh I don't know how I'm going to fix that.
I don't know if it is fixable.
What I found interesting though, through interviewing people is that you're learningthings that sometimes aren't like well documented.
(32:19):
They're not online.
Like these people, maybe they're a little bit behind the scenes or they're not necessarilya public figure where they've had bios written about them online, or there's lots of
articles or information.
Like you're interviewing somebody and you're like creating a piece of history, really.
Yeah, you know, had recently probably within the last two months, I interviewed agentleman who was one of the first people to ride a motorcycle around the world.
(32:50):
SC Sharma was his name.
in 19 now, Ted Simon did his trip around the world in 73, I believe.
This SC Sharma rode his motorcycle with three other friends around the world in 1972.
ButThe only documented information about that trip was a couple news articles.
(33:13):
So it's like, I went into this interview with very little information except what I readin these articles, but I was still able to build an interview around that and got a lot of
information out of it.
And it ended up turning out to be a pretty good interview, but yeah, stuff like that.
makes podcasting interesting.
(33:36):
And to say the least, you know, you have your good interviews and you have your badinterviews.
Have you ever had a really bad interview?
You don't have to say any names.
Well, I've had some interviews I've been nervous about because they were younger kids,like either kids or teens that were racers.
And I was like, I'm not quite sure how this is going to go.
(33:58):
Um, and I kind of gave them a little like pre-interview prep kind of, you know, thatconfidence boost.
Maybe I even gave them the questions a little bit to like practice their answers, but Istill wasn't sure if they were going to be like too shy, if they were going to be giving
me one word answers or like.
one sentence and then the interview was going to be five minutes.
(34:18):
They have worked out.
So I haven't had any like true nightmare interviews.
Yeah.
Where they're just like super quiet.
I've had people, I think on the flip side, it's harder when people maybe are too talkativeand I can't even like jump in to ask the next question because like for my podcast, I have
kind of a timeline that I like to stay within.
(34:39):
And so sometimespeople will just get going and they're like, they're almost leading the interview more
than I am.
I prefer when I do an interview on I prefer that I have a guest who is willing to justtalk and then I just got to I just got to like, okay, let's go.
Just have fun, you know, I don't care how long they want to talk my longest interview.
(35:03):
Was with Wendy Crockett.
And I can't remember hisco-rider's name, but they rode a book about it.
The interview went on for almost two and a half hours.
So I had no problem with that.
Prior to that, it was Tim James from BDR.
And we talked for just over two hours.
(35:23):
So I had no problem with that because they're, hey, they're fun for me.
I enjoy it.
And I know it's got to be fun for the listeners, but I think worse is the extremely shortinterview.
The one where you have to, it's like pulling teeth.
Yeah, that's a challenge.
Now you don't do you provide I'm interviewing you now.
(35:47):
Do you do you like to provide your guests with questions up front so they know what'scoming or do you just like to just or or do your guests just say I don't care just.
I don't.
So I will do a lot of research and prep my own questions.
And I always throw out the offer to my guests.
If there's things you want to talk about, things you don't want to talk about, like, letme know ahead of the interview, because like we said, maybe some things I'm looking
(36:12):
online, I'm doing my research.
Maybe there's some really cool project that they're working on, but that's not documentedanywhere online for me to even be able to ask them about it.
So maybe they want me to bring that up and then they'll tell me ahead of time.
But a lot of times.
I don't get questions from people or topics even that they want.
It's just me figuring out what to ask them.
ehI used to as a rule I always used to provide the questions in front just so they knew it
(36:33):
was coming but recently probably within the last four or five months or so I've been goinglike you know what don't get the questions when I ask them and it seems to be more fun
that Yeah.
I think sometimes I know for myself, if I get questions ahead of time, can sound toorehearsed because I'm like focused on what I'm going to say.
(37:00):
Whereas like, I need to know the topics that we're going to talk about or what you'regoing to ask me that I'm at.
You know, I have information to provide on that, but if it's, you know, my job, likethat's kind of second nature, I can roll with most any questions that get asked.
Yeah, no, I started doing recently.
uh I can't even maybe the last 10, 10 episodes.
(37:21):
I threw in at the end of when I get to the end of the interview, I hit the guest with 10rapid fire questions.
And that has added a whole new dynamic to the whole interview process, which I reallylike.
I almost feel like I should just do rapid fire questions all the time now.
(37:43):
shot.
It's fun.
It really is.
Because the guest has no idea what's coming.
I want to make sure that we talk about your book too.
So the road most traveled, what made you decide to write a book and kind of give us thebackground or the highlights of this book?
I'm a I don't use the word prolific, but I like to I write in a journal.
(38:09):
I write in a journal every day and I take notes like so.
When I went on this trip, I rode from New Jersey to the Florida Keys and I take notes.
I could only because I took notes only because this way I can put them in my journal andjust think to remember when I'm old and senile and don't know who I am.
So I would take notes.
(38:29):
And then it got to the point where I'm taking them going likethere's a lot of information here.
And I decided like, you know what, let me just write about it.
And what led up to, also, I decided that writing just the story of writing about the tripand what I endured and what I went through is, is, wasn't enough.
(38:49):
also had to lead what I had to lead up to that, you know, uh, repairing the motorcycle.
Cause the bike was, uh, for almost, I guess aboutsix months the bike was down.
It was on a lift because it had an engine issue that I had to fix and I couldn't afford todo it.
(39:10):
So I had to learn how to do it myself.
So I added that to the book I wrote about that.
But I felt the need to because you never hear about so much domestic travel in books youhear about what we took this adventure here you know, right here in this this country that
country in this Okay.
Well, nobody really writes too much about, there are a few books out there, but nobodywrites about that interstate travel they did from point A to point B and what they went
(39:42):
through to get there.
So I thought, Hey, but let's just turn this into a book.
And I'm kind of wordy anyway, so that helped.
But cool.
Yeah.
I'm going to add that to my reading list.
Do you have an audiobook version of that?
Yes, yes, there is an audio book version 14 hours worth.
(40:03):
That was fun to do since I do this anyway, it was easy for me to do.
like when books are narrated by the person that wrote them.
I think that's so cool.
Yeah, absolutely.
So let's tell people where they can follow along with you, your podcast, your book, andeverything that you're working on going forward.
Okay.
The podcast can be heard on iTunes, uh Buzzsprout and pretty much any streaming platformthat's out there.
(40:30):
You can also go to the website, is modemenpc.com and there are links directly to thepodcast uh host, which is Buzzsprout and that's where it's on right now.
uh With regard to the my YouTube channel, which is ride with Ted, justLook up Ride with Ted and basically I just document any trips that I may have done, any
rides I may do, any repairs.
(40:54):
I do some product reviews on there.
I just do it mostly for fun.
With regard to the book, the book is available on Amazon and any other online reseller youcan get books from.
And of course it's available on audibleAnd I will provide all those links in the show notes for easy access for all of our
listeners.
(41:14):
Well, Ted, thank you for joining me and thanks to everybody for tuning into Momentum.
This has been a production of High Gear Success.
If you want to connect to recommend a guest, head to MomentumMotorsportsPodcast.com.
Until next time, keep the momentum rolling.
Welcome to Momentum, a motorsports podcast powered by High Gear Success.
I'm your host, Heather Wilson Schiltz.
Here we share the stories and strategies that keep the world of motorsports movingforward.
And today's guest is Ted Kettler, host of Motorcycle Men podcast, Ride with Ted YouTubechannel, and author of The Road Most Traveled.
(00:25):
So Ted, thank you for joining me.
Thank you for having me.
I appreciate it.
I was just on your podcast.
It's probably been about maybe a month or so ago now.
Plus we also had the, uh, uh, auspicious, uh, uh, uh, bill, you know, moment where we wereon a Drew's podcast, that show for him.
Yes, lots of MotoPodcasters.
So we had essentially Motorcycle Trivia or Motorcycle Jeopardy that you put us through thepaces on and you were kind of the spearhead of that coming up with all the questions and
(00:54):
categories and ideas.
So while we're on that topic, do you like to kind of research and find those random factsor how did that idea for Motorcycle Jeopardy come about?
Well, you know, as on my own podcast, I was looking for something to get the other, myother cohost to engage a little bit more.
(01:15):
And for a while we were doing a Harley history on the show and that got, you know, somegreat involvement and people seem to like that.
So I decided to expand on that idea.
And I decided to go the jeopardy route in the early years of doing that.
was horrible.
I openly admit.
(01:35):
It was absolutely abysmal.
But eventually I, you know, I figured out the proper formula and I started creating the,the Jeopardy shows.
was five categories, five rows of, know, all the, all the numbers trying to figureeverything out.
But I did all that research on my own.
(01:55):
It took me hours and hours to do all that stuff.
But yeah, it was fun.
I think that we're like most people you're pretty awful when you first start something butI mean, it's worth starting right?
I can't you can't get better unless you start something.
You got to start from zero and then just work your way up.
That's that's the way it works And you know everybody finds their niche eventually it wasbad in the beginning, and then you go okay?
(02:20):
Well this works that that works this doesn't work that you know and you work your waythrough it and eventually comes together You hope anyway?
If it was straight Harley trivia for me, that would be very, very challenging becausethat's probably the brand that I know the least amount of.
And I'm guessing for you, if it was straight KTM dirt bike trivia, that might be a littlechallenging for you.
(02:42):
my God, it would be horrible.
Actually, I have a list here somewhere of all the topics and categories you did not likeand that you wanted.
One of them was MSRP.
absolutely hated that.
Growing up in the industry and working in the industry there are some definite perks andso paying MSRP was rare for me.
I would say that might change a little bit now that my parents no longer own a dealership.
(03:06):
I guess I don't look at prices of stuff that often like new bikes or new gear.
Like I'm kind of a person that once I have something I keep it for a long time.
So I'm not constantly upgrading or buying new but you don't know.
No.
When the latest thing comes out you go, oh, that's much better than what I have.
I got to go get that.
Nope, if it still fits, fits is the key.
(03:27):
If you go up and down and weight, like as long as the gear still fits, then it's good togo.
helmet though.
You're supposed to replace a helmet every time.
I have replaced a couple of times over the years and I am due for a new one of those soon.
that though, because you get the helmet, it's comfortable, it fits just the way you likeit.
And then you know, the five year mark comes along as well.
(03:47):
I'm supposed to get rid of this now.
Yes, I think they're like kind of extending it a little bit sometimes like five to sevenyears.
Some are even like five to eight And i'm also a very unusual size.
So I wear an extra small helmet Which you can't find in Store anywhere.
You have to like order it online and i've tried i'm like this can't be true like surely Ineed a small but i've tried a small and they don't fit they are too large.
(04:13):
Yeah So yep kind of funnyI know I have uh I'm a scorpion guy and I've had this one scorpion helmet the the st-1400
it was a carbon element really lightweight and I loved it I loved it and then there's likeokay well you've had it for six years now and you really should replace it okay fine so
they sent me a new one and it doesn't feel as good as the original one maybe it's and Idon't know
(04:45):
The padding, would say, like makes a huge difference in helmets as far as comfort goes.
all helmets pass that DOT testing, right?
But as far as comfort goes, there's a lot of difference between different brands anddifferent price ranges.
Primarily, I've worn Shoei for dirt bike and street bike stuff.
(05:07):
I think I have a Troy Lee dirt bike one right now.
And I'm looking at the 6D, like their adventure helmet, the adventure style.
So I've had a few different brands over the years.
Yeah, I've never tried to Shoei helmet so I have no idea if they're comfortable.
(05:42):
When I lived in California for a year, I actually went to Shoei headquarters and they likemeasured my head.
And that's how I found out I was an extra small because yeah, that was a long time ago.
So going back to your early days of motorcycling, you got your first bike when you wereserving in the military and stationed in Guantanamo Bay.
So where did that spark for wanting to get a motorcycle originate?
I blame that on my uncle John, uh, back in the early, early seventies, he had a, uh, hehad a Harley sports store and he, he came over to my parents' house one time and I went
(06:10):
like, Ooh, you know, but actually, yeah, actually probably goes back further than that.
And I was a kid.
can remember I was standing now.
This is way back.
We're talking.
Okay.
I'm dating myself.
This is probably in early early 60s way back and I was standing I remember standing on thefront seat of my mother's car and we were going somewhere.
(06:33):
That's right I was not in the car seat.
I was not buckled in I was standing on the front seat of my mother's car We were goingsomewhere and I was hanging out the window just leaning out the window and a motorcycle
pulled up in the lane next to us and was just just ahead and I said mom, what's that?
And my mom just said that's a Harley DavidsonI was like, wow, that image.
(06:55):
I can remember, I can remember distinctly it was, it was turquoise and white, had lots ofchrome on it.
And you know, it rumbled and he took off and it was like, wow, I thought that was amazing.
And from that point on, I judged every motorcycle based on what I saw.
So, so when the Hondas and the Kawasaki's and all those started showing up in the U S Iwas like, yeah, but I saw that Harley Davidson.
(07:20):
It was so much cooler.
SoI think that's where it started for me.
How did your parents feel about motorcycling?
they didn't really, uh, they based all their knowledge on motorcycles on my uncle John'shistory with motorcycles, which was not good at all.
(07:42):
He dumped that thing.
Oh my God.
Three or four times.
And, so he eventually got rid of it for one reason or another, but, yeah, he, he'scertain.
He's certainly solidified the notion, you know, I want to get Harley,Do you think the structure of the military and kind of the freedom of motorcycling gave
you different things in life?
(08:43):
The military taught me a lot of things about, of course, discipline andYou know, just I think the discipline aspect of it was really important because when I was
in the military, my main job, I was a firefighter and we were trained specifically tocheck, double check, triple check everything.
(09:06):
And there was there was routine and there was there was that, like you had said, structureto doing the way you have to do things.
Things have to be done a certain way.
that did carry over for me.
when I finally did get a motorcycle because, I have to do these things.
And it actually transformed for me when I first got my driver's license in that I waschecking the oil almost every day and checking the tire pressure almost every day.
(09:34):
All these things that I did, know, of course I had my license when I was in the military,but it carried over.
And like from that point on, I would always do that.
And even to this day,I'm always doing that to my vehicles.
like very meticulously maintained.
Yeah, everything, you know, it's just making sure.
And again, and this some this is something that drives people crazy in my life.
(09:58):
um Keeping things, especially my vehicles, keeping them neat and orderly.
I despise a dirty motorcycle.
It just makes me insane.
And same thing with my vehicles.
My truck, you could eat off the mats under my truck.
So I just like my vehicle.
Not that I recommend you do that.
But I like to keep my vehicles clean, which is it irritates a lot.
(10:22):
I always feel like when I go dirt biking, I come back and I immediately wash my dirt bike.
Like that's just part of the same day.
Now on the flip side, my adventure bike, I don't necessarily wash after every ride.
So it's funny that my street bike is often dirtier than my dirt bike.
Wow, I wonder why.
(10:42):
I don't know.
guess like the dirt bike, just gets like, when it gets muddy, it gets real muddy.
And sometimes the longer you leave it on there, you know, the worst it is to clean later.
Whereas like the adventure bike, yeah, maybe get into some dirt, but it's not necessarilymud when I take it out.
Well, you know, it's like if I look at this way, if your vehicle is dirty all the time,how do you know when something's broken?
(11:06):
You know, you know, the the cleanliness of it, if it's clean, you can see if there'ssomething wrong or you can certainly detect it, you know.
So wash your adventure.
Well, my husband's a mechanic and his least favorite thing is when he gets suspension andit hasn't been cleaned, it hasn't been washed.
They just pulled it off the race machines and sent it in a box and yeah, real nightmare.
(11:30):
So your mechanics, mean, whether you're doing it yourself or taking it to a dealership or,I know somebody appreciate a clean motorcycle.
absolutely.
my gosh.
Yeah.
So you got the motorcycle.
What was your, your first motorcycle that you.
Yeah, that was a I may have the the actual numbers wrong, but maybe you can correct youwould probably know Suzuki TC 125.
(12:00):
So this is going way back.
It was red.
Not that that matters or anything like that.
But a guy on the base, he was he was he was shipping out and he had the motorcycle on thebase and he says, are you selling it?
And I'm like, Oh, really?
How much do you want for it?
And he says, 400 bucks.
I said,All right, you cause I wanted to get a motorcycle.
So I said, okay, so I bought it from him.
(12:21):
I knew nothing about motorcycles, nothing.
I knew how to operate the clutch and make it go.
That's about it.
But I knew nothing about motorcycle maintenance, nothing.
And so that was it.
And I didn't have it.
Well, I would say you're ahead of the game in today's standards because people don't drivemanual cars anymore for the most part, right?
(12:43):
So they don't even understand the clutch operation.
So at least you had that going for you versus some of the students today that I teach.
That's a whole new concept to unlock.
Oh jeez.
That's not very reassuring.
Because the, I don't know if it's like the nicest way to put it, but as the technologygets better, the people get dumber.
(13:09):
Because you just don't have to know as much or like learn different things.
I think everybody's first car should always be a manual transmission.
You drive, you've mastered that for a year and we'll give you an automatic.
I think that's good.
Let somebody like that sit in traffic for an hour that moves along, that creeps along atfive miles an hour, stop and go, stop and go, and then put them at a stoplight on a hill.
(13:37):
And so many of the motorcycles over the years have gone from carbureted to fuel injected.
So that's a piece of technology that people don't know and understand.
Now a lot of the motorcycles are having automatic or e-clutches.
yeah, it's every year brings something a little different.
Yeah.
kind of not a fan of the automatic transmission on a motorcycle.
(14:01):
torn because I think you like you and I are probably more traditionalist like we like thefeel it's like part of the feel of riding a motorcycle like part of the essence of it.
Yeah, that's and I'll use my one of my most hated words visceral because that's whatyou're actually you're interacting with it when you just get on there.
(14:22):
It's kind of like scooter ish.
You with a scooter you just turn and twist on a throttle you're doing nothing else and itmakes it go but no no thank you I'd rather operate the clutch.
So after you got that motorcycle, you rode for a while, but then you stepped away fornearly two decades and then came back to riding in the early 2000s.
(14:43):
So what pulled you back after taking some time off?
Well, it wasn't intentional time off uh that first motorcycle that Suzuki I only had thatfor about Seriously, I might have had it six months and then I sold it to another guy It
was I just wasn't riding it But after that when I after I got out of the Navy and I cameback to the States It was all finances for me then I had no money.
(15:13):
I was broke I had jobs, but I made just enough to surviveI had a massive desire to just buy a sportster Cause back in 1985, you could buy a brand
new sportster for $3,500 brand new.
And I had this desire that I wanted to buy one and ride across the country.
(15:36):
knew nothing about doing that, but that's what I want.
Um, but I didn't honestly get my motorcycle endorsement until 1987.
So when I finally got that, then I said, okay,In fact, I got the gentleman who helped me train.
He rode a, uh, an early, uh, Goldwing, one of the early, one of the first models ofGoldwing when they came out and that was the bike he trained me on.
(16:03):
Yeah.
Yeah.
And was, it was really cool.
I, I just let it go that it was a Honda, you know, okay, whatever.
But I got my, I got my endorsement, but again, it just came back down to finances.
I couldn't, I couldn't get a bike.
I couldn't afford to buy one.
when I finally did, uh, get one, it was a funny experience, uh, and certainly a strangesituation.
(16:27):
I, at the time I was working for this gentleman and it was a interior design firm.
I was their draftsman artist as you, whatever you want to call it, but that's what I didfor him.
And he ordered the, this is back in a day when, uh, if you wanted a Harley Davidson, youhad to order it and wait for it to come in.
So he ordered a 1994 sportsterAnd a year, just about 18 months later, showed up and, and he rarely rode it.
(16:56):
I mean, literally, I would, I would go to work.
said, Hey, you've been riding a bike as no, it's in the garage.
got flat tires, you know, and then I'd ask him a couple of months later, how's the bike?
Oh, the battery's dead.
I'm not riding.
So this went on for a good 10 years like that.
He brought it to his house in Florida, figuring if he was down to Florida, he would rideit more and he didn't.
(17:17):
So one day I came to work and he goes to me, how many hours would you work for me forfree?
And I give you the motorcycle.
And so we came up with a deal and I, for 18 months, I worked for him for nothing.
And this was at this point, I was working part time for him, but I worked for 18 monthsfor nothing.
And he just gave me the keys for the bike.
And then I just had to go pick it up in Delray Beach, Florida.
(17:39):
That was it.
And that was my first real motorcycle.
A Harley got my Sportster and I immediately took it to the Harley dealer and say,whatever's broken, fix it.
And they had it for like, they had it for a couple of weeks and they worked on it and thengot it all back together.
And that was it.
I had that bike for 10 years.
(17:59):
Did he let you ride it while you were working off your time or you had to wait?
No, actually what happened was uh he says, okay, you can have the bike, I'm gonna give ityou and here's the keys and all that, but you gotta go get it.
You have to come down to Delray Beach, Florida and pick it up.
So uh I was planning to go to a mountain bike festival uh on my vacation week in July.
(18:20):
And so I said, tell you what, that festival's only three days.
So what I'll do is I'll leave on Saturday before, drive down to you, pick up the bike,come back and then go to the mountain bike festival.
So that's the way that worked.
I had the bike.
or while I was working it off.
Yeah.
I feel like that's a true test of patience too, from talking about like ordering a bikeand waiting 18 months for it to even come in.
(18:43):
Like people today would lose their minds because they just want to walk in and leave witha bike the same day, right?
And seriously, think it needs to go back to that.
I really think it does because in my mind, I'm thinking, well, the market is flooded withso many motorcycles right now.
(19:07):
And yet the prices are a little too high.
But if people had to order a motorcycle and wait for it, think the companies might dobetter.
I don't know.
It's just my weird way of thinking.
I think it would be interesting to see that happen again.
uhI feel like for me, I'm a person that like researches and thinks about it and then like
researches some more and then thinks about it some more.
(19:32):
Like I would have to be so sure that I wanted that bike, right?
Because once you order it, it's a long time to wait for something that you better be surethat you want it.
I know.
my God.
I do that with guitars.
my goodness.
Yeah, it's a crazy hobby.
(19:53):
So you had that bike you said for 10 years.
Yeah.
And then you sold it.
Well, no, didn't sell it.
I did eventually sell it.
But uh as we do, you know, we always browse the the, uh you know, the cycle trader thingand the used motorcycle market, we browse and we look because we're stupid in that way.
(20:17):
And I just happen to be looking on the cycle trader or chopper exchange.
It might have been one of those two.
But I saw my current bike.
2003 Harley Davidson Heritage Classic it's the anniversary model.
And it was it just had these beautiful big spoke wheels and just gorgeous.
I was like, hmm.
(20:37):
So I just I'm gonna go look at it.
Once I said I'm gonna go look at I already knew what was gonna happen.
Yeah, so and it was that Oh, dear, I forget the name of the dealership.
It was in Langford, Pennsylvania.
I can't remember the name of it.
But anyway, but that's, went down there.
I took it for a test ride.
was, it was early December and it was like 30 degrees out.
(21:03):
And I took the spike for a test ride and man, I was so cold.
But, uh, yeah, I decided then there after I told her, saw like, I want to buy it.
I did.
So yeah.
And you've owned multiple Harleys then.
So is that like your brand of choice?
(21:23):
everything goes back to that one Harley that you saw as a kid.
Yep.
That's right.
And you know, and the thing is I've, I've ridden other bikes and I get off them and I go,yeah, it doesn't do anything for me.
when I was at Sturgis, uh, two years ago, I rode, the Indian chieftain and the Indianscout and I got off both the bikes.
(21:48):
I was like, man, that's all right.
ButWhen I ride a Harley, something about it, I don't know.
just like, yeah, feels great.
I love it.
You know, I don't know.
I think that's what's so cool about motorcycling culture is that people get...
I mean, some people will flip from brand to brand to brand and there's no brand loyaltywhatsoever.
They'll ride anything.
(22:08):
But then you have people that just love a brand for what it is.
And again, it might have memories tied to it.
It might have that feeling tied to it.
So everybody's got their thing.
Well, you got uh your KTM, right?
And that's been and is that because you grew up in the KTM environment or is it becauseyou've ridden that bike and that's the bike you like?
(22:31):
Or it could be something as stupid as color, you know?
you know, as kids, we had a bunch of used motorcycles of various brands growing up.
And so it just kind of was like the thing to get you to the next step of dirt bike.
Right.
But then, obviously as an adult, like KTM was my my first brand of choice, but I've I'veridden other stuff, too.
(22:53):
Like you said, and it's like, that's cool.
But like, would I go out and purchase one?
Maybe.
But for right now, like I'm happy with the bikes that I have.
Yeah.
But then when you get back on your own KTM, you go, ah, I'm home.
Right?
Yeah.
That's the same thing with me.
It's like, you know, I mean, I've test ridden put it this way.
I've tested with every single Harley Davidson model out there.
(23:15):
But when I get on a heritage, I go, okay, I feel better.
It's, it's, silly, but you know, you know, cause I wonder what if instead of thatturquoise Harley Davidson that I saw when I was five years old, what if it was
What if it was a red Honda?
(23:36):
Would that have done the same thing for me?
I don't know.
Possibly, yeah.
I really honestly don't You know, I have no idea.
If my uncle drove up in front of my house on a Kawasaki, what I'd go, wow, cool.
I don't think so.
(23:56):
I don't know.
I know.
I remember in high school kids raving about the KZ 1000 and or the or the Honda Honda CBCB 750.
It's like, oh, wow.
OK.
They're like, what is that?
You know, I didn't know what that was.
That's a Honda.
It's a motorcycle.
OK, what is it though?
It's a CB 750.
What does that mean?
(24:17):
I don't know.
But when somebody says to me, you know, it's a it's a it's a Harley electra glide.
I know what they mean.
If they say of it's a heritage classic, I know what they mean.
You know, so I guess it was the combination of num letters and numbers that made no senseto me.
I guess it's silly little thing.
I don't know.
So after all these years of riding, then you started Motorcycle Men podcast.
(24:42):
So what inspired you to start a podcast specifically around motorcycling?
Uh, I'm a, I'm a cyclist.
So I have my, I would have my bicycle on an indoor trainer and I would ride to this.
It's a fitness thing and just to train and all that.
And while I would do that, I would listen to podcasts or I'd watch YouTube, but I wouldlisten to podcasts and I would, I would focus on the motorcycle podcasts.
(25:06):
And at the time there was the pace podcast, um, motorcycles and Misfits.
was a Cleveland moto.
and a few others and I would listen to them and not that they are anti cruiser, but theyweren't fans of cruisers and they weren't fans of Harley Davidson's.
You know, they, uh, and I would be like, you know, why is everybody always bashingHarleys?
(25:30):
And I'm like, you know what?
I'm going to start my own podcast and it's going to be a cruiser based Harley basedpodcast.
And we don't.
That's just it.
don't.
We're very accepting of every motorcycle out there.
We may poke fun in a way, but we know we're we're just idiots anyway, but doesn't matter.
we don't.
(25:50):
That's just the thing.
We don't we don't talk about talk down about any of the other brands.
Well, maybe the Can-Am Spyder, right?
But that's about it.
And certainly the slingshot, because we know it's not a motorcycle, but.
That is not motorcycle in any way, or form.
No, not why some states classify it as a motorcycle.
I have no idea.
(26:11):
But yeah, so I learned what I could about the podcasting and how to do it what's required.
And then I just dove into it.
uh The early as you as you had said earlier, you know, when you start something in thebeginning, you're pretty bad at it usually.
And then you eventually find your way.
And have I found my way in 10 years of doing this?
(26:32):
Maybe.
Yeah, more than 450 episodes.
mean, that's an incredible number.
Yeah, actually, I, before we started this interview, I just recorded uh episode number466.
Yeah, that's impressive.
mean, that's commitment too, to keep doing something for that long.
(26:54):
There are, know, there are, uh, motorcycles and misfits has over 600 Cleveland moto isclosing in on 600 episodes.
And there's a couple other podcasts that are even there's one, and I can't remember thename of it.
Um, but it's, there we have over a thousand episodes, but they started as a radio stationfirst.
So I know if that counts.
Yeah.
So, but yeah, it's quite a commitment.
Um, I do it every week.
(27:18):
If I, if I can, if I don't have a guest line up, then there's nothing, but I hate that.
But yeah, my saying is they'll have to pry the microphone out of my cold dead hands beforeI stop.
Getting guests is probably one of the most tedious task.
Yes.
(27:38):
The interview part for me is easy.
It's the booking the guests that's the challenge.
Yeah, I don't it's not so much to scheduling scheduling is that's easy.
That's the easy part.
oh Even coming up with the questions is is relatively easy.
It's it's getting them and getting them to respond.
First of all, if you can, you you got the contact information, you shoot off the email oryou make the phone call and then you wait and you wait and you wait.
(28:06):
Sometimes they cancel on you and they reschedule and they don't show up and so...
Well, I don't mind the rescheduling.
I don't mind the postponing.
uh What I do mind is when we have it scheduled and I'm sitting here on the microphone andI got my invitation window open and nobody's there.
(28:27):
And I wait and then I have to send an email.
Where are you?
I forgot, you know, or they just don't show up at all.
That's happened to me probably on four or five occasions that's happened.
And, you know, but yeah, that's the hard part.
I my general rule is I give every potential guest three chances.
(28:50):
And if they blow me off on the after the third chance, that's done.
Yep, that's a good rule.
Yeah, that's it.
If you wanted to be on my show, you wouldn't give me a hard time.
Yes.
What have you learned about kind of the storytelling through podcasting that you didn'texpect?
(29:10):
Like whether it's your interview techniques or just what people will tell you.
ah What have I learned?
uh I think over the years, it's I've learned what to ask and what not to ask.
If it's if I never asked anybody anything personal, that's that's not that's not cool atall.
(29:32):
But I as far as goes for the the guests themselves, if they're if they're in the industry,if they're they are parts of manufacturing, if they're a tour company, whatever.
I've learned that asking them questions that pertain to something that they're proud of,gets their interest more.
(29:53):
And they're certainly more receptive to talking about anything at that point.
Uh, you just have to, I've learned that you just gotta compliment them on what they do.
And I think that's, that's very important.
Just, and, and, and also understand what they do.
There's nothing worse than going into an interview having no clue what your guest does.
(30:16):
And then you're like fumbling and, know, it should come out sound like an idiot.
uh absolutely.
ah Sometimes it's funny, especially I mentor a lot of college students in marketing andjournalism.
And when I tell them I have a podcast, they think that's like the coolest thing ever.
I'm like, I mean, yeah, I guess that's cool.
(30:39):
But like, anybody can do it.
Like, literally anybody can start a podcast.
There are like no qualifications or stipulations.
However, not everybody can do it well.
So I feel like if you'reYou know, if you're a good interviewer, if your uh attention to detail, like the
production element, the sounds good, like that does make a difference.
(31:00):
I think that's the number one thing for most podcast listeners, is that your audio qualityis good.
That's really, really important.
I mean, I've had a couple episodes myself where the audio quality was horrible and Ididn't realize it until after the episode was recorded.
And these guys, what do do?
What do do?
mean, so you just, you just, you just drop it anyway and let, let it, let happen whateverhappens.
(31:25):
And then there are times where you just go, I can't, I mean, I've have.
on occasion recorded a podcast where it was either the either the interview was bad or theaudio quality was so bad that I just I can't release this and then I just would just like
drop it and that's horrible.
I hate doing that because then you can't call the guest back and say, you know, I kind ofscrewed up and we're going to have to record the interview over again and that's that does
(31:52):
not go well.
Yeah, I've come close to that.
I've had a few nightmare episodes, I would call them, the technology and like you said, asyou're recording, you don't realize that things are going wrong until you watch it back
later or listen back later and you're like, oh I don't know how I'm going to fix that.
I don't know if it is fixable.
What I found interesting though, through interviewing people is that you're learningthings that sometimes aren't like well documented.
(32:19):
They're not online.
Like these people, maybe they're a little bit behind the scenes or they're not necessarilya public figure where they've had bios written about them online, or there's lots of
articles or information.
Like you're interviewing somebody and you're like creating a piece of history, really.
Yeah, you know, had recently probably within the last two months, I interviewed agentleman who was one of the first people to ride a motorcycle around the world.
(32:50):
SC Sharma was his name.
in 19 now, Ted Simon did his trip around the world in 73, I believe.
This SC Sharma rode his motorcycle with three other friends around the world in 1972.
ButThe only documented information about that trip was a couple news articles.
(33:13):
So it's like, I went into this interview with very little information except what I readin these articles, but I was still able to build an interview around that and got a lot of
information out of it.
And it ended up turning out to be a pretty good interview, but yeah, stuff like that.
makes podcasting interesting.
(33:36):
And to say the least, you know, you have your good interviews and you have your badinterviews.
Have you ever had a really bad interview?
You don't have to say any names.
Well, I've had some interviews I've been nervous about because they were younger kids,like either kids or teens that were racers.
And I was like, I'm not quite sure how this is going to go.
(33:58):
Um, and I kind of gave them a little like pre-interview prep kind of, you know, thatconfidence boost.
Maybe I even gave them the questions a little bit to like practice their answers, but Istill wasn't sure if they were going to be like too shy, if they were going to be giving
me one word answers or like.
one sentence and then the interview was going to be five minutes.
(34:18):
They have worked out.
So I haven't had any like true nightmare interviews.
Yeah.
Where they're just like super quiet.
I've had people, I think on the flip side, it's harder when people maybe are too talkativeand I can't even like jump in to ask the next question because like for my podcast, I have
kind of a timeline that I like to stay within.
(34:39):
And so sometimespeople will just get going and they're like, they're almost leading the interview more
than I am.
I prefer when I do an interview on I prefer that I have a guest who is willing to justtalk and then I just got to I just got to like, okay, let's go.
Just have fun, you know, I don't care how long they want to talk my longest interview.
(35:03):
Was with Wendy Crockett.
And I can't remember hisco-rider's name, but they rode a book about it.
The interview went on for almost two and a half hours.
So I had no problem with that.
Prior to that, it was Tim James from BDR.
And we talked for just over two hours.
(35:23):
So I had no problem with that because they're, hey, they're fun for me.
I enjoy it.
And I know it's got to be fun for the listeners, but I think worse is the extremely shortinterview.
The one where you have to, it's like pulling teeth.
Yeah, that's a challenge.
Now you don't do you provide I'm interviewing you now.
(35:47):
Do you do you like to provide your guests with questions up front so they know what'scoming or do you just like to just or or do your guests just say I don't care just.
I don't.
So I will do a lot of research and prep my own questions.
And I always throw out the offer to my guests.
If there's things you want to talk about, things you don't want to talk about, like, letme know ahead of the interview, because like we said, maybe some things I'm looking
(36:12):
online, I'm doing my research.
Maybe there's some really cool project that they're working on, but that's not documentedanywhere online for me to even be able to ask them about it.
So maybe they want me to bring that up and then they'll tell me ahead of time.
But a lot of times.
I don't get questions from people or topics even that they want.
It's just me figuring out what to ask them.
ehI used to as a rule I always used to provide the questions in front just so they knew it
(36:33):
was coming but recently probably within the last four or five months or so I've been goinglike you know what don't get the questions when I ask them and it seems to be more fun
that Yeah.
I think sometimes I know for myself, if I get questions ahead of time, can sound toorehearsed because I'm like focused on what I'm going to say.
(37:00):
Whereas like, I need to know the topics that we're going to talk about or what you'regoing to ask me that I'm at.
You know, I have information to provide on that, but if it's, you know, my job, likethat's kind of second nature, I can roll with most any questions that get asked.
Yeah, no, I started doing recently.
uh I can't even maybe the last 10, 10 episodes.
(37:21):
I threw in at the end of when I get to the end of the interview, I hit the guest with 10rapid fire questions.
And that has added a whole new dynamic to the whole interview process, which I reallylike.
I almost feel like I should just do rapid fire questions all the time now.
(37:43):
shot.
It's fun.
It really is.
Because the guest has no idea what's coming.
I want to make sure that we talk about your book too.
So the road most traveled, what made you decide to write a book and kind of give us thebackground or the highlights of this book?
I'm a I don't use the word prolific, but I like to I write in a journal.
(38:09):
I write in a journal every day and I take notes like so.
When I went on this trip, I rode from New Jersey to the Florida Keys and I take notes.
I could only because I took notes only because this way I can put them in my journal andjust think to remember when I'm old and senile and don't know who I am.
So I would take notes.
(38:29):
And then it got to the point where I'm taking them going likethere's a lot of information here.
And I decided like, you know what, let me just write about it.
And what led up to, also, I decided that writing just the story of writing about the tripand what I endured and what I went through is, is, wasn't enough.
(38:49):
also had to lead what I had to lead up to that, you know, uh, repairing the motorcycle.
Cause the bike was, uh, for almost, I guess aboutsix months the bike was down.
It was on a lift because it had an engine issue that I had to fix and I couldn't afford todo it.
(39:10):
So I had to learn how to do it myself.
So I added that to the book I wrote about that.
But I felt the need to because you never hear about so much domestic travel in books youhear about what we took this adventure here you know, right here in this this country that
country in this Okay.
Well, nobody really writes too much about, there are a few books out there, but nobodywrites about that interstate travel they did from point A to point B and what they went
(39:42):
through to get there.
So I thought, Hey, but let's just turn this into a book.
And I'm kind of wordy anyway, so that helped.
But cool.
Yeah.
I'm going to add that to my reading list.
Do you have an audiobook version of that?
Yes, yes, there is an audio book version 14 hours worth.
(40:03):
That was fun to do since I do this anyway, it was easy for me to do.
like when books are narrated by the person that wrote them.
I think that's so cool.
Yeah, absolutely.
So let's tell people where they can follow along with you, your podcast, your book, andeverything that you're working on going forward.
Okay.
The podcast can be heard on iTunes, uh Buzzsprout and pretty much any streaming platformthat's out there.
(40:30):
You can also go to the website, is modemenpc.com and there are links directly to thepodcast uh host, which is Buzzsprout and that's where it's on right now.
uh With regard to the my YouTube channel, which is ride with Ted, justLook up Ride with Ted and basically I just document any trips that I may have done, any
rides I may do, any repairs.
(40:54):
I do some product reviews on there.
I just do it mostly for fun.
With regard to the book, the book is available on Amazon and any other online reseller youcan get books from.
And of course it's available on audibleAnd I will provide all those links in the show notes for easy access for all of our
listeners.
(41:14):
Well, Ted, thank you for joining me and thanks to everybody for tuning into Momentum.
This has been a production of High Gear Success.
If you want to connect to recommend a guest, head to MomentumMotorsportsPodcast.com.
Until next time, keep the momentum rolling.
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