Hello, boys and girls, and welcome to the Motorcycle Man Podcast. This is Ted, your host. This is episode 423. Thank you very much for joining us again. This is Ted, your host, here in the V2N Cafe. I'm all by myself today, and I'm doing this for a specific reason. As some of you, maybe most of you know, this is our 10th anniversary. That's right, 10 years I've been doing this podcast. And I wanted to just say a few words to you guys and just let you know what's going on.
share my thoughts with you guys, what has been going on with the podcast, a little bit of stuff. I just wanted to talk to you and let you know things. So I started this podcast, actually my first episode, if you've been following along. The first episode of the podcast was actually on March 3rd, 2015. And that was just a real short three-minute episode just to tell you what is planned for the podcast. The first official episode basically only featured myself and my brother Tim, and that was on March 18th.
Basically, today. And it was just us two. And in fact, I even broke that episode into two episodes because it was so long. And it wasn't until the second episode on March 26th when Chris, my brother Chris, finally joined the two of us. So we had the three of us. Since then...
I guess I could say it's been downhill ever since, but I don't know if that's the right way to put it. But it has been a very interesting experience. Now, podcasting in general is a thankless vocation. If this is something you decide to get into, it's thankless in the fact that it's a lot of work and it doesn't reward you monetarily. It doesn't. It really doesn't. Now, that's not to say that there aren't podcasts out there that aren't making money. There are podcasts out there making money. Of course there are. They have...
There's something more to give than what we do, which is obvious, right? Those podcasts are doing well, and God bless them. There's quite a few out there. Just as an example, Motorcycles and Misfits, those guys, Liza and them, they do a great thing, and they're doing well, and I'm sure they have an income. Same thing goes for Phil and the guys over at Cleveland Motor. They're doing very well. I appreciate all the podcasts out there that, you know, even the guys I've had on the show from other podcasts and all that. We all have a different format, and it's very...
taxing at times and every show is different we all sure there's a lot of motorcycle podcasts out there and we're all talking about motorcycles for the most part but our take on the topic of motorcycles is going to be different from podcast to podcast we here at the motorcycle men podcast approach it with a great deal of stupidity and humor all mixed together we do not under any conditions whatsoever take this seriously at all i try to at times but for the most part there is no serious involved not whatsoever the other thing about podcasting uh for those who are thinking about getting into it uh like i said if one is thankless for one is probably one of the things we like to do is you know keep it interesting Our topics have ranged from everything, as you know, from lighthouses to motorcycles. So our listeners will get a little bit of everything. And did it happen that way on purpose? No, no. It happened that way totally, completely by accident and whatever the conversation comes up. And other podcasts are the same way. The conversation will just take on a life of its own. And every episode within the Motorcycle Men Camp does take on a life of its own. I go in with a plan, but that doesn't necessarily mean that that's the way it's going to go. What we have found, what I have found, is that your listeners,
they will become a part of your family. They will become part of your podcast in one way or another because their loyalty is what makes you keep doing it. And that's for me is like the main thing. I keep doing it because we have loyal listeners. I keep doing it also because it's fun for me. I enjoy doing this. I have fun doing this. The podcast has been part of my life now for 10 years. For 10 years, it's been a part of my life.
And in one form or another, I'm always thinking of, OK, how can I do this or how can I share this on the podcast and make it an interesting topic or have fun with the audience with it? There are so many things that I have wanted to do that I just couldn't find a way to bring it to you, the audience. I just there's just no way. And then there were things that I brought to you guys that I thought would have been a great idea that would have been appreciated and ended up being probably the worst thing I could have ever done. You know, case in point, the Jeopardy stuff. Now, while it was fun for us.
here on the show, a lot of people didn't understand it. A lot of people didn't get why I was doing that. The intent with taking that in mind is that everything that I try to do on this podcast is a sort of a motivational thing to get people to think in terms of motorcycles. And what can I do with my motorcycle with this information? This is what the Jeopardy thing was all about.
If you remember, any of the topics that I brought up on the Jeopardy stuff was an opportunity for the rider, the motorcycle enthusiast, to investigate that information. Like, just as an example, with the... with the roadside America, for example, with that stuff. I would tell them, where is this? Where is that? Well, these are things that as a motorcycle enthusiast, at least in my mind, I think, oh, that sounds pretty cool. I wonder where that is. I want to go check that out. The same thing with the Airbnb stuff. The topic was, well, this is a strange Airbnb. Where could this possibly be? Let me look into that. Is this someplace I might want to go? There's things like that I had hoped would spark interest among motorcycle enthusiasts. And again, this was an idea I thought would have worked and it unfortunately didn't.
I tried to do rider rides where this would be an opportunity for a rider like yourself to be a part of the podcast, be on the show, and to tell us about your ride, to tell us about your motorcycles. And oddly enough, I had quite a few people on, but not as much active interest as I thought I would have gotten. I would have imagined that people would like to talk about their motorcycles, would have liked to tell their stories about their bikes. But I didn't get the interest in that, that I thought I would have. So from that, you go, okay, let me move on to the next thing.
I tried the author segments, which I thought were very good, and they seemed to go over, but I learned from my listeners that they had little interest in the author segments. I was like, okay, fine, all right. I know the authors appreciated it, that's for sure. And the things, I thought it was great. I thought it was an opportunity for authors to get their work out there and people have an interest in it, but it didn't work. So, well, I dropped it.
it's a shame too. Uh, geez, at one time I was doing, uh, 50 roads, 50 States back in the beginning where I would outline some routes in particular States. Um, it didn't go over. People had no interest. And I just, it baffled me. Why? Because these are places that people could ride, you know? So again, with podcasting, you, you move on, you move on, you try to find the next thing that somebody would like to listen to or hear about stories or whatever. So I started having guests on the show and that's where I think the podcast kind of developed its own thing. You know, um,
My very first guest I've ever had on the show was Del from Del Boy's Garage over in England. He was my very first guest. You know, I'll say, well, I shouldn't say that. We had a couple friends on the podcast in the very beginning. And I called them guests, so I guess you could say they were not part of the podcast, but they were guests on the show. Nothing notable, just friends, okay? But the first celebrity, I guess, was Del from Del Boy's Garage. And he was on the show for, that was, gosh, when was that? That was...
episode that's way back there uh geez i'm looking around an interview with dell okay that's december 22nd uh 2015 that was nearly an hour and that was a it was great you know and i really enjoyed talking to dell in fact i've had him on the show three or four times since uh really really great a lot of things have happened uh on this podcast i've had a lot of guests since then i've actually lost count uh but i believe i'm somewhere up around Well, the number actually is, I've had guest episodes where at some point a guest appeared on the podcast. So either during our regular episodes and somebody came on the show. So in that case, I've had about 225 guest episodes where I've done interviews. My interviews is around 180, 185 or something like that. And they've varied. Oh my God, there have been some wonderful interviews I've had with people. My favorite ones are the ones, the authors that I have on the show. They're my favorites. But I appreciate every single guest that has been on the show.
Some of my favorites, of course, Larry Marshall from the V-Twin blog has been on the show. He's the one guest that's been on the show the most. He's almost like an unofficial co-host of the show. I should just make him a co-host. That would just be worth it. But Larry's been on the show like seven, eight times. And Z, Z Traveler, she's been on the show.
six times so she's almost there same thing with Larry but I've had a lot of people Alonzo Bowden has been on the show five times already and I could go on and on I've had Graham Field author Graham Field author Sam Manicom geez Nick Adams author Nick Adams up in Canada he's been on the show a bunch of times too I've had him on for practically every book he's written but practically and it's just having these people on is a lot of fun I get to talk to them they get to tell us their stories and it's very entertaining in that respect but what I find interesting is that I've had people tell me that they don't care for the interviews. And it's not that the interviews are bad, but they just don't really want to listen to interviews. They want to hear us guys just BSing. Which guy's like, why? But okay, that's fine. But yeah, the interviews have always been fun for me. It's an opportunity for me to just be one-on-one, serious, but have a nice conversation with a guest. As you know, I had Charlie Borman on the show a couple of years back. And of course, one of my most downloaded...
interview was with Itchy Boots of YouTube fame. That's my number one downloaded episode ever. It just baffles me. But that's it. I'm not going to go through the stats and how far and where people are coming from and all that stuff like that. There's no need because we do that stupid stuff on the regular show anyway. And do I get response from that? Yeah, not really. There's no point. But it's something I like to bring up and just mention just as a point of fun. And that's what everything we try to do on the show is all about. It's just having fun.
And I hope you guys are having fun with us too because we do this because it's fun and really for no other reason. We don't make any money doing this. We make no money at all. Everything that we do on this podcast, everything I do on this podcast comes out of my own pocket. Now, we do have the opportunity for you guys if you want to and people have with the bias of coffee. People have contributed and I super appreciate it. I can't tell you how much I appreciate that. And that's very gracious of all of you who have contributed that you would.
donate your funds to support this stupid show. And I can assure you all of the money that has ever been donated to the show goes directly to supporting the show to pay for our expenses. And the expenses are the website and our monthly hosting fees. That's what all that money goes for. And each time somebody donates money, that's what it goes to. And so there is no profit here. Back in the day. Oh, geez. Many, many years ago.
I'll have to go back and say probably like six or seven years ago, Zero 3D was sponsored the show for six months. And that was a monetary donation right there. Not no donation. They paid to actually advertise with us, which they did. And that money, again, supported the podcast on a monthly basis to pay for everything that I had to pay for. Since then, that was the only time I've ever had advertisers pay to support the show. Everything else has been out of pocket or from listeners. I tried Patreon for a while.
Well, that was a complete waste of time, first of all, because we don't have extra content to share with you guys, right? So it was a waste of time. So I stopped that, and I felt there was no point, right? But the sponsors that we have, we have Surf and Summit Motorcycle Tours. They sponsored us for a little while, and that was mostly a...
a product sponsorship and we also had manscape for a very short time that was just a month or two whatever and they just provided us with product which is fine which is fine and then they liked it to you know not to not use us anymore and that's all the reality of it was because nobody was buying the product because of us so that's and that's fine i totally get that But the sponsors that I have stuck with, and I say I have stuck with, not so much that they have stuck with us, but they have, is, of course, Wild Ass Seats. Craig and Callie and all the folks over there at Wild Ass Seats, they have provided us with product as a form of support for the show. And in turn, I advertise, I promote them on the show, as goes for Scorpion Helmets. Now, Chris Martinez over at Scorpion Helmets has been gracious to the podcast all these years in providing us with gear.
And I love their products. I use Scorpion helmets exclusively, as do the other guys on the podcast. They love their helmets. We all love their helmets. And I advertise them on the show because I believe in their product. So that's why they get the airtime that they do. And of course, I'd be remiss without mentioning, of course, tobacco motorware. Dave Ackerman is just a great guy. And he has been absolutely stellar in supporting this podcast. He has geared up everybody on the show.
And I love their stuff. I love just like everything they do. Like I've said before, if I believe in a product, I will use the product and I will talk about the product. I believe everything that Dave and all the guys at Tobacco Motorware are doing. They produce great work. They produce great products. And, you know, yeah, if you want good stuff, you're going to have to pay for it. And it's good stuff. So I would, I could do nothing but promote them guys forever. But these guys have been supporting the show. Everybody I mentioned, they've been supporting the show for a great number of years. And they will continue to do so.
And I will continue to promote them for as long as they want, because I believe in everything they do. And they've been great to the podcast. And in turn, I will be great to them. And that's that. Also, as you know, we've also been pledging support for some charities that do wonderful work. And I've been meaning to have a couple of them on the show. But most recently, you know, Gold Star Ride Foundation, I had Tony Price on from the Gold Star Ride Foundation, and we talked about what the foundation does. So we support them and provide them with plenty of airtime so that they can get their message across. So if you would like to be a part of, like I say, if you'd like to be a part of a great cause, get some heartfelt miles in, get on over to goldstarride.org and learn how you can donate and participate in one of their rides.
Tony's a great guy. You've heard his story a million times, so it's worthwhile getting into it. Of course, you know guys know of Long Haul Paul. Now, Paul Peelan, he's been all over the place in the States, and he's trying to log that million miles for that cure for diabetes. I had the opportunity to meet Paul at the International Motorcycle Show Show when it was around a number of years ago. And great guy, and he's still going at it, and we've pledged support for him as well. And I'll continue to do so. I don't do as much as I used to, but I'm going to get back to it. I'm just going to start delivering more of that information about chasing the cure.
That's what he's doing. And, of course, I haven't had anybody on from David's Dream and Believe, but I think I need to do that. I need to get somebody on here from David's Dream and Believe Cancer Foundation and get them to tell you about what the foundation is for. Has the foundation received donations because of this podcast? I do not know that, and I couldn't tell you one way or the other. But I think they deserve their support. It's a great cause, and I will continue to promote their foundation for as long as I do this podcast.
With regard to, who else? Well, there's the Stuck Up sticker company. Now, Ian over there, he's been doing all the stickers for the Motorcycle Man podcast for a great number of years. Every time I need stickers, I just call Ian and say, Ian, I need stickers, and he just slaps them together. So you can check them out. They have a website, Stuck Up sticker company, and he's very reasonable in his pricing, and you can get your stickers when you need. So that's good. Aside from that, what else did I want to bring up?
I can't think of anything. We're getting together. Oh, I know what I wanted to mention to you. Mom, motorcycle men mom, she is still in the hospital. Right now, she is, they've got her in acute care right now, and she still hasn't responded. She's basically, she's not in a coma, but she is in somewhat of a deep sleep.
for lack of a better word um she has good days and she has not so good days the good days are where she responds to commands she'll open her eyes uh we even got her to smile once mom smile and she'll smile um they've got the breathing tube out of her mouth and wait they had to do a tracheotomy on her so she's got that there they're moving the feeding tube to her stomach but aside from that no change she's still basically in this deep I don't know, I guess you could call it a sleep state or whatever you want to call it, but she's not in a coma because she moves around. She can move her head, she can move her arms, she can move her legs, but she just won't wake up. So that's where mom's at right now.
So it's been difficult for us over the last four weeks since this happened. And it's been hard for us four guys here to get a day together where we can just get together and do our usual podcast thing. Primarily because Chris is making multiple daily trips to the hospital. Tim and I are also involved in multiple conversations with Chris and people at the hospital to find out what's going on. And Tim and I were even up in New Jersey for a week.
and it was just we were just like away and not in the spirit of podcasting but that will change next week we are actually going the four of us are actually going to get together next week and we're going to do an official 10th anniversary show we're going to go over some things and just you know of course i may reiterate some of the things i mentioned tonight but just wanted you to prepare for that that that's coming that's we're definitely going to do that show it's going to be a live show it's going to be the four of us we're going to be there And I may even, if I can figure it out, I may even do a live YouTube thing or something. We'll see. I'm not really sure. I've never done a live YouTube show. We've tried and failed. We'll see what we can do.
And aside from that, well, that's where we're at. I mean, the show has been just a joy for me to do. It's been a labor of love. And it takes, on average, every episode, it takes me usually up to two and a half, up to three hours to do. It takes me a week or so to put together the show materials that I'm going to talk about or at least attempt to talk about.
um i asked the guys also if they have anything that they want to mention that they want to talk about to to also just you know bring things up and that usually falls on deaf ears and so all the work is left to me but um yeah it's that's just the way it's been for the past 10 years it's that's the way it's been going uh anytime we've ever tried to do some so we've done live events before and uh they're a lot of fun but they are a tremendous amount of work and since i don't have a pa system anymore we just and only that we're now you know because we're in different places but that's been very difficult but Ever since 2020, when the pandemic hit, things have been different, obviously, because, of course, we couldn't get together. But then shortly after, when Tim and I moved down here to North Carolina, now the podcast is completely remote. And I understand that the whole dynamic of the show has now changed. It's completely different. It's not the same as when we're all in the room because you can bounce things off each other. It's a different vibe when you're all in the same space.
Liza and the folks at Motorcycles and Misfits, they're all in the same space and the show has a different dynamic. The same thing with Phil and all the guys at Cleveland Moto. They're all in the same space and they have that personal interaction right there and are able to all bounce ideas and words and comments and everything happens spontaneously. When you're working remotely, as we do now, What is difficult about that is you don't have that personal vibe when you have your co-host sitting right next to you. You don't have that. You just don't have that. You know, we're all in the same space. It's just like it's like being friends, hanging out at the bar or at the barbecue or whatever the case may be. It's just not the same. And what ends up happening is everybody stares at their screens and everybody goes into this, except for me, everybody goes into this. I'm watching TV mode. And many times you have maybe I've heard on the podcast, the other guys, they kind of zone out.
And that just makes more work for me. And sometimes I just want to end it. I just want to end the podcast, that episode. Look, we've been going for 20 minutes and nobody said anything, so I'm just going to end the episode. And I don't want to do that. That's why I want to keep it going. But things are going to change in the future months. And I know I've said that before, but in light of everything that's been happening over the past few months, and this has been going on for a long time, mom's condition has been deteriorating since July.
So, but this has been going on. I keep saying things are going to change and things are going to change, but it's just been very hard for me to implement things when other things are going on. So, but there are some changes going to be coming up. I'm going to be introducing more guest hosts. I'm going to be introducing more people on the show to have topical conversations like I did with Drew, like I did with Larry. And just, I'm going to have other people on the show just to talk motorcycles more often than just the guys, Tim, Chris, and Justin.
We'll see how things go, right? We're moving along. I'm doing the best I can. And how long am I going to do the show? Well...
I often said this, you'll have to pry the microphone out of my cold dead hands on my deathbed. I'm going to do this show as long as I can. I have no reason to stop. I enjoy doing it. I have fun doing it. Even though I know our listenership has decreased dramatically over the years, I am completely aware of that. I know that. And a lot of it has to do with now the fact that we've gone 100% remote. I know that. But that doesn't mean I'm going to stop doing the show. I'm going to still do the show. And I still welcome anybody who wants to come on the show.
to just BS motorcycles or anything for that matter, just contact me. Shoot me an email on the website. Just get over to the contact me page, contact, and let me know. You want to be on the show, talk motorcycles? Come on the show. We'll talk motorcycles. We'll talk anything. I don't care. But yeah, that's where we're at.
so anyway but of course naturally i gotta thank tim and chris for uh being on the plane of course justin tim chris and justin have really given the podcast a crazy life and it's not gonna it's not gonna get any better but maybe we'll see but then some things just won't change and uh oh what else if you want to know just so you know people have asked i have had a couple conversations or questions about the intro music of the um of the podcast the intro music and the closing music of the podcast is a song i wrote and recorded in 2013 on my solo cd that i did and the song is called i ride so what you're hearing is just a portion of the song and at the end of the show you hear that music at the end that is the actual end of the i ride song so you can hear it on spotify believe it or not if you look up theodore john that would be me and the name of the album is uh fly so if you're curious you can hear that um What else I wanted to bring up? I think that's about it. Of course, my book. I'm always going to bring up my book if you're interested. The audio book will be out any day now. Any day, the audio book is going to be available. It's complete. It's finished. I've already submitted it. I'm just waiting for Audible to approve. I don't know what they got to approve, but they just got to approve. I guess it's the quality thing they need to approve. But just waiting on that. Once I have that approval and it's going to go live, you guys will be the first to know.
Just follow the Motorcycle Men Facebook page, because you'll get it there, or on the Instagram page, or even, better yet, the Ride With Ted Instagram page, and, of course, Ride With Ted on the YouTube, right? So, yeah, follow my YouTube channel also, because I have a lot of stupid fun doing that. That's a lot of fun, and I know I am absolutely of no itchy boots or million-dollar bogan quality, but, you know, I have fun doing it, and I just hope you guys can have fun with me. So that is all I got for now, boys and girls. And thank you again. Most of all, before I depart, I want to thank every one of you guys for supporting the show by listening and being part of this stupid 10-year journey that I've been on with the show. I really super appreciate it. This show would not exist if it wasn't for the crazy and just you insane loyal listeners that continue to follow this podcast.
Thank you. I cannot thank you all enough. Really, seriously. I super appreciate your discontinued support listening to the podcast. I can say it a million times and just still not get the point across enough for me. But thank you very much. I appreciate you all.
Thank you for listening to the podcast and thank you for supporting the show. And so again, thank you very much for listening. And you will hear our stupid voices in the next episode coming up in another week. And I'm going to do my best. I promise you I'm going to do my very best to push out a new podcast every week, regardless of what it is. Thank you very much for listening. And remember, boys and girls, this is Ted, your host. We say stupid crap so you don't have to. Ride safe, kids.