Adventure Rider Radio – Motorcycle Podcast

When the front tire starts to lose traction or the bike suddenly feels like it’s about to go down, most riders react with some kind of defensive move that feels instinctively right. But is it? In this Rider Skills episode, Clinton Smout joins Jim Martin to look at what’s really happening in those split-second moments when an adventure motorcycle starts to let go off-road — and why what feels like...

Planning a motorcycle trip? Whether you’re riding close to home or heading off on a long-distance adventure, the right advice can make all the difference. In this episode, we’ve curated the best motorcycle travel tips and adventure riding advice from past conversations—bringing together practical insights from experienced riders who have spent years on the road. Featuring renowned motorcycle adven...

Putting together the right motorcycle toolkit can make all the difference when you’re out riding—especially on an adventure bike, where help isn’t always close by. We talk about how to build an efficient setup, from choosing what actually belongs in your kit to organizing it so it’s easy to use when it matters most. The conversation covers how to prepare for unpredictable issues like flat tires, l...

Mexico is one of the easiest international adventures for riders from the U.S. and Canada—close enough to reach without a major expedition, yet different enough to feel like true travel. From Baja desert tracks to mountain twisties, high country, and coastal roads, the riding is as varied as the culture, food, and landscapes. Spencer Conway has spent the past several years living in Mexico and rid...

There’s a side of motorcycle training almost no one talks about — the mental pressure of learning new skills in front of other riders. Why can training make you feel like you’ve suddenly gotten worse before you get better? Why does confidence sometimes drop even when your skills are improving? Through rider Erik Wilkinson’s experience, along with insights from expert trainer Chris Birch and Monica...

Motorcycles aren’t meant to back up. If they were, they’d all come with reverse. Sometimes, turning around requires a little creativity—especially on dead-end trails, in parking lots, on hills, or even in your garage. In this episode of RIDER SKILLS , we have Clinton Smout walking us through a number of turnaround methods. Some you might expect, while others may raise your eyebrows—but all of them...

On a mountain road on Colorado’s Guanella Pass , motorcyclist Adam Lamb spots a moose stepping out of the brush. Two seconds later, he’s airborne, both arms broken and stranded off the road without cell service. Just behind him is Roger Matthews —a board-certified physician and search-and-rescue volunteer—who arrives and immediately begins managing the scene. In this episode, Adam recounts the mom...

Nasiru Ibrahim — an architect from Nigeria and a new adventure rider — sets out on his first true motorcycle journey with a simple idea: ride his Yamaha Ténéré to the Ténéré Desert. It’s an ambitious first trip, fueled by equal parts curiosity and confidence. Heading north through regions where the language and culture feel familiar, he anticipates the usual challenges — long distances, fatigue, b...

Motorcycles have evolved, and with that evolution comes more electronics — including CAN bus systems that many riders still misunderstand. If you’ve ever seen a mysterious warning light or struggled with adding accessories like auxiliary lights, you’ve probably heard CAN bus blamed. In this episode, we break down what CAN bus actually is, why it’s not the enemy of customization, and how modern sys...

What happens when two seasoned overland riders trade full-size adventure bikes for 50cc, 50-year-old two-strokes? German engineers Bea Höbenreich and Helmut Koch set out to prove that real motorcycle adventure isn’t about horsepower or gear—it’s about mindset. From Australia’s punishing outback to Cape York’s legendary Old Telegraph Track, they battled bike drownings, deep sand, brutal creek cross...

There’s something about being on a motorcycle that just feels right — in ways that are hard to explain, but easy to recognize. Not long ago on the show, cognitive scientist Mark Changizi , author of Motorcycle Mind , talked about how riding a motorcycle is unlike anything else we do, because the physics involved mean the bike responds directly to your body — your balance, your inputs, your movemen...

Adventure riding has a strange relationship with risk. We prepare, carry tools, research routes, ride with friends, and do everything we can to stack the odds in our favour on adventure motorcycle rides. But every now and then, something appears that wasn’t on the map or in the plan, and it shows up faster than we can process it. In those moments, the problem isn’t just the obstacle itself, but wh...

Gravel riding makes many motorcycle riders uneasy — not because the bike is out of control, but because it doesn’t behave the way pavement has trained us to expect. The front wanders, the bars move, braking distances grow, and the instinct is to hold on tight and slow down — usually making things worse. On this episode of Rider Skills , we break gravel riding down into four clear lessons : how to...

In 2003, Bryan Jones and his wife, Max, joined a guided motorcycle tour through Cambodia , expecting a challenging but well-run adventure motorcycle trip through jungles, villages, and remote roads. What they got instead was something very different — aging bikes, a guide who kept disappearing, and a journey that quickly became unpredictable. 🔗 Show Notes & Links: Find photos, links, and reso...

In December 2019, Lisa and Simon Thomas left their motorcycles and gear in the United States, planning to return after a short trip home to the UK. More than six years later, those bikes are still there — and their lives have gone in a very different direction. This episode lives in the space between what was planned and what actually happened. We talk about building a life around long-term travel...

Cody Weber and a small group of experienced motorcycle riders set out on a planned day ride near Green River, Utah , traveling through canyon country, dry riverbeds, and remote desert terrain. The ride appeared well prepared: riders who knew each other, a route that seemed manageable, and time taken beforehand to organize motorcycles, gear, supplies, and navigation. What unfolded next isn’t unusua...

In Kevin Staples’ mind, there was always a point where the trip would end. He didn’t expect to get through. The goal wasn’t success — it was simply to go far enough to say he’d tried. To ride up to the wall, touch it, and be told to turn back. So he kept doing exactly that. Showing up. Asking the question. Taking one more step, fully expecting it to be the last. That isn’t how it played out. By th...

For many motorcycle riders, this time of year isn’t about motion or miles—it’s about reflection. About looking back at where we’ve been, the choices we made along the way, and what still lies ahead. The road doesn’t always demand constant movement. Sometimes, the most important moments happen when things go quiet—when we take stock, reconnect, and remember why we ride in the first place. Wherever...

Slow-speed skills matter — especially on heavy adventure motorcycles. But if that’s where your training stops, there are real situations where it starts working against you. Because sometimes control doesn’t come from crawling — it comes from the right momentum at the right time. Clinton Smout from SMART Performance Centre joins us to talk about what happens when the trail gets rough and the bike...

Riding a motorcycle through Laos pushes both nerve and skill—potholes big enough to swallow a car, sudden water crossings, deep mud, and even the possibility of an elephant stepping onto the trail. A team from Rally for Rangers , led by Steve Zuschin , recently tackled these extreme conditions as they crossed Laos to deliver new motorcycles to frontline Rangers. The ride blended rugged, technical...

Fogging is something most motorcycle riders just put up with — cracking the visor, wiping it, trying to manage it on the fly. But it’s more than an annoyance; it’s a visibility problem, and visibility is safety. What many motorcycle riders don’t realize is that there are real solutions, not myths or quick roadside fixes, but tools and technologies that actually work when you plan ahead. In this ep...

On this episode of DEEP TROUBLE … two motorcyclists head to mid-Wales for a weekend of trail riding on the historic Strata Florida. It’s November, it’s wet, and Strata Florida is known for its water crossings. The plan is simple — get out, ride the lanes, and finally tick this legendary trail off the list. But as you’ll hear, conditions in the Welsh hills can change fast… and what starts as a stra...

In 2022, long-distance riders Wendy Crockett and Ian McPhee set out to break a Guinness World Record for the longest motorcycle journey completed in a single country. Their plan: ride to all 50 U.S. state capitals in alphabetical order, linking them into a continuous route. It sounded simple on paper, but almost nothing went the way they expected. Mechanical failures, illness, a cracked frame, a v...

This Rider Skills episode is a practical guide to roadside motorcycle tire repair for adventure and dual-sport riders . Instructor Clinton Smout shares hard-earned methods for plugging tubeless tires, patching or replacing inner tubes, breaking and seating beads without a shop, quick leak-finding, bent-rim workarounds, and true limp-home repairs. We compare compressor vs CO₂, talk what to pack (pl...

Some riders are planners, while others seem to thrive amid chaos. Israel Gillette fits into that second group. He grew up in Tennessee, working in his father’s cabinet shop, and somehow that evolved into a life that has taken him between Romania, racing, carpentry, and motorcycle riding across continents. When we featured him on the show in 2023, he’d already experienced his share of close calls —...