The Lowdown Show - By ADVrider

On episode 135 of The Lowdown Radio Show, Motorcycle Global’s Michael Uhlarik reports live off the floor at EICMA, the mind-bendingly huge motorcycle industry show held in Milan, Italy. It’s important to understand that for Michael, EICMA is Christmas, the Easter Bunny, his birthday (at least before they began piling up) and his first kiss all rolled into one. You can tell how much it means to him...

The Dealership Dilemma! Your local motorcycle shop is struggling because they don't understand customers Have you ever been in a motorcycle dealership and felt that your head was about to explode? Not from the prices—that’s another conversation—but because the store was jammed to the gills with so many helmets and jackets and bikes and tins of chain lube, that not only couldn’t you find what you w...

On the Lowdown Radio Show episode 133, editor Zac Kurylyk joins Neil Graham for a preview of some of what’s in store at the upcoming EICMA show in Milan. Royal Enfield will be there with a big dirt bike, Harley-Davidson imprint Livewire will reveal the cryptically-named Dust Spur (which makes us think of good old Clint and those wonderful spaghetti westerns), and KTM returns to the show after a fe...

Motorcycle Global’s Michael Uhlarik joins us to talk focus groups. A group of people assembled to opine on anything from snack bars to topless bars to sissy bars. In this particular case, Michael’s client wanted to find out what non-motorcycling citizens under the age of 30 in five American states thought about motorcycling. Why should we care? Well, for one, this was once motorcycling’s main...

This week, dealer guru Mark Sheffield joins the show. Maybe it’s because he’s in the middle of a move, maybe it’s because his cat is driving him mad, but this time around Mark takes off the kid gloves and lays down the facts of dealership life. We ask about tariffs. He says call it what it really is: a tax. (Unbelievably, many people don’t get that.) Then we talk profits. And where they’ve gone. A...

On episode 130 of the Lowdown Radio Show, Motorcycle Global’s Michael Uhlarik talks Honda's greatest hits. You may not own a Honda. You may be indifferent toward Honda. You may even poke pins into a stuffed effigy of a Honda. But it doesn’t change the fact that they are the most important brand in all of motorcycling. You know the old chestnut about rising tides raising all the boats? That’s Honda...

On episode 129 of The Lowdown Radio Show, Neil Graham speaks with a woman who, last year alone, won two world and three US enduro championships. Despite having manufacturer sponsorship and despite a peerless record of success, it’s still necessary for Rachel Gutish to have a part-time job. She’s not sore about it, however, it’s just her reality. And in her 23 years of racing—she just turned 30—she...

On episode 128 of the Lowdown Radio Show, Neil is joined by Trevor Daley. As a former race-winning superbike rider, Trevor never met a hay bale he couldn’t explode, and now he’s moved on to a career as a master motorcycle race fabricator and crew member for leading MotoAmerica superbike teams. Recently Trevor had the opportunity to work on a team at the Classic TT at the Isle of Man, where he rubb...

ADVrider.com managing editor Zac Kurylyk joins Neil this week for a summer summation. Zac talks about getting back on a motorcycle after a serious accident last season, Neil confesses that after years of middling feelings towards the BMW boxer flat twin grudging respect has turned into genuine fondness, and the lads address motorcycle rallies. Zac's been to a few in his time while Neil swears...

Numbers are down at the traditional motorcycle rallies. Way down, depending on who you talk to. And who hasn't had more than enough of fat old men on Harleys blatting about at 25 mph making enough noise to wake the dead? Perhaps it's time to stage a revolution. (Peacefully, of course!) The backbone of the cruiser movement--the baby boomers--are doing their part by dying off, but what are the rest...

On Episode 125 of the Lowdown Radio Show, Motorcycle Global's Michael Uhlarik tells us about the quiet revolution taking place within Yamaha. Unlike certain American motorcycle manufacturers, Yamaha wasn’t bleeding cash or mired in a crisis of confidence. Yamaha makes money. And yet the CEO for the world’s second-largest motorcycle manufacturer envisioned a day when the wellbeing of the company co...

A motorcycle designer and a plastic surgeon walked into a bar in New Orleans. What happened next? A plan to set a world speed record on the salt flats at Bonneville. Ex-Confederate designer JT Nesbitt and LSU-based surgeon Praz Patcha fell into a fast friendship and decided to take a shot at speed record immortality. But nothing comes easy on the salt, as Nesbitt knows. For Patcha, who’d be doing...

On the Lowdown 123, Harrison Withers gives us the skinny on the aftermath of Indian Motorcycle’s Harley attack ads from a few months ago that split the punters into two camps. One side praised Indian’s guns-loaded, America-first agenda while everyone else gagged on the whole affair. According to Withers, both camps missed the story. Did Indian motorcycle lose its mind or is a plan e...

On episode 122 of the Lowdown Radio Show the topic is the star-crossed Damon HyperSport, the motorcycle that promised 200 horsepower, 200 miles-per-hour, and a 200 mile range from its electric propulsion system. 200/200/200. Catchy and easy to remember. And, seemingly, irresistible for investors, who poured tens of millions of dollars into the Vancouver startup. A startup that has now gone bust wi...

On episode 121 of The Lowdown Radio Show Oregonian Brian Price joins Neil to talk all-things riding gear. Price, easily the biggest riding gear nerd we've ever met, has elevated choosing gear for motorcycling to far more than just grabbing a jacket from the closest on the way out the door. At least it should be more than that, according to Price, who has spent much of his professional life—he...

Wonder where all the young riders have gone? Well, the ones in California that aren’t riding electric Surrons and the like are riding ratty old choppers and Triumph Desert Sleds. Episode 120 of The Lowdown Radio Show features Nathanial Ramirez, a young Mexican-American enthusiast whose tasteful films document the west coast scene. Ramirez tells us about his influences—Spaghetti Westerns among them...

Word leaked out this month that the parent company for Cycle World—formerly the magazine and latterly the website—has pulled the plug on the publication. Not so many years ago this would have been unimaginable. At its height, Cycle World had 300,000 subscribers and was the main conduit for OEMs to reach enthusiasts in the most lucrative motorcycle market in the world. And now, seemingly, it’s all...

Some brands of motorcycle--we know who you are--can't stop going on (and on) about their past. Kind of like the neighbor who can't believe a gallon of gas isn't 35 cents anymore. But is clinging to the mythology of past successes healthy for the future of a brand, as marketers would lead you to believe? Or is a backward view unhealthy for both the manufacturer and its true believers. Think of it t...

On The Lowdown Radio Show episode 117 managing editor Zac Kurylyk joins Neil Graham to talk about the ins and outs of motorcycle reviewing. We want to know what matters to you. Do reviews influence your decisions? If so, how and why? What’s important to you? Range? Seat height? Tread depth? And what is it that reviewers always miss? Vibration? Buffeting? Engine sound quality? Or do you just think...

Two things you’re likely to find at a motorcycle event are bad food and bad music--is it really necessary in this short life to hear another cover of Highway to Hell? There’s a man up here in the northeast who’s attempting to change all that. The Moto Craft fest has morphed from a big city event to a country shindig. Think Born Free with fewer choppers and Panheads Forever tattoos. Alex de Cartier...

Do you have 600 cans of chickpeas next to 400 tins of peaches in your bunker? Do you think fuel-injection is a government ploy to plot your every move across the landscape? If you answered yes to either of those questions (or if they gave you reason to pause) then this week's show is unmissable. The two-wheel-drive Rokon is the oddest motorcycle you've never seen in the flesh. And, at 60-plus year...

Indian motorcycle have a new owner and a new CEO and they're gunning for Harley-Davidson. As the cruiser market shrinks, the competition between America's two brands, in the wake of unconfirmed reports of Indian's controversial and inflammatory new initiative, becomes personal. New Harley CEO Artie Starrs is mocked for his pizza and golf past, while Indian boss Mike Kennedy (ex of Harley-Davidson)...

From irrelevance in the mid-'90s to Europe's best-selling brand to near collapse--KTM surfed high on the waves yet nearly succumbed to the troughs. But there's far more to the story than COVID-era overproduction and camshafts with substandard metallurgy. Industry watcher Michael Uhlarik takes us through KTM's backstory with a special emphasis on its unusually intimate relationship with Kiska, the...

Many things in life are perplexing, but none more than this: buy a pack of Sweet Caporal cigarettes from old Mrs. Harrison down at the general store, and she doesn’t charge a separate fee for handing them to you or for having them shipped to her store. And yet, when you buy a motorcycle, the price on the manufacturer’s website isn’t what we pay at a dealership, because it's subject to shipping fee...

Have you noticed the price of fuel lately? Unless you’re living like the Unabomber, of course you have. And since most of you have a motorcycle or two in the shed, that most likely gets far better mileage than your car or truck, the time has come to save a little money and have a little fun. Just yesterday I took a 100-mile round trip to a car dealership for a new coolant reservoir. I stuffed it i...