The Lowdown Show - By ADVrider

Motorcycling was shocked by KTM's worsening financial news, and saddened by the passing of racing legends Malcolm Smith and "Motorcycle Mary" McGee. This week, podcast host Neil Graham and ADVrider managing editor Zac Kurylyk discuss the big news and the cultural shifts (would you ever ride a Chinese motorcycle?) that we see in the world of moto. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.f...

Doug Wothke isn’t your typical globetrotter. From his home in LA ("Lower Alabama” he says with a chuckle), Wothke, better known around these parts as rtwdoug, has ridden an oddball assortment of antique motorcycles to the far corners of the earth. Ever wondered what to do if your 1940s Indian shreds a transmission while you’re half-way across Russia? Talk to Wothke, he’s been there. Learn more abo...

From the balls-out Confederate to the ornate and unexpected Curtiss EV, designer JT Nesbitt strikes out on his own to make the ultimate American motorcycle—the Magnolia 4. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lois Pryce is a low-key rebel. She bailed on her record label gig in her 20s and hit the road. And hasn’t looked back. From Alaska to points south, through snow and deserts, to a romp through Iran—and all done by her lonesome. But what makes her different is her acutely observed writing. And then there’s the banjo… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's the most wonderful time of the year for motorcyclists. This week, in Milan, Italy, the EICMA motorcycle show ran, with manufacturers from around the world showing off their new bikes. Podcast host Neil Graham and guests Zac Kurylyk (ADVrider managing editor) and Michael Uhlarik (veteran motorcycle designer) all have some thoughts on the show's good, bad and ugly machines. Learn more about you...

Bike shows are dying. And bike shows are thriving. Thor and Tori Drake of Portland’s The One Motorcycle Show give The Lowdown the lowdown on making a bike show succeed amid the ashes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ryan Egusquiza from Bend, Oregon’s Giant Loop is our guest this week and we talk hard cases (not head cases) vs. soft bags and the art of leaving LA. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A half-dozen years ago flat track racing was having the most unusual resurgence. The most American—and the most cultish—of all motorcycle sport had superstars like Marc Marquez and Valentino Rossi under its spell. But then something happened. The grids shrunk, the riders began to feud with management, and the spectators stayed away. This week Cory Texter, a former champion in the sport and a long-...

As the 2024 riding season winds down, Neil and ADVrider managing editor Zac Kurylyk meet up to talk about the different bikes they rode this summer (new and old), including Zac's time on the new Royal Enfield Himalyan 450. He thinks it's stiff competition for the KLR650 and DR650. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Who built the first ADV bike? Was it the BMW R80 G/S, or was there another dual sport/travel bike hybrid before that machine? This week, designer/industry insider Michael Uhlarik returns to The Lowdown Podcast to talk about another brand that has a solid claim to the title of first to the ADV segment. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Motorcycling’s most happening man. Paul d’Orleans is a historian, curator, author, and founder of The Vintagent, the go-to for motorcycle culture online. He’s also funny, shrewd, a keen lover of all things obscure, and a natty dresser.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From building choppers in the decadent 1990s to amassing more than a million kilometres in the past 15 years, Paul Stewart doesn’t hang about. But Stewart’s more than just about hammering his way across continents. For his latest expedition, he pottered across America on a Honda 125 retracing the steps of a man who, 120 years ago, headed into the wilds on a bicycle with a clip-on motor as the very...

Eric Hougen has a lifetime in the ADV riding aftermarket scene, founding Wolfman Luggage from nothing and equipping thousands of riders for adventures around the world. Today, he talks with host Neil Graham about the challenges of the business and what he's up to now, with his new Threadworks project. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the early 2000s, Royal Enfield was a niche company, an India-based oddity building crude bikes that were basically unchanged since the mid-20th century. Now, they're a fully up-to-date manufacturer, with ABS, traction control and other modern electronics, and they have a wide range of products from cruisers to retros to scramblers to adventure bikes. How did they make this all happen? Mark Well...

Neil sits down with special guest Scott Acheson from the US BMW Challenge Team ahead of his trip to Namibia. Can he and a group of other ADV-ers bring GS Challenge Gold Back to America? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Bear, based in Australia, has been a valued forum member on ADVrider for a long, long time, and is one of the site's most valued contributors. He's been working for motorcycle magazines since 1978, and has a lifetime of adventure on machines ranging from a World War II-era Harley-Davidson WLA to BMW adventure bikes and everything in between. Tune in to hear his experiences from decades of adve...

The Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum houses the world's biggest motorcycle collection, as well as a roadracing track that's built to an aesthetic standard you won't find anywhere else in North America. Oh yes, and a vintage motorcycle festival that's a must-visit event every fall. Still not convinced to make the trip to Birmingham, Alabama to take in the museum? By the end of this week's episode...

Eva Rupert is a motelier, an overland adventurer, a Baja devotee, and a woman who once, while naked, cut the head off a boa constrictor and ate it—the body, not the head. At least we don't think she ate the head. She’s chock full of advice about riding in Mexico and the American West, and offers candid views on adventure riding’s "awkward teenage phase."  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit me...

Cynical about coffee shops that align themselves with motorcycling? Jim Vandekas’s Flying Squirrel Motorcycle is a café with a difference. They host OEM test days, they built the Moto Craft custom bike show, and they’ve only just begun. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you think the Dos Equis spokesman is the most interesting man in the world, you’re wrong. That honor goes to ADVRider.com founder Chris MacAskill. From a hardscrabble childhood to Stanford to a career as a geophysicist to working with Steve Jobs to his own little family run startup that he sold for a cool $100 million, Chris is one of us and yet not one of us. Learn more about your ad choices....

From Brittany to Milwaukee: French engineer Chloe Lerin has followed an unusual career path. Rebuked by KTM and BMW, she elected to stay in America after school, working for Cummins diesel and John Deere before landing at her current gig developing powertrains for Harley-Davidson. A racing enthusiast, Lerin also works with Harley’s entry in King of the Baggers, the madcap racing series where India...

When the Cold War ended, schoolteacher Austin Vince and his friends rode around the world on Suzuki DR350s, and did something nobody had done before: They made an adventure movie about their trip, called Mondo Enduro. Millions saw their film and its follow-ups, and thousands were inspired to start their own ADV riding careers. Yet, it was an uphill battle to even get their film on television, as i...

Sarah Schilke is the ultimate motorcycle industry insider, with a career that had stops at various gearmakers as well as BMW Motorrad. On top of that, she's one of the people behind Women Riders Now, one of the longest-running female-focused motorcycle websites out there. Oh yes, and she loves riding dual sport bikes! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This summer, The Bikeriders plays in theaters across North America, sharing the story of a fictional motorcycle club that's based in reality. The storyline and even much of the filmography is inspired by Danny Lyon's classic photo book of the same name. But is it really an honest look at motorcycle culture? Neil Graham and ADVrider managing editor Zac Kurylyk discuss their thoughts on the film. Le...

The Lowdown Podcast returns, with host Neil Graham once again dialing up industry insider Michael Uhlarik to discuss the world of motorcycling. But this time, while some listeners might think this is inside baseball, Neil's got a few sliders and knuckleballs to pitch at Michael to keep him on his toes. Neil is challenging the industry's claim that EVs are going to be the great replacement for our...