The Moto Edition Podcast

MIKE JONES, (aka Mad Mike) from the Yamaha Racing Team, gives us his insights from Round 2 of the 2024 Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK) held at the Sydney Motorsport Park circuit. For more information about Mike, visit the website and his social media accounts: https://mikejonesracing.com/ https://www.facebook.com/mikejonesracingfanpage https://www.instagram.com/mikejonesracing Mike’s spon...

BRAD SMITH is CEO of Braaap Motorcycles and the brains behind the growth of the brand. In this episode we talked with Brad about the big changes they’ve made with the brand. We discussed their expansion into a bike leasing / subscription model, the inevitable change in how they manage logistics, brand perception, and the challenges of the business they are in. Now 19 years into doing this work, Br...

MIKE JONES, (aka Mad Mike) from the Yamaha Racing Team, gives us his insights from round 1 of the 2024 Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK) held at the amazing Phillip Island GP Circuit, along with first round of the 2024 World Superbike Chamnpionship (WSBK). For more information about Mike and his sponsors, visit the website and his social media accounts: https://mikejonesracing.com/   h...

AARON ROGERS is a professional ride coach with the Australian branch of the California Superbike School. In this episode we explored his background, motivation and pathway into the famous riding school. He and his wife own the 'Island Thai’ restaurant at Cowes on Phillip Island so he lives close to one of the best race tracks in the world - the Phillip Island GP Circuit. We have a strong suspicion...

MARC CHAPPELL is 8 years old and a motorcycle racer. Yep, he’s out there in New Zealand competing and now well and truly into his journey of learning how to ride motorcycles fast on tarmac.   For this episode we took the opportunity to chat with Marc and his very cool dad, Neil (aka Chappy), about his journey so far and what’s in store for Marc on his pathway to becoming a motorcycle racer. T...

MIKE JONES (aka Mad Mike) is a professional motorcycle racer with a long history of success both here in Australia and in Europe. At the time of recording he had won three ASBK championships and is working hard to win that elusive fourth. He has achieved what few have in riding multiple times as a wild card entry in the MotoGP championship.  He has raced exrtensively in Europe and in spite of...

ANDREW SMART (aka Smarty) is an avid track motorcyclist and racer, and unbeknown to many people was a professional golfer. He is also the founder of the Ricondi brand and businesses here in Australia. The purpose of this chat was to find out the story of how Ricondi came about, how the brand has grown here in Oz, and whats in store for the future of the business. We did find out that activiti...

ADRIAN HASTWELL-BATTEN (aka AyDee) is one of the owners of the Australasian branch of the California Superbike School (CSS) based here in Sydney.   In this episode we talked about what’s happening at CSS in 2024 - i.e. new tracks on the calendar, new sponsors, bikes, tyres etc - and the usual wander off into other stuff related to motorcycling. For more information about the California S...

The Manton Park race track was opened in 2023. Located just outside Townsville, up in the far north of Queensland, this project has been a long time coming and a major step in providing proper track facilitaties for the folk up there. In this episode Jorge talks about his recent experience riding that track on a BMW S1000RR. The track might still be considered to be 'green' having only been used a...

What’s better, leather or denim as motorcycle wear? Truth is it depends on what you are going to be doing when you wear them, what the quality of that leather and denim is, how much money you have, and a heap of other factors. In this podcast we look at both products, found out some of the advances that have been made in the past decade, and obtained some information directly from the experts .. A...

Adam Raffe is our guest on this episode. Adam has attained the highest level of qualification with the California Superbike School, a significant achievement in the world of motorcycling. As such he is the most senior coach in the Australasian branch of the school, and one of the most talented motorcycle coaches on the planet.   Recorded during a weekend break between schools, we took the opp...

What value is there for a sports bike / Superbike rider to practice on a dirt bike? This podcast explores some of the reasons beyond just getting used to a bike sliding; reasons that most people are totally unaware of. It will help us understand why some of the fastest and most successful racers in the world have a flat track racing back ground (Kenny Roberts, Casey Stoner etc), or they practice f...

What is the most powerful motorcycle in the world today? I always want to know which bike is the fastest and most powerful, typical of the average bike junkie I guess. So I did some research and decided I would rank bikes based on Power to Weight ratio (i.e. horsepower / wet weight). Agree or disagree, it doesn't matter. I found the results quite interesting as you might. I also found out that the...

Aidan Clarke  is our guest on this episode. Aidan is the founder of SA1NT, a clothing company based in Melbourne, Australia. In this episode he tells the story of how the company came about, and what its focus is in the world of motorcycle rider safety. What prompted this conversation was our recognition that the SA1NT Moto products are quite unique, incredibly fashionable, super high quality...

Brad Smith - Brad is founder and CEO of Braaap Motorcycles. His entrepreneurial spirit was revealed at a young age when he started Braaap from a backyard shed in his early teens. He imported his first 10 motorcycles at 16, and then lost all his money. Most people would have given up, but not this guy. He saved his money, then travelled overseas where he met with manufacturers face to face, with th...

Adrian Hastwell-Batten - Adrian is first and foremost a motorcycle enthusiast and track riding coach. He is also an owner of the Asia Pacific branch of the California Superbike School located here in Australia. Now after two years of forced mothballing because of the isolations and border crossing issues of the COVID19 pandemic, the Superbike school is back up and running and alive and well. So th...

Al Samuels - Al is owner and operator of Race Dynamics in Sydney, Australia. Race Dynamics is a company that provides complete rider support services ranging from building and tuning bikes, supplying the best race proven performance parts to fitting, tuning and maintaining suspension. They also provide full race meeting and ride day support with training. George had the privilege of spending two d...

Mitch Paynter - In 2019, Mitch won the Queensland Superbike title and was rider of the year at the motorcycle club that operates out at the Morgan Park racetrack in Warwick, Queensland. His story is one of a focused commitment to motorcycle racing and seeking to be the best rider he could possibly be in a fun but often brutal sport. In 2020 Mitch’s goals expanded to racing in the Australian Superb...

Steve Brouggy - well known for his long involvement in the motorcycle world as a racer, ride day organiser and the man who originally brought Keith Code's California Superbike School to Australia. George chatted here with Steve who is one of the highest qualified and capable ride coaches in the world today. They discussed the “simplicity” of good motorcycle riding, how Steve got fast himself, and...

Ash Hare - previously one of the owners / directors of the California Superbike School in the Asia Pacific region, and still one of their senior track coaches. George capitalised on the lockdown in NZ in 2021 to grab Ash so he could chat with him and ask him questions about all things motorcycle riding. Ash is one of those track riders / motorcycle racers who is also an active street rider who enj...

Harry Khouri  is a motorcycle racer, he’s an Aussie, and he’s very fast!   He debuted in the Australian Superbike Championship racing in the 300cc class in 2017 at the age of 13. A graduate of the California Superbike School here in Australia, he showed tremendous potential so ventured into the international arena in 2019. In 2021 he moved up to world level racing and completed his rooki...

Mark McGregor  is the owner and operator of Addicted to Track - a company that provides a Logistics and Service Experience for Motorcycle Track Riding Enthusiasts who want to ride their own bike here in Australia or overseas at cool motorcycle tracks. George and Mark spoke about more than just the business. Mark is a super experienced rider who can really punt a bike around a track. George to...

Stephanie Redman  is a talented rider for sure. But her real talent and passion lies in coaching motorcycle racers, particularly the younger riders. In this episode, which we recorded in 2021, she talks to George about a range of topics including coaching in Europe, good old COVID19, getting into motorcycling and European junior riding compared to that in Australia. Plus there's a heap of tip...