Motos and Friends from the Ultimate Motorcycle

TJ Adams on Kawasaki Z650RS + Freeman Wood tours Europe on BMW K1600GTL

Hello everyone and welcome once again to Ultimate Motorcycling’s weekly podcast, Motos and Friends. My name is Arthur Coldwells.

The new Kawasaki Z650RS is a retro styled middleweight that uses the company’s awesome mid-size 650 parallel twin motor. The 650RS with its emerald green bodywork and gold wheels is a direct homage to the original KZ650 from the 1970s, and it is one of the prettiest motorcycles available today.  Associate Editor Teejay Adams gives me her impressions of the 650RS having ridden it for a week in South Dakota last month. We were there just after the famous Sturgis rally had finished and enjoyed the incredible local roads and stunning scenery of the Black Hills.

In our second segment, Associate Editor Freeman Wood has just returned from his recent touring vacation from Germany and across the Italian Dolomite mountains, riding the new six-cylinder BMW K1600 GTL.

The Dolomites are arguably one of the most perfect locations in the world to try out one of the very best luxury touring motorcycles available today. Freeman chats with me about the two-up ride with his wife, the places they visited, and of course, how the bike handled the whole thing.  

We hope you ride safe, and enjoy this episode!  

Triumph Speed Twin 900 + Laura Craft with TJ Adams

Hello loyal listeners and welcome to Ultimate Motorcycling’s weekly podcast -- Motos and Friends! My name is Arthur Coldwells.

In this week’s episode, firstly Editor Don Williams tells us about his experiences n the new Triumph Speed Twin 900. This retro Triumph ticks all the boxes looks-wise, but with the vertical twin motor putting out very modest horsepower, is it a decent ride—or is it just for posers?  

In our second segment, Associate Editor Teejay Adams chats with Laura Craft. Laura has been riding for about ten years and on a recent visit to California, she and Teejay were able to ride the local mountains around Southern California on their MV Agusta motorcycles. Laura is an excellent rider and I think she really enjoyed herself. For more information on Laura and her friends check out her YouTube channel Mototribe.

So we hope you ride safe, and enjoy this episode!  

Honda Monkey + Kiran Ridley in Ukraine Pt2 with Neale Bayly

Hello everyone and welcome once again to Motos and Friends, the weekly podcast brought to you by Ultimate Motorcycling. My name is Arthur Coldwells.

Motos and Friends is brought to you by the brilliant Yamaha YZF-R7. The highly competitive supersport R7—that is comfortable too!  …is now available in white for 2022. Check out the gorgeous YZF-R7 at your local Yamaha dealer, or of course at YamahaMotorsports.com. 

In this week’s first segment, Editor Don Williams introduces us to the new 2022 Honda Monkey. The Monkey is a smaller sized motorcycle with tons of retro cool. Honda made some big changes to the motor for this year and Don gives us his ideas on whether the Monkey is a viable motorcycle for adults, or just a kids play bike.   

Neale Bayly is back for the second and final segment of Neale Bayly's travel to Ukraine. He recently returned with his friend and award-winning photographer Kiran Ridley and they share their thoughts and feelings of what they saw while riding their BMW GS motorcycles. 

Not everything is bad of course, and Neale and Kiran saw some uplifting and positive sights. However, some of the extremely harrowing things they did see and now talk about in graphic terms, are potentially very distressing.  So please exercise caution if you think you might be upset.

We can only hope and pray that the violence and suffering of the Ukraine people comes to an end soon.

Suzuki GSX-S1000GT + Jack Armstrong and the $50M V-Rod

Motos and Friends is brought to you by the awesome Yamaha YZF-R7. The comfortable supersport R7 is now available in white for 2022. Check out the gorgeous YZF-R7 at your local Yamaha dealer, or of course at YamahaMotorsports.com. 

In this week’s first segment, Senior Editor Nic de Sena gives us his impressions of the new Suzuki GSX-S1000 GT. Suzuki’s new sport-touring machine is clearly a lot more sport than touring, so I’m curious to hear whether Nic thinks the GT without the saddlebags is an improvement over the plus version with bags.

In the second segment we welcome the astonishing artist, Jack Armstrong. His story is as crazy as it gets,  and his zany stories would defy belief if they weren’t true.

Jack made friends with Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat in the new York art and music scene back in the day, and his work has sold for tens of millions of dollars. Yet Jack is also a hard-core motorcycle guy, and part of his journey inspired him to paint the Harley V-Rod—the so-named “Cosmic Starship” worth over 50 million dollars. A motorcycle as an art canvas; interesting idea.

While Armstrong’s art may take you out of your comfort zone, the energy of his work is apparent; they say the more you look at it, the more you become aware of the power behind the strokes and in the laying down of the paint.

The Cosmic Starship will have a different meaning to everyone. If it speaks to you, has made you think, or spurred you to talk about it, then the artist has tapped into your subconscious successfully. Interpret that as you will.

So whether you’re into art or not; whether you’re into the Harley V-Rod or not, Jack’s astonishing energy comes across in his chat. I found him to be a fascinating and very likable man. So sit back, and have some fun with this one.

https://www.themotorcyclebroker.co.uk/the-motorcycle-as-art/

https://starglobalintl.com/jack-armstrong-artist/

 

Yamaha MT-10 + Paul Jayson The Motorcycle Broker

Hello everyone and welcome once again to Motos and Friends, the weekly podcast brought to you by Ultimate Motorcycling. My name is Arthur Coldwells.

Motos and Friends is brought to you by the awesome Yamaha YZF-R7. The R7 is an amazing supersport machine that is comfortable too! Check out the YZF-R7 at your local Yamaha dealer, or of course at YamahaMotorsports.com. 

In this week’s first segment, Senior Editor Nic de Sena goes to the Yamaha MT-10 launch. I have to say, the R1-derived MT-10 is one of my all time favorite street bikes. It’s the perfect balance of instant, usable power, crammed into an agile yet stable chassis. All that is built into an incredibly easy-to-ride package. And I’m not even going to mention it’s ability to wheelie… The latest MT-10 has had some upgrades, so I’m very curious to hear what Nic thinks.

For our second segment this week I chat with Paul Jayson—aka The Motorcycle Broker.  Paul has been restoring, collecting, and selling investment grade motorcycles and cars for several decades, and his knowledge and passion for the art of motorcycling seems pretty much unrivaled.

Paul’s quest for total authenticity and insistence on a breathtaking level of detail is incredible. Actually, one of his restorations—a classic MV Agusta—won recently at Salon Privé.

Paul’s take on how the motorcycle market developed globally, and where it’s going, I found fascinating. You can visit Paul’s website at TheMotorcycleBroker.co.uk.    

From all of here at Ultimate Motorcycling, we hope you enjoy this episode!

BMW G 310 GS + Kiran Ridley with Neale Bayly

Hello everyone and welcome once again to Motos and Friends, the weekly podcast brought to you by Ultimate Motorcycling. My name is Arthur Coldwells.

Motos and Friends is brought to you by Yamaha. You can check out the amazing YZF-R7 at your local Yamaha dealer, or of course at YamahaMotorsports.com.  The YZF-R7 is an amazing supersport machine that is comfortable too!

In this week’s first segment, Editor Don Williams takes the smallest BMW ADV bike on an urban adventure in Los Angeles. The BMW G 310 GS  is a full size motorcycle with a modest engine, so of course we wonder if it is a little too underpowered and might struggle. Don put it through its paces and gives us his take.

In the second segment, Neale Bayly and Kiran Ridley have returned from the Ukraine to Paris where Kiran is based.

Kiran is an award winning photojournalist, and as an accomplished documentarian, he has covered stories as diverse as drug smuggling around the Mexican border, to the devastation of the Australian Bush Fires, to the tragedy of the Mediterranean migration crisis. Neale and Kiran reminisce about their motorcycle adventure in the Ukraine, and their observations and experiences with the incredibly resilient people of Ukraine, who have been put through such brutal hardship.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kiran_ridley/?hl=en

Twitter: https://twitter.com/kiranridley 

BMW K1600GT + Freddie Spencer MotoGP Legend

Hello everyone and welcome once again to the Ultimate Motorcycling podcast—Motos and Friends. My name is Arthur Coldwells.

Motos and Friends is brought to you by the Yamaha YZF-R7—Yamaha’s awesome supersport machine that is as capable on the racetrack as it is on the street. …and it’s comfortable too! Check it out at at your local Yamaha dealer, or of course at YamahaMotorsports.com.

In this week’s first segment, Senior Editor Nic de Sena rides the BMW K 1600 GT. This is the sporty bagger version of BMW’s K series of machines, those are the models with the awesome 6-cylinder engine. The GT has been given a little makeover for 2023, and Nic gives us his take. 

In the second segment, I chat with one of my all time heroes—three-time World Champion racer ‘fast’ Freddie Spencer. I’ll do my best not to come off as too much of a fanboy here, but frankly it’ll be tough!

In my humble opinion, Spencer is a contender for the GOAT—greatest of all time. Sure, his career was a little shorter than some, and his number of championships falls behind the likes of Lawson, Doohan, Rossi, and of course Marquez. But at the time, Freddie literally changed the way motorcycles were ridden. 30 years before Marc Marquez, Freddie was able to push the front wheel into a slide, corner after corner, lap after lap in order to get the bike turned faster than anyone else. Freddie took completely different lines and was able to get on the throttle so early he could out accelerate anyone off a corner.

In the modern era, of course Freddie is the chairman of the FIM MotoGP Stewards panel. This is the panel of referees for all three classes of Grand prix racing. I talked to Freddie about his task there, and although for contractual reasons with Dorna and the FIM he cannot talk about specific riders, teams, or events, nevertheless his explanation of the job makes for interesting listening. It’s a tough job, and frankly I wouldn’t want to do it! 

At any rate, Freddie’s new book ‘Feel’ is available on Amazon—I’d highly recommend you reading it whether you’re a fan of Freddie or not, even whether you’re into racing or not; every rider has something to learn from his mental approach.

Actually—Ultimate Motorcycling is giving away five copies of the book—signed by Freddie himself—to the first five listeners who contact us with the correct answer to the question: How many national AMA championships did Freddie win, and which years were they?

Please email your answers to producer@ultimatemotorcycling.com and we will contact the winners and send you a signed copy of Feel. Those five winners will be announced on a future episode. Unfortunately for legal reasons this offer is ONLY open to US residents.

So, from all of us here at Ultimate Motorcycling, we hope you enjoy this episode!

 

Aprilia RS660 at Laguna + Mike Snyder of Honda

Hello everyone and welcome once again to the Ultimate Motorcycling podcast—Motos and Friends. My name is Arthur Coldwells.

Motos and Friends is brought to you by the Yamaha YZF-R7—the comfortable supersport machine that is as capable on the racetrack as it is on the street. Check it out at at your local Yamaha dealer, or of course at YamahaMotorsports.com.

In this week’s first segment, Senior Editor Nic de Sena finally  gets to ride the Aprilia RS 660 at Laguna Seca no less—pretty much the perfect track environment for Aprilia’s brilliant middleweight sport bike.  However, having said that, everyone acknowledges that the RS660 an awesome motorcycle on the road—but it’s not a supersport machine, so could it be just a little out of its depth on the track?

In the second segment, I chat with another one of my good buddies and riding friends from Honda—Mike Snyder. Mike was in the marketing department at Honda for several years before he retired a couple years ago. His insights into a couple of the models and technologies developed during his tenure are interesting to hear. He’s also quite the rider himself—an ex-club racer who although he’s hung up his racing leathers, he’s now a guy who really enjoys his foreign touring exploits too.   

So, from all of us here at Ultimate Motorcycling, we hope you enjoy this episode!

If you're interested to watch a quick video on the Honda RC213V-S on track, click here

Honda CB500F + Comedian Alonzo Bodden

Hello everyone and welcome to Motos and Friends, a Podcast brought to you by the editorial team at Ultimate Motorcycling. My name is Arthur Coldwells.

Motos and Friends is brought to you by the Yamaha YZF-R7—the comfortable supersport machine. Check it out at at your local Yamaha dealer, or of course at YamahaMotorsports.com.

In this week’s first segment, Editor in Chief Don Williams gives us his impressions of the new Honda CB500F. This middleweight motorcycle with a parallel twin motor, is easy to ride, and all around super user-friendly. Is it too much for a beginner, and equally, the question is, does it have enough to satisfy the more experienced rider? Don gives us his thoughts on whether there’s really a place in Honda’s line-up for the CB500F.    

In the second segment, I chat with one of my good buddies and riding friends—Alonzo Bodden. You may have seen one of Alonzo’s shows as a stand-up comedian; actually he won the final of the competition show, Last Comic Standing.

We watched one of his shows a few weeks ago at the Flappers Comedy Club in Burbank CA, and let me tell you—he was brilliant; side-splitting, laugh out loud funny. His commentary on people and the human condition is absolutely hilarious; I’d recommend everyone to go see him especially if you’re in need of a laugh.

Alonzo is a long-time motorcycle rider, and has owned a large variety of machines. He’s got some real opinions on the various bikes he’s ridden, so I hope you find this section of the podcast as interesting as much as it is funny.  

If you fancy going to see Alonzo’s live show, you can check out his schedule at alonzobodden.com. That’s Alonzo with a Zee, and Bodden spelt with two Ds. You can tell him that Ultimate Motorcycling sent you.

So, from all of us here at the magazine, we hope you enjoy this episode!

MV Agusta F3 RR + Anna Grechishkina from Ukraine with Neale Bayly

Hello everyone and welcome to Motos and Friends, a Podcast brought to you by the editorial team at Ultimate Motorcycling. My name is Arthur Coldwells.

Motos and Friends is brought to you by the Yamaha YZF-R7—the amazing supersport machine that is comfortable too. Check it out at at your local Yamaha dealer, or of course at YamahaMotorsports.com.

In this week’s first segment, Senior Editor Nic de Sena rides the gorgeous new MV Agusta F3 RR on the track, and in the canyons. The MV Agusta is an exotic machine with a rarified price tag—is it art, or does it actually deliver the goods? Hmm… Nic gives us his thoughts.

The second part of this Podcast is brought to you by Editor-at-Large Neale Bayly who is reporting from the Ukraine war zone.

In this segment, Neale introduces us to world motorcycle traveler, Anna Grechishkina. Anna is herself Ukranian, and somewhat naturally, felt the need to curtail her travels and head back to her homeland—and into the war zone—to help with the horrendous humanitarian crisis that has developed.

Please follow Anna on her social media, either Anna Grechishkina on Facebook or @anna_grechishkina on Instagram.

From all of us here at Ultimate Motorcycling, we hope you enjoy this episode!