Transcript:
Brian Vickery (00:01.646)
Okay.
Ammon Arave (00:01.743)
All right. Hey Brian. So tell me about Enduro or adventure biking. What is the correct, what's the better term for it? Enduro biking, Enduro motorcycling, adventure vice.
Brian Vickery (00:10.83)
I'm doing a little bit of both. So the adventure riding is on a bigger bike and we ride on the road to where we're going. Then we also mix in dirt and some light Enduro. Whereas, you know, Enduro riding is more just take the dirt bike out on the back of the truck, bring it to some trails and go ride some hard stuff. So I've been doing a lot of both.
Ammon Arave (00:36.142)
okay, do you have a preference for them?
Brian Vickery (00:38.317)
I'm slowly doing less adventure riding and more enduro riding just because Ultimately With the group that I ride with we on the adventure bikes. We end up trying to ride the enduro trails anyway And when you do that on a big adventure bike, especially here in Texas It gets hot quick if you drop your bike you're picking up a 400 pound bike so you instantly
Ammon Arave (00:55.758)
Mmmmm
Ammon Arave (01:03.726)
you
Brian Vickery (01:08.653)
get overheated especially in the summertime so on a little bike picking that up you know it's around 200 pounds not quite as bad you can drop it 10 -12 times and you're still doing okay versus the adventure bike you drop it twice and you're kind of toast
Ammon Arave (01:22.222)
Yeah.
Ammon Arave (01:26.862)
Yeah, dude, that's, I mean, double. Yeah, that's a lot for sure. So what would be like the basic overall definition for someone who knows nothing about either? How would you define it or describe it somebody?
Brian Vickery (01:39.084)
Sure, so yeah adventure riding is more for those that want to like really pack up and go on an adventure really. You know the motorcycles are bigger dual sports capable of doing highway riding. You can pack up your tent, your gear and go on a couple day ride. So you ride out to a trail system, ride on the trail system, camp, keep going.
or you can do day rides that are similar to that, which is tons of fun versus, you know, yeah, sorry, go ahead.
Ammon Arave (02:16.784)
No, no, I was just gonna say, so also, so that would be like on roads as well. So, right, like, I mean, that's the thing is like you go on trails, you go on roads, it doesn't matter.
Brian Vickery (02:24.106)
Yeah, basically from my door, go out on the highway on the twisty two -lane roads out in central Texas, find some dirt, play on that for a while and kind of loop back. So yeah, those kind of runs can be pretty fun. You know, sometimes stay in a hotel, sometimes stay in a tent and find interesting places to visit and eat good food along the way. So, yeah.
Ammon Arave (02:37.423)
Seems awesome.
Ammon Arave (02:49.905)
Sounds amazing. Honestly, it does.
Brian Vickery (02:53.642)
Yeah, so the adventure riding can be a lot of fun. But, you know, playing in the dirt is also really fun for me. You know, the group I ride with, we like like the Woodsy Trail type off -road, not like motocross track. Just like, you know, what you think of as like a mountain biking or hiking trail. We go and ride on stuff like that.
Ammon Arave (03:02.928)
Yeah.
Ammon Arave (03:20.593)
So it's almost like single track, like it would be like single track writing or, you know, like, so they're narrow then, but it's not like a wide. Okay.
Brian Vickery (03:26.826)
It is, yeah.
Exactly, yeah, so we try to find single track. There's a few places here, pay to play, places that have both, you know, wider roads for like ATVs and the bigger side by sides, but they also have single track, which is what we prefer to play around on.
Ammon Arave (03:50.833)
Yeah, so most, I mean the thing is in Texas most of the land is private. So how, most of these places are like places you have to pay to get into or are they, are they, is there open land that you can also go on that's a, that you know of?
Brian Vickery (04:03.209)
a lot of the places are pay to play or membership places. there's one that's about an hour north of here, C tour central Texas off road or something like that. That's motorcycles only. And so it's just a bunch of single track. and it's like a yearly membership, but then there's, there's a few places around that are not exact. They're not private property, but they're.
not exactly public land either. They're just lands that were starting to be developed into a neighborhood, for example, and then now, so now there's roads, which are technically public roads, but they're just not kept up and dirt and kind of falling into disrepair, but they're fun to ride on a motorcycle. So eventually if they resume development, those will go away, but there's some areas that have that kind of stuff. And then within those areas, a lot of
Ammon Arave (04:50.354)
Brian Vickery (05:00.615)
The couple that I know about also have some sections of single track that people have built into the land, which is... That's kind of skirt and private property, but you know, it's corporate. It's not like some guy's private property that you're driving on, you're gonna get shot or prosecuted. It's some corporation that bought it to build out into a neighborhood and then stopped. So, you know... Yeah, so in theory that...
Ammon Arave (05:11.122)
Yeah.
Ammon Arave (05:15.153)
Right.
Ammon Arave (05:22.737)
Okay, so developments, yeah, okay, yeah, that makes sense.
Brian Vickery (05:27.366)
It could be stuff that goes away or you get kicked out of in the future, but for right now there's a couple of places like that that we can still ride on now and again.
Ammon Arave (05:36.178)
Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. So where was the first time that you encountered this, this, you know, this area and like, what, what drew your attention to it? Like, how did that come about?
Brian Vickery (05:46.502)
in terms of writing period or?
Ammon Arave (05:48.338)
Yeah, just yeah, totally. Was there something that connected you initially to one of these groups or like what?
Brian Vickery (05:54.918)
Yeah, absolutely. So, I mean, it started, if I look back into my childhood, I rode motorcycles. My dad had bought one that we had for a very brief time. It was probably around, somewhere around the age of eight to 12, we had a dirt bike. And then I've not had anything since then. So I've kind of always loved it and enjoyed it. And then more recently, I guess it's been about three or four.
Ammon Arave (06:12.306)
Okay.
Brian Vickery (06:24.07)
It was either 2019 or 2020, so I guess it's been almost four years. Our mutual friend Dave was, bought a motorcycle, an ADV bike and started riding a lot. And I saw his posts on Instagram and elsewhere and just kind of had the FOMO wanting to get out and join. So, you know, I kind of worked my way up to...
Ammon Arave (06:42.514)
Ha ha ha ha. Yeah. Yeah.
Brian Vickery (06:49.414)
saving some money and getting a bike and just started riding with him and that's how I got connected to the group and we just slowly started riding harder and harder stuff and now we've all bought a second small bike to go with our big ADV bikes and you know pretty much ride every weekend.
Ammon Arave (07:03.922)
All right. Okay, that's what I was gonna ask. Like how frequently are you doing it? Every weekend almost, that's cool. Yeah.
Brian Vickery (07:09.51)
Yeah, every weekend and there's guys that ride multiple times a week who have various work schedules. So they'll ride like Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday. So you pretty much, if you have a day off, you can find someone to ride with. It's been pretty cool.
Ammon Arave (07:20.434)
Bye.
Ammon Arave (07:26.771)
That is cool. Yeah, that's way cool. So what is the main thing that you would say you enjoy about the process of being out writing? What's some of the stuff that stands out?
Brian Vickery (07:40.486)
I would say in general what drew me to riding motorcycle and like the love of it is it's a fantastic way to disconnect like it if you're on a big ADV bike out on twisty Texas roads You can't like you physically can't be thinking about or being worried about other things going on in your life because you're worried about what's right in front of you So it it focuses all your effort and brainpower on one thing
and makes everything shut out. So it just, I feel like it's kind of a reset. It gives you a relief from any stresses that you have going on in life. Cause you cannot, you literally can't think about them while you're trying to ride. Cause either, you know, you're worried about other cars hitting you or if you're doing the Enduro stuff, there's so many turns, bumps, trees that you have to watch out for. Yeah.
Ammon Arave (08:13.491)
you
Ammon Arave (08:24.915)
So fair.
Ammon Arave (08:33.459)
Yeah, like complexity of trail, right? Like it's not just like riding down a road, it's hard. That is such an interesting thought. I've never, I mean, I've done very little motorcycle riding, but the little I have and dirt biking or whatever, I've never thought about it in those terms that you just described, but I feel like that is a really like dialed way to describe that. You are so present, right? You're just like hyper present because you have to be. And therefore you dismiss all those other thoughts. That's such a good point. I love that.
Brian Vickery (08:38.694)
Exactly.
Ammon Arave (09:03.027)
What is, so going forward, like what are you, anything's coming up in that space that you're excited about? I mean, events or specific trips or anything you're looking forward to?
Brian Vickery (09:12.673)
Our group actually does a couple of yearly trips to different places that are pretty cool. One of the ones that a couple of the guys have done several times is a trip down to Mexico on the adventure bikes. So they trailer them to the Texas -Mexico border and then ride motorcycles across and do a bunch of dirt trails and stuff up in the mountains in Mexico.
Those trips look amazing and I haven't I haven't been able to join one yet, but that's kind of on my bucket list
Ammon Arave (09:47.571)
Yeah, how long, I mean, how long do those last when you get take back?
Brian Vickery (09:50.177)
They're usually doing, you know, five days or so.
Ammon Arave (09:53.683)
Okay, and how far are you gonna go on a trip like that? Like how many miles are you tracking typically on the bike?
Brian Vickery (09:58.113)
I guess it depends on the complexity of the roads because some of them are, you know, switchbacks going up a steep mountain pass and those they're not going nearly as fast but in general when we're on like a traveling trip like we've done some here in Texas Hill Country I've done some in Arkansas with the group and we usually try to ride somewhere around 200 miles a day
Ammon Arave (10:26.739)
Okay, man, that seems like a fair amount. I don't I don't know how that compares to anything, but that seems like a fair amount to be right in a day. So dude
Brian Vickery (10:33.665)
Yeah, it's a lot. If you end up doing dirt, it can be less because I guess for example, the difference between that like an Enduro day, you know, on an Enduro bike, maybe you'll do 30 miles, maybe 40 total. So if you're doing ADV with some Enduro style in between, it's going to cut your mileage down.
Ammon Arave (10:41.235)
yeah.
Ammon Arave (10:52.725)
It's totally, yeah, just like much more technical writing, right? Like, so it's taking much more time and effort where you're just cruising on a road. Yeah, that makes total sense. No, that makes total sense. All right, and this is a weird one because you are, you know, co -founding this with me, but what is your experience with Naked Belt, with your Naked Belt?
Brian Vickery (11:02.177)
Yeah.
Brian Vickery (11:12.638)
Yeah, man. I mean, as far as the naked belt goes, I've been part of the reason why I wanted to jump in is because I just love the idea behind it. And then actually, when I got to use it, I've just been blown away by the comfort of it. I am, you know, being a bigger guy, haven't been a fan of belts my entire life. I, you know, I wore them when I had to for like, you know, wearing formal attire for work or things like that. But other than that, I will not wear one. But now with the naked belt,
I can wear it and I wear it with like the comfort waist pants and I can't even tell that it's there most of the time. Went on a trip recently for work and it was just an awesome experience trying to travel and go through, you know, go through security, never have to worry about taking off or putting on a belt. And just at the end of the day, when you go to take your pants off, you go, yeah, I'm wearing a belt and you don't even feel like it. So I just love that aspect of it.
Ammon Arave (12:08.053)
Yeah, right on. That's great, man. cool. Hey, well, thanks, Brian. That was cool. I learned a lot about enduro and adventure biking that I did not know. So I appreciate you taking the time, man. All right, man. Thanks.
Brian Vickery (12:21.757)
Absolutely. Thanks.