Roy Merritt 0:00
Let’s see. You want to listen to the intro. Let’s do it.

Once again, it’s time to open your ears and expand your mind. Or maybe it’s still your mind. Either way, I think these boys have something to say. So I gotta grab a girl we’re gonna have some to give you our point of view here on talking breath.

I love the riff

it works. So yeah, I thought about this episode. And these boys have something to say and besides man, I probably should change that. Well, you can just add girls. Well, yeah, no, that’s what I was gonna do just crudely be like, go over top of it. But, you know, still like to jam. I like to let it play for a minute. Welcome back to talking crap.

Mike VO 1:07
I’m glad you’re still

Roy Merritt 1:07
episode seven. If we don’t screw this up episode seven. Really

Mike VO 1:13
well, I’ve got my eye on the button.

Roy Merritt 1:15
Yeah, you got your eye on the button. We are rolling. We should get all it tonight hopefully. Tonight the topic is women writers and we have some women with us today. So hopefully people are listening on Instagram to a couple of co workers as well. Tracy and Amy, Mike’s back with us tonight. I’m a one writer. Yes, I’m a woman writer too. But that’s a whole different thing. Yeah, so, you know. When you get into the power sports industry and talking about stuff, women writers are up and coming and a huge growing market. For the most part, power sports and motorcycles in general have been a real male dominated industry. So marketing to women is new to the industry as well. And done properly works well and done improperly can implode pretty quickly. We like to do introductions a little bit. So, Tracy, you’ve been riding for a few years.

Tracey Wooten 2:19
Something like that. Yeah. What what what got you into writing in the first place? Well, simply my dad gave me his motorcycle as a one percenter.

40 years my whole life and

just not to be such a Debbie Downer, but on his deathbed gave me his motorcycle and had a tree growing through it wasn’t really my thing. Yeah. But when I finally got it fixed, the first time I read a home, I got it. Completely got it. totally understood. Got it all got the bug. I got the bug. I understood him. I understood what it’s all about instantly. Yeah. And that’s the end literally End of my story, I was 100%

Mike VO 3:03
What is it all about?

Unknown Speaker 3:05
it to me it’s all about, like, I don’t know, we all have one every single person that comes in here has one common interest and has motorcycles. Whether it’s you know, of course we’re all Harley people, but we are all motorcycle enthusiasts to so any motorcycle we’re all interested what do you got? What do you want? You know know where else can you do that? You know you can’t work anywhere else where we’ll all run outside and look at someone’s motorcycle that drives up you gotta see this oh my god, like who does that anywhere in Toyota or hell, you can add a restaurant nowhere. People don’t gather for a one piece of Central interest. And, and then there’s, it just keeps going with racing with, with clothes with toys. I mean, jeez, you could talk all night about all the things yeah.

Roy Merritt 4:00
It’s addictive. So Amy Yes, right. How long you’ve been writing?

Amy Hughes 4:05
I’m a relatively new writer. Okay.

Couple years not even that long okay. I actually I have a different story coming into bikes then Tracy I honestly I’ve been on the back of my husband’s bike for years and I decided I wanted to learn how to ride just in case anything was ever to happen to him that I could still get us home okay and that was honestly my motivation cuz I was happy on the back and then I took the class and going back never go back home never literally never going back

Yeah, picked up a heritage and it’s been amazing ever since.

Roy Merritt 4:45
Yeah, I mean that that’s usually we we’ve talked about it in earlier episode. You know what gave you the bug, you know? And I think once you get it, you’re kind of stuck. There’s there’s no going back after that. So as women do you feel like Any manufacturers have actually marketed to women properly yet?

Amy Hughes 5:06
I think there’s been a great effort. I don’t like to wear pink I don’t like to wear purple I want to get on my bike and I, my first priority is not how I look. And I think a lot of manufacturers, their marketing more towards the aesthetic side of my writing, and that’s not it. That’s not it for me. What about you?

Yeah, no, it’s more. It’s writing. It’s the fit of the bike, the lower bikes, the ones that sit more comfortably that you can sit in, not on, and you can, you know, feel comfortable on. And there there are bikes that do, but I think it was accidental. I don’t think that they were marketing to women.

Roy Merritt 5:46
Yeah. Yeah, I mean, you know, you don’t see I mean, although for the most part, you know, motorcycles are probably considered unisex, but like we said, it’s kind of been a male driven industry for so long. I don’t think Anybody knows how to do that properly and how to let women who’ve never read written before say, Hey man, you can, you know, you can hop on this thing and have a lot of fun even though you’ve never done it before, you know, and I think that’s where the industry is trying to go with the stage six and hitting the kids and everybody else and sooner or later they’re going to wake up and go, Oh, hey, this is a work for women to you know, we can try to get women that don’t ride into the sport, you know, because that’s where we’re falling short is you know, passing it on to the next generation. You know, you know, you know, a lot of the writers out there don’t have kids. You start writing young enough you will have kids you know, it is what it is the like I said, the industry is kind of driven by all of that and and with women I think there’s there in the last 10 years I’ve seen more women writers and i think i’ve ever seen you know they’re they’re coming on strong and and you know, marketing I think Harley’s pretty good at marketing when it comes to like motor clothes and stuff like you were saying for like the aesthetics of it, but I still have never really seen a lot of commercials with like women riders that are like, you know, we ride Heritage’s this and that because you know they’re like you said they’re they’re easier to sit they said have a good seat height and stuff like that I don’t think I’ve ever really seen a manufacturer on anything. truly have a you know, fully female commercial, you know where it’s like hey this fits girls I think I think they’re too afraid of guys being like oh, it’s a chip bike i’m not buying.

Mike VO 7:32
Like, like the persona of the Sportster?

Roy Merritt 7:36
Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, and people are like, Oh, that’s a first bike. I’m like, it’s not really a first bike man. You know, you can buy a verse bike and if you can make it through that you can ride pretty much anything. But

Mike VO 7:47
that’s a mistake that people that people commonly make is though, market the sports steer towards their their wife. But people don’t realize that the Sportster sits taller It’s more aggressive. It’s a more aggressive stance. I mean, it’s

Tracey Wooten 8:03
top heavy.

Mike VO 8:04
Yes. It’s like a track bike.

Roy Merritt 8:06
Well here you know, like Amy said she got hurt it hurt. It’s like yeah, real low center of gravity well balanced bikes, most of the time crash cars and stuff like that. So when you’re learning new rolls over, you pick it back up, you keep going, you know,

Amy Hughes 8:20
does everything comfortably it’s amazing balls bike. It is.

Roy Merritt 8:24
Well, you know, the soft tail was a home run. I mean, that’s the reason we still have a soft tail. There was some models of the soft tail that maybe didn’t work so well. You know. I thought the dish would live forever. Yeah. You know, everybody hates on the deuce but I’m a tall dude. And to be honest with you the deuce was made for like tall dudes. It was made for like guys my size that can stretch out a little bit. It was kind of narrow. It was okay in the turns. It was a little long. That was the only thing that killed it. I think it was a little long.

Unknown Speaker 8:58
It was the

Mike VO 9:01
It’s It’s It’s model number is ethics STD yeah Yeah, yeah. Right in the model.

Roy Merritt 9:12
Yeah, you gotta work

Mike VO 9:16
and then when they realize that it’s a very select people that go for those, they were like well that’s not a broad enough market but we have 50,000 gas tanks so let’s make this other by the rocker, the same guy

Roy Merritt 9:30
and it was even worse that that rear fender like mounted to the fleet armor whatever it was down there was just so weird. People just couldn’t handle it. Well

Unknown Speaker 9:41
you can’t you can’t satisfy me

Roy Merritt 9:43
what’s really funny though, how much do you think a rocker looks like the new FX Drs. Not at all. But the design of the bike if you were to like just sketch them on paper. I bet you the lines of a rocker and the lines of an FX FX Whatever the fuck I said DRS fairly similar because if you think about it the sit the seat sits the same the fenders mounted down below, but nobody’s really like hated on the FX Drs. Like they did the I mean it’s way better look and don’t get me wrong

Mike VO 10:13
yeah you haven’t seen a rocker in a while

Roy Merritt 10:19
no I haven’t. Yeah it’s been a while since I’ve seen a rocker those things when you see him well they they had like wrinkle gray powder coated swing arms and all kinds of weird shit they did on those things that you know, they didn’t do on anything else so

Mike VO 10:32
well it was right when the white tire craze was hitting and they were trying to I think they were trying to capitalize on that and still maintain all their all their EPA and safety protocol all at the same time and it just didn’t work. They need to you know, speaking of those mics that don’t work. What about that Honda the fury? Yeah, I mean, that’s an ugly ass motorcycle.

Roy Merritt 10:57
You know, I didn’t hate that bike. days are They had a guy trade one in my last dealership had had like four paint sets with it he had like every color paint set with it. I think they were like, covers maybe or something I don’t remember but he had I think was three different paint sets he had for it. And he also traded in like a CVR 1000 rr and like all this stuff but yeah,

Unknown Speaker 11:20
like I don’t need any of these

Roy Merritt 11:22
10 years to buy all these now they’re worth about half as much as

Mike VO 11:27
me and all of them combined is worth a down payment on a used car.

Roy Merritt 11:34
He did have some cool shit though. He built he built a couple cool bikes. He had a soft tail and he had a bagger and he was like pretty short dude. But he did motor builds and slammed them and you know took care of him. They were nice bikes, you know he he was a plumber. So he would just work work work for a couple months and then come back in like I want to do this this and this money.

Mike VO 11:53
Yeah. Yeah. When you guys ride is it intimidating to ride with like packs, not for me, big groups. No not at all.

Amy Hughes 12:01
actually enjoy it. I really do.

I feel a lot safer in a pack than I do out by myself on the road a lot of times too.

Roy Merritt 12:11
I don’t always feel the same way depends on who I’m riding with.

Amy Hughes 12:15
Well, obviously

Roy Merritt 12:17
I’ve written in like the blah blah blah rides where there’s five or 600 bikes and been like I will never do this again. You know, I wrote in one in Orlando that they’d like shut down I for some five 600 bucks I don’t remember some ridiculous it was a lot they didn’t three groups add to because you just couldn’t all do it once. And I wrote next to the couple that had the fucking big furry shit over their seats and the fucking furry ass helmets and the horns. And like all of that shit. You’ve seen these people everybody’s fucking see.

Amy Hughes 12:53
And I fucking kid you not cover for a lot of different bikes

Roy Merritt 12:59
for mine Okay, it’s it’s called the state of fuck away from me. Because I’m telling you, like the woman was struggling with her bike, like handling it. And the man was struggling with his bike because he was too busy preoccupied with what she was doing on her bike and yelling at her as we were riding, and like they’re fucking all over the road into each other. And I, we pulled to the first stop, and I was like, jumped out of my group and over into another group, and they’re like, what a guy was like, there’s no fucking way I’m riding with those people anymore. Like it’s not gonna happen, you know? But then again, oh, we get a beer wench tonight. I got one here. So I don’t know if they know the rules. I don’t know.

Unknown Speaker 13:43
Oh, oh,

Roy Merritt 13:45
yes. That’s so for the people at home that aren’t watching.

Mike VO 13:49
We get a little nervous.

Amy Hughes 13:51
never sounded that good. Until right now. Yeah. That’s amazing.

Roy Merritt 13:55
Yeah. So you got it. When you crack one open, you gotta do it near the mic.

Unknown Speaker 14:00
There you go.

Tracey Wooten 14:04
Well, that was fun.

Roy Merritt 14:07
So if you were going to market to other women writers, what would be your suggestions if you will, like, what do you what do you think they’re doing wrong right now? Or what would you do differently?

Unknown Speaker 14:21
And my I came from Panama City Beach dealership, and we had a all women’s rally one year, and, of course, we had brainstorming sessions, and we’re trying to think of what to do, and it just didn’t work because I think women, you know, they want to ride together, they still want to bring their husbands you know, they still they want to ride their own, but they they want to be with him too. It’s not like we we could get them to go down for a week at the beach.

Roy Merritt 14:51
Well, I think it works the same way with men. You know, you got single men, you got men with their wives at 1am on the back and then you got them in with the websites.

Unknown Speaker 15:00
You know, it was all women oriented. And it was just like, what do you think it was? You couldn’t think of what we we just want to ride? I mean, we don’t want all you know, I don’t know. It’s

Mike VO 15:10
so you don’t want to be singled out, you know,

Unknown Speaker 15:13
it’s like, oh

Unknown Speaker 15:14
look the women’s group.

Unknown Speaker 15:16
Yeah, they tried to like scavenger hunts and stuff. We just really want to drink beer. See boobies just like everybody. Like we don’t

Roy Merritt 15:23
get together. Everybody likes boobs. Everybody likes everybody. We

Unknown Speaker 15:27
just really want to do scavenger hunts. We just it’s really hard to. I mean, I’m glad I didn’t have to plan it because I wouldn’t know what what do you do for a bunch of women?

Roy Merritt 15:38
How much would you have to pay someone to take the job that says, I want you to increase sales of Harley Davidson to women over the next year by 200%? You know what, there is no way we would take that job. There’s no way. I mean,

Unknown Speaker 15:53
well, actually somebody took that job and has somebody,

Unknown Speaker 15:57
somebody in all those manufacturers has a job of

Roy Merritt 16:00
So I tell women you know, you know me I’m big on the electric bikes last episodes, electric bikes got the kid one. I’m like super hot on these things. And I, I do a lot on LinkedIn. And it’s it’s kind of more of a professional social media. I don’t like all the BS on like, you know, Facebook and all that. So I tend to lean towards Instagram for fun and LinkedIn for serious stuff. And a guy popped up today that just took over marketing for E bikes. He bicycles at Harley Davidson and I know we were talking at the company meeting just recently that they’re doing a lot of revamping when it comes to marketing and things like that. And Harley right now there’s a lot of changes going on and stuff and I saw that job popped up and I was like, you need to get these things in production because I want to ride one next to my kid on his iron. He’s 16 and I really do, I would pay whatever it is, you know, I don’t care just to be able to ride with my kid on Harley’s while you Four or five? it, you know, it’s a bucket list thing, you know, and I mean, at least I can say I checked off early, you know? But yeah, and I think I think, if Harley does what it looks like they’re trying to do and what they say they’re trying to do. They’re really going to change the way you know, the market is kind of approached with manufacturers. You know, when when we were up there, and Milwaukee there, you go through the museum, and I’m horrible with my memory. So it’s like back in the 60s or 50s. somewhere around there. They started making these little like 50 cc bikes and stuff. It was kind of before their marshy era mochi, whatever it was, but they had little scooters and stuff. And they said that the little bikes took up like 40% of their sales. And then they got away from that. And it’s been years they made a little bike and I’m like, Man, I’m standing in your museum. It looks to me like maybe the answers right? Right in front of you, you know that getting some entry level bike stuff that you people would not normally buy a Harley for. Maybe you know a scooter who the Who would think of buying a scooter, a Harley scooter nobody. But I bet if you made him people would buy this shit out of other not

Amy Hughes 18:15
intimidating and that kind of goes back full circle to the women’s situation. The marketing to us a lot of times I think women are intimidated, they’re they’re either overly aggressive with it or they’re not aggressive enough they haven’t found that sweet spot in the middle but things like that they’re not intimidating those scooters a little bikes. So they sell to the people

Unknown Speaker 18:32
that need a man’s life.

Roy Merritt 18:37
The sound of the sounded like my life, I know that it’s either not enough or just you know too much. Or there’s really no answer in the middle there. And I always joke and say the reason that nobody can figure out what women want is because as soon as they figure it out, they want something else. Okay. So it you know, yeah, yeah, you know, it is what it is. You can chase that dragon all you want, but as soon as you catch it, it’s gone. Again, you know You might get it for a split second, but it changed to too late. You’re too late.

Unknown Speaker 19:05
I think the biggest, like, the biggest thing is other women talking about it. Yeah. When when they come in all we talk, we’re so excited over. When are you taking the course, is I’m so stoked, but you can’t make a non non interested person interested or, you know what I mean? Yeah,

Roy Merritt 19:24
I don’t think it can convert a non believer to Yeah, I mean, you know, we got a lot of hard work.

Unknown Speaker 19:29
We work with some people that, you know, just, it’s just not their thing. You know what I mean? And then there’s others that when it is their thing, we’re so excited that they’re here. But it’s just I don’t even know how to go out there. I would I’m glad I don’t have to do it like yet. Because how do you?

Roy Merritt 19:47
Well, that’s what keeps Harley with a vast majority of the market share for on road bikes. Is that community and dealerships that actually have cool people in you know, Every city’s got one or two that are good, you know really good, like you go into, they’re going to be nice people, they’re going to take care of you. If there’s 10 in the deal, you know, in the area, there’s a good chance five of them are not worth going into, unless you want a T shirt or a poker chip. You know, that’s been in my travels even off of my bike, you know, you go into and you see it and the dealerships that have people that are working hard and take their jobs seriously, like you said, when when women come in and Hey, man, you know, when you going to take the class and, and being involved, that is what separates Harley Davidson from every other manufacturer without question is the dealers if every dealer was like us, if you will, in basically being you know, employing all riders and people that are really enthusiastic about the industry, which is something we are blessed with everybody is pretty enthusiastic. There are places that that is not the case or places that people The only reason they work there is to get a job, you know, and and they have no interest in writing. Oh yeah, there’s Go you know, they have no interest in writing or or anything like that they’re just in there for a job and those people will never do, what riders will do in the same position. It’s different, you know, when you walk in and I tell people this all the time because I rode metric bikes for years, that’s does what sets us apart, go walk into a Honda shop, start talking to people. You know, you’re going to get bored pretty quick and walk out, you know, when it’s all said and done. You know, if there’s always character in our early shop, I don’t care which one you’re in. There’s, there’s somebody in there that’s, you know, and going to be interesting. Yeah. customers, employees, mainly customers, you know, we get some very interesting customers.

Amy Hughes 21:40
We do have a colorful, colorful bunch of people look

Tracey Wooten 21:44
at us. Oh, yeah,

Roy Merritt 21:45
yeah, but that’s what you know, that’s what makes it fun. That’s what makes our jobs fun. You know, we, we get to get input that Harley never gets for one. You know that that ground level input when you’re pulling people in front surveys and whatever else as soon as they know what’s going on, you’re getting skewed information. I don’t care what anybody says, There’s polls, all that shit does not work. Because as soon as you know you’re being pulled or whatever it is, you’re skewed. Wow. I mean, I was watching

Mike VO 22:16
or listening to the comedian or something. I can’t remember who it was. But he was talking about polls. And he said that the biggest reason that polls polls are bullshit is because anyone that’s actually functioning in life, as soon as you tell them to take a poll, they say fuck off. Yeah, that’s right. And then they know they won’t take the poll. So the information you get from polls to begin with is just people that have no perspective on life itself. Yeah. So you’re not going to get actual, like, like, look at the polls. Whenever there’s a governmental race. One day, this guy’s winning by 10 points the next day, this guy’s winning by 17. Then this guy’s winning by 14 than this guy’s winning. Do you really think that every single time they take a poll, people trade complete random people are just like, know this guy. And then they take the poll getting this guy

Roy Merritt 23:07
and then you go to like Portland, go to Portland, if you’ve been to Portland Yeah, it’s like a lot like Asheville. You’ve been to Asheville, North Carolina, okay. They’re like hippie towns in the middle of like country town. It’s really weird, you know, but yeah, do most people are they’re pretty stone, you know, it’s just the way it is. That’s why they have dreadlocks and a guitar on their back. And these are the people that get pulled and I bet you if you pulled him three times, it would give you three different answers. I don’t mean if there was only two answers,

Mike VO 23:35
I don’t think I ever I don’t I don’t know if I’ve ever even been asked to take a poll.

Roy Merritt 23:40
I know I would like you said I wouldn’t. You guys know I don’t have time for that every

Amy Hughes 23:48
time I talked to sprint customer service that asked.

Better thing so this week, we learned belts are for pants and poles.

Mike VO 24:00
Aren’t there different? I mean, every time somebody buys something here and they leave and we get their information, Harley sends them a survey. And you know, we’re told, well, you need to tell them that hey, give me all 10s because if it’s not, if it’s not a 10 It’s a zero. So we immediately tell them skew your information for us because it otherwise we look like shit. So and that happens everywhere. Yeah, but I’m talking about like, has get the Gallup organization ever contacted you ever in your life?

Unknown Speaker 24:30
No.

Mike VO 24:32
No, you Nope. No, you know me. Woody Have you ever been contacted by Gallup to do a poll like a real legitimate poll you have imagine you probably have

Roy Merritt 24:43
yeah yeah. What he does love the polls.

He does love the polls, but

Mike VO 24:51
you know, that’s one of the issues because the information is skewed. Yeah, to begin with. I hundred percent agree and and i think in my observation To a lot of a lot of women are intimidated, because you’re, you’re you’re basically playing in what’s traditionally been a male sport. Yeah. So you’re treated as such, right? I mean, like so. There’s There’s 45 motorcycles lined up at a bar. There’s a bunch of guys sitting out there drinking, drinking beer and you pull up, they all stop, and they watch to wait for you to crash while you’re parking.

Unknown Speaker 25:27
I’m

Unknown Speaker 25:30
guilty of that.

Amy Hughes 25:32
I mean, are they waiting? Are they hoping? For sure.

Unknown Speaker 25:36
I am guilty of it too. When especially when they pull up on baggers. I’m like, Oh, I’m like, why am I doing that to my group, my people, but I’m the same way I just assumed

Unknown Speaker 25:49
because you’re pretty sure it’s going to happen. So here we go. And your information is skewed because Gina how many you know how many guys I watch and I’m like, that guy’s gonna cry. Yeah at any moment that guy’s gonna crash and I don’t care what I was doing I’m gonna wait until he does I’m gonna watch and then I’m gonna laugh because I don’t even care if he gets hurt I got surprised he

Roy Merritt 26:08
got surprised Oh my favorite one at bike tuber fest and these two I mean man had to be in his 70s hundred and 50 pounds maybe okay little dude riding this bag or old lady on the back she wasn’t very big either. They were you know, pretty leather skinned and looked fairly you know, weathered and yeah it looked like they were fine so it was totally out of left field when they pull up next to us it by October fest out it was in the dirt We are the cabbage patch or something and just pulled up both of them sitting on the bike and they just went boom down no nothing. They didn’t move. They just fell with the bike. It was the funniest thing I’d ever seen. I was like, oh my god you did like they did not even move flinch. No arms out. No, nothing. Just bam. And that was like Wow, you guys are really drunk.

Mike VO 27:01
Well, you know, we often build like big motors for people, and then we’ll interview them, they pick it up, I had to specifically tell them to start parking the bikes so that they’re pointed at the road. Because these guys, they would get on these built bikes, and they would go to turn it in the parking lot. And I mean, I was like, they’re going to crash into all the all the US bikes are gonna just crash this thing. So I mean, it’s not it’s not women or men. It’s just people in general. Oh, yeah. I mean, I think that especially in the Harley world. We kind of eat ourselves alive. And it sucks. Yeah, because nobody wants a new bike, but everybody wants a new bike. They want Harley to come out with something different to compete with, with the the foreign markets. As soon as Harley comes out with something different. I can’t believe you’re doing that. I can’t believe you’re coming out liquid cooled engine. Harley’s done, it’s over. I can’t believe you would stray so far away from your roots. But you’ve been in the polls, saying this What you think we should do? Yeah, then we should be more competitive with with the other markets and then as soon as they come up with something The Live Wire everybody who’s never written one yeah, that is like this traditional well shovel hand is a best engine earlier came out where they never they never did should offer the shovel head. It doesn’t matter. They’re not women because women didn’t really you know the women back then in the 70s would kick the shit out of all of us.

Roy Merritt 28:27
Yeah so and they’d be happy to hop on something I didn’t have to kick start good ride the shit out. Yeah

Unknown Speaker 28:34
yeah

Roy Merritt 28:40
they’re out there I’ll putting real miles on you know. I love the pictures and I know you guys have seen him of like, even back in like the 30s and 40s we get a pack of women riding and it’s like, it’s fucking awesome man. I love that shit, you know? And it’s not even just because they’re women. Even men in the same pictures are cool. You You know, I’m all about you know, so you talked about the all women, you know, events and how they’re kind of weird if you will. And I think that is kind of stems from a mentality that we’re getting away from which kind of sucks but I feel like my generation had a really well which is more of the that we are all in this together It is all equal, you know, it doesn’t matter if you’re black or white or whatever, you know what I mean? Like the color doesn’t matter, gender shouldn’t matter. We should all be able to do things together and party and have a good time. You know, for some reason the last 10 years or whatever, we don’t have to get on that that that that mentality has turned away from that into back to almost a segregation mentality words well if you don’t do this, you know, you need to change your you need to go well, I don’t know where this change but I feel like it started you know, many years ago and has come to almost an end at a point but you know, I’ve always preached that things like that are The reason that we still have sexism The reason we still have racism and things like that are because doing good or bad because of somebody’s gender or color or whatever it is, is still racism, whether it’s good or bad. I mean, yeah, you can have good racism, you can have bad races, can you really have good racism? No.

Mike VO 30:20
It’s racism, racism,

Roy Merritt 30:22
whatever, even gender ism, whatever you want to call it, you know, you have to get rid of the good to get rid of the bad. And it’s the same thought process when people were like, you got to get rid of the guns and nobody, no, well, there is a reason behind that. No, it won’t work, but you’ll never get rid of the guns if you don’t get rid of something first. So you will never get rid of sexism and things like that until you stop doing

Tracey Wooten 30:47
all women sexist things.

Roy Merritt 30:49
Yeah, you know, and it is such a touchy subject because people get very offended by that. And it’s not supposed to be offensive is supposed to be something that we all accept as a group in That we don’t separate ourselves and do things differently because of our color, gender or whatever. I

Mike VO 31:05
don’t think that they should get added. I think I think, I think very small fringe groups on both sides of the subject get offended, and they get really, really vocal. And they include every loud Oh, no acting like I just don’t think I don’t think the majority of women really get offended if you say we’re going to have an all women’s writing club. I think that there might be like, in within the invites of that club, maybe there’s two, and they say that’s sexist. You guys are bullshit. You’re setting us apart. And I speak for everyone. And that’s, that’s just not true. I think it’s that way in a lot of these not not even not just in that but you know, you’re right. But the unfortunate thing is, I think that the masses just really want to get along and they don’t

Roy Merritt 31:54
Well, the here’s the thing. I know the last few years we’ve been getting on you know hounded by the media, but how racist Everyone is. And I’ve lived in some outlying areas. I live in the city now, you know, I mean, like eight miles from downtown Nashville, you know, I’m pretty much in the city when it’s all said and done. It’s kind of suburban ish, but it’s still in the city. I always tell people in your everyday life, how much racism do you actually see? Because what I see in Nashville and a lot of people have the wrong idea about Nashville, even my wife who’s you know, pretty dark skin, and Indian. She worried you know, moving from Florida going to Tennessee to Nashville, she’s like, Am I going to be okay? There’s hardly any white people around where, you know, it’s people from it’s really interesting. And I actually I love it. I will take Uber’s downtown or Lyft or whatever. And I’m always like, Hey, man, where are you from? Because it’s somewhere else who’s Becca, Stan and fucking Iraq and all kinds of crazy shit. And I see people get very hesitant, especially when they’re from the Middle East about Oh god, there’s a white guy in the back of my car. I’m about to tell him, I’m from Afghanistan. What’s he gonna say? And I’m always like, Man, that’s fucking cool, man. You know, I live in America for a reason, because it’s fucking awesome. You know? So if you can make it over here legally and you know, do your thing, I’m all for it. That’s really good. My wife didn’t legally you know, lots of people do it legally. That’s no, no true American would ever have a problem with legal immigration ever. It’s totally against being an American in general, to be against legal immigration. illegal immigration. You’ll get fucking killed for in other countries. You know what I’m saying? Like there are countries that if you fucking go in that country without telling people and they catch you, you’re dead done, and their story a little higher. And because we don’t let ours vote and dumb shit, we’re assholes. You know? How the fuck does that work? You know, like we veered off top. I know we did. We did. We did severely.

Mike VO 33:55
Yeah. Not a patriot unless you’re a woman writer.

Roy Merritt 33:57
Yeah, but no, it just comes back to that mentality. of we all are in this kind of together and it shouldn’t matter black or white or whatever. Hardly doesn’t doesn’t discriminate, you know so and motorcycles don’t discriminate highly

Amy Hughes 34:11
motorcycles do not discriminate, but I don’t know about you, Tracy, but I haven’t done that. Try to check me on a pretty regular basis. Yeah.

Roy Merritt 34:19
You’re really good one the other day was it OQ It’s so you dressed like you look

Amy Hughes 34:23
like you ride a motorcycle because you work.

Roy Merritt 34:27
Yeah, that’s what I do. Who was it? My wife that gave the response or my mom, it was your mother. It was my mother. My mother’s like, Oh, it’s cute. You think I don’t ride? Yeah. And I was like, Damn, that was the combat.

Amy Hughes 34:41
me all the time the silly things. Really pretty direct. Do you ride? Well, yeah.

Tracey Wooten 34:46
And what do you ride in there?

Amy Hughes 34:48
Good. And then pointed questions about what I ride. Do I know how big my motor is? Do I know what my pipes are tires? Exactly. I know you don’t meet a guy and do the same thing to him.

Roy Merritt 34:57
Oh, not our guy. Oh, fuck yeah, I’ll size up a dude all You

Amy Hughes 35:00
guys are

like, Hey, man, what are you writing? Man? Yeah. Did you get those? Did you get us? No, they’re pretty pointed. I’m getting checked.

Roy Merritt 35:07
Yeah, but you can in three or four questions, find out exactly who you’re dealing with, with easy questions to like, have you done anything to it? You know, yeah, but he got in it. Ba ba ba the real quick, you know, whether they know what they’re talking about or not. And you can have fun.

Unknown Speaker 35:21
And it’s very fun to watch you when they don’t have

Amy Hughes 35:25
a master

Mike as well, actually, there’s there’s an art.

Roy Merritt 35:31
Surprisingly enough, you know, because me and Mike have only worked together about a year and a half. I think it’s been about something like that. Our thought processes and our mindsets are very much the same. And what we’ve learned kind of what we feed out like the way we think and the way we solve problems, things are very similar. So there’s a lot of times I’ve been very impressed where one of us will talk to somebody and then somebody else will talk to somebody and then we’ll find out we said exactly the same shit. You know what I mean? Like almost verbal. You know so that part I really enjoy because I you know I take this seriously this is my career when I started this it was a career for a reason and I know Mike feels the same way this you know, this is for real this is my this is my jam, you know and you

Unknown Speaker 36:15
have to you have to be passionate about it. Because it is

Amy Hughes 36:21
a lot

Roy Merritt 36:25
of people come in and they’re like God you have the best job ever and you just want to be like, fuck it

Unknown Speaker 36:33
customers are go there yelling I mean this guy loves me. Yeah, hates me.

Roy Merritt 36:36
Yeah, this guy took his bike home, took his fucking fairing off, jacked up all the goddamn connectors and wants me to fix it under fucking more. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Mike VO 36:50
The tire’s flat. The fog lamps are dim. In up. Well yeah, they also flashes turn signals are not supposed to do Your turn signals don’t work. And they are not running lights there auxiliary lights but you’re running lights also don’t work. So everything wondering if that’s is that a flashing? No. Maybe that needs

Roy Merritt 37:13
and whatever different topic. Right?

Unknown Speaker 37:16
Yeah. Oh, he takes

Mike VO 37:22
Really? I said, Tell the customer. It’s $120 to fix it. We gladly will. Yeah.

Roy Merritt 37:30
Yeah. Well, that’s, you know, we had that today and I mean, there are things people don’t realize I don’t think how the warranty process works. There’s just give me a new one. Well, that’s not exactly how it works, man. You know, whatever is failed. I have to send back. Yeah, I have to send it back and they they’re going to put it in their hands and they’re going to go there’s nothing wrong with this. Why would Why would I pay for this and now I pay for it. You know, so you know, you get you get into a lot weird situations where people have a Why are you doing that? Man? I’m just doing what you know manufacturer says to do. That’s my jam. That’s that’s what I do. Outside of warranty, yeah, we can do whatever the hell you want, you know, but when it comes to warranty, I have to follow a procedure and

Unknown Speaker 38:16
but you know, you know, going back to what Amy said, you kind of warned me when I took this job that one of one of the problems would be men wanting to speak to someone like a man rather than me is totally been the opposite. Like they don’t just start throwing out like, stuff that I’m like, Okay, well, well. I’m really flattered that you trust me to tell me all this but I have no idea. So it’s been like the opposite. They just, you know, they just started like, talk to me like they talked to everyone else, you know,

Roy Merritt 38:50
that’s good. That’s good because you know, when it comes to in the end, that’s easier to deal with sometimes than the opposite. And you’re always going to get you know a little bit of both, but You know a lot of that has to do I think with you know your tattooed and you know you look the part you know when it comes down to it so, you know they probably walk in and go okay yeah there’s

Unknown Speaker 39:13
the hell this Yeah, yeah.

Roy Merritt 39:14
Yeah right yeah this flux capacitor Exactly. One point 21 gigawatts. 21 point 21 gigawatts flux capacitors okay you know, we you know, we do Mr. fusions to if you need to Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 39:36
But yeah, you know, the,

Roy Merritt 39:38
the markets changing. I think that as we get into the smaller bikes, the women rider goes up. I think that you get enough of it seems so stereotypical. You get enough of moms with kids that are doing a lot of stuff that the Electric little bikes. Oh, see, that’s why I had that muted. It’s annoying. The electric bikes that we’re buying for kids now that are totally reasonable man like 650 bucks for the little one. It’s not a big deal when in the grand scheme of things that’s Power Wheels or something, they’re like the same damn price, you know, that moms are going to take these things out like my wife does. And they’re going to run around the park and chase these things and be like, Fuck this. I want you know, something similar to ride with him. And electric bike and I think that is going to spawn a whole different market of riders of of, you know, the 10 years it takes to get from the age of six to 16 to where you can ride something on the road. You’re going to transition from these little bikes into dirt bikes, into other you know, sports and stuff along the way that I truly believe parents are going to go with them. You know what I mean? moms and dads you buy one. If mom can’t go Dad can go Dad will always be down with that. You know, so my wife and me and my wife have talked about it. I’ve looked at other companies electric bikes, like man, we’d buy one of these things and ride around with them, it’d be cool. In the end, I’m going to end up buying just a regular bike and riding with him until Harley comes out with something cool. You know, that’s, I’m Harley at heart I can’t help it you know, if Honda Kawasaki or something like that came out with something for a decent price that was you know, I’d be honest with you, and the kid gets old enough, I may be looking at zero of Harley hasn’t done something, you know, in that that dirt bike range, that’s electric. I think men, you know, you can take an electric bike and places you wouldn’t take a dirt bike

Mike VO 41:40
with a state park.

Roy Merritt 41:42
Like this. You’re not supposed to have motorized vehicles out there. But if you’re not everywhere you go out there who the fuck is going to know man, you take it out there, you ride it, it’s electric. Nobody’s gonna know the difference. Somebody should give a shit. You know, and I think it’s going to open up new places to ride for those reasons as well. Most of the time, they don’t let you ride is because, you know, there’s animals and wildlife there and they don’t want to stroke motors dumping, you know, fumes and gasoline and all this shit all over the place. So if your electric, you’re not doing any damage, other than stirring up the dirt a little bit, and that’s not harmful. You know, you can’t argue that that’s harmful. So I think that that electric bike market is just going to change so much, you know, where you can ride what you can do. I mean, you think about it, you get one of these e bikes, you can throw it on a bike rack on the back of your car, you know, you don’t need a motorcycle trailer, you know. So, like I said, I think those earlier years to mid years and you know, women that have children and things like that, it’s going to open up a big market. And I think when those people get to a point where they’re not chained to each other, you know, mother and child, things like that. They’re gonna be like, I want a Harley, I want to go ride, you know, I

Amy Hughes 42:53
step into it. That’s what it comes back to. It’s the unintimidating opening of that door.

Mike VO 43:02
Yeah, one and I think it has to start at the ground level. You know, the the small bikes like take the street. Yeah. You know the street was designed for the entry level writer for the younger writer that hasn’t necessarily been on a bike doesn’t you know they get intimidated by the Dixon wearing van wearing the Dyna Bros. They just do wheelies everywhere the record

Amy Hughes 43:32
I like Dixon.

Mike VO 43:34
They’re also I like well and they’re and they’re also intimidated by you know, the black leather 1% or crew that you know, mobs around 50 deep and just stares at everybody like what are you doing right now?

Amy Hughes 43:49
Those are the guys that you can ride in the past that can handle being in a pack and you know they’re not going to hitch I’ve

Roy Merritt 43:54
been wearing and plaid and shit like this for 20 fucking years and Now it’s fucking cool again. And I can’t buy this shit. You know why? Because I refuse to buy what everybody else is buying. if everybody’s buying Dixon, I’m wearing fucking Walmart I’ll give you know what I mean? Like I just cannot play it is I will not talk bad about the product. About about the product it’s a great product. I just have a hard fucking time going with the masses like I just can’t do it, you know? And it’s like, it’s why I fucking hate the Dyna bros and all that shit because are the millennials that what they call them or what’s the bearded there another word? urban lumberjacks. They have these guys in urban though. Yeah, you know like I had a beard when I was like 16 you know so and it was crazy people are like

Unknown Speaker 44:44
tea and manicure it well. You don’t go to X camp. No.

Unknown Speaker 44:50
But you know they take all the property and start an X camp just so that I can watch these fucking idiots Yeah,

Roy Merritt 44:55
they take all the cool stuff like Dinah me to do it and they fucking They make it trendy and then I can’t have anymore because it’s trendy and I can’t have trendy shit. So it sucks it up for me. So I, you know, I like to be ahead of the curve. That’s why I gotta Sportster but

Mike VO 45:10
at the dealership level, across the board not just with Harley, if they don’t recognize that there’s a different writer, a different type of writer coming into the sport, and they disregard that person and say, You’re not a writer. I’m going for that guy to sell this. I’m going for that guy to sell the bike that I always sell. That’s what’s going to change it absolutely is. You know, the guys that always go after streetlights. You know, like Mike Blackburn. You ever seen Mike Blackburn cielo street? Not once. I’ve never seen him sell a street. He’ll

Roy Merritt 45:50
kind of customer

Tracey Wooten 45:51
Hi Mike. Right. Yeah. What

Roy Merritt 45:59
is that mean? Yeah.

Mike VO 46:03
But you know, we have to change the mentality of who it is that we’re trying to sell motorcycles to, you know, just like we have to embrace the fact that the street is a totally different type of motorcycle for Harley, but people like that’s not a Harley. Actually it is It was designed and built in a Harley Davidson facility with the branding and soul that Harley Davidson gets European bike. What what exactly does you need to be Harley Davidson? Other than that? Oh, yeah, well, that’s always my

Roy Merritt 46:30
Harley. Yes, it does. It’s made by Harley. It doesn’t matter what it sounds like. It’s a fucking Harley. Yeah, that’s always been my argument. I mean, the problem with the street, I think, for the American market, is that or urban sprawl? No, I mean, when it’s all said and done. I don’t think you live in very many cities where you’re not having to get on the interstate or somewhere to get where you got to go. You know what I mean? There’s not a lot of places where you’re in town run around at 45 or less all the time.

Mike VO 46:59
raced a Mustang selling 5.0 and a street 500 down the freeway. I got my ass kicked.

Roy Merritt 47:07
Yeah.

Mike VO 47:09
Every every single person that you see but you’re seeing, but every single person you see riding a Honda Nighthawk for 50 is a young male or female, you know, they’re new to the sport, you can tell when they’re like super stiff riding

Roy Merritt 47:23
straight up and down

Mike VO 47:25
street market. But those people are afraid to come in here because as soon as they come to a dealership like this, they’re immediately checked. And they’re like, fuck this place. And they go to a Honda dealership where nobody gives a shit. And they’re like, I want this. We’re like, All right, cool. I just want to sell something. So that’s awesome. You know, and here, they’re like, Fuck the street. I really like the street. Why? You know, I mean, our sales people in Harley Davidson will say that I really I’m really thinking about the street. Why?

Unknown Speaker 47:53
The problem with the street I don’t you don’t know it. So for now, in a week, you’re immediately calling Double enough to get something bigger and it’s To begin,

Roy Merritt 48:03
but that is never stopped Honda from making enough. Yeah. I mean, and then

Mike VO 48:10
and then a 650 Yeah, and then a 750 and then a 900, and then an 1100. And they have like every single step along the spectrum. Oh, every everyone but Harley, and they sell the

Amy Hughes 48:22
unintimidating bike and like Tracy saying you outgrow it so quickly. But people are scared to make that step because once they get on one of these bikes, they’re going to love it. Have you ever making that jump? Have you ever ridden? Yeah, the g7 feeling sorry, I’ve heard talk. Nevermind. No, I have no.

Mike VO 48:38
So you have no frame of reference. Those are bad.

Unknown Speaker 48:42
They are there now.

Amy Hughes 48:44
But they’re smaller and they’re lighter and it’s less than to me. I tell you what.

They don’t see what that’s going on with the bike itself. I would like

Roy Merritt 48:53
to put that 750 Street up against somebody like me on my add three. Yeah, because I had a guy the other day said He was I know. He said he was smoking guys on sports tours. And I was like, No, no, but they are pretty quick. And they are fun that really right out of the box, man. Yeah. Right out of the box. Yeah,

Mike VO 49:13
the five hundreds or maybe a little bit small. But they’re designed to be that way. Yeah. So the issue that we’re having is, like, you’re notifying your whole argument. We’re trying to talk about how we can introduce less intimidating things you’re like, Yeah, but this is just an entry level. Exactly. It’s not intimidating. It’s Yeah, exactly. That’s the whole point of making that that’s, but we’re missing that market. Because as soon as that writer comes in here, we say why do you want that bike? Yeah, you’re right. We chased them away and then they go right down the street to to Honda. And they’re like, I’m kind of looking at the Nighthawk 650 and they’re like, sweet. Yeah, let’s go right it

Roy Merritt 49:50
will a lot of that has to do with cost to and people are it like you said, there are people and I’m sure you know any anybody who’s been in the industry for a while. probably heard it that people are that don’t know any better have never been in a dealership or intimidated by Harley Davidson dealership. Yeah. They’re gonna walk in and see dirty bikers and you know, and they do. Yeah, well, you know. Here’s the thing though. When was the last time and I think I said this on an episode already. When was the last time you saw a Harley Davidson commercial with a bucket of dirty old biker in it? It years. I mean, Harley’s been trying to shake that image for sure time. But here’s the deal man dealership. rockers Yeah, you know broke mother fuckers riding a Harley, you know, saying like, this shit cost money. They’re not cheap. Yeah, Harley isn’t cheap. So the people that are actually riding are guys that are fucking lawyers and shit like that. They’re, you know, they’re doing the show on the weekends. And you know why I would never make any motorcycle sales. I would sell 35 or 40% of them streets.

Unknown Speaker 51:00
Before that, how about their writing style and how good they are and we went out and we test rode a Street Glide and they ended there almost going to crash every single time we stopped. Let me show you the g7 this bike is super badass and it’s right up your alley.

Roy Merritt 51:14
I think that’s the hardest thing for people getting into this industry whether it be man or woman it’s just finding the right bike yeah and admitting that Yeah, bikes are built for different reasons. You know, like a heritage is not built to go bounce off the rev limiter and run through turns on not really what it’s built, the new the new ones are a little different. But you know, if you’re gonna buy a bike like that, you’re gonna buy an FX DRS or you’re gonna buy a fucking, you know, low rider or something like that. I think people buy bikes for the way they look and what they think they’ll look like on them. 75% and I don’t think that’s the type of writer they are, I would say 75% People buy because of the way they think they’re going to look on the bike. And one way the bike look at what they think is cool. Exactly.

Tracey Wooten 52:08
I bought my bike 50%

Roy Merritt 52:10
Yeah, 50% of those have no idea what kind of writer they are. You know what I mean? They have no idea like, I new guy asked me today, why don’t you have a beer? You’re pretty big Dude, why don’t you have a bagger? Why? Because I fucking love

Unknown Speaker 52:24
sit down

Roy Merritt 52:25
the shit out of the Sportster. Like, there is nothing more fun to me than hopping on a little bike, and just beating the fucking hell out of it, you know, and I’m trying to blow that thing up. Because as soon as I blow it up, I have to put a motor in it. So boom, I mean, I literally bounce that thing off the rev limiter, and every single year, even fifth. Everywhere I go, and, you know, we I have to do this. And I said, I was gonna start doing this, which is my tires. And if this starts on this episode, I am not sponsored by anybody and I paid regular price. For my price at least working at a dealership I will say that for set of Bridgestone tires that I put on my Sportster and Jesus Christ is the greatest thing I’ve ever done doing. I’ve done suspension upgrades. I’ve done all kinds of stuff. I’ve lifted it. I put a steering dampener on it. And when I got rid of those Dunlop lead fours, I did not make it a mile on that bike without just totally noticing a difference that the bike handles you know, it’s sad because it is exactly what it is. But it feels like I put because I used to ride sport bikes. It feels like a boat sport bike tires on my sports shirt. And in the turns now it lays in the turns doesn’t want to push out of the turns. And it digs when you know I give it gas and the way I ride I ride very aggressively. I tried to get to the edges. I love scraping by pegs. I love scraping anything. I can find it on the ground. The way I ride they play exactly into the way I like to ride. And I tell anybody, I can buy a set of Bridgestone battle cruises. They are amazing. We’ve put them on baggers, everybody we’ve put them on has absolutely loved them. It just hands down. I never thought putting a set of tires on my bike would change as much.

Mike VO 54:23
There was one guy that we put him on a bagger and he didn’t like him in the corners. And he’s like, I don’t like it because it feels like it’s trying to lay down on the corners. Yeah, so give it more gas. And he’s like, what? And I’m like, yeah,

Roy Merritt 54:34
so I hit the cloverleaf. Now way harder like I come off turns at least 10 miles an hour faster than I used to in terms like I and I’ve yet so we went to a drag specialties event had some beers, whatever I wrote home from West Nashville to East Nashville. And I had a couple beers I wasn’t you know, that drunk or anything but I had enough that I was, you know, ready to ride and there’s an exit on a Murfreesboro road that my wife actually wrecked the car on. It’s super tight, like, you come off the highway and immediately turns so you have to slow way down and I got in it and have scraped more than I’ve ever scraped going right. And those tires just held like they never like my done laps in that same instance, would have jumped and had done it, you know, so many times, like I wouldn’t have freaked out, but they never jumped and I was like, I noticed, you know, I was like, holy shit. I pushed my bike a little too hard and once again, totally impressed by these tires. like totally impressed. So I’ll leave it that there’s the plug. Yeah, we’re gonna we’re gonna keep doing that. I’m gonna keep checking in. It’s been four or 500 miles. We’re gonna keep checking in but I’m telling you, I love those damn tires. So,

Amy Hughes 55:50
I don’t know, the cloverleaf, the circles, the off ramps and Tennessee that’s all new to me. The fact that you’re getting 10 miles over you were before is pretty impressive because when it says 30 I’m doing 3020 I’m doing 20. And this is the first place I’ve written that when I see a sign on one of those offerings, I’m like, okay,

Roy Merritt 56:07
so there’s a lot of potholes and bumps and shit. That’s, that’s the problem here. There’s a lot of potholes and bumps. If you if you haven’t been on a cloverleaf, yeah, absolutely. You gotta take that shit. You never know. The ones I ride every day. I know pretty well. So I know what’s there and what’s not. But yeah, I mean, you know, I usually look at those same turns if I see 20 miles an hour. I know I’m doing at least 40 if I see 30 I know I can do 60 No kidding. That’s what goes through my head. Yeah, so we left the drag strip up in North Nashville, and it was me and Woody. We hung out to like midnight drink a beer and dumb shit. And left and I think it was before I put my new headlight on. I still had the day maker, which I’m going to do a video on that damn headlights. Look another great thing like $40 on Amazon. Awesome. I went home and I was on a road and never really been on before and it was tight like windy turns through the hills of Tennessee you know it’s on a mountain but with no streetlights it’s just back country roads so pitch black and all I have is an LED light it’s a square in front of me and as I go through turns it’s like dark everywhere else. And I’m you know, so I get to the church This is why I did custom dynamic lights in a new headlight because after that night I said no way but you know, I’m going through these turns and I’m like, okay, it’s 15 miles an hour and 25 should wear Stern’s like oh man and yet in the dark never going down there before I still probably push it way harder than I should have. Like I I have an issue with the way I ride when I’m by myself. If what he had been with me I would have been like perfectly, you know, by the book and all my shit or anybody. You know, anybody With me but it seems like

Amy Hughes 58:02
he definitely makes you want to push yourself there’s no question about that.

Roy Merritt 58:05
I’m like riding with people like that.

Amy Hughes 58:07
Yeah he’s Yeah, I I woody

Roy Merritt 58:15
woody pulls over to the side of the road just keep going yeah

Unknown Speaker 58:23
Yeah, yeah just let him go and just keep going. Other guy it was the guy was the other guys

Unknown Speaker 58:32
video yeah

Tracey Wooten 58:37
we got behind woody on the front you get started back

Roy Merritt 58:39
up if you get started back up if you want I don’t care probably. Yeah we got about an hour and we’re gonna save it there should be a Save button. Yeah there’s a little Save button, share, do your story. Download. Yes, that’s fine. Download a work.

Unknown Speaker 59:00
That’s the biggest thing.

Roy Merritt 59:02
But yeah, you know, like I said, we can wrap things up. We got some women on the first women on the emphasis on the podcast. Yeah. Cheers.

Tracey Wooten 59:14
Cheers.

Roy Merritt 59:15
It’s always good conversation. Yeah. So I had plans, I have plans in the future, we’re going to do this again. Talk to a lady that’s a drag racer. One of the fastest women in the world, she’d like to come on, I want to get some more episodes in and get a better format and some scheduled down. As you know, we started probably an hour after we thought we were going to tonight and when it comes to calling people and you know, people that are busy, we have I have to have that stuff down a little better. So I’ve been keeping the call in and all that stuff off in here for the most part right now, until we get a better schedule. But you know, we have a lot of interesting people around here and good conversation. So it’s never too hard to find anybody to bring on and talk about stuff but

Mike VO 1:00:00
Because what would be really interesting is this get some women that don’t ride well that was the guys said we can do

Roy Merritt 1:00:06
yeah and and so this is maybe an introduction to that episode because I would like to get maybe Tracy or Amy or both of them back. We have talked about doing this in a bar I want to do millennials as well because we have some millennial riders here and I absolutely believe that the conversation is is is a lot better with people that don’t ride and a perspective that we don’t understand because like you said that’s what’s killing the market right now is trying to sell bikes to people that we understand.

Unknown Speaker 1:00:36
Yeah, we’re already so yeah, yeah,

Roy Merritt 1:00:38
yeah, we don’t we don’t need that we need help telling people to bucks we don’t want seven bucks to people we don’t understand. And and we were doing sales training back here in john G. I shouldn’t said that. But yeah, he’s in the back. And you know, we have this other company coming in to train salespeople on stuff and they’re talking about well, you need Know, for millennials, we need to do this and that and he speaks up because he has to and he will I think, blah, blah, blah. And I said, I’m going to stop you right there. Because the problem with everything in marketing and everything right now is people like you having to say what you think is what you think doesn’t matter. It’s what they think that’s why we’re struggling right now is because we don’t think like they think and we can’t put ourselves in their position. So until we can think like they think there’s going to be a disconnect.

Unknown Speaker 1:01:32
It would be a good person. Yeah, we probably should have had hotel

Mike VO 1:01:35
until they’re not afraid to tell us what they think. Because that’s that’s why we don’t know. Every time somebody that’s going to tell us that we chase them away. Because we prove the stereotype. I

Roy Merritt 1:01:51
I believe there are shops that do that a lot worse than us. Right. But if we’re talking about very open,

Mike VO 1:01:56
I think we’re I think we’re just talking about the industry as an industry. Yes, you know, I mean, we are different.

Roy Merritt 1:02:02
We’re talking about the five or six out of 10 shops in every city.

Mike VO 1:02:05
Yeah. Female salesman, female service writers. You know, we have a much more integrated team than a lot of a lot of gonna call some sexes industry motor clothes.

Amy Hughes 1:02:17
Bring it

Roy Merritt 1:02:18
don’t have any dudes up there. That’s sexist.

Amy Hughes 1:02:24
They want to hang out with you guys in the back. Yeah,

Mike VO 1:02:26
the guys.

Roy Merritt 1:02:30
They want to sell clothes. They say work at gay bars in the evening. Okay, so a little backstory. Very good friend of ours. We love him very much. Yeah, well, I was gonna say his name. He worked in motor clothes. He was gay. He worked at a gay bar at night.

Tracey Wooten 1:02:50
That’s great.

Amy Hughes 1:02:53
Yeah, I would love to work with

Roy Merritt 1:02:55
Damien is awesome. He struggled as a service writer and other stuff. Yeah, yeah, he got moved around department department You know, it wasn’t always the best fit for the you know the jobs he was given, you know, super awesome dude very hard worker. I still talk to him. I went down the other weekend downtown and I called him on like you were you were like

Mike VO 1:03:19
wow, look a year.

Amy Hughes 1:03:20
How’s that? Because the cafe racers and the demographic we’re hitting was a lot of the gear we currently have I kind of wonder if you do better as it evolves

Mike VO 1:03:27
well he did good in moto clothes he’s didn’t make any money. He made a cafe racers.

Tracey Wooten 1:03:34
No, but like a pretty demographic said cafe researcher. Gosh.

Amy Hughes 1:03:42
We’re talking about the different demographics and the different people and we are hitting a different market with the cafe research and the gear, the slim cuts. I mean,

Roy Merritt 1:03:49
I think you’re confusing metrosexual. I think I think I think the guys that are coming in with the cafe racers look super gay. super straight.

Amy Hughes 1:04:01
I’m not saying there’s any sexual orientation whatsoever associated with the cafe racer. I just say

there’s I don’t know, we just were we are slowly tapping that other market. And

Roy Merritt 1:04:19
we’ll so I have never seen any prejudice against gay people that hardly at all. Yes, no, no, no. I mean, I had I had quite a few in Florida, I guess I don’t know. Florida like everybody’s freaking gay. I mean, it’s not a big deal down there. So lots of gay customers in Florida where I was at. I never thought and I don’t think they felt that they were treated any different other probably wouldn’t come into our dealership. You know what I mean? I think I mean, we anybody, it doesn’t matter what your sexual orientation or whatever. I don’t think I think if you feel you’re being treated differently, go somewhere else, you know, and in We

Unknown Speaker 1:05:00
have a trans gender customer. That’s a very regular.

Tracey Wooten 1:05:08
Jimmy So, you know

Roy Merritt 1:05:16
Mike’s really good at names and you’ll find that he’s like super good at names. He’ll be like Rondo Martin bar Rondo. You’re like Smith. He’s like Yeah. Yeah, it is what it is, but I love that comment. Leave it alone. That the kind of ended their

Amy Hughes 1:05:40
learning since I moved here, bless it. Just say bless it. Bless it. Yeah, bless it. It’s over.

Roy Merritt 1:05:46
Yeah. Well, I mean, we are in the heart of the Bible Belt. I mean, this is this is it. There’s churches everywhere.

Amy Hughes 1:05:53
Church for everything on the way home I pass on biker church. I fit past the cowboy church. I pass all types. Churches on my way home all different types

Mike VO 1:06:03
wasn’t it David Allan Coe? The bar song. The bikers are staring at the Cowboys are laughing at the hippies. Yeah, just trying to get out

Roy Merritt 1:06:14
man alone here can cover my redneck was that was an Easy Rider. I guess no Easy Rider was the one the guy gets the flat goes into the bar. Terrible hat. He has a beer and then yeah, I bet that’s another one I used to do karaoke for fun, because it’s one of those songs especially when you’re drunk. You’re like, hell yeah, we’re gonna do this shit. You know, like family tradition or, you know one of those songs you like that? Yeah, when everybody sings? Yeah. What is it like they’re like their heads was on fire in their asses for kitchen. There’s some good lines in that one for sure. Yeah. But like I said, we’re going to do some more, we’re going to move into some Public Places hopefully that was part of the setup here and and yeah, we’re going to get some people underwriters non riders in the conversation as well. I guess we’re gonna have to be a little more formatted at that point maybe with some pre determined questions or something.

Mike VO 1:07:18
Well, there’s only one Why don’t you ride?

Roy Merritt 1:07:24
So maybe that’s how we start so there’s only one question. Why don’t you ride what’s your

Amy Hughes 1:07:36
back to that intimidation factor?

Unknown Speaker 1:07:40
American? Me.

Roy Merritt 1:07:44
Yeah, man. It’s a great icebreaker. What the fuck is wrong with you? Don’t tell me you’re gonna ride one of those fucking Japanese

Amy Hughes 1:07:57
and just that it comes full circle.

Roy Merritt 1:08:00
Now you know i don’t believe that I’ve written many Japanese bikes I don’t I truly believe that any real biker doesn’t give a shit with your writing as long as it’s got two wheels. Three streets acceptable but come on two wheels. It’s all about two wheels. Yeah,

Amy Hughes 1:08:16
the wind is the same and you know what, I have a thing about trikes Just so you know, everyone can hate on trikes as much as they want. But you know what? trikes extend the life of people on two wheels and I respect

Mike VO 1:08:27
that that is where I don’t know it. They they’re three wheels.

Amy Hughes 1:08:32
The wind is the same

Roy Merritt 1:08:32
but very good friend of mine. I think I’ve said it before and he went from two wheels to three is a really hard transition for him. an ex marine and I

Mike VO 1:08:43
didn’t just get a Corvette convertible

Roy Merritt 1:08:45
because he’d been riding his whole life and he was you know, he was in a club and all that shit. So he bought an FLHXX the track streak live. I don’t know if you guys ever seen this. It was if you were to Take a touring trike and pull the tour pack off of it with nothing on the deck behind it. Oh, okay. It was kind of like the predecessor to the free Wheeler, I guess. Yeah, but they realized that it was still big and bulky I think and they just downsize it on the free Wheeler and got rid of the fairing and all that stuff and make three wheelers fun. I mean, if I had to ride three wheels, I would totally ride a fucking Three Wheeler. Those

Mike VO 1:09:23
two get I would get a full on Volkswagen conversion trike.

Roy Merritt 1:09:27
No way those things you handle like a real thing. So

Unknown Speaker 1:09:29
don’t the fucking Harley trike,

Roy Merritt 1:09:30
Sarah, you know what, though? They are fun for a candle. Like being the smartest kid retard class. We talked about this with somebody today, because somebody was bragging about being the smartest person here someday. And I was like, that’s like being the smartest kid in the return. Don’t be proud of that. Yeah, I think Oh, well. I think it was Carol. But yeah. Yeah. But yeah, the Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 1:09:57
she was super proud of my setting you guys on a two and a half hour. lunch. Everybody lunch

Unknown Speaker 1:10:03
flies came on. I was like, Well, I guess

Unknown Speaker 1:10:09
that’s it. So how’s that? working out? Now your man I’m gonna close myself. No, Amy’s here and I was like, Yeah, she’s an ass kisser. She didn’t leave.

Roy Merritt 1:10:19
Nobody, nobody likes. It’s funny cuz it’s true. Oh, it’s funny cuz it’s true. So do we altro with the music? I imagine. I mean, I guess I could use it in okay by nicely. Gonna do this again. Wait are you messing up now try and open your ears. And now we’re getting the intro your mind? So you get the wrong one. No, it’s the same thing. I just usually don’t turn it up.

Well used my friend. Yes. That’s part of the problem with letting the button sit out in the open, you know? I’m telling you, man, I have the sound bites. The gays love me. Did us come in? Oh, yeah, it’s coming on one of these paths at some point. I don’t know. Maybe we’ll do that when we do. We do gays and writing.

Unknown Speaker 1:11:27
Writing games.

Roy Merritt 1:11:31
I would totally call it writing games. That’s awesome. Yeah, I love it. I love it. So how many people you think we could piss off at that?

Tracey Wooten 1:11:37
All of them? All of them?

Roy Merritt 1:11:40
Yeah. Sounds only the gays. I don’t think we’ve picked them off. I’m not I don’t want to be disrespectful.

Mike VO 1:11:45
I don’t think we missed any of that ride. agreed we might piss off the rest of them. Who cares? Agree? Me

Amy Hughes 1:11:56
do I can’t even imagine what that

Unknown Speaker 1:11:59
would probably We started with the truck.

Roy Merritt 1:12:04
We’re not touching. Yeah. I I love America.

Mike VO 1:12:14
And you love writing. I do those.

Roy Merritt 1:12:21
Should I call this episode polls in the game? It was supposed to be about women, right? Yeah, we ended up with the polls. I like it. It’s about right. racist.

Unknown Speaker 1:12:39
You said everything’s racist earlier. It’s some races.

Roy Merritt 1:12:47
We call it if you’re like not agreeing with somebody’s sexual preference.

Mike VO 1:12:53
You’re not allowed to say

Unknown Speaker 1:13:00
I’m just saying what do you call that homophobic you can’t

Mike VO 1:13:04
you can’t call it anything because you’re not allowed to. You’re not allowed to disagree with someone’s sexual orientation. Or you know word

Roy Merritt 1:13:11
Yeah, not even

Mike VO 1:13:14
if they’re and they’re like,

Unknown Speaker 1:13:19
a race for my mind. It’s been rejected. Yeah.

Mike VO 1:13:25
It’s been rejected from our language. And you didn’t even know it. Yeah. You didn’t even know they took it away.

Amy Hughes 1:13:31
No, it’s cool though. He’s a busy man. MMO

Mike VO 1:13:35
the letter people, they took it away.

Roy Merritt 1:13:40
I’m really disappointed.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai