This is part two of an interview I did with Dylan Weiss, the genius behind Twisting Asphalt and Twist The Throttle.
How many bikes have you ridden? You must have a couple of favorites, or perhaps some that are most memorable. Give me a couple of sentences about your top five.
I honestly have no idea how many bikes I’ve ridden since I started riding. Between the documentaries, Twist The Throttle, reviews for Pro Italia and then just general tire kicking it’s got to be around fifty or so I’d guess, but no idea really…
Asking my opinion about favorite bikes is hard – we could be here for days! Ultimately I think what it boils down to is that I can usually find enjoyment in just about any bike, anywhere, as long as the temps are decent and the road is fun. Sure some bikes handle better then others or have more power or do specific tasks better – like touring, which is an obvious example - but the basic feeling that any motorcycle elicits is more or less the same.
You’re making an emotional connection with an inanimate object that somehow has the power to take you away from everything else that’s going on in life. That’s the real draw for me. That cathartic release.
Granted some days I like to carve corners and on other days I enjoy leisurely ambles up the coast, but the thing that ultimately connects all the different genres of motorcycling, for me at least, is being able to have this one-on-one conversation with a bike that forces you to shut everything else out.
There are lots of pictures of you on the track. What’s your mix of riding: track, street, off-road, dirt?
Well track pictures always look better lol! In all seriousness, I split my time fairly evenly between sport-riding and sport-touring. In terms of track time, that’s really dependent on work and as any small business owner will tell you, it’s really hard to make plans two or three months out because there’s always something else that needs to get done.
Since getting into street riding, I haven’t ridden in the dirt at all – but I have a feeling that will change shortly. For whatever reason I having a real itch to explore it again. So we’ll see…
How many miles do you expect to ride this year?
Generally I average around five to six thousand miles a year split among the bikes that Milt and I own. If it weren’t for the service requirements that go hand in hand with Ducati ownership, I probably wouldn’t even really keep count… I know some folks get really into the mileage figures – and that’s cool – but for me it’s much more about the ‘experience’.
Riding gear (street) of choice? Riding gear (track) of choice? Riding gear (dirt) of choice?
On the street and the track you’ll always find me in a full set of leathers. I just feel safer in a one-piece. If I’m doing any sort of distance touring, then I’ll usually go with a two-piece just because it’s more practical, but I’ll admit I feel much more vulnerable in it.
How would you describe your involvement with motorcycling now?
Hard to say – Ideally I’d like to think that we’ll stay connected to motor and motorcycle programming for a long time, but from a business standpoint I’m not sure if that’s possible. We live in an incredibly fractured era of television: There are literally more channels available then ever before and in order to survive each channel has to carve out their own niche. So even though there are 500+ channels, there are really only a handful that will probably ever consider putting motor docs on the air.
And then frankly it’s up to the audience – if they choose not to ignore the TV broadcast version because they’re willing to wait for a DVD or a friend to send them a video file over the internet, then the networks aren’t going to continue to be interested in this sort of programming because there won’t be any worthwhile ratings to be had. I don’t mean to sound negative, but that’s sort of the reality. TV is by large degree a highly democratic medium – everyone who picks up a remote control has the power to help decide what succeeds and what fails.
What attracted you to motorcycling?
Seeing the pleasure that Milt got out of riding – at least that’s how my early interest in the sport started… But then the more profound moment came while growing up in Northern California, Milt got some tickets to an AMA race at Sears Point – which was my first experience seeing motorcycle racing, live or on TV.
I remember it wasn’t the greatest of days in terms of the weather – started out very overcast – and we lived a good two, two-and-half hours away from the track, so we got up early and made the long trek out to Napa. Sat through horrendous traffic and screwy signage, but eventually we parked the car… Then as we started walking up the hill, I remember hearing the faint echo of an unusual mechanical wailing… And as we climbed higher we started hear these nasty, vicious screaming engines roaring. Then we hit the crest of the hill and I caught my first glimpse of a bright red bike that was flying around the track. No graphics, no fancy colors, just red. Brilliant red. I spent the rest of the day transfixed. The speed, the sound, the energy, it was unlike anything else I’d ever seen. And I remember afterwards that even though I knew nothing about the sport I thought it was the coolest thing in the world.
Do you still feel that way? When someone asks you now why you ride, how do you respond?
Absolutely! And for a whole bunch of reasons…
First off, one of the things that I truly love about the motor-community as a whole is that it’s remarkably inclusive – as opposed to so many areas of life which are exclusive either by choice or not – motorcycling, and more specifically motorcyclists, cut across all sorts of boundaries that exist in society – race, gender, age, social status. If you’re a motorcyclist and I’m a motorcyclist, even though we might come from different places or ride different genres of bikes, we share a passion.
So that’s one part of the equation for me – the other part is that I greatly appreciate the ‘sport’ that’s involved in riding. You can’t just jump on a motorcycle and be good at it – it takes time and it takes practice.
And then there’s the escape that it provides – it’s such a highly focused activity that it allows you to filter the rest of your life in a somewhat magical way. After I come back from a good ride, everything always seems better no matter what’s going on. There’s just something about becoming one with a bike on the road that I find mentally relaxing.
Some people liken riding to “zen.” I know there are lots of times when I get a mystical sort of feeling when I ride. Do you have those sorts of moments?
Well for me when I’m in the moment while riding I’m just focused on the ride - On being proficient and safe and enjoying the act of manipulating the machine. I tend to get deeper so to speak, or try and find context for the ride after it’s over. Every now and then I’ll think of something while I’m riding, and try to scribble it down when I take a wrist break (1098) or butt break (1098 and ST3) but usually intellectual stuff comes once I’m wrapped for the day and enjoying an adult beverage.
This is perhaps an indelicate question, but how do you think about the “dangerous” part about riding?
It’s not indelicate at all – riding a motorcycle is dangerous. There’s simply no other way to put it.
Something that Nick Ienatsch said on camera while we filming a documentary called “Speed On Two Wheels” has always stuck with me – and I’m paraphrasing because I don’t have the transcript in front of me, but it went along the lines of, “people realize they have to take a ski lesson before they go skiing but they’ll jump on a motorcycle will no training and that’s absolutely crazy” and he’s right.
From my perspective this is an activity that is all about managing risk and you never stop learning. I think everybody ought to take the MSF basic rider course. Matter of fact I think it ought to be mandatory in order to get a license. And not to sound preachy, but you’ve got to wear the right gear – I don’t buy the argument that riding gear or more specifically helmets are more dangerous - Nothing offends me more as a rider then seeing somebody jump on a liter bike in flip flops and shorts with no helmet. Personally I think those are the folks who give both the sport and machines a really bad name. It’s not the outlaw biker image that does the industry harm, but the guys and gals who end up as statistics on the front page of the paper.
If you could pick one place you’d recommend as a riding destination / experience, what/where would that be?
Well, thanks to work, I’ve had the good fortunate of being able to ride The Futa Pass in Italy a few times – and it’s a truly remarkable road – really maze to be honest, you could spend a lifetime finding new great curvy roads there.
Bavaria is another awesome spot – again, thanks to work I’ve had the pleasure to ride around there a few different times and it’s truly the ride of a lifetime. For starters there’s the Alps, which are simply unreal. You don’t quite realize just how spectacular they are until to see them in person. And then there are the roads: They are simply magnificent serpentine structures full of all kinds of curves and corners.
And then finally there’s the California Coastline – my favorite spot is between Morro Bay and Monterey, but there are some wonderful off-shoots as well.
For instance my usual loop if I’m leaving LA on a trip to SF, I usually take Highway 33 out of Ojai – which is one of the great sport road Meccas I’ve found in the world, then I’ll hit Route 166 and head back into the Central Valley, before popping on to CA-25, which is a great road too, and I’ll take that from the western edge of the Central Valley to the Coast and CA-1.
They’re all different spots with different visuals attached to them, but they all share that sense of magic. Whenever you can marry marvelous views with good asphalt and lots of curves, you’re in for a great ride.
If someone handed you a blank check and said “go buy a motorcycle you’d enjoy riding (not just collecting), what would you pick?
Tough question! Honestly I don’t know what I’d pick at the moment, but there are several bikes that are currently catching my eye. Certainly with a blank check I’d have to start by taking a serious look at the new Ducati Desmosedici. Let’s face it, for most of us without a blank check we’ll never afford it, so why not! 
Next I wouldn’t mind taking a serious look at an MV Agusta F4 – being at the factory had a profound effect on me personally. Just a wonderful place, very moto-romantic.
I really enjoyed the GSXR-600 as a possible track day weapon. Great fun, incredibly nimble, very reasonably priced, parts are easy to come by and don’t set you back as much as comparable Italian parts.
I’m very curious to see what happens with the BMW World Superbike entry. Since that’s a production based racing class, they’ll have to homologate something and as a general rule when the Germans set their mind to go racing, whether it’s Mercedes, Audi, Porsche or BMW, they usually come up with a very competitive package. So that should be fun to take one for a spin.
And certainly I think you’ve got take a hard look at what KTM has been up to – they certainly seem to be gaining ground on the street…
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Tags: DylanWeiss, Milt Weiss, Twisting Asphalt, Twist the Throttle, AplineStars, Desmosedici, Ducati, MV Agusta F4, Futa Pass, GSX 600, MOrro Bay, Monterey, Ojai, Highway 33, Nick Ienatsch, Sears Point
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