Star Bobber -

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TRANSCRIPT

hey everybody welcome to the modern

squid where we get to know the people

behind our favorite riders and

companies

today’s guest is estrella alvarez better

known as star bobber on instagram and

youtube

so let’s get started and find out where

she falls on the scale of

full squid to full ATGATT one of the

things i plan on asking people because i

call it the modern squid i’m going to

ask people where they fall on that scale

of like you know full squid to full ATGATT

so where do you fall on that scale would

you say

um i think it depends on the weather

um i’m guilty of like riding in like a tank

top and jeans

when it’s hot um i live

in fresno and so like for example it was

like 107 this past weekend

um so if i do ride i’m gonna be in a

tank top and jeans

but for the most part i try to at least

wear a jacket so

i would say i’m like if squid is what a

ten?

A squid, is it’s just like full squid to

full ATGATT you know so you can make up

however you would say

in between there.

yeah i’m like in the middle

in the middle okay.

yeah because even like jackets i wear

aren’t like they don’t have any armor or

anything so

No armor?

i have like two that do but i

rarely wear them.

Let me ask you this then;

have you ever broken a bone?

no.

okay see this i think this is why you’re

more towards the squid level i’ve broken

my ankle before

and that sucks.

yeah

not riding a bike um just in general i’d

never

i’ve gone over 30 years never breaking a

bone and then i was

um visiting my sister for her wedding

and my brother-in-law wanted to go rock

climbing so we went out to

a rock climbing gym um and i just

happened to jump off the wall funny and

snap my ankle

right before the wedding so i had to

wear sweatpants to my sister’s wedding

oh my god.

because they put me in a cast

and i didn’t have anything that fit over

that’s crazy.

You know, i know you

mentioned that you live in fresno but

did you grow up in fresno or?

i did yeah so i um was born in san diego

and we moved here when i was little so i

don’t really remember san diego very

much

so um yeah basically i like to say

raised here it’s kind of weird when i

tell people i was born somewhere else

but i feel like i was born here

yeah well that makes sense i come from

military families so we moved every

few years or so so for me it’s kind of

like where i’m from is wherever i spent

the most time last

you know?

oh yeah um

so you know we’ve heard of you i’ve seen

you talk about

you know your husband and your kids but

i don’t think i’ve ever heard you

mention any siblings do you have any

siblings as well or

um yeah i do i have two brothers and a

sister

okay do you along with them are you guys

more of the the fighting siblings um

no we get along we get along um i’m the

baby

there’s like a huge gap between me and

the second youngest there’s a nine-year

age gap

um so they’re i think closer like the

three of them

than me um and so and then i’m kind of

the rebel of the family so but we get

along okay

um that’s that reminds me so my ex-wife

is also

the youngest in her family and there’s a

giant age gap as well like her mom

didn’t even know she could still have

kids

um when my ex-wife was born so

you know i definitely understand where

you’re coming from with that

yeah she has the same kind of thing like

she knows her siblings and someone gets

along with them but it was too much of a

gap to really be

as close as some other siblings.

yeah like we didn’t like

grow up together you know like they were

in high school when i was in like

elementary school so…

yeah not as much to

talk about when you…

yeah.

do you guys talk more now do you

feel like than you did when you were

growing up

yeah i would say so my brother moved so

he’s

not in the state in california but um

my sister is and so we talk

we talk pretty often all right and we

have we both have kids that are

similar in age so her youngest is um

just one year older than my

oldest two so that kind of

brought us a lot closer.

so she waited for a while to have kids huh

there’s an age gap between her so she

has the older two and then she kind of

waited and then they had another one.

oh okay.

yeah.

So did your brother move

somewhere cool so that you can uh

visit somewhere interesting or? uh no and

actually i haven’t visited him yet um

but he moved to kentucky.

oh no. so

yeah it’s kind of random but yeah that’s

where he’s at right now

i’m just kidding for anyone who lives in

kentucky

so where did you end up going to high

school? um i went to high school

here in fresno it’s called roosevelt

high school

um and it’s actually a school of the

arts school i danced

and so that was the main reason why i

went there it wasn’t even my district

um and so yeah that’s why i went there.

oh you stole my questions i was gonna

ask you what crowd you hung out in, but

obviously you were hanging out in the

arts crowd.

yeah i kind of yeah it was like the arts

um i don’t know i can’t explain it yeah

i guess it was artsy’s it’s

kind of crazy when you go to a school of

the arts school because there’s like

a lot of different crowds because it’s

like the arts but there’s like

the dancers, musicians, the actors, the

musical people you know so there’s still

way more crowds than probably a typical

high school would have.

okay,

so did you did you gravitate towards one

or do you feel like you were one of

those people that kind of

cross-pollinated between all the

different groups or? i would say i

crossed

and then like i’m one of those people

where i have like

two really really close friends versus

like somebody who has a bunch of like

friends you know so um that’s kind of

how

i was i kind of had like my two or three

main like

people that i hung out with um in fact

one of them is still a really best

friend now

so oh nice. so, what kind of dance did you

specialize in or was it not really a

specialty at that

point? yeah no, i did um folklorico which is like

mexican

um dancing in a sense uh-huh it is it’s

mexican

it’s always hard for me to explain what

it is um when you don’t know it

but it’s kind of like if you’re not if

you’re not familiar with it

if there’s like a mariachi band playing

um envision the girls dancing and that’s

kind of what

that’s what it is.

now would it be the

type of dancing you were doing in that

dress recently on your instagram post?

yes yes.

all right so for everyone

listening if you want to see what she’s

talking about go to her instagram

yeah you’ll see both photos and video

for uh doing that it was really cool my

girlfriend saw that and she was jealous

she loved your dress

she’s always wanted one but she hasn’t

hasn’t gone and gotten one so

okay so um did you

get involved in any other activities in

school besides dancing or

were you pretty focused on on dance? um

no just dancing i was one of those

people who hated high school

so i just you know if it wasn’t for

dancing i’m not too sure if i would have

even

gone been able to get through it. so,

whose decision was it to go to the um

the dance

high school or the arts high school?

it was mine

because i danced on ever since i was

little

so it’s one of those things where like i

always done it and the school

specialized in it um and my one of my

older brothers

had went there as well so

um i kind of followed in his footsteps

he wasn’t a dancer he did more like arts

like the

acting and every in the uh stage

building so

i kind of was familiar with the school

because of him

okay well that’s cool. nice is you think

that that’s um

one of the benefits of living in

california that you have access to those

types of schools or do you?

oh yeah oh yeah absolutely i definitely

we have schools like that we have a

middle school like that we have like a

school like elementary i think it’s like

kindred through eighth that’s a

art school so yeah.

do you think you’re

gonna put any of your kids in

um in art school or are you gonna wait

and see what their interests are in?

it depends what they’re interested in. my

one of mine plays piano so if he like

sticks to it and wants to do that

um he has like a real like appreciation

for music

so there might be a chance that he will

go there

um maybe my daughter i don’t know she’s

kind of she changes her personality

all the time i mean she’s young right

they’re both

nine so they’re twins wow that’s got to

be yeah

yeah yeah my oldest two yeah

all right ah your husband when did you

meet your husband

um i met my husband on

i met him new year’s eve it was

uh like 2009 turning into 2010.

um and so yeah i met him at a new year’s

eve party.

okay so then um

was he obviously okay so 2009

it’s already 2020. i’m going to assume

was that high school?

no i was 19 so i think i had just been

maybe a year

and a half out of high school or

something something like that okay so he

wasn’t someone from your

your high school that you knew?

no it was

a co-worker’s cousin

it was a co-workers like a friend that i

worked with

and another co-worker was having a new

year’s eve party and

she invited him to the party so he was

there. oh wow.

okay yeah cool does your husband dance?

no. okay.

do you think uh is he not interested

in dancing

or do you just have high expectations

and so you don’t want him to dance?

i mean definitely not like the dancing

that i do

but like he’ll dance like at a wedding

a you know event then yeah, he’ll like go dance

but

yeah not like what i do he’s not no he

played soccer all his life so he’s like

kind of more like athletic type.

okay so yeah wow i i wasn’t really an

athlete in high school but

i am i guess would be considered one now

just because i am a long distance runner

you are? so i ran like half in full

marathons

so i uh funny story;

this is the reason i hate running, by the

way so,

um i did different types of martial

arts and stuff when i was a kid

and my dad told me um you know you got

to do

one high school sport before you get out

of high school just so you’ve got

something to put on college applications

and that sort of a thing.

but, because i hadn’t been playing any

sports um

during my my school career i didn’t have

any the the basic skills for things like

baseball, basketball,

you know football, that sort of thing and

um we moved into a school

where it was in the midwest and everyone

had been playing the same sport under

the same coaches since like middle

school

right yeah and so um when i was looking

to figure out what exactly i was going

to do

i was talking to my neighbor and he was

like oh cross country doesn’t have any

tryouts

and i said well, what’s cross country and

he said oh you just run it’s not that

big of a deal he’s like it’s super easy

I’ve been doing it forever

and uh you know and i didn’t have a

lot of money and so

i was like well what do you have to buy

to to do cross country?

he’s like, all you need is a pair of

shorts a t-shirt and shoes;

and i was like oh my god this is my kind

of sport! so,

i showed up the first day i was like no

tryouts and it’s dirt cheap, perfect!

i showed up the first day and the coach

is talking to everyone

and you know shooting the breeze with

them. everyone knows everyone,

you know, they’ve been running together

for years and

uh so he goes alright guys so run over

to the

field blah blah blah the same route as

usual and we’ll we’ll meet and stretch

out

and uh i was like i don’t know how to

get there you know i’ve never done this

before

and they’re like oh just follow us it’s

no problem. two miles later, so keep in

mind i’ve never run a mile in my life,

two miles later we get to this spot and

everyone’s stretching out

and i’m dying! i’m already done, you know?

i’ve never run a mile before, and i just

had to do a two-mile “warm-up”.

i’m done. i’m cooke.d um so the coach is

all mad

and he’s like hurry up and stretch and

then meet us over at the uh the track

so i hurry up i stretch real quick i run

over the track

and he’s explaining what the next

exercise is going to be, he’s talking

about “mile repeats”

and you know i’m like hey coach what’s a

“mile repeat”?

and he looks at me like i’ve got a third

eyeball and he goes “you run a mile

and then you repeat it” and i was like

what?

“you run a mile and then you repeat it”. i

was like “well how many times?”

He’s like “as many as you can” so

we were just running and running and

running and he was telling me the goal

was that each mile that you ran was

supposed to be faster than the last one

and it was just anyway that went on for

an entire season

by the end of the season i never wanted

to look at another pair of running shoes

again

i was always the slowest in all the

races because i’ve never done it before

um but you know it was a learning

experience yeah

all right so when you guys met who asked

who out first? did he ask you out? do you

ask him out or was

it more kind of like the modern thing

where you guys just started kind of

hanging out and then?

yeah um we started hanging out like as

friends for

like maybe like a month. okay yeah so

it’s new year’s eve

um so we were like yes i met him we were

kind of hung out here and there

and he asked me out for valentine’s day.

oh okay now did you find that sweet or

did you find it cheesy

or? no it was sweet i just i think at

first

i didn’t know like i just he was like a

friend

so um but

i think it was like a week after the

whole valentine’s date

we were like officially like boyfriend

and girlfriend so. cool.

okay yeah so how long did you guys date

before you ended up pulling the trigger

and getting married?

so we actually got pregnant before we

got married

so um um so we got pregnant with my

with the twins and then um when the

twins were

i think eight months we got pregnant

with our last son

and so we didn’t get married until 2014.

okay so yeah like five six years or so

since yeah i think it’s gonna be six

years this year.

all right so you guys definitely knew

each other it wasn’t one of those things

where it was like a week later you’re

getting married and your family’s going

what are you doing?

yeah yeah yeah okay that’s cool

were you a “kid person” before you started

having kids?

no. okay, did you imagine yourself having

kids or were you kind of on the fence?

not really i mean not that i didn’t

imagine myself having kids i think i

i think i knew maybe eventually one day

i would have children i just didn’t

um expect it to happen so soon.

um because i’m a young mom i was i had

two kids by my 21st birthday

um so i think that’s what it is i before

them though like the only kids i were i

was ever around were my nephews and i

loved my nephews but like any other

children i

you know i wasn’t one of those girls who

was like oh how cute your baby’s so cute

like i could care less if that was your

baby like i don’t

know but i wasn’t, so it’s crazy. well

that’s neat. i mean

yeah i uh you know i’m not really that

big of a “kid person”

but um my sister just had a baby not too

long ago

and i love being an uncle because my

niece is adorable

yeah she’s fun to hang out with and then

when she starts throwing a tantrum i’m

just like

okay mom you need to uh come get paisley.

yeah yeah i think feel like it’s kind of

the best of both worlds for me

personally because

i get all the benefits of having an

adorable child but

none of the responsibilities. yep

but i do admire people who like to have

kids because obviously you know the

world needs people i suppose.

exactly. all right let’s move on to some

motorcycle

questions so i think i saw in one of

your videos that you said that you

started thinking about riding a

motorcycle

based on parking. yes. is that truly true

do you think you had any like…? i mean i

never really thought of it before

um like when i met my husband

he rode and um

like i never really thought anything of

it and it didn’t really cross my mind for

me to ever ride

um but yeah the main reason was because

i was going to community college and the

parking is horrible there

um and i was always you know driving

around trying to find parking and these

bikes were just like zoom right in and

just park and like

go to class and it would drive me crazy

so i was like i want to

that’s like one of the big pushers for

me was like i just

when i first envisioned me right i was

like i’m only going to ride to school

like that’s all it’s really going to be

for

and whatever um i didn’t think i would

like fall in love with it so much.

so let me ask you this, so if if your

idea was to ride to school

what made you go with um a brand new

indian?

so okay i’ve always wanted

and not always but i always liked

indians like,

this is crazy, so when i was pregnant

with my first two

twins i was put on bed rest and so all i

did was watch

tv and i was obsessed with the show

american pickers i don’t know if you’ve

ever watched it? i’ve seen it i have yeah.

yeah

okay it’s funny i was literally watching

it before i came on here with you

it’s on right now it’s like marathon all

day um

but i loved that show and and that’s

where i learned about the brand

indian was through um through mike which

is one of the guys on the show

and he loved the brand he would always

just praise it and i would learn a

little history about it like you know

with every episode so in my mind that

always kind of stuck

out like indian motorcycle kind of

always stuck out and i

kind of associate it with like old and

vintage and i love that kind of stuff

like i eat that shit up

so that’s kind of where it started was

like i wanted like an indian

you know yeah same thing with a bobber

like the whole like

bobber thing kind of same thing 1940s

and i love the 40s and

stripping everything down because they

needed it for something you know all of

that

um so when the bobber my husband sent me

a picture of the bobber

um i believe it was before was even

released and um

it was before it was released actually

and i was like oh my god

that bike is like beautiful there’s not

many, like i said before he wrote he rode

a sports bike and it didn’t like catch

my eye, i never liked

bikes didn’t turn my head um but that

one did

and so it was just, you know when you

know.

so i mean i’m a fan of basically all

motorcycles but i will say

to me most sport bikes kind of look like

bugs um to varying degrees

so aesthetically i’m not that

interested in sport bikes and i’m not a

speed demon you know so the performance..

I’m the same..

but what does get me is i do like the

stunt riding people do on them.

um oh i see. you know like i like seeing

people popping wheelies and doing

burnouts

that kind of stuff interests me but i’m

too new of a rider to really even think

about that sort of a thing right now

um the indians were beautiful i was

i mean i just bought my first bike

in april and um it was down to

an indian scout um or the

iron 883 from harley and i ended up

going with the harley

mostly because i’ve always liked

harley’s

um and kind of thought, i mean i never

really thought about riding a motorcycle

until i went to nicaragua and uh got on

one my friend was showing me how to ride

i always thought it was too dangerous

for the amount of fun that you’d have

with it

yeah. but then you sit on the bike and

you’re like this is way more fun

than i thought it was going to be god

damn it i’m hooked!

but anyway kind of get back though to

your indian uh

adventure, i’m just, you know, personally i

do accounting as my day job

and so when i’m thinking, you know, i want

to get like access to

close parking i want it to be cheap i

don’t think let’s go with a brand new

you know moderately priced bike you know

so what yeah you ever consider is going

with something like used and reliable

like a honda

rebel or something or did you always go

i want something beautiful?

i didn’t even know what a honda rebel

was until i took my chp course.

so but no i think so when i think

used i think like old like i would get

like a super like vintage looking one

and i think

my husband was kind of like it needs to

be reliable it needs to be

um you know and it helps that my husband

was like willing to like

spend the money on it you know um so i

was kind of like

why not yeah i definitely didn’t really

ever

look at used ones and if

used ones ever came up it was more of

like because my husband’s looking at

different bikes you know

maybe he wants a different bike or

whatever it might be. yeah yeah.

okay well that’s cool. i mean i kind of

went down the same route i originally

was

considering getting sort of an older

used bike because i figured i’d beat it

i’ve never ridden a bike before you know

i just passed my msf course

and i was like if i get something nice

i’m just gonna ding it up

you know maybe i’ll go with something

cheap and then i started looking at the

the prices of the cheap things versus

just getting

something new and negotiating the price

hard and

um i just know my luck with used cars

and i was like if my luck with used

bikes is anything like used cars

i should just go with something new so

yeah i switched my mind and just went

with something new because i don’t know

anything mechanically like i can’t

do anything besides change oil in a car

you know? yeah.

yeah no i i get it i kind of same. yeah.

so i’m with your husband,

i went the reliable route too you know

yeah. just have it be reliable and

hopefully there’s no issues, major

issues.

um how long did it take you to make your

decision on what bike to get?

um not long but really because i think

ever since

that text message from him with the

picture of the bike

it was like there was just no other bike

that was gonna cover yeah the only other

one that i considered was the

triumph um bobber and

i think i even saw that one at my

dealership um

but there’s something about and i like

triumphs like if i were to get another

bike because i have two indians if i

were to get a third

bike possibly i don’t know because i

think i feel like i would get a bagger

and i probably wouldn’t go

triumph because i’m getting a bagger so if i were

to get like a fourth bike

i would get a triumph i wouldn’t mind

having to triumph in my garage basically

i like triumphs i just like i said i

just

after even now like something like i see

other bikes

i just there’s not a bike that can beat

the bobber.

but um you mentioned bagger, that’s quite

a difference from a bobber though that’s

basically the opposite of a bobber. it

really is. i think it’s just because

um because my bobber is so bobbed out

like it’s really uncomfortable um like

i ride it around town like i rode it to

school

um you know whatever here and there i i

really can’t go very long on it without

just wanting to it’s just really

uncomfortable

um but there’s situations that come up

where like i want to travel

but i want to ride and even with the ftr

the ftr is really not that comfortable

either.

um it’s still more comfortable than the

bobber but it’s still not

i i want like a big cruiser i think.

i mean not like tomorrow you know maybe

when my kids get older and i can travel.

yeah yeah, no, i’m only curious because

again usually like if you’re drawn to

the bobber style

the the baggers aren’t as appealing you

know? yeah.

um so they’re not but i would probably

make it look nice.

oh i’ve seen some beautiful looking

beautiful looking baggers i’m not a

bagger fan myself either i’m more of a

stripped down like i love

like the more stripped down it is the

more i like it the less fairings it has

the better it looks to me you know what

i mean yeah um

oh yeah i i went to um a bike week

cave creek bike week out here in arizona

uh before i rode i was just helping out

with the charity we were we were doing

some fundraising

um at the event and i saw this guy

ride by with this bike and it was the first

time i’d seen a bobber. i was like oh

god what is that thing? what is that? you know

what it means i went up and talked to

him about it he’s like oh this is a

bobber and he was like showing me all

the stuff that he like pulled off

it to make it look like that and i was

just like

if i ever get a bike i want something

like that you know

anyway so the bagger thing like i get i

keep hearing everyone talk about how

comfortable they are

yeah but aesthetically i feel like

there’s really two different types of

people you either like sort of a bobber

style

or you like that bagger style and you

got the people in the middle but then

they usually buy kind of a standard like

a soft tail or

you know what I means something like

that and then you can move up like a road

king

yeah yeah. so okay

that’s cool um let’s see… you did mention

that your husband

rides what is he currently riding? so

he doesn’t really okay so he rides but

he doesn’t

ride like i don’t know if that makes

sense i think it’s just kind of more of

the timing like in our lives right now i

guess

so he works full-time and because i’m a

stay-at-home mom and full-time student

um you he’s kind of constantly working

and so

his job too requires him to drive a big

truck so it’s not like he can ride the

bike

um to work or anything like that so he

doesn’t

like he rides maybe like once a week if

he if he

if that. and so and he’ll just ride

either of the indians to be honest so

it’s just kind of like…

oh so he doesn’t have his own specific

bike right now?

i mean i wouldn’t uh

kinda. i mean what’s mine is his

but like it’s it’s cool though because

like we’re

similar but at the same time i mean when

it comes to the bikes like we kind of

have similar taste

um but then again like i’m speaking in

terms of like modifications on the bikes

usually we have similar but there’s also

times where like i’m like no like i’m

sorry i’m not listening to you and i

want to do this to the bike

so um but then it grows on him

so there’s no like major issues yeah

he’s just kind of like

just chill he’s like the most chill

person.

so what happened to his um crotch rocket

then?

Um he sold it. okay. Yeah that was a long time ago. okay did he sell it to

buy one of the bikes or was that?

i’m sorry? did he sell it to buy one of

the current bikes or was that,

i guess you just said it was a long time

ago. he sold it just because

um life you know i was pregnant

and we needed to get a house i i didn’t

have a reliable car

like that kind of stuff yeah and he had

like a truck too

like a lowered like fixed up truck when i

met him

like you know bagged and everything and

he sold that too

well you know twins can be unexpected

and expensive so

yeah so why the ftr as your second bike?

what what drew you to that

bike? so i think the main thing that drew

me to that bike was that it was

different from the bobber

and that i would learn how to

ride different style bikes like i feel

and not that like my bike is small or

anything i felt like my bike is kind of

easy to learn to ride on and i didn’t

feel

confident enough if i were to go and

like test ride another bike

or um like especially a higher bike

because the ftr is definitely a lot

higher

um and also i just wanted to i just want

to be an all-around good

rider i want to be able to jump on any

bike and ride it and be confident

and the ftr is intimidating as fuck

so um and not only that it’s just a nice

it’s a nice bike i’m not

attracted to those type of bikes to be

honest like any kind of like sport

looking

dirt bike i’m just not um but that one’s

different

and right okay let me correct myself

so stock it’s like uh um i saw a picture

of a um

jimmy burnout i’m not sure if you know

who he is but he has that bike

and he has like certain modifications to

it like an exhaust and everything

that’s the bike that i saw that i was

like oh my god i want that bike

and not the ftr that is stock from the

dealership

which right now my ftr is still stock

so it drives me crazy like looks wise

it’s not

i wasn’t like drawn completely because

of looks to it

um but i have a really clear vision of

what i want to do to it

to make it look more like me. yeah i was

going to say, i mean if if um

you compare it to the bobber, i mean

aesthetically it’s i would say not as

pretty,

you know what i mean? it’s definitely

kind of utilitarian you know? like it looks

like it’s got a purpose more

more than like the the bobbers which

look like they look cool sound cool

you know it’s like. i get more, because i

obviously ride both of them, i get

more like head turns on the bobber than

i do on the ftr

um like and just be parking it people

will come up to me and talk to me about

the bobber

whereas the ftr people just like kind

of look at it like whatever it’s just

another bike

like the bobber has this ability to draw

people’s attention and the the person

doesn’t even necessarily have to be into

motorcycles they just look at it and be like

that’s a nice bike

um and then it’s kind of like that

cherry on top when

especially when it’s like older people

i’ve noticed when they find out it’s an

indian they’re just kind of like oh my

god like that’s an indian

and like what year is it they start

talking to me about the bike um

sometimes i feel like when i tell people

the ftr’s an indian they don’t believe me

like that’s not an indian because it’s so

different looking like indian has never

made anything like it. so i’m like yeah

no it’s in indian.

i promise. well you know it’s interesting

because um,

i was seeing a lot of really good

reviews, like people who ride it seem to

really like it,

yeah. um but for me, it was it was a

little bit out of left field because you

look at

what indian’s been making and they

seem to focus really heavily on making

beautiful bikes because they are

you know indian makes these beautiful

bikes and then the ftr

came out and i was looking at it i was

like, did they use a different design

team because

they they have such great taste in like

99 percent

of their bikes and then, i’m not saying

the ftr’s ugly, the ftr is definitely not

ugly

it’s just that when you set the bar as

high as they have with their styling

and then you come out with something

that looks good then you go,

you know, hey? like but then you start to

hear again

so you you see the people riding it and

how much fun they’re having and then you

kind of

you know they they put the time into the

performance aspect it sounds like.

mm-hmm. to make it. absolutely. yeah yeah

and then

that’s when it kind of clicked to me i

was like okay so they’re trying to shift

focus get a whole new

market of people who are more interested

in performance

um and still and it has some of that

indian

style it just didn’t go like full indian

style in my mind.

yeah i i absolutely agree. yeah

but you can still make it look good i

have i promise like

months from now it’s going to look a lot

nicer.

like I have seen a few of them online

that definitely look like people put

some work into them and they look better

but

i do agree with you stock there a little

bit… it’s almost

they’re not plane you know. it’s the

exhaust.

is that what you think? i think it’s the

exhaust

like i don’t really i’m not a fan of it

it’s just so huge and

bulky and… yeah.

i think for me i think it might be the

fork color or something but…

i hate the forks too! um

i don’t like the gold i think it looks

real um tacky.

so yeah i mean i think like uh i don’t

know it’s kind of hard

i don’t think that anybody can purchase

maybe everyone’s different can purchase

a bike

off the lot all stock and like be like

it’s perfect for

me. i think we all have different tastes

and um

that’s something i love about you know

motorcycles and

is modifying it to be yours.

um so i’m yeah i have stuff planned

um for the ftr my exhaust should be

ready by the end of this

week um and so yeah.

yeah. i um i don’t think i would go as

far as you

with the with the forks you know um but

they were just like

i felt like that with maybe you’re right

maybe it is the exhaust it was like a

combination there’s like little things

where i was just like this bike has got

a lot of potential

but yeah it’s just for me aesthetically

it it missed but then again

i’m like watching all these reviews of

people loving riding it and then i

found myself like man

if this stupid state ever opens up again

i’d love to go test ride one.

everyone that testifies it loves it

follows you know what the funny thing is

is that

i hadn’t even sat on the bike until i

went to go purchase it

like when we went to go and buy it that

was my first time sitting on it and

mostly because i knew in my head i was

going to psych myself

out because it was going to be really

tall and i was going to be tiptoeing it

and i was gonna be like no no i can’t do

it like i’m not good enough or i’m not

good enough right or not experienced

enough

um but then again i started on the scout

bobber which is a

pretty big bike for me um power wise and

my husband was like no you’re fine you

can do it like he’s like that like we’re

all like you got this

and so yeah that was my first time even

sitting on it

um and then like of course i think i

rode it the next day i was afraid to go

ride it that when we brought it home

and i was going like super slow

on the streets i was like ahhhh. Oh i mean, i

had mine delivered to my house so

i can’t uh i can’t say much.

i uh you know i did the msf course but

you know it’s all in the parking lot

and my previous experience um riding

was in nicaragua in um like a grass

field

you know so i’d never been on the street

with cars before yeah and you know with

the whole situation that’s going

on right now i didn’t want to be out and

about anyway um and plus most things

were closed

um so i called harley on a whim like

hey are you guys still selling bikes?

and luckily they were and they were able

to deliver it and um

it’s been it’s been a lot of fun. i’ve

been doing a lot of like parking lot

practice stuff

um have you ever heard of moto jitsu?

no. oh my gosh.

i actually i have his hat outside right

now drying because i washed it

um it just came in today and it’s been

the hat that this hat sucks

uh but seeing what i’ve gotten i’ve got

the covid hair so it’s like all like

long and poofy… anyway

so i needed a hat and i ordered this um

hat from motojitsu a long time ago

it’s through teespring on youtube you

know so i thought it was going to be

fast

but i guess they’re getting hit hard

with the whole you know

shut down so it took like forever to get

the hat

anyway it’s outside. moto jitsu, that’s

beside the point, he is

a youtuber and he’s actually based uh

somewhere in california

he does the courses like he’s a teacher

for a bunch of the courses

and he’s got a youtube channel and he

also has books out so i bought his book

um the moto jitsu

yeah he goes by fast eddie is his

nickname

and he basically just gives you all

these different tips and tricks on how

to like

get better riding your motorcycle and so

his book actually has

all the drills with the measurements and

everything so i bought some cones i

bought one of those little sticks that

you can like measure distance from

yeah there’s a parking lot near me as go

set them up and i do the drills you know

i use the measured drills probably once

a week and then i basically try to do

some emergency stopping and swerving

basically every time i ride the bike

either you know before i leave to go for

my ride

or when i’m almost home i’ll stop buying

a parking lot near my house

just because you know

i saw people in my msf class that had

been riding motorcycles on the street

for years

and they were having so much trouble

with like the basics

because riding on the street is a little

bit different than really being able to

um like do these low speed maneuvers and

and even emergency stopping which could

save your life these people

couldn’t do it properly you know um

so. yeah yeah they offer a like a second

like intermediate

course i know like the chp one here in

california does

and i want to take that, especially with

the ftr

because the bobber i’m pretty confident

on and um

and i can stop pretty well but i know i

was actually just talking to my husband

about

it like just two days ago maybe that i

still

fear like like i downshift too fast on

the ftr because i’m afraid i’m not gonna

stop in time by time i get to the light

um and it just kind of yeah i would

definitely i mean there’s no there’s no

shame in taking those courses

you know especially like the

intermediate ones and you know i know

i’ve been riding for almost two years

but um it’s a new style bike for me so.

well i think um you know one of the

things that they talk or

he talks about on his channel is that

you know you can upgrade your bike and

that’s kind of upgrading hardware

but it’s actually more important to

upgrade the software

you know which is your body and your

mind’s reaction

um and you know

yeah you’ll you’ll be surprised i mean

emergency braking

especially that’s one thing i’ve been

focused on a lot um because the

perception that you have

of how far you actually need to stop i

mean they probably do the same thing i

hear it’s called an msf course in

california it sounds like it’s called

something different

but um did they did they do that

demonstration in your guys’s class where

they made you like guess how long it was

gonna take them to stop by putting a

cone out

and then actually hitting the brakes not

a guess but

we had to stop so we had to get up to

i think third gear maybe and then we had

to downshift and stop

and we couldn’t like pass a certain

distance like we had to stop within that

distance

yeah yeah um i was one of those people i

did horrible in my chp course

i didn’t think they were going to pass

me well i think that

um you know at least in our class they

were talking about how

most people have like a certain range

you fall in and like every single class

you know there’s everyone’s kind of in

the middle some people might be a little

bit better some like people might be a

little bit worse but pretty much

everyone’s in the middle

um most classes and i think

you know as long as you pass and if you

keep practicing especially so keep

practicing

um i mean that was a long time ago i’m

definitely a lot better rider now

but um i don’t do well under pressure

and i don’t do well

with like all eyes on me and that’s kind

of how it felt because you had you know

you go one by one

and um it’s funny because i was stalling

like crazy

and i just couldn’t yeah i was just it

was all in my head it was more of like a

mental thing for me

so oh i completely understand i mean um

i’m not much of a public speaker either

and yeah when i’m doing like um youtube

lives or something like that and if i

get too well mostly instagram because

i’ve got a photography business on the

side and so my my photography accounts

got like

it’s not that big a couple thousand or

something but um either way sometimes

when i go live on there i’ll get a

couple hundred people and then it feels

like i’m on the spot and i’m just like

i can’t talk you know what i mean

yeah so i totally get it so

okay i noticed that um a lot of women

right now are starting to ride

more than in the past but it still seems

they’re lagging behind the men obviously

as far as numbers are concerned

what do you think brands could do if

anything

to get more women interested in riding

motorcycles

what brands can do um i think the

one thing that is kind of

important is maybe advertising to women

um and that could be either like

commercials or

instagram social media um

i don’t make us feel like we’re welcome

in the community because i think it’s

obviously

very male dominant but i also think that

they cater to the men

more than they do to the women like i

mean

i think that there has been some change

but still

i don’t i think it’s the for us women

we’re not stupid

and like the whole advertising thing can

be kind of like either hit or miss

um and i’m one of those people

that like if i see like an advertiser

whether it be like a poster

a commercial whatever and it’s like a

freaking like model sitting on a bike

who obviously doesn’t know

how to ride then i’m not gonna be sold

if i see somebody that i can relate to

you then i can see myself

and be like oh like i can do that you

know um

so i think that they don’t do a very

good job at that

and i think

i think it’s like most no i’m not gonna

call out brands but i think it’s

most of them i mean i think that it’s

fair to say if you look at most of the