The Martin Moto Modern Classic Ride-In is my favorite event of the year. (I don’t go to a lot of them, but this one is always circled on the calendar.) The day after the show, Goofy, Trekkie, and I sat down for a new episode of Kickstand Conversations to talk through what we saw, who we ran into, and how a simple group ride turned into a comms headache.
It’s just the three of us this time, no Scott (he was busy). But Pat comes up a lot. He’s a friend from the WaltInPA Discord who rode over with us, and by the end of the episode he had a brand new name. Past that we get into the used bikes, the service talk, what Trekkie wants to ride next, and why Cardo and Sena do not play nicely together.
If you’d rather hear the whole thing, the full episode is right above. This post covers the big topics, but the video has the tone, the tangents, and all of us talking over each other.
Table of Contents
What the Martin Moto Modern Classic Ride-In Is Really Like
We met at my place first. Goofy got his first look at the garage (and immediately noted that it smells like cigars, which surprised nobody given I run a weekly Cigar Podcast
). Trekkie showed up a minute after everyone else, after a quick U-turn to avoid a nasty stretch of oil and chip on the back way in. From there we took the back roads to the show. It’s five minutes straight down the road and about ten the scenic way, and we rode right down the street where everyone was parked to get a sneak peek at the bikes.
We got there around noon, two hours after it started, and the place was packed. The side lot had more bikes in it than I’ve seen in past years. What I like most is the range. You see choppers next to modern Japanese machines next to old dual sports. There were old Triumphs and three or four sidecar rigs, including a nice BMW. Trekkie was struck by how you could go from a 125 two-stroke to a Hayabusa in about ten steps. (The two-strokes were a surprise to all of us. I don’t remember seeing that many in the years I’ve been going.) Inside, there was even a stretched bike for sale with tennis balls on the pointy end so nobody would stab themselves walking by.
Trekkie noticed a few things I hadn’t. He spent part of the day on a bench outside, feeling under the weather, and watched people walk up to each other, shake hands, and hug over “I haven’t seen you since.” His take is that the show works as a touchstone for the local riding community. I saw the same thing when Pat ran into a friend of his right after we walked in.
The crowd thinned out fast. By about one, big gaps started showing up, and by the time we left around quarter to two there was a fraction of the bikes. We all went our separate ways, so the group ride ended up being about ten miles total. Goofy went one direction with Pat, and I headed home and found that oil and chip for myself. It’s bad.
Spiff and the Free Helmet Fitting
The best moment of the day happened at a table inside. A Shoei rep was doing full helmet fittings, and I mean real ones, with calipers and measuring tools. Pat sat down and got his head measured. They pulled the liner out and swapped in temporary pads, and he told them it was tight at the forehead. So they adjusted it, and he sat with the helmet on for ten or fifteen minutes to make sure everything settled. When he was happy, they installed the pads permanently. The whole thing took at least half an hour and it was free. Trekkie hopes they bring it back for the March event.
Then they cleaned the visor and polished the shell, and just as Pat was fixing his hair, Goofy told him he looked spiffy. I said right there that it had to stick. Goofy is fully on board, Trekkie wants Pat to change his name on Discord, and Pat took it well. So as far as this episode is concerned, Pat is now Spiff. Trekkie predicts we’ll be running this joke for a long time.
Inside Martin Moto’s Showroom
The showroom at Martin Moto has plenty to look at, and we spent a good chunk of the episode on it.
Used Bikes and Gold Wing Sticker Shock
The one that got us was a used Kawasaki Z650RS with 45 miles on it. There was a 2026 on the other side of the room for $1,200 or $1,300 more. Forty-five miles is practically a test ride, so we spent a while wondering who buys a bike, rides it around the block, and brings it back. Goofy thinks a 650 is the perfect second bike alongside his Harley, and I agree that it sits in a great middle spot.
Then there was the Gold Wing at just over $30,000. Goofy sat on it and said it’s actually comfortable, though he can’t touch on the center stand with his short legs. Trekkie pointed out that’s about half the price of a Corvette, and Goofy figures it’s probably quicker too. We also noticed that for a Honda dealer, the Honda corner is small. Honda, Kawasaki, and Yamaha together take up the back wall, and Triumph gets the whole other end of the store. Upstairs, Goofy spotted a V-Max and said that with a few tools and ten minutes, he’d could have walked out with the carburetors (His V-Max is having carb trouble).
Project Bikes With As-Is Tags
Up near the building they had project bikes I’d never seen there before. Each one had a fair price and a tag on the back listing what it needed, like a brake cylinder rebuild or a rear subframe. I liked that. A BMW with a high-mileage, needs-a-brake-part setup was around $1,200 to $1,300 and looked decent. The FJR needed everything. I was eyeing it, and when I got home I looked it up. The rear subframe is a known issue on the Gen 2 FJRs. The part is only about $300, but you have to tear a lot apart to get to it. Goofy pointed out that’s a big chunk of what the bike is worth, and I doubt fixing it would raise the value much. I’ve already got a project bike in the garage, so I’m in no rush.
Service Talk
Trekkie is dropping off his Speed Twin on Tuesday to get his new X-Pipe installed, and he told them there’s no hurry. His main note about Martin Moto is that the service side can be pricey, and they won’t answer emails and don’t love the phone. Face to face is how you get things done.
Smaller Bikes and Riding the Same Roads
What Trekkie Wants Next
The 650 got Trekkie thinking about what he’d actually like to have. He’d rather go smaller, like a Triumph 400 or even a Rebel 500 for comfort, though he has no garage room and no money in the pot, so it stays a distant dream. His Speed Twin’s rear end is a sore spot. With his weight, the preload is maxed, and he says it’s about as stiff as a penny farthing. I had a caution on the Rebels. I got behind a new rider on what looked like a Rebel 300, and he looked horribly cramped for a taller guy. I’d want to sit on one first. Goofy pointed out that even the 1100s look small compared with a lot of what’s out there.
Riding the Same Roads on Camera
That led to a conversation about riding the same roads over and over. Trekkie feels isolated where he lives and has done everything nearby. Goofy said he rides the same loops all the time too, and even switches his route home so he has something new to film. Trekkie’s take was that he’s jealous of how Goofy and I keep a natural flow going while riding. For him, the location carries the video. For us, the talking does. Goofy added that I can’t do any of it around other people. I get real stage fright, so podcasting works for me because there’s nobody actually in the room.
Cardo vs Sena Group Intercom Setup Problems
This is the part that took over the episode. All three of us are Sena guys, and Sena is easy. Pop up the antenna, press the button, and you’re on the mesh. Cardo is another story. Goofy says we spent longer in my garage trying to figure it out than we did at Martin Moto (that is an exaggeration but we spent way longer than we should have trying to get synced up).
Here’s how it went from Trekkie’s side. I created a group and he joined, and everything was fine. Then Goofy tried to bring Pat in and that didn’t work, so a second group got created, and after that Trekkie couldn’t hear Goofy and Goofy couldn’t hear him. It didn’t help that Pat’s older Cardo won’t take the firmware update for open mesh, so pairing a new unit with an older one is a slow process that isn’t user friendly. When Goofy got home, Pat had already sent him a YouTube video showing that connecting Cardos is basically one button. Goofy admitted that when he showed up at my house he didn’t even know how to turn his on. Goofy’s plan is to film the one-button method next time and see if it works.
To be fair to Cardo, I think once the groups are set up, it should auto-connect with nearby riders. The setup process is the problem. It has features I like too, including crash detection and auto on and off. Trekkie says the conversation recording is a killer feature for vloggers. It records to the unit first, and you have to let it transfer to your phone before you power down. He thinks the quality is good enough to use as a guide track for syncing better audio. Goofy is already thinking about using it for a dual vlog with another creator, where the two of them ride separately and talk over the phone.
The other thing we agreed on is that these units are expensive. A Packtalk Edge runs $300 to $400, and most of us only use comms when we ride together. Goofy mostly rides solo with music on the bike, and Trekkie says he only wears his when he’s out with us. Trekkie has two helmets, one with a Sena and one with a Cardo, so whoever’s riding decides which helmet he grabs. Goofy and I run the same setup. Trekkie’s verdict on getting the two systems to talk to each other is that they need to be interoperable, or we’ll all be back to yogurt pots on a string.
My Sena is five years old now, and it’s starting to give me trouble. I only get audio out of one speaker unless I reseat the pins, so I need some electronic cleaner. We met around late 2020 or early 2021, and it wasn’t long after that first group ride that we all bought units. That’s when Goofy and I decided being at the front and back of a group with comms was worth it.
Ride With Me
If you enjoyed this recap, the best thing you can do is subscribe to the WaltInPA YouTube channel for more riding content. Share this post with a friend who rides, and come hang out in the WaltInPA Discord, where good people talk about riding (and where Spiff may be getting a name change).
Both of my co-hosts on this one have channels of their own. Check out Trekkie’s channel, TrekkieMoto, and Goofy’s channel, Goofy Bastard.
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