Ep 8: Motorcycle Fun with Jesse Murphy of Cascade Motorcycle Safety
Hear from life-long rider turned motorcycle safety (and fun!) coach, Jesse Murphy, about how his love of motorcycles developed, how he became an "anything with wheels" motorcyclist, and about his work with Cascade Motorcycle Safety, a pacific northwest motorcycle safety training organization. I met Jesse seeing one of their Street Skills classes operate at Pacific Raceway a few years ago, and was struck by how accessible and encouraging their learning environment was, and by how much fun their participants had for their first day on the track (which isn't always the case for first-time-track-riders with traditional track day organizations.
You'll also hear about a few of the rider training offerings available through Cascade, based in the pacific northwest of the USA.
Cascade Motorcycle Safety is a sponsor of CW Moto Racing, our MotoAmerica Superbike program (thanks to a reconnection made by friend-of-the-team Derek Roberts with Law Tigers of Washington.
Key Points From This Episode:
The story of how Jesse and Sara met one another.
Jesse introduces himself and his business to listeners.
The story of how he first got into motorsports.
Learning to ride from his father and grandfather.
How he grew to love so many different aspects of motorcycles.
Why he recommends that everyone tries different kinds of riding.
How Cascade Motorcycle Safety makes the sport accessible to everyone.
How his experience in snow sports influenced his approach to motorcycles.
His belief that anything that can be taught is achievable.
The true role of a coach.
What Jesse finds most exciting about the future of motorcycling.
The crucial role of mentors and coaches to keep people in the sport.
Why Gymkhana is one of the most exciting things coming up.
The history of Moto Gymkhana.
Why it is so important to maintain your passion for the sport.
Where to find Cascade and its sister websites online.
How to get the inside scoop on Cascade events: subscribe!
For more information about Cascade Motorcycle Safety, visit: http://cascademotosafety.com , or connect via social media with @cascademotosafety . Additional links and full show notes will be available at http://cwmoto.com/themotocurious .
Have questions for The Moto Curious? Drop me an email at sara at cw moto dot com!
Tweetables:
“I’ve always been looking for new experiences and there’s just so much fun to have on a motorcycle.” — Jesse Murphy [0:20:56]
“Lack of access to training shouldn’t be a barrier. There are great options out there.” — Sara Lobkovich [0:25:01]
“Pretty much anything that you can get education for and support for, these are all things that humans can do.” — Jesse Murphy [0:29:20]
“We’re here to support a journey and to give good and reasonable feedback and mentorship, but at the end of the day, we’re here to help foster and continue the dreams of the people that want to do it.” — Jesse Murphy [0:30:00]
“In snow sports and in motorcycling, I found great coaches that help me stay in the sport, and some help cement my love of the sport.” — Sara Lobkovich [0:31:43]
“One of the really exciting things right now is that people are discovering and in some cases, inventing different aspects and pursuits and pathways for what is essentially motorcycling.” — Jesse Murphy [0:35:14]
“It takes great mentors and coaches to keep folks in the sport.” — Sara Lobkovich [0:38:18]
“There’s no limit to what we can try in the sport. Just give it a whirl, find your people, give it a whirl.” — Sara Lobkovich [0:47:42]
Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:
Full Transcript:
EPISODE 8
[INTRODUCTION]
[0:00:03.1] SL: Welcome to The Moto Curious. We’re to increase access and inclusion in motorsports especially motorcycling, one question and answer at a time. I’m your host, Sara Lobkovich. I’m a highly trained, still slow motorcyclist, but the rider I am today is not the rider I’ll always be, right, Coach Nick? And I co-own CW Moto Racing, currently campaigning in the Stock 1000 class in Moto America. My husband, Chris, crew chiefs the team and operates counterweight motorsport, a Pacific Northwest great shop focused on excellence and innovation.
We build fast bikes for serious riders, we also focus on developing hard-working talent who may not otherwise have access to the national paddock in our sport. Drop me your questions at sara@cwmoto.com, that’s sara@cwmoto.com and we’re @cw_moto everywhere on social and @themotocurious on Instagram. If you are hearing my voice, you belong here and I am excited to have you as part of our community of motorcycle-curious people. So let’s get this episode started.
[0:01:28.8] SL: Hey friends, I am super excited to share this episode of the Moto Curios with you. I got the chance a couple of weeks ago to sit down with Jesse Murphy, the owner, and operator of Cascade Motorcycle Safety here in the Pacific Northwest and Jesse and I met a few years ago, and we talk about that during our conversation, the circumstances of how we met, and why we’ve stayed in touch.
We also talk about Cascade Motorcycle Safety, which is the business that Jesse operates, which is an incredible training and learning environment for motorcyclists in Washington State. I actually recommend their classes to people, even if you have to travel to participate in them. They have courses and learning experiences and community for fun on your motorcycle that we don’t see in most motorcycle training organizations.
Their name is Cascade Motorcycle Safety but I remember when we started working with Jesse last year on their sponsorship of our race team, CW Moto Racing, I remember Jesse saying, “I wish I’d named it Cascade Motorcycle Fun instead of Cascade Motorcycle Safety” because part of the way that they work is that yes, it is about learning, it is about safety training but the message is that learning how to improve your skills on your bike makes riding more fun and less stressful.
So I’m going to just get us right into the interview. Jesse and I had a very long conversation so I’ve tried to edit this to a length that you can listen to during a commute or a dog walk. We might share some shorts though because there were some really good bits that we had to cut to get this down. So I don’t think this is the last you’ll hear from Jesse on the Moto Curious.
Before we roll the interview though, I wanted to let you know we are now into our Moto America Season. CW Moto Racing recently announced that we are stepping up to Superbike. The move from Stock 1000 to Superbike is a huge one for our little team. It also came ahead of schedule but when we saw the Moto America schedule for this season come out and there were some shifts to the Stock 1000 calendar and number of race rounds.
When we saw that Stock 1000 wasn’t going to be running in the West Coast races, we had to make a really tough decision about whether to change bike platforms to operate in another class or whether to step up to Superbike earlier than we planned. So we decided on door number two, we are recently back from our first race round as a Superbike team. We are really excited to be working with Benjamin Smith this year.
He finished fourth in the Supersport Championship last year, really talented guy. I’m really personally impressed with his work ethic and the first time I got to work with Ben was on the ground for the first race around in Atlanta. I was really impressed with the intelligence that I saw in his race decision-making. So the team is very excited to work with Ben and with the sponsor, John Cook, who is the operator of Track Day Winner. Track Day organization that operates mostly in the southeast of the US.
I will, of course, share more about our Moto America season. As we get into the season, we’re headed to Barber Motor Sports Park in Birmingham, Alabama next. They mixed up the order of the race rounds for this year, compared to the last few. So I’m excited and a little nervous to go to Barber this early in the season but will be there with Ben on our superbike and then we’re also providing some technical support to Mallory Dobbs. Malory is also riding the Ducati Richmond, Ducati Hypermotard in the Super Hooligans Class this year.
So we’ll see Mallory on the Hooligan next at the Ridge Round later this season, our home round. In the meantime, I just want to give a big thank you to Jesse for joining us today. I also want to give a huge thank you to Jesse ad his team for the support that you all provide for CW Moto Racing and of course, some extra love to Derek Roberts and Law Tigers of Washington for reintroducing me to Jesse last season.
So now, we’ll hit play on my conversation with Jesse from Cascade Motorcycle Safety.
[INTERVIEW]
[0:06:25.9] SL: Well, thank you so much for making the time to get together. I know this is like, long overdue. So –
[0:06:32.5] JM: I know.
[0:06:34.6] SL: I’m glad we were able to make it work. Jesse and I met, I don’t remember how many years ago and I don’t know if I’ve even told you the whole story of that day. I was coaching for a track day org at the time and the track day org that I worked with had a shared day with Jesse’s org, Cascade Motorcycle Safety.
It was a split day so we had two track day sessions and then Jesse’s group had the third session for it. Skills, like street strategies on the track, advanced training on the track and I had an awful day at that track day. That combined format where we have a slow intermediate group and then –
[0:07:23.6] JM: Oh yes.
[0:07:23.4] SL: An intermediate fast group. It makes the slow group faster and I was coaching a brand-new rider and it was a – I will say, it was not my most fun day on the race track and so every time I come off the track and I’d look over and see your group smiling and having a blast, I wanted to hand my student off to you that day because she would have had so much more fun with you guys and so I met you and Brandy that day and was just excited to see that they’re, you know, it’s so hard to find options for awesome training and that’s what we’re going to talk about today.
But I was really excited to meet you guys and see that you’re doing this so close to home. So tell me who you are and what you do, Jesse.
[0:08:11.4] JM: Okay. Well, I’m Jesse Murphy. I own Cascade Motorcycle Safety with my wife, Brandy. I’ve been involved in coaching, most of my life actually. I started coaching in professionally in snow sports in the 90s and then started as a motorcycle coach in the early 2000s and I, well, it kind of feels like a support group.
I am addicted to motorcycles, I love motorcycles, I like riding, and I like helping other people become dependent on riding their motorcycle every single day. It’s just my thing. I’ve been riding a long time and yeah, it’s just the enthusiasm never wanes and I’m always looking for the next time I get on my bike.
[0:08:56.1] SL: Tell me what is Cascade and how did you get started there.
[0:09:00.1] JM: Yeah, so Cascade is a motorcycle school most of what we do is fairly familiar to most riders. We do classes using the motorcycle safety foundation curriculum and that includes testing for your motorcycle endorsement. That’s the pathway a lot of riders take getting into riding street bikes and getting licensed.
We also provide a lot of other programs beyond that but that’s kind of the meat and potatoes and we’re up here in Northwest Washington, Skagit County, Whatcom County island, and I kind of up where it’s unfortunately not very springy yet but a wonderful place to be and got a lot of great places to go ride up here. So we feel very fortunate to be up here.
[0:09:51.3] SL: Yeah, I think it started hailing during my last meeting.
[0:09:55.0] JM: Oh, I bet, yeah.
[0:09:58.0] SL: I’m ready for spring, Jesse.
[0:10:01.0] JM: Yeah, I am too. Although, yesterday at the game was like, how amazingly awesome is my riding gear doing keeping me dry and warm today?
[0:10:12.4] SL: That’s so good.
[0:10:13.1] JM: So that was the performance award of the day but yeah.
[0:10:17.2] SL: Awesome. Well, we’ll come back, I have more questions for you about Cascade Motorcycle Safety but first, I just want to hear more about your story. So you said you’ve been coaching for a long time, kind of came out of snow sports, that’s interesting, I came out of – well, I kind of climbing in snow sports and motorcycling all at the same time.
[0:10:35.8] JM: Nice.
[0:10:36.4] SL: So, but how did you originally get into motorsports and motorcycling?
[0:10:41.4] JM: A big part of it was family and so my grandfather, Chad, was a huge influence on me and of course, my dad, riding with him. I started out on the front of course, because I was tiny on his Honda 450 scrambler, which I actually have that bike in the garage right now. We’re working on refreshing it a little bit.
But when I was that young, so I got to sit up front which is amazing and the handlebars had like a crossbar because it was the scrambler and I remember, my dad had this blue velour bathrobe and he took the belt off of it and so he tied this together with his blue velour bathroom belt to make sure I didn’t fall off because I had – I had this bad habit.
So we go for a ride and I can remember like, we’d go visit his friends Ken Nevat. They lived kind of on the other side of the valley and I wouldn’t always stay awake on the ride home. So it was good to be tied together and there are scratches on the tank from my helmet. You know, I had like the old three-quarter helmets that had little snaps on the ground.
There’s a scratch or two on the tank from my helmet while I’m asleep and of course, on the – you know, so I’m this little kid and I had these really cool, you know, for a little kid, cowboy boots, that was my motorcycle riding boots and so my foot on the one side could rest on the engine case and then on the other side, I could rest it on the heat shield for the pipes because it had high scrambler pipes on it and so they’re still a little stained from some of the soles of my boot on the exhaust pipe on that bike.
[0:12:23.3] SL: Oh, my goodness. I knew when you said, bathrobe belt, I was like, he’s falling asleep like that’s definitely our era of parenting version of safety equipment.
[0:12:38.4] JM: Well, yeah. I mean, you can’t have your kid falling off your motorcycle.
[0:12:43.4] SL: Of course not.
[0:12:44.5] JM: So you got to make sure they’re attached. Oh, but just such great memories and you know, I remember, one of my favorite things when I’d be riding just cruising down the highway is when you’d get into an area where the sunshine is like coming really far from the side and just make that big shadow of the wheel to the side and in front of you and I would just watch that forever.
It just is mesmerizing and you know, I just really like that stuff and yeah, it was a lot of fun. So that’s kind of where it started for me is just being with my family and doing that and yeah, pretty much, my entire life growing up, I’m like, “Well, you know, this is great.” Although I must say, I’ve done a lot of things on motorcycles and had a huge amount of fun but not being responsible for riding the bike.
But still getting to sit up front as a three-year-old, that is the pinnacle of the most amazing motorcycling you can have and I remember, as I got older, I graduated somewhat, you know, to the backseat of the bike because I was getting too tall to sit in front of my dad. I was like, “Well, this is okay, I got to look around.”
[0:14:03.2] SL: Yeah. It’s a step-down.
[0:14:06.5] JM: Yeah, it’s a step-down. Now I really, really, really need to learn how to ride my own motorcycle because that’s just going to be a lot better but yeah, so that’s kind of where it started. I discovered skateboarding and snowboarding and you know, that was something that I could do without any supervision.
So, that was pretty great as a young child and so I did a lot of that. I really poured my effort and so once I was in high school, that’s when I was able to get really serious about riding, get my first street bike and once I had my first street bike, that was pretty much how I got around as much as I could unless there was snow and ice on the ground I was on my bike, which was a lot of fun.
I remember strapping my snowboard and my riding great to the backseat of the bike and riding across town to catch a ride up to the mountain in the springtime to go snowboarding and so that was pretty exciting and lots of fun but yeah, and then yes, so pretty much since high school I’ve been on the streets, riding around and did my fair share of rather silly things.
[0:15:12.0] SL: Learning experiences.
[0:15:14.4] JM: Oh my God, yeah. I remember the first time that I just dropped the clutch and went, I was leaving school in the afternoon and kind of going down a side street you know, and just being a teenager. I’m just like, “Yeah, all right”, just went like through about like three gears. No idea how fast I’m going at all but it was fast and just the side streets.
You know, because this is just like a neighborhood street and the side streets and the driveways are coming up, you know, like in Star Wars just – I’m like, “This is just monumentally stupid” and just rolled out of it and I’m like, “That was super exciting but I need to find a better place to go do that” because that could have been terrifying.
So but yeah, you know, you grow up through that but I was really fortunate. My mentors were Grandpa Chad and my dad and his brother and just really good heads-Bon-straight riders and I got to spend so much time riding motorcycles with them that that made a big difference for me. That was really kind of my mentorship and my training.
Actually, there wasn’t too much available at that time, education-wise in Montana. They did have a state-run program but I didn’t really know about it and the classes would stop because they’d, you know, they’d maybe do like a dozen classes of summer. That was it for the whole state and so I think it was like, three years.
Yeah, maybe three years or so into riding, I was like, “You know, what the heck, I’ll take a class and you know, see if can get some coaching on this and stuff.” So I did and it was a huge amount of fun and it was fun. Montana is a pretty small state and riding community. So both of my coaches in that class are people that already know and ridden with and so it was kind of cool and then the other thing was, is I took that class with my best friend.
Who did not have a motorcycle license and he putted around a little bit. His dad had always been a street rider, pretty much commuted back and forth on his motorcycle and so we took the class together. So that was part of the impetus to do it was to do the class with Josh and that was pretty fun. He ended up getting his license and you know, he’d take my bike around a little bit now and again. So it was pretty fun but yeah, lots of experimentation for sure.
[0:17:53.1] SL: That’s a nice way to say it.
[0:17:55.0] JM: Yeah, so yeah but fortunately yeah, I had really great mentors around me, you know? And it’s not such bad thing for a person to grow up in a smaller community where people know who you are.
[0:18:06.9] SL: Yup, yeah. You might gone to – I was just talking with – I had an incredible Lyft driver, Parrish, I hope you’re listening. I had an incredible Lyft driver when I was in Baltimore last week and we were talking about the difference between, for example, me growing up in Port Townson where the police officers were officer friendly, and then the difference my husband had growing up in PG County in the 80s where you know, yeah, different places, different things, different life experiences for sure.
[0:18:44.5] JM: Oh, totally.
[0:18:45.5] SL: And I’m grateful my early speeding, not that I would ever speed, of course.
[0:18:49.4] JM: Right, no, of course not.
[0:18:51.7] SL: But I’ll say, I’m grateful my early learning experiences were in Port Townson and not somewhere else, yeah, I’m with you.
[0:18:58.0] JM: Totally, yeah.
[0:19:00.2] SL: Well, it is so cool to hear you talk about that kind of three-year-old Jesse on the bike and remembering everything that had actually – I do a lot of appreciative inquiry work in my day job. That’s when we look at like, instead of, “What’s going wrong and how do we fix it?” we look at, “What’s going well and how do we do more of it?”
[0:19:21.6] JM: Oh nice.
[0:19:22.9] SL: And listening to you tell that story was like, this is a peak moment story I’m listening to right now. Like the way that you remember it and the impact that it had on you, it’s like that’s pretty cool to hear a peak moment happening at three years old on a motorcycle, explains kind of you know, that and then having that mentorship and having motorcycles be so normal.
One of the things I love about you is, you do it all, you love it all. I don’t think I know anyone else who has got like, you’re a racing fan, you're a racing supporter, you support us in CW Moto. We were up with you in Cascade a couple of weeks ago in Mount Vernon.
[0:20:04.8] JM: That country discovery route expedition documentary.
[0:20:10.6] SL: The backcountry just.
[0:20:11.0] JM: Their names are so long, yup.
[0:20:13.0] SL: The Oregon Backcountry Discovery Route movie, which movie screening which was amazing.
[0:20:19.0] JM: So much fun.
[0:20:20.1] SL: Yeah, it’s just, it’s been really fun. We got reintroduced, I have to give a shoutout to Derek at Law Tigers because Derek, it was last year. I think early in the year, Derek was like, “You know what? You guys should know each other” and I’m like, “Wait, we already do.”
[0:20:37.6] JM: Yeah.
[0:20:37.2] SL: It’s just been a while and so a big thank you to Derek for making that reconnection but it is, like, every time we get together, it’s like, you do it all. There’s kind of nothing you don’t do in the sport, which I think is just really cool.
[0:20:52.4] JM: Yeah, and I’ve always, I don’t know, it’s – I’ve always been looking for new experiences and I don’t know, it’s just, there’s so much fun to have on a motorcycle and yeah, you know, there’s – Now, granted, I’m in a very unique position to have a lot of experiences on motorcycles, which I’m so fortunate for.
But you know, there are a lot of experiences that really everybody can kind of get into. Yeah, like, we went to – because I’m a huge fan of motorcycle racing, especially road racing and really if I’m honest, I’m a sport bike rider at heart. That’s really where I’m at, right?
I ride all the different kinds of motorcycles and I enjoy them all and I have pretty much every costume you can have in the closet, and it’s really fun and you know, sometimes it’s like, “Ooh, it’s kind of Halloween motorcycle style” which is totally cool.
We did a trip in February to Vegas who went to a trade show down there and I’m like, “Well, gosh, you know, we’re in the desert, it’s February, we need to get some big American touring bikes, and ride around in the desert with the stereo on because we’re in Vegas, you got to do it.”
[0:22:11.9] SL: When in Vegas, yup, yeah.
[0:22:14.8] JM: And so we did. It was an absolute hoot and so much fun and you know, yeah, I don’t have a Harley in the garage right now but it’s kind of one of those things of like, yup, there are times when I’m ready to be on a bagger, cruising around with the rock and roll station on the radio and then there are other times where I am on my sport bike or I’m on my adventure bike or lately the new thing I’m trying to not look terribly silly doing is riding trials motorcycles.
[0:22:42.4] SL: Wow.
[0:22:42.7] JM: Which are so much fun, just an absolute hoot. Although, it’s a total workout.
[0:22:48.9] SL: Seriously. That’s one of the things, you know, I am also a sport bike girl at heart but lately, due to some health issues, I’m not able to do what I have always done. I have to pace myself on the sport bikes and so, that’s one of the things I’m most excited about this season is, knowing you guys, and the last time I saw Brandy, like, just come ride in the front yard, like come on up, you know?
And so the idea knowing that if I’m in a season where I might not necessarily be working on personal best on the race track, I can come up to a Gymkhana. I can – you know, there are still lots of new things to learn and practice and work on in the sport that –
[0:23:35.4] JM: Oh yeah.
[0:23:37.3] SL: That happen at the pace that my vision moves at right now that is different than it used to be.
[0:23:42.7] JM: Oh, for sure, yeah and there’s just so many things you can do. And I think that’s an important thing for people to take stock to that every once in a while and be like, “You know, let me do a little bit different riding” you know, just to have a different experience.
It doesn’t even necessarily have to be on a different bike but you know, for maybe for someone who only rides recreationally on the weekend, pack your lunch and your coffee and a thermos and commute to work, you know? And do something a little different and just get a different experience for what you’re doing. I think that is a really valuable thing.
[0:24:18.2] SL: I hadn’t thought about that. One of the things I love about Cascade is, I mean, seeing you guys operate, I could see that let’s just be honest, like, learning how to ride a motorcycle and then getting into the sport is a leaky pipeline, you know? There are people who are probably – I mean, I hear it all the time, “I’d love to learn to ride but I’m just too scared” like too nervous, or “I don’t know where to start” and so, I carry around a huge pile of your business cards. I have told people in Alabama to fly in out for a weekend to come see us.
[0:24:52.1] JM: Heck yeah.
[0:24:52.9] SL: You know, anywhere in the country, come on out, book ahead because Cascade’s events tend to sell out but you know, but lack of access to training shouldn’t be a barrier. There are great options out there but it was one of the things I was most impressed with seeing you guys operate because I didn’t have mentors starting out. I just decided I wanted to do this.
[0:25:16.1] JM: Nice.
[0:25:17.4] SL: And took my training and kind of stayed in the sport, despite my training and so then to get to see, you know, to get to see folks having a great time with your events and see not only do you patch up that leaky pipeline by being inclusive and fun and you know, emphasizing that the learning helps you have more fun on the bike.
[0:25:45.5] JM: Yes.
[0:25:45.5] SL: But also that you have such diversity of events, also helps the leaky pipeline because you know, folks like me who might have hit a point where I can’t necessarily do what I’ve always done on the bike. But now, thanks to you guys, I know there’s a million other ways to ride a motorcycle. Like, I can stay in the sport even if I’m going to season wear.
It's a little different for me. So how did you kind of compared? I mean, I’m not going to say compared to other educational offerings but like, how did you wind up so focused on inclusion and fun in your programs with Cascade?
[0:26:27.1] JM: You know, it’s been kind of the whole journey as a coach and my own education a little bit. I actually got into being a coach in snow sports like I mentioned. I’d been an athlete in high school in regional competition for snowboarding. I race snowboards and also competed in freestyle. Huge amount of fun, tons of work, tons of pretty hard work, and the way I did it, I really kind of wore myself out.
I ended up kind of getting very sick, mostly because of just doing too much and that kind of brought an end to my junior year of high school. So I didn’t get to finish and at that point in time, I’ve always enjoyed learning things and learning how to do new things. It’s always like that but then, on the other hand, I had some really sub-optimal experiences in school and it really kind of came to a head once I got sick and wasn’t able to finish my junior year because then I had to go back and like, “Okay, so you know, what are we going to do here?”
“How do we go forward with high school?” and I had some supportive teachers and then I had some other teachers who are like, “Ah, you know just go get your GED and get yourself a job at McDonald’s” and I’m like, “Wow, okay” then of course, trying to recover from being – I was sick for like a month and a half or something like that including being in the hospital for a while. So just kind of come to recover.
So by the end of the summer, I had a friend of mine who suggested, “Hey, you know you should see about being a snowboard coach up at the mountain this winter.” I was like, “Huh, I never thought about that” and then that person started talking to the other person in my circles and they were like, “We should all just kind of gang up on him to tell him to go do this.” So definitely my life has been filled with great mentors and people looking out for me.
So I did, I got involved in coaching, absolutely loved doing it and I found myself in an environment of learning new things and really progressed really quickly in that profession. You can’t make assumptions on the front end of, “Well, who is going to be a motorcycle rider and who’s not going to be a motorcycle rider?” Who is going to be a snowboarder and who’s not going to be or who is going to be a high school graduate and who’s not going to be?
That’s a really important point for me is that pretty much anything that you can get education for and support for, these are all things that humans can do. A human being can ride a motorcycle. The level of support an individual human being might need to ride a motorcycle competently, well, that can be drastically different between individuals and that’s okay but these things are for bringing joy into lives of humans.
So if you’re in that group, you can be a rider! And that’s where I feel that the education aspect has really come from. We’re here to support a journey and to give good and reasonable feedback and mentorship, but at the end of the day, we’re here to help foster and continue the dreams of the people that want to do it and I think that’s like anything in life. If you want to do something, it does have to come from your own passion and your own desire.
But those that support you in that shouldn’t be putting up roadblocks to that. They should be ready to help and ready to provide, ready to keep you honest because you need that in life and in development but to really be in your corner. So that is a big part of it for me is that it has to be fun, it has to be inclusive, it has to be about fostering the passion because then you’re going to get good at it.
[0:30:57.9] SL: Right. It’s so cool, there is so much kind of – there is so much emphasis on naturals in our sport, and same thing in snow sports. I mean, you know there’s so much emphasis on natural talent and on being a natural and I know when we got into – I mean, for me as a coach, for me as a learner, and then me as a coach, I wasn’t a natural at any of this. It’s all passion, you know?
So I am really grateful for having found coaches that could see that I might not be a natural but man, I am stubborn AF and I am going to figure it out, you know? So in snow sports and in motorcycling, same thing like I found great coaches that help me stay in the sport and some help cement my love of the sport but boy, in racing you know since I’ve moved in professional racing, it’s almost hard.
There is so much emphasis on that natural talent that we occasionally work with naturals who need to learn how to be athletes and who need to like learn how to put in the work and that’s not to say they’re not putting in a lot of work. It’s just you’re a little unique because I think you were a natural but you get it. You get that not everybody is and you are able to help riders who, you know, I appreciate what you said about you can’t look at somebody and know who’s going to be a motorcyclist.
[0:32:33.9] JM: No, yeah.
[0:32:34.9] SL: Because for a lot of my years on motorcycles, people have looked at me and said, “You’re not going to be a motorcyclist” and I mean, there are certain things I’m not the best in the world at but I also really love the role I get to play in the sport.
[0:32:51.8] JM: Yeah, exactly.
[0:32:54.7] SL: And without folks kind of inviting and helping patch up that leaky pipeline, we just lose too many. We lose too many folks from the sport.
[0:33:04.0] JM: Totally. Totally, you know? Because it can’t be a thing where people feel that you have to be a certain way or a certain level or enjoy certain aspects of it. It has to be down to the passion of the person, you know? I mean sometimes, you watch Instagram and you’re like, “Well if you’re not doing 12:00 wheelies and stoppies then like would you even ride?”
[0:33:33.2] SL: Why are you even out here? Yeah.
[0:33:34.9] JM: Yeah, “Do you even ride bro?” and it’s like, “Well, oh yeah” there’s so many aspects to riding a motorcycle and so many reasons and joys from it and yeah, it doesn’t have to be a death-defying thing. It can be but it doesn’t have to be and it can be everything from a very peaceful exploration of the world around you to very much an athletic pursuit but it’s not for us to say what that is for the rider.
That is for the rider to choose and reach out to get support in fulfilling those dreams and that joy, so yeah.
[0:34:14.9] SL: Yeah. Well, what excites you most about the present and the future you see for motorcycles and motorsports?
[0:34:23.4] JM: You know, I think that there’s so many more places for motorcycling in people’s lives you know you see and I see there’s a lot of – I don’t know that splintering is the right word but just a huge amount of variation right now in a powered two-wheeler and frankly, you look at a lot of these larger e-bikes, electric bikes and it’s like, “Let’s see, we got two-wheel frame, motor, I’m thinking around 1890, they would have called that a motorcycle.”
[0:35:04.4] SL: Yep, yep.
[0:35:05.9] JM: It’s the same thing, but it’s totally cool. It’s a different avenue, it is a different aspect of it, but I think that that’s one of the really exciting things right now is that people are discovering and, in some cases, inventing different aspects and pursuits and pathways for what is essentially motorcycling and whether or not we even call it motorcycling, you know? It’s maybe e-cycling in the future, and that’s okay.
It’s really a very similar thing. So I think that’s really cool, just the way that the basis of what the core, I guess, joys of a motorcycle, how much that is spreading into things that might look like slightly different pursuits but really at the end of the day aren’t, it’s that individual freedom of mobility on a very elegant and sophisticated but simple machine and I think that’s something that I think brings a lot of spark to the human spirit.
You know, there’s something about moving with the machine that way even if it’s a bicycle with the cart and the spokes, there is a magic to that and so I see a lot of magic out there and so that’s what I’m probably most excited about is just how much magic there is out there and I think that’s on the uptick and how much there is.
[0:36:45.4] SL: Yeah, it makes me – in my – so I mean, I coach in a lot of different directions but in my day job coaching, there are moments where I work with folks who don’t have a passion outlet in their existence. You know, it’s often knowledge workers, so folks that get up, that sit at a computer that don’t necessarily and some who would love what they do, you know? But who don’t have that element of their life that gets them outside with the wind in their hair or against your helmet or whatever the case may be.
It is really hard for me because of my dual life to not say, “You know, you should try motorcycling” like what’s the thing? Is there that thing that you think, “Well, I’ve always wanted to but I could never” like that is that I’ve always wanted to but I could never because you can and it’s just a matter of you know, finding a way to try or to get started. So that’s my thing, I just wish that you know, I can’t say that to my corporate coaching clients.
[0:37:58.8] JM: I know.
[0:37:59.3] SL: But I want to a lot, it’s that you know, what would light you up and I mean, I feel lucky that I’ve got a few different of those things in my life but I am really grateful for folks like you, folks like my great coaches that I had that help keep me in the sport because it takes great mentors and coaches to keep folks in the sport. Tell me what you’re excited about with Cascade this season.
[0:38:27.9] JM: You know, actually personally, the Gymkhana sessions, I didn’t get to ride enough of those at all last year and so I’m super excited to get out to more of those this year. There are a few loose ends I’ve been working on, on my riding and that’s kind of my favorite place to go, kind of laboratory stuff out because there is so much I can do there. So I enjoy that a lot and it is just an absolute hoot being there, meeting riders and just having a good time and that’s one of my highlights of riding is being there for that.
[0:39:06.7] SL: For folks that don’t know what Gymkhana is, tell us about Gymkhana.
[0:39:11.2] JM: So Cascade Gymkhana, well, we’re on a podcast, let’s go long form here a little bit. So anyway, in Japan years and years ago, there was this thing called Moto Gymkhana was developed and it was actually started off as a competitive pursuit and so probably the easiest thing for any of us in America to kind of correlate it to somewhat, well I mean, you know if you are a motor head is it’s kind of like autocross for motorcycles.
So there’s these courses that are set up and it’s a time trial, so against the clock and it’s all challenging turns and maneuvers and figures and things like that and you watch it, you can find videos on YouTube. You watch and it’s like, “Wow, the people that compete in this, just amazing” absolutely amazing. It also is just really fun because it’s like, “Oh my gosh, lots of maneuvering and turning and there’s fast and there’s slow and all sorts of different stuff.
So anyway, I’ve always kind of had an eye on it in the last number of years, and then I saw a YouTube video and I’m assuming that there is more than one place that has this but I found this video from a place in Japan, basically, it is a motorcycle country club and they have like these big paved lots and they have set up all these Gymkhana figures set up and it’s just like you know, different sections have different stuff set up.
I mean, it is like a golf country club. You get on your bike, you can leave the house in the morning, go into the country club, you have a membership and whatever, and you spend your day up there riding figures, having fun, having a hoot, working on your riding, whatever and I was like, “Wow, yeah I want that. I want to do that.” So that’s where we developed Cascade Gymkhana from is to have a place where riders can come ride and do it for whatever reason that they need to.
Some of us get the stopwatch out now and again, especially when the talk gets a little thick and just see who –
[0:41:39.2] SL: Always racing, always racing.
[0:41:41.1] JM: Yes, always racing. That does happen but no, for the most part, it’s just a place to ride and on your own terms as a rider. So we see a lot of folks like fresh out of their first-time motorcycle training, they just got their bike, they want to spend some time on their bike working it, doing way more than you’re going to do on public roads but in a safe environment and they are not looking for a coach to be like, you know, giving him a punch list of a dozen different things after each lap.
But maybe you know, they might be able to get some feedback from the other riders there, they might learn something from watching the other riders but mainly just ride, and then we also have some riders that we see often at Gymkhana that are absolute expert riders and this is kind of the outlet of, “I need to be at 110% of traction for three hours” and this is where they can do that.
[0:42:52.6] SL: Yeah, demonstrating the mastery of the sport.
[0:42:55.7] JM: Yeah, exactly.
[0:42:57.4] SL: And working toward mastery, yep.
[0:42:58.8] JM: So that’s really what Cascade Gymkhana is about. It’s about having a place to ride, having a place to ride where you can actually work on your riding and experiment and play around, very free form and also you know, kind of network with other riders and get that support and feedback from others, which a lot of times is just and I see it all the time at a Gymkhana session, somebody will ghost out on a figure.
Like I think one you and I talked about before, we have one called on your ass and that’s modeled after the Dutch TT and so it’s got all sorts of diabolical right-hand corners and the chicane and all that because, of course, we are a huge moto GP fans here and I remember seeing somebody put a line together through car-bought and you could just see all the other riders like, “Oh.”
Every single other rider is like, “Okay, that’s the line” and that’s fun, you know? Just that communal growth that riding together, watching each other, and learning from here, that is an aspect of mentorship that a lot of us don’t have access to. You know, that is part of what I had grown up is I can always ride with my dad and my grandfather and get some really solid mentorship but not a lot of riders have that and you know, we do see a lot more riders coming into this sport that they’re not maybe from a motorcycle family.
Honestly, this is where the conversation sounds a little bit like Hogwarts, it’s like, “Are your parents muggles or are they actual riders?” you know? But everybody is coming together to participate and learn from each other and yes, so it’s kind of that whole group community mentorship and building and it’s absolutely a great time. So it’s a three-hour riding session, we do them on Sundays.
Mainly, we schedule them so that as coaches we’re free to go ride because this is definitely one of those things where we’re like, “I want to do this as a rider” so.
[0:45:24.0] SL: We’ll we’ve talked a lot about working in this business, you have to put your own oxygen mask on first. You have to make sure that you get your – it can’t be all work.
[0:45:34.7] JM: Yes.
[0:45:35.5] SL: You have to maintain the love of the sport and so yeah. I mean, you set those for when you can be there and enjoy them for sure.
[0:45:44.1] JM: Oh yeah. Yeah, it makes a massive difference.
[0:45:48.1] SL: Well, Jesse, is there anything that I didn’t ask you today that I should have?
[0:45:54.0] JM: Oh boy, that’s always the hardest question for me because I’m just like once I get a push and a queue, you know I guess the biggest thing is, you know, my biggest message for the world is, hey, get on your bike, ride your motorcycle, don’t worry about what click you fit in, don’t worry about how you ride throughout. I mean, hey, you like to go push a Harley Davidson bagger way too fast on curvy roads or even take it to a racetrack?
Good, go do it or oh my gosh, you want to tour two up on a 150 Honda dual sport? Fine, do it, got to ride motorcycles. Find where the joy for you is and yeah, just get that. You don’t have to fit any preconception. All you have to do is ride your motorcycle and of course, I like to ride with everybody so come ride with me because it will be fun and I look forward to it.
[0:46:56.5] SL: So true and so good, it’s my Port Townsend’s kind of tagline is ‘we’re all here because we’re not all there’ and that’s how I feel about motorcycling. It’s so funny when we see the clicks because it’s like – I mean, we’re all here because we’re not all there. So you do you, man. What was – I had a girlfriend say the other day, “Don’t yuck someone else’s yum.”
[0:47:23.4] JM: Yes, exactly.
[0:47:25.9] SL: Yeah, we were really early. I was a really early adopter of the bagger’s racing like I watched the exhibition and I was the very first exhibition and I was glued to it and couldn’t – I mean, yeah, I just think there’s no limit to what we can try in the sport. Just give it a whirl, find your people, give it a whirl.
[0:47:50.2] JM: Yeah, totally. Yep.
[0:47:52.5] SL: Well Jesse, I just want to thank you for the role that you play in the sport that you and Cascade play. You know, it’s every time I see – every time I get the gift of seeing you guys operate, I can see there are people who are going to stay in the sport because of that experience they just had and man, the sport needs every participant to stay in it that we can get.
[0:48:17.6] JM: Oh for sure.
[0:48:18.7] SL: And more invited. So I just really appreciate what you guys do. It’s really fun to see and of course, we love that you’ve adopted us because it’s just so much fun to get to partner with you guys and you know, we had a contingent from Cascade out at the Moto America races at the Ridge last season, some of your coaches and folks and oh my gosh, it was just a blast.
It was so cool to see, you know they rode down and then to see folks like really get into the sport side. So I’m just really, you know, we’re loving –
[0:48:57.5] JM: Oh, they loved it.
[0:48:58.6] SL: Oh, it was so much fun. It’s so much fun to have fans come out and we’re going to – so folks who are listening, CW and the Moto Curious and Jesse at Cascade and Derek at Law Tigers and a few, Tim at Smarty Pants and you know, there are a couple other folks around, we’re going to make sure that we have a pretty rad ridge round this season with some pre-events and we’re going to try and put together a ride out to the Saturday-Sunday races, so stay tuned.
[0:49:30.2] JM: That will be so fun.
[0:49:30.9] SL: Yeah, we’ll have more information about the ridge round plans after we survive Atlanta.
[0:49:39.3] JM: That’s right.
[0:49:40.0] SL: We got through the first round and then we start planning the ridge round. Well, thank you so much, Jesse. It’s awesome to finally make this happen.
[0:49:49.1] JM: I know, this is excellent.
[0:49:51.4] SL: Tell me where folks can find more information about Cascade.
[0:49:56.9] JM: Okay. So on the Internet, our main website is cascademotosafety.com. We also have a couple of other sister sites for specialty programs, there is Prorider NW. Prorider is a police-style motorcycle training for mere mortals and regular people like us and then there is Cascade Moto Service where you can find out about getting lessons in how to maintain your motorcycle, which helps greatly once you start putting a lot of miles on it because then it’s going to need some care and feeding.
So we try to support the whole aspect of getting out there and finding as much joy as possible on motorcycles.
[0:50:52.8] SL: Then on the socials, where are you?
[0:50:55.6] JM: We’re on Facebook, Cascade Moto Safety on Facebook and Instagram handle is the same, Cascade Moto Safety and don’t be alarmed, there will definitely be more posts with Dr. Seuss characters and things like that. We are –
[0:51:13.4] SL: You do you, man.
[0:51:16.3] JM: We have a really hard time being super serious on social media.
[0:51:20.1] SL: That’s great and then I know I mentioned before, your events tend to sell out. So folks that really want the early scoop, do you have an email newsletter?
[0:51:30.2] JM: So what we have is for the specific events on our website, we do have email signups so that you can get on a list for that specific event. So as soon as the information is ready, it will go right to your inbox so you will be the first to know. Some of our events with those sorts of things we also send out the information emails a little bit ahead of making it publically live just to give those folks of going through the effort and getting some information a little head start on their planning on that. So yeah, check that out on our website.
[0:52:05.3] SL: Yeah and listeners, that’s not artificial scarcity. One of the things that we thought we would do as a team that is sponsored by Cascade is help drive awareness of your events and so far, it’s been like we have an event coming, we prep our social, it’s sold out.
[0:52:22.4] JM: Yes.
[0:52:23.8] SL: By the time we hit send, so yeah, that’s not artificial scarcity. If you are wanting to get the early word, definitely share that email address and then you’ll hear before things sell out.
[0:52:35.0] JM: Yep.
[0:52:35.7] SL: All right. Well Jesse, thank you so much. It’s great to see you.
[0:52:38.6] JM: Sara, this is amazing, so much fun. So glad to be on with you.
[END OF INTERVIEW]
[0:52:46.3] SL: All right friends, that’s all for today. Remember, drop me your questions at sara@cwmoto.com. I am A without an H, so it’s sara@cwmoto.com and we are @cw_moto everywhere in social media and @themotocurious on Instagram. You can also join our behind-the-scenes community, it’s hosted on Mighty Networks, it’s awesome. We’ll put some messages up about where to find that in our social media, you can click through and then if you really want to connect, that’s the place to do it.
We share extra behind-the-scenes updates and content from the paddock that we don’t share in other places since that is a smaller more intimate community of our closest fans and friends but if you are hearing this, you are welcome there as well. So check out our social media and you’ll find more information about the CW Moto-Moto America behind-the-scenes community that we host on Mighty Networks.
Thanks so much. If you enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe and tell your friends. We’re looking to get heard by more folks who are curious about the sport. We try really hard to reach and raise fans as well as their families and spouses and friends and other people who goodness gracious, don’t understand why we do this but are curious about it nonetheless. So we’d love your word of mouth and thanks again for tuning in. We’ll hope to see you this week while we’re out at the ridge.
[END]
