Descending off the high plains of panhandle Texas and into the desert and Mesa’s of New Mexico, the setting sun was splashing a kaleidoscope of color across the sky. Behind us, as darkness crapped over the canopy above, a full moon was rising behind our right shoulders. Mike was riding lead, his silhouette framed by the sinking sun, and I fell into a completely calm state, almost like a trance, and time seemed to stand still.
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It has been quite the holiday season already here in the United States. Although everyone celebrated Thanksgiving, it seems like Christmas decoration, sales, and the general spirit of the season began right after Halloween. So much of it is commerce-driven, of course, but I still love this season, when you peel back all of the extraneous layers
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I inquired as to what he knew about the part, and the vendor explained, “When Vincent ceased motorcycle production in the mid-1950s, the company kept manufacturing small displacement engines, for everything from small boats to lawn mowers. This is a casting from one of their lawn mower engines, I believe.” We haggled for a moment, and I bought the part, if for no other reason but the Vincent logo and inscription. It fascinated me, and sent me down a rabbit hole of moto-history I knew nothing about.
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Drew Perlmutter is a fascinating anachronism.
A younger Millennial born into the digital age of the internet and social media, Drew is nonetheless an outlier, a young man who doesn’t follow the crowd, doesn’t live or die by post clicks. He’d rather tinker on an old Honda Dream 305, his 1982 Gold Wing, or ride across the country on a motorcycle, tent camping along the way.
The first time I met Drew, after an hour of conversation I told him, “You have an old soul, and I mean that as a high compliment.” Though in his early 30s, Drew reminds me of the free spirit and heart for adventure that existed among my generation that came of age in the 1960s-70s. We grew up riding beater motorcycles, could tinker enough to keep them running or fix them, and we loved to see the world without windows and ceilings, riding and camping out in the elements.
Drew is cut from our cloth.
So when Lusso Leather reached out earlier this summer, offering me a custom tailored, fitted motorcycle jacket to ride with and review, I jumped at the chance. Lusso is a Canada-based leather apparel and accessories company, with a New York State distribution facility in Niagara Falls, that has begun offering motorcycling-specific jackets to the North American market. Their jackets and leather accessories are handcrafted in Turkey, then shipped to Canada and/or the upstate New York warehouse for distribution. Per their contact with me, “Our garments are manufactured in Turkey, where we work closely with skilled artisans to ensure high-quality craftsmanship and materials, especially for our motorcycle jacket line.”
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Roaming the seemingly endless aisles at the swap meet during this year’s 20th annual Barber Vintage Fest, I wasn’t looking for anything in particular. Some decorative old part or tool for my garage, maybe a pair of plastic turn signal covers to replace a couple of old glazing ones on my 1978 KZ650, or some vintage sign to hang in my basement man cave. Each booth was either a feast or a famine- dusty, discarded old parts, or beautiful classic motorcycles in need of a new home. Stacks of old motorcycle magazines no longer in print, dog-eared owner’s manuals for antique bikes, even some black & white signed photos of once famous racers and riders, the swap meet is the place to slow down, take your time, and browse until you find something that strikes your fancy.
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Over the summer, we had the opportunity to sample the new Honda CB750 Hornet, and earlier the 2025 Yamaha MT-07. Both of these are fantastic, affordable middleweight naked sportbikes, and we loved them both. We got the bright idea of riding them together, side-by-side and nose-to-tail, since they are comparable in size, displacement and rider triangle. After pitching the idea to Honda, who wholeheartedly jumped at it, Yamaha must have read our twisted minds, and preempted us by calling and offering one once they saw we had the Hornet.
Thus we began the bout.
On a motorcycle, the rider is not contained in a sealed compartment. We are out in the elements, wrapped around a motorized, moving two wheeled machine, hurtling headlong through time and space, completely exposed to the environment. We feel the wind, road irregularities, temperature changes, the vibrations of the mechanical monster we are riding.
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As Neale and I talked, he made a beautiful observation- “Think about our Road Dirt crew and community. We’re as diverse as they come. Some of us are people of faith, some of us are not. Some of us lean a bit left, others a bit right. We come from across the country and around the globe. We come from all kinds of backgrounds and lifestyles. We ride all kinds of motorcycles, and we’ve ridden in all kinds of conditions. We are quite the diverse lot, I must say. And yet the tie that binds us all together is our collective love for motorcycles, and the love of riding them. Whatever our differences, that’s our common love, so therefore, our common love for each other.”
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