Welcome to Momentum, a motorsports podcast powered by High Gear Success. I'm your host, Heather Wilson Schiltz Here we share the stories and strategies that keep the world of motorsports moving forward. And joining me today is Craig Johnson, co-founder and owner of Wild Ass Motorcycle Seats, host of the Wild Ass podcast, and a long distance rider. So welcome to the show. Thanks, Heather. You can you can use the long distance rider term loosely. I did a long distance ride. That was it, but I mean, if you did the Hoka Hey Challenge, in my book, you're a long distance rider. Cause that is not something that I have ambitions of tackling. So whether you've done it once a hundred times, I'm giving you that label. Thank you. That's funny. People say that to me, you know, at the booth, they'll come up and see me and be like, well, you you're a long distance rider. I'm like, no, I'm just a guy that did a long distance ride. I love that. love that. But obviously you didn't start out doing long distance rides. You started out with minibikes as a kid and eventually that led into working at a dealership. So how has that kind of, set your trajectory in your career from riding minibikes to where you are now? I don't know. You know, like most when I was younger, I was going to be a professional racer. at uh some point, probably in my early 20s, I had to realize that as you age, there's an S taken away from the getting faster part. And I was just getting fatter and realized that I wasn't making a living on my motorcycle. As it turned out, I figured out a way to make a living with my motorcycle. So that just kind of led me down a pretty amazing path that got me here. I it's so interesting. I've talked to several guests who have said that similar thing that like, okay, eventually I realized I wasn't going to be a pro racer. And I just think that's so cool that they even thought that as kids, because that was never a thought that crossed my mind. But I love everybody's like enthusiasm and I guess just like energy that they thought that could be possible for a while. And I guess that's what it takes, especially for those who go on to become a pro racer. Like you've got to have that belief at some point. I did, I mean, I got to be a pretty decent local guy. Like I was fast, I was a single digit Minnesota, A-class guy. And when I had the opportunity to race Millville, I realized I really wasn't that fast. As it turns out, when you have to go to work on Monday, that was what I told myself then is, you I got to work tomorrow. There's a certain fear there that you may not admit to yourself that you just like, okay, maybe. I mean, these guys don't have to go to work. This is what they do for a living. Maybe I need to reconsider my life choices up to this point. I mean, I had a lot of fun. I wouldn't change a thing. But there's a certain time there where you go, oh, man, these guys are fast. And I thought I was pretty fast. But as it turns out, I wasn't. Well, you're right too. mean, it's definitely a thought a lot of times when I go riding, that's like, you know, I have to be able to come back and go to work. And if, something happens, I mean, it's a risky sport. all take those risks that it can be a life changing if you're not able to go to work. Yeah. That was kind of the swing in direction. And that's kind of what led me to, I think that might've been when it was actually, when it led me to the dealership job, actually. And what did you do when you first started in at the dealership? I went to the owner, they were my sponsor, like had been my sponsor forever. Great people. Both of them have passed away now. Steve and Chris Vandeputte from Brothers Motorsports, I went into the office and I'm like, Hey, I need to find a job. parts unlimited had a job open up. Okay. So to back that up just a little bit, parts unlimited had a job open up and I went to apply and I was told, we need somebody with dealership experience. So. Went, okay, so I went to the dealership and said, I'm looking for a job. What do you have? And they're like, we don't really have anything. And I said, yeah, but I just walked through the back and all of those used ATVs, they're all dirty. Like you'd probably make more money on them if they were clean. And he was sitting in his desk and I remember he goes, just like this, he goes, you would do that? I'm like, yeah, why not? Like, it's gonna help you make some money. It's gonna get me a job. We all win and I think I started the following week and that's what I did was that and then I kind of weaseled my way into the parts department a little bit and then another job opened up at parts unlimited and I went into interview and and she goes well that's not really the experience we were looking for I said but it's experience and she hired me so I worked there. I I think when you have that kind of like motivation to be willing to do any job to get your foot in the door, that shows through. So even if it wasn't the experience that she was necessarily looking for, you had that motivation. Yeah, and it was cool. I mean, it was a cool job. And then the Parts Unlimited job, that was really cool as well. That led me to a lot of great connections. And gosh, I did that for two days short of five years. I was at Parts Unlimited in their office here in Brainerd, Brainerd, Minnesota. And then what led into establishing Wild Ass? A bit of luck, I think. You know, the real story is, know, a lot of people have heard of Airhawk that's been around forever. I was the face of Airhawk for four and a half years and the company sold. And when it was sold, when I found out it was being sold, I'd actually asked, this something I can buy? And my boss at the time, Steve, said, no, I think the deal's already done. And it was above him that this deal was done. And I went, oh, OK. Well, let's just see what happens. And it was decided then that my services were no longer needed by the new owner. And never met the guy. I have no idea who he is. um. That ended and I'm like, you know what? I'm out. I just want to ride my motorcycles and have some fun. So Renae, my wife at the time was like, what are you going to do? And I said, I don't know. I'm just going to figure it out. to take a month off and I'm going to see what I want to do with myself. And I remember I stopped in jeans and a t-shirt. I stopped into the Chevy dealership close to my house and I knew the guys and ended up walking out of there with a job offer. that I didn't even stop in for. And I thought, you know what? I can do that. And at that time, I had been watching what they were. what they were doing and the changes being made and I'm like, but it is what it is. And at the same time, when they let me go, they let the European sales manager go of the same place. And he reached out to me he's like, man, I think we can do this on our own. I said, I don't think I really want to. He's like, what do mean? I said, I don't. I said, I'm done. just want to, when I get on my motorcycle, I just want to go ride and have fun and not worry. about work and not do all of the things that come with working in the industry. And he's like, okay. I said, hey, I said, don't get me wrong. Whatever I can do to help you, I will do it. Like I will, whatever you need, reach out to me. And we stayed in pretty close contact over the next few months. And he had a couple, he presented me a few different. design things and I'm like, I don't think that's what you want. And then one came about and I'm like, okay, if we can make these changes, if you can do this, if you can do that, make literally I got to input and the designs are the final designs were all stuff that I had worked on. And I'm like, I think that's what you need. Because for four and a half years before that, I was working with the customer. I was out at shows, out at events, talking to dealers. And really had just figured out a way to design a better widget is all it came down to. And when it came time to pull the trigger, he's like, Craig, need you. I need you here. Like I, I need you and I need you in the States because that's what's going to happen is that's the only way this is going to happen. goes, how about if I give you half the company? And I went, let me think about this. And of course we all, I mean, you're fortunate as I am, we have our dads to use as sounding boards and mentors, right? So I go to my dad and he goes, Well, half of nothing's nothing, right? He goes, but where could it go? And I went, yeah. He goes, you might want to do this. Fine. So I did. You know, so I took him up on his offer. And, and of course, I don't know, you remember the story because you and I've known each other for a long time. But the story then we ended up with a lawsuit. And I mean, it was, it was a damaging lawsuit. It took, I mean, it took a couple of years and I can document eight years worth of damage that it did to business. And uh that initial stress the first few years, so we launched in 2016. In 2017, Scott was diagnosed with a brain tumor. it just about took him out. And when he was alert enough to make good decisions or decisions in general, and they were clear. We talked about it and made a deal where, Hey, one of us needs to take hold of this. I said, I don't care if it's me or you, like, if you want it, take it. And we ended up, I ended up buying him out in 2019. So. you know, the paperwork side of it, right? So it's not, didn't write him a check because I couldn't afford that, but I ended up taking the reins in 2019 and he's still, I'm happy to say he's still alive because it was one of the things was if he makes that five year mark, it's going to be good. Then he's, he should be good, but making that five year mark was pretty sketchy. So he made it, everything's good. And now here I am all by myself with No regrets. Like I don't regret this at all. I think God put all of this in front of me. He definitely hit me with every challenge that I could handle. He didn't hit me with anything that I couldn't. And it's been phenomenal ever since. know, the stories that I get from people, all of the different things, it's, I don't regret it now. And it was pretty scary there for quite a while. Here I am still not being a pro racer, but I do have a patch that says pro long rider. So I guess I made it. Nice. You're professional in something. What inspired the name for the business? Where did that come from? And obviously the mascot too. For those that aren't familiar, it's a donkey. oh It is a very specific donkey. The name is, I can't take credit for that. That was Scott. And the more we talked through it, the more it kind of, everything came together like, yeah, that's what we're going to have. It's really a play on words. there's such a huge story here. If you think of motorcycle events, right, stereotypically they're these wild events, right? So it's a butt product, it's an ass product, If, you know, the name Wild Hogs, right, the movie, have you ever in your life met anybody, and be honest, that did not like that I love that movie. It's hilarious. Every single motorcycle movie in my opinion that is not like a documentary is terrible except for Wild Hogs. Right? Every single one. They have fake motorcycle sounds. They have all these fake storylines and they're just so cheesy. It's not even good. Wild Hogs. Everybody loves that movie. Everybody. I've never met somebody that doesn't even if you don't ride a motorcycle. But so that was cool. So that that kind of fit, but you know, it's just a play on words. There's so many different ways you can spin it that it's stuck and that's where we are. The donkey itself is, don't have a, I don't have a good picture of it, is actually the African wild ass, which is extinct. if you do any research, the lineage of all donkeys all the way back in time. the African wild ass is the mother of all. Donkeys are protectors. Donkeys are workers. They're super smart. And they take care of their herd. Most people don't know that a donkey will attack a coyote or a timber wolf or whatever's coming to bother the herd, the donkey will go after it So just a lot of good things behind it. Jesus rode one on both ends of his trip. You know, he rode one into Bethlehem and also into Jerusalem. So it's a good I like all the like symbolism behind it too. Yeah, and it's not an aggressor. You know, it's not used in war. It's not like a horse that's used in battle. It's always the behind the scenes doing the work. And that's kind of where we are. We're always behind the scenes. We're not flashy. We're not making a lot of noise. We're just getting the job done quietly. Yeah. And I love like you have built not only just the products, but like the brand is so recognizable and vending at events. feel like it's a huge piece of that for you being out, interacting with the customers, like you said, getting their feedback, hearing how they're using the product. So what are your like standard events for the year? Or do you try to go to new ones every year? You know, that's it. We do the standard, the basic ones. We do the Daytona. Like our schedule, typically it starts in Daytona. We do Arizona Bike Week. do, May is kind of wide open. Americade up in Lake George, New York. We do. The BMW rally, that one travels. So wherever that goes, we go with that one. Of course, Sturgis, we have to do that one. That one's a phenomenal event. And then kind of the next staple would be Daytona Biketoberfest. We've added in, this year we did Milwaukee's Homecoming, which was a great event. We were set up at a great location. It had just a great time. There and then we did what's the next we're gonna do bikes blues and barbecues. I've never done that before i've only heard good things I've heard about that. That does sound really cool. Yeah, and it's not where it used to be, so I'm a little curious to see how that works now because it's not in Fayetteville, Arkansas where they're all of the history and the cool stories come from, but it's in Rogers, Arkansas, which apparently is not far away. I don't know, but we're going to try it. then Triketoberfest is a new thing. That's the week before Biketoberfest down in Daytona. So since we're in the area, we're just going to Extend the trip and stay there. This will be our second time last year a hurricane took that event off off the calendar but we were down there and it was It seemed cool trikes are a market that Anybody that rides a trike should be able to relate real well to our high-end cushion because The science behind it just makes it work for a trike better than anything else Can you talk a little bit about the technology that goes into your seat cushions? if somebody's never seen your product, they kind of understand what it does. So the technology in the cushion, it's all air cells, interconnected air. So it's not like one balloon where you blow this thing up and you're sitting on a rolly ball. If you blow it up and put too much air in it, of course, then you get that feeling. But the... interconnected so the air flows cell to cell and you want to sink down into it as far as you can. So literally when you're on your motorcycle you're an eighth of an inch off the seat. That's it. What we're mimicking is water. So if you take your hand and you push it into like a gel cushion wherever your knuckles are hitting the gel you're going to feel that pressure but if you push it into water that pressure is equal all the way around. That makes sense. So that's what we're trying to do. So when you sit in our cushion, the cushion rises up and supports all of you with one giant area where there's no pressure. So basically it takes the two pressure points and spreads that out over the entire cushion. That's how it works. It's not new technology. The guy that I worked for, that Roho was the parent company. that Robert H. Gravey is the inventor of the technology back like 50 years ago. So just have my own patented designs to make it work properly on a motorcycle. And I say properly because we have so many competitors out there that I can look at every single one now and tell you at what point it's going to cause pain. I can usually tell how far into your ride you're going to get uncomfortable. and where you're going to get uncomfortable. Because I truly believe that I am the only guy that understands the technology and also rides a motorcycle and was able to put the two together to make them work. Yeah, to have both components of being a rider and kind of an inventor or person that's bringing that product to market. Yeah. Do you have any customer stories that you've heard over the years using your product? you like to say? have my favorite story and every time somebody asks me it's the same one so if anybody's heard this I'm sorry but my favorite story girl from Omaha, Omaha area came up to me in Sturgis and this has been a couple years now just you know early 20s mid 20s maybe comes up to me and she's got a little puppy with her and and she's like hey she kind of like shyly like pulls me aside and said, Hey, last year, I let you talk me into one of these cushions And I just wanted to say Thank you. It did everything that you said it would. And I'm super happy. I'm like, that's great. You know, would you say that on camera? And she was like, yeah. And I don't know if you've seen me do this, but I always, as soon as they start telling me this, I start getting my phone out and I'm like, get into the camera. And as soon as they say, yes, they'll say this on camera. I go perfect. And I spin around and say, hey, I'm here with Heather from Ohio. And this is what she was telling me. And hey, share your story, right? So she shares her story. And it was cool. And I'm all grateful because typically, younger people aren't my target, right? Because again, we're not cool. We don't have a cool product. We have something that people don't want to admit they need. That's just the way it is. And so it's really cool when she does, when kids come up and say this. I say kids because I'm not a kid. But I'm a pro long rider. But anyways, so she comes up, tells this, does this deal, whatever, and she walks away. And there's another guy kind of standing like, he's like just doing this deal, watching. And I notice him, you know, when we're recording the video and stuff, and I'm like, what's up? Everything all right? He's like, yeah, she didn't tell you the whole story. And I'm like, what's that? He says, that's my daughter. I'm like, oh, cool. I said, I love the fact that she came up. told me that she liked it and it's doing the trick. And he goes, no, you don't understand. She was hit by a car on her motorcycle. And I went, oh, okay. And he's like, it smashed her pelvis. And uh I went, damn, right? And he says, she could still ride a motorcycle, but we couldn't do, like we couldn't go out on rides. We couldn't do these things. And I said, wow, that's actually really cool. He goes, he goes, I ride, her mother rides, her brother rides, and she rides. And this is what we do on family trips. Like this is what we do as a family. We go out riding. She couldn't do that. He goes, so I wanted to personally come and thank you for giving us our family trips back. Like now we get our family time doing things we love to do. And I was like, my God, like that's amazing that this little cushion did the trick. In Daytona, Renae has a guy pull up in a wheelchair. He rides a Spyder He's paralyzed. He can't ride anymore because it hurts too bad. but six months or a year earlier, he bought it. And now him and his brother can go riding motorcycles again. You know, it's like, this is pretty crazy stuff, how this little thing is out there helping so many people do what they... we're struggling with before. We're bringing it back and letting them, helping them get back into doing it. That brings like a whole new perspective to, you know, a seat cushion and what it could do. Yeah, it really does. And all of sudden now I don't even, it's like, we don't care about the money. Like this is what we need is to just keep helping people do this. It's gotten to the point where we have customers that come and see us at bike week, Arizona bike week in a car. Now these are elderly people that use them in their vehicle. You know, they don't want to ride motorcycle, but they take their car on trips and go see the Grand Canyon And they come and get a cushion. then the next year somebody else will come and be like, yeah, you sold one to this couple last year. And they're like, we came to get ours. And it's, pretty neat. The, stories we get. So yeah, we get stories. Often. And you're getting ready to host a 10 year celebration pretty soon in a month, right? Yeah. What does that milestone mean? man, I don't know. We'll see. I always kind of say like we've had these hurdles every single year. You know, the first year and the second year were massive hurdles with this lawsuit. And then, you know, every year it's like from inventory things to there's always something that we've had to get across. And now it's like, I'm like, yeah. We'll get through it. No big deal. I'm so much less stressed now, but I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for the customers and the people sharing their stories because it would have been way easier to cash this out and just go selling cars again. But really happy I'm here. I've had a lot of good support, a lot of great people help out along the way. So. I won't know what it means until we have that party and I got to figure out what I'm going to say to everybody. But I'm pretty excited. I think to be an entrepreneur too, and like, I'm, I don't know, I'm almost five years into it, which seems hard to grasp, but I feel like you kind of have to have that belief or that flow about you that things are just going to work out because there's always going to be challenges. There's always going to be unexpected things. You do your best to plan, but things happen. And so I think if you're just constantly stressed and trying to like hardcore control the situation. you're just not going to have a very enjoyable experience. you know, even for me, clients come and clients go, but I just always know that something else is going to come along and everything's going to work out. It's not, not worth it. It takes a while to get to that point. That is not something I would say that you had or I know I didn't have it the first year or two. It's gotta be my way. I know a better way. This can, you this has gotta work. And I think we're a special breed to be able to do this because you have to be able to handle a certain level of stress, I think. And that's you know, chest pumping, tootin' my own horn, but. There are a lot of nights where I don't sleep. They're getting fewer and farther between, but there's still plenty. I love my sleep and I'm like a solid eight to 10 hours a night sleeper, which blows people's minds. But my massage therapist that I go to monthly would probably say, I do have a lot of stress. I just hold it my body. don't like, I don't know. don't, I don't feel it, but I feel it. You know what I mean? Yeah. So I get that. But yeah, it's a fun kind of journey too. Like I said, I wouldn't regret it. I don't regret a thing. I always tell people to like, some people say, oh, you got to fail to be good at something or, like failure is such a big thing to some people. And I've never taken that approach. Like, I don't feel like I've ever failed at anything. And that may sound really egotistical to say that, but to me, everything's just like a lesson. Like you learn from it. don't clock it as a failure and I have to do something different. Like maybe it didn't work out the way I wanted to, or the way I had planned it, but. I don't really think of anything as a failure. And you can't. And the big thing is it's not a fail unless you quit. I mean, yeah, you might have to reroute, but you're like you say, you're not failing. You're learning how to continue in another way. Yup. Yeah. You also have the Wild Ass podcast. I do. Did you start that during the pandemic or was it prior to that? the wild podcast kind of came about in 21. I'd had this, you know, I've had the idea, I wanted to do it. And who's now a friend of mine, Chris Hopper. Um, I don't know if that name rings a bell. He rode a hundred thousand miles and he did it in a hundred days. And he had this party at the end. you know, to celebrate this accomplishment, right? Cause that's beyond ridiculous. and this is where I got to meet a lot of the Hoka Hey Riders. And, this was before I did it. And some of their stories are just amazing. And I'm like, you know what? We need to share these stories because one of my goals in life, as funny as this is, I want to be that old biker with just a bunch of stories to tell, you know, like If somebody brings something up or they want to hear about some place, I want to have a story. I just want to end to share that story. But all these people need to share their stories. So I got to, I get to meet some pretty phenomenal people. Like the girl from Omaha, I don't have her contact information. If I did, I would have a podcast with her on it. Cause that's the stuff I want to share her story. Like, how did you, like you got hit by a car, right? What the hell are you doing? Getting back on a motorcycle. That's the normal person's way of thinking. You and I would be like, nah, I need to get back on that bike because that's me. But I wanted to bring that story out. So as I meet all these really cool people, I'm like, you should come on the show. And they were like, yeah, I would do that. I would do that. So I strategically timed out or laid out my first four or five because it was the guy that did the first 100,000 mile year on the cushion. And then it was the guy that he shared his story with that bought my cushion that now started this fundraiser thing that introduced me to Chris Hopper that, you know, so the first three or four, five podcasts were that. But that's the only reason I started it was to get these people's stories out there. And I did it pretty religiously for, I don't know, 40 episodes or something. And it was every other week. So it was a year and a half. What is that? Like probably year and a half. And then I realized I'm getting so busy with wild ass. I'm starting to fumble over here a little bit. And I like something has to cut. Like I, I got to stop something and the podcast is what was stopped or put on hold. Then I came back with a couple episodes and I just recorded one here. Like there's now another guy doing 125,000 miles in 125 days. He popped into the house, stayed with us and I'm like, Hey, He wanted to record a video talking about how the cushion has helped. I'm like, better yet, let's talk about your cause. And let's talk about, you know, let's just record a quick episode. Put the camera up on the hood of Renae's truck and just literally recorded a conversation with him. So that's what the podcast kind of started as, and that's where it's gone. And I'm just about ready now to get back into recording it. I'm just about caught back up. It's been a pretty chaotic summer. Yeah. mean, just doing this podcast and doing one prior to this where I didn't have to do as much work. It does take a lot of time, a lot of planning, lot of backend work behind the scenes. It's not just like getting on pressing record and then pressing publish. mean, you can do it that way. I'm a little too particular for that, but, um, yeah, podcasts are a lot of work, but that's what I enjoy too about this is being able to share people's stories. and people that you don't necessarily see in media very often. So I was telling somebody yesterday, I was like, sure, I would love to have, you know, a supercross racer or somebody like that on here. That's cool. But people hear from them pretty much every day or every week and, you know, magazines or press conferences or their own social media. But there's a lot of other people in this industry that are. a lot quieter behind the scenes that are doing really cool jobs that are really important, or even just like volunteering or just going riding. I mean, there's just so many cool stories that people don't really get to hear about. Yeah, yeah, there's so many of those. Yeah. So going back to the Hoka Hey Challenge, the long distance riding, what year did you do that? How many miles was it? Tell us a little bit about that. I did it in 22. It was, and that was funny story too. So the year before I was at the BMW rally. We were in great falls, Montana. Okay. You've seen my bikes. I got the Harley over here and I got the BMW over here. And then the booth is kind of behind it. You know, so just had them up there. The Harley's painted in company colors, which are black and yellow. The BMW is black and yellow. And the guy that we met, his name is Cole. He and his wife became customers and then became friends. He was there in Montana and he's walking through the booth and he goes, man, those bikes are cool. Where'd you find those? Like dealer borrow you those or? And I went, no, those are mine. And as sincerely as you could be, like completely real reaction, he goes, you actually ride? And I did that. I laughed and I'm like, I thought about that and it bothered me. It bothered me so much because I'm like, okay. And I talked with Renae about it that night. I'm like, did you hear his reaction to those are my bikes? And she goes, no. And I told her and she goes, really? I said, okay, here's a problem. I said, people don't even know that I ride motorcycle. I said, that's, that puts me in the same category as every other vendor on the You know, half these people don't even ride their motorcycle. They're doing it because it's a job. I said, I'm doing it because I love to ride motorcycle. And I don't think I do ride anymore. Like my customers don't even know I ride. And then you start looking back at, okay, I'm working so much. No, I don't ride. Like this is embarrassment. I'm like, we need to change that. Well, fortunately, After that event shut down, Renae and I were spending a few extra days out there to do just that. We were going to ride through Glacier and do all that. And I had become friends with a number of these Hoka Hey people. And I'm like, you know what? I should do that. That'd be fun. And people are like, you can't just sign up and do that. I said, why not? Like, it's a motorcycle ride. I love to ride motorcycle. I can ride motorcycles. Oh, you got to be this and you got to do that. And I said, okay, I can do this. So I, as quick as I could got everybody's schedule, like our vendor schedule, where we were going to be for 2022. And there was the BMW rally was the only one that could not give me their dates or would not give me their dates. I'm like, I really need this. I don't need to share it. I just want to know when it is because there was a Three-week window if the BMW rally fell on either of these three weeks I would not be able to do it to do the Hoka Hey. I think there was four weeks open the BMW rally had to fall perfectly in this place and that gave me the time to do the three weekend window in between And Then get dates didn't get the dates didn't get the Soon as they released the dates. I looked at the calendar and what it's gonna work. I went Signed up and I missed it now. I'm on the waiting list and I'm like, Well, you know, it'll be what it'll be. That's fine and the number one guest for my podcast Paco he goes The Hoka Hey starts as soon as you submit that application I'm like I felt it, He was kind of giving me advice and then my buddy riot was giving me advice on the Hoka Hey and they were both two completely different things. know, one guy was advising me to do this and all he said is every time you ride the motorcycle, make sure it's And Paco had zero riding advice. He's like, just sleep outside, get some practice. Cause one of the rules is you have to sleep outside with your motorcycle. You don't get to sleep in hotels or inside buildings. And that was it. Like that was the advice I needed. being a racer, I can set my own stuff up. So I got my billboard laid out, or my clipboard and all my stuff situated, and I rode that spring maybe 2,500 miles total. I'm like, wait a minute. That's more than I've ridden every single year, any single year, on all of my motorcycles since I started Wildass. That's crazy. so get to the Hoka Hey and you get to the starting line and it's, you find out it's going to be 10,000 miles and it's, you know, you got 14 days to get to the finish line. That was my goal was to be there by the end of the party. So Paco was going to ride with me at the start and he's like that once you figure out navigation the rest is easy like okay because you can't use GPS it's literally like an enduro route sheet you know it's line by line directions turn on this road turn on this road and the directions are terrible that's just part of the adventure and they don't hand out the instructions until the meeting the morning of. And the first thing they said is, we're going to line you up in order of number. So the previous Hoka Hey finishers are at the front, new guys are at the back. So, so much for us riding together. Now I can figure it out on my own. And uh at the back of the line, I get my instructions and we get ready to go. That was it. It's time to go. But uh it was great. Like I said, rephrase your question, because now we got to the start of the Hoka Hey. Is that what you were well, I mean, I feel like we could talk forever about what that experience was, but maybe give us your kind of key takeaways from what you learned over those 14 days of riding and if it was anything like you expected it to be. Yeah, so... The key takeaway was to be prepared, right? So the day I signed the registration and submitted my application, I immediately did, you I took care of myself physically, mentally. I was tough as could be at the beginning of that ride. Doing the ride, I learned quickly that riding with people is not the best way to do things when you're trying to accomplish a mission like that because you are as fast as your slowest guy. There was a couple of times I, you know, we'd stop for gas, know, bikes would spread out and then at gas stations you'd converge and then take off again. Got to be with a couple of people that said, hey, you want to ride together for a while? Sure. And that didn't last an hour. whether it was riding style, whether it was level of aggression, know, whatever it was, they say it's not a race, but why is there a six foot trophy for the guy that comes in first, you know? But so, you know, as long as you're prepared, you can do anything. And I think that really set the tone for the rest of life moving forward is I need to be ready for what's coming. And that's helped me a ton. And it's helped me a ton in Like, not only am I prepared, but I'm shedding the baggage that I don't need or don't have time to deal with. So the podcast going away, it's not gone. It'll come back. But in order to keep moving forward at a decent rate, I need to stop doing these little, I hate to say distractions because they're great. I love them. People love them. I'm getting requests like, Hey, what's going on? But I think as long as you're prepared, you don't have too much stuff. Life's pretty good. And that made the Phenomenal. It was being alone and taking that windshield time. I mean, it took me, I went 10,293 miles. It took me 11 days, nine hours. And in that 11 days, which is funny, I had ridden more miles than all of my years combined since riding wild. I finished 27th, that was an elite finisher. got a buckle, I got the last buckle ever given away by the Hoka Hey to this date, which is really cool. So I guess I also learned a bunch of stuff about myself, learned a bunch of stuff I can carry forward and I proved to people I actually do ride a motorcycle. And then after that I went and did the BMW thing and that was a blast. Yeah, that's so cool. So I don't know. mean, never say never. Right. But long distance riding. I don't know if that's in my foreseeable future. It does take a different motorcycle than what you ride. uh Go ahead and tell people where they can connect with you online with you personally or with wild-ass motorcycle seats So Wildass, personally, you can follow, you see my name there, Wildass Craig, that's pretty much me everywhere. That is an account that only I have access to. And that's one of those things that's kind of been trimmed. I haven't been putting stuff on there like I should, but I'll get back to that. I know that's coming again. And the real Wildass, so the real Wildass, that is us also. That is everywhere on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. I think I have accounts on all of the others too, just so the name is mine, but we're not very active there. Our core customers still Facebook users. So that's where they'll find us most. Well, thank you for joining me. It was good to catch up. um I know it's been a little while and maybe I'll get to I always say this maybe I'll get to see you at an event this year. We'll see how that goes. Yeah, we're both getting in 2026. So perfect. Well, thanks to everybody for tuning in to momentum. This has been a production of high gear success. If you want to connect or recommend a guest head to momentum motorsports podcast.com. Until next time, keep the momentum rolling.