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. My guest today is Ian Gaines, a professional sport bike freestyle rider. So thank you for joining me. Yeah, it's been great. Thank you for having me. Appreciate it. this for a long time. Do you even remember when you first started doing freestyle? I started doing freestyle in 2007 around there. started because that's kind of when it hit our globe here in the States. I started on complete accident. I played football for a long time. I played in college and then I got released from playing above that level, next level, right? And I went home, went to like the Nashville and there were some guys doing what I do now in the parking lot, like just across from the training facility. And I was like, well, I got no job, I'm bored. Like, I'm bummed, you know, my life dream is over. You know, when I saw that, so I went over there and I sat and watched him ride forever. And then I was like, I need to do that. I had a bike already. And so I went out there and attempted it and then many accidents and broken bikes and body parts later, I kind of figured it out. yeah. So you mentioned that you had a bike before that where you just kind of like a casual street rider. Where did you get that itch from? I started, so my first vehicle in life was a motorcycle. I was a young kid playing football and I played early on varsity as a young kid. I think it was my freshman or sophomore year in high school. So at being 14, 15 years old, there's no senior, no junior talking to me because I'm too young and I'm playing up, you So I decided I needed a motorcycle because I can't drive a car at 14, 15, but I can ride a bike at 15. So I got a motorcycle and I took myself to and fro to practice in school. Then it became kind of addiction. And then it blossomed into riding all the time. By the time I was a junior or senior in high school, I had a motorcycle, a 600cc bike. And then it just compounded and started over over again. then by the time I got to college, I still had a bike and my coach was not about it. He had recruited me and he's like, look, you can't ride that bike. And I was like, but I need to. And so we had a deal where I could ride it during the summer. And that's really it. Yeah, I've been riding bikes casually, guess you would say. That's what I started as. But to me, it was passion. But no, I wasn't racing, though I should have been, you know? So interesting though, that you can get your motorcycle temps. know, can have your temps when you're 15, you know, depending on the state or whatever in Ohio, it's 15 and a half. can get your temps and you can ride alone to wherever you need to go. You can't ride at night. There's some restrictions, but if yeah, like you said, if you were getting your car driving license, you would have to have a parent in the car until you turn 16, but let's just turn them loose on the motor. No big deal. Just have them exposed to the traffic. Yeah, it's kind of wild. My brother was actually the same way. So he got his, um, motorcycle temps and, and license when he, uh, gosh, probably when he was 15 and a half or something, but he didn't end up even getting his car license until he was like 17 and a half. He just didn't even see the reason that he needed to. yeah. You don't need that. Bikes are way better. Cars you need when you have stuff, but bikes... Yeah, for sure. So kind of walk us through a typical week of training or travel or what your schedule looks like. I know we were talking a little bit before this call that you've kind of taken a little bit of a pause this year, a little bit of a reset, but what's that typical week like for you? I mean, for me now, since my life is different than it used to be, I used to be one man, one bike, you know, out there doing my thing. And then now I have a whole family, riders, my wife's important to me, you know. And then, you know, this job's great. So I changed it. So I wake up in the morning, we have a one and a half year old son. So that's another thing I have to do. But in the morning, I'll do all my stuff I need for my body. So everything I gotta do, again, you know, getting my body ready to go for the day, all my routines. I've actually developed a new training program that I do that I can do from home that is probably the worst I've ever done in my life. It's the one where I say, please let me get out of here, but I'm by myself at home, so it's kind of embarrassing. But I do that, I train, I get my food in, and then I start my business day, I have all the calls I need to make to get those done. And then it's out to make sure all the bikes are ready to go, and then I hit a practice. And I spend time about two and a half, three hours a day while I practice. And then I come home and then I, that guy dies for a second. I come home and do my husband, dad thing. And then it's kind of back to the grind of doing social media, know, doing all the stuff in the content development, you know, for me scheduling photo and video shoots that I do privately on my own. And then also fielding the ones that come in, you know, from places. I just left Portland not too long ago I filmed with CF Moto. That was awesome. That's probably one of the best shoots I've done with Rally Studios. They did a great job. So did that. That's kind of my deal. It's wake up, eat, call, text, emails, you know, and then it's garage stuff and then it's back to studio stuff and then whatever comes my way, I kind of feel it. So, but my training has kept me in this industry for this long, in my opinion. Challenging my body and getting up in the morning every day and what I call and what I've heard, eating the frog, like doing the worst thing I could possibly do, get it out of the way. get my body ready to go so it can sustain the pounding and the beating of traveling. Driving's harder than we think. And then hitting the ground's always hard. So my body has been able to sustain this through time with training. So it's important. Talk about how the fitness kind of plays into what you're doing, because I would imagine you need a lot of muscle to kind of be able to finesse the bike in the way that you want. Yeah, it's huge. because everybody in stunt running has a different style, you know, like there's a lot of guys that are, I don't know, like for me, I sit around 220 pounds, which is light for me, you know, and there's guys that ride at 150, 160, and they can still do some phenomenal stuff. But my style is really aggressive. I'm always under the revs. Inertia is always an issue, you know? And so having muscle mass and having, rigidity and strength is really important for me. because the bike is always under power. don't ever really ride like on idle. You know, I'm always like under power and the bike's always pulling. I'm always fighting physics. So for me, it's really important. A core strength is the most important for me. ah That's balance and that's stability and that's your recoil and catching yourself because you, it looks like we're standing still, but we're falling a lot. oh The whole time, even when we're up, still, eh you know, but to me, fitness is huge. It is what I hang my hat on. And I can definitely see a difference in my game when I take some time off in the gym or training like I should, or I'm not as flexible as I wanna be. I can definitely see a difference in how I perform. My reflexes are slower. Man, that stuff's important. It just is. You also talked about being in the garage and making sure everything's maintained. would assume obviously safety's at the forefront, but then just making sure that everything's in good working order the way you want it to be. Yeah, safety is important to me when we started this whole thing of stunt riding. When I started, you know, bikes were just, you needed a motorcycle, but it may not work right. It may not have all the right stuff and you learn to ride on a bike that's lesser. You know, brakes may be an issue, know, your suspension could be in and out, you know, you may not have, have a seat, but you're going to get it eventually. That's how this started. oh But now it's really big for me to have what I need because when someone calls and says, hey, can you come? I need to be able to go. I need to make sure the bike can get there, I can get there. And that's the most important thing. So I do a lot of work on the bikes to make sure they're ready. And then I learned over the years that setup is key. oh A lot of guys ride a bike, but if it's set up exactly for me, I can just sit down and ride it. I don't have to feel it out and get used to it. It's like, I already know this. So I spent a lot of time on millimeters and. distances and heights from my bike so that if I close my eyes and I sit on it, it's the same bike every time. No matter if it's a different motorcycle, they all feel the same. My hand controls are the same, my foot placement's the same. Everything's exactly where I'd like it so that I can do it in my sleep if I needed to. So that's why I spend so much time there and I change it, it evolves. Like this year it's evolved some, I have injuries and so my wrist and shoulders don't move the same. So I to change how I sit so I can perform the same and not put pressure and stress and all that. So it's a lot. It doesn't seem like it should be, but that measurement and that stuff is a big deal. I feel like any, any industry that you get into to the person that's watching, doesn't look like a lot, but there's obviously a lot of things that go in behind the scenes. Yeah. um Yeah. When you're taking a bike, are you buying a stock bike and are you making adjustments and outfitting it to fit you? Or are you kind of starting with something that's already a little bit customized? I mean, it's always a stock bike. mean, zero miles if possible. know, like if me, if I feel, you know, loose hair, I'll go and get a brand new bike. I used to get bikes from, you know, from factories and I got some bikes as a recent, I got a KTM Duke from uh what is now Family Powersports Alamo. We worked a deal with KTM and got that. I liked that bike, it's aggressive. But it was bone stock when I got it. And most of my bikes have been bone stock, just like you'd buy it off the showroom floor. And then we dive in, we rip off stuff to make it a little bit lighter. We add stuff to kind of compensate for what it doesn't have when it comes to like a sprocket. Anyone can wheelie a bike with stock sprockets, but having an oversized sprocket makes it so we can do it now. Especially with, for me, show areas are, I don't know, 50 feet by 100. at the longest. And so you take a bike like a 636 and it performs. It's made to stretch its legs and it doesn't, it wants to, but you can't let it. So you want to have like a sprocket so you can be able to control it that way. do that. And then we change some braking. We increased the, you know, the braking response. We changed the brake lines, which I think everybody should anyway, if you're going to ride your bike. We add some rotors, oversized rotors, some spots, and we just kind of tweak it that way. It ends up being about a I don't know, if you do it low ball like poor boy, it's still like a $5,000 investment to get it to where you should have it. You don't have to, but it takes some time and tweaking, yeah, for sure. many bikes do you have in your garage currently? I think like 12 right now. I'm trying to slow it low and I got rid of like four. Do ride all of those actively or some of them are just kind of reminders of the past? No. I got, enough, I got rid of my past. That hurt me, because I was like, man, I really need, but then for me it was in 2000 and I don't know, 17 to 19, I was flying a lot. And so I had bikes out, three or four bikes out in boxes, I was beating them. So those are for that. And then now it's bikes to make sure that when my numbers call that I'm ready. Because we know, there's gremlins in the garage. I don't care if you believe it or not. and you can think it's perfectly fine. And you go out there and you're like, what happened? Okay, so that I can easily switch to another unit and relieve the stress of worrying about, I don't have it ready, can just go, okay, I'm gonna fix you later. You're a problem and then I'm gonna go and do that. But most of mine are active. oh I have some bikes that I have for memories and I have one want to bike that I'm building. Right now it's like a dream thing I wanna build. wanna like get it to be an aggressive unit. It's still a stunt bike, but it's an overkill bike. So that's one that I have that is not all the way like I want it. So I would count that as a non-active. But yeah, I'm riding. How do you select the bike that you're going to use for a specific show? it based off the stunts that you're going to do or just kind of what you're feeling that day? I mean, usually if I can pick, it's usually, okay, so someone will send me their address to their dealer and I'll check it out. This is long before we even close a contract, right? And then I'll be like, okay, cool. I'll check it. I'll go straight to Google Earth, which is my best friend in the world and I'll get a layout of their plot. And I'll say, whoa, you don't have any room. We have tons of room. So if there's no room for me and right now, um thankfully I have no affiliation with brands. uh That could change, but right now I don't. So it's nice where I can just choose a bike I'm comfortable with in a small space or in a slippery area. Like I have a Kawasaki Z650 that I call my Swiss Army knife. Like if it's a big area or small area, we can get it done anywhere because of how the motor platform is. It's a parallel twin. It has a lot of torque, not a lot of revs. You know, that stuff's great. So. That's the bike I choose mainly for that, but it'll be on space. It'll be on space. Did you know a lot about the kind of the science and the technology behind the bikes or is it just something you've kind of learned to feel over the years? m and feel over the years. I knew what a bike was, I rode it. And even into my first couple of years as a professional, I just rode, you know. And then as I had to ride more and did more shows and I'm riding day after day and I'm riding blind, I call it like I get off a plane, jump on a bike and ride. Like when I started doing that, I realized some of the small technical stuff, some of the engineering, some of the tricks, you know. know, weather became an issue. I didn't realize that, okay, that can change how my bike operates or altitude, how my brakes respond. I didn't think about that until, you know, I'm literally rolling the roller to the, you know, to the show and like, okay, you know, so over the years I've learned. And thankfully at this point, I understand most of it and I'm still learning. Cause like I said, if you're not learning, it's over. you're dead. So I want to keep learning. Are there any go-to stunts that you like to perform during the shows? And because I'm a little bit unfamiliar with that world, do the different stunts have very specific names? Like, is there a set in the industry? Every stunt has a name, they've gotten them over time. For me, I like to say that I'm a show pony you know, by trade. There's guys out there that are super, super technical riders and they're really good and I'm a technician, but in small spaces and proximity. I can do everything I can do right in front of you, right there every time. And my main goal every show is to not show you how good of a rider I am. but to entertain you. So if you leave with a smile, right? If you had the best time of your life from one of the shows, that's my goal. Because it's not my goal to say I'm the best in the world. Okay. But it's more important for me to see you or the six year old kid or the 12 year old kid who didn't have a bike yet, may be inspired by the show. I want all of you guys to have a really, really good time. And so I'll go to the simple part of tricks. You know, I always do stoppies. I'm always going to do a drift and a burnout. I'm gonna do a few acros, you know, I do a churro, I'll do a, you know, I do a crice, which is the most simple of all tricks in the world, but it's one of our first. I'll do that because to anybody, if I'm on a bike and my feet are on the tank, that's what is going on. So I start with that usually. And then I go on some more technical stuff as the show goes on when they get comfortable with it and they feel like an inch closer to the barricades, then I'll get more technical. But I'll always, I'm always gonna do wheelie, I'll do stoppie, get the back tire spinning, always gonna drift, and I'm gonna throw some acros and I'm gonna In all that, I'm gonna interact with you. Like, my helmet shield is down if it's a show where I'm like, you know, I wanna be that guy. But other than that, it's up and I'm looking directly at you because I want you to feel, you know, the show. Like, I believe in, kind of, if you can hear it, feel it, taste it, smell it, right? Then I've given you a really good show. And so, whatever that takes, we're gonna get it done. I love that. You mentioned, is it Acros? Acros are tricks you do, they're not wheelies they are not stoppies. You're standing on the bike, you're sitting somewhere weird, the bike's operating on two wheels and you're jumping around, you're sliding behind it, you're standing up. Acrobatic, it's an acrobatic trick. uh Which is just, it's not that hard, well, it's harder than you think. it isn't. Take that back. Try that at home, basically. Yeah, go. It's harder than you think, but it isn't one of those tricks that stunt riders like to say, can, I don't know how to even explain it. Like a lot of the young guys are like, oh, I do this and that and this trick and that trick. Yeah, but have you ever tried this? And they can't do it because it's, I think it's kind of an old school thing. And I think the guys who can do it in the new school are elevated because you gotta be able to balance. You gotta know your bike. You gotta be able to steer it out of your hands or use your feet to steer or no hands, you know, so. It's, well there's trick names. have Churros and Christ and headstands and size skitching and you have surfing, have tons of names. But I think because there is no bailout, like if you're doing a wheelie, you can save yourself with a clutch and a brake and make it not as bad. If you wreck an acro, that's it. Like there's no, and maybe that's why people don't do them as much, cause there's no bail. It's like, that's it. Like when you wreck it, your foot's going into the wheel. That's really it, so maybe that's why I know a lot of kids do it. I say kids because I'm. You talked about putting on a good show. you have a favorite event or venue that you performed at throughout the I would say my most fun has been, unaffiliated with dealers, right? Just a moment. It has been a small bore when they were at Barber Motorsports Park. That was my most fun venue because the people there are great. The guys in the man in the box are really chill. They're my guys. A lot of my sponsors end up there. and it's at Barber Motorsports Museum Park, like it's the most beautiful place on the planet. It's like the Disneyland in motorcycles. bucket list. We were supposed to go this year, but alas, another year that we have not gone. So we'll keep saying next year. telling you and I'm gonna tell you now do not go there expecting to get through everything you want to get through in an afternoon. You have to say okay at least give yourself two days at the museum because it's five levels and there's bikes every couple of feet and they go through the you know the history of motorcycles they go through the brands don't speed through it but you go telling you Yeah, I definitely have to make more of an effort to make it there. Yeah, you should. I mean, it's one of those things like you, I didn't care to go until I went for a show. And then I said, I go to the museum. And I was like, I walked in and whispered for no reason. Like I started whispering, like, this is amazing. Like there's no sign that said don't talk, but it felt like I was in a hallowed hall where I should be quiet and be respectful. So definitely should go. Are there key differences between performing for a live audience versus filming for social media content? Oh yeah, for sure, because social media content is the new thing, right? And you can make a mistake and you can fix it. You can redo a shot. can say, oh, I didn't like how that was. I didn't look at my best, excuse me. But in a live audience, you have to do it right then. And if you don't do it right, you have to make it look like you did. for me, I it's like I broke my legs. the Javits Center 2015, both legs. First show of a four day show, the first day, second show. And I rode all the way through Sunday with my legs. No one knew they were broken. And no, my teammates did, I knew, of course I knew. And my wife knew, she's out trying to find me stuff so I can walk, like two sticks to walk around. But I broke my fibulas and I didn't change my show, I didn't change what I did. I just grunted it out because that's the show, you know? And people, some people, they took that Saturday off just to come there. And in their mind, they want to see the stunt show. And as little as that seems, to me it's a really big deal. And so if a guy... who worked an extra couple of shifts the week before to get up on Saturday is coming to watch the show, I'm probably gonna ride. You know, because he's given, he's sacrificed, so I might as well sacrifice too. So that's kind of what drove me to do it. That's crazy. Did you go to the hospital like after that wreck? When I got And you found out? you just waited it out. I found out the next morning, so I took a shower and I'm getting out and I'm, you know, and then so I turned the shower curtain and my legs go, I was like, yeah, those are broken. I heard crepitus as soon as I was like, that's gonna be a long day today. And so I I wobbled down to the lobby and told them, was like, hey guys, my legs are broken. They're like, really? I'm like, yeah, like what are you gonna do? I was like, same thing I was gonna do yesterday, I was gonna rip. You know, and they give out, they're already broken. So what's gonna happen? So they sustained, you know, and there was a couple of times where my helmet shield was down because my eyes were doing. I don't want everybody to see you cry. But yeah, I just kind of grunted out, man. I was thinking it was three or four shows a day, autograph signing, and then they put us on stools and my legs were just hanging, just swelling up. sitting, I'm like, hey, what's your name? Is it okay? And my legs just. But we got through it. I can walk kinda sorta today. So it's good. How has working with brands or sponsors shaped your career? And for those that are in the industry or coming up in the industry, how do they stand out to potential partners? Working with brands has taught me how the industry views the rider. uh It's taught me how to present myself, not in a way that I want, I'm not throwing tricks, right? But in a more favorable manner so that I can do what I wanna do. It's taught me what people really think about stunt riders. And it's put me on a mission to break the stereotype. So. Working with brands has taught me about sales, about marketing, ah and about how important it is to pay attention to those things when you're even stunt riding. Like a wheelie is important, but what is expressed through that wheelie is way more important than the trick. And it's not always how you feel that moment. It's like, okay, well I can wheelie, and I can do these tricks to this level because EBC allows me to have the greatest brakes I've ever had. You know? Or I can say that because these Dunlop tires are always hooked. That's the story, you know? And it's the truth. It's that, it's learning how to convey or articulate what the bike does and why it does what it does. It's not always because of me. It's those brands that help me. And those brands are around because they make stuff for bikes, And then for me, I've been with Icon Motorsports for, I can't even count. And they've had my back forever. And every wreck I've been down, they've been there. and they protected me. that's what I lean to the people. It's like, okay, we're riding your bike, that's great, but make sure you're covered. Make sure you're riding the right gear for what you do. Make sure you're able to express yourself so you're not blaming the helmet. Oh, it's just black. Okay, there's plenty of graphics. mean, there's tons of graphics behind me I think working with brands like that and being in-house, being in some meetings, hearing some of the conversations they have had. Let me understand what the industry is looking for and what brands need out of their riders. And I'm not doing anything so that I can make more money as a rider because there's not a ton of money made all the time. But I am doing it to be the best representative of the brand that I can be. So that's important. More important to me than a couple of dollars because you can make money in it. When it comes to sponsorship, think people really have to shift their mindset that it's no longer just putting a logo on something anymore. It really is being a brand ambassador and being involved in being in those conversations, like you said, to really be like a partner to these companies. It's not, it's not just they're giving you money out of the kindness of their heart. They want to have that valuable data and feedback from you. And everything requires, you if you're thinking, if you're a rider and you ask somebody, give me money. Okay. That's you can do that, man. And they will pay you for your thing, but make sure you're focusing on what ROI is. And then you have to facilitate the return on investment. So what are you going to do to make their experience and their investment in your career better? You know, so, okay, well, you know, they gave me X amount of dollars and you should also have boundaries, you know. You should have like, look, I can't do more than you're paying for, but I can give you everything for what you gave or if you wanna go more, sure. But you have to make sure you're saying, okay, this company is believing in me. I need to make sure I represent them. I need to make sure they're part of my identity. That no matter where I go, if I'm on a bike or not, everyone knows that that's one of my brands. So that's important. I think a lot of stunt riders in my industry don't get it. But I try to have that fireside chat. Every chance I get guys, you know, I have a thing that I would tell people it's not a secret But I hang my head on it. It's like it's 10 % the ride It's not a secret, but I'm giving to you guys. It's 10 % the ride, you know, like you think the company is interested in how Great you are writing but really they're more concerned with how you deliver yourself and how you make the riding look and who's interested in you why you know for me it's evolved to change now it's is senior rider as opposed to the young kid around the corner. Like it's the dad that still wants to believe or know that he can. And it's the guy that's been writing that said, okay, my wife said, did she say you couldn't ride or do you feel that pressure? I do a lot of speaking to men all the time about just man stuff, but also like guys, once you lose that part of you, you're going to change. And she liked and they liked and we liked that guy. So don't lose that guy. You know, just modify it. But anyway, that's a hold up. Well, speaking of dad life, saw an Instagram post where you talked about managing family life and career responsibilities. So can you kind of talk more about that? It's like I was talking about being one man in a van and a bike. Like that's no responsibility whatsoever. You just, hey, Ian, can you? Sure. You know? And now someone says, hey, Ian, can you come, like my shooting, can you come to Portland for eight days? I'm like, God, okay. I'm automatically thinking like, okay, I need to make sure, you know, so it's all the dad responsibilities that you have to do. It's important that you're there. You you can't, you have a partnership with my wife. We have a partnership. It's not like it's like, I'm here to do things, you know, and she's here to do things. And if one of us leaves, we have to make sure the other one is in the position to do the things we would do. And then with kids, like, it hurts my heart deeply for my friends that say like, yeah, my dad was a good dad. Okay, cool. But he was never there. Well, how do you know? You know, and to me, I don't want to be the dad that's not there. I wanna be the dad that is doing the really fun job, but somehow you always saw him. That's what I wanna be and that's the charge of mine is to like, well, I'll take you with me then. Like my son wants to go to my show Wednesday. He's like, can I go? I'm like, maybe, you know, come on, let's go. You know how to set up, you know how to tear down. You know the prices of all the t-shirts. You know when I say, hey man, can you get me a 10 mil, eight mil, 12 mil, 14 mil? You can do it. So yeah, you're only eight, but you can roll. You're homeschooled, Yeah. mean, think that's great. mean, growing up in the motorcycle industry myself, my parents had an off-road dealership and my dad raced off-road. And so I was living that lifestyle too. And when I think about my love of motorcycling, yeah, I loved to ride, but really it was spending time with family. That's how we spent time as a family. It is like for me, I told my wife, my son's dancing now more than ever. he, got his NFL, paycheck now. I don't have one anymore. So he, he has one. I'm not, we're not going to talk about that, you know, soft spot, but we were racing like every weekend, you know, and we were, were doing the Loretta Lynn chase and we finished our chase like this year. My kids missed it by a little bit. But one of our fondest memories is when they were brand new riders and we're at one of our, what I call our home tracks, Freestone Raceway here in Freestone County, one of the hardest national tracks I'd say. And it's got crazy history. It's like, I tell everyone, you're here, this is pre-Civil War dirt. Like 1800s and earlys, this was here, this ranch, this dirt. And so best memory is I have a picture of it, the van set up, the camping area set up, our tent set up. We got our food set up and I just stepped back and took a photo and it's just our kids just having fun on the grass in the middle of a field somewhere. And we're close as a family together. We watched a movie outside the van, like it was fun. And I'm sorry to go off on that, but when you said that, it just took me like. It all relates. mean, motorcycling, yes, it's about the riding and the sports, but it's also about the family and the friends and the community aspect of it. and then you guys have a YouTube channel called the Gainesters Yeah, The Gainesters I love that play on your last. My son came up with it at the dinner table because he was like at school. I'm like, yeah, you know, we have it. He's like, you know what we are? I was like, yeah, we're us, man. Like what? He's like, we're the gangsters. I was like, that is cool. We're going to roll with that. Yeah. We did it. And now it's kind of our thing. We have our YouTube channel that we're doing stuff on and we have our clothing shirts and then we kind of put some stuff out. But I don't know. It's fun. Yeah. I saw on your channel that your son Zion got to participate in the KTM Junior Supercross Challenge. So what was that experience like as a family? absolutely crazy but fun because he has all these dreams and we try to facilitate everybody's dreams. His, my daughters, mine, my wife's, we try to do that because that's important. And he wanted to do the KTM Junior Challenge. We submitted the year before, he didn't make it. And then we submitted the second year and he made it. And we got the phone call, like, wait, wait, what? And we were like, well, hope we get Dallas. And then we didn't get it, AT &T Stadium. And then we said, we're glad we didn't, because now we get to travel in, fly in, you get to be a supercross rider for a day. That experience is unreal. Like those kids get bikes, they get gear, they have their own mechanics, you know, they have their own pit, they have practice times, they go out to the track and practice, and they have a real race. Like he, he was a supercross rider for two days, it was pretty awesome. You have to meet all of our friends out there anyway, like Aaron Plessinger's there. He's a good friend of mine. know, Ty Masterpool is a good friend. We actually ride at his facility here. So, but it was just cool to be riding his motorcycle in front of 40,000 people, this little tiny bike, you know, like it was, was just cool. It was super. Yeah, I think that program is so cool and it's been running for a very, long time. I think it was 20 years this year for them. 20 years this year and they got some help from KTM and Wells Fargo partnered with them and Ford partnered with them this year. I don't know who's for next year, but it really made the experience. I think their setup was better than the pro guys. mean, Chad Reed was in our tent. Why are you in here, bro? If there's so much for you to do out there, why are you in here? You have no racer here, but he was in there, so it must be that nice. Very cool. So looking ahead, what's next for you? Are there any projects or new directions that you're excited about? I mean, I have one that I'm really excited about that I can't really say what it is yet, but I'm excited about it. oh And I hope, I'm praying and not because I want to, not for credibility, not for credentials, not for, but because I want to give back to the industry and not necessarily like here, here's the million dollars or here's a program. I want to be able to help new. brands further themselves and give them the tricks that I've learned so they can do it. that is one of them. But for me, it's going to be the same. I'm going to still try to pound the pavement because I think that the face to face and the conversations are huge. But I am evolving to where it is a lot of camera, a lot of things like this. know, like for LeoVince, I do their most popular brands on their YouTube. I do that. I just finish that, you know, and I take it seriously. I mean. So that's harder than riding Cause I remember when I went to Portland, I had some video due and I need to get it done. And I'm about to leave for almost, you know, over a week. So I went to bed at midnight and then I woke up at three to record, think three or four exhausts in the home studio to then just take off my Leo shirt, put on another shirt and then roll to airport. and I got to the American, my flight left at like six. So I'm there just the zombie and I slept all the way to Portland and I had a whole day off before I shot. But is that the, the setup is the same and the drive is the same, but sometimes the job is different and I like that, you know, because that means that I can improve another part of my game. So next year is going to be all bikes and a lot of voice, uh And I like that. So. It should be a year. It should be a really good year. You stay tuned and if I'm not doing it, call me and hey man, I it was gonna be more voice. All right, I'll stay tuned. I'll call you out if I'm not seeing it. I have no problem with film check. Hey man, you said you were gonna do the, okay, you're right. Tell people where they can connect with you online. You can find me at IanGaines.com. That's super simple. That's my name with a com. Instagram, I'm always there and I do respond to, if you me a DM and it's appropriate, I'll respond to it. Facebook, I'm still on that thing. So you can message me there. Anywhere you see me, reach out and I'll reach back. It may take me some time because I am traveling, I am flying, I am riding, but it doesn't mean that I'm not going to. Once I see it, it's immediate. So if you have a question. If you have something that you wanna suggest that you saw, I like I said, I'm okay with film checks. So hit me up, check us out. mean, the Gainesters were on a mission for 26. We were kind of feeling our way through in 25. So if you wanna see what we're doing through 26, which will be like motorcycle stuff, of course, it will be all of the studio stuff. It will be the dancing, traveling. We're doing great things. So if you want to catch up with our family and see what we're doing, we're trying to keep the motorsport and the cool hip family thing alive. So you can find us on YouTube, the Gainesters Follow and subscribe for us there and then check out what we're doing, Well, thank you for joining me and thanks to everybody for tuning into Momentum. This has been a production of High Gear Success. If you want to connect or recommend a guest, head to MomentumMotorsportsPodcast.com. Until next time, keep the momentum rolling. m