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  • scottiedawg

    C'mon Dad!

    By scottiedawg

    Over the course of my time operating MotoMission Peru, I have had various opportunities to host/guide dirt bike adventures with other riders. I have a special place in my heart for father/son adventures. I guess it must have something to do with the sentiment I have with my dad.   Official MotoMission Tour Video...Check the others on our Youtube Channel   Dirtbikes and Dads go together When Tony and Joran contacted me about doing a tour, my excitement level
    • 3 comments
    • 2,337 views
  • Paul Olesen

    What Spare Parts Do You Bring To The Track or Trail?

    By Paul Olesen

    With warmer weather and the riding season around the corner for many of us, I wanted to cover a topic that can either make or break an event. Whether you’re competing in a racing series or traveling to the track or trail, let's talk about event preparedness. More specifically, what spare parts should you keep on hand? Plus, what methods do you use to keep your spares organized? Honestly, I struggled with organization until I started working on this post. I had no method to my madness. Every t
    • 16 comments
    • 1,981 views
  • Paul Olesen

    Three Easy Ways to Improve Engine Cooling

    By Paul Olesen

    This month I want to discuss three easy ways to improve engine cooling for your dirt bike or ATV and explain why they are effective. As improvements are made to an engine that increase its power, the amount of heat the engine will create will also increase. Effectively removing heat from the engine and cooling it is very important as the power output of the engine goes up. The cooler an engine runs, the more power it can produce. There are three ways that the aftermarket attempts to improv
    • 30 comments
    • 7,240 views
  • Coach Robb

    Natural Alternatives to Performance Enhancing Drugs

    By Coach Robb

    It has been a few years now since Lance Armstrong appeared on TV and admitted to his, and his teams, use of performance enhancing drugs (PEDS).  To say that there was an awareness of PEDS influencing the race results of the Tour de France is an understatement; however, to the extent that past racers and champions have admitted to using PEDS (both regarding the type and amounts) is frightening.  In this article, I thought I would provide a recap of the most popular PEDS and how you can get the sa
    • 2 comments
    • 3,712 views
  • Coach Robb

    5 Key Steps to Training & Racing Well in Heat & Humidity (Pod Cast)

    By Coach Robb

    During this Podcast (#18), I outline How to Train and Race in Hot and Humid Conditions for Optimum Performance.  I walk you through 5 key steps to take prior to, during and following training and/or racing to ensure that you perform well in these difficult situations, along with how to correctly recover in the shortest amount of time.  During the first segment, I also outline how to identify and offset a heat stroke. During segment #2, I  address the Role of Carbohydrates, Protein and Fat
    • 0 comments
    • 1,400 views
Moto Mind
 

Tips on Buying a Used Motorcycle

TIPS ON BUYING THE PERFECT USED BIKE How many of you have bought your fair share of used bikes only to discover the moment you get it home that something is wrong with it? I have bought and sold a hefty amount of different types of vehicles over the years and recently started reflecting on some of my experiences. I have bought bikes that have run well, did not run at all, were partly assembled, or were complete basket cases. Sometimes there have been great deals and sometimes there h
Paul Olesen

Paul Olesen

13
Speed Through Fitness
 

Improve your Speed & Endurance by Dropping Some Body Fat

One of the most frequent questions I get asked is how to improve speed and endurance on the bike and my answer is always "drop some body fat". When you carry around unwanted body fat, your muscles have to work harder to complete the same amount of work. Fat insulates your body which makes you over-heat, another energy robbing component to your riding and racing. When you decrease your body fat, you immediately improve your VO2 Max number (a sports science number that dictates your ability to uti
Coach Robb

Coach Robb

6
Moto Mind
 

Must Watch Motorcycle Films!

Must Watch Motorcycle Films! With the recent release of “On Any Sunday, The Next Chapter” and “Moto 6” I thought now would be a good time to introduce you all to a few motorcycle films that had a big influence on me as I was getting into this glorious sport. First I want to introduce you to “One Man’s Dream” which documents John Britten’s life and his effort to compete in world class road racing. Britten designed and built his own engine and racing bike with the help of his friends in New Ze
Paul Olesen

Paul Olesen

5
Speed Through Fitness
 

The Ultimate Fat Burning, Muscle Building Meal During the Winter

Over the last couple of weeks I have been inundated with emails about some new ideas on what to eat now that the temperatures are dropping and it is getting darker earlier. In my opinion, this is a great time to start making and consuming homemade soup on a regular basis. Building the Perfect Soup When made with the optimum ingredients, soup can provide carbohydrates, protein, fat, vitamins, minerals and powerful antioxidants to improve your health, wellness and ultimately your performance.
Coach Robb

Coach Robb

4
Moto Mind
 

The Top 5 Specialty Tools

The Top 5 Specialty Tools Today I wanted to start a discussion about the top specialty tools that every home mechanic should have in their shop or garage. I picked out my top five most important specialty tools and encourage you to add your favorites to the list by leaving a comment. The top five I have selected are critical for engine building and in my opinion the job cannot be done right without them. Torque Wrenches Believe it or not, every nut and bolt on your machine has a torque spe
Paul Olesen

Paul Olesen

9
Speed Through Fitness
 

How to Determine If You have True Sciatica or Just A Pain In The Butt

Determine the Difference Between True Sciatica or Piriformis Syndrome If you suffer from radiating pain through your hip and down your leg, you need to determine if you have true sciatica or if you have tight muscles in your gluts (butt muscles) and hip muscles (specifically the muscles that rotate the upper leg outward). Watch this video to determine if you need to see a doctor or work on your flexibility: Periformis Syndrome Stretch When you are in the proper attack position as desc
Coach Robb

Coach Robb

0
Speed Through Fitness
 

Low Back Pain: Strength or Flexibility?

When you are riding or racing and your lower back begins to fatigue and ultimately become sore, your position on the bike naturally adjusts to accommodate the pain (actually trying to alleviate the pain) but results in bad body position as outlined by Gary Semics. The big question that arises when this happens is should the rider become stronger or work on flexibility? The answer is YES to both. Over the last 29 years, I have seen lack of flexibility be the cause of both bad body position on t
Coach Robb

Coach Robb

8
Moto Mind
 

Who Keeps Track? - Ride Logging

Do You Keep Track? How many of you regularly keep track of the number of hours or miles that have accumulated on your engine since the last time you performed any type of service on it? How helpful would it be if you had a designated place to log any riding, maintenance, and suspension tweaks? Between riding and maintenance there is an awful lot of stuff to keep track of. The last thing I want to do is complicate the matter any further by having to try and remember in my head when the last
Paul Olesen

Paul Olesen

0
Moto Mind
 

Leak It Down

Leak It Down What is a sure fire way to determine if your two-stroke engine has any unwanted air leaks? The leaks I’m referring to could be coming from crank seals, cylinder head gasket, base gasket, the spark plug hole, power valve mechanism, intake manifold, or exhaust manifold. Regardless of where these air leaks originate, they affect the performance of your engine, may make the engine difficult to tune, and should not be considered normal. Performing a leak down test is the best me
Paul Olesen

Paul Olesen

0
Speed Through Fitness
 

Proper Recovery Elements

Proper Recovery Elements When you are working on improving your riding and racing, please keep in mind that it isn't all about what you do (regarding your weekly hours of training and the intensity that you train and ride at), but rather what you absorb. When your body absorbs, it gets progressively stronger and ultimately faster. Here are a few things to look at: Sleep: your body releases hGH (human growth hormone) when you sleep, so deep, high quality sleep is imperative to maintain a low
Coach Robb

Coach Robb

4
Speed Through Fitness
 

A Critical Component for Success - An Effective Warm Up

Quick Note: over the last two weeks I was discussing the importance of fats and protein (Part 1). Please click on Protein – Part 3 for the information relevant to macro nutrients. If you have any questions or need anything clarified, please email me directly. Why Warm Up? This is a question that I answer frequently both in my office and at the track. Riders are confused why they should exercise before exercising. Some are afraid that they will become tired; some feel it is a waste of time be
Coach Robb

Coach Robb

0
Speed Through Fitness
 

Exercising with "Sweat Suits" is Dangerous!

This morning while at the gym working with some clients, I saw an individual swapping between the stationary bike and the elliptical wearing a "sweat suit". These are suits that are designed to make you sweat with the selling point being more "weight loss". First of all, losing water weight is not losing weight - this is called dehydration. Dehydration is extremely hard on your body. Second of all, reducing your body's ability to remove the internal heat created by muscle movement (aka - exe
Coach Robb

Coach Robb

0
Moto Mind
 

From Rust Bucket to Beauty Queen

From Rust Bucket to Beauty Queen This week I thought I’d switch gears and share with you the restoration of my 1975 Kawasaki H2. When it comes to the handful of bikes I have owned, this bike was the one where I would be completely heartbroken if something happened to it. Unfortunately that was just the case. My love affair with two-stroke bikes started while in college and the Kawasaki H2 happened to be the king in this arena, it fascinated me. Naturally I had to get my hands on one, but I
Paul Olesen

Paul Olesen

8
Speed Through Fitness
 

Quick Guide to Protein - Part 1

Quick Guide to Protein – Part 1 This two part article is the second of a three part series about nutrition. Last week, we discussed the importance and sources of fat. This week we are going to discuss the importance and sources of protein. The Importance of Protein Because of the numerous responsibilities of protein in the body (from muscle regeneration to energy production) consuming the proper amounts on a daily basis are imperative for both health and performance. On a daily basis, your
Coach Robb

Coach Robb

2
Moto Mind
 

School Has Started - Are You Ready For What's Next?

School Has Started - Are You Ready For What's Next? Recently I have had a few of the younger forum members send me messages thanking me for sharing my personal story, technical advice, and being so open in my blog. A few of these folks have shared with me how they are struggling a little bit right now in university, whether it be with difficult classes, professors that aren’t open to supporting unique projects, or their expectations are just not being met. I figured if these folks reached o
Paul Olesen

Paul Olesen

0
Speed Through Fitness
 

Quick Guide to Good Fat Sources

Over the next three weeks, I am going to provide you a quick overview of the three macro nutrients necessary for optimum health & performance: fat, protein and carbohydrates. The reason for this three part series is to help demystify some of the confusion that is rolling around in the various media sources. Think about, on Monday fat is good, by Wednesday it is bad; Thursday protein is good for you and by Friday, protein causes kidney stones – you get my point. This confusion became crysta
Coach Robb

Coach Robb

4
Moto Mind
 

Now It's Your Turn

How am I doing and what’s on your mind? We are a few posts in I’d like to take a moment to ensure that the most important part of Moto Mind is being taken care of. That part would be you, the reader. Me filling up this blog with content that none of you need or care about would put me on the fast track to having my own online diary! I don’t need a diary for my mental health, I have plenty of fast motorcycles to ride to keep me sane. What I do want is to create a dialogue between you, my read
Paul Olesen

Paul Olesen

8
Speed Through Fitness
 

A Guide to Proper Hydration for Optimum Health, Wellness & Performance

Proper hydration is one of the “easiest” nutritional components to implement, yields huge performance gains but is still one of the most misunderstood and neglected component of a nutritional program. The Importance of Hydration Here are some statistics to shed some light on the incredible importance of being properly hydrated: -The average human body consists of 96 pints of water (64 pints inside the cells & 32 pints in the blood, lymphatic & digestive juices) -Brain: 75% water
Coach Robb

Coach Robb

3
Moto Mind
 

Premix Once - Measure Twice

Premix Once - Measure Twice I cringe when I see someone guess at the proper amount of oil to mix with their fuel when filling up their two-stroke dirt bike, snowmobile, jet-ski, or even weed whip. Manufacturer’s spend an awful lot of time figuring out what the right amount of oil is for a given engine application so when I see someone add a splash here and a splash there and call it good it worries me. If you’re one of those folks maybe after reading this it will worry you too. Adding too li
Paul Olesen

Paul Olesen

11
Speed Through Fitness
 

Coach Robb's Anatomy of Speed Series

Hello everyone, I wanted to introduce myself to the huge ThumperTalk.com rider community! I have been a human performance coach for 29 years and have ridden motocross since 1978. Over the last 15 years, I have had the pleasure of working with some of the motorcycle industries greatest riders (Ryan Dungey, Jeremy Martin, Adam Cianciarulo, Jordan Bailey, Charlie Mullins, Brock Tickle, Kyle Chisholm, Ashley Fiolek); however, with the demands of a growing family I have resigned from working with pro
Coach Robb

Coach Robb

2
Moto Mind
 

Piston Ring End Gap and Why You Should Care

I hope all of you in the Thumper Talk community are doing well and have benefited from my last blog post. This week I want to hit on a topic that ties in closely with last week’s topic on warming up the engine and the concept of thermal expansion. Piston Ring End Gap and Why it Matters Let’s talk piston rings. The rings’ primary function is to seal the combustion chamber and keep the pressure that builds on the compression stroke from escaping. Secondly, the rings provide a means for heat
Paul Olesen

Paul Olesen

0
Moto Mind
 

Who Warms Up Their Engine Anyway?

Whenever I’m out and about either riding my motorcycle or participating in racing events occasionally I see things that just make me wonder “why”? One of those moments is when I see someone take a cold bike and fire it up for the first time and bang it off the rev limiter, start riding it immediately, or annoyingly continuously blip the throttle as if it will never idle on its own. These actions beg the question, “Why is it important to warm up an engine”? The answer lies in a simple explana
Paul Olesen

Paul Olesen

13
Moto Mind
 

Who the Heck is Paul Olesen?

Who the Heck is Paul Olesen and Why is he Writing for Thumper Talk? I’m really excited at the opportunity to start blogging because I’m finally going to have an outlet to express my passion for picking flowers, going for walks, and singing songs. I can’t imagine anything more exciting than doing these three things except... maybe, just maybe, riding motorcycles. On second thought, riding motorcycles and figuring out how engines work is definitely much more thought provoking and certainly what
Paul Olesen

Paul Olesen

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