The Lowdown Show - By ADVRider

Eric Hougen has a lifetime in the ADV riding aftermarket scene, founding Wolfman Luggage from nothing and equipping thousands of riders for adventures around the world. Today, he talks with host Neil Graham about the challenges of the business and what he's up to now, with his new Threadworks project.

In the early 2000s, Royal Enfield was a niche company, an India-based oddity building crude bikes that were basically unchanged since the mid-20th century. Now, they're a fully up-to-date manufacturer, with ABS, traction control and other modern electronics, and they have a wide range of products from cruisers to retros to scramblers to adventure bikes. How did they make this all happen? Mark Wells, the company's UK-based head of design, is here to tell us how Royal Enfield transformed themselves into the mid-sized motorcycle market leader.

Neil sits down with special guest Scott Acheson from the US BMW Challenge Team ahead of his trip to Namibia.

Can he and a group of other ADV-ers bring GS Challenge Gold Back to America?

The Bear, based in Australia, has been a valued forum member on ADVrider for a long, long time, and is one of the site's most valued contributors. He's been working for motorcycle magazines since 1978, and has a lifetime of adventure on machines ranging from a World War II-era Harley-Davidson WLA to BMW adventure bikes and everything in between. Tune in to hear his experiences from decades of adventure, including an incident where he and his slightly off-kilter riding companion feared they'd get a visit from a Japanese fighter-bomber after their turbocharged CX650 broke down!

The Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum houses the world's biggest motorcycle collection, as well as a roadracing track that's built to an aesthetic standard you won't find anywhere else in North America. Oh yes, and a vintage motorcycle festival that's a must-visit event every fall. Still not convinced to make the trip to Birmingham, Alabama to take in the museum? By the end of this week's episode with communications director Robert Pandya, you will be!

Eva Rupert is a motelier, an overland adventurer, a Baja devotee, and a woman who once, while naked, cut the head off a boa constrictor and ate it—the body, not the head. At least we don't think she ate the head. She’s chock full of advice about riding in Mexico and the American West, and offers candid views on adventure riding’s "awkward teenage phase." 

Cynical about coffee shops that align themselves with motorcycling? Jim Vandekas’s Flying Squirrel Motorcycle is a café with a difference. They host OEM test days, they built the Moto Craft custom bike show, and they’ve only just begun.

If you think the Dos Equis spokesman is the most interesting man in the world, you’re wrong. That honor goes to ADVRider.com founder Chris MacAskill. From a hardscrabble childhood to Stanford to a career as a geophysicist to working with Steve Jobs to his own little family run startup that he sold for a cool $100 million, Chris is one of us and yet not one of us.

From Brittany to Milwaukee: French engineer Chloe Lerin has followed an unusual career path. Rebuked by KTM and BMW, she elected to stay in America after school, working for Cummins diesel and John Deere before landing at her current gig developing powertrains for Harley-Davidson. A racing enthusiast, Lerin also works with Harley’s entry in King of the Baggers, the madcap racing series where Indian and Harley cruisers are modified to go at ungodly speeds. Lerin—never one to sit idle—is also a data engineer for a Suzuki-backed road-racing team in MotoAmerica. 

When the Cold War ended, schoolteacher Austin Vince and his friends rode around the world on Suzuki DR350s, and did something nobody had done before: They made an adventure movie about their trip, called Mondo Enduro. Millions saw their film and its follow-ups, and thousands were inspired to start their own ADV riding careers. Yet, it was an uphill battle to even get their film on television, as it was rejected by every single broadcaster.