Episode 84, in which we talk tires with Dunlop engineer Tom Grolemund

Greetings from lockdown, and I hope you’re all healthy and as happy as can be expected. Here where I live in Virginia, the governor issued a stay-at-home order lasting through 10 June, so we’re already in it for the long haul and looking at almost another two months of quarantine/isolation.

In the meantime, I decided to increase the frequency of episodes and so far, I’m doing OK. I’m super excited about Episode 85 because I got to talk to Tom Grolemund, a real-life engineer with Dunlop Motorcycle Tires! Yeah!

In the interests of full disclosure, and I’m sure y’all already know this: Dunlop Motorcycle Tires is the title sponsor of Chasing the Horizon and has been since the beginning of Season 2. I’m so grateful to Dunlop for their support of both this podcast and the BMW Motorcycle Owners of America. As I mention to Tom in the discussion, Dunlop took a chance on the podcast when nobody really knew where it was going or if it was going to be successful.

Now, let’s get into the episode!

Much like we did when Paul Beasley from Castrol was our guest on Episode 21 and we got to debunk some oil myths, one of the big reasons I wanted to have Tom on was to do the same with tires. He was clear that he only knows what Dunlop does – which I think we can all understand – but he was incredibly helpful in exposing what parts of common tire myths are unfounded and what aspects of those myths are actually rooted in reality!

My favorite thing about every episode is getting to talk to somebody who knows things I don’t, because I get to learn from them. My second favorite thing is getting to share that knowledge with all of you.

Tom talked about a bunch of stuff, and I went back through the discussion so I could provide links illustrating it all. Here you go!

• Dunlop Trailmax Mission on/off-road tires like he uses on his Triumph Tiger 800 XCA.
• Dunlop DT3-R tires for the Indian FTR 1200 S
• the amazing Honda RC-51 race bike
• Harley-Davidson trikes
• the MotoAmerica and American Flat Track racing series
• my hometown track, VIRginia International Raceway
• Honda’s 1985/86 VFR 750 sport-touring motorcycle

I’m sure we’re all looking forward to when things get back to normal, although I’m quite sure our new normal will not be identical to our old normal. Everybody stay healthy and I’ll see you out there somewhere on the road – or off it! Ride safe.