The Lowdown Show - By ADVrider

What's Selling, And What's Not

This week on the Lowdown Radio Show Motorcycle Global’s Michael Uhlarik joins us to talk about the global motorcycle trade. Much of which is far more unexpected than you might think. For instance, Michael hunted down the most searched motorcycles online in India, Italy, and the US. Two of those countries most often searched for aspirational bikes while one country chose a sensible, economical, middle-of-the-range motorcycle. The results will surprise you. And then we discuss what’s selling in each of those three countries and what’s not, and, as a bonus, we delve into America's Motorcycle Industry Council and how its secretive sales numbers are out of sync with reality. On the show this week we show some photographs, too, so if you’re unable to imagine the splendor of Hero’s 125 cc Splendor Plus, then check us out on YouTube.

Saying No To Knock-Offs

Do you know where your parts come from? It’s a serious question. One posed recently in a most unusual public confession by Nikola Maletic from Perun Moto, a manufacturer of high-end bits for your ADV motorcycle. Tired of having his parts copied by another manufacturer—even to the degree that they reused his catalogue photos and descriptions—he didn’t get mad, go online, and lose his mind. How old-fashioned of him. Instead, he solicited the views of the public on what has become an issue of increasing concern: where does the stuff we buy come from? Is it made in a manner that dovetails with my beliefs? Are employees paid living wages? And, specific to the Perun Moto case, do we, as purchasers, have an obligation to honor intellectual property right for those who’ve invested the time and money to make the bits we buy.

The Rise And Fall Of Daytona Bike Week

This week our guest is John Bentham, who just this year published Bike Week, a collection of photographs taken over more than a decade at Daytona’s notorious spring gathering. Bentham first went to Daytona in the mid-‘90s and would return another dozen times when his career as a New York City editorial and advertising photographer allowed. It just so happened that John’s attendance at Daytona began at the event’s peak and, in part, his chronicling charts Daytona’s decline as a very peculiar cultural phenomenon. How else could you explain an event that brought tens of thousands of people and millions of dollars to a town, and yet never garnered a notice on the city’s official website. Additionally, ADVRider managing editor Zac Kurylyk pops in for a quick review of the jacket that saved his ass.

The Year Behind And The Year Ahead

This week, Lowdown Show host Neil Graham and ADVrider editor Zac Kurylyk wrap up 2025 with a conversation that ranges across all segments of motorcycling. From Zac's recovery following his bad crash last fall, to Neil's successful return to the racetrack, to the future of Harley-Davidson and KTM, the difference between Dakar and the Africa Eco Race in the upcoming rally raid season—they take a look at every segment of the world of motorcycling in a conversation just like something you'd hear between friends at an off-season riders' meet-up, as they think about the year behind and the year ahead.

An ADV Cannonball Run For Anyone

Aaron Pufal is far more than just a man with a grey beard. He’s the grey-bearded mastermind behind the ADV Cannonball coast-to-coast GPS rally. It’s not like the old cannonball runs, those ones in which you’d rip through Ohio at 130 miles per hour at 3 am after having ingested a fistful of little white pills. No, this a rally you can do on your oversized adventure bike while following the law of the land. But you don’t even need a bike that’s more than you needed in the first place, because this is a cannonball you can do on your KLR, turning the event into a bowling ball. Just add an extra bungee-cord to your milk crate and off you go. And you can even opt out of the off-road sections and do it on your Electra Glide.