Dancing the Polka

The best way to tell that a trend is dead is when it is adopted by either politicians or motorcyclists. The former group tends to be cringe-inducingly out of touch, whereas the latter group seems to be more intentionally disconnected. We can’t hear you over the rumble of our freedom, man.

Anyhoo, the cool kids can now declare that the “2026 is the new 2016” trend is deader than a dead thing, because I’m doing it. Here are five photos that tell the tale of 10 years ago, which, upon reflection, was a pretty important time for yours truly.

I met a world-traveller

In 2016, despite the fact I felt old and out of my depth, I had embraced the idea of working full-time as a moto-journalist (A decade on, I feel older and even more out of my depth). I was doing a lot of work for RideApart, but in February of that year I traveled to Switzerland to cover a story for Motorcycle.com.

I interviewed Urs “Grizzly” Pedraita, a Swiss motorcyclist who was hoping to break Nick Sanders’ record for circumnavigating the globe. Spoiler alert: he succeeded. He finished in 119 days and 21 hours.

I remember feeling so important and professional on that trip to Switzerland. But, of course, I wasn’t. I didn’t have any idea how to be a freelance journalist. I paid all my own expenses for the trip to Zurich – flight, hotel, local travel, food. The money I got from MO for the story didn’t even cover half of what I spent. Three years later, this kind of bone-headed money management would finally bite me in the ass.

I met Charles Franklin’s ghost

One of my all-time favorite adventures was the time I rode an Indian Scout Sixty to Ireland to trace the roots of Charles B. Franklin, the Dublin-born engineer who designed the original Indian Scout in 1920.

There wasn’t anything particularly wild or exotic about the trip. But I remember feeling at ease, feeling that I was on the right path, in terms of my life and my career. 

Maybe. But I was still making bad financial decisions. The money I got for my article didn’t come close to covering expenses.

I met Cam

Back in 2016, Dancing the Polka was known as The Motorcycle Obsession and it was a little more ‘bloggy’ than it is today. Pair this with the fact that the majority of internet commenters were less toxic.

As a result, I built up a friendship with one of the blog’s readers, Cam, who lived (and still lives) with his family in Scotland. After a bunch of back and forth, he and I decided to meet up and tackle the relatively new North Coast 500 route. Billed at the time as Scotland’s Route 66, it is a tourist attraction that locals now hate.

Cam rode a Suzuki V-Strom 650, I rode a Honda CBR650F. I still feel that the CBR650F was a woefully underappreciated motorcycle, but Cam’s bike was better suited to the task. My primary memory of that adventure was being cold and wet.

Cam and I have had a number of adventures since; I usually end up being cold and wet. If Cam had £1 for every time he’s sat in a cafe and listened to me bitch about not being able to feel my hands, he’d be a rich man.

I met Evans Brasfield

By late summer, thanks to a mix of tragedy and dumb luck, I was serving as the head of RideApart. I pride myself on being kind to everyone in the very tiny world of moto-journalism, but if I have any critics, they come from that time. I’d bet most would tell you that I was underqualified/underprepared for the role. And they’re probably right.

Certainly I carried a latent terror; the feeling of imposter syndrome that has plagued me throughout my career was intense. That hit a peak in August 2016, when I attended my first-ever press ride. 

Before then, I had borrowed bikes for reviews, had attended EICMA and some press launches, but I had not been on a proper Press Ride – in which a manufacturer flies you to some fancy place, puts you up in a fancy hotel, and lets you ride its latest and greatest.

In this case, the fancy place was Washington state, and the latest and greatest was Harley-Davidson’s new Milwaukee Eight engine platform. I can remember showing up at the hotel in Tacoma and just wanting to pull myself into a little ball upon meeting the other journos. I was surrounded by all these guys whose work I had read for years.

As it happens, they were all cool. But Evans Brasfield stood out. I got to meet him a few more times before he tragically died in 2023. He remains a role model for me – as a professional, a father, and a man.

I met Gary Gray

In November 2016, I borrowed a Kawasaki GTR1400 and rode it to Milan for the sake of attending EICMA. Donald Trump was elected President of the United States for the first time while I was there. In a taxi to the Fiera Milano (the massive exhibition center where EICMA is held), my driver said: “Eh, don’t worry. We Italians, we are passionate, too. We give power to strange people, too. It’s OK. We’re still here.”

I happened upon Evans at lunch and he said: “Should we just stay here?”

Meanwhile, Indian Motorcycle was showing off the FTR750 engine that ended up being so successful American Flat Track racing ended up changing its rules to kill Indian’s dominance. Indian was also revealing its new Ride Command infotainment system. All in all, then, a relatively quiet year for the brand as far as EICMA was concerned. 

Which meant that when I went up to chat with then product director Gary Gray, he had plenty of time on his hands. He and I chatted about a lot of things and I found him to be more straightforward than many of the higher-ups I had encountered to that point.

When I asked him how Indian was performing in Europe, for example, he said: “We’re doing about as well as can be expected for a company selling heavy cruisers to countries full of curvy roads.” 

I find honesty like that to be refreshing. And reassuring. I’d really like to know what Indian’s higher-ups are saying these days.