I find motorcycles a complete enigma. I get they are cool, and dangerous and sexy, but for the life of me (like a lifetime of riding and asking) I couldn’t really explain why we actually ride. They are horrible machines, deadly without question, and the worst possible way to get from A to B. Yes, freedom, yes, throttle, but there is no other vehicle where you are the windshield, where there is 5000 explosions between your legs a minute, and it’s not a matter of if but when you will get in an accident.

That’s why I was so very pleased to team up with Greg Moore and Adam Fitzgerald of Iron & Air as they launched their new creative company The Simple Machine with a new docu-series. Sponsored (proudly) by BMW, we traveled across the country to ask a mix of people a simple question: why do you ride. The answer seems to have resonated with riders, considering BMW had their largest sales in history this year.

Not a wholly novel concept, but I would say the execution is unique. I don’t make films that have been seen before, and I am particular hard on motorcycle films because I’m against grinder sparks as is well documented. These are little stories with great reach, and I think that when watched together you start to get a idea why we risk our lives and put our comfort on hold to entertain the notion of being a rider.





I think others are feeling it too, already taking the film festival circuit strongly, and being written up by a few notable publications like The Vintagent who is always on the cutting edge of moto-culture. The take away here, from my point of view, is that even though these machines haven’t changed much in 100 years, their stories continue to evolve, because the reason why we love them transcends justification.