Peter Lloyd Jones Confessions of a "Bad Editor": The Real Stories Behind the Motorcycle Industry
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This interview features Peter Lloyd Jones, a veteran motorcycle journalist and author who reflects on his unconventional path into the industry. Jones discusses his early mechanical struggles and his late start in road racing, which he credits with fundamentally changing his personality and perspective. He shares insights into the evolution of motorcycle media, detailing how traditional print business models have struggled to adapt to the digital age and data-driven advertising. The conversation also explores his literary contributions, including a self-published collection of stories and a forthcoming essay on the aesthetics and identity of motorcycling. Currently, Jones continues to write for RoadRunner Magazine and is preparing for an endurance race alongside his grand-niece. Ultimately, he connects the intensity of racing to philosophical themes, examining how high-risk sports influence human choice and the management of fear.
I read "The Bad Editor: Collected Columns and Untold Tales of Bad Behavior" after Peter gave me a copy. I think it's the best book I've ever read on motorcycling. Buy your copy HERE
The book Peter is currently working on is called "Sublime Harmony" which will be released by the San Diego University Press between 2026/2027.
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Peter Lloyd Jones
Annick: Hello, beautiful motorheads. It's Annick, and I am here at Lake George with Peter Lloyd Jones. That's a hard one to say, Lloyd.
Peter Jones: Uh, well, I, I have an old friend, he always used to call me Le Lloyd.
Annick: Le Lloyd. '
Peter Jones: Cause of his two Ls. The two Ls. Yeah.
Annick: Yeah. And, uh, we're at the Hampton Inn, so thank you to Hampton Inn for allowing us to do this interview here. But, uh, you are a longtime motorcycle journalist, and obviously a enthusiast and an author. So I wanted to talk to you a little bit today because what we've ridden together over the years, and also I've read a bunch of your work, just not the latest article that you sent me.
Peter Jones: I'll leave it
Annick: at
* INTRO *
Annick: threw me off a
Peter Jones: bit. Are you asking me who the hell are you?
Annick: Well, but I, yeah, I want to yes.
Peter Jones: I, um, um, where do I begin? Um, I didn't g- I didn't get a motorcycle, I wasn't a motorcyclist until I was, like, 23 years old. I was a late starter.
And, uh, I bought a, a two-stroke Kawasaki, I think it was a 175 f- as a street bike. And, um, I'm not a two-stroke person, and the, the bike figured that out, and the bike hated me. And I eventually destroyed the transmission because the, the carburetor's inside the cases-
Annick: Yeah ...
Peter Jones: and the two-stroke, you know, the, the lubricant for the piston, uh, y- the crankshaft, um, is y- is in the gasoline, right?
Annick: Yeah, you did the two-part mix.
Peter Jones: Right.
Annick: I had the injector, the 73 Kawasaki SR.
Peter Jones: Ah, that would've been much nicer. Yeah,
Annick: yeah.
Peter Jones: Because the carburetor started leaking-
Annick: Ooh ...
Peter Jones: and it's inside the cases s- which means it's leaking fuel into the combustion, into being sucked into the combustion chamber. Right. So the bike would, the RPMs would go through the fricking roof, and I would hold the kill button in and nothing would happen.
It would just scream. So I would put it in gear and try to stall it, and that's how I destroyed the transmission.
Annick: But you got hooked, despite that terrible experience.
Peter Jones: Yeah. Well, then I bought a 350 Honda for $50. Um, and the previous owner said, "I was riding it and it just stopped." And I'm like, "I'll take it."
And the, uh, cam chain had, chain had jumped- Oh ... and put the valves into the pistons. So I replaced the valves and, um, I didn't replace the cam chain. And, uh, it, it jumped again. I, I hadn't really-
Annick: Did you have any prior mechanical knowledge of this?
Peter Jones: This much.
Annick: Okay. So this is a great thing, I think, to learn, like, in your early 20s.
Peter Jones: Oh, absolutely. You know, like- Absolutely ...
Annick: just be thrown to the wolves.
Peter Jones: Yes. Mm. And, um, yes, y- you need, when there's a problem, you need to fix the problem, not just the things the problem caused.
Annick: Right, right.
Peter Jones: Yeah.
Annick: It's a good life lesson. So
Peter Jones: I didn't know how to do that yet. Yeah. And, and then I w- I was eventually, uh, hired to be a foreign car mechanic, and, and you either sink or swim.
And, and this was, this was, this was back when there were still some carbureted vehicles. And, um, I worked at a small shop. So when a car would come in, uh, I would get the work order and it would said, "Does- doesn't start." Mm. "The battery's dead, doesn't turn over, doesn't fire," you know, no explanation. Right. So we, we- There were
Annick: no diagnostics.
It wasn't like you plugged it in and
Peter Jones: it was- It was each of us- Yeah ... on our own. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, so, yeah, I, I learned a lot really quickly under a lot of pressure. And, um, that was a, that was a great education.
Annick: How did that segue into the moto journalism then?
Peter Jones: Well, I was a museum director for, um, a number of years.
Well, a, a total of, of six or seven years. And about near the beginning of that, I went road racing.
Annick: Mm.
Peter Jones: And I- Wow ... I, I was in my early 30s, which is sort of a late start. Um, and I didn't realize in my innocence of going road racing, I thought, "You know, this'll be fun." Um, and I didn't realize that it totally takes over your life and makes you into a different person.
And, um, my mother passed away and I was at a road race, and when my father passed away I was at a road race.
Annick: Oh, my goodness.
Peter Jones: As a journalist at that time. Yeah. Yeah. And, um, yeah, it's, it, it's... Racing is, is, uh, um, it, it gets into your soul and- I, I'll tell you, the most fascinating thing about road racing is the closest experience to it that I ever had was stage acting.
Because road racing and acting, you're concentrating so intensely on what you're doing, you're basically without ego. Your ego's not present. And, and you s- you w- you step outside of yourself in many ways.
Annick: Mm-hmm.
Peter Jones: And, um- You know, like, if you're injured and you have a pain, just get on the bike and start, you know, and be in a race.
You, you don't feel a thing, you know? Yeah. Because you're, you're way too busy. So it w- it, it, it really suckered me into it, and then I really wanted to go endurance racing, so I started endurance racing as quickly as I could. And so we... W- which is good, because the, the number one thing you need to improve your racing is track time.
Annick: Right, and you don't get it that much on a race weekend.
Peter Jones: No.
Annick: Yeah, which people don't realize.
Peter Jones: Right.
Annick: Yeah.
Peter Jones: So six hours- Yeah ... you know, you're, you're- Yeah ... you're, you're really getting better. Um, and a really fascinating thing that that taught me is you don't go faster by trying to go faster. Um, if you're trying to go faster, you're just gonna crash.
Mm. So what you're always trying to do is better. You're trying to do better. You're trying to do everything on the track, braking, accelerating, cornering, you're trying to do all of it better, and speed comes from that.
Annick: Mm-hmm.
Peter Jones: And, and we used to finish the race, like, two or three laps down from our competition.
And we, we started in medium weight production, so f- forget how many laps we were down from heavy weight-
Annick: Mm-hmm ...
Peter Jones: super bike and heavy weight production and so on. Um, and so we finally did the race. It was after our first 24 hours, so we had gotten a lot of track time in the season up then. And I'm out in the race, and I couldn't believe how much traffic there was.
There had never been that many bikes on the racetrack. And I came back in, the, you know, my turn to get off the bike, and I, you know, switched off, and I'm telling the crew, I'm like, "There's a, it must be 1,000 extra teams signed up for this race. I don't get it. There's traffic everywhere." And they're all laughing at me, and I'm like, "What's so funny?"
And they're like, " You used to be the traffic." I'm like, "Oh." So as you get quicker, you, you, you don't, you don't see it-
Annick: Yeah ...
Peter Jones: until, you know, you just think everyone... Yeah, it's weird.
Annick: So you're still racing, actually?
Peter Jones: Yeah, that was an interesting thing. I had not been- Yeah ... on a racetrack in about a dozen years, and I have a grandniece who started racing.
And so I had an opportunity for the two of us to go do a track day together. Um, she lives in Minnesota. I live in upstate New York, and we did a track day up in Shannonville in, on, in Ontario, Canada. And so we're doing this track day, and yeah, the first time out, I'm like, "Why am I doing this? What was I thinking?
Where am I going?" And then as the day progressed, I'm like- I remember this. This is fun. This is great. And, and I, she's not faster than me, so I'm like, "Oh." "I still got it."
Annick: Yeah, you got a little competitive with her.
Peter Jones: Yeah. So, um, so we're talking and I, and I said, um, "You know, maybe we should get a bike and share it and do an endurance race."
And she's like, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, that'd be great." And, and this was an Aprilia track day, and Aprilia people were there and, and they're like, "Oh, you need to do it on an Aprilia." And, and we're like, "Okay." Well, she has an Aprilia now, and she's preparing it for the racetrack, and we're gonna go racing. Um, our plan is August 7th at VIR with the N2 Track Day people who d- hold an endurance race every year.
Yeah. That's
Annick: great.
Peter Jones: So we finally have a date. It's, like, nine or 10 weeks away, and, um, it should be ... I'm doing two more track days before then. And she is... I'm no longer th- as fast as her.
Annick: Yeah.
Peter Jones: And, um-
Annick: She's racing in Europe, and she was on a previous episode of FéROCE, which is Mi- Miranda Mcain Yeah.
Peter Jones: And she finished second in the Royal Enfield BTR Championship- Yeah
last year- Yeah ... in 2025.
Annick: Mm.
Peter Jones: And, uh, yeah. So yes, she's- So
Annick: now you're lucky to have her on your team.
Peter Jones: Yeah. Now I'm gonna be the slow one. Yeah. So I'm trying to n- not be painfully slow.
Annick: Right. Right.
Peter Jones: Um, and every, you know, after I'm off the bike for a while, I, I, I start, you know, going backwards with my brain and I'm like, "What am I doing?
Why did, how'd I get into this?"
Annick: You can't think about
Peter Jones: it too much. And at this point I can't get out of it because- Yeah ... we have a bunch of companies supporting us, working with us. Um, and so I, I have to do it, which I'm going to. And, and I'll tell you, every time I get back on track, I'm like, "Oh yeah, this is great.
This is gonna be wonderful."
Annick: Yeah.
Peter Jones: Yeah. "This is exactly what I should be doing." And the whole point, um, I, I write for Road Runner Magazine, and I, and I told Florian, the, the editor about this, and he's like, "Do it, and we will run the story. I wanna, I wanna, you know, reach further out in what we, uh, the stories we tell about motorcycling."
And this is all about family and community and generations doing this together. And, um, and Florian Neuhäuser's the editor of a magazine that his mother and father created.
Annick: Yeah.
Peter Jones: Um, Road Runner. So, um, he u- totally understands and thinks it's a great story, so here we go, go, go.
Annick: It's so great.
Peter Jones: And it t- and it, and it is.
I mean, what it's about also is, you know- bringing us together. And so I've been able to spend more time with this niece. Except when I say she's my niece, she says, "No, you're not." "No, I'm your grand-niece."
Annick: Just to stick it to you.
Peter Jones: I, I can't, I... It doesn't make sense in my brain.
Annick: No, it doesn't. Also, when you're next to each other it doesn't make sense either.
Peter Jones: Yeah. Yeah. But I- Yeah ... so I have to tell myself- Mm ... "Yeah, my sister, your grandmother."
Annick: So you write for Roadrunner now, but over the years you've written for a lot of different magazines. Such as?
Peter Jones: Yeah, the way I fell into this, um, because I, it, being a motor journalist was never a goal of mine.
Um, but road racing, uh, it, as I've said it, it took over my life and it, and it caused me to think a lot of thoughts about motorcycles that I'd never thought before. And so I started writing and I, I wrote a, I wrote a, a piece about panic and why people panic. And the-
Annick: In relation to riding ...
Peter Jones: in relation to riding.
Okay. It, because I r- in a racetrack you don't panic. And I'm like, "Why, how, why don't I panic? Why are, why don't racers panic?" Um, and, and, uh, to, to give the quick answer, y- you panic when you don't ha- when you have to answer a question immediately and, and you don't have an answer to that question. Um, can I turn left to avoid this?
Can I turn right? Will my braking avoid this? What's behind me? And so, uh, racers are, are so aware of their surroundings and everything that's going on, they know what to do. Um, racers don't live in the present, they live in anticipation.
Annick: Mm.
Peter Jones: It, so you always have an answer to the question. And it applies to street people too.
You know, when you're, uh, you know, drinking coffee and listening to the radio and someone's talking to you and you're distracted, and the person in front of you slams on their brakes, c- can you go left around them or is there a cliff or a bridge abutment or whatever, you know?
Annick: Yeah.
Peter Jones: People don't know, and they panic.
Yeah. "I don't have the answer to these questions." Um- So, uh, I, I sent it to a magazine and it was rejected. And I sent it to another magazine and they ran it. And then I started writing more freelance things, mostly about racing.
Annick: Okay.
Peter Jones: And then, um, at Sport Rider Magazine, they had a big turnover with their staff, and there was a job opening.
And I had left the museum by then, and, uh, so I was available. And so I thought, "Well, this might be fun." So I loaded up the truck and I moved to Beverly, but Beverly Flats. I actually did live in Beverly Hills. Really? Oh, that's awesome. But I, I used to call it Beverly Flats 'cause it was- Mm
90211.
Annick: Just close enough.
Peter Jones: And, and that was at Sport Rider Magazine, which was part of Petersen Publishing. So I'm on the 17th floor of the Petersen building looking out my window at the Hollywood Sign, and we're-
Annick: Oh, that's pretty cool ...
Peter Jones: I've arrived. Yeah. You know? Yeah. And it's all been downhill since then.
Annick: Well, the mo- well, like, we should bring up a little bit, the magazine industry has changed a lot, especially for motor-
Peter Jones: Radically.
Annick: Yeah.
Peter Jones: And, um, yeah There's probably some things I shouldn't say about that. But the, the business plan of magazines is, particularly motorcycle magazines, is totally invalid today.
Yeah. And so the magazines are gone. Um, most of the print magazines are gone. I'm still in print. I love writing and, and that has really helped and, and s- and I've, I've written a lot for Cycle World. Um, I wrote a, I had a column in Hot, Hot Bikes Bagger. Well, a character I play had a column in Hot Bike Baggers.
And then, um, I had created a magazine, Motorcycle Street and Strip, and then I was writing for Rider Magazine for three or four years, and now I'm at Roadrunner and, uh, it's great working for Florian. And it's real interesting because when I was hired at Peterson, um, John Burns was a few offices away from mine, and he's still in print, too.
He writes for the AMA Magazine. Oh, that's great. So it's sort of funny, the two of us and-
Annick: Still doing it ...
Peter Jones: still doing it.
Annick: Do you think, 'cause I've had a couple of, uh, behind-the-scenes or, like, maybe off-record conversations with people in the industry that come from magazines-
Peter Jones: Yeah ...
Annick: who some of them think that magazines still could flourish if there was a different, like, a different setup for magazines.
Do you think that there is a future for magazines? I mean, obviously, Roadrunner aside, 'cause they, they have a tried-and-true base that's like-
Peter Jones: Well, Roadrunner figured out what to do, which is now being copied by, uh, another publication. And so they have flourished because they have, they have, uh, diversified- Mm
their, their income basis. And a lot of magazines got confused by the internet, and they got confused by social media. And I was talking to someone recently about, um, how most print magazines, if, if you go on Facebook and look at, at profiles of, of magazines, maybe they don't exist anymore, but they were in print.
And they will, they'll have, um, six-figure counts of, of followers. Okay?
Annick: Mm-hmm. Okay.
Peter Jones: M- most of those magazines think they did that. And when I recently mentioned that to someone, he said, "Oh, we had a party at the publishing company I worked at when they had reached 300,000 followers on Facebook, all celebrating our achievement."
And, um, none of these magazines did it. Someone at Facebook was given the task of creating quality, um, experiences for motorcyclists. So they went after publications- Oh ... who were posting interesting material so they could drive traffic, so that other people, um, who buy ads, you know, I wanna buy an ad, I want it to just be in this one region, I want it to be only males, I want 'em to be in this age group- Yeah
or I want females also, and you define exactly who you want to see it, and bang, that's exactly where your ad goes. And so with all these different publications that you're u- that they're making use of to drive traffic, um, uh, F- Facebook is, is not there to perform a social function for people. They're a data collecting company.
Annick: Right, well, and they
Peter Jones: sell ads. And they, and they s- Yeah ... and they sell advertising from all that data.
Annick: Yeah. And- And when, when we say advertising, and I think I, I wanna clarify this, 'cause some people mistake that they think that's running just like a commercial, but actually what it means, uh, in the social media world is that you pay to get your post, what- whatever it's about For visibility.
So I just wanna, I wanna clarify that a little bit. It's all- 'Cause you have to pay ...
Peter Jones: it's all sort of different ways. Yeah. Yes. And, and so with all the magazines, um, like I talked to a couple back then and they said, "We, we sell ads, we don't buy ads." Mm. And I, and I point out, okay, go find a publication that has 100,000, 300,000 followers and look at how many people are liking a post.
Annick: Right.
Peter Jones: 57 people.
Annick: Right. Right.
Peter Jones: Or 122.
Annick: Right. Yeah. Because-
Peter Jones: 300,000 people- And they're like this, yeah ... are not seeing it.
Annick: Yeah, yeah.
Peter Jones: You have to pay money for that to happen.
Annick: Yeah.
Peter Jones: And, and all these old school publications, you know, working on a 1920s business model-
Annick: Mm-hmm ...
Peter Jones: you know, they couldn't keep up with it.
And there's also another issue, which is that the industry stopped spending money there.
Annick: Right.
Peter Jones: And, and, um, because there were other places to spend money, with influencers and then social media and so on. Yeah. You know? So the world is, is changing. Old business models don't work anymore.
Annick: So in addition to y- you know, you write for the magazines, but you also have authored books or contributed to books or been involved with producing books.
And-
Peter Jones: I put together a book. I self-published a book.
Annick: Well, you were in the, in the anthology as well, which is one of the most beautifully printed, like, hi-
Peter Jones: Oh, yes, yes, yes.
Annick: Did you already forget about
Peter Jones: it? It's not my book.
Annick: Ah, well,
Peter Jones: but you were- I have, I ha- I have a story in there. Yeah. Yeah. Yes, I do. Yeah. So
Annick: I think you probably have a lot of- Um
pieces out there that you're forgetting because-
Peter Jones: Yeah ...
Annick: you didn't-
Peter Jones: Well, um, uh, uh, I guess I should say it's, it's a book put together by, uh, Melissa Holbrook Pierson. Mm-hmm. And she asked all of her favorite motorcycle writers to write something for this book. Yeah. And it's- Which
Annick: is one, you.
Peter Jones: And it's a boutique book that was, uh, very limited number of them were printed.
Annick: Mm.
Peter Jones: By choice. And, um, she asked me to contribute and, um, something happened in my life that I had to pull out of it, and then I was able to write something. Um, that actually helped.
Annick: Did I just... it was, it's a, thank you for sharing that. It's... 'Cause that's, it, the story in the book is extremely intense and beautiful.
Peter Jones: Well, as a friend of mine said, um, there's another story that's, that's sort of a tearjerker. And he said that you- that story comes first and you read it. And then he said, "My story is after that. Like, oh, hold my beer." You know?
Annick: I, when I read it, it was definitely
Peter Jones: Yeah. It made grown men cry.
Annick: Yeah. Um- And to be able to express that as a grown man is pretty incredible.
Peter Jones: Well, it, it was my way of grieving.
Annick: Okay.
Peter Jones: So it was very valuable to me. I can't read it, though.
Annick: Yeah.
Peter Jones: Yeah.
Annick: It's all right.
Peter Jones: So and, and I also, what's weird about it is I don't promote it at all, because then people might think I'm a nice person.
Annick: We definitely don't wanna give them that.
Peter Jones: No, no. And I mean, I, I've made, you know, as, as I was discussing earlier today- Mm
um, I've made a career out of, you know, writing about how stupid I am and all the idiotic things I do. And so that, you know, that did something good, so I'm like, eh. Mm-hmm. I don't wanna promote that. Sure. People will get the wrong idea. So then I did a book of a collection of my writings- ... called The Bad Editor.
And, um-
Annick: Oh, I have a, can I show the copy of it? 'Cause
Peter Jones: I have it. Sure, sure. And that's, uh, um, about 30 um- It's a
Annick: great cover, by the way ...
Peter Jones: collected columns from different magazines I was at, and then 19 new stories of bad behavior in the motorcycle industry. Which most people just immediately turn to that.
Annick: Um- Well, that 'cause I'm sure, am I gonna know some people in this?
Peter Jones: Oh, I don't mention names. Oh, okay. Well, then forget it. And I, and I don't mention brands. Well, people in the industry, um, it, they, uh, they, they can guess who a lot of them
Annick: are. Okay.
Peter Jones: It's not written out of spite. It's written for fun. And when I first started it, I had to put it down for a while. Um, and so when I went back and picked it up, I had maybe a half dozen of the bad behavior stories written, and I started reading them and I'm like, "This, this is, there's too much anger.
This is supposed to be for fun." So I fixed them- ... or deleted them. And then I was, had set the, myself in the right attitude for writing all the rest of them. So then I, I got through it. So, uh, people tend to like it, so, you know, it's good.
Annick: I can't wait to read it. Mm. Where, and also, where can they find it?
Peter Jones: They, they, it, well, it's, it's, uh, with, uh, books now, you don't have to have a pallet of them sitting in your, in your garage.
Annick: Yeah.
Peter Jones: So they're print to order through Amazon.
Annick: Okay, perfect.
Peter Jones: Yeah.
Annick: And they can just look you up underneath the author or the title. Yeah. I'll put that all in the show notes.
Peter Jones: Groovy.
Annick: All right. The, uh, I wanna get, I wanna get to the aesthetics 'cause I, you know, you- Well, 'cause we both come from art backgrounds, so like, I, you, this is your- Yeah, you're
Peter Jones: a designer.
Annick: Yeah. And so I could talk for hours on aesthetics, but we're gonna have to keep it short, otherwise ...
Peter Jones: Well, as you s- as you see, I can just keep rambling on. Um, but let me get to the point of this. I'm writing about aesthetics, and so I'm writing, I started out, like, telling a history of motorcycles and what makes what look good and what attracts people.
And whenever I'm having a difficult time writing, which I was having with this piece, it's, it's because I'm writing a bunch of crap. I'm writing stuff that I really don't care about or believe in, but sometimes it takes me a while to realize that. Yeah. When I finally realized that, um, I really, really struggled on this piece and I, I threw away, like, at least 6,000 words to try to get to w- what I finished.
Um, and I took... I only really talk about one motorcycle visually-
Annick: Okay ...
Peter Jones: how it appealed to me.
Annick: Okay.
Peter Jones: And then as far as the aesthetics go, I talk about motorcycles as identity, that, that it, for each of us, our motorcycle is part of who we are.
Annick: Mm-hmm.
Peter Jones: And, and so it's r- really an ontological aesthetics, you know, the, the nature of our being, and so it has to do with freedom and independence and sex and drugs and rock and roll.
And I go through a bit of, of the history of those things, and you know, like, like, uh, Hunter Thompson's book, Hell's Angels. And, um, Hunter Thompson was there when the Hell's Angels discovered LSD. He introduced them to Ken Kesey, who invited them to the ranch, and so that was the s- the San Francisco Hell's Angels.
Yeah. So it-
Annick: Yeah ...
Peter Jones: it sort of mellowed them out for a little while.
Annick: I didn't realize that that was how the connection was. Oh, yeah. Like, I've heard bits of the story in different contexts.
Peter Jones: And then, um- Tom Wolfe wrote Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, which is about Ken Kesey and his bus of Merry Pranksters.
Annick: That's right.
Peter Jones: And then, um, and then the, uh, uh, LSD got down to Southern California and into, uh, um, Topanga Canyon, where all the music was coming from, and, and The Beatles had rented a house in LA, and Peter Fonda turned them on to, uh, uh, well, George and John. And, um, and there's a seismic shift in rock and roll in 1966, the pre-LSD rock and roll and the post, and that's w- where Sgt.
Pepper's came out of, and, um, Brian Wilson- Oh ... that's when he created, um, Good Vibrations.
Annick: Okay.
Peter Jones: And all that music changed, and then the new bands coming in, Jimi Hendrix, The Doors. The, The Doors got their name from The Doors of Perception by Aldous Huxley- Uh-huh ... which is a- about what it is like to do mescaline.
And, um, so it changed a lot of things. Then the guys making all these biker films, you know, like, like Glory Stompers and Wild Angels, um, starring Jack Nicholson and Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper and, uh, uh, Bruce Dern and, and, uh, his wife, Diane Ladd. Um, and then they went from there to making the movie The Trip.
Jack Nicholson wrote the screenplay.
Annick: Oh, really? I don't... I've actually never heard of that one. The
Peter Jones: other ones- Peter Fonda- Yeah ... stars in it.
Annick: Okay.
Peter Jones: And then, um, Easy Rider came out of that.
Annick: Okay.
Peter Jones: So Easy Rider is, is basically an LSD film from beginning to end, not just the scenes where they're doing LSD.
Because LSD is, um, it makes you question the, the meaning of, of self and the nature of your being, and so they're on a search, basically, to find themselves. So I put all of that into the aesthetics of- ... Motorcycle-
Annick: Now I really need to- ... read it because that also just went on a journey and
Peter Jones: It was a lot of fun to write.
Yeah. It was a lot of fun- That's cool ... to research, and it was a lot of fun to, um, reveal a little more about myself.
Annick: That's... Well, now I definitely gotta read it. I So what's next?
Peter Jones: Oh, and but I- Oh ... need to mention, the book that it is gonna be in is gonna be titled, uh, Sublime Harmony.
Annick: Oh.
Peter Jones: And it's all a collection of, of essays about motorcycle aesthetics.
Annick: Okay. Do you know when it's gonna come out?
Peter Jones: No.
Annick: Okay.
Peter Jones: I know it's being published by San Diego University Press.
Annick: Okay.
Peter Jones: But these things take time.
Annick: Yeah.
Peter Jones: So is it gonna be in six months? Is it gonna be in a year? Somewhere within that timeframe.
Annick: All right. All right. When it releases, we'll, we'll... I'll add it to the show notes as well.
Peter Jones: Yeah.
Annick: Okay. So what's next on the horizon?
Peter Jones: Um, w- well, to, to, to r- reveal something about myself that I've really kept out of the motorcycle industry is Oh, like a, a dozen years ago or so, I, I wrote a book about, um, how people emotionally and intellectually deal with i- high-risk sports like road racing motorcycles.
Annick: Mm-hmm.
Peter Jones: Um, and h- and, you know, risking their lives basically for fun and sport, not to, you know ... They're not bringing food over the mountain to feed orphaned children, you know? Um, so why are they doing this, and how do they manage the experience of doing this? So I wrote a whole book about it, which is basically a memoir of racing, because I was much more interested in understanding that than doing faster laps.
Um, and so I, I needed someone to vet part of it, because I got into philosophy a bit, and so I got a hold of a professor, and we went back and forth for a while. And then he's like, "You know, this is an interesting idea. Could ... If, if you're interested and you can write an abstract y- about delivering a paper at one of our conferences, that'd be great."
So I did.
Annick: Oh.
Peter Jones: And the paper went over really well, and I was like, "Wow, that's weird."
Annick: Yeah.
Peter Jones: Um, and so then a year later he said, "You, you, you got another paper?" And I'm like, "Yeah, I do." And, um, there's no motorcycles in the next paper. Um, and so now I've written and delivered, uh, a dozen papers at philosophy conferences at universities, and one of them's published in a philosophy journal.
It's ... So I'm not just filling a seat and being the w- weirdo. Um, and so now I'm writing a book about free will.
Annick: Ah. Wasn't expecting that, but it-
Peter Jones: Yeah ...
Annick: it all ties together-
Peter Jones: Yeah ... which is like- It, and it came- Yeah ... through motorcycling. I mean- Yeah ... the first paper, I, I showed the crash, um, the, uh, the producer of, of the, the television for the Daytona 200. I got a hold of them, and they sent me a clip of the, the crash where Josh Herrin elbowed another racer's brake lever.
Annick: Oh, yeah.
Peter Jones: Yeah. And four or five of them crashed at, I don't know, like 160 miles an hour, 170 miles an hour. And so he sent me that so I could show everyone. You know, "Oh, here. This is what we do." And, um, and all those people went, you know, were racing, you know, i- immediately at their next round, you know? And, uh, it, everyone was enthralled, and it went over.
And, and so, uh, it's like a whole new different part of my life.
Annick: That is very cool.
Peter Jones: Yeah.
Annick: It'll be neat to see where that goes and how it develops.
Peter Jones: Yes. Yes. But I'm- but like as you know, I'm also gonna be doing a race.
Annick: Yeah.
Peter Jones: So there, the- it's both ... It's all going, on..
Annick: Yeah. And also you're here w- working on an article for Road Runner at Americade- Yes.
Peter Jones: Yeah, yeah ... this is
Annick: where we're doing
Peter Jones: this. Yeah. R- yeah. Yeah. Road Runner's like the media partner for this now, which is wonderful.
Annick: Yeah, it is great.
Peter Jones: So yeah, I'm doing as much as I can everywhere, you know. I met that, uh, Alonzo guy. I, I think he used to play basketball for that team- ... in LA that loses all the, the Clippers.
I, I think he was a point guard back in the '90s.
Annick: Alonzo's off-camera hanging out, so
we're gonna have him on the show as well.
Peter Jones: Oh, excellent.
Annick: Yeah. Yeah. I'll probably air his before yours.
Peter Jones: But, um, yeah, life, life is there to be lived. You know, and that's that whole point of, of, uh, the difference between racers and other people. A lot of people think that they have no fear, but no r- no, racers definitely have fear.
Annick: Yeah.
Peter Jones: They just don't let fear make their choices, and most people do let fear make their choices.
Annick: And on that-
Peter Jones: And on that-
Annick: Thank you so much ...
Peter Jones: thank you very much.
Annick: And to everyone else, ride smart. Ciao.
Peter Jones: Ciao.
* OUTRO *