Driven to Ride

Some might say Aussie Alana Baratto was destined to work in the motorcycle industry. Her father was a rider, both on- and off-road, and he shared that cherished pastime with his daughters. Alana was gifted a Yamaha PW50 at age four and attended her first Grand Prix a year later. “It was something that I grew to love,” she explains, “and then decided to make into a career.”After a stint as a service advisor in a Sydney dealership, Baratto took a role with Aprilia. She went back to school and earned a marketing degree, ultimately leaving powersports for five years. “That passion doesn’t go away, I discovered, so I came back,” she says. Four years with KTM led to her current position, head of marketing for Ducati Australia and New Zealand.“Having that understanding of the dealership floor is invaluable,” Baratto tells Mark Long on this episode of the “Driven to Ride” podcast, “so there’s nothing about my career that I would change.” While she admits it can take a concerted effort to keep that passion burning, it’s definitely easier to get out of bed every morning when you do what you love. Connect with Us:Website: www.driventoridepodcast.comInstagram: www.Instagram.com/driventoridepodcastFacebook: www.facebook.com/driventorideEmail:[email protected]

There are few better examples of a relationship coming full circle than British expatriates Teejay Adams and Arthur Coldwells. The pair knew each other as teenagers, and even dated, but they didn’t marry until some 40 years later, well into adulthood, on the heels of other relationships, and, in Teejay’s case, raising three children. Another common theme between Teejay and Arthur? A deep and lasting passion for motorcycling.Teejay’s earliest memories of two wheels are of riding pillion in London with her boyfriend at the time. “I just loved it,” she says. “We were on 1970s Japanese motorcycles, and they were just chrome and colorful and gorgeous, and I was completely swept up by that whole rugged, manly thing. That was my introduction. From there, I moved on to riding myself.”Coldwells got his start in boarding school, secretly forming a motorcycle club with a fellow student. “I had been reading Motor Cycle News and was completely caught up in the whole racing and motorcycle thing,” he recalls. Arthur founded Ultimate Motorcycling magazine 20-plus years ago. More recently, he and Teejay started their own podcast, “Motos and Friends,” which focuses on bike reviews and culture.Ultimate Motorcycling WebsiteMotos & Friends Podcast Connect with Us:Website: www.driventoridepodcast.comInstagram: www.Instagram.com/driventoridepodcastFacebook: www.facebook.com/driventorideEmail:[email protected]

Motorcycling and music seem to go hand in hand, or at least that’s the opinion shared by Wes Fleming, the host of “Chasing the Horizon,” and Mark Long, the host of “Driven to Ride.” Both enjoy playing stringed instruments, Wes favoring the guitar while Mark is a bass player. “I don’t think that’s a bad thing,” admits Fleming, adding, “It’s the two groups of people that I like.”Besides his podcasting duties, Fleming is the digital media editor for the BMW Motorcycle Owners of America, a 25,000-member organization with more than 40 years of history and a network of riders across the entire U.S., 10 Canadian provinces, and all seven continents. Despite its affiliation with the German marque, “Chasing the Horizon” covers other brands and aspects of the powersports industry.In addition to “Chasing the Horizon,” which Fleming describes as, “by, for, and about motorcyclists” he produces three other motorcycle-related podcasts, “200 Miles Before Breakfast,” “The Ride Inside with Mark Barnes,” and “Riding Into the Sunset.” Fleming also fronts an instrumental rock band called Hypersonic Secret and plays in a surf-music band Agent Octopus. Connect with Us:Website: www.driventoridepodcast.comInstagram: www.Instagram.com/driventoridepodcastFacebook: www.facebook.com/driventorideEmail:[email protected]

Bob Starr considers himself “lucky,” having spent his entire career in the motorcycle industry, including more than 32 years at Yamaha in marketing and, currently, corporate communications. “I turned a passion of mine at a very early age into a lifelong career,” he says with the enthusiasm of a teenager, “and I have really, really enjoyed it. I hope I’ve made a difference in the industry and, certainly, to Yamaha.”As the New Hampshire native relates, motorcycles made an early impression. Playing in the front yard of his childhood home, he vividly recalls hearing a bike pass by. “It was a Triumph, and it happened to belong to a local volunteer fire-department member. I would always wave, and he would always wave back. He had pipes on it, and it made a lot of noise. It was very influential to me.”Some of the behind-the-scenes highlights that Starr relates to Mark Long, host of the “Driven to Ride” podcast, are almost too good to be true. Like the time Wayne Rainey proposed that fellow three-time 500cc World Champion and mentor Kenny Roberts ride a two-stroke TZ750 flat-tracker at the 2009 Indianapolis Mile in exchange for Yamaha sponsorship at a celebrity pro-am golf tournament. Lucky, indeed. Connect with Us:Website: www.driventoridepodcast.comInstagram: www.Instagram.com/driventoridepodcastFacebook: www.facebook.com/driventorideEmail:[email protected]