So, we're here with "Fast Freddie" Spencer - the legend.
He's been filming, doing some stuff, so we thought we'd grab five minutes with him.
Hi Freddie, good to see you.
Hi, Dutch. Great to be here.
Just to find out what Freddie's been up to.
So, Fred, what's cooking?
Well, actually, today, I was doing an interview talking about retro Grand Prix bikes from the 1980s.
And that is a big part of what I do today.
I do a lot of classic events around the world.
Besides the retro cafe bikes that obviously is so prevalent here at The Bike Shed and
an important part of it, Grand Prix racing bikes from the 1980s, what people kinda consider
the golden era of two-stroke bikes, has really had a rebirth in popularity.
And I think a lot of it has to do with the modern Moto GP bikes are four-strokes, completely
different configuration of machine, and so they get to hear that noise of the two-strokes from the 1980s.
And the smell!
And the smell, absolutely!
And it brings back so many memories for them of either when they started out or became
interested in racing when they were kids.
Everybody around in the 70s and 80s had a probably a two-stroke dirt bike of some kind,
or, like I said, they went to a Grand Prix and heard the big 500s run, and so I get the
opportunity to do a lot of those.
The other thing I do, and will be doing more this year, is broadcasting.
One of the things I did for years when I was in the United States and I was focused there
with my school in Las Vegas, is I would do the AMA Nationals for Speed Channel.
Now I'm going be doing with Eurosport, this year I'm going to be doing WorldSBK races,
I'm also doing a TV show that we're developing with Wayne Gardner.
All of it, for me, is about promoting this great sport.
And it's one of the things that I like that you do here at The Bike Shed, and why I like
to do things down here is, again, that passion and how motorcycling brings people together.
Yeah, it's all about two wheels, all about a certain kind of person that just enjoys
the kind of culture side of it, the engineering side, the racing side - all of those things
that bring a certain crowd of people together.
Well, and the thing is as well, what I try to tell people, too, Dutch, is that it's not
even about age or interest level.
I like every type of motorcycle.
I raced cafe racers when I was a kid - they had a class in my first road racing, y'know,
so it was like a street bike, in with the handlebars - what you have here and the retro
bikes that are built.
So, I have an affinity, a connection with that.
I grew up dirt-tracking on dirt tracks in Louisiana, ended up being a Grand Prix road
racer and racing around the world - and everything in between.
I've been doing it since I was four years old - I just turned fifty-six, and so fifty-one
years, fifty-two years of riding a motorcycle, and I enjoy today just like I did when I was a kid.
It's motorcycling that has given me that, and it's given me the chance to not only do
that, but to share with people.
And a true privilege for me is when people come up and they say "my dad and I when I
was a kid, we saw you win the French Grand Prix" and he'll have the little outfit and
I'll take a picture with his son, like he shows me when he was a kid, and that's truly
a privilege to be involved in that.
Like I said, at the same time, to be able to share motorcycling and what it's not only
given me, but, like I said, what it's given to many people.
With all this stuff that's going on right now, a lot of people are saying this feels
like another little Golden Era of motorcycling.
I mean, what do you make of it?
You've been around long enough, what do you think of what's going on right now?
Well, certainly things have...I've seen that come and go.
As an example - and it goes along with what you're saying, and I think you're right - it's
certain times inspire certain things.
So, why would that be that maybe this would be another Golden Age?
I think it's because people search for things that are real.
Y'know, they search for things that you can share with someone.
And we go through cycles as human beings in our evolution, where we get attracted to something
and then people move on, things happen in the world that make us feel maybe isolated
and then you'd like something that brings you together, and motorcycling has always done that.
I was in India, first time I went to India was last fall, and I went to a bike show there
that had been around for five years, and they invited me, and I was talking to all these
young riders about what motorcycling has given me the chance to see the world.
You could see the look on their faces, how exciting that was for them.
I didn't talk about the speed part, I talked about the opportunity part it gave me, which
is really what inspires me and always has since I was a kid in Louisiana
is what I experience through it.
They're just in the beginning and it reminded me of when I was a kid forty years ago what
motorcycling was like then.
Motorcycling then dipped down and now its starting to come back.
And I think that it always comes back to that.
Ultimately, we gravitate toward things that we share together and that inspires - and
I've always said that motorcycling does that.
It certainly feels like that here.
I mean, we have such a mixed crowd, all across age groups, and I think I've never known so
many learners as I do now.
And seeing women on bikes when biking's always been such a sausage factory experience.
So, it's a fantastic thing to see.
And it's great to have you coming into this and seeing all of this.
Yeah, absolutely!
And I understand it and respect it.
Like I said, I come from...most people think he's just a professional racer and he only
cares about the speed, but it's not that at all.
I understand exactly why the person with the least amount of ability will wanna ride.
You know, Dutch, one of the things I say that - because I believe everything happens for
a reason - when I retired from racing after twenty-nine years in '95, one of the
greatest calls I got was from Ritchie Klein who was building a track in Las Vegas and
he said "Freddie, I know you're retired and I think you should come out and start a school."
And it was starting that school that gave me the chance to truly take and understand
what I could bring from my motorcycling and my experiences and share with others.
And it showed me I love to teach.
And it is what has lead me to write my book and it is why I enjoy doing the things I do,
and it gave me a perspective that I wouldn't have had and didn't have, living in my isolated
world of just racing, y'know?
And so, I consider the opportunity gave me that, to truly move on and to understand what
I could take from my experience in racing, my abilities,
the good and the bad, and the indifferent, and share that.
Well, it's really great to have you back here, as always.
My pleasure, Dutch.
Thank you very much.
Thank you for everything you guys do here!
Now here at The Bike Shed, you'll be able to watch the modern-day version of what I
did thirty years ago: The MotoGP World Championship.
All nineteen races, and it'll be great to watch the enthusiasm of other fans and see
all the great riders ride from around the world.
Come on down!