FOREVER MOTORING: JT Nesbitt and Andrea Hiott: Moonwalking with Motorcycles

04/18/23 • 75 min

Artist, designer, and engineer JT Nesbitt discusses why the high stakes of motorcycling make it one of the highest forms of art, and how sustainability requires a radical shift of perspective. JT's most recent bike is the Curtiss 1, a light electric vehicle (LEV) that rethinks what forever motoring really means.
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Matt Chambers: The Philosopher of Motorcycling

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Andrea Hiott talks with Matt Chambers, CEO of Curtiss Motorcycles. They discuss the company's shift from internal combustion engine (ICE) motorcycles to light electric vehicles (LEVs), with the focus on creating unique timeless designs. Matt emphasizes the philosophy of their designs offering a sensory experience with emphasis on quality, attention to details and sustainability. He also touches upon concepts such as 'letting go of control' while on a motorcycle, navigating 'negative space', and the shift toward a culture of 'thinking small' and sustainability. His vision is to create a motorcycle for every person - a vehicle that they do not have to replace regularly but can continue to use and enjoy due to its quality and design.
Together they reimagine Hunter S. Thompson, edges, electricity and ecology--looking at the connections between meaning, desire and motorcycling.
Albert Camus the Rebel
A primary inspiration he mentions is Virgil Exner
1957 Chysler, memoralized in the movie Christine.
The Curtiss 1 and working with JT Nesbitt
"Part of being free is realizing there is no certainty."
"Desire can't exist without authenticity."
What Matt regrets about his relationship with Pierre Terblanche.
Fewer bigger pulses or more smaller pulses?
Matt's idea of Negative Space: dealing with ambiguity.
Hunter S. Thompson wanting to ride one of Matt's bikes: "the only one who knows where the edge is is the person who has gone over it."
His Glenn Curtiss inspired new electric motorcycle company.
Rejecting escapism and growing up.
ee cummings quote: “To be nobody but yourself in a world
which is doing its best day and night to make you like
everybody else means to fight the hardest battle
which any human being can fight and never stop fighting.”
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FOREVER MOTORING: Mark Wilsmore and Andrea's Pilgrimage to the Ace Cafe

Ace Cafe, the home of motoring, birth of the Cafe Racer, the place where Mods, Rockers, The Who, streamline modern, and the new electric rebels of London all live and intersect.

Speed is an addiction for Mark Wilsmore, the man who brought the Ace (back) to life. Per usual, we also talk about the edge: "the closer you get to death, the greater you value life."

Have a look at all the places you can now find the Ace, from Kuala Lumpur to Orlando, but the real beating heart and history of motoring is just off London’s North Circular Road.

Have a look at some photos from the 2009 resurrection here on The Motorcyclist.

Watch the full videos of the Ford car night at the Ace excerpted in our YouTube video.

Watch "the best party in town" Ace bike night footage here.

And here's a great piece to watch on the Mods & Rockers.

Future Motoring - FOREVER MOTORING: JT Nesbitt and Andrea Hiott: Moonwalking with Motorcycles

Transcript

Andrea00:00:12.827

the podcast about what moves us and the ways we move. I'm Andrea Hiott, and today I'll be talking with JT Nesbitt, a designer, engineer, and artist. Though he would never call himself an artist, as you'll hear him say in the the podcast, he's certainly a man living in numerous worlds at once, a man who has thought long and hard about what he wants and what it's worth sacrificing. A creator with a motorcycle design language that the motor art connois