A Good One...
A customer wrote today and suggested we re-name the Transit suit after Neil Peart. He was a great fan of the Transit suit and generously let us use photos of him riding wearing his Transit. We have been selling his very good books about his motorcycling and life experiences for many years. (We ran out of them recently and are not sure when they will be available next. Many books periodically go ‘out of print’ and sometimes they come back in reprinted editions.)
Neil was a genuine long-riding motorcyclist and a super bright, incredibly hard working, thoughtful, intellectually curious man. And extremely well-read. I met him once. Rush was playing in Minneapolis and he nearly always rode between tour venues in good weather and bad, usually with his friend and business associate Michael. His tour bus towed a double axle enclosed car trailer which was set up like a motorcycle garage for hauling and servicing the bikes and gear.
I think a few weeks prior to that Minneapolis concert he’d reached out to Aerostich customer care (and order processing) for something and then separately via email invited my partner and I to come down and see the show. Which is what we did. Until we met on that night I’d never spoken to him. What follows are my notes about this experience, written the morning after to my co-worker Gail, who’d volunteered at the last minute to deliver some Aerostich heated gear for Neil and Michael to the show venue. This email has been edited for clarity and some background information has been added in italics:
Gail, the show was really something. Last summer we (my then-fiancé and I) saw Lyle Lovett at the Big Top tent over by Bayfield, and we also saw Bob Dylan at Bayfront the previous year, but the last time I was at a stadium concert was maybe ten years ago for Elton John. And I'd never been to a show like this, with the VIP treatment and seeing everything from the backside.
We picked up (another Aerostich co-worker) about a block from the Excel center (concert venue) as we arrived. He jumped into the back seat and we went down the same side-street into the underground backstage parking area you did. We met Neil’s friend Michael there. He was inside Neil's Prevost coach, working with maps and a notebook computer transferring a paper-highlighted 330-mile backroad route from St Paul to their next show, which they are probably out riding to right now. When I write backroad, I mean it. They were going to be heading southeast on the littlest roads they could find. Some were gravel. Neil draws the route on a paper map and Michael puts it into a notebook computer and then into two Garmin GPS's.
Behind one of the buses is an enclosed trailer holding three BMW GS motorcycles and a little workshop area. One bike is a spare in case either of the ridden bikes breaks down or needs to be serviced. After they finish playing a show the two of them get back on their bus and leave the venue while the audience is still applauding. They sleep a regular night as the bus rolls onward and sometime the next morning just after they wake up the bus pulls over somewhere and they unload the bikes and ride the rest of the way to the next Rush concert location.
There were three semi-trailers and three other luxury/custom Prevost coaches with a fourth Prevost that could also have been theirs (?) parked at a slightly separate location. There was no opening act. Neil and two other performers did the entire show, with one intermission. Forty years ago, when I saw Elvis on tour there were always at least 15 supporting performers on stage with him. Some dancing, some doing backup harmony, playing instruments, etc. but no techno-show. No fancy lights, videos, electronics.
The staging and technology setup here was spectacular. There were continuous projected videos and lighting…hundreds and hundreds of remotely controlled lights. Fans were mostly in their fifties, many wearing very old Rush shirts. The audience was also mostly male. The couple seated next to us in the premium seats (close to the stage but several rows back) follow the show. This was the third of a scheduled 33 date tour, which apparently could go a little longer if more dates were added. The theme was NP 40, 'The Fortieth Anniversary of Rush' tour. There were little plastic dinosaurs arranged atop one of the racks of Marshall amps. All the lights and winches and cables and speakers and electronic controls and stage props traveled with the band, of course, and it looked like it could easily fill the three 40' semi-trailers I saw.
How they set it all up in a short period would have made a great time-lapse film. Maybe a crew of 20 persons (?) traveling with the show and a hundred local hires for security type work. A guess.
After Michael had finished doing the mapping for the ride in the morning, he asked me if I knew anything about electric gear. "A little." I replied. He went on to explain how one of their (brand X) electric liners had failed yesterday and they'd spent about half the day riding dry roads with freshly fallen snow on the surrounding landscape. I think Neil had given his still-functioning (brand X) liner to Michael and then toughed it out for the rest of the day.
These two have ridden about 200,000 miles together over a couple of decades. Michael functioning as Neil’s riding partner, bodyguard and majordomo…he’d met Neil because he owns a security business used by celebrities and others who need extreme confidentiality. Sort of like the federal witness relocation program, but for people who are not guilty of anything other than being ultra-successful, famous or wealthy. And because he owns this company, he gets to spend a lot of time riding around with Neil.
(It was about 5 PM and we were at the show. I thought we'd be able to have someone from Aerostich drive there with a couple of Kanestu Darien liners and electric vests to replace the brand X's, which is what happened.) Hopefully right now those guys are wearing and enjoying our heated gear.
(Gail did this long delivery, arriving during the middle of the show. We coordinated by text. I think Neil and Michael had been unaware we produced our own range of heated gear. They had been using the ‘brand X’ which was the more popular heated gear at that time. Our gear is deliberately made slightly lighter, slightly more efficient and slightly lower-powered so it would work better with older and smaller bikes having less electrical output. Most cold weather long-distance riders owned bigger and newer bikes with large electrical systems and wanted as much heat as possible.)
Gail, thank you for all the extra work you did for us last night! After you left, I opened and set up one of the liners, made sure it worked, and showed Michael what to do and how use it. Then I went back into the show using a borrowed 'all access' VIP credential hanging from a lanyard around my neck. Our seats were center row 11. I'd never seen a stadium show from such close seats. Felt almost like being in a small theatrical venue, except for the sound level, which was amazing. 130DB? A guess.
(After first getting there and following instructions how to get through security and into the underground garages where the coaches were parked, Michael walked with us to the ‘green room’ where the band and some of the traveling staging and sound technicians were relaxing with an excellent catered dinner buffet. Maybe a dozen people? After eating I remember going to another smaller adjacent room and talking motorcycles and motorcycling alone with Neil for maybe five minutes, and then going to sit down in row 11 for the wonderful Rush concert.)
I think naming or “nicknaming” the suit after Mr. Peart would be an incredible and deserved honor. As to reason, I agree with many of the previous posts. Neal Peart is Internationally known as being a perfectionist. If there was a better suit, he would have found it or had someone make it! This alone, is a testament to the outstanding products you make. I believe he also embodied the spirit of motorcyclists in many ways. Not only in the realm of seeking adventure but, in the face of extreme loss (his daughter and wife), he turned to motorcycling and writing as a refuge and form of personal therapy. Not too many non-riders may get that, but we sure do. In today’s world, there are few icons. There are countless copies but, very few originals. Mr. Peart and Aerostich are two of those originals and the concept of them being linked this way seems very natural.
Thank you for posting this experience. I was so impressed by his book “Far and Near” it resides in a place of honor in my workshop. Having grown up on a Minnesota farm with at least 7 miles of gravel to the nearest paved road I can imagine Neal and Micheal chugging by if they were 40 years earlier. Nice thoughts.
Great story about a truly exceptional man. I never saw Rush in concert, one of my few big regrets. I came to learn about Neil after I picked up Ghost Rider. It was a very moving read, I intend to re-read it starting during today’s MN blizzard. I offer up a toast to Neil! Excellent percussionist, fine man, and a fellow rider. We’ll miss you.
I never met Neil, and admittedly, was not much of a Rush fan (but I am learning). However, after buying and reading Ghost Rider, I became a Neil Peart fan. I felt he really was “one of us.” Car mechanics, pharmacists, aerospace engineers, farmers, mid-level corporate managers, assembly line workers, businessmen, and professional drummers. On the bikes, we are all friends and co-conspirators. A lot of celebrities have passed in the last 12 months, but Neil’s had a marked effect on me. He was one of us.
A second for naming it the “Transit Professor” or “Transit Bubba”. Rush has long been a favorite band, and Neil’s passing was a real gut-punch. I’m envious you got to live out one of my riding fantasies: a few minutes with Neil, talking bikes.
Leave a comment