You’ve no doubt seen Tom McComas flash across the big screen, usually falling off a building or wheelying a motorcycle through rush-hour traffic. That's because he’s a bonafide Hollywood stuntman. McComas credits his career choice to a best-selling self-help book, “What Color is Your Parachute?” Summing it up, he says, “Figure out what you like to do, and find out a way to get paid doing it.”

McComas discovered his first love, motorcycling, growing up in Chicago. Bitten by the competition bug, he road raced for six years before discovering he could get paid to crash bikes. “I thought, ‘I’m not afraid to fall down. I like to fight. Let’s go!’” His big break? Doubling actor David Hasselhoff on the popular 1990s television series “Baywatch.”

McComas has since chalked up hundreds of appearances in film and on TV. “Getting into stunts was so difficult,” he says in reflection. “There’s a lot of rejection. I’m really grateful to be in the position I’m in, because I don’t go to work, I go to

play

. Some days are better than others, for sure, but it’s amazing you can make a career out of doing what I do.”

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Ken Condon describes himself as a commuter, tourer, an off-road rider, a track-day instructor, road racer, an ice rider, a drag racer, and “plain old street rider.” Truth is, as wide-ranging as that description may sound, it barely scratches the surface of the many things Condon has done not just on a motorcycle but, more importantly, for his fellow motorcyclists.

Ken is the author of two books, “Riding in the Zone” and “Motorcycling the Right Way.” The latter is a compilation of the “Proficient Motorcycling” columns published in Motorcycle Consumer News. “I wrote that column for 14 years—2,800 words, plus photos, every month,” he tells “Driven to Ride” host Mark Long. Condon also penned “Street Strategies” for the same title.

That’s to say Condon has devoted most of his life to not only becoming a better rider himself but to helping others become better riders. “‘The well is very deep’ is what I tell my students,” he says. “You can choose to swim on the surface and tread water, or you can dive deep and get down there and see what it’s all about. And there’s an awful lot there. It just goes, and goes, and goes.”

Riding In The Zone Website

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Sam Manicom spent eight years roaming the world by motorcycle, which is an accomplishment by itself. He later put those experiences into words, authoring four books: “Into Africa,” “Under Asian Skies,” “Distant Suns,” and “Tortillas to Totems.” Each volume takes readers through a different portion of his journey, Manicom tells Mark Long on this episode of the “Driven to Ride” podcast.

Manicom has traveled most of his life, using all manner of transportation. He explored Europe on a bicycle, hitchhiked by semi-truck, and crossed an ocean via cargo ship. All were tremendous experiences, he says, but motorcycles—a BMW R 80 GS, in particular—tick all the right boxes. For a chunk of that nearly decade-long journey, he even had a companion, aboard her own motorcycle.

During his time abroad, Manicom made an important discovery. “I found that a handshake and a smile and a ‘hello’ in somebody’s language gets you through an awful lot of very difficult situations,” he says. “You show respect to people and they’ll be gobsmacked, to begin with. Then, they tentatively smile back. All of a sudden, so many issues just melt away. It was such a good lesson to learn.”

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