In February we posted a teaser of Scott Toepfer’s short film ‘Better in the Wind’. After a year of filming a stack of road trips, 50 hours of editing, a shit load of memory cards and enough Super-8 film to safely tie up a particularly large and angry bear, the film has finally been finished. To say this has been a labor of love is an understatement. Scott funded the film by selling his ‘Better in the Wind’ book online, which literally made it possible to keep his bike on the road and keep filming. “I’ve been selling my little paperback via Blurb for the past 8 months or so, which has helped me keep my XS650 running enough to make it through the trips” says Scott. “Blown head gasket, broken mufflers, tail lights, headlights, bars, chains… that damn XS is my baby but without the support of those people who have picked up a copy of the book, I wouldn’t have been able to ride/shoot and pay the bills at home”.

You won’t find any special effects in the film. No Hollywood actors. No unbelievable ending. “Just a group of guys planning road trips, me trying to record it the best I could, becoming good friends in the process, and trying to get it out there on a positive note,” says Scott. “There are tons of opinions on what is what, who is who, and where the motorcycle culture should go… but really at the base of the argument is that we all take the sport/recreation of riding personally (hence we all hold it to our chests), and it means something to us in a positive way… so why not try and reflect the simple joy of it. We as motorcyclists can bitch all we want, and while most of us are strangers, we’re still most likely buds when crossing paths on the road”. Here here.

[Scott would like to give a special thanks to Brandon Schrichten, Jason at Dime City Cycles, musician Chuck Ragan and everyone that bought his book. And we’d like to thank Scott for letting us have the honor of being the first site to show the final product. Hats off to you, sir!]