The title is based on the 1974 book 'Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values' by Robert M. Pirsig about a voyage of self exploration on a motorcycle trip.
This episode has two actors who would go on to appear in box office hits with Michael J. Fox. Regular Christopher Lloyd would star as Doc Brown in the Back to the Future series, and James MacKrell would star as the high school principal in Teen Wolf.