Latest / BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show / From Sidecars to Superstars: The Flying Tiger Motorcycles Story

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From Sidecars to Superstars: The Flying Tiger Motorcycles Story · BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show

• 0:00
  BreakFix podcast is all about capturing the living history of people from
• 0:04
  all over the autosphere, from wrench turners and racers to artists, authors,
• 0:09
  designers, and everything in between.
• 0:11
  Our goal is to inspire a new generation of petrolheads that wonder.
• 0:16
  How did they get that job or become that person?
• 0:19
  The road to success is paved by all of us because everyone has a story.
• 0:27
  Taking your late model bike or scooter to the dealership for repair
• 0:31
  can be costly, and some dealers are not equipped for models that are
• 0:35
  no longer on the showroom floor.
• 0:37
  Specializing in vintage Honda, Kawasaki, Triumph, BSA, and Norton platforms, St.
• 0:43
  Louis based Flying Tiger Motorcycles excels in servicing all major
• 0:47
  makes and models of motorcycles and scooters, regardless of the model year.
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  But do you remember the old nursery rhyme about the butcher, the
• 0:54
  baker, and the candlestick maker?
• 0:56
  Adam Reed and Ryan Harrison from Flying Tiger are here to
• 0:58
  tell us all about motorcycles.
• 1:00
  But also how they've created some unique products partnering with names like Motul.
• 1:04
  And with that, let's welcome Adam and Ryan to BrakeFix.
• 1:07
  Yay!
• 1:09
  We got like an applause button or something.
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  New fanfare.
• 1:11
  And joining me tonight is one of our regular co hosts on BrakeFix, the one
• 1:15
  and only Mountain Man Dan, who heads up our Mountain View division, all things
• 1:19
  dirt, off road, trucks, and bikes.
• 1:21
  So welcome back, Dan.
• 1:22
  Good to be here.
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  Well, like all good break fix stories, there's a superhero
• 1:27
  origin story, and tonight we have hero and sidekick, Adam and Ryan.
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  So why don't you tell us about the who, what, when, and where
• 1:34
  of flying tiger motorcycles?
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  Ryan, I distinctly remember you sending me a picture of a dude with
• 1:40
  a gnarly beard riding, and some guy just hanging out for dear life in the
• 1:43
  side car helping him balance, and I'm pretty sure I was in the side car and
• 1:46
  you were the one riding, so that makes me the sidekick and you the hero.
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  Oh, I'm the hero.
• 1:50
  Okay.
• 1:51
  Yeah.
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  So Flying Tiger was started by Eric and Teresa.
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  Eric and Teresa, you know, they're the owners and the founders.
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  We're not here.
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  Eric got his start in Kawasaki R& D.
• 2:00
  And I believe he was doing some test writing.
• 2:03
  He was testing factory models and then implementing changes based on feedback
• 2:07
  from his writing and test group and then actually making changes himself.
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  And they lived in.
• 2:12
  Somewhere near LA to do that job.
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  And I think they were both from the Midwest, you know, like Ryan and
• 2:16
  myself from Missouri and Teresa's from Iowa, you know, they got tired
• 2:19
  of that LA rat race and he was getting more into custom builds and wrenching.
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  And I guess getting sick of the grind, you know, the circuit grind of going
• 2:28
  to trade events and things like that, packed back up and moved back to St.
• 2:31
  Louis.
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  And Eric wanted to start a motorcycle shop and they needed a name.
• 2:35
  I think they were sitting in a drive thru for like some kind of like Asian food.
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  And the, and the menu item was.
• 2:39
  crying tiger and they're like, well, wouldn't that be funny if
• 2:42
  we just call it crying tiger?
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  There's a romantic story behind it.
• 2:45
  We're just not great at telling that one.
• 2:46
  However, that story of being in a drive thru sushi shop, which if
• 2:50
  you want to place your judgments on drive thru sushi, you know, go ahead.
• 2:54
  When Eric tells it, it's kind of funny, but look, it came up
• 2:56
  with something cool in the end.
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  So what about you two?
• 2:59
  You guys play a, an essential role in the flying tiger story.
• 3:02
  So how did you guys come along?
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  And when did you come along?
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  I was a customer before I ever worked there.
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  I had an old bike and they're the only place in town that works on old bikes.
• 3:11
  And I think their salesperson had just quit.
• 3:14
  And I had sweet talked them into helping them build a new website in
• 3:17
  exchange for the work on my motorcycle.
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  Cause 20 years old and poor.
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  So it was a fair deal for me.
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  I started doing some media work and some website work.
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  And then one day I was picking up my bike and they presented me the bill.
• 3:28
  And he said, or instead of paying this bill, we just lost our salesperson.
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  So if you want to like sit up here and work a couple of days a
• 3:34
  week, we can just call it even.
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  And that was seven years ago.
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  I live in a different state now and I still work for them.
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  We've done some really neat things for being, you know, what used
• 3:42
  to be just a one bay repair shop.
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  I've had a pretty cool role in helping them build into something different.
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  And Ryan too.
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  Before I came to FindTiger, I was also, I'd say customer shop hang around as well.
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  At that time I was working for an exotic car dealership.
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  I'm driving other people's Ferraris and Lamborghinis and having a good old time.
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  Me and that owner came to a, a disagreement one day, as most
• 4:05
  do in the exotic car industry.
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  Decided that it wasn't working out.
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  Ended up trying to freelance myself.
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  I was doing a lot of marketing and photography for those guys.
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  He started freelancing.
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  Did that for about six months.
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  Realized that I really just don't like working for myself.
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  And I'd rather do that for somebody else than just try to do the hustle
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  and the taxes and the, you know, all the business side of things.
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  I love doing the creative side.
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  Let somebody else worry about the business side.
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  Flying Tiger was just landed a deal with Rebel Yell Bourbon, building
• 4:35
  some custom motorcycles for them.
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  They can't afford to keep you to do just one thing at a shop that small.
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  So you're selling motorcycles, you're, you know, helping service, right?
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  Parts order, and then also help and do some of the creative stuff that we
• 4:49
  needed for the media machine behind taking a motorcycle to handbill.
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  As well as they shipped that thing off to, like, was it Spokane, Washington?
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  And rode them to Surgis.
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  Did a whole, like, documentary on it.
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  I mean, there's just some really cool stuff that for a little motorcycle
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  shop from Missouri, you know, was doing some really big things.
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  And it was really just the marketing team behind it just pushing it while the
• 5:12
  other guys are cranking out custom bikes.
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  So it was, it was pretty cool.
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  Because you were hanging out at the shop, you were personally invested into it.
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  It wasn't because you had to be there.
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  So something about it, you must have saw that you liked and you're like,
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  I want to be here to do this stuff.
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  And like Adam, when, you know, they offered you the
• 5:26
  spot, you're like, I'll do it.
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  You know, so that tells me that it's got to have a good
• 5:29
  atmosphere there at Fine Tiger.
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  When they started, they were Hart from Donaldson's, I guess.
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  In Whitman, the only place in town that really works on older bikes.
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  And that's for a number of reasons.
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  Old bikes are temperamental.
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  They're expensive.
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  It's not a Honda Civic.
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  It's not a car you can trust.
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  It always needs something and it needs motivation.
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  A lot of that motivation starts at a good shop.
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  If you don't have a good shop to set the tone for your vintage bike,
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  you're kind of just walking everywhere or bumming rides or you're kicking
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  it and trying to sell it later.
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  That's a mouthful too, right?
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  Mom and pop motorcycle shop from Missouri.
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  Yeah.
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  Do that three times fast.
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  Rolls off the tongue.
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  And that's what our next t shirt.
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  Both of you guys come by this, honestly, I'm sure you've had
• 6:07
  several bikes in your collections.
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  So why don't we talk about some of the bikes that you have?
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  And obviously you were going to Flying Tiger because what you
• 6:15
  owned kind of fits the mold there.
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  It's not a new bike.
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  It's something vintage.
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  It's something unique.
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  It's something classic.
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  My dad always rode a bike, but like Ryan, I started in cars.
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  Cars were my first thing and, you know, I built a number of interesting cars
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  as best as I could in my twenties.
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  I think about my first bike, my buddy Kevin, his dad had a
• 6:32
  bunch of bikes in his garage.
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  And I remember Kevin always talking about his dad's Honda Magnet.
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  He said, well, my V4 Magnet's the fastest bike in the world.
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  It'll crush any crotch rocket out there.
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  Don't worry about it.
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  So he's like, yeah, you have to come ride with me someday.
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  And I'd never ridden a bike in my life.
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  And so he shows me around his bike and he's got a 74.
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  CB550 Supersport, and I mean, the thing is just roached, right?
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  It's four different colors, but it's got an old Vance and Heinz pipe on it.
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  It's jetted.
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  It's got some pod filters.
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  It's ready to rock, you know, and it has no brakes cause they don't work and
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  the clutch is starting to slip, but man, it frigging boogied for an old bike.
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  I was just hounded.
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  I'm like day after day.
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  I'm like, man, you got to sell me this bike.
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  And he goes, no, no, no, I can't sell you the bike.
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  And finally one day he was like, all right, just give
• 7:08
  me a hundred bucks for it.
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  So I gave him a hundred bucks and he was like, I can't really let my dad know that
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  I sold it because it'd be pissed off.
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  So like, you can just come to my garage and here's how you
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  get in and you can ride it.
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  And so like every day I drive my little Ford Escort GT with some stickers
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  on it over to his house and I take it for a ride to the neighborhood.
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  And then one day, like a, like a month or two later, he knocked on my door.
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  Cause you know, it's like 1999, we know telephones.
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  And he's standing there, he's got a hundred dollar bill in his hand.
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  And he goes, oh, hey man.
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  He goes, my dad found out that I sold the bike.
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  He made me give you your money back.
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  I'm sorry, you can't have it.
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  That's the story of my first bike.
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  It got repossessed by its owner because it was dangerous.
• 7:41
  As far as bikes go, I actually had a really good blog post about
• 7:44
  what drew me into motorcycles.
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  I was at my grandma's house.
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  She had cable, right?
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  So like flipping through the channels like a eager kid and then you know,
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  it stopped on like speed channel and they were showing it was either like
• 7:55
  world super bike or something but they were showing this helicopter
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  view looking down at the track and the motorcycles turned left so the the
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  right side of the bike was facing up.
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  And it was the first time I'd ever seen a single sided swing arm.
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  And like, it just blew my mind on these, like, it was like, at
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  that time it was Ducati 996, 916s.
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  And the turning over, and just that rear wheel, like, spinning, free floating.
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  I was just like, what is this?
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  What are they doing?
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  Kid from the Midwest, I've never seen motorcycles like this.
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  It's all just Harleys, and like, things are just leaning over, defying the laws
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  of physics as far as I'm concerned.
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  I got the hook there.
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  Eventually I turned 18, which is the, uh, legal age that your mom
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  can never not tell you that you can't own a motorcycle anymore.
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  No.
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  I bought a ambitious bike, 2003 at the time.
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  I got a 2002 Suzuki GSX R 750, which is a big, big bike for a kid that's never
• 8:57
  even looked at a dirt bike or anything and just kind of never looked back.
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  Between that, I've, uh, you know, had an RC 51.
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  The Halo bike for me was that Ducati 996.
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  I had that and then I sold it.
• 9:11
  Most of the drift kids on here all know Danger Dan from YouTube and Hoonigan fame.
• 9:15
  Sold that to him to buy my first house for the down payment on my first house.
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  I didn't buy a 10, 000 house.
• 9:21
  What you could do at the time, but you can't do anymore.
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  After that, I didn't own anything until I came to Flying Tiger.
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  And then I bought a little Moto Guzzi Scrambler.
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  That's the last motorcycle I owned.
• 9:32
  So you mentioned being a fan of motorcycle racing.
• 9:35
  So is that true for both of you guys?
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  And if so, do you have a favorite rider, favorite team?
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  You know, people talk about the Repsol Hondas, Valentino Rossi, things like that.
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  Is there a hero out there in the motor sport world?
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  Rossi is always going to be the big thing because the natural
• 9:50
  progression is you start learning about racing after I got into it.
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  MotoGP, it was the last season for the 500 two strokes, which was also what,
• 9:58
  like maybe Rossi's like first or second season in the big bikes and just kind of
• 10:02
  fell in love with that guy from the start.
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  So, I mean, he's always a big one.
• 10:06
  The battles he had with Max Biaggi at that time were also really epic.
• 10:10
  Getting to watch Nikki Hayden go from AMA Superbike up to the
• 10:14
  MotoGP bikes and stuff like that.
• 10:16
  I mean, there's just been so many.
• 10:18
  I think I own every Ben Bostrom helmet that was ever made, or at least for sale.
• 10:22
  I'm sure he has a ton of them.
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  I'm a, such a fan boy.
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  I'm bad at stats.
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  Like it's why I never got into like sports.
• 10:28
  I played hockey terribly my entire life, but couldn't name a current St.
• 10:32
  Louis blues player.
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  For me, it's different.
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  It's a very personal thing.
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  I grown up watching racing was a huge F1 fan.
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  That was the eighties and nineties.
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  Right?
• 10:39
  So you're talking Eric and Senna and then Schumacher's rise to fame after that.
• 10:44
  There's such a visceral component to racing that kind of mirrors
• 10:47
  the technical side of it.
• 10:48
  And that goes for all motor sports.
• 10:49
  It's the obvious stuff for me.
• 10:51
  It's the sights, the sounds, the colors.
• 10:52
  It's just assault on your senses.
• 10:55
  We recently had the opportunity to go with Motul as guests of theirs
• 10:59
  to the Petit Le Mans in Atlanta.
• 11:01
  And Ryan and I both have a lot of history at racetracks, running
• 11:04
  events and being event organizers.
• 11:06
  And that was my first time being at a racetrack in years, actually.
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  And I was just getting chills now.
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  I was blown away.
• 11:13
  To see like everything happening, it's everything.
• 11:16
  It's kind of like a strange microcosm of living.
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  You've got everything.
• 11:20
  You've got all the strife and struggle.
• 11:22
  You've got the victory and the heartbreak, camaraderie, that need
• 11:25
  to work together to solve an issue.
• 11:27
  But at the same time, it's an endurance race.
• 11:28
  So everybody's bored out of their minds, sitting on the pit wall.
• 11:31
  Waiting for something to happen.
• 11:33
  So for me, it's always been that kind of tangible aspect of it
• 11:37
  more than heroes or anything else.
• 11:40
  It's like being immersed.
• 11:41
  Since we started talking about motorsport in the vein of motorcycles and Adam,
• 11:44
  you brought in petite Lamont, the sport and endurance side of the house.
• 11:48
  There's an interesting.
• 11:49
  transition here that's happened over the last couple of years.
• 11:52
  Our favorite motorcycle hero, Valentino Rossi finds himself behind the wheel
• 11:57
  of an LMP2 endurance sports car.
• 12:00
  So how do we feel about that?
• 12:01
  What do we think about Valentino's progress in the four wheeled world?
• 12:04
  I saw a post that he was as fast as all the, like the
• 12:07
  rookie class or whatever, right?
• 12:09
  Like, I mean, like he's going to be fast no matter what he does.
• 12:12
  I'm stoked to see what he'll do.
• 12:15
  No matter what, he's still always gonna be the GOAT.
• 12:17
  How old is he?
• 12:17
  He's in his 30s, almost 40s, right?
• 12:20
  This is like Juan Montoya signing up for NASCAR in like 2004 or whatever.
• 12:23
  Yeah, right?
• 12:24
  Like, he's just gonna crush it no matter what.
• 12:26
  Fast is fast, no matter what you put him on, I'm sure.
• 12:29
  To your point, he is the GOAT.
• 12:30
  In a lot of ways, he is parallel to the Michael Schumacher of motorcycles.
• 12:34
  He holds so many records.
• 12:35
  He is so fast.
• 12:36
  He's fantastic to watch.
• 12:37
  And even when he sort of retired, but then came back, It was sort of like Alonzo.
• 12:42
  It's the same thing.
• 12:43
  It's like, well, I'm always here in the top five, beating up the young guys.
• 12:46
  So there's these really interesting parallels between the motorcycle
• 12:49
  world and let's say formula one, especially at that level of racing.
• 12:52
  Big thing that I've noticed in the past five to 10 years in particular, guys
• 12:56
  transitioning out of one discipline to another coming off of bikes and
• 12:59
  stuff into four wheels, there's a lot of different guys that have done that.
• 13:03
  Pastrana, he did it, got into NASCAR for a little bit.
• 13:05
  He was real big into rally for a while.
• 13:07
  It's good to see a lot of the guys crossing over to different disciplines
• 13:10
  because I think it pulls a lot of that fan base with it and it all
• 13:14
  strengthens the motorsports community, which I think is a great thing.
• 13:17
  But that's not what we came here to talk about, right, Dan?
• 13:19
  When it comes back to Flying Tiger with the shop, with repairs and everything,
• 13:24
  any sort of shop like that, you got your basic repairs to pay the bills and stuff,
• 13:28
  but you guys do like custom builds.
• 13:29
  What sort of custom builds are a normal thing to see there at Flying Tiger?
• 13:33
  You're 100 percent correct.
• 13:34
  The bread and butter of the business is Straightforward repair, something's
• 13:38
  wrong with my Honda Shadow.
• 13:39
  What is it?
• 13:39
  Yeah, absolutely.
• 13:40
  Being one of, if not the only shop currently that does vintage repair, you
• 13:44
  get such a wide swath of everything.
• 13:47
  And we've had like, God, what's the oldest one we've had?
• 13:50
  I mean, there's like a 1958 Lambretta scooter, like fully original sitting back
• 13:55
  there in parts waiting to be put together.
• 13:56
  Yeah.
• 13:57
  Oldest thing I saw was like a 1914 Triumph.
• 13:59
  Yeah.
• 14:00
  Been a Black Shadow or two.
• 14:01
  But it afforded you that opportunity to see just about everything.
• 14:04
  So, I mean, your typical stuff, it's just your daily rider, but we get
• 14:08
  some interesting stuff because we're willing to work on it because we have
• 14:11
  the knowledge base, it's interesting.
• 14:13
  You bring up the Lambrettas because earlier this season, we
• 14:16
  actually had Malcolm Bricklin on the show who is responsible
• 14:19
  for bringing Lambretta scooters.
• 14:20
  Into the United States way back when, in the late fifties, early sixties.
• 14:24
  So it's really funny that you guys have one of those laying around.
• 14:27
  There's still a few out there.
• 14:28
  I found a website, lambretta.
• 14:29
  net.
• 14:29
  I think it's called, and they claim to stock a bunch of parts.
• 14:32
  Speaking of the Lambretta, we sell a genuine scooters.
• 14:35
  People always ask what the best scooter is and they go to a Vespa and Vespas
• 14:38
  are fine, but there's a beast to repair.
• 14:40
  If you can get parts and Ryan can back me up on this, having worked for Ducati,
• 14:44
  you need a part for an Italian bike.
• 14:46
  And you call the warehouse to the distributor and they essentially
• 14:50
  ask you why you need the part.
• 14:51
  And you say, cause the bike broke.
• 14:53
  And they go, that's impossible.
• 14:54
  It's Italian.
• 14:54
  It can't break.
• 14:55
  It didn't break.
• 14:56
  You've done something wrong.
• 14:57
  Or you try to order the part in August and they're all on vacation.
• 15:01
  Again, for the fifth time that summer.
• 15:02
  I think Genuine has the tooling for Lambretta chassis and they
• 15:05
  kind of repop a modern version, which is pretty interesting.
• 15:08
  Other stuff that we get, you asked if we did builds.
• 15:10
  I mean, yeah, that's kind of like the next phase of the evolution.
• 15:14
  So the shop started in where it is now actually adjacent to it.
• 15:18
  There was a little one bay garage that somebody was using for storage and Eric
• 15:22
  rented that and was doing wrenching repairs out of it and outgrew it.
• 15:25
  Now they're in this massive spot with like four beds and Eric's little secret
• 15:29
  room hidden somewhere in the middle of the building, where you can only
• 15:31
  find if you already know where it is.
• 15:33
  Growing into builds was kind of the next thing Ryan mentioned earlier.
• 15:37
  We've had bikes in hand built, one golden bolt.
• 15:40
  Cycle showcase.
• 15:41
  Shout out to Randy.
• 15:42
  You haven't seen cycle showcase.
• 15:44
  That's some of the top stylistic building you're going to see outside of LA.
• 15:48
  It's great stuff.
• 15:49
  I'm going to throw this out into the universe and maybe it'll happen.
• 15:52
  Keanu, if you're listening, Arch Motorcycles, come on, man, it's a fit.
• 15:55
  You know, we got the Arch in St.
• 15:56
  Louis.
• 15:57
  Arch is your name.
• 15:59
  Bring it in, boy.
• 16:00
  I'm totally ready.
• 16:00
  We'll build something together.
• 16:02
  Obviously with custom builds, there's also restorations.
• 16:04
  There's the daily work.
• 16:05
  But I also noticed other services that Flying Tiger provides.
• 16:08
  One of them is really, really interesting.
• 16:10
  And that's the auction service side of the business.
• 16:13
  And obviously that speaks to you, Adam, as part of sales leadership at Flying Tiger.
• 16:17
  And you don't see motorcycle auctions too often.
• 16:20
  Now I know that Mecham has a big one that they run every year.
• 16:24
  And this past year, it was record setting for the number of bikes,
• 16:27
  but those usually come from private collections where they're trying
• 16:30
  to break them up and sell them off.
• 16:31
  And the only other auction service I've come across is by way of classic Avenue.
• 16:37
  And that's Nick Smith, who you see on motor trend kind of, you
• 16:39
  know, stumping and thrumping around with his British accent and they
• 16:42
  sell bikes by auction as well.
• 16:44
  So I wanted to dig a little bit deeper into how your auction works, where they're
• 16:49
  coming from, or they are your builds.
• 16:50
  Are they clients?
• 16:51
  Are they part of an estate?
• 16:53
  We've used bring a trailer and we've had some pretty good success with that.
• 16:55
  It's a pretty fair system.
• 16:57
  They'll send a photographer out to you and give you some really nice
• 17:00
  stuff, but just happened to have a background in photography myself.
• 17:03
  That's another hat I get to wear photographing bikes.
• 17:06
  They are not from our collections.
• 17:08
  Personally, they're usually private collections.
• 17:09
  One of them just happens to be.
• 17:11
  Richard Ford is the guitarist for Guns N Roses.
• 17:13
  You know, he's a buddy of the shop.
• 17:14
  He lives in St.
• 17:15
  Louis.
• 17:15
  So we sold his bike on there.
• 17:17
  We kind of helped him put it together.
• 17:18
  We even had him autograph the bike after it sold.
• 17:20
  But the auction process there, it's very straightforward.
• 17:23
  You photograph the bike.
• 17:24
  You write up a nice little article about it.
• 17:26
  You send it to them and they actually kind of rewrite that article for you.
• 17:30
  So you really send them an overview of details, but that's the
• 17:33
  process, it's very straightforward.
• 17:34
  So we joke a lot on our drive through in a section we call lost and found, where
• 17:38
  we scour the internet looking for the newest old car out there and try to look
• 17:42
  at some of the crazy prices on bring a trailer and in the car world, it's sort
• 17:46
  of gone nuts, the used market is insane.
• 17:49
  You know, there's geo metros selling for five figures.
• 17:52
  It doesn't make sense.
• 17:53
  Is the same true.
• 17:55
  On the bike side of the house, has it been affected in the
• 17:57
  same way in the used market?
• 17:59
  I wish I could say yes.
• 18:01
  Certain bikes are demanding more than you would expect as a bike guy.
• 18:05
  My personal bike is a 95 CBR 600 F3.
• 18:09
  You know, it's in really good shape.
• 18:10
  It's near perfect.
• 18:11
  It's got 40, 000 miles on it.
• 18:13
  I might get five grand for it on a good day.
• 18:15
  So not mind blowing money, but more than it's worth if I'm air quoting worth.
• 18:20
  Are you seeing any trends in motorcycles where even older
• 18:23
  ones are gaining more traction?
• 18:25
  They're becoming more desirable things that investors might be looking out for.
• 18:28
  If there's a way to see that data more streamlined than I'm looking at, and it's
• 18:32
  just a tool that's on bring a trailer.
• 18:34
  You can actually see just a plot of what has sold.
• 18:38
  It seems to be all over the place.
• 18:39
  And it seems to be dictated by currents in the market, like the stock market.
• 18:43
  What happened on that day?
• 18:44
  I don't know.
• 18:45
  Did Honda release a new model, you know, a new 600 RR out this year in Europe,
• 18:49
  if it's not coming to the States, does that mean we're going to see an increase
• 18:52
  in 600 F3s and RRs from the past?
• 18:55
  I don't know, but maybe if you look at that scatterplot for all the different
• 18:58
  bikes, it's pretty dense across the board from high to low, it's all over the place.
• 19:03
  I'm going to let you guys in on a little nugget and a new time waster.
• 19:06
  It's called IconicMotorbikes.
• 19:09
  com.
• 19:10
  Love Iconic.
• 19:10
  They're a really cool shop doing some world class auctions with some
• 19:14
  bikes and traditionally it seems like they're really hot on the uh, like
• 19:19
  80s, 90s sport bike scene right now.
• 19:21
  I mean like those bikes just go for like nuts money compared to,
• 19:25
  you couldn't give away some of these bikes 20 years ago, right?
• 19:29
  They were just kind of worthless and now the bike's going for just
• 19:32
  silly money or what they are, but they're all clean, pristine.
• 19:35
  So if you're going to play the, uh, newest, oldest bike for a ridiculous
• 19:39
  amount of money, their website's going to be a good one to look at.
• 19:42
  And they're really good at finding zero to live mile bike.
• 19:45
  Yeah.
• 19:45
  That's how I'm gone from what I'm dealing with in my shed with 40, 000 miles on it.
• 19:48
  Who knows what the resource is.
• 19:50
  They're finding stuff in boxes in their original shipping boxes.
• 19:52
  Yeah, they get some weird stuff.
• 19:53
  They've got a 92 NSR 250 SE.
• 19:57
  Like, it's a street legal 252 stroke sport bike.
• 19:59
  I don't think we got those here, but they've got it for sale.
• 20:03
  Here in the mid Atlantic, seasons have a lot to do with values of bikes to where
• 20:06
  right now is a great time to buy up.
• 20:08
  And I actually been kind of looking around because a buddy of mine's got a bike shop.
• 20:11
  We always scour this time of year looking for stuff for cheap to do a little work
• 20:15
  to it through the winter and in the spring, sell it off, make profit on it.
• 20:18
  Where you guys are at, you guys notice that as well.
• 20:21
  Seasonal will get rid of bikes that somebody has to
• 20:25
  sell because of a hardship.
• 20:26
  Especially when you get into, like, collection bikes.
• 20:28
  They're gonna go up and down as, like, an investment piece, maybe.
• 20:32
  It's not gonna be like, I've got a Honda Sabre or something.
• 20:36
  You know, Nighthawk that I need to get rid of.
• 20:38
  You know, it's worth a thousand bucks now, but I might get 2, 500 for it in March.
• 20:43
  There's always gonna be a lot of that, but a lot of the cooler bikes that
• 20:46
  we usually pay attention to, they're gonna hold their value no matter what.
• 20:51
  More parallels between the motorcycle world and the car world, especially
• 20:55
  the collector car world, in the sense that, you know, what you're talking
• 20:57
  about, the newer bikes, the Suzuki's, the Yamaha's, the Honda's, the
• 21:00
  Harley's, I mean, that's like Honda, Toyota, Volkswagen and GM, right?
• 21:03
  I mean, they're like the big brands, you get it.
• 21:05
  But when you sort of look away from that, you have those Classic
• 21:09
  bikes, the triumphs, the BSAs, the Nortons, things like that.
• 21:13
  More like the MGs and the Jaguars.
• 21:15
  And then you've got Ducatis, which is like Ferrari and Lamborghini type of stuff.
• 21:19
  When you draw that parallel for the non two wheeled audience, what
• 21:23
  are the really nice collector bikes and what are the, the sexy bikes
• 21:27
  and the really sought after bikes?
• 21:28
  And how do you really tell them apart?
• 21:30
  And what are you looking for?
• 21:32
  Again, if you're looking to maybe buy a showpiece or an investment bike.
• 21:35
  Oh man, it's gonna be so subjective.
• 21:37
  Why is it so much easier with cars?
• 21:39
  Is it because bikes all look the same?
• 21:41
  No, like for me, like, if we're talking like, halo bike right now, like, if
• 21:45
  I won the lottery tomorrow, like, I'm hanging a Brough Superior from my wall.
• 21:49
  Every person interested in cars, whether you're interested in cars or not,
• 21:52
  goes, Oh, you know, a Ferrari F40, duh, it's like the coolest car ever built.
• 21:56
  I don't know if one bike exists like that outside of like a Vincent
• 21:59
  Black Shadow, just because it's got a lot of name recognition.
• 22:03
  You know, it wasn't a particularly great bike.
• 22:05
  It's badass.
• 22:05
  It's fast, but the thing about motorcycles is like it's marginal gains.
• 22:09
  I'll use the 600 RR as an example.
• 22:12
  Again, mine's a 1995.
• 22:13
  It makes a hundred horsepower.
• 22:14
  It's about 400 pounds steel frame instead of aluminum, the 2024 CBR, outside of
• 22:19
  it's electronic suite, which is like stuff that'll make it outperform my bike.
• 22:23
  It makes the same power at the same weight with the same.
• 22:27
  four pistons.
• 22:28
  So you're talking very, very small gains on a motorcycle.
• 22:32
  Motorcycles are very like non monogamous.
• 22:36
  Every motorcycle is an open relationship because everybody who comes into the
• 22:40
  bike shop talks about their 10 previous bikes that they had and why those bikes
• 22:44
  have led them to the decision of the next one that they're going to get.
• 22:47
  It's not like car guys who have that one car and that's what they've aspired for
• 22:51
  their entire life and they're gonna keep it until they die and be buried in it.
• 22:55
  Motorcycles are like shoes.
• 22:56
  I think a good analogy for that is like, if you work in a motorcycle
• 23:00
  shop and you put the bikes out during the day and then you bring them back
• 23:04
  in at night, you usually get the key dish with all the keys in it.
• 23:08
  Very rarely does anybody actually like, ooh, I need this one.
• 23:12
  Like, you're gonna stick your hand in the bowl.
• 23:14
  Pull out what you get and be like, hell yeah!
• 23:16
  Unless it's just a real hooper of a bike, are you ever going to be not
• 23:21
  stoked about whatever key you grab?
• 23:23
  Pushing those bikes out, you got to taste just about everything.
• 23:26
  There are two bikes that really stick in my mind outside of the Zero, the electric
• 23:31
  bikes, because those were just insane.
• 23:32
  Do you remember that hybrid CB650 550?
• 23:36
  Like a 650 bottom end with a 550 top end.
• 23:39
  Custom frame, fairing bike, green with like a tail section.
• 23:43
  Thank God, just the way that thing revved and the way it sounded and the way it
• 23:47
  felt under you, like it was the most like feeling of wonderment and enchantment on
• 23:51
  a motorcycle you've ever had in your life.
• 23:52
  And I just couldn't wait to slow and it was pathetically slow and it's too
• 23:55
  heavy and didn't handle very well.
• 23:57
  But dammit, every single time my hand landed on that key when I was
• 24:00
  pulling the bikes back in, I was like, this is going to be a good day.
• 24:03
  This is the one today.
• 24:04
  And the other one was like a terrifying Yamaha XS 1100.
• 24:08
  I don't know if you've ever ridden one of those, but it's like one
• 24:11
  of the highest power to weight ratio bikes of the eighties.
• 24:13
  And it was just terrifying.
• 24:14
  That's when that Eric built that was stripped down to absolutely nothing.
• 24:17
  And it was just an engine that he sat on with two tires.
• 24:19
  It was in that roulette of nastiness, like, which one today?
• 24:22
  Which one do I get to ride today?
• 24:24
  If anything, it comes down to a quote from the great Dan Murphy
• 24:27
  that you can rub a chainsaw at me and I'm going to smile, right?
• 24:30
  Like, it doesn't matter.
• 24:31
  It's all fun stuff.
• 24:32
  Dan was our Honda Whisperer.
• 24:33
  He's no longer with the company.
• 24:35
  He checks back in every once in a while, but he was the Honda Whisperer.
• 24:38
  We called him just about any Honda running top notch, even if it was a chainsaw.
• 24:42
  Nobody ever really leaves the Tiger.
• 24:44
  No, nobody really does.
• 24:45
  My personal experience, I don't know if you guys have dealt with it, but
• 24:48
  my experience with older Triumphs is the electrical nightmares are very
• 24:51
  similar to the older British cars.
• 24:54
  That's all Lucas.
• 24:55
  I've got a great picture of my buddy's Triumph at a gas station.
• 24:58
  Well, it's actually a picture of me putting out a fire
• 25:00
  with a fire extinguisher that was next to the gas pump.
• 25:02
  I've noticed now that there's fire extinguishers on every
• 25:04
  gas pump for good reason.
• 25:05
  And he had just fueled up and he went to kick it and he had to
• 25:08
  kick it so hard that it knocked the fuel line off the carburetor.
• 25:11
  It dumped fuel and the whole bike burst into flames.
• 25:13
  So there's this great video of me just like casually sweeping flame
• 25:16
  retardant material onto his Triumph as it's burning down in his parking lot.
• 25:20
  Speaking of old nightmare electronics, what do you guys think
• 25:23
  of going forward with EV bikes?
• 25:25
  I can't say anything bad about it.
• 25:26
  I'm just an old bike kind of guy.
• 25:28
  I ride a carb bike and I have days where I cuss at it because the humidity's changed
• 25:32
  and now getting to work is difficult, but everything we build typically is built
• 25:37
  on the back of the MotoGadget suite.
• 25:39
  So we use the M unit.
• 25:40
  We use everything we can and they're just such fantastic little products
• 25:44
  and they make it so convenient.
• 25:46
  I don't think you can get away from it.
• 25:47
  Love the electric bikes.
• 25:49
  We dealt with zero for a little while out of California.
• 25:51
  It was a learning curve.
• 25:52
  I know that a lot of current is scary when you're pushing 400 volts and,
• 25:56
  you know, 60 amps or something through this bike, they can get dangerous if
• 26:00
  you do something wrong, but I don't think it's going to go any other way.
• 26:03
  You don't have a choice.
• 26:03
  It's the only way to compete these days.
• 26:05
  Because I noticed recently in Japan, they had the EV motocross bike.
• 26:09
  Made its debut.
• 26:10
  And unfortunately there was an action on the track and the guy didn't finish, but
• 26:13
  it was doing really well from what I saw.
• 26:15
  I'm impressed to see how it's going to compare side by side
• 26:18
  with some of the gas bikes.
• 26:20
  You know, Royal Enfield's doing some amazing stuff.
• 26:22
  We dealt with Enfield also, and I was really happy to ride their 650 twins.
• 26:25
  We took part in the distinguished gentlemen's ride one year and
• 26:28
  had a pretty amazing turnout.
• 26:30
  And I chose the corner Marshall.
• 26:31
  You know, use this INT650 to ride corners.
• 26:34
  And it was just a blast to ride that very simple, high rev middle twin.
• 26:40
  But I saw they just came out with an electric version of the Himalayan, and
• 26:44
  we don't have numbers on what it produces power wise yet, but it looks like a beast.
• 26:49
  And I don't see any reason why not.
• 26:51
  The Himalayan's a blast to ride, even in its thumper configuration.
• 26:55
  The electric version is gonna be nuts, I would imagine, as long as
• 26:59
  the weight makes sense for the size and the spring of the suspension.
• 27:03
  The new gas is up double the horsepower of the original.
• 27:05
  When Flying Tiger had the zeros on the sales floor, they're endorsed
• 27:10
  by all employees as the number one bike to go pick up coffee
• 27:14
  with and ride back one handed.
• 27:16
  On the FXS street model, you would actually gain battery charge through
• 27:19
  regenerative braking on the short ride to and from the coffee shop.
• 27:22
  It gets my stamp of approval.
• 27:24
  I made gas mileage.
• 27:25
  Since we're still talking about old versus new, then you come to
• 27:28
  the debate about buy versus build.
• 27:31
  And we have this same debate in the car world, you know, pick up
• 27:33
  somebody else's spec Miata that way.
• 27:35
  You don't.
• 27:35
  Start all over again.
• 27:36
  You know, those kinds of things is the same true in the bike world, or is it
• 27:39
  like you guys said, it is what it is.
• 27:41
  It's sort of a box of chocolates.
• 27:42
  If you like the mods that somebody made just run with it, or are people buying
• 27:47
  base bikes, vintage bikes, and then doing their own personalization on them.
• 27:51
  I mean, that's a conversation that can go a thousand directions.
• 27:54
  You could sum it up in two minutes or two hours.
• 27:57
  Customs are tough.
• 27:58
  Customs are really hard to do.
• 27:59
  They involve a lot of time, a lot of effort and a lot of money.
• 28:02
  Most people don't anticipate.
• 28:04
  And I know that's nothing new for anybody in the automotive world.
• 28:07
  Everybody knows that, you know, you get triple your expense and
• 28:09
  you octuple your timeframe, right?
• 28:11
  Buying a custom is difficult because my custom is not your custom.
• 28:15
  We could crank out customs all day for sale and they're the
• 28:18
  hardest ones to get rid of.
• 28:19
  Everybody wants that stock bike, everybody wants their own vision, and
• 28:23
  I totally respect that and support it.
• 28:25
  You kind of have like a father son conversation with the client,
• 28:27
  and you're like, I gotta bring you down to Jesus real quick and
• 28:30
  show you what it's gonna be like.
• 28:31
  Because you're getting into a commitment.
• 28:33
  It's that meme with the salamander or whatever, he's
• 28:36
  like, I'm a 109 year commitment.
• 28:37
  Overlong specialist.
• 28:38
  I don't think most people anticipate that going into it.
• 28:41
  They go, okay, I can Put a flat seat and some GT bars.
• 28:44
  And even the simple stuff is hard.
• 28:46
  I hate that it deters people because I want them to be me in my driveway.
• 28:50
  When I had my first eight 86, one of two swapping in a silver top 20 valve
• 28:54
  with spare parts from the junkyard as best as I can, you know, I want them
• 28:57
  to have that feeling of accomplishment.
• 28:59
  Like they did something, even if we're doing it for them, but convincing
• 29:02
  them to want to do it on a budget is.
• 29:05
  Difficult.
• 29:05
  Convincing us to want to do it on the budget is difficult.
• 29:07
  Especially with that car and that motor.
• 29:09
  You gotta be committed to banging in the firewall.
• 29:12
  You ever cut a hole in your firewall before?
• 29:13
  I'm working on one of those right now.
• 29:15
  Dan knows.
• 29:16
  Eric's Sawzall, so.
• 29:19
  I love me a Sawzall.
• 29:20
  My dad comes out and he's like, you know that thing's supposed to keep
• 29:23
  you from catching on fire, right?
• 29:24
  I don't need that.
• 29:25
  Just extra weight.
• 29:26
  Dad, go back to staying.
• 29:27
  You don't know what's going on.
• 29:28
  Earlier this year, we had Elspeth Beard on, which many in the motorcycle
• 29:33
  community know her story, Lone Rider, you know, the first British woman
• 29:37
  to go around the world on an old BMW motorcycle back in the eighties.
• 29:41
  Part of the book, although not all of it, is a love story about a man and machine.
• 29:46
  She talks very fondly R75 stroke fives and stroke sixes, you know, the
• 29:51
  old air heads and how reliable they were as long as you kept feeding them
• 29:55
  oil and basket changes and all this laundry list of things she needed.
• 29:59
  But when I read the book and after I met with her and interviewed her
• 30:03
  and everything, I found it to be really interesting in that it's
• 30:07
  sparked something about old bikes.
• 30:09
  It made them more appealing than new bikes.
• 30:12
  It opens that Avenue to be engaged with your motorcycle.
• 30:15
  And so I wanted to ask your guys professional opinion.
• 30:18
  You know, if somebody's coming to you as a first time buyer saying,
• 30:21
  I want to buy a bike, I'm really interested in having an adult bike.
• 30:24
  I've ridden mini bikes and motocross bikes and pit bikes over the years,
• 30:27
  but I want to buy my first adult bike.
• 30:29
  Where would you steer them?
• 30:31
  Old, new?
• 30:31
  And if you go old, where would you take them?
• 30:34
  What kind of brand should they be looking at?
• 30:36
  Old's easy.
• 30:36
  Just buy a Honda.
• 30:37
  It always runs.
• 30:38
  Yeah, it really just depends on the use case, right?
• 30:41
  Like if you're just wanting to ride around and do some cool guy stuff, maybe
• 30:45
  a vintage bike night or It just kind of putts around town every once in a while.
• 30:49
  Vintage is always fun because you're not relying on it.
• 30:52
  If you're going to be like a commuter or you're doing this as a, as a
• 30:56
  lifestyle choice, I'd probably push it towards something newer, maybe not
• 31:00
  brand new, but at least fuel injected.
• 31:02
  NC 700.
• 31:04
  Yeah.
• 31:04
  Go anywhere you get 80 miles a gallon.
• 31:06
  Motorcycles are really easy to get lumped in like, Oh, they're all just two wheels.
• 31:10
  Okay, cars are just four wheels, right?
• 31:12
  Like, no, no, no.
• 31:13
  You've got stance cars, you've got race cars, you've got 4x4 trucks, you've got
• 31:17
  lowrider trucks, you've got tuk tuks.
• 31:19
  There's so many flavors.
• 31:21
  The same is true while a little more nuanced with motorcycles, but
• 31:26
  really just depends on the use case.
• 31:27
  Like I said earlier, motorcycles are like shoes.
• 31:29
  You got different shoes for every occasion.
• 31:32
  Only certain shoes fit you.
• 31:33
  And just because you wear an 11 and one doesn't mean you
• 31:35
  wear an 11 and another brand.
• 31:37
  If you're trying to like road trip with your buddies to California, I'm not
• 31:40
  going to hand you the keys to a CB350.
• 31:43
  You're going to have a miserable time.
• 31:45
  That's a good conversation too, about setting the proper expectation.
• 31:48
  One of the challenges on the sales floor, when we had the electric bikes was the
• 31:52
  first thing they'd ask us, cause it's electric and then I've got to charge it.
• 31:55
  Right?
• 31:55
  How long does that take?
• 31:56
  You know, great questions, but it was always asked.
• 31:58
  With their foot in the door, they already had made up their mind.
• 32:01
  And I just wanted to hear me confirm why they didn't want it.
• 32:04
  Like Ryan's saying, it's their use case and the use case was wrong.
• 32:06
  And they go, well, what if I want to go across country on it?
• 32:08
  I don't take my Toyota Highlander mountain climbing rock crawling.
• 32:11
  Do I know I say, Ryan, let me borrow the Land Cruiser.
• 32:15
  A lot of people go in with that.
• 32:17
  It needs to check all boxes at once.
• 32:19
  It needs to be able to do everything.
• 32:20
  It needs to be the impossible bike.
• 32:21
  You really just have to look at what your average ride is.
• 32:24
  You know, me, I ride to work and cruise some back roads.
• 32:27
  So honestly, my CBR is too much for me.
• 32:29
  And I'm thinking about getting a smaller bike.
• 32:30
  That's a realistic conversation you have to have with people when
• 32:32
  they're choosing their bikes.
• 32:34
  Not one we always want to listen to.
• 32:35
  It's real quick to go down the ego train when selecting a bike.
• 32:38
  Going back to the electric conversation, when I was working a lot with people,
• 32:41
  they'd ask about the Livewire and they'd be like, well, what's the range?
• 32:44
  And it's like, oh, well, you know, you're going to get about 200 ish mile city on
• 32:48
  it, way less than that if you're going to try and beam it down the highway.
• 32:51
  And they're like, oh, well, I can't do that.
• 32:53
  And I'm like, here's the thing.
• 32:54
  I could daily commute on this bike for a week and a half
• 32:57
  and never have to charge it.
• 32:59
  So that eight hours while I'm at work charging or at home
• 33:03
  sleeping isn't that big of a deal.
• 33:05
  Yeah, if I'm gonna road trip it to California, I gotta stop every
• 33:08
  hundred miles and charge it for, you know, six to eight hours if
• 33:12
  they don't have a level three?
• 33:14
  That sounds miserable.
• 33:15
  But that just supports the old formula.
• 33:17
  How many motorcycles should I own?
• 33:18
  It's N plus one.
• 33:19
  You know, the number I currently own plus one more.
• 33:21
  Not only is it the use case, but I've also heard it said when you're
• 33:24
  selecting a bike, you find a bike that sort of fits your personality.
• 33:27
  And I've asked people before, and I've had some suggestions,
• 33:30
  and actually a few people have landed on the same bike for me.
• 33:33
  And they're like, knowing you, you should really get an 87 Suzuki 250 Sport.
• 33:38
  Like that would be the perfect bike for you.
• 33:39
  And I'm like, where'd you come up with that?
• 33:42
  Very specific, but it's so much more intimate on a motorcycle and sure.
• 33:46
  I love cars.
• 33:47
  I've driven everything you can imagine, 1100 horsepower McLaren 720,
• 33:51
  but I didn't like it, even if I had the money, I wouldn't buy that car.
• 33:54
  It doesn't fit me.
• 33:55
  It's more apparent on a motorcycle because it's just you in that
• 33:58
  one machine and two wheels.
• 34:00
  You know, you are in the world as much as you can be, it's a
• 34:03
  completely different experience.
• 34:04
  The talk of the soul of it, things like that, ethereal stuff, which factors in,
• 34:09
  but it's like a relationship with a horse.
• 34:11
  You control it as much as it controls you, you feel everything.
• 34:15
  And you experience the world in one big kind of rush of information.
• 34:19
  So if you've got the wrong bike, it could be dangerous?
• 34:22
  Question mark.
• 34:23
  I don't think there's a question.
• 34:23
  I think it should be an exclamation mark.
• 34:25
  A lot of people come in to see about bikes and stuff and in their mind,
• 34:29
  they think it should go one way.
• 34:31
  I've known guys try to go for the biggest engine bike possible starting out.
• 34:34
  I'm like, nah, trust me.
• 34:36
  You don't want to start that way or even experienced riders.
• 34:38
  Cause I got multiple bikes in my stables.
• 34:40
  And the funny thing is sometimes I like hopping on one of my smallest bikes and
• 34:43
  go out there because it's easy to throw around, drop it down, low going into turns
• 34:46
  compared to my bigger bikes that they can do it, but it's not as fun to do.
• 34:51
  And other than that, I've noticed with the bigger, heavier bikes, I chew
• 34:53
  up tires a lot more when I'm riding aggressively in the side roads here.
• 34:56
  Well, I like taking the small bike out for that sort of reason.
• 34:59
  Funny for a motorcycle shop guy to keep going back to cars, but I had
• 35:02
  more cars and motorcycles to be honest.
• 35:03
  My favorite car was Brian.
• 35:05
  You can attest to this because you had one also at an 85 Corolla SR 5 1.
• 35:08
  6 carbureted rear wheel drive.
• 35:10
  And that thing had been owned by four different friends of mine
• 35:12
  and been run through 20 ditches.
• 35:14
  And man, I drove the hell out of that little car, deliver pizzas in it.
• 35:18
  Got a hundred miles per gallon while I did it.
• 35:19
  If it would've just had a limited slip on it, man, it would've been a
• 35:22
  contender, but that was my favorite car.
• 35:23
  Well, guys, at the top of the conversation, Dan mentioned
• 35:26
  the candlestick maker.
• 35:28
  And so where I'm going with this, Adam, you and I met at Petit Le Mans back in
• 35:32
  the fall, and I Motul booth to touch base with some folks that we've done
• 35:36
  some projects there with in the past.
• 35:38
  And right in front of me was, wait, what?
• 35:40
  Candles!
• 35:41
  What are you guys doing selling candles?
• 35:43
  How does this work?
• 35:44
  Why?
• 35:45
  I think this is probably one of the most unique items I have ever seen.
• 35:50
  Thank you.
• 35:50
  It's all Teresa.
• 35:51
  What was it, 20 14 Teresa just had the spark of genius.
• 35:55
  It was very simple.
• 35:56
  Why not a candle that smells like a dirt bike?
• 35:58
  We all know that caster smell.
• 35:59
  We all know that two stroke and some exhaust fumes smell.
• 36:02
  I'm a huge two stroke fan from growing up, riding motocross two strokes.
• 36:06
  So I'm looking forward to smelling with the two stroke candles.
• 36:09
  I can't give away the secret formula, but you know, she came up with a
• 36:13
  fragrance and wax combo that works with actual two stroke oil and smells
• 36:18
  like a dirt bike when it's burning.
• 36:20
  I didn't know what to think of it when I first saw it.
• 36:21
  And that's the same thing my wife said when I brought it home.
• 36:24
  She's like, what?
• 36:25
  What's in this?
• 36:26
  I was like, motor oil.
• 36:27
  And then her first question was, well, is it used or is it new?
• 36:31
  No, it's all, it's all fresh.
• 36:32
  Okay.
• 36:33
  And then the next question was, so when you burn it indoors, outdoors,
• 36:36
  how well ventilated should the room be?
• 36:39
  That was her next question.
• 36:40
  I'm going to read to you from the back of the label just for legal purposes.
• 36:43
  It says, do not burn in drafty areas.
• 36:46
  Do not extinguish with a lid, uh, and do not burn indoors.
• 36:49
  So the science is still out in some regards.
• 36:53
  We'll let the lab technicians handle that one.
• 36:55
  So keep a carbon monoxide detector handy is what you're saying, right?
• 36:58
  I'm not giving any disclaimers, but, uh, We've burnt them inside
• 37:03
  for the last, you know, since 2014, and I think we're all fairly normal.
• 37:07
  If you look at the Flying Tiger website, where you can buy some of
• 37:10
  the accessories and clothing and other things that are on there, there's
• 37:13
  more than just the Motul candles.
• 37:15
  There's the other ones that you guys designed.
• 37:17
  But how did Motul come into the picture?
• 37:19
  The literal story was, it was like the midst of COVID.
• 37:22
  I was doing nothing.
• 37:23
  And I found an email that was probably a year and a half old of Nolan Browning,
• 37:27
  the marketing manager, reaching out and saying, Hey, we saw your candle.
• 37:30
  I own a few and we have to make one.
• 37:32
  Contact me ASAP.
• 37:34
  I hope he hears this.
• 37:35
  And cause I'm spilling the beans.
• 37:36
  I think I'd send some kind of reply.
• 37:38
  Like, yeah, I'll talk to you later.
• 37:39
  And I never followed up with them and I found it, you know, like a year later.
• 37:42
  And I was like, Oh my God, you've sank the ship.
• 37:44
  Email him now.
• 37:45
  You know, I did.
• 37:45
  I just reached out and said, Hey, you know, uh, wanted to
• 37:47
  follow up on this, whatever.
• 37:48
  And he got back to me.
• 37:49
  I mean, it was pretty awesome.
• 37:51
  He zoomed in and there was our candle sitting on his desk, you know,
• 37:54
  at Motul there in the laboratory.
• 37:57
  We've spawned a pretty good relationship so far.
• 38:00
  They've been really amazing to work with.
• 38:01
  So you've got the 800 series oil that would be generally
• 38:04
  found in the two strokes.
• 38:06
  And then you've got the 300V, the upper echelon of their offerings, right?
• 38:10
  Which is a ester based oil, which has a very unique smell.
• 38:12
  If you ever smell 300V, it doesn't smell like anything else.
• 38:15
  It's the best smelling one.
• 38:16
  It is, isn't it?
• 38:17
  It's almost, it's very aromatic.
• 38:19
  That's the word I like to use.
• 38:21
  Are there plans to offer other Motul variants or just these two?
• 38:26
  I voted transmission oil, but was downvoted quickly.
• 38:30
  You don't like that sickly sweet smell of 75 90?
• 38:33
  Yeah, man, give me some GL 4 and just cover the kitchen floor in it.
• 38:36
  Make it smell like Redline CV2 or something?
• 38:38
  You gotta mix it up.
• 38:39
  Just something disgusting, please.
• 38:41
  I want it the grittier the better.
• 38:42
  Maybe with some metal shavings in it, you know, for that extra effect.
• 38:45
  Depending on the shaving type, it'll be like the funky flames
• 38:47
  you throw in a campfire.
• 38:49
  It's not magnesium, people, we promise you.
• 38:51
  It's not raw magnesium.
• 38:54
  Do you guys have any favorite scents that you recommend?
• 38:56
  We get bored and we get inspired by things.
• 38:58
  And so we try to bring everything back to bikes.
• 39:00
  And you know, the thing else we have is the two stroke we have, I can't
• 39:03
  say the name of the oil that we use, but it is a snowmobile related oil.
• 39:07
  We call it snow tiger.
• 39:09
  Motoman is, you know, kind of like a, it's oil and conditioned leather.
• 39:13
  And then we have Motoman's a really good one to give as a gift.
• 39:16
  If somebody's not in this world.
• 39:18
  And that's kind of where this product lies is like in that blurred space
• 39:22
  between, Oh yeah, you know, my so and so rides a motorcycle, but I don't,
• 39:26
  and I don't really understand, or I love it, but I don't have a motorcycle.
• 39:30
  You know, you see this a lot at racetracks.
• 39:32
  You know, it's the reason people buy the t shirt when it comes to
• 39:34
  motorsports as a whole, they like that feeling of wonderment that they
• 39:37
  get from it, everything that's going on around them, and they want to
• 39:39
  take a piece of that home with them.
• 39:41
  And, you know, an event t shirt is one thing, but this is something
• 39:43
  a little more interactive.
• 39:45
  What I think is hilarious about this, it's like an inception gag gift.
• 39:49
  Because if you give this to somebody that's sort of on the fringe of
• 39:53
  being a petrolhead, like they're a fan, but they're not as deeply
• 39:56
  nerdy as the rest of us are.
• 39:58
  And they're like, dude, you give me an oil filter?
• 40:00
  And then you open it.
• 40:01
  Looks like the oil filter off of like a GM quad four, because
• 40:04
  it's about that same dimensions.
• 40:06
  And then you're just like, Wait, what is this again?
• 40:08
  And then you start reading and you're turning it around.
• 40:10
  And then it's like, now you got to open it.
• 40:12
  Now you got to smell it.
• 40:13
  Right.
• 40:13
  So you've got them locked into this thing for like at least 15 minutes, just
• 40:17
  trying to figure out what the heck it is.
• 40:19
  And I remember when I first saw it, we were there at petite and I
• 40:22
  was like, I kept like turning it over asking you guys questions.
• 40:25
  And I'm like, is this for real?
• 40:27
  Like, this is super cool.
• 40:28
  And you need a tool to open it.
• 40:30
  So then you get that hook started too.
• 40:32
  You've got to bend your mind around it.
• 40:33
  And if you look at on some of our marketing videos, when this came
• 40:35
  up, there's actually a spot where I threaded it onto the oil filter
• 40:38
  bung of a Triumph Tiger, I believe.
• 40:41
  If you can see it in a shot and it's threaded onto the oil filter,
• 40:43
  I was like, do you guys have any other zany gift ideas related to the
• 40:47
  motorcycle world or any other swag that people might be interested in?
• 40:51
  I mean, we're always coming up with something and Teresa's
• 40:54
  back in her little laboratory.
• 40:55
  That's like her, you know, when she's done dealing with paperwork for the
• 40:57
  day and where's my bike conversations.
• 41:00
  In a busy bike shop, she's like, I have to go make some candles.
• 41:03
  She comes up with something brilliant.
• 41:04
  You know, she'll call me and say, Hey, I've got this idea, you know, making
• 41:06
  a label or help me come up with a name and build some marketing around it.
• 41:10
  Currently we offer soap.
• 41:11
  We're trying to get Motul sold on some soap, but we do a couple of different
• 41:14
  soaps, we do cologne and then the candles.
• 41:16
  They're all kind of centered around motorsports or motorcycling.
• 41:19
  Is it possible to drop a hint for a scent to be created?
• 41:23
  Because some cam 2 race fuel would be phenomenal.
• 41:25
  Oh, that would sell like crazy.
• 41:28
  We talked about fuel once.
• 41:31
  We just weren't sure which fuel, but thanks for doing the research for us.
• 41:36
  I mean, you're not going to go to Yankee Candle and buy this kind of stuff.
• 41:38
  You know what I'm saying?
• 41:39
  This is legit.
• 41:40
  This is hardcore.
• 41:41
  So what are these candles cost?
• 41:42
  If somebody does want to pick one up?
• 41:44
  Currently they are at 40.
• 41:47
  That's a bargain.
• 41:48
  Especially if you're significant other shops at Yankee Candle.
• 41:51
  Correct.
• 41:51
  And if you know how much a liter of 300 V costs, it's a good deal.
• 41:55
  Luckily we've worked that out with MoTool, but it is made with actual 300 V.
• 41:59
  And Dan, I'll see your cam too, and raise you some Castrol SRF.
• 42:03
  I think that's another one that needs to be in there.
• 42:05
  A little bit of brake fluid.
• 42:06
  You have to have all the lubricants.
• 42:08
  And all the fluids as candles, right?
• 42:10
  You got to collect the whole set.
• 42:11
  I want to get like, Castro's Super Library on a can.
• 42:14
  You know, how do I do that?
• 42:15
  Part of what makes these candles even more interesting, if you don't open
• 42:18
  them, or if you just open them, give them a whiff, and then close it back
• 42:21
  up, the cans are very attractive.
• 42:23
  It's a talking point, because the next guy that comes along And
• 42:26
  because what's that on your desk and here we go again, it perpetuates
• 42:30
  conversation, which in our world, right?
• 42:32
  Motorcycles are cars.
• 42:33
  We're always looking for that, you know, raise your hand.
• 42:36
  If you've ever gone to a party, knowing you wore that race t shirt
• 42:40
  because you're hoping somebody else would go, Oh yeah, I was there.
• 42:43
  I saw it on TV.
• 42:44
  Let's talk about it.
• 42:44
  Yeah.
• 42:45
  I get emails all the time of people saying.
• 42:47
  I don't even light them.
• 42:48
  I just put them on the desk or, you know, when they're done, I use the
• 42:51
  can in my shop to store stuff in.
• 42:54
  It's a useful little thing, either as a conversation starter
• 42:56
  or as a utility afterwards.
• 42:59
  So we're quite proud of it.
• 43:00
  Anybody listening that has one, if you could please light them, we're
• 43:03
  getting ready to make more batches.
• 43:05
  So we got to keep that money machine going.
• 43:08
  Yes.
• 43:09
  Please burn your candles.
• 43:10
  Tell Teresa we need the Glade plug in version.
• 43:12
  That'll really keep it going, you know?
• 43:14
  He's writing it down!
• 43:16
  He's writing it down!
• 43:18
  Hahaha!
• 43:19
  Are there any big projects coming up for Flying Tiger, or like,
• 43:21
  any new services and items you guys would like to share with us?
• 43:24
  I was actually just on the phone with Teresa earlier today, and we were talking
• 43:28
  about builds and what's coming up in the future and what we're focusing on.
• 43:31
  I haven't seen what's on the table for restorations this
• 43:34
  year, but you never know.
• 43:35
  Something cool might pop up.
• 43:37
  Tons of ideas that we have.
• 43:38
  You asked earlier, like, anything else with Motool, you know, we'll wait and see.
• 43:41
  We've had some cool discussions about some future stuff.
• 43:44
  I don't want to promise anything, but we're still talking.
• 43:46
  We just got a reply to their emails before a year.
• 43:49
  You know, actually it worked out last time, so maybe I'll
• 43:52
  just wait like two more.
• 43:53
  Sorry, Nolan.
• 43:54
  Sorry.
• 43:55
  Well, you mentioned Petit Le Mans and Sturgis.
• 43:57
  Do you guys have any big events you guys plan to attend?
• 44:00
  We're definitely going to Le Mans next year, either as guests or spectators.
• 44:04
  Nolan's last words were, see you next year.
• 44:05
  So Nolan, it's on the record now.
• 44:07
  You have to take us.
• 44:08
  I'd say something's probably going to show up at Cycle Showcase,
• 44:11
  which is a local show here in St.
• 44:12
  Louis, which is a really big custom bike show.
• 44:15
  It's been going on for a while.
• 44:17
  You gotta have finished bikes to go places.
• 44:20
  And then most of those shows you gotta apply to and then wait and hear.
• 44:23
  And then you gotta have a budget sometimes to take them to Texas
• 44:27
  or Portland or where, you know, just, it all takes money and time.
• 44:31
  Really just depends on who wants to go and who's paying for it.
• 44:34
  We want to keep exploring this relationship that we've built with Motul
• 44:37
  and see if there's more products in the pipeline that we can crank out from.
• 44:41
  I know we filled a fairly large order for them for Christmas.
• 44:44
  Well, guys, with that, as we wrap up the episode here, any shout outs, promotions,
• 44:50
  or anything else you'd like to share that we haven't covered thus far.
• 44:52
  Are you guys familiar with that flat track, um, with the Royal
• 44:56
  Enfield series that's going on?
• 44:58
  Every year for 4th of July, there's the annual Barbara
• 45:00
  Pritchie classic flat track race.
• 45:03
  I want to say it was up to the 102nd, 103rd year of it running recently.
• 45:07
  Royal Enfield has their build, train, race program, which is pretty interesting.
• 45:11
  That one's really cool.
• 45:12
  Shout out to Brianne Poland at Royal Enfield, putting that together.
• 45:16
  She's done some really cool things there and made a lot of cool stuff happen
• 45:20
  for a lot of people trying to race Royal Enfields and also just trying
• 45:25
  to get more women into the sport.
• 45:26
  Any motor sports is going to be extremely male dominated.
• 45:30
  Brian, if you ever hear this, you should come on here and talk about
• 45:33
  all the cool stuff you do that I have no idea how to make it sound cooler.
• 45:37
  More than just a repair shop, Flying Tiger's passion for the two wheel life
• 45:41
  has led them down some interesting roads.
• 45:43
  It has inspired them to think outside of the box and create
• 45:46
  unique items and services that you may have never considered before.
• 45:49
  To learn more about Flying Tiger Motorcycles, be sure to visit them
• 45:52
  online at flyingtigermotorcycles.
• 45:54
  com or follow them on social media at flyingtigermoto on Instagram.
• 45:59
  Adam and Ryan, I can't thank you guys enough for coming on Break Fix and
• 46:03
  sharing the Flying Tiger story with us.
• 46:06
  I love the vibe that you guys have.
• 46:08
  I love that you're in it, you're involved, you're perpetuating the classic motorcycle
• 46:12
  world, getting people interested in that, and I think it's really exciting
• 46:16
  all the other things you're doing.
• 46:17
  And as Dan was saying, thinking outside the box.
• 46:20
  We need more of that, even on the car side of the house.
• 46:23
  So I applaud what you guys are doing and I look forward to getting another
• 46:26
  flying tiger candle in my stocking.
• 46:29
  so much for your time guys.
• 46:29
  I really appreciate it.
• 46:30
  It's awesome to be here.
• 46:36
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• 46:40
  to you by grand Torrey motorsports.
• 46:42
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• 46:45
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• 46:50
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• 46:53
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