Flying Tiger Motorcycles

Eric and Teresa - Founders for Flying Tiger Motorcycles

Our passion for the two wheel life has led us down some interesting roads. It has inspired us to think outside of the box and create a unique item that maybe you have never considered: the moto candle!

Contact: Eric and Teresa at Visit Online!

     

• What’s in a name? Is there significance around “Flying Tiger”
• Flying Tiger is more than just a repair shop, you also offer Restoration, Custom Build and Auction services? (let’s unpack these)
• Old bikes vs New bikes – they mentioned it before, but why buy vintage?
• EV Bikes! 
• Is there a Bring-a-Trailer equivalent for Bikes?
• At the top of the conversation, Dan mentioned the “Candlestick maker” – MOTUL candles? How – Why? This is probably one of the most unique items we’ve seen. 

and much, much more!

[00:00:00] Break/Fix podcast is all about capturing the living history of people from all over the autosphere, from wrench turners and racers to artists, authors, designers, and everything in between. Our goal is to inspire a new generation of petrolheads that wonder. How did they get that job or become that person?

The road to success is paved by all of us because everyone has a story.

Taking your late model bike or scooter to the dealership for repair can be costly, and some dealers are not equipped for models that are no longer on the showroom floor. Specializing in vintage Honda, Kawasaki, Triumph, BSA, and Norton platforms, St. Louis based Flying Tiger Motorcycles excels in servicing all major makes and models of motorcycles and scooters, regardless of the model year.

But do you remember the old nursery rhyme about the butcher, the baker, and the candlestick maker? Adam Reed and Ryan Harrison from Flying Tiger are here to tell us all about [00:01:00] motorcycles. But also how they’ve created some unique products partnering with names like Motul. And with that, let’s welcome Adam and Ryan to BrakeFix.

Yay! We got like an applause button or something. New fanfare. And joining me tonight is one of our regular co hosts on BrakeFix, the one and only Mountain Man Dan, who heads up our Mountain View division, all things dirt, off road, trucks, and bikes. So welcome back, Dan. Good to be here. Well, like all good break fix stories, there’s a superhero origin story, and tonight we have hero and sidekick, Adam and Ryan.

So why don’t you tell us about the who, what, when, and where of flying tiger motorcycles? Ryan, I distinctly remember you sending me a picture of a dude with a gnarly beard riding, and some guy just hanging out for dear life in the side car helping him balance, and I’m pretty sure I was in the side car and you were the one riding, so that makes me the sidekick and you the hero.

Oh, I’m the hero. Okay. Yeah. So Flying Tiger was started by Eric and Teresa. Eric and Teresa, you know, they’re the owners and the founders. We’re not here. Eric got his start in [00:02:00] Kawasaki R& D. And I believe he was doing some test writing. He was testing factory models and then implementing changes based on feedback from his writing and test group and then actually making changes himself.

And they lived in. Somewhere near LA to do that job. And I think they were both from the Midwest, you know, like Ryan and myself from Missouri and Teresa’s from Iowa, you know, they got tired of that LA rat race and he was getting more into custom builds and wrenching. And I guess getting sick of the grind, you know, the circuit grind of going to trade events and things like that, packed back up and moved back to St.

Louis. And Eric wanted to start a motorcycle shop and they needed a name. I think they were sitting in a drive thru for like some kind of like Asian food. And the, and the menu item was. crying tiger and they’re like, well, wouldn’t that be funny if we just call it crying tiger? There’s a romantic story behind it.

We’re just not great at telling that one. However, that story of being in a drive thru sushi shop, which if you want to place your judgments on drive thru sushi, you know, go ahead. When Eric tells it, it’s kind of funny, but look, it came up with something cool in the end. So what about you two? You guys [00:03:00] play a, an essential role in the flying tiger story.

So how did you guys come along? And when did you come along? I was a customer before I ever worked there. I had an old bike and they’re the only place in town that works on old bikes. And I think their salesperson had just quit. And I had sweet talked them into helping them build a new website in exchange for the work on my motorcycle.

Cause 20 years old and poor. So it was a fair deal for me. I started doing some media work and some website work. And then one day I was picking up my bike and they presented me the bill. And he said, or instead of paying this bill, we just lost our salesperson. So if you want to like sit up here and work a couple of days a week, we can just call it even.

And that was seven years ago. I live in a different state now and I still work for them. We’ve done some really neat things for being, you know, what used to be just a one bay repair shop. I’ve had a pretty cool role in helping them build into something different. And Ryan too. Before I came to FindTiger, I was also, I’d say customer shop hang around as well.

At that time I was working for an exotic car dealership. I’m driving other people’s Ferraris [00:04:00] and Lamborghinis and having a good old time. Me and that owner came to a, a disagreement one day, as most do in the exotic car industry. Decided that it wasn’t working out. Ended up trying to freelance myself. I was doing a lot of marketing and photography for those guys.

He started freelancing. Did that for about six months. Realized that I really just don’t like working for myself. And I’d rather do that for somebody else than just try to do the hustle and the taxes and the, you know, all the business side of things. I love doing the creative side. Let somebody else worry about the business side.

Flying Tiger was just landed a deal with Rebel Yell Bourbon, building some custom motorcycles for them. They can’t afford to keep you to do just one thing at a shop that small. So you’re selling motorcycles, you’re, you know, helping service, right? Parts order, and then also help and do some of the creative stuff that we needed for the media machine behind taking a motorcycle to handbill.

As well as they shipped that thing off to, like, was it Spokane, Washington? And rode them to Surgis. [00:05:00] Did a whole, like, documentary on it. I mean, there’s just some really cool stuff that for a little motorcycle shop from Missouri, you know, was doing some really big things. And it was really just the marketing team behind it just pushing it while the other guys are cranking out custom bikes.

So it was, it was pretty cool. Because you were hanging out at the shop, you were personally invested into it. It wasn’t because you had to be there. So something about it, you must have saw that you liked and you’re like, I want to be here to do this stuff. And like Adam, when, you know, they offered you the spot, you’re like, I’ll do it.

You know, so that tells me that it’s got to have a good atmosphere there at Fine Tiger. When they started, they were Hart from Donaldson’s, I guess. In Whitman, the only place in town that really works on older bikes. And that’s for a number of reasons. Old bikes are temperamental. They’re expensive. It’s not a Honda Civic.

It’s not a car you can trust. It always needs something and it needs motivation. A lot of that motivation starts at a good shop. If you don’t have a good shop to set the tone for your vintage bike, you’re kind of just walking everywhere or bumming rides or you’re kicking it and trying to sell it later.

That’s a mouthful too, right? Mom and pop motorcycle shop from Missouri. Yeah. Do [00:06:00] that three times fast. Rolls off the tongue. And that’s what our next t shirt. Both of you guys come by this, honestly, I’m sure you’ve had several bikes in your collections. So why don’t we talk about some of the bikes that you have?

And obviously you were going to Flying Tiger because what you owned kind of fits the mold there. It’s not a new bike. It’s something vintage. It’s something unique. It’s something classic. My dad always rode a bike, but like Ryan, I started in cars. Cars were my first thing and, you know, I built a number of interesting cars as best as I could in my twenties.

I think about my first bike, my buddy Kevin, his dad had a bunch of bikes in his garage. And I remember Kevin always talking about his dad’s Honda Magnet. He said, well, my V4 Magnet’s the fastest bike in the world. It’ll crush any crotch rocket out there. Don’t worry about it. So he’s like, yeah, you have to come ride with me someday.

And I’d never ridden a bike in my life. And so he shows me around his bike and he’s got a 74. CB550 Supersport, and I mean, the thing is just roached, right? It’s four different colors, but it’s got an old Vance and Heinz pipe on it. It’s jetted. It’s got some pod filters. It’s ready to rock, you know, and it has no brakes cause they don’t work and the clutch is starting to slip, but man, it [00:07:00] frigging boogied for an old bike.

I was just hounded. I’m like day after day. I’m like, man, you got to sell me this bike. And he goes, no, no, no, I can’t sell you the bike. And finally one day he was like, all right, just give me a hundred bucks for it. So I gave him a hundred bucks and he was like, I can’t really let my dad know that I sold it because it’d be pissed off.

So like, you can just come to my garage and here’s how you get in and you can ride it. And so like every day I drive my little Ford Escort GT with some stickers on it over to his house and I take it for a ride to the neighborhood. And then one day, like a, like a month or two later, he knocked on my door.

Cause you know, it’s like 1999, we know telephones. And he’s standing there, he’s got a hundred dollar bill in his hand. And he goes, oh, hey man. He goes, my dad found out that I sold the bike. He made me give you your money back. I’m sorry, you can’t have it. That’s the story of my first bike. It got repossessed by its owner because it was dangerous.

As far as bikes go, I actually had a really good blog post about what drew me into motorcycles. I was at my grandma’s house. She had cable, right? So like flipping through the channels like a eager kid and then you know, it stopped on like speed channel and they were showing it was either like world super bike or something but they were showing this helicopter [00:08:00] view looking down at the track and the motorcycles turned left so the the right side of the bike was facing up.

And it was the first time I’d ever seen a single sided swing arm. And like, it just blew my mind on these, like, it was like, at that time it was Ducati 996, 916s. And the turning over, and just that rear wheel, like, spinning, free floating. I was just like, what is this? What are they doing? Kid from the Midwest, I’ve never seen motorcycles like this.

It’s all just Harleys, and like, things are just leaning over, defying the laws of physics as far as I’m concerned. I got the hook there. Eventually I turned 18, which is the, uh, legal age that your mom can never not tell you that you can’t own a motorcycle anymore. No. I bought a ambitious bike, 2003 at the time.

I got a 2002 Suzuki GSX R 750, which is a big, big bike for a kid that’s never even looked at a dirt bike or [00:09:00] anything and just kind of never looked back. Between that, I’ve, uh, you know, had an RC 51. The Halo bike for me was that Ducati 996. I had that and then I sold it. Most of the drift kids on here all know Danger Dan from YouTube and Hoonigan fame.

Sold that to him to buy my first house for the down payment on my first house. I didn’t buy a 10, 000 house. What you could do at the time, but you can’t do anymore. After that, I didn’t own anything until I came to Flying Tiger. And then I bought a little Moto Guzzi Scrambler. That’s the last motorcycle I owned.

So you mentioned being a fan of motorcycle racing. So is that true for both of you guys? And if so, do you have a favorite rider, favorite team? You know, people talk about the Repsol Hondas, Valentino Rossi, things like that. Is there a hero out there in the motor sport world? Rossi is always going to be the big thing because the natural progression is you start learning about racing after I got into it.

MotoGP, it was the last season for the 500 two strokes, which was also what, like maybe Rossi’s like [00:10:00] first or second season in the big bikes and just kind of fell in love with that guy from the start. So, I mean, he’s always a big one. The battles he had with Max Biaggi at that time were also really epic.

Getting to watch Nikki Hayden go from AMA Superbike up to the MotoGP bikes and stuff like that. I mean, there’s just been so many. I think I own every Ben Bostrom helmet that was ever made, or at least for sale. I’m sure he has a ton of them. I’m a, such a fan boy. I’m bad at stats. Like it’s why I never got into like sports.

I played hockey terribly my entire life, but couldn’t name a current St. Louis blues player. For me, it’s different. It’s a very personal thing. I grown up watching racing was a huge F1 fan. That was the eighties and nineties. Right? So you’re talking Eric and Senna and then Schumacher’s rise to fame after that.

There’s such a visceral component to racing that kind of mirrors the technical side of it. And that goes for all motor sports. It’s the obvious stuff for me. It’s the sights, the sounds, the colors. It’s just assault on your senses. We recently had the opportunity to go with Motul as guests of theirs to the Petit [00:11:00] Le Mans in Atlanta.

And Ryan and I both have a lot of history at racetracks, running events and being event organizers. And that was my first time being at a racetrack in years, actually. And I was just getting chills now. I was blown away. To see like everything happening, it’s everything. It’s kind of like a strange microcosm of living.

You’ve got everything. You’ve got all the strife and struggle. You’ve got the victory and the heartbreak, camaraderie, that need to work together to solve an issue. But at the same time, it’s an endurance race. So everybody’s bored out of their minds, sitting on the pit wall. Waiting for something to happen.

So for me, it’s always been that kind of tangible aspect of it more than heroes or anything else. It’s like being immersed. Since we started talking about motorsport in the vein of motorcycles and Adam, you brought in petite Lamont, the sport and endurance side of the house. There’s an interesting.

transition here that’s happened over the last couple of years. Our favorite motorcycle hero, Valentino Rossi finds himself behind the wheel of an LMP2 endurance sports [00:12:00] car. So how do we feel about that? What do we think about Valentino’s progress in the four wheeled world? I saw a post that he was as fast as all the, like the rookie class or whatever, right?

Like, I mean, like he’s going to be fast no matter what he does. I’m stoked to see what he’ll do. No matter what, he’s still always gonna be the GOAT. How old is he? He’s in his 30s, almost 40s, right? This is like Juan Montoya signing up for NASCAR in like 2004 or whatever. Yeah, right? Like, he’s just gonna crush it no matter what.

Fast is fast, no matter what you put him on, I’m sure. To your point, he is the GOAT. In a lot of ways, he is parallel to the Michael Schumacher of motorcycles. He holds so many records. He is so fast. He’s fantastic to watch. And even when he sort of retired, but then came back, It was sort of like Alonzo.

It’s the same thing. It’s like, well, I’m always here in the top five, beating up the young guys. So there’s these really interesting parallels between the motorcycle world and let’s say formula one, especially at that level of racing. Big thing that I’ve noticed in the past five to 10 years in particular, guys transitioning out of one discipline to another coming off of bikes and [00:13:00] stuff into four wheels, there’s a lot of different guys that have done that.

Pastrana, he did it, got into NASCAR for a little bit. He was real big into rally for a while. It’s good to see a lot of the guys crossing over to different disciplines because I think it pulls a lot of that fan base with it and it all strengthens the motorsports community, which I think is a great thing.

But that’s not what we came here to talk about, right, Dan? When it comes back to Flying Tiger with the shop, with repairs and everything, any sort of shop like that, you got your basic repairs to pay the bills and stuff, but you guys do like custom builds. What sort of custom builds are a normal thing to see there at Flying Tiger?

You’re 100 percent correct. The bread and butter of the business is Straightforward repair, something’s wrong with my Honda Shadow. What is it? Yeah, absolutely. Being one of, if not the only shop currently that does vintage repair, you get such a wide swath of everything. And we’ve had like, God, what’s the oldest one we’ve had?

I mean, there’s like a 1958 Lambretta scooter, like fully original sitting back there in parts waiting to be put together. Yeah. Oldest thing I saw was like a 1914 Triumph. [00:14:00] Yeah. Been a Black Shadow or two. But it afforded you that opportunity to see just about everything. So, I mean, your typical stuff, it’s just your daily rider, but we get some interesting stuff because we’re willing to work on it because we have the knowledge base, it’s interesting.

You bring up the Lambrettas because earlier this season, we actually had Malcolm Bricklin on the show who is responsible for bringing Lambretta scooters. Into the United States way back when, in the late fifties, early sixties. So it’s really funny that you guys have one of those laying around. There’s still a few out there.

I found a website, lambretta. net. I think it’s called, and they claim to stock a bunch of parts. Speaking of the Lambretta, we sell a genuine scooters. People always ask what the best scooter is and they go to a Vespa and Vespas are fine, but there’s a beast to repair. If you can get parts and Ryan can back me up on this, having worked for Ducati, you need a part for an Italian bike.

And you call the warehouse to the distributor and they essentially ask you why you need the part. And you say, cause the bike broke. And they go, that’s impossible. It’s Italian. It can’t break. It didn’t break. You’ve done something wrong. Or you try to order the part in August and they’re all on [00:15:00] vacation.

Again, for the fifth time that summer. I think Genuine has the tooling for Lambretta chassis and they kind of repop a modern version, which is pretty interesting. Other stuff that we get, you asked if we did builds. I mean, yeah, that’s kind of like the next phase of the evolution. So the shop started in where it is now actually adjacent to it.

There was a little one bay garage that somebody was using for storage and Eric rented that and was doing wrenching repairs out of it and outgrew it. Now they’re in this massive spot with like four beds and Eric’s little secret room hidden somewhere in the middle of the building, where you can only find if you already know where it is.

Growing into builds was kind of the next thing Ryan mentioned earlier. We’ve had bikes in hand built, one golden bolt. Cycle showcase. Shout out to Randy. You haven’t seen cycle showcase. That’s some of the top stylistic building you’re going to see outside of LA. It’s great stuff. I’m going to throw this out into the universe and maybe it’ll happen.

Keanu, if you’re listening, Arch Motorcycles, come on, man, it’s a fit. You know, we got the Arch in St. Louis. Arch is your name. Bring it in, [00:16:00] boy. I’m totally ready. We’ll build something together. Obviously with custom builds, there’s also restorations. There’s the daily work. But I also noticed other services that Flying Tiger provides.

One of them is really, really interesting. And that’s the auction service side of the business. And obviously that speaks to you, Adam, as part of sales leadership at Flying Tiger. And you don’t see motorcycle auctions too often. Now I know that Mecham has a big one that they run every year. And this past year, it was record setting for the number of bikes, but those usually come from private collections where they’re trying to break them up and sell them off.

And the only other auction service I’ve come across is by way of classic Avenue. And that’s Nick Smith, who you see on motor trend kind of, you know, stumping and thrumping around with his British accent and they sell bikes by auction as well. So I wanted to dig a little bit deeper into how your auction works, where they’re coming from, or they are your builds.

Are they clients? Are they part of an estate? We’ve used bring a trailer and we’ve had some pretty good success with that. It’s a pretty fair system. They’ll send a photographer out to you and give you some [00:17:00] really nice stuff, but just happened to have a background in photography myself. That’s another hat I get to wear photographing bikes.

They are not from our collections. Personally, they’re usually private collections. One of them just happens to be. Richard Ford is the guitarist for Guns N Roses. You know, he’s a buddy of the shop. He lives in St. Louis. So we sold his bike on there. We kind of helped him put it together. We even had him autograph the bike after it sold.

But the auction process there, it’s very straightforward. You photograph the bike. You write up a nice little article about it. You send it to them and they actually kind of rewrite that article for you. So you really send them an overview of details, but that’s the process, it’s very straightforward. So we joke a lot on our drive through in a section we call lost and found, where we scour the internet looking for the newest old car out there and try to look at some of the crazy prices on bring a trailer and in the car world, it’s sort of gone nuts, the used market is insane.

You know, there’s geo metros selling for five figures. It doesn’t make sense. Is the same true. On the bike side of the house, has it been affected in the same way in the used market? I [00:18:00] wish I could say yes. Certain bikes are demanding more than you would expect as a bike guy. My personal bike is a 95 CBR 600 F3.

You know, it’s in really good shape. It’s near perfect. It’s got 40, 000 miles on it. I might get five grand for it on a good day. So not mind blowing money, but more than it’s worth if I’m air quoting worth. Are you seeing any trends in motorcycles where even older ones are gaining more traction? They’re becoming more desirable things that investors might be looking out for.

If there’s a way to see that data more streamlined than I’m looking at, and it’s just a tool that’s on bring a trailer. You can actually see just a plot of what has sold. It seems to be all over the place. And it seems to be dictated by currents in the market, like the stock market. What happened on that day?

I don’t know. Did Honda release a new model, you know, a new 600 RR out this year in Europe, if it’s not coming to the States, does that mean we’re going to see an increase in 600 F3s and RRs from the past? I don’t know, but maybe if you look at that scatterplot for all the different bikes, it’s pretty [00:19:00] dense across the board from high to low, it’s all over the place.

I’m going to let you guys in on a little nugget and a new time waster. It’s called IconicMotorbikes. com. Love Iconic. They’re a really cool shop doing some world class auctions with some bikes and traditionally it seems like they’re really hot on the uh, like 80s, 90s sport bike scene right now. I mean like those bikes just go for like nuts money compared to, you couldn’t give away some of these bikes 20 years ago, right?

They were just kind of worthless and now the bike’s going for just silly money or what they are, but they’re all clean, pristine. So if you’re going to play the, uh, newest, oldest bike for a ridiculous amount of money, their website’s going to be a good one to look at. And they’re really good at finding zero to live mile bike.

Yeah. That’s how I’m gone from what I’m dealing with in my shed with 40, 000 miles on it. Who knows what the resource is. They’re finding stuff in boxes in their original shipping boxes. Yeah, they get some weird stuff. They’ve got a 92 NSR 250 SE. Like, it’s a street legal 252 stroke sport bike. I don’t [00:20:00] think we got those here, but they’ve got it for sale.

Here in the mid Atlantic, seasons have a lot to do with values of bikes to where right now is a great time to buy up. And I actually been kind of looking around because a buddy of mine’s got a bike shop. We always scour this time of year looking for stuff for cheap to do a little work to it through the winter and in the spring, sell it off, make profit on it.

Where you guys are at, you guys notice that as well. Seasonal will get rid of bikes that somebody has to sell because of a hardship. Especially when you get into, like, collection bikes. They’re gonna go up and down as, like, an investment piece, maybe. It’s not gonna be like, I’ve got a Honda Sabre or something.

You know, Nighthawk that I need to get rid of. You know, it’s worth a thousand bucks now, but I might get 2, 500 for it in March. There’s always gonna be a lot of that, but a lot of the cooler bikes that we usually pay attention to, they’re gonna hold their value no matter what. More parallels between the motorcycle world and the car world, especially the collector car world, in the sense that, you know, what you’re talking about, the newer bikes, the Suzuki’s, the Yamaha’s, the [00:21:00] Honda’s, the Harley’s, I mean, that’s like Honda, Toyota, Volkswagen and GM, right?

I mean, they’re like the big brands, you get it. But when you sort of look away from that, you have those Classic bikes, the triumphs, the BSAs, the Nortons, things like that. More like the MGs and the Jaguars. And then you’ve got Ducatis, which is like Ferrari and Lamborghini type of stuff. When you draw that parallel for the non two wheeled audience, what are the really nice collector bikes and what are the, the sexy bikes and the really sought after bikes?

And how do you really tell them apart? And what are you looking for? Again, if you’re looking to maybe buy a showpiece or an investment bike. Oh man, it’s gonna be so subjective. Why is it so much easier with cars? Is it because bikes all look the same? No, like for me, like, if we’re talking like, halo bike right now, like, if I won the lottery tomorrow, like, I’m hanging a Brough Superior from my wall.

Every person interested in cars, whether you’re interested in cars or not, goes, Oh, you know, a Ferrari F40, duh, it’s like the coolest car ever built. I don’t know if one bike exists like that outside of like a Vincent [00:22:00] Black Shadow, just because it’s got a lot of name recognition. You know, it wasn’t a particularly great bike.

It’s badass. It’s fast, but the thing about motorcycles is like it’s marginal gains. I’ll use the 600 RR as an example. Again, mine’s a 1995. It makes a hundred horsepower. It’s about 400 pounds steel frame instead of aluminum, the 2024 CBR, outside of it’s electronic suite, which is like stuff that’ll make it outperform my bike.

It makes the same power at the same weight with the same. four pistons. So you’re talking very, very small gains on a motorcycle. Motorcycles are very like non monogamous. Every motorcycle is an open relationship because everybody who comes into the bike shop talks about their 10 previous bikes that they had and why those bikes have led them to the decision of the next one that they’re going to get.

It’s not like car guys who have that one car and that’s what they’ve aspired for their entire life and they’re gonna keep it until they die and be buried in it. Motorcycles are like shoes. I think a good analogy for that is like, if you [00:23:00] work in a motorcycle shop and you put the bikes out during the day and then you bring them back in at night, you usually get the key dish with all the keys in it.

Very rarely does anybody actually like, ooh, I need this one. Like, you’re gonna stick your hand in the bowl. Pull out what you get and be like, hell yeah! Unless it’s just a real hooper of a bike, are you ever going to be not stoked about whatever key you grab? Pushing those bikes out, you got to taste just about everything.

There are two bikes that really stick in my mind outside of the Zero, the electric bikes, because those were just insane. Do you remember that hybrid CB650 550? Like a 650 bottom end with a 550 top end. Custom frame, fairing bike, green with like a tail section. Thank God, just the way that thing revved and the way it sounded and the way it felt under you, like it was the most like feeling of wonderment and enchantment on a motorcycle you’ve ever had in your life.

And I just couldn’t wait to slow and it was pathetically slow and it’s too heavy and didn’t handle very well. But dammit, every single time my hand landed on that key when I [00:24:00] was pulling the bikes back in, I was like, this is going to be a good day. This is the one today. And the other one was like a terrifying Yamaha XS 1100.

I don’t know if you’ve ever ridden one of those, but it’s like one of the highest power to weight ratio bikes of the eighties. And it was just terrifying. That’s when that Eric built that was stripped down to absolutely nothing. And it was just an engine that he sat on with two tires. It was in that roulette of nastiness, like, which one today?

Which one do I get to ride today? If anything, it comes down to a quote from the great Dan Murphy that you can rub a chainsaw at me and I’m going to smile, right? Like, it doesn’t matter. It’s all fun stuff. Dan was our Honda Whisperer. He’s no longer with the company. He checks back in every once in a while, but he was the Honda Whisperer.

We called him just about any Honda running top notch, even if it was a chainsaw. Nobody ever really leaves the Tiger. No, nobody really does. My personal experience, I don’t know if you guys have dealt with it, but my experience with older Triumphs is the electrical nightmares are very similar to the older British cars.

That’s all Lucas. I’ve got a great picture of my buddy’s Triumph at a gas station. Well, it’s actually a picture of me putting [00:25:00] out a fire with a fire extinguisher that was next to the gas pump. I’ve noticed now that there’s fire extinguishers on every gas pump for good reason. And he had just fueled up and he went to kick it and he had to kick it so hard that it knocked the fuel line off the carburetor.

It dumped fuel and the whole bike burst into flames. So there’s this great video of me just like casually sweeping flame retardant material onto his Triumph as it’s burning down in his parking lot. Speaking of old nightmare electronics, what do you guys think of going forward with EV bikes? I can’t say anything bad about it.

I’m just an old bike kind of guy. I ride a carb bike and I have days where I cuss at it because the humidity’s changed and now getting to work is difficult, but everything we build typically is built on the back of the MotoGadget suite. So we use the M unit. We use everything we can and they’re just such fantastic little products and they make it so convenient.

I don’t think you can get away from it. Love the electric bikes. We dealt with zero for a little while out of California. It was a learning curve. I know that a lot of current is scary when you’re pushing 400 volts and, you know, 60 amps or something through this bike, they can get [00:26:00] dangerous if you do something wrong, but I don’t think it’s going to go any other way.

You don’t have a choice. It’s the only way to compete these days. Because I noticed recently in Japan, they had the EV motocross bike. Made its debut. And unfortunately there was an action on the track and the guy didn’t finish, but it was doing really well from what I saw. I’m impressed to see how it’s going to compare side by side with some of the gas bikes.

You know, Royal Enfield’s doing some amazing stuff. We dealt with Enfield also, and I was really happy to ride their 650 twins. We took part in the distinguished gentlemen’s ride one year and had a pretty amazing turnout. And I chose the corner Marshall. You know, use this INT650 to ride corners. And it was just a blast to ride that very simple, high rev middle twin.

But I saw they just came out with an electric version of the Himalayan, and we don’t have numbers on what it produces power wise yet, but it looks like a beast. And I don’t see any reason why not. The Himalayan’s a blast to ride, even in its thumper configuration. The electric version is gonna be nuts, I would imagine, as long as the weight [00:27:00] makes sense for the size and the spring of the suspension.

The new gas is up double the horsepower of the original. When Flying Tiger had the zeros on the sales floor, they’re endorsed by all employees as the number one bike to go pick up coffee with and ride back one handed. On the FXS street model, you would actually gain battery charge through regenerative braking on the short ride to and from the coffee shop.

It gets my stamp of approval. I made gas mileage. Since we’re still talking about old versus new, then you come to the debate about buy versus build. And we have this same debate in the car world, you know, pick up somebody else’s spec Miata that way. You don’t. Start all over again. You know, those kinds of things is the same true in the bike world, or is it like you guys said, it is what it is.

It’s sort of a box of chocolates. If you like the mods that somebody made just run with it, or are people buying base bikes, vintage bikes, and then doing their own personalization on them. I mean, that’s a conversation that can go a thousand directions. You could sum it up in two minutes or two hours.

Customs are tough. Customs are really hard to do. [00:28:00] They involve a lot of time, a lot of effort and a lot of money. Most people don’t anticipate. And I know that’s nothing new for anybody in the automotive world. Everybody knows that, you know, you get triple your expense and you octuple your timeframe, right?

Buying a custom is difficult because my custom is not your custom. We could crank out customs all day for sale and they’re the hardest ones to get rid of. Everybody wants that stock bike, everybody wants their own vision, and I totally respect that and support it. You kind of have like a father son conversation with the client, and you’re like, I gotta bring you down to Jesus real quick and show you what it’s gonna be like.

Because you’re getting into a commitment. It’s that meme with the salamander or whatever, he’s like, I’m a 109 year commitment. Overlong specialist. I don’t think most people anticipate that going into it. They go, okay, I can Put a flat seat and some GT bars. And even the simple stuff is hard. I hate that it deters people because I want them to be me in my driveway.

When I had my first eight 86, one of two swapping in a silver top 20 valve with spare parts from the junkyard as best as I can, you know, I want them to have that feeling of accomplishment. Like they did something, [00:29:00] even if we’re doing it for them, but convincing them to want to do it on a budget is.

Difficult. Convincing us to want to do it on the budget is difficult. Especially with that car and that motor. You gotta be committed to banging in the firewall. You ever cut a hole in your firewall before? I’m working on one of those right now. Dan knows. Eric’s Sawzall, so. I love me a Sawzall. My dad comes out and he’s like, you know that thing’s supposed to keep you from catching on fire, right?

I don’t need that. Just extra weight. Dad, go back to staying. You don’t know what’s going on. Earlier this year, we had Elspeth Beard on, which many in the motorcycle community know her story, Lone Rider, you know, the first British woman to go around the world on an old BMW motorcycle back in the eighties.

Part of the book, although not all of it, is a love story about a man and machine. She talks very fondly R75 stroke fives and stroke sixes, you know, the old air heads and how reliable they were as long as you kept feeding them oil and basket changes and all this laundry list of things she needed. But [00:30:00] when I read the book and after I met with her and interviewed her and everything, I found it to be really interesting in that it’s sparked something about old bikes.

It made them more appealing than new bikes. It opens that Avenue to be engaged with your motorcycle. And so I wanted to ask your guys professional opinion. You know, if somebody’s coming to you as a first time buyer saying, I want to buy a bike, I’m really interested in having an adult bike. I’ve ridden mini bikes and motocross bikes and pit bikes over the years, but I want to buy my first adult bike.

Where would you steer them? Old, new? And if you go old, where would you take them? What kind of brand should they be looking at? Old’s easy. Just buy a Honda. It always runs. Yeah, it really just depends on the use case, right? Like if you’re just wanting to ride around and do some cool guy stuff, maybe a vintage bike night or It just kind of putts around town every once in a while.

Vintage is always fun because you’re not relying on it. If you’re going to be like a commuter or you’re doing this as a, as a lifestyle choice, I’d probably push it towards something [00:31:00] newer, maybe not brand new, but at least fuel injected. NC 700. Yeah. Go anywhere you get 80 miles a gallon. Motorcycles are really easy to get lumped in like, Oh, they’re all just two wheels.

Okay, cars are just four wheels, right? Like, no, no, no. You’ve got stance cars, you’ve got race cars, you’ve got 4×4 trucks, you’ve got lowrider trucks, you’ve got tuk tuks. There’s so many flavors. The same is true while a little more nuanced with motorcycles, but really just depends on the use case. Like I said earlier, motorcycles are like shoes.

You got different shoes for every occasion. Only certain shoes fit you. And just because you wear an 11 and one doesn’t mean you wear an 11 and another brand. If you’re trying to like road trip with your buddies to California, I’m not going to hand you the keys to a CB350. You’re going to have a miserable time.

That’s a good conversation too, about setting the proper expectation. One of the challenges on the sales floor, when we had the electric bikes was the first thing they’d ask us, cause it’s electric and then I’ve got to charge it. Right? How long does that take? You know, great questions, but it was always asked.

With their foot in the [00:32:00] door, they already had made up their mind. And I just wanted to hear me confirm why they didn’t want it. Like Ryan’s saying, it’s their use case and the use case was wrong. And they go, well, what if I want to go across country on it? I don’t take my Toyota Highlander mountain climbing rock crawling.

Do I know I say, Ryan, let me borrow the Land Cruiser. A lot of people go in with that. It needs to check all boxes at once. It needs to be able to do everything. It needs to be the impossible bike. You really just have to look at what your average ride is. You know, me, I ride to work and cruise some back roads.

So honestly, my CBR is too much for me. And I’m thinking about getting a smaller bike. That’s a realistic conversation you have to have with people when they’re choosing their bikes. Not one we always want to listen to. It’s real quick to go down the ego train when selecting a bike. Going back to the electric conversation, when I was working a lot with people, they’d ask about the Livewire and they’d be like, well, what’s the range?

And it’s like, oh, well, you know, you’re going to get about 200 ish mile city on it, way less than that if you’re going to try and beam it down the highway. And they’re like, oh, well, I can’t do that. And I’m like, here’s the thing. I could daily commute on this bike for a week and a half and never have to charge it.

So that [00:33:00] eight hours while I’m at work charging or at home sleeping isn’t that big of a deal. Yeah, if I’m gonna road trip it to California, I gotta stop every hundred miles and charge it for, you know, six to eight hours if they don’t have a level three? That sounds miserable. But that just supports the old formula.

How many motorcycles should I own? It’s N plus one. You know, the number I currently own plus one more. Not only is it the use case, but I’ve also heard it said when you’re selecting a bike, you find a bike that sort of fits your personality. And I’ve asked people before, and I’ve had some suggestions, and actually a few people have landed on the same bike for me.

And they’re like, knowing you, you should really get an 87 Suzuki 250 Sport. Like that would be the perfect bike for you. And I’m like, where’d you come up with that? Very specific, but it’s so much more intimate on a motorcycle and sure. I love cars. I’ve driven everything you can imagine, 1100 horsepower McLaren 720, but I didn’t like it, even if I had the money, I wouldn’t buy that car.

It doesn’t fit me. It’s more apparent on a motorcycle because it’s just you in that one machine and two wheels. [00:34:00] You know, you are in the world as much as you can be, it’s a completely different experience. The talk of the soul of it, things like that, ethereal stuff, which factors in, but it’s like a relationship with a horse.

You control it as much as it controls you, you feel everything. And you experience the world in one big kind of rush of information. So if you’ve got the wrong bike, it could be dangerous? Question mark. I don’t think there’s a question. I think it should be an exclamation mark. A lot of people come in to see about bikes and stuff and in their mind, they think it should go one way.

I’ve known guys try to go for the biggest engine bike possible starting out. I’m like, nah, trust me. You don’t want to start that way or even experienced riders. Cause I got multiple bikes in my stables. And the funny thing is sometimes I like hopping on one of my smallest bikes and go out there because it’s easy to throw around, drop it down, low going into turns compared to my bigger bikes that they can do it, but it’s not as fun to do.

And other than that, I’ve noticed with the bigger, heavier bikes, I chew up tires a lot more when I’m riding aggressively in the side roads here. Well, I like taking the small bike out for that sort of reason. Funny for [00:35:00] a motorcycle shop guy to keep going back to cars, but I had more cars and motorcycles to be honest.

My favorite car was Brian. You can attest to this because you had one also at an 85 Corolla SR 5 1. 6 carbureted rear wheel drive. And that thing had been owned by four different friends of mine and been run through 20 ditches. And man, I drove the hell out of that little car, deliver pizzas in it. Got a hundred miles per gallon while I did it.

If it would’ve just had a limited slip on it, man, it would’ve been a contender, but that was my favorite car. Well, guys, at the top of the conversation, Dan mentioned the candlestick maker. And so where I’m going with this, Adam, you and I met at Petit Le Mans back in the fall, and I Motul booth to touch base with some folks that we’ve done some projects there with in the past.

And right in front of me was, wait, what? Candles! What are you guys doing selling candles? How does this work? Why? I think this is probably one of the most unique items I have ever seen. Thank you. It’s all Teresa. What was it, 20 14 Teresa just had the spark of genius. It was very simple. Why not a candle that smells like a dirt bike?

We all know that caster smell. We [00:36:00] all know that two stroke and some exhaust fumes smell. I’m a huge two stroke fan from growing up, riding motocross two strokes. So I’m looking forward to smelling with the two stroke candles. I can’t give away the secret formula, but you know, she came up with a fragrance and wax combo that works with actual two stroke oil and smells like a dirt bike when it’s burning.

I didn’t know what to think of it when I first saw it. And that’s the same thing my wife said when I brought it home. She’s like, what? What’s in this? I was like, motor oil. And then her first question was, well, is it used or is it new? No, it’s all, it’s all fresh. Okay. And then the next question was, so when you burn it indoors, outdoors, how well ventilated should the room be?

That was her next question. I’m going to read to you from the back of the label just for legal purposes. It says, do not burn in drafty areas. Do not extinguish with a lid, uh, and do not burn indoors. So the science is still out in some regards. We’ll let the lab technicians handle that one. So keep a carbon monoxide detector handy is what you’re saying, right?

I’m not giving any disclaimers, [00:37:00] but, uh, We’ve burnt them inside for the last, you know, since 2014, and I think we’re all fairly normal. If you look at the Flying Tiger website, where you can buy some of the accessories and clothing and other things that are on there, there’s more than just the Motul candles.

There’s the other ones that you guys designed. But how did Motul come into the picture? The literal story was, it was like the midst of COVID. I was doing nothing. And I found an email that was probably a year and a half old of Nolan Browning, the marketing manager, reaching out and saying, Hey, we saw your candle.

I own a few and we have to make one. Contact me ASAP. I hope he hears this. And cause I’m spilling the beans. I think I’d send some kind of reply. Like, yeah, I’ll talk to you later. And I never followed up with them and I found it, you know, like a year later. And I was like, Oh my God, you’ve sank the ship.

Email him now. You know, I did. I just reached out and said, Hey, you know, uh, wanted to follow up on this, whatever. And he got back to me. I mean, it was pretty awesome. He zoomed in and there was our candle sitting on his desk, you know, at Motul there in the laboratory. We’ve spawned a pretty good relationship so [00:38:00] far.

They’ve been really amazing to work with. So you’ve got the 800 series oil that would be generally found in the two strokes. And then you’ve got the 300V, the upper echelon of their offerings, right? Which is a ester based oil, which has a very unique smell. If you ever smell 300V, it doesn’t smell like anything else.

It’s the best smelling one. It is, isn’t it? It’s almost, it’s very aromatic. That’s the word I like to use. Are there plans to offer other Motul variants or just these two? I voted transmission oil, but was downvoted quickly. You don’t like that sickly sweet smell of 75 90? Yeah, man, give me some GL 4 and just cover the kitchen floor in it.

Make it smell like Redline CV2 or something? You gotta mix it up. Just something disgusting, please. I want it the grittier the better. Maybe with some metal shavings in it, you know, for that extra effect. Depending on the shaving type, it’ll be like the funky flames you throw in a campfire. It’s not magnesium, people, we promise you.

It’s not raw magnesium. Do you guys have any favorite scents that you recommend? We get bored and we get inspired by things. And so we try to bring everything [00:39:00] back to bikes. And you know, the thing else we have is the two stroke we have, I can’t say the name of the oil that we use, but it is a snowmobile related oil.

We call it snow tiger. Motoman is, you know, kind of like a, it’s oil and conditioned leather. And then we have Motoman’s a really good one to give as a gift. If somebody’s not in this world. And that’s kind of where this product lies is like in that blurred space between, Oh yeah, you know, my so and so rides a motorcycle, but I don’t, and I don’t really understand, or I love it, but I don’t have a motorcycle.

You know, you see this a lot at racetracks. You know, it’s the reason people buy the t shirt when it comes to motorsports as a whole, they like that feeling of wonderment that they get from it, everything that’s going on around them, and they want to take a piece of that home with them. And, you know, an event t shirt is one thing, but this is something a little more interactive.

What I think is hilarious about this, it’s like an inception gag gift. Because if you give this to somebody that’s sort of on the fringe of being a petrolhead, like they’re a fan, but they’re not as deeply nerdy as the rest of us are. And they’re like, dude, you give me an oil [00:40:00] filter? And then you open it.

Looks like the oil filter off of like a GM quad four, because it’s about that same dimensions. And then you’re just like, Wait, what is this again? And then you start reading and you’re turning it around. And then it’s like, now you got to open it. Now you got to smell it. Right. So you’ve got them locked into this thing for like at least 15 minutes, just trying to figure out what the heck it is.

And I remember when I first saw it, we were there at petite and I was like, I kept like turning it over asking you guys questions. And I’m like, is this for real? Like, this is super cool. And you need a tool to open it. So then you get that hook started too. You’ve got to bend your mind around it. And if you look at on some of our marketing videos, when this came up, there’s actually a spot where I threaded it onto the oil filter bung of a Triumph Tiger, I believe.

If you can see it in a shot and it’s threaded onto the oil filter, I was like, do you guys have any other zany gift ideas related to the motorcycle world or any other swag that people might be interested in? I mean, we’re always coming up with something and Teresa’s back in her little laboratory. That’s like her, you know, when she’s done dealing with paperwork for the day and where’s my bike [00:41:00] conversations.

In a busy bike shop, she’s like, I have to go make some candles. She comes up with something brilliant. You know, she’ll call me and say, Hey, I’ve got this idea, you know, making a label or help me come up with a name and build some marketing around it. Currently we offer soap. We’re trying to get Motul sold on some soap, but we do a couple of different soaps, we do cologne and then the candles.

They’re all kind of centered around motorsports or motorcycling. Is it possible to drop a hint for a scent to be created? Because some cam 2 race fuel would be phenomenal. Oh, that would sell like crazy. We talked about fuel once. We just weren’t sure which fuel, but thanks for doing the research for us. I mean, you’re not going to go to Yankee Candle and buy this kind of stuff.

You know what I’m saying? This is legit. This is hardcore. So what are these candles cost? If somebody does want to pick one up? Currently they are at 40. That’s a bargain. Especially if you’re significant other shops at Yankee Candle. Correct. And if you know how much a liter of 300 V costs, it’s a good deal.

Luckily we’ve worked that out with MoTool, but it is made with actual 300 V. And Dan, [00:42:00] I’ll see your cam too, and raise you some Castrol SRF. I think that’s another one that needs to be in there. A little bit of brake fluid. You have to have all the lubricants. And all the fluids as candles, right? You got to collect the whole set.

I want to get like, Castro’s Super Library on a can. You know, how do I do that? Part of what makes these candles even more interesting, if you don’t open them, or if you just open them, give them a whiff, and then close it back up, the cans are very attractive. It’s a talking point, because the next guy that comes along And because what’s that on your desk and here we go again, it perpetuates conversation, which in our world, right?

Motorcycles are cars. We’re always looking for that, you know, raise your hand. If you’ve ever gone to a party, knowing you wore that race t shirt because you’re hoping somebody else would go, Oh yeah, I was there. I saw it on TV. Let’s talk about it. Yeah. I get emails all the time of people saying. I don’t even light them.

I just put them on the desk or, you know, when they’re done, I use the can in my shop to store stuff in. It’s a useful little thing, either as a conversation starter or as a utility afterwards. So we’re quite proud of [00:43:00] it. Anybody listening that has one, if you could please light them, we’re getting ready to make more batches.

So we got to keep that money machine going. Yes. Please burn your candles. Tell Teresa we need the Glade plug in version. That’ll really keep it going, you know? He’s writing it down! He’s writing it down! Hahaha! Are there any big projects coming up for Flying Tiger, or like, any new services and items you guys would like to share with us?

I was actually just on the phone with Teresa earlier today, and we were talking about builds and what’s coming up in the future and what we’re focusing on. I haven’t seen what’s on the table for restorations this year, but you never know. Something cool might pop up. Tons of ideas that we have. You asked earlier, like, anything else with Motool, you know, we’ll wait and see.

We’ve had some cool discussions about some future stuff. I don’t want to promise anything, but we’re still talking. We just got a reply to their emails before a year. You know, actually it worked out last time, so maybe I’ll just wait like two more. Sorry, Nolan. Sorry. Well, you mentioned Petit Le Mans and Sturgis.

Do you guys have any big events you guys [00:44:00] plan to attend? We’re definitely going to Le Mans next year, either as guests or spectators. Nolan’s last words were, see you next year. So Nolan, it’s on the record now. You have to take us. I’d say something’s probably going to show up at Cycle Showcase, which is a local show here in St.

Louis, which is a really big custom bike show. It’s been going on for a while. You gotta have finished bikes to go places. And then most of those shows you gotta apply to and then wait and hear. And then you gotta have a budget sometimes to take them to Texas or Portland or where, you know, just, it all takes money and time.

Really just depends on who wants to go and who’s paying for it. We want to keep exploring this relationship that we’ve built with Motul and see if there’s more products in the pipeline that we can crank out from. I know we filled a fairly large order for them for Christmas. Well, guys, with that, as we wrap up the episode here, any shout outs, promotions, or anything else you’d like to share that we haven’t covered thus far.

Are you guys familiar with that flat track, um, with the Royal Enfield series that’s going on? Every year for 4th of July, [00:45:00] there’s the annual Barbara Pritchie classic flat track race. I want to say it was up to the 102nd, 103rd year of it running recently. Royal Enfield has their build, train, race program, which is pretty interesting.

That one’s really cool. Shout out to Brianne Poland at Royal Enfield, putting that together. She’s done some really cool things there and made a lot of cool stuff happen for a lot of people trying to race Royal Enfields and also just trying to get more women into the sport. Any motor sports is going to be extremely male dominated.

Brian, if you ever hear this, you should come on here and talk about all the cool stuff you do that I have no idea how to make it sound cooler. More than just a repair shop, Flying Tiger’s passion for the two wheel life has led them down some interesting roads. It has inspired them to think outside of the box and create unique items and services that you may have never considered before.

To learn more about Flying Tiger Motorcycles, be sure to visit them online at flyingtigermotorcycles. com or follow them on social media at flyingtigermoto on Instagram. [00:46:00] Adam and Ryan, I can’t thank you guys enough for coming on Break Fix and sharing the Flying Tiger story with us. I love the vibe that you guys have.

I love that you’re in it, you’re involved, you’re perpetuating the classic motorcycle world, getting people interested in that, and I think it’s really exciting all the other things you’re doing. And as Dan was saying, thinking outside the box. We need more of that, even on the car side of the house. So I applaud what you guys are doing and I look forward to getting another flying tiger candle in my stocking.

so much for your time guys. I really appreciate it. It’s awesome to be here.

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