I looked you up and then I started looking at your competitors. And I always came back to you because of that platform. It’s not sitting on the ground. I saw one that was just sitting on a soft piece of plastic. The design is amazing. I like that it’s got that solid platform and it’s got holes so you can run a wire if you need to hook up your battery tender. Mark: Exactly. Me: It’s amazing! Mark: I think about, it was about four or five years after I started manufacturing, some competitor’s came out and I’m a patented product. I was awarded that in 2002. But you started seeing things coming out. One of them was the bike barn. Their manufactured, I believe in Korea and their distributed through Canada and they call themselves a non-contact cover. So they don’t use a platform. All it is a plain structure with a cheap fabric on it. It doesn’t seal the motorcycle up completely. You still get a lot of dirt and debris entering in from the bottom and I’ve heard a lot of people complain that the cover will not go over a motorcycle. Me: Right (This was actually one of the products I had researched and thought it looked fairly cheap). Mark: But any case, I’m American made. I use nothing but American-made products in my product. My fabric, for example, I get from a mill, one of the last mills here in the United States called Granite Hill, South Carolina. They use this fabric to make boat covers so it’s a really high quality, year-round, out-door material. All my parts, like I said, are from different places here in the United States. My base is currently manufactured in Indiana. I’ve always tried to maintain the quality of my product. My philosophy is always to make the highest quality product as possible and let the product speak for itself and that’s really what had happened with my company. Me: It really does. And they are hand-made right? Mark: Yeah. It is completely hand-made. I buy all raw materials and we just cut, and form, and punch, and make a CycleShell! Me: So about how long does it take to make one, would you say? Mark: Completely, from start to finish, making all the parts, I’d say about two hours. Me: Okay. That’s not bad. Do you have a lot of people working for you? Mark: Right now I’ve got five people and I’m still behind. I’m always behind. I think labor is my biggest, biggest issue in manufacturing. I don’t know, people have different attitudes about working today. Me: That’s true! I’m 37 and I’m running circles around people who are half my age. Mark: I know! I’m in my 50’s and I work harder than some of these guys. I’ll hire someone who’s 22 and I’ll run circles around him. Me: Yeah! I don’t get it. Mark: You know, especially here in Colorado, too. You know we have the liberal drug laws here so…I tell everybody, “look, I don’t care what you do in your private life but don’t bring any of your drugs into my company. Like I mentioned, I’ve been making my product since 1997 and northeast is probably my biggest market. I’m always shipping anywhere from Boston down to, like Richmond, VA, a lot in Florida. I think the northeast is my biggest market. Me: Yeah, we got all the crazy weather. Mark: The weather, yeah. It’s amazing too, Joyce, because when I first started making my product, you know, I thought I was going to sell mostly to people living in apartments and condos and it turned out that my biggest market is somebody with a house and a two car garage. Thunder Roads®Mid-Atlantic
Me: Really?! Mark: Oh yeah! Because, you take somebody with a two car garage and they have 2 cars, they have a motorcycle, they have a riding mower, they got bicycles, and junk and they just don’t have room for that motorcycle. Or the wife, the guy’s wife is saying, or the husband, is saying “you know if you get that motorcycle out of the garage, I could put my car back.” Me: Oh no! Mark: So they’ll buy my enclosure and sit it on the side of the house. Me: I would have to get a divorce! I’d say, sorry, we’re done then! Mark: So it’s turned out completely opposite. So a homeowner with a two-car garage is my biggest market. Me: Wow! Mark: Are you living in an apartment or a house? Me: No, I live in a house but we don’t have a garage here. Mark: Oh okay. There you go. Me: If I did have a garage, I’d probably still use the CycleShell and put the CycleShell in the garage and park the bike in it! Mark: Yeah! A lot of people do that. It keeps the pets away, the trash away, and keeps the dust off their bike. Me: I read online, it talks about cleaning the cover with a silicone protectant? I’m having a really hard time finding that for some reason. Mark: Look up a product called 303 Aerospace. I know you can buy it online or if you go to Walmart, back in the automotive section, you’re going to find a product called Super Protectant. It’s in a green bottle. The manufacture of the fabric, they recommend using a silicone and not a petroleum-based protectant. Like Armor All is made from oil so they don’t want you using that. Me: Okay, yeah I need to give mine a good cleaning. It’s getting dirty. Do you have a busy time of the year where you get more orders in, than at other times? Mark: Uh, actually in the spring or early summer is my busiest time. Guys buy new bikes and I think what happens is a lot of people go out and they buy a motorcycle and they bring it home and their like, “Oh gosh, where am I going to put this?” Or, you know, they spend 10, 12, 15 thousand dollars for a bike and they want to protect it better than just throwing a cover over it. So I start getting really busy in March when people start buying new bikes. Me: I got mine in April so that makes sense. Mark: Exactly! I’m always surprised though like in January, I always think it will be a slow time but I stay pretty busy in January too. Um, I think my slowest time is around like, August. Me: That’s a good time to get out and ride then! Mark: I’ve maintained the pricing of my product since 2001. I have not changed it since then. Me: And the pricing is, I mean, I think, It’s $325 - $425, depending on the size of your bike, I think that’s amazing and it’s worth it! Mark: It really is. And I’ve done everything that I can to maintain that cost. My biggest problem with everybody that I talk to is the shipping. I have to ship in freight. I can’t ship just ground. It’s a pretty big-sized box and I can offer my customers to either ship to a business or to their residence. If I ship to a business there’s a $30 savings so I try to encourage people to ship to a business and save $30 on shipping. Me: That’s what I did. I had it shipped to my part-time job because
MARCH 2016
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