I
I I think I
Think that despite
Everything that we're facing with the recession
foreign powers
Our largest problem facing us is the deindustrialization of America
Our can-do American spirit is being lost
We don't have the eye
You got to be able to go out and do it and we don't have that
Our children don't know the difference between a flathead screwdriver and a Phillips and if they did know the difference
They wouldn't know what to do with it
I'd say 25 years now as a mechanic and I was always fascinated with motorcycles and
And that's where I stuck being able to make bikes that are 60 70 years old
Perform as good as they ever did maybe not as good as new bikes, but as good as they ever did
Something to be said about that it's very rewarding
The vintage bikes have much more style and panache
It's more of an accomplishment and it's the cool factor. It's James Dean the Marlon Brando in the wild one
You know
It's Fonzie for Christ's sake
When I was a kid if I was offered the opportunity
To work in a shop like this you would kill for it
You would eyeball a mini bike in the corner and tell them well
I'll work if you give me that mini bike or something but today's youth
Not only do I not feel that they have the physical ability to do the industrial whatever it may be
But they don't have the aptitude or even desire. They don't even care
You know, it's just it's disheartening, but I
Bet every generation said that our generation before us said that about us
But I really do think that it's going to be a lost art there to be fewer and fewer people who can do this and
I don't really right now see
Who the next me is? Where's the next me? I
Think maybe we have 200 motorcycles here. I really don't know I've never really counted them all and
I kind of never want to count them
Because at one point
It might seem like too many to me
But then that same number might seem like way too few it may upset my balance
So I like to keep the exact number an intangible amount and I'd say two-thirds of the stuff that's here is mine and
One-third of that is my never-gonna-sell-it
ever
Unless my wife tells me to
Still then it's hard thought it's hard. I honestly every day I walk in here. I still can't believe this is my place
Because I do remember at a young age thinking man
You know having some crappy Honda I couldn't get started didn't get the girl didn't make it to the dance broke down in the rain
Thinking to myself. We're gonna have a whole bunch of cool bikes and one day I woke up and I do it's not because I have any money
I don't have any money. I do not have any money. If I got some money by motorcycle another
It was it's a compulsion. That's what it is. It's purely a compulsion. I couldn't and wouldn't do anything else. I have tried
