Distributor

DISTRIBUTOR:RANDY MASHIN, TRI-R DISTRIBUTING When he was 10 years old, Randy Mashin said he and the other kids in his neighborhood could often be found riding in the big open field in front of his house. It was about 100 yards of dirt and served as their play yard, he said, adding, “We had go-karts, an old Rupp mini-bike and a Honda three-wheeler – all the neighborhood kids shared.” When he was 18, he got a job working in the parts department for a multi-line dealership located in the south suburb of Chicago called Watson Motorsport. Randy explained that he worked the parts counter for two years and then as the parts manager for another eight.

While working at the store, Mashin met Jeff Ross who was the founder of Tri-R Distributing. During that time, Ross had gotten an offer to work for Advantage Distributing and Randy was interested in owning his own business in the industry. The two reached an agreement and Mashin bought Tri-R from Ross. Randy has been the company’s owner and president for the last 12 years. “Although there are constant hurdles to overcome,” said Mashin, “staying in the industry as an owner has been very exciting.”

Tri-R Distributing was founded over 20 years ago, starting out primarily as a Spectro Oil distributor. Ross had added a couple more product lines before selling the company to Mashin. When he took over, Randy said he added some additional product lines to help strengthen the company and he has been working to expand Tri-R’s shipping across the country. Their current product lines include Spectro Premium Oils, SFR chains, Element tie-downs and Zeus helmets, to name a few, said Randy. About four years ago, he added, Tri-R started manufacturing its own fender eliminator kits for sport bikes under the TrackSide brand name.

Since buying Tri-R in 1995, Randy said he had to sell his Suzuki GSXR 750 and hasn’t bought a replacement however, he does occasionally borrow one from a friend or dealer to go out and have some fun. He cited his two children, daughter Jenna who is five and son Jacob who is seven, as his main reasons for this. “Between all of their activities, I haven’t the time to ride a motorcycle,” he explained. He said he does own an Arctic Cat F7 snowmobile and he likes to take his vacation time between December and January to take his kids snowmobiling, which is something they love to do.
Working in this industry over the last 22 years, Randy said it’s the people that have kept things exciting. “The new challenges that come up have kept things fun,” he explained, adding, “It’s not sitting behind the desk dealing with books and numbers all day.”

Besides taking over ownership of Tri-R, Randy stated one of his favorite moments in the business was during a trip he and a couple of his friends took about 13 years ago. They went to Watersmeet, MI, during the winter on their annual week-long snowmobile trip, he explained, and it snowed about three feet overnight, leaving them snowed in for two days. “I haven’t seen snow like that since,” he said, “It was the best time I’ve ever spent on a sled.”

Since working at Tri-R, Randy said he has noticed that international conflicts, like the recent problems with the rising cost of gasoline, have cut down on the amount of offroad activity the company has seen recently. “It use to cost enthusiasts about $50-$60, but now it’s more like $100-$200 for someone to go out and ride,” Randy explained. Because of the rising cost, people aren’t sure they want to spend their money on their ‘toys’, he explained, adding, “The motorcycle industry is not a necessity industry, it’s a recreational one, which makes it vulnerable to economic fluctuations.” In the past, different parts of the country would slow down for certain reasons, but now there doesn’t seem to be one specific reason – things will slow down and no one knows why, Mashin stated.

Big box retail stores, such as Pep Boys, is another problem Randy considers threatening to the powersports industry. With these mass merchandisers, they are there to sell the product and take your money, unlike the mom and pop stores that take the time to speak with you about your vehicle or your new part, he explained. “There’s no customer service with the mass merchandisers,” said Mashin, who remarked that this could actually be a good way for dealerships to compete. By building a relationship with your customers and allowing them to be comfortable and letting them have fun in your store, dealers can go head-to-head with these chain stores and even the Internet based ones, Randy noted.

The resurgence of the sport bike industry has become a major area of interest for his company, said Mashin. “With the cruiser segment leveling off, I’d say the sport bike market has been making a strong comeback,” he explained, adding that Tri-R has expressed a desire to expand their sport bike product lines to cover this growth. He explained, “Sport bikes can be more customizable than cruisers, which basically have the bolt-on chrome products.”

Another area of growth Mashin mentioned is that their original product line, Spectro Oil, has done a lot of work in producing oils for every application type – from ATVs to offroad bikes and from petroleum, to blends, to full synthetics. He continued by saying, “Spectro has done a great job of covering all the needs of the industry.”
With his 22 years of experience in mind, Randy concluded the interview by offering one important piece of advice: “Remember why you got into the industry. Most people got in it because it was something they enjoyed growing up. Get back to that enjoyment. Don’t let it become overwhelming. Don’t let the mass merchandisers decide how our industry is going to be run. Put the fun back in your part of the industry.”

Manufacturer

At 15, Hacker explained, he started hopping up his dirt bike. “Soon my friends were asking me to beef up their bikes too,” he told us. “I started porting cylinders, cutting rotary valves and modifying/building exhaust systems,” Ronnie explained, adding, he soon started building, modifying and repairing dirt bike motors for local riders as well. He learned that with simple alterations to the exhaust systems, which were two strokes, he could control the power band of the motor, which gave him a leg up on the competition, he explained.

As he grew older, his passion for the industry drove him to open several repair shops in Oregon, where he said he did restoration on old Harleys, including Pan Heads, Knuckle Heads, Sportsters and Shovel Heads. “During this time period, I was also doing custom painting and building Husqvarna motors for dealers and riders while continuing to develop exhausts for street units to stepped drag pipes,” explained Hacker.

He took a break from the motorcycle industry from 1988-1998, during which he said he went to look for a ‘real job.’ However, during this break Ronnie explained he spent his off time developing exhaust systems and building motors for himself and his friends out of his personal workshop. He reportedly saw that the old performance exhaust companies were more interested in cutting costs by outsourcing their building needs to increase profitability rather than staying on top of the performance market.

In 1998, Ronnie said he returned to the motorcycle industry and co-founded a company under the name HackerLabs1, which later became HackerPipes. Ronnie also worked as a technical rep for Panzer motorcycle diagnosing warranty issues, he explained. “I was developing their exhaust systems to perform while still maintaining their classic roots. Let me tell you, that was a task,” Hacker stated.

Unfortunately, Panzer closed before Hacker was able to implement his design and after the company’s demise, Ronnie said he focused his time and experience on Indian. “It is estimated that when the company was still producing bikes, upwards of 25 percent were running HackerPipes (HackerLabs1) products, whether it was a replacement performance muffler core or a complete header system,” Ronnie divulged.

At the moment, Ronnie isn’t too happy with the way the industry has evolved. “The industry is shifting to dyno focused yahoos that care more about big dyno numbers and horsepower than street ride-ability,” he explained, adding, “Riders don’t seem to understand that when you shoot for big horsepower numbers you are sacrificing torque, the needed power to have a ground-breaking, exhilarating ride. I have said it a million times, I don’t ride a dyno, I ride a bike.” “But seriously, I am in this industry because it is a sport that I have embraced all my life,” Ronnie continued. “It is hard work, but I would not change it for the world,” he said. When he’s not working, Hacker said he gets to talk to others who share a passion for the sport and because he lives in the Santa Cruz Mountains in California, he has a great, long riding season where he can enjoy the scenery from rolling hills, to redwood forests, to the coast along Highway 1. “I am really fortunate,” he stated.  With over 30 years of experience in the industry, Ronnie said he has a hard time choosing a favorite moment. “I have worked with incredible racing teams, have built incredibly fast motors, had my products on a world class builder’s bike, had my products showcased in the trade press and have now grown my own company 1500 percent in the last 2-3 years. All of which really makes me feel good,” he told us. However, Hacker believes the best is yet to come.

“As an example, we have now created a new racing division for the company and are sponsoring G&G Powersports out of Wisconsin for Victory drag racing and we are sponsoring two racing teams going after different world records on the salt flats this year at Bonneville,” Hacker continued. “Both teams come from a long history of racing and I expect they will both take away new records,” he said, adding, “Being on the salt flats for a potential historical ride with two teams has me really excited.”

There are two issues Ronnie said he believes are concerning to the industry. The first, he explained is the gas issue. “I feel that in the next 20 years that between 30-50 percent of the vehicles on the road will be electric,” he told us. “This will mean a major shift in the powersports arena,” he added.

Ronnie also thinks that currently there are too many manufacturers that are focusing on the short drag pipes. “Not only do they not perform properly, but they are overly loud and they upset too many people,” Hacker explained. “The riders don’t seem to care. They get less performance and more stares from people and the police,” he added. “It is always said that a small percentage of people ruin it for the rest of us,” Ronnie continued by saying, “In fact, we have had a tuned quiet option for our pipes available for over four years to address this change in the market - and it still typically out performs other manufacturer’s products.”

As far as what the industry can expect in the future, Ronnie said that as gas prices continue to soar, there will be an insurgence of smaller displacement motorcycles between the 250cc and 750cc class. “HackerPipes will be addressing these new bikes and markets with exhausts that will give greater performance while still offering moderate sound and great gas mileage,” Hacker told us.

Over the past 30 years, Ronnie has gained a lot of experience in the powersports industry. With that in mind, he had an important piece of advice to offer up to others, which was: “I can’t say this for everyone, but insourcing versus outsourcing has worked great for us. It is hard to compete with overseas labor costs. We have brought all parts of the exhaust manufacturing in-house except chroming, which is still done here in California. This way we have better control of our product and the time it takes to get to market,” he explained.

Ronnie concluded by saying, “We feel that this is the only way to have a high-quality product that is deliverable. We still feel that there are folks out there that are willing to pay good money for a great American made product. As we say around here, we build American products, by Americans for Americans. That is our belief and it works for us.”