Richard Pollock of Mule Motorcycles, one of our favorite builders, was interviewed recently and gives us a very interesting look at the man behind those beautiful street trackers. Along with the interview is a short, but well done video to give you a flavor of Richard’s ideas and what he’s like when at work in his garage shop. Not surprisingly, it’s quite a contrast to the slam bang chopper shows, but, no one here would be surprised at that.
He makes one observation about something he’s noticed over the years:
When I was a little kid in upstate New York in the 50’s, if a guy fired up a car and was going to do a tune-​up or something, every kid within 3 blocks would sniff it out or hear it and be there in a minute on their bicycle pestering the guy. I’ve worked out of my garage for 25 years and had bikes in the garage or sitting parked in the driveway that entire time. I haven’t had 4 kids stop and ask about the bikes in 25 years. And there’s kids everywhere and this is in Southern California. Yes, something has changed. Takes commitment and time to learn a craft. So every time I see or read a feature about somebody that builds stuff, I think that’s a good thing!
I’ve noticed that same decreasing interest among the kids, and while there seems to be a resurgence, it may be some time before we see the widespread desire to build things with your own hands so prevalent in years past. It’s actually possible, that seeing examples of builders like Richard, a few more young folks might be motivated to pursue the craft of high quality hands on work. We can only hope.
The interview is fairly long and it’s worth going over to read the whole thing. I’ve included the video below.
Link: Mule Interview at MegaDeluxe Sports
Video below:
Nicolas says
Respect, Sir, you do awesome work !
Carolynne says
Wow, amazing that he started his own building company. Massive time investment I am curious how many bikes he would have on the go at one time?
Rich says
Mr. Pollock is an inspiration. To myself as well as others.
One of the reasons for the lack of interest in machines is due to the electronics – at least with cars. As an automotive training instructor I find that students lack the basic understanding of electrical circuits and their operation. This has, in turn, reduced backyard mechanics to something rare.
I also think that younger folk are taking their technical interests and focusing them on software and other computerized devices. In other words, they’re still with us – but have focused their efforts on a different kind of technology.
Miles says
I blame this on parents who are scared of electricity.
Let your kids shock themselves with the wall socket, buy them a soldering iron and let them burn a couple fingers. That is how I learned, I am not afraid of tinkering with electricity.
Radio Shack was rumored to be carrying electrical components again. Good for them.
Buy your kids and grandkids screwdrivers and let them take apart anything they want. If you are scared they will ruin your $600 smartphone or $20,000 car, buy them a broken $40 smartphone and a broken $600 car.1
coxster says
I learned electronics on a $50 guitar my dad bought at JC Penney ( they’re known for their vast selection of quality instruments ; ) and went on to a degree I now use in automation at a wastewater plant.
I know some real idiots that can use a smart phone or copy a Map to a powercommander/whatever, but have no idea why their bike needs a new tune when they changed their GSXR pipe. Making it easy only increases the number of amateurs, and reduces the reward for those with the real ambition. Next we’re gonna think a new set of grips. LED lights on the frame, and a $400 seat makes a motorcycle custom! 🙂
Merry Christmas one and all
Decline says
I’m going to just start by saying, I’m a huge DIY fan. I love people tinkering away in their homes and workshops and building their own stuff, be that motorcycles or anything else.
I think Rich above though did hit on something with his comment, “they’re still with us – but have focused their efforts on a different kind of technology.”
And on some level I’m often wondering why I bothered to do something myself. There was a time when if you wanted something faster, you kind of more or less had to work at it yourself. Now, the chance that I am going to home build a bike that would faster than something I can readily buy is pretty slim. Even slimmer that I could do it cheaper. The more tech side of hobbies around computers and software and what not, or like home recording, is now far more accessible to kids.
Sadly I’m a bit pressed for time at this moment. But I think this is a pretty interesting topic. On one last quick note though, there is a bicycle repair co-opt non-profit of sorts down the street from me. They do basically free bike repair but ask that at least you stay and watch so you can maybe do it yourself next time. They also make their workshop space and tools freely accessible, and it has been a rather large success. The parking lot is often full of people of all ages tinkering away or watching. So I’m prone to think there is something a bit overwhelming to many in the mountain of tools and such they will need to first collect. (now how actually true that is is up for debate, as you can get a lot done with very little, but seeing workshops with every conceivable piece of equipment can be as daunting to obtain as it can be inspirational.)
Paul Crowe - "The Kneeslider" says
I had a LOT more to say on the subject of hands on work a while back and I think it’s worth reading again if you have a few minutes. That link within the article above points to it as well.
Carolynne says
I read that book a while back, an excellent read, personally hit very close to home in a few spots. I know all to well being stuck in a cubicle, though I am a priviledged one with a window. It’s true you don’t get the same satisfaction as when you can get yourself right in there and do things for yourself. This isn’t just going on in the world of mechanical repairs, but across many areas of our lives, like cooking for example. So many simple thing are so easy to do if you have a little know how, but we become dependent and just buy everything. I actually read a recipe for “homemade” baked beans, and the first ingredient was a can of Heinz baked beans, He talks about this in the book, but he talks about ready made accessories the rider attaches so his bike is “customized” Its all about the preception of accomplishment rather that actually doing it.
Rich says
I too have read the book – several times. It paints a very different picture from what most of us believe “how success is to be defined.” I know that my local community college used to offer an Associates Degree in the machinist trade. Alas, ’tis no more. And now local aerospace companies are crying out for skilled machinists and can find none.
Welding, however, is being taught at full speed. Not sure what this says – if anything.
Bjorn says
Great interview with Richard, a lot of very pithy thoughts, very well expressed.
I would offer the thought that Richard learnt the beginnings of his trade at his father’s side, just as so many of us did. As family relationships are atomised by divorce, time constraints and/or tech gadgets (TV, computers, games consoles); we lose the basis of a new generation of tinkerers. When my kids walk into my shed, male or female they get a brief tutorial on how to do whatever task I have in hand. Even if they don’t remember the lesson, each time it happens the mechanical process is demystified a little more.
Also great to hear he rides a single speed.
Paulinator says
Pop the hood on a 67 Chevy, fix ONE cracked vacuum line, gap the plugs and finish off by combing all that new chest hair you just grew…great experience for any teen. Pop the hood on any newish car and the best you can do is add wiper fluid – anything else will probably end badly.
Our kids have skills that will be very relevant to automation and robotics. That is also where my hopes lie for a stable future.
ps. Love the vid. Yer livin’ the dream!!!!
kim says
True, kids today most often have other interests and priorities, which may in the near future cause the culture of hotrodding and customizing motorcycles and cars to decline. But so what? Count yourself lucky if you were part of this culture when it was at its greatest. It won’t disappear just because the kids customize their skateboards and computers instead. There’ll always be a handful who will catch on to the motorcycle and car scene, maybe the same way we did it, or maybe in some new and to us unfathomable way (like the Japanese custom scooters).
Don’t worry, be happy.
Mule says
Usually between 10 and 15. Yes, it gets crazy!
Carolynne says
You mean 10-15 on the go? You are doing that all by yourself, holy smokes!
Mule says
Back to the uninterested kids thing (I have none of my own), I would like nothing more than to have some enthusiastic elves running about and being able to show them everything I know. Or some fairly competent adults. But both seem to be in very short supply. If the adults are good mechanically, they are almost always currently employed. In the past few months however, I have had a very skilled helper that makes life with so many bikes in work managable. He’s a huge help. In the past, every young guy I’ve given a shot, would show up late and/or would spend literally half the day texting or staring at their phone. I gave up. Too much work to babysit. I hate to say that, but there is just so much to get done in a day with so many bikes going….and trying to make them perfect. Just didn’t work. Also, the size of the shop limits the workforce to two people. Sitting around talking bikes or when people visit, the garage can handle more. Working though requires a certain amount of “personal” space.
Why so many bikes at one time? With all the parts being ordered, machined, powder-coated, polished and anodized, or out being manufactured, etc, while waiting on something or for one’s components, I move to the next and on and on. Sometimes it’s dollars I’m waiting for. That’s an important component on almost all projects. Other times it’s just a matter of trying to dream up the solution or how to make something fit and look good. That’s one part I try not to rush. As I’ve gotten older, the biggest skill I’ve learned is patience. Take your time and make it really bitchin’! Another is keeping a lot of balls in the air. Knowing where I’m at and remembering the next 12 things that are in line to be done…today. This takes brain space of which there is a finite amount. So things that aren’t on the radar screen, get neglected, forgotten or overlooked.
Zipper says
Kids today seem to need instant gratification such as video games. My kids have grown up with motorcycles and never had much interest along with most of their friends who visited my home. I was at an airshow in Fl when a group of Embry Riddle student pilots walked by my 1941 biplane and said, “Captain does that thing have a computerized cockpit”. They all laughed and continued to walk on without even looking at the plane. Same with my Vntage bikes and St Trackers. I often wonder what will happen to all this great stuff. I too would enjoy having young people interested in these things so I could pass along all the skills I picked up along the way. I just don’t see it happening. I hope I’m wrong. ..Z
Nicolas says
The day when their glass cockpit or Ipad fails, the same Embry Riddle kids won’t know what to do and how to do it … kinda sad, because in flying or riding, you really need to know how and why things work, imho …
LeftLaneGuy says
I *DO* live within 100 miles.. (in fact, less than 15) I would SOOOO like to come hang out/help Richard! As soon as I get these 3 builds I’m currently working on done- I might just go camp-out in his driveway… 😉
As far as the space-thing is concerned; Yeah- it’s tight. Mule is about half-again the shop-space I have. Where he has 2 tables, I can only fit one. Richard also makes EXCELLENT use of his available space. Something I have tried to duplicate… My current problem is storage of non-essential parts. A full 1/4 of my work-space ATM is taken up with stuff I don’t need on a daily basis…
Mule says
Something you can research is what’s known in Japan as a 5S event, which is a systematic way of cleaning, organizing and disposing of all items in a work place. Also applies to the kitchen and rest of a house. As the legend goes, it was developed by Japanese housewives to keep a well organized home.
A suggestion I always make when you’ve got tons of “Stuff” collected up is to take everything you don’t use very often and rent a storge unit that requires you to pay money to hang onto the junk. When you make the second or 3rd payments you’ll take a very hard look at the stuff and decide if it’s really worth keeping. “Do I want to pay to keep this crap?”
I have a storage shed where I tend to let things gather to the point that I can’t get into it. I’m always thinking EBAY or Craig’s List or I’ll use the stuff in a project someday or that things are just too cool to throw away. But what I mainly due is just move the stuff back and forth.
This year, about every two weeks I keep whittling away at the piles and most often its into the recycle bin. I’m never gonna use the stuff and I need the room more than anything else!
Thoughtless says
I have great admiration for Richard, not only for what is revealed in the video, but for his thoughts here and on other blogs and his work for the past 10 or so years since I first became aware of him.
I cannot begin to grasp 10-15 projects simultaneously in production! I have a single focus when working on one of my bikes or one of someone else’s. So much so that when it’s not my bike under the wrenches, I refuse all phone calls and lock the gate on the driveway until I’m done for the day. period. Any single issue must be resolved, or be attacked relentlessly, until the solution has been found or the clock strikes midnight.
And Richard, there is no way to impart how much I admire your creativity and willingness to build some very serious and very seriously sweet machinery. I’m sure not a kid anymore, but if we lived within a 100 miles of each other I’d be one of the guys you’d be begging to just stay down the road with those kids playing with XBox 360’s, or whatever.
You’re as good as it gets.
todd says
Right on. But if I wasn’t already employed I’d be knocking on his door. I try to keep my four year old daughter involved in my motorcycle projects. She even has her own set of tools for her bike. I think it has more to do with a parent’s fear or lack of interest than it does with the kid’s. We don’t let kids out running around to strange people’s places any more do we?
-todd
Carolynne says
I am glad to hear that you are teaching your daughter. Many girls get overlooked, I have 2 brothers but neither one had any interest in doing anything like this. I did but I was actively excluded. Part of the reason was size, my brothers are very tall and strong, so it was easier to get them to lift etc. But part of it was that was just not was girls did. And this was not all that long ago. I also notice in the posts I have read sons are mentioned alot, daughters not so much. Even now, I buy tools for myself and someone who shall remain nameless keeps stealing them from me and squirreling them away on his workshop. I think females are far more capable than they are given the opportunity to show,
Mule says
The TZ roadracers at the Yamaha factory were assembled by women as they were considered to be more meticulous. Fact!
Carolynne says
Very cool! I am going to pull out that handy little fact next time I get kicked out of the garage.
rohorn says
Funny – I’ve heard an awful lot of stories from credible sources that the only reason why Yamaha shipped them assembled was to be certain that they sent all the parts. Some of those parts included undersize pre-cracked pistons, etc…
gildasd says
I’ve started working in a glass/steel/firewall company this week. It just feels nice to make plans and then go to the workshop to get the things built. Everything here is bespoke and handmade.
It’s a very succesfull company that’s familly owned. But they can’t get sufficient people with the skill-set to do proper plans. Crazy when you think of all the post grads working (if lucky) in dead end junk jobs… We need writers, journalists and thinkers. But not so many!
Maybe somebody should have told them during their long education that working with your hand is not a sin. My teachers allways looked down on anything remotly manual, wite collar was the only way… Lucky my gramps did not think likewise.
Paulinator says
I agree that there is a visible decline in “manual skills” labor that is negatively affecting what little manufacturing remains in NA. But I’ve worked with kids in the Cubs and Scouts KUB KAR race program and I can attest that they absolutely beam with pride when they knock the corners off blocks of wood and stick paint and wheels on’em – that’s builder’s pride. That’s why we have opposed thumbs. If off-shore mfg costs continue to increase…and if fuel/transport costs continue to increase…and if technologies continue to advance…and if we can prevent creeping sharia law from taking hold and dragging us all back into the stone-age…then I think we’ll watch a whole new generation pick it up again with tools, capabilities and inventiveness that we can barely imagine today.
Mule says
All it would take is a few years and the generations could backfill the hands on void. I think people that know how to do “Stuff” are always more than happy to show somone else. Just need that hunger to learn from the crowds.
Carolynne says
I have read that in china they are exhausting their supply of cheap labour which was the influx of peasant farmers, and they to are struggling to find skilled workers in turn increasing their production costs. It is predicted that this will end our supply of cheap products. Without a good base of manufacturing and the price of goods expected to rise, we are going to have to do some reevaluating of needs and wants. We have become a nation of wanton consumption. We have been trained to equate expense with value. This has to be corrected before the rest will fall into place
gildasd says
We have skilled manual labour and skilled sales/management/office people, we lack the ones that do the interface.
If the company could get more of the 3rd kind, they could hire more of the 2 others.
sfan says
I have been a Pollock fan since I first I first set eyes on one of his stunning XS650 in Cycle World years ago. Watching this video however begs a very important question, what the heck is the “KY Jelly Bike” noted at 1.11 in the clip!?! : )
Mule says
You’re the first person to ask that. It’s a 1993 KX250 frame with a YZ490 aircooled motor installed. Started out as the KXYZ and then was abbreviated to the KY or KY-Jelly bike! It’s a project that is moving to the front burner and one that while I thought would be simple, proved to be a bit more complex.
sfan says
That’s hilarious Richard, at least for those of us of a certain age! Your KY project seems like it could be a lot of fun too. Thanks for taking the time to reply to the comments here.
Thomaskwscott says
As a software developer by day and motorcycle builder by night (or whenever the missus lets me) I can see the argument that the focus for kids has changed. It’s a lot easier to create really remarkable things in a couple of hours sat in front of a PC (Facebook does NOT count) than it is to drag yourself down to a cold garage and build some bikes.
However, I have a lock up in East London that i do my work in and on a typical saturday there is so much interest in what i’m doing that i barely get anything done! I often help out people with wiring problems and quick fixes to their own bikes whilst explaining my plans for the frames and bits of engine sat in my garage. As a result of this a couple of the people i have met have gone out and bought bikes and brought them back to fix up.
I believe the problem is that a lot of people don’t even know this is possible. Every person that asks me about building bikes goes away with instructions to buy a CZ or Jawa for £100 from Ebay and take it to pieces. The choice of bike may be questionable but the spirit is there.
Swagger says
I wonder at the cause of the ‘no kids around to gawk’ scenario. True that we crammed computers and high tech down their throats from the beginning and told them in no uncertain terms that ‘Manuel La’Bour’ was NOT someone they wanted to be. WE pushed them to Iphones and Playstations and computers and such. If there’s fingers to be pointed, look in the mirror.
Also of note, it depends a lot on how you deal with kids.
During the spring/summer I keep the bay door open at the shop and I get a couple younger visitors (and subsequent returns) a week it seems. If you’re surly (not pointing fingers) or judgmental then you’re screwed. Along with being FAR more savvy than we could have ever been at their age, they also know they don’t have take crap from anyone. Too many ‘old timers’ have this stupid ass need to postulate and be overbearing (supporting a flagging ego perhaps), I’ve seen it over and over myself. You want to see interest in a kids eyes die…..be a jerk to them.
steve w says
Lets see. I build my own custom motorcycles, my own racing go karts and have built custom bows for over 20 years. Believe me you are not alone. I have been retired for 4 years now and can go for weeks and never have a single person ever show thier face. There is no interest in building much of anything. They often want to buy it for little or nothing or say “that doesn’t look to hard”, but you never see them try it on thier own. I am hardened to the facts so I just listen to Classic Rock and work away and don’t care anymore. Good for Mule and he isn’t alone!
Mule says
You just summed up my life now, except it’s Blues. Good job.
B*A*M*F says
I got my education in industrial design, and I work for a company that designs and builds custom items, mostly for the museum and architectural industries. There are a lot of people interested in doing the work we do, but there are very few formal pathways into this type of work anymore. The business world has attempted to separate work with one’s hands and work with one’s mind.
As a child in the 1980s, I was permitted to ride my bike around our small town. My friends and brothers and I would play for hours on end with minimal direct supervision. That was fine in a small town in Colorado where everything was walkable. The larger suburb we moved to was pretty inaccessible by anything other than a car.
Even then, I’m not sure our parents would have been ok with us hanging around with an adult of our own choosing, be it a motorcycle builder, or what not. In light of what we now know about child abuse, I have a feeling parents have really clamped down a lot of who their children interact with. That’s probably as large a reason why kids aren’t hanging around shops anymore.
James McBride says
I love Richard’s work. One day I’ll have one sitting in my garage. One day.
steve w says
That’s interesting. I didn’t know most parents had a clue what their kids do. I have so many projects I could use someone to just bring me lunch. Ha
Emmet says
Well, Mr. Pollock definitely sounds like a man who calls it as it is. I can recall a post to Bike Exif he unfashionably criticized. Not everyone can be a nice guy 🙂
I’m 22 and have a hard time translating my passion for classic motorcycles to friends/acquaintances. These are people who chase novelty and instant gratification on Facebook, MTV and their iPhones. They will never experience the skillset, patience and discipline required to restore a motorcycle. They don’t understand me as much as I don’t understand them.