Today we’d like to introduce you to Ryan McGuire.
Ryan, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I started working on Harley’s when I was twelve. I performed maintenance on my dad’s bike and would do repairs like clutch work, primary work, and cam work. As I got older, I started doing work on my dad’s friends bikes as well as my own; once I was old enough to ride. I went into the corporate world out of high school and tried seeking success through that venue. While I was working in the corporate world as a full time job, I worked at a local motorcycle shop on weekends and evenings to help out the owner in exchange for him teaching me as much as he could. That shop owner eventually became my father-in-law after I met, fell in love with, and married his daughter. In 2013 I had grown tired of corporate life after having some success and having to start all over again. I had grown disinterested in the direction things were going there so I decided to take a chance and opened my own shop. At the time, I had a great advantage because my father-in-law chose to work with me for several years. That provided customers, knowledge, and all kinds of equipment I would not have otherwise had on start up. He and I made a few different moves, (which is a story in itself), before my wife and I purchased the place I am currently operating out of. Since moving here, we have grown our family with our three children, 6, 9, and 11; I have experienced a fire (which I had to rebuild from with no insurance), and my father-in-law decided to no longer work here, (so I have to replace all of the machines, equipment, and tools from that departure.) I have replaced numerous to where I am still operating, but have a lot more to attain before I am back at full operating capacity. That is where I am at now. In the last two years I experienced a fire losing a lot from that, and then my father-in-law leaving for a different shop, losing everything else after that. I had to start over again from scratch, but with a customer base. So I am now by myself and working as much as I can in order to obtain machines to get back to where I was at three years ago. However I still have my family, and my customers are good and loyal, and I have business that allows me to continue and rebuild. So I am not complaining by any means. This is just my story.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Not a smooth road. I have had numerous struggles in my life that I don’t need to go all into here. The struggles with the business were we made three moves between 2013 and 2015, that was rough. We had an accidental electrical fire in 23. I did not have insurance at that time and we lost almost our entire parts inventory, numerous motorcycles, numerous machines, and had interior construction damage. We were very blessed there was no critical structural damage. We had to reach out to lawyers to handle everything involved in that. We were also blessed that a friend put up a go fund me page for us and our friends, customers, and family came through and donated enough to where we could pay the lawyers, and at least stay in business. Then last year my father-in-law decided to no longer work here and he now works at a shop closer to his house. I completely understand, however he had almost all of the machines and specialty tools and the dyno. So I had to immediately start replacing stuff in order to stay in business that time. Then I replaced the dyno over the winter through even more loans. So I was able to start the spring season doing most of the work I was doing before. I am not able to do all of the machine work I used to do because I simply don’t have enough money to afford all the machines I need. We have of course had family struggles as well like all families do, however with each other and our faith our family has been able to get through all of these hard times both in personal and professional lives.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about RPM Motorcycles?
RPM Motorcycles is a motorcycles repair shop, custom shop, speed shop, machine shop, and dyno tuning center. I know very little about metrics (but can tune them with correct hardware), but thanks to over thirty years doing this, I am very happy with my knowledge of Harley-Davidson motorcycles. I do everything from oil changes and tire changes, to full engine rebuilds, full custom engine builds, dyno tuning, head work, some machine work, and every now and then I get to have fun with a custom bike build; though there is no money in that if you’re not famous. I love doing the engine builds and I love tuning. Those are my two favorite things I get paid for. However my true passion lies in custom bike building and doing tricky or custom stuff. But again, unless you are already famous, there is no money in that kind of work anymore. I have fuel injected old carbureted motorcycles just to show it can be done. I have installed full electronic cruise control on motorcycles that it was never offered on before. I have built modified trikes for people with disabilities. I have restored classic motorcycles. I have installed keyless ignitions and fob security systems on bikes that have never been offered with that before. So I am sure there are some things I have not done, but I always say there is nothing I can’t do with a Harley.
So, before we go, how can our readers or others connect or collaborate with you? How can they support you?
Call me, email me, text me. I work with numerous local businesses to for work I can’t do. A local shop in Stacy does all my aluminum welding. A wonderful business also in Stacy takes care of all of my embroidery. I have been looking for body and paint places that work on motorcycles. Those are very hard to find. As far as collaboration or support, support is spread the word and bring me work. LOL I’m not sure on collaboration to be honest, I am a one man shop, I do it all, all the repair, all the work, all the invoicing, all the writing, all the ordering, all the everything that needs to be done, so I don’t unfortunately have a lot of time to collaborate these days. Working too much. I’d love to be able to collaborate with others on a bike build or something like that, but I can’t afford it. I’d love to be able to get local high school kids in here and teach them about these bikes and this kind of work, pass on the knowledge and bring up the next generation, but again, I can’t afford that, and I don’t know how many years people will really be doing this kind of work on Harleys. Everything is changing. So this seems to be a dying business venture. More and more people these days are just taking there motorcycle back to the dealership and the smaller shops are shutting down. Sorry, I’m rambling.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.rpmmotorcyclesmn.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/RPMMotorcyclesMN
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rpmmotorcyclesmn
