David Zemla – Vice President of Marketing for S&S Cycle

Dale Spangler:

Welcome to Pit Pass Moto, a show that brings you deep dive interviews with the motorcycle industry insiders and racers that make the sport move.

I'm host Dale Spangler, and this week my guest is David Zemla, vice president of marketing for legendary aftermarket performance brand, S&S Cycle.

This episode is brought to you by MotoAmerica. See the fastest racing on two wheels. It's MotoAmerica Superbikes at Barber Park. May 19th through the 21st. See six classes of racing featuring 190 mile per hour superbikes.

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Let's get started.

We'd like to welcome to Pit Pass Moto, David Zemla. David, how are you today, and how has your year been so far, personally and with S&S Cycle?

David Zemla:

Oh wow. That's a lot of questions. I'm good. Year’s been really good. S&S has been excellent. Company is doing very, very well, doing a lot of fun stuff lately. Got into the off-road space, so that's been kind of exciting. So, yeah, year’s turned off good.

Dale Spangler:

Good. We talked before we came out a little bit, you had a pretty busy weekend. The Western Power Sports sales meeting was last week, and then you had Road Atlanta, King Of The Baggers, and the Dallas Half-Mile flat track. So, you guys were just all over the place.

David Zemla:

Yeah, we've got crews all over the country. Yeah. WPS thing, we launched our Off-Road Division to them. Spent some quality time with their crew. Obviously, you're pretty familiar with Western.

That's pretty cool kid stuff to have your own motocross track in your backyard. So, their compound was fun to visit and spend some time with their reps. So, that was very cool.

And Atlanta went pretty well for us. It would've been fun to come home with first, but our King Of The Baggers bike was pretty competitive against a very, very well-funded Harley corporate team. So, I'll take that.

Dale Spangler:

Yeah, I think what, Tyler won the sprint race though, didn't he? Tyler O'Hara.

David Zemla:

Yeah. The bike is really fast. We always kind of struggle with chassis, it's the inherent design of the bike because the engine is a stressed member of the chassis. So, Harley can get away with some stuff that we can't get away with.

So, we're making good power, like we're plenty fast. It's just managing it is always the challenge.

Dale Spangler:

Yeah. They even mentioned that on the MotoAmerica, the announcers, they talked that up when I was watching it over the weekend. They're like, “The differences between those two bikes is like it's pretty, pretty big differences.”

David Zemla:

It's pretty wild considering they're both V-twins. The Challenger is it's a very, very clever design with cast aluminum frame head and everything, and right up until you make a track bike out of it, and then it just fights you.

So, we're getting better. If you noticed, so Tyler did some wheelies on the bike and it's nice and stable now. If you kind of think back to last year's video of him doing the same wheelie and the rear end of the bike wiggled under him.

Dale Spangler:

Oh yeah, yeah.

David Zemla:

He's unfazed by it. Tyler's an amazingly sorted rider. I think if a rear end of a 600 pound motorcycle square danced under me while I was wheeling, I'd probably put it down. But he never did and still probably won't. So, but bike's nice and stable as far as that stuff goes now. So, that's really been an advantage for us.

Dale Spangler:

Yeah, I think that's an understatement with like his bike control is just next level because even how hard he like will charge into the corners on that big bike and just somehow get it stopped.

David Zemla:

It's wild, yes.

Dale Spangler:

It blows my mind away, for sure.

David Zemla:

The team holds their breath a lot when he's on the track.

Dale Spangler:

You're exhausted.

David Zemla:

So, Jeremy McWilliams, who's probably only a year or two away from being 60.

Dale Spangler:

Wow. I didn't realize he was that old.

David Zemla:

Oh yeah, oh yeah. He put it down into the air fence on Saturday, got right back up. The crew spent six hours building a bike from the ground up. Saturday night, so he could race on Sunday and he was still out there kicking ass. I mean, he's putting the herd on fair amount of people.

Dale Spangler:

Yeah, he's the legend for sure. Like I remember I spent some time over in Europe and I remember seeing him race over there 20 years ago and still-

David Zemla:

Oh yeah, right. Yeah. Dude's a test writer for KTM. Just like this is his job and then we fly him over here and he spanks some young guys and then goes back home.

Dale Spangler:

So, maybe for some listeners out there that might not know S&S Cycle legendary performance aftermarket company, tell a little bit more about what S&S is kind of known for.

David Zemla:

Well, S&S turned 65 this year, which is kind of a huge milestone. So, it started in 50s as a performance part company. Original owner was Drag Racing and was making some cool stuff to make his bike go faster.

Started selling the parts, eventually moved the whole program to Wisconsin thinking he was going to get away from the big crowds, which if you've been to where we are, he achieved that because we are in the middle of nowhere.

That's been our jam is building high performance V-twins and now, into metric stuff and UTV and making stuff go faster.

Dale Spangler:

Yeah. So, what stemmed the idea to go into the UTV segment? Because I mean, obviously, that's been one of the biggest growing segments. But it just seems like odd you're doing all this V-twin stuff and then UTV.

David Zemla:

Yeah. It's a crazy company in the background. Like the part you see where it's a lot of V-twin stuff is really kind of just the front end of it. The back end of it is all kinds of crazy stuff. Like we build all of the cams for Indians motorcycles.

So, we've got some hardcore UTV enthusiasts here. I mean, there are regularly rangers and Can-Ams parked in our parking lot, just guys driving to work.

So, there's the enthusiasm within the organization was kind of the basis of it. Then you look at the space and it's our jam’s making stuff go faster and we don't care about how many wheels.

Dale Spangler:

Well, I would imagine the acceptance has been immediate in that segment just because of the reputation of S&S. And so, I would imagine it was welcoming you with open arms into the segment.

David Zemla:

We were worried about that at first. We did a ton of research before we even stepped in. We were at a dealership in Arizona, we're talking, “Hey, how come this Can-Am with $20,000 worth of accessories bolted to it, has a stock exhaust?”

We're trying to get our heads around in the space and the dealer says, “Hey, do you need any bikes?” “Well, wow, that's a really weird question from a Can-Am dealer.” He says, “No, that's the number one traded in vehicle for these things is a Harley bagger.” We're all, “Huh, okay, well, that tells us that we share a lot of same customers.”

So, that was kind of encouraging and I guess maybe with age cam comes a cage. So, that was encouraging because we thought about doing a couple of different moves as far as how we entered the market and after a handful of the same conversations, it made sense to kind of bring it in as S&S.

Dale Spangler:

Makes sense. Now, so, you also, have like you kind of alluded to it already that you're making some OEM parts for Indian, but you also, have collaboration with Royal Enfield, I believe.

David Zemla:

Yeah.

Dale Spangler:

So, how so? Like what are you doing with those two brands? And besides, I know you support their racing efforts, but in addition to that.

David Zemla:

Yeah, the Royal Enfield thing has been a really, really neat experience. They have what they call a Slide School all over the world, largely in India, teaching people how to flat track. So, we designed the bikes and supply the parts for those and they build them now.

Years back, they said, “Hey, we've got a new vehicle coming, a twin cylinder 650 and we want to launch the thing with some sort of race bike to prove durability.” “Well, racing, that's our jam. Bring it on, send us a bike.” So, they said, “Yeah, we're going to send you a motor. We don't have a finished chassis yet.” “Okay.”

So, they sent us a motor and said, “Figure it out.” We actually hung the motor. We bought a used … I don't remember what it was. Hung the motor from it, so we could do some dyna work and develop parts. We've since done a big bore kit, and cam, and all kinds of parts for the 650 twin.

And the thing ends up being a really durable motor. Johnny Lewis is running it in flat track and is relatively competitive. So, the whole, “Hey, it's Indian made it can't possibly be good is kind of yesterday's news.” So, we work with them on a ton of projects.

For that initial launch, we did a salt flat bike, set a bunch of records with it. So, that was kind of fun. They bought Harris Performance, I don’t know if you remember who they are. So, they were a British chassis builder and they bought them and that has become their design headquarters in the UK.

So, they sent us this crazy fillet braze chassis and we went out, we sent a ton of records with it and I've got two of them in my garage right now. I mean, they're very fun sorted, really reliable bikes and they seem to tolerate throwing horsepower at them.

Dale Spangler:

Well, I seem to recall that little tidbit of historical information you just shared about the frame company. I was lucky enough to be one of the people invited to Royal Enfield's Scram 411 intro last September.

And of course, we stopped at your facility and gosh, just what an amazing part of the country. Like I had no clue. And we rode from Milwaukee over there, like I think it's called the Driftless region, which is a really cool historical region.

David Zemla:

Quick backstory, it's called Driftless because the glaciers that flattened Kansas and all those other states stopped before they got here. So, the glaciers stopped drifting.

So, we are all these crazy valleys, and streams, and rolling hills that you just don't even see in the Midwest. It looks more like Black Hills of Sturgis. So, it's gorgeous country. So, which is a fun twist considering we are in the middle of nowhere.

Dale Spangler:

Yeah. And I think I remember hearing this something about like you guys are like the biggest user of either it was power or natural gas.

David Zemla:

It was power, yeah. So, the nearest town is 600 people. We're not even actually even in that town. We are the largest consumer of power from the local power company. So much so that they come and visit us and every time we add a big machine, we talk to them, we let them know that, “Hey, we're adding something else that draws power.”

During the winter, we also, get propane delivered to us every single day.

Dale Spangler:

Wow.

David Zemla:

So, yeah, it's pretty wild. I mean, there's deer in the parking lot. We have a trout fishery right next to us. There's like super high end fly fishing. So, we have a track right up the road. So, it's about a block and a half, two blocks away.

So, that's where we do some development for the UTV stuff. And that's where we did a lot of development for the fly track stuff.

Right behind it is this ridiculous trout fisherman paradise. And I'm not a fly fisherman, but yeah, that's apparently super cool. And deer in the parking lot and we're in this tiny little valley, so it's pretty wild.

My first trip here I was interviewing and I thought I was lost because who would have a company this far away from civilization. And there's no cell service out here. So, “Oh, I'm screwed. I'm going to be late for my interview.” And sure enough, there you go. Come around the corner and there's this whole freaking company.

I think we're 220-ish people in this compound. And then we have another one in La Crosse just a little bit west.

Dale Spangler:

Well, I imagine it makes it a little challenging to kind of lure people there, but the ones that do kind of get it and understand that if they want to look for something like that, I mean, it's got to be just paradise living in there because you don't see a lot of cars, I mean.

David Zemla:

Yeah, yeah. It's not wife friendly has been our experience. So, we get a lot of guys just going, “Hey, this is a hunting, fishing, riding paradise.” And a lot of wives going, “You are 45 minutes from the nearest Starbucks.”

So, yeah, I've brought a bunch of people out here, interesting, largely from California. They're all still sticking around kind of enjoying the lifestyle and it's really inexpensive to live here and it's gorgeous. So, as long as you can kind of get your head around winter, that's the transition part.

Dale Spangler:

Yeah, I can imagine the winters probably are pretty brutal.

David Zemla:

Actually, I don't think they're brutal. They're definitely winter. But I took a fat biking when I first got here. We bought sleds and yeah, you do winter stuff, so it's not bad.

Dale Spangler:

Well, it's one heck of a place to ride a motorcycle. So, like we rode the Scram, it was just so perfect for that bike. Felt like we were in a race at some point because we was like, we were just drafting off each other.

Because those bikes were you can only run them so hard. And so, it's actually really fun because you're a little bit limited by the power. And so, to me, that was just almost like, “Man, they need to have a spec class for that.”

David Zemla:

Yeah, we actually right after that, I'm all, “I need one of those.” So, we have one here now, and we're building some parts for. Yeah, that was fun, little bike.

The roads here are, I mean, there isn't a straight road anywhere near here, so when it's really tight twisties. So, a small bike really excels. I don't know about as small as a 400, but a smaller bike is genuinely more fun on these tiny little twisties.

Dale Spangler:

Yeah, it was fun. I felt like I was in one of those like Red Bull rookies cups or something because we're all just like, “We can all only go so fast.”

David Zemla:

Like a whole mob of them rolling into here was kind of fun.

Dale Spangler:

Yeah. We were getting looks everywhere we went, that's for sure.

David Zemla:

Oh, I bet, I bet. Yeah.

Dale Spangler:

Well, I'm curious to know, how did you land your role with S&S? Because I think you've been with them since 2015.

David Zemla:

Yeah.

Dale Spangler:

And you're kind of an industry guy like myself been around for a long time. Like I'm 30 years in the industry now, and so.

David Zemla:

Yeah, I've a lot of parallel. I'm sure we ran into each other at Western.

Dale Spangler:

We had to have, yeah.

David Zemla:

Yeah, I'm sure of it. Yeah. I had a midlife crisis in the mid-90s. Quit doing what I was doing, spent a year building a Jeep. Kind of hung out, decided after that I needed to probably get a real job. And I got married.

And I saw an ad in the LA Times, because back then you looked at an ad in the LA Times for company in La Palma, which ended up being a performance machine.

And I'd had one Harley prior to that and I hated it. I was kind of more of a sport bike guy than a dirt bike guy. Joined them in like, probably mid-90s, 96-ish something. And hung around there for six or eight years, did a bunch of really fun stuff.

Kind of caught the beginning of the revival of Harley's. It was the boomers just hucking money and time and all the TV that supported it. And that was a really, really fun time.

Then got caught up in the MAG group, which in its origin was kind of, it was intended to be the best of the best of the motorcycle aftermarket. And it was a venture capitalist that was buying multiple companies.

And in the beginning it started pretty strong and that was kind of fun. It owned Vance & Hines and J&P.

And one day I got a call and they said, “Hey, I need your help.” And I was working for the corporate structure at the time, so Progressive Suspension, which did high end suspension and is still around, had lost their marketing team and said, “Hey, can you come fix this thing?”

So, spent a bunch of years there. At one point they gave me a whole brand. They said, “We're not sure what to do with it.” And that was a Burley brand. So, I think it had 300 grand in revenue when I got it and four something million when I left. So, across a couple years. So, that was really fun.

Got to be really involved in the product development end of it, which was really, really fun. It had no marketing budget. I had Facebook and some t-shirts. That was like my whole marketing budget for that. So, it was neat, kind of scrappy. It was neat creating something like that.

And then when MAG got kind of froggy there, I said, “I got to get out of here.” And I was living on the 91 freeway in California. I was doing minimum three hours a day on the freeway. So, I was losing my mind and I knew I had to do something different.

And got a call from S&S and flew out just to kind of check it out. And the culture difference between — I was in Corona in California, so it's kind of the motocross capital of probably everything.

Dale Spangler:

Culture shock, more like.

David Zemla:

Yeah, right. Into a town that was … well, my daughter's high school in California had more people in it than the town we lived in. And I got two, one kid in high school and one going into high school at the time. So, I did a year just kind of going back and forth trying to get my head around it.

And my family towards the end of that first year said, “You know what, let's give it a go.” And I give them a ton of credit. It was really brave move on their part to just go, “I'm doing it.” My daughter did her final year in high school, graduating class of like ‘68 and my son did his entire high school career here and it all worked out.

Lovely daughter went away to college and is a vet now. And my son started his own business. And the rural living kind of gives you a freedom that you just can't get in kind of highly populated Southern California.

The kids, we were able to turn them loose and kind of give them a sense of owning their own world. It made all the difference and it's worked out lovely.

Dale Spangler:

It sounds like a little bit of a blessing in disguise like from what you're saying.

David Zemla:

Yeah. There was some very, what we'll call challenging conversations with my wife in the beginning. Something about questioning my sanity, stuff like that.

And right now, if I had said, “Hey, I'm thinking about moving again.” She'd have me killed. She is settled in very nicely and it's very inexpensive to live here and really, really good people.

Dale Spangler:

We'll get back to the conversation in one moment, but first, here's a word from our sponsor.

Let's talk a little bit about marketing. You being the vice president of marketing there at S&S, what are your thoughts on the current state of, I like to call it we're in the roaring 20s again.

David Zemla:

We're in something. Yeah, we're definitely in something. I still have a couple of magazines that we leverage that do a pretty okay job and there's a weird authority to being in a magazine. Digital is kind of, everybody's there and you don't trust it. And there's a lot of banner blindness and stuff like that. Magazine has a weird significance now. So, we're actually in a couple of those still.

Obviously, we do a hell of a lot of social media. I have a team devoted specifically to it. We have a full-time video guy. It's definitely Wild West.

A little bit of ChatGPT stuff's going to start changing things. We're already experimenting with that tool. I don't know if I'm in love with it yet. We're having to do some stuff and asking it some questions and see if it'll come up with something valuable.

I think my favorite part is the data. I have six screens in front of me at any given moment, including live site data. So, I know how many people are on my website and what they're doing at any given moment. I have sales off of the site, I have a whole ton of analytics sitting in front of me at any given moment.

And for me, that is such a neat tool by comparison to the old publishing days or print days when you did an ad and then 90 days later, that ad published and you hoped it did okay. Couldn't pivot if it didn't.

Within 24 hours, if we do a post and it didn't work or wasn't effective, we can pivot. And that part of it I really enjoy.

Dale Spangler:

Well, we've all heard that term content is king, but like lately I'm thinking when does it become almost too much? Because I feel like it's gotten to the point now, where it's becoming harder and harder like with the attention spans for us to get our content in front of people and for them to even see it and pay any attention to it.

David Zemla:

Well, first off, it's pay to play. If you're not spending money on social media, then you are wasting your time on social media as a brand. So, it's absolutely pay to play, which is fine. I mean, there's nothing wrong with that.

But the content is king thing is still very much true. It's just up to your game. The days of just posting a picture with seven words below it are dead. Your content has to be much more compelling than that.

Your content needs to be moving, your content needs to have music. We're planning stuff months and months ahead and really thinking about what we're doing.

And at the end of the day, social media is social. Like this is a conversation with your customer and if I came up to you and every single day I said, “Buy an air cleaner.” And the next day I said, “Buy an air cleaner.” You'd stop talking to me. So, and I think social media is pretty much that just in digital form.

Dale Spangler:

Definitely. Well, you guys have your own podcast. I think Performance Times Podcast.

David Zemla:

We do, yeah. Not as cool as yours.

Dale Spangler:

I feel like it's just another extension of kind of what we were talking about. It's just another way to reach a different audience and-

David Zemla:

Yeah, it's a touch point. During COVID, all the events got shut down. We're big events guys. I've got a semi and a whole crew and so, we were really big events guys and it felt like we were kind of losing touch with our customer and that's no fun.

So, we were doing Zoom trainings and all the stuff everyone else was kind of doing during COVID. And podcasts seemed to be like the next obvious move. So, we scripted it and we did a couple and it got really, really positive reviews.

Well, I think it would've been better for us if we got negative reviews, because then we could have crossed that one off the list because you know the deal, podcasts are hard.

Dale Spangler:

It's a lot of work. Yeah.

David Zemla:

There's a ton of work, there's a ton of planning, and scripting, and editing, and everything. It is a fair amount of work. So, it ended up being this other channel that we're now, if we're late, like people send us hate mail.

Dale Spangler:

That's funny. Yeah. Somebody asked me that recently. I had a female mountain bike racer that I'm friends with and she asked like, “I want to start a podcast.” So, she was asking me questions and I said, “One of the biggest things I've found is like that repetition. People start to look forward to.” And like you said, they're kind of disappointed if it's not there.

David Zemla:

Yeah. Like you're getting attitude because you're a week late with your podcast.

It's really funny because we do a Q&A session, we end every podcast. So, we get a roughly a thousand tech emails and calls every month.

So, we grab a handful of them and answer them on the podcast. Figure, it's the same question across who knows how many people. So, we now, get people who will DM us on Facebook with a question hoping it's going to be on the podcast.

Dale Spangler:

Yeah. You got that evergreen content that's out there now. So, hopefully, like that will come up in search potentially if someone asks that question.

David Zemla:

You know the drill, podcast has really shit analytics. Our host gives us downloads and I don't necessarily know where they are. So, I'm hoping podcast analytics get better than what they are right now.

Dale Spangler:

Yeah. They're pretty loose if you want to call it that because I feel like it's-

David Zemla:

Right. I don't trust any of it. Yeah, I don't trust any of it. So, we've got enough data to say, “Hey, there's a fair amount of people are listening, so we'll take that.” As a brand, you're always looking for a fresh way to talk your customer.

And there's something about podcasts that humanizes it. You get the sense these are just other people who just dig motorcycles as much as you do. So, it has this kind of human quality to it, which we have found it was very well embraced.

Dale Spangler:

Yeah, I agree. Like it definitely showcases more of the personality and human aspect of the brand.

David Zemla:

Yeah. Which is kind of neat. I don't want to be the personality of a brand, but it's been really cool. My marketing director does it with me and we'll get questions directed to one of us.

“Hey, Dave, I'm putting this part on my bike and …” Like y'all, “Oh, I'm not the expert, man. I'm just the guy on the podcast.” But it's been very fun, so we'll take it.

Dale Spangler:

Well, I'm sure they appreciate that honesty too, because there's nothing worse than … like to me, like the fake it till you make it doesn't work in my mind because I'm like, “I'd rather have somebody tell me they don't know than to make something up.”

David Zemla:

Oh, totally. Yeah, yeah, right. Actually, so, we play Stump the S&S Guy at events and everything else. So, we just did a dealer training for our off-road division. So, we did a call, probably had half a dozen different dealers on the call and we're going through the Turbo Kit we just recently launched. A bunch of other hard parts for UTV stuff.

And I said, “Hey, here's the deal. Stump the S&S guy, I will send you a $700 exhaust if you can stump me as a way of saying thank you for making me better at what I do.”

Dale Spangler:

Very cool.

David Zemla:

It's very fun. It was very fun. Like you'll get guys going, “Okay, dude, what's the torques back on?” You're all, “Oh, come on.” I love that game. And we just did it again when we were training at WPS. We were handing out t-shirts, anybody who could ask us a hard question.

And I love it. Stump me, man. Make me better. Make me research something so I'm better at this next time I do it.

Dale Spangler:

That's fun. Yeah. It kind of reminds me of the Westco guys doing those top end rebuild contests. I mean, that's just all really kind of fun stuff.

David Zemla:

Yeah, that's brutal. Yep. So, no, it's good stuff, like I said. We're a very digitally oriented marketing team and I think we leverage it probably about as well as you can, but it is very fun.

Dale Spangler:

Well, something else I noticed that you guys are a part of which I always like to kind of highlight when brands give back to the sport, and that's the Strider All Kids Bike program that you've been a part of.

And I think I saw where you also, had the opportunity to go launch a reading program in a kindergarten. That's sounded pretty cool too. I mean, you're doing some really neat stuff.

David Zemla:

Yeah, right? Oh, you're paying attention. So, we're in the middle of nowhere and there's these relatively small schools so they don't get a ton of funding. They're scraping to make stuff happen. Every one of the schools around us are really well sorted, but they're really, really small.

We'd talked to the Strider guys in Sturgis one year, said, “We got to figure out how to do that.”

My wife works in the school district. She had mentioned that we were talking about it and suddenly I get a phone call from a kindergarten teacher who says, “Hey, let's figure this out.”

So, we work with the Strider Foundation, which is All Kids Ride. So, that's their charity arm. And essentially, what the company does is a donation to that. And then they do the bikes, and the helmets, and the pedal kits, and a whole program for the teacher, which is kind of neat.

We did that last year and it went over really huge. Like we had parents stop us on the street and say thank you, and it was really fun. And just a look in the little faces as they take off is kind of rad.

So, we just did it again for another local school, and this teacher was super sorted. Had the curriculum dialed, had already reached out to all kids herself, like she had it dialed.

So, frankly, we just added a couple of the pedal kits and the way they ship, there's accessory pedal kit. So, you get the kids used to balancing and then you add the pedal kit and then they ride away. And so, we just added those as well. And it's super gratifying.

So, the reading program was a third school that they do a book giveaway every year. So, they give every kid a book in the whole school, not just kindergarten, and they give them a book. And this year, it was the mouse and the motorcycle.

Dale Spangler:

Perfect.

David Zemla:

Right. So, they reached out and they're all, “Hey, would you be interested in helping us launch this?” They do a big assembly and the principals there and everything. And the principals, “Yeah. Here's the deal. I'm going to wear a mouse costume and ride one of the electric bikes through the auditorium.” “Well, you know what, that's batshit crazy. We're in.”

So, we brought in one of the electric Indians. We put a motorcycle in their library. We showed up with photographers. It was really fun. It was really, really fun.

Dale Spangler:

Yeah. Such a grad … like I was lucky enough, I was at Tucker, spent a three years with them after Western. And I tell you, being a part of one of those Strider presentations is just super gratifying. All the smiles on the faces and just, yeah, it’s-

David Zemla:

It was weirdly good, yeah. And my kids are long gone now. I'm empty nester. So, it's been a minute since I put a helmet on some little face.

We had such a good time that my entire crew volunteered to come back and do the second one. Soon as they heard about it, they're all, “Well, we're in.” I'm all, “Oh, okay.”

Dale Spangler:

Nice.

David Zemla:

So, yeah, it was very cool. And the local news picks it up and that's kind of fun. And so, it's good stuff. So, I think we're already planning next year's, and I think as a company we've always been really, really big about supporting our community.

Like we have our own Cars and Coffee this summer. It's Cars/Bikes and Coffee I guess. But we've gone out of our way to kind of support the community and that's I don't know, kind of part of rural life, you're pretty tight with everyone around you. And it's pretty gratifying.

Dale Spangler:

Well, one final question. What's on the agenda for you and S&S going forward for the rest of the year? You got so many big events coming up?

David Zemla:

For me, I sit at a desk all day long, so, I got on my way to kind of try and stay connected to the space. So, I build bikes whenever I can. I use the parts that I sell. And I don't know how many guys at my level are even doing that or touching actual motorcycle parts. But I go out of my way to do that.

So, this year we did a contest. One of my media guy comes in, he says, “Here's my plan.” And this was kind of like early in the winter. He says, “We're going to do a sports tour throwdown, and all of us are going to build bikes and then we're going to let the internet judge them.”

It was really fun, it was really goofy fun. So, and I did not win, so I was really bummed by that. But it was really, really fun.

So, I'm finishing up that bike. And then I've got a couple other projects. Actually, I'm building a Royal Enfield right around the corner.

Dale Spangler:

Sweet.

David Zemla:

So, that was kind of fun.

And then for the company, we got a bunch more off-road stuff. We got a couple of more Royal Enfield things. We have some neat exhaust coming.

We're kind of the only guys in the space that we're focused on emissions compliance, especially the Harley space. Up until very recently didn't give a crap. And they were convinced that if you had a catalyst in your motorcycle, it was going to give you cooties.

So, the M8 kind of changed that. So, that's the latest iteration of Harley's engine families. It actually kind of likes the back pressure. So, if you open up bike fully, it kills bottom end. So, we've really gotten good at making power with emissions compliance tied to it.

Automotive industry has that dialed. You can buy 800 horsepower car right from the factory. Motorcycle industry's way, way behind. So, that's kind of become our jam. We actually have a in-house emissions lab. We're kind of the only guys in the space that are even thinking at that level.

And up until recently, we were probably too far ahead of the market. And now, that that's become a thing, I have to imagine by next year, most of the exhaust companies have some level of emissions compliance.

EPA currently are coming down like nobody's business. So, you're either part of the solution or you're not. So, we've got a bunch of really cool exhaust coming up.

We've got some more UTV stuff coming, so that's kind of cool. We launched a 132-inch big bore kit for the new M8s. So, this is like 130, 140 horsepower bolt in kit. So, we've got another iteration of that coming, which is you can take an M8 and nearly double its horsepower, which is pretty nutty. And they're-

Dale Spangler:

Arm stretcher.

David Zemla:

… they're so fun. Oh my God, they're so fun. And it's a much better chassis than the Twin Cam chassis. So, it'll tolerate having some power and that is a good time.

Dale Spangler:

Well, David, really appreciate you coming on today, and sharing some of your story. And yeah, just appreciate it. And any last words before we close out this episode?

David Zemla:

Hey, thank you for having me, man. I really appreciate it. We're fans of your work and we've kind of followed you along through your history there. So, thank you for bringing me on, for kind of letting me share a little bit about this crazy brand and hopefully, we see each other on the road.

Dale Spangler:

Absolutely. Well, again, appreciate your time and thanks so much.

[Music Playing]

Dale Spangler:

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This has been a production of Evergreen Podcasts. A special thank you to Tommy Boy Halverson and the production team at Wessler Media.

I'm Dale Spangler. I hope you'll join us next week for another episode of Pit Pass Moto. Thanks for listening.