This series highlights some well known (and some not so well known) riders that inspire others with their travels, tales, attitude, photography, humility, bikes, and general ups and downs of life on the road.
Have you ever contemplated making a living in the motorcycle world?
Alan and Ed Stiley, father and son—one considering retirement, the other contemplating his future—founded Moto Machines in 2011. In this candid conversation, we look at what it took for one small company to make it in the world of international motorcycle products. And we do mean “international.” Instead of narrowly focusing on one manufacturer, or a specific niche in the moto-space, Moto Machines represents over 700 motorcycle models with free shipping over $149, customer support Monday–Friday 9–5 pm, and a price match guarantee. They even provide technical support for product installations. Sounds like a big company with a huge team doesn’t it? They had to start somewhere.
We asked Ed and Alan a few questions about how Moto Machines came about. Here’s their story.
Photo: Moto Machines, Ed and Alan Stiley
ADV: Do you have any previous entrepreneur experience? Lemonade stand, maybe?
Alan: I started a company in the UK with my brother repairing brake boosters for 18-wheelers. I continued to follow my engineering career path and landed a job in the aviation industry—eventually leading me to a job in the US.
Ed: I grew up in a motivated family where I picked up typical kid jobs—paper routes, snow shoveling, and grass mowing. I grew into buying and selling motorcycle-related items on Craigslist and eventually flipping neglected bikes.
I got a business degree from Radford University and decided to turn flipping bikes into something more.
ADV: Tell us more about your bike flipping.
Ed: It was BMW motorcycles from 1950 to the 1990s. They were fun to ride, relatively easy to work on, and didn’t require much effort to resurrect the neglected ones. I passed my motorcycle test with my self-refurbished 1974 BMW R90/6.
Steps to Flipping Bikes Find a non-running bike for sale on Craigslist and see it in person. If there are too many cobwebs on the bike, it’s a pass. Assess the damage and what’s needed to bring it back to life. Usually, it’s just lousy fuel left in the carbs. Rebuild the carbs with a lot of help from Alan. Attend to spark plugs, oil, and the air filter.
Most bike flips resulted in a small profit, but we hadn’t considered the labor time.
ADV: Moto Machines started after a trip to Dealer Expo. Why did you even visit there?
Alan: I had just left a career in aviation and was interested in starting my own automotive business. So naturally, Ed and I planned a trip to Dealer Expo in Indianapolis for inspiration.
Dealer Expo was THE show for all things motorcycle related. My goal was to meet with potential suppliers that wanted to sell their goods in the US. I thought the auto business was too large to break into in the US, but maybe the motorcycle industry would be a safer bet with less competition. I was also passionate about riding my Yamaha FJ1200 and working with motorcycles in general. Ed inherited the same passion as he grew up with that bike.
Many other business owners at the show cautioned about the recent recession and told us to stay away. But we didn’t listen.
The Dealer Expo slowly died out after the 2008 recession.
ADV: Why didn’t you listen? What possessed you to go ahead with this?
Alan: I think it was because we spent the money to go there and didn’t want to come back empty-handed. Instead, we landed a great opportunity with some choice suppliers and hit the ground running.
ADV: How did you “land” the opportunity?
Ed: For Alan, his engineering background stood out here. He was able to have factual conversations about the processes involved when developing products. He was able to pick out a prototype product versus one that was in the manufacturing line. It was also a bit of luck that suppliers were looking for US companies to sell their products.
As any small business owner will tell you, the first year was full of mistakes and a steep learning curve. Mistakes Along The Way
ADV: What are a few examples of the mistakes you made?
Alan: To get started, we placed an order for items we thought would sell to consumers in the US. It turned out that not everybody with a Suzuki Hayabusa wanted to put hard luggage on their motorcycles. We now know that most Hayabusa customers want to go fast, not long distances.
We might have some items from that first order still on the shelf today. While trying to sell products without a fully completed website, customers would quickly discredit us and sometimes even hang up the phone on us. But we didn’t give up. As Moto Machines, we attended every show within a two-day drive and continued building and refining our operations.
ADV: Was this like a dream come true to go to all these shows? What did you do at the shows? Demos? Sales? Contests?
Alan: The excitement of being on the other side, selling motorcycle products instead of buying them, was surreal. Ed’s thought at the time was that selling these motorcycle products could pay for the ones he was buying. I had a broader view and thought we could make a new career for both of us.
The first show we attended was informal in contrast to our formal thought processes. We quickly learned that motorcycle shows were more relaxed than any aviation-related industry trade show and that button-ups were not required.
Ed: Going to the shows was a considerable time and cost commitment. We needed Alan to stay back and answer the phones while I hired my college friends to help out for the weekend.
We would bring a fully kitted-out motorcycle and product display stands. The first bike we brought on the tour was a 2011 KLR 650, and next, a Yamaha Super Ténéré 1200 (see video below). We did make a few sales but never enough to cover the cost of attending the shows. It was more about getting the word out about Moto Machines and our products. If we didn’t enjoy attending the shows, we wouldn’t have gone.
ADV: Did you start with your own storefront?
Alan: Moto Machines started in 2011, renting space from another company in their 1,800-square-foot warehouse. Things were sometimes tight and frustrating, especially with two businesses in the same location with a shared front door.
ADV: You must have a story about how tight and frustrating it could be.
Alan: We had a small warehouse space to start, and when parts didn’t fit into that small warehouse, we rented storage units to accommodate. Having those storage spaces was helpful to save on costs but added to the time we spent on breaking down shipments and packing orders as we would have to go back and forth across the street putting away items and pulling items for orders.
Even building the shelves to house the items took a fair amount of effort. It was a colossal waste of time. It was time we could have better spent on helping customers. Brick-and-mortar meets web upgrade
ADV: Do you have your own space now?
In 2012 we decided to bite the bullet and move to a 3,500-square-foot warehouse as the stock control of three different locations was overwhelming. Although it made sense financially, we had to consolidate our inventory to allocate more time to operations. The same year we had our first major website redesign, focusing on being as simple as possible.
ADV: Website redesigns can be a nightmare! Was that smooth for you?
Ed: The website was a nightmare and took years to complete instead of months. And as our inventory grew, so did the need for an even more modern website. The build started in 2017 and launched in 2018. We hope this new website provides an even simpler process to find the products you want and need. The team continues to develop and improve it to provide the best shopping experience possible. The website is now operating smoothly, but getting here was a complicated process.
ADV: What do your customers say about you? Any good testimonials? Any horror stories of unhappy customers?
Alan: This may sound like an adage, but we treat others the same way we want to be treated. Our focus is on customer service. Anybody can sell you an item, but not everyone will know when to have a friendly conversation and when just to make the sale. We know that it’s impossible to make everyone happy, but that doesn’t stop us from trying, within reason.
We’ve had several both happy and unhappy customers over the years. We try to focus on the happy customers because riding motorcycles, and buying parts for those motorcycles, should be a fun thing to do. It should be a positive experience where your new product is something you look forward to installing on your bike.
We know every rider wants something different. We aim to provide the best and broadest selection of products to help you build that ultimate bike.
ADV: Quality, quantity and variety is a hard blend to maintain. Is that working for you? Do you take orders for rare items?
We would love to keep everything we sell in stock, but that is impossible if we want to stay in business. We focus on keeping all popular items in stock and ready to ship the same day. For rare bike items, we do our best to make them happen. We still make rare products available to our customers; it just takes special orders a little longer. We are fortunate to work with great suppliers who understand this and have a short manufacturing time—on average, only a few weeks.
COVID has changed things for us, primarily with costs and lead times. To counter this, we work with our suppliers to keep more in stock than usual, which in turn helps the supplier with manufacturing forecasts. Photo: Moto Machines The fun side of Moto Machines
ADV: Ed and Alan, do you still ride? What are your dream bikes and dream bike trips?
Ed: I currently ride a Triumph Bonneville T120 and Tiger 900 Rally Pro. There are too many bikes out there to have just one dream bike. I’ve done a few cross-country trips and different rides here and there, but I want to visit all the national parks and 52 states. At one point, I took the bike flipping a little too seriously and convinced Alan to sell his Yamaha FJ1200 after a hip surgery. Alan is now what you call a full-blown British car enthusiast with a Triumph TR6 and an original Series 1 Land Rover Defender.
ADV: If money wasn’t an issue, what would you do with this company?
Ed: The only logical thing we can think of is buying a large warehouse and giving everybody a Honda Monkey to ride around on to pick parts and fill orders.
ADV: Yes! Sign me up!
ADV: What do you love most about this industry?
The people. Some people are just wild. Real people out there will buy a Honda Monkey and take it across the country.
ADV: Who has been your most significant support?
Ed: As we own the business together, it has been each other that we have supported and relied on. As the company grew, we have been fortunate to surround ourselves with colleagues who share the same expectation levels and passion for the industry. It’s great to know that we are all upset when the wrong item gets shipped out, and on the other hand, happy to know an item made it on time for a customer’s trip.
As much as this story is about Alan and Ed, we would not be here today without the people around us.