The duo returns for the 10th episode! For this milestone, they bring on one of their absolute favorite painters, Tony Baumann. They talk wheelies and humble beginnings, how and why paint is a difficult art, and why tape and exacto blades are simply underrated tools in a shop. Do not miss this one! Thanks so much to Tony for chatting.
You can find tony here: www.maderadbytony.com
And here: www.instagram.com/tonybaumann/
Dan: 00:00 Hello everybody and welcome to our 10th episode of the fiber side chats hosted by Ruckus Composites where your hosts Shawn Small. I’m Dan Stanley.
Tony: 00:10 Was I supposed to say something?
Dan: 00:13 That was perfect. What else? What else? Me and I’m Tony Rossi and today we’re going to be talking about made read by Tony, what it takes to do an amazing paint job and what it takes to actually get made rat.
Dan: 00:39 Yeah, we’ll just get into it right away then. Uh, starting off, how did you, how did you get into bikes in the first place? Have you, is it kind of been a lifelong paion for you?
Tony: 00:48 Um, yeah, it has been. I would say, uh, the biggest thing was wheelies, wheelies got me into riding bikes. Yeah. I, um, I, it’s kind of a long story, but, um, when I was a kid I climbed up in this tree house and from across the way I could see this, this girl and her dog riding her bike. And uh, to my amazement she pulled up on the front wheel a little bit and wrote a wheelie and I was pumped. So I immediately climbed down the tree house, ran over to the road and tried to link up with her and as she got closer, you guys have heard the term far from good. Good from far. So as she got closer, I started realizing, man, this, this girl is not that cute. And then she got even closer and it was a dude. So it was a guy about my age, 14 years old, long scraggly red hair, writing the very first full suspension mountain bike I’d ever seen. And he could ride a wheelie. So I was blown away and immediately had to get into it.
Dan: 01:54 Oh, that is absolutely hilarious. You just up, what did you were climbing the tree? Did you bring your binoculars with you too? Or. Well, I always grew up on a. So I grew up in North Carolina and uh, my mom had always had horses, so we were
Tony: 02:07 a new horse farm that she had just moved her horses to. Um, so I was kind of just being a, you know, a 10 year old kid exploring around climbing trees or whatever. And uh, yeah, I climbed up this kid’s treehouse, it was actually his tree house and was just sitting there and saw the wheelie that change my life.
Dan: 02:30 It was really meant to be, you could say
Tony: 02:33 yeah,
Dan: 02:36 where you were. Have you always been interested in art then as well? You know, to a part in another pun. But, uh, did these two passions develop in tandem?
Tony: 02:48 I’ve always kind of been surrounded by art. My Dad was a sign painter way back in the day and he’s still a mega talented, just fine artists. So I always kind of saw him doing stuff and they always kind of supplied me with paints and brushes and pens and pencils, whatever I wanted. So as a kid I just kinda picked it up and never really put it down. You do everything in one shot then, um, did he do everything in one shot?
Dan: 03:24 what kind of stuff did your dad do? Was he paying for stuff around town, you know, local barbershop kind of stuff.
Tony: 03:31 Um, so that was kind of before my day was when he was like really into it. Um, but yeah, he did all kinds of stuff. He was like a surfer bomb back in the fifties and sixties. It was a sign painter kind of on the side that help support his habit. Um, so yeah, and then I guess he met my mom and she kind of made him get a real job in the signs after that.
Shawn: 03:55 That’s awesome.
Dan: 03:57 Yeah, that’s a cool, that’s a cool story. Did you practice, you get to practice with him? Did He, have you, you know, were you guys like out in the garage working on stuff together? Did you kind of pick up a little bit of your techniques?
Tony: 04:07 Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I still, I still call him occasionally and ask them for some tips or, or whatever. So He’s, he’s been a good resource. Has Amazing. Yeah. That’s awesome. And you said he’s a currently a fine artist. Is he still painting? Yeah, he does. He, uh, he kind of stopped for a little while and then he picked it back up and he does a lot of, uh, commissions for like people’s cars or boats or you know, he does like a lot of military scene, so old fighter planes and stuff and he’s super talented.
Dan: 04:38 How do you draw any of your inspiration from that sign painter aesthetic? You know, where you got your, your love of pin striping and you know, we saw that recent bike you did with all the flames. Are you pulling from that a little bit?
Tony: 04:51 Oh yeah. Yeah. I kind of pull stuff from, from everywhere. I’m definitely the old school, you know, do it by hand. Style is kind of a, what has resonated with me throughout my life. So I really like to just kind of get in and experiment and do it. So yeah, pull it in from everywhere. Did you, what did you, did you study art in college as well? Yeah, I went to school for graphic design and entrepreneurship. I want it to be a painter, but my parents kind of pushed me away from a fine arts degree.
Dan: 05:30 They uh, told you to get a real job. Huh?
Shawn: 05:32 That’s it. I think all three of us there. And you’re like, I got it. I’ll make my own.
Tony: 05:39 Yeah.
Dan: 05:41 That’s cool. What, um, what kind of stuff did you work on in college? Were you, were you doing graphic design for companies artistically? Uh, tell me a little bit about that.
Tony: 05:52 Cause I was so focused on not sitting in front of a computer and trying do everything I could by hand, which at the time my teachers were stoked that there was somebody like me that was kind of trying to do things a little bit differently. Um, but it also ended up kind of biting me a little bit because I’m not as efficient as I probably should be with some of the programs. Um, so yeah, and I would just Kinda Kinda work on my own stuff. I really wanted to just be a painter, a on canvases really. I didn’t really set out to paint bike frames. Um, but it just kind of kind of how it happened.
Dan: 06:28 What did you start painting then? Were you paint? I mean, w everybody’s, you know, seeing the awesome helmets and accessories that you pain. Is that Kinda how you got your start painting other stuff and just kind of transitioned into doing bike frames?
Tony: 06:42 Yeah, pretty much. Um, as I was, when I was a kid I wasn’t really able to have the best bikes, but there was always the possibility to have the best looking bikes. So I, uh, Kinda always painted my own, my own bikes and helmets or whatever I can get my hands on. And then kind of in high school and college I started getting into the not so legal act of graffiti and a lot of my focus went, went to that, um, which probably wasn’t the best thing at time, but my, my parents was still supportive but really wanted to kind of direct my focus and then they bought me and hairbrush. Oh cool. Oh cool. Was that, that was the transitional moment then, Huh? Was it? Yeah, that was definitely one of them. You left? Uh, the rattling cans in the past. Still bring them out occasionally, but usually for some legal stuff.
Dan: 07:39 Now you’re commissioned to paint on walls. Huh? That’s it. That’s great. A little bit of a compare and contrast question. What, what’s been the most difficult part of your process? Kinda then and now?
Tony: 07:54 Um, let’s start now. So the difficult, most difficult thing that I go through is probably just estimating how long a project is going to take and then keeping myself from going above and beyond kind of what the budget is always a struggle that I come across. Um, then it was probably trying to find stuff that people would let me paint. I ran out of stuff, so I was looking for other stuff and now it’s coming and it’s fine. But
Dan: 08:29 how long you said keeping in kind of the time and budget estimate, how long does it take you? I mean, I’m sure every, every bike is a case by case basis. Right. But you will kind of have an average turnaround time for the bikes that you do, or does it depend on, you know, if it’s just the front triangle, does it depend on the complexity of the scheme? Yeah. How long is a, how long is a made rapid turnaround time is dependent on the project,
Tony: 08:56 like you said. Um, it can be anywhere from 20 hours of work to above eighty hours of work, you know, depending on kind of how intricate, uh, they want it to be. I would probably say average is probably around 40 hours is kind of an average amount of time I spend on a frame
Dan: 09:16 what, what really starts to tick up the time.
Tony: 09:19 Sandy, as you guys would know. Yeah, I would say sanding takes up like eighty percent of my time.
Dan: 09:28 And it’s like the thing that makes the biggest difference as far as smooth and goes and like so hard.
Tony: 09:35 Yeah. Even the prep prep stage is, is extremely important in, you know, trying to make sure that everything is evenly sanded and everything else definitely is quite time consuming.
Dan: 09:49 How are you doing your sanding? Did you build yourself a little wet sanding station up there?
Tony: 09:54 I’m not quite yet. I, uh, I’m really doing just a squirt bottle and a good old fashion, you know, sanding block.
Dan: 10:02 Yeah, I mean that, that’s pretty much what we do. We built them fancy stations, but yeah, if you ever come down to Portland, we’ll show you our cadillac of wet sanding stations.
Tony: 10:14 Uh, the videos you guys posted.
Dan: 10:17 We said I’ll, uh, you know, to it’s in between every step. It’s obviously super important since we’re talking about a shop layout, what is, what is your, I mean we’ve seen a couple of pictures but walk us through what your shop layouts like.
Tony: 10:33 So my girlfriend and I recently bought a house up here in Bellingham and uh, we have a two and a half car garage that’s attached. Um, so that’s basically where it all happens. Um, we kind of have an office set up down here in the basement, which has been nice to kind of have a little separation between the two. Um, but, so in my garage I have a spray booth that is probably maybe 10 by 10 and then a separate curing room that’s maybe 10 by five. Um, so it’s, it’s just big enough that, that I can handle everything. If I grow too much more, I’ll definitely kind of run into some space issues. Um, but then the rest of the garage is taken up with the everyday kind of garage type stuff. Um, I’ve got a nice big work bench. I have lots of cabinets full of stuff and a recent purchase of a 1970 Karmann Ghia fills up
Dan: 11:32 the rest of this was going to say there’s gotta be some various to wield projects laying around.
Tony: 11:37 Yeah, I’ve got plenty of those.
Dan: 11:40 A good northwest garage isn’t complete without it. That’s awesome. What is your, uh, what’s your paint system? We, everything that we do down here is water based, um, understanding. You probably don’t want to give too much away, but how were you actually painting most of the stuff that you do? Because it’s so like the details that you do, you know, we’re looking at something like the oxiclean bike is hilariously amazing. And then another recent one that really kinda light powdery Blue Hula bike is drop-dead gorgeous. So what’s your, what’s your system like and how are you achieving these looks?
Tony: 12:20 Um, so I, uh, I use, uh, an airbrush for most of it. Um, I typically use solvent based paints, mostly a house of color is an my brand of choice. Just their consistency and everything is, is really, um, kind of what I’ve been working with the most, so I’m most familiar with and kind of takes out at little guessing stage, um, because every brand is totally different to work with, so it’s kind of Nice to stick with one and kind of get it down and just move forward. Um, but yeah, like I said, a lot of standing, lots of prep work. Um, I have a vinyl cutter that kind of helps me get some of the, the, uh, masks that I need a, it’s a pretty basic setup I’m working with.
Dan: 13:08 Is there any way that you practice before, you know, before you go and lay down some sweet skull flames is, are you, are you practicing on anything or are you kind of just, you know, now that you’ve been doing it long enough that you just have the confidence to get right into it?
Tony: 13:25 Um, it’s, it’s, I learned an important lesson and it is a, is a lot about how well you can cover up your mistakes, not necessarily how well you can avoid making them because mistakes happen no matter what. Would that flame, that flame skull bike? Uh, I did a small little test panel just to kind of get warmed up before I actually went into it, but I typically just kinda like to tablet. Just go ahead and do it and it is just paint. So if I mess something up it’s not the end of the world I can paint over it or whatever. So my typical plan of attack is just to go after it.
Dan: 14:04 That’s pretty amazing. How are you, what’s the process of working with a client like or do you have kind of some preconceived notions of what you want to accomplish and then the client fills it in or is it vice versa the client brings most and then they kind of want you to finish their ideas with your own aesthetic?
Tony: 14:26 It’s kind of a all over the place. It is completely dependent on the client, so a lot of times people will come with me with exactly what they want, logo placement, a details here and and everything else and they know specifically what it is that they’re looking for, where other people have no idea what they want, so we kind of bounced back and forth and try to find something to land on. I would say preferred method is probably if somebody were to come with me with a rough idea, plenty of reference images so that we have a solid understanding of kind of where they’re wanting to go, but then they just let me run with it. It’s typically my favorite way to work.
Dan: 15:10 Is there an example of that later so that later compromise? Like what is one of those schemes that you’ve done lately that’s been like that, that you really appreciate?
Tony: 15:19 Um, the, the flame bike was definitely one. All he said was he wanted flames, skulls, guns, smoke, and a section of raw carbon. So you just let me run with it. And uh, and that’s, that was a good thing. Cause because that one was tricky. Uh, the oxiclean bike was another one. I’m Anthony Sullivan. The Guy who, uh, has those bikes just Kinda, he gave me an idea, told me to look at an oxy clean box and just go for it. So I did
Dan: 15:55 really two bikes. Right. It was the, there was a time trial s works and avenge, correct.
Tony: 16:01 Yeah. It was a, a ship and a tarmac
Dan: 16:04 on the tarmac. OK. Yeah. We were looking at your instagram and I had never seen those before and those are amazing. Man came out. So good. They’re so funny. Yeah.
Tony: 16:18 That was so many bubbles.
Dan: 16:23 And they all have dimensionality to them too. It’s, yeah, that one. That was probably uh, probably more than 40 hours on that one, Huh?
Tony: 16:32 Yeah, I would say so. Especially the ship and uh, it wasn’t just the frames that I did, so I did handlebars stem, a headset, spacers, seat posts, rims, basically anything that could have been painted on that bike. I tried to paint.
Dan: 16:50 What’s the, what’s the hardest thing that you paint? And both stylistically and object wise,
Tony: 17:02 I would say object wise is a half shell helmets with lots of events. Those are not an easy task even just to like tape off because the ones that paint a really makes sure that every bit of eps is covered. So getting around all those holes is really tricky. Yeah. So to do a full face helmet, as soon as the paint kind of touches the eps foam, it’ll dissolve it pretty much immediately. So I have to take extremely, uh, you know, a ton of time to make sure that every, every bit of that eps foam is covered. Um, cause I do not want, you know, holes in eps once I deliver the helmet.
Dan: 17:56 Immediate, no go. And there you just taping those off or do you, you know, with your ability to produce things, are you making little molds to plug in and then it kind of taping around the mold or are you just going full tape masking?
Tony: 18:08 I wish that I had things to just plug the holes with. Now it is all just your normal painter’s tape and an exacto knife.
Dan: 18:18 Wow. So the hardest object. What, what’s the, as far as the scheme, you know, the style, what’s the most difficult one for you?
Tony: 18:31 I’m mentally. The most difficult ones for me are ones that uh, I have to like recreate like an old paint scheme. Um, a lot of people fall in love with their bikes that they’ve had, you know, 10, 15 years ago and they want a new bike with the exact same same scheme. So mentally it’s pretty tough for me to kind of get excited about recreating something that’s already been out there. Um, but technical wise, I don’t really know. I think, uh, you know, I definitely enjoy the challenge and I enjoy kind of the figuring out how to make something happen. Um, so kind of the more complicated, the better, as long as I can come up with a solution somewhat quickly. Yeah. And for these bikes,
Dan: 19:23 I guess I have another two questions that I just kinda thought of. Are People bringing you a both new and used
Tony: 19:29 spikes? Yeah. Yeah. So the people who shipped me bikes from all over the place and they can be old, they can be new. I get it all. So
Dan: 19:38 cool. We didn’t. Yeah, we didn’t know if you uh, if you just did new stuff for your fee, did kind of touch up and recreation’s a that’s cool.
Tony: 19:46 I really try to send any touch-up a elsewhere. I think a bunch of people who contacted you guys that I have pointed your way. Um, I try to avoid any like color matching. I don’t know how you guys do it.
Dan: 19:59 Oh it’s so hard. So hard for our payments. Our painter, nick is, I mean like you guys, just crazy talented and that’s kind of the, one of the reasons why we’ve developed our water based system is it gives us the ability to literally hand match any color. And you said it and like we have two yellow are whites and yellow are clear coats all the time just to get it to match people’s 10 year old bikes that have been in the sun, you know. So yeah, paint matching is an incredibly. It sucks. Yeah.
Tony: 20:30 Yeah. I applaud you guys on, on that because that is, I would almost rather do a full repaint than try to match it. Yeah.
Dan: 20:39 Yeah. We’ll send you the full rebate. So I love that. That’s awesome. And then another kind of little follow up question to that. What’s your, about how many bikes
Tony: 20:48 you painting a year? So it varies quite a bit. Um, uh, I would say frame wise, I think last year I did somewhere around 30, 30 frames and then there’s some helmets and some other random projects kinda thrown in the mix as well. Yeah, that’s, I mean that’s a lot though. If you’re saying if you said you’re spending an average of 40 hours, that’s a ton of bikes. Yeah. And it’s just me right now too. So it’s a, it’s a lot. It’s a lot of time. You need a summer intern.
Dan: 21:22 I know, I think, I think I might have tracked one down. That is going to be the best day ripping that uh, that [inaudible] gonna drop real fast. That’s great. Do you have a favorite bike? Um, like a specific bicycle let’s think I would say are of these
Tony: 21:48 large tubes is always fun. Like a ship is good. Um, but also some things with some, some curvy curvy tubes going on. Like right now I’m looking at my old, a downhill bike. My Demo in the old style has a lot of Nice, cool curves to kind of work with and as long as I kind of have the freedom a design wise to play around with it, then those can be really fun.
Dan: 22:14 I know I kind of asked you earlier about, a little bit about if you get your inspiration from from your father, but do you have any other artists, any other visual artists that you draw inspiration from?
Tony: 22:26 A lot of the, like kind of old timers that used to do old hot rods and motorcycles back in the day. And there’s this guy by the name of Dean Lanza who did this motorcycle called the quick silver, and I think the first time I saw that bike I probably stared at it for two hours straight and it was just like a black and white photo. And then, uh, then afterwards I did see a color photo of it and it was from probably the sixties or early seventies. And the thing is just amazing. And back then those dudes were having to physically cut. They’re, they’re taped their pin stripe pin line tape. Um, so they were taken to a band saw to get the width tape that they needed, which is ridiculous. Um, so dean lands is a good one. There’s another guy who paints motorcycles. Uh, I believe he goes by the name of Jen loved g e n love. Oh yeah, that guy. He is. I mean, the only way to describe that guy is just far out. You know, you look at his stuff and it looks like he’s from the seventies, but he is doing some amazing stuff. Oh God. That guys, I love his instagram. That guy’s awesome. Yes. So good. Is that the guy who makes all those pink memes? That Sanchez Customs?
Dan: 23:44 No, Sanchez on instagram.
Shawn: 23:46 Oh, you would love him. He just makes a ton of paint. Me Paint shop means he’s mainly a hood guy. You would love him. He’s, he’s just Mr. Flake. So I mean, so many jokes that would only be funny to anybody that has painted a bike or works with customers about paying politics. Well, he does poets, but. Oh God. Is it funny?
Tony: 24:07 I guess I never asked the question. How long have you been painting bikes under made read by Tony? Think the first bike that I actually put that on was probably about four years ago was my, uh, my boss, uh, specialized. Um, he kind of just handed me a frame first wife and just told me to go at it. So I think that was just kind of trying to be cheeky and just like signed made read by Tony on it somewhere and it just kind of stuck.
Dan: 24:37 That’s great. And you were, you were a graphic designer and specialized?
Tony: 24:41 No, I actually was working for their dealer development program will be cu. Um, so I was a SBC, you instructor, which basically my job was just to get people excited about riding bikes who work in retail. It was an awesome gig.
Dan: 24:58 OK, that’s interesting. I didn’t know that. I thought uh, I thought you were doing painting and graphic design for them, but that’s kind of a cool story. How you got into it. The question that I, that, that was leading me to was in the past four years, what’s the weirdest request for a paint scheme that you’ve received?
Tony: 25:18 Well themed bike. So I didn’t really know how to go about doing that one, but I ended up doing some realistic for a and like a we’ll, we’ll see ears on the sides of the head to um, and it was kinda like two toned. I think that one was, was pretty out there. Um, let me think here. Trying to, I mean the oxiclean one of course is like kind of kind of strange when he came at me with that one. I’m a Bradford. Do you know the guy who makes a w h Bradford frames? Yeah. So I did a frame like c to a sunset fade, um, but then on top of it he wanted a certain type of camera that I think some Russian planes used back in like world war two or something. Wow. So again,
Dan: 26:14 Galaxy Fade, world war two, chemo paint.
Tony: 26:18 Yeah. Yeah, that’s quite the request. Yeah, it was quite the request. Um, and uh, I actually really like how that one turned out, but it was definitely one of the weirdest when I was first reading the description of what he wants and when he was trying to describe what he wanted. Um, and then sent me some reference images to go off of. What is your absolute
Dan: 26:45 cannot live without tool around the shop?
Tony: 26:48 Man, I got lots of them. I’d probably say a sharp exacto knife. That thing gets used a lot.
Dan: 26:59 Do you ever accidentally put one in your pocket and grab it?
Tony: 27:02 Yeah. And drop them on my legs when I’m sitting at a table or on my foot or something that isn’t worse. You instantly change them after you drop on the floor and break the tip off. Or do you like now? The blades still good. I try to use it, but then shortly after I find myself changing. I’m actually holding one right now with the broken tip. That was cool though. Isn’t that the one that you see in seeds so you could put the top on it made a little collapsible pocket carryable one kind of weird hobby. We use a lot of exact. Yeah. I’m sure you guys do exact those nitrile gloves. Tape. Everything’s taped. Yeah. Sounds familiar. Yeah, exactly. You get it. What’s the tool that you’ve had the longest? I’ve got a bunch of tools that my dad was kind of handed down, so I’d say those are probably the oldest, but the ones that like I was the original owner and had for a long time. It’s probably that airbrush that my mom got me a school. What brand is it? I think it’s just a. it’s a posh, but I think it’s just like a starter kit that she got from hobby lobby or something
Dan: 28:16 as a painter as well. Or do you. Do you practice art outside of bikes? Do you have a creative outlet? You know, are you practicing photography on the weekend, you play music, is there a way that you, you know, kind of get your creative juices out that’s not doing paint work for people?
Tony: 28:31 I’m the only real photos that I’m good at taking or at least like getting better at taking are the ones that, the frames that I, that I paint, I’m, so that is definitely not my, my outlet. I do still like to paint on canvases and stuff and I am definitely a maker. So I uh, I took a bunch of sculpture classes in college as well and really like that and wish I had the time to kind of mess around more with it. I’m snowboarding, I feel like is a pretty good creative outlet that has been decent this year. Um, so it’s the baker that you, that Bellingham schools through, is that right? Yup. Yeah, Baker’s probably, you know, just under an hour from me. Yeah. Whoa, that’s it. Oh, that’s awesome. And obviously you probably get out and ride the trails that are, what’s the system that’s super close there in Bellingham? There’s galbraith that’s basically right across the street from me. So, uh, we did not end up here by accident.
Dan: 29:32 We’ve heard really, really good things. Been to bellingham a couple of times but never written there, so I hope to get up there this summer actually.
Tony: 29:41 Yeah, it’s definitely one of the most well kept trail networks I’ve ever come across is it’s insane the amount of work that goes into it in the amount of people that are willing to put in the work. So it’s a really good, good community for, for mountain biking is just a local trade organization that organizes all that stuff. Yeah. W NBC is kind of the, the head of a everything in that kind of goes on and uh, they put it on lots of events and really good community building, building stuff. So it’s nice to be a part of it. No, that’s great. Uh, is it rideable all year? Yeah, pretty much.
Dan: 30:20 It was a little rough because it was unusually cold here, so it kind of freeze, thaw, freeze, thaw,
Tony: 30:25 that kind of thing. So there was a short time where probably shouldn’t be writing out there. Um, but most of the time, yeah, all year round is good to go.
Dan: 30:34 What is your biggest goal for 2018?
Tony: 30:41 My biggest goal for 2018. Um, I’d really enjoy to be able to have the time to kind of play around and experiment with things. Um, unfortunately it does look like I just need to kind of put my head down and crank out the redness so it’s going to be a lot of work this year. Um, but I think with this help that I am hopefully getting, um, that might free up a little bit of time for me. Um, so that, that’s really it just kind of kind of just get the work done this year and crank out as much stuff as I can and just keep getting my name out there, lining up fun gigs and hopefully one day be able to turn down the ones that I don’t really want to do.
Dan: 31:27 Yeah, that is a great spot to be. How do people, do people find you mostly through the internet or do you have a pretty good word of mouth presence as well? I mean, I guess the question I’m asking is how are people usually getting in contact with you? People are usually getting in contact through email, so it, um, and a lot of them do come from my website, which, which I don’t really know how they’re getting to the website. I’m guessing that it’s probably
Tony: 31:53 heavy on instagram. Um, and I think, I think really without instagram I probably wouldn’t exist. Maybe.
Dan: 32:04 I think your work is so good. It’s kind of, I mean obviously it’s hard to say, but word of mouth I think you’d think you’d still be out there, but yeah, that’s cool. I was interested to hear how people got in contact with you, um, that’s school that it is mostly through your website. In that vein, what’s your five year plan?
Tony: 32:21 A five year plan? I would, I would love to be able well to, uh, I mean I’m sure in five years I’m going to outgrow this garage that I’m working, kind of see where it can go. But again, I just, I really want to get to the point where I can just afford to play around in a really experiment. And kind of see what was possible with this and uh, how far we go.
Dan: 32:42 That’s cool. To kind of be a little bit of a Davinci and have some minions working for you while you can still be the mind. Yes, that’d be great. And I don’t even mind like letting somebody else take, take the mind role for a little while, you know, I’m OK. I’m OK. Standing is very therapeutic. I get it caught up on books, on tape, podcasts, you know?
Tony: 33:04 Yeah. Sometimes when I have like two or three days of nothing, but I’m actually kind of relieved. But then after those two or three days.
Dan: 33:13 Oh yeah, your arms shoulders, little sore and you’re like, Oh God, I’m right. Hand dominant. A five year plan sand more with my left arm. What? Do you have a favorite paint scheme as a recent? Is there something that you’ve been particularly stoked on?
Tony: 33:34 Um, I think a downhill bike. My current downhill bike that I just did, it’s uh, the rest of you think that is probably one of the coolest things I think I’ve ever done it. Uh, my other downhill bike, I broke it so it had one of the freshest paint job, so I think I’ve ever done any little scratch or nick in. It was like a, a shot in the arm, you know, so I wanted to make my next one ready to get beaten up. So it has something like 14 different layers of paint, so as it wears and chips and scratches and it looks like it’s just part of the, the Patina. Oh yeah. It’s like an everlasting God. So I’m like excited every time it gets scratched, scratched her, I can hang it over your tailgate and let it just kind of run through the pain a little bit. It’s a, it’s definitely a unique kind of twist on, on bicycle pain.
Dan: 34:35 Yeah. Yeah. That’s great. That’s really cool. We’ve got a couple more here for you. If you could change one thing about the bike industry, what would that be? Change. One thing about the bike industry
Tony: 34:48 I would say uh, to just kinda get back to the fun, fun side of it, you know, people are, are riding bikes because it’s fun. People get into it because they’re having fun. Um, I think, uh, the seriousness of it, you know, can definitely have its place, but everything else just needs to be just bring it back,
Dan: 35:11 bring it back to the roots, to the roots of the fun, remade, remade, Rad. You could say. Yeah, that’s it. I guess are. We’ve only got one last question for Ya. I would say it’s probably the hardest question you’ll hear today. Maybe ever. What’s your favorite brand of chips? Favorite brand of chips were huge fans down here. We can’t live without him.
Tony: 35:35 Yeah. Chips are definitely a one must have in the kitchen. Um, I would say my go to is going to be boring, but it’s just way lays wavy potato chips. Plane. Whoa.
Tony: 35:58 No, not really. Not really. It’s the combination of a sandwich and that chip is like nothing. You can’t compare it. I mean it kind of is the classic coke chips classic. My second choice would be a Tortilla chip with a, a Habanero. Mango Salsa, right? Yeah. Two things you don’t need to think about. Tortilla chips and wavy lays. That’s it. Just grab them and go. You have anything? Yeah, I think that’s the bar is much interview questions that we have for. Did you have any questions for us? Um, I would have a lot of questions if I were there in person. Your prep, your prep process and everything else because I have a lot to learn from what you guys have set up going down, going on down there. So right now.
Speaker 7: 36:52 Yeah.
Tony: 36:53 Let’s see, what is your favorite kind of cheese or your asking both from Wisconsin? I’m blue cheese. I’m, you know, your classic aged white Cheddar, White Cheddar. You can find me a good seven plus year white gender. I’m a happy guy, but I’ll take any, you know, even cheese it from a can. I’m down for that favorite cheese, the one I get to eat in two minutes when we’re done. But yeah, we definitely need to set up a visit program. We’ve got to come up and see your space. And next time you’re down here, by all means please, please come and visit. We’d love to show you around. Oh yeah, I’d be, I’d be pumped to go check you guys out. That’d be officer someday soon. And we’ll uh, take you up to our, uh, our little in betrayal system. Have you ever done Sandy Ridge? No, I have not done this and I’ve heard I’ve heard so many. Great. So that would be a interesting to check both places out. Yeah, totally. And our lab guy, Joel, can take you across the street to wildcat roll the big bike riders hangout for people that like to leave the ground. That’s not Dan. And I know no way. I like to leave the ground, but I do not like to hit the ground. Well, Tony, thank you so much for coming on the show. I know we’ve been talking for a couple of weeks. I’m really glad we finally got to sit down and have this chat.
Dan: 38:36 It was really, really awesome. Your bikes are great and thank you so much for giving us an insight to your inspiration and your workflow guys. I really appreciate the time. Well, that’s about all we have for the episode today. Shawn what do we usually say about the president? I can do it once in awhile. There you go. Thanks again for listening. Thanks again, Tony for being on and we will catch you next week.
Speaker 3: 39:00 I didn’t know.