SEPTEMBER 9–BEHIND THE SCENES WITH TWO BROTHERS DAVE CULLINAN

Several weeks back when we received a call from Dave Cullinan, the man in charge of business development at Two Brothers, we knew something was up right from the get-go when Dave sounded like he had just won the lottery. Basically this is how the conversation went:

MXA: Hey Dave, how have you been?
Dave: Oh man, I’ve been great! Listen, over here at Two Brothers we’ve been working on a project for James Stewart that you won’t believe. It’s the craziest thing I’ve ever seen.

MXA: Okay, that’s great. Are you going to tell us what it is?
Dave: [Pause] Well?I don’t know if I should?I mean you have to see it?to believe it.

MXA: So, are you going to tell us?
Dave: [Pause] Okay, fine. But you can’t tell anyone else. We made Bubba a 24-karat gold KLX110! It’s insane!

Upon hearing that, we were off and running to Two Brothers, located in Santa Ana, California. Upon arriving and seeing the immaculate bike, our jaws just about hit the floor. Imagine a bike covered in gold, much like the bikes on the tops of motocross trophies. Dave was right in our initial conversation, because the bike was insane. Only a few days later Stewart himself would be given the exact bike at the Glen Helen National, a bike that neither James nor anyone else knew existed.
ÿ
In between talking about the golden bike, we asked Dave a few questions about Two Brothers and the mini bike craze. This is what Cullinan said, in between short breaths and wild eyes.

MXA:What is your position at Two Brothers?
Dave: Officially, it’s business development. I have the task of balancing the direction of sales as well as the branding of the company.

MXA:What do you typically do in a day?
Dave: Well, I wear two hats. I monitor where we’re at in sales by making sure everything is tracking where it needs to be, and that we’re always forecasting that we have growth in sales. At the same time, I come up with new product and marketing ideas. The big thing is that we carry over a consistent theme; whether it’s in packaging, advertising, and when the buyer sees Two Brothers they associate us with motocross, ATV, street bike exhausts, and mini bikes.

MXA: Corporate question. When and why did Two Brothers start?
Dave: Two Brothers started back in the early 1990’s. It started as a street bike exhaust company, but then got involved with performance street bike products. Then, in the beginning of the mini bike craze, Jeff Whitten saw the mini bike thing as something cool. He developed a relationship with Takegawa the importer. He went to the Indy Trade Show one year and the mini bike craze was beginning to take off. Jeff came with engine kits and performance parts to the show, and the next year he put together a catalog. At that point a whole different side of the company was formed.

MXA: What is your biggest selling product?
Dave: Our main category that we sell under is exhaust systems, whether it’s street bikes, mini bikes, or ATV mufflers. The majority of our business is mufflers. The mini category is our fastest growing segment and is rapidly catching up to the street bike market.

MXA: Why did you decide to develop an ATV muffler?
Dave: The company mission is that we want to build the highest quality parts that people would be proud to have on their bike. Someone who knows quality will appreciate our products. The performance, appearance, craftsmanship, and everything that goes into the canister is important. We felt that ATV’s is a market that we could do well in. We’ve been making four-stroke exhausts almost longer than anyone. The majority of exhaust companies come from the two-stroke market, where Two Brothers has never made a two-stroke pipe. Our technology and years of experience have come in four-strokes. Now that four-strokes have become so popular, the change is swinging right in our direction.

MXA: How has the company grown over the years?
Dave: I came on board in December, and Joel Albrecht came on board July of last year, and we’ve had a 48% growth over the last year. It’s a lot of work to continue that same momentum, but it’s an exciting time here.

MXA: Did you suspect that the mini bike craze would be this big?
Dave: I’ve always thought that mini bikes were fun. Coming from racing bicycles, it was something that we used to do for fun when we weren’t racing bikes. Then at Saddleback when the track was open for that two-week stint, Joel and everyone from Kawasaki were out riding 110 bikes. I thought that it looked pretty fun, so Joel told me to try the bike out and I remember having so much fun riding the mini bike on Saddleback’s peewee track. A couple of weeks after that, I bought an XR70 and started hopping the little Honda up. I sold my 450 and then started strictly riding mini bikes after that.

MXA: There are some people who have made the switch from big bikes to strictly riding mini bikes. Is that positive for the sport of motocross?
Dave: We’re not going to have a stadium filled with mini bike racers. I hope that the sport stays more fun oriented. We had a mini bike race in Las Vegas, and it was really just guys going out and having fun. Riders can rub elbows and cut each other off without killing each other. Do that on a big bike and a lot of guys will get hurt. On a mini bike it is totally acceptable to go into a corner and ride your front tire up your friend’s leg.

MXA: Whose idea was it for the 24-karat gold James Stewart KLX110, and did you actually think that the idea would come to fruition?
Dave: We built James a black bike to ride in Florida and he really liked the bike a lot. We were going to build him another bike for when he’s out in California. He’s been working with Joel ever since the KLX110 came out, and we appreciated that. Bubba’s an all-around great guy, and we wanted to show him our thanks. He’s dealing with such huge sponsors in motocross, and here Two Brothers is, a small company located in Santa Ana, California. We wanted to show him our appreciation for him working with us. We talked about doing something with the ?Bubbalicious’ theme, but then we thought about building a bike that looked like the top of a trophy. We started looking into it, and then we decided to build a 24-karat gold bike. We started taking the stock bike apart, and had each entity of the bike go into five different buckets for different parts. Keeping track of all the parts was a nightmare, and trying to keep the bike a secret was a tough task.



MXA: Through the three-month process, what was the most difficult problem?
Dave: It was to keep track of three different projects at the same time. Also, keeping track of all of the parts through three different vendors in southern California and then putting the bike back together. Getting the cases back together and pressing bearings and seals and assembling the motor was probably the most difficult part.

MXA: What is the estimated cost of the 24-karat gold plating?
Dave: I think if someone came up to us and gave us $25,000 then we’d consider doing it over again, but not for anything less.

MXA: What parts on the bike aren’t gold plated?
Dave: We couldn’t do the gas tank because the tank had already had gas in it and getting the fumes out would have been impossible. The plastic isn’t gold, and we had to get an aluminum treatment on the plastic so that the plastics could then be painted gold. The graphics, seat, grips, and tires aren’t gold.

Pretty much if it was a metal component then it became gold. We had to anodize the rear sprocket and then get gold on it because if James decides to ride the bike that it could match everything else on the bike.

MXA: How can you top what you’ve done with the 24-karat gold bike?
Dave: We were just joking about that the other day. We thought maybe a platinum bike with diamonds encrusted in it. Really though, we wanted to do something that has never been done and we’ll pretty much have the only one of. We hope that no one wants us to build another one.ÿ The only thing you can really do for a guy of James’ caliber is to give up your time. Sure, you can buy him a car, that’s simply writing a check. But spending tons of time and being creative just to say thanks to someone is the big statement that we were going for.

MXA: We think you proved your point. How much could James ride the bike before the gold deteriorated?
Dave: It’s kind of along the lines of chroming something. Because it’s a chrome base with gold plating, I wouldn’t take it out to a mud race or anything like that. At the same time, we don’t think heat will be a problem. Eventually the gold would wear off, but whatever Bubba decides to do with the bike is fine with us.

MXA: Who do you think is the fastest mini rider in the world?
Dave: That’s a tough question. I think it’d be a really fun race to see James and Jeremy McGrath go at it. On that 110, James is as fast as anyone I’ve ever seen on a 125. At the local races that we’ve done, he just walks away from everyone, and Jeremy was really fast in Las Vegas. It’d be a good showdown.

MXA: Where is the company going in the future?
Dave: We really want to pretty much be an exhaust company. We’ve been developing motocross and quad pipes for the last six to eight months. Our company trademark is absolute top level. We try to use the best materials available and we don’t want to copy anyone else. We want to be known as an exhaust company. Dustin Nelson, who was a test rider for Yamaha, has been developing our quad pipe and will go racing quads all next year. He’s done really well in a few races that he’s done, so he’ll be great for us.
We want to focus on top-of-the-line products with innovative and cool designs. When someone sees a Two Brothers product on a bike, they know that it’s the best product that’s available for that particular application.