I bought my first Harley Davidson right about 20 years ago, pretty much celebrating and cementing my coming of passage into adulthood.
     Though by no means my first motorcycle, it was my first new bike. I picked it up at McDaniel’s Harley-Davidson in South Bend, Indiana.
     Before I had even had it a year, it was stolen. I still have the original title, but that’s all. It’s not exactly my favorite motorcycling memento. I’ve also still got a cancelled check, one of about two dozen I had to keep sending to the bank even after the motorcycle was gone.
     So right there, right then, I knew about two things that haven’t changed in the two decades since: The overwhelming attraction to big V-twins—obviously, both my own and others!—and the inherent monetary value that accompanies longing for the open road and the machine to take you there.
     Yes, the road, which brings many of us to an intersection of work and play called powersports. And another ten years and change after someone else rode my first new bike off into the sunset, I first started working for a Road Rep for Parts Unlimited.
Since then, I’ve had just about every sales job in the LeMans book. (And since many of our current road reps have hand-delivered hundreds of those books to hundreds of dealers just like I have, they know how big that catalog is!)
     A lot of you already know me. I was a rep for the Southeast United States in Florida before moving to the Janesville corporate headquarters and to start Dealer Development. Then I wasn’t, and then I was—I took a turn as Northeastern Regional Sales Manager before again returning to manage our always expanding and thriving dealer network.
     Now, I’ll be going into my tenth year with the company as the National Sales Manager for Drag Specialties. To say that I’m excited about it would be underselling it by a Daytona Main Street mile.
     In my years with LeMans I’ve had the pleasure of watching Drag Specialties grow into the Number One distributor of V-twin accessories and hard parts, and I look forward to working with Drag’s managers, regional reps, and dealers to take the entire product line and brand to even higher levels and greater successes.
     From the Indy show through Bike Week to Myrtle Beach, through Sturgis and beyond, I’m greatly looking forward to combining my love for the V-twin segment—both the product and the lifestyle, even if I did stay out a little too late at Cinci!—and my more regular habit of getting up early to work at putting the pieces together inside LeMans to help us all profit from what we love.
     And I’m looking forward to hitting many of the big rallies and rides this year, and hopefully to riding out with many of you.