Lifestyle Cycles Meet the Guy: Anthony Sales & Marketing Director Lexin North America

Junior here from Lifestyle Cycles, and today I'm here with Anthony from Lexen Moto. And you know, it's a privilege to have you here, Anthony. Thank you for coming down, for having me down, and uh, I'm going to just jump right into this. So now, there's something, first of all, very dear to my heart. Um, you served our country, I about 14 years, wow, wow. Now, that's amazing! And again, you know, that's very special. We're very big on people who served our country, our veterans, and I want to thank you for that. Thank you. And uh, um, didn't you own your own company as well? Yeah, yeah. At one point, I had a security company that did well for a few years, sold that, and then I got into the uh, Cigar Lounge business. And I understand you're an aficionado. I smoke those things all day long. So, um, that's something that is a part of my daily life. Well, we'll fire one up after this, you know we will. Alright, now after you did that, um, you got into the motorcycle IND, didn't you? Right? Yeah, that was actually pretty interesting because before that, I went to commercial diving, underwater welding school. I did that for a couple of years until I failed an EKG on a physical and just by happenstance kind of fell into a job at Ram Mounting Systems, which was my first Power Sports industry job as an account executive for Ram. Now, now, did you just say you were an underwater welder, or did I? I know that you told me that you welded underwater, correct? Wow. Well, now, now, now, I'm a welder, and I'm not very good at it. I can only imagine how much more difficult it is doing underwater welding. It's actually easier. That's the secret of underwater welding. I mean, there's no one there to look over your shoulder, typically, and if it sticks, it's the best weld ever. Oh my God. Okay, so now that, and then, then you, you, you, more, and now you are the North American sales manager, um, for Lexen Moto, correct? Sales marketing director. Now, that's a big title. Now, what does that include? What do you, what all do you do? So, I manage all of the sales channels for North America to include distribution, retail, online, but also brand expansion and marketing campaigns for the United States and Canada. Now, one of the things I've noticed, you've kind of got a, uh, I'll call it an eclectic mix of products, but everything we've looked at and everything we have tested, the quality actually exceeds anything else I've seen. And that's something that made me want to interview and talk to you because I want to know why, I want to know how. Come, this Bluetooth speaker system is truly nicer than anything we've ever found. Sure, so if we take just the Bluetooth speakers, for example, typically what else is out there? And there are some good companies that make some decent alternatives. But typically, you'll find these things, they'll be plastic housings with fake chrome or some bad black paint on them. With this system, we use marine-grade aluminum, actual black powder coat, actual chrome for the chrome kits. And also, metal doesn't absorb sound the same way plastic does. It's actually going to reverberate it. So we use premium materials in the speakers and anything else we make. But when it comes to these kits, nothing else out there on the market sounds as good or definitely looks as good. Well, now I'm unpacking this right on camera, and the first thing I noticed when we did a review on this thing is how well it was packaged. And, you know, I got to tell you, that's an indication of the quality you seek and how this is going to come to the end user. And, you know, this thing here, first of all, weighs a lot, little heavy. And, you know, that's the first thing I noticed. You, the front of this speaker grill is amazing. And also, it has something I've never seen in any of these before. What is this? That's actually a patented forward-facing running light that could also be used as an optional turn signal. Can you see this? Yeah, flip it around. So if you see this here, this is a running light. It can also be wired as an optional use turn signal. You don't have to use it as a running light turn signal. But as a lot of Harley-Davidson specifically owners get rid of factory turn signals and they may not have some, we decided to put dot Amber turn signals and running lights in the back of these at face the front of the motorcycle. Well, and you know what? I can tell you, we've tested this thing. They install easy, and I got to tell you, this thing really sounds great. They kick ass. So now, now, now I'm going to switch gears because this product was interesting to me. And I was reluctant to carry it. And when I brought them in, I got to tell you, and you know this, every single one within a week was gone, right? So now, now here's something cool. Now tell us, what is this? Okay, wait. I just got to show people first. This is cool. This helmet is badass. So tell us about this product. Yeah, absolutely. So this was our CEO's baby a couple of years ago. He came to me with this idea, and he said he wanted to put out a very unique home solution or portable solution for audio that would kind of make sense with our line of products. And so we developed the Bass Bucket. So this is a Bluetooth portable speaker, fully rechargeable. It's got a subwoofer on the bottom, two tweeters on the sides. It's got touch volume on the top. And most of all, it's just an attention-getter. People love these. If you got one, everybody else is jealous. Lifestyle carries these things. They're selling the heck out of them, and they sound amazing. And they're definitely the most unique Bluetooth speaker on the market. Yeah, you know, I got to add to this thing. Not only are they unique, these things sound great. They're very appropriately named. Yeah, I brought one home. I had to have one in my shop. And so another super cool product, and again, we're going back to the Lexan quality. So now, again, another product. Oh, I've got one right here. This is cool. And this is a battery-operated tire pump. And so tell us, tell us about this, 'cause again, we tested it. I'm going to talk a little bit more about it, but you're the master. Let's hear about this. Absolutely. So this was one of my bright ideas was for Lexan to develop and sell tire pumps. Similar to other products that we've developed, a lot of them just come out of necessity. I was actually carrying around some CO2 cartridge kits, and they don't work. They don't work. I mean, they don't work. Sometimes you get five, six PSI out of them, and you've got to go through multiple cartridges. You've got to remember to put new cartridges in your bike or some people carry around ridiculously big tire pumps. I mean, especially if you're either a stunt rider, you're an ADV dual sport rider, anytime you're going to air down, you want more traction, you've got to air up. How are you going to do it? You're going to limp your bike to a gas station. Save yourself the trouble. Also, I've had a lot of flat tires in my day that have put me on the back of a flatbed with my motorcycle. You keep this with one of these tire plug kits down here, and you're up and running. You've got one of these, unless you have some type of a major blowout. Yeah, I mean, a typical nail, lag bolt, anything like that, you're back on the road. These will do 150 PSI, and they'll also set a bead on a tire. Now, that's great. Now, one of the things also, every time I've ever had a flat tire on my bike, it's been in the dark, it's been at nighttime, right? Absolutely. And I'm trying to hold my cell phone in my mouth, trying to do this. And you have a very unique thing that caught my attention. Yeah, little valve stem finder SL flashlight. It's a genuine Cree LED in there, so it's super bright. So at nighttime, you're not going to struggle to find that valve stem. And you can just set the pressure you want, turn the thing on, and it fills the tire up and automatically stops, right? Yeah, the P5 is a set-it-and-forget-it system. So once you get the Schrader valve onto the tire valve, the system's turned on, it's going to tell you accurately where the tire is sitting. So if you're maybe at 19 PSI, you want to go to 35 PSI, you'll set the P5 to 35 PSI. Once you start it, once it gets to that desired PSI, it's going to shut itself off. And it also acts as a phone charger. It's got a battery bank on top of it. So if you open the rubber little sleeve at the very top, you've got the USB-A output. So that's going to be for mobile device charging. The USB-C port next to it will be charging for the system itself. And best of all, metal. It's metal. Yeah, most of what's out there that you might see ads for are plastic. They're not internally cooled. Our P5 pumps actually, anytime that they're actually on, there's an internal cooling fan that's drawing air through them. These never overheat. They're also covered by a two-year unlimited warranty. Well, I'm going to put one in my Jeep when I go off-road. I'm going to have one on my bike. And you know what? Everybody, I think, should have one, especially if you're going on long, long rides, whether you get a flat tire or one of your buddies gets a flat tire. And I'll tell you what, we actually did a test on this thing, and we completely aired down a tire from... We took the valve stem out, let all the air out, put it in, and it took less than two minutes to bring it to 40 pounds. Yeah, absolutely. It's a great system. It's our top-selling product. We're going to continue to make it for a long, long time. And if you have one, just beware. Tell your buddies to get one because otherwise, they're just going to bother you for yours. Now, now I'm going to get to your flagship product, okay? And without a doubt, this is what they're known for, and it's the Lexan Novice. Tell us about this. Yeah, absolutely. So the Novice is a culmination of three years' worth of work trying to build the best helmet intercom system that we possibly could. So this is a 32-rider capable mesh intercom system. You can use traditional Bluetooth. It also features universal pairing so you can pair between different brands. It's got a mesh mast antenna that has to be used anytime you're using the mesh system. But once you're in the mesh system, it's also self-healing. So if you have a person in your group that maybe falls out of range, they come back into range, it's automatically going to pull them back into the group. Another big benefit to this system that is a first in this mesh intercom system versus anything else that's ever been out there is a Lexan unique group control mode. So if you and I are leading a ride, you're at the front, I'm at the back, and we've got 12, 15 people between us, if we don't want to hear jibber-jabber and we just want to control the ride, keep everybody safe, we can put this system into a master control mode where you and I communicate freely, everyone in the middle can hear exactly what's going on, but we don't have the cross-talk. So it keeps the group a little bit safer. So this is more than just a rider-to-passenger system, correct? Okay, so it's a large group riding system. So tell me, a lot of people don't know what a mesh system is, and you've used that a couple of times. What is a mesh system? A mesh system, to put it into the easiest terms possible, is it doesn't rely on one daisy chain form of connection. It basically, every connection is its own stable connection, forms its own network, its own bubble, and is self-sustaining. Whereas traditional Bluetooth intercoms require bridging between different systems, and then commonly riders will have to stay kind of in a pattern or a formation. So it has to go rider-to-rider. Mesh systems don't rely on that form Bluetooth technology, so riders can move, they can change places, as long as they're within a reasonable range and there's not too much interference, everyone can talk and the whole group can move around itself. And this mounts to any helmet or how does that work? Any helmet, yeah. I mean, primarily we designed them to work with full-face and modular helmets, but they'll work on three-quarter helmets. And if you add a set of half-helmet audio pads to hold the speakers, you can use them with half helmets as well. And now, another question I have: Does it come with the mounting hardware, or does that come separate? Do you have to buy the novice and then buy the hardware, or does it all come in the kit? Yeah, inside each one of our intercom kits, if it's a single pack, it's got everything you need: screws, 40mm Lexan pulse speakers, USB-C charging cable, main unit, and all the mounts. Actually, two different types of mounts to choose from for different helmets, and also two different forms of microphones: one boom mic, one wired mic, depending on the helmet you're using. If you're using a modular helmet, you're going to pretty much have to use the boom mic. If you're using a full-face helmet, you're more than welcome to use the wired mic. I still prefer the boom mic 'cause it's got a little bit more copper in it. So then this pretty much comes with everything you need. You buy this and you get started. And if you get a dual pack, then it's two complete kits in one box. Same thing. And do you save money when you buy two in one? A little bit, okay, so it's a savings. So, you know, if you and your buddy are both going to ride, buy the dual pack, right? And you save some money, and you get this novice, which is leading the industry. Yeah, absolutely. It's a game-changer, and nothing that's out there sounds as good as this system when you're using music. So, my last question for you: What made you set out to build stuff? Because this is truly the highest quality stuff we've seen. Thank you, and we're really impressed with it. Why didn't you just make something standard? What brought, why does Anthony say it's got to be the best? We've talked a lot about it, and you've told me quality is everything to you. What drives you that way? We're consumers and we're riders. So, all of us that ride, we've every one of us been through situations where we bought something we were really excited about it, something went wrong, then you have to go and you have to fight with the company to try to get another whatever the widget was or get something corrected. We like to try to do things right the first time. It helps us grow. Helps our consumers have more faith in the products. When we put out new stuff, they're more excited about it. Okay, so now you just brought another question I want to ask you. Sure. Technical assistance. I got this thing. It's not working right. I'm having trouble. Who do I call? Am I on a deserted island by myself? No, absolutely not. So, we're based here in Costa Mesa, California. All of our customer service is based here in Costa Mesa, California. All of us that work for our company, including myself, all do customer service and tech support. It's just whoever is available to answer the phone at that time or who gets the email fastest. But in almost every case, if someone contacts us with either a warranty or tech issue, they have a same-day resolution, even if it's a warranty replacement going out the door. Well, I got to tell our viewers here that what Anthony is saying is 100% true. We have installed every single one of these products. We have tested every single one of these products. And I got to tell you, we love every single one of these products. Their service is amazing. They're a fantastic company. You'll not be unhappy with any of the quality. And you know, if you're looking for something, any of this, you got to try it. You should not leave home without one of these chargers or tire inflators. You need to have one of these in your home shop and great for the man cave. It's the best thing for the man cave or your desk wherever or next to the pool. I might have to bring home another one then. Absolutely. Another cool feature about this since we're back on it for a moment. These can share music to an unlimited amount of other Bass Buckets. So if you have 10, 15, 20 of these, if they're within a 20-meter radius of each other, they will all play music as slave speakers. So we've set up, we've got a 4,000-foot warehouse in Costa Mesa, one in each of the corners of these. So four of them together is too loud in our warehouse. No way, absolutely. Wow. Well, listen, I really appreciate you coming here today. Thanks for having, you have taught me some stuff. And I couldn't thank you anymore. This is fantastic. Thank you. Thank you for watching this. And if you like this, share this with your friends. Click on us on Instagram, YouTube channel. We really appreciate you watching us. Thank you. Hey, sell me a bike. Yeah, you got it. Go. We wait, don't go anywhere until you like and subscribe to make sure you get notified every time we post our how-to videos, our product reviews, and all of our amazing interviews with your favorite racers and industry icons. I'll see you guys next.