Lifestyle Cycles Meet the Team: Sparky R.

All right, so welcome everybody! We’ve got another interview here today, and this is Sparky, the GM of Lifestyle Cycles. Sparky, we’ve all heard that you have a huge love for motorcycles, so why don’t you tell everybody who you are and what your role is here at the shop?

My name is Sparky. I’m the general manager here. I fell in love with motorcycles since I was 13 years old, probably when I built my first bike with my father, which was a ’56 Pan Head. I've been hooked ever since.

Okay, and talk to me a bit about some of the builds that you’ve done over the years since that first ’56 Pan Head. I know we’ve got frames on the walls; I see all your bikes that you’ve built over the years. Talk to me about some of your favorite projects.

I’ve done a ton of them. One of my favorites, and still my favorite, was the one we did for my buddy R. It got a cover on Hot Bike and Bagger Magazine. That was one of the funnest builds because it was the first big wheel bike me and Junior ever did together, and we just learned and did a bunch more after that.

What did you learn on that one?

How to make it work—how to put a bunch of things together that we’d never done before. So it was just a learning curve for both of us.

Okay, and then when you built that, did you source a lot of your materials and stuff from local companies?

Yes, a lot of local companies. We had assistance from Matt Hotch to help us figure some of the harder stuff—geometry and things like that out—but we used a lot of local companies, for sure.

And that’s more of a bagger cruiser custom thing, right?

Yeah, big wheel bike.

So have you done any performance builds in your career?

Not me. I haven’t done too many motors. I’ve always been more of the front of the company, running the parts department and kind of overseeing everything—service rider, helping Mikey out in the back, and overseeing everything, not doing main builds and engine work and stuff like that.

Awesome. Now, what about— I know you don’t ride right now, but you used to ride, right?

I've always ridden. Lately, I haven’t ridden at all. In 2017, ’18, and ’19, I was in Sturgis, and that was my favorite place to ride.

So you ride out to Sturgis from here, from Anaheim?

No trailer, and then ride there.

Okay, yeah. But it’s fun out there. Around here, I don’t want to—especially now that I have a two-year-old, my son Jagger. I just wouldn’t even risk it just because of the traffic and stuff. But it’s still a fun hobby of mine; I just don’t have the desire right now to do it.

Yeah, you’re focusing on the family.

Yes, exactly. And your family’s growing, right?

Yes, in November, we’ve got one in the oven!

One in the oven?

We’re sure it’s yours!

See, hope he doesn’t look like the mailman or the FedEx guy!

Yeah, why does he look so much like the FedEx guy who comes into the shop all the time? So, yes, definitely growing and super excited about it.

Heck yeah, man! That’s exciting. So one of the things I think our viewers would want to know is your story and your relationship with Junior, because that’s not exactly a straightforward one.

Oh, that’s a fun one! Yeah, that’s definitely a fun one. So my dad came to me one day and said, “Hey, you want to go to work?” I used to work for my dad at his hydraulic cylinder shop. I hated it—cleaned machines, you know, dunk grease buckets, stuff like that. I said, “I really don’t think I want to.” He said, “It’s something completely different. I’ve got a surprise for you.” He took me over to Junior’s house and literally dropped me off. I didn’t know Junior’s name or anything. Junior invited me in, showed me everything he had—about 25 bikes on his living room floor and then about another 15 in the garage out back. I really didn’t know him, and I was bouncing off the walls, tinkering with stuff. Then he said, “Hey, first project you’re going to do is sweep the driveway.” I grabbed the broom and I was just, you know, not knowing what I was doing—14 or 15 years old, doing this. Junior grabbed the broom from me, swept his whole driveway, and said, “If you’re gonna do something, you do it right, every single time, 100%.” And it’s not a small driveway; it’s like a 100-foot driveway! I stood right by his side, and he swept his whole driveway for half a day. Just one of the lessons he taught me.

So that was how many years ago?

In ’99 or 2000. So it’s been 25 years, roughly. That was when we were doing it out of his house. Our first shop was the building next door, and then by the end of that, we had all the buildings next door. Now we’re in our two-story mega store.

We owned the entire building next door at one point, yes.

Okay, wow! And then we moved into this building.

This building. And who knows what’s next?

Yeah. All right, so changing gears here, you have a number of sayings that you spit out every once in a while here at the shop. So, if you were to, when you pass away, what do you want written? Do you want any of those sayings written on your gravestone? What’s the one you always talk about?

You woke up funny, funny as [__], handsome as ever! That’s one of my best ones yet!

Yeah, so we got this comment on one of our videos of you. Do you remember the CVO? You were backing it out of the service section, and you were wearing pants because it was winter.

Okay, and it actually says—do you want to read it out loud?

“Are both legs artificial? More power to them!”

I’ve never seen that! So you’re backing up the bike and your legs are pushing against your jeans, and it looks like there are two—apparently, there are two artificial legs backing up the bike!

I’ve never seen that! That’s the first time I’ve seen it.

Okay, so what do you have to say about that?

Both of them are real!

Yeah, both of them are real!

Okay, here they are! Otherwise, those are some damn good-looking prosthetic legs!

Get sticks!

All right, so Sparky, talk to us. Tell the audience here, what is your goal with Lifestyle Cycles?

Well, right now Junior’s been teaching me little aspects in every department, and I’m slowly learning to run the actual place. It’s something I thrive for, and that’s why I’m so eager to be at work all the time. I have fun with it; it’s not like I wake up not wanting to come to work. It is a fun place to work. I’m here on my days off every time, and I love it here. It’s challenging learning everything, and I’m looking forward to it. That way, I have a legacy for my kids.

That’s right! So Junior’s kind of mentoring you so that you can then take over and then who knows what happens after that?

Exactly. At least learn how to run it, that way he can have a couple days off. We got to get Jagger in Debbie’s office so he can start learning accounting!

So that he can fast forward!

Debbie scares Jagger!

So, what if you got a day off, which doesn’t really exist in your life because you’re here all the time? But if you had the proverbial day off, what would that look like for you?

With my son all day, and my girlfriend Andrea, and my son Jagger. Start off at the beach, and then from there, go to Dave & Buster’s. Then from there, go to swim class, then ice cream, then dinner.

How’s Jagger doing swimming?

He’s doing really good. It’s kind of funny when we take him to swim classes because normally it’s one parent sitting there watching their son in swim class. If you go to Jagger’s swim class, you’ve got Sweet Junior, Penny, Grandma Naomi—the whole Lifestyle family. Mom, Dad—so it’s three rows of people cheering for Jagger, and everybody else is looking at us like we’re crazy because there’s only one parent there!

He’s a popular kid; he’s very loved!

Yes, he is!

Yeah, so why did you get duct-taped to the pole? What did you do?

Smart! My M.O. came in. You know, obviously back in the day, I was a little bit more cocky—not so professional, per se. I was being a cocky wiseass in the morning to all the mechanics and Mikey in the back, and Junior walked by. He said, “[__] it! Just tape him to the pole if you want to get rid of him.”

So how did they do that?

Did two guys grab me, and the other ones just ran around me with duct tape nonstop?

Did they put some around your mouth?

No, no, no. They didn’t do that. They gave me a bottle of water, and I sat there for