Speed & Kolor
Speed & Kolor is your window into custom motorcycle culture. There are so many wildly creative and deeply passionate characters in the world of custom motorcycles and so many great stories to be told. Bruce offers different perspectives on many topics while he shares his passion for motorcycles. The host brings you fun, casual conversations with all kind of custom motorcycle enthusiasts to entertain and inspire you. He’ll also bring you information on the latest trends and products to keep you up to speed. There’ll be tips, tricks and techniques to make your custom bike experience even better. Bruce also covers motorcycle shows and events locally, across the country and around the world. Tune in, kick back and enjoy a new episode of Speed & Kolor on your favourite podcast platform every second week. Speed & Kolor is also available on YouTube, @speedandkolor, on the same schedule. Follow Speed & Kolor (@speedandkolor) on Instagram for breaking news and all the latest updates.
Speed & Kolor
Behind Bars - HellBent Metal Workz
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
HellBent Metal Workz is a Canadian manufacturer of high quality handlebars, crashbars, and other accessories for Harley-Davidson motorcycles. Lance and his team also take on specialty engine work and custom modifications. If you're interested in a full custom, ground up build you might find HellBent would take on your project, but you'd be a very exclusive group as HellBent only does a couple of these each year.
Lance has been building custom motorcycles and accessories for decades. This man is passionate about building and riding motorcycle. More than that, Lance doesn't just love motorcycles, he cares a great deal about everyone around motorcycles. I have to admit to be surprised by the level of respect Lance gives to everyone involved with any aspect of motorcycles. He doesn't have an ill word about anybody. Lance doesn't just avoid the politics of the motorcycle community, rather he is aware and cares enough to be careful not to offend anyone. Lance is just a likeable sort with a great sense of humour.
If you have any questions for Lance or about HellBent Metal Workz, please leave us a comment and we'll be sure to follow up with you.
As always, we greatly appreciate your support by subscribing, giving us a thumbs up, and leaving a comment.
Follow Speed & Kolor on Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/speedandkolor/ or within the Instagram app, @speedandkolor to get all the latest news and information.
Speed & Kolor is also on YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQgtch0bqBTGgDRcaFK-4oQ for video versions of each podcast episode.
Welcome to Speed and Color, a podcast and YouTube channel about custom motorcycle culture. Be sure to subscribe and turn on notifications to get all the latest content. You can also follow Speed and Color on Instagram. We hope you enjoy the show.
SPEAKER_02I don't have anything past the back wheel of that motorcycle.
SPEAKER_01So do you want to come sit here and do this?
SPEAKER_02Okay. Well, this camera is doing both of us. Okay. I'm in the shot on this one, but I'm mainly. And I'm not supposed to look at those, right? Is that the end? Oh no, you are.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah, yeah. Cat's been walking me through this. No, no.
SPEAKER_02You can you can talk directly to people. Uh, if you look at the camera, then whoever's watching the video is gonna feel like you're speaking directly at it. Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_01I was told not to look directly at it, but oh no. I better, you know what? We're not worried. Can you go grab two Popsberry before we get started? We'll just keep them out of camera range just in case we uh or I should say because I'm nervous as hell in case I run out. Are we uh what's the rules on this?
SPEAKER_02There are no rules. Okay.
SPEAKER_01This is uh Well, I didn't know like you did cop like see I can't do these for anybody but Calgary. Because I'm not a licensed.
SPEAKER_02Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Like just about like, you know, about copyright and shit if there's rules or whatever.
SPEAKER_02Nope. No, we're wide open. We're doing uh we're doing an interview.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_02And uh oh, I'll just hide them.
SPEAKER_01I don't you probably can't see them there. Uh case we're only one life is an emergency. Oh, I can always get more. That's never been an issue. We've never had them go bad here either.
SPEAKER_02You know, I think uh you may have picked up on it. What I'm really doing is trying to capture some Canadian manufacturers and and just you know show people that there is a lot right here in Canada. Um if some Americans get turned on to some stuff, that's great. But mainly for Canadians, and that's what I was telling you about uh Sean at SNS Customs. I mean, that guy is unbelievable.
SPEAKER_01What is he, frames or no?
SPEAKER_02He's Springer front ends, frames, northern springers, another guy, Saskatchewan. He I want to catch up with him.
SPEAKER_01That guy is well that's what's cool when I built my chopper. I'll use his yeah front end because he's local and yeah, he Yeah, he does beautiful work. Yeah, they're made here.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and uh, you know, Sean Sean's an innovator, he's got uh a soft tail frame for a sportster. Uh he's working on a soft tail setup for an XS650. Okay. Uh he does XS 650 hardtail kits, does them with either they're either the um what's the stock axle 20 mil or the three-quarter Harley axle.
SPEAKER_01I think yeah, I had you um there for one day just while I was working, and I think I heard that one.
SPEAKER_02So he he just he dreams stuff up and he's got a plasma cutter. I mean, he works in a space probably two-thirds of your shop, like if you were to cut it off at that wall over there, and it's just packed with stuff, unbelievable. But but everything's organized, it's clean, there's room for one motorcycle in there at a time, and uh he's just uh and his welding.
SPEAKER_01Oh my god, it's that's kind of where I started one of my people never see it without before. Because you know, when it gets powder coded, you never actually see the although it was got rained on.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, but those are nice.
SPEAKER_01But yeah, I that's I mean we had one who was it Holt didn't do the review on ourselves.
SPEAKER_02Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_01I don't know if that caused an issue or because he's sponsored to like I guess a competitor.
SPEAKER_02So I don't know. So anyway, you can talk about whatever you want to talk about. I'm gonna ask you a little bit about background. We're gonna talk about the different types of products you're doing and everything, uh how much you build, you know, just that kind of general information. Okay, you're good?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I well, as good as we're gonna get as good as we're gonna get.
SPEAKER_02I wonder, you know what? I'm gonna move just a little bit closer to you there. There we go. Alright. Hey, welcome to Speed and Color. Here we are today. Uh boy, I wanted to do this episode. I reached out to this man and uh he kinda he kinda put me off for a bit. He said he wanted to check my stuff out, and he checked out the channel, and sure enough, he got back to me and said, Yeah, you know what? Um I'm not used to doing this stuff. Not necessarily thrilled about doing it, but I want to do it and uh I want to give it a try. So we are at Hellbent Metalworks in Cal, well, in Airdrie, and this is Mr. Lance Priest. Lance, thank you for having me. It's great to be here. So yeah, Lance reached out and said, sure, let's do this. And this episode is another one in my, I don't know if you call it a series or what you'd call it, but my attempt to shed light on Canadian manufacturers, if you will. Uh, you know, people in Canada who are doing cool things. Uh the Canadian market is good. Uh the Canadian manufacturers are fantastic. Uh, I know there's a lot of product that goes from here across the border, but there's a lot of it too that serves our our Canadian market. So I am gonna get started with Lance because I can't tell you all about his company. That's up to him. Um Lance, where did where did it get started? How long have you been in business? Uh kind of what's the roots of this?
SPEAKER_01Uh I'm gonna say 30 years ago. We were building bikes, and then life changes, family, kids, take a break. Yep. And then due to circumstances, uh what I was doing I couldn't do anymore, so I got back into it. And it all started with uh, I want a set of bars that work for me. And from there it just kept going and going and going, and people just were asking for more and more stuff, and we just kept building it.
SPEAKER_02Cool. So handlebars were the first product?
SPEAKER_01Yes, yeah, uh yeah, it was uh a streak light handlebar because I couldn't find anything, I wasn't into the a-pangers, so I designed came around the gauges up and it was a straight bar across the top, and that's where it all started.
SPEAKER_02Cool.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, Dinah guys wanted crash bars, and yeah, I just started making, started building.
SPEAKER_02Good. So, what what are you into now in terms of product? So we started with handlebars. I know the the what do you call those for the stunt guys, the crash bars or whatever. Um, you know, the whole FXR thing must be big for you.
SPEAKER_01Oh, we do crash bars for just about every model. FXR is up to the new bikes, brand new bikes. Uh handlebars for up to the new bikes, T-bars. Uh we do plate holders lay down on the fender for dinas and sporties, uh, rear sliders. We've got quite a few products now. I'm gonna say probably three pages of stuff. Good. Different, like different handlebars, different crash bars. Okay, but we've covered just about every model.
SPEAKER_02Body protection stuff. Are you into that?
SPEAKER_01Uh well, crash bars.
SPEAKER_02Crash bars, but front, rear, everything.
SPEAKER_01Yep, we do front and rear, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Uh pegs, floorboards, anything like that?
SPEAKER_01steel than C and C machine. I'm still like the old school of bending, welding, rather than punching it into a CNC machine. Okay. Still a little more hands-on. We uh most of all the stuff is done old school, mocked up on a bike. We I don't use any real CAD programs or anything. It's no CAD stuff for you, Lance? Nope. Nope. It is all test uh cut bent. Does that work? Does that work? Some of them take us, some take me probably a month before I'm done, because it's all done by hand, trial and error. Yep. No, yeah, no computer drawings. Uh or the originals on a beerbox, actually. Still on a still on the back of a beer box. And yeah, stuff. I gotta go through pieces of paper everywhere to remember what it what it was and what the bend was. And it's uh we'd just stepped up from a manual bender not too long ago.
SPEAKER_02Right. You were showing me the new one over here.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, programmable bender now with an indexing head, but before that it was still I put hydraulics on it, but I started with the manual bending each one. And this makes a big difference? It's more accurate and consistent. Right. Because it's an electronic motor, so there's no endplay at either so a time saver. Yeah, time and consistency. Good. When you're now that we're producing at a higher level, consistency's a little more important, a little less stuff going out in the metal bit.
SPEAKER_02Right. Right. Good. Uh you mentioned three pages of products. Um, where would somebody find those? Oh, we've got a website. Okay.
SPEAKER_01Um www.hellbentmw or mwmc.com.
SPEAKER_02Mwmc.
SPEAKER_01Metalworks Motorcycles.com. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And works is spelled with a Z at the end, correct? Or is it an S?
SPEAKER_01It's just uh Hellbent Mwmc.com.
SPEAKER_02No website, but uh right. Oh, for your name for social media and everything. Yeah, it is with a Z. Okay. Yeah, that's good.
SPEAKER_01I think Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. Uh yep, there's no we have a TikTok too. I'm not a real big social media person. Oh, I hear you. I hear you.
SPEAKER_02No, it's a game for sure.
SPEAKER_03Um so there compared to uh every 45 minutes.
SPEAKER_02We're in a live shop, so there you go. Uh you um you mentioned the website. Can you order online? Yes. Oh, you can order online.
SPEAKER_01Order online, shipping, everything's done online. Uh we've also got lots of dealers now, all over. You can buy stuff in BC.
SPEAKER_02That's the other thing I was gonna ask you is if you were putting stuff into stores.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, there's in Calgary, uh Saskatchewan. We've got dealers out there. Uh great. You can yeah, go to your local shop, and most of them have access to it now. Good. Um, or you can yeah, you can just order direct off the website as well.
SPEAKER_02Right. And custom orders, would do you do custom stuff?
SPEAKER_01That's gonna be emailed. Like we can do, yeah, we tons of custom stuff as well. Right.
SPEAKER_02Obviously, you can't do it online, it probably doesn't work very well that way.
SPEAKER_01But and depending on what people are looking for. A lot of times we have to have the bike here.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_01If we're doing depending on what custom work we're doing, right? But it's if the bike's not here, you're kind of guessing at what you're doing and whether it's gonna fit. Right. So, yeah, custom work, bike's pretty much gotta be here, but yeah, we'll do any custom work.
SPEAKER_02Okay. So you are bending and plasma cutting and welding and doing all of that stuff. What about finishing?
SPEAKER_01Powder coating.
SPEAKER_02Everything's powder coating. Okay, no, no chrome options.
SPEAKER_01We've done a few chrome, but it it's cost. Yes. It's uh getting it done here is very expensive.
SPEAKER_02Chrome has become very expensive, yes.
SPEAKER_01We've done a few stainless and polish it. It worked out a little less money than chrome, but with crash bars, I like to use DOM tubing. Okay. So I have the mill certs and everything. I know the material is good. It's not uh yeah, I know it's gonna hold up and do what it's supposed to do.
SPEAKER_02Okay. So everything's powder coated, or or just about everything is powder coated. Um colors are everything we do is black.
SPEAKER_01Everything if you want a custom color, we can do it. We just have to find out how much it's gonna be, what the color is, and yeah, we can get custom. We've done last year at Renegade, we had a bike there with purple, custom powder coated ones, and a bike with chrome.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_01That he had his chrome, both baggers, so front and rear crash bars, and they both came out.
SPEAKER_02Cool. Cool. And I notice I don't think I see uh a powder coating booth anywhere.
SPEAKER_01No, it's uh that's we've we've tried and used a few here and there. Uh it's it's a powder coating's a tough one.
SPEAKER_02It is.
SPEAKER_01It's uh and I get it, they're busy. It's and we're in Alberta, so oil always oil field work takes precedence over motorcycles. So yeah, we've used a few. Um yeah, we've had good luck with some, not good luck with some.
SPEAKER_02It's uh but you've got somebody now that you use steady.
SPEAKER_01Um well, yeah, we've been through we've used quite a few. Um I'm not saying 100% yet, but yes, we're happy with where where it's at right now. Right. Good. It's yeah, powder coating's definitely a different different knock.
SPEAKER_02It's it is. Uh, you know, I had a talk with Brent at PFX about this on uh on another episode. And I used to own a powder coating shop back uh when was that? Early 90s, I guess. Yeah, would have been early 90s. Uh Bearcoat Canada. And back then it was you know, powder coating was just up and coming, and there was lots of off-road stuff done and big bumpers and everything. And there's there were just a few shops around that were getting into custom and smaller stuff. And we were doing some work for oil and gas and and doing some work for uh CN Rail, actually, doing uh black boxes for them, the recorder boxes, different things like that. And I I love powder coating because I was in the business. I'm also a painter, so I I love paint. Uh, and there's things you can do in paint that you can never do in in powder coat, but the the the issue, if you want to call it an issue, that's maybe not the right word. The challenge I have with powder coating is done right, the stuff is amazing. Done wrong, it is junk. It is awful. And you know, there's so many things, simple things like uh, you know, on a on a container of powder, uh the specs will be on there, and the manufacturer will say, cure at this temperature for this many minutes. And novices will will get in there, they get the powder on the piece, they throw it in the oven, and they set the timer for the number of minutes on the on the container. That's not what the manufacturer is talking about. That number is with the substrate at temperature. So it's not an air temperature of 425, let's say, it's the aluminum or the steel at 425, and the trick for powder coaters is knowing in a given oven, whatever uh you know, whatever heat source you're using, how long does it take to get the substrate to the cure temperature? And the the difference will be in the end that if you just use the cure time given at air temperature, you'll you'll touch that thing and it'll chip. Powder will chip off of it like nothing. If it's been cured with the substrate at temperature, that bond is is unbelievable. You you won't hurt that stuff. So that that's one of my challenges with powder coating is you know, I see some stuff and and yeah, it's right on. Then I see other stuff and I see how easy it chips or scratches and whatever.
SPEAKER_01And I think I mean uh smooth, how thick it is, right? Uh when our stuff's hanging in the dealership, we can't have subpar appearance.
SPEAKER_02And that's another thing that uh actually Sean and I talked about is um I guess they didn't call it this when I was in the business, but I guess now they call it hot flocking. And what that refers to is they take the material that's being coated and they warm it up in the oven. Oh, and now when you spray powder at it, the powder uh it sticks, but it sticks because it's starting to melt as soon as it hits the hot substrate. So now you're building thickness based on heat, not based on electricity. And it's electrical charge. So if if you have a setup, and Sean's is very good by the way, and I've seen lots of them that are good, if you have the right setup and the powder, the equipment is working, and the powder is being charged correctly, then the attraction between the substrate and the powder is good, and it will go on very even because that attraction will only allow it to get so thick. So you get a nice even coat. Uh, you know, for anybody who's in the powder coating business, new to it, whatever, that carbide black, that fine, fine texture, that stuff that will show how good you are every time. Because if it's on at an even thickness and the right thickness, flat almost. Flat, and it just has a little bit of texture or grit to it. Um, really popular with uh aluminum panels for race cars, that kind of stuff. When you get that stuff right, it's just a beautiful finish. But boy oh boy, if you try and play games with heat or anything, you get it a little bit thick, it just looks it almost looks like that vein powder that they do, you know, that textured vein look, and it and it gets thick and ugly. And so, you know, there's a lot of things. If a shop is doing it right, like you you found out, if a shop's doing it right, it's a beautiful product. But boy, oh boy, you gotta make sure that you get the application and the cure time right to really make it work.
SPEAKER_01We yeah, there's been lots of we've had orange peel, we've yeah, we've had lots of different situations with it, and it's yeah, you gotta maybe I'm a perfectionist, but uh it's it's uh it's my product, and I want it to look good at the end of the day.
SPEAKER_02And your product is good. That's what I've spent the time. Your product is fantastic.
SPEAKER_01It's a shame to have bad powder on it and make the whole thing look bad. So yeah, it's taken a bit. And I mean that would be maybe our next step in years to come is to start doing our own powder, but that's a whole nother uh well again, it's a big step.
SPEAKER_02You want to make sure you get it right. And there there is an outlay, you know, an oven and and a gun, quality equipment. Uh doesn't come real cheap, uh, you know, but you can certainly there's lots of people who have gotten into it. I know Sean uh he's he's happy he spent the money and did it. It gives him so much control over his springer front ends and doing the parts and doing them when he needs to and all that kind of stuff. Um so you know it it can benefit your production for sure.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, another step, more people. It's uh we're we're uh slowly. I mean, uh honestly, I didn't think we'd be here at this point now.
SPEAKER_02Speaking of people, how many people are working here?
SPEAKER_01None. None, no, my except Lance. Yeah, my son comes in at night and helps out sometimes. Uh my parents come and do the books. Yeah. And uh they do some running around for me and uh you're once uh yeah so I'm still the one driving to the events and coming home and still building everything when I get back.
SPEAKER_02Now it's speaking of events, you you seem to be very active in the community. Do you do a lot of events every summer? I do.
SPEAKER_01I try to do as many as I can. Uh I try to do them in a different way. I don't uh like I want to be there, I want to help them. If they're doing a ride, I'm gonna go on a ride. Like I'm not there just to vend. It's uh I want to be part of the community. I'm small, I want to help out the other small places, and I think we need more of that in our community rather than just sponsoring. Uh, I'd rather just go. I mean, we still sponsor a lot of stuff, but I want to be there.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_01I want to, yeah, I want to talk to people, I want to ride with different people, I want to see what's going on out there. Right. Because you don't get out of this being solo worker. You know, yeah, you don't get out of the shop very often.
SPEAKER_02So no, well, it's a you know, it's a big load if uh if you're doing everything uh and you're the only guy here and you're trying to do events. Now, hopefully your your dealers or distributors, whatever your term for them is, uh, you know, hopefully if they're getting out to shows, then you can just kind of be that support for them to show up and offer what you can, right?
SPEAKER_01We do take our take the tent and I get help usually for the shows uh in events because they get that gets to be quite a bit in the summer too here. Yeah, spending a lot of time in a truck. It's uh drag and trailer around, yeah. Uh yeah starts doing it.
SPEAKER_02Now you were just out to Kelowna.
SPEAKER_01Yes.
SPEAKER_02What was the event in Kelowna?
SPEAKER_01Uh it was Paul Cycle's 10th anniversary.
SPEAKER_02Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_01Uh we just I just I didn't set up as vendor. I I went out to help them. Uh we did a silent auction for a crash bar and gave it, donated it to the uh kids sports, I believe they were is who they were putting in donating from the event. And he's another small shop, great guy. Uh that's just how I like the community. Like doing things in the community. There's a lot of stuff they don't really need our help. The little guys are the ones generally that you know need the help. They don't have a whole wall full of products. Right. So when you come out and help them out, it it makes a big difference.
SPEAKER_02Sure.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. It uh it really helps them, and I mean, honestly, it helps me too. If that's yeah, I'm just like being in the community, I guess. Never did this really for any other reason than I love it. Oh, there you go. Like I never did this to to yeah.
SPEAKER_02I think that's why most of us are here. Yeah, it's uh there's easier ways to make a living.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah, yeah, there definitely is. There's especially in Alberta. Yeah, yeah, yeah. For me, it's passion. It's uh I don't do this for the money, I don't like it's yeah, it's just what I love to do. Motorcycles are part of my life, and it's that's never gonna change. Right.
SPEAKER_02So speaking of that passion, uh, the other thing that I think you do a little bit of here, and and you can tell me how much, uh, you seem to do some builds. And and and I'm I'm not gonna call you a builder because I know from our talk before we got started here that you you might have an issue with the term builder.
SPEAKER_01I mean, I and I can say that we a lot of stuff we do build. Uh there's yeah, most of our it may not be big noticeable stuff, but when you start looking at some of the builds, you'll see little things here and there that we've done in here that we make our selves. Right. Uh so let me ask you, do you consider yourself a builder? Yes, I'm gonna say yes, because I can do from the frame up. I still got a frame jig upstairs. I can, yeah, we can build a bike from the frame up. The white last one, it was a full-build frame, pair frame.
SPEAKER_02Was that the the white and purple one you were talking about?
SPEAKER_01And that was a full build, and there was a ton of little stuff. I mean, and what kind of bike was that? Road glide. Uh 2015 road glide.
SPEAKER_022015? Yep. And you said uh the engine in that was uh twin cam.
SPEAKER_01Uh was 124, about it was about 160 horse.
SPEAKER_02Naturally aspirated, no turbo.
SPEAKER_01Uh yeah, we had brake suspension, and then a lot of little fab, like tons of little stuff, fairing mount, invisible fairing mount, uh the tank, there was no dash on it. We'd skin the tank, and then I had to build a fab machine to piece to cover the fuel pump. There was a ton of little stuff, but that's not noticeable. Right. Anyway, I mean the bike was built to fit me. Uh some, I mean, we don't build everyone, but some are just bolt-on parts that come in here and paint jobs, but we do build a lot of different stuff, right? We've done bars for victories, hondas, complete out-of-the-world jobs too. Just kind of look at uh wow. Um, okay, yeah, we'll we'll do that, but right everything's hand done in here. It's uh I don't know if they can use 60. That's 67 right there, my big baby. Yeah, 1967. It's so you can see it still gets used.
SPEAKER_02They last forever.
SPEAKER_01I wouldn't buy there's no way I'd get it. I would never buy a new one. There are new ones in lighter. Yeah. Yeah, it's yeah.
SPEAKER_02That's that's the girl that's well and I I didn't tell you, but we will get a look around the shop because that's a 360 camera that I have set up over there. So it's actually taken a video of everything here while we're doing this. Um I hope that's not a security issue. Uh quick eye. Yeah, but uh, you know, when it comes to mills, ladies, all that stuff, it's amazing how long that stuff lasts.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah. And if you buy uh I don't know how to explain it, you you get what you pay for with the tools. Right. It's uh same as in the boxes that's at Snap on Mac. I mean, you get you get what you pay for. There is some stuff, it's a like you don't need to spend the money, but if you're using it every day, you gotta you're gonna have to fork out or it's not gonna last. Yep. And you're not gonna get the results. It's you're right. Yeah, it's uh yeah, that's one thing that I hate. Our princess autos should be all shut down.
SPEAKER_02Um well, I used to be a snap-on franchisee. Okay. Uh I had actually an area just north of here, uh Didsbury Olds, out to Three Hills, that rural area out there. And uh you know what? I sold the most expensive tools in the world, and I never had a problem with it. Uh, never felt bad about it. They are, I mean, they are just the standard. And we used to say, and it really is true, if you ask anybody who works professionally what tools they would most like to have in their box if money was no no concern. Money's not a factor. What do you want in your toolbox? 99% of them will tell you snap on.
SPEAKER_01From the 60s.
SPEAKER_02Yep.
SPEAKER_01That was my grandpa's came to me from my dad, and our snap-on guy got it all rebuilt, and it's still here on the bench.
SPEAKER_02Lance, you have you have no idea how many kits I've put in these ratchet holes.
SPEAKER_01We had a hard time actually finding this kit. That one might be getting kind of old. Yeah, yeah. But yeah, it's, I mean, lifetime warranty. Yeah, there's there's a lifetime warranty. There was no charge, they rebuilt it and sent it back.
SPEAKER_02You know, there are some tool manufacturers out there who can offer lifetime warranty simply because the stuff isn't worth anything. Well, yeah, so it's easy enough to replace it because it doesn't cost you anything. Snap-on, you know, there's a lot of people, something I used to tell people that uh a lot of people are surprised at, is the length of time to make a snap-on wrench. Now, they come off the conveyor constantly. Yep. Right? But from start to finish, five days to make a single wrench.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I can see that.
SPEAKER_02And and they're they're beautiful. When you look at the features and the benefits and the the engineering that goes into them and you know, all that stuff, they don't loser value. No.
SPEAKER_01I mean, it's they're they are truly an investment.
SPEAKER_02The box end of a wrench. Well, you can the easiest way to manufacture that box end is to line up one of the points straight down the handle. That's the easiest way to set it up. And you might you might say, well, yeah, that makes sense. That would be the easiest way to do it. The problem with that is when you turn that wrench over, it's in exactly the same position. So it doesn't offer you any benefit. What Snapon does is they take that point and they move it seven and a half degrees, I believe it is. So now your 12-point box actually gives you 24 different positions in a circle. So it's it's that kind of stuff. That's what you're paying for in a snap-on.
SPEAKER_01And honestly, coming here. Like if something breaks, your phone, you're not running around to standing in line to see customer service and wasting a whole day, they just come here.
SPEAKER_02There's not much door-to-door stuff anymore. The Fuller Brush Man is gone and the Avon lady and all the rest of that, right? Yeah, the fact that the one thing that's still out there. And you know what? Kudos to Matko and Mac and all the rest of them. Uh, what's the US one? Corn Cornwall Cornwall? Cornwall? Anyway. Um you know what? That is the one business that still thrives on door-to-door service. Uh, and it's very cool. It's it's a great industry. I I had I had a good time uh when I had my franchise.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Uh yeah, just you're in talking to people. It's yeah.
SPEAKER_02It's a cool thing to do. Uh so how many builds would you do typically in a year?
SPEAKER_01Maybe one or two. Okay, so building them. We don't uh it well, it's finding the time. Right. It's the parts I've picked up where I mean we I sit here for endless hours welding and bending. So finding a time to do full builds gets starts cutting into things.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Uh as we grow.
SPEAKER_02I see you do have a couple lifts. Yep.
SPEAKER_01We uh well this and more this is more service work.
SPEAKER_02So I was gonna say service work is something you do uh a little bit on. Tiny bit.
SPEAKER_01We know. Um it's a hard uh yeah, we don't we're not really open for oil changes, and it's more people we know coming in and getting stuff done.
SPEAKER_02So more installation of your project uh products and special projects, and builds like motor work.
SPEAKER_01Okay, like that's I mean, the one sitting there, it's got over 400,000 on it. Wow, and it just started burning oil, but that uh because there was rings broken, but but yeah, we're that's all that's getting a top end on it. Uh this one, I believe 120. And the V-Rod was we've been working on that one for a while because nobody else would do it. Um, I guess the owner, one of the teachers up at Fairview, told the owner to bring it here because we were the only ones that'd be able to do what we what he wanted done to it. Nice. Good stuff. So yeah, we built a crash bar and now we have a V-Rod crash bar. There you go. Good. And it's yeah, we've kind of turned it into a dyna looking T-bars on it, a fairing on it. Right. Changed.
SPEAKER_02And that that custom stuff, when you do that, do you document that so that you can recreate that part?
SPEAKER_01Uh the crash bars I did built a threw a quick jig together for the crash bars, because it there's still a lot of those bikes in Europe. So who knows? I mean, right. We've sent stuff over to Japan. Oh, is that right? Gate just gauge covers for dynatanks. We make plate that covers the gauges when they move them up onto the bars. All right. So who yeah. What about the US? Doing much into the US? We do some into the U.S. We don't uh right now we need to work on our website because we don't have a US converter. Oh, okay. So they think our prices are astronomical. Which they're not. Yeah, they're not taking either. They're not looking at the dollar difference. Uh so hopefully we'll get a bit more once we get the website that'll switch it over. Okay. Get the website figured out. But that's again another. Head me back here.
SPEAKER_02Oh, that it's that website design. Holy smokes. That's uh that's almost as lucrative as oil and gas. That's one of my cameras shutting down.
SPEAKER_01Okay, okay.
SPEAKER_02I was like, uh So now we're done with the 360. It just shut off.
SPEAKER_01Oh, that's the one that does the whole shop. Yeah, it's uh time, time and money. And I think you'd lose it if you got too big. Yes. You'd lose the I'm still a people person. I still like to go out and ride.
SPEAKER_02I still I just Well, yeah, balance. You gotta have you gotta have life and work, and it has to be in balance.
SPEAKER_01Oh, it's I it is it's a lifestyle. Yeah, there's I mean, you have guys that work at Harley that don't ride, and then there's guys that don't work in the industry and ride when they're not working. Here, it's both like it is truly a lifestyle. When I'm not working, I'm generally riding, or I'm at an event before riding. So it's a it never stops. And I have no idea. I love it. Yeah, I have no issues with it. Good. It's yeah, when you do what you love, they say it's makes it a lot easier. Sure does never really working. Yeah, well, I that one I might uh I might argue with that one a little bit. Yeah. The sleepless nights uh driving and then working all day.
SPEAKER_02So uh builds, what do you got coming up? Like you said, this was a new bike, but you sound like you're not gonna be a little bit more. We're gonna do it really through it.
SPEAKER_01Uh I'm gonna try and leave it so that I have something to just get on and ride.
SPEAKER_02Uh the next build just so the folks who are listening to the podcast know what is this that we just talked about?
SPEAKER_01Uh 2025 Roguelide.
SPEAKER_02Okay. So this this is a pretty new.
SPEAKER_01Is it a brand new bike? Yeah, brand new bike. Came with five. I had 250 kilometers on it as all. Oh, okay. Uh, the next build build will be a chopper. Uh new, new, new school, old school chopper. That's what I'm getting. That's yeah, that's the easiest way to tell us more. Well, I it'll uh it'll be in the frame jig. It's gonna be back to old school building. Uh no stress, it's gonna go up and derate, injected. What kind of front end? It'll be a springer from Canadian distributor. Are we? I don't know if we're allowed. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Absolutely. Yeah, okay. So northern springer is where the front end will come from when we get to that point.
SPEAKER_02But it's uh and you know what? I gotta tell you, I don't even know that man's name. I feel terrible about that. Um, but I have looked at his work and I've been told by I've been told by several people that his stuff is just just unbelievable. Oh, yeah. And and looking at it, I can see that yeah, the quality is certainly there. Uh so he he seems to be a unique kind of individual. Um, I I understand, and oh boy, I hope I don't get hate mail on this, but I understand he is indigenous. Oh uh and this is I I I I don't know how that ties into anything other than I was told he's indigenous. Now I don't know if uh I I believe he's north of Winnipeg.
SPEAKER_01I believe I'm not even he's Saskatchewan or Winnipeg or Manitoba.
SPEAKER_02I'm not sure which province he's I think it lists him as being in Winnipeg, okay, but he's actually north of Winnipeg. Anyway, I would love to know more about him. If anybody knows how to connect me with him, him with me. I don't know if a guy of that caliber has any time for a guy of my caliber, but you know, maybe you never know. I'll even travel out there to see him. But uh, but yeah, beautiful work, beautiful stuff.
SPEAKER_01It's yeah, it's I'm gonna try and use as much around here.
SPEAKER_02Rear rear suspension.
SPEAKER_01It will. It's uh it will, yes. Yeah, the well, a soft tail.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_01It'll be a soft tail. Uh I'll build a different soft tail. Uh it'll be modern, but all the square tubing will be cut out. It'll be I'm gonna we gotta sit and plant still. Engine twin camp, uh injected twin camp. Okay. Some of us are similar to this was the first uh step for me out of the I fought fought the uh leaving twin cam for quite a while. I remember back in the day fighting injection.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and then I rode one over the past and I was like, huh. And yeah, but I fought it for a long time too. Right. So yeah, it'll be twin cam based. Uh it's yeah, there's cool. It's uh well we'll look forward to seeing that. That sounds really cool. And back like back to old school. Instead of yeah.
SPEAKER_02Out of curiosity, what do you got for a frame jig?
SPEAKER_01Uh I made it years ago. Oh, is that right?
SPEAKER_02It's made your own.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's up under getting dusty under our shipping shipping hurry up there, but you don't really use them anymore.
SPEAKER_02Well, you don't use them that often, but boy, when you do use them, it's never nice to have that thing.
SPEAKER_01Well, I've done a we built, I built a bunch of pedal bikes too. Oh, okay. And it I used it for that. Uh just yeah, I just changed up some stuff to hold it.
SPEAKER_02So when did you do the pedal bike thing? This you see, this is something else we're learning.
SPEAKER_01I did, I don't know, my daughter wanted a bike and I like big old low rider pedal bike. So yeah, I guess.
SPEAKER_02It was never a production thing.
SPEAKER_01No, no, it was just uh I'm bored, let's roll a piece of tube and put it on top. Yeah, that looks good. Uh yeah, that's that's exactly what it was.
SPEAKER_02Excellent.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, never production, never really anything other than fun.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_01And are a lot less to build than that.
SPEAKER_02Oh yeah, then for sure. For sure. Um lot of Harley stuff going on. Do you do any metric or we haven't?
SPEAKER_01I just don't have time. Right. It's uh I know I'm probably gonna have to step into the Indian world. Uh they're getting a little more popular, but again, it's having time. And when a new bike comes out, we need a donor. So I can build it, and it could take up three weeks. Yeah. So a lot of guys don't want to leave their bike for three weeks to use as a right. As a project, I guess.
SPEAKER_02That's what I was gonna ask you about. You mentioned Indian, and that reminded me about the tariff situation. And uh I understand, I've I've heard in the industry that Indian has stopped shipping new bikes to Canada at this point. Uh, as far as we know, Harley Davidson has not. Uh Harley Davidson, I think, loaded up Canadian dealers and any warehouse that Harley has here with models to get ahead of the tariffs. I I don't know where Indian stands on that. I work for Honda, okay. Uh, which I maybe I've never said that before. Um, I do work for Honda Canada. Uh so I know in in our case, there's nothing manufactured in the U.S. and our bikes all come from offshore, so there's no no no immediate issue for us. Uh but in your business, being that you got to deal with raw materials, steel, aluminum, whatever, uh, and then of course your US customers, that kind of stuff, tariffs any kind of an issue for you yet?
SPEAKER_01It's been up and down. I mean, the tariffs really aren't put into play a lot of them. Yeah, yeah, they're not there. A lot of people are saying the tariffs are there. Uh, I mean, that's just a game.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01It it'll play. It it has a bit. Some stuff, duties have gone up.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_02No.
SPEAKER_01Tariff, but duties have gone up.
SPEAKER_02Material costs? Are you seeing anything there? Actually, or is most of it Canadian?
SPEAKER_01Material's gone up a bit. Okay. But we had such a huge hit during COVID.
unknownOh.
SPEAKER_01That it's it's gone up a bit.
SPEAKER_02So this seems pretty mild in comparison.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. But it's still, I mean, everything. Everything lately, whether it's needed to or not. I mean, if our coating went up, steel went up, it's uh I guess everything's gotta go up.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_02Well, it's yeah, it's going to.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's uh everything's gone up. Some not as much as others. But it's the little stuff that I've been noticing, like end mills. I mean, I've got drawers of those, those add up real quick. Uh they've all it's duties that have gone up. Not there's no tariffs, right? But customs and duties at the border. Oh, I wonder how has increased on them.
SPEAKER_02Boy, you know, you you gotta be in that world full time to really understand what's going on these days. I don't I don't see how a guy like you or I could even get the time to try and figure it out.
SPEAKER_01It would be never just definitely you'd never know. And where is some of the stuff like if you're getting the machines, is it made in the US? But does it have Chinese parts on? Does it you know? So how do you how are they gonna decide what's tariffed, what isn't? Uh there, yeah, it's it'll be interesting as time goes on, but we never. I mean, it's just world. You wake up in the morning, smile, got another day. Oh, yeah. That's all that's really all that uh all you can do.
SPEAKER_02Don't ever get me wrong. Life is good, man. I I don't care what's going on with governments and everything else. I now I I will admit I follow politics. My my dad followed politics, that's the way I was raised. So I care and I follow it, and I would never ever not vote in an election. However, I certainly don't let it drag me down and I you know I don't stew over it. I think it's interesting, and I move on.
SPEAKER_01I vote, but I don't watch news. I don't uh wake up in the morning, I'm alive. Oh, uh, the alarms haven't gone off, no bomb dropped on the shop. Well, I'm gonna go to work. Uh that's that's pretty that's kind of how the days go. Uh yeah, I don't watch any news.
SPEAKER_02It's and and see I'm I'm I'm a news junkie, but I have I have this ability to listen to it or watch it and go, oh, cool. And go to go to work.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I don't uh well actually I don't really watch much TV.
SPEAKER_02When would you have time, Lance?
SPEAKER_01Uh I'd rather sit, I'd rather be working.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, sit in the U.S. No, absolutely. And and out in Kelowna and at Two-Wheel Sunday, and uh, you know, wherever, wherever.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's well, yeah, and events or I mean I could every weekend if I wanted to. There's a lot of life to live. You gotta you do have to draw a line too. You're not you're hoping you're not hurting anybody's feelings by not going to events, but at a certain point, you gotta have a little bit of your own ride time as well. Away. Like I ride by myself most of the time. Just I mean, everybody's working, that's when I can get a scoot off, so I just go. And I don't mind it. It's uh that's again, that's why I'm here. Yeah, that beautiful two-wheel lifesaver, heaven machines.
SPEAKER_02Uh you know, life life is funny and it it continues to evolve and change, but for me, I'm still working full-time. Uh that's coming to an end this year, uh, later this year, but it's coming to an end. Uh, and you know, I told Karen the other day, I said, I just I'm really looking forward to that sunny morning when I can take my book and go out and sit down on the deck with a coffee and read a book for two hours if I want to, and not not feel any need or compulsion to go do anything else. And and when I'm done that, I'll change my clothes, go to the garage, and do a little welding, do a little grinding, play with something, you know, get something built, and life is gonna be really good.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you can just enjoy that exact moment. Yeah. Instead of having to go do busy off something else. Yeah. That's uh, I mean, I try and do a lot of that even when I rap by myself. Just enjoy it.
SPEAKER_02Oh, absolutely.
SPEAKER_01Nothing I can do out here about anything other than rap. So just go and ride.
SPEAKER_02Excellent. Lance, is there anything else we need to know about you or Hellbent Metal works that I haven't asked you about?
SPEAKER_01I don't think so. We're just uh just here doing our thing. Yeah. I mean, we're uh yeah, just normal dudes building what we like. Like it's it's pretty it's pretty simple. We're not, yeah, that's just it.
SPEAKER_02So if you get a chance at an event, go over, introduce yourself to Lance, meet the man. Um if you have time, go take a look at the website, take a look at the products. Uh again, uh a good quality Canadian manufacturer. I think that's awesome. Uh I'm really happy to know this guy. Uh and speaking of Canadian products, speed and color, tariff free, no issue. Really appreciate you being here. Follow us on Instagram, give us a like, follow us uh or subscribe, I should say, on YouTube. Uh YouTube, we love your comments. If you got questions for Lance, you can certainly steer them through me. Uh give us a thumbs up, turn on notifications. Who knows? Maybe I'll do a build stuff episode or two up here. I'll come and see Lance again. Uh, but we do have the build stuff episodes uh that are uh hopefully give you a little more technical kind of uh kind of information. So lots going on on speed and color. We appreciate you being here. We're gonna be back again in two weeks. Lance, thank you. Thank you. Okay, we'll see you later, folks.