Ramblestream Podcast
Welcome to Ramblestream, the podcast where we share the stories behind our simple, beautiful machines and the people who craft them. Rooted in Northern Indiana’s manufacturing spirit, we explore how we blend timeless, globally sourced components with a personal, built-to-order approach that connects us directly to every rider. Join us for conversations with makers and owners alike as we dive into craftsmanship, community, and the joy of riding something truly your own.
Ramblestream Podcast
Building Community First: How Moto Michigan Redefined the Social Club
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Traditional car and bike clubs operate like elite country clubs for high rolling collectors, leaving everyday enthusiasts isolated in individual residential garages with a pile of parts and nowhere to gather. If we continue to allow local manufacturing history to be bulldozed or white washed into sterile corporate offices, we lose the physical environments where true craftsmanship actually thrives. In this episode, we sit down on location in Ferndale, Michigan with Hunter Erdman, founder of Moto, and custom watchmaker Jay from Motor City Watch Works, to unpack how modern builders are engineering self sustaining, community driven industrial hubs.
We get into the heavy lifting required to transform an abandoned 25,000 square foot aerospace machine shop, which previously manufactured presidential limousine glass and Apache helicopter components, into a multi use compound. Hunter details the strict curation behind their Makers Market, the fine line of managing tool liability via tiered membership add ons, and why the Midwest layout demands an approachable ethos over coastal gatekeeping. We also look at Jay’s unique horizontal integration, moving from automotive CAD design to laser cutting 2mm titanium watch hands and utilizing high resolution DLP 3D printing to test micro clearances before committing to massive factory die expenses. The underlying philosophy here is simple: mechanical objects with a soul require physical proximity to survive, and real community cannot be manufactured through an algorithm.
The actual reality of resurrecting a historic manufacturing site means filling ten 40 yard dumpsters of industrial waste, scrubbing decades of yellowed nicotine off zebra pine paneling in unheated winters, and personally acting as both the digital marketer and the nightly janitor. You walk away from this conversation understanding that a true third space doesn't function on corporate committees, it requires a single captain willing to assume the financial risk so that a broader collective of younger tradespeople and older machinists can find common ground.
If you care about historic preservation, bespoke manufacturing, and the mechanics of motorcycle subcultures, you’ll get a lot from this. Be sure to Subscribe and Share with a fellow rider. What is your local community missing when it comes to an open, ego free space to wrench and gather?
Hello everyone.
SPEAKER_03Welcome to the Ramble Stream Podcast. I'm Richard. And I'm Jansen. Each week we sit down for rambling conversations about motorcycles, the experience of riding, design, and whatever else catches our fancy. Bring a beverage of your choice or stories, and we'll see where this takes us.
SPEAKER_02If you're interested in thoughtful conversations, friendly and informative banter with fellow riders, and the latest dispatches from Janus Motorcycles headquarters, you're in the right place. Let's get started. Alright. Hello everybody, and welcome to a special episode of the Ramble Stream. How's our audio? Audio sounds good. Hunter, you want to talk? That's tests. Oh, that sounds beautiful. That's great. Somebody just fired something up right when we went live.
SPEAKER_03As soon as the countdown ended.
SPEAKER_02Yep, it's about time. Start up and leave. Yeah, it sounded good. We're excited to be here. We'll let everybody introduce themselves. Um, but we are just kind of a uh preview. We are in Detroit. Well, are we in Detroit? We're in Detroit. Ferdale. Ferndale. We call it Detroit-ish. It's Detroit-ish. It's not Detroit proper, though. Correct, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Between eight and nine miles.
SPEAKER_02But we're we're at a uh really cool event here at Odo, Michigan. And I'll let we're gonna talk a lot more about it, but um just get started. Um, my name is Richard Worsham, uh co-founder and head of design at Janus Motorcycles. I ramble with a 1980 Cushman Truckster, a new, as of two days ago, 1999 Ducati 750 Super Sport. Very nice. Just got it. Um I got lucky, I put a battery in it, and it started up. Lucky dog and a 2009 Kaosaki KLR, and a 2017 Halcyon 250 and number 68. Man, what a list of things. Weird stable, but I like it. It's a very strange stable right now. I was looking at all the bikes in the garage, I'm like, wow, I'm a weird guy.
SPEAKER_03There's all the Vespa in there. As you should. With the broken clutch cable. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's fine. What are you drinking though, Richard? I'm drinking water right now. Agua. The only, the only liquid. Uh my name is Jansen. I'm coming to you live also from Moto uh here in uh Detroit-ish. Uh I ramble in a Ford Lightning and soon to be rambling on a Phoenix 450 number four named Fours. I am sipping on uh some white monster. Cheers, everybody.
SPEAKER_01Hunter! I'm Hunter Erdman. I'm the founder of Moto here in Michigan. I am currently rambling my daily uh C10 uh 1986 diesel uh two-wheel drive. Uh an ice shop truck, but uh, you know, 30-footer. Uh my daily ripper uh is a actually 2025 TW200 that I'm stripping down to build to like a cool brand bike for the bit for the brand. Uh inspired by uh Coleman minibikes, which I'm you're it's it's inspired by a Coleman mini. Yeah, I'm stripping it down, doing like a ladder frame on it. It's a whole thing, you know. I'll show you the renders. Sweet. Uh but that'll be the first brand bike for the build, you know, the Deus way of doing things. Um and then I've got a Triumph Bonneville 2009 fake carburetors fuel injected, because I'm lazy like that, you know. And then uh my grandpa's 1968 uh Honda C L 175 that it was sitting right here, but it's on the bike left back there because we're rebuilding the top end that because I blew it up, riding over to work. Nice the proper way to do it, you know. And I'm drinking uh water because I just got back from a bachelor party and uh I desperately needed this water.
SPEAKER_03Cool down a little bit, cool your jets. Uh we got a good show for you guys. It's gonna be kind of uh an abbreviated version, a little bit. Uh we've got another special guest who we just met today and talked to for three minutes, but he's gonna be on the show. We're excited for that. Um Chopper's is in the house. Chopper Ox is here.
SPEAKER_02I guess I meet him in person. So wild. But always it's always interesting to meet uh uh folks that you've only seen as a handle on in real life.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, you you like put a picture next to their username without really meaning to, and then you see them in a very very uh seldom is it the right picture. It's like when you when you are reading a book and you imagine this character, and then you see them in a movie, you're like, I did it wrong. That's not right, that's not right.
SPEAKER_02This guy.
SPEAKER_03You're not the right topper rocks. There's something that's weird here. Um before we get into the show, Richard, it's only right if you give us a poem.
SPEAKER_02Absolutely. So I picked this one for our We Are Detroit-ish. So this is uh by the poet Philip Levine, and it's called An Abandoned Factory in Detroit. The gates are chained, the barbed wire fencing stands, an iron authority against the snow. And this gray monument to common sense resists the weather. Fears of idle hands, of protests of men and lee, and of the slow corrosion of their minds still charge this fence. Beyond, through broken windows, one can see where the great presses pause between their strokes and thus remain, in air suspended, caught in the sure margin of eternity. The cast iron wheels have stopped, one counts the spokes which movement blurred, the strut inertia fought, and estimates the loss of human power, experienced and slow, the loss of years, the gradual decay of dignity. Men lived within these foundries hour by hour, but nothing they forged, it lived the rusted gears which might have served to grind their eulogy. So that's maybe like a poem about Detroit from like 20 years ago. Yeah, yeah, no, it feels like it. But there's there's new things happening here too. New life. We're in the middle of it.
SPEAKER_01In the middle of it right now. Smackdown in the middle of it. Literally in the building of it. Yeah, yeah. That's amazing. That's great.
SPEAKER_02Richard, I I like that one. I like that one too. That was that was a good one. So speaking of inventory 250s, we have five here today. Five. And this is kind of a fun experiment. We've never been in a position where we can um go to a show uh and have all the paperwork ready so that if somebody wants to buy one, lots, they can just load it. What were you what were you doing before? Oh, you'd take an order and then we would build it for you. Wow. So, like we have inventory and we have lots of colors of inventory. Lots. We didn't even bring it all.
SPEAKER_01That's very dangerous for my wallet. Well, you can walk people have told me that right now. Low, low price today.
SPEAKER_03Low, low price of 7495 or whatever our our price is.
SPEAKER_01I love it because honestly, I get overwhelmed by choice. I get, you know, yeah, choice freeze a little bit. Yeah, like like page syndrome.
SPEAKER_02Well, you only have five options to choose from today. Yeah, there's right now. I'm like, actually, I any of them. So that would that that little bit right there, that stood in for builds of the week because those are available right here. Right now. Right now.
SPEAKER_03You want it? You're in Detroit.
SPEAKER_02You're in Detroit. You can you can ride it.
SPEAKER_03Today, you can ride it off the lot. Ride it home. Right at home if you really wanted to. I hope you can.
SPEAKER_01If not, I've got an empty truck bed and we can get you home.
SPEAKER_02And if you just want to come hang out, there's also a lot of really nice motorcycles here and a ton of vendors. Um, which Hunter, well, do we we want do we want to do things first? Yeah, yeah. If if we can get oh, looks like he's probably stuff, I think. So why don't we a customer, but okay. Our our thing guy has a customer, but so Hunter, just run us through some of the vendors you've got today.
SPEAKER_01Some of the what?
SPEAKER_02I'm sorry, some of the vendors.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah. So this is our first show of this actual makers market. Uh we set this idea up for a little bigger picture idea of this. Um, I didn't want to be a craft fair because there's a million craft fairs everywhere, but this one felt like I wanted to specialize in makers of something, somebody specializes in, you know, professional level workmanship. Um little like like hobby plus type of situation. Um, and everybody who showed up here was carefully selected from a whole pile of people who submitted on the website over the last couple of months. They were submitting uh their work and their booth and their whole layout. And we said, uh we're gonna be very particular about what we want here because we surround ourselves like my background in industrial design, and all of our a lot of the members here are um in the industry for design and uh machine shop. Like we have a machine shop down here, you know, like these guys know what they're doing. And so if you brought somebody who is just kind of like hobby of it, it kind of feels a little weird. So everybody in here has been curious. Is everybody local? And everyone's local, yeah. All Michigan vendors, uh except for you guys, except for we give you passive speciality. Michigan-ish Detroit, Detroit-ish, Michigan ish, yeah, exactly. We caught there, yeah. Um, but yeah, and so you'll see everything from clay uh pottery to uh a guy, one of our members actually who makes his own guitars from scratch. Cool. So if you go over there and check out his stuff, that's all made from scratch. That's really cool. Pan makes the wood and the pickups and the whole thing. So it's pretty cool. That's awesome. We're up to, I think we have 28 vendors here today for a first show. It's unbelievable, and it is the coolest thing walking around here just now. I was very impressed.
SPEAKER_02Well, we'll talk we'll talk more about like this venue. Yes, uh, but it's the courtyard I'm gonna go grab really makes for freshly cleaned out courtyard.
SPEAKER_01If you saw the before and after photos, you would be shocked. I remember it from uh January. Yes, you were just here, yes. So uh the courtyard, we just added pavement out there on the one side, so now it's a drive-through and drive out. Um, mostly for the cafe that we're opening up here. Uh, we have to have the ADAA compliant handicap spaces out here, and also we want them uh so that they can pull in here and have the two spaces in here. But then around the edges, throughout this entire courtyard, we can park motorcycles all the way around the edge during cafe hours, as you can see today as happening now. I can uh bikes just everywhere, and you know, it's awesome. And it keeps them off the street so that uh uh cars can park out there. Yeah, there's no room for cars.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, that's super cool. We've got our our watch guy, he's he's waiting for someone to come man his booth for a second. Um, I think he had a a guy who is he's calling right now. Uh yes, we can talk a little bit more about this. Yeah, like what was I'm assuming you've heard of the the bike shed. Yes. Yeah, yes. Big inspiration. Okay, I was about to ask was some inspiration pulled from that?
SPEAKER_01Big time. I think the London store is a perfect example of like they hit lightning in a bottle, they found an incredible space, they looked hard for incredible space, um, and then they decided very early on what the tone of everything would be. I think it also helps that it wasn't like biker dude starting starting that kind of vibe. And I was like, look, there's so many riders out there who aren't the traditional classic picture in your mind of a motorcyclist, or especially in motorcycle clubs in general. Right. Um, we aren't a motorcycle club. I like I I originally my branding was like a new kind of motorcycle club. We're not even that. So a lot of people here don't ride even, they're just very obsessed with mechanical objects. They love bicycles and motorcycles and planes, trains, and anything that uh moves you basically.
SPEAKER_02Is the Detroit bicycle? Yeah, no, yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_01That's a perfect example. Yes, yeah. So and he's got uh he makes those bikes, they're gorgeous, gorgeous unbelievable. You gotta check those out later for sure. But like our whole thing was give a place for people like Deus and like bike shed, but in the Midwest with the Midwest flare.
SPEAKER_02How would you you you you mentioned bike shed was very they nailed their tone. What is your tone?
SPEAKER_01I think our tone is approachability and accessibility for all on motorcycles. Um, motorcycling traditionally is a pretty gate-kept industry. Uh it's very dude-oriented, and we thought that was kind of weird. And we were like, why? It's the truest sense of freedom, isn't freedom for everybody? Like that felt weird. So we're trying to be uh accessible to everybody, and so and I think Midwest people have that in general. Yeah, you know, I we always say uh have you uh everybody says car people are the nicest people. I was like, well, have you met motorcycle people? They obviously haven't they have not because they are the nicest because we've all been there, it's you versus the world when you're on a motorcycle, right? And then you also have this common ground when you walk into a place like this. I think that's what's making this work so well. We're up to 85 members already in the first year without any public hours, just word of mouth. Um, I think what it is is you find a spot, you walk in the door, and you know instantly you have something in common with them. And that's hard to find these days. Yeah, like short of maybe church. I can't think of another place that you go to that you have that thing that you know. You walk into a coffee shop, yeah, you know you like coffee together, but it's not enough anywhere, you know. Right. Worldviews are wildly different, you know. Right. We've got people from all walks of life here, but the common threat is you love motorcycles and cars, you know? Yeah, that's it. Yeah, that's that's the only requirement.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. I I feel like you're speaking our language. I feel like this is something that we talk about often, especially on the show, of like how you know go to a rally, we talk about motorcycle rallies, and how oftentimes it's like you would never ever hang out with some of these people outside of this space. Outside of there, yeah. Uh but then you find out they're good people. Yeah, exactly. Once you get to know them and talk to them, it's like, oh, I like you. Yeah, you're really cool. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01That's also why we have a strict uh no religion, no politics at the door. Uh-huh. Just at the door, leave it out there. Right. There is for that. This is uh Switzerland. Right.
SPEAKER_03Crown for everybody. That's it. Neutral, please. Neutral space.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And it's helped us, honestly, immensely. And we chose Ferndale for a reason too. The Ferndale was just uh Pride was yesterday, the big downtown event was yesterday. We're like, this is the space for people to come in and look.
SPEAKER_02Tell us about Ferndale.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so Ferndale is this really cool art city that's like uh it's been like the last bastion of hope in Metro Detroit for cool, accessible, new, weird, funky, they call funky Ferndale, you know, that's the whole thing. But uh we I've you know I've I live in Royal Oak just up the street, and I've I've we've had businesses in Ferndale for a lot of years too. And um, I love when we go out, we go to Ferndale. That's like we don't go to the other towns nearby because it's just the best bars and restaurants, and everybody's cool and doing something unique. And the art scene is intense here, it's really cool. You walk down any of these art shows that they have locally on non-mile here, um, they'll shut it down and have the whole show. And it's unbelievable. I mean, a lot of these exhibitors here exhibit at those shows. A lot of younger people, a lot of variety, a lot of just variety. Variety. That's my favorite thing about it. It's just like a woodcutter and like someone next to a fine art printmaker, you know, next to a glass blower. Like just great art, you know. Is it more of a younger demographic, or is it no? Uh Ferndale in general is a little younger. I guess it's cute's a little younger, but Moto itself has a crazy range. We have uh everybody, we were just talking about it upstairs. Uh I think our youngest member is 22, and our oldest member is like 78. That's awesome. I think. Yeah, so all over this, all over the spectrum. So, what was Ferndale in the height of Detroit?
unknownFerndale.
SPEAKER_01Uh, was manufacturing along the train tracks here. So this building itself was originally um, we don't actually know originally what it was. We think maybe it was a butcher way back in the day because the long part of the building off the train tracks here, this this was actually the front of the building that you see in the back of the room. That was the front of the building. Then they added this middle section and then they added the front section. Interesting. That back section is like 1880. Okay. It's very old. And uh that's why the records only go back so far, right? Lost to history. Right. We're trying to piece it together through little hidden objects around here. Um but then when they added on the rest of the building, it was a student of Albert Kahn who spun off and did his own thing called Alfred A. Smith. He was uh designing uh architectural furnishings, and he was designing and building um different toy public schools. And so when you walk around here, it kind of feels like a public school upstairs. It's because that was what they made here. They made everything to the mill work, to the um cast iron work here.
SPEAKER_02So like like staircase banisters and what what kind of stuff was he doing? Sorry, I made a hard time. What kind of what kind of things was he making?
SPEAKER_01Uh it was all it was everything, and then uh it was architectural furnishings like the wood panelings and the stair rails. Steel rails, yeah. And then uh um, if you look, there was like three different kinds of wood paneling upstairs. There's like square tile that was like beautiful old zebra pine, uh stuff that you just luckily we were able to save, and I was sanding it down for weeks and weeks and weeks, but getting the old cigarette smoke out of it, you know? Yeah, of crap, yellow grossness, yeah. Um but it was really cool to have that history, and that's why the building is so interesting and beautiful too. Um, but then for the last 45 years, it was an aerospace machine shop, it was precision standard inc. They made um parts for the military, they made uh mostly specializing in polycarbonate and acrylic pieces. They made um all of the presidential helicopter windows here. They made uh Bush's limo windows here, Bush Sr. Uh bulletproof. George Bush Sr. Bulletproof? Well, very bulletproof, yeah. Yeah, yeah. They're very bulletproof. Yeah. Uh and the Apache helicopter wing tips, blade tips, uh black hawk helicopter nose cone pieces. We got a few pieces left.
SPEAKER_03So you don't have any like random black hawk helicopters just kind of fully assembled and helicopters, unfortunately. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's figure out that.
SPEAKER_01They were still parts. It was like still some parts, yeah. Yeah, we got a couple pieces that uh um they were like required to make a bunch all at once. And then so we got a few. We're trying to figure out ways to legally sell them, you know, or at least get them back into the right hands. Yeah. Um we were trying to like honor a lot of the history of what was made here by keeping some of the cool character. You'll still see like all the old pillars here still say the no smoking areas. And I saw there was a um someone wrote like a graffiti on the wall that Kilroy was, but then they got cut off writing here, I guess. So it's just Kilroy was. I just think that's very funny. He was and was and is and is will always be. Um, but yeah, so the other side of the building was a functioning machine shop, aerospace machine shop, when we opened this business on this half. Oh, I didn't know it's functioning still. Uh the all this equipment's still in there. Yeah. So and they moved out. They moved out, they retired. So when we moved in here, we helped them kind of restore the building, and they were still kind of the landlord tenant thing. Cool. I see. Um, and then they just were like winding down the business. And you know, business is tough these days, yeah. Um, especially for small volume manufacturers, as you know. Right. But thinking about that. But like we were talking about it, and I was like, it's a real bummer. We wish we could fire it back up, right? Get back into it, and maybe there's still a world that we can. We kept a lot of the equipment, so and we're very interested, and we've got the talent pool, so right. You know, the social club thing's going well. Maybe we'll focus on that later. If you guys want any uh really weird like Inconel parts on your bike, we can help you.
SPEAKER_02Titanium wild hardware, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Wild hardware. I have thousands of pounds of rivets and aluminum sheets and just weird stuff over there. So that's pretty cool. Also, if you need some aluminum sheets, I'm selling for cheap try to get rid of it.
SPEAKER_03Need some aluminum sheets, like hit your boy up. We've got them here for you.
SPEAKER_01I got all the good stuff.
SPEAKER_03What do you think is we're waiting on our thing guy here? Yeah, yeah, yeah. But uh I so I guess we can get into the ramble now. Yeah. What what do you think? Um what is our what is the ramble? What is the what is the theme? The the what helps foster community? Okay. Like what like when you when you're creating Moto, right? What what was your thought process or was there a thought process around like uh the community itself? I know you spoke to it a little bit about uh just being like welcoming and open for for everybody. Uh but I'd love to hear more of your ethos around and and just like how and why you started it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so I've been thinking about an idea. Oh, big bike? Is that Ducati? Oh, is it Ducati? I'm like in a Ducati guy. It sounds laggy. Oh, it's a Ducati guy now. You don't have the t-shirt and the hat on. No, I know, but it did it did come with those uh matching leather jigs. I'm telling you, not a real Ducati guy unless you're head to toe in the merch. You gotta wear the merch. I say that or uh a lot of our members are Ducati guys. We always give them a hard time. Um yeah, so the idea community here, I've always had the idea for this like third space social club idea thing. Uh and then I went out to the motoring club in LA. Shout out to Michael Rapetti who started that out there. He was the first guy to do this car club thing. Because you know, you've seen these around lately. They're they're starting out, but it's for like rich guys. They're basically country clubs uh where they can store their supercars. Yeah, you know, they were just these weird, like, I don't know, it was like a it didn't feel right to me. It was like, why is why is it that only rich guys can have that camaraderie over eight of their Ferraris or whatever? We're like, I think there's that sense of community here with motorcyclists and car people, but more approachable, like us, like for the rest of us is what we call it, you know? And um, we were trying to spip all that from a business plan idea, like what price point do you set that at then? And just to land it on 95 bucks a month because it seemed like for what you get, it's you set the price before you even had like the building?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, because it it set the tone for the rest of it.
SPEAKER_01Because we're like, is it gonna be a three thousand dollar sign-on fee and then you know, uh lower uh every month? But uh and and you can't make it 40 bucks a month because then everybody will just come in here and overwhelm the place. And so there's that sweet spot where you got some spending money on it, but to be honest with you, 95 bucks doesn't get you very far these days. Right. You really it's a numbers game at that point.
SPEAKER_02So yeah, you need to have a certain number of a serious number of yeah.
SPEAKER_01So we figured about 150 members and pays most of the bills um with the add-ons and stuff. We had a bunch of cool add-ons, but uh to go back to your question about community, uh, the idea was give us space, like we've all had the same idea. What if we bought a cool old industrial building with a bunch of our buddies and just turn it into our hangout spot?
SPEAKER_03I'm currently experiencing that right now. Exactly, and we are getting rid of our lease.
SPEAKER_01So that was the idea was like, what if we pile all our resources together and do it? The issue with that is there's too many cooks in the kitchen. Yeah, and so instead, if you have a single point person both responsible for it, captain of the ship, and which means I also go down with the ship, you know, right, but uh I'm also uh foot foot in the bill, you know. Right. Uh spent every dime I got on it, you know, that sort of thing. Last penny. Um, but that meant that everybody else can just enjoy this space. They don't have to feel like, oh, who's in charge of this? Who's doing this? And now what we found is members have stepped up and felt a sense of responsibility of the space, and they feel like a sense of ownership with it, especially these early members. We're up to 85 members already, first year of being open. And they're like, Hey man, while I was away, I was just I was just gone this weekend, and they were like, Oh, we'll take it, we'll we'll hold on the fort. They kept an eye on things.
SPEAKER_02You've said a you've set a I think you mentioned like the problem with like having too many cooks in the kitchen is that it's it can be great, but it's very unstable. Yeah, and it's and it's prone to collapse, volatility a little bit and just like inviting and whatever. But now but by having a leader, like what you you basically said, I'm gonna swing this.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, now you've set a framework where people can kind of come to the Yeah, and now they can kind of find where they can like, oh, I'm like, we got a guy in here who's like really good at helping with like restaurants. He literally starts restaurants. He came to me and was like, Hey man, you need somebody to run your cafe. There he is walking by right now.
SPEAKER_02Say hi Andy. But are you are you able to like how how do you like you pair paying everybody?
SPEAKER_01Well, no, so and actually Andy was just like in our case with Andy, he was just like, dude, I'll lease the space from you and run a cafe out of there. I've always wanted to run my own cafe.
SPEAKER_02It makes sense for him.
SPEAKER_01That's perfect. And I'm giving him a great deal on it, and he's helping me out immensely because now we have regular hours. So there he is. Hey Andy.
unknownSay hi.
SPEAKER_01Your ears were on the live stream. Say hi. Um yeah, so uh the space is basically uh set up with these cool little like little like capsule areas. And so these spaces. Yeah, little cells within the space because it was a you know manufacturing area, yeah. And so like that little front cell where they packaged Apache helicopter parts is now the cafe. That's you know, and and he stepped up with that. But honestly, the volunteer members, like when I was opening the business, uh the night we opened for business on our soft opening, uh, we signed up 30 members in that first night because they came every Sunday to the open house where they could kind of see it and see what was up, and they were like trying to be a part of it. They helped me paint. Yeah, they just donate their time. I am constantly blown away.
SPEAKER_04And they're paying you, and they're helping me.
SPEAKER_01I was like, I don't know what I did here to deserve this, but it is wild.
SPEAKER_03Speaks to a little bit of the vision behind the space and the vision behind the club. Right.
SPEAKER_01It speaks to the power of motorcyclists in general and car people in general, is everybody wants to lend a hand and they're not asking for anything out of it. They want it to succeed, right? And that is you no other businesses like that. Right. I can't think of it.
SPEAKER_02I mean Well, it takes something that's fun, yeah, and it's worth worth people's time.
SPEAKER_01Also, you've got to see that the you know the person's willing to sacrifice it all for it. You know, that helps a little. Just a little bit.
SPEAKER_02But I mean, this is what you've got here is like who wouldn't hope and would walk in here and not be compelled.
SPEAKER_01That's what I'm hoping to do it. So far, so good with that. That's why 85 people said sure. Yeah, yeah. To a place that has really like no front desk, we have no, like, like I'm I'm doing the Instagram, you know, like I'm the janitor too, so it's like not really a professional business.
SPEAKER_02So you mentioned that the the other part of the building was operating as a machine shop. So you you start where tell just tell us like how it started and what what the growth was. Because I'm gonna get, I mean, I've been mentioning this, but like there's there's basically like something of everything. There's a theater upstairs, there's a pool hall studio. So tell us about how that goes yet, though. We do need that, that's next up.
SPEAKER_01It's TPD, TBD. So at least that that hole in the corner's like a pool. Actually, a good idea. Uh no, so the the when I first signed the lease on the space, it was still full of bridge ports in here. It was like wood paneling, and there was like ceiling parts falling down, like old boilers falling down it. Like just it was just a mess because they were piling on, they were focused on making parts for the military, not right working on a building, you know. And um, it had just like slowly like gone down over time just because contracts drop or whatever, and then there was a fewer and fewer employees, and you know how it goes over time. And um, and then at that point, it was just so full of stuff, just stuff stuff. Like we went through 10 40 yard dumpsters to clear this place out. And it was like, I'm a hoarder, I wouldn't throw out anything, it was just stuff. And so we finally got rid of um enough stuff to see the walls and the floor and the ceiling and cleared all out, and then we clear-coated the floor in here, made it all nice, and then we moved some stuff back in here. It was one of those, it was like one of those puzzle games where you have one open square, uh-huh, and you gotta adjust and it was like clean right now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like my garage. Two new codies in uh too real, too real. But then we once we started chipping away at it, it started being like, oh, now we see the potential here. And then people started seeing what it what was here because it was hard to see through the clutter, you know. And yeah, and then we just started working our way out, and then um, by the time we finished this half of it, they were like, you know what, you're doing a great job over there. Let's let's let's talk about you know, closing up that side. And we'll so we took over the whole thing. So we were in 14,000 square feet originally, now we're in 25,000 square feet, and uh it's a huge compound. We call it the Moto compound. So just tell what what have you got going on in here? So the first floor is kind of event space, flex space where we're sitting right now. We do stuff like this. Uh, we rented out for photo shoots with the OEMs, the Dodge and uh GM and Chrysler.
SPEAKER_02We're in Detroit.
SPEAKER_01Um yeah, we've got in J-ish. Uh we've had actually quite a few photo shoots in here, more than I thought. Wedding stuff. We've done wedding uh receptions in here, and it's been nice to be flex-based. This is also uh the back corner is where we roast our coffee uh in-house. We roast it all in-house. Um, our buddy AJ helps us with that. He used to own an Ash supply co downtown Detroit, big motorcycle guy. He's here helping his dad sell uh rings. He makes coin rings. Nice, nice. Um yeah, and uh the front is a cafe and art gallery space. We're focusing the art gallery on transportation design theme stuff, obviously, sweet spot for me. Um but we call it art that moves us. That's the theme for the art gallery. It'll always be focused on cars or bikes or planes or something mechanical, you know. Uh and then the whole second floor, the 7,000 square feet upstairs, which was office space and the CEO's office and stuff, and the secretary pool. Um, but it was also uh some light manufacturing up there. They had some ovens up there, some uh all the bonding was up there for all the gluing of materials was upstairs. Um they Boeing this was for the aerospace for the aerospace gas. Yeah, the uh Boeing required them to have a clean room, so they have like a cool clean room that we converted to a photo studio. Oh, cool because it's like white epoxy floors and white walls, yeah. Had a deeper bit of fire in there. All the old blueprint drawings were really cool. Yeah, it's like unfortunately had to shred a lot of that, yeah. But uh we basically turned the entire upstairs space into a social club. That's that's where members hang out, and we've got a members' kitchen up there, the little members lounge, uh, where we uh took the old CEO's office with all the wood paneling. We turned that all into the members lounge with leather couches, and everybody's like, Oh, this is the cigar room. And I was like, You smoke a cigar and you're you're dead. You're gone. I had to sand those walls for three weeks with no heat in here. No more smoke, no more smoke. Uh there was no HVAC in the building when we got here. It was just window units in everywhere, but you can feel it's so the concrete is like eight inches thick to 12 inches thick in most places. The entire second floor is cast in place concrete. So if you look up, the rafters are all cast in place concrete. And so it's just it's like an ice block house. It's all it keeps the temperature both hot and cold. So we barely ever run the HVAC. That's cool. Just open the doors and let it blow at the freeze.
SPEAKER_02So, as a member, when you're part of the social club, what are the what are you getting?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you can come in, hang out whenever you want. We basically say it's like an extension of your living room. Uh you can come in here, uh, socialize, hang out, but you can also work from here uh if you want to call it a uh tax write-off. It's you know, there you go. It's a co-working space. Um, but we do have we have like five or six members who regularly work in here, like as their workplace, you know. Um just grab a couch or a table somewhere. We got all the old, we saved all the old workbenches. Uh I'll have to show you one of those later. They're pretty cool. Uh out of Toledo. They were they were from like the 40s. Oh, yeah. Uh took off all the old aerospace coupe. Um, but yeah, it's like they can come and go as they please, they get their own key code to the building, allows them to come in and out as they want. Um, it's a kind of an honor system type of deal.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01I noticed some bikes on lifts in the back.
SPEAKER_02Can anyone do that or do you have to rent one?
SPEAKER_01No, it's a that's an add-on. So the fab shop add-on to keep the price of membership low for everybody who just wants to use the space. We do some things as add-ons, like the fab shop. Some people in here will never wrench on anything, and they don't need it. So the people who want it, it's only 50 bucks extra a month. I see. And you can use the lift tables, that's an honor system too. So there's a lot of these DIY garages popping up. I don't know if you see them around. You got some down by you guys, I think. Um, Skip Mark's Garage, RIP, just lost them. Um, but they were doing a great job of community space and um uh wrenching space. Yeah. My big thing with wrenching is that it's just if you let that open to anybody, it's a liability issue. It's crazy. And on the tools disappear, all my tools are gone, you know. Um, but here, since you go through that pay paywall process, um members are trained on the tools, they're uh, you know, they sign the liability waivers, the extra liability waivers, you know. They um I I can like vet them and be like, you know what you're doing. Okay, I mean you seem cool. You're yeah, yeah, but also like let prove it. I want to see what you yeah, yeah. Um and then lets people just you know kind of do what they need to in the space without kind of uh everybody having to pay for it. Yeah, you know, it's kind of nice. That that's and we that's the same with the photo studio. Well, photo studio add-ons, also 50 bucks a month extra. What other add-ons do you have? Uh we have a plus one pass that's uh uh lets anybody bring anyone, like a member bring anybody that can come with them at any time as long as you're with that member. Um there's also a joint membership where you both are full-blown members, but the second one's half off. Call that like the couple pass or the buddy pass, the dumb and dumber pass. The picture of them riding on the bike together. I think it's actually the thumbnail is the easy rider picture with Jack Nicholson on the back with the football helmet on. That's the picture for the for the joint members. That's awesome. Um, but yeah, we the others, he pay other add-ons. What's that? Any other add-ons? I think for now that's the photo studio one. Yeah, I think that's it for now. Yeah. If if we uh come up with other like we have a boiler room that we're gonna convert into a recording studio, that'll be an add-on. The true boiler room sessions. You know, that's awesome.
SPEAKER_02But on top of that, you're not it's not just like, oh, come here and hang out. You're also throwing events regularly, yeah, all the time.
SPEAKER_01We're doing way more public events than ever because we don't have a public hours or anything. Uh we're doing a lot more like Hi-Fi Friday, every Friday. People can come in here, spin records, anybody from the public end. It's kind of like our way to let people see what membership's about, you know, and like meet some of the members. And so a lot of people like email me. They're like, uh, I want to sign up, but I've never been. How do I see the place even? I'm like, well, just come in, I'll give them a tour or whatever. But also just show up on Friday. You know it's open, just like Sunday service. That's open every Sunday, 10 to 1. It's our open house and cars and coffee. Yeah, um, basically, uh, the more public events I do, the less likely I have to hire a receptionist.
SPEAKER_02Right. Yeah, it's a right, it's so Hunter, is is this your full-time gig yet?
SPEAKER_01Yes, yeah, yep. I quit my job uh at Bullinger uh before they closed, also RIP.
SPEAKER_02So you've been doing this for a while, full time three years, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Wow. So two years of just cleaning the place out and then just sweat equity into it. And at the time I was just leasing it, which that was a risky move. Yeah. My landlord was incredible. Uh, shout out to Dan. Hey Dan, shout out, shout out, and I think I just saw him on five. Um he ended up selling the building to me because he was he saw the work. Uh he's like a very particular guy. When he finds buildings, he was like, keep the character. Yeah, because so many people will come in and be like, we're gonna paint all this white, right? Clean and new. You need fresh and new. And I'm like, look at the character, look at the stories in this place. Yeah, you would paint that? That's crazy to me. Like this that pole has splatters of the old aerospace epoxy on it. Like it's hard and on there, that's not coming off. Right. You can paint over it or you can tell the story of it, right? Uh, Judy, who used to work right at this corner right here, she was packaging Apache helicopter parts on that workbench that I sell, which names written on it.
SPEAKER_03And I was like, why would you get rid of that?
SPEAKER_01You know, that's beautiful.
SPEAKER_03It's got a story, it's like the building talks. Yeah, it does. It tells you different things as you walk through. If the walls could talk, you know, they'd probably be screaming. But I'm still a goop.
SPEAKER_02We have we the the building we're in is an old dry cleaner. Yeah, and there's some interesting like uh archaeology, you know, the vault for the furs and the drive up window. And you always have people always are like, What what is this a bank?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, no, it's actually a dry cleaner. Yeah, yeah. Like you you don't expect a eight-inch thick vault door to the bit to every basement, you know. Yeah, this building's got one though. I don't know what you need it for, but it's cool to have. Yeah, it's cool. It is cool. Yeah, where we do the ramble stream proper is it used to be what did it? It was cooled.
SPEAKER_02Oh, that's that was it was a it was briefly a brewery. Really? And so it was a waggering breaker. Is an actual cooler in there, too? It's still in there, yeah. I need to just sell, yeah, like you can turn it on.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, there's a walking cooler over there. I was like, what do I do with that? Like we're holding all the uh uh epoxy. That's I think our I think our three guys.
SPEAKER_03We are going to uh take a quick break here, and then uh we'll talk to Jay, the watch guy, and then we'll talk to Hunter a little more, and that'll be the show. Good. All right, thanks, Hunter. We'll be right back. All right, so dude, you guys, do you guys yeah, introduce yourself. We're live, we're here. We're live. So people are right here. You want to talk this mic right here?
SPEAKER_02Oh yeah, I Jay with at owns motor city watchworks. Cool, motor city watchworks. So we literally walked in and Danson's like, Well, we found our thing.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I saw I did a little uh quick peruse. I was like, there's a watch guy over there. I think you should do our thing. All right, cool. I appreciate it. Richard, for Jay and the people, do you want to explain what a thing is?
SPEAKER_02What a thing is so uh this Jay is like we've literally just tapped him on the shoulder to do this, so he's kind of getting guard into this. But a thing in Janice world is an object that is understandable, it's an object that can um that you can pass on, it's an object that has a soul, it's something that that moves you. Um and so watches are often an item that uh or it's a it's a classic thing. Um the watch that I'm wearing right now is one that was a collaboration between Genus Motorcycles and Laurier up in New York, and that was a lot of fun. Um it's an automatic. I'm partial to watches, so Jansen, good call. Um, but Jay uh makes his own, and he's gonna tell us a little bit about the watches that he makes. And also, can you tell us how you got into it?
SPEAKER_00Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah, so uh getting into it was man, I'd say early 2000s. Uh I I found a watch forum online, Watch You Seek, and I started going in there and I saw people posting pictures of their bead blasted watches, and I was like, Oh, I have a blasting cabinet in the garage because I'm a car guy too. How convenient. Yeah. So I would I went on the forums and I would buy Seiko's Citizens, whatever inexpensive stainless steel watches, and uh buy them on the forums. Uh people would get to use watches. So I taught myself how to take them apart. I just bought some watch tools and started taking them apart. So I would bead blast them, put them back together and put them back on the form. Make 20, 30 bucks, you know, whatever. It's fun little hobby. Well, after doing that for I don't know, six months to a year, people started preaching out saying, hey, who did that bead blast job on that watch you sold? I said, Well, I did it. Like, oh, can I send you my watch to do? Like, by all means. So then people started sending me watches to bead blast, and then I started doing loom work, and then once I figured out how watches came apart, then I started doing repairs. Okay, and then I bought Serakote, so I started Serakoating watches, yeah, and it just kept going. Then I I'm a I do I'm a design engineer by trade in the auto industry, so I made some parts. I made chapter rings and hands. I found manufacturers overseas to make some hands and I would put those on my mod watches. I've always wanted to make a watch because I'm a watch guy, I'm into watches, and I, you know, my just my craft. You know, I did CAD design, CAD engineering. So I've always had CAD models of watches, but now that you know, I've I never had time. You know, the kids were little, I was a full-time corporate job commuting every day. Well, and then within the last couple years, the kids are older. You know, they're not kind of not on their own. There's my daughter's still at home, but you know, I have more time.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And uh, I thought now's the time. So I just came up with this design and reached out. I I spent a long time trying to find people in the United States who could make the cases and the dials for me. It was I spent a year trying to find someone in the United States who could make a watch case, which is difficult because the precision is crazy. Um, one manufacturer sent me a prototype, and the inside of the case was out of round by like 0.02 millimeters, but it was enough the watch wasn't waterproof because the O-ring was the case. So when I was doing all my quality checks with my calipers, looking at my CAD model, I was like, dude, here's the you know, I sent him an email, I was like, here's the new changes, you know, to get this thing waterproof. Uh, he never got back with it. And I get that. I wasn't mad at the guy. You know, if he's got a five million, ten million dollar job in his CNC machine, he's not gonna take it out to not be a prototype. I get it.
SPEAKER_03Right.
SPEAKER_00So I do have overseas suppliers who make my parts, but I do all the assembly, I handle them every dial, I make the watch hands from scratch as well. But that's the whole that's how it all went.
SPEAKER_02So can I see hook at it? Um so oh that's a really wow. So they're heavy. They are heavy and they're taller. Um so what we're looking at here is uh this this one's stainless steel? That one's stainless steel. Stainless steel. Um beautiful dial, but you're having the case made. I mean basically everything except for the movement.
SPEAKER_00Correct. The movement is a Seiko. I buy that completed. But I do regulate the movements, all the movements are regulated in three positions. The dials are a single disc of type of machine titanium, and I make them hour and minute hand from scratch. I cut them out of my laser engraver from 0.2 millimeter thick titanium. I exactly wow.
SPEAKER_02They're very cool. Thanks, man. I appreciate it. It's really a statement. I mean that thing on your wrist.
SPEAKER_00I know it's a little chunky, it's it's out of it's out of the ordinary, but I wanted to do something different. So what's it what's what are your watches? What's your brand name? Motor City Watchworks. So I got a website, I I'm on Instagram under Motor City Watchworks too.
SPEAKER_02That's beautiful. That's beautiful. So you got into it from just forum research and like modification, and then after modifying people's watches for them and maybe doing parts, that's when you got into it. Yeah, and then you were like, oh, this is something that I could start a business doing.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, man, even when I was a kid, I loved having watches. I always wore a watchy dude when I was a kid. Yeah. So when I had, like I said, when I was on the forums early in the internet, I'm like, oh, cool watch forums. This is so awesome, man. People from around the world loving watches.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and then you just all stem from So why what is it about a watch for you that that's so fascinating? I mean, uh the technology is antiquated, right?
SPEAKER_00Um I it's that's part of it.
SPEAKER_02That's part of it.
SPEAKER_00I have a coworker who teases me because I don't have any apps on my phone. And I don't want to act like some Luddite who doesn't play technology. I mean, I've you know, dude, I mean I I build my own websites. Uh I had to get a mailing list out of my work orders, so I used Chat GTP to write a Python script to extract all the emails because I didn't want to open every freaking Word document to extract the email because I had to I wanted to mail all my watch customers. So I'm into technology, but at some point I have to stop with the technology. Yeah, and I that's why I just love the watches. It's old school, you know. I mean, it's just it's simple, it tells you the time. Right. And time is our most valuable asset. It really is. Yeah. Time goes by whether you use it or not.
SPEAKER_02Yep. Yep, yep. That's cool. So, what was your what was your inspiration for the actual design of the watch? Because they're very unique looking.
SPEAKER_00So I don't, I did no sketches. I just sat down, pulled up my CAD program, and I just designed that as I saw it in my head. And at the same time I designed it, I did the engineering to make sure all the clearances were set up. And I wasn't even too sure about some of the clearances. Yes, I took other watches that I had taken apart and did some basic measurements.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_00But you don't know if your watch is going to go together until you have the parts in your hand and you start putting them together. So there was a little bit of pucker factor. Cutting all these checks and ordering all these parts. I'm like, holy crap, you know, if this thing don't go together, that's another thousand dollars down there.
SPEAKER_02So do you what what what is your plan for the future? Do you have any plans to do something different with like the watches?
SPEAKER_00I will continue doing this. Um I guess this watch was the first. I currently have another one that I'm designing. There's a there's a 3D print over it over here at the IO 3D printer. So that's what I start with. Even with this, I when I had this design, I had to buy a 3D printer. So I bought uh the any cubic D2 because it's the DLP and it can do you know 0.02 millimeter. Layers and I need that resolution. So I first had to teach myself how to do 3D printing because nothing is plug and play nowadays. So I would 3D print the case just so I could you know get an idea of the scale. It looks watches look a certain way in CAD, but when you put them on your wrist, you're like, oh, what was I thinking? You know, it's weird. So uh after the 3D print, and I'm happy with the way everything looks, uh, then I do an aluminum prototype because there's a lot of places like Send Cut Send can make an aluminum prototype out of this because they can machine it. I Gary Smith. Hi Gary Smith. Um, and then so it goes from the aluminum prototype. Then that way, if it's metal, I can color it and get a close approximation to what the production colors will be like. And once all that proves out, then I'll pony up and pay for an actual prototype that is going to be the production part. But this is where it gets scary because my manufacturer makes a die. So because they're not going to CNC from a block because it's too much material, removal, take them forever. So they make a die, they stamp the initial shape, then they CNC. Once that die is made, I can't come back and say, Boy, I really wish this watch was a good one.
SPEAKER_02But you can probably work with some tolerances and stuff like that after.
SPEAKER_00They can change certain things, but at the end of the day, yeah, if I do any major change, it's a whole new die. I have to pay for it. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. How many watches are you selling a year? Let's say.
SPEAKER_00Dude, I've only been this. So I it's it's taken me almost three years to get to this point because it's part-time. I have a full-time corporate job, and I still got to cut the lawn. I mean, I gotta boat. Exactly. I I'm on my boat all summer. Yeah. So I don't want to do cra I don't want to do anything all summer.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um, so it's taken a long time to get to this point. So last year in November, I did the pre-order for this watch.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_00And then by the time I had the parts and I started making them, uh, the first customers who ordered the pre-order, they got their watches in early February of this year. Okay. And we're in June. So awesome.
SPEAKER_03That's really, really cool. Well, Jay, thank you so much for hopping on and telling us about your watches. It's super cool. Uh, what was the website one more time for Voter City Watchworks. Voter City Watchworks. Awesome. Well, Jay, thank you so much. Oh, thank you for having me.
SPEAKER_00I appreciate it.
SPEAKER_03I'm excited to look a little bit closer at your watches when I go to your booth after the show.
SPEAKER_00Discount code.
SPEAKER_03Wow. Uh oh. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. Thank you, Jason.
SPEAKER_00All right, thanks. Appreciate it. Thank you. I would just like to make a notation that I hate Hunter for buying this building because I'm really jealous and it's got a cool guard shack, and I hate him because of it. But he's a great guy. He's a great guy.
SPEAKER_03Come on back on, Hunter. We're just gonna sign off. Sign off here. Anything else that you want to tell the people? I'll go buy a Janice motorcycle. Thank you. Honestly.
SPEAKER_02What are you gonna do with the other side of the building where the where the machine shop was?
SPEAKER_01In the machine shop. We're just gonna stay in the machine shop. Yeah, we're gonna just have a bigger fab shop add-on. Awesome. That's awesome. Gary.
SPEAKER_02Gary Smith. Y'all should know that guy.
SPEAKER_01Um, yeah, honestly, I I my uh upstairs in the member lounge. I didn't even stage it this way. I got a uh Rambler's companion book. Nice sitting on the coffee table. I'll slump through it every once in a while if I'm just like slow down. Because I'm always running around. Mile a minute, you know. But I'll sit down and I'll read a little a little take out of it. Honestly, if you haven't read it yet, go grab one. It's excellent.
SPEAKER_03There's a link in the in the description. So there you go. Boom.
SPEAKER_01And if you want.
SPEAKER_03Well, thank you so much for being on the show. Uh thank you so much for creating a space this cool and for uh hosting events like uh the motor market.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, if anybody's ever in town, come on by. Uh if that hasn't been enough to sink in here, hopefully check out the website and you'll see some papers.
SPEAKER_02We're open here until six. Is that six tonight? You're in the area. Uh guy that are coming on by. This is running from 11 to 6. Yep, uh noon to six, I think. Noon toon to six.
SPEAKER_04There we go.
SPEAKER_03And then every single Sunday, 10 to 1. 10 to 1. There you go. Well, that's been the show. Thank you all so much for tuning in. We will see you not tomorrow. We won't have a show tomorrow, but we'll see you the following Monday. Thanks for watching.
SPEAKER_02That wraps up this episode of the Ramblestream Podcast. Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed the show, subscribe wherever you listen, share it with a fellow rambler, and please consider leaving a rating. And join us live every Monday at 7 p.m. on YouTube for our weekly Ramble Stream. You can also find us at ramblestreampod.com and on social at ramblestream. We'll be back next week with more conversations, more stories, and of course, more rambling. And remember, many of those who ramble may very well be lost, but that's probably the point.