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Gary and his wife. |
GMan Industries - Gary Ford
Interview by Dallas Fischer
Our initial goal of the private label program was to find true power sport enthusiasts. Individuals who are running a company because they
enjoy to do it and actually ride their own products. Gary Ford of GMan Industries can be summed up to be a perfect candidate. He offers a
wide range of products for metric cruiser motorcycles. He rides a Suzuki C109RT equipped with a number of products he recommends to others to buy. He has taken our EFI controller technology and produced some of the best tune-ups and performance gains we have seen from anybody. Why? He runs all the products on a dyno. He then rides the bikes out on the street. He then tries all sorts of different combinations of
performance products so he has the knowledge to recommend to any customer looking to buy a product which one he thinks is the best. I would say Gary knows about all the ins and outs about what works and what doesn't work on some of the metric cruiser bikes. If I owned one of these bikes then I would ask him for his recommendations.
To top things off, Gary offers one of the boldest challenges I've seen from a company. It's called the 'Bully' Challenge and product
guarantees don't get any better. If you have some time, go to his website and check out his challenge. If you're looking for some great
metric cruiser products then GMan Industries is a great place to start.
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How did you end up in the metric cruiser business?
My initial interest in Metric bikes came in the early 70's when I started riding street bikes. At that time Japanese bikes were making great strides into the motorcycle market and Harley was not. Over the years I tinkered with my bikes to make them go faster, further and more comfortably. One of my tinkering projects was an auxiliary fuel tank for longer cruising which caught the attention of many of my fellow riders and the rest, as they say, is history.
You are located in Washington. How did you end up there?
I'm third generation born and raised within a 25 mile radius of Renton, Washington. Renton was a Coal Mining town and my Grandfather owned several mines in 'The Day'. I married my high school sweetheart, all four of our now grown children were raised here and all but one still lives in the area.
What annual event do you like to take part in the most?
BraveHeart Motorcycle Rally. It's a private group of 50 riders from across North America that gather in different locations each year for a week of riding. Each year a different member hosts/leads the event. Last year we hosted it near Seattle and showed the group our great state and many of its best roads. This year we will be riding all through Kentucky!
What's with the name of your controller - 'The Bully'?
We developed our very first Gen3 Controller for the Suzuki Boulevard C90. Many affectionately call the Boulevard line of motorcycles 'Bullies'. We thought the nick-name had a good ring to it. We have since expanded our line to all the metric cruisers and kept the initial name as it seemed to fit the personality of our Gen3 Controllers programming.
Outside of your business and metric cruisers, what one activity could I find you doing?
In fitting with my GMan moniker I have been deeply involved in security at our church for many years. Stop on by for any service or other activity and you'll probably find me looking a bit FBI-ish with an ear piece, coiled wire attached to a radio on my belt, microphone on my sleeve, dark shades and a hidden smile. After that you'll find me spending time riding with my wife and our 4 grown kids, all of which ride their own bikes.
What do you currently ride for a motorcycle?
Suzuki sent me a 2008 Boulevard C109RT last Spring so we could develop parts and get the word out for this new entry into their cruiser line up. It quickly became my ride of choice and when Suzuki requested it to be returned earlier this year we negotiated a deal and kept the bike permanently. It's that good of a bike and fits me like a finely crafted leather glove! I also have my 2002 VL 1500 LC I ride from time to time with it's almost 50,000 miles of flawless service.
What motorcycle would be your dream ride to have in the garage?
That dream could better be described as the Vision, by Victory. I rode a preproduction version almost 2 years ago with one of its engineers and haven't been able to get it off my mind. Handling, power and storage space are exceptional and being I ride 2-up a majority of the time it works well for everything that comes with my passenger of 35 years. Having said that, I like bikes, so to have the smaller brother for my C109RT an M109R color matched, no pillion seat and forward controls would give me a solo rider I would not soon part with...for those rare times I ride solo and want to tear up the asphalt! (shhh, don't tell the Mrs.)
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Visit GMan's Website. Click here
Gary pictured with his Suzuki C109RT.
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