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Kitech Performance - Martin Rumball
Interview by Dallas Fischer
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Martin Rumball was willing to take a chance that a lot of people are afraid to take. Drop everything and pursue your true passion. Good for us that Martin's passion is motorcycles. We are always on the look out for true powersports ethusiasts because they bring a couple of things to the table: hands on experience and customer service minded. Martin ranks very high on our list for putting the most road miles on his bikes with our products. Now if we could just decide which direction we are heading for some 'good beer' then everything would be great. If you need Harley or Buell products and your located in the United Kingdom or in Europe for that matter, look up Kitech Performance and you'll be sure to get some straight, no bullshit answers.
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How did you end up in the Harley and Buell business?
I have been running a successful IT company for a good while and decided to try and do what i had wanted to do back in 1985, which was to
get involved in the motorcycle industry. In 2005 I bought a company motorbike, a 1998 Harley Electra Glide. I could not believe how sluggish it ran. It was fuel injected and had been stage one tuned, but had no refuelling unit. Being a carburetor man all my life I decided to set about finding out what could be done to sort this poor running fuel injected bike. I started on the long road learning about fuel injection. I came across a guy in Scotland who advertised a thing called a "GEN2" made by Dobeck Performance so I contacted him and purchased a unit for the Glide. It completely changed the way it ran. The Glide still ran like a giant slug (compared to previous bikes I was used to), but the performance improved further when i replaced the toy camshaft that Harley fit as standard with a real one.
When fitting the new cam I found that I had spent a small fortune on a tiny handful of gaskets. Surely there must be an alternative to buying gaskets from HD. This is when I discovered Cometic gaskets which became our first distributed product.
My next and biggest step was when I found out that Dobeck had a new unit called the "GEN3" and were looking for companies to sell it as a private label. I managed to get on the program. I visited Dobeck in Jan 2007. This was the great push. All the confusion as to what the hell I could do with these little units all fell into place. I then set about getting the GEN3 into UK dealerships. This was no easy task, but I got lucky with two of the best and well respected dealerships in the UK. Our selling point was of course the benefits of this great little unit, but what we really push to our customers is top quality customer service. Someone who knows what they are talking about on the end of the phone and a no bullshit approach - if it goes wrong we replace it!!
Word slowly spread around the UK Harley dealerships about this easy to fit unit and great technical support which is where we are now.
You are located in the United Kingdom. How did you end up there?
You make it sound like it's a bad thing to be in the UK. Remember we had the largest empire in history....at one time.
Anyway, I guess being born here has something to do with it.
What annual event do you like to take part in the most?
I don't get heavily involved in trade events. I find them pretty hard going. I am not a salesman, I'm a technical guy. What I like the most is to roll out the company TP V-twin engined 1.9 litre hardtail and stick on some serious miles to a bike venue usually in Ireland or on the Continent. It's not important if the venue turns out to be crap, it's about the journey and time spent with old friends.
Outside of your business and bikes, what one activity could I find you doing?
My life is pretty much involved in bikes - love'em - always have - always will. The only other thing you'll find me doing is sitting in one of my favorite local pubs supping on some 'real beer'. Yes, that stuff we drink over here at just below room temperature.
What do you currently ride for a motorcycle?
Kitech Performance has two motorcycles:
1.9 Litre TP V-twin (Company Demo bike)
883 sportster (EFI Test bike)
Personally i have:
850 Moto-Guzzi (had this for 30 years)
1951 Ariel Square Four
Fantic 250cc Trials bike
What motorcycle would be your dream ride to have in the garage?
I guess that would have to be an MV Augusta F4
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| Visit Kitech's Website. Click here |
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