Welcome to Momentum, a motorsports podcast powered by High Gear Success. I'm your host, Heather Wilson Schiltz Here we share the stories and strategies that keep the world of motorsports moving forward. And I'd like to welcome Fred Bramblett, founder of Rides4Fun, a street and adventure series. And he was also a mechanic and agent to some of the industry's top athletes for many decades. So Fred, thank you for joining me. Thanks for having me. Looking forward to it. So give us a little bit of background on Rides4Fun how it got started, and how the idea even came about. Well, I effectively got out of the motorcycle industry around 2010. I just need to take care of some parental aging issues, health-wise. And to be quite honest, I didn't do much of anything in the industry there for a better part of 10 years. And as a volunteer, I started helping at a local BMW club that was getting ready to be terminated and go away because it was post-COVID and a lot of organizations did that. And I... agreed to kind of take that over. And one of the things I thought is, well, if it's a riding club, the first thing you got to do is have a place to ride and a reason to go ride and enjoy. That way you'll meet other people that enjoy the similar things. So that's what kind of launched into working with the Derby City Beemers then started working with a Daryl Casey locally on a BMW event at Pine Mountain. And to be quite honest in calling people in the industry that I hadn't talked to in a while. Time kind of gets away from you. You didn't realize it'd been almost 10 years. And I really discovered that I really missed being part of the motorcycle industry. So I started looking around for something that I could do. And to be honest, I was no longer relevant as an agent. I had aged out. When I had my agency, I was more like an older brother or uncle to most of my clients. Now I would have been a grandfather to most of them age-wise. So they may have been polite and held the door for me, but they probably wouldn't have listened to me much. wanted to find something so followed the demographics and just like I had aged and the things that I was interested in and people around me turned out to be street and adventure riding through the BMW motorcycle owners of America and the AMA gypsy tours. So you started this riding series, kind of walk us through what a typical weekend experience looks like. Well, the biggest thing I dealt with was for the street and adventure things, to be honest, there was no consistency. Uh, you would go to one event in Ohio and to be quite honest, it, you know, maybe a camp out in the, you know, fire pit out in the field and more of a dual sport crowd than anything. And then the next time you go, you know, it was at a higher end hotel or it was in a national event with a lot of vendors, but not really any riding opportunities. wanted my events to be focused around the riding. So I picked. destinations that would guarantee great riding going to and from the event as well as at the event. And then just tried to follow up something I learned from Dave Coombs senior years ago in the Coombs family and that was have consistency. Super important. There's so many things for people to be able to do with their recreational time and money. They want to know what they're going to get and be prepared for it when they get there. They don't want to take a weekend out of their life and go somewhere only to have a rotten time and realize that really wasn't what they were looking forward to. So we've tried to have as much consistency with our events as possible. Yeah, I think consistency is key. then where so many event organizers sometimes lack good marketing is making sure that the guests know what they're getting into before they arrive. Right? Like you said, sometimes guests would show up to events and they were kind of surprised or it didn't live up to their expectations. But with your events, like guests know what they're getting event after event because of that consistency. We have a really good website that answers most people's questions and a lot of links to other information if they want more. But you're 100 % right. That's the most important thing from a marketing standpoint is let the customer know what they can expect when they get there. you know, that way they can make an informed decision. It might be something they're interested in or they may go, you know what, I think I'm going to, you know, go to this one over here because that sounds like that would be more fun to take my, you know, wife with me. And this one over here, I may go with the guys for a boys weekend or maybe, you know, hit both of them, but at least they'll know. Cause our average guest travels 251 miles to attend the event. I'd say 99 % of them ride and from the event and do not. know, trailer or participate. So it's super important for them to have a good time while they're there and enjoy themselves coming and going. you hit on the rider demographics there a little bit, but what kind of rider your events designed for? Most of our riders have ridden five plus years. A lot of them have ridden 25 plus years. A good deal of them, I would say the meat of our guests is between 45 and 55 years old. And they have, you know, they enjoy riding a lot. They typically ride between nine and 11,000 miles a year. They spend about 10 days out of the year traveling to or from motorcycle events and enjoying them with friends. And is that all brands of riders that can come to your events? Our events are open to all brands and there's no memberships required. We are part of the BMW Motorcycle Owners of America uh getaway series, and we're also part of the AMA Gypsy Tour series, but everybody's welcome. If you've got two wheels and a good attitude, then you're our kind of folks. Come on out, enjoy yourselves. I love that. And you were talking about kind of that consistency earlier, but you also have, you have street and you have adventure routes. So talk about kind of how the adventure route is laid out because that can vary from place to place as well, right? Adventure riding and adventure routes and events are probably the worst thing we have going on in our industry right now for as an organization. They are so broad. Like I say, you may go to one and it's just primitive blacktop asphalt roads and you could ride it on a Gold Wing. You go to the next one and it's in southern Ohio and you pull into a field full of trailers and everybody's on a DR with knobby tires. and you realize or a KTM EXC and that's probably not where you want to be with your Multistrada. with our events, we lay everything out with a, you know, 1250 BMW GS with 90 10 tires, and it's designed to round people. Once again, we expect our guests and most of our guests do ride to and from the event. So something as simple as falling over and breaking a clutch lever off, you know, when you're 15 miles from your trailer, it's no big deal. When you know, you're 350 miles from home and you need to be at work on Monday, that can be a real hassle. So. We try and make sure that everybody understands if they come to one of our adventure routes, they're going to have a good time. They're going to enjoy themselves. But the last thing we have any desire to do is challenge their riding ability or test their riding ability. Same with our street routes. We kind of pick something for everybody. They run the distance between typically 70 to 90 miles up to 350 miles. They always is typically a point of interest from a nature standpoint. There's a historical. know, event locations with, some great riding or maybe, you know, you may go for an elk tour at Breaks Interstate Park or you may wind up going and see Cumberland Falls and the Niagara of the South. So you've grown the number of events each year. How did you choose the different event locations? You know, we did a couple things. One, I look at MIC numbers and statistics because you want to be where they are, registered motorcycle owners, obviously. And two, I just wanted great destinations, I picked places I'd been to before in my past with friends and really had a great time and enjoyed the riding and stuff. And then I just found the best destination property in that area that I could go to that would offer the amenities and services that we want for our guests. What are some of the amenities that you're looking for when you're looking at properties? Obviously, a wide selection of lodging. have people that are tent camping. We have people that want to stay in a four-bedroom cabin on a lake. There's lodges and the lodge hotels. We have to have catering to be able to take care up to 150 meals. Private bar service, know, adequate parking. And just once again, a lot of it has to do with the employees and staff. They have to be motorcycle friendly and just have a great attitude about it. You also partner with Backroads of Appalachia. Tell us about that organization and its mission and how Rides4Fun ties into that. know, Backroads of Appalachia was founded by Eric Hubbard. I met him early on when I was just starting to get involved. I'd done an internet search and stuff. They are a nonprofit that's focused on developing motorsport tourism and in particular motorcycle tourism, but all throughout the central Appalachian mountain range. That area has been just clobbered economically by the loss of coal jobs. So having motorsports and tourism and motorcycle tourism in those areas, It's something we're really proud and happy to be able to support their mission with and help them any way we can. Yeah, I think that's a really cool aspect of motorcycling, especially, street and adventure riding is that you get to get out into these very rural areas that need that tourism and that economic support. So I think that's pretty cool as motorcyclists that we can get to go see these pretty places and experience it, but also contribute to their economy, which is so needed. So very cool. Absolutely. So besides just riding at the event, you mentioned kind of the different amenities, but you also have door prizes. So what are some of the items that people can win? Cause these don't sound just like your standard door prizes. You know, we're really proud of our marketing partners. They're some of the nicest and most respected brands in the motorcycle industry. And you come to one of our events, you may walk away with a set of Continental tires for your motorcycle or a set of Dunlop tires. Every guest that comes to one of our events for 2026 walks away with $120 discount coupon for their next set of Dunlop tires. have companies like AeroStitch, Alpinestar, Arai Helmets, the list goes on and on, DP Breaks, and there's some of the best thought of brands and it's something that you really, guests are riders. These are all products and brands they're gonna recognize and they're gonna enjoy using. And is that combined kind of with like an evening activity then when the door prizes are given out? Yes, we have, when they first arrive on Friday afternoon, there's registration and check-in and everybody gets a gift bag. And from there, there's a welcome reception and private bar service that leads to a riders meeting and a welcome reception meal, a full catered meal. And then from there, you know, on Saturday night is more of the banquet and people get to talk about the wonderful experience they had where they got to go riding. And throughout the evening on Friday and Saturday, they're drawing for door prizes for people. So it helps the time pass and keeps everybody's attention focused. Before people even get to the event, they can kind of experience what you call the driveway to driveway experience. So that's through a partnership with Rever, can you kind of explain what that looks like for riders? You know, it was super important for us once again to everybody has limited time for recreation. know, some people are retired and then go take a seven or 10 day, but the majority of people in our customers, a three day weekends about all they have. So we wanted to make sure that going to and from the event was as much of a enjoyment that it was actually at the event for us, the quality of riding And that's part goes back to the destinations we pick. Before the event starts, everybody that's registered is going to get an email with a link to REVER with the free trial membership of their pro series. They're going to be able to punch in their address and punch in the address of the event. And it's going to take them on the best motorcycle roads, or they may want to explore a little bit in the area and say, you know, I'm going across Kentucky. I'm from Missouri. I've heard about this bourbon trail or I've heard about Mammoth Cave. This was a great time to swing by there. They can plot all that in their REVER and come up with something that's downloadable. follow their mobile device or they can turn it into a GPX file and enter it into their GPS. But either way, going and coming from the event on Friday and Sunday afternoon is going to be just as enjoyable as being at the event is, as as the quality of riding So when it comes to these events, who's mapping all the routes? Is that you? And what kind of pre-planning goes into it? You know, I typically do it. have some people that volunteer and help me that I've known over the years. I have a core group of about eight or 12 riding buddies. And to be quite honest, when I think about going to a new area, I plan what I call friends rides. And I do one in the spring and one in the fall, invite everybody along. We stay at the properties I'm expecting to. and they don't know that we're there, you know, looking at it for an event location. We never tell anybody. So you really get a feel for how they're treating their guests, how they feel about motorcycles in general and motorcycle tourism. And you get to see, you know, firsthand the quality of riding. Some of the people we've been riding with, they've had adventure bikes for two or three years. Other people's been riding off-road and had adventure bikes long before they were even called adventure bikes for, you know, 30 plus years. So. If everybody's having a good time, you can quickly tell by just watching them that evening over dinner, you know, and their conversations over breakfast and stuff, then you can kind of go, well, yeah, this is a place that fits, it will work for our guests and customers. And then it's a matter of just finding the right locations with the, you know, finding the right mileage, finding the right adventure ride. Usually the adventure ride is the toughest because once again, We're in Appalachia and people that's ever been here, realize the terrain is really easy or really extreme and there's not a whole lot in between. So sometimes it's a challenge to find a nice enjoyable adventure route that's not too difficult that's still big bike friendly. Well, and weather can definitely factor into that too. So you might ride a route that seems pretty easy one day, but the weather can definitely change how easy that route might be later on. Absolutely. People, it's, if they've never been here, it always cracks them up when I tell them sometimes that literally a county road can sometime be a creek bed, you know, because that's the way they took the wagons and horses through there, you know, a couple hundred years ago, it remained as a county road and stayed open and it provides some great riding opportunities. But yeah, you do have to, you know, something that works perfectly good in July, probably it's not where you want to be in early April. Right. You mentioned partnerships with the BMW MOA and the AMA. So kind of talk about those collaborations and what that's bringing to the events and those organizations as well. You know, one of the things I discovered when I was helping the local BMW group get back on their feet was for groups to grow and people to be involved and engaged, they have to have something that ties them to it. And to be quite honest, the whole reason that any of us get in these organizations is to find other people that are like-minded that gives us the opportunity to enjoy our motorcycle more, whether it's going to events or going riding with friends or meeting new friends. And it kind of... The BMW MOAs in that same boat, I met a lot of wonderful people through there. They already had a series called the BMW MOA Getaway Series that really kind of was perfect match for what we were doing. And then we wound up with the BMW, you know, group, but we also wanted to make sure our events were open to all different brands besides just saying it. And we reached out to the AMA, their oldest and most prestigious street tour was the Gypsy Tour Series. It was... I'm right at a hundred years old and people had almost forgot about it. And it almost turned into more of a destination activity where it was bike week or Sturgis or Laconia or some of these larger commercial rallies. And those are wonderful and I've attended them. I know a lot of people enjoy them, that, you know, getting back to the grassroots, we wanted to be able to provide the Gypsy Tour people and AMA members that attended our events with some just great riding. You know, we don't want to try and replace it, become something we're not. We want to stay in that focus where it's all about the destination and the riding and the social aspects where they can enjoy it. It's not really designed around the commercial side of things. And you mentioned too, you know, those other rallies. mean, there's thousands of people there, right? So what kind of number are you looking at for your events? And do you feel like that makes it a, different experience for the rider? You know, we'd like to stay in that 100 to 150 rider range. That kind of gives creates the environment that we want to have in the culture. We're not interested in having an event with 300, 350 people. That's not what we do. There's some other companies that do a wonderful job with that. And there's some great events and we're, you know, we're happy to support those on an off weekend. But our events are just more catered towards. know, people getting out and feeling like they went riding with a lot of their close friends or made some new friends or went riding with some old friends. For people that have friends or spouses that maybe don't ride, are there other non-riding opportunities for them to experience throughout that weekend? Absolutely. One of the things that we do with our events, locations, and host properties is we want to make sure there are plenty of amenities. Whether you want to rent an e-bike or go trout fishing or go whitewater rafting, or maybe you have a significant other that rode on the back. They just had a 400 mile day on Friday and they don't want to ride anymore. They've had their fill. There's some great state famous spas at these parks and resorts where you can go in and get a complete spa treatment. while your significant others out riding some more, maybe get together and go out that afternoon for a hike or an elk tour or some of the other things that are available. So the whole idea is to come to the area, experience it, learn about it, and hopefully people will discover these areas through our events and want to come back for their own vacations or their own riding experience by bringing their riding friends. Absolutely. So the 2026 schedule was just published. What are some of the highlights that you want people to know about for 2026? We've got eight events for 2026 in six different states. You go from Virginia to North Carolina, West Virginia, Kentucky. Some of them are real destinations if people follow the kind of the marketing that's happened in the last few years for motorcycle tourism. A lot of people sort of deals gap or they've heard of the back of the dragon or they've heard of the Cherohala Skyway. Blue Ridge Parkway is probably the most iconic drive in the Eastern United States. These are all locations that our routes take you to on both adventure and street bikes. And some of our properties like the new one, Peaks of Otter, a BMW MOA member that came to one of our events in West Virginia said, you guys really want to look at this location. It's the perfect motorcycle destination. Spent some time and explored it and he was right. I mean, how often can you say that your address for an event is actually the Blue Ridge Parkway? Yeah, that's pretty cool. And I love that you were taking feedback from riders to kind of scout out your next event locations. Absolutely, you know, there's so many wonderful places to go explore once they go and experience them, hopefully, like I say, they'll want to go back Um, I can only imagine the number of miles that you've put on your motorcycles over the years. So do you have some favorite trips that stick out in your mind? maybe it's Rides4Fun or maybe it's years ago that you've taken. You know, I wind up with about 18 to 20,000 miles a year on a motorcycle and have been doing it for years. The, you know, been very blessed and fortunate because of my career path and being involved in the motorcycle industry. I've gotten to ride in South America. I've gotten to ride in Europe, Canada, Alaska, Australia, Asia, all over. And probably one of the most iconic trips I did was going to Alaska with a group of friends all the to Prudhoe Bay at Dead Horse Alaska, which is as far north as you can go at the Arctic Ocean. You know, I've had some wonderful trips years ago, long before it was called adventure riding. A group of us wound up going and we were told we were the first Americans to ever go all the way through Copper Canyon down in Mexico and the San Madre Mountains from one end to the other. You know, but yeah. Probably one of the best motorcycle roads is the Blue Ridge Parkway again. You know, really enjoy that. And you know, it's right there. go into the sun and Beartooth Pass and some of these iconic roads out west. But the biggest difference is out west, there's a lot of transport sections between some really scenic great riding. Back east in Appalachia, it's just mile after mile of incredible riding. You know, whether you're into adventure riding, sport bike touring, There's something for everybody and the quality of the roads and how little traffic there is. mean, anybody that's ever gone to Yellowstone, yeah, it's great to go to Yellowstone. It's great to say you did Beartooth Pass, but a lot of stop and go and traffic, you know, at those type of destinations where, you know, in Eastern Kentucky or West Virginia, Virginia, there's very little traffic, which helps the riding experience and just makes it that much more enjoyable. What is your motivation for riding? Are you a foodie, a scenery guy? you like the socialization aspect of it? What's kind of your top motivation? I love going someplace I've never gone before. love exploring. Years ago, I got into the habit of very rare do I ever go to franchise restaurants or hotels. I try and stay at mom and pop places. I try and get involved in local community restaurants and things for dining stops. You're going to learn so much more about the area. Kentucky has an incredible, and West Virginia too, state park system with lodging of all different varieties and great restaurants and stuff. So it makes a perfect place. Cause I'm one of those guys that, I get started about nine in the morning, I ride 300 to 400 miles and somewhere around five o'clock ready to get off the bike. And I don't want to get back on the bike to the next morning. I want to be able to walk around and have that pedestrian experience. So that's kind of what I'm looking for destinations that offer all that. So right now your focus is Rides4Fun, but before that you were a mechanic and then an agent for those top athletes in the industry. Can you kind of give us a glimpse into what that was like? Well, I grew up with a local guy that was really fast racing faster than me and my brother. name was Wade Summers. He wound up having a son, Scott Summers. Years later, my family had a motorcycle dealership and they were sponsoring Scott. I was kind of between jobs and deciding what I wanted to do as a career. So as just a way to kill a summer, I agreed to basically be Scott's box van driver and mechanic so Wade could stay home and work. for six months, it was going to be six, eight months and that was it, you know. And it lasted for years because I wound up, I'd grown up in construction and real estate negotiating contracts and stuff. So I'd offered suggestions and, you know, comments about better ways of doing contract negotiations. And so I wound up going from a mechanic to being an agent slash manager. of Scott Summers and then through word of mouth, it started expanding. Dave Arnold at Honda was a real big influence and Dave, you know, Coombs Senior was as well. And they got me focused on that because prior to the most, you know, OMS, the motorcycle industry did not have any professional agencies. They was some attorneys, they was some... accountants, a family friend, that type of thing. But OMS Sports, we were the first agency and we represented people like Ducati and American Honda, but also top racers like Scott Summers, like Ben Bostrom, know, uh Chad Reed, Grant Langston, Tim Ferry, Mike Larocco. The list just goes on and on. So been very fortunate and blessed to have a long career in the industry with a lot and got to meet a lot of really interested and nice people that still have friends with, you know, today. I love that. And I imagine, things have probably evolved and changed, like you said, over the years. Now there's some really, really big, you know, sports agencies that are handling athletes from other disciplines, not just motor sports that have kind of moved into the sport now. Absolutely. You have some major players that's moved in and acquired it. And it's a real credit to how much the sport's grown commercially and how well people's been able to monetize it. The customers and the clients and the race teams over the years, they've all grown. Factory Connection was one of our first clients. They are no longer in the racing business, but they went from an RV in Mike LaRocco up to probably the largest and best Japanese funded. OEM amateur and professional team and made that transition. And, you know, it was really nice to see them grow like that and all the things they've accomplished. But yeah, the industry's changed tremendously. Right now, someone asked me if I would, you know, ever be an agent again. And I jokingly said, yeah, but I would probably be like the rest of the world. I'd probably represent influencers instead of athletes, you know, because that's how much everything shifted to that segment. Well, and I feel like people need an agent too. Like everybody's kind of got their lane. So, um, you know, I'm in marketing, that's my wheelhouse, but you wouldn't want to hire me as a mechanic or something like that. So everybody's kind of got their thing. And I always believe in hiring the right people to kind of make it happen. Yeah, we were very fortunate and we had some people that worked for us in Los Angeles area that we did the Woody Woodpecker program with American Honda. If you remember that, you know, it was done through Universal Studios. We did the Doc Martens and Journey program with, you know, factory connection and people like that. over the years, we had a lot of success. We did one of the very first motorcycle athletes in North America for Red Bull years ago with Ben Bostrom. So it's been really interesting to watch the industry. you know, as it evolves and changes. So going back to Rides4Fun, is there anything else that you would like to leave people with about Rides4Fun and what that experience is like? would really encourage you to visit the website for rides4funseries.com. You'll find a lot of information. think that if you're a motorcyclist, you'll enjoy it. It's not a big party. You don't feel like you're going shopping at the mall. It's not a big commercial event. It's really focused on the riding at great destinations that offer a lot of amenities once you're there. most important you'll wind up finding a whole lot of people. One of the reasons I got involved in the BMW club to revitalize it, to be honest at that time, know, at nearly 60 years old, I'd start to run out of riding friends. You know, they were slowly aging out and moving on to other things or they just didn't ride as much. So it was great to find other people that I could ride with and meet. And that's what I'm seeing with these events too. You wind up seeing the people pairing up that they found out. You know, the guy two tables over from South Carolina, 50 miles from where they're at. And next thing you know, they're planning local rides in their local communities and stuff. that's kind of neat to see them, you know, being able to connect like that because it's riding motorcycles is such a passion for everybody involved. as a nation, we probably don't, you know, sell near as many motorcycles as a lot of other countries because primarily they're not used for basic transportation. They're used for recreational items. And people are passionate about that and really enjoy it. Whether they're going on a long trip to Alaska or just going out for ice cream on a Wednesday afternoon, as one of our local BMW clubs do I know I've got one of your events bookmarked and saved in my calendar. My calendar fills up very quickly, like a year in advance, but I have the, we can get away at Stonewall bookmarked in my calendar that is blocked out. So, um, that one's in West Virginia and, my husband Doug said that he's tagging along too. So that is definitely one that we will be joining you at next year. Now, one of our new properties, I'm actually over there the uh 9th of this month through the 11th for three days with working with Backroads of Appalachia on some routes and stuff. And I've been through there, but it's been so long ago, you know, it's going to be really interesting to go back and spend some time there. Everything I've seen and read about it and everybody I've talked to over there is just really passionate about motorcycling. So I think it's going to be a great addition. And I think you and Doug, will have a great time. Awesome. Well, I'm looking forward to it. So thank you so much for joining me. Thanks to everybody for tuning into Momentum. This has been a production of High Gear Success. If you want to connect or recommend a guest, head to MomentumMotorsportsPodcast.com. Until next time, keep the momentum rolling.