Today we’d like to introduce you to Brian Murray.
Hi Brian, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I was living in San Francisco and taking the bus to work at UCSF where I was a research assistant. The bus took forever because bus and looking out the window on the way home, I saw a $500 for sale sign on a 1971 cb450 motorcycle. I didn’t know how to ride a motorcycle, but I knew I hated the bus and had $500. That’s what started me on my journey of the last 25 years of being a motorcycle nut. Vintage bikes, sportbikes and arrived at my favorite form which is supermoto and combination of street and dirt bike. I quickly became obsessed with riding supermoto and taking it to the track. Ten years later, I had a side gig teaching new riders in parking lots in San Diego and realized the best training I could offer would be taking my few students to the track. I bought a couple of bikes, stuffed them in the back of Nissan Frontier and Socal Supermoto was started. Now 11 years later, we have a fleet of bikes and classrooms at the track. Somehow we became the second largest track-based motorcycle school in the country. That said we’re still just motorcycle nuts spinning laps with our friends and feel lucky that we still get to do this!
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
The biggest obstacle was when our business grew much faster than our bikes could keep up. We just couldn’t handle the mechanical demand and we weren’t charging enough for our services. It felt like we were always juggling and just trying to catch up. Then half our fleet caught on fire. We got thrown into a lawsuit we had nothing to do with and a ton of other challenges that I’ve since successfully repressed! We paid our dues with good old-fashioned perseverance and stubbornness and everything is feeling really good right now.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
We offer an all-inclusive supermoto school in Riverside, CA about an hour east of LA. Our school is all-inclusive. We provide bike, training, trackfees, photography, t-shirt or hat, lunch, gear rental, and a hi-five! Although the sport of supermoto is specific as a track made up of 80 percent asphalt, 20 percent dirt, the training directly applies to riding all motorcycles, from Harleys to Ducatis. We’re known for offering a riding experience that is awesome training, but more importantly it’s just stupid fun. We’re definitely a bit more casual and fun focused than other schools. I come from skateboarding where nobody cares how good you are. It’s all about your effort, having fun, and supporting others. We’ve taken that approach with riding motorcycles on the track. It has seemed to resonate, and virtually all of our customers come back for more. I’m extremely proud that we’ve created a space where riders feel comfortable and want to come back with their friends.
Before we let you go, we’ve got to ask if you have any advice for those who are just starting out?
Absolutely. Go take the cmsp course. That will teach you basic techniques and get your m1 license the easiest way possible. After that, come do a day with us at the track. I promise this would be my advice even if it weren’t my gig. The bikes are small, forgiving, and the race track is the place to make mistakes without fatal consequences. Turn in early and run wide on the street and you will head into oncoming traffic or off the road. Make that mistake at the track and you’ll run into the dirt, tip over and get dirty. It really is the safest easiest way to learn proper bike control. The kicker is you’ll barely realize that you are training.
Pricing:
- $299
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: www.socalsupermoto.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/socalsupermoto/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SocalSupermoto
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/socalsupermoto/featured
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/socal-supermoto-riverside
Image Credits
All photos Socal Supermoto
