April 24, 2017

Meet Lyle Sweeter of Saddleback Rider Training in Orange County

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Lyle Sweeter.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Lyle. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I have always been interested in anything with wheels, add a motor and there is nothing on earth more compelling.

This passion for wheels and motors lead me into my present career as owner of Saddleback Rider Training and National Sales Division Manager for American Honda Motor Co., Inc.

During my college years, I raced professional motocross and worked as a motorcycle technician and later as a sales person in retail motorcycle dealerships in Minnesota.

After being awarded an “early out” from the Army I returned to college and when I graduated, I had the good fortune to join the staff of the Hutchinson Area Vocational Technical Institute in Minnesota (a technical college).

Warren Macemon was the director of the school. Warren was a very progressive administrator and leader. He had the only Non-destructive Metals Testing certification program in the United States. He was one of the first to train on new and sophisticated word processing in his business department. He launched the motorcycle technician-training department that I became a part of. It was amazing. The facility supported training for welding, painting, machine tools, dyno testing, parts administration and more. Student completed two years of training including a motorcycle dealer internship.

My experience in this progressive school led to a consulting job with American Honda Motor Co., Inc.

After my 8-week consulting deal with Honda I was hired as a full-time Honda Associate in 1986. I have been with Honda ever since. Starting in motorcycle service, moving to Automobile and then Sales where I am still working. I am now in a new role at Honda with a very special initiative I am heading called Fast Track. Fast Track is designed to supply our Honda dealers with quality people, prepared for success, coached, and mentored for success in retail automobile sales.

I started my business based on the experience from my college experience with a very dynamic leader, my time at the technical college with Warren Macemon, my experience with Honda and my passion for all things with motors and wheels.

Saddleback Rider Training is a learn to ride a motorcycle program. It is administered by the California Highway Patrol (CHP) and is the California Motorcycle Safety program. Students who complete our training by-pass the DMV on-bike testing and riders under 21 years of age are required to complete the course before they can get a motorcycle operators permit.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
There have been a few bumps along the way for sure. We have some unique business conditions working with the state of California as a key component of their strategy to reduce motorcycle rider fatalities.

1. We work with Saddleback College in Mission Viejo through their Community Education Department. We rent classroom and parking lot space from the college to run our classes.

2. We are administered by the California Highway Patrol and aligned with the Department of Motor Vehicles.

3. We teach curriculum approved by CHP and provided by a supplier company to CHP, Total Control.

Any change in leadership at the college, parking lot redesign we could be out of business overnight. We must deliver the curriculum exactly as designed and meet all the standards and evaluation of the supplier as well as CHP. This leaves no room for creative scheduling or training time or delivery.

We are limited to a very specific class size, sequence of instruction, location and delivery. Still we have been able to train students this year.

One of my biggest challenges was working with a partner I took on when I bought the business. I had managed the site for years before getting the opportunity to buy it. When the opportunity came up I needed more capitol. One of my instructors was retired comfortably and working for me to “give back to the sport” and benefit new riders with his experience.

He was always very unassuming and followed direction well, never challenging me on business decisions. I decided to take him in as an investor. Unfortunately, and now a lesson well learned, I gave him 50% partnership. Big mistake.

After some time he started to involve himself in business decisions. What a dilemma! When it came to my ability to make sound business decisions he did not agree with it, we were at a stalemate.

He wanted to reduce course offerings when business was down only slightly – weather, time of year, – all things that would work against us in the long run. He wanted to stop advertising, he didn’t want to invest in the company. All decisions that were wrong!

I finally bought him out at an exaggerated cost based on the value of the company. But, once he was gone I was able to move the company forward with 30% gains each year for three years.

Before we were running two sessions easily (in terms of capacity and selling seats) now we are running 4 sessions easily.

Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Saddleback Rider Training – what should we know?
We are a motorcycle rider training company certified by CMSP (California Motorcyclist Safety Program) and administered by the California Highway Patrol.

We teach the CMSP Motorcyclist Training Course (MTC). The course is designed for the novice rider with no (or limited) street-riding experience.

Riders under 21 years of age are required by the California, DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles) to complete a CMSP rider course as part of the requirement for obtaining a motorcycle operator’s license.

Older riders who complete the course by-pass the DMV on bike testing for obtaining the CM1, motorcycle rider endorsement on their Driver License.

Our course teaches people how to ride a motorcycle in only a single weekend. Each participant experiences 10 hours of on-bike riding and coaching and 6 hours of classroom instruction. They learn the fundamental skills required to operate the motorcycle and progress to street riding skills and strategies.

Topics covered include the impact of fear, understanding how motorcycles turn, proper cornering strategies and emergency crash avoidance skills. The course is based on the most current research in rider safety and uses modern training methods.

The challenge to our business is how do you stand out in a program that requires your training to meet very specific criteria. A student attending CMSP MTC training delivered by my business in Southern California must complete the same exercises to the same performance criteria in the same sequence as a student attending a CMSP MTC course in San Francisco.

We differentiate our business by the client experience. We do everything we can to make our clients experience memorable.

When your clients are required to complete your training by the State of California, it’s easy to fall into a manner of working with them that is not like that of working with an honored guest.

Our business strives to put the client’s experience first. Our client’s experience provides us the opportunity to succeed in this business. We take pride in our client’s success and strive to make that experience the best it can possibly be.

Our instructors are all highly skilled, experienced riders. They are different ages and personalities and from different motorcycle disciplines.

One of the most interesting things about the motorcycle life style is the ways the sport aligns with specific types of riding. There are touring specialists who live to ride long distances on their bikes covering thousands of miles to destinations around the country and the world. There are street bike specialists that enjoy riding locally and use their bikes as much as their cars for transportation. There are the sport bike specialists that ride street bikes that perform nearly as well as road race bikes. They spend their motorcycle experience time on twisty roads and track days at racing venues. There are drag race bike enthusiast who trailer their bike to and event. Then there are the dirt bike enthusiasts and that group has many distinct interest areas too: motocross, enduro, trials, flat track, trail riding…

With our instructors bringing their interest and experience with their favorite discipline it provides an interesting and effective blend of fun and credibility to the learning experience. We have retired motor officers, current motocross racers, a drag racer, sport bike riders and street – touring riders on staff.

The highest priority hiring criteria that we have though is personality. We want people who care about people, who can relate and communicate to people and can ensure that experience we are looking for our clients to have.

Our approach is working, more than 60% of our clients attend our class based on referral. Our location does not draw on a large population area near to us. We need to be sought out by client. Competitive sites are closer to population areas and benefit from that greatly as location has historically been the prime consideration for a client’s choice of a site. Last year we trained 2,200 students with a cap on class size of 12 students and working only weekends.

We rent our riding and classroom space from Saddleback College in Mission Viejo working through the Community Education Department. When school is in session during the week our riding area is a parking lot filled to capacity.

Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
I believe the most important quality for our success is the passion that I have for motorcycles. It drives the business, from selecting instructors to working with our clients, the college, the operations client and the State of California.

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