Ryan Ragland was once a racer, then a mechanic and R&D man at KTM. But he was completely and totally out of the industry by the time he accidentally invented a way to save it. Ragland, an engineer by trade and at heart, just wanted to share his love of motorcycles with his son, so he crudely grafted a cordless drill motor, RC car batteries, and a chain drive onto a balance bike. When the rest of his neighborhood saw his invention, they soon wanted one too. Thus, prototypes were built, and a company and brand—Stacyc (for stability cycle)—were born. With youth interest in motorcycling fading, the industry has been waiting for a jolt like this, so much so that Harley-Davidson decided to buy the Stacyc brand outright. But Ragland is still there, turning his dream of getting one young kid riding into a dream scenario for an entire industry.
In this episode of the Racer X Exhaust Podcast, Ragland chats with Jason Weigandt to share the story of sharing the joy of riding.
