About Jesse Spade

I have been a gearhead since I was in diapers. All of my toys were cars, trucks, and motorcycles, and my heroes were Bo Duke and Evel Knievel. (By the way, if you were a Dukes of Hazzard as a kid, don’t watch it as an adult. You’ll be disappointed.)

At 9 years old, I started riding dirt bikes and that lasted until girls took their place in my late teens. In my early twenties, I decided that motorcycles were almost as cool as girls again and bought a street bike. It was a 1996 CBR600F3 that I immediately took apart, painted, jetted, piped, and so on.

I was used to modifying cars at this point and had been in the custom Jeep business for a few years, so it was a natural thing to do. I continued in the custom Jeep business for 17 years after getting my first street bike, but all of my personal projects from then on were motorcycles. In that time I bought, sold, and customized a lot of bikes. In my heart, I always knew that I wanted to be in the motorcycle industry, but it was just not as profitable as the Jeep business and that wouldn’t work.

As I was about to turn 40, I realized that I had gotten myself into a pretty good spot with a nice shop full of tools that were paid for and low overheads, so with the help of a mid-life crisis and my supportive wife, Alexis, I made a leap of faith. I decided to build motorcycles for a living. Holy crap. It was scary, but also the biggest rush of relief I’ve ever felt. I was home. It couldn’t have come at a better time because after working on Jeeps for 20+ years, I was cooked.

So, here I am starting my new life in a new industry and I’ve never been more sure about anything in my life. This is what I’ll be doing as long as my hands can keep up.