Tribal Motorworks

Need a $60,000 custom motorcycle? Get in line...

There is one characteristic that most successful entrepreneurs share. They surround themselves with people who are often smarter than they are. It’s a philosophy embraced by Dodd Russell, CEO of I Industries, Skilled Manufacturing, and the newly-created Tribal Motorworks.
The Traverse City industrialist formed a partnership with longtime local manufacturing entrepreneur Jerry Carlson in 1998 to start I industries. Russell was just 30 years old at the time with big visions and he knew that in order to fulfill those ambitions he needed good people at his side.
“I sit here today because in every venture I have surrounded myself with people that are a lot smarter than I am,” said Russell. “To say the success of my companies is solely as a result of me would be very shortsighted on my part. I have smart, competent people that are part of all of these organizations and I feel lucky to be leading them.”

INTO MOTORCYCLES
For Russell, success has been about diversifying his client list as well as his product line. In late 2002 he launched Tribal Motorworks giving him a seat at the table of the fast-growing custom motorcycle industry and the matching apparel lines that are the hot styles of the day.
“I have been into hot rods and motorcycles forever but unfortunately I never had the talent to actually fabricate a car or a bike,” said Russell. “I wanted to make some grips and foot pegs for a bike that some guys from Vandes were building for me and they introduced me to Kip Watkins who was going to paint the bike for me. Tribal Motorworks developed from that.”
Starting Tribal Motorworks became a necessity for Russell when his wife learned that he had bought a motorcycle.
“I kind of forgot to tell my wife that I had bought a motorcycle and was having it restored,” said Russell. “I needed to create a business to justify it and so I went to Jerry and said I think we could do this. Needless to say he wasn’t happy about having a partner riding around on a motorcycle either.”
Despite some early objections, Russell pushed forward and attended a motorcycle manufacturing show in January of 2003 with Don and Kip Watkins of Kalkaska, who built custom bikes and had worked on Russell’s bike.
“While we are at the show someone approached us about buying all of the parts at our booth,” said Russell. “Quite frankly everything we had were just prototypes but we sold them anyways. We came back to Traverse City and fixed them and shipped them out.”
FIRST PLACE
Later that month the Watkins took their new bike and Russell’s bike to the Detroit Autorama where their bike took first place and Russell’s took third place. Both bikes caught the attention of “V-Twin Magazine” and were photographed and appeared in the magazine. “J Cycles” the largest consumer motorcycle parts catalogue, was impressed and called Russell.
“At first I thought it was a buddy of mine joking around and so I told the guy I was busy and would call back,” said Russell. “Then I got this feeling that I better call the number back to be sure and it turned out to be the head of purchasing. I had to apologize, but he laughed it off and asked to meet with me. So the next week I got on a plane and headed out to see him. They picked up our whole product line.”
So what is Tribal Motorworks?
“The main component of it started out as parts, then we decided to build bikes. Don and Kip Watkins are father and son and a phenomenal team so they build exclusively for us,” said Russell. “Then we created a clothing line as well.”
How much for the bikes?
“Well that depends -- $60,000 to $70,000 on average, but we won’t sell them to just anybody,” said Russell. “It is a philosophy that we all share. We only build four to five bikes a year and the people we build bikes for are people we want to build them for. Don and Kip don’t want to build bikes for people they don’t care for and neither do I. We have a distinct style. There is a lot of craftsmanship in what we do.”

RESPECT THE RIDE
What would disqualify someone from owning one of your bikes?
“If we are only making four bikes a year and our name is going to be on the bike, we want people who we would hang out with owning them,” said Russell. “These bikes have our personalities attached to them and we want them properly cared for. Don and Kip made a bike called Capon and we ended up selling it to a local family we knew. Don had an offer to sell the bike to a guy in Detroit for more money. This guy wanted to do things to the bike that they didn’t want done with it so we sold it locally, to someone we know will respect it.”
Russell adds that they view their bikes as works of art, to be admired and respected.
“We want people to ride our bikes, but don’t take a bike that a man has spent hours creating and do whole-shots down Woodward Ave.,” said Russell. “We want people to respect the art and care for it.”
So who are these guys that you want to own your bikes?
“We are sold out through 2006 so word is spreading about these bikes. We are building bikes for AJ Foyt’s sons, guitarist Kenny Wayne Sheppard. We just finished a bike for Kenny Olson (guitarist Olson and Russell have been friends since high school) and delivered it to him at Pine Knob during his stop there with Kid Rock.”

LOTS OF ATTENTION
The bike for Olson was photographed for “Easy Rider Magazine,” or possibly “V-Twin,” and will appear early next spring. Russell is getting a lot of media attention for his bikes.
“We were just in “Iron” magazine, and we will be on the cover of it this December. We will be in “Iron Works” magazine next January,” said Dodd. “Plus a major feature on Kenny Olson’s bike is coming and there is magazine interest on Larry and AJ Foyt IV and Kenny Wayne Sheppard’s bikes when they are completed.”
Another aspect is the line of clothing Russell launched with Tribal Motorworks. Kenny Olson was spotted wearing Tribal gear on stage at the Super Bowl and other recent television appearances, sparking interest in it around the world.
“Our apparel line is doing well. We are doing thermal shirts and those old style baseball shirts. We have worked with some local artists like Mike Albaugh, and Rex from Rex Tattoo’s has done some artwork for us and it is all catching on.”
Do people actually have Tribal Motor tattoos?
“There are a couple people that do – they are obviously committed to us,” said Russell. “I haven’t got mine yet. I probably will have to do it. I don’t have any right now so we will see.”




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