Name: Jon Martin When Tucker Rocky, the country's second-largest distributor of motorcycle parts, wanted a custom ZX-14 built this past summer, it turned to Jon Martin. It was the second time Tucker had approached him. Last year, it started carrying his parts.
"We may not be the cheapest on the market," Martin says of Myrtle West's lineup, "but I guarantee you that we are the best."
Martin, 29, has been around bikes his whole life. Throughout his childhood, his parents owned a motorcycle/automotive business in upstate New York. They sold cars as well as bikes because of the harsh winters. "Seven or eight months out of the year is was snowing," Martin remembers.
In 1996, when Martin was still in high school, the family moved down to South Carolina to open Myrtle West. "I was probably one of the first people to start customizing sportbikes," he says. He sold extended swing arms and sets of chrome rims. Today, Martin does four or five full-on builds per year and claims his swing arms are "bulletproof."
Myrtle West's machine has three mills, two lathes and two fabrication rooms. The shop manager and master welder each has more than a quarter century of experience. "As far as the machine shop goes, there's nothing that we can't do," Martin says. Only chroming and painting are outsourced.
Several of Martin's latest products are in response to the recession. A Myrtle West "economy kit," for example, includes a wide-tire rim that matches the stock front one, thus allowing the customer to change just one wheel. Martin also has a provisional patent on a front air ride system that retains all the factory suspension, saving the customer about $1,000.
Martin's greatest marketing accomplishment is the traveling stunt show Team Myrtle West. It's comprised of two guys on GSX-Rs modified with the company's 240 wide-tire kits. The team performs at dealerships across the country. Also at the shows is a trailer full of Myrtle West parts, along with one of the company's 15 employees to answer questions.
|    
| |||||||||
