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hey everybody we've got a special treat for you today we're going to get a behind the scenes tour of Mary sales uh this is one of the coolest most interesting bike companies that we know of they're also one of the oldest bike distributors in the us and we're gonna get the tour with uh none other than Jim Porter so pleasure nice to meet you oh thank you Ross how old is uh Mary sales the company well uh officially Incorporated in 1906 so we do have some records that go back to 1903 and it was started by Edwin Mary we'll get into the history a little bit later but uh let's get a tour of the digs first we have Ming here who there's a lot of help in our office our newest guy here is Luke who also happens to Ride Like the largest size Rivendell Atlantis ever yeah we had to pull them away from Rivendell it's in their stand head of operations this is Howard our CPA here's a very old picture of repack and here's actually the repack course it was drawn by Joe Breeze nice uh that's Joe Breeze Gary Fisher Charles Kelly archive room with a lot of very old bike stuff where the magic happens yeah here's the first packing area that's my sister Mary we get along great back here is where we keep everything here we have mainly uh Japanese tires American new bomb tape the new goat gloves are down there we did that with Grant down here we have a mixture of rims cassettes cogs what's a weirdest product that you you guys carry that you personally think is a little bit odd but fun to have everything's a little log you know because you know being in San Francisco we can't afford to uh sell Commodities we don't even sell tubes you know we try to look out and find things that are exotic that you can't find you know everywhere right if you can find it everywhere then usually you know we're not interested give an example like a suspension Fork where there's a plethora of you know available stuff they all do a very good job and getting involved in that would be extremely Capital intensive and unless the opportunity arose itself like a friendly manufacturer said oh we need some help here blah blah blah kind of avoid that whereas um you know when I'm visiting a shop or talking to people and they say I wish this exists right you know and even if that meant you know it only sold 100 a year right that's perfect for us you know because for a long history in Asia we could find a manufacturer to do anything well I often tell them you know I could build you a toaster if you want yeah and for you guys on the channel that's kind of how this relationship has started there are a couple products that I wish existed and Jim said we could probably make that happen that's the fun part like dream handle bars that was suggested um it's kind of a remake of an old specialized mountain bike bar but the guy suggested that was Darren at dream cycle in Vancouver and that was like a really big hit we do the same with uh oh Joseph Ahern uh Jeremy csep uh Steve Potts all kinds of people any way that we can kind of you know fit in and facilitate something that's brand new that's what we love to do as you can see we're a little tight I don't know if I mentioned this before but again being next to San Francisco you know we have to maximize space bartaid back there these are Soma handlebars um right here is the kind of Neato section nice for handlebars and that's the Neato stem section this is this is neither of Heaven guys yeah it's Neato um during this whole thing I I talked to Akira in Taipei and uh he is the only company that is still uh above capacity he's booked out two years and no cancellations really uh a testament to his company behind there is the cranks here are MKS pedals brakes almost all Yokozuna or diacomp here is where we stock Crane and Osaka Bells we have more Japanese inventory non-chimano as we said more non-shimano Japanese inventory than any other company how well do that Bells you fantastic yeah yeah because it's just like it's either you know uh relatively inexpensive Bell that you could you know find on Amazon or something like that or it's a uh you know a handmade Japanese one like I'll give you an example these bells um are hand painted in Japan by one woman Nami and I I think she paints like ten thousand a year holy smokes yeah and uh they're absolutely remarkably uniform literally hand painted yeah and uh they do what they say they do they uh you know they're loud they last forever some of the models haven't changed and 60 80 years tongue more or less absorbed long Shin castings so we have like for frame Builders we have long Shin castings here all the tongue tubing is upstairs with the uh with our frames what frame Builders are are buying the the lugs uh Waterford uh Jeremy csip defrag Rock Lobster sea pots pretty well known names oh yeah yeah and they're all used to using you know tall gate Prestige tubing yeah and long Shin as far as you know dropouts and castings is you know traditionally the only game in town again upstairs we use for racks and Frames here are basically Japanese tires like cazaderos and such our favorite tires by the way uh here are the go gloves here are some more racks here are the bottle cages all Japanese yeah you guys just came out with uh this interesting one this is the Tanaka yeah Tanaka moldy hole so you can mount it you know uh in a lot of positions it's also uh we're going with Earth Tone colors and we have a whole series of Mormon coming out yeah so it's uh doing something different yeah you know just a regular cheap bottle cage yeah it's on Trend Earth Tones are in yeah got mustard and all kinds of different colors down here we have uh Japanese branded cycling caps area seguino suzu Nido Izumi um Solomon Soma another Neato all made by Pace in the USA on that side we have Ile bags on this side Roadrunner have a good relationship with them yeah this looks like our our shipping department at home like we're most mostly sticker salesman with a YouTube channel we'll pump in some more exciting products in there that Dawes bike is a 34 Dodge I bought it simply for The Handlebar because it had a lot a genuine lot of washer handlebar on there that we needed to copy for Soma so I had to buy the whole bike that uh bike there that Sakai that was a Japanese bike uh that was the first bike I expect with my dad okay yeah here's uh Suzy hubs and also the Suzy hubs that were uh built for Steve pot besides the mezzanines in the warehouse next door that's the two-bit tour of the outside actually all the action happens in here the company was founded in 1906 by Mr Berry Edward Mary and we have some records that stayed it might go back to 1903 but 1906 was a good time to start in San Francisco because it was just after the earthquake my grandfather in around the turn of the century was hired as delivery boy we actually have copies of some of the orders what a bike shop would do was just order what they sold that day so it would be like two s three spokes literally like one handlebar grip but and that would be put into a bag and then he would deliver it and then as time went on he became a manager and eventually was running it for Mr Mary and at that time Mr Mary would go off and he would travel the world and we have a very unique photo of him in Joe nakamura's Bike Shop Joe Nakamura and that's Mr Mary and Mr Mary's son and unbelievably this was taken in Hiroshima in 1926. and as you can see there's a dirt road there's a guy in a kimono while a guy in a suit and we have been dealing with Asia since our Inception and the reason why that started that way or so West leaning or east depending on how you look at it uh was San Francisco was extremely isolated back then it was the only Metropolis on the entire west coast of the Americas and there was only one railroad line that went back there and so anything that was brought from Back East was extremely expensive and it was easier to Source from countries like Japan you know and through the history of you know the bicycle industry we've over the decades have you know represented Shimano Suntour SRAM campanolo you name it within the last 30 years or so you know we develop our own Brands but more of the case kind of co-developed products with uh friendly Japanese and friendly American companies okay tell us a little bit more about your relationship with some of the Asian companies like it sounds like it's not just like a fly-by-night thing that you guys have along the long history uh my my grandfather was in the Navy in World War One in the my father was in the Navy in World War II and the families that we were doing business with we still have the telexes where it's going as we approach you know 1940 and 1941 they're getting increasingly ominous and they usually you know state you know nothing's going to happen to this I you know something terrible is going to happen something terrible is going to happen and then um when the war started you know we were converted to war work um you know we're told to stop to do everything and they told us that we were Distributing paint so there would be like you know green paint and then there was all kinds of stuff and um then after the war you know we started up again and the same Japanese families came to visit us and they said you know that thing is it like all over now we were thinking about we could start business again oh yeah sure you know oh that's old news let's do it so um a lot of our relationships go even prior to uh you know World War II so that went from my grandfather uh to my father in the 50s to the 90s and then I took over him you know my sister uh took over in the 90s and uh I got four kids so maybe possibly five generations yeah a lot of people are probably more familiar with Soma than they are you know Mary sales what's the relationship between Soma and Mary sales Selma and Surly to an extent are descendants from Breezer and I was trained and also worked with Joe Breeze uh you know developing uh the Breezer line that was uh made at Hodaka that went on from you know from the 80s to maybe 2000 I'm thinking um at the final stage you know we were very frustrated because we'd bring in a you know a Breezer um you know XD equipped and to a dealer and then you know he put it next to like a track he says well this is XT equipped and that's XD equipped why is yours 500 more but we noticed that you know when we take all the parts off and then you just compare the two frames yeah the Breezer value is you know absolutely you know irrefutable right so last year or two what uh we did was just import frames now we arranged that quality would do uh Breezer back east uh through the Japanese Trading Company that controlled everything and um when Joe kind of went his own way we were kind of left high and dry with like a huge knowledge base and dealer Network and everything about it so uh rather independently you know they came up with Surly and then we came up with Soma and it uh blossomed from there this actually is kind of an interesting painting it was we commissioned it for Mona Karen who's um really good local artist and what we wanted was to have influences of San Francisco here you know the cypress tree Sutra Tower you could tell Spanish tile you know on the houses steep hills The Cliffs the fog so Jim you've been like a big supporter of the channel you know offering our patreon supporters a discount like why why support pathless pedal well because um uh our emphasis is the same you know I mean um the bicycle business to its own detriment is race Centric and we may we sell race products and have nothing against racing but there's nothing um for you know uh casual writing um uh having a bicycle lifestyle but you know not being that kind of race culture a good example of what I'm talking about is um like her rumor like one time The Velo news you know went to the hand-built bike show and their single comment was we don't get it we're the race bikes you see what I'm saying yeah and so uh media Outlets like you are uh they're non-existent I mean you really have a uh a focus on a completely unaddressed subject uh let's talk about your relationship with rivendale so you helped them bring some products to Market uh we help each other uh uh Grant is extremely special I mean I have never uh met anyone that's as open transparent Grant and I we talk on a daily basis and you know usually it's just BS you know but uh often it is like I really want to do this but and then I'll say you know well we could do that no problem right you know we share the project where basically it's not this cut and dry but basically we'll get it done share the shipment with Rivendell they get at a cost they yield more or less retail and we go more or less wholesale selling at dealers and it works out perfect because Rivendell the way they're structured kind of uh views uh you know dealer orders is kind of confusing and you know it's hard for them to manage right and so they're more unhappy for us to take that over so one of the products you're helping us to kind of bring to Market is a bar in 12-speed friction shifter which apparently has a really interesting backstory so can you fill us in on that well yeah that was uh built by uh Dia copy which is Kozo Yoshi guy and his right hand man is Mike and uh you know we started that um the minute you know you gave me the idea and I was literally on the phone to him you know I wait till like five or six o'clock because that's when they start coming in in Asia you know it was immediately said oh yeah no problem blah blah blah because Grant paid for the tooling for the the ratchet which was extremely expensive and that was kind of more or less a duplicate of the old Suntour ratchet thing I said hmm maybe I'll tell Grant right uh you know say hey Grant um uh we're doing this uh 11 speed shifter and you know he's always extremely gracious with everything and um you know oh okay well they did that in Mike and Kozo do that with you know they didn't ask me and I said well you know a lot of people don't ask you you know and uh you know there have been kind of arguments over the the ownership of that which Grant and Rivendell firmly own that's why I called right uh and then that it was not a fight it wasn't a fluster brother but Grant kind of took the opportunity to say okay your project is fine but I just want everybody to know that that's our tooling and we you know whatever I said absolutely and how about we'll do one up is uh what if Russ does a video completely of the ratchet thing he said that would be great that would set the record straight whether diacomp owns the thing or whatever it's all been resolved everything is fine in fact I'm I'm so glad I made that phone call you know Grant being at Bridgestone um in those days the by far the best you know uh friction shifter was the ratchet shifter you know that pulled the derailleur when the ratchet was engaged and released it you know effortlessly and and that's the mechanism that we're using and we have Grant's blessing like I said he's uh just a remarkable human being you know why they why Riv had to recreate the ratchet was all the original tooling destroyed or lost or oh the sun tour stuff was all destroyed yeah how was it it's an unfortunate um habit for factories to destroy their old tooling I keep my tbg and you know these are catalogs of products I have them going all the way back to the 80s um because you know the bicycle business goes and Cycles you know and you can pull it okay we're in Cycles you know 12 so let's go back to cycle 11 and try to see if any of the tooling's left and and only maybe 10 of the cases is it and with drivetrains getting so complicated and you know it's yeah it's 12 speed but it's not compatible with this 12 speed and this and that there's a real fundamental need for for something that works with everything I think it's the it's the emphasis for your channel right you know is that I mean do you really want to buy a derailleur that you have to register with your phone you really want to have a bike that if you don't plug it in it's a one speed it violates the core principles of uh Simplicity serviceability uh and the opposite of planned obsolescence we love the fact of something being rebuilt reused that simple um you know and our our life is complicated enough you know I'm like you know there's certain things in my phone I don't understand and I don't I really don't want to learn anymore you know I just if I go on a bike ride what I want to do is just flush my brain out right you know yeah that's how I feel too it's like the the bike for me is a Haven away from all the complexity and unfortunately it seems like the industry at large is well that's their nature you know the thing is um I have an analogy uh that's the only way I talk but if the bicycle business was say the automobile business every company would be chasing Ferrari and no one would be thinking of making a Toyota Corolla or even something better like you know a utility vehicle like you know for someone has a big family will make you an ATV if someone has to pull cargo we'll make you a truck right uh we'll do the it is completely based upon racing and that's why we're such a good match exactly that is such a cool story about uh the the ratchet though it's I feel like it's something that's easy to take for granted in fact I'll tell you this this is our hardest thing one of the reasons say like Neato is so valuable as a supply source is let's say stems okay um a forging for a quill stem um I haven't priced it lately but uh a good guess would be like twenty thirty thousand dollars for one forging for one size okay they have sizes from like 130 down to like 60 on all their steps they did that at a time when they could go to Schwinn or to Bridgestone and get orders for millions of them right okay that would pay for that tooling well those orders are gone you know and it's uh who requires those stems are people like us and uh your audience and other people's audience and yet that tooling exists right and it can't be reprodu it cannot in all rationale be reproduced right and when you go backwards um say to like the ratchet shifter um or other components you know we've done uh thumb shifters and and things of that nature you can't use the same methods that were employed you know where they did you know high-speed stamping um or powdered metal Lord knows what to make millions and millions of something you have to use other methods to do it and it can get extremely complex and extremely expensive because you know we sell thousands of things and they used to sell millions of them so you know when Suntour came out with that ratchet shifter you know that you know they possibly could have looked at a bill uh to make it of a few hundred thousand dollars but at the time it was nothing compared to the volume um now uh you know building something that existed that was built with high-speed tooling and doing it on a low uh production level relatively is it's an extreme Challenge it's one of the things I'm actually concerned about it's like I feel like we're at this era where we're Lots we're losing a lot of like functional old Tech and once they're gone like for example the French derailleur you know it's going to be extremely expensive or difficult to to have them recreated at that same level I guarantee you grant and I will not allow that to happen Okay I guarantee you that's exactly his um I I hope I'm not speaking for him but um what I notice about him is what he wants to be is completely insular not insular like oh don't look at what I'm doing but he doesn't want to be relied relying upon major manufacturers yeah and that's why he's on a quest to make his own components and we help them everywhere we can yeah like he he'll call me up one morning and like uh the cassette the 1342 you know no problem you know I'll have it for you in three months in 90 days yeah and uh stuff I love stuff like that yeah because if it's if it's a good idea to him it's a good idea for you know 50 000 people right you'll be seeing stuff not only with your shifter but a whole bunch of stuff like that awesome it won't go away cool and if you if something does go away we view that as an opportunity well thanks Jim so much for the tour and the chat uh hopefully you guys enjoyed it I thought it was important to share with you guys like the backstory of Mary sales and why I bring me collaborating with some future products um yeah with all that said I hope you enjoyed this video like share subscribe all that good stuff and keep yourself upside down