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Prized possessions are as diverse as the people who treasure them: a piece of furniture, a ring, a favorite vinyl album. For me, my tools sit toward the top of the list.
Motion Pro makes specialty tools that are refined and effective. They are objectively good, and are designed to solve problems. I was first exposed to the California-based company's products in dad’s shop as a kid, and I’ve continued to rely on them over the decades. Motion Pro equipment isn’t just a part of the fabric of my two-wheeled life, it’s helped weave it.
Despite my familiarity with the company’s product catalog (because I own most of it), I knew very little about the people or story behind Motion Pro. Just as someone might be curious about the backstory of a cherished wooden chest or the Dylan album they got from an uncle, I wanted to know more about the brand that has assumed such an important role in my life. So I put down my favorite 8 mm T-handle and called up Motion Pro’s founder, Chris Carter.
Carter came of age at an enviable time in an enviable place: the motorcycle heyday of the 1960s and '70s in Northern California. Shortly after getting his first bike, a Honda CL77 Scrambler 305 at age 15, Carter inadvertently got involved in the motorcycle aftermarket.
“A friend and I were trying to bump-start his Harley Sprint, and a neighbor heard us and came out,” recalls Carter. “He was a backyard inventor with a patent on compression releases, so after my paper route I’d go over and assemble parts in his garage.” It was Carter’s first taste of problem-solving products and patents, two things he’d become very familiar with in the years to come. But first, he needed to go racing.
“I started competing in trials at age 16,” says Carter, “but as a young kid, you want to go fast, so I got a DT-1 and started racing motocross.” He went pro with Yamaha in the '70s, following the national circuit alongside friends Gary Jones, Billy Grossi, and Brad Lackey. Eventually, he got disillusioned with motocross. “I realized I was never going to beat Jones and Lackey, but I still loved riding, so I switched my focus to hare scrambles and enduros.”
Carter’s off-road ambitions took him all the way to Europe, where he competed in the International Six Days Trial with Yamaha in 1975, 1976, and 1977. He wrapped up his racing career with an ISDT gold medal, a vast network of industry friends, and a comprehensive understanding of what it takes to efficiently work on motorcycles.
When he wasn’t away racing, Carter was gaining retail and wholesale experience working at a dealership and then as a product developer for a Bay Area powersports distributor. In 1984, at the ripe age of 33, he stepped out on his own to found Motion Pro.
Control cables were the catalyst. “A Taiwanese cable company approached me about representing them in the U.S.,” recalls Carter, “and I suggested I be their distributor, not just their agent. I knew there was an opportunity with control cables, because back then the OE parts came coiled in a bag and most of them had no identification marks on them, so once you took it out you didn’t know what you had. It caused a lot of confusion. I put a part number on the sheath of my cables, used colored header cards for different brands, and put them in a long poly bag so you could compare it to the existing cable.”
Carter’s former employer was his first customer, and Motion Pro still works closely with the same company in Taiwan. It’s evident that Carter is adept at building and maintaining relationships, and while I can barely remember what I had for dinner, he seems to remember the name of everyone he's ever met.
Specialty tools came a few years later, interestingly not from Carter’s own imagination, despite his experience concocting gizmos as a racer. “Mike Akatiff [of Ack Attack land-speed fame] at Pacific Coast Cycle was making a few motorcycle tools, but he was also making aviation components, and that was taking up most of his time,” says Carter, “so I negotiated buying the tool portion of his business.”
The equipment took off, and today Motion Pro has over 30 design and utility patents for workshop essentials like the PBR chain tool, Bead Buddy, and T6 tire levers. “We have two full-time employees pursuing new ideas and tools,” says Chris, “and I’ve had somebody in that position for the last 30 years. But we get ideas from everywhere; dealers, shops, mechanics. They’ll show us something they came up with and we’ll figure out how to produce it.”
Carter says it has a lot to do with “being in the right place at the right time,” but the fact is Motion Pro is everywhere in powersports, and has been for decades. Carter’s early years as a factory racer put him in touch with many of American motorcycling’s most influential people, and he’s still friends with them today. Motion Pro is also heavily involved in off-road, motocross, Supercross, flat track, and roadracing, sponsoring professional and amateur teams, riders, and mechanics. “There are guys we sponsored back in the day,” says Carter, “and now we’re sponsoring their kids and their grandkids.” Being close to racing keeps Carter in touch with the people who are using his products, providing feedback, and offering ideas. It also brings him a lot of joy.
“This last weekend I was at a MotoAmerica race, and a lot of the guys were using our products. It’s rewarding to see our tools in that environment, and it’s satisfying to know we’re involved in caring for the motorcycles,” says Carter.
It’s satisfying to know that the tools I find so rewarding to use come from such an exceptional brand, and after talking with Chris and learning about him and his company, my Motion Pro equipment is more prized than ever.
