Meeting Chris Tope of Utopia Moto

Ron 0:00

Well , welcome everybody again to the Peace Love Moto podcast . There's been so many things I have loved about this podcast . Sometimes I'm not pleased with the material . I think I could go back and do a better job , especially with the earlier podcast episodes . But the real privilege has been to meet people , people who were strangers at first , and then we find out that we have this common thread that happens to be motorcycles , and then it just takes a usually a short conversation , like the conversation we're going to have today , where you find out that who you're talking to is a really good person and that is who we're visiting with today . So Chris Tope from Utoepia Moto Company is on with us today . We found each other through Instagram , so I know there's a lot of people , including myself sometimes that bashes Instagram as a waste of time , but no , it isn't Not always , especially when you're looking up people and elements that are of interest in . Motorcycling is my interest . So , chris , I'm so glad that we could connect today . So thanks for being on the Peace Love Moto podcast .

Chris 1:11

Well , thank you for having me . I appreciate it . Hello everybody .

Ron 1:16

Well , chris . So now my Texas accent comes out every once in a while . We've lived here in Colorado for about 30 years now , but grew up in Texas . So tell me , tell our friends that are listening in , where are you and where does the accent come from ?

Chris 1:35

So I'm currently in West by God . Virginia is where I live in a small little town called Fayetteville . It's actually the home of the newest national park in West Virginia and in the US , so it's the New River Gorge National Park is right where our boundary is . I grew up in a town called Richardson , Texas , outside Dallas .

Ron 2:02

Absolutely .

Chris 2:03

About 20 minutes or so north of Dallas and I grew up there and I guess that's where my accent came from . Richardson , texas . I went to school at the Texas A&M University and got my education and then started moving around the US for my job and my career , so it's kind of died down . My accent . It's not near as strong as it used to be , but you know I still . Every time I go back it gets deep again . Every time I visit home .

Ron 2:37

You know it's funny , chris , I would not be surprised at all if our family tree doesn't meet somewhere , because I'm from McKinney , texas , which is about 10 miles north of Richardson , or , yeah , 10 , 10 minutes anyway , oh man , it is just just flew home last night from Texas and I was out in that area , but , uh , yeah , we're , we're , we probably . Uh , our family tree has probably crossed branches somewhere . But , chris , somehow somewhere , yeah , yeah . So , chris , we crossed paths , originally through Instagram , and I found you there , because of motorcycles , obviously , and you started a little company called Utopeia Moto Company . Yeah , Utopeia Moto Company , that's what you call it , right .

Chris 3:30

I do . My last name's Tope and I always had . My nickname growing up was Utopeia , and so they incorporated Utopeia with Tope , and so if you look at my logo , everybody's like man , you misspelled Utopeia and I'm like no , no , no , it's my last name , it's just incorporated , so we just ran with it . So that's kind of how the days were born for Utopeia Moto Company .

Ron 3:59

That . Well , that's cool , I love that . I love that . Well , I want . I want to come back to your company .

Chris 4:20

Oh , I love that , I love that . Well , I want to come back to your company , but if we could circle back a Evinrude Eltos , the Cubs , the Elto Ace , you know , I really got into and joined rebuilding old outboard motors and kind of bringing life back to them and kind of bring life back to them , and so then that's kind of how I learned a little bit of carburetors restoration , polishing paint , all that stuff , and then I used to have a . I still actually have one of the almost original QT50 mopeds , a Yamaha moped that I own . Wow , and my aunt and uncle own a storage unit in San Antonio , texas . Someone didn't pay their bill and they're like hey , we have this random moped , you want it . It didn't run or anything , and so that was kind of

Early Restoration Projects and Two-Strokes

Chris 5:20

my getting my feet wet . Uh , old motorcycles , even though it was a moped . Uh , I got on that and uh , started restoring that and trying to get it .

Chris 5:31

So it ran and drove and at that time I was like 14 , I was like yes I'm gonna have some wheels , I can go pick up girls on the moped , even though it's a single seater . You know , uh , I I thought , yeah , this is , this is my next way of life . Man , I'm gonna be , I'm gonna be cooler than all my friends . And so I got it all restored , got it running and I got my moped license . You can in texas , you can get legal to drive around on the roads if you get a moped endorsement on your driver's license . So so I got a moped .

Chris 6:06

There's an interesting feedback or interesting line to this . So I got that . I was driving , outgrew it , I was 16 , got my real license , got my new car it was an old used Bronco , ford bronco . And uh , I'm driving home one day and I get pulled over and the cop looks at my driver's license and he starts laughing because it said motorcycle endorsement . But then you look on the back and it said regular regulation , uh , moped . And then that that guy started laughing , almost crying , and he's like man , I'm gonna let you off like you . Actually , I've never seen this in my life someone have an endorsement for a moped and I haven't heard of that either yeah yeah , yeah .

Chris 6:58

So yeah , there's such thing as getting uh back in the day . I don't know how it is now , but you could uh and get an endorsement and start riding a motorcycle or a moped . I think it was only 125 and below was uh , so you didn't have to take a motorcycle course and all that stuff you can just go down .

Chris 7:16

I think I had to take the test I want to say , but I had to take a riding test or anything like that . So funny story about that and that's how I got into restoration of motorcycles and if I'm long-winded , just I'm sorry , that's how I am .

Ron 7:33

You know , I can talk your ear off for days .

Chris 7:36

Go for it . And so you know , I just started restoring bikes here and there People have issues . I'd fix it for them on the motorcycle , started learning bigger bikes . Um , I had a guy . You know I'm partial . I'm partial to small , two strokes . It's always been my wheelhouse .

Chris 7:57

It's , uh , something I always enjoyed and I actually had another builder come to me one day . He's like , dude , you're gonna build a bigger bike . Like , come on , you know and we're joking with each other and I'm like you ever gonna build a smaller bike , you know , because he'd always stick the v-twins and uh , and I said , man , there's always got to be a person that makes two strokes . You know , I try to make the coolest two strokes in the industry if I can , and so that's always been one of my favorite things to do is just two strokes . More smoke , more , you know , white smoke , the better , and so if you look at a lot of my builds , I really try to .

Chris 8:38

I pick out bikes that people don't hear about anymore , don't really ? You know , they're real popular , maybe back in the baby boomer era or maybe even before that , but then they kind of died around and , you know , back in the day they used to ride them until the wheels fell off . So a lot of them are rough and you can't even see them anymore , like Bodaka , for instance . You know , know , a lot of people drove hodakas , yeah , and that was a bike . I just found a gas tank at a swap meet one time and I was like man , this is the coolest tank .

Chris 9:13

I wonder what the bike looks like , and I started you know , thank god for google started googling it , and because back in the day you have to go find a magazine and look it up , especially with trying to find parts , that was a nightmare back in the day . And so , hudaka man , I looked it up and I fell in love with the style bike . It was a two-stroke dirt bike and it was the one that you could go to the store , buy it and out-compete any kind . You know set up dirt bike race , and so I really enjoyed doing that .

Chris 9:50

I like finding the hidden gems of motorcycle industry , the ones that you don't see . You know you see enough troppers , cruisers and all that using v twins , but how many , um , how many bikes do you see that are broke out from the 70s , that are old , two strokes or dude even ? Uh , some of these european bikes are fun to get a hold of because you don't see too many of the old ones in the us you know , that are actually restored . So I like triumphs , I like anything that you know it's fun to do .

Ron 10:26

Got a two-stroke question for you . So I've owned only one two-stroke bike in my life and I bought this old , used , beat up Honda CR250R motocross bike and this was before monoshocks , so this was early on . But as I recall , though , man , the power band on that thing oh my gosh , it would take off . I want to ask you about power bands real quick in just a minute , but here's the funny story . So I needed to sell it because we had our first child and I knew I was going to get killed , so , especially with the power of that CR250R . And so a guy that I worked with , he came over with his son , I think his son was maybe 17 , eight years old , and his son was maybe interested in it . So I give him a helmet , he hops on the bike , heads off into the fields behind our house , goes for a ride , and then I'm just standing around talking with his dad .

Ron 11:27

Well , I didn't notice after a little bit that we didn't hear the engine anymore . So we thought , well , he hasn't been back for a while from this test ride , so I better check on him . So we start walking out that way and he's walking back to us walking the bike , and the poor guy had a concussion , as it turned out . I don't know exactly what happened . He probably doesn't either get in a concussion but yeah , he crashed badly . Apparently the bike was fine , but that poor kid , they did take him to the hospital and he had a concussion . Needless to say , I didn't make that sale . But circling back to question for you on power bands , so are . Are the power bands , even on the bikes that you have built in , the work , bikes that you've dealt with that are two strokes , do they all have a similar , similar characteristic of a power band ?

Chris 12:25

yeah , yeah , some really like your cr 250 probably really rips at their power band oh yeah , um , somebody's daca is 100 up don't really have near near the power . I mean , you know it's still up there , but uh , you'll still feel it it's . You know it's still up there , but uh , you'll still feel it it's . You know around 6,000 RPMs when it hits and it just pops you and if you're like that guy probably did , it probably takes you . It always takes me by surprise when it kicks in .

Chris 12:57

You know , and that's when . That's when you get to accidentally uh doing the wheelie Cause you'll start getting in and all of a sudden that power band kicks off . It's like dropping the clutch almost . Oh yeah , yeah , yeah Well , but no , these uh shoot . I drive a . I got a old . I got a couple of Penton , which is one of my favorite collecting uh bikes . If I anybody out there that wants to sell their penton , I'm all for it um they're up in uh , amherst ohio .

Chris 13:29

The guy , the guy turns like uh , john penton turns 100 this year , I believe , still alive , still um picking it . Uh still goes to mid ohio . There's a big swap meet mid ohio , which

Building Unique Vintage Motorcycles

Chris 13:40

is one of the coolest places that you've never been . Uh has like millions of bikes for swap me . Has races , road races , sidecar races , dirt bike races , motocross scrambler hair , all a hair scrambler , all that stuff . And and then it's an after party that you can only imagine you've heard of barber museum in al in .

Chris 14:03

Alabama . Yes , okay , so they do Bennett Days and it's . I saw a meme about a year ago . It's like what's that ? What's that golfer that has the mullet and the red hair , the white hair ? It's a big pro golfer .

Ron 14:21

I can't think of his name oh my god , john Daly , yeah , yeah .

Chris 14:24

John Daly . Yeah , yeah , john Daly . Okay , and they have a picture of Tiger Woods and it says Barber Vintage Days , and then they have a picture of John Daly and that's the mid-Ohio vintage days . So it's just the exact characteristic of it . Barber Vintage Days is real classy , you know the Tiger Woods style and John Daly at the Mid-Ohio , so , but no , he's actually John . John Penton's showing up this year , supposedly , and going to be there for his 100th birthday . Oh , that's cool .

Ron 14:56

I'm hoping to make it out there . Well , that's you know . That's just one more thing , and we talk about it on this podcast all the time is community . There's just this massive community of folks like you and me and so many others who just really have a passion for this . It's the combination of a whole bunch of stuff . It's the look and the feel of the bike and the history and it's the going out and riding . But , like you're describing , with these people too , it's the community . I mean you , just another describing with these people too , it's the community . I mean you , just another dude rides up on a bike , or you and I both know it's just this , it's just the community that's out there . That's all motorcycle riders and it's instantly going to talk about . Next thing , you know you find out who you're talking to is from Richardson , texas , and you're from McKinney . You know , I love that .

Chris 15:43

I just love that it's a small world Like I was walking around mid Ohio and um I ran into Lyle Lovett and I was like what ?

Chris 15:52

the heck is Lyle Lovett doing out here and uh , you know , lyle Lovett and I uh have passion for , uh , he loves old , vintage dirt bikes , so we really hit it off . And then he also went to texas a&m , which is college I went to , and so , man , we hit it off and uh , and he's from texas and uh , you know , I didn't realize how big an enthusiast he was . And then , um , he did a whole narration of the . They did a documentary of john penton that , uh , penton motorcycle former or founder I was talking about that turns 100 years old this year . Man , I watched it . It was pretty dang good Small world . I didn't expect to see Lyle Lovett walking around the swap meet , no kidding . Wow , yeah , it's been interesting . I don't know how long I've been doing this , building bikes . I'm not telling you my age .

Chris 16:53

I turned 30 this year and we'll just say I've been doing it almost on and off 25 years touching bikes , building bikes and all that stuff , and in that time I've run in and meet some amazing cool people .

Ron 17:06

Yeah .

Chris 17:07

Um , and it's a small world , it's a very small knit world . You know , um , I'm sure we could name drop for about two hours of different people We've run into , podcast guys you've interviewed and somehow we we at least know a sixth degree of , uh , kevin Bacon style . Yeah , yeah .

Ron 17:30

Oh , oh , very , very likely , yeah , well , hey , let's talk about the bikes you build and the bikes you make available to others . I'd love to hear about that and get the word out about what you're doing and , yeah , what you have to offer so my style bike , as I said earlier , is kind of I love two strokes , but you know I do all kinds .

Chris 17:54

I've done cafe racers , bobbers , brats , scramblers , you know you name it as long as it's something that hasn't been overdone or is more unique . Um , I get I try to do maybe one custom a year . Um my full-time job on a biologist , so that takes up a lot of my time . Plus

Earth Elements and Custom Design Details

Chris 18:12

I just had two twin boys , so that also takes up a heck of a lot of time , and congratulations .

Ron 18:19

I'm going to be sure and put a link to your Instagram in there . You have a wonderful family , my friend . You are blessed , that's sure .

Chris 18:28

Oh man , I'm an older dad , know , I'll just throw it out there . I'm 42 , just had freaking under nine months old almost , and so you know for any listener out there that still kind of dragging the anchor on having kids or not , it's well worth it . You don't want to wait too long because , man , your energy level is dropping , but it's well worth it . And it's kind of stressful , it's hard , it ain't easy , don't let anybody pull you , but man , it's really rewarding . So I'm very blessed to have two boys that are healthy and all that stuff . So that's been a really godsend .

Ron 19:10

Oh for sure , Um , all the pictures of you and your wife and your two boys dressed up for the distinguished gentlemen's ride . That's another thing , obviously , that we have in common , that that the listeners can go out on Instagram and see our , our mutual involvement and passion for the distinguished gentlemen's ride . But oh , you , yeah , you have a , you have a cute family . That's awesome .

Chris 19:33

Oh yeah , you have a cute family . That's awesome . That's kind of my next build . Honestly , I'm not building for anybody except for the boys . I came up I randomly found they made these bikes back from like the 60s or 70s and it's an Indian MM5A , which is a 50 cc . Um , indian moped or not moped , it's like a . It looks like a miniature motorcycle , little scrambler looking and , uh , my buddy sold only two a pair , so I'm going to be building that this year . Uh , so that way they can ride that and we're calling them the twindians love it .

Chris 20:15

That's so cool yeah , now , if they're identical looking , I don't know , I haven't decided yet , but uh , they're definitely going to have a utopeia twist to them . Yeah , uh , to get in kind of my twist , I always incorporate some earth elements to the bikes . I enjoy my background biology and so I I like using uh , wood . I like using uh , different metal compounds , you know , uh , I like using anything that you can imagine that makes it seem like it's connected to the earth . Sounds kind of hippie-like .

Chris 20:55

Love it but you know , even you can look through my pictures of some of my builds . The Ice Pick was one of the ones I built . It's an ice racer bike and the way I got that as I was working and I saw a taxidermy that did a lot of the butterflies and I saw these butterfly wings that looked like ice and I was like , okay , that's going to be the next color I'm going to use for this ice racer . Because Michael Lichter , which is an amazing photographer in the motorcycle industry , had a show . He used to run a show at the Buffalo Chip in Sturgis and so he invited me to skinny bikes . Well , I had a bike that was . I had a vision that was going to be super skinny because I went from dual shock to monoshock , did that conversion update and it really made it sharp . And then the reason why ice pick if you look at it from a bird's eye view , it looks like a ice pick , super slender , sharp , and with ice pick you think nothing but okay , ice . So that's how I got that color . It's like a blue morph of motorcycle or a motorcycle , uh , butterfly and that kind of has that shimmer and sheen glow . Oh man , it's amazing .

Chris 22:20

My buddy , casey , from casey crossovers . Uh did the paint job on it and man it . We went back and forth but man , he nailed it , um and that thing . So the point behind that , it's got that earth , you know the animal kind of insect wing color , and then it's got , uh did epoxy resin , hand grips and I used um I I also like to use gems and jewels and all that stuff and I used a stone called the Moonstone and I use that as the bar end caps and so everything about that thing just glows . It looks like ice and that was the whole point . It's got studded tires for ice racing , but the whole point was it to look like it . Just if it , if you drove dropped it racing , you couldn't find it because it just blend right in . That was the whole point . So that's great like . But also another thing I always incorporate in my build is a uh hobo coin .

Chris 23:29

A lot of people don't know what the story behind Hobo coins are , but no idea when you used to have the guys that would jump from train to train and uh , I think Randy Travis sings about that on a one of his songs Um and uh , you know , these Hubbell guys would go pick up uh coins off the ground and take a knife or whatever and carve a picture into it and then sell it right , and then that's how they got the cigarettes and all that stuff for trade . And so hobo , the hobo coin , um trend was pretty awesome . If you look at the original ones back in the day , uh , it's pretty cool . You know , they take lincoln's face and make a like a chief indian out of it , or they're really awesome . So every one of my builds that I , I someone custom uh commissions me to do , I always incorporate some type of hobo into it .

Chris 24:32

Hobo coin yeah , I've got a little miniature cafe racer , um , black bomber , uh , platforms from a 1977 honda 50cc and that one actually had two monkeys for the hobo coin one's's a gorilla , one's a chimpanzee smoking a cigarette with a motorcycle helmet on , and that bike's referred to as the Honda Monkey anyway , right , yeah , yeah , that's why I did that , because they're called Honda Monkeys is their nickname , and it also has banana . I took a Lego banana and made a valve stem out of it . So then it's got little monkey , banana , valve stem covers , just stuff like that classified me sometimes as a theme motorcycle builder and I try not to .

Chris 25:34

I just like to incorporate little bitty details , and the reason why I do that is when you take these bikes to motorcycle shows you don't want you want people to be attracted to it so they see it from distance . They're like , oh , that's cool bike , let me come go look at it . And then all of a sudden you keep them there longer with the small little intricate details and and that's kind of my my uh mantra , or you know , that's kind of what I like to do is keep people looking at my builds longer than just oh , that's a cool bike , I've seen that before . Let's keep going , you know so .

Ron 26:07

Oh , that's , that's just cool . I gotta , I gotta tell you uh , chris , as we've been talking , I made myself a note here Paul Krause , who I interviewed for this podcast a few months ago . He is part of one of the leaders in the Colorado Vintage

Distinguished Gentleman's Ride Community

Ron 26:25

Motorcycle Group and this Saturday well , tomorrow , today it is is tomorrow is their big fundraiser , where they have vintage motorcycles out there uh , restored bikes , custom bikes and so forth , but mostly vintage bikes , and that's tomorrow . So are you already familiar with paul and the colorado vintage motorcycle group ?

Chris 26:48

no , no , that's uh that . What's cool about these podcasts is I learned new names and I haven't . I don't believe I know who that is .

Ron 26:56

Well , I will . I will connect you up and I interviewed Paul . It's it's been a few months back , but the picture that I use for that interview that I put on the podcast episode is a picture of a . What do they call it ? It's a whizzer . Yeah , yeah , you familiar with that ?

Chris 27:17

It looks like a bicycle .

Ron 27:18

Yes .

Ron 27:18

Yes exactly and , if I recall , I'll have to go back and listen to it again . Of course I'm going to see him tomorrow and so look forward to seeing him and I'll see that bike out there . But I believe it was his grandfather's and then he restored it end to end and it is just a work of art these days . So I , as you were talking about what you've done and the work and the passion for it , I was . I wrote down Paul's name here too . So , paul , if you're listening later on , talking about you , buddy , uh , but uh , you know to me , chris man , I mentioned this a lot on the podcast too .

Ron 27:55

We are so fortunate to have a passion for something outside of the computer screen , outside of our phone or social media or you know anything , anything else , even bad stuff too . There you can easily fall into these different addictions . But I feel so blessed I'll put it that way I feel so blessed that I was talking with my dad my dad's 90 , 90 , about to turn 92 . I was talking with my dad this past week and he was talking about how it was such a good thing when I was 11 years old and he bought me a little red mini bike with a lawnmower engine in it and , uh it .

Ron 28:48

You know it gets me choked up now thinking that that purchase of that bike for me , um , changed my life , and that was going on 52 years ago now . And just being able to drop into this , learning the thrill of riding motorcycles and mini bikes back in the day , learning the mechanics of it , liking to get my hands dirty , it changed my life . And now I'm a grandfather , I've got two grown kids , two grandkids , and , man , I'm keeping on going with it because it's just something that's really , really touched my life . And again , when I jumped into this podcast thing a little over two years ago now and then getting to meet people like you and having conversations like this , I just I don't know where I'm going with this other than to tell you I couldn't feel more blessed to to get to have a conversation like this and meet people like you , and most definitely , what was that ?

Chris 29:46

Yeah , it's amazing . Like as much as the you know , social media is a curse . It's also a hidden kind of gem . You know've met a lot of people via people reaching out to me . I've gotten actually a commission for builds via social media .

Chris 30:05

I started doing social media just because it wasn't that I was trying to get any kind of popularity or anything . But I love taking pictures of different scenes , different rides , different motorcycles I've built , and you know , you get a collection of stuff in your , you know , your phone or , back in the day , your camera , and you kind of want to share it . Right , and that's kind of how social media is . People want to share their knowledge , share their photos , share their experiences , yeah , share their , their adventures , you know . And so that , to me , is what you know .

Chris 30:42

When it gets in the like politics and the banter and the trolls and all that stuff , that's where it's ruined it . But when it's all about just looking at , uh , different builds of my buddies that have come out or different rides that they've done , or you know , honestly , it's just I , I , sometimes you , you're kind of happy that you social media does exist because you know it's , it's allowed me to meet guys like you and talk about stories and you know , have experiences and all that stuff , absolutely , absolutely . One of my favorite things , too , is building bikes . Has allowed me , I never would have gone to some of these motorcycle shows , you know .

Ron 31:25

Yeah .

Chris 31:25

I'm not the most amazing builder but you know I've been blessed to get accepted to some of these cool invite-only shows , like the one show in portland , the hand built , in austin , the mama tried show in milwaukee um , you know , I have a invite . I'm going to the glory day show in pittsburgh uh , here in september and uh , and I'm bringing uh , you know , every show you bring your custom build there and show it off and they display it really nicely and all that stuff . But the story behind that I never would have gone to some of these cities most likely I hate to dog on Milwaukee . It's turned into one of my favorite cities I've ever been to , but I don't know if I would have visited Milwaukee . Same with going up to Portland .

Chris 32:17

I'm always on the East Coast . Would I maybe justify the trip eventually ? Maybe , but these shows kind of brought me into the areas and also I met some cool people . I met the founder of DGR , mark , yes , and I met him . I got a picture of him sitting on my mini cafe racer bike I was talking about with the monkey hobo coins .

Ron 32:42

Yeah .

Chris 32:43

And met him , we hit it off and that's kind of how I started wanting to get more involved in the DGR Distinguished Gentleman's Ride , you know , which you and I share a passion and a love for that . I think you said you hosted it and I I started hosting uh here out in uh , fayetteville , four years ago , and so you know , that's that's kind of one of my excitement , you know , and honestly I would have probably never done hosting out here , but I realized , realized West Virginia was one of the only cities , or not cities , one of the only states , that did not have a DGR ride .

Chris 33:26

And so I reached out to Mark and I was like hey , mark , man , I'd love to host it this year . Anyway , I can get approved . It's pretty late in the season . And he sent me a message within like hours saying okay , chris , you're approved . And so then we got West Virginia on the map and it started . You know , I only live in a population of 3000 . It's like 10,000 during rec season , cause we have whitewater rafting , rock climbing , mountain biking , all the major uh , um and uh adrenaline junkie sports oh yeah right , right , but , um , it just never hit on , I guess , motorcycles and stuff like that .

Chris 34:06

So we started it and first year we got 25 riders and then the next year I had almost 40 . This year we had 46 . One sixty five hundred dollars . Um , in the four years I've hosted we raised 25 000 for that , for prostate cancer , suicide and men's health , yeah , which is pretty spectacular .

Chris 34:31

And then , uh , you know , I I guess I'm saying all this because I can't , I'm not , I'm not good at hosting , maybe you know , but if you ever are on the fence of maybe starting to ride in your area and this is all the listeners right now hop out there . You know it's not hard to get approved , chops it down and , uh , it's really fun , you know , if you've always want to do it , but there's nothing , no ride been close or nearby to you . Um , start one . You know , I'll tell you one thing uh , I started here and then , uh , this is not the capital of west virginia .

Chris 35:08

West virginia's capital is charleston , which everybody thinks it's south carolina , but uh , charlesteston also is out here in West Virginia and that's the capital . They just started one , two years ago , a ride , and now their ride I think they had like 10 , and they're starting to get bigger and bigger . So now we have two cities in West Virginia . So that's kind of cool . So that's my challenge . If you always want to do this ride , it's really fun . You dress up dapper , you have a good time and uh , host one and start reaching out to your buddies and get it going .

Ron 35:46

Oh , I , I appreciate you sharing that . Chris . We are another thing . We're on the same page on my wife and I , involved in the distinguished gentlemen's ride . Also , of course , the bikes that you have are perfect for that , most certainly , but that's honestly at its core . That's where this podcast came from . It's from the inspiration of Mark Hawa , who I've interviewed on the podcast and the purpose of the Distinguished Gentleman's a .

Ron 36:13

I call it a global hug . You can go up to a total stranger , give them a hug and then introduce yourself after that , and that's why the way the DGR is . It's this motorcycles bring us together , but it's a cause to like , just like what you mentioned . It's men's health , suicide prevention , prostate cancer research and so forth . Yeah , it's , it's a beautiful community that we reside within here , this motorcycling people , a lot of people with a really , really good heart . And before we wrap up , I don't want to forget , chris . So tell the listeners if they want to find out more about what you do and engage maybe in a future project with you or purchase or whatever . What do they need to do ?

Chris 37:01

Yeah , so I do have like a Facebook for Utopeia Moto Company , but I rarely get on there . The best way if you're ever interested in checking out my work or reaching out to see if I'll be interested in doing a commission , like I said , I only do about a . You know , custom bills once every year . I'm just too dang busy with everything else life in general . But , uh , you can reach out uh on Instagram utopeia moto company . I think you can even use uh google utopeia moto company and pop up you can google it and hit images . You'll see all kinds of past builds I've done uh between a surf and turf bike , that surfboard and drive on the roads you know all that stuff that's what .

Chris 37:54

That's what her nickname was surf turf , um . So , yeah , reach out there . Um , you know , send me a DM , try to slide in there if you can . Um , sometimes you can , sometimes you can't , I don't know Um , but uh , yeah , that's kind of what we do and we do all kinds of vintage bikes . You know , I don't like doing doing

Utopia Giveaway and Final Thoughts

Chris 38:14

modern . The wiring is about six to ten miles long and that wears me out with these new bikes . But yeah , we , we do like from 90s back . You know , that's that's my style .

Chris 38:29

Um , I'm actually I got a 1986 honda nighthawk S CB 700 FC and that one I got to get going this year because I plan on riding it for next year's ride and it's a red , white and blue color and , man , that's one of the baddest bikes I've owned . I've had that since . Uh , that was one of my bikes . I had one on 16 . So , yeah , that one's really fun one , but uh , no , that's uh kind of my passion . Um , you know , uh , that's uh kind of got what got me into it . If I can't go to the store and buy what I want , why not make it ? And so that's kind of how I started going and getting into it is the only way to get . What I wanted was build it .

Ron 39:12

So well , that's , that's fabulous , chris . Again , I couldn't be more , uh , more happy with this opportunity to get to meet you this way and to share this conversation with the world and , uh , just want to thank you for what you do . I know that , what you do for a living too . We we didn't talk a lot about that , but we you and I talked about it the other day when we were on the phone that , uh , you know your environmental focus . There is , uh , you know , for for all the good , and then you know your spirit and the bikes that you're building and , uh , obviously , you're a good dad too .

Chris 39:49

Sounds like you won't see me hugging trees . I'll cut a tree here and there , here and there , but , uh , we try to make our waters cleaner and , uh , make our air safer . So you know I'm not one of those types , but uh , yeah , uh , it's been fun . Um , if you are in the pittsburgh area around september 20th to 21st not to throw this out there , but I'm just saying I'll be at the glory day show with the custom build and that'd be fun to say hi . If you , uh , you know anybody , I'd love to see y'all .

Ron 40:23

Well , well , I'll do . I'll most definitely include links in the show notes . So including that offline and get all that info and , uh , you know , and and other info for for folks to get in touch with you and check out your good work .

Chris 40:39

But you know , you mentioned how do you give back to this community and I started this thing called Utopeia , give Back , giveaway , Christmas Giveaway , you know , and this will be our eighth year doing it this year . Our eighth year , uh , doing it this year and I reached out to all these sponsors you know from go fast , don't die uh brady out there some of the guys that you've had in the past .

Chris 41:05

Yeah , um , you know we've reached out to lowbrow . I could just go off . I have painters . I have , uh , chris white , real . I have Chris White , world-renowned painter for motorcycles . They donate all kinds of stuff to us and we started doing that eight years ago . We've given back all this stuff , and the reason why I started it is you don't pay for a raffle , you don't do anything , you just like , subscribe or or not subscribe , but just like and comment , uh , pass it to another person and you're automatically entered . And we do it around right at before christmas .

Chris 41:45

And the reason why I started it is everybody gets depressed when you can't ride anymore and you're having to give all these gifts to all these people that you know family members and all that . You feel obligation and sometimes it's nice to just give back to the community and that's kind of why I started it . I I took a lot from motorcycle industry between you know , getting to go to these shows and all this stuff . What am I giving to it ? And so that's kind of where we started it . And now we're eight years strong and I get over almost $10,000 worth of gifts from sponsors and we give it back , we take it and we give it back . I usually pick six winners and they get tons of awesome gear between gear , tobacco , moto uh company has all kinds of riding gear and there's just tons of stuff . And so that's kind of look forward to it and pay attention around December . I started around November and the giveaway is usually the second week of December and that's kind of our give back .

Ron 42:56

Beautiful . I love it . That's beautiful .

Chris 43:01

But no , Ron , I appreciate it . It's great . You know our paths may have never crossed any other situation , but through this podcast , you reaching out and all that stuff , Uh , it's been a pleasure to get to know you .

Ron 43:15

Oh , it sure has . On this end too , chris , it's a Friday afternoon right now for the listeners , just as an FYI , and I've got a big smile on my face . I've been taking lots of notes . That's awesome . This is going to be a discussion that I'm hoping a whole lot of people will really feel good about , so I can't thank you enough , yeah .

Chris 43:37

Yeah , shout out to my mom . She turns . I won't say the age , but she turned her birthday tomorrow , so shout out to her .

Ron 43:45

Oh yeah , wonderful . What's her name ? Colleen , colleen . Well , happy birthday , colleen .

Chris 43:54

And again , chris , it's been a pleasure man , I'm glad to do this on a Friday , hopefully , and fire some of the listeners to get out there on the weekend and have fun yeah absolutely , thanks again , man .