It
’s not every day that a small community like Morgan Hill has a
resident who’s a cover boy. But that’s exactly what motorcycle
enthusiast and shop owner Mark Madson has become.
It’s not every day that a small community like Morgan Hill has a resident who’s a cover boy.
But that’s exactly what motorcycle enthusiast and shop owner Mark Madson has become.
Madson, 46, who owns EMF Motorsports in Morgan Hill, appears on the cover of the book “Sturgis: The Photography of Michael Lichter” along with one of his bikes.
The book highlights the annual motorcycle rally in Sturgis, S.D. — a big bike town that the book says has the “world’s greatest” bike rally.
The picture used for the book cover was actually taken from an appearance Madson made in a movie, “The Road to Sturgis,” which was filmed in 1996. Madson’s 30-second cameo in the movie’s opening scene shows him leading a pack of bikers down a road.
While the movie, which stars Peter Fonda, has been out for some time now, the book only came out a few months ago.
And, though Madson might not seem like a person who gets overly excited, his wife Gale said he couldn’t have been happier when he found out he was on the book cover.
In fact, she said he gets excited with anything to do with his bikes because he enjoys them so much.
“We could be in bed in the middle of the night and he would wake up and go ‘Oh my gosh, I know what I could do to make this better,’” Gale said. “And he’ll go down to the shop and do it. Or he would get up and write (it) down. He’s very passionate.”
Madson, who has lived in Morgan Hill for about 40 years, said he’s been into for motorcycles about as long as he’s lived here.
“Since I was a kid I’ve always been into the motorcycle thing,” Madson said. “I never bought a new bike. It was always something I had to fix. (My dad and I) would tear it apart and restore it.”
Madson said he owes his mechanical skills to his father, Dick, who was an engine machinist and got him started working on bikes at a young age.
“He appreciated his bikes because he fixed them,” the elder Madson said. “And that’s why he’s doing so good now.
“He used to ride back and forth along the driveway. He rode so much that him and his buddies would put a groove in it. I had to bring gravel in every so often and fill that up.”
Although Madson has his own shop now, he didn’t always make a living working on bikes.
Before he opened his shop 12 years ago, he was a meat cutter for Alpha Beta for more than 20 years, working in both the San Jose and Morgan Hill stores.
Eventually his love for motorcycles forced him to make a decision.
“I always built bikes or fixed stuff for people,” Madson said. “The hobby turned into more customers than I could handle. I couldn’t keep up with it, so that’s when I decided to retire. I turned my hobby into a business.”
Although his business takes up a lot of his time, he does like to get away and go out for a ride every now and then.
“We’ve gone out with a Yamaha and he could do a wheely in every gear with me on the back,” his wife Gale said, adding that those kind of antics are in the past now. “We thought we were 16 and we’re not.”
Nowadays, Madson likes to go riding on his Harley Davidson, which lets him get the most out of the ride.
“With the Harleys, you’re riding to enjoy the scenery,” he said. “With sports bikes you’re enjoying the road. You don’t even look at the trees or the deer or anything.”
His shop, located at the corner of Depot and Third Street, not only specializes in bike repair but also builds and customizes bikes, although not as often as in the past.
“It just seems like now my customer base is just building motors,” Madson said. “The business has grown so much to where now I can’t keep up with the customers I have now to do special projects, like a complete custom bike.”
With the type of work Madson does for his customers, he expects them to return. And with the opening of the new 22,000-square-foot Harley Davidson dealership in town, his business will be getting new customers, too, he said.
