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A Love of Motorcycles

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A love of motorcycles can stem from many things. A movie, a pop culture icon or a family history. This love can be translated into a once-a-year trip to Sturgis or to weekend rides. For some, this love turns into a racing career and a large collection of Japanese bikes that have a history and a story all their own. For Shawn Martin, it’s the latter, and his collection is one for the books. Starting with a few cruisers has now turned into a remodeled farm building, housing more than 12 bikes, and another garage full rounds the collection out to around 60 bikes. The love of these motorcycles is unbelievable.

Martin’s love didn’t start from family traditions, as his relatives history was not rooted in the cycle genre. He remembers, “When growing up, my Dad said, ‘the day you get a motorcycle is the day you move out.’” Martin’s wife, Jill, jokes that she probably had a motorcycle before her husband. “I always wanted a horse, but my father found me a motorcycle.” This family is deep in the racing culture. Both Martin and his wife used to race snowmobiles, their daughter, Kayla, barrel races horses, while their son, Brett, currently races motorcycles as Martin did around twenty years ago. The need for speed runs through this family’s veins.

Since Martin’s motorcycle connection was not coming from his family, he began working at a local cycle dealership, which helped grow his appreciation for these vehicles. “I worked at Interlakes Sport Center from 1979-1988. The last three years were on a part-time basis, as I had started farming in 1985. The involvement of racing snowmobiles and working at Interlakes was wonderful. You meet so many good people, and the camaraderie was the best and it’s been a lot of fun. Steve and Doug Koch are excellent friends. I didn’t like telling Steve I was going to have to quit to start farming, and he said, ‘I knew it would probably happen someday.’” And many of the friends Martin had made working at Interlakes have kept in touch and continue to help each other with their passion for the sport, no matter what business they currently represent.

When first walking into the remodeled farm building, the reaction is one of immense awe. Your eye is immediately drawn towards Martin’s favorite bike, the Thuet Flat Track motorcycle at the back, and the story behind it is fascinating. “It’s one of 100 Thuet built flat track bikes. It has a Shell red line frame and the Shell Thuet motor in it. Thuet started racing when he was young, and as time went on he was sponsoring guys, building bikes for them to race, and was hooked up with Yamaha. Then he started building engines that Kenny Roberts raced. Roberts went on to become King Kenny. I have King Kenny’s autograph on the gas tank of that bike. In 1992, I spoke to Thuet, and told him I had one of his bikes. He said, ‘Son, everyone thinks they have one of my bikes. I made a lot of motors.’ Fast forward to 1998, we raced in Sturgis, and I won the half mile with the Thuet bike. The next year we went out and the flat tracker would hardly run. I took home dead last place and started taking the bike apart and sent it to Thuet to go through it. After not hearing anything for awhile, I called and he said he hadn’t seen my motor come in yet. I thought, ‘Oh no, where is it.’ Later that night, Thuet calls back and said he did have my motor, and that I have one of the best motors that he built. He was very excited and from then on we had a good time. He was 87 years old at the time he went through my engine.” Thuet died in 2011, one month before his 99th birthday.

So you may be wondering, how did Martin go from racing to collecting? “I had a few bikes, and at one point we had around five or six. They were down in the barn getting dirty and neglected. One day, Denny Kannenberg came by and I sold all of them to him. I soon regretted it, so I picked up the 1978 Kawasaki 1000 LTD that Jill and I rode, then picked up an original 1985 Yahama V-Max, which was the first year for that model, and the collection restarted. In 1985, I was working at the shop and was able to ride a V-Max and said, ‘Someday, I’m going to have one.’ Soon after the V-Max came the 1979 KZ 1300, which came out of Omaha. This was the first six-cylinder, and it’s water cooled. When I was working at Interlakes, I used to hate selling them. I thought they were just too big and awkward, and now I own one.”

While racing and showing bikes, Martin has met and maintained friendships with many people. His generous nature was proven to one friend last winter. “We used to ice race bikes and one of our friends who ice raced with us back in the early 90’s, was Jon Everetts. He has since been diagnosed with stage four lymphoma cancer, but is still into the racing scene. When the ice races started at Brandt Lake, he’d been coming up to them. He’s a fun guy and it’s great to see him and hang out with him and he loves seeing the guys he previously raced with. Last year, he said he’d like to do that again. I called him in the spring and told him I’m putting a bike together this winter for him to race. He was overjoyed. Last fall, we put one together. My son helped stud the tires, and we let John know it was ready. You would have thought he had never been off a bike. He rode it like he stole it. First time out, he wins the vintage class. The bike ran a little hotter than we first thought it would, so we jumped it into the over 40 class. John wondered if he could keep up and he ends up winning second in points in the over 40 class without even trying. Afterwards, he told me, ‘Of all the medicines he’s had for his cancer, there hasn’t been any that were as good as riding that bike.’” Martin can still be found at the ice races, watching his son, Brett, continue the family love of speed and motorcycles.

If Martin had to choose a favorite make of motorcycles, he would choose his Kawasaki’s. “The old Kawasaki Z1 900’s have been a major part of my collection. I just finished restoring a 1974, which was the same model and year of the first street bike I ever owned. I also have the first year of the Z1 900’s, a 1973, and the last year, a 1975. The ‘73 has quite a story. It’s in original condition other than exhaust and tires, but the engine had been taken out of it and put in a chopper. They then stored the Z1 900 in a garage and covered it up. Later, they took the engine back out of the chopper and put it in the ‘73. That was a craigslist find in Brookings. I didn’t realize it from the listing, but when I bought the ‘73, I got another parts bike with it. I had previously sold one of the street track bikes I had built to Denny at Sport Wheels and saw it sitting at the store and wanted to buy it back. I remembered I had the deal with this extra bike, so I traded the ‘73 Z1 900 in a box to get my street tracker back.” Martin’s Z1 900 collection has even won him prestigious awards. “We went to a Japanese motorcycle show in Minneapolis last June. The ‘73 won best 70’s motorcycle, and the ‘75 won Kawasaki Best Of Show.” There is one odd ball in his collection, a chopper. But when you find out it houses a Z1 900 engine, the presence of that bike makes complete sense.

Martin does try to do most of the work on his bikes himself, but without his friends in the business and a few local shops, these bikes may not have come together. “I enjoy working on them myself as much as I can in the winter. I have a friend, Dave Jensen, that helps with motor work, and Rob Jones, at Jones Repair in Chester, has painted many of our bikes. I joke that we used to have cattle, but now my cows are Kawasaki’s and I love it.”

May 2016

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