Ryan Ragland was once a racer, then a mechanic and R&D man at KTM. But he was completely and totally out of the industry by the time he accidentally invented a way to save it. Ragland, an engineer by trade and at heart, just wanted to share his love of motorcycles with his son, so he crudely grafted a cordless drill motor, RC car batteries, and a chain drive onto a balance bike.
When the rest of his neighborhood saw his invention, they soon wanted one too. Thus, prototypes were built, and a company and brand—Stacyc (for stability cycle)—were born. With youth interest in motorcycling fading, the industry has been waiting for a jolt like this, so much so that Harley-Davidson decided to buy the Stacyc brand outright. But Ragland is still there, turning his dream of getting one young kid riding into a dream scenario for an entire industry.
The Racer X Exhaust podcast is presented by Yoshimura.
Subscribe via iTunes or your favorite podcast app by searching for the Racer X Podcast Network. It's also available on the Racer X Illustrated YouTube channel, Spotify, and Google Play Music.
Racer X Illustrated Motocross Magazine
The November 2019 Issue
Inside the November issue of Racer X magazine: See who stood out and what our takeaways are from Loretta Lynn’s and all of its future moto talent. GEICO Honda had a packed house at the last three nationals, but who’s sticking around? Former factory rider Michael Byrne has made a successful jump to team management, and we find out how and why. When the AMA’s 1986 Production Rule went into effect, it ended a glorious run of exotic, hand-built—and wildly expensive—bikes in AMA racing. We dig into the story of those final years. All these features and much more inside the November issue.
