Interviews
El Hefe By Arker

A thorn between two roses? Joe, the MOD and his mum’s best petunias..

Let's get this thing started. What's your name, age, location, sister's phone number, etc?

My name is Joseph James F****** well, you know my last name, but everyone else doesn’t need to know, hehe. I’m 17 and I live in Waffles moms panties....errr... I mean San Diego.

[Same thing pretty much..]

Ok, this is going to be more of a serious interview, so no messing about, alright Joseph James!?

You're nearing the end of school right now, how’s it been for you? Good, bad or ugly? What’re your plans for the future?

Well, it's going pretty well I would say. I have all B's or above, and I'm learning a lot. Plans? I don't even know what I'm doing tonight, let alone for college. As of now I'm hoping M.O.D. takes off. I'm gonna go to a Cal State college, and probably major in Computer Science. Depends though, if M.O.D. gets going real well I may leave college to pursue my company full time, rather than wait 4 years to really get it going

Ahhhh..full commitment! That’s what I like to see!

Ok, first off lets talk about your riding n stuff...

What got you into BMX and how long have you been riding?

haha, better be ready for a long story..

Well, it all started long before I was born - my older brother (who is now 32) was into riding back in the mid 70's, before BMX was even an official thing. He rode and raced until about 1988, So me, being born in 85, I was exposed to his riding the first three years of my life.

 
The family Hefe. But which brother’s the veteran racer!!??...

Was he any good?

hell yeah.... he had around 30-40 trophies

Wow. Did he win anything big?

he was top expert class, and even had a few nationals at novice and intermediate

Damn! Not bad! Not bad at all.

yeah, he was great

So you were building doubles before you could walk then!?

Haha, no, I never really got into riding BMX myself until I moved to So. Cal.

but I was aware of it. In fact when I was just barely 7 my brother gave me his old Schwinn sting competition, it was my first 20 incher, it was also the bike I got into riding with. It was so skinny!

Actually, my brother is riding it now again. He’s built it up and started racing.

 So yeah I moved out to San Diego when I was 12 and tried to skate. That lasted for about.... 3-4 months. Then one day my buddy Fernando says "hey, let’s ride bikes".

So I go "ok, sure", I grab my bike, he grabs his (he lived 4 houses down) and we start riding around he had this fully decked chrome Dyno and he could bunnyhop almost a foot.

EVERYONE should have a buddy called Fernando.

hehehehehe, man Fernando is the coolest name - he taught me how to bunnyhop in about 5 minutes, even though it was only about an inch and a half. But that was my first real experience and ever since I've been hooked.

So I'd say I've been riding for about 4 and a half years, but I also played football. That consumed a lot of time, so I would only get to ride once a week

 
Four and a half years later and he’s added another 30inches and a 180 to his first trick. Big 180 hop.

Is Fernando still riding? Who else do you ride with and where?

Yeah Fernando still rips, he moved to Vegas last year though, so mainly I ride alone. Sometimes I'll go with my buddy Sam or Chris though, and go downtown SD

You ride mostly street right?

Yeah

How come you ride alone? The scene isn’t that small is it!??

Actually it’s pretty huge, I think that's why I ride alone, kinda hard to find people, but there are TONS of riders down here.

What would you say has been your best memory/experience that riding has brought you thus far?

umm....basically everything that comes with it. It's hard to put your finger on just ONE thing, ya know?

Cop out

Hahaha

Right, more personal now..Would you mind sharing with us a bad low point of your life?

Umm, it would probably be the end of a two year relationship (on and off) with this one girl. We were so close, even when we weren't dating, but things fell apart. I was pretty depressed.

And the other time would be the 9-10 months I couldn't ride.

Maaaate 9-10months out???

Yep

What happened? surgery?

yep, ACL injury from football the July before my sophomore year but get this....

I got my surgery done by Dr. Chao, the guy who did Van Homan, Dave Mirra, Hoffman, DMC, Nyquist.....

WOW!

So he knew how to deal with me, and he got me back quick, since my ACL was so severe I had completely ripped it from the bone

Man, when those things go wrong they seriously go wrong.

yeah... it sucks cause when I got hurt it didn’t really hurt, so we put off checking for a month

What did you do in your time off?

played Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX :-D:-D

hahaha

it came out 4 days after my surgery

thumbs of steal now I bet.

man.... I can kick anyone’s ass in that game

hahaha

 
Dr Chao clearly did a good job – bionic smith grind.

Alrighty then, now give us one of the biggest highpoints of your life so far.

Definitely meeting Jim and Vic (Dirt bros) at the crash worship contest last February. Without going there and meeting them, M.O.D. would still just be a dream.

Name three heroes and three villains.

heros:

My older brother Tim

My friend Fernando

and DBI.

 
The guy who got Joe hooked. Fernando.

And villains?

Hrrrm..anyone who tries to bring you down.

The Dean of Students at our school.

and ummmm..... I cant think of a third

Kraftyshaman?

hahaha, nah. He’s just Puerto Rican

Ok, down to business, your business. The company name is Method of Destruction, but what does M.O.D stand for to you?

M.O.D. actually wasn't my co.'s original name, it used to be Destroyer Bike Co. but then volume came along and made a destroyer frame, so that had to be changed.

I just want it to be a positive company, and give back to the industry

I want to solve problems. There are so many companies out there that follow the trend, so you end up with a mass market of crap frames. 3 years ago the thing was to have double wishbones, and 8 pound frames, but now its like, you gotta have no wishbones, or a Fit, and the frame has to be as light as possible. I just wanted to be practical, and make a wishbone more efficient.

I hear you, now the trend is this euro BBullshite

yeah man, and all this .035 tubing where there shouldn’t be (i.e. downtubes and chainstays)

 
The first MOD frame, just about to go into production, the Vigilante.

Who designed the Vigilante frame?

My friend Sam and I came up with the general design and we showed it to Jim and we said: "We want a wishbone that won't crack, but that is still a wishbone. So make the stays connect straight and flush"

and he said "I'll make it work good".

When I showed up at his house 2 weeks later the stays were flush to the BB, and it just made so much sense. So it was a combo between Sam, Jim, and I.

“Straight and Flush”  (pictures of rushed prototype. Production will be like what we are used to seeing on quality frames.)

Haha, man I have a story for every question

(it’s an interview - you’re supposed to mate!)

Now, you've been riding the prototype for a while, how's it holding up?

I've been riding it since April, and it's in perfect condition, except for some small areas of rust, but it has no paint, and the rust is only surface. I can wipe it off with a rag

Cool!

Back to the actual company then, how have you gone about starting this baby up? What kinds of problems or difficulties have you encountered, if any?

I guess the whole thing with having to change names. We (Sam and I) had this dream of starting a company and that was back when I was just coming out of injury, I could hardly bunnyhop and we looked into everything, where to get stuff made, cost and everything. But we didn't know how to get a prototype done. Then one day last year Sam goes "Joe, come to crash worship man, I gotta help set up, it’s gonna be awesome"

We planned on talking to dirt master to get stuff done, cause Sam knows Tony Pelquion(sp?) real well and the rest of dirt master. We asked Tony for help and he said "well, Jim and Vic know all that way better than me, go ask them. They are over there" and that was where it started to come to life. They let us know how everything works, making frames, and the business in the industry.

Was there much legal red tape?

Ehhhh not really. There’s all that CA business BS I still gotta go through

I gotta buy a permit, and resale license. And I gotta file for to become an LLC

…it’s all Greek to me..

On a scale of 1 to 10, how hard has it been to get this thing up and running then?

I’d say difficulty, a 5, but effort, a 10. Takes a lot of research to get the legal stuff done

and money...

Money is easy cause of my dad, he is a huge help, he owns his own construction company, so he knows business and also has plenty of cash to invest so he's been awesome.

excellent!

yeah, no bank BS to deal with  

 
Superman Blunt!? Well, not quite! Research and Development at it’s finest.

Where are you getting the production frames made?

Well.... I announced this in the penthouse about a week ago, but I guess everyone else can know…

DBI is actually making them now. They moved into a warehouse, and have the capacity to make them, unlike before.

Farrkin ‘ell, so you’re getting in house DBI tubes and welds!?

Yep, I nearly shit myself!

I think I just did.

How will distribution work?

It will be self distribution for a while until the mailorders pick up. Vic said Dan's will pick up quick cause they are on good terms with them.

I know a lot of people don’t like Dan's, but they have never been a problem to me, so until I actually see some of the bullshit I hear, I won’t mind selling to them.

This is really going to be big isn't it!

Yeah, I hope. But in a good sense, not a big ugly corporate sense.

You're offering a lifetime guarantee right?

Yep.

I'm guessing DBI will only make small batches at time...!?

Nope, they can crank the frames out man

yeah!?

Yep.

It sounds like all systems are pretty much go then!

Yeah, I gotta go over to DBI sometime within the next week and give them my frame to measure again.

When can we expect to see these frames killing it on the streets?

I dunno exactly the date, but hopefully within the next month or two, the frames can be done quick, it’s the legal stuff I gotta do.

I have it all planned, but I couldn’t go through with it until I was sure of the production dates.

Blatant website plug:

hahaha

www.BMTlikesMen.com

errr I mean

MODBikes Website

(submitted by S&MRider) What frame were you riding before the MOD...is the geometry influenced by any other frame?

Yes, somewhat. I was riding an STA before and I loved the geo, but I found the BB a tad too low. When I met Jim and Vic I gave there bikes a ride and liked the feeling.

So my frame is kind of a hybrid between the Trailerpark and STA, with smaller dropouts

WOW - I want one!

How much are they going to cost?

I’d say $250-280 range, closer to 250 though.

I heard a joke the other day, it went something along the lines of this: There was an Englishman, an American and an Irishman sat in a pub talking and a subject came up. 'What one thing would you take if you had to live on a desert island?'.

The Englishman said "I say old chap, I would take a good sturdy umbrella so I could shelter from the burning sunshine."

The American said "Yeeehaww! I'd take ma colt .45 so I could shoot stuff when I got bored."

And the Irishman said "Top o' the morning to you, I'd take a car door with me…so when it got hot, I could wind down the window and let the breeze thru!"

I'm generous, so what THREE things would you take to a desert island??

Hhhhhahahahahahahahahaa

I'd take my bike, my guitar, and a boat to go back home.

High speed destruction of public property, neatly captured by Joe’s Mum.

As you can see I’m running out of good questions fast so would you like to thank any friends, family or sponsors?

I wanna thank God, my family, my Dad for investing, my brother for being an awesome role model, my best friend Fernando, all my buddies online, anyone who has ever been cool to me, Sheep for making such an awesome board, you for choosing me to do the interview, and last but most certainly not least Jim and Vic for everything they've ever done. They are awesome people and everyone should own something DBI just to support them.

Any last words?

Don't ever let anyone bring you down. Do what YOU want to do, not what everyone else wants you to do. And also, ride to have fun. It doesn’t matter how much you suck, its all about having fun.