THE CREW.

I was born and raised in New England before I joined the U.S. Navy. As a kid, my pops was a career small-engine mechanic, service rep, and dealer for Husqvarna, Wheel Horse, Troy-Bilt, Toro, Walker, Ferris, Exmark, Ariens, Echo, Shindaiwa, Wright, and Simplicity through the years before he pursued his passion with chainsaw carvings. There was only one place I wanted to be on the weekends, and that was with my dad, so I was a shop kid. I learned every cuss word there was by the age of 5, fluently, and was the kid always in the way because I had to be up close and see what was going on. I watched and learned the details of troubleshooting/diagnostics, tuning, common failure points with certain brands, and quality comparison. From there on, I was taking apart tractors, mowers, and mini-bikes after I broke them and would try to fix them before my dad knew that “there’s been another fuck-up.” A lot of times, I was successful without him finding out; where I messed up was not putting his tools back where they belonged. FML. We had one ATV as a kid, a red, white, and blue Kawasaki Mojave 250. I was hooked. I loved going fast, and whatever wasn’t fast but I could get running, I wanted to make it faster. That goal still burns within me today, no matter what I’m wrenching on.

After high school, I was without direction for a bit, working at a power equipment store during the day and as a cook at Chili’s at night, but had the ambition that I wanted better and out of the neighborhood, so I enlisted. Best personal growth decision I could’ve made at 18 years old. Going from mowers to helicopters was not my dream as a kid, but I became very passionate and dedicated and very prideful of being an H-60 mechanic. That, and my fear of working on other things, slowly dissolved. I loved what I did, the crucial timelines, the missions, and being “that guy” when shit hit the fan or being called in for “The Shit Show.” And today, I’m still working in the helicopter community at PAX.

My love for motorcycles came later. In 2011, I bought my first Harley, a Sportster 48. I didn’t care what I looked like on it; she was a bad bitch that was my own creation. Stock sucks! And it came to be an expensive addiction. But, my love for small engines never faded either.

When I bought my house in So. Maryland, I always had plans of building a big garage on the property, but not for business, just a giant toy box and a place for everyone to hang out, but it never materialized till 2024. The fear of DOGE cuts had me a bit nervous, and I was in my head about what I would do if my number was eventually called. My wife simply said, “Easy, you would start your own business.” My response to her was, “Well, why wait? We can do that now.” And build we did from that day on.

Knowing that my knowledge of motorcycles was not up to par with small engines is where Alex came into the vision. Alex is a wizard with a wrench on motorcycles, and his temperament and style are ones that I could learn from, and he’s been a great partner and mentor from the start.

The name: where does it come from? Since I was a baby, my family called me Bear, not Bryan. They said I didn’t cry when I was little; I would growl and grunt, and I answered to the name Bear like you answer to yours, but it just stayed in the family, and the great people that have surrounded me in life are family. Knuckle: there’s nothing I can do, whether just doing a simple oil change or tinkering around, without busting my damn knuckle on something. On any given day, you can see a bloody paper towel in my trash can; all I can say is I put my blood, sweat, and tears into everything I take on. That’s how Bear Knuckle Garage came to life.