Five Minutes With... Brad Smith

1) What is your current role within motorcycling?

My main mission is to show young people that they can get an adrenaline rush from motorcycles and action sport rather than drugs or substance abuse. My passion is the braaap club and community group that I have established. The driving force behind this is the success of the mini moto x business, braaap, that I started when I was 16 from mum and dads shed! I don’t know what you’d call my role, but I just love it!

2) How long have you been in the role for?

I’ve been braaaping it up for 6 years officially, but had the dream since I first threw a leg over a bike when I was 4!

3)  What is the best thing about being in your position?

There is so much opportunity in our industry, the sport of mini moto x is growing flat stick and every week we are becoming more and more main stream. The thing I love most is being able to use my passion for Moto to help other young people through the braaap club and community group.
I love travelling to Las Vegas to race in the world Mini Sx titles and also the development that goes into building a bike that can compete on the world stage, but still affordable and reliable enough for the show room floor. I suppose travelling to each braaap shop to take the staff riding, have a stack of fun and braaap them up isn’t the worst job either!

I get such a rush teaching newcomers to our industry to ride. I feel we have the ability to create motorcycle enthusiasts for life if we do a kick ass job showing these people how much fun you can have on a bike.
Organising events such as closing down streets and putting on moto x shows with the guys who back flip and freestyle our bikes is also fun, I love doing stuff that blows people away!

I love the feeling I get from recruiting franchisee’s into the braaap network, because these people are about to put a lot on the line to open their own braaap store. Many times braaap is the first time they have owned their own business, I love helping people who are getting into business for the first time, the pride, excitement and commitment these people develop for what we do here at braaap is humbling and it keeps me focused to know that we have people’s livelihoods on the line based on the success of our brand, product, sport and stores. I only sleep 4 or 5 hrs a night cause there is just so much awesome stuff happening!

4) What is your favourite thing about the sport?

Mini motocross is affordable adrenaline and is a sport that the whole family can enjoy together! You can ride with your mates, camp, race, coach or even teach your girlfriend to ride. I love the mateship and riding buddies you get through moto. I love banging bars and racing, Mini SX is like BMX on Steroids! I used to race full sized dirt bikes, now I don’t even have a full sized bike anymore because I have so much fun on my pit bike. The reason is you can race closer, you can ride over your head and hold it wide open, we still do 80ft jumps and go big and the best thing is, I race a $4,000 bike instead of a $15,000 450cc! With the money I save I go and race the world titles and have a holiday in Las Vegas! I also like it that I don’t have to be as fit. To race in the World or Australian titles on a full size bike I would have to be training full time, but on my braaap fitness levels are no where near as important. I just love banging bars and having fun with friends and family!

5)  What do you like to do when you are not at work?

Ride my braaap! I don’t call braaap work, I love it, I’ve wanted to do this since I could say braaaaaaaap, so I am always doing something braaap related. It’s my passion.

6)  If you could invite any three guests to dinner, who would they be?

Valentino Rossi, Tony Robbins, Richard Brandson… and MUM!

7)  What can't you live without?

My family, plus adrenaline, excitement and passion - so probably my dirt bike!

8)  What's your favourite book?

I’m a personal development addict, so everyone will probably hang it on me for some of the books I love to read, but the top 3 are:
- Awaken the giant within, by Tony Robbins
- Purple Cow, by Seth Godin
- And Neale Walsch books

9) What is your ultimate sporting fantasy?

Wining the Las Vegas Mini Sx Championships in Las Vegas on a braaap bike designed in Australia.

10) What is something that these readers may not know about you?

In 2009 we were fortunate enough to win 13 National Awards. I personally won the Australian Young Entrepreneur of the year, braaap won Specialised Small Retail Business of the Year and I am fortunate enough to be named the Young Australian of the Year for Tasmania. braaap won the Australian Mini SX in both Junior and Senior pen classes.

Our MA affiliated not-for-profit club, the braaap club, is in its first year and already has 120 members and many one day members. All on pit bikes!

I currently own and operate 3 braaap Retail Mega Stores, with 2 in Tasmania and the recently opened mega store in Frankston, Victoria. In addition to this, braaap has just opened its first franchise mega store in Devonport, which is the first of many franchises that are to open throughout Australia. I am planning to open 50 Retail Mega Stores all over Australia over the next 5 years.

I have designed all of the braaap bikes within Australia. Third party metal and material testing is conducted to ensure only the highest quality materials are used.

Proving that my family and I really do eat, live and breathe the sport of mini moto, I now employ my mother, father, sister, cousin and aunty – with all of them just as passionate about the braaap brand as I am!

Visit www.braaap.com.au for the latest news and more information on what we do!