Today we’d like to introduce you to Bill Berroth.
William “Bill” was born and raised in Connecticut and is a product of the “On Any Sunday” generation.
Motivated by the movie to embrace motorcycling he dreamed of riding the ISDT. One day in the fall of 1973 he and some friends saw the Penton cycle liner drive up the highway in his hometown towards the ISDT to be held in Massachusetts and bugged a buddy’s Dad to take them to the event where they saw the final day’s grass track special test. Bill was hooked! He wanted to devote his life to motorcycling.
Also in 1973 Bill attended a NETRA (New England Trail Rider Association) enduro school and was certified to race NETRA enduros. A few years later he graduated high school passed on a college education to attend a motorcycle mechanics trade school so that he could follow his motorcycling dreams which started with a series of mechanic jobs at local motorcycle shops.
From 1973 thru 1981 saw Bill rise from a Junior Enduro competitor to adult class “C”, then class “B” followed by class “A” and eventually AMA National Class “AA”. Along the way, Bill won many New England enduros overall and had many class wins cumulating in winning the 1981 New England Grand Enduro Championship. Nationally Bill competed in the AMA National Enduro championship with many top finishes earning AA status as well as the AMA ISDT Qualifier series from 1978 thru 1980 winning 20+ national medals as well as Silver medals in ISDT competition in West Germany in 1979 and France in 1980.
In subsequent years, while Bill pursued a career in the motorcycle industry he no longer pursued any championships but he did the race in many of the top off-road events in the world. A trophy winner at the legendary Blackwater 100, Two top 15 overall Baja 1000 finishes, a top finish in the famous Barstow to Vegas Hare and Hound, 8th overall in the Incas Rally from Lima Peru to Rio de Janeiro in 1990 and a series of great rides at California and Mexico enduros kept Bill racing into the 1990’s.
However, Bill knew that while he did reasonably well in competition events that his ultimate goal was to make his career in the motorcycle industry. So with always, an eye towards this goal in 1980 he started making unpaid sales calls on dealers for his motorcycle sponsor, KTM. This initiative led to a job offer from KTM in 1982 to work in its parts department. Bill’s stint in the KTM parts department only lasted a few months before he was tagged to be KTM’s USA AMA National Motocross team mechanic for rider John Finkeldey. Bill worked on John’s bike as well as others including KTM World Championship competitors Kees Van Der Ven, Kurt Nicol and Heinz Kinigadner.
The highlight of these efforts has to be the 1982 USGP victory by Kees Van Der Ven at Unadilla with Bill turning the wrenches. At the end of these mechanical duties, Bill rose to manage the USA Motocross team of KTM in 1983. Also during this period, Bill worked with KTM’s President Jack Lehto and fellow technician Rod Bush to lay the groundwork for the KTM technical department whose management is still in place today. Bill finished his tenure at KTM by opening and managing its first southern California branch office in El Cajon while acting as KTM’s Western Region Sales Manager.
Following his tenure at KTM Bill was recruited by Mark Blackwell to manage the Husky Products aftermarket line at Husqvarna. When Cagiva purchased Husqvarna Bill resigned from Husqvarna to pursue an opportunity with a (at the time) small plastics company from Italy trying to make an impact in the USA market and thus made a proposal to Acerbis Plastica Italia to open a USA branch under Bill’s management.
This led to the period from 1986 thru 1998 where Bill managed Acerbis USA as its Vice President and helped grow Acerbis USA to a multi-million dollar distributor of not only Acerbis products but many other top Italian aftermarket brands as well, including Sidi boots. Along the way Bill caught the “Rally bug” from Acerbis’ founder, Franco Acerbis, and assisted him with management of the FIM sanctioned “Incas Rally” in Peru in 1986, 1988, 1989, 1990 and 1996 (1996 version was a made for TV event for ESPN – one of their earlier motorcycle efforts) and creation of the AMA and FIM sanctioned “Nevada Rally” in 1993, 1994 and 1995.
During this time Bill played a part in one of the industries first organized efforts to better support the complete AMA ISDE team, taught numerous riding/enduro classes and worked tirelessly to promote motorcycling to the mainstream media using the Incas and Nevada Rallies as vehicles with some success both locally as well as nationally with NBC’s Today Show weatherman Willard Scott covering the national weather from the Nevada Rally start in Las Vegas.
In 1998 Bill resigned his position at Acerbis USA in order to create Motonation in which he enjoys a majority ownership position. Initially, Motonation was created to offer Sidi boots to America’s motorcycle dealers but in recent years has grown to also exclusively represent Motonation Apparel, Vemar helmets, Forcefield body armor and Trilobite apparel with annual gross sales in excess of ten million dollars. This strong sales effort has also seen Motonation become the largest customer in the world for not only Sidi boots but also Forcefield Body Armour.
In the formative years of Motonation the company could not support a salary for Bill so while the growing company developed under Bill’s unpaid management Bill signed on to join AMA Hall of Fame rider, and friend, Danny LaPorte as a part of Don Emler’s FMF Racing management team. Bill worked with FMF Racing for about 4-years developing the companies sales and marketing departments (the sales structure Bill put in place at FMF Racing is still being used today) before devoting himself full-time to managing Motonation’s growth as President of one of America’s top aftermarket distribution companies.
In the 2000’s decade, Bill continued his interest in managing events with a series of high profile motorcycle industry rides. First the FMF Racing “Baja Mar” series of rides then the Motonation “Sierra and Surf” rides introduced Baja and moto tourism in Baja California Mexico to hundreds of USA dealers, industry folks and journalists. Additionally, Bill has been a key staff member of the Tecate Enduro management team for his club, the Los Ancianos. Bill’s efforts to show Baja California Mexico in a positive light to the world’s motorcyclists was recently recognized by the Governor of Baja California Norte by naming Bill a “VIP” of the state.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
There is no such thing as a smooth road. Having to learn accounting issues, legal issues, as well as banking and insurance needs was not something I thought I’d be dealing with 30 years ago. Additionally dealing with the excessive government regulations and dealing with high taxes in a poor economy will sober up any business person very fast.
Working in the motorcycle and bicycle markets is fun. Dealing with the other outside market factors are where the struggles are…
Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
Note my biography but in the past Jack Lehto, Mark Blackwell and Franco Acerbis come to mind. Locally and recently I would say our staff, our attorney Marco Garavaglia and our Wells Fargo banker Glenn Burton.
Contact Info:
- Address: 10225 Prospect Ave
- Website: motonation.com – ciclistaamerica.com – actionathletesupply.com
- Phone: 619-401-4100
- Email: info@motonation.com
- Instagram: various by brand
- Facebook: various by brand
Image Credit:
Pietro Ambrosioni
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