Toulouse: they transformed a garage in the basement of a house into a workshop for motorcycle enthusiasts
Oilbro Motorcycles was born from a desire to share a passion: motorcycle mechanics. A dozen friends meet every Monday in the garage of the parents of one of the founders, Théo Guerry, in Toulouse to tinker, repair and customize motorcycles.
How was Oilbro Motorcycles born?
It all started with a story of a group of friends met on the school benches. We met during our two years of motorcycle mechanical BEP. We bonded and have stayed in touch ever since. Some continued on this path, I decided to do other studies. And then, in 2014, with the same friends, we wanted to fix up an old motorcycle. With my old school friends, we started and we wanted to share our passion by setting up a Facebook page, that’s how Oilbro Motorcycles was born.
What did it consist of?
When my parents bought this house in Toulouse at Les Minimes, there was a garage in the basement. My father, a motorcycle enthusiast and advertising photographer wanted to dedicate a space by granting a workshop where we could meet to fix up bikes. So, every Monday evening, it’s meca’. There are friends from just about everyone, from my brother, mine, my father’s and we dismantle and reassemble motorcycles. Knowing that some are points by their training, we share knowledge. For most, it’s a passion to start with. Among the members, some have a trade totally removed from the world of mechanics, it is not at all our livelihood. Our goal is to just have fun.
It all started with a Facebook page and now you have a large community…
It’s true that at first it was between us, in our workshop, but very quickly, people started talking about us, asking questions on our social networks. The community on Instagram is growing. In the group, there is a graphic designer so he did a top job and created a logo, visuals. That’s kind of how it happened. Gradually, we realized that there was an audience. At the time of confinement, we launched our channel on Twitch (a live video streaming service, editor’s note). Again, on a had of the world. Some are impatiently waiting for Monday evening to connect and follow our live broadcasts. They explain technical questions to us, on the choice of finishes, etc. The advantage of this platform is that it has no borders. People from the United States or all over Europe are watching and writing to us. So like everything else, we started small with one camera, now we have four. They film our Monday sessions live from 7 p.m. to 12 a.m. I admit that hosting a live show every Monday evening is not that easy, but we have a blast. Everything is always done in a good atmosphere.
Precisely, while circulating in Toulouse, we can sometimes cross your creations…
In the beginning, when we started refitting motorcycles, we hunted around for parts to find the correct vintage tank or the grips that were fine. Quickly, we realized that there was a strong interest around this, that people were also looking to personalize their two-wheelers. Again, it came from an idea of people we follow to set up an online store. To date, we have more than 250 references, ranging from vintage mirrors to stitched leather saddles. At the same time, we have set up an association, which allows us to welcome people outside the hard core of friends who would like to come and share these moments with us. And projects, we still have many.
What do you plan to develop now?
Seeing the success on Twitch, we had the idea to retype a motorcycle based on the suggestions of Internet users that we follow. The idea would be to buy a 125 that we will completely strip down and then reassemble to the liking of our community. The Twitch platform allows you to carry out surveys so we would like to do this for each part of the motorcycle. It’s an idea for 2022 but by then we will surely have others.