Bradley Smith: April 2014

Tales of a Travelling Bucket Salesman

travelling bucket salesman (trăv′əl bŭk′ĭtˈseɪlzmən)

n, pl -men

1. (Commerce) Also called: saleswoman (fem), salesgirl (fem) or saleslady (fem)a person who sells spares products or services with a bucket upsell (motorcycles with a spares bucket). Gender-neutral form: salesperson

For example: Every braaap Motorcycle is sold with a "Spares Bucket". We are just as much in the business of bucket sales as we are Motorcycles.

This April we had the opportunity to be one of the only western brands to exhibit at the worlds largest trade fair, in China where we launched our new range of motorcycles.

44 countries enquired about distributing braaap in their region, it was a busy week.

But we had some fun along the way... below are some pics from the trip... Enjoy

The first challenge is getting to the airport. Had to drop a bike off on the way. LOL

A Travelling Bucket Salesman never goes anywhere without his;
1.Ogio Bag
2. His lucky shoes.

Our Ogio bags were full, as always.

Toby flew from Launceston to Melbourne to Singapore to Guangzhou China, dropped of a few bags of motorcycle parts (yep so much prototyping going on that we had to bring it in our bags, NO TIME to ship) then jumped on a flight to Bangkok, picked up a motorcycle, dismantled it into pieces, put it in his bag then flew back to china.

I think he had around 100kg of luggage. LOL

We went window shopping,

Question: Why are all the bikes in china the same?????

Hope we can shake this up!

Our Prototypes weren't finished, The engineers and us worked round the clock for almost 3 days putting final touches on our new range of motorcycles.

You know just minor things like, exhaust pipes, seats, oil coolers, fitting an engine in the chassis LOL

a China custom, this dude made a cafe racer ute. #genius

Hows our new muffler!!! I want to frame one it's that nice.

Ok so some behind the scenes making shit happen stuff.

We didn't have a seat for the new Superlite Street Fighter, so we made one.

hmmm hack saw, foam, plastics, glue, staple gun, how hard could it be????

Our new bike, not yet released, hence I'm making the pic small, she is top secret.

44 countries enquired about bringing braaap to their region... So pumped!

Last minute sticker kit.

Ohh I messed the seat up so we got one of the crew to angle grind some plastic out of a UTC roof and use it as a base for our seat hahaha #Improv

Staple diet, breakfast, lunch and dinner.

"Have never been sick while travelling" #vego

Tobe's new office.

Working hard? or Hardly working?

You may already know but we have an exciting new partnership and now have 50 staff in China.

Not sure why they put this in our office? Not sure what it means but we thought it was a compliment hahah #QualityRoot

They sent a truck waaay too small for all our stuff, but it' China, you do what you want, throw it on the roof if you need.

***Please note: I may not look like I'm working too hard here, but this was about the maximum distance wifi would travel so I had to sit on this bike and keep instagram up to date. LOL

James and Myself shaking hands.

James is our ownership partner in the factory and brands we manufacture.

In the back row; Tobe and a few of the engineering, mechanical and management team.

yeaaaah China, 3 up. 80km/hr

Bro, are you busking or sleeping?

This guy has mastered busking.

He didn't look too far from a normal guy, didn't look like a homeless person, maybe a budding entrepreneur?

Go to the busiest street Ive ever seen (Beijing Road, Guanagzhou) and lay in the middle of the busiest mall, throw a hat down, have a nap, wake up with some money.

#makemoneywhileyousleep

My sister Sheridan came along, engaged boss mode and although official numbers aren't in yet I'd say she generated the most leads. She probably has already claimed the prize haha

Tobe tweaking our stand. #luckyshoes. #windsorsmiths

Some new bikes, sorry for teasing you, pics will be released soon enough in your country.

This is cool. Some genius worked out he could build an electric scooter that goes 80km/hr for 80km and then in 8 hours it fully solar chargers itself. #thefuture

Ya never know when you might need a fold up motorcycle. LOL WTF China

So if you're a Chinese jet ski company what questions do you ask at your annual growth strategy session?

Question #1 How can we expand our market?

Answer: Well we are only on the water at the moment, what if we were also on the land????

What if we put wheels on our jet ski????

Genius, give that guy a pay rise.

and thats why there is now a jet ski that is also a 4 wheeled motorcycle. hahaha

This is cool, some blokes from the Netherlands built an old school flat tracker.

They also wear white lab coats all day so I'm guessing they know their shit......

braaap Superlite Street Fighter.

I had to hail a taxi #focus. #quickandthedead

Soooooo many people, mind blowing how well they run this event.

Big news coming from our Japanese partners "Daytona Engines"

#cubiccentimetres

One of the biggest manufacturers at the Trade Fair have this as their slogan.

Fucking genius Fellas!

Product Innovation, Marketing, Strategy and Systems are the key to future growth in our competitive industry.

Based on the money we spent on our stand, at a guess I'd say these guys spent maybe $200,000 on the trade fair.

Hot tip for Chinese marketers: think of your slogan then ask someone who speaks english their thoughts.

It blows your mind how they could balls this up so badly, they are a big company.

or maybe you like the slogan and I'm wrong?

Met the Queen, Lady of few words but I think she likes our new bikes.

Shez got her dance on.

I had some serious thinking to do so I called up a mate. #Einstein

Who knew Rossi now rode for Ferrari??? hahaha ohhhh China!

Sheridan and I gave china a little "dream big" note.

Why, how? why why why do the bins get wet spots of a night? all of them were like this???

We will be recruiting our 2015 race team from the streets of China. This 3 wheeled motorcycle taxi driver set a lap record getting us home. Some near miss experiences kept the adrenalin flowing haha

We spoke about loosing a wheel to make it 2 wheeled and shortening the wheel base so he qualifies for the World Title bike specs, he declined the sponsorship offer but offered to coach our team on the "aggressive pass" which he specialised at.

I love how they carry boxes in china, is this method used anywhere else in the world????

Frigging Awesome!

Sheridan missed Easter so we made up for it with a chocolate feast at the China Bakery House

OMFG best bakeries on the planet, China Wins braaap pastry of the year award.

Choose your veggies before you eat, on the other side you choose your fish, chook, any animal you desire... its like a pet shop. Im Vego though........