Okay, so here’s the back story on these MINI Cooper Driving Light Brackets. Once upon a time there was a company that made a few MINI accessories in their garage in northern Ohio. One of the products were driving light brackets that were sold in pairs and were very popular because they could be mounted in various locations across the front bumper structure and also allowed 2 vertical mounting locations. After a while the company decided to stop making them and close the business. Throughout this Out Motoring had been selling them and had also been designing a variant that had some design changes that seemed appropriate. When the original design had faded away, I put more effort into making the new design a reality using the production companies we were familiar with using instead of the garage made system as the supplier had used. The new design allows for 3 vertical mounting positions and has a very unique build style that allows a thinner, lighter material to used while offering the same strength. Gott love working with PROe and using CAD data to allow for testing of products before they are even made!

So, finally about 1 month ago I got the revised CAD data completed by a good friend and degreed mechanical engineer who shall remain nameless (but not forgotten). After a series of tweaking and redesigning, etc., the new bracket design was emailed off to a good production shop and 3 weeks later, I was holding the first batch. Although the process of designing and making them is similar to making cookies, you simply cannot eat these, but it is a good feeling to see them sitting in a box fresh from the powder coating facility all nicely wrapped as if each one was some sort of bakers delight.

So, here they are world. Check them out, only this time, they are my design with the Out Motoring brand!

Part of running a small business and being mostly a one man show means I have to wear lots of hats. One of them is the accounting hat which I don’t like to wear. I usually leave it buried deep in some dark closet most of the year and pull it out a few times to work some magic. Each year I have to go through all of the years records and prep them for my accountant whom I have been working with for nearly 9 years. It’s flat out one of the most painful things I have to deal with every year. Here it is, nearly June and I still have not done LAST years taxes. I guess I should pay someone to do it because I just hate it. Lesson learned. Luckily I use digital checks and credit cards for nearly everything related to the business so the paper trail is easy to track at the end of the year.

So, back to the grind I go. All I need to finish my paper trail is my Visa and Mastercard charges for the year and I will be sending this mess of numbers to my accountant in California. What a guy.

We just got back from a great 5 day weekend at the MINI’s on the Dragon gathering near the famous and twisty road that crosses the TN and NC border. On our way into Fontana Village where the event was held we were stopped by flashing lights near a nasty turn where a bike and rider had gone down in a big way. The rider was okay, save a seemingly busted collar bone or something. The bike was basically road debris. Fork broken in two places, chassis all twisted and mangled and enough plastic strewn around the road to cause trouble. We were the first in the lineup and talked with police that were busy keeping the screaming bikes that were buzzing up the mountain road stopped in time to not rear end us. On the other side was a road hazard cleanup truck dealing with oil and gas spills from the wreckage. We were glad to see no one was seriously injured as we learned that just 2 days earlier a biker had a fatal crash as is common in the area.

As we were allowed to move on the mood improved as we saw the dozens of MINI’s that spotted the road and when we finally reached the resort were welcomed by  hundreds of MINI’s parked around the area at the various cabins and houses. We quickly unloaded and setup our display which took about 3 people 4 hours. The next morning we saw a constant stream of MINI owners that seemed to enjoy looking at all the fun stuff we had brought. This year we brought more display fixtures to make room for the new stuff like Piloti Shoes and Griots Garage products which were quite popular. It was nice to see familiar faces and meet some of the people that had been loyal customers over the years as well as many new faces that we are sure will continue to shop with us.

Over the next three days we (my wife Andrea, my father in law Norm and myself) kept the booth rolling. As we were under a larger group tent we did not have to worry about the rain and wind as we had in years past which was a big relief. We also enjoyed “Terry”, the nigh security guy who watched our goods at night so we could relax and not have to break down every night which was a nice surprise. THANKS Mark from NAM and Fontana for arranging this!

The saddest thing of the weekend for me was that my MINI was parked from Wednesday night until Sunday morning when we boxed up everything and drove away! What a shame, to be in one on the nicest parts of the world and have access to some of the best driving roads in the planet. Having our 3 kids there made the evenings less about socializing and more about family, which is good. My wifes mother was in from Knoxville and did a great job at keeping the kids entertained during the days and made some good food so we could relax in the evenings.

All in all it was a great event and we plan on doing it again next year, only we hope to be a few hours closer when we move to Charlotte. The 8-9 hour drive from Columbus Ohio is not that enjoyable….