| June 1, 2022
Cycle News Wheel Spin
COLUMN
Finding Your Goose
By Keith Dowdle
Remember when you were in high school, and they’d have career day? You know, the day when they talked about all of the boring jobs out there that really didn’t interest you? They’d try and push them on you like you had to do whatever jobs they were pushing to be successful in life. Now, don’t get me wrong, some people love their everyday ordinary job that some career counselor talked them into, but those jobs never appealed to me. My mind, probably like yours—if you’re reading this magazine—was always, and still is to this day, on the one thing in life that made me truly happy: motorcycles. Lucky for me, the local dealer was so tired of me loitering around his dealership that he finally just put me to work. I felt like the coolest kid in town because I worked at the motorcycle shop.
Famed tuner of the stars, Mike “Goose” Gosselaar, got his career started working at a local motorcycle dealer.
Legendary moto mechanic Mike Gosselaar, better known as Goose to his friends in the paddock, started his career just like me—working in a dealership, learning the basics, and moving on from there. Mike attended Motorcycle Mechanics Institute and then worked in a dealership for six years before moving on to a job with the California Highway Patrol, where he repaired and maintained their fleet of Kawasaki 1000 police bikes. From there he landed a job with American Honda working as Steve Lamson’s mechanic, with whom he won his first two championships. Ricky Carmichael, Ryan Dungey and Chad Reed all sought out Mike’s talents as their careers flourished.
All told, Mike captured 13 championships in both AMA Supercross and outdoor National motocross, along with titles in the Australia SX Championship, and he won a few Motocross des Nations titles as well. Mike says, “I always wanted to be a factory mechanic, but it all started from working in a dealership.” He hung up his travel shoes a few years ago and now runs his own shop, Gosselaar Power Sports (GPS), in Grangeville, Idaho.
As with Mike, back when I was working the race circuit, people would always ask me how I got such a cool job—hanging out with guys like Goose and his gang of riders, going to races and getting paid to be there. For me, Goose, and most people in the industry, the answer is the same: start in a dealership and work your way up. The foundation is dealership experience. From there, you can pretty much go anywhere you’d like. Whether it’s working as a supercross mechanic or pursuing a career with an OEM, dealership experience is where it all starts.
Motorcycle dealers drive the powersports industry, and without dealers it wouldn’t exist. There’s an old saying, “nothing happens until there’s a sale.” From supercross and MX, MotoGP to GNCC, dealership sales and service is what drives all of it. Racing jobs, marketing jobs, engineering jobs, social media jobs and pretty much every other powersports role exists in some way, shape or form to help dealers sell bikes. And maintaining those bikes after the sale accounts for a large percentage of dealership profits. That’s why starting in a dealership is so important to a long and successful career in Powersports. Right now dealers across the country, and moto repair shops like Goose’s, are desperate for people, especially good, reliable technicians.
Having a desire to work, learn and grow as well as making connections and networking with other industry folks are all important elements in guiding a career path that makes you happy and takes you where you want to go. Motorcycle Mechanics Institute is a great option, and that path has worked well for people like Goose and others, but honestly, dealers are so desperate for people right now that you could probably start your career immediately so long as you have some basic skills and good work ethic.
If you’ve ever dreamed of being the next Goose Gosselaar or working for an OEM in marketing or as a service rep, there’s never been a better time to pursue it. Like Goose, I never dreamed that my career would take me where it has—and working in a dealership is where it all started. Glad I didn’t listen to that guidance counselor. CN
