2 for the Road - Happy Father’s Day

Father and Son, Gary and Benjamin Francis

Being a biker is all about brotherhood, and in this case, fatherhood. As we celebrate Father’s Day this month, we tip our hat to an inspiring duo in the form of Gary and Ben Francis of Winter Haven, Florida. This father and son team have an incredible relationship, and as you’ll see, they have each taught the other many amazing things in life. Things that they can happily share. Gary rode dirt bikes as a kid growing up and now owns a Honda 250R and a Goldwing. His son Benjamin was only four or five years old when he threw a leg over his first motorcycle. He started with an electric minibike and that led to a Honda 80XR, then a 150R and a 125 two stroke. “Ben actually got me more into bikes,” Gary recalls. But looking back in time, Gary had always been into mechan

ical things.Growing up in Boston, Gary’s father was a CPA with five children. Then one day he up and moved the whole family to Florida, where the weather is perfect, and traded his CPA job for a completely different business, opening up a Tailor-Rental Shop. Gary grew up around all kinds of cool mechanical things in that shop as they rented out just about everything.

“My dad hired several really talented mechanics,” Gary tells us. “One was an expert Harley mechanic and another was an aircraft technician. They taught me a lot about how things go together.” Gary loved mechanic stuff and enjoyed taking things apart and putting them back together, better than new. “My dad hired the best mechanics he could find,” Gary remembers. “Larry Kasiba was a trained Harley mechanic. Dennis Cargil was a certified Yamaha shop and race team mechanic. Joe Ray was an FAA-certified aircraft mechanic with over 40 years of experience keeping airplanes in the sky. They were beyond the best ever teachers, mentors and best friends any mechanically enthralled kid could ever imagine to have.”

At age twelve, Gary took apart a motor that had been in an old Ford Courier delivery van and completely rebuilt it. He says that van was later turned into a custom that was hot rodded around for years, still burning rubber with the motor he rebuilt in it.

became Treasure Mart. To get things started, we leased an old Winn-Dixie grocery store building and converted it into an indoor rental space for vendors to sell stuff.” Gary created the computer program to track all the merchandise and keep it all together. Treasure Marts was born. This quickly grew to five successful stores.

“Then about two years ago, we heard that the Wildwood Antique Mall business was in, through, and getting out of bankruptcy,” Gary says. “We turned three of those into successful concerns.” Like father, like son, Ben learned his love of all things mechanical from his father and he can fix or repair pretty much anything. Ben and Gary recently rebuilt a 8.2-liter V8 GM motor in a 27-foot Baja race boat! The father and son enjoy doing a lot of cool projects together, taking the motor apart, cleaned it all up and brought it to United Speed World Engines. “We polished the crank to perfection, Gary laughs. “Then they reassembled the crank, rod and pistons. Ben and I finished the job by putting on the heads, oil pan, wire brushed and painted it.”