THE HOT SEAT Lance Coury, Jr. Interviews Lance Coury, Sr.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Meet the Courys, Lance Sr. and Lance Jr. Well, something like that (Lance Jr. has a different middle name). We’ve been keeping tabs on what Lance Coury, Jr. has been doing over the past decade with Thrashin’ Supply Co., to working and riding with his dad, Lance Coury, Sr. who you might have seen on his YouTube series, 2LaneLife. Both Lance Sr. and Lance Jr. are industrious, positive influences on our little motorcycle community, and we wanted to dive a bit deeper into their cool and unique relationship. Enjoy.

LANCE COURY, JR.: Okay, so I’m sitting here with my father, Lance Coury, Sr. in Canoga Park, California, right now at the 2LaneLife headquarters. So, pops. Dad. I was asked by Jordan over at Hot Bike to do a Q&A with somebody from the industry. I listed out a couple names and a couple influential people in the motorcycle industry that I would be happy to interview. And Jordan said, “hey, why don’t you interview your dad? That’d be cool.”

LANCE COURY, SR.: I love that.

JR: Jordan gave me a list of dumb questions we can go off, but we can delve into any realm we want. But to start it off… Describe yourself in three words.

SR: Positive, energetic, adventurous.

JR: That’s pretty accurate. You definitely are all of those things. You’re the guy to where it could be raining on a ride, and you’d look at the bright side of things. We’ve been on multiple thousand-mile trips together— going to Sturgis, or the Redwoods, or to Arizona from California or whatever. And we’ve traveled the world back through my freestyle riding career, and you’ve always been able to be positive in every situation. If we’re riding in the rain, you’re laughing about it, saying there’s a reason for it. If we’re riding in freezing cold, you’re always like, “It’s mind over matter.” Or in the burning heat, you’re always like, “Ya, it’s fine.” So, yeah, those three words are very accurate to your personality.

SR: That’s why we came up with the term, “If you don’t go, you won’t know.”

JR: Very true. Very true and inspiring. Okay, so how did you end up in the motorcycle industry?

SR: Well, you with your career in motocross and freestyle motocross, we were always on two wheels. I wasn’t, but you were, and I watched it. And then when you came to the end of your career, one of our buddies who rode with us said, “hey, you should get a Harley.” So, I ended up getting a Harley and riding with Sean Langham.

JR: And how long ago was this now?

SR: Oh, in 2008.

JR: You got your first Harley in 2008?

SR: I got my first Harley, a Road King, and started riding and practicing and hitting the road. And then my buddy Galen, who does 2LaneLife with me, we started going farther and farther and farther, and we came back with these incredible stories. Then his family and my family said, “why aren’t you sharing these stories?” So, it kind of just started basically from your career continuing on two wheels.

JR: So, you got into motorcycles primarily because I had a big passion for it at a young age. And then come full circle, you’re looking to do something for yourself on your free time, and then you somehow went to a Harley dealership in 2008. So then what? How many years later till 2LaneLife became a thing?

SR: 2LaneLife started in 2020, so, from 2008 to 2020, we just rode for fun.

JR: Twelve years you guys were riding, and even I noticed you riding gnarlier trips where you’d be gone for four or five days at a time, crossing state lines and telling us stories of crazy weather or just cool, historic American western towns and stuff like that. And even I was like, dude, you got to share this with the world.

SR: Absolutely.

JR: That was a little over three years ago that you guys started doing 2LaneLife, and now you’re full-fledged in the motorcycle industry.

SR: We are in the motorcycle industry. We have a retail store outlet, we travel all over, we’ve crossed country borders, we work with HarleyDavidson and Eagle Rider, so we’re full-fledged and it’s a 24/7 gig now.

JR: Nice. And ultimately it all started from passion, which is super cool. What do you see in the motorcycle industry’s crystal ball?

SR: Well, I’ve heard certain negative things the whole time I’ve been riding, but everywhere I go and everything I see is riders and more people wanting to ride, and I see all this great stuff, and it’s like, I’m really stoked to see the younger riders also wanting to get on baggers and travel. It’s really cool. I see a positive upswing, and bikes make people happy, and I see growth in it.

JR: Yeah, I think you’re very accurate. We’ve been around two wheels since 1994, when I got my first PW 50. Now we’re riding V-twins. And as we’ve been more and more involved, we’ve noticed the growth of people at Sturgis that come up to us from all ages of life. There are guys that are younger than me in their early 20s, up to guys in their 70s. I’ve even seen some guys in their 80s at Neptune’s before. Like last night, we had a small meetup at Neptune’s Net, kind of just shared it on social media about 24 hours before, and hundreds of people were there.

SR: It was amazing. And you know what I like about what you were just saying is the fact that the young guys will come up to us older guys and be stoked at what we’re doing, and then the older guys are stoked with what you and Juan are doing and seeing young guys ride. So, it’s all ages. There’s no age barrier.

JR: Yeah. Basically, the crystal ball is just continuing to see organic, natural growth. I think that the world is changing, and they’re able to see it through social media and YouTube. That’s actually someone proactively growing it.

SR: Yeah. One, riding is fun. Two, the camaraderie. Everyone loves that they get friends, so it’s like a family deal.

JR: Yep, for sure. All right, let’s see. I got to get back over to these questions really quick. What is your greatest accomplishment?

SR: Well, people always ask us, what’s your favorite trip? Where’s your favorite place to go? Greatest accomplishment? But every trip we go on, when we’re done with the trip and we’re riding home, we’re always saying, this is the best trip ever. We met the greatest people, and then the next trip we go on, we say the same thing. So, greatest accomplishment, I guess, is inspiring people to get out and ride and being involved in the industry, and we’ve worked so hard at it that now we’re in the industry helping riders.

JR: Awesome. Right on. Who or what inspires you?

SR: That’s a hard one to say. I mean, I’m inspired by you, my son, with what you’ve done in business and in the motorcycle world. I’m inspired with my buddies Galen and Josh that we build this stuff, and we have the same passion. So, all of the stuff that inspires me and inspiration, we’re surrounded by it.

JR:. Yep. That’s awesome. All right. And I think that’s one cool thing, too, as well, for myself, is that, just like you said, you’re surrounded by it, we don’t have to look far in this community that we have here. Like you said, between yourself, myself, Josh, Galen, all the guys over at Thrashin’, Juan, Jake, my wife, Courtney, and my mom. Everybody that is surrounded and born and raised on two wheels and so dedicated, we’re always kind of just helping inspire each other, which is rad, for sure.

SR: It’s become a great big family.

JR: All right, here’s the negative one. What is your biggest regret?

SR: I have no regrets in life, because everything you do in life is a learning lesson that gets you to the next level.

JR: Everything happens for a reason.

SR: Everything.

JR: All right. What is your proudest moment?

SR: My proudest moment? I have two of them, probably. I mean, I was very blown away and stoked with all the effort you put in, and you winning your gold medal in Brazil, so that was a proud moment. And I mean two proud moments of father and son, both named Lance. You’ve created this business that is awesome, that has helped me, and my buddies Galen and Josh create our side of the business. So those are proud moments for me. We’re making headway in this industry.

JR: So that you guys, the readers, can understand, my father and I have a very close relationship that we don’t take this for granted and we are very appreciative of it. And we got to travel the world together, basically from when I was a little kid, but all the way into my teens, and we would go into other countries. And this whole time I was riding freestyle motocross primarily for Red Bull, and they would bring me to Europe, and they would bring me around the world, and basically, I was able to bring my dad with me, and we were able to be in the motorcycle industry and ride dirt bikes. And after a lot of blood, sweat, tears, injuries and stuff, getting invited to X Games and winning a gold medal in X Games was a big feat. My dad was right there. He was right there at the finish line when I rolled off, and something that took a lot of blood, sweat, and tears to get. You can see why he’s stoked on that great moment. I feel like one other thing you should be proud of is that I also named my first son Lance as well. So, keeping that generation going.

SR: That’s another great thing. There’s three of us. Three Lances.