BLACK METAL IN SINGAPORE

Iain from Mutt Singapore gives us an insight into Mutt's life in Southeast Asia.

“Interestingly, our Singapore chapter actually kicked off back in Birmingham (of all places) in around 2016.

As a born and bred Brummie, with an obsession for vintage stripped-down motorcycles, I stumbled upon Mutt’s original HQ on the way back from a meeting.

I just remember thinking ‘WOW - this is incredible. The timeless aesthetic, the brand, the sense of adventure and freedom, and the people - formula nailed. From that point on, Mutt HQ was a regular hangout for me.

Jump forward a couple of years and I’m having a beer with a good friend, Jules, in Singapore where I now live. The conversation quickly shifts to bikes, as they often do for me, and Jules tells me he’s been relentlessly hunting for a sub 200cc bike that will “make me feel like Steve McQueen”. Of course, I knew just what he was looking for - the only challenge was, they didn’t have a base in Singapore... Yet. In September 2019, Jules’ Hilts Green rolled off a container in Singapore with a few other bikes ready to join the Mutt Singapore pack and make Mutt Motorcycles a household name in Southeast Asia.

Jules and I soft-launched the brand at the Singapore F1 Grand Prix later that month at a 3 day-long party packed full of petrol heads, which was great for starting to build the community of like-minded folk here. As a new name in Southeast Asia, Mutt had a few hoops to jump through, so it was late February before our first road-legal Mutts were bashing around the streets.

That didn’t stop the motorcycle-hungry community from snowballing - the number of members in our ‘Mutt Club’ began to ramp up, coordinating ride-outs and meet ups. We quickly learnt that those who choose Mutt are all different by design - they’re the cool kids, who are standing out from the crowd for all the right reasons.

The initial months following the release were awesome - we were lucky enough to be surrounded by folks who understood the passion and obsession for these machines as much as me. I even managed to sneak in a road trip across the border to Malaysia and beyond on my Sabbath. Life was good.

Until one day a little virus washed up on our shores...

Covid hit us hard here; it was a particularly stern kick in the nuts when the authorities put an industry-wide ban on the registration of new bikes for four months to ensure bike sales weren’t contributing to the spread.

It was a bit of a shit sandwich, but tough times always breed opportunity, and we took advantage of the downtime by designing our new flagship store, so the Mutt family would have somewhere in Singapore to call their own.

True to the standards set by Mutt HQ, we wanted to do something different to the rest of the industry. So we ditched the remote industrial estate in favour of a place in the heart of a Joo Chiat, a super fun neighbourhood full of quality caffeine, all the food you could dream of and an endless number of nice places to hang out. It’s a perfect fit for our laid back custom vibe and the Mutt Singapore hub swiftly became a hotspot for motorcycle and brand enthusiasts alike.

Mutt is redefining the motorcycle industry here; we’re true to the core Mutt ethos of a damn fantastic motorcycle experience, regardless of who you are and what you know about bikes. There seems to be an ‘intimidating’ stigma around the motorcycle industry and we’re keen to be part of changing that. Nice people ride bikes too, our riders are evidence of that. We welcome all with open arms.

The community here has continued to grow and we’re so stoked with what it has become. We’re especially proud that we can boast a massive amount of female riders choosing to ride a Mutt, making up just short of 1/3rd of our community!

As Mutt Singapore continues to grow, we’ve managed to maintain the core family mentality, and I speak for the whole team here when I say we have made some lifelong friends in the process - and that’s what really matters, isn’t it?”