Martin Hawyes of WD40 Bike | Industry Insight

December 16th, 2015

WD40 Bike fronted by British MTB Trials Legend

Over the last few years, the WD40 brand has been making waves once more on the UK shores – branching out in to cycling and motorsport with some exciting new products.

As part of their involvement with motorsport, they set up a British Championship Rally Team with Martin Hawyes onboard as Marketing Manager.

Following the successful launch of the team, Martin is now back on two wheels running the WD40 Bike side of things – and is back to his old bursting-with-excitement (and mildly sarcastic) self.

We caught up with Hawziee at Bikepark Wales recently to see what he’s up to…

Even though Hawziee was head to toe in WD40 swag, he was at Bikepark Wales to ride and have fun with old mates. You’d never realise his back ground is Trials either – he’s rapid on a bike, and loves it when things get tech out on the trails.

Who is Hawziee?

In the early 90’s, the sport of Bicycle Trials started migrating to mountain bikes. This was largely pioneered by Hans Rey, who had moved from Switzerland to the USA in order to carve a career as a professional cyclist. Hans was sponsored by Gary Turner (GT) bicycles early on, who saw the potential in his riding. Not being one to disappoint, Hans quickly adapted to the fact that Trials although impressive to watch was niche, and people were starting to buy a lot of mountain bikes. So he started doing his Trials thing on mountain bikes – which paved the way for a whole new side of the sport and helped people understand the technical and extreme side of mountain bikes.

Back in the UK, two motorcycle Trials friends – Martyn Ashton and Martin Hawyes – saw that Trials events were being held at mountain bike events and came along to have a crack. Whilst others bambled around with their saddles up and faffed around with toe clips, the Martin’s had slammed saddles, flat pedals and that same style on a bike as Hans Rey. Overnight things changed in the UK and everyone wanted to learn trials – following what both the Martins were doing.

Martyn Ashton is now working for the Global Mountain Bike Network as a presenter, and Hawziee is back in the two wheeled world with WD40 Bike after a spell working with rally cars. Awesome!

Imagine the head tube with a red powder-coated headset – it would look like the cap on a can of WD40. Trick!

“I’ve been cutting my teeth again, this time in the ‘real world’ of marketing – trying to prove to myself that I can actually do a job that doesn’t depend on me using my links in the bike industry to survive. That was really important to me – because if you’re doing something day to day (at least in my case) I think that’s part of how you define yourself.

When I was riding for a living I needed to validate myself not only as a Trials rider but a good Trials rider as that’s what I was doing with my time. The same can be said of what I do now – if I’m going to be a marketer I want to be a good one”

Martin Hawyes, WD40 Bike

Getting to run the WD40 British Rally Championship team was an amazing experience for Hawziee, and one that’s given him plenty of ideas for the bike world. Look out for some interesting and unique things to come. Photo | WD40

“Working in an industry where I wasn’t known was a great experience and opportunity for me to validate my skill set. I got approached by WD-40 and I’ve had a lot of fun pulling together our British Championship Rally Team and maximising its use with the trade, PR and increasing our sporting brand presence on TV and in the press.

But now purely by coincidence it’s time for me to return to the industry I know and love so much, to help us launch our WD40 Bike specific range of products into the two wheeled world”

Martin Hawyes, WD40 Bike

This is one of the last Ashton Justice Trials frames around, and Hawziee has had it painted up by Fat Creations. Expect to see a red saddle unit and red headset to match the WD40 paint work.

“My job title is actually ‘2 wheels’ channel manager’ – it’s almost my Twitter handle – which is pretty much a dream role! I’m in charge of sales and marketing wherever our brand is exposed to Bikes or Motorbikes – pretty cool right?

Right now there’s a lot to do regarding education and positioning of the brand, but more importantly it’s also time to apply the N+1 equation to the garage and get myself a new quiver of steeds!”

Martin Hawyes, WD40 Bike

The first thing Hawziee did when we turned up for a chat was to excitedly pull his custom painted frame out to show us. It’s awesome to see him back with fire in his eyes for the bike world again. Welcome back Hawziee!

When we bumped in to Hawziee at Bikepark Wales, he excitedly pulled a bubble-wrapped frame from his van to show us – it was a box-fresh Ashton Justice frame, lovingly hand painted by Ali from Fat Creations. Check out some more of Ali’s work right here.

“This is my latest addition, it’s actually a brand new Ashton Justice that I had stored but had never built up. Being the corporate whore that I am, ALL my bikes are now blue and yellow and this was the only one that wasn’t. So I contacted Ali at Fat Creations who I’ve been following on Facebook – his stuff is everywhere at the moment and looks incredible. He’s basically The UK equivalent to Troy Lee.

I sent Ali the frame and forks with a picture of our Rally Car, and said come up with something. Next thing I know is that we’re here at the re-union weekend at Bikepark Wales and he’s just handed me the frame. Stoked is an understatement!”

Martin Hawyes, WD40 Bike

This pic says it all really. A man with a new bike is a very happy man!

“Build wise – I’ve got a brand new set of fluro yellow Magura HS33’s in the shed, so I think it’s only fair that they go on here and then it’ll be a bit of shopping and we’ll be hopping in a quarry somewhere soon!

Watch this space for WD40 Bike action!”

Martin Hawyes, WD40 Bike

Here’s a little video clip to jog your memory of the classic era when both Hawziee and Ashton rode together – check it out!