Wade Simmons is one of those characters that needs little introduction, but I’ll give him one anyway. Known as The Godfather of Freeride — or simply The Godfather — he’s credited with being one of the early founders of the Freeride mountain bike movement that started right here in BC.
Simmons is a larger-than-life character. His enthusiasm is infectious, for bikes or otherwise, and he lights up the room. Meeting him in a small coffee shop in North Vancouver, he bursts through the door, loudly greeting me in the way he does with everyone, and exclaiming to the barista, and whoever else is listening, how great my mustache is. That’s Simmons on pretty much any day, as I’ve come to learn. It’s never a dull moment when The Godfather is around.
Simmons has been in the mountain bike industry longer than most, starting as a mechanic at Deep Cove Bike shop, as many do, and not long after becoming a pro athlete. He’s one of the few that has managed to successfully carve out a niche for himself after the pinnacle of his pro-athlete days. I wanted to catch up on what that looks like, and find out more about his latest project, Godfather’s Garage.
Don’t be fooled; though Simmons’ pro freeride days may be behind him, he’s still on Rocky Mountain’s pro athlete roster, and for good reason: he’s damn handy on a bike. While he’s not throwing down with the young freeride crowd any more because, by his own admission, he’s not getting any younger, he can still teach them a thing or two.
On top of being an athlete and all that entails, Simmons has been a rep for Rocky Mountain, Fox, Race Face, and Marzocchi for a number of years. It’s a good gig in itself, but always the entrepreneur, Simmons wanted to create his own brand, and make his mark on the industry. Running through a number of options, starting a bike brand seemed like a good idea. Simmons tells me that at one point he, Ritchie Schley, and Brett Tippie almost started a brand.
“We had a business proposal for a bike company called Legend Bikes. We had a stylized ‘L’ in our logo. You can see it now, right?”
Ultimately, they decided it wasn’t going to work, and he admits that there might be too many bike brands out there anyway.
Creating cockpit components would have been a winner, but he didn’t want to step on the toes of Race Face.
Photo: Connor Macleod
Then Simmons started noticing Muc-Off. A proud Canadian, he couldn’t fathom why one of the most popular chain lube brands here is a bright pink British Company. I tried not to take offense, being a proud Brit myself, but I can see his point.
“I see Muc-Off, I see these big ugly pink stands, and I’m like, ‘how does Muc-Off have any space in the PNW, in BC, in North America?’ You see it everywhere, they own the lube space. So we’re like ‘lube, dude! There’s no BC lube company.'”
Simmons wanted to create something authentically Canadian, and made in Canada. After all, oil is big business here. Partnering with Keith Stark, long-time friend, and ex-pro XC and downhill racer, Godfather’s Garage was born.
Simmons and Stark wanted to build the complete package with Godfather’s Garage, so that riders here can count on them to be able to keep their bikes in great shape. The Godfather’s Garage product range consists of three chain lubes, a grease, a de-greaser, a bike wash, and a tubeless sealant, all of which are produced here in Canada.
How does one start a chain lube company? Simmons and Stark spent the better part of a year contacting Canadian oil and lubricant companies to see if they could do what they needed.
“If Wade Simmons is going to make a lube company, we’re going to be asked the hard questions — why did you start a lube company?,” Simmons told me. “Well, A. we want to be Canadian. B. We want to be sustainable, and C. you’ve got to be good — we can’t come to the market with crap, so we started vetting oil companies.”
Settling on a supplier in Ontario, they worked together to formulate high performance bicycle lubes.
“We found [a supplier] in Misissauga, Ontario. They make big industry lubricants, food-grade lubricants, they do it all. We collected all the best lubes out there right now, and sent them to[the supplier], and they broke them down in their laboratory, and we said ‘we need to be as good as or better than these, can you do it?,’ and they said ‘yes, of course we can do it’. It’s bike lube, not rocket science. Bike lube is not subject to high heat, it’s not subject to high torque.”
So formulating bicycle chain lubes is clearly a little easier than in other industries, since the environment it’s being used in is less demanding. Simmons goes on to dispel some myths.
“It’s impossible to create a lube that lubricates and cleans. You cannot have something that lubricates in the wet without attracting stuff.”
Instead, they wanted to make a lube that works the best for as long as possible, and says that their wet lube can last multiple rides in the wet.
Simmons and Stark wanted to build something they could be proud of, using local manufacturing and produced in environmentally friendly way. Locally produced means fewer air miles, and more Canadian jobs — I can’t argue with that. The base oils for their chain lubes are plant-based, and so they’re about as green as they can be.
The Godfather’s Garage tire sealant uses no latex or ammonia, and is produced just blocks from the coffee shop where we were sitting.
“It’s plant-based, the carrier is plant glycerin, so it’s environmentally friendly, and it doesn’t dry out.”
Likewise, all of their lubes are plant-based, with no petroleum, because they know that these lubes are going to be used in the natural environment. For the same reason, they wanted to make sure that none of their lubes contained any PFAS “forever chemicals,” like other lubes out there that contain Teflon, for example.
“We started off two and a half years ago and started off with four products, now we’ve got ten. We’re focused on just getting it out now and occupying the space. Now we can keep someone’s attention, they don’t have to go anywhere else.”
Simmons and Stark know they’ve got big competition, but the brand is young, and they’re doing well. The Muc-Off brand has more than thirty years on Godfather’s Garage, but Simmons is confident they can make it work.
We start talking about branding; one of the big reasons Muc-Off got to where they are is branding and story, and that’s true of any great brand. Fortunately, Simmons is a storyteller, and an excellent one at that.
“When we talk about the name Godfather’s Garage, I never called myself ‘The Godfather’. Tippie gets pissed about this — I got the name from the New World Disorder (NWD) crew. I never claimed I started freeriding, right? But I can do it all — I competed in trials, I raced dual slalom, I raced BMX, I can ride urban, and when you watch my NWD segments, there’s a little bit of everything. I embodied everything about what mountain biking and freeriding was.”
I’m bearing with Simmons at this point — I appreciate the friendly shade he’s throwing at Tippie since they’re old buddies that go way back, and I’m sure he’s getting to a point. He’s a charismatic talker, and I like that.
“I told Tippie, ‘we’re all Godfathers’. We sponsor Mark Matthews and I see him as a godfather, and Remy, everyone’s a godfather in their own right.”
Simmons is a hype guy, he loves to ride his bike, and to inspire others to get out and ride too. I think what Simmons is getting at, is that anyone that gets out and rides their bike is a godfather, and Godfather’s Garage is made for them. I like that sentiment — and let’s be honest, good chain lube is important, but if we’re talking about successful businesses, story, integrity, and branding are just as important.
If buying Godfather’s Garage means supporting some of the most influential riders in history, that’s reason enough for me.
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