Randy was born into motorcycle riding. He is a true Atlanta native, born in 1958 where the Marriott Marquis stands which was the original location for St Joseph’s hospital. Just a few miles away, off of Bankhead Highway in the Center Hill area is where his family lived and where his dad Ted’s 1955 Harley Model 185 was parked. In 1960 they made the move to Smyrna, GA and by then Ted had made the move to an Indian Apache.
Randy’s own personal rides began at six years old with a 5HP Rupp mini-bike. From there it was a revolving door: A Honda Trail 70, Honda Sport 90, Suzuki 125, Honda CB 350… It was later in the high school years when cars, guitars and girls replaced bikes. It wasn’t until January 2001 when he got back into bikes. Dad was retiring and suggested Randy get a bike so they could ride together. It made sense, Randy’s youngest son was turning 13 so no need for babysitters, there would be time to ride.
In January 2001, he purchased a 2000 Kawasaki Vulcan 1500 Classic. At the time Randy was designing commercial HVAC systems for a major Atlanta engineering firm. As drawing by hand disappeared and things went more to CAD he became more and more bored with the job. In May, he picked up a copy of Full Throttle Magazine and saw an ad about getting paid to be a biker.
It seemed a great fit. He had been on the staff of his high school’s newspaper and still had a love for writing. Within days, after selling his wife Vivian on the idea, he made the trip to Tampa to learn more about the opportunity. The GA License was not available, so serious consideration was made to uproot the family to TN to start a regional publication there. Fortunately, the GA licensee decide to sell and in November 2001 Randy purchased GA’s Full Throttle Magazine. In December he published his first issue and soon walked out the door of the engineering firm.
In 2003 he bought his first Harley, a 100th Anniversary Ultra Classic, and also the rights to the AL license. It was merged with the GA book creating the Southland’s edition. It was named from Skynyrd’s lyric, “singing songs about the Southland.” In 2008 Randy purchased the national rights to Full Throttle Magazine and the rest as they is history. The company has grown to include concert and event promotion, event logistics, vendor recruitment, as well as advertising, marketing and promotion services for contracted businesses.
Sit back and hang on, we’re just getting started. It’s going to be a full throttle ride.
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