Our Story

We hope that you will help us write our story. Here’s what we have so far…

The Baltimore Motorcycle Collective was founded by Ethan Pritchard in November 2017. After graduating from University of Maryland, he was looking for a place to rent a bay to get his car back on the road. Sitting around a bon fire in September with some close friends, he swore that if he couldn’t find a DIY automotive garage open in Baltimore by this time next year, he would open one himself. That night, the gears started turning and the next day, he emailed Piper Watson of The Station North Tool Library about sitting down for an informational interview. But it wouldn’t be about cars anymore.

He wanted to combine his passion and experience in working on motorcycles with the knowledge of community building he acquired while leading undergraduate clubs in college. Piper turned him on to Richard Gohlinghorst, previous owner of 515 Moto in Remington. While meeting over coffee one brisk morning in November, Ethan and Richard quickly realized that they had very similar motivations for starting their DIY community motorcycle garages. Feeding off each other’s energy, they crafted a business plan and met regularly. Richard’s donated time and knowledge was fundamental to conceptualizing what is The Collective, today.

We opened our doors on the last week of April, 2018. It is incredible to look back at pictures from what seems like ages ago. The shop is full of bikes, we have a large and fast-growing social media community and have started a club that meets at the garage, hosts events and leads rides. We have worked on bikes manufactured from the early 70’s to brand new and everything in between. This includes Hondas, Harleys, Aprilias, Suzukis, Kawasakis, Ducatis, BMWs, Triumphs, Yamahas, Vespas, KTMs and more. The community has brought in motorcycles for maintenance, restorations, custom builds, engine rebuilds, restomods and more.

We look forward to experiencing a full year in business in 2019. Preferably there will be a little less rain. We are starting traditions like our Season Opener Bike Show in April where we hope to have hundreds of people in attendance. We are hosting our first B(ALT) Bike Buildoff this year, a challenge to build a totally custom, frame altering bike for under $1000 and in a small amount of time. This is just one of the many ways we urge people to be creative and think outside the box to build something rad that isn’t a huge monetary or timely commitment. Our goal is to break down barriers that might be keeping people from getting even more intimate with their machines.

In the future, we hope do use this platform for endless goods. We are helping to facilitate charity rides. We are starting a non-profit to get local high school kids in the shop to familiarize them with small engines, tools and workplace safety. Part of our vision is to have mechanics that rent space here to take their side hustle to the next level and become their own boss, sort of like the dynamic in a hair salon where you rent a chair. We hope that people building bikes at The Collective along side one another will feed off each other’s energy and inspire one another.

If you have ideas for what more we could be doing, we would love to hear it. This is a community garage and your inputs are always appreciated. We don’t call it a collective for nothing. It was designed for you to feel at home and have a stake in its success. Please do not hesitate to come down and check us out.