Firm that begain in a mushroom shed creates brilliant bike parts
Cymarc is a quality British parts firm with a personal touch. If you really, really can’t fit their kit, the boss will come and show you how
‘Ilove people who make stuff. It’s what I do. I’m obsessed about it.” Mark Hooten, boss of Cymarc Bike Parts, peers over the top of his glasses, across a garage with no fewer than four BMWs in it. His K1600, R nineT, S1000XR and GSA all sport subtle Cymarc bolt-ons and extras. Mark shows MCN one of his lockable storage boxes, locating in the same position as the GSA’s pillion. “I had a guy swore it wouldn’t fit,” says Mark. “He was on the phone telling me about it. In the end I rode to Bristol to show him; it slides in, just like a pillion seat. His wife found it funny.” Mark’s main business is Cymarc Engineering Ltd, a separate factory handling medium-to-heavy fabrication for the rail industry. But it’s fair to say Mark’s real passion is reserved for his off-shoot, Cymarc Bike Parts.
“When I left the army, nobody wanted to hire me,” Mark explains. “So I started making stuff. And I’ve been making stuff ever since.” But initially not for bikes? “Not until around eight years ago. I’ve always been a biker, but a mate of mine said ‘I’ve got a V-Strom 1000 and can you make a part for it?” The Suzuki’s gearchange was clunky, and Mark noticed a 1.47mm misalignment between the gearbox and rear sprocket. “So I made a spacer to sit between the cush drive and the sprocket,” he says. “And it got rid of the clunk.
“Then I started to look at BMWs; I’ve had all kinds of bikes over the years [Mark is restoring a Suzuki X7, has a lovely Kawasaki GPz1100, as well as a Dnepr outfit and a Rotaxpowered Harley-Davidson MT350 military bike]. But while I love BMW, sometimes they have odd ideas. So I set about designing parts.”
At that point Mark decided to set up Cymarc Bike Parts. “It’s
essentially a labour of love,” he says. “It’s not there to make money. It’s there to make affordable, quality parts. If the bank manager found out I spent half-a-million quid on a laser profiler he’d be furious.”
As Mark spent more and more time involved with making parts for bikes he realised he’d need some help, so he brought Mike over from the other side of his business and employed Aaron fresh from school, and the three of them now make up Cymarc Bike Parts.
Today, Cymarc are going great guns, exporting to countries around the world and creating innovative and genuinely useful spares, such as the GS crud-catcher, protecting the front of the engine from mud, dirt and stones, or the successful GS screen strengthening brackets: “They stop the screen vibrating,” says Mark. “It took ages to work out the right geometry.”
And the future? Strangely, once again Mark defies expectation: “I’m not interested in expanding and making things like panniers; there are other UK companies already doing a fantastic job. I’ll just keep looking at what I think can be improved with new bikes, and coming up with ideas there.”