John Ryland

John Ryland spent over a decade as an advertising copywriter and art director before answering the call of wrench and weld. In 2009, he launched Classified Moto out of his home garage in Richmond, Virginia - a creative outlet that quickly became a movement for motorcycle misfits and lovers of functional art.

His signature builds often blend vintage frames with modern engineering, resulting in machines that look like they’ve time-traveled through a dream. Fusing vintage soul with modern guts, his bikes are equal parts sculpture, sci-fi and street machine. Think Mad Max meets modernist design.

His passion for reinvention goes beyond bikes, too, with custom Moto lamps and furniture breathing new life into discarded parts.

John’s latest Frankenstein project isn’t an old Yamaha or Honda, but rather a mash-up of mid-century boutique hotel, event space and moto shop in Richmond’s Manchester neighborhood. Think Mad Max meets Mad Men.

This talk will be so punk, it won’t be. Or maybe so not punk, it will be.

Because punk - by definition - is about rejecting the expected, tearing up the blueprint and building something honest from the scraps. John’s journey from agency life to moto alchemist is a testament to that spirit: unpolished, uncompromising and undeniably his own.

Learn more at classfiedmoto.com