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Mattei's Cycle Supply was established February 1, 1985. Our main goal since the beginning has been to offer quality Japanese motorcycle parts, service, and machine shop services. Our owner, Brad Mattei, born in New Orleans in 1955, has been a performance vehicle enthusiast since he was a child. He started riding at 10 years old, and has been hooked ever since. He has been around the high performance industry since birth (his father, Pete, won the 1959 NHRA U S Nationals, setting both E.T. and MPH records doing so.)

Brad formed a love for drag racing as a child, and his memories of racing begin when drag races were held at local airstrips, with temporary timing clocks set up the day of the event, and taken down when the race ended. Brad started drag racing at 22 years old. His first drag bike was a 1975 H-2 Kawasaki that he built himself. This progressed to a few Kawasaki Z-1/KZ bikes, and then to a C/Gas Kawasaki powered laydown dragbike which in 1978 he set the International Drag Bike Association (IDBA) C/Gas MPH national record. That record was retired 5 years later. Brad sold the laydown in 1979 to build a pro stock bike that he raced from 1980-1985. In 1985, due to the start of Mattei's Cycle Supply and the birth of his son, Seth, Brad stepped away from racing until 1990 to help customers and other racers. In 1990 Brad started building another IDBA Super Eliminator bike. Super Eliminator is comparable to NHRA's Competition Eliminator. With a business, a son, and the details of managing a "normal" life, the bike was finished in Fall 1993. It was built specifically to run in IDBA Modified classes.

In 2005 Hurricane Katrina flooded Mattei's Cycle Supply with six feet of water in the building. For a year after the storm, Brad and his sole employee, Sean Slack, juggled time between rebuilding the store and servicing motorcycles in Brad's home garage. During that time, a local Texas Shootout racer named Keith Salles needed help on a quick rebuild of his 60" wheelbase turbocharged Hayabusa's engine. Keith won't admit it, but he is one of the most talented riders Brad has seen. Brad did what was necessary and Keith was able to make the final event of the season. Since then, starting in 2007, Keith and Brad have been friends and racing partners. While working with Keith, Brad has honed his skills on tuning both engines and various styles of drag racing clutches on motorcycles. This cannot end without the mention of a fantastic fabricator named Jesse Gonzalez. While Brad builds the engines and collaborates with Keith on the tuning, the beautiful bikes they bring to the track are a collaboration between Keith and Jesse. Jesse's father, himself, and his brothers are owners of Alex's Body Shop in Slidell, LA.

This quick bio cannot be complete without the mention of my grandfather, Richard Mattei, who taught my father; who taught me. Last, thank you to my wife Kay and my son Seth. Without their help I could not do what I do.

Special thanks to Bob Lutz, owner of "Try Me" Coffee - established 1928. Without his help I would not have won my two national championships, and Alan "Heavy" Jones and Jones Automotive, who showed me how race engines are machined the poor boy (Poboy) way.