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The foundation for Rex Marsee Designs, Inc. commenced in 1969, when Rex was racing a Lotus/Cosworth Ford Formula Racing Car. He wanted a bike which would build his endurance and improve his reflex times, which in turn would improve his racing car skills. So, he bought a Honda 90 to ride in the woods and that started a relationship that has sustained nearly four decades. When formula car racing became too expensive Rex switched to motorcycle racing.
In 1973 Rex built the first one piece cast magnesium framed motorcycle with the fuel tank located inside the frame under the rider’s seat. Cycle News featured the bike in their magazine. A head hunter at Harley Davidson read the article and decided to employ Rex as their Project Engineer for the newly formed motocross bike program. Harley also assigned the Liaison Engineering duties between Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Varese, Italy to Rex. This made for an active and exciting life style. When Harley-Davidson was bought back from AMF, they decided to terminate production of the bikes built in Varese, Italy. Additionally, the motocross program had not taken off; therefore, Rex decided to leave Harley to join Neese Industries in Louisiana.
At Neese, Rex designed the Dry Rider rain suits for motorcyclists and Deckskins for sailing boat crews. Rex also took on the sales manager position for this division of the company and grew it from scratch to over $1,000,000.00 in sale in his second year. Not content with making other people rich Rex left for California and started what was eventually to become Rex Marsee Designs, Inc.
In 1976, while at Neese, Rex built the first magnetic tank bag, but the magnets were not strong enough to hold the bag on at speed. Therefore, the idea was shelved until 1979, when stronger magnets were found. The bags were then placed into production. During this time Rex also did some design work for Helmet House, Malcolm Smith, Rocky Cycle Distributing, Universal Equipment and several other companies.
In 1984, Bell Helmets purchased Marsee Products. Rex remained as the designer and did liaison work between Bell and Asian manufacturers. Bell used the Marsee name for two years before switching all products to their Vetter division. In 1989 Bell divested themselves of several divisions including Vetter Products.
The purchasing company elected not to take Rex as part of the package. Rex, therefore, decided to simply resurrect Rex Marsee Designs, Inc. And he has been busy making high quality apparel and luggage ever since. The company was restarted in Rex’s Menifee, California garage. Shortly thereafter operations were moved to Temecula where the building's size had to be increases three different times. At the end of 2004 it was decided to move the company to Tennessee to escape California’s high cost of living, grid lock and state politics.
Today, the company nestles in the hills of Eastern Tennessee, where life is relaxing and millions of motorcyclists come annually to vacation and ride. If you are one of the privileged to ride this way stop in and say, “Howdy, Ya all!”
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