Journal-News.com

MASON — A local motorcycle enthusiast and entrepreneur piqued Jay Leno's interest enough that the late night talk show host called Tom Young about his tricked-out bike trailers.

"I'll never forget it. It was about 8:50 on a Wednesday morning and the phone rang," Young recalled. "I picked it up and he says, 'This is Jay Leno, are you Tom Young?' I said, 'Get out of here!' "

Young, a retired Gillette sales team leader, jumped at the golden parachute Procter & Gamble offered him last fall after it purchased the personal care company, and now he is living a dream.

Knowing that Leno is a cycle and car enthusiast and a big charity supporter, Young had one designed with a picture of Leno on it and sent a demo tape of the trailer tooling around behind his cycle to Leno. Leno called Young within three days and offered to autograph the trailer so it could be auctioned off for charity.

Young trundled the trailer 2,400 miles out to Leno's Burbank studio and the star, along with some of his crew, signed the trailer and also threw in two VIP tickets to "The Tonight Show."

Young brought the autographed trailer down to Daytona last weekend so it could be auctioned at the Biker's Ball Charity Auction during bike week Friday through March 11.

Miamisburg resident Steve Francis was Young's first customer. He ordered a Ford Mustang trailer to pull behind his Gold Wing trike motorcycle.

"I'd been looking for a trailer for a while and just hadn't seen anything that tripped my trigger until Tom told me about his company," Francis said. "Gosh, I just love it. It's a wonderful conversation piece."

Contact this reporter at (513) 696-4525 or dcallahan@coxohio.com.