No pics available, but I remember Ronnie's in Pittsfield Mass and Griffiths in Fort Wayne Ind. Both were pretty bare bones. A couple of new and several used bikes on the "showroom". Ronnie's actually started out in a converted chicken coop in North Adams Mass before opening the Pittsfield store in '62, I believe. "Red" Griffith was a retired Ft. Wayne motorcycle cop. Both Ronnie and Red were pretty no-nonsense in the "old days". Ronnie was still alive last July and still riding at 85 years old. Red died in 1998 at 84 years old. The stores were not at all fancy; a few clothes, a few bikes, quite a few parts in stock. No "high pressure" type sales crap like to get now. No "yuppies" in the stores, either. The original parts storage at Griffiths was a big HD supplied wooden cabinet with paper-labelled drawers. It's still there at Osborn's in Fort Wayne (a good Indy shop). Photo of cabinet today:
Thank you, for years I had to flip anything like this that I found. Im now able to hang on to some of these and ride em like they were supposed to be ridden...I have been going on some AMCA road runs and really enjoy it.....I really enjoy the simplicity of the old iron, and the history as well. I have a friend who's a second generation HD dealer who once said "You just have to respect these old machines for what they are" and I totally agree....but 1984 is the year break for antique status, and that lets in an EVO, thats reality for me.....lol. I can remember seeing the EVO's starting to show up and sending the shovels to the back of the garage....Sorry to ramble...I really do enjoy the old dealer pix.
In keeping with the thread, heres a recent pix I shot of the long ago closed shop where I bought my first bike back in 1972. On payments.....lol, seems like it was only last week......
Wanted a bike around 1984 but didn't have the 3K needed for one. By 1989 I could swing it and bought my first one at Monty's Cycle Shop in W. Bridgewater, Ma. Small shop, smelled like oil and fuel, not many parts on the wall but they knew Harley's. Not many bikes on the floor to choose from but the only sales person (female) knew her stuff and you could tell she rode a lot. Not feeling the big box shiny tile floor glass facades of today's dealerships.
Visited that shop in August---great nostalgic place---they have a small area to the left when you enter now with many pics of Monty and his wife---here,s a few I snapped
No pics available, but I remember Ronnie's in Pittsfield Mass and Griffiths in Fort Wayne Ind. Both were pretty bare bones. A couple of new and several used bikes on the "showroom". Ronnie's actually started out in a converted chicken coop in North Adams Mass before opening the Pittsfield store in '62, I believe. "Red" Griffith was a retired Ft. Wayne motorcycle cop. Both Ronnie and Red were pretty no-nonsense in the "old days". Ronnie was still alive last July and still riding at 85 years old. Red died in 1998 at 84 years old. The stores were not at all fancy; a few clothes, a few bikes, quite a few parts in stock. No "high pressure" type sales crap like to get now. No "yuppies" in the stores, either. The original parts storage at Griffiths was a big HD supplied wooden cabinet with paper-labelled drawers. It's still there at Osborn's in Fort Wayne (a good Indy shop). Photo of cabinet today:
Hope this isn,t a double post
I visited Ronnies in August---it was 98 degrees that day--my buddy uses that shop for everything--a bit upgraded from the past
Yep, that's Ronnie's in Pittsfield (my original home town) now. The showroom is rather small compared to some. Their service department seemed excellent, although I didn't use it. About 10 NYC area riders were stopped there in July when I visited from Indiana. They were all policemen. One of them had a problem with his ride and they were all hanging around with him until it was fixed. Ronnie's service guys got it right in and made the repair/adjustment (whatever) in about an hour. They were a bit surprised at the high level of service: getting it in immediately and taking care of it competently. Still kind of old school, I guess.
12-26-2018 | 12:38 PM
