Hey all...

Well, I had the good fortune of taking a small vacation to San Francisco a few months ago. While there, I found my way to the Dudley Perkins Harley Davidson dealer in South San Francisco. This is an amazing dealership...I couldn't believe how much history is involved with this dealership.

It opened in 1914...thats right, 1914!!!...and has remained in continuous operation, owned by the same family, until present. Talk about a true American story. I was fortunate enough to meet and briefly speak to several family owners while there.

Here is a link to the dealership website....

http://www.dpchd.com/

I'll start with the entrance of the dealership...as you walk in there is a large billboard of motorcyclist from way back with a couple of empty spots to insert your head for a photo and a two story tall wall with Harley Davidson Engines displayed from the earliest days to present.

This is what you see when you break through the front door...this was really cool, and just the beginning of a "one of a kind" dealership.

Here is the front of the dealership...



And this is the first thing you come to as you walk into the door...



To Be Continue....

 

Here is the Harley Davidson Engine wall...it's to your right as you walk in the dealership...



And here are close-ups of the motors...



















To Be Continued...

 

The last of the motors....







To Be Continued...More to Come!

 

After you take a few staring at the wall of motors, you continue to the bread and butter of the dealership.

Making a quick left, you run into the lower lobby and view of the service department. The sales, parts, and clothing sections are all upstairs. Here is the lower level.

First, a bike on display near the doorway...







Than you hit the service department view on the left, stairway straight ahead, and lower museum on the right...







The Museum...









And yes...To Be Continued

 

Bikes from the lower museum...



















To Be Continued....

 

These next two bikes are the last of the downstairs bikes on display....





Now we go upstairs to the showroom floor. Again, there was so much memorabilia and a few classic motorcycles mixed in with the bikes for sale...amazing place.

Here is a trophy case from races the owners have won way back in the day. A lot of these trophies are dated in the early 1920's. The original owner was a hill climber...that's the type of racing he did.





Here is a photo of the the Senior Senior Perkins, the founder of the dealership, from way back in the day on one of his hill climber race bikes...I believe this photos is late 1920's.



Boy how times have changed...where's the tattoo's?...where's the beard, goatee, or handlebar mustache? He has a sweater, collar shirt, and a tie!!! I love this photo...from a time when people didn't need to "look tough" or "look cool" to be tough or be cool.

I thought I took photos of the entire dealer floor, but it looks like I only took some of the lounge area. Kinda of disappointing because the floor is fantastic...but it is what it is. Here is the lounge area.








And of course...to be continued

 

And here are couple of bikes just hanging around the sale room floor...

Here's a little something our Female HDForums members will appreciate













And the last one for today...







To Be Continued...

 

and...



and...





and last...





To Be Continued...

 

And finally, we come to the end...

This was one of my favorite motorized contraptions at the dealer. I didn't know Harley ever made anything like this, and that they were actually pretty popular back in the day.











And couple more race bikes....











And that concludes the photos of the Dudley Perkins Harley Davidson Dealership in South San Francisco...

Cheers!

 

Very cool. Most dealers just have new bikes they are trying to push out the door. It is nice to see one who appreciates the history behind the brand.