Meant to post this up the day the article was published on the Gazette (this past Friday). Thought it was interesting about our local shop!
Springs motorcycle dealership is one of country's oldest
It was Oct. 1, 1960 when Doyne Bruner signed on to sell Honda motorcycles. He was 26 and had just taken ownership of Don’s Cycles, after working at the shop for four years.
Fast-forward 50 years and Bruner is still selling, and riding, Hondas. What is now named Apex Sports, at 327 S. Weber St., is the seventh oldest Honda dealership in the country.
On Friday, Honda senior district sales manager Tim Colvig presented Bruner and his wife, Darlene, with a 50-year plaque for the dealership.
“I called headquarters today and there are only six other dealers with dealer numbers older than that.” Colvig said. “This is the first time I’ve ever given out a ‘50.’”
The first Honda to arrive was a CA-100, with a 50cc engine and a $279 price tag. The little Hondas were an immediate hit, Bruner recalls. They were cheaper, more capable and more reliable than the Vespas that were popular with teenagers at the time.
“They worked, they started, they were reliable, parts were cheap,” Bruner said. “Anyone could ride them. You didn’t have to be a mechanic.”
Bruner still has a CA-102 (a close relative of the original) in his warehouse — along with one of pretty much every other bike ever manufactured, said Darlene Bruner.
“He doesn’t get rid of anything and he accumulates, so he’s got a lot of rolling stock,” she said.
His all-time favorite, however, is the Goldwing, Honda’s big touring bike. He owns three.
Bruner still works every day, as does his wife, and still builds trikes (three-wheel motorcycles) and sidecars.
“He’s 77 Sunday, and he’s still the hardest worker we have,” said Mike Stokes, the Bruners’ general manager, co-owner and son-in-law.
Retirement is not in Bruner’s future.
“Motorcycling is the only hobby I’ve ever had that I’ve never got tired of,” Bruner said.
“The bikes are always there.”
Doyne and Darlene ride nearly every weekend and usually take a monthlong trip once a year. Their Shih Tzu, Cosmo, rides in the sidecar. Before the dog, the Bruners’ children came along for the ride.
“Our kids were raised in a sidecar,” Doyne Bruner said.
The motorcycle business has seen its ups and downs in the last half-century. Once, in the early 1960s, Bruner’s banker told him, “You guys are bankrupt and you’re too dumb to know it.”
The recent downturn has been rough, Bruner said, although Apex still employs about 30 people. However, with the economy recovering, temperatures rising and gas prices soaring, this summer looks to be a good one, Bruner said.
“We don’t sell anything that you have to have,” he said. “It’s a hobby. When people come in here, they’re happy. That’s a nice thing.”
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Originally Posted by aerofaze
