Highland Cycles Creation Story
Highland Cycles was a dream of mine 4 years before I opened the doors in March of 2007. I grew up in suburban Oklahoma City with 2 wonderful parents who absolutely hated motorcycles. I remember my father saying to me “even if you save the money and pay for it yourself, you cannot park a motorcycle at my house.” Like any good son, that made me want one even more.
I graduated from high school and moved to Colorado. I managed to scrape up enough money to buy a 1979 Vespa to ride around Ft. Collins. I ended up selling that scooter because I needed money and it was another 5 years before I could afford another bike. In 2002 I purchased a TTR250 in Gunnison and my entire life changed. I began riding every minute that I had time. With that purchase I unknowingly changed the course of my life forever.
After my first flat tire on a Sunday and nowhere open to fix it, I started learning how to work on my own bike and realized that I enjoyed it as much as riding. After acquiring a Buell street bike and a WR250F I finally came to grips with the fact that I hated doing construction and needed a change. I applied to MMI got in and moved away from my wonderful amazingly understanding wife in the space of about 3 months.
I moved to Phoenix with no real plans for the rest of my life except that I wanted to be in the motorcycle industry. After about 8 months in school I got a job in a shop and slowly began to realize my dreams. I designed the Highland Cycles logo started printing Highland Cycles stickers. I even tattooed the logo on my right arm. I was completely committed but I still didn’t know what I was doing. I graduated at the top of my class and moved back to Gunnison. I was lucky enough to get a job as a mechanic for Fritz at Gunnison Motorsports working with a very talented race tech as my mentor. I learned a ton from him about turning wrenches. Unfortunately Fritz didn’t have enough work for 2 mechanics so I left and became a service manager for Sun Sports just down the road.
I worked for a year as the service manager for Sun Sports and continued to learn more about the motorsports industry from the inside. The information I learned from them has been incredibly helpful ever since. After a year, Fritz hired me to be general manager back at his shop and I moved back down the road. Back at Gunnison Motorsports I began to learn more about what it takes to own and operate a small independent shop and I realized that it was exactly what I wanted.
I still didn’t really know that much about business but made the decision to give it a try. And on March 6th 2007 I opened Highland Cycles in its current location and have been learning ever since. I can say that to this day through the worst economy in years and recently a really badly broken leg, there is still nothing else I want to do with my life than help bring my love of motorcycles to the community and spread the GOSPEL OF TWO WHEELS
Our Core Values!
Highland Cycles is located on the Western Slope of Colorado. We are located at 5068-A N. Townsend in Montrose Colorado and can be reached at 970-240-2197.
Our Goal at Highland Cycles
To keep you riding through:
Quality service!
Education!
Fun family events!
and
The absolute best parts and accessories
We actually ride
We are not a shop owned by just a business person who only understands the bottom line. Our owner, eats, sleeps, and breathes motorcycles and every employee is an avid rider. We believe that is the way it should be!!!