Page 12 - PULSE-FOUR-BOB'S

When and how did you discover that you
had a passion or interest in motorsports?
I was a motocross racer and at that point I was very, very beginner. I went to a few races and Bob used to go to every race himself in just a normal window van, and he would load that thing full of stuff and he’d be at the races every week with a little tent, so that’s where
I met Bob. I was sixteen years old and I started at a grocery store for my first job; I worked there for two weeks. Then Bob called me and said “You wanna job?” so I quit my grocery store job after the first two weeks and I’ve worked at Bob’s my entire life since. He was a bachelor and loved the kids and being at the races. He loved new riders; you’d come off with your trophy and he’d be all proud of ya. He was like a dad to all the rac- ers, so that’s how I started and that’s how I met Bob. I bought my first pair of motocross boots from him in like 1976 and like I said, I’ve been there ever since. Moto- cross was definitely our start and that was Bob’s start, too -- he did it for business but he also did he because he loved it and he had a passion for being at the races.
Talk a little bit about the inception and the
history of Bob’s Cycle Supply.
He worked out of his garage when he first started from 1971 until probably ‘74. Then he rented out this little area that was about 20x20, just teeny. It was next to
>> Scott and Leisha Millville Ride Day
a grocery store, so that’s when I first started with Bob. Another really interesting thing about Bob -- one of
the things he always said was his claim to fame -- he immediately started a huge magazine rack. He car- ried every magazine he could get his hands on and every month that was a passion for most of us to go
in and read these motorcycle magazines; that was something that you had to go to Bob’s for. If you went to the store, they might have a couple magazines and they were kind of old, but Bob always had the current magazines and he had twenty-five copies. He eventu- ally expanded into the grocery store next door although it was more like a convenient store. He went from 20x20 to about 2,000 sq ft. or maybe even smaller than that. So, he hired me and some others and we started building shelves, doing showrooms, and stuff like that. That shop lasted and we continued to go to the races and support everything, then it was up until 1988 when we first built a shop that we owned, and we moved to about an 8,000 sq ft building. That lasted until about 1996 and then we doubled the size of that building and in the mid 90’s is when we started our mail order busi- ness as well. Bob always did shipping, but it was then that we started doing a catalog and things like that. Then we expanded again to another big warehouse that we leased and we eventually ended up with an- other location north of the city that we own, so now we own two buildings and operate out of them both.
12 THE PULSE • ISSUE FOUR
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