Storm's Cycles Grand Prairie, Texas

[davedel44]

Storm's Cycles in Grand Prairie Texas has closed.  The shop where I lusted  after Nortons that I coudn't afford as a kid.  The place where The Texas Turnip bought his 1st Guzzi in 1893  .  Recent purveyors of  the infamous Urals closed its doors late last year.





I have been in North Texas visiting some old high school friends and I always drive down the old highway between Fort Worth and Dallas to admire the old neon signs, and reminisce about my misspent youth.  I always stop into Storm's to pay respects and to absorbe the ambience of a real old time motorbike shop.  The sign was down and lying against the side of the building.

Dave
Galveston

[oldbike54]

 We had the pleasure of meeting Ronnie and his nephew (may have that backwards) at Cedar Vale 2016 . Fine people .

 Dusty

[JJ]

I like the sign!!

[Texas Turnip]

Yes, I bought my first Guzzi from Storm's Aug 14th 1971. I had my choice of 12 black Ambassadors. Storm's sold a lot of Guzzis including the police departments of Irving, DFW airport etc.

Guzzi was in its prime in Texas in the 70's. Motorcycle events would have 3 trophies for Guzzi as there would be at least 5 Guzzis at an event.

I was buying 20 goodyear All-traction tires at a time for for 13 bucks each and selling them for 15 with free mounting. Same tire for front and rear. The front would start road hopping and then we'd put it on the rear. Talk about a rough ride until it smoothed out.

The Ambo at times wouldn't run right. Pop the distributor cap, file the points with the book of matches, then take out your pocket knife and regap the points.

Poor brakes. Texas Pride beer for 99 cents a six pack and somehow we lived.

Tex

[twowings]

Wow...my old Ducati dealer...sorry to hear but an era is passing by...I remember waiting anxiously each month for my new copies of Cycle World, Cycle, and Motorcyclist to hit the mailbox!

[rtbickel]

And RPM Cycle in Dallas also closed its doors at the end of 2018, after dropping KTM  Aprilia, Norton, Motus, Honda and Guzzi over the past couple of years, leaving only Triumph at the end.  Knew those guys for a bunch of years and they always treated me right.

[Turin]

Sooo... who got the sign?

[davedel44]

Sooo... who got the sign?

Dont know.

It's just leaned against the building which is now a regional bus station for a trans border bus line.  No one in the bus office knows a thing. 

Dave's
In Arlington

[cliffrod]

The dealership signs I've chased have usually fallen into three categories- unavailable because of franchise arrangement (or at least that was the claim), retained by the ownership/family or disposed of with the sale & just as irrelevant as the old waste basket & fake potted plants.   One notable one was the gorgeous Maserati dealer's sign in New Orleans back in 94.  The old brick building location near St Charles headed uptown was being revamped for a new tenant and the new franchise site GM told me I could have it, just to talk to the contractor and work it out with him.  They had no use for "that old sign" at the new dealership.

If I was local to that sign, I would start doing some research about who owns the property which can be done at the local registrar of deeds office or equivalent.  If they bought it and this was left behind as installed atop the building without any special related terms, it should be up to their discretion to dispose of it.  Since it's already down and out of the way, it's likely one truck ride away from either the scrap yard or being sold & repainted/repurposed by someone else...

[davedel44]

Couldn't lift it onto the roof rack of my transit connect or it would be adorning my front yard.

Dave
Back in Galveston