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4 Movers and Shakers Some Key Players “In the Harley world, you can’t tell the players without a score card.” I’m a Northern California Harley rider. My references are all territory specific. In my small corner of the Harley world, I am fortunate to have interviewed a few of the important folk who make things happen. I was privileged to speak with Dudley Perkins Jr. and Tom Perkins, owners of the Dudley Perkins Company, the San Francisco HarleyDavidson dealership. (Dudley Perkins died a few years after I interviewed him.) Also connected to the Dudley Perkins Company was Steve Zarwell, who sold Harleys for Dudley and Tom for over five years. I interviewed Reg Kittrelle, founder, editor, and publisher of Thunder Press, the premier monthly West Coast Harley-Davidson newspaper . I interviewed Mike Molinari, who was at the time CEO of Performance Productions, Inc. PPI puts on motorcycle events, including the very famous Bridgeport Jamboree. I spoke to Mike Felder, an insurance broker specializing in Harleys. Finally, I interviewed Brian Halton , founder and owner of CityBike, the oldest and one of the most successful San Francisco Bay Area biking newspapers. My first interview was with Dudley Perkins Jr., whose business card reads: DUDLEY PERKINS CO. Est. 1914 World’s Oldest Harley-Davidson Dealership A family tradition for three generations 66 Page Street, San Francisco, CA 94102 34 Movers and Shakers: Some Key Players Dudley Perkins Jr. inherited the business from his father and had just formally passed it on to his son Tom when I spoke with him. While Tom had that busy, distracted look of someone trying to run a highly complex business (all from a tiny office), Dudley was calm and serene. Dudley, who was referred to affectionately by customers and admirers alike as “the old man,” was an imposing figure. Still strikingly vigorous after recovering from surgery, he wore his seventy-plus years with great dignity. In his shirt and tie and dressed-for-business clothes, he had the relaxed look of someone who had seen it all. In many ways, Harley history is also Perkins’s history. His family and Harley-Davidsons have been intertwined for three generations. We visited in a small office adjacent to and no bigger than his son’s office. We talked about his early experiences in the family business, about the pitfalls and pleasures of spending a lifetime with HarleyDavidsons . We discussed the spiffy and unique Dudley Perkins Company dress code and the changes in bike quality over the years. “In my father’s time, he knew all the principals in Milwaukee. He went there regularly. He was in Daytona every year. The races couldn’t start without him.” Dudley Perkins Sr., founder of the dealership, was a hill climber, flat-track racer, and all-around Harley rider. He was one of the famous old-timers who regularly appeared in the racing journals. He ran a shop staffed by racers and motorcycle enthusiasts. “I used to go every Sunday with my father to watch the races and hill-climbing events. He rode with his customers. My father, the employees , and the customers were all very close. They were like a fraternity . My father was busy racing all the time. He constantly pulled money out of the business and put it into racing. We had a full-time mechanic on call just for the events. A lot of the business supplies were spent supporting racing. But the racers used the shop’s resources and then kept all the prize money. The shop supported them. In the early days not enough money was put back into the business. “My father was very close to his customers. To be a successful dealer, you must be close to your customers. But not so close as to be intimate friends. It’s a fine line. You get close, you see the same people over and over, but you are in business, and that has to be respected. You do get to know the needs of your customers. If you are fortunate, they stay with you a long, long time.” When I asked if he too was interested in racing, Dudley Perkins Jr. answered in the classic way of all sons who work in family businesses. “I raced a little but not professionally. I grew up in the business, so after school I came to work. I didn’t have much time for racing. I was 35 [3.149.213.209] Project MUSE (2024-04-26...

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