Here’s a car showroom – turn it into a bike shop!

Concluding the story about motorcycles in his life, Tony Proctor tells how he set up a brand new Yamaha Centre 38 years ago.

Here’s a car showroom – turn it into a bike shop!
A group of likely lads ogle the selection of new Yamahas during an open day at the former St Neots Yamaha Centre.
In 1978 the Marshall Group handed me a car showroom with a petrol forecourt and workshop in Huntingdon Road, St Neots, and invited me to turn it into a motorcycle dealership befitting the car sales chain.

In essence, it was one of the first of the newer-style motorcycle shops, and my staff and I had a brilliant time. Although the Yamaha contract was to sell road machines only, I opened up more sales potential by going off-road too.

I struck a deal with Fowler’s of Bristol for the supply of motocross and enduro machinery and parts which involved meeting up with Fowler’s delivery vans at Chessington, where Yamaha UK were based, and transfer machines onto my pick-up.

Read more in May’s edition of OBM