Pittsburgh is an incredible city, having survived a massive economic meltdown in the early 1980s, only to right its ship as a bustling tech and medical research hub. Our economy has been on a near constant rebound in the decades since, and there are plenty fo young folks riding new motorcycles as a result. The only downside to avoiding becoming another Rust Belt sob story is that the city’s biking scene hasn’t much changed since the early 1980s. Pittsburghers are still a Harley-Davidson and cruiser crowd, meaning us fans of European bikes and classics are plain out of luck when it comes to dealerships selling exotic wares. Though we’ve had a couple of European motorcycle dealerships, for instance, near the city of Pittsburgh over the years, none have remained in business for more thana few scant years.
Owning and riding classic bikes in these parts demands a certain resilience and a willingness to endure some serious logistical headaches as there’s currently only a couple of shops willing to maintain and repair motorcycles more than 10 years old. This situation was illustrated in full recently when a fellow turned up at the CRM garage in desperate need of someone to sort out his 2000 Moto Guzzi V11 Sport. He’d taken the shaft-driven bike to several local shops in hopes of having the gearbox repaired, but was turned away repeatedly.
After asking us to take on the job- which we’re sadly, ill-equipped to tackle- he spoke honestly of the predicament at hand. “I used to live and work near Washington, DC and there’s enough bike shops that it’s easy to get something rare like a Guzzi serviced there. Pittsburgh’s another story altogether.” Lucky for him, I was able to direct him to Pitt Cycles, the first new Guzzi dealership Pittsburgh has ever had.
In the interest of honesty, one of the primary motivating factors behind the extensive CR Tech section published in every issue of CRM was a clear need to find ways to repair and keep running several classic bikes in our garage. The section of the magazine was decided upon at the very start as we figured it would provide readers with some much-needed hands-on technical know-how while omitting the very inconvenient and costly need to ship bikes like a T140 Triton or Norton Atlas out for repairs. Our team never claimed to be professional motorcycle technicians or top-flight custom bike builders. However, after spending tens of thousands of bucks on regular service bills, the back-of-book section started to make more financial sense with each new issue.
The whole confusing affair made me think of a consideration we seldom take into account when buying motorcycles: buying a brand that can be serviced within a convenient distance of yourself. If you own a trailer or van that allows transporting a broken-down two-wheeler to repair shops many miles (or states) distant, that’s another story. But before choosing to purchase and ride a motorcycle with no dealer representation nor service expertise in your area, you might want to consider the long-term serviceability of that machine before parting youth your hard-earned.
