Walneck's Classic Cycle Trader - June 2008 - (Page 108) SPECIAL FEATURE STORIES VINTAGE JAPANESE - THE SHOP’S FOCUS The Shop’s Focus because it was accessible and it was cheap,” he said. He restored the bike on his kitchen table Vintage Japanese Cycles and the ‘70s in the mid-’90s when he was 25 years old. “All By John Gunnell we did back then was find some old bikes and fix them up - and then we started racing them.” The Japanese motorcycle movement is a The racing pulled Schneider to Japanese product of the ‘70s and there is no better tes- bikes like a moth to a flame. “The Honda 350,” timonial to the growing interest in collecting he says, pointing to a bike sitting in the shop. such bikes than the success of a business “That’s the one we made go very fast. My called The Shop in Milwaukee, Wis. friend Scott Johnson, who owns the Fuel Cafe, “They’re very cool,” says Tim Schneider raced the 350 and, what happened, over the of the bikes that he services and restores for years, because of our racing, is that everyone in Japanese motorcycle enthusiasts. “Their time the city knew we were winning and wanted us has come and they deserve it; they’re classics; to tune their bike. We became like mythologithey’re beautiful.” cal, and we got the idea to start a business In business for 11 years, Tim says his around what we did and what we liked - and we shop is “rockin” today, though it wasn’t that really did it.” way in the beginning. For the first three to four years, he worked longed hours. “Harder than I ever worked in my life”, he recalls now. “And at the end of it, I didn’t make any real money. But we learned all of the different problems inherent of each bike and that’s the kind of experience you don’t get sitting around, you gotta do it.” According to Tim, The Shop’s general business plan was, “to not work on American stuff,” but he’s quick to point up that this isn’t a bias. “We wanted to create a different identity,” he says. “You can’t believe how many guys come in here and say this is exactly the way that it was in the ‘70s.” Tim Tim Schneider poses with a Honda near the entrance to his shop called “The Shop.” can service American bikes, as well as German, Italian and Russian machines, but the “specialty of the house” is Japanese bikes of the ‘70s. “It’s a question of your own perception of when motorcycles coming of age happened,” Tim explains. “That’s why I really like the stuff I like. A restored 1915 Harley-Davidson just doesn’t do anything for me. And as far as the focus on vintage bikes, the plan was to create a ‘1970s motorcycle shop.” Tim’s first motorcycle restoration didn’t involve a Japanese bike. It was a Germanbuilt 1952 Zundap DB202 that he picked up The shop area looks neat, clean and well organized, which is for $150 and still has today. “I started on it important when working on any bike. 108 JUNE 2008 I WALNECK’S CLASSIC CYCLE TRADER® I WALNECKS.COM http://WALNECKS.COM
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