Valley Cycle Center History

Our Story: The Legacy of Valley Cycle Center

Jim Myers founded Valley Cycle Center in 1968 in Winchester, VA. As a lifelong motorhead, Jim’s passion was secured when he purchased a Cushman scooter. Long before he dreamed of owning a motorcycle dealership, Jim found his experience on the Cushman to offer unparalleled fun and legitimate savings as it was cheaper than a car and used less fuel. As anyone who rides will know, our community is close, and Jim soon found others who enjoyed riding and racing as much as he did. In his early twenties, Jim befriended Eddie Adkins, who rode fast motorcycles, and made a living working on them as a racing mechanic, at Twigg Cycles in Hagerstown, Maryland. What was not to love?

As he was affectionately known, “Pap,” Twigg offered Jim a job, too, which he was more than happy to accept. At the time, he worked for Harris Intertype as a tool and die maker and worked evenings at the Charles Town Racetrack, rewarding lucky bettors who correctly read the horses. It was an easy decision for Jim to leave those places and invest in his passion and eventual future by accepting employment at Twigg’s and learning from one of the best to do it. It wasn’t long before an opportunity arose in Winchester that would allow Jim to begin his dream of business ownership. With Pap’s blessing, he opened Valley Cycle Center, a Triumph and BSA dealer.

It was tough going for the first couple of years, but Jim’s grit and determination saw it through and in 1971, he was awarded Yamaha and the ability to sell and service their products. This was the tipping point for him and what finally made Valley Cycle Center a viable business for years to come. Soon after he landed Yamaha, Suzuki came along, and not too soon afterward, the British brands began to exit the industry.

Jim carried Yamaha and Suzuki for several years and became one of the Mid-Atlantic’s best dealers in volume and service. After a local competitor carrying Kawasaki exited the business in the early nineties, Jim set his sights on landing that brand next. His first and only Kawasaki representative and long-time friend, Jay Pedersen, jokes, “To sign the papers, Jim invited me out for lunch. I was honored and happy to accompany him and sensed his excitement. I figured we were going to one of Winchester’s nicest establishments where he would sign, and we could determine a plan for future success. Instead, he took me to Long John Silver’s! He wouldn’t even buy me a soda. He made me drink tap water because it was free! It was a great lunch, however, and I could tell he was going to make a real success of things.”

Jim and his wife, Faye, had two sons - James and Richie. By the late nineties, James and Richie were working for their father and learning from him just as he learned from Pap Twigg. Growing up in the industry, the boys remember spending Spring in Daytona as their father fielded a race team or traveling to Hagerstown, MD, to watch the AMA Grand National races in which his best friend, Eddie, fielded motorcycles. The community of people brought together by motorcycling is what James remembers most, “...it was like going to Hollywood and seeing movie stars, but the movie stars all know your father. We grew up hearing about legends Gary Nixon, Ricky Graham, and many others, and we’d go to Daytona. Sitting in my father’s pit stall was Gary Nixon - wearing a Valley Cycle Center shirt! These racers and other figures were our movie stars, and we had access to them all. It was really pretty cool…”

Jim was always the enthusiast first. Until his eventual passing in February 2022, he remained interested and excited by motorcycles. His collection of vintage race bikes would be the envy of most any collector, and they were all restored by his hand. James and Richie looked past their enthusiasm at the other opportunities the Powersports industry had to offer. They saw what Polaris was doing with the newly released RZR. “I remember seeing that thing and thinking, ‘That’s where it’s all going, right there..’ and knowing we had to get in that game,” Richie recalls. Side by sides were becoming quite popular, not just with farmers and hunters but with enthusiasts, as well. No longer were these the tools of working men, but now they provided the same fun and enjoyment that a GSX-R or YZ might but in four-wheel form. Polaris was added in 2010, and eventually, CFMOTO was brought on in late 2022.

James and Richie completed a purchase agreement with their father in April 2020, just as the global pandemic was at full blaze. It was a scary time, but they knew that they had great support and had learned from one of the best to ever do it. James says of the future, “Our father built this business and did such a good job. We really just have to hold the wheel straight and stay off the ice. If we can do that, we’ll be just fine.”