First opening in April 1958, immediately there was plenty of demand for service and repairs and these same new customers started to ask about supplying bikes. The first franchise taken on was Vespa in 1959, the scooter boom was just starting and Darwen had a strong Italian community at the time and many of them wanted to buy Vespas to go to work on. In 1963 Vin was one of the first batch of dealers to sign up with Suzuki, who were initially imported by the AMC Group (AJS /Matchless /Norton etc). This started a long and successful partnership with Suzuki, being one of just a few dealers chosen to sell the RE5 rotary-engined bike and again a few years later to sell the XN85 Turbo. Whilst also at times selling Hondas and Yamahas Vin Cunningham Motorcycles became synonymous with Suzuki in the North West, partly due to its sponsorship of local bike racers, the highlight being George Fogarty's second place behind Joey Dunlop in the 1977 TT on an ex-works TR750. We gave up the franchise when corporate image and sales targets took over from good old fashioned service and satisfied customers. The traditional enthusiast run small businesses were all moved to one side to make way for the glass and stainless steel emporiums that dominate the trade today.
This brought about a move back to the Piaggio group selling Gilera motorbikes, Vespas and Piaggio automatic scooters. Again a good 20+ years relationship formed, becoming one of the top selling dealers in the North West by simply treating customers right. Much like Suzuki this ended with the onset of ridiculous targets and corporate image expectations that were not compatible with our style of business. After finishing with the best marks nationally in a service and customer satisfaction survey we were told we were no longer dealers because we did not have one of every model in stock!
We have always had an interest in the classic bike side with Vin restoring numerous 1950s British bikes and Ian a few Japanese models, mainly for pleasure. The business slowly moved towards specialising in restoration work and selling older collectable bikes. We have accumulated a lot of knowledge over the years and a fantastic archive of 60s/70s/80s/90s bikes, especially Suzukis. We always kept any of the old tooling, spares and service information so are well equipped to work on bikes from that era. Recent jobs have varied from rebuilding a 1950s MV Agusta scooter engine to re-assembling a full Suzuki GS1000. After a lifetime spent on the retail side of the bike trade Ian has now joined H and H Classic Auctions as a motorcycle valuer and is hoping to put his experience to good use in the auction world. Ring on 07415 871189 or email at [email protected] if you need any help.