Portland: Moto Galore

Portland is a great town. I start my post with this for a couple reasons. First, I’ve gotten about five emails in the last week asking if I live in Oregon/Portland. To clarify… I live in Portland. I was born and raised in the Portland metro area. I wanted to move up until I actually could, and then I realized this place was all too awesome to up and leave.

Boy am I glad I stuck it out. As I’ve taken up motorcycling and started frequenting events here, I couldn’t be more happy with the motorcycling community in which I live. I’m currently working on the planning stages of a cool [big] project and because of this I am visiting people and shops around town, talking ideas and getting feedback for what I’m doing. Some colleagues and friends pointed me in the direction of some shops I’d never actually been to. One of which being the aptly named Moto Galore. Long story short this spot further reinforced how many cool people and places there are in this small town.

The Moto Galore guest book (above) is certainly pretty rad. Too bad I didn’t have a sharpie.

The owner of Moto Galore, Kenneth B. Wright aka Kenny Bobcat rolled in on his newly purchased 1948 Harley Davidson knucklehead with a wicked smile on his face.

The shop is in a very cool location and itself is quite unassuming. Bikes are brought inside using a freight elevator and the entire shop is in the basement level of the building.

Lots of British and American bikes strewn about the shop, vintage/classic Triumphs and Harleys. Some are customer bikes, some being built or worked on by one of the people who uses the shop- Kenny, Darren, Ian…

This 1960’s BSA A50 Royal Star with hand built 4” wide Hurst Racing slick for Bonneville this summer. Built by Kenneth Wright of Moto Galore / Rocket Works fame. I’m hoping to follow it down to the salt flats this year for photos, she’s certainly a beautiful beast.

It’s like Triumph tank heaven. I wanted to shove all of them in my shirt and run out the door. I think it may have been a wee bit obvious though.

This Sportster tank makes me way excited. I am absolutely in love with the metal flake desert/old west paint job.

I could have spent hours taking pictures of all the cool stuff in the shop but to be honest I was way too busy soaking up all the awesome knowledge these guys had to offer. I’ll be back, no doubt.

More updates on cool Portland moto shops coming eventually, I’m sure.

More shop features/photos:
Bridge City Cycles
SeeSee Motorcycles
MotoFactory
MotoCorsa

☣