New Harley-Davidson store opens this week

Boxes, motorcycle parts and a telephone booth are piled in a back room in the new Carson City Harley-Davidson building.

It's like when people move, said owner Richard Tapia, and find things they didn't know they had.

"We found about 10 of those we-didn't-know-we-had-thats," he said.

But the move from the North Carson Street store to the new 38,500-square-foot two-story building on Research Way is going well, he said, and it should be open by Thursday.

Construction started on the new building about 10 months ago. The business has been in the old building, a former grocery store, since 1998.

Advantages to the new building include a bigger showroom, more service area and lots of outdoor-events space, he said. The building also will include things such as a Harley-Davidson-branded telephone booth and a bear sculpture named Bearley.

"Bear-ley," Tapia explained. "It's like Har-ley."

Tapia, who owns three other Harley dealerships, said his favorite part of the new store will be an outdoor course where customers can learn to ride, probably growing into the same type of enthusiasts as many of his customers.

"If it's a beautiful day for riding, it turns out to be a beautiful day of riding," he said. "If the weather turns bad and starts raining, now it becomes an adventure."

The store has most of its service and parts moved over and will bring the motorcycles and other merchandise later this week. He said volunteers, many from the Carson-Tahoe H.O.G. Chapter, and his 28 employees worked hard.

They'll be moving the bikes in trailers, though, not riding them.

"It's like, yes, we know everyone knows how to ride a motorcycle," Tapia said. "But today is a moving day, not a let's-go-out-and-enjoy-a-ride day."

Maya Keller, store service director, said a lot of "selfless" work from volunteers helped.

"We had a game plan put together, and happily, happily, it went off without a hitch," he said.

His favorite part of the new store is the 8-foot-by-10-foot marble slab near the front door engraved with a Harley-Davidson logo.

Phil Nagel, local H.O.G. chapter member, said he's ridden all over the country, and the new Carson store looks as good as any he's seen.

"This is going to be state-of-the-art," he said.

Nagel started riding four years ago, and, like many in the chapter, rides through the winter.

"You just bundle up," he said.

• Contact reporter Dave Frank at dfrank@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1212.

New Carson City Harley-Davidson store

2900 Research Way

882-7433

www.carsoncityhd.com