Montgomery Motors - CycleSports Hawaii  .  818 Iwilei Road  .  Honolulu  .  Hi  .  96817  .  Main: 808 536-7023  .  Fax: 808 533 2483

Interview with Ross K. Montgomery of Montgomery Motors Ltd.

When was Montgomery Motors established?

Montgomery Motors was established in 1946 and incorporated April 1, 1953.

By whom?

Al Montgomery Senior, my grandfather.

What where the first brands (new or used)?

The first brand Montgomery Motors, Ltd sold were used Harley Davidson motorcycles, Al senior had a great start with all the military men that were around after WWII.  G.I.’s were coming and going which made business good.  My grandfather would sell a bike to one G.I. make sure the G.I. kept the bike good condition, then when it came time for the G.I. to leave Al would buy the bike back and sell it used to another service man.  Al had many friends at Pearl Harbor and other military bases around the island due to the fact that he got his start here in Hawaii as a civilian electrician and a firefighter at the Pearl Harbor Naval Base.

Where was the business located?

It all got started in the living room of my grandparents house at the Pearl Harbor housing, CH-A3, back in 1945.  My grandfather would pull bikes into the house and literally fix them in the living room and on his coffee table, and his parts department was located in the closet of the spare bedroom.  Al would fix bikes in the evenings after he was done playing electrician, and really enjoyed it.  My grandmother encouraged him to turn his hobby into a fulltime business.  From those meager beginnings Al got more and more clientele and needed more space.  He saw the potential of starting his own business and after saving up some money he bought his first location at 804 Dillingham Boulevard in 1946.  At first it was just a four-post shed with a sheet-metal roof and chicken wire around the sides, and the door was made of two-by-fours and more chicken wire.  With in a year Al senior had bought an old steel building and erected it on the property and continued to buy and sell used Harleys as well as repair bikes.  A year after that he started construction on the building you see in the pictures with Montgomery Motors written on it in black letters.  Our old location is now part of the parking lot of Honolulu Community College.

Was the place the big hang out for riders?

There was always customers, riders, and friends hanging out at the shop.  With it being the largest motorcycle shop in the state at the time just about all the motor-heads would stop by for one reason or another.  Back then, on Friday nights and Saturdays you could guaranty there would be a line of bikes parked in front of the shop and everyone in the back drinking.  Danny Camacho would pick a full burlap sack of oysters, and my grandfather and the boys would grill them on the half shell and have a good’ol time.  Honolulu was a different town back then, even the cops would stop by to see what was going on at Montgomery Motors.  Late at night is when the drag racing started down Dillingham Boulevard complete with flag girls and all. Al Montgomery was also very influential in Hawaii’s racing scene of the late 40’s, 50’s and early 60’s.  Al, Stafford Kelly, and Nick Czar started the Hawaii Racing Promoters Ltd. in the early 50’s.  These were the guys that promoted all the Stock Car races at the old Honolulu Stadium.  And Montgomery Motors was always a big sponsor of the Stock Car Races, Hare and Hound, Keiki mini drags, Dirt Track racing, and any other motorsport competition going on at the time. 

Montogromery Motors was the first Harley dealer in the state, right? 

No, Peter Shubert was the first Harley Davidson dealer he also had Indian Motorcycles.  Unfortunately his dealership burnt down in a fire in the early 50’s and everything was lost.  Since Peter didn’t have any insurance, he had no way to rebuild his inventory so naturally Harley Davidson gave the franchise to Montgomery Motors.

Why was the brand dropped?

There were a number of reasons that Al decided to give up the Harley line in the early 70’s.  It started in 1969 with AMF buying out Harley Davidson, and as many of you may know during the time of AMF, Harley Davidson was a far cry from being the same quality of machine it once was and the service and parts side of things turned into a nightmare.  We could not get motorcycles or parts, production was sporadic at best and it really started to hurt our business.  Being so far away from other dealers made it next to impossible to get parts and with a growing number of bikes being backed up in service; things got bad fast.  Also at the time Honolulu Community College was starting to be built and the state condemned our 804 Dillingham location which forced us to relocate.  After a long search for a suitable location Al finally decided on our current location and began renovations to make things work.  At that time Al’s health was failing and he became sick, going in and out of the hospital and even to the mainland for surgery.  Around this time some representatives from AMF came to Hawaii to check out the new location and see how things were going.  During their visit they expressed their desire for Al to relocate again to Nimitz Highway by the Airport and the rest of the car dealerships.  Al being the kind of person he was and after everything that had happened he told the AMF representatives were to go and told them they could take their product with them!! 

What about Suzuki?  How long have you carried that line exclusively in Hawaii?

About that same time 1972, my father Al Montgomery Jr. was picking up the reigns to Montgomery Motors, Ltd and trying to get things going again.  We were in risk of going out of business due to the hard times Harley Davidson and AMF had put us through, and we needed to find other product to sell.  At the time we had Hodaka as a line of Motorcycles, but they produced mostly dirtbikes and small displacement streetbikes.   Al Jr., looking to the Japanese manufactures saw that no one was representing Suzuki here in Hawaii and got in touch with American Suzuki, who shrugged him off with bigger fish to fry.  Al Jr. didn’t know were to go from there so he spoke with his father and asked his advice, Al senior looked at his son and told him to “Send them a dam order!”  Al Jr. got a list of bikes he wanted, as well as a certified check from the bank and sent it off to Suzuki Motor Corporation in Hamamatsu Japan.  A few weeks later he got a reply from Japan and an invitation to Suzuki headquarters.  Soon he was off to Japan and meeting with Chairman and CEO, Osamu Suzuki himself as well as other top officials.  Al Jr.’s early Hongwanji Japanese lessons soon started to pay off as he was able to converse in Japanese a little, and they began to iron out a strategy for their continued business and distributorship for Hawaii.  Since then we have been the sole importer for Suzuki Motorcycle in the Sate of Hawaii and have not turned back.

Intruders MC got started by Stafford.  Was it a way to sell motorcycles, or was it out of a desire to get closer to the customers?

Intruders MC was actually started by Frank Linning, Stafford Montgomery and Butch.  These three guys came together with the same idea; they wanted to start a club were you didn’t have to be embarrassed to ride a “non Harley”.  They wanted a club that a good group of guys could come together to ride and have some fun.  Since Suzuki came out with the GL series which was one of the first cruiser looking bikes to mimic the Harleys.  The GL series had tear drop tanks, pullback handle bars, and even sported sissy bars to complete the look.  Then in 1986 Suzuki came out with the VS700 Intruder, this model took the place of the GL and became one of the first true metric cruisers.  Since the first three guys in the club all had intruders the ended up with the name of Intruders of Hawaii, but they never discriminated against any other brand or model of bike.  As long as you wanted to have fun and ride you were welcome. 

How many family members work at Montgomery Motors?

Montgomery Motors, Ltd is truly a family owned and operated business there are three brothers (Al, Brett, and Stafford Montgomery) two sons (Travis & Ross), one daughter (Errin), Al's wife Jackie, for a total of seven family members.  Working with family is a blessing you always know they have your back.

      AL                              BRETT                        STAFFORD

TRAVIS                       ROSS

ERRIN                             JACKIE

Is the company privately held? Yes

What was Montgomery Motors’ role in establishing the Hawaii Motorcycle Dealers Assn?  What part does the dealership play in that organization today?

The Motorcycle Dealers Association started in the mid 80’s when legislature passed a bill that essentially made it impossible for motorcyclists to obtain insurance in the sate of Hawaii.  No insurance company was willing to succumb to the restraints this bill put on them to insure motorcyclist.  At this point pretty much all the major dealers and others concerned for the motorcycle industry here on Oahu came together to fight this ludicrous bill, amongst them were Sandy Brodie, Steve Spiegle, Joe Nicholai, Dominic Grupido, Mark Morrison, and of course Al Montgomery Jr..  These men formed the Association primarily to keep tabs on our local legislators to make sure they don’t pass any more outlandish bills pertaining to the motorcycle industry, motorcycling, and motorcyclists.  So far the association has done a stellar job of keeping Hawaii a great place to own a motorcycle and to ride a motorcycle.  Since its inception Montgomery Motors has been a major part of the Hawaii Motorcycle Dealer Association (HMDA), Al Montgomery has held the position of President as well as all other positions in the association, and in his absence Montgomery Motors has always sent a representative to the association our behalf.  Montgomery Motors continues its support of HMDA by continually being a voice in the association.  This year I was appointed President of the association, which was a great honor to be a major part in the association that has done so much for Hawaii’s motorcycling community.

What does it mean to be in business for 60 years? 

To be in business for 60 years is to set a legacy in Hawaii’s motorcycling community.  We are now into our third generation of Montgomery’s serving Hawaii’s motorcyclists and we have seen at least three generations of motorcyclist walk through our doors.  It’s great to hear stories from customers who bought their first motorcycle from my grandfather, and now they are getting their kids or grandkids into the sport.  We are proud to serve Hawaii’s motorcycling needs for three generations and look forward to more.  We have to thank all of those who support the sport we all so dearly love, and we are fortunate to be able to make a living doing something we are passionate about.

 
What products and services do you provide today?

Today we are proud to have the Suzuki line of Motorcycles as well as Suzuki line of Outboard Motors.  We also sell ETON line of mopeds which is a Taiwanese made product.  We also have the distributorship for Motorex Oil which makes specifically designed oil products for the demands of today’s high performance streetbikes, dirtbikes, and mopeds.  In our service department all our technicians are trained at MMI, we also send at least two of our service techs to Japan once a year to get factory training on all the new models.  We also have two RACETECH certified suspension techs on hand.  We were the first in the state to get a Dynojet Dynomometer and have over fifteen years of experience using this machine to tune squeeze the most horse power out of your bike.

What about competition racing over the years?  Tell me more about that.  Does the competitive nature of the family have anything to do with the success of the business over the years?

Al Montgomery Sr. was a big part of organized racing in the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s he devoted a lot of time and finance to put on motorsports events through out Oahu.  He was president of Hawaii Racing Promoters Ltd. who put on keiki drags, crash car derbies, and especially dirt track events at the old Honolulu Stadium.  On top of that he always had a racing team participating in Hare & Hounds Oahu and even on outer islands.  Al Montgomery Sr. and Montgomery Motors, Ltd have done a lot to support the local motorsport culture and we continue that legacy even now by sponsoring races and local riders.  Al Sr. did not only set the company’s competitive nature but also he instilled it into his family all my uncles and my father have a drive that they learnt from their father.  It is the drive to get the job done right, to follow through, and do your best.  This drive is what makes a person good at what ever they do.  My grandfather never really encouraged his children to race or even to ride if they didn’t want to.  Granted they always had bikes to ride, but if a customer wanted to buy their bike there would be no argument!  I think our family’s competitive nature is derived mostly from business, trying to become better than we are, to provide the best customer service and the best products.  My grandfather taught his kids to be hard workers and expected perfection from them at all times.  It is due to their upbringing and that instilled drive from their father, which has brought success to this company. 
 

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