Godspeed Ron Bishop

Ron had his motorcycle shop across the street from my body shop. Over the years he had sold various brands of dirt bikes including Husaberg, KTM and Husqvarna. I had purchased 3 new Bergs from him. I think he once told me that he was the first Husaberg dealer in the U.S. He was a wealth of information. He usually had 10-15 bikes that he was working on at any given time and was considered the best KTM and Husaberg mechanic in the San Diego area. You just would never know what might be in his shop. One time he had a factory BMW on loan for him to test. Even though he never sold BMW's. He was a Hall of Famer and raced Baja 40 times. A true hard core dirt biker / racer. His shop was a one man band. They way most of them used to be. He will be sorely missed.

Baja Legend Ron Bishop ORMHOF AMA Hall Of Fame Horsepower Ranch HOF Vintage Desert Racing - YouTube

AMA Motorcycle Museum Hall of Fame | Ron Bishop

Baja Legend Ron Bishop Passes - Cycle News

Godspeed Ron Bishop | Enduro360.com

Next Saturaday, October 4 2014, between 2pm and 6pm there will be a Ron Bishop Memorial Bench Racing Fiesta at Felicita Park Park in Escondido ,Ca.

I know that there are only a few members here at husaberg.org that live in the San Diego area but this post will help get the word out on the net to those that may want to attend thanks to web crawlers.

When you wanted any mechanical work done all you had to do was drop off your bike, tell Ron want you wanted fixed and he would call you when it was done. You are supposed to receive an estimate and if the costs go over the shop is supposed to call you for authorization. Ron didn't like doing business that way. He would write down how much time he had spent and charge you based on actual time. His charges were unbelievably fair and he oozed honesty. I usually do most of my mechanical work myself but would stop in from time to time and purchase some spark plugs, oil and parts just to say hi and check out what was going on. He didn't give any discounts on bikes. You would pay full retail and be happy that you did knowing that he would be there with tons of free advice and honest service if you ever needed it.

It was a sad day when Husaberg pulled the plug on him. Parent KTM required a certain number of bikes be ordered and that they be financed through KTM.
Husaberg really only wanted to only deal with large big box dealerships from here on out and not the grass roots shops like Ron's that helped Husaberg establish itself in the early years. This was in 06-07. Well I don't think it helped Husaberg much based on where they are heading today. KTM did not fully understand that Husaberg was the hard core grass roots alternative to the big four's (includes KTM) corporate empire.

They just didn't get that a Husaberg purchaser did not want to go to the YamaHonSuziKawa shop to buy their Berg. I guess hindsight is 20-20.