About Combustion Cycles:
History:
Established in 2003 & continuously operated in Durham ever since!
Dave has been a rider most of his life and learned to work on bikes as a necessity to keep his old beater CB750 running while a student at University of North Carolina - Wilmington. He worked at a small shop while at UNC-W obtaining his Bachelors in Chemistry, then came back home to Chapel Hill and spent some time in a "real" job before realizing doing what you love means much more than the paycheck.
He worked for several shops as a Lead Technician before venturing out and starting Combustion Cycles. He moved to the current location in June of 2003 and has been spinning wrenches here in Durham since.
The Grand Master of our Three-Ring Circus:
Dave is not only an all-around walking encyclopedia of motorcycle information, but also an avid dual-sport racer. He races in the RallyMoto series of timed stage races that have a mix of terrain & surface types. He worked as a support crew chief for a friend at the 2010 Baja 1000 and is cooking up a plan to race Baja himself in 2012. His current rides are his race bike (a heavily modified Honda TransAlp XL600V), a 2004 Honda CRF250X and a Honda ST1100 (also modified).
Specialties(?!):
While we sell and service a wide variety of bikes & don't want to limit ourselves, we are the Triangle area's shop for vintage Japanese bikes. We love to wrench on most anything, but when it comes to naming a "specialty," we love creating a custom bike for a specific customer. Streetfighters, cafe racers, stock restorations, resto-mods, cruisers, touring bikes, adventure bikes, dirt bikes, sport bikes, race bike preparation - we are capable of building most anything.
When you are ready to take the steps to riding the bike of your dreams, come by & let us help you get there by the route you choose. We can be as big or small of a part as you desire: we can offer up advice, get the parts, or hand you the keys to the completed bike.
Why choose us?
Plain & simple, we offer a level of personalized service that bigger shops can't. We get to know you as much as we get to know your bike. Our first goal is to treat every customer like a friend & to treat their bikes like they belong to us. Our second goal: to get the job done right and get the customer back on the road safely, quickly, and at a reasonable cost. We don't spend a lot of money on advertising, instead we ask our customers to let their friends (and pretty much any other riders) know how we have taken care of their bike. If we rely on word-of-mouth as our primary form of advertising, we can only succeed by treating people right.
We actually ride! Dave rides a CRF250X and an ST1100, Jason's 2000 VFR800 has over 60,000 miles on it (and is ridden nearly every day), and Nathan's commuter is a Suzuki DR-Z 200 with street tires & a custom MTB (yes, BICYCLE) rack. We might have some late-model bikes in our sales inventory, but the passion for motorcycling can really be in the determination to keep the bike you have already established the bond with underneath you!