January 8, 2014

Honda Town (Garvis Honda)




 Missle Engineering
















 Mr Honda and George. Im sure not many dealers got to hang with this top dog.
 This bike will be for sale this weekend in Las Vegas













 
                                        Garvis Honda January 1967 to December 2013.

"Garvis Honda was founded in January of 1967 as Honda town by George Garvis at the ripe old age of 26. Like most of his employees, George got into the business because he loved riding, racing and wrenching on motorcycles.
Over the years Honda town became Garvis Hondatown and then Garvis Honda, and grew into one of the top volume Honda dealers in the country."


I grew up blocks from Honda Town (Garvis Honda). The better part of my delinquent youth was spent in the parking lot looking in, or the trails behind the place that spanned miles back. Even if my family wasn't dirt poor, Im sure mom would have never bought me a bike. She told me. So I was the dirty kid just watching and acting as if my bmx had a motor. Racers worked there, and George sponsored some of the greats like Ronnie Jones, and Rich King. I just knew, with out actually knowing, that I was seeing top dogs. Watching Doug Domokos wheelying all day as a promotion, or getting out of the way of the motocrossers on the trails behind the place. Honda Town opened my eyes to what would become my life.

Thank you George and family for a life of racing brought closer to my house.

When I heard that is was being bought by a big multi-franchise corp, I went down and bought the 2013 CB1100.

George Garvis will be in Vegas this weekend with some of his collection for sale. I know he has a XR500 in a CR Frame that is sure nice...and yes, thats a CX sideways. George and John Kite helped pioneer the RS750.

7 comments:

WhitelinePsycho said...

Amazing compilation of shots and a killer blurb, it all makes sense mate, sad to think it'll all count for nothing under new management.

Sideburn Magazine said...

Wow. Love the XR750 with the Honda tank. G

Jeremy said...

Where do I begin.... I was fortunate enough to work at Garvis Honda at 15 years old. It was the dream job for a high school kid that wanted nothing more than to be just like Bob Hannah.
I spent so much time in the shop watching Goerge methodically inspect and rebuild the RS750 and RS600 ridden by Rich King and Ronnie Jones.
Those motorcycles are works of art. The skill and talent needed to race those bikes is something only a handful people possess. The skill and talent to maintain those machines is even more rare.
I am proud to say that I am one of many that were employed by the George. I learned a lot and have met nearly all of my lifelong friend because of it. To say it is an end to an era is an understatement.

Sidecar Roy said...

This is definitely one of the best photo collections chvrch has ever posted. The CX turned sideways had me smiling, but the XR750 motor with honda badging left me scratching my head. Anyone know the story on that?

Noot said...

That was a nice post Jeff ! Thanks !
-Noot

GoneWithTheSunset said...

Outstanding post!!! The pictures blow me away.

MP said...

My dad started me down this road when out of the blue he brought home a Honda CT70 Mini Trail. It didn't take too long for me to realize I needed something that would get me a lot further down the road, so I ended up buying a new '73 CB350 with my detasseling wages. $810.00 plus tax and license. Both bought out of that same building in the pic.