Sunday, May 15, 2016

Simonson Cylces

A recent post on Remember When in Albuquerque had a load of discussion on Albuquerque motorcycle dealer history, much of which ended up being about Simonson Cycle. I've posted quite a bit about Simonson in the past. This is a summary of that discussion.

Simonson Cycle first sold Indian and later sold Triumph, Velocette, Vincent and even Honda. Simonson was possibly the original Triumph dealer in Albuquerque when located on 401 2nd St SW.  (I found Simonson ads mentioning Triumph as early as 1954). Simonson Cycle eventually relocated to their 315 San Pedro NE location some time in the 1960's. It was mentioned Motorsport bought Triumph from Simonson in 1966, a year after Cushman went out of business (I found a Simonson newspaper ad from April 1967, so this date might be wrong unless they continued to use the Simonson name). Simonson's San Pedro location was next to the Bodwells who handled Suzuki. Simonson eventually sold his Honda franchise to Berkeley Beaver. Beaver later sold it to Danny McCasland in 1978 who sold it to Rick Alcon in 2000.

Carl Simonson - 1916
Al Simonson - 1921



One contributor added this Simonson story: Al Simonson told a story of how he and a friend attempted to ride their Indians from Albuquerque to El Paso back in the 1930s when much of the road was dirt. They never made it past Hot Springs (now Truth or Consequences). They had a break down and had to get a truck and to fetch their bikes.

I never ceases to amaze me how much more difficult it is to document New Mexico motorcycle history than it is to document Washington motorcycle history. As always, if you have any information on New Mexico motorcycle dealer, racing or club history I'd love to hear the stories or see the photos.
Albuquerque Dealer.

No comments:

})();