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Tattoo Cycles I bought out Petes Cycles in Eugene Oregon from Billy McQuail and started Tattoo Alley Motorcycles in 1988. I bought out the parts inventory and took over his building on Roosevelt Blvd in Eugene. I initially wanted the location for my Tattoo Studio and the motorcycle shop was a bonus as I purchased the inventory for about 10 cents on the dollar and took over the lease. Truth was I didnt have the money to cover the check but I had already sent the parts list to an old friend of mine up in Albany Oregon, Bob Mcaa. I kept a good deal of the parts but the next day I sold the some of the inventory for enough to cover my check and to make my first parts order. At the time I was building a hardtail panhead out of spare parts in my livingroom. I had been riding Harleys since I bought a 45 flathead Trike, a 1966 GE. That was in October of 1975. I was a "learn it by doing it" kind of guy and so working on harleys I learned a lot and collected a lot of used parts and tools over the years and so by 1988 I was building that Pan - I had grafted a set of late panheads onto a 70s cone Shovelhead bottom end, the whole thing was mix and matched years and models. You can see that old Panhead in the upper left corner of our pages, it was the first bike I built in the shop. I built my Tattoo Studio in the front of the building and all the parts went into the back of the building and the back door opened into the alley in the back. The back door became the front door of Tattoo Alley Motorcycles. I was only at that location a year or so but when I moved, the motorcycle shop was tucked in the back again, opening out to the alley so I kept the name but eventually shortened it to Tattoo Cycles. That was Junction City from the end of '88 and '89. In late 1990 I moved back to Eugene and bought a big place on 6th Ave. Once again the Motorcycle shop faced the back Alley so it was still informally Tattoo Alley Cycles. 14 years later I moved the whole shebang to Springfield on Main St. I didnt have alley access there but it was still in the back of the building. 4800 sq ft of room now, I expanded, got another lift and filled a couple of rollaways with tools. Besides the customer service I built about one custom bike a year while I was there. I spent 9 years on Main St in Springfield and when I lost the lease in 2014, I thought it was maybe time to retire, but it wasnt to be.. I moved the Shops to Cottage Grove but had the tiniest of work area and couldnt build much business. Most of my tools and equipment was in storage and it was bare bones - only built one bike in the three years at that location. Then we bought a house down in Drain and moved the shops again. I have an offsite garage anda decent size lobby, so I have all my tools and equipment at hand and building a new building so I can expand the parts inventory. We bought this time so there should be no more moving. I have continued to work on a few bikes, mine and a few select customers over the last 3 years here in Drain. I have my motorcycle tools and space so I decided to start a new major build about a year ago and I started ramping up service and parts sales again.. The showroom and counters are in the front of the Tattoo Shop, and the workshop and used parts are still kind of in the alley, so here I am still, riding and wrenchin and making custom bikes for over 45 years now, back alley style and all. Home | Products
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