Powersports Business May 2025 | Page 19

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PSB visits Simply Ride for its 20th anniversary

Powersports Business recently visited Simply Ride, a twotime Best-In-Class winner, for its 20th anniversary celebration. This powersports dealer in the suburbs southwest of Minneapolis has built an avid fan base around pre-owned vehicles, mostly street bikes but some off-road vehicles, too. The business recently became an authorized Yamaha dealer, so it’ s not all about used bikes.
Brian Cox launched this dealership as Simply Sport Bikes in 2005. He’ s built the dealership into a powerful business of( mostly) used motorcycles, UTVs and ATVs.
With the growth came a name change, and we visited Simply Ride for its 20th anniversary celebration in March.
PSB: How do you feel on this 20th anniversary?
BRIAN COX: I didn’ t know that by 2025, we would be where we are today, but when I started, every time I would get a used bike to sell, I would have so much demand that I knew we could grow and grow and grow. So, I just bought more and more motorcycles. In the first four or
Left: Owner Brian Cox, left, and Tim Hammond, general manager, celebrate the 20th anniversary of Simply Ride.( Photos by Glenn Hansen) Above: Tim Hammond, a 40 Under 40 winner, hands out raffle prizes to Simply Ride fans at the store’ s anniversary bash.
five years of the business, we grew 80 % per year because there wasn’ t a dealer out there that focused on pre-owned like we did. And there wasn’ t another business that was as involved in the community as I was.
PSB: How did you do find and build this demand?
BRIAN COX: For starters, I just I went out and bought bikes, and I put them in an area where people could come and find them. I knew a lot of people weren’ t comfortable going and
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