FAMILY BUSINESS

So, where did the name come from?

With every family owned and operated business there is a story to its beginning. Here’s ours. 

John Schumacher discovered his passion and love for motorcycles at the young age of fifteen. His first bike was a 1967 Bridgestone 175cc that he purchased for only $280. He grew up in rural Woodsfield, OH where there was not a motorcycle shop even remotely close. So, he did what he knew best- he worked on it himself.

His self-taught skills eventually landed him a job at Glenn Jordan Motorsports on Linworth Road in Columbus, OH. He was initially assigned the entry-level task of setting up new bikes straight out of their crates. After demonstrating the depth of his mechanical understandings, his position was quickly promoted to a mechanic. John’s motorcycle background was further strengthened when he was certified by the Harley-Davidson Motor Co., Inc. Service School in 1979. 

He continued his position at Glenn Jordan until 1988, when a change of ownership forced him to reassess his priorities. After the birth of his first son, Dain, the Jordan’s (who in every way possible treated John like an extension of their own family) offered to pay for a year of diaper service and a few weeks off work to allow for some adjustment to the new family dynamics. When his daughter was born a few years later, he called to let the new owners know the news of her birth and they responded by asking if he’d be in to work the following day. He replied, “Yes, to get my tools”. 

This inspired him to decide to independently offer mechanical services to the public, allowing more control and flexibility to be with his young and growing family. He officially began his business in October of 1988 and decided to call it “Mobile Cycle Works, Inc.”.

So, where did the name come from? One customer helped show John that transporting ones bike often caused more damage than what was wrong with it in the first place. The customer didn’t have a way to bring his bike in so he enlisted the help of a friend who had a van. Being that it was 1981, his friend’s van had a couch in the back, leaving no room for the motorcycle. Together they decided to attach the bike to a 6 foot rope and drag the motorcycle to the repair shop with the rider guiding the bike. On a sharp turn, the rider fell off, unbeknownst to his friend driving the van.

When he arrived, they had caused over $5,000 in unnecessary damage to the motorcycle. This made John realize that many customers had no way to safely transport their motorcycles to the repair shop. Thus, “Mobile Cycle Works, Inc.” was born. We strictly offered mobile appointments on-site and eventually expanded to having two mobile service trucks on the road. 

A physical shop location was established at 1488 Oakland Park Avenue in Columbus from 1991-1994. That location was briefly moved to 51 Lake Street in Delaware from 1994-1996 and the business dropped it’s second mobile truck during that time. The shop relocated yet again to 34 B Reid Street in Delaware from 1996-2001, but, tired of constantly moving and negotiating increasing rent prices, the decision was made to seek out a permanent shop location. John purchased the commercial properties of 106-110 East High St. in downtown Ashley, OH in 2001, operating solely out of the back of 108 East High St. for the first three years. In 2004, after extensive renovations that were nothing shy of elbow-grease efforts, the storefront that is utilized still today was opened for business. John’s eldest son, Dain Schumacher, graduated high school that same year and although he’d already been working part-time at the shop since he was 15, took on a more significant role in the family business at that time.

Dain always had a soft spot for 2-strokes and sport bikes but showed an eagerness early on to learn a wide-set of skills from his father. As he honed in on the craft, John began trusting him with more technical jobs and slowly increased the amount of independence he had at his bench. He was eventually granted full independence by proving capable and was sent on mobile jobs by himself. As many have commented on, the two have always had a great working relationship not always found in the father-son dynamic. 

As the years went on, due to loyal word of mouth referrals, our customer base grew to represent a larger and larger radius from the shop. No matter how we tried to best map out the weekly schedule, it became unavoidable to regularly have significant drives between the morning, afternoon, and evening appointments. Having to drive one hour each way between different appointment locations coupled with rising gas prices made it almost impossible to generate a profit from these jobs. Not to mention that this resulted in John working unreasonably long days, pulling him away from his family. We began to schedule more and more in-house appointments and found having multiple machines in at once, at various stages of the parts ordering and repair process, made for steadier income to support the business. In 2007, Dain wrecked the trailer, bringing about the immediate decision to retire the already-fading mobile aspect of the business. 

Dain began dating Rachel Smith in the Fall of 2009 and, about a year later, she agreed to take on some office work for the shop as a part-time, temporary arrangement while attending OSU full-time. As the story goes, she has been with the business ever since, often proving to be the catalyst for necessary change and growth. Seeing the need early on for an online business presence, she created the shop’s very first humble website and then several years later, a second (the one you’re viewing right now!). She brought about our Motorcycle Minutes e-newsletter that quickly gained a loyal following. She also recognized the desperate demand for the vintage / restoration market and focused a good deal of her online efforts toward that niche. This proved worthwhile and we slowly began getting in restoration jobs from all over the state of Ohio. Later, restorations began trickling in from nearby states, and now regularly come in from several states away.

Dain and Rachel’s rescue pup, Willow, started coming with them to the shop in December of 2017 and quickly earned her permanent spot as customer’s favorite employee, often earning tips in the form of bones from the butcher, treats, and toys. She was initially very energetic, often found doing her “zoomies” throughout the shop at top speed, entertaining some and terrifying others. To be honest, her energy levels never quite waned the way we anticipated, but what can we say? She’s a really good girl but a very bad dog. 

Griffin Delawder joined the team in July of 2020, working on a part-time basis while completing his last year at a technical trade school. In May of 2021, he completed his education and immediately accepted a full-time position. He came in with a genuine passion for the vintage niche which made him a natural fit for our shop.

Parker Delawder accepted a part-time office position with us in January of 2023. 

Today, Mobile Cycle Works, Inc. is located in Ashley, Ohio where John, family, and our top-notch employees  provide customers with service that reflects over 75 years combined experience.