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Local Retailer The Riversider | August/September 2021
Riverside Harley-Davidson The world’s #1 dealership WORDS: AARON SCHMIDT
First opened as Skip Fordyce Harley-Davidson way back in 1941, this motorcycle shop is a bona fide community staple, where countless devoted Riversiders have purchased their bikes and accessories for the last 80 years. The original dealership was located downtown, and it’s moved a few times over the years—but it’s always been in Riverside. The Dabney family bought the dealership in the early 1970s, and would eventually move it to its current location on Indiana Avenue. The family owned it until 2013, when current owner Mike Veracka bought the dealership on Halloween of that year and renamed it “Riverside Harley-Davidson.” The dealership has gone through some major changes since Veracka took over eight years ago. “ There’s been a ton of changes. Mike just invigorated the Harley-Davidson industry in Southern California. Right off the bat, he made a massive investment in our inventory. He literally quadrupled it here at the store, and he also more than doubled the size of our personnel. We were roughly 50 The Riversider Magazine
employees at the time he purchased it, and now we’re at 98 employees,” said Glen Espinoza, Riverside Harley-Davidson general manager. Veracka’s influence helped catapult Riverside Harley-Davidson into literally the best dealership— not just here in the United States—in the entire world. “Mike had everything to do with it. Riverside Harley-Davidson is actually the number-one volume sales dealer in the world. That was true for 2019, 2020, and knock on wood —we’re running numberone this year as well,” explained Espinoza. “There’s a few dealers out there nipping at our heels, but we’re still number one in the world, so we expect to finish strong for the year.” A full service dealership, Riverside HarleyDavidson is literally a “one-stop shop” for all your Harley needs, and it’s the biggest in Southern California—hands down. With over 250 new and used motorcycles on the floor at any given time in their showroom, they also have the biggest and best team on site to be able to handle that massive
