How time flies when you are having fun!  Truly hard to believe that we have been at this for fifteen years now. It was July 17th 1995 when Ann signed the Purchase and Sale Agreement that gave her the ownership of what had previously been Buckingham BMW.  (Ann and Keith are married; Ann owns the business and Keith is the president).  The dealership was housed in a leased, funky, wooden building of only 4,000 square feet in the Green Lake area, across the street from the bicycle shop.  It was the late 1990's and growth was rapid.  We were outgrowing the facility and it seemed like we spent most of our time moving bikes around because of the limited space.  And then there were the parking meters; a row of motorcycle parking spaces outside the door with a meter on each space---and the meter control people would come by several times a day always assured that they could write a few easy tickets.  And as well, the landlord had indicated that he wanted to tear the building down and build six floors of condo's, which is now a reality.
 
So we started looking for a new site for the dealership in early 1999.  Each week for a year and a half we looked at at least one building or vacant property to build on.  It took a long time because, as you can imagine, in an urban area with the prices that commercial property sells for (remember, this was the dot.com heyday), an affordable (to us) facility that would suit our needs was hard to come by.  We were fortunate to find the building we are now in.  It is only a mile from the old shop, with the same phone number and area code, and is large enough, at nearly 20,000 square feet, to handle our operation.  We were a bit concerned about a three story building, with service one floor below the parts department, but after spending a day at Eastside Harley Davidson (which has a similar situation) we were confident that it would work for us.  And it has.
 
That building move was ten years ago and it seems like it was yesterday.  And those ten years (actually, the entire fifteen years) have been good to us.  Ride West has been a top ten performer in terms of new motorcycle sales for BMW for nearly every one of those years, and we can thank our loyal customer base for that.  You (our customers) continue to support us with new bike sales and an ever growing service and parts business.  And many of you have now purchased your personal insurance products through us.  This all makes us a stronger and stronger dealership and ensures that we will be around in the future to take care of your every motorcycle need.  So, thank you for your wonderful support over the past fifteen years and we look forward to being here for you many more years into in the future  
 

Ann and Keith Thye