Lynchburg Business

Scooters Rev Up Retail in Lynchburg

Issue: May 2010 by Mitchell Malcheff in Inside The Magazine, Retail

The first thing you need to know is a scooter is not a moped. Mopeds are bikes with motors that require pedaling on your part. The second thing you need to know is a scooter goes a lot faster than you think. Yeah, some of them might not be best for a trip up say, the streets of San Francisco or even the Hill City, but for the most part, Joel Johnson of Hill City Cycles is selling Vespas, Piaggios, Hondas and Suzukis that are capable of 70 to 80 mph and require a motorcycle license.

Now that you know the difference between a moped and a scooter, you might want to look into buying one (have you driven by a gas station lately?!). Johnson and his partner, Mike Daniel, own one of the few area businesses that see sales tick up as gas prices rise.

“Once [gas] gets over $3, things start going crazy, but when it gets over $4, it’s just nuts,” Johnson said.

Johnson and Daniel have owned Hill City Cycles, better known as Honda Suzuki of Lynchburg, since 2003 when they acquired it after a lengthy 3-year buyout process.

“[Honda was not] too psyched about a 24-year-old kid coming in to be an owner of a Honda dealership,” Johnson explained.

In 2000, Johnson, a Boston native, was fresh out of Liberty University armed with a business degree. Naturally, he jumped at the chance to take over the business he had worked at since 1996 when Daniel, who has worked at the dealership for more than 30 years, asked him to be his business partner. Since then, Johnson estimates that sales have more than quadrupled at their 12th Street showroom.

“I would much rather be out in a 25,000 square foot showroom on 221 … [but] I kind of like the downtown aspect,” Johnson said.

High gas prices have helped offset the effects of the economy, and Johnson says that he and Daniel have not had to let any employees go or cut hours since the economy slumped. He also believes that customer service has helped to keep the doors open for anyone who wants to come in.

“I don’t care if you come in here on a Harley, a Kawasaki, a Yamaha, a Ducati, whatever. If I can work on it, we’ll work on it,” Johnson said.

They were also able to acquire the Charlottesville-area Vespa and Piaggio dealership in April of 2009. The dealership was the largest on the East Coast when Hill City Cycles took it over. Though sales have been small, they are steady, and Johnson, who has long been a Vespa enthusiast, says they have sold around 20 since they acquired the dealership.

“It’s definitely been a slow takeoff. The first two or three months all we sold were just Piaggios and then a couple Vespas started taking off. A lot of it has been outside of Lynchburg,” Johnson said.

The Vespas and Piaggios have helped to fill in the gaps between the Honda and Suzuki scooters they sell. Honda and Suzuki both have small 50cc models, and larger 600cc models. However, they offer nothing in between. Vespa and Piaggio have offerings that range from 50cc’s all the way up to 300cc Vespas and 500cc Piaggios. Johnson is also able to offer buyers a larger price range. For example, a Honda 50 retails for $1,999, whereas a Vespa 50 can cost as much as $3,400.

Though the Piaggio name may not be as familiar as Vespa, which was popular in the ‘60s and ‘70s and has a retro, European flair, Piaggio is actually the parent company of Vespa and has a more rugged, ATV-style. Johnson says that Piaggio sales have been steadier in the Lynchburg area while Vespa has sold well in Roanoke and Charlottesville. While sales grow, the high price of fuel has also boded well for Johnson’s business.

“When gas was really high, I was having doctors, lawyers, nurses, accountants, all these different people coming in that weren’t your typical scooter rider,” Johnson said.

The company has long had an affiliation with the Hillcats and Johnson plans to have a few scooters at games this summer as well as a possible scooter raffle. They have even sold one through Winit.com, an online auction site.

Though sales have been small, Johnson feels that if gas prices continue to rise, Americans will grow more and more comfortable with “scooting” to work like much of the rest of the world does. And if Johnson has anything to say about it, future Lynchburgers will know the difference between a moped and a scooter.