Our History

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The Early Years

 

Cycle & Marine Supercenter began over 50 years ago in a repair shop owned by Mike and Jan Adam. The name of the business was Two Stroke’s Cycle Service at first and was derived from Mike’s nickname which was Two Stroke. Mike had worked in the chemical industry on jobs for the space program, making vitamins and medicines as well as electroplating. He also had fun building and racing cars, go karts and motorcycles. Jan had worked in the automotive industry and was the secretary to top level management, and had also worked at a motorcycle dealership setting up a complete inventory system. Mike and Jan both owned and rode motorcycles and saw a need for a motorcycle service facility in Pine Bluff. The first brand of motorcycles they sold was Benelli which was an Italian made line of motorcycles. They also took on Dalesman, Greeves, Hodaka, Laverda and Triumph motorcycles as well as go karts. On display are some of the motorcycles they collected along the way including a 1976 Benelli 2c like the one Mike won the championship on, a 1952 Triumph Cub, a 1794 Ducati 750 and a 1959 Benelli that was raced at Daytona in 1959.

In 1976, they brought fame to Pine Bluff with Mike winning the AMA National Amateur Road race Championship on a Benelli 250 with Jan’s assistance as mechanic and team manager. In 31 races, Mike finished with trophies in all 31 races. It was quite an accomplishment for the first full year of road racing and running a business too. We won many road races with our road race team which included Mike Adam, Jan Adam, Reggie Hartsfield, Alston Jennings Jr. and a future world Champion John Kocinski.

1979 started a new era as Suzuki motorcycles came into the fold. It was the right thing at the right time as Mike and Jan sold so many Suzuki's in their first full year that they earned a trip to Japan and the Suzuki factory. It was quite a trip and they met some of the nicest people in the industry that are still good friends to this day.

By now, the kids were getting old enough to start motorcycling too. Jeff raced an Italjet and won his first race. He thought it was too easy and said that was all there was to it. He didn’t race anymore until he started drag racing cars and then motorcycles at the age of 16. When he was 23 he won the IDBA (International Drag Bike Association) National Championship on his Suzuki GSX-R 1100. 

John started racing motocross and won the Arkansas, Mississippi, and Tennessee State Championships many times and went to the Premier Amateur championships at both Ponca City and Loretta Lynn’s many times. He finished regularly in the top ten. He had the lead in Open B/C at Loretta’s after two motos but a terrible rain storm ruined the third moto for him. Even though he had pulled the hole shot and an 8 second lead after one lap, he got stuck in a gas tank deep rut and finished out with a 6th overall. His best at Ponca was a 5th in the 250 Pro class in his last attempt before going on the national motocross circuit. He raced the arenacross series and finished with a 10th overall in the series for the 2000-2001 season.

Jeff designed and set up the new computer system in the store and John helped out in the service department in between national races. Michelle has worked at the store in sales, parts and is now the office manager. Now, Michelle’s children work at the store too. Jodie works up front in the parts department full time and Nickolas helps in the service department after school and between motocross races.

 In 2000 Mike and Jan made the decision to build a new store, with lots of prodding from Jan, and on July 5th, 2000 they opened the new location on Camden Road. If you haven’t been in the new store or haven’t visited in a while, you owe it to yourself to take a trip and check out all the changes!