Alexandra motorcycle dealer Bruce Davidson’s involvement with Honda has spanned 50 years, including 37 years with his own dealership.
It started with an apprenticeship at what was then Gore Motorcycles in Gore, now Ewan Allan Honda which — in a full-circle moment — has taken over Davidson Honda this month.
Mr Davidson, 65, might have officially retired but he was still at the Ewan Allan Honda site at the Southern Field Days at Waimumu this week, catching up with clients and thanking them for their support.
Describing himself as a petrol-head and motor-head, he grew up on a farm just out of Gore and it was in Eastern Southland that he learned the value of service.
‘‘To me, service was the whole priority. Doing what you say you’re going to do is the big thing,’’ he said.
He took that mantra with him when he moved to Central Otago in 1989, which included launching an on-farm service truck, meaning many of his clients never had to visit the shop.
It was the ‘‘rural vibe’’ he enjoyed — ‘‘things are done on a handshake’’ — and it would be the people that he missed in retirement, as he was now dealing with the third-generation of clients.
Having built the business up, he and his wife wanted it to go to a good home and he had been planning for retirement for about three years.
Discussions with Andrew Allan, son of Ewan Allan, seemed to be the ‘‘natural thing’’ and Mr Allan took the business over, including retaining the staff, on February 1.
Mr Davidson described his tenure in business as a ‘‘good journey’’ and one that had been a lot of fun. His own family had grown up riding and racing motorcycles from a young age.
He had ridden motorcycles all his life and did a lot of racing, including winning a few national titles, but he had pulled back in latter times as motorcycles had become a seven-day-a-week activity.
He still had a two-wheeler motorcycle, which he would get out and about on, and he had a race car to finish as a winter project.
