S & G Custom Cycles has a long and colorful history related to motorcycles, especially Harley Davidson. Sam Goodman has been around two wheelers all his life and has fond memories of adventures on Harleys and Cushman scooters during his childhood. Sam began his independent Harley Davidson repair shop back in 1973, building "Old Skool" choppers along with Harley repair, sales, and restoration.
Sam's grandfather, Earl Jacobs, opened one of the first Harley Davidson dealerships in Middle Tennessee in 1919. It was an addition to his wagon & buggy repair shop in the small town of Mt. Pleasant, Tennessee. During WW II, Mr. Jacobs turned over control of the dealership to Sam's uncle, Dempsey Goodman. Demps moved the business to Hohenwald and continued to operate the small town dealership until it was phased out by AMF in 1977. The franchise was offered to Sam, but he declined the offer. AMF then sold the franchise, which became Sanders Harley Davidson in Nashville, eventually evolving into C & S Harley Davidson, and now Bost HD.
Sam discovered early on that he had a future in the bike repair business when his garage became crowded with friend’s bikes needing repair work. He opened his first shop in nearby Hampshire, Tennessee in 1973 with a mere $2,000 in parts. He soon outgrew the location and joined with two buddies, Tom "Bird" Cardinal and Mr. Gordon Willis "G. W." Turpin, (Who once drove for Bonnie and Clyde!), to move to a larger location. They moved the small bike shop to nearby Mt. Pleasant, where his grandfather started his dealership decades earlier. In the early 70's there was no place to purchase "biker" accessories, so they created a "biker kit" for each motorcycle sale. The kits consisted of a Harley t-shirt, engineer boots, and an Easy Riders magazine!
In 1979 Sam moved the business to an old gas station on West 7th Street in Columbia, Tennessee which soon proved to be too small to accommodate the growing business. Sam next bought property on East 10th Street where he built a larger shop. S & G Custom Cycles reopened in 1981 at this location and remained there for 22 years.
Sam received help from many friends building the old shop on East 10th, which incorporated his home on the top floor. One thing that made the business so successful during the 80's was the fact that S&G did a lot of high performance machine work for several Nashville and upper Alabama Harley dealers. This along with the usual Harley repair, customizing, vintage restoration, part sales, and the selling and trading of motorcycles ensured that we are still thriving today.
The down side of 1981 was the untimely death of Sam's 'brother’, Jimmy "Cornbread" Cone, in a high speed bike wreck in Nashville. Cornbread was a member of the Nashville Outlaws MC and lived a colorful though short life. Another tragic death in 1984 was that of his long time partner, Tom "Bird" Cardinal. Mr. Turpin, another long time pal of Sam's, was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer in 1989. He had a phobia about being buried in the ground and made a deal with Sam which allows him to continue to oversee the operation of the shop. He was cremated and his urn is located in our showroom. Turpin has the distinction of going to more bike rallies dead than most of us live folks have. Many of our original customers continue to stop by and take him to bike events. He loves to travel but he is not much of a conversationalist.
In October of 2003 we moved into a large warehouse at 1114 Galloway Street in downtown Columbia.
The business continues to grow for various reasons, mainly due to our cheap labor rate and affordable bikes and parts. We continue to offer great prices & service work on not only Harley but metric bikes as well. And we gladly work on British, German, and anything but Chinese made bikes. We have a complete machine shop to do any & all high performance engine work. Our low overhead allows us to pass the savings on to you.
Our showroom is rather unique since it is decorated in a style much like a "Cracker Barrel" for motorcycle riders. It has numerous items that you may enjoy seeing, including old bikes, antiques, biker mementos, military relics, and many odd or unusual items. We also have one of the largest selections of old and used Harley parts (dating from the '50s to yesterday) in an upstairs storage room.
We are much more than a bike shop, we are a destination point! Come by and see all the changes we have made!
