2 Wheel Ventures Acquires Assets From Ridley Motorcycle Company

In a press release, Jay Ridley (son of Ridley Motorcycle Co. founder Clay Ridley) announced that his company 2 Wheel Ventures has acquired the intellectual property and some remaining tangible assets of the Ridley Motorcycle Company, the brand of fully automatic street/cruiser motorcycles.

Financially exhausted by poor sales and by defending during several years a very costly lawsuit filed by Harley-Davidson (Ridley lost the right to use the Auto-Glide name), on December 29, 09 Ridley filed a voluntarily petition under Chapter 11 of the US Bankruptcy Code.

Initially, 2-Wheel Venture was created in 2007 to market Ridley’s apparel and accessories, then in 2009 parts and providing owners with CPO’s (certified pre-owned Ridleys). Jay Ridley states that 2 Wheel Ventures will service and support the thousands of Ridley motorcycles already on the road and that if the market conditions improve the company could restart production of Ridley motorcycles. The question that many Ridley owners and former dealers are going now to ask is if 2 Wheel Ventures will honor their warranty. 2-Wheel Ventures.

26 Responses to “2 Wheel Ventures Acquires Assets From Ridley Motorcycle Company”


  1. 1 Ridley Rider Feb 26th, 2010 at 9:51 pm

    Cyril- Thank you posting this story. My wife and I both ride Ridleys. We have been receiving emails from Ridley and reading on their Facebook page the updates about the company. It seems as though things went from going great to really bad very quickly. My take is that Mr Ridley had put as much money into the company as he could. To me it sounds a little like the BDM story you ran about them seeking more investors. Mr. Coleman could certainly keep that company going if he wanted too. Well in all our our reading it looks like the point of this Two Whhel Ventures thing was to avoid a bank taking control and selling everything off. We called the old factory number (405-525-5400) and spoke to a nice lady who told us that at this point the company was supporting owners by making parts available and by answering service questions. Neither of our bikes were under warranty so it doesn’t matter to us. I just wanted to make sure that I could still get the parts we need to keep our Ridley bikes on the road. It would be a different story if we couldn’t get parts anymore. I bet our bikes would then be worth nothing. My bike has only had regular maintence services to it. I never had any major issues. My wifes bike had an issue early on with the battery not taking a charge and then with the transmission belt being prematurely worn out. Both issues were resolved after a few calls to the factorys main tech guy Dusty. He told us it sounded like the bike we bought had been at the dealership for over a year and that’s why the battery was bad and that based on the belts condition the bike had sat there being rev’d like someone was trying to hear the pipes. But on the cvt if your giving it gas and not letting the bike move your screwing something up. We’re glad to see thar someone’s pick up the Ridley and hope for everyones sake that things get better so they can build bike again. -Bob S (Keller, TX)

  2. 2 mac daddy Feb 27th, 2010 at 1:54 pm

    This sounds like what Titan did so they wouldn’t have to take responsibility for warranties. Are they still honoring warranties?

  3. 3 EX Ridley rider... Feb 28th, 2010 at 12:28 am

    Hell no they won’t honor warranty. They didn’t honor anything in 2009, they ain’t gonna honor anything now. They don’t even have the respect or courtesy of responding to this blog. Bunch of chicken sh*ts!

  4. 4 WIBill Feb 28th, 2010 at 8:05 am

    EX Rider what kind of problems did you have? I am thinking of purchasing one for the old lady. I have not found very many troubles with other owners. Mostly I heard of people having to replace batteries. Other than that the owners I’ve talked to seem to think the warranty thing wasn’t a big deal. I even talk to the Ridley dealer in Arlington, TX who told me that out of all the ridleys he sold that they had less than one claim per motorcycle and mostly it was small stuff like bad turn signal or something.

  5. 5 EX Ridley rider... Feb 28th, 2010 at 10:26 am

    Bad turn signals is just the start. Their Speedos (electronic) were crap. Someone else made them and Ridley had their name put on it as if they had invented it. Their needle speedo would get stuck too at the dealership, so that right away told me they were having problems. A lady I met in sturgis told me her frame split by the seat, and they had to completely replace the frame. They didn’t get their bike back for almost 2 months. The FRAME SPLIT?!? YEAH! Their Jackshafts didn’t last for more than 5000 miles on the full size, and when the shaft sheered off, they said it wasn’t covered by warranty due to rider error. ARE YOU KIDDING?!? RIDER ERROR?!? YEAH! These guys always put the blame on something or someone else. And always made a good excuse for it. The dealership told me that they weren’t meant to be long distance cruisers. WHY NOT? OH! thats right! Because the jack shaft won’t last! No way! got rid of the stupid thing. End of story.

  6. 6 Bigalyts Feb 28th, 2010 at 5:36 pm

    WIBill, are you kidding about Ridley and the Reputation???? The Dealer that is telling you about the Warrany situation, because he Is “STUCK” with those Bikes! Ask Hin If He would order ANYMORE? If He says yes, then he is a Real Liar. Those Bikes are worh $7500, the Brand New Ones!! Ask a HD Dealer or a Victory Dealer, or a Yamaha Dealer what they would ACV a 2007 – 2009 Ridley for? If they say more then $5 G’s, then I will Kiss, Susan’s Smith’s Boots!

  7. 7 EX Ridley rider... Mar 1st, 2010 at 9:13 am

    Who is a dealer stuck with bikes? Poor guy. Has ANYONE bothered to call Ridley and ask them what they are doing to cover the warranties of unsold bikes? I can guarantee you Clay and Jay Ridley won’t back their bikes even through two wheel ventures.

  8. 8 Nuttin' new Mar 1st, 2010 at 9:35 am

    Anybody wonder why Ridley went from a chapter 11 to a 7 in a matter of minutes? So Jay could conveniently buy the assets of the company out and effectively employ everybody who was already working at Ridley..while screwing ALL the vendors.
    Real “stand up” guys you got there…think they’ll honor a warranty? Nope, but they’ll sure sell you spare parts that they DID NOT pay for…remember…those are part of the assets.
    I know this for fact.

  9. 9 Fredp Mar 1st, 2010 at 9:56 am

    AHHH! The laws of doing business today. No risks, no consequences. My father back in the 1950’s lost his business, when his partner “left and never returned with$$$”. NEVER thought of bankruptcy. THAT stigma was an embarassment then.
    He worked 2 fulltime jobs to pay back all he owed. Took him many years. Never was able to return to that business, but he walked away, knowing that those he paid back, had lifetime respect for him, and some became lifelong froends.
    We now hide behind laws of irresponsibility, and no risk.

  10. 10 heavy-duty Mar 1st, 2010 at 10:44 am

    2-Wheel VULTURES acquired the INTELLECTUAL property? Now, that’s an oxymoron if I’ve ever heard one.

  11. 11 Art Welch Mar 1st, 2010 at 11:24 am

    It would be a surprise, if the Ridley’s didn’t read this blog. What doesn’t surprise me is the fact that they don’t respond to any of the readers comments… OR.. if they do, they respond with ficticious names. I started my business with Ridley Motorcycles, but within 3 years, the dealer/distributor relationship went sour because Jay Ridley decided to share our personal financial information with another dealer. We never got an apology for it, In fact, when Talking with Clay, CLAY didn’t think he (Clay OR Jay) should apologize either.. He merely offered a written apology to my mother. Not From Jay, and not from Clay, but from Ridley. Neither of the two had the balls or courtesy of offering a face to face apology. We were, at one point, their #1 dealer at the time, and this is how we were thanked. After Jay couldn’t keep his mouth shut, we really didn’t care to be the Ridley’s #1 dealer. They even took us off their website as a dealer/service center even after we had a base of over 100 customers in the Twin City, MN area, And suddenly assigned a guy not anywhere close to the cities who had never even worked on the bikes, THE SERVICE CENTER for OUR customers.. Check it out on their website.. we’re not even mentioned anymore. What I can tell you, is that WE, FOR OUR OWN STATE OF MINNESOTA.. Sold more Ridley’s than any other dealer. Other Dealers sold a lot of bikes, and sold some out of state.. probably suprassing our #’s in sales.. MAYBE. But per capita, per state, and people who were loyal to us, we sold the most, and our customers were/are loyal to us. Still are now. The sad thing about this company and all its vendors, is everyone got screwed except the Ridley’s in the end. It was no surprise that Clay and Jay helming two wheel ventures in the backround purchased and reaquired the Ridley name back fromt he bank.

    When I called the bank to ask them how many bikes they found in inventory when they went through the factory to see and aquire the assests, he said “only a few, maybe 1 or 2 new ones, a few used ones, and a bunch of them in pieces or incompleted” When I asked about parts, he said “Hardly anything, nothing really”..

    REALLY……….?

    Where did all those parts go? How could they have used all these parts but not pay back the vendors? Will these vendors be smart enough to NOT sell to Two Wheel Ventures since they are selling to the same people? And how did two wheel ventures suddenly have all these parts in stock? Who did they buy all this sudden appearance of inventory from? HMMMMMMMM………. (does anyone know the story of Donn Proudfoot?)

    We have documents here, that list EVERY SINGLE VENDOR they had.. So we are now buying 60-70% of the parts from them. Many of these so called “GENUINE RIDLEY PARTS” came out of Drag Specialties.. So a good chunk of it were parts easy to find.. All Ridley did was change the part # and re-name it “Ridley”.

    Don’t get me wrong folks.. the bikes were/are great bikes.. the people behind them.. Not so great..

    I don’t believe for a second, that the bikes are now worth $7500.. They are worth a lot more simply in parts.. and if you still have some new unsold 07,08,09 bikes.. sell them at least at cost.. They will only become harder to get, thus raising the value.. If you still have the two wheel ventures selling parts.. no issues.. but Forget about parts for the speedster. If you’re lucky to get your hands on them though, get one. We still have 3 here on the floor.. and I’ve even been offered $22,000 for a Vicious Speedster (the smaller of the automatics in a 42 horse briggs and straton engine, NOT RIDLEY) But I’ll keep the little bugger. Actually Jay Ridley is the one who offered to buy our left over stock at half the price of what we owe on them.. They offered this to all dealers who didn’t want to keep anymore in inventory, so they could “re-furbish” them (the used ones) and do WHAT with the bikes that were still new, but older, and didn’t sell?

    We just recently sold one at COST to a nice couple in Wisconsin..

    There is no reason to sell this inventory below cost JUST TO GET RID(ley) OF IT..

    If the Ridley’s are offering half of what a dealer bought it for, they are going to have a tough time re-igniting their sales whenever they catch up to paying off vendors if they even care to earn back their respect.

    This started off as a good venture.. But the one thing the Ridley’s never learned, was that they needed their dealers more than their dealers needed them.

    You can blame Jay Ridley for the Ridley factory losing the majority of their dealers.. Even customers didn’t care to talk to the kid.. at least not ours.

    I welcome ficticious names and Jay or Clay Ridley to respond to these notes.. But Hey Jay, and Clay, use real names please. Why don’t you tell us what you’re doing with Warranties? Are you going to screw ALL your dealers? Even the ones that you guys played favorites with? Or are you just gonna tell everyone you are only supplying/selling parts that still belong to vendors you haven’t paid off? And if you dare honor ANY warranty.. will it be for all bikes that should have one? Or are you going to pick and choose who you want to cover warranties for? I think readers of Cyrils Blog should hear it from the Ridley’s themselves..

    Anyone wanna make a wager that if they respond, it will be with a ficticious name slamming ME, or that they won’t repsond at all?

    Anyway.. For any of you still looking for a Ridley.. We still have bikes here on the floor AT COST.

    Our shop # is 651-765-9988

    Are there any other dealers out there that have more bikes on their floor please give us a call and let us know what you got in stock.. We’d be happy to help you mve some inventory now that we moved our location into an extremely high traffic area.. We would be happy to help out other dealers.. Please call us.

    Art Welch

  12. 12 Deep South Mar 1st, 2010 at 2:53 pm

    WHAT thesa guys are doing is disgusting. They stuck all their dealers with waranties that they have to pay out of pocket. I personally have done several warranty jobs that I have had to pay for out of pocket because i sold the bikes and felt responsible to my customers and did not want to leave them stuck out. Glad they got them selves out of a financial bind by screwing all their dealers. We had them come and pick up their bikes that remained on our floor right after Daytona last year and were suppose to pay Textron back for the bikes. Well they put them off for months before telling them they were going out of buisness and told them to come get the bikes. At that point Textron sold them at auction for pennies on the dollor and sticking me with the balance. Now I am on the hook for $40000 with Textron. All I can say is if they see me they had better run. I know both of you son of a bitches read this.It a shame. All this and they are sitiing high and dry and still in buisness all by screwing people like me. Luckily we have a pretty busy service and custom shop and can afford to stay in buisness, but I am sure others are in my shoes and will not be so lucky.

  13. 13 Art Welch Mar 1st, 2010 at 3:52 pm

    Well my friend.. We have been doing the same, especially when they started expiring the warranties on the bikes (or initializing the warranties) if the bikes sat more than a year. How can you tell a customer that a bike either has no warranty, or that the warranty started on a bike, when they buy it new? Their excuse? “if the bikes have been sitting there that long they probably need new seals and gaskets even if they haven’t been ridden”

    So what did we do? We rode them.. Granted some still have less than 100 miles on them, but even back 4 years ago they didn’t want to take any responsibility for any gaskets or seals. How backwards was this crap? We sell Royal Enfield too and a bike could be sitting here 3 years and THEY STILL START THE WARRANT THE DAY OF PURCHASE!!

    Any dealers out there with extra inventory.. please give US a call.. DON’T CALL RIDLEY to get an offer to buy them back. Clay will Rip you off..

    651-765-9988

    Art Welch

  14. 14 Who Cares Mar 2nd, 2010 at 8:41 am

    The Ridley’s need someone like Harley to buy them out. Wait!? Didn’t Harley already offer to buy them out once? I hear these Ding Dongs said NO! So Instead Harley slapped a law suit on them and END OF STORY for THE DIMWITS! Oop! I mean The Ridleys.

  15. 15 Jeb Mar 2nd, 2010 at 10:29 am

    Does the bank know that the Ridley knowingly transferred all their inventory to Two Wheel Ventures?

  16. 16 TDubya Mar 2nd, 2010 at 2:03 pm

    Mr. Welch,

    You mentioned in your post on March 1 that most of the parts for the RIdleys are from Drag Specialties.

    I want to get a higway bar for my wife’s 2003 model. Can I find it in the Drag Specialties catalog, and if so what is the part number? ?

    Thanks
    TW

  17. 17 Art Welch Mar 2nd, 2010 at 5:57 pm

    TW, please give us a call at the shop 651-765-9988

  18. 18 Art Welch Mar 2nd, 2010 at 9:45 pm

    TW, Please feel free to give us a call at the shop.. I do believe my comment was this..

    “We have documents here, that list EVERY SINGLE VENDOR they had.. So we are now buying 60-70% of the parts from them. Many of these so called “GENUINE RIDLEY PARTS” came out of Drag Specialties.. So a good chunk of it were parts easy to find.. All Ridley did was change the part # and re-name it “Ridley”.”

    We have seats, seals Gaskets Tires, wheels, forks, Back passenger backrests, touring seats, stick seats, blinkers, handlebars, head lights, belts, throttle cables, engine parts, you name it.. we got it.. if we don’t we’ll get it.. don’t worry.

  19. 19 Ridley Factory Technician Mar 3rd, 2010 at 4:31 pm

    Law suit against Ridley:

    Case number #BC417245 Superior Court of Los Angeles, CA
    DNA Specialty Inc. v Ridley Motorcycle Inc.
    Breach of Contract

    I’d like to know more about this one. Settlement is pending as of 12-29-09

    Former Ridley factory technician.

    ok_net@hotmail.com

  20. 20 The Producer Mar 3rd, 2010 at 5:32 pm

    I hate to see any company go under much less another bike company.

    We had Jay on the Hog Radio show back in 2008. He seemed like a nice enough guy and we thought the bikes were nice too especially when we viewed them in person at the 2007 Seattle IMS show. Of course you never really know what a person is like until the tough times hit. When they do, peoples true colors often show through.

    The Producer

  21. 21 Southern Hospitality Mar 3rd, 2010 at 10:32 pm

    And this guy, he didn’t seem like a smug prep school boy to ya? I shoulda slapped him silly in Sturgis when I had the chance. They are safer staying in their own state for the next 20 years.

  22. 22 Seller03 Apr 7th, 2010 at 9:10 pm

    Most of what I’m reading is about info I had no idea existed. I was barely aware that there was trouble with the Ridley Co..when BAM they went bankrupt and crap started happening. I purchased a Ridley 740 in 2003. Had many problems..mostly small issues. However learned that when you live in an area that does not have a Ridley Dealer..you are going to have issues. Every small issue I DID have the company seemed to be very vague about what was the cause..how it could be fixed..the motocycle tech. that works in my small community (30,000 people), said the Ridley Co. was very difficult to deal with and he actually finally told me that he would no longer be able to work on my bike because of them and their poor customer service/warrenty program. HOWEVER with all the negative I gotta tell ya..loved the bike..loved the look…loved the ride..yea I know it’s not a Harley. My husband is a long time Harley man..so are all of our friends. I told them to stop being so stuck up..it’s the ride we enjoy, time together, open road…AND YES I CAN USE A CLUTCH, we purchased the Ridley ..becasue it was beautiful..and UNIQUE @ the time.

    NOW here is the big issue I have!!!! I decided to place the Ridley up for sale (actually last fall I decided..but it was too late in the year to advertise!!). Stupid me, I decided to wait till spring of 2010..BAD>>BAD>>>BAD>> idea. Of the few calls I have had..people are very afraid they will be unable to get parts, such as the belt!!! (even if I were buying it..I would be concerned!). What do I tell perspective buyers..this considering I’ll even have actual perspective buyers. My husband says he thinks selling is going to be a lost cause..it ain’t gonna happen..WILL PEOPLE STILL BE ABLE TO PURCHASE parts, belts, etc..transmissions..yikes. DO I need to drop the asking price drastically..or do I hold steady to Blue Book ? I have a Beautiful Pearl White, purple flames, custom bags, seat, upgraded trany.. the whole shebang ALL WITH LESS THAN 2,000 miles..PAID 17,500 in 2003…am I gonna end up gettin 2,000 bucks for it??? If long time owners are screwed along with new buyers not getting any warrenties…I guess I’ll let it sit in my garage til the day I die ( I’m only 48..hopefully not soon!). ..perhaps it will be a collectable someday??? perhaps I should keep it for a future generation…mabey someday my grandchild can sell it on Antique Roadshow….

    Ive been reading this blog for a couple weeks…Any of you smart people have advice out there?????

  23. 23 Mark in the South May 2nd, 2010 at 11:39 am

    Found a 2008 Autoglide pearl white with only 1500 miles on the odometer for 8500. Wife has fallen in love with the bike which is both good and bad. She has trouble with her hand so working a clutch is an issue and this bike could be the answer.

    So the question is anyone out there tell me if this particular model had issues? If so what kind of issues should I be looking for as going for a test ride on Tuesday when the shop opens back up. We have a former Ridley dealer about 1.5 hours away but not sure how long they will still service the bike based on the issues with the company. Are there tech manuals etc available?

    Thanks all

    Mark

  24. 24 shelley May 8th, 2011 at 8:12 pm

    Hey Guys I love this blog gotta tell you though i bought a ridley chopper last year at the height of all of this and I LOVE IT!!!!!!!! yeay so what they got their asses in trouble who the hell did not. Maybe if they were big enough they good old government would have bailed them out well huh and left all of us on the hook for it like all of the car companies. anybody pissed off about that at least if you dont own one of these your not on the hook for it. the bike is just a glorified mini bike if you have a good mechanic he can find the damn parts. I LOVE MY BIKE oh and guess what sold my harley for this bike. cant tell you how many people come up to me and tell me how nice it is never got that withmy harley one in a thousand

  25. 25 linda Jul 19th, 2011 at 2:39 pm

    I got 06 ridley have a problem with the speedo since it was new. led speedo read that i have 3800. miles on it but it really 15000. miles on it. But Ridley will not fix it, I also have paint on the tank peeled not warranty on that. Also the chrome wheels have peeled but yet Ridley will not cover it. according to Ridley they had a paint tech due there work but screw up the finish products at factor in the year of 2006.. Ridley will not cover or compensate for any paint. I have only one arm I can only ride a automatic, but so far that the only bitch that i have about the Ridley bikes.

  26. 26 patty Oct 10th, 2011 at 12:26 pm

    just got my motorcycle license my husband and i both thought a ridley was the way to go saw a couple out in sturgis but after reading the blogs scared to even pursue one welcome any input

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Cyril Huze