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One of the largest motorcycle retailers in the South West of England, GT Motorcycles, celebrated thirty years in business in 2008. With a high profile and thousands of customers GT Motorcycles is well established but what were the beginnings of this successful local company?
It all started back in 1978 in a small unit at Haxter Close in Plymouth’s Belliver Industrial Estate. Skilled engineer and motorcycle enthusiast Mike Grainger, a man passionate about motorcycles and his business partner Peter Tribble began manufacturing hand-made parts for motorcycles. They had some success with this venture and in 1981 they took the opportunity to move into retail premises in Keyham Rd, Devonport. It was here that they began selling second-hand bikes and new Kawasakis, GT Motorcycles first franchise.
The business in Keyham Road grew with the booming 1980’s economy. In those days there were several thousand workers in Devonport Dockyard and the GT Motorcycles shop, just outside the Dockyard gates, found many customers amongst the workforce. As an ex-racer himself Mike maintained his close links with motorcycle sport. In 1984 he supplied a Kawasaki Gpz900R to professional racer Geoff Johnson for the Isle Of Man TT Races. Geoff won the Production TT on this bike, a hugely important race that brought worldwide fame to Geoff and recognition to GT Motorcycles. Mike has continued to give help and support to motorcycle racers to this day.
In 1988 came the opportunity to buy out Bill Northcott of Plymouth. Bill was a long established motorcycle dealer whose shop held Suzuki, Honda and Vespa franchises. These additional makes were accommodated in the Keyham Road shop, which was rapidly running out of space for the growing business. This was also the start of GT Motorcycles’ long established relationship with the Suzuki and Honda brands. In fact from this point in the GT history Suzuki features strongly, with their motorcycles and scooters being sold in every GT Motorcycles location. In 1992 Mike acquired the badly needed larger premises in Albert Road, Plymouth from Ivan Lang. Ivan, a Honda car dealer, was relocating to new showrooms. At the same time Mike bought out partner Peter Tribble who was retiring. The much larger showrooms and workshops gave the business the space it needed to expand.
As well as acquiring a franchise to sell Italian Aprilia motorcycles it was here in Albert Road that GT Performance Engineering was born and Mike brought in renowned engine tuner Brian Capper to run this new venture. Brian had established a solid reputation for building very competitive and reliable motorcycle engines for endurance racing. GT Performance Engineering with Brian at the helm was to produce, among other things, a Kawasaki ZZR1100 Turbo. It was riding this bike on March 21st 1996 that Mike took the British and European Land Speed Record at Elvington Airfield in Yorkshire. His measured two-way average speed was 209.05mph. This bike had previously been speed trapped at 222mph on the test facility at Bruntingthorpe, Leicestershire with national publication Motorcycle News present.
In the same year, 1996, Arthur’s Motorcycles of Paignton was offered to Mike when the owner Arthur retired and GT Torbay came into being. Arthur’s was a successful small shop, which brought with it a Yamaha franchise to add to the growing GT portfolio. The shop was also very strong in scooters and off-road motorcycles, being the only dealer in the county to offer both the Yamaha and Suzuki off-road range.
Mike expanded as far as Yeovil in 1998 with a solus Suzuki showroom and this business was eventually sold to V & J Superbikes in 2003.
That same year, 2003, saw the expansion of GT Motorcycles into Cornwall. Mike acquired a large vacant building, previously a Unipart depot. It provided two large showrooms, workshops and parking space for customers. At this time British manufacturer Triumph was looking for a Cornwall dealer. The Triumph name and manufacturing rights had been acquired by British Industrialist John Bloor. The sad end to Triumph in Meriden was now consigned to history and a brand spanking new factory in Hinkley, Leicestershire was once again making Triumph machines. These new Triumphs retained all the style of the much loved marque but used the latest technology. They were beautifully built and utterly reliable. Buyers could once again ride a British machine, choosing from a range of Classics, Cruisers and Urban Sports motorcycles and they were proving to be very popular. Mike’s new premises in St. Austell were ideal for Triumph, which occupies one of the showrooms, while the other sells the Suzuki range.
In 2007 the GT Motorcycles showroom in Plymouth was once again running out of space. There was also a move afoot from Honda to establish solus dealerships. They would require their franchisees to sell only Honda from a showroom, which was to be a separate building. The solution to this was found in a level site on Elburton Road in Plymouth. Originally a quarry it was, at that time, being used as a storage facility by a local company. With the site purchased, planning permission obtained and local businessman Nigel Passmore’s company Unit Build on board work started in January of that year. Two large steel framed buildings began to take shape and building continued until the late summer culminating in a grand opening party that September.
The larger of the two buildings is a multi-franchise showroom of around 12,000 square feet. The floor is laid with beautiful ceramic tiles and an open stairway leads up to a mezzanine level. At the rear there are large roller shutters providing access to the workshops which have all the facilities you would expect, including cloakrooms and a shower room for staff. Downstairs there is a large and comprehensive clothing area, a spares counter, workshop reception and displays of motorcycles including new machines from Aprilia, Kawasaki and Suzuki. Upstairs there is the Triumph range along with Piaggio, Gilera and Vespa scooters. Also upstairs is the GT Legends Café, which opens seven days a week and provides a range of light meals, snacks and beverages to customers and staff. The building also has a lift to the mezzanine level, this lift being large enough to take a motorcycle.
The second building is the Honda showroom. It is similar in design to the multi-franchise building but at around 8,000 square feet, just two-thirds the size. The customer area is ground floor only and consists of yet more displays of clothing and accessories plus the range of new Honda motorcycles. The Honda building has it’s own workshops at the rear and also accommodates the GT Performance Engineering rolling road dynamometer. Upstairs there is a boardroom and large areas for storage.
On Sunday 16th September 2007 GT Motorcycles’ new Plymouth headquarters was officially opened with one of the biggest parties ever seen. Literally thousands of guests arrived to help celebrate this special day for Mike Grainger and his team of dedicated staff. The Honda building was opened by non-other than Moto GP rider James Toseland, who was under contract to Honda at the time and riding in World Superbikes. There was live music to enjoy and a barbecue. A Suzuki motorcycle was given away to the lucky winner of a competition run in conjunction with Plymouth newspaper The Herald and many other prizes and bargain-buys were up for grabs. There were more celebrity guests from the world of motorcycle sport including the British fans favourite Chris Walker plus TT Racing legends Phillip McCallen and Mick Grant. Mick even brought along his Kawasaki racer and started it up for the delighted onlookers. It was a very successful day and the most fitting way celebrate the fantastic new GT Motorcycles showrooms.
In 2008 GT Motorcycles reached another milestone in its history, thirty years of trading. What better theme for the annual open-day party than this? Visitors attending on Sunday July 6th were offered such delights as a motorcycle with a thirty percent discount, thirty percent off deals on clothing and zero percent finance on new bikes purchased over thirty months. Naturally the raffle just had to include some £30 gift vouchers too. The icing on the thirtieth birthday cake was another fantastic turn out by GT Motorcycles’ friends and customers and in the middle of an unusually wet July that particular Sunday turned out to be warm and sunny.