SELLING MOTORCYCLE STUFF: FROM TIRES AND CHAINS, TO BATTERIES AND HELMETS

Workers prepare products for shipment on conveyors inside the large warehouse at Motorcycle Stuff.

Motorcycle Stuff is big business, even though few people in Cape Girardeau know it.

The company, which wholesales motorcycle and other power sports accessories nationwide, operates in relative obscurity from its headquarters on Nash Road.

The large, concrete warehouse and adjoining brick office sit back from Nash Road, along a gravel drive.

A sign, containing only the address -- 4298 Nash Road -- and an arrow, points the way to the business.

The company has seven warehouses, including the one in Cape Girardeau. The others are in Des Moines, Iowa, Chesapeake, Va., Tampa and Pembroke Park, Fla., Santa Fe, N.M., Springs, Calif., and Houston.

Motorcycle Stuff is among 10 national distributors and one of only about 30 such wholesalers. Companywide, it has more than 100 employees, 35 at the Cape Girardeau facility.

The company sells everything from tires and chains, to batteries and helmets.

Nationally, there are about 9,500 retail stores in the power sports market, which includes everything from motorcycles to jet skis.

Motorcycle Stuff distributes to about 4,500 of those stores. It also exports to the Caribbean, Central America and South America.

The company was founded by Jim Dodd in 1970 and his family continues to operate the business.

Dodd died in an airplane crash in 1992 at age 50. His widow, Susan, now runs the company, serving as its president.

Her sons, Tim and John Dodd, assist her as the company's vice presidents.

"It was rough getting started," Susan Dodd recalled of the family business.

Jim Dodd owned a Ford dealership in Lexington, Mo., for four years before he got into the motorcycle accessories business.

Susan Dodd was involved in the business from the beginning. "I didn't have much choice since it was at my house."

Susan Dodd said her husband was the "ultimate salesman" and a hard worker.

John Dodd said his dad loved to race cars. John and Tim Dodd raced motorcycles.

"I started racing when I was 10 and I still am," John Dodd said.

The company began as Jim Dodd's Sales. Susan Dodd said her husband traveled around Missouri and Arkansas in a two-ton truck, selling motorcycle parts and accessories.

In 1971, the company changed its name to Motorcycle Stuff.

The family moved to Cape Girardeau in 1974. The family's two-car garage served as the warehouse.

Motorcycle Stuff then moved its operations to the old Orpheum Theater on Good Hope.

In addition to the wholesale business, the Dodds also owned a Suzuki motorcycle dealership for three years.

In 1982, the company built a large warehouse between Cape Girardeau and Jackson. "Nobody knew where that place was either," Susan Dodd said.

Ten years later, the company bought a warehouse on Nash Road and in the spring of 1993 started construction on a brick addition to house administrative offices.

Motorcycle Stuff moved into that building in November 1993.

"I think we have plenty of room here," Susan Dodd said.

The company is anything but a coat-and-tie type operation. Dodd and her employees are right at home in jeans, sweatshirts and tennis shoes.

Tim Dodd credits the enthusiasm and loyalty of longtime employees for much of the success of the business.

John Dodd said the business is more than a job. "It's a way of life."