For Pat Simmons, motorcycles and music remained twin passions for much of his life. Growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area, he recalls that, “around 1970, I had a friend who rode an older Harley, and he really got me excited about motorcycles. Another friend told me of this guy who had a bike in his garage, and if I went up to his house I could have it. But when I got there, it was all in pieces! I brought it home and got a manual and was able to put it back together. I rode that bike for a couple of years. Later on, I bought myself a more dependable bike—a Harley Super Glide—after I started making a little money with the band.”
Throughout the Seventies, the Doobie Brothers’ massive success enabled Simmons to indulge in his passion for motorcycles, providing him funds to buy rare bikes and allowing him to travel the country and seek them out. “I did a lot of purchasing while we were on tour,” he says. “Those were the years before the Internet, so a lot of stuff was still out there in the marketplace. We’d come into a town, and I’d pick up a newspaper and flip to the want ads. Often there would be, say, an old Indian or Matchless for sale. I’d go check it out, and if it looked promising I’d buy it. Then I’d have our semi driver pick it up, we’d throw it in front of all the equipment, and I would take it home. I did that for years, buying all vintage.”
Later on, toward the end of the Seventies, he continues, “one of my friends and I opened up a motorcycle shop for parts and accessories in Santa Cruz selling parts and bikes, reconditioning old bikes, selling parts, old Flathead, Knucklehead, Panhead and Shovelhead stuff.
"That’s when I really got into the old bikes. I bought a couple of really old Harley JDs and put them on the floor of the shop just for people to look at when they came in. I fell in love with the whole historical aspects of motorcycles. Whenever the Doobie Brothers weren’t on tour and I was in town, I’d be at the shop working on bikes, tearing stuff apart and putting it back together.”
One of the benefits to building a new shop at his Hawaii home was that Simmons was able to put everything in one location. “It’s the first time in the last twenty years that I’ve had a shop where I can actually put everything and have room to work on the bikes,” explains Simmons
Pat has a ’28 Harley in addition to his ’14, and some old Indians, a 1905, a 1911, a ’16, and lives on Maui
https://www.guitarplayer.com/guitaraficionado/pat-simmons-goes-rockin-down-the-highway-on-a-vintage-harley
http://www.motorcycle-usa.com/2010/12/article/bikes-music-and-doobie-brother-pat-simmons/
https://www.motorcyclecruiser.com/antique-vintage-or-classic-motorcycle
https://dev.quartoknows.com/blog/quartodrives/pat-simmons-rockin-the-highway
I visited that shop back in the day! I saw Pat there on occasion, It was the only time I saw a Douglass Dragonfly in person. It was a shrine to classic bikes. Good times.
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