Back in late 2001 I took a motorcycle trip to India, Nepal and Sakim. It was a great ride with some good friends. We were challenged by constantly changing road surfaces ranging from great asphalt to sand whoops and water crossings. We didn't see too many other bikes but the ones we saw were adventure bikes. Having started out riding dirt bikes at eleven and then getting my first street bike at seventeen, I went from dirt bikes to cruisers to sportbikes, somehow missing this segment of motorcycle riding. I had been hoping to find a good "do it all" bike and since I enjoyed touring, commuting and sport riding, the adventure bikes intrigued me. 

Once I got home from the trip I started to research these types of bikes and discovered the Triumph Tiger. There were only a few choices, so I researched each one and tried to learn as much as I could about each company since all the offerings were European. During my research process I was really impressed with Triumph. John Bloor, the man responsible for the great British marque's resurrection  was of particular interest as entrepreneurs have always intrigued me. His story of seizing opportunity at such a young age and becoming a self made millionaire before most people graduate from college was inspirational. Mr. Bloor's savvy alone was enough for me to feel comfortable in buying a "new" Triumph. So off I went to the local dealer only to be disappointed because they did not have a Tiger available in fact they had almost no Triumph stock at all. I lost confidence in becoming a Triumph rider as dealer support was something on my shopping list as well. 

About six months later I was riding the Crest Road on Sunday morning like I do nearly every Sunday in the summer. I stopped near the top to chat with some other riders. Someone said that they'd heard that the store that was carrying Triumph was no longer going to be the dealer and Albuquerque would be left without a Triumph store. A light bulb went off over my head. I felt after all my research that Triumph was poised to do something special. This was one of those opportunities that doesn't come along too often. The only problem was I had almost no money, no experience and ,quite frankly, no business thinking that I could pull-off such a big undertaking. I did have a good understanding of business and retail, I also had a desire to succeed. So I decided to leave my life in the musical instrument manufacturing business and as a working musician to become a motorcycle dealer. 

In October 2002 I made first contact with Triumph Motorcycles America. They sent the area manager to come visit me. It was a good meeting and I got an idea of what I needed to do to get started. The first steps included writing a business plan and finding a location. There were numerous other steps along the way and the obstacles were pretty big. Despite the difficulties, I was determined to make the dealership happen.  After six months that felt like a life time of hard work, we opened the store in the Spring of 2003. With only three employees including myself and a very modest inventory , we were off and running. We knew that if we simply provided great service with a great product, we would make it.

The remainder of 2003 was filled with more hard work but  was rewarding in that we were making the store go,  exceeding our expectations and having fun. 2004 was more of the same, growth and success. This was the first year we cracked  into the top five dealers  in annual sales for Triumph in the American market and we've been there every year since. 2005 started with more of the same, growth and work, growth and work. During our grand opening in 2003 our Triumph area manager, Clay Carson, let me know that despite all he'd done to help open our store, he was leaving Triumph for a job at Ducati. I let Clay know that I'd always been a huge Ducati fan, and that if the opportunity presented itself down the line, I'd love to be the Ducati dealer in Albuquerque. Around the middle of 2005 the opportunity came. We were thrilled but also had to figure out how to go from being a Triumph only dealer to becoming multiline. We reworked our logo and the showroom and somehow managed to pull it off.

We had immediate success with Ducati, 2005 was another growth year for the business and this trend kept rolling along in 2006. In the Spring of 2006 we were approached by Piaggio about taking on the Vespa line. We had to move quickly but went ahead and made the room to bring aboard the scooters. Still in our small 5000 square foot building things were getting very tight. We managed, and we were named the #1 new Vespa dealer in North America. We had a good year and dealt with the challenges, but the space issue was very real. Going into 2007 we were loaded with product, now having three lines and stretching to make it all fit. Another year of growth ensued for 2007 but the challenges of working with three lines was becoming too much. After the season we sold off the Vespa franchise so we could regain our earlier sanity. 

At the Ducati dealer meeting last fall, Ducati announced a special project. It was initially called "Pimp My Dealership."  Now it has become known as "The Ducati Job." Ducati has been implementing programs for it's dealers to improve certain areas of business practice, facility appearance, and customer satisfaction. The idea of "The Ducati Job" was to select one dealer in the US and throw all of Ducati's resources and programs into one store over the course of a year as a means of showing the other dealers and the industry what they can do. We were very lucky to be selected for this project and it is our focus for 2008. So look out for these changes, you probably won't notice them until we remodel but things are happening. 

Well, here we are then, hopefully I'll update this page once and while. Even after five years I'm still committed to making a store that I would want to shop at. I will always work to make PJ's the best dealership I can and I hope that you enjoy shopping with us as much as we have enjoyed creating this place. Here's our mission and it's never changed; Through great products, customer service and integrity, PJ's is committed to bringing the best of motorcycling to Albuquerque. 

Ride safe,

PJ LaMariana