Ever wonder where the paw in our logo comes from? Our founder got the nickname "The Bear" while he was in the military. Read on to meet the man behind the logo.

Hi, this is Bear, founder of Old Bike Barn. A lot of people have asked me to tell the story of how OBB got started, and by now I guess it's long overdue, but here it goes:

I didn't start out a bike enthusiast. As a kid, I was more into hot rods and muscle cars. Unfortunately, like most kids, I was also chronically low on cash. Owning my dream car seemed like, well, a dream. Then I discovered motorcycles, and I stopped caring about cars.

It turned out that vintage motorcycles were a lot easier to find, than Muscle Cars, better still, you could buy an old one cheap, fix it yourself, and end up with something that could really hold its own. When I found out that I could pull up to a light on a CB750 that cost me a couple of grand and blow the doors off just about any car, I was hooked! I spent the rest of my teens building and restoring bikes.

At 18, I joined the Army and had an interesting career serving under American, British, NATO and UN command. Every time I finished a tour of duty, I would come home and add a few more bikes to the stable (I`ve had 38 of them through the years, in case you were wondering).

Yeah, things were going pretty well until my military career came to an unexpected end. On a mission overseas, I sustained two fractures in my spine. They were bad enough that the doctors warned me I might not walk again. But I knew different. I had to walk because I had to be able to ride my bikes!

It took a couple of years to rehabilitate my body, and a few years more to rehabilitate my career. With some help from the Military, I went back to school, studying web design and business. Because I couldn't ride at the time, the Internet became my best, and almost my only way to stay active in the sport.

Now keep in mind that this was back in the late nineties. The Internet was just getting popular, and there wasn't much out there for vintage bike lovers like me. So I built a hobby Web site called OldBikeBarn.com, where I could post pictures of my bike builds, and rant a bit about the motorcycle industry (something I still do on the OBB blog). To pay the bills, I started selling off my collection of vintage parts,on there as well.

Before long, I was getting hundreds of emails a week asking for parts, and my personal stash was just about sold. So I started sourcing new and reproduction parts to sell on my site, moved into a commercial location, and got to work.

Things took off so quickly I could barely keep up with the traffic. I needed help... my brother was the first to join my growing team with his help we grew OBB into what it is today. I knew I wanted OBB to be a place for people who shared my passion, and today, with our vast selection of parts for machines old and new, it looks like we did at least a few things right.

Thanks for reading!

Bear, (check out my blog)

'Till then, keep it between the ditches and the shiny side up.