"The History of Erico Motorsports
John Beldock wanted a new hobby and decided it was time to give road racing motorcycles a try. A crashed Honda was purchased and resurrected as a racebike. Throughout that Summer, more damaged bikes were purchased to be sold at the races. This eliminated the need to rob regular paychecks to finance the season. That first season yielded a championship in the Novice class for John.
Demand for the rebuildable bikes at the races grew. John wound up supplying nearly 15% of the machines on the track from his garage at home. This went on for the next few seasons. The decision was made in 1993 to make motorcycles a full-time job. Imagine the fun! John left college, much to the dismay of his parents, and Erico Motorsports was born (Eric is John's middle name).
The lease deposit for 4134 Garfield Street, Erico Motorsports first home, was paid with a credit card. The next year would be spent bootstrapping Erico Motorsports to a point where it could afford employees. Agreements were negotiated with various insurance companies to perform repairs and buy salvage directly, at contract pricing.
The first six years at Erico Motorsports passed and realized steady growth, additional employees, and lots of fun.
1999
Fastforward to 1999, the first thing John does is ask Tai Offet to be his wife, and they are married in a small ceremony in Keystone, Colorado in April. Upon returning from their honeymoon that September, John was faced with a harsh reality. Erico on Garfield St. was full to the brim with used parts, motorcycles and employees and no room to move. The decision was made to purchase a new building, and John and Tai started the arduous task of locating a cool new home for Erico. It was a cold day in October 1999, when they first set foot in 2855 Walnut St. The 1930s warehouse had been used as a metal fabricating plant for almost 30 years. It was dirty, dark, and cold, but showed lots of potential! So the new home for Erico Motorsports was purchased and the month of December was used to paint, clean and move. Erico's real estate was now 4 times its previous size from 3,000 sq ft to 12,000 in just one month.
2009
The first official event happened on January 9th when Erico unveiled the new Ducati 1100. The crowd was large and you could tell that everyone was "itching" for Spring to arrive. Planning was also in high gear for the 3rd Annual Colorado Chaos scooter rally, as the committee had their first meeting at the end of January. The theme for the rally was chosen to be GO GREEN, and the committee got busy looking for sponsors and planning the weekend's events.
In February President Obama announced his economic stimulus package that he signed into law at the Denver Museum of Natural History. One of the components of the package was that if you purchased any new scooter or bike over 49cc in 2009, you could deduct the sales tax from your 09 income tax return. Team Erico got busy letting all our clients know about this great deal. We also made sure that our Scooter folks knew we were thinking about them by creating a "Supersize Your Scooter Clinic". This clinic was designed to let scooter riders know about all the cool stuff they can do to enhance their scooter's power and performance. Erico also teamed up with the Colorado Lottery and the Stapleton community to do some fun scooter giveaways. All the businesses in Denver were looking for ways to creatively attract customers and using scooters was a perfect tie-in to the Spring season. Erico Motorsports coined February 2009 as the month of Speed as we hosted "Danny 4 Walker" for his "Totally out of Control" seminar. This evening was attended by 60 enthusiastic Erico riders who wanted to learn more about ways to improve their riding. This Clinic was designed to give Erico customers a taste of Danny's American Supercamp. Not only was Danny informative, but also thoroughly entertaining. Danny's self-deprecating sense of humor kept the audience laughing, yet allowed time for people to experience the excitement that is American Supercamp. Danny's school provides the opportunity learn what a motorcycle feels like when it is out of control at a slow reasonable speed. He showed videos of body positioning as well as provided techniques that Erico customers could apply to their everyday street riding.
The next "speedy" seminar was for our scooter enthusiasts as Erico sponsored "Supersize your Scooter". Team Erico's Service Department showed our customers all the custom parts available that would allow their scooters to keep up in Denver traffic. In addition to speed, the P&A department unveiled all the newest scooter riding gear and the marketing department gave away fabulous door prizes. After it was over, several Erico customers ran to the Service Department and made appointments to have their scooters "Supersized".
March always comes in like a Lion and this year was no exception when Erico played host to the Daytona 200. This year's party featured a set-up presentation by our Service Department on the Ducati 1198 and the Triumph 675, two very hot race bikes. Not to be outdone, our P&A department raffled off a new Ducati leather jacket and the rest of our staff entertained the crowd with drinks and food and lots of noise during the race.
May was rather mild in Denver, but the new High Plains Raceway was sizzling hot, as Team Erico took to the new track for the first track day of the season. Ricky Orlando was on-hand to help with riding tips and John Beldock couldn't have been happier that once again there was a racetrack in Denver. High Plains wasn't the only thing to celebrate in May, there was also the unveiling of the Ducati Streetfighter. The theme for the party was "We're Bringing Sexy Back" and Erico did just that with sexy dancers, sexy music, great cocktails and a crowd that was ready to witness a very sexy new bike. The Streetfighter lived up to expectations and beyond. Erico and Ducati always deliver and this was no exception. The party was attended by over 200 people and the music went on well into the night.
Erico instituted a new campaign in May called "Erico Gives Back". The idea was to help someone who had been affected by the economic recession by giving them a new scooter to help with their transportation needs. We solicited and received hundreds of stories, all of which we carefully read and thoughtfully considered. It was one of the most humbling experiences of our lives.
Reading these stories have made us laugh, made us cry and made all of us appreciate the little things in our own lives. We chose a winner and surprised him with his new Fly 50 on May 8th complete with a reception at Erico.
The month of June is always one that requires months of advance planning. The steering committee for the Colorado Chaos scooter rally starts planning when there is snow on the ground and our scooters are safely tucked away. It takes a lot of time and preparation to pull off this amazing event every year. The theme for 2009 was Go Green. This year's Rally raised $2500 which was donated to the Denver Urban Gardens. One of the highlights of the rally was the city ride that went to the several of the urban gardens around the city. On this ride our scooterists learned about composting, planting and how to get involved in urban gardening. Once again, Erico Motorsports and SQREAM brought together the community to not only have fun, but also created a weekend of camaraderie and great riding.
The dust had barely settled from the Scooter Rally when Erico decided to once again Give Back to the community with a Free movie in Cheesman Park. We sponsored The World's Fastest Indian on the big screen. In addition to a free movie, Denver was also given a special screening of the new Triumph Thunderbird. There was also volunteers on site from Denver's Road Home. The Erico gang was collecting donations for this important charity. Denver's Road Home is an initiative to assist the homeless population of Denver. Everyone who came to the movie were more than happy to help out this important cause. It was a beautiful starry night in Colorado, as we all watched the movie and ate our picnics. In fact it was all perfect, until three minutes before the movied ended the sprinklers went off in the park! However, John Beldock saved the day and road the Thunderbird on top of the Sprinklers, so we could all finish watching the movie.
July at Erico has two important traditions, the first of which is the RAT Rally. This year's rally headed back to Gunnison for more beautiful Colorado riding and story swapping amongst old friends. The second tradition is the Pikes Peak Hill Climb. Erico sponsors Davey Durell in this crazy race up the mountain and once again Davey pulled through with another first place win on his Aprilia.
Erico joined forces with Elway's Restaurant in August and became a sponsor of their Wednesday night concert series. Team Erico had a lot of fun listening to music and talking about motorcycles. Several Erico customers also rode down to the concert series. It was great to see so many Ducatis lined up and outnumbering the Harley®'s!
2020
In March of 2020, we were deemed an essential business. This meant we could remain open, while the rest of Denver closed its doors, hoping to fend off COVID 19. At the time, we honestly thought that within 30 days the virus would be contained and it would be back to business as usual. However by the beginning of April, we realized that we needed to re-think the way we would do business moving forward. There are two reasons why Erico has successfully weathered this pandemic: A) Team Erico and B) our amazing customers. The Beldocks felt a sincere sense of gratitude for everyone who helped to keep us safe. We scrubbed, we sanitized, we masked-up and we kept our distance. Everyone paid attention to what was happening in Colorado as our numbers began to soar. We cared about each other and about our significant others. And whenever any of us had a COVID scare, the team went into action whether it was quarantining or getting tested. We took it seriously then and we take it seriously now.
Our Customers were also incredibly supportive and patient. When they wanted to see a new bike, and could not come to the showroom, we went to them. Parking bikes in driveways so they might go on a test ride or picking up bikes for service. The bikes were delivered with sterile gloves and masked smiles. And when the time finally came to open the shop to the public, we kept masks on the counters (and still do) in order for our customers to feel safe. There were hand sanitizers on every desk and signs that indicated our gratitude for adhering to the State’s restrictions. Penn Beldock came home for Spring break, but ended up working at the shop from March until the end of September. The government helped by sending out stimulus checks and PPP loans to businesses, but sadly it wasn’t always enough. We watched in shock as some of our neighboring businesses were forced to shut their doors (In particular, Meadowlark Kitchen, we miss you). It was obvious that people missed human interaction, but we continued to play by the rules. And yes, there were rules. The Erico Employee manual was updated with a COVID policy, and The Boss Lady became the enforcer. People often came to the store to simply get out of the house. This was fine by us. We welcomed our customers and shared our optimism that this would hopefully be over by August. However, the Labor Day weekend came and went and schools remained online. The election hung in the air like bad gas from a two stroke scooter, and it seemed like no one could talk about anything else. The Beldocks felt more like therapists than we did bosses, which was okay by us. All we really wanted was for all of us to make it to the other side.
For Team Erico COVID reminded all of us of something that we had probably spent many years taking for granted, and that was the beauty of the open road. People were coming to us with a sincere longing to escape. We put people's heads into helmets and they rode as if their lives depended on it, and in many ways it did. We were grateful to give so many people the sanity that they craved. We did manage to do a few group rides and a few track days, and we hope these also brought people joy, we know that they certainly made us a little less crabby.
Art played a major role in Erico’s world. We watched Alex Pangburn bring VIva to life in a 20’ mural that adorns the side of our service building. Viva is always a reminder for all of us at Erico, that sometimes it’s okay to simply sit on the dock and watch the sun set. We also engaged Kaitlin Zeismer to paint the Service Building as homage to the Boss Lady’s Paul Smith Bonneville. And finally we were lucky to have Patrick McGregor do an interior mural in the Erico Ducati Showroom (Patrick is the same artist that did our iconic Evel Knievel wall). We find that sometimes, it just feels good to put color into our lives.
The Summer came to a close, and our trusty pickup truck of twenty one years was stolen out of the parking lot which seemed merely par for the course. By the time October rolled around nobody really felt like dressing up for Halloween or decorating pumpkins. None of us went to visit family for Thanksgiving, and now here we are one week from closing up shop for the year. There won’t be an Erico Holiday party, but we did manage to take our annual photo. Everyone on the staff is looking forward to getting a shot (and this time we don’t mean tequila). We are ready to feel safer and more secure for our families, for our customers, and for each other. Thanks to everyone who helped us get through 2020, it was a bitch, but rest assured we ain’t going anywhere. (excerpted from (
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