Vespa Cleveland Ohio Kymco Genuine Scooters

    As a kid growing up in Wickliffe Phil was always riding his bicycle over to Rick Case Honda. There he would press his nose against the glass looking at the Vespa Scooters in the showroom. Before he was old enough to ride Vespa USA closed up shop and left America. Phil joined the Army and was stationed in Germany where he saw people buzzing around everywhere on scooters. A close friend of his owned a Vespa P200E and Phil would trade his '66 VW Beetle for it on the weekends. In '90 Phil came back from the Army with a powerful desire to get on a Vespa again. He found one while working as a police officer in Mentor. The owner said it wasn't for sale, but a short while later Phil got a call from the man saying his wife convinced him otherwise.  That P200E got Phil all over the east side where he met Sam Lock who was working at the Record Exchange on Coventry. Sam knew Rob Pryor and eventually they met Tom Dukovec and Scott Shiever.  Before you knew it, the North Coast Scooter Club was formed. The guys started going to scooter rallies and met new friends from all over the U.S.. Between Sam and Phil it seemed like every scooter in Cleveland was running again. Before too long Sam moved to the east coast, Tom moved to the west coast and the club lost momentum. One year Phil and Scott Shiever were on their way to a scooter rally in St. Louis and they decided Pride Of Cleveland would be a great name for the scooter club, never mind the fact that P.O.C. actually stood for Pilsner On Call (a once popular beer in Ohio). Residents of Cleveland always called the beer Pride Of Cleveland and the name just stuck. Phil continued to work on scooters for folks here in Cleveland and began traveling to scooter shops in other cities to work as a mechanic for hire. After spending some time at Supersonic Scooters and Midwestern Automotive Group (Columbus Vespa) he figured he'd seen enough to open his very own shop. Phil started selling off his scooter and motorcycle collection to build up the capital needed to start a small business.
       The first P.O.C. was a pretty humble joint. A former storefront church with only enough room for 16 scooters (if you stacked 'em right). No warehouse, no parts department and everything had to come and go through a 36" wide door. Merritt (his longsuffering wife) agreed they would open a home equity line of credit and she started working at the shop on Saturdays helping out with paperwork and even became a notary to get titles for the business. In less than a year the operation had grown to a point where new digs HAD to be found.
      Yet another derelict storefront church in Ohio City provided his salvation, this building was horrible. Sure, it was huge, but it had a home-built mezzanine floor that made the ceiling height only 7 feet tall on the first floor. The power didn't work, there was a non-functioning boiler, no phone lines and the roof leaked horribly. There certainly was a reason this building had been vacant so long. Phil went in swinging axe and chainsaw and cut out the entire mezzanine floor all the way back to an area that was left to be an upstairs office with a balcony. Within 4 short months the new P.O.C. was up and running.  He had the space, now he needed the talent. Renae Scherff, A scooter-friend from Pittsburgh had the right work ethic and was frustrated in her job. Phil offered her a position and badgered her until she agreed to give it all up to manage his empire. Phil made sure the sales and wrenching were taken care of and Renae made sure the parts showed up in time and got shipped out correctly. Merritt, Michelle, Nick and Adam came in to help out whenever they could and it made all the difference. This shop was truly something to be proud of, now functioning as a full-service multi-line dealership with The Modern World (a mod and punk rock clothing store) operating upstairs. Phil hosted the 2005 Vespa Club of America Rally and put Cleveland firmly on the Scooter Map. In 2007 P.O.C. continued to sell more and more scooters each month and decided they needed a bigger showroom and much more room for service. The neighborhood was getting worse and a much publicized run in with an overzealous police officer made it clear, P.O.C. needed to move.
       The search was on, Phil looked at hundreds of locations and eventually found the current building (which most people will remember as The Wilderness Shop) a real Lakewood landmark. It had the space, the service area and great parking. Most important of all, it had character. The location directly at the entrance of the Metroparks didn't hurt either. The folks in Lakewood have been great and the business continues to thrive and grow. Phil still LOVES scootering and goes to an absurd number of rallies every year. He continues to infect everyone he meets with his passion for these lovable, little vehicles.