Port City Custom Cycle

It's great to still see Chris Ulrich still flying the "Team Hammer!" colors on his Arai helmet after all these years. Those trademark lids were a regualar sight around the shop back in the late 90's as Grant Lopez went through quite a few of them during his AMA Championship days...

Join Port City Custom Cycle as we return to our roots at the upcoming Barber Motorsports Park MotoAmerica Swap Meet in Birmingham Alabama next month.

Our TT journey started all the way back 1996 at a little motorcycle shop called Port City Custom Cycle in Mobile Alabama. When we weren’t restoring vintage machines, we were racing on the weekends at the drag strip, in the dirt and on road courses all over the country with AHRMA, WERA and AMA.

So this event is a kind of coming home where we’ll be cheering on our local boy and multiple AMA champion Josh Hayes as he battles it out with the youngsters on the beautiful Barber race course. And all weekend long we’ll be set up at The Buzzard Lounge clearing out the storage rooms and selling all kinds of parts and memorabilia from back in the day so be sure to stop by and say hi and take home a motorcycle history. And you can’t miss us, we’ll be right at the front of the event, just look for the Isle of Man flag. 🇮🇲

It’s here at Port City Custom Cycle and we’re going wayyy back to 1999 and the days of the PCC Mini Moto Racing Team!

Back in the late ‘90’s with the huge global interest in sportbikes and road racing, Mini Moto Racing made its debut here in the States and Port City Custom Cycle was THE Place for Mini Moto Racing here on the Gulf Coast. And these weren’t your garbage Chinese junk, these were real miniature racing machines straight from Italy! Made up to look like your favorite manufacturers best, we had Ducati’s, Aprilia’s and more. We were an official U.S. importer of Polini and Blata bikes, some of the best made at the time and we sold quite a few over the years. And every weekend we’d gather in local parking lots and map out miniature historic race tracks and literally race the wheels off these things! Good times!
Maurice
My Life on Two Wheels

to MiniMoto days!
Weekends were meant for racing and here’s a great memory from a quick practice session before the races in the local Winn Dixie parking lot. Good times back in the 90’s!

(Note the “Team Hammer” helmet, the go to lid for test runs back in the day…)

A recent restoration project for a very special family member. This little Honda belongs to my Goddaughter and we’ve brought it back to life to be handed down to her son, the third generation of riders in this family. Not a show bike but meant to be ridden, it has had everything refreshed and renewed for many more years of fun…

Presenting the restored sign to the Greenville Airport today. Another piece of history preserved!

We’ve not had much time for any projects lately but we did sneak in one for our friends at the Greenville Airport. We know, not a motorcycle but we love planes too and we can’t pass up an opportunity to save something special. 😉



My Life on Two Wheels
Port City Custom Cycle
Laroque Motorsports

at the original Port City Custom Cycle garage! Looks like I was testing out the suspension on our home built bike trailer. Over 100,000 miles on that little gem and still going 30 years later!

Happy Anniversary to me.
Twenty years ago today—feels like a lifetime ago. I mark this day every year to remind myself how damn lucky I am to still be kicking. September 25th, 2004—picture it: a gorgeous afternoon, the kind of day that makes you forget the world’s troubles. Riding through the Carolina and North Georgia mountains with my buddy Danny Weemes, just weeks after Hurricane Ivan had wrecked our hometown. No power, no work. The perfect excuse to hit the road, right? To escape, clear our heads, taste a little freedom.

Ever hear of Transylvania North Carolina? Neither had I till then. We were on separate bikes, enjoying the day, plenty of miles with even more curves, when everything changed. Out of nowhere, a guy—hungover, on his way to his wedding—hits us head-on. Both of us laid out, life-flighted to the hospital. Me to Greenville Hospital South Carolina and Danny to Asheville North Carolina. It would be over a month before we reunited. Six weeks in a hospital bed for me. Danny? He was in there even longer before he could finally make the journey home.

Physically I was a wreck. Concussion, collapsed lung, shattered pelvis, kidney and other internal damage, broken wrist and arm, detached thumb, and a right femur splintered into three pieces. Eighteen surgeries later and I’ve got enough titanium in me to start a recycling business. Two years spent hobbling around on crutches and a cane. But here’s the thing, the best and most blessed thing —I’m still here. Still standing. Still riding.

When you go through something like that, the way you look at life shifts. Food has more flavor. The sky seems a little bluer. Every mile you ride feels like a gift. You stop sweating the small stuff and start appreciating every damn moment—because, trust me, you never know when it’ll be your last.

So don’t waste a second, my friends. Don’t take any of it for granted. Every minute you’re here is more precious than you'll ever realize.