Zipper’s Cycle Roars Into New Elkridge Location

by Joy Lietzau

If you own a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, chances are you already know about Zipper’s Cycle, Inc.

Zipper is a Mecca for the Harley owner, and is one of the very few stores of its kind in the country. The store offers a wide range of performance products, kits, apparel and services to Harley owners -- with 30-35 percent of its business riding in from the Mid-Atlantic region. Customers saddle up and roar into Zipper’s parking lot from as far north as New Jersey, as far south as Virginia and all points between.

President/owner Dan Fitzmaurice says, "This place is like a factory outlet to them." The rest of Zipper’s business is through mail order across the nation, with 12 percent of that in exports to countries around the world.

Fitzmaurice isn’t just the storekeeper. He’s a five-time championship motor cycle racer who has been riding since 1972. But he always says pointedly, "We won those races." To him, it’s all a genuine team effort. "Maybe I’m the guy riding, but there’s a lot more to it than that." A lot of the work happens here [at Zipper] -- when you get to the racetrack, you’re just executing what’s been done here."

Fitzmaurice races in the pro-stock category. To demonstrate what that means, he says with a grin, "The average motor cycle doesn’t go from zero to 100 mph in 3.2 seconds." Average speeds over a quarter mile track are from 155 - 160 mph and take about 8.3 seconds to complete the quarter mile. As testament to his prowess, Fitzmaurice’s old racing bike and leathers stand proudly by the front door of the shop.

When asked about the mystique of Harley-Davidson bikes, he quotes a grandson of the Harley-Davidson founding family who said, in essence, that if you need to ask, you wouldn’t understand. Harley riders "don’t like their Harleys -- they love them," says Fitzmaurice. He claims it’s an emotional thing -- the bikes are kept and lovingly refurbished over time, lasting an average of 20 - 30 years. Riders organize functions and events and attend races. "It’s like a cult, but in the best sense of the word." Harley owners are a surprising bunch statistically. Many are professionals, white collar and blue collar workers, and college graduates -- with an average age of 40 and a median annual income of $70,000. Women riders are a growing segment comprising between four and six percent of Harley owners.

Together with two partners -- Dave Zehner and John Kitzmiller -- Fitzmaurice is currently putting the final touches to his store’s relocation on Amberton Drive in Elkridge -- a move intended to make it possible to expand the company’s manufacturing capability. "Almost my entire life is spiraling around the company. Between this and the racing we do nationally, my life is consumed right now," he says with a smile.

He started the store as a service company in 1981 "in a small shop with $500 in the bank and $2,000 worth of inventory." Zehner joined the company full-time in 1981 and is involved in the development of engineering work in the shop. Kitzmiller joined in 1984 and runs the sales side of the operation. Zipper’s grand opening weekend, held mid-July, attracted hundreds of gleaming Harleys and their owners to visit the beautifully laid-out store and tour the expansive new manufacturing facilities.

Given the highly specialized nature of products, it’s no surprise that Fitzmaurice believes, "We help create a market for high performance components. We’re very well known around the world for that. The discriminating customer uses us for these kinds of products." He credits his staff which, he says, is "in the top two percent of the league -- they pursue excellence in everything they do. And we make things here you can’t get anywhere else." The company (known in the trade as Zipper’s Performance) always tries to stay on the cutting edge -- the people there like to "come up with brighter ideas on how to do things," says Fitzmaurice who, for all his race-winning ways and unique product line, remains a truly humble man who prefers to give credit to his people.

In recent years, the Harley-Davidson motorcycle has become a highly desirable consumer product. According to Fitzmaurice, reasons for this include celebrity ownership, improved product quality and baby-boomer influence, among others. Harley-Davidson management has established an objective of increasing annual production to 126,000 units by 1998, roughly double the 1990 level. Such expansion, together with the growing racing-oriented marketplace, affords Zipper similar growth possibility.

Fitzmaurice sees the greatest potential, however, in the development of new engine components designed to meet future emission requirements -- while still delivering the increased performance demanded by the consumer. Zipper, with its capability to provide such components to the Harley-Davidson aftermarket, is a major player in the forefront of the burgeoning market.