My Shop – Joe Rascal Harley-Davidson Ringwood

When the Peter Stevens retail group changed ownership back in mid-2025, the Harley-Heaven stores were at a crossroads.

The newly formed Joe Rascal Group stepped in and secured four Melbourne-based dealerships under independent ownership. With entrepreneur James Tonna at the helm, the business set out to build a strong connection between Harley-Davidson riders and the dealership experience. For long-time industry figure Steve Myles, the move to Dealer Principal offered a rare chance to rebuild a team and reshape what a local Harley store could mean to its community.

How long have you been into motorcycles and what is your background?

Twenty years – actually 20 years and two weeks. I started in 2005 in accessories at Harley-Heaven and Peter Stevens. I really liked it – the customer interaction, helping people find better safety gear and that sort of thing. Then one day Jason [McKenzie, formerly Harley-Heaven, now Joe Rascal General Manager] said to me, “you should try bike sales – you’ve got confidence in the way you talk.” I was nervous, but I gave it a go and sold five bikes on my first day. I didn’t know how to do any of the paperwork properly, but I interacted well and people seemed to like my personality.

After a couple of years as a salesman I became sales manager, then ran my first store in 2012 – the Peter Stevens Ferntree Gully store selling Kawasaki, Seadoo and Yamaha. I came to Harley-Heaven Ringwood for the grand opening, merged Ferntree Gully into here, then became Dealer Principal at Harley-Heaven Dandenong.

I later took on a group role overseeing used bikes across the country – training, stock buying, importing from the US and Japan. I had buyers working for me all around the country. After seven years of that, the company changed direction and James from Joe Rascal approached me. Now I’m Dealer Principal again – and loving it.

What do you ride and how often do you get out?

I’ve just sold my bike, but my last one was a Suzuki GSX-R600. I mostly rode H-D Street Glides – that was my go-to. Over the years I’ve ridden an enormous number of bikes, and I’ve had the luxury of being able to take one home whenever I wanted, so I didn’t need to own one all the time.

Tell us about your role in the business.

I’m the Dealer Principal here. We’ve got about 12-13 staff and we are still growing as the company rebuilds. We have two sales guys, a pack person, an accessory person, two spare parts people, a service advisor, three technicians (two of them master techs) and our pre-delivery department. We’ll be here until early 2026 while plans for the new shop come together.

Tell us about the history of the shop.

The shop is about 10 years old and was purpose-built as a Harley-Davidson store. It was designed and built by Vince Chiodo – this was his legacy building. It was his passion to create a dedicated dealership that could have all of the brands like an expo-type scenario. And it was beautiful.

What motorcycle brands do you focus on?

Purely Harley-Davidson now. We’ve also been signed off for Harley’s Fuel certification, meaning we’re a certified premium dealer – Harley-Davidson calls it Fuel certification. It’s important for Harley worldwide to have a certain look and feel so customers know they’re in a genuine dealership.

What services do you offer here?

Apart from selling bikes, we handle accessories and clothing, parts fitment and we have dyno facilities at our locations. We also do finance and insurance in-house to make it easy for customers.

Do you host any customer events?

We’ve always been big on shop rides and we’re heading into summer now, so we’ll start up monthly rides again. We’ve had hundreds of people turn up to those.

We also run a huge Bike Night, around 500 bikes or more turn up, and sometimes as many as 3000 people come through. It’s a massive party with food trucks, a show-and-shine, door prizes – the lot. There are bikes and people everywhere. People look forward to it and we’ll be running another one very soon.

Tell us what is unique about this motorcycle shop.

James wants us to go further – more social events, more engagement and a bigger focus on performance and customisation. It’s also great to see how many female riders are coming through now – our Yarra Valley H.O.G. chapter has 71 female members and we’ve got a huge range of women’s gear in store. Ten years ago you never would have seen that. Now it’s for everyone.

Any future plans in the works?

Yes – we’ve got another location earmarked and it looks fantastic. It’ll be a stand-alone Harley-only store with lounges, barbecue areas and a space for people to hang out. Harley would love every dealer to be solely focused on their brand and that’s where we’re heading. It’s exciting for the staff too – a fresh start and a chance to show customers we’re different.

Anything you’d like to add?

Just that we’re really looking forward to what’s ahead with Joe Rascal. It’s a family-style company, customer-driven and committed to keeping that Harley community alive and thriving.

Interview and photography: Kellie Buckley

Visit joerascalharley.com.au