Motorcycle accessory shop rides into Marysville

American Riderz in Marysville will celebrate its opening with a ribbon cutting on Thursday. The store, at 406 D St., offers street motorcycle apparel, accessories and gifts.

Co-owners Nico Frye and Jerry Young, both avid bikers, opened the store on July 1.

"Being motorcycle enthusiasts, there was really nothing in this area as far as buying riding accessories other than at the Harley store," said Young, who lives in Marysville but grew up in Grass Valley. "We wanted to give people an alternative to the Harley brand — nothing against Harley."

The shop carries an assortment of helmets — mostly skull-cap and half-shell helmets, both novelty and DOT-approved, including German-style helmets. There's also boots, leather, riding gloves, saddlebags, doo-rags, jewelry, T-shirts, hats, patches, knives, tools and more.

Common biker themes of skulls, "Love to Live, Live to Love," POW/MIA, Southern Comfort, Jimi Hendrix, Grateful Dead and other tokens of rebellion and noncomformity run through the apparel, patches and other accessories.

They are starting to get into selling power tools, such as the Makita brand. Customers can also place orders for items not in the store. Free copies of the biker magazine Thunder Roads are on the counter.

Frye, who was born in Yuba City, is retired after working as a dispatcher for a trucking company in Auburn; he manages the store three days per week.Young, who has a regular job, mans the shop on Fridays. Frye's wife, Jackie, staffs the business on Saturdays. All three serve as buyers of inventory.

Why did they decide to locate their shop in downtown Marysville? "(Young) lives over here and he's the one who came up with the idea," said Frye. "I live in Carmichael. It started out that I was just going to work here — then I became a partner."

With Jackie filling in on Saturdays, it frees up Nico and Jerry to attend biker events on weekends.

"We're both bikers. We ride a lot. We go to different events — toy runs, poker runs, turkey runs, swap meets, the Street Vibrations event in Nevada — and we take advantage of that. Whatever they have going, we go to. We know a lot of people. We support a lot of clubs and their events," said Frye. He added that he and Young went to the famed Sturgis rally in South Dakota last year.

The ribbon cutting, sponsored by the Yuba-Sutter Chamber of Commerce, is slated at 5:30 p.m. at the business.