A few weeks ago I headed to Indiana’s covered bridge region to take some fall foliage photos. Along the way I slowed down for the little town of Bainbridge. As I drove through a sign caught my eye. It was a motorcycle shop called King Tiger. Underneath the name of the company it read “British Motorcycle Specialist.”

I had to stop.

Sure enough, when I walked into the shop I was greeted by a slew of classic Triumphs, BSAs and Nortons in various stages of condition and repair. One guy was wrenching on a bike and it turned out to be shop owner Rob Gibson. Rob was good enough to take a few minutes to show me around.

Rob’s first motorcycle when he was a kid was Triumph and it sparked a lifelong love of the British brands. Rob’s shop did everything from routine maintenance to complete restorations. He had one original bike in there that was simply getting a tune up and brakes. It was the customer’s daily rider. A few feet away were a couple of bikes down to the frames undergoing a complete rebuild. Rob’s own daily rider is an old Triumph vertical twin, a chopper no less.

I had to laugh after asking Rob about the modern Triumphs. “I don’t know anything about them,” he admits. “I’ve seen a few of them and they look O.K.”

Spoken like a true purest.

Gibson is never going to get rich with his little shop, but he stays busy, and loves what he’s doing. You can’t ask for much more than that.

After a nice 15 minute chat I headed back on the road to my photo safari. It was great to see there is still room in this world for a small independent motorcycle shop that runs on passion.