| About Sharer
Lyall Sharer, owner of Sharer Cycle Center, has been racing, sponsoring, selling, fixing and restoring motorcycles for the last 42 years. In that lifetime of experience Lyall has been a nationally ranked racer and flat tracker in the late sixties, and has also built, ran and owned 3 different motorcycle shops, on Willy Street, Stoughton Road and for the last ten years, on highway PD. This four decades of motorcycling began in 1957 when Lyall began racing in scrambles. He went on in the following years to win multiple scrambler and TT Victories in the 50's and 60's Lyall continued to win championships as a flat tracker and in 1964, at the 1/4 mile championship in Sun Prairie, while Lyall was a novice racer, he beat nationally ranked expert riders on a Triumph. (250cc Tiger Cub Triumph). |
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 In 1964 Triumph Incorporated took notice of Lyall Sharer for several reasons. First, he was the most winning novice racer to come along in quite a while. Second, he was beating their own nationally ranked riders on their factory machines , and last, he was doing it on his own without the corporate R&D department and with his own intuitive sense of engineering.Lyall had made extensive modifications to the Triumph engine, adding needle bearings throughout the crank assembly, pocketing, porting and polishing the heads, and making some subtle changes in gear ratios. So Triumph wrote Lyall a letter which politely asked the question "What the hell are you doing to our engines that you can beat our own racers?" Lyall continued to race and win and in 1966 was the Wisconsin Short Track Champion for a second time. Lyall went on that year to race in the 66 Daytona and then again in 1967. It was from one of his Daytona Races where Lyall made motorcycling history. In the 20th Lap of the race, Lyall was riding 8th in the 67 Daytona 200 when a rider cornering inside of Lyall lost control. The bike of Lyall's opponent slid underneath Lyall's, causing him to go airborne. A Daytona photographer covering the race took a shot at the exact moment, and Lyall made the cover of the Daytona Paper, unfortunately without finishing the race. The article still hangs in the shop and motorcycle enthusiasts coming in and out the shop tease Lyall about it. "Who's the guy playing superman?" He was ranked in the top twenty in the United States in flat track points when he was bumped off the groove on a 1 mile flat track in Sedalia, Missouri and sustained major injuries. He and the motorcycle struck the guard rail at 100mph+. The impact was so strong it broke the motorcycle's camshafts in half. After his year-long recovery, Lyall turned to modification, mechanics, sales and sponsorship. He sponsored Cliff Carr in 1970 (National #26) who went on to race as Kawasaki Team Rider. He also sponsored Mike Anderson and Tom Bries, who went on to have successful and prolific racing careers. Lyall continued on with his modification and restoration business and in the late 60's opened a motorcycle shop on Williamson street. It was here where the Slimey Crud Motorcycle Gang started. Lyall is now an official member of the Slimey Cruds which has a 30 year history of it's own, and includes such famous and accomplished motorcyclists as Peter Egan, the writer of a wonderful column for Cycle world Magazine, and the Editor at Large. In 1979 when Lyall was 40, some people came by the shop and started to hassle him a little bit about being a "washed up ex-racer" and "Old fogy", and "Do they have flat track races in wheelchairs?" It was good natured ribbing but in the farming Midwest, honor sometimes ranks over tax bracket, and so Lyall came out of retirement and ice raced. He redesigned a stud pattern for the tires on ice, and hopped up a 250cc motorcycle. He then proceeded to smoke everyone in the 250cc class, and then in the Trophy Dash, where all the fastest racers from each class (all the way up to 650cc) compete for a trophy. |
 He won both races hands down. When you're 40, and when you're racing everyone in every age group on every cc motorcycle, two checkered flags can tend to get caught in the throats of people who might call you a has been.
Lyall built another motorcycle shop off Stoughton road in the 70's, and now has his shop on his farm in Verona. With more than 30 years of experience with Triumph, Lyall's restorations are second to none. The restorations aren't simply guided by books, they're guided by a first hand knowledge of how the machine works and needs to work. In 1998 Lyall started selling the new Triumph motorcycles and this year he's begun to carry Royal Enfield. Lyall is very happy with the new Triumphs. The three cylinder power plant and the overall engineering are a throwback to the excellence of Triumph in the late 60's. In the late 60's Triumph held the land speed record for motorcycles for a time, and today in the under 1000cc class, the new Triumph boasts the land speed record again, clocking in at near 170 MPH out of the box. |
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Sharer Cycle Center
7685 Highway PD, Route 9 Verona WI 53593
Phone: (608) 845-6768
Fax: (608) 848-6627
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