The Little Things We Used To Buy From Motorcycle Shops

Some of the best bits of motoring history aren’t cars or motorcycles at all.

Sometimes they’re the things that used to sit on the counter behind them.

A mate recently cleared out an old motorcycle and bicycle shop that had closed down, and knowing my weakness for old shop display material, he saved this for me.

It’s an original Phillips display card covered in little packets of silver star studs.

Ten stars per packet.

The sort of thing you’d buy to decorate a leather motorcycle jacket, probably without giving the packaging a second thought.

Decades later, the whole display card is still together.

And I absolutely love it.

When Bike Shops Sold Everything

Old motorcycle and bicycle shops were very different places from many modern dealerships.

You didn’t just go in to buy a bike.

There were cables, bulbs, mirrors, grips, badges, tools, patches, studs, clips and hundreds of other small things hanging from display boards or tucked away in wooden drawers.

A teenager could walk in with a few coins and come out with something that made their bike, jacket or helmet feel slightly more their own.

The Phillips card we’ve been given captures that perfectly.

The packets simply read:

SILVER STARS

and underneath:

10 for

followed by a circle where the retailer could write the price.

Even the card itself is fantastic.

Across the top is the old:

THIS IS A PHILLIPS PRODUCT

branding, with handwritten markings that appear to have been added by the shop.

It isn’t glamorous.

It probably wasn’t valuable when it was new.

But it’s exactly the kind of everyday object that usually disappears.

Phillips Was A Familiar Name Behind The Counter

Phillips was once a major name in British cycling components and accessories.

Period Phillips catalogues show that the company understood the importance of shop displays, supplying small components mounted on cards so retailers could hang them where customers could see them.

One Phillips catalogue even promoted its “carded parts” specifically as attractive displays that would help increase sales.

That makes this surviving board all the more interesting.

It wasn’t just packaging.

It was part of the shop.

For years it may have hung on a wall while customers came in for puncture repairs, brake cables, motorcycle spares or whatever else they needed.

One packet would be removed.

Then another.

And somehow, after the shop itself eventually disappeared, this partly stocked card survived.

The Leather Jacket Connection

The stars themselves immediately evoke another bit of motorcycling history.

For generations, riders have customised leather jackets with studs, badges and patches.

Long before buying pre-distressed or factory-decorated motorcycle clothing became commonplace, personalising your own jacket was part of the culture.

Studs might trace the seams, decorate epaulettes, surround a patch or spell something out across the back.

Lewis Leathers says bikers have been using studs to customise jackets since the 1950s, and that tradition continued through the rock ’n’ roll, café racer, punk and heavy metal eras that followed.

These little Phillips stars belong to that same world.

Somebody could walk into a local bike shop, buy a packet of ten and go home to attack their leather jacket with them.

You can almost picture it.

Why I Like Old Shop Stock So Much

I’ve always had a soft spot for this sort of thing.

Old signs.

Display cards.

New old stock parts in their original packaging.

Dealer stickers.

Oil cans.

Accessories nobody has made for decades.

Workshop equipment.

Even the bits that once seemed completely ordinary.

In many ways, they tell the story of old motoring better than pristine memorabilia produced specifically to be collectible.

These things were working objects.

They sat in real shops.

People handled them.

Shopkeepers wrote prices on them.

Some sold.

Some didn’t.

And eventually, when the business closed, whatever remained was often thrown into a skip.

That’s why complete old displays like this are so appealing.

Don’t Throw The Old Shop Away

There must still be old motorcycle shops, bicycle shops, garages and engineering businesses around the country with cupboards and storerooms nobody has properly investigated for decades.

Maybe the business has closed.

Perhaps somebody has retired.

Or maybe a family has inherited a workshop and simply doesn’t know what to do with everything inside.

Please don’t assume the dusty old stock is worthless.

We’d genuinely love to hear about it.

New old stock motorcycle and car parts interest us.

So do old signs, display boards, workshop advertising, dealer memorabilia, tools and anything else connected with old garages, bike shops or motor factors.

It doesn’t have to be pristine.

In fact, sometimes the dust, handwriting and faded packaging are exactly what make it interesting.

Clearing An Old Garage, Bike Shop Or Workshop?

If you’re clearing an old motorcycle shop, bicycle shop, garage, workshop, motor factor or similar business and there are old parts, signs, advertising material or new old stock still sitting there, please get in touch before it gets thrown away.

We’re always interested in unusual old motoring items and complete clearances, especially collections that have been left untouched for years.

You can send us some photos and details by WhatsApp on:

07494 851220

Or contact us through:

https://ukbarnfinds.com/contact-us/

Even if you’re not sure whether something is worth saving, send us a picture.

We’d much rather see it first than hear afterwards that it went into a skip.