Laidlaw’s Harley-Davidson: Three Generations Deep and Still Ripping

There’s a reason the Laidlaw name means something in Southern California.

Before this place became one of the most respected Harley-Davidson dealerships in the country, it was just a small shop on Garvey Avenue in Rosemead. And a teenager named Bob Laidlaw was sweeping floors and turning wrenches for a man named Johnny Gregurich.

That was the mid-1950s. By 1958, Bob had returned from military service and bought the business outright. He renamed it Laidlaw’s Harley-Davidson and got to work building what would become one of the Motor Company’s longest-running, family-owned dealerships—not just in California, but in the entire world.

I met with Jerry, Brent, and Matt Laidlaw—Bob’s sons and grandson, respectively—inside the Baldwin Park store, where the family has operated since 2002. It’s their third location in 67 years, and at over 45,000 square feet, it’s by far their largest.

“We’ve grown to fit the community,” Matt says. “But the values haven’t changed.”

That old-school ethos runs deep in the Laidlaw family. Long before most dealerships had Instagram accounts, Bob was sponsoring drag bikes that were setting records. In 1969, one of those bikes became the first Harley to break the 8-second quarter mile, which was a landmark moment in H-D’s racing heritage.

“Back then, you had places like Lions, Irwindale, Terminal Island, Orange County,” Jerry tells me. “They’re all gone now.”

The Laidlaw family remembers that era not just for the tracks, but for the tight-knit community that came with it: the local builders, racers, and dealers who poured themselves into the culture.

And I think that’s really what stood out to me the most while I was there. This idea that, while the Harley-Davidson network has grown and evolved, Laidlaw’s stands out as a strong illustration of family-run dealerships that have been part of the brand’s story for generations.

Theirs is a hands-on, boots-on-the-ground kind of business. Still deeply connected to the brand, the product, and the riding community around them.

“Harley-Davidson is in our blood,” Matt says. “You can’t fake that.”

Matt’s taken that same passion and brought it into the digital space, running Laidlaw’s YouTube channel since 2009, where he breaks down new models, shares gear reviews, and documents the shop’s custom builds for the swaths of H-D devotees who tune in.

What started as a side project became a full-time operation in 2016, and now has more than 200,000 subscribers, many of whom travel across the country just to buy from him.

“It’s about trust,” he says. “People want to buy from someone who lives and breathes this stuff, and that’s what we do.”

That kind of trust is something the Laidlaw family has built over decades, in the shop, on the street, and now, online. And their approach hasn’t changed much: be honest, know your stuff, treat people right.

If you're looking for a dealership that still walks the walk, this is it.

And that same mindset shows up in the custom work, too.

For instance, when Harley-Davidson launched its Battle of the Kings competition—a global challenge to dealerships to customize stock bikes using mainly H-D parts—Laidlaw’s stepped up.

In 2019, they entered with a build they called the FXGTS Coast Glide. Starting with a base-model Sport Glide, the team transformed it into a purpose-built West Coast bagger with a distinct California identity: FXRT-style fairing, Kraus risers, a Saddlemen seat, a tuned Vance & Hines exhaust, and a stance built for both highway miles and hard riding.

Matt’s YouTube subscribers went crazy over the thing.

“The premise was to take a stock Harley and build a custom bike to show off,” Matt says. “We knew what we wanted to do, and everyone did an excellent job with it.”

The build won the U.S. race category, went on to take top national honors, and earned Laidlaw’s a spot at the Battle of the Kings Global Championship at EICMA in Milan, the international stage where the best dealership customs in the world went head-to-head.

That team includes longtime service techs and department leads who’ve stuck around for years. And that reputation for building killer custom stuff led to a major milestone in 2022, when Harley-Davidson invited Laidlaw’s to be part of its Born-Free Invited Builder Program. To date, it’s the only dealership that’s been asked—a rare nod from The Motor Company to a more-than-deserving dealership.

“We were honored,” Matt says. “But we didn’t want to just do what people expected. We wanted to push it.”

The result was the Overglide. A Road Glide reimagined as a dirt-capable overlander.