Our History
More Than Parts. It’s About Keeping the Culture Alive.
Skyway Cycle Supply was built around a simple idea: great parts at a great price, backed by the kind of service you used to get from the local motorcycle shop.
But Skyway is about more than selling parts.
It’s about the culture surrounding these motorcycles. The people. The stories. The old iron. The Saturday mornings spent in the garage. The knowledge passed down from one generation to the next.
For founder Karl Bartling III, that culture has been part of life since day one.
Karl was born into American biker culture — surrounded by brotherhood and sisterhood, loud drag pipes, custom motorcycles, tattoos, swap meets, garages, bike nights, and everything in between.
His parents rode. Every male in his family owned a motorcycle. Most family friends did too.
Motorcycles weren’t a hobby the family picked up.
They were just part of life.
Karl started riding with his dad at only five years old, sitting on the back of his father's 1951 Harley-Davidson Panhead and spending weekends around bike nights, motorcycle shops, garages, rallies, and the people who made the culture what it was.
Growing up around vintage Harley-Davidsons, custom bikes, and the unspoken rules of the biker community gave Karl an appreciation for more than just motorcycles.
He fell in love with the history behind them.
The craftsmanship.
The characters.
And the stories attached to every old bike and every old part.
From Riding to Wrenching
Eventually, riding turned into wrenching.
Karl began working on his own motorcycles and helping maintain the bikes he grew up around — including his dad's '51 Panhead.
At 18, he started a small mobile motorcycle business.
What began as repair work grew into motorcycle service, small fabrication projects, custom builds, and eventually bikes that found their way into motorcycle publications, including American Iron Magazine.
For a while, motorcycles weren't just part of Karl's life.
They were his business.
Eventually, Karl put down the wrench professionally and built a career in marketing, but he never really left the motorcycle world.
He continued riding, wrenching, buying parts, digging through old stashes, talking with builders, learning from the old guys, hearing their stories, and staying connected to the culture he grew up in.
And eventually, that road led to Skyway.
The Independent Motorcycle Shop — Online
Skyway Cycle Supply was created to bring the feeling of the independent motorcycle shop to the internet.
The kind of shop where they know your name.
Where you can ask a question without feeling like you're talking to a customer service robot.
Where somebody will help you figure out what you need — even when they're not making a buck on it.
And where somehow you stop in for a part and end up hanging around half the day talking motorcycles.
That's the shop we're building online.
Skyway focuses on curating quality used parts, finding hard-to-find pieces, supporting independent builders and manufacturers, and working with established suppliers like V-Twin Manufacturing to provide riders with access to both old and new parts.
We want to give independent part builders a place to get their creations in front of riders.
We want old parts sitting forgotten on garage shelves to find their way onto motorcycles again.
And we want riders building everything from vintage Panheads and Shovelheads to Evos, Twin Cams, and modern Harleys to have another place they can turn when they need something.
Keep The Iron On The Road.
Skyway Cycle Supply is more than Harley parts.
It's about keeping the culture alive.
Keeping old iron on the road.
Keeping new builds coming out of garages.
Supporting independent builders.
Preserving the knowledge and stories that came before us.
And continuing the brotherhood and sisterhood that has made motorcycle culture what it is.
The bikes change.
The parts change.
The people come and go.
But the culture gets passed down.
Skyway Cycle Supply is our shoutout to everyone who came before us, everyone keeping it alive today, and the next generation of people who fall in love with life on two wheels.
Old Iron. New Parts. Same Culture.
Welcome to Skyway Cycle Supply.
