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Evolution Cycle and Sport: Mixing oil and water

Harley-Davidson service, scuba instruction
August 6, 2013

Evolution Cycles & Sports offers a combination of services not commonly found under one roof: people with years of experience in the art and science of motorcycle mechanics and the knowledge and experience to teach basic through advanced scuba diving.

Rich Savage and wife Loretta opened Evolution Cycle and Sports on Route 1 near Five Points in late April. The business is a full-service, certified Harley- Davidson maintenance and repair shop doing warranty and warranty-maintenance work, insurance jobs, engine and transmission work, brakes, electrical and more.

“We’ll work on other motorcycle brands if we know how to do the job. We had a shop in southern Maryland for 19 years, and we just decided to move it over here,” Rich said.

He said motorcycle brands manufactured outside the United States are commonly called “metrics,” which includes those made in Japan, Europe or elsewhere. Savage said Harleys and most parts on their bikes are made in America.

“We can get parts for just about everything out there, whether it’s metric or Harley, and we’re fairly well-equipped to do just about everything,” he said.

Rich rides a ’92 Harley-Davidson Fat Boy, and Loretta rides a ’95 Harley-Davidson Heritage Softail Classic that they’re converting into a tricycle.

He said Harleys seem to be the “in” motorcycle to ride, but they’re getting expensive. “The other bikes aren’t quite as expensive; they’re a little more cost effective, but they’re all good bikes,” Savage said.

He rode a Harley-Davidson Police Electroglide for 12 of the 16 years he served as a Maryland State Police officer.

The shop carries a selection of personal accessories including helmets, gloves, jackets, vests, chaps, foul-weather gear, motorcycle covers, motorcycle towing equipment, facemasks, sunglasses and saddle, windshield and sissy bar bags. The shop also offers a variety of motorcycle hardware.

“We deal with a majority of the aftermarket world – Drag Specialties, Custom Chrome, Kuryakyn, V-Twin – we’re a dealer for pretty much everybody out there.

“And we’ve got all the stuff you’ll need to maintain your bike – oils, filters, brakes, light bulbs, gaskets – and we keep it all in-stock,” he said.

He said when the weather begins to change the shop would begin stocking more cold weather gear.

A dive instructor since 1990, Rich said he’d use any excuse to get into the water. “I used to teach at the U.S. Naval Academy and a bunch of small colleges when we were down in Maryland.”

Rich and Loretta are certified master dive instructors through the Professional Association of Dive Instructors, known as PADI.

He’s certified to teach entry-level through dive- master classes, and specialties such as deep diving, boat diving and nitrox diving. “We’ll run classes for one person to 10 people,” he said.

“We run a couple trips a year down into North Carolina in the Beaufort and Morehead City area. In March-April we run a weeklong trip down into the Florida Keys,” he said.

Rich said they missed setting up a schedule for local diving this year, but they will have a schedule for next spring.

Dive instruction starts at $200 and varies depending on what they’re teaching and where. Classes taught in a student’s home swimming pool cost less than those taught in a rented pool.

Unlike many dive instruction businesses, Rich said Evolution does not require students to buy any equipment.

“We provide masks, snorkels, fins, boots and books. We’ve got a collection of equipment and that way students can try different masks and stuff, find out what they like and what they’re comfortable with, and then we can order it for them,” he said.

Evolution Cycles & Sport is located at 17649 Coastal Highway on the northbound side. Shop hours are 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., Tuesday through Friday, 9 a.m. until 5 p.m., Saturday, and closed Sunday and Monday.

For additional information, call the shop at 302-644-2129 or go to www.evolutioncyclesandsports.com.

“Our hours are flexible and if anybody calls and needs us to come in earlier or stay later, we’re more than willing to do that,” he said. If the shop is closed, he said calls are forwarded to his cell phone.

“Ninety percent of the time you’ll be able to get a hold of me.”

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