KEGEL HARLEY-DAVIDSON: A DAY INSIDE THE WORLD’S OLDEST FAMILY-OWNED DEALERSHIP
Words and images by Maxwell Barna
Rockford is close enough to Milwaukee that you can feel the history of it. Less than a hundred miles up the road, Harley-Davidson was born. Down here in northern Illinois, the Kegel family’s been keeping that fire lit for more than a century.
I pulled up to Kegel Harley-Davidson® on a cold, bright day. The sun might look friendly, but the air stung like crazy. The building has a sharp, modern profile, all clean lines and angles. Up high, a big Kegel Motorcycle Co. sign crowns the corner. It says “Established 1911.” Below it, the front doors sit under the number 7125, glassy enough to catch your reflection right before you step inside.
Once you’re in, you realize immediately that despite Kegel H-D’s incredible reputation, this isn’t a dusty nostalgia shrine dressed up as a dealership. It’s a real, present day Harley-Davidson dealership that just happens to have one of the deepest family histories in the entire network.
High ceilings. Bright, precise lighting. Wide sightlines that let you take in the sales floor in one breath.
Katrina Kegel-Mather & Mark Kegel
Katrina Kegel-Mather is the general manager, co-owner, and a fourth generation Kegel. She is so, so proud of her family’s story and what they’ve done over the decades, and it shines through immediately when meeting her.
Some of her earliest memories are from the dealership’s old Auburn Street location.
“I remember going into my grandpa’s office and playing with his calculator,” she tells me. “It printed as it added, which I thought was cool. During dealership parties, my cousin Kenny and I would hide under the clothing racks.”
By the time the dealership moved to its current location in 1996, she was already helping out where she could.
“I helped paint the screws that hold up the slatwall in parts,” she says. “Some of the shelves in backstock still have my 12-year-old self’s scribbles labeling them.”
Her dad, Mark Kegel, is the dealer principal, co-owner, and a third generation Kegel. That name — Kegel — isn’t a slick branding campaign. It’s the foundation of their business.
DESPITE ALL THE INCREDIBLE THINGS THAT MAKE KEGEL HARLEY-DAVIDSON SUCH AN EXCELLENT DEALERSHIP, THE HISTORY IS THE MAIN EVENT HERE — AND THE KEGELS HAVE THE RECEIPTS. LITERALLY.
Mark met me with a kind of laid back warmth and casual demeanor that makes him so jovial and funny. We talked bikes, the store, and the history of the dealership, and it all felt very easy.
And despite all the incredible things that make Kegel Harley-Davidson such an excellent dealership, the history is the main event here — and the Kegels have the receipts. Literally.
Hanging above the front entrance is a painted family portrait that traces the owners through the generations, starting with Mark’s grandfather, Joe Kegel. It sets the tone immediately.
And then there’s what they keep. Katrina showed me the artifacts they’ve preserved over the years, and it’s staggering.
Binders. Old photos. Service receipts. Shirts. Records stacked so deep you realize you’re not looking at an incredible collection, but also a timeline that you can actually touch. One of the most jaw dropping pieces is Bob Kegel’s Harley-Davidson factory training binder, signed by Arthur Davidson himself.
It’s incredible.
The Kegels’ written history starts in Freeport, Illinois. In 1895, Joe Kegel was five years old when his father died. He had to quit school and go to work. He became a mechanic’s apprentice for a bicycle store owner named Joe Redlinger. Back then, bicycles were built to fit you. The store would measure you up and assemble the bike like a tailor fitting a suit.
In 1909, Redlinger decided to retire and arranged for Joe to take over the business. Not long after that, Harley-Davidson came calling, and Joe took on the brand.
The family has long understood that Joe took on Harley-Davidson motorcycles in 1910. Harley-Davidson’s confirmed records state that Joe Kegel was a dealer for certain on March 30, 1912. Either way, the point was the same: Kegel Harley-Davidson is the oldest Harley-Davidson dealership in the world that’s still owned by the same family.
KEGEL HARLEY-DAVIDSON IS THE OLDEST HARLEY-DAVIDSON DEALERSHIP IN THE WORLD THAT’S STILL OWNED BY THE SAME FAMILY.
In 1923, Joe moved his family to Rockford and bought out an existing Harley-Davidson dealership on Madison Street. Then in 1930, just as the Great Depression was winding up, Joe was seriously hurt in an accident while riding in a sidecar with a policeman named Stu Mulford.
He spent six months in the hospital, then six more recuperating at home. When he returned, he found out he owed $10,000 more than his inventory was worth.
He lost his money when the bank failed. He even lost his home.
Still, he kept going.
Joe wrote to his creditors and promised to pay them back, sending money every week, even if it was only a dollar. The family says he eventually bought back his house and paid off every creditor.
That decision had a lasting effect. Even after Joe died, his sons were still able to buy on credit. That’s what reputation looks like when it becomes inheritance.
The business moved through generations and locations, staying in the family the whole way. It relocated to its present Rockford site in 1996. In 1998, the dealership won the Dealernews Top 100 contest for best store in the country.
In 2022, the shop marked its official 110th anniversary by sharing pieces of its history daily on social media, pulled from old photos, newspaper clippings, and what Katrina described as untouched corners of the dealership.
All of that matters. But it matters even more when you see what they’re running today.
Kegel’s showroom is bright and open, with a clean grid of tile walkways and carpeted display areas that stage the bikes like art. The ceiling is high and the structure is exposed, and the lighting hangs in long, modern bars that make the whole place feel crisp.
From the upper level, you can look down and see rows of motorcycles laid out with space to breathe, plus the front counter area where staff are helping customers.
From up top, the whole place reads like a map. You can see the flow from the front doors to the showroom, then back toward parts and service. There were Harley orange and black balloons, and a few seasonal touches that made it feel like a living, breathing space.
Off to one side, there’s an apparel area with racks of shirts and jackets, and a glowing Harley-Davidson Motorcycles sign on the wall like a beacon. The layout that invites customers to wander, slow down, and pick a direction based on pure impulse.
The mezzanine rail gives you a perch to watch the floor breathe below.
On one wall, the Parts Dept. sign stretches across in big letters. Above it, a Harley-Davidson bar and shield glows, and a thin blue line of light cuts across the wall in a clean diagonal.
And in the center of the floor, a large Kegel Harley-Davidson mark sits bold in orange, black, and checker pattern, loud enough to feel like a finish line banner.
THAT “LONG TIME” THEME KEPT SHOWING UP IN CONVERSATIONS. I MET EMPLOYEES WHO’VE BEEN WITH THE DEALERSHIP FOR DECADES. IT INDICATES A CULTURE WHERE PEOPLE ARE TAKEN CARE OF.
The showroom’s full of color. Deep blacks and grays, blues that look poured into metal, and reds that glow under the lights. Bikes staged in clean lines, some of them with bows on top, like somebody’s about to have the best day of their year.
Then you step into service, and the vibe shifts in a way I love.
The service department floor is bright orange, which makes every bike pop. Lifts. Tool boxes. Technicians working away. Trikes and touring bikes in the mix. Overhead, a big American flag hangs high against the white wall, watching the whole operation like a quiet referee. The space feels built for work.
That “long time” theme kept showing up in conversations. I met employees who’ve been with the dealership for decades. As most dealership folks know, you just won’t find that in a place that burns people out or treats them like disposable parts. It indicates a culture where people are taken care of.
And then there’s the detail that made me laugh out loud.
Connected to the dealership is a bar and restaurant called Benny’s Bourbon, Tequila, Slots. Yes, that’s seriously the name. You can sit there and look out onto the sales floor. It sounds ridiculous until you see how perfectly it fits. I can only imagine how many bikes have been sold right off the floor after an afternoon at Benny’s.
The pride in this place was obvious. Real pride. The kind you can feel when someone talks about their last name like it’s something they owe their best work to.
“When I bring visitors down the hallway and they see the amount of history just in that one area, I really get a huge sense of pride,” Katrina told me. “I’m humbled by how lucky I am to be here.”
Kegel Harley-Davidson sits less than a hundred miles from the birthplace of Harley-Davidson, and the connection isn’t just geographic. The Kegels have been part of this story since the early days, and they’ve stayed in it through the rough years, the slow years, and the years when motorcycles came roaring back.
SITTING LESS THAN A HUNDRED MILES FROM THE BIRTHPLACE OF HARLEY-DAVIDSON, KEGEL HARLEY-DAVIDSON HAS BEEN PART OF THIS STORY SINCE THE EARLY DAYS. THEY’VE STAYED IN IT THROUGH THE ROUGH YEARS, THE SLOW YEARS, AND THE YEARS WHEN MOTORCYCLES CAME ROARING BACK.
Looking ahead, Katrina hopes the future looks a lot like the past in one important way.
“Take care of your employees, take care of your customers, and never forget the family who has gotten us to where we are,” she said. “All of this exists because my great-grandfather decided to buy a dealership and sell Harley-Davidson motorcycles.”
That’s really what keeps a place like this going.
If you ever find yourself riding through northern Illinois, it’s worth stopping in and seeing it for yourself. Kegel Harley-Davidson is located at 7125 Harrison Ave., Rockford, IL 61112, and you can reach the shop at (815) 332-7125.
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