Joe’s Powersports opening in Morris

Joe LaPorte and his wife, Breanna, are opening a new motorcycle parts and accessories shop called Joe’s Powersports at the end of February, at 707 Liberty St., Morris.

Joe said he got his start working for his father’s motorcycle service shop 13 years ago in Summit, and he’s been riding dirt bikes his entire life, and street bikes once he got his license when he was 18. Breanna, a Morris native, has a similar background: She got her license for street bikes when she was 16.

“I’ve gotten to see a lot of what goes into running a service shop,” Joe said. “I realized I didn’t want to do that with the rest of my life, and I wanted to focus more on the parts and accessories side of it. The customer looking to spend $1,000 in parts, gear and accessories is a lot happier to be spending the money than someone with a $1,000 repair bill.”

Joe said he’s grown his business: It started on Facebook and grew quickly into a 7,000 person group where people could come to him to buy parts for their motorcycles through him.

Joe said the store will carry a lot of maintenance related parts like tires, inner tubes, brake pads, oils, cleaners and batteries, and then helmets, jackets, gloves, sunglasses and other accessories.

Breanna said the plan right now is to have a soft opening at the end of February and then a bigger grand opening in late spring, depending on how the soft opening goes.