‘Net, cycle firm moves to Vegas

Kevin Ferguson

Thursday, March 29, 2001 | 11:19 a.m.

V-Twin Holdings, a company that operates an e-commerce website as well as 16 franchise motorcycle shops throughout the country, has relocated its headquarters to Las Vegas.

V-Twin operates 16 Biker's Dream retail shops in 14 states. The company plans to open its first store in Las Vegas sometime in the fall.

The company's move from Herndon, Va., to Las Vegas was pushed by its recently appointed Chief Executive Roger Cheek, a former executive of Las Vegas-based PurchasePro.

"I said I would accept the job if they would allow me to operate from Las Vegas," Cheek, 36, said.

Cheek, who left PurchasePro in September as vice president of international business, was hired that month as chief executive of CycleClick.com, a subsidiary of V-Twin. It builds and manages marketplaces for motorcycle enthusiasts to buy and sell related products in cyberspace.

V-Twin has 84 employees nationwide, 18 of which are located at its headquarters at 7324 Cheyenne Ave., Suite 8.

Two former executives of Las Vegas dot-coms recently joined the company or its board of directors.

V-Twin appointed as its controller Claudia Ruiz, a former assistant treasurer of Preference Technologies.

Preference, at its height last summer, had about 200 employees. But in a series of layoffs, it shrunk to nine employees by January before merging with USAutoNews, a Newport Beach, Calif., company. Since then, the local workers have been fired.

Kevin Liske, a former senior vice president of PurchasePro, has also joined V-Twin's board.

V-Twin is a client of PurchasePro. V-Twin uses PurchasePro's software for inventory tracking, cataloging and accounting. V-Twin is also licensed to resell the PurchasePro software.

CycleClick generates its revenue by collecting a service fee for each e-commerce transaction conducted on its website.

V-Twin trades its shares on the over-the-counter Bulletin Board exchange. The stock traded today at $2.38, a 52-week low. Its 52-week high was $13.38 on March 30.