Sale of Big John’s Harley puts emotional cap on auction

Mona Shield Payne / Special to the Sun

CSN student T.J. Ropelato checks out a 1989 Harley Davidson Softail Springer motorcycle before it is auctioned off in memory of Big John Mayo during the 13th annual Wurstfest in Boulder City.

By Kyle Hansen (contact)

Sunday, Sept. 27, 2009 | 2:05 a.m.

John Mayo

It’s not very often that an auction brings people to tears.

But that’s exactly what happened Saturday night at the Boulder City Wurstfest auction at Bicentennial Park.

The last item on the block to raise money for the Sunrise Rotary Club’s annual all-night graduation party for Boulder City High School seniors was a 1989 Harley Davidson Softail Springer.

But this wasn’t any old motorcycle.

The bike belonged to “Big John” Mayo, a popular bartender at Evan’s Grill in Boulder City who died last December.

By the time the bike was declared sold at the end of the auction, Mayo’s widow, Carin, and others in the audience had tears running down their faces.

John Mayo pulled the bike apart and bought a new engine for it before he died, leaving Carin Mayo with a pile of parts.

The Sunrise Rotary wanted to auction a Harley for its 13th annual fundraiser, so they arranged to buy the bike from Carin Mayo and solicited help to restore it.

Bob Herra ended up spearheading the restoration.

“I’ve been around bikes my whole life and worked on every part of them but had never restored one from the ground up,” he said.

Herra got a lot of help from volunteers and businesses in Boulder City and Henderson.

“It was the easiest thing you can imagine,” he said. “Everyone knew whose bike it was and it was part of everyone’s hurt to work on it.”

They made sure the bike came out the way Big John would have wanted it, Herra said, even choosing the black and silver paint based on his love of the Raiders.

“The things he loved about the bike are still there,” Herra said. “He would have loved this (restored) bike without a doubt.”

Barabara Yeager didn’t expect to buy the bike when she came to the Wurstfest.

In fact, she came from Rancho Cascades, Calif., to volunteer in the beer garden with her sister Beverley Christensen, who has lived in Boulder City for 18 years.

“I didn’t know I was going to buy it,” Yeager said, who, along with her sister, have been good friends with the Mayos.

Yeager said she will let her two sons share the motorcycle after she gets it to California.

Carin Mayo said she is glad the bike is not staying in Boulder City. “It’s too hard to see it,” she said.

“We had it for years and we used to go for rides all the time. It’s a very sentimental thing and it meant a lot to John,” she said.

After taking photos in front of the motorcycle with Yeager and Christensen, Mayo said, it was nice to see it go to a friend, and she was happy with the $13,500 the bike raised for the club.

“It’s cool that it’s going to the school and the community,” she said.