K&N Motorcycles was founded in 1957 in southern California by Ken Johnson and Norm McDonald. Both men had been passionate about motorcycles since they were young boys, and jumped at the opportunity to open their own shop! Ken ran the business during the day, while Norm worked as a surveyor during the day; Norm would return home for a meal and short hour nap, and then would go back to the shop, where he and Ken would work until about midnight. In 1958, Cooper Motors imported a bike from Japan called Yamaha and convinced Norm to put it on his showroom floor. Although it took almost a year to sell the first Yamaha model, the Yamaha brand certainly took off! In 1963 and 1964, K&N Motorcycles was awarded as the top Yamaha seller in the world! In 1964, Norm and K&N Motorcycles were presented with an award for selling over 1 million dollars in Yamaha motorcycles in 1 year! At this time, most Yamaha's ranged from $500-$900 ($900 being the absolute top of the line Yamaha), so hitting 1 million dollars in sales was very impressive and not an easy task to accomplish!
In 1971, Norm, his wife Lucy, and their family moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma and opened K&N Motorcycles at 6105 New Sapulpa Road, where our motorcycle shop is still located today! In 2018 K&N celebrated 60 years of business! Throughout the years the McDonald family has been very invested in the motorcycle world! All three of Norm and Lucy's sons, Phil, Pat, and Sam, have raced at one point in time (all sponsored by K&N, of course!). As much as Norm loved racing himself, he has always taken great pride in helping other racers. Over the years, Norm has sponsored hundreds of racers, with more than 30 of them going to the national level! At the race track, Norm has always been willing to help other riders. He would be the first one to repair a competitor's bike to get them back in the race! He has always felt that any victory on the track would be shallow if someone else was not able to compete!
Norm and K&N have been instrumental in starting many riders careers. Riders such as Sweed Savage, Malcolm Smith, Donnie Castro, Ed Daley, Freddie Edwards, Johnny Isaacs, Ted Boody, Steve Nichols, Tim Cartwright, Danny Cartwright, Phil McDonald, Pat McDonald, Sam McDonald, and Tyler McDonald.
In April of 2018 after 60 years in business, Norm and Lucy decided to retire, handing over the reins to the current owners Jeff Acord, Melissa and Tommy Ward. Today you will find Melissa and the rest of the K&N staff doing business just like it has for over 60 years. We encourage you to stop in and say hello, pick up that motorcycle, side by side, ATV, scooter, or other powersport product, or just to take a look around.