John Skinner likes bikes.
The owner of Skinner's Motorcycle Shop on Opelika Road, Skinner has been around motorcycles his whole life.
"My dad started this business in 1957, and it's just always been a family business," Skinner said. "Started out in a real small shop, and then we moved on up to this building I guess in about 1961."
Skinner grew up in Opelika.
"I can remember crawling around on the floor when (my father) had the shop, and (I've) just been here all my life."
But Skinner has done more than just work at the shop.
"I professional raced back in the late '60s and through the '70s," Skinner said.
"I graduated from high school in 1970 and went professional. Didn't go to college, went professional racing and pretty much traveled the whole United States."
Skinner said one of the highlights of his career was being featured on "The Wide World of Sports," a TV show that aired on ABC from 1961 to 2006.
"I was on there a couple times," Skinner said. "I guess top racer from the South year after year for several years."
While Skinner was racing, his father continued to run the shop.
Skinner raced professionally until 1977 when he broke his neck.
"They predicted me not to ever walk again," Skinner said. "It finally came back real slow, but I finally got everything--all my motions and everything--back again."
After Skinner recovered, he took over running the shop and his father retired.
Now he runs the shop and has taken up racing again for fun.
Skinner said there's nothing he would rather be doing than running the shop.
"I wouldn't do anything different," Skinner said. "I wouldn't be happy being a doctor or attorney."
Skinner said the thing he enjoys most about running the shop is the people.
"Dealing with the people, meeting new people every day, that's the fun part about it," Skinner said. "Then we have the generation that come in here and they're on up in their 50s and 60s, and they can remember this shop when my dad had it."
"We share stories about when they had a motorcycle and came through here and hung out in the '60s. That's good, just meeting new people and different people."
Skinner says he is happy and plans to continue running the shop for the foreseeable future.
"It's getting harder and harder to stay in business," he said. "Sometimes I wonder if it'd be better to work for someone else, but I don't think so. I wouldn't be happy."
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