Nicholas Cycle started in 1977 in Shenandoah, Iowa as a repair business for motorcycles. In 1980 we moved to our present location (3 miles north of Essex, IA), we made too much noise to be in town as lots of nights we were testing motors past midnight.

We were modifying 1 to 4 cylinder motorcycles from our beginning in 1977. In 1984 we signed with Polaris to sell ATVs only. It was 7 months before we saw the first Polaris ATV (production). We are one of the first Polaris ATV dealers in the USA. For many years we were the largest Polaris ATV dealer in the USA. Doug Nicholas, president of Nicholas Cycle, Inc., started riding when he was 3 years old. He has won many motorcycle Moto-x championships. In 1987 he qualified for and won first place at a national final Moto-x in Lake Whitney, Texas. In the 1985 - 1989 years, Doug and brother Wes Nicholas raced their Polaris ATVs. They went undefeated in 1985 in the Nebraska-Kansas Series. In the 1990's Doug started Sand Dragging. He has built several 3 cyl. drag racers. The fastest was the Beast. It was powered by a 310 HP motor. He traveled all over the USA racing it. In the year 2000, over Thanksgiving weekend, he was undefeated in Glamis, California Sand Dunes at the drag strip and set the fastest speed up Olds Hill that year. The Beast could do 91 mph in 100 yards in 3.8 seconds. It was a fully suspended Polaris ATV. Since the introduction of the Polaris Predator 500, we have been working hard on modifications to make it faster. Nicholas Cycle is leading the way in Predator Performance. Throughout the years we have expanded our building space. It's like a giant toy box inside the building.