History

A sterling reputation, that continues to grow

1917: A memorable year for the Berthiaume family, since it was then that the "Alex Berthiaume" motorcycle sales and repair facility was founded, on De La Roche Street in Montreal.

Alexandre Berthiaume had a passion for motorcycles and was a racer himself, in the "Short Coupler" class. After becoming an authorized Indian distributor, he decided to expand his business. It was then that he moved to the address that we know today, at 4398, rue De La Roche in Montréal. Other motorcycle distributorships arrived soon after, including for ACE, Henderson and BSA products. Alexandre Berthiaume then entered into a partnership with his son Paul, and the business was renamed "Alex Berthiaume et Fils".

Paul shared his father's passion for motorcycles and quickly became a mechanical specialist of the exceptional English motorcycles. He knew the BSA models inside out! Before too long, Japanese-made motorcycles made their appearance on the motorcycle market, and Honda rapidly became Alex Berthiaume et Fils' specialty. A few years later Paul's son, Gilles, joined the family team.

Gilles shared his elders' fire and passion for motorcycles, and wasted no time becoming the renowned Japanese motorcycle expert at your service today. Whether it's a tune-up for a C77 Dream, the transmission of a CB450 or the boring of a CB750Four's cylinders, they were and continue to be cared for with the same concern for perfection.

In the 1980s, Gilles proceeded to carry out more renovations, just to modernize a little. Besides motorcycles, Alex Berthiaume et Fils was now selling related accessories and equipment. We also added the Yamaha motorcycle roster, another Japanese brand, to our product lineup.

In the spring of 1987, Gilles founded the Berthiaume Performance race team. He sponsored and installed as his main pilot the young Yvan Levac from Les Cèdres. Pilots Mario Duhamel, Yves Brisson and Philippe Cantin followed. This racing experience allowed Alex Berthiaume et Fils to acquire an ever-growing reputation for quality, high-performance machinery.

In the fall of 2000, the Berthiaume team pulled up its sleeves and proceeded to a complete overhaul of the store on De La Roche street, including the service shop, parts and accessories department and apparel counter. In fact, the building had become too confined for satisfying the needs of our ever-growing clientele as well as our ever-increasing model lineup.

In 2005, Alex Berthiaume et Fils welcomed the Vespa family to our dealership, to the delight of scooter enthusiasts in the greater Montreal region. Since then, Vespa Montréal has specialized in the sale of Vespa and Piaggio European scooters. We are very proud of this acquisition, and we hope to allow you too to benefit from the legendary retro style and exciting performance capabilities of Vespa products!