The man checked the website, confirmed the Auburn store’s hours and hit the road from his home in Spanaway.

But when he reached NobleRush, formerly Hinshaw’s Motorcycle Store, at 611 W. Valley Highway S. sometime after noon Tuesday, he, like many others, found the doors locked.

No sign on the door to explain why.

Giving the door a second tug to confirm, he turned away, confused.

Only then did the man learn from another person on the nearly empty lot, which connects to Indian Motorcycles of Auburn lot to the south, that both stores were closed.

For good.

“I was going to buy a motorcycle,” said the man, who did not give his name. “I drove all the way here from Spanaway. The website says they’re open, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. They could have said something.”

As the man drove away, disappointed, others were just arriving, perhaps to buy, perhaps to check on an expected repair, perhaps to pick up a part, only to be frustrated and upset by the same inexplicably locked doors.

NobleRush closed its doors Thursday, Sept. 19, at all of its stores: NobleRush Auburn; Indian Motorcycles of Auburn; Ducati Redmond; Ducati Seattle and BMW Motorcycles of Seattle.

The only public explanation to date – severe financial hardships.

The Auburn Reporter has learned that owner Howard Crow abruptly shut all doors last Thursday without any notice to the employees, leaving many of them without jobs. It learned that Crow abruptly shut the doors with customers’ vehicles and parts and accessories orders unfulfilled, with vehicles in the service department, in some cases in pieces, waiting for repairs that will not happen, at least not there.

Meanwhile, rigs come and go at the stores to cart away all the vehicles on the showroom floor.

Auburn Reporter calls and emails for comment have not been returned.