Motorcycle industry legend Ken Boyko passes
The Motorcycle Industry Council has shared that Ken Boyko, co-founder of Cobra Engineering and industry legend, recently passed. The MIC press release states:
The powersports industry recently lost a legend: Ken Boyko, famed for co-founding Cobra Engineering and widely known throughout the motorcycling community, in Southern California, across the country, and beyond. He was a giant of the aftermarket segment, an innovator, and a pioneer in creating a new category of “metric customs” based on Japanese cruiser models.
He was also a genuine enthusiast with a wide collection of bikes, and he greatly cared about motorcycling, providing keen insights and wise counsel to help boost the industry and make it stronger.
“Ken invested his talents and time to the serious work of the MIC, and he did it in his own quiet style,” said Tim Buche, former MIC president and CEO. “He did not seek headlines or recognition, but Ken answered the MIC’s call when it launched the MIC Aftermarket Committee. He helped refine our approach and worked with his peers to increase participation. A phone call or lunch with Ken was a true master class in membership recruitment and satisfaction, with a focus on key and critical priorities. He always added a strong dose of encouragement, and a commitment to engage his many connections and channels in support of our efforts.”
“When the MIC launched the Rockefeller Motorcycle Show in New York City in 2002, Ken sent a handful of great examples from his personal collection for weeks of public display in the heart of Manhattan, which generated incredible mainstream media coverage,” Buche said. “Ken wanted to see future generations of riders enjoying the fulfillment and fun of motorcycling.”
“Ken was an industry icon, although he would deny such a statement,” said Larry Little, former MIC Chairman and Cycle World Publisher. “He was his best possible self, take it or leave it – always looking to innovate and improve the status quo, whether it was a new product or a vision for growing the industry. If you knew Ken – and it seemed there weren’t many people he didn’t know – you were among the lucky and blessed.”
From the Boyko Family:
Kenneth Boyko of Newport Beach, California, passed away surrounded by the love of his family on July 23 of 2024. He was born to Walter and Mary Jane Boyko in Youngstown, Ohio, on June 27, 1951. In 1954, his parents packed up their three sons and moved to Fontana, California, where they would have one more son. In 1967, they moved to Anaheim, California, where Ken graduated from Valencia High School in 1969.
Ken was born with a heart murmur, which led to his first open heart surgery at City of Hope at eight years old. Afterward, the doctors said there was a good chance he would not make it past his teens, but they did not know Ken, or his will to live. Over the years he stymied many a doctor’s prediction by courageously battling to overcome multiple valve replacement surgeries and ultimately becoming a heart transplant recipient in 2014. Ken was a warrior who fought and battled his whole life. With his determination, will to live, and sheer force of living and loving life, Ken was an inspiration to all who knew him.
Speaking of determination, from their first meeting, Ken pursued Laurie Heisser for years before they were finally married on October 10, 1988. Their first child, Dustin, was born on June 21, 1989, and three years later on November 18, 1992, their daughter, Haley, entered their lives. Ken and Laurie had a beautiful life together, supporting each other throughout their long love and marriage.
He was a successful marketing and entrepreneurial businessman whose ideas for new products and ways to market them to consumers helped shape the powersports industry. In 1977, he co-founded Cobra Engineering and was responsible for creating an entirely new segment in the aftermarket motorcycle industry. But to Ken, his biggest success was being a loving, husband, father, and grandfather. To Ken, family was everything.
Ken is survived by his wife, Laurie Ann Boyko, his son, Dustin Wayne Boyko, his daughter, Haley Ann Boyko, and granddaughter, Collins Marie Boyko, as well as Dustin’s wife, Loren Boyko, and Haley’s husband, Nicholas Sylvester. Ken is survived by his brothers, Walter Boyko, Richard Boyko, and Teddy Boyko.
In place of flowers, the family asks that donations be made in Ken’s name to the Adult Ahmanson Congenital Heart Disease Center at UCLA. It was at UCLA where he received the gift of life from a donor and was treated with love by the many talented doctors and nurses over decades.
