Support your dealer

sportbikers are the cheapest motherfuckers on the planet. you guys should know this by now.

 

I think that is coming very soon! (and I'm all for it).

This is just the tip of the ice berg!

http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-bu...tailers-push-amazon-on-taxes?mod=bb-budgeting

 

Oh yeah, I went to get a 50 mm fork cap wrench from his Motion Pro tree, and he didn't have one. I had to wait like 4 days for it to come in. I wasn't pissed tho, becase the lead tech let me take his wrench so I could swap springs. It pays both sides to have a good working reationship.

 

I haven't been inside a dealership in a long time. I don't miss it. Online is so cheap and easy. Plus the amount of tech support you can get online is amazing (the tech section of this BBS for example).

 

Generally speaking, I agree. But, I think you would be naive to think that you haven't lost a sale or 2 to an online retailer. Shops like yours that have always had good service should be fine. The shops that are suffering are the ones that could previously get away with shitty service and lower level staff since there were no alternative markets to shop and now they have to try to lure customers back in.

 

Agreed, and it goes well beyond a, "sales or two." It all started with mail order tires out of the back of magazines way back in the 80's...

 

I really love it when I spend 2k a year at a place and the clerk who has been there 3 weeks wont place the order unless I come in with the credit card on a 20 dollar part. For my protection of course. Dealers should just give up selling parts. Its a joke

 

That "clerk" should be publicly flogged...

 

no, I don't want to get political but I think internet stores have an unfair advantage.

For the record I have added an internet store to my shop. I think more and more dealers will have to go this way.

 

So what is the excuse for shops like cycle gear that have large network of store fronts and a webstore?

 

It might compliment your brick and block shop....Again, back in the paleolithic era I rode, hell I dunno, 500 miles round trip to Xenia, Ohio from Ft. Knox, KY to buy a Bell M-1 from what was predominately a mail order joint with a small shop back then (we're talking very early 80's)...Competition Accessories? That it? One of the old farts must remember...

They had good people in their shop...If I had had the jingle to want a Beemer, or Norton, or whatever strange continental stuff they were selling back then I would have gone back...

 

I buy local. Period. I got enough empty buildings around here. I don't need any more.

For me, paying more on my parts is an investment in my home prices. That helps me justify the extra 10-20%.

Only time I buy online is if I have some specialty stuff to order.

 

Precisely, 10-20 percent is not going to break a deal to keep a good shop open locally...Not on parts and accessories which is where all the online pressure is coming from...

 

Haven't spent much time around BMW riders, have ya.

"Know the cheapest part on a BMW?"

"The rider."

 

Heh, heh, sometimes I wish we had those Facebook "Likey" things around here...

 

As my old boss at Dallass Suzuki said (frequently). "Sell `em cheap! Get those bikes out there using up parts and service so I can make some damn money!"

 

They have to keep their employees in flatbills and tats...