The Powersports Industry & M/C Roadracing

well you're participating on a roadrace forum. right? so that means you do like to hit the track on a sportbike right? if no, then why are you here? and you've never heard or seen a racer change the clip ons, rearsets, seat height, tank, etc etc? one size fits all is everyone's problem. they make the bike based on the most competitive teams feedback. it's what most of us like. you can buy a MT-10 too. but with a lack of sportbike sales the development will stop. when's the last time you went to a motoamerica race to support it?

 

Your lack of awareness is impressive. Turner38 is the crew chief for his son’s MA twins team.

 

Effing clapped out amateurs are killing road racing. They should be winning track days instead of almost winning MA races......

 

Not completely. It was announced in late 2018 that they were stopping production in Europe due to not meeting Euro4 emission regulations. Suzuki announced the 2019 Hayabusa would still be produced without interruption in the US.

 

hes smart... knows about the Industry AND worked hourly at a dealership.
Never work flat cause working flat rate is for chumps!

 

Guess he hasn't heard Mongo is Killing RoadRacing in America...LOL

 

Mongos a slacker. He’s been trying for years now to kill American motorcycle road racing and still hasn’t done it.
What a loser.

 

I do.

I think the number is 17-18 bikes off the showroom floor over the past 12 years. I know in the whole scheme of things, that doesn’t make a dent in the problem, but I’m trying to do my part.

IMO, one (if not the main) reason Sportbike sales are in the shitter is insurance. Someone young can go get a new R1 with a monthly payment of $127 (which damn near anyone can afford, even working fast food).

The problem is on top of that, they will have to pay $350 a month in insurance (arbitrary number for the sake of the point).

Or they can go get a scooter, street/standard bike, or 10-15 year old bike that will get them to work/school just as easily, and only pay $60 a month in insurance.

I firmly believe if insurance premiums were more of an afterthought, meaning they were low enough that it wasn’t something to even worry about, new bike sales would increase dramatically.

 

you know why it's for chumps? because the service managers write up out of warranty repair bills based on the factory's warranty times. show me a guy that can rebuild engines and remove and install one all in 12hrs. remove a tank and airbox clean the carbs and have it put back together and running in 1 hr. . not a race bike where all of the bodywork comes off with 4 dzus fasteners and no one cares about scratches. you get a 4mm scratch on a oil pan in this industry and guys hit the roof. most customers are beyond ridiculous. flat rate guys in the motorcycle industry get hammered. and only newbies right out of a tech school get suckered into it.
and when the service manager doesn't charge that way they charge based on how fast you did it. even if it calls for 3 hrs and you do it in 1.5 you only get paid 1.5. instead of how it's supposed to work, you get done in 1.5 get paid for 3 and move on to the next bike and make good money. nope, they put their foot on your neck instead. it's also why you bring a bike in the shop in Feb and get it back in May. you want a good shop to take your bike to? find one where the techs make hourly.

 

Dude, just stop. You obviously don’t even know who you are talking to.

 

Hey, he has a Shovel.. let him dig...

 

My bad.

 

yep i don't, but judging by his replies he doesn't seem all that versed in business. but I'm not here to step on toes. most guys I meet in the race scene are very closed minded/ hard headed. maybe that's the competitiveness in them. just because someone owns a motorcycle and takes it racing doesn't make their opinions gospel. I see a lot of silly replies. not including mine of course. lol
I literally got into an argument with someone who considers themselves some kind of pro know it all tell me there's no such thing as chain stretch. should we allow this person to keep on with telling people this?

 

An ex service advisor of mine said something similar: every shovel has a purpose

On tires at a dealer ... what pushed us into discounting tires was the fact our customers and friends were bringing in new tires that were 8-10 years old. No kidding. That was over a year ago. We then took it a step further and install tires purchased from us at a heavily discounted rate. It has worked so well that the local competition refers their customers to us (as told by a new customer recently) uh, ok. I’ll just keep this new customer moving forward, thank you.

To the gent on hourly, run Forest, run. From your current Service Manager wow wee. Here is an inside line, if there is value in the service you provide people are happy to pay for that.

 

Yeah, it can be done. 12 hours labor is upwards of $1200 at most dealers nowadays. That’s a fair chunk of labor for most bikes, until you factor in most parts changers are only getting 15-20% of that then it starts to suck.

FYI, motorcycle chains do not stretch any significant amount,They wear at the pivot points and pins and the wear causes the overall length to extend.

 

Wait... there's no such thing as a Zero Stretch Chain?? FML...its over.

 

no no no, you don't understand, the factory says you have 12 hrs to get it done anything after that you work for free. I have no idea what that 12 hrs is in dollars though. but you are not pulling an engine, diagnosing it, repairing it, and re-building it, and have it back in a bike and running in 12 hrs. not 1 guy with all the other shit going on in the shop at the same time. I've never seen anyone be able to do that much work in that amount of time. that's not even 2 full days of work.

Im glad you didn't take my replies as insults. some guys on forums like to stir the pot.