motorcycle industry slow for 2016??

idk how many of you work in the motorcycle industry but is it slow as hell for everyone?

I work at a dealer in the southeast and its slow as balls.
is it like that everywhere??

 

yeah slow in the midwest also

 

man its insane. mid summer and im making winter time pay checks. lol

it is super hot out there?

 

Maybe you should talk to your manager/owner about sponsoring some riders with bikes/services/etc and getting the name out there.

 

I could but they didn't like helping a rider that used to sponsor even though he would put there name out everywhere.
it sucked to see that but it could be different for an employee.

 

A lot of small cc bikes around here anymore. I didn't even know they still sold the Rebel anymore but they must because there's 3 or 4 new ones here in the last few months.

 

I just ran reports from last year and this year, I'm within 1% of last year. The 1% I'm missing was a racebike I sold so in reality I'm right there with last year.

 

where are you located??

 

Utah

 

Just opened my shop in Los Angeles about 5 months ago. Already paid initial investment off and am able to pay the bills and go to the track. Looking to expand within the building in September if I can get my landlords to agree to what we want. Definitely not slow over here.

 

the southeast is dead right now then. @akdrift good to hear man! is it just a service shop or what?

 

I started out saying I wasn't going to do any basic service but as months progressed I realized that's where the actual money is. Originally it was suppose to be building custom bikes, race bikes, trackday/canyon hero bikes, etc. But I've been doing a lot of service lately, a lot of ducati valve jobs and I'm going to continue ramping this side of the business up and taper off on the customs. We are going to shoot for 3 ground up customs a year and make money the rear of the year haha

Edit: we still do a lot of the performance side of the business and will definitely continue. It's a learning process and we are taking the peaks and valleys as they come.

 

that's cool man, im sure the custom side of things is big out there. we don't have many custom shops out here.

 

LOL! I've heard that from people I know that have opened their own motorcycle and auto places. "We're only going to do performance and what we want, no PITA customers with basic shit."

That usually last a month or two with the majority of their income coming from those PITA jobs and routine shit with the performance shit being a break even at best.

 

The worst part is the performance customers are the biggest pain. Nickel and dime you on every single thing. The guys who drop off their ducatis or triumphs don't even ask for quotes and when I email it over its usually "that's it?" and you get zero shit about it.

It lasted 2 solid months. Hahahaha.

 

It's big but completely the most unprofitable thing in the whole universe. I lost my ass on one recently. Theyre charity cases. I'm over them for customers unless I'm excited about the project.

 

I work in parts and I get shit on just about everything I quote ppl on.. online is killing us.

 

I think doing performance stuff would be the most fun I don't know how the custom stuff would be.

 

You make shit off parts. "$15 for grips" "they're $11 online" I don't even stock that stuff because it's useless getting beat up for $4. All I keep in stock are filters, oil, seals and belts. If I need anything else I just order it.