When do you say 'sorry dude' to the local shop...
 

So I'm looking for tires, and I really try to support my local shop and am willing to pay more for things there, convenient, immediate gratification, if I have to take it back I can do so and get the correct thing right away... posters of hot girls on motorcycles on the walls...

But I went in for tires... looking at the Bridgestone Battleax BT-020.. forgot to ask if the price included mount and balance but they wanted $280 for a tire Jake Wilson wants $115 for....

Seriously?

They only wanted $220 for the Pirrelli Angel ST... but again 'Seriously?'

Is there no concept about who they are competing with?

I don't mind paying $40 to mount a balance a tire on a bike, but $165?

Or am I missing some fundamental difference regarding the tire in the mail and tire in the store that I didn't consider....


M

they are called "stealerships" for a reason. My local dealer is a small step above worthless, I have vowed several times to never go back in.

Agreed. The local honda shop here is two steps below worthless. When i first bought my superhawk i was gonna get an oil filter at the nearest honda place. I walked in and the only guy there was on the phone so i politely waited. He gets off the phone and gets back to his solitare game on the computer without even acknowledging that im there. I know he saw me because he was looking right at me while i stood at the parts counter. I walked over to the lone cbr1000 in the place and looked it over and started to walk out the door. He sighed and reluctantly asked if i needed something. I yelled back that i intended on leaving with a new CBR1000 but now he could kiss my ass. He didnt know that i was only there for a filter but its still shitty customer service.:mad:

When i was ready to buy new tires I asked the nice lady behind the counter if she had any lee way with pricing based on internet prices for Pilot Powers. Her response. "Not a chance in hell". That settled that. Their service rate was $125/hour as well. I got the inspection there.

Local dealers here in my part of TX have figured this tire deal out... FINALLY.. cost plus a few $ plus $20 for mount and balance.. if you bring in the tire it's about $35-40 to Mount and balance.
Cycle gear used to the best thing going... and beat the dealers by 30-40-60% or more..

Then 1 dealer started doing tires as a lost leader, or at least flat break even. to bring in customers.. once they did, others followed.

Went into the local Honda dealer on Tuesday to get the vacuum attachment for the front cyclinder so I could sync my carbs and neither guy behind the counter was any help at all! They didn't have a service manual for the Hawk so I used their computer to get on RonAyers.com and ordered from them. F'em

The internet is making dealers worse. They don't sell as many parts so the.y stock even less.
Quite a while back I was looking to buy a new Honda. Walked in to the dealer and the salesman was on the phone. I stood around a long time while the phone call went on forever. I made my presence obvious but still didn't even get a nod. Drove 8 miles to a competing dealer and bought a bike that day.

Dealers are going to have to fall in line or get left behind. Right now there is no reason not to buy tires online. You know what you're buying, you know it will fit your bike, shipping is fast and usually free... what's the turn off here?

the only time I bought tires locally I actually got a price match and no shipping charge. I was really impressed. The guy did tell me he only made $12 on the sale but he said he couldn't afford to lose tire business. I told him if he kept price matching I would keep buying. His response was "come see me again and I'll see what I can do" be he said it as if there wasn't that great a chance that he could do it again.....I need a new front right now so I'm gonna see what he can do for me.

My local shop has 2 guys behind the counter, one to keep the other company, I guess. Anyways, my SH needed a clutch lever, because it was bent and I wanted a stock one. They told me it was $53!!! Then one guy looks over to the other, then looks back at me and says, "I can sell it to you for $38, because we have 2 in stock." I asked how you can drop the price $15 in a heart beat and they said it's because they have 2 in stock. If it was just one, I'd have to pay the $53!!!! I want to get an oil filter, but don't want to go back!!!

I used to feel the same way. But i just found a dealership near me that is awesome. I showed up 30min before they closed with an internet bought tire and the mounted it on the bike for 30 bucks.

I usually try to stick with local dealers like the OP, however in this day in age you can get everything online for cheaper, usually. I think this is what the killing the economy, local stores not being able to compete with the deals that are online. That's why each store now needs their own online site so buying things off the internet can be localized and they can strive to compete in their markets. Outsourcing is the worst, IMHO.

It sucks but I just cant afford to support the local dealers. If i had that kind of money I'd be riding an 1198.

I hadn't been in a dealership for quite some time. Last Friday my son and I went in to one of the many kawasaki dealerships to get an oil filter. They acted like they were doing us a favor to go get the filter off the shelf. When we were leaving the kid wants to take a look at the Kaw 500s cuz he thinks that will be the next step up from his 250. (Just as an FYI he just graduated college and knocked down a pretty high paying job). We stood in the showroom looking at a couple of'em for over 20 minutes and the two salesmen wouldn't walk over and talk to us. When we left I reminded the one ass hat standing closest to the door that there are over 3500 bikes for sale on the local internet want adds, some of'em close as hell to brand new and significantly less money than what they were asking. If I owned that store I would have fired both those guys on the spot.

yeah the dealerships are scary i mount my own tires after hearing how much they wanted to mount them f-that! the only times i got in their is to buy cleaners and air filter oil and the tires they have bt-016's for cheap but as far as anthing else screw that. the time it would take to do it yourself vs the amount and time it would takre a shop to do it... figure out how much you would be paying yourself and hour. takes me 40 min to remove and install tires from bike both ends. not worth 140

Fortunately, I have a dealer and another independant shop in the area that have pretty competitive tire pricing. I try to buy there when possible. For many other parts, they never have them in stock and have to order them. If that has to be done, then my perspective is, I can do that myself and have it delivered to my doorstep instead of making the trip to the store.

tell the dealership to try and match this price for Dunlop Q2's...

http://www.motomummy.com/store/produ...6&cat=0&page=1

I never go to them anymore either. I always know more about the bike I'm working on then the guy I'm talking to at the counter, parts are always WAY cheaper online, and they never have what I need in stock anyway so I'd end up paying considerably more and waiting the same amount of time for it to arrive then if I'd just got it myself from Ayers / Ebay etc.

My fav Suzuki shop in Belleve back in the day was great, went there often. But down around Tacoma WA they just aren't worth the trip anywhere that I've seen.