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To the original poster, mini race bikes and the parts and gear sales that go with them will perhaps will make up 1% if less of a dealers total revenue. A dealer will make more money on a watercraft./boat winterization in the service department that he will one selling a mini bike and a set of gear FYI. As a moto head I was totally shocked once I learned more about "the biz" how small motocross really is, and how small of a part of your business it is. I have customers come in and spend $ 30 000+++ on a turbo side by side and pay list price, spend $ 6000 on accessories and $ 2000 worth of labour to install them, then I have mini dad customers who want their kids bike for cost and 20% off accessories LMAO. I LOVE motocross and my customers, but dealers are stocking what sells and what makes them money. I will tell you though that I have tires for your kids bike, levers, tubes, 4 differnt types of 2 stroke pre mix, and plugs, grips, spare bars, chains and dozens of sprockets hanging on the parts wall at my shop right now though...
I also sell 100X more kids riding gear to the local BMX club(that my son and I belong to) than we do to mini motocross racers.
- their cheap so why not buy a couple spares, set the gap. Put 'em back in the box
4 stroke: no need. Maybe after 50-60 hrs on my RMZ. I priced around/ found one online because I wanted to have a spare/replacement....and they were expensive( $20-40 difference between vendors). So I only bought one (kept my old one as a spare)
.
Offroad helmets-106
Street bike helmets-80-90
Goggles 70-80 pair
Gloves nearly 100 pair
Chain -47 boxes of different sizes and grades
Riding boots from size 9-13
Oil filters for every make and model offroad and street
Air filters for nearly every atc atv side by side and dirtbike
Spark plugs for almost every streetbike offroad and snowmobiles
Front and rear sprockets for most 125-450 dirt bikes and atvs
Every inner tube irc and drag specialties offers. Min of 3 of each size. 10-20 of popular sizes.
Clutch cables-more than 70
Complete line of oils and lubricants.
Batteries-200+
Wheel bearing kits-100+
Carb kits-100+
Many other items-grips,tires, gear bags,tools,fuel jugs,tear offs,etc etc etc.
Total 10,000-15,000 items.4000 different skus.
If a small shop like mine can stock this much, there is no reason a larger dealership can't unless they don't want to.
Just my opinion.
The Shop
Luxon 4-Post Bar Mounts
$189.95 - $239.95
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DeCal Works Huge Plastic Inventory of UFO and Polisport kits.
I would even bet some of the dealers stop carrying mx parts and supplies purposely to keep those guys from coming in. Not only do they want the part instantly they want a discount on it after they just got done telling you about their new exhaust system they just bought online from someone else.
I had a shop for a while, stocked all those basics you speak of. Would have customers come in ask about an exhaust system, we'd look it up in the Parts Unlimited catalog. Of course the retail price is shown in the catalog, the customer automatically goes into the I can get it online for this much. Because it would help me fill orders and I'm trying to build a customer base, I would match the price. Most of the time it was $10-20 over cost, sometimes it was cost. Look it up to see which warehouse its available in. I can have it here in 2 days if I order by 2pm. Same customer comes in to by some handlebars a month later, starts talking about his new exhaust. It didn't fit quite right, he had to bend tabs to get it bolted up. Couldn't get the place he ordered it from to help him out or offer replacement in the case of the wrong part sent. Has nothing to do with his bent sub-frame and mechanical inclination. That's no good I say, if I hadn't gotten it for you and something was wrong, I could have had it replaced for you. I would have even helped him get it bolted on. This guy wasn't even one of the bad customers. He was actually a multiple repeat customer that even though I didn't make much money off the guy, it was entertaining to listen to his perception on riding/buying parts/etc.
He then needs a discount on the handlebars, I took $5 off. Shop didn't make it.
I don't ever want to have to deal with retail public again.
What this boils down to is the OP will never be happy at any dealer he goes to because he is constantly burned.
Hindsight the dealers are super happy that you will not becoming into their dealerships anymore. I can promise you your ignorance will never help you. Your Piss Poor attitude that I have read on this thread is outstanding. I am very happy to not claim you as one of our customers. People like you are what make what's left of this awesome sport crappy!
Good Day Rob, continue ranting like a 5 year old. I hope every single part you need is discontinued or not available.
Now I'm assuming you ride a KTM and I'm assuming the two dealers were both KTM dealers who didn't have the specific plug that they take? If so that is just horribly run shop. If it was a Honda dealer for example..well you really can't hold it against them. KTM's use NGK plugs specific to that brand.
For those of you with dealerships with manufacturer requirements of stocking $XXX,000 in parts and the increasing costs of warehousing them, I do not envy you....it cannot be easy to operate in this new world.
Another thing that bugs me. Like mentioned above, I don't have a ton of money to throw at this hobby, but some of my friends do. One of my racing buddies has bought 6 new bikes for him and his son in the last 2 years. He walked in a dealership (didnt wait for 15 min without talking to anyone and leave
Good Tiimes
Gun dealers aren't all butt-hurt like a lot of this thread's parts dudes.
Pit Row
Back to my original question.
"Why do you dealers maintain parts departments when you so viciously defend your position of carrying nothing?"
Next time you guys have to tell someone "no....but I can order it fer ya." Maybe you'll consider some change!
We certainly try though! I always tell my customers let me know what online price you are looking at and I'll try and match it. I understand we can't have all the business buy we'd certainly like some of it!
Raw deal on on your buddy trying to buy some bikes. It seems some, not all, of the bigger dealer lack the personal service sometimes. I come from a ma and pa type shop were every customer matters.
And You'd never know if I were a customer (type) of yours, because we don't complain. We just quietly go away disgusted and don''t return.
The fact that you are hostile toward someone pointing out that some change is due AND opportunity abounds illustrates. plenty to me about your shop.
Naw....I just go to Partzilla and can get everything I could ever need.
If im making an order online i'll stock up on some random oil and stuff but i've come to realize the local dealers are super similar on price. I basically only intentionally buy tires online now.
GOOD DEALER : Ordered a gas cap on a monday morning because I somehow broke it racing on sunday. They're closed wens. Thursday they hadnt called me , so I followed up. Luckily I have another bike so it wasnt the end of the world. Cap wasnt in, neither was the brake pedal. Called Friday to say the parts were in. Went down to pick up the brake lever, and the gas cap. Gas cap never came in. They didnt know why.
At this point I was ready to just give up on using local dealers. Instead, without me even asking, they knew I was racing most every weekend, they promptly pulled a gas cap off of a brand new unit they had for sale on the floor (and was actually the only kx450 they had on the floor), and filled my parts order with it. In return I purchased a bunch of oil and other stuff I truely didnt need at the time, and I typically go there for everything except tires now.
The local race series are killing off local guys without even realizing it. Everytime I go race and come home to a 10$ rocky mountain atv mc gift card in the mail, what am I supposed to do? Just throw it out? i'll end up with a stack of them and in the end its taking money out of the local guys cash register.
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