Local parts rant.

I really hate to have to write this but I just feel the need to.

First off I will say this is not just the motorcycle industry. I experience this in the snowmobile industry and automotive world (less so) regularly.

1.Knowledge of the parts counter they are working is usually zero to none. I usually know more about what parts are available than they do. Why is this?

2.The inability to compete with online or other markets.

I live in a city of 1.2 million people that pretty much has everything I need usually. One place I used to get vintage bike parts from closed down as the owner wanted out. Fine.

I have been looking for new sprockets and a new chain for my honda 360 for some time and also some mikuni choke plungers for my new vm30s. I find all of this stuff on dime city for about 160 bucks plus shipping. So about 210 shipped. I figure I will try and support the local guys like I usually do but now I need to find a new guy in town. I hear about a place that has had pretty good reviews. Does tons of vintage bike stuff and should be the place to go.

I've heard about them lots but never went. Now's my chance I swing by and sure enough outside is about 20 vintage bikes mixed and matched in nice shape. I open the door and holy shit I just found the holy grail pile of 200 plus bikes of all makes and models for sale mainly vintage. There is mechanics working right in front of me on some vintage stuff old Hondas and triumphs I'm thinking right on this looks promising.

Go to the parts guy and ask him for sprockets and chain for my 77 C360.

He pulls out his big parts supplier book and sees they don't list a sprocket for that (JT sprockets page he was on) and says sorry man I can't get them that bike is pretty old(uhh what this is a vintage shop). I kind of shake my head and say what do you mean. He's like "ya JT is the only one that would make them and they don't have any". I ask him if he has another supplier and he says no but if i want he could source me NOS Honda ones from eBay. Or I could do it myself. WTF where is DCC getting there's then? Good enough I leave that part alone.

What about the chain I ask. I tell him I want gold and he says oh boy those are expensive . But I said I just need a cheap 530 in gold o ring is fine I don't need fancy x ring race stuff. Instead he prices me out an expensive RK gold race chain for 193 bucks. I tell him again I want just a cheap one and he says no one me makes cheap gold chains(DCCs is $54 i wouldnt even mind paying $100 for local). OK move on

How about the Mikuni plunger style chokes? He does have some Mikuni parts but says he needs to see my carbs to verify. I tell him they are vm30s not tm's and not flat slides or anything special. He says Mikuni has hundreds of different choke style for vm carbs (uh I don't think so) so he needs to see them.

At this point I just decide to give up and move on. Quite disappointed. I really want to try and support the local guys and was even prepared to pay upwards of 250 bucks for everything if I could get it local (even if he ordered it in and it took awhile i would still do it to support) but I guess I will just end up getting it from DCC for 160 plus shipping for all of it.

And people wonder why local businesses go out of business. Get some real sales and parts people in there to help customers.

RANT OVER.



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Yup, There are only a handful of shops in my area and one recently went under because of shitty customer service and actual work. Luckily there is still like 7 shops and the guys here at Redline Honda, they even still do their own vintage track racing, are the only shop within 100 miles that will service bikes older than 15 years old, and are very very awesome. I don't buy ANYTHING online anymore either.

They compete with online pricing and have a shit ton of bikes and parts. I usually scavenge through their stuff to even find my used parts and they are like 75% less than ebay and new parts are the same or less than online.

Keep looking, there may be a smaller "mom and pop" shop in your area that will treat you right AND know their shit.

A good parts guy in a dealership can make the shop hundreds of thousands of $$$ compared to a shit parts guy.

Probably not the same level at a vintage / used shop but still it could mean the difference between opening and closing the doors.

You should probably email your experience to the shop - if I was the owner I'd want to know about that.

hillsy said:

A good parts guy in a dealership can make the shop hundreds of thousands of $$$ compared to a shit parts guy.

Probably not the same level at a vintage / used shop but still it could mean the difference between opening and closing the doors.

You should probably email your experience to the shop - if I was the owner I'd want to know about that.

Click to expand...

This is actually the issue. Maybe in a small town you have career parts guys... But in most areas they don't pay parts guys much. I was a parts guy, started very young, but quickly realized the guys I worked with who were older, didn't have the quality of life I was looking for. I was bringing in 500k a year for the owner who paid me a screamin 24k a year.

I actually went into fast food management before I could buy my first home. I've since moved on to other things, but it's one of the reasons. Another was, when I was pushing parts, they had only been around 70+ years, now they've been around 100+, that's a lot more cars and parts then I had to get used to. Many more makes and models. It's been a long time since a set of 728A's fit every brake system G.M. made. There are many more platforms and engines than when I did it, and you know what? They still don't pay.

Yes it's frustrating to have a kid ask you how many cylinders your car has, when you're trying to get a head light. But, it's what they need to get through the process. And I can bet you, I could never remember by heart all the part numbers I needed today.

Back in the day, I could walk directly to the shelf without even looking at a catalog or fische, I know I couldn't do it today, especially for what most of those guys make. They will almost all move onto something that actually let's them survive...

Your encounter sounds like I had at a local place where I live here in Calgary. The place is called "Old Motorcycle Shop" and when I went into this place it was like "We are vintage snobs what business do you have here?" so I went to another shop and the one guy pulled me into the yard and was showing me the exact bike I have in quantities of about 10 for parts and such.

I also find a lot of these shops just don't know how to look up stuff and rely solely on parts books that really do squat as so many parts for our bikes are interchangeable that a book simply would not work.

hillsy said:

A good parts guy in a dealership can make the shop hundreds of thousands of $$$ compared to a shit parts guy.

Probably not the same level at a vintage / used shop but still it could mean the difference between opening and closing the doors.

You should probably email your experience to the shop - if I was the owner I'd want to know about that.

Click to expand...

Seconded all around.

Yup,
My local guys are useless. Don't even have carb jets anymore. All the local dealer wants to do is work on brand new shit because thats all their techs are trained to do.

I get so pissed off when I ask for a part that I know the price of and they come back with 2-3 times that.

SONIC. said:

Yup,
My local guys are useless. Don't even have carb jets anymore. All the local dealer wants to do is work on brand new shit because thats all their techs are trained to do.

I get so pissed off when I ask for a part that I know the price of and they come back with 2-3 times that.

Click to expand...

This can be true, I recently swapped valve shims in a Yamaha. The dealer wanted $22 each. I went over to BMW and bought the same shims for $2.65 each.

ApriliaBill said:

This can be true, I recently swapped valve shims in a Yamaha. The dealer wanted $22 each. I went over to BMW and bought the same shims for $2.65 each.

Click to expand...

I I called Sloans (huge dealer here) for carb jets for a xs650 recently. They didn't have any (very standard mikuni jet) and they said "don't worry we can have them in a week and a half and it will only be 12 dollars each"
$5.88 shipped and I had the ones I needed within 2 days.

Now if some shithead on ebay can buy them, and ship them to me for 5.88 it stands to reason that a honda, yamaha, kawasaki, suzuki, victory, aprilia, polaris, guzzi, indian, and ktm dealer with a 50 million dollar showroom and a multi million dollar repair facility could maybe do a little better than 24 bucks and a week and a half wait.

Re: Re: Local parts rant.

firebane said:

Your encounter sounds like I had at a local place where I live here in Calgary. The place is called "Old Motorcycle Shop" and when I went into this place it was like "We are vintage snobs what business do you have here?" so I went to another shop and the one guy pulled me into the yard and was showing me the exact bike I have in quantities of about 10 for parts and such.

I also find a lot of these shops just don't know how to look up stuff and rely solely on parts books that really do squat as so many parts for our bikes are interchangeable that a book simply would not work.

Click to expand...

Funny you mention because that's precisely where I was haha.

I used to go to TJs although sometimes rude they did get me shit and 20th reasonable prices so I liked dealing there. But they closed the doors.

Where do you go now?

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Re: Re: Local parts rant.

duggyb said:

Funny you mention because that's precisely where I was haha.

I used to go to TJs although sometimes rude they did get me shit and 20th reasonable prices so I liked dealing there. But they closed the doors.

Where do you go now?

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After I wrote that I was like I think I remember duggy talking about Calgary before then went and checked TJs site and was sad they are closed.

It really depends on what I need but generally for most stuff ebay and online stores I find is the best choice now. If you want to go to an actual shop there is on in the NE called Universal Cycle which carries a lot of random stuff. GW Cycleworld has treated me well for bringing in stuff.

SONIC. said:

Now if some shithead on ebay can buy them, and ship them to me for 5.88 it stands to reason that a honda, yamaha, kawasaki, suzuki, victory, aprilia, polaris, guzzi, indian, and ktm dealer with a 50 million dollar showroom and a multi million dollar repair facility could maybe do a little better than 24 bucks and a week and a half wait.

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Your eBay guy is probably a retired parts guy ;D

But the answer to your question is in your response - eBay guy doesn't have a 50 million dollar showroom to pay for.....

:-[

hillsy said:

Your eBay guy is probably a retired parts guy ;D

But the answer to your question is in your response - eBay guy doesn't have a 50 million dollar showroom to pay for.....

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Both shops being named within this thread did not have anywhere near a 50 million dollar show room. The one shop that closed was essentially a small trailer with a massive yard of used bikes and a mechanic shop for repairs and such.

The other shop looks like a junkyard on the inside with mechanics working.

We do have plces in Calgary that have massive show rooms but those people are selling high end products and such.

Either way they're probably paying property rent unlike eBay guy.

Not if they can't even get a part number they aren't.

I'm not trying to defend shit service - just saying eBay has changed the playing field for wreckers and old parts shops. So they have either closed their doors or have concentrated on doing other things.

eBayers don't have a shop front - that's why they can be cheap.

The last old skool mechanic / wreckers here in Brisbane is closing down in a few weeks. I used to work there. He's been a one man shop for the past 5 years or so and is now retiring. No one wanted to buy his shop (mainly because he was the shop), so he's selling up his machines and going to be a grey nomad with his wife.

eBay changed his business model drastically in relation to the wrecking side of his business. He mainly did enghine / head work in the end....but all the time he paid rent and he always used to tell me "There's no riches in this industry - you just work for wages".

I understand the storefront cost and am happy to pay for it because it means the convenience of having then and there and not having to wait on the mail.
However if you are big enough to have a showroom the size of a small town you should be big enough to get rock bottom prices on parts and be able to pass that on to customers, as opposed to charging 5x the price of the other guy.

Those 2.50 jets I would Have gladly paid 5-8 bucks apiece for. But 12 and a wait is just ridiculous IMHO.

Storefront or not I shouldn't be able to order something from the Internet and have it there sooner for cheaper than I can go buy it at the store.

Although I do love amazon prime. Order at 9 pm Monday have it in my hands at 9 am on Tuesday

It's purely return on investment. How much work does the guy have to do to get your $24? How much of that is profit? Are those vintage parts orders their core business?

It's far easier to sell something of more value with more of a profit margin than to spend time chasing sporadic small value sales.

And that's where the online guys shine.

hillsy said:

It's purely return on investment. How much work does the guy have to do to get your $24? How much of that is profit? Are those vintage parts orders their core business?

It's far easier to sell something of more value with more of a profit margin than to spend time chasing sporadic small value sales.

And that's where the online guys shine.

Click to expand...

When your shop is called "Old Motorcycle Shop" and you have vintage bikes everywhere. I don't expect you to tell me my 1977 is an OLD bike. Shit there was Triumphs and BSAs in there I wouldnt even know where to get parts from. My honda should be a cakewalk.

Also in discussion to price im not even talking that. If he would have came to me and had access to every part and doubled the price of what DCC was I would have said he is a respectable man for saying that. but telling me you CANT get parts when i can find them myself(not on ebay) is another story.

and DCC has somewhat of a storefront. if they can find sprockets that fit my bike. why cant this guy? and if they can get 0 ring gold chains. why cant this guy? if i myself know mikuni VM30s only have 2 choke plunger styles and this is my first set of mikuni vm30s. why cant this guy?

I understand they have a storefront and i am willing to pay for that. If he would have been able to get all my parts for say $250 i would have bought them just to build the relationship. even though on DCC they are $160 plus shipping. and we know DCC has there markup in that price as well.

I think allot of these older guys running the shops don't want to have to hunt for suppliers or argue to get a good price from suppliers to compete with online guys. yet i bet you the guys a DCC are arguing with "JT sprockets" every week for a better price and better buying power.

regardless. DCC gets my money again. sorry boys

I was talking more to SONIC.

You might have got the work experience kid.

Dunno.

There's obviously still shops out there that don't know shit. Always has been....probably always will be....