paulthistle

If I'm ashamed enough of my boots, I will pressure wash and then air dry hanging on the grill. Once dry I soak them with UV2 (Armor All). A couple of times a year. What is dubbin?

Tim, I just looked at your website. I don't see any new or used trials bikes, nor any mention of same. But the place looks snazzy, and large. Does your mx team do much for you? I don't mean directly, but in sales? Do you still have service trucks? You can pm me or email at paulthistle@hotmail.com. Just curious, I carry yamaha and polaris.

Nah! Those old fossils aren't going to sell any kit, we need new blood! Maybey Britney or angelina, then we could sell to everyone! Lane would have to buy a new one or be laughed off the set, Blacklisted(again).

I think not having a national around the same time will reduce spectators. I don't mean the same day. But a day or so before. It adds to the carnival like atmosphere. My daughter planned her wedding around the last WR so I wouldn't miss it. But I gave her the wrong date!! DOH!!! I got to be there friday and sunday. Luckily I only live a couple of hours away. I'll have two Polaris Ranger Crew's there this time to help haul the tired up some of the hills. But I'm still waiting on my TC bumper stickers. I think I'll make some illegal TC knock off shirts for the drivers. Then when we're hauling the press around they will have to be impressed. If I get my TC bumper stickers. I know they make it here I saw AXLSUV with one on his car this weekend, nice fantic! I think the endurocross exposure is very good for the sale of trials BIKES. Not necessarily for the sport or compettion side. But without bikes on showroom floors, mass sales are not very likely. I also think having riders like David Knight say in interviews that "he felt like trials gave him a great start as far as bike control". is super PR. Lots of other top riders have trials bikes, if we could get testimonials from them that they just have fun riding them. That would put the idea in more peoples mind. RC, Trey Batey, Russell Bobbit just to name a few. We should sell that they are fun! Not just try to get people to compete. That's where the crowd is. Tim, Do you sell trials bikes?

Alan, You are so on the money. No, I do not have trials bikes on my floor. The whole problem in my mind is that there is no distinction between dealer and distributor. Why would anyone want to shop from me when they can call the Distributer/Retailer. Ordering parts? Call the Distributor/ retailer. None of my other suppliers sell to the public. AT ALL. Period. Just try to get one on the phone. So AL, if you want a part, who do you call? It is not you (the consumers) fault. That is the way the current Distributor/Retailers work. It's just the system in place. But for me as a retailer to commit 50K to 75K to a product, I better be able to market the product and get refferrals from the distributor. Not find out they sold direct to the consumer. Because to sell these I think you are going to have to stock a complete line and common service parts. Even my parts distributors refer consumers to my store. I already service trials bikes. People that buy products from you expect service from you. Walmart is doing a heck of a job turning that around. I'm not saying we should try to promote trials. And I thought your response rate to the flyers you sent out was very interesting. The question was about Importer direct. Which I would say it already is Importer Direct. It is only my naive opinion of what would need to change to make selling trials bikes profitable to the importer. Some may be comfortable with the status quo, and or, the current system is just the way it has evolved. And I probably don't know squat. But I think that Trials bikes could be effectivly cross promoted to other motorcyclists. NOT to encourage them to compete, but as a means to increase the enjoyment of their current passtime. A trials bike is just fun to ride, and improves your motorcycle "Motor Skills". Dan your post in right on the money. But the motorcycle to bicycle margins are not even close. Average retail markup of my product is 10 to 15%. Then to maintain that margin I will need to add on assembly. I rarely get retail. The average bicycle margin is 30%. So take that 7K trials bike and make $350?? Maybe. That 7K bicycle has a margin of $2100!!! That is a fact! And my 30% number is conservative. Most bicycle dealers like to make 40%. But the distributors are not retailers. I do not envy the importers. I am sure I don't have the faintest idea how hard it is. I would like to sell their product. But I can't go "Head to Head" with them like I could with another dealer. I am not a fan of government intervention. They rarely make any situation to do with economics better. The best thing they could do is free up industry with the fair tax. So our products would be compettive abroad. Then we could show what american manufacturing can do! And I believe compettion is what makes prices lower. As consumers it is at our descretion to buy or not. When consumer confidence is low, sales slow. We all want the best deal, for us. You have a long term relationship with your dealer. And now he happens to import as well. I am sure that was a leap to go from dealer to importer. You are comfortable with him and that is what a good dealer makes you, comfortable. But there are a lot of consumers out there that don't know what it is to be comfortable, and don't care. They never develope any sort of bond with their dealer. It would be a relationship of Mistrust. A sleeping with one eye open sort of thing. Do you have a car dealer, you buy from that you know that well? I doubt it. Why not? You spend more on cars. You mentioned the Chinese, remember what japan did in the 60's. Now they have a higher average income than us. So with things happening on a global scale much faster now than in the sixties, what is the chinese consumer going to demand? Higher pay? Similar products? Honda's sales in the country have soared. The chinese are on the road to being like the rest of the world. Well, maybe a dirt road. I expect their products to escalate in price as manufacturing standards are implemented. You know, in china if you do a bad job for the government.They kill you. The person in charge of exports was found taking bribes two years ago. He was executed last year.

Copey, Those are high end bicycles, BUT. There are a lot of them out there. A shop next to me sells a lot of 8K to 12K dollar mountain bikes. I bike very little so my $3500 cannondale mountain bike is low end. I sold my 3K road bike last year. Oh yeah, the people that buy them are not very likely to compete, and yet they will buy a 15K dollar bike and then buy more titanium to put on it. Those cool $2500 wheels, etc. But without having them on the floor, they'd be hard to sell.

I have a 125 sherco and a 125 beta. The sherco is "easier" to ride. The beta turns very well and I seem to be able to find more traction with it. Some old trials guy who is a new england florida halfback transplant told me "Pwol" If you buy a 125 you will learn trials technique, if you buy a big bore you may never learn "Proper" technique. You can get away with poor form more on a big bore than a small bore. It's like the 125 mx class, no mistakes. Plus I haven't seen anything I was willing to try, that I didn't have plenty of power for. And I love to hillclimb! So , if you want to LEARN trials technique start small. And trials is ALL about technique. So out of your current choices, I'd buy the sherco(even though it is to big for you), learn to ride and then get whatever I thought made me great.

The resistor, I believe just cuts down RFI. On yamaha's for the last ten years, running a non resistor can cause a ignition malfunction. Once stopped will crank up and run fine. With the close proximity of the ignition control boxes, I would say the resistor would be cheap insurance. I am running the BPR5EIX. I have not fouled a plug in 2 years. My son has fouled one on his beta 80 in a year and a half. Great oils are created. You can run auto trans oil or whatever, and I'm sure you will save a couple of bucks. While you are at walmart why don't you pick up some mixing oil? It is rated the same. Maybe thats why your tushy is sensitive, its been tight for so long.

Hmmm.... Thats one rider in six competing. Thats around 17%. I'd say that was average. I rode a Hare Scrambles last weekend. During the morning youth race, I rode my beta two laps helping the kids. There was a lot of interest in the bike. Several who said they were interested in buying one. I think I need a bigger trailer. Semi? Anyhow, those people are the ones who would make being an importer profitable. NOT the core rider. The core rider knows people and can ferret out the best deal. You only want him as a customer so he can tell interested people they should buy from you.

Dan, You are exactly right. The point I am trying to make is, If "core riders" such as yourself are what makes up trials now. Then the trials distributers are missing 80% of potential sales from the masses. These customers will never compete, maybe never even spectate at a competition. But they will buy, if exposed. I am a motorcycle, ATV dealer. I sell 500 to 600 units a year. But to sell trials bikes I have to go through a distributer/retailer. If someone in my area calls them, the dist will ship them a bike. If an employee at yamaha buys a bike from the company, it still has to be delivered to them at a dealership. And they have to pay the dealer for prepping it. And then parts. The consumer can just get them direct. Why wouldn't they? It is faster. But the whole point is there is a considerable leap made from dealer/dist to only distributor. Thats where I think the biggest gains in sales could be made. To the average joe. The one on youtube learning to ride. Just by having a financial plan means you wouldn't consider most "consumer" financing. But I bet I could get you with a 6 months 000. Nothing down, no payments and no interest for six months. Then you could use you money after that. But promos like that cost the distributor, and are built into the product price. But i sell 40% on some sort of plan.

Perfect site....except, for the pratice of banning. Which is barbaric in it's own right. Here in the colonies we encourage citizens with bad spelling and no tact.

Buy a piece of plastic hose that will fit snugly over the bleeder. Put a loop about 40mm in diameter near the bleeder screw. Put the other end in a can. Open the bleeder screw and pump the lever. You can see if air or fluid is coming out. The important part is to get the master cylinder pumping first. On problem child master cylinders, I remove it from the machine and put in a vise. I attach a short hose to the output and loop it back to the resevoir,immersed in the fluid. Pump until all air is out of the line, you will see the bubbles coming out of the line. Then take your syringe and fill the system to the mastercylinder hose union. Hold that line up to keep the fluid in it. Then fill the master cylinder with fluid and put the cap back on. Hold the master with the out put up, so as not to spill any fluid. Put your bolt in the hose and and quickly connect the two. A slight squeeze of the lever right before you tighten the bolt will force out the last bit of air. Make sure you only squeeze and do NOT let off before you get the bolt sealed.

That's a great spot! Local cable is a very effective and affordable way to go.

Ishy, Thank You! For an awesome thread. And I totally respect someone willing to speak their mind! I appreciate your efforts to keep trials alive. Lord knows it needs all the help it can get. Kjax, That sound like an incredible event! For all involved and all who participated. A true win win for riders, spectators and sponsors. I agree some demo bikes at an event like that would be icing on the cake. With a lot of the top off road riders having trials experience, more riders will check them out for cross riding fun. I have read two examples of exactly what I was blabbing about. People that buy because it looks like fun,a consumer who is a savvy shopper and chooses service over "Best Price". Prtadam, there is no dought in my mind that most trials bikes ARE used in compettion now. Which is my point, right now you have primarily, core enthusiasts buying bikes. If trials is to make it big in the US it will need to be more accessible to the average non compettive consumer. primarily on the mainstream dealers showroom floor. That way the non enthusiast can take them babys home.

Only a small percentage of customers are internet buyers, most now are internet shoppers/ researchers. The vast majority have an idea what they want, come look and decide to buy, based on the warm fuzzy you give them in the way of confidence and product knowledge. Yamahas market research a few years ago showed that less than half of their YZ250 two strokes were ever raced. Hondas research showed that less than 15% of XR400's ever saw compettion. So if you only ever showed trials bikes at a compettion or assumed all buyers would be participating in compettion, you would be missing a huge portion of customers/ potential sales. While clearing sections for an upcoming trials. A friend who rides a few hare scrambles a year said he would like to have one "just to play around on. One customer of mine from england, who lives in atlanta has 2 4RT's. He has no intention of competing, he just trail rides. But he bought 2 so when a friend was over they could ride as well. Less than 15% buy based on price alone. Trials bikes are high? People spend a lot of money on crap. Yes a trials bike may seem expensive, But you don't have to do anything to it to ride. A YZ450F is $7299. A new nice mountain bike ranges from $2500 to $10K. There is always someone ready to buy. If you put to many hoops in front of them they will buy something else, dirt bike, flat screen, just fill in the blank. You have to make it easy. Bike with price tag on it. Think cave man, YOU BUY!! UGH! PRETTY! I was having dinner at a friends, afterwards we wandered out to his garage. Inside he had an electric buggy, about 6 high end cannondale bicycles, an ATV I sold him, and a classic mustang and a harley. He only used the electric car once. He bought the bicycles for a ride in cades cove, unridden. The atv was $7900 two years old with 20 miles on it. He walked in my shop one day and just thought it looked cool, he wasn't there for an atv. The harley , same, low miles a few years old. So get over the high price crap and admit you are the tight A@@S, that sees no value in service because you assume a dealer is going to rip you off. Trials bikes arn't high, they are an example of low production custom motorcycle. Orange county choppers makes them to, starting at $80,000. But you will have to get on their waiting list.

It is a very large boat! Perhaps a ship.

I think I sold a bike to copemech! That may be him on the phone now! AGAIN!

As I'm writing this my wife is telling me about an ATV we sold today. We made about $250.....WHOO HOOO!!! It takes a lot of those and a lot of other stuff to keep the gears turning. Is it a slow economy? Or did all of the day traders switch to real estate, and screw that up too! Looks like business as usual to me. But according to the news media the world economy is about to collapse.

We all want to taylor the rules. Limits are what will make or break a franchise. No rules or requirements and anyone can be a dealer. Establish a territory to protect the dealer, require stocking product. You can't sell with an empty showroom. Minimum inventory requirements. All of these things will strengthen the brand by servicing the customer better.

JMcK I agree, but I see a more basic problem. The small dealers are competing with the importer for sales. The importers will have to leave the retail sales to the dealers. Establish a genuine price list that is the same to all dealers. Then it would be in their interest to have a strong dealer network. The importer needs to be able to profit from the unit sale and parts sales, not all bike importers are the parts importers for their brand!!??!!

Sale of bike $450 finance income 2% of sale $140 Acc and apparel purchased with bike $320 avg margin 30% $96 spare rear fender, levers and air filter $165 30% $49.50 Potential profit from trade 20% of 3800. $720 Finance income from used sale $76 Acc and apparel $180 30% margin $54 Potential profit from one new unit sale = $1585.5 x 20 =31,710.00 Without "nailing" anyone with extended wty or insurance. Although theft ins would be recomended. As a dealer you have to provide service for your customer, that doesn't always mean repair. It means helping your customer get what they want and be able to enjoy it. Their time is more important than yours, you save them time and hassle by fufilling their needs and giving them more time to enjoy their hobby.

Correct a mundo Neil King! Kudo's to you JMcK as well! The basic premise of any sale is perceived need. You Don't sell steak, you sell the sizzle! A picture of raw steak will attract few. But the image of a slab of meat perfectly grilled with side items will make the register ring. So what should you do? Buts on seats. If you put people on the bike with solid basic instruction and an idea what to do, you will be able to sell them. Show how trials is a sport the whole family can do and enjoy. Discounted product will only satisfy the current enthusiast. It will not promote the sport or keep a dealer or importer in business. To sustain a healthy market you must have a steady flow of new riders. There must be events, rides, practice areas national events. Show rooms with raw steak and images of sizzle to spark interest. I think a large semi with Gas Gas, Beta, Sherco or whatever, carrying a fleet of demo's and a stock of new at selected events, manned with local dealer(s) to sell to the customers from their area. Room for a huge stock of parts, service area, hospitality area. You create excitement, you don't discount it and hope it happens. Hope won't get you cra..., but work and some planning will make it happen. Selling product is a business, But without a need......... NO SALE!