RE:wrecker closing down

[Nathan S]

Its your right to shop where and when you want . But if the wrecker knows you , he knows where you normally shop too    

Anyway , if the wreckers are no longer needed , they will dissapear like the dinosaurs. But at this stage the bargain hunting  keyboard jokeys are a small minority and the majority still prefers good old fashioned service.

That's hysterically funny Walter.

The local bike wrecker & Yamaha dealer has been given several thousand of my dollars over a couple of years. Excepting one parts guy who doesn't work there anymore, none of the staff would have a clue what my name is, or anything about me... The boss has only just started recognising me as a regular customer, which is ironic because I only go there under duress nowdays.

"Good old fashioned service" has NEVER been a strong point among wreckers.
CanAm370, the new guy from Pakenham, Roy Dale and Mr Motocross are usually worth the cost of a phone call, but the others are too much hassle - on any given day, they'll be rude, stupid and/or simply over-priced.

Your niche is probably atypical of the industry trends - a look on any of the main-stream dirt bike forums shows that the attitudes shown here are very moderate compared to the majority of riders - and they we're probably less likely to import stuff from OS. The retail business has changed, for better or for worse - those that rise to the challenge will prosper, while those that don't will struggle to survive.


Choice A: Order a tyre from the USA, pay $70 and have it arrive on your doorstep less than a week later.
Choice B: Drive to your local bike shop and pay $125 for the same tyre (assuming it is in stock - and if it isn't, it will probably take more than a week to get it in and you'll probably have to go to the shop to pay a deposit and then back again to pick it up).

That's it in a nutshell - and until the shops realise that they have to compete with the internet, they'll continue to go under at a rapid rate.

In the meantime, its like watching someone repeatedly poke themselves in the eye.

[shorelinemc]

not a wrecker but mx world at capalaba is gone

[oldfart]

In a nut shell ..... thier stock is taking up space which is costing them rent $$$$ big $ at that.
One particlar wrecker used to charge like a wounded bull and I would never pay his rediculous prices and new it was only a mater of time before they would go belly up. Yes they tried Ebay for about 6 months , but again thier parts were over priced and the rent killed them in the end.

[colmoody]

Nathan unfortunatley when you generalize on a subject you kinda leave yourself open. The problem with that is that a fair percentage of the members/guests beleive what they read on this forum. (me included) I would hazzard a guess that a few (me included) think that we can get whatever tyre we want deliver'd from the US within one week for seventy dollars. If that is the  case where do I line up. You will come back at this with the "I was only using it as an example" and that maybe the case. Problem is Dealers (not wreckers) have no input into recommended retail price on new parts what ever they are and your post kinda taints them all as rip off merchants.

As consumer's I think we often tend to relate the asking price of whatever with OUR income status without having a clue as to the costs involved that the guy stumping up for the shop front has. I think that if more had an idea what it costs to run a business these days they might have second thoughts.

[Nathan S]

www.rockymountainatv.com

They regularly do specials and/or buying more than one tyre at a time will minimise the effect of the postage costs. $70/tyre wasn't just pulled from where the sun doesn't shine.

Some of the local places have been doing specials to remain competitive - torpedo7 is/was selling Michelins for ~$70 each, and someone else was doing Pirellis last week for ~$65 each.  Sutto's have been making a big fuss about staying competitive with the USA - Sutto himself posts on DBW fairly regularly and it pretty open about the whole deal, and its earning him/his business a ton of credit among the punters.

I've done my time in retail (family business for nine years), so I'm not one of those people who expects businesses to survive on 10% mark-ups....
My local bike shop owner is also very honest and up-front about such things - I see his invoices for virtually all of my special orders. I do not begrudge a single cent of profit he makes from me and he actually provides good customer service, so he has my loyalty. There are plenty of times when I happily pay extra to buy from him - but the times when he can't be competitive on price, he doesn't resent me buying from elsewhere.
He has recognised (and adapted to) the rapidly changing retail environment, unlike so many others...

[oldskool]

i bought a 90\100\16 brand new at my local markets $20 still had the little spikes on the tyre, same tyre brand was on sale on a us web site for $77.55 down from $88.im oldskool in the way i shop if i cant pick up a phone order a part go pick it up i don't wanna know about it.but being one who dosen't restore old bikes or race them things are a bit different for me as i only need bits that will work and not correct for the bike.but anything i need for my 88 xr100 can be ordered through my local honda dealer and have it there within 24 hours except plastics(wich some dick painted black)same as bits for my 89 rm80.the basic honda xr100 ran for so long and from 85 to 2000 pretty much only the colour changed and most bits on the rm are pretty much the same from mid 80's to mid 90's so theres still plenty of parts available for them.cheers gary

[colmoody]

Nathan there you go generalizing again. If Torpedo 7 were/are doing Michelins for $70 and someone else is doing Pirelli's for $65 means diddly butt to me. If they are not the model I want they could be paying me to take them away and they still would'nt be cheap. If on the other hand you are saying they have what I want in Michelin at your quoted prices I will take ten tomorrow.

RE your last paragraph in your last post. If you had quoted that in your post previous to that it would have put a bit of balance in your case.

[Nathan S]

Nathan there you go generalizing again. If Torpedo 7 were/are doing Michelins for $70 and someone else is doing Pirelli's for $65 means diddly butt to me. If they are not the model I want they could be paying me to take them away and they still would'nt be cheap. If on the other hand you are saying they have what I want in Michelin at your quoted prices I will take ten tomorrow.

Make your own judgement:
http://www.torpedo7.com.au/torpedo7/categoryindexdisplay.do?org.apache.struts.taglib.html.TOKEN=e6d4ef7e2a8aff6e88f5811090e917ea&formAction=changepage&searchProductCategories=false&searchForAllTerms=false&caseSensitiveSearch=false&searchAsPhrase=false&searchKeywords=false&searchTitle=false&searchRichDescription=false&searchCode=false&searchPrice=false&sortOrder=&searchString=&pageIndex=2&pageSize=24&brandCode=&categoryCode=&subCategoryCode=&minPrice=0.0&maxPrice=2.14748365E9&id=TY&viewStyle=&sizeCode=

I quoted $70 because I'd been looking at the MH3 fronts. The others that are dearer from T7, are also dearer than the $125 retail price that I quoted (at the Canberra bike shops).

RE your last paragraph in your last post. If you had quoted that in your post previous to that it would have put a bit of balance in your case.

All that changed is that I made it clear that I wasn't just speaking out my backside - but it doesn't alter whether I was right or wrong in the first instance... 

[GMC]

Make your own judgement:
http://www.torpedo7.com.au/torpedo7/categoryindexdisplay.do?org.apache.struts.taglib.html.TOKEN=e6d4ef7e2a8aff6e88f5811090e917ea&formAction=changepage&searchProductCategories=false&searchForAllTerms=false&caseSensitiveSearch=false&searchAsPhrase=false&searchKeywords=false&searchTitle=false&searchRichDescription=false&searchCode=false&searchPrice=false&sortOrder=&searchString=&pageIndex=2&pageSize=24&brandCode=&categoryCode=&subCategoryCode=&minPrice=0.0&maxPrice=2.14748365E9&id=TY&viewStyle=&sizeCode=

I only had a quick look but their prices seemed much the same as the shops except for some specials, which would be aimed at getting you in through the 'vurtual' door.




I see bike shops getting bagged a lot for being dearer than overseas, but as I have dipped my toes into a bit of retail I can see the mark up for the shop isn’t that much.
The shop isn’t making the killing on price, someone else down the chain is.
It’s great that you can buy your tyres so cheap, dollars rule, I understand that just as much as anybody, but expecting the shops to come close isn’t fair on them as I would think those prices are way cheaper than what the shop can purchase them for from the local distributors.
Haggling is all well and good but a business isn’t going to thrive by dropping the price to less than cost to get that extra sale.
I think the places that are being competitive are the ones doing their own importing.
A lot of the time what mark up the shop makes is eaten away by transport costs, which is fine on large items but can hurt on small orders.
And how many have wandered into a shop to try on a pair of boots or nylons to check for size and then ordered them from the net?
I know this goes on, as do the shops, so the shops stock less as they can’t sell as much, because they can’t sell as much they stock even less, and so the snowball tumbles.
I don’t profess to know what the answer is but I can see a lot of smaller shops struggling just as your local milkbar can’t compete with the supermarkets.

Strangely a lot of good dealerships are disappearing because they are also getting grief from the manufacturers.
Told the workshop floor must be a certain colour and the small country shops are told to stock road bikes which they know they will have trouble moving. And they have to pay a lease on their stock.
I had 2 local Yamaha stores nearby years ago, now both gone.
I have to travel further now to buy parts, and establish a relationship with a new shop.
Yes I can get bits posted but that add’s to the cost compared to dropping into the local shop.
And the few times I have tried to buy from those large overseas places they have scared me with huge freight costs.
They reply that to order with my credit card anyway and they will adjust the freight cost later,
No thanks

[crash n bern]

Rocky mountain atv will ship 3 tyres for $70 and the tyres are cheap. 7 day shipping. Torpedo7 has some great deals that will almost work out cheaper as they ship from oz.  I bought two alloy bike stands with tool trays and oil buckets for $100 and $9 shipping.  Quality stuff.

I agree with Nathan on moving dead stock but the flipside to that is that sooner or later everything sells.  Providing you can afford to wait twenty years.

[VMX247]

because they are also getting grief from the manufacturers.
Told the workshop floor must be a certain colour and the small country shops are told to stock road bikes which they know they will have trouble moving. And they have to pay a lease on their stock.

We were told the exact same thing by our local Kawa shop !! 
cheers A&S

[shorelinemc]

yep we bike shops are all theiving bastards  8)look at the profit i make for example on a pair of michelin
 my buying price m12 90/90-21 $72.69 plus 10% gst$7.26 total 79.95 retail price107.95
m12 rear 120/90-18 $82.12,10%%8.21 total $98.54 retail $121.95 toal f&r tyres $229.90
 woo hoo profit of 51.41
whoops i forgot freight $9.50,bugger we are now down to $41.91 f#*k  yeh i m make a killing off all these gullible people who walk thru the door
 bugger forgot to mention we have to fit the tyres for that price to
 f@#k it there goes buying a couple of ccm
what a lot of people dont take in is volume,we dont have it here ie australia brings in 4 containers of michelin tyres, the usa would bring in 100 for an example.i go hunting occasionaly out west,yes i can buy all my gear/supplies/fuel in brisbane and save my self money but i choose to spend the money in the closest country town i hunting at-gives money to a town in the bush who need it more than the city,hardware could go to bunnings but i would rather give it to the little bloke around the corner i figger it makes the world go round a bit more fairly,cause remember when all the little shopa are gone,the big mega palaces are going to ream you big time wth no lube

[TM BILL]

Actually my home town wrecker is full on VMXer, supports the sport with prize money and always has most of what I need and lets me scavenge in his boxes of stuff for odd length bolts and other things that might fit.

So shop at Baileys Motorcycles in Hawera always been great wreckers and bike shop  Actually Hawera also has Action Suzuki run by former Aussie MX champ so we are spoilt for choice, bugger Hawaii take your holidays in Hawera.

Bloody Hell  PRIZE MONEY IN VMX  where do i sign  Shit if ther paying prize money at VMX meetings maybe i could afford to shop at one of our rip off wreckers 

[TM BILL]

Walter why do you keep pulling your post  People quote you so there saved for posterity anyway 

[LWC82PE]

Yeah your right on the volume. Getting old model tyres is a hard thing. Example, Avon only brings maybe a dozen or less of a particular model tyre and quite often i have bought all of what they have had left or they specially import some in. Some times they say 'we have 4 of that model tyre comming' so then then i will say put my name on all 4. There are certain tyres that they bring in in so little numbers like 19 and 16 inch road bike tyres in old patterns. There is stacks of options made by manufacturers but the Australian importers dont bring them in or only bring in a couple at a time.