Sitting in Goodyear and wondered something

Iv'e thought about it. A couple of mmi grads and one crusty old guy {worked on everything for 45 years}
Devide the place with a glass wall to the waiting room/sandwich shop.
Tires tune ups,oil change. DO iT !

there are several independent motorcycle repair shops in my area, I have not seen a chain of them yet though.

I just don't think there is a big enough market to have shops dedicated to just motorcycles. A lot of folks ride, but so many more drive.

zabrow187 said:

Why aren't there any nondealer motorcycle maintenence places? Like Mineke or Goodyear. Have, Change and sell tires, do brakes, adjustments, regular scheduled maintenence stuff? I know most people do their own maintence (myself included) but I can't believe that noone else has thought about this.

Click to expand...

I've had my bike worked on by a shop like this and know of about 6 others within an hour drive of me.

Well I'm the SV650 specialist in my area.
So far I've worked on one, my own.

It would be nice to have a full blown non dealer bike shop.

Not enough overall demand or need.

There are an estimated number of over 250,000,000 cars on the road in the US, but only around 6.5 million motorcycles. Cars outnumber us nearly 40 to 1.

Of all these bikes, only a very small percentage ride on a regular basis.

There are plenty of them out there, just not a chain. Most really good tech's will start their own business, because their tired of getting lumped in with the mediocre guys that work at the stealerships. I'm being generous with the mediocre... most dealer tech's are just plain hacks.

Trambo said:

Not enough overall demand or need.

There are an estimated number of over 250,000,000 cars on the road in the US, but only around 6.5 million motorcycles. Cars outnumber us nearly 40 to 1.

Of all these bikes, only a very small percentage ride on a regular basis.

Click to expand...

Exactly what I was thinking, now how wide a spectrum of basic yet still ordered out parts would a role in shop have to stock think about it. Unless its a harley almost each and every model is different.

buzzmanrm said:

Exactly what I was thinking, now how wide a spectrum of basic yet still ordered out parts would a role in shop have to stock think about it. Unless its a harley almost each and every model is different.

Click to expand...

Precisely. Like most shops you'd limit yourself to the most popular makes & models, which would further limit your services.

I think this is why Mom & Pops still thrive, in some areas.

There is a great place run by an older guy named Gary just outside Chapel Hill. It's off of 751 just before you get to Jordan Lake. The prices are fair (read: super cheap), he has dern near every part you could imagine either in stock or in a shed, and he is willing to sit around and help you with almost anything. When I first got into riding and could only afford jukers he helped me out a lot. If you live in that area (wish I still did) look him up.

KC has a few independent bike shops. Also, we have a cycle gear which stocks and installs tires. They have a decent little shop area, so I imagine they might also do basic mods. Like slips ons, they stock some of those, probably install them as well.

There are a few independent shops around my area. I know the guy who runs one of them, he's a GoldWing expert. Dude has Honda of American calling him to solve problems on bikes that their dealer techs can't figure out. He's that good.

I also know of a few shops that do HD stuff as well that have some of the best HD mechanics around working at them.

used to have a few independent shops in my area, including an awesome salvage shop. Vet's salvage had almost every part for any motorcycle in a bucket, drawer or basket you could imagine. As the demographic turned from cheap transport to boutique chic sportbike squid, their niche in the market got narrower and narrower. They shut down about 11 years ago. I miss that shop.

Such a place that offered house calls might be a good idea. Especially for high-end brands like Ducati, BMW, etc. I'd picture such a scenario would include a tech arriving in a large delivery van full of parts and a portable awning. Maybe an umbrella girl too. :twisted: :highfive:

oldbaldsob said:

Such a place that offered house calls might be a good idea. Especially for high-end brands like Ducati, BMW, etc. I'd picture such a scenario would include a tech arriving in a large delivery van full of parts and a portable awning. Maybe an umbrella girl too. :twisted: :highfive:

Click to expand...

Most high end shops would rather send out a truck to pick up a bike and bring it back to the shop. I would rather work with a lift instead of bending over or kneeling on the ground and not have to run to my truck a few times for tools. Plus a truck full of tools would probably cost a bit of money for insurance.

xnoahx said:

Most high end shops would rather send out a truck to pick up a bike and bring it back to the shop. I would rather work with a lift instead of bending over or kneeling on the ground and not have to run to my truck a few times for tools. Plus a truck full of tools would probably cost a bit of money for insurance.

Click to expand...

Insurance and liability against theft would killl you. Floor cleaners that use vans pay astronomical prices on PCL coverage due to high theft coverage both of their equipment and the risk businesses have in letting them in after hours.

Its all dream if demand goes up maybe we'll look like china and india with little hole in the wall shops to pop in and out of from time to time.

It seems around all the independently owned small bike shops are going under. There used to be a lot of small repair shops that specialized minor repairs, tune ups, oil changes, tire changes etc., that were not big dealers. But they are all dying off.

there is several in Delaware but none in my location. I cant wait to get out of the military and move bcak to DE. right now Im trying to get a AGR slot in DE but it is real hard considering they just deployed and I am headed back.

There are at least a few in my area, in Phoenix. We have a cycle gear too and that place is usually great for parts, plus they'll install tires for cheap and do balancing for free, which is really nice. The little independent ones are pretty good from what I've heard, but I still do most of the work myself. I really wish there were generic places, but imagine the overhead from stocking parts would be rough. Ford has 17 basic models (I had to look it up) each of which has a ton of people buying every one and a lot of crossovers in basic stuff. Honda motorcycles has 17 models all with much lower purchase numbers. I mean even if you only specialized in one brand for stocking parts that's still a ton. And it's not like there's a lot of crossover between a Honda 250 and a VTX 1800.