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where to buy motorcycle gear?

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If I had more opportunity to buy parts or accessories locally, I would, but as it stands I buy most of that online, typically fortnine.

As far as service goes, I can barely comment as I do most work myself. I do have two Suzuki recalls to deal with now, though, and won't use Ready Suzuki due to recent reports of extended delays and mechanic incompetence. So I guess I'll need to bring the bike to Snow City, and I haven't looked into their hours yet to see if I can drop off or pick up at convenient times.

Regarding the parts and accessories though, I doubt even if they had better hours I'd be there much more often due to distance... If I want to shop bike stuff in Mississauga my choices are Bartz or Rider's Choice... I don't know their hours and don't go to either very often as they rarely have anything I'm looking for anyway. The East end guys have more choice, and if I lived in the East end I'd likely rarely buy online.

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LPakkala said:
Good point about the marinas and such. Just keep in mind, their door rates tend to be much higher. I did my apprenticeship in the marine side, even then the marine shop rates were 25% higher. I haven't polled many of the guys recently, but I would not be surprised to find they were $125-140 or more per hour now. Given that they can burn $1000 in fuel in an afternoon I guess marine customers are not that worried. With the extra money the shops can offer a different incentive package to the techs, essentially paying them to give up a few months of evenings and weekends in exchange. I recall working 15 hour days during the busy season. Money was good, almost cost me my marriage though. Given my experiences I might consider offering that deal to a newer apprentice now, but would strongly caution them as to what it can do to someone's quality of life.

As a follow up question: what services are you needing outside of the existing hours? Service? Parts? Accessories expertise? Just a place to meet up and chat? I am trying to understand where the current industry setup is falling short of your needs.
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most ppl work 9-5, by the time they get home to get their bike or to transport it, the time would be about 7pm at best.

It seems you have a bike shop then hire mechanics or stagger hours to cover every other day until 9pm.
Or do W-Sat 9-9pm which allows people to pickup bike also.
Open on Sundays also. There are enough ppl they can hire to sill the schedule.
But then again, even the banks finally came around to opening past 4pm.


It doesn't matter, as with the evolution of business the dinosaurs will keep doing it the same way.

Wonder why the rise and success of online shopping?
 
For me I would think noon until 8 would be more accessible hours for most people, I buy online mostly because of the poor hours most shops have. The techs wouldn't have to be there just someone to sell parts and check in bikes for service. Saturday could have the same hours with Sunday and Monday off or open all weekend with Monday and Tuesday off.

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I've bought lots of stuff at brick and mortar, especially GP Bikes.

Never had a problem getting to a 9-5 shop, that was opened for a few hours on the weekend.

The issue with non-standard hours/days, is that if someone takes a day off, and pops by to pick something up, you might not be open that day.

For places like Dual Sport Plus, that could be an hour or more away, I used to show up at 9 am on Saturday mornings.
Even if they were to extend their hours by one or two per day, the majority of the market wouldn't be able to get there and back in time.

If they didn't have some kind of weekend hours, I could see that as a problem.
 
Just saw a news article that some online only businesses are finding the business increases with an actual brick and mortar store as well.

Most of my buying is in actual stores. Only done the occasional purchase online.
 
Parts I order online and gear I get it from GPBikes. I was there this past weekend, very friendly, helpful staff. The wife got a new helmet, she must have tried on 6 or 7 before deciding on one. I started to stock up on oil and oil filters for the upcoming season. When ever possible, I will support the local business.
 
tough to compare marine (Gordon Bay Marine in particular) to the motorbike industry. You get 10 great cottage weekends and 2-3wk vacy. Maybe water access cottage, boat goes down you want it fixed, will pay almost whatever is asked. Been on the wrong end of that phone call too many times.
 
I like local stores that also have an online service. A vicious cycle was great at that, I miss Eric and wish he never sold. They always had lots of cool accessories in stock that were hard to find otherwise.

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I like how people are having to justify the right economic choice, with store hours.

"But id be happy to shell out an extra 40$ for that helmet if only the store was open longer!"

BS

If i can save large quantities of money by giving my business to an american company, with a presence online, then i will.

Brampton powersports just closed shop, as much as i liked Ian and some of the people working there, when i went shopping for gear, i realized that for what they were selling 1 measly mediocre jacket for, i could probably buy a lot more gear for a lot less(thats of decent quality no less) if i went online.
 
Call it justification if you like, I call it an answer to a question that wasn't asked.

You had the guys saying "buy local or the shops won't exist"

and the answer is, "I can't buy local because they have no selection and keep banker's hours."

Also, you are wrong in some of the cases.... Twistedthrottle has great pricing on some bits, cheapest I could find anywhere including ebay -- especially parts for the DRZ like the tail tidy, skid plate, etc... at least twisted throttle also ships stuff out and has reasonable shipping rates. I'd like their free shipping threshold to be lower than the $149 it is now, but whatever... I can just order a tire with whatever else I order and be good for the free shipping.
 
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loads of shops will ship stuff out, biggest thing I find is the dealer often has a minimum markup, so he pays $100 you pay $150. But he has to order $1000 to get anything from the distributor/manuf so you wait till he can batch some orders......

I like smaller shops like dual sport or motocicletta , they are cross docking the item, its not becoming inventory so they can be helpful on pricing.

This conversation can go on forever , like a motor oil thread. I'll pay more for an item to get it from a guy that knows my name, if I have a problem he's helping me out, that's worth some thing to me. On line retailers will do that to, I just dont like the back and forth required, but thats me.

How anybody can find a US retailer with a 35% exchange and be having any luck is beyond me.
 
crankcall said:
How anybody can find a US retailer with a 35% exchange and be having any luck is beyond me.
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These things are somewhat cyclical... The day may come again when our dollar is more on part with the US and cross border shopping becomes feasible.
For now though... It's not.
 
Canadian Tire has some bad *** ****. Helmets are cool, get one of the cool ones you can flip open at a red light a smoke a cig. Top notch .
 
Just going to throw this out there, I work at St. Onge Recreation in Barrie and we do our best to price match. As other have mentioned, once we get to know regulars, we do offer discounts as well as do what we can to help people out. We also are one of the only powersports shops open 7 days a week, which in the winter during prime sled season is a must but come summer time, Sundays are pretty slow and sometimes not financially worth it.


Our hours:
Monday 9am - 6pm
Tuesday 9am - 6pm
Wednesday 9am - 6pm
Thursday 9am - 8pm
Friday 9am - 8pm
Saturday 9am - 5pm
Sunday 10am - 4pm
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