| Author | Message | ||
     Mou5e |
heres my conversation with an hd sales guy today. me:hey why are all your buells out there in the sun and not inside the showroom. him:well we have so many larger bikes that take up every inch of our showroom and the buells just dont fit. me: (after a good laugh) all u would have to do is move one of these 50 road kings and you could fit 3 xbs in here. him: (long pause) well these road kings are brand new. me:ya those xbs were too until you let them bake in the arizona sun for 6 months. i think these bikes would be way better off in a honda or yamaha dealer sometimes. | ||
| Spatten1 |
"i think these bikes would be way better off in a honda or yamaha dealer sometimes." Man, I hear you. I feel totally uncomfortable in most HD dealerships. I'm into bikes, but I feel overwhelmed by the aura of the "lifestyle". The mechanics at Brians in Philly are great, they} own HDs, Japanese bikes, and yes, one guy owns a Buell X1. These guys love bikes, period. As soon as I go to the front of the house it is back to the costume party and I feel like an alien. | ||
| Mrvvrroomm |
I agree 100%. The dealer I bought mine at had all theirs back in a corner near the service department. They have ZERO inventory of any Buell accessories. Face it, Buell is just the red-headed step-child of the "Motor Company". | ||
| Midknyte |
Get that chip off your shoulder - it ain't like that everywhere | ||
| Midmofirebolt |
What I want to know is if they're taking buell away from some dealerships, does that mean the ones who keep them will get more stuff. The dealership here is keeping buell but only has a small rack of buell clothes, 3 or 4 bikes and I know that they have oil filters for my XB, but I haven't seen anything else in there. Maybe they have a secret room, anyone know the password?  | ||
| Deerhunter17 |
I'll have to chime in for the dealership I purchased mine from. (HD)Buell of Frederick, in Frederick, Maryland. Sales wise, they are terrific when it comes to Buells. There is a lot of Buell info all over the walls as you enter the front door, and the Buells are the first bikes you see. Actually, they very seldom have more than 4 or 5 HD's up front anyhow. They almost always have a buell out front with a sign next to it relating to demo rides or special info on it. In fact, they are in the process of placing a full race kit ( fairing and all ) 9R into the demo fleet. | ||
| Shawn_9r |
Cycle City in Hawaii is getting REAL good about the Buells. They have 4-5 new 12's, 4 9sx's, 3-4 blasts, and they offered to help me get a local Brag or Buell Owners Group started I just need to try to get other guys interested. They are making flyers and mailing them out to all the people who have purchased a buell from their store. Let's hope they keep it up. Shawn | ||
| 1badbuell |
Honestly, HD dealerships are generally poor when it come to the Buell product line. I bought my XB from Kosco HD thinking...hey they sponsor a Buell race team they will give me the treatment I expect...WRONG...they couldn't even install the Buell race kit properly. 2x back for the TPS reset & they still forgot to remove the snorkel. I love my XB but, service on my rice rockets is soooooooo much better. My vote is still for independent Buell dealerships!!! I'll put my $$$ up for one! | ||
| Thansesxb9rs |
I would love to start an independent Buell dealership, but H-D wouldn't like that, maybe Buell would become bigger. | ||
| Tatsu |
Shawn, I would be interested in that. Brag Hawaii group. Tatsu | ||
| Rageonthedl |
When we did sell Buells the sales guys would always bring people back to talk to me about them and answer any questions they had...but do you think i got the $$ for the sale HELL NO!! and Now we dont even sell Buells and nor can we do warenty work on them (we can still do services...or should i say i can still do services) i had one guy call me from our sister store that does sell buell he need to know how to rotate the motor and if he could change the base gaskit with out pulling the motor. I told him to read the book or just bring it to me. We are having sign up for a new BRAG group tomarrow so maybe it will throw some work my way. cuz i know id rather have someone that owns a buell work my buell (well if i needed someone to work on it) | ||
| Midmofirebolt |
All right that's it. I'm moving. Hawaii here I come(I wish). I know the feeling 1badbuell, everytime my dealership has a get-together, they put the race buell out front, and you might even talk to the guy who rides it, but other than that, I've got the only buell there. Why don't they try to sell a few more, maybe they could get more $. The saddest part is that I'm going to take off my rear wheel myself and take it to the guy who used to own the HD dealership to put a tire on it. At least he seems happy to get my business and talk to me about my bike. | ||
| Metalstorm |
Come to Golden Gate Harley/Buell. They have a nice big bright Buell sign out front but oddly no Buells. No Buell parts & no Buell apparrel except one old xtra large t-shirt. Such a pity. I thought they were into Buell as in the past they've allways had a few on the floor but since last year nothing. Yet they claimed to still be a Buell dealer when I asked them if they dropped Buell. This is why I've been driving an extra 30 some miles (beyond the 30 mile drive to Golden) in my so far failed attemts to obtain an XB. Guess I can't complain. there's guys who travel much much farther just to get good service. | ||
| Court |
>>>Buell is just the red-headed step-child of the "Motor Company". Explain that. I'm missing the connection between "lacking dealers" and Buell being the red-headed step child of HD. I'm trying to recall the last "red-headed step child" that someone ante'd up tens of millions of dollars to educate. I think, and this is my personal opinion, that the dealer concerns (and they are real) warrant our focus. Simply looking for the biggest kid (HD) on the block to kick on the internet does little to move us toward a solution. I'm gathering some interesting (yes, and alarming) information regarding Buell dealers. I expect the problem to be solved. There are a great number of dedicated and talented people in the Harley-Davidson dealer services organization. I'm not content to just cast them all as a bunch of "ner do wells" and accept the status quo. Data please. Court | ||
| Nevar |
"those xbs were too until you let them bake in the arizona sun for 6 months." ============================================== If you're talking about the HD dealer in Tucson, I second your complaint. After my first (and hopefully only) visit there I was disgusted. I've decided to get parts thru Dave S. at Appleton and try to do most the work myself - I'll only take my 03 XB9S (bought used) to that dealership as a last resort... Tim in Tucson | ||
| Pcmodeler |
My local Harley/Buell dealer has the Buells right up front, but I think it's mostly because they want to try and get rid of what they have. They don't seem to be moving and they liquidated all of the clothing at 70% off. That in itself was a bad sign. | ||
| Cataract2 |
The dealers who have figured out that you can't just place them on the showroom floor to sell themselves are the ones who will be selling them. The ones where they just aren't moving are with dealers who have no clue. | ||
| Jeremyh |
buells just aren't in as high a demand as Harley's as a whole. No dealership is going to carry a ton of overhead on a product that doesn't have as high of demand. Obviously the bigger the dealership the more overhead they can afford to carry but if they just don't sell in the area you live in then don't expect an HD dealer to really cater too much to a Buell. A ton of guys that work at the local HD shops here love the Buells and do a pretty good job of taking care of the Buell owners but the fact is not enough people buy them to make them want to just flood the show floor with them and turn around and have 20 2004 bikes clear into 2006. | ||
| Race_pirate |
If we the people were allowed to start a "Buell" only dealer, I would be the first inline. Im pretty confident that the bike would sell in the right environment even excluding demographics. Local HD's claim lack of back road riding on LI, yet there are a gozillion Metric sportbikes riding around. | ||
| Stryker_buell |
Too add my ten cents to this conversation, I bought my bike from is super-pro Buell Dealer. Downtown Harley/Buell just outside Seattle. They have the bikes inside and only the used Buell and Harley motorcycles sit outside. Buell Motorcycles sit in the window proudly displayed or on a track above the showroom floor. They are the first motorcycles you see as you walk through the showroom door. Smart move? Yes. They are the largest seller of Buell in the area. Having said that, there are four other dealers in the area that have them pushed to the back or maybe only have one or two models on display. Clothing ranges from two racks at one shop to zero on display at another. In my humble opinion, I truly believe that if Buell had its own showrooms and shops domestic sales would improve dramatically. I feel the same as most of you, uncomfortable in a Harley-Davidson shop because I ride a Buell. | ||
| Jeremyh |
i don't feel uncomfortable i just hate being at the mercy of the HD dealer to get anything serviced. | ||
| Tpoppa |
I think Buells would do great if sold alongside BMW, Ducati, Triumph, and other semi-exotic brands. Buyers of these brands tend to appreciate innovative, capable motorcycles and consider more than peak HP when buying a sporty bike. In that environment, Buell would sell a lot of XB's! | ||
| Race_pirate |
Forget the other brands, a BUELL dealership with Buell bikes and accessories including aftermarket goodies. | ||
| Mikej |
For those of you wanting a stand-alone Buell dealership, why not form a consortium or a corporation and pool your funds and buy a Harley/Buell shop. Report back how it goes. Harley dealerships are sold on a reasonably regular basis. The speculation from an enthusiast's point of view versus the perspective of a business owner's point of view are often in different worlds. The local to me Ducati dealership is seemingly mostly converting to Suzuki sales. YMMV. | ||
| Scooterroid |
Some of the folks in this forum have a Buell inferiority complex. Plain and simple. | ||
| Taxman |
Forget the other brands, a BUELL dealership with Buell bikes and accessories including aftermarket goodies. not to pick on race_pirate, i would love to see this. i would love to walk in and see a veritable mall of buell brand stuff. but the fact of the matter is. there aren't enough of us buell riders out there to make a store like that profitable enough to succeed. the internet can help with sales but you'll need to rely heavily on walk-ins and refferals. i love my bike, but i just don't see enough interest out there to make a Buell only store profitable. buell will have to become more mainstream and competative with other bikes of similar CC's before we see stand alone buell dealerships. i admit that i am not a salesman, and i have never owned my own business. but i am a senior commercial business appraiser and i do know how to look at income records and potential income flow. and i feel that as things stand now. HD is a big help to buell. | ||
| Spatten1 |
Although it is completely impractical and can never happen, I agree with Tpoppa. I was at a Duc/Triumph dealer last week and one of the mechanics asked to ride my Buell, he has a Cyclone. Buells are a bit out of place next to $20,000 cruisers and accessory departments full of fingerless gloves and leather vests, and they are equally out of place next to Japanese racer-replicas. They fit right in with Ducs, BMWs, Triumphs, and other "semi-exotics". In fact, a couple of the local Buell riders switched from Ducs to XBs. They still own the Ducs, but never take them out. | ||
| Mikej |
"and i feel that as things stand now. HD is a big help to buell." And Buell is a big help to Harley, as has been noted by several in so many words. | ||
| Hanses25 |
Seems to me, to be only a handful of Awesome HD/Buell dealerships around. The only one I personally have been associated with is DaveS. I have read a few posts from other great Sales reps on the BadWeb but Dave is the only one I've actually done business with. Isn't it a shame that majority of dealerships do a mediocre job marketing, selling, servicing, and selling these great bikes. I'm really not sure where the wires are getting crossed with regard to Buells, these bikes are state of the art, innovative, and quality motorcycles. Oh yeah they are being sold at dealerships who are brand, and lifestyle specific toward Harley's. Dealerships where people purchase products, that if even for a weekend change all that they are. Buell’s in my mind don’t change who we are, they are more of an extension of who we are. This is why I think Buell sales and services are mediocre, because Harley owners thrive on the outlaw, custom, badass, and biker stigma's that define the Harley lifestyle, it’s what keeps them sane from one week to the other. I guess I can see why they don’t like change, for some it’s the only freedom they have. It’s a long process for things to change, until the dealerships implement better marketing and service strategies our beloved brand will only ever be mediocre. (Message edited by hanses25 on April 28, 2005) | ||
| Jeremyh |
i think we should all just be patient and wait to see what happens when the cost of Crude oil sky rockets. the cost of gasoline alone has made a huge impact on MC sales so who knows what will happen. The sooner more people start buying bikes the sooner the fate of many motorcycle companies will be determined. (Message edited by jeremyh on April 28, 2005) |
