[35racer]

Anyone local to Springfield do sportbike tire changing?

Also, does anyone know if Degs is still doing tires?

I have to go to GMD Computrack anyway, so maybe I could stop in on Degs in Taunton (if that thread is still correct)?

[97BladeRider]

Yep, Derek's still doing tires. He did mine about 2 months ago.

[35racer]

cool...thanks.

I'll try to get in touch with him

[MissTwisties]

There is a small bike shop on Boston Rd that does tire changing, they also sell street and dirt bike gear, real nice people. If you go pass the Eatfield Mall, keep going t owards Wilbraham, and just before the post office, there is a small building with a dry cleaner and the bike shop, on the left hand side.

[35racer]

yeah... I'm familiar with that place.

used to go there a lot with former owner... maybe I'll see if they'll do it.

many shops don't mount anything they don't sell

[LuvDog]

Not to take business away from Derek... since he mounted up a set of tires for me and did a great job... did I mention how anal he is about getting the correct balance?

but... if you're going to GMD... why not have Peter do them? He's got the equipment.

[35racer]

I didn't realize he had the stuff...

I emailed him thinking he might... but wasn't sure.

Thanks for the info. Guess I'll go get the tires off.

[Degsy]

Sent you a PM Tony.

Couple of options.

1. Peter Kates can do them.
2. Joe Esile just bought a tire changer and he will soon be the NESR tire changing contact for the Western MA area (I hear the "hooray!" s already). I believe he is in Springfield and I'm sure as hell you have his contact info.
3. I will do them if you want to travel the extra 25 minutes to Taunton (no charge of course for my trackday boss).

derek

[ChR1s]

We've got a Coats 220 and a static balancer, but I'm not mounting anyone else's tires -- liability, you know. If you want to give it a shot, I'll see about gathering the pieces.

[35racer]

Thanks all.

I'll bring them to Pete's and go from there.

[deeto]

Originally posted by ChR1s
We've got a Coats 220 and a static balancer, but I'm not mounting anyone else's tires -- liability, you know.

Is that why dealerships sometimes won't mount tires brought to them? Or was that a joke that went over my head...?

[akira700]

They also make their money on the parts not so much the labor. So they don't want high volume internet vendors cannibalizing their sales.


Another option for those who live in the Central/East part of Mass. is Bike Worx in Maynard.
He matches internet tire prices and orders the tires for you. And he does it while you wait. so you can ride there and not have to lug tires with you.

[FastJohnny]

I'm also in Springfield and will need someone to take change some tires over for me. I can't tell from the other posts if there is actually somewhere around here who will do it right. I want to put some powers on a GSX-R.

Anyone?

[Karaya One]

Flamingo in Palmer, Baers in Springfield, DC Cycles in Westfield.

[deeto]

Originally posted by akira700
They also make their money on the parts not so much the labor. So they don't want high volume internet vendors cannibalizing their sales.

Yea thats what I had always heard, and the reason why I asked.

It never made sense to me anyway. Seems to me the dealer shouldn't care where a customer gets the tires. They are getting the labor fee, getting a customer in the door which could lead to a sale of some other item, and broadening their customer base. How is any of that bad? So what if they don't make their 50% markup on the tires?

AFAIC if the above liability issue is null, then dealerships have absolutely NO REASON to turn away any customer for any reason. Turning someone away because they didn't buy tires from you is bad business and incredibly short-sighted.

For the record, the only dealership that has installed tires on my bikes is Parkway Cycles, and they were Internet bought tires at that.

[Karaya One]

Walk into Outback Steakhouse with your own steak, beer and chips.

Ask them to cook the steak, get you a glass for the beer and a basket for the chips.

See what happens.

They are making tons of money on everything else, so this should be just cool.

[deeto]

thats a terrible analogy.

If they charged $40 to cook the steak and $20 to pour the beer it makes more sense.

Thats exactly what the dealerships are doing.

[beet]

[Karaya One]

An acceptable mark-up on tires for a dealer is 30%. This number is also used a base return - the minimum number needed when selling parts to help keep the doors open.

I have plenty of dealers who refuse to mount internet tires and thrive. Educate the customer on why buying through them is the better deal in the long run. Build the relationship.

But - if they already went through the 'net and never even gave the shop a shot?

Originally posted by deeto
Yea thats what I had always heard, and the reason why I asked.

It never made sense to me anyway. Seems to me the dealer shouldn't care where a customer gets the tires. They are getting the labor fee, getting a customer in the door which could lead to a sale of some other item, and broadening their customer base. How is any of that bad? So what if they don't make their 50% markup on the tires?

AFAIC if the above liability issue is null, then dealerships have absolutely NO REASON to turn away any customer for any reason. Turning someone away because they didn't buy tires from you is bad business and incredibly short-sighted.

For the record, the only dealership that has installed tires on my bikes is Parkway Cycles, and they were Internet bought tires at that.

[Karaya One]

It is the PERFECT analogy when dealing with internet tires.

No product, only labor.

Profit is made on both to help the dealer survive. No shop will survive on just mounting tires.

You aren't doing them a favor. There is a reason why more and more shops will not deal with them anymore.

Originally posted by deeto
thats a terrible analogy.

If they charged $40 to cook the steak and $20 to pour the beer it makes more sense.

Thats exactly what the dealerships are doing.

[Honclfibr]

And now, thanks to the Interweb and cheap tire changing equipment, people are buying and changing their own tires. This way they don't have to pay the dealer tire markup, and the dealers don't have to mount tires that they didn't sell. And so everybody wins. Hooray, capitalism!

[Karaya One]

The only issue here is liability.

If you change a tire for a friends friend and he crashes, you are likely in the lawyers sights when they are re-creating a crash chain.

And liability is another issue that I see raised by shops when I'm on the road. They don't know where the tire came from, or why it was sold on-line.

Originally posted by Honclfibr
And now, thanks to the Interweb and cheap tire changing equipment, people are buying and changing their own tires. This way they don't have to pay the dealer tire markup, and the dealers don't have to mount tires that they didn't sell. And so everybody wins. Hooray, capitalism!

[deeto]

Originally posted by Karaya One
It is the PERFECT analogy when dealing with internet tires.

No product, only labor.

Profit is made on both to help the dealer survive. No shop will survive on just mounting tires.

If the restaurant charged you as I mentioned above, then it would be the perfect analogy. The dealerships aren't mounting tires for free, so the restaurants shouldn't be cooking for free either.

By your logic then, it would be bad business for a dealership to perform any service work which doesn't require additional products to be sold.

Over the years I've brought many dirtbkes I owned into dealerships for "tuneups" which did not require any additional parts to be purchased. Chain adjustments and lubing, air filter cleaning, cable lubing etc. Since I only paid labor for those transactions, you're saying the dealership is losing money by dealing with me? My invoices would beg to differ with you.

There are other intangible benefits the dealership gets when doing service (labor only) work. Saying that these additional benefits amount to nothing is wrong. Like I said earlier, they may not pay off immediately but they will pay off.

The liability thing is a whole nother nut however. I never heard about that before which is why I posted here in the first place. If there are indeed liability issues then that changes things a bit.

[35racer]

So glad I could start a meaningful thread...

[Degsy]

Originally posted by Karaya One
The only issue here is liability.

If you change a tire for a friends friend and he crashes, you are likely in the lawyers sights when they are re-creating a crash chain.

And liability is another issue that I see raised by shops when I'm on the road. They don't know where the tire came from, or why it was sold on-line.

Dave, I have to take issue with you here. I have done my homework and it would be pretty nigh on impossible for someone or their insurance company to sue me just because I changed their tires. I was told by my lawyer that the crash would have to be directly caused by catastrophic tire failure, like a bead splitting or a tire popping off the rim AND it would then have to proved that the tire was at the correct air pressure and had not been abused in any way. Basically, he told me that if the customer rides away and is out of my sight there is no chain of evidence that can be proven to lead back to me.

The dealers are just behaving like insolent kids, they are cutting off their noses to spite their faces. If you cannot compete on price in these free market times (and not even get CLOSE) then be prepared to lose money. The only dealer I have seen TRY to compete is Bettencourt's. Erik posted over here a very reasonable $319 mounted for Pilot Powers. That's called competing in the marketplace. A dealer that wants $450 for a set of tires mounted when the Customer can get them for $225 and have me mount them for $40 is just giving away his business. Giving a dealer $200 of pure profit on a tire swap is not building a relationship with the dealership, it's building a relationship with a jar of vaseline.

Just my opinion.

derek