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View Full Version : What bike shop has the WORST website?



Trade_nancy
29th April 2016, 19:07
I nominate MOTORAD Wellington. 1 from possible 10. On a good day.

nzspokes
29th April 2016, 19:51
As the stock they show is all based on what the suppliers have, they all are pretty much the same. Think they all use the ancient Sprint3 system.

BuzzardNZ
29th April 2016, 19:54
Why's that then? You looking for a bad deal on the worst gear? :confused:

AllanB
29th April 2016, 20:00
NZ bike shop?


Compared to offshore ones ...... we may be found lacking. For lots of reasons, mainly due to volumes. And NZ riders being tight cunts.

WristTwister
29th April 2016, 20:15
I nominate MOTORAD Wellington. 1 from possible 10. On a good day. < they're still using a mobile version of their site.

Compared to Revzilla's website, most NZ dealers don't have the budget for flash websites. They should try Square Space (https://www.squarespace.com/commerce/) or something similar to get a site that looks as nice as their bikes.

BuzzardNZ
29th April 2016, 20:33
< they're still using a mobile version of their site.

Compared to Revzilla's website, most NZ dealers don't have the budget for flash websites. They should try Square Space (https://www.squarespace.com/commerce/) or something similar to get a site that looks as nice as their bikes.

Is that site legit? I had a mate who lost $1000s signing up with something similar!

The End
29th April 2016, 21:14
We have set up and managed multiple e-commerce websites with product catalogues of more than 10,000 products.

Wordpress + WooCommerce + Payment Gateway.

It's really not that difficult, and the total cost is less than $8k.

So for NZ websites to claim they don't have the money or resource for a high quality responsive website is nothing but a bit of :bs:

The End
29th April 2016, 21:16
For the record I cannot stand the Cycletreads website

The colour and design are TERRIBLE; not to mention piss-poor functionality.

Everytime I Google Search a product and I'm forced to load their website to check specifications or a local price, I die a little inside.

eldog
29th April 2016, 22:01
For the record I cannot stand the Cycletreads website

The colour and design are TERRIBLE; not to mention piss-poor functionality.

Everytime I Google Search a product and I'm forced to load their website to check specifications or a local price, I die a little inside.

is that the site with the difficult to read fancy txt? For their specials

we are mbike riders, just spell it out in clear concise letters

i find their website poor but still useable. Used it a few times, staff helpful behind any email questions too.

Mike.Gayner
29th April 2016, 22:05
For the record I cannot stand the Cycletreads website

The colour and design are TERRIBLE; not to mention piss-poor functionality.

Everytime I Google Search a product and I'm forced to load their website to check specifications or a local price, I die a little inside.

No shit it's fucking terrible. No NZ bike shops have good websites - crazy that they still don't see the value in good web design. An online shop like cycletreads could easily double their buy rate with decent design.

eldog
29th April 2016, 22:10
No shit it's fucking terrible. No NZ bike shops have good websites - crazy that they still don't see the value in good web design. An online shop like cycletreads could easily double their buy rate with decent design.

I suppose it's cost and integrating with some archaic accounting/stock/database system.

surprised there isn't something better, all seems to be done in house.

the front end of such things costs as much as the actual working stuff behind it.

www.techmoto.co.nz is on the right road imho

Oakie
29th April 2016, 23:03
Winner. http://www.hamptonmotorcycles.co.nz/

Hampton Honda Christchurch. Been like this for at least two years.

awayatc
30th April 2016, 06:59
Winner. http://www.hamptonmotorcycles.co.nz/

Hampton Honda Christchurch. Been like this for at least two years.

Website down for maintenance when i clicked the link just now.

When i needed a tyre they stocked, they could only fit me in about a week later.......

Voltaire
30th April 2016, 07:44
I gave up on Bike Shops some years ago when they said things like " oh we have to get that in as its an old model" or " That will cost you some

eye watering amount"

Fortunately there are oveseas companies like:

https://www.motobins.co.uk/

http://www.stein-dinse.biz/Moto-Guzzi:::1.html?language=en

http://www.andover-norton.co.uk/

who have sites that give you stock levels, postage costs and are very easy to deal with.

Order on Monday, arrive on Friday.

Makes running 70's/80's Moto Guzzi's, BMW's, Nortons and Ducatis easier than it ever was.:2thumbsup

Oakie
30th April 2016, 10:42
Website down for maintenance when i clicked the link just now.

Yep ... been like that for two years.

Hitcher
30th April 2016, 10:47
Check out Yamaha New Zealand's website.

1. It's slow and unnecessarily complex.
2. It has most odd categories for bikes.
3. It only has a limited range of bikes shown. Every official dealer in NZ sells models that aren't listed here.
4. There's no RRP information. If you want to know the price of a new Yamaha you have to use Trade Me.
5. It's largely a cut-and-paste of the Yamaha Australia's site -- which provides a complete model list (see 3. above).

Swoop
30th April 2016, 20:57
For the record I cannot stand the Cycletreads website

The colour and design are TERRIBLE; not to mention piss-poor functionality.

Everytime I Google Search a product and I'm forced to load their website to check specifications or a local price, I die a little inside.

+1.

Sadly.

AllanB
30th April 2016, 21:07
Fastbikegear has a fairly decent website. :cool: Made several purchases.

Berries
30th April 2016, 21:32
The only NZ website I have used is Motomail when the local shops do not stock something. Have noticed recently that the images are so big you cannot see them all on screen so now I don't bother going there. Never looked at Cycletreads before but a quick Google gave me this result -

R650R
1st May 2016, 08:27
cycletreads emails with their special sales. Its in some fancy font that is too hard to read.

release_the_bees
1st May 2016, 08:59
I love Cycletreads as a company and have had nothing but good experiences with them. However, I also try to avoid their website at all costs mainly due to the lack of search success (try searching for all tyres of a specific size).

Regarding the online ordering system, the one time I tried to order something online, it was still somewhere out back two weeks later when I dropped by the shop for something unrelated. I ended up just picking it up myself.

Also, the online service booking forms are a great idea but it doesn't seem to actually connect with the actual booking system that they use. (If you need your bike worked on at short notice just ride in and tell them that you booked a service using the online booking system a couple of weeks ago!)

Sent from my SM-G900I using Tapatalk

nzspokes
1st May 2016, 10:25
I love Cycletreads as a company and have had nothing but good experiences with them. However, I also try to avoid their website at all costs mainly due to the lack of search success (try searching for all tyres of a specific size).

Regarding the online ordering system, the one time I tried to order something online, it was still somewhere out back two weeks later when I dropped by the shop for something unrelated. I ended up just picking it up myself.

Also, the online service booking forms are a great idea but it doesn't seem to actually connect with the actual booking system that they use. (If you need your bike worked on at short notice just ride in and tell them that you booked a service using the online booking system a couple of weeks ago!)

Sent from my SM-G900I using Tapatalk

Went in there to look at helmets last week. When asking what the differences were between helmets it became obvious the staff member had no idea. No wonder people import themselfs.

Dave-
1st May 2016, 15:41
Winner. http://www.hamptonmotorcycles.co.nz/

Hampton Honda Christchurch. Been like this for at least two years.

That's like that because of this:


I suppose it's cost and integrating with some archaic accounting/stock/database system.

We use to rock trade me anyway, why the fuck would you want to build a website when all the buyers are on trade me?

Then you have 3 databases to maintain.

EJK
1st May 2016, 17:38
+1.

Sadly.

CT website? I thought it was just a spreadsheet!

nzspokes
1st May 2016, 17:40
That's like that because of this:



We use to rock trade me anyway, why the fuck would you want to build a website when all the buyers are on trade me?

Then you have 3 databases to maintain.

Yeah all those extra sales would suck. :crazy:

Maha
1st May 2016, 18:13
Bike shop web designers should use a template similar to FC Moto.

I find the Motomail website easy to use.

Voltaire
1st May 2016, 18:53
Bike shop web designers should use a template similar to FC Moto.

I find the Motomail website easy to use.

but surely this is your 'go to' bike website :lol:
http://www.wotcycles.co.nz/images/WOT-header.jpg

http://www.wotcycles.co.nz/

Maha
1st May 2016, 19:17
but surely this is your 'go to' bike website :lol:


Nawwwwww that's a lovey website.

AllanB
1st May 2016, 19:30
Hampton. NO - that is shocking. I remember years back when setting up a company website with a provider - rule one - NEVER have a link saying under construction or similar. It's like shutting the door to anyone interested.

Hampton have a huge range of motorcycle gear - they now specialise in this as apposed to bikes . If this is not a company that could benefit from a decent website fuck me.

eldog
1st May 2016, 22:24
We use to rock trade me anyway, why the fuck would you want to build a website when all the buyers are on trade me?

Then you have 3 databases to maintain.

Dave why not put a comment like "see our listings on trade me" would be so much better.
and try not to use the past tense. Better to say that "We rock Trade Me"

One integrated database would be the go....

not all buyers are on trade me.
a lot of stuff I buy is still not available in NZ

its strange that I will be shortly in the market to setup a customer parts list, stock control and purchasing/sale database etc for my work.

OddDuck
2nd May 2016, 07:24
I gave up on Bike Shops some years ago when they said things like " oh we have to get that in as its an old model" or " That will cost you some

eye watering amount"

Fortunately there are oveseas companies like:

https://www.motobins.co.uk/

http://www.stein-dinse.biz/Moto-Guzzi:::1.html?language=en

http://www.andover-norton.co.uk/

who have sites that give you stock levels, postage costs and are very easy to deal with.

Order on Monday, arrive on Friday.

Makes running 70's/80's Moto Guzzi's, BMW's, Nortons and Ducatis easier than it ever was.:2thumbsup

+1. All you need is a credit card, the internet, and a tolerance for waiting on the post. Stein-Dinse has the factory parts diagrams and you can order what you need straight off those, how well sorted is that?

Local dealers really don't seem to prioritise the internet, I think they're missing a huge opportunity.

sugilite
2nd May 2016, 13:14
Going back a few years a local town shop here asked me to build them a website. After looking at their needs I recommend a non e-commerce brosure style site as it was just a small rural shop. So I built the a nice site showing all there major products - bikes, farm bikes, chainsaws, mowers etc. Their total monthly ISP bill was $12 and I would update there products once a year for a modest fee. Three months after it went live, two swave men in business suits came into the store, poo pooed the site and told them they needed a database driven eCommerce site with credit card facilities blah blah. So they went with that. I checked out the site when it was up and it was a clone of a range of other nz bike stores. They did not even change the meta tags so it showed them as being Matamata Yamaha in google searches for years (a shop 500 km's away). When I went to put a modest item in a cart it charged $4500 freight lol. Going to checkout it asked for credit card details on a unsecured non SSL page - what a joke. The kicker, the shops monthly internet bill went up from $12 to $139 - including "database" management. Two years on I asked the office lady how many sales they had made online since the site had gone live and the answer was zip, nadda, zero.

Times have changed significantly since then, and it is as easy to build a e-commerce site and have paypal checkout handling credit cards with no ongoing monthly or upfront costs - just the usual percentage take. The thing with bike shops and most companies in NZ is they will not hesitate to spend up large on bricks and mortar style infrastructure but feel websites should not cost any more than $500 - Idiots. Nor do most companies realize just how much work goes into the background when building a decent website. Hence I do not bother making websites for businesses now. I just concentrate on my own two sites which use bleeding edge shit. :yes:

The End
2nd May 2016, 21:16
Times have changed significantly since then, and it is as easy to build a e-commerce site and have paypal checkout handling credit cards with no ongoing monthly or upfront costs - just the usual percentage take. The thing with bike shops and most companies in NZ is they will not hesitate to spend up large on bricks and mortar style infrastructure but feel websites should not cost any more than $500 - Idiots. Nor do most companies realize just how much work goes into the background when building a decent website. Hence I do not bother making websites for businesses now. I just concentrate on my own two sites which use bleeding edge shit. :yes:

Pretty much this.

The investment in a fully functioning responsive (ecommerce if applicable) website in this day and age should really be a priority. There just aren't excuses any more with how cheap it is.

nerrrd
2nd May 2016, 22:49
Yeah but the internet is voodoo shit. 95% of us have no idea how or why it even works, the 5% of you who do know could basically tell us anything and we wouldn't have a clue if you're giving us good advice, overcharging us, or outright scamming us (Novapay? Just about any large scale database-driven government software project? The Millennium bug?) And if it's not you some geek in the Ukraine or god-knows-where-else might ransom it or infect it with a virus just for a larf and money - some fucker's probably stealing my identity right now!

So give us a break, will ya, some of us are still afraid of things we don't understand and might actually prefer meatspace. Give it a generation or so and if motorcycles are still being made no doubt the internet will be the only place you can buy them, so you'll never need to get off the couch...actually you'll probably be riding them in virtual reality anyway, there just won't be any excuses any more for sticking with actual reality.

Dave-
3rd May 2016, 09:39
Dave why not put a comment like "see our listings on trade me" would be so much better.
and try not to use the past tense. Better to say that "We rock Trade Me"

One integrated database would be the go....

not all buyers are on trade me.
a lot of stuff I buy is still not available in NZ

its strange that I will be shortly in the market to setup a customer parts list, stock control and purchasing/sale database etc for my work.

I dunno man, I haven't worked there for a long time, aside from the occasional Saturday when Ryan races in Aussie. Which is actually super fun btw.

I'm not going to say too much but we gave it a fair fuckin' crack (this is like 5-6 years ago?). We got the run around from one 'company' who made a few other motorbike shop websites and that killed it (as you can see).


Hampton. NO - that is shocking. I remember years back when setting up a company website with a provider - rule one - NEVER have a link saying under construction or similar. It's like shutting the door to anyone interested.

Hampton have a huge range of motorcycle gear - they now specialise in this as apposed to bikes . If this is not a company that could benefit from a decent website fuck me.

You're absolutely right, seriously you should offer them your services if you can.

Given nzspokes prediction about how many sales they're missing out on, the pitch should be really easy and they should be able to pay you infinity amount of money for the job.


Yeah all those extra sales would suck. :crazy:

#thisguy #whatafuckwit

nzspokes
3rd May 2016, 12:16
I dunno man, I haven't worked there for a long time, aside from the occasional Saturday when Ryan races in Aussie. Which is actually super fun btw.

I'm not going to say too much but we gave it a fair fuckin' crack (this is like 5-6 years ago?). We got the run around from one 'company' who made a few other motorbike shop websites and that killed it (as you can see).



You're absolutely right, seriously you should offer them your services if you can.

Given nzspokes prediction about how many sales they're missing out on, the pitch should be really easy and they should be able to pay you infinity amount of money for the job.



#thisguy #whatafuckwit
#stuckinthepast#outoftouch

Sent from my GT-I9300T using Tapatalk

Madness
3rd May 2016, 12:30
Internet customers are a complete pain in the arse. If a business can do well without relying upon internet trade they're obviously doing something right.

#buyitonline,whogivesafuck

jellywrestler
3rd May 2016, 13:31
Internet customers are a complete pain in the arse. If a business can do well without relying upon internet trade they're obviously doing something right.

#buyitonline,whogivesafuck

i'll buy my stuff at night often, and where possible locally. ordered some genuine parts for a bike 15 march, told due start of may (nowish) but if i paid extra freight they will be here in approx two weeks (30 marchish) still haven't heard a word, this is the second such perfomance in three orders from the same shop so am a little interested in what the fuck to do next.....?

nodrog
3rd May 2016, 14:18
porn hub is the worst motorcycle website I have seen, I cant even find anything motorcycle related.

Headbanger
3rd May 2016, 14:41
porn hub is the worst motorcycle website I have seen, I cant even find anything motorcycle related.

Pornhub search results.

Most Relevant Video Results: "motorcycle"
Showing 1-20 of 96

Laava
3rd May 2016, 14:43
porn hub is the worst motorcycle website I have seen, I cant even find anything motorcycle related.

FYI, "lesbian twins" is NOT a forum for greek 2cyl motorbike fanatics. I think I can see where you are going wrong young miss!

jellywrestler
3rd May 2016, 14:48
porn hub is the worst motorcycle website I have seen, I cant even find anything motorcycle related.

clearly they never recorded the famous sidecar handlebar incident at the Phillip Island trans tasman trophy then. I still occasionally get a whiff of that same scent some days and it gives me a 'Tilt in my Kilt' just thinking about it.

eldog
4th May 2016, 20:02
I dunno man .... but we gave it a fair fuckin' crack (this is like 5-6 years ago?). We got the run around from one 'company' who made a few other motorbike shop websites and that killed it

Fair enough,

You weren't the only ones 'burnt' by some dodgy web designers. There's a few more out there.

(some blame can be with design spec and people not really knowing anything about what they are getting)

nzspokes
4th May 2016, 20:12
Going back a few years a local town shop here asked me to build them a website. After looking at their needs I recommend a non e-commerce brosure style site as it was just a small rural shop. So I built the a nice site showing all there major products - bikes, farm bikes, chainsaws, mowers etc. Their total monthly ISP bill was $12 and I would update there products once a year for a modest fee. Three months after it went live, two swave men in business suits came into the store, poo pooed the site and told them they needed a database driven eCommerce site with credit card facilities blah blah. So they went with that. I checked out the site when it was up and it was a clone of a range of other nz bike stores. They did not even change the meta tags so it showed them as being Matamata Yamaha in google searches for years (a shop 500 km's away). When I went to put a modest item in a cart it charged $4500 freight lol. Going to checkout it asked for credit card details on a unsecured non SSL page - what a joke. The kicker, the shops monthly internet bill went up from $12 to $139 - including "database" management. Two years on I asked the office lady how many sales they had made online since the site had gone live and the answer was zip, nadda, zero.

Times have changed significantly since then, and it is as easy to build a e-commerce site and have paypal checkout handling credit cards with no ongoing monthly or upfront costs - just the usual percentage take. The thing with bike shops and most companies in NZ is they will not hesitate to spend up large on bricks and mortar style infrastructure but feel websites should not cost any more than $500 - Idiots. Nor do most companies realize just how much work goes into the background when building a decent website. Hence I do not bother making websites for businesses now. I just concentrate on my own two sites which use bleeding edge shit. :yes:

We do on average 1k transactions a month split pretty evenly between Website and TM. Makes it worth it.

Drew
5th May 2016, 07:04
When having a site made, surely you give a designer a list of links and tell him the features from each that you want. Then when they have a running test site you check it and commission a full build or tell them to fuck off.

Is that too difficult?

Madness
5th May 2016, 08:29
We do on average 1k transactions a month split pretty evenly between Website and TM. Makes it worth it.

We have a couple of distributors that are averaging around $1,000 per month. I'm tempted to close their accounts.

Dave-
5th May 2016, 13:28
Fair enough,

You weren't the only ones 'burnt' by some dodgy web designers. There's a few more out there.

(some blame can be with design spec and people not really knowing anything about what they are getting)


When having a site made, surely you give a designer a list of links and tell him the features from each that you want. Then when they have a running test site you check it and commission a full build or tell them to fuck off.

Is that too difficult?

Yeah, the example we gave was a website that they had designed.

I passed the 'company' a line from the CSV file that the database could spit out with clear instructions that 1 or more items must be able to be added with this formatting etc

In the first instance they didn't even allow CSV uploading, I had to request that they unlock it. Then there was a bunch of permissions issues that my account didn't have to process it properly.

Guy disappeared fairly quickly after that.

nzspokes
5th May 2016, 13:49
We have a couple of distributors that are averaging around $1,000 per month. I'm tempted to close their accounts.

Agreed. As would we.

scrivy
11th May 2016, 12:27
porn hub is the worst motorcycle website I have seen, I cant even find anything motorcycle related.

Bullshit!!!
I've seen some flash as hand warmers there...... and also gearbags...