WORST bike shops

[White trash]

What is it about bike shops. Do you have to grab sales staff by the freekin' throats to get them out from behind the counter??

WORST BIKE SHOP AWARDS for the Wellington region:

1. Motomart. Out on its own the worst. If the retail staff haven't got a mate to yack to or a mag to read, they wander out the back. I'm tempted to wheel a Duc out the door and see if that gets anybody's attention. Crap location too. An unfriendly experience in all ways.
2. ANZA in Palmerston North. More interested in selling cars, I suspect. The guy behind the counter has his feet superglued to the floor. Its only redeeming feature is it's open on Sundays.
3. Wellington Motorcycles. "OK, so you haven't got it in stock. Any chance of ORDERING ONE IN??" Mrs H had to go to Palmerston North to get a test ride on a new Marauder coz WMC didn't want to get their's wet or something. Offered her a ride on a very used Honda 750 Shadow though...
4. Phil Turnbull in Palmerston North. Although Mrs H got a test ride AND bought her new ride from PTMC she got SERIOUSLY dicked around after riding up from Wellington for her bike's first service. Sawyers/Motorad have now got this job...

Mr H.

I apologise profusley for the shop letting you and Mrs H. down in the purchase of the VZ. That was the very last one in stock and Suzuki had no more avalable.

For that reason they are normally a bit hestitant in letting people ride a brand new bike. The normal procedure for them is to agree on a deal SUBJECT to a ride and if you like it, you own that particular bike. If not, no worries.

The salesman involved obviously dropped the ball and let you down. I hope to god it wasn't me or I'm going to have to kick my own arse

However, I am pleased Mrs H is riding the right bike for her.

[bungbung]

Number One place to get dicked around in Wellington has to be Sawyers.

They have the most disorganised staff in town

[Hitcher]

Mr H.

I apologise profusley for the shop letting you and Mrs H. down in the purchase of the VZ. That was the very last one in stock and Suzuki had no more avalable.

For that reason they are normally a bit hestitant in letting people ride a brand new bike. The normal procedure for them is to agree on a deal SUBJECT to a ride and if you like it, you own that particular bike. If not, no worries.

The salesman involved obviously dropped the ball and let you down. I hope to god it wasn't me or I'm going to have to kick my own arse

However, I am pleased Mrs H is riding the right bike for her.

Mrs H LOVES her Marauder. 8,000 miles on it since November and it runs like a Swiss watch! It is quite a plush ride too. It would be nice if Suzuki fitted these with flip-up front pegs. Also they need a bash plate too. Stone chips make quite a mess of the underside.

[James Deuce]

What is it about bike shops. Do you have to grab sales staff by the freekin' throats to get them out from behind the counter??

WORST BIKE SHOP AWARDS for the Wellington region:

1. Motomart. Out on its own the worst. If the retail staff haven't got a mate to yack to or a mag to read, they wander out the back. I'm tempted to wheel a Duc out the door and see if that gets anybody's attention. Crap location too. An unfriendly experience in all ways.
2. ANZA in Palmerston North. More interested in selling cars, I suspect. The guy behind the counter has his feet superglued to the floor. Its only redeeming feature is it's open on Sundays.
3. Wellington Motorcycles. "OK, so you haven't got it in stock. Any chance of ORDERING ONE IN??" Mrs H had to go to Palmerston North to get a test ride on a new Marauder coz WMC didn't want to get their's wet or something. Offered her a ride on a very used Honda 750 Shadow though...
4. Phil Turnbull in Palmerston North. Although Mrs H got a test ride AND bought her new ride from PTMC she got SERIOUSLY dicked around after riding up from Wellington for her bike's first service. Sawyers/Motorad have now got this job...

1. Have to agree. Ended up buying a TRX from Tauranga which turned out to be the one I'd been looking at AT Motomart. They'd onsold it to Bay Motorcycles in Tauranga. I also wanted to test ride the Yellow Ducati 900SL they had in there, but couldn't attract anyone's attention. Bay shipped the TRX back to Motomart for me to pick it up, and Motomart were all chatty, and when they told me that the TRX was one they originally had, I said, "Yes I know, I wanted to talk about buying it but all that happened when I tried to get the attention of the guy at the desk was he walked out the back and his dog had a go at me". They also had a Helmet I wanted to try, but wouldn't let me, so I went round to Motorcycle city, the guy there gave my son a poster, and let me take the Helmet home to see how it felt after an hour of watching telly in it. It was great so I bought it.

2. Had a similar experience there, except it was that they were more interested in selling Harleys.

3. Have to disagree here. The only thing I would say is that servicing is expensive, but I've never had any issues with a WMC purchased or serviced bike I've owned.

4. Never been to this chap.

I'm finding Motorad/Sawyers really good, so I guess one bad experience can sour things for most people.

[SPman]

Auckland Shops....

Red Baron - 8.5/10 : Bit expensive second hand, but (I M E ) stand behind their products,service is good, always seem to take the trouble to fix small things (if asked) - eg.braided lines & new master cylinder on FZR250 when complained of crap brakes! gratis. No trouble with test rides.Salesmen like to sell - ie if you are just browsing, they'll generally ignore you unless they arent doing anything. Parts good. Servicing generally good, Mike always tries to keep you happy - bike always came back cleaner than it went in

Mt Eden Motorcycles: 8/10: Is Mike trying to corner the market on 250's?
Always friendly. Only bought parts so far, but would definitely consider buying a bike there. Servicing reasonable (yeah I know, my bikes a tired out POS that needs a rebuild - or replacement!)

Haldanes - 8/10: Richard can seem a bit off hand at times, Chris seems to bend over backwards to give a good deal on ancillaries and minor problems.Only test ride I bought the bike and haven't tried since, although they werent to keen when I suggested a ride on the 998R a year or 2 ago We'll see when the 04 750 comes in.
Servicing variable, good to oops! (see servicing comment above!)

AMPS - 8/10: Havent had a lot of dealings with them.Always seem reasonably friendly. Test rides arent a big problem. Service? Parts?

Colemans - 7/10: Havent had a lot of dealings with them. Always seemed affable if they thought they could make a sale. Dont seem too bad about test rides Parts? Servicing?

Cyclespot - 5/10: Keen to sell you a bike but watch out for them charging for things like - tyres to replace worn out crap. Seem to work on the principal - the price is for the bike EXACTLY as it is on the floor. Impression is more like a seedy used car dealer!

Holeshot - 3/10.: Dont like being treated like shit by the management when I do the usual wander round shop to look and talk about product. Either that or ignored totally. Saying that, I havent been there for a couple of years so they may have improved in some ways, they have had staff changes, but the management is still the same. Still.....? This attitude has cost them 4 potential sales (that I know of, me being one of them)

But these of course, are only my personal opinions from over the last 6 yrs and always subject to change.

[k14]

I would have to say honda casbolts are the worst i have dealt with.

Me being fairly nieve and new to bikes (and having bought a honda) i thought it is logical to do business with the honda dealer. How wrong was i. Bought a few things there and didn't have any problems nor anything good to say about them, untill i was replacing my fork seals.

The allen bolts holding the damping rods in to place had their head rounded off, thus i couldn't get them out. So I went into casbolts asking how to get them out. I talked to a guy, who i think is the manager, he said "yeah they are easy to get out, with a rattle gun, one of our mechanics can do it, just leave them here for an hour." I asked how much they would cost, he said an hours labour, $55 or something, YEAH RIGHT dickhead. Was talking to me like i didn't know anything aswell, which i didn't particularly like. So I went to street and sport motorcycles (who i had bought stuff from the previous day). The mechanic took the forks off me and took them out back straight away. Took about 10mins of mashing and hitting to get them out, but he did get them out. I asked him how much, he said don't worry about it, just come and buy stuff from here. What a legend, never going to casbolts again, only street and sport.

Another useless place is the New Plymouth Honda Dealer (can't remember the name). They know fuck all about hondas. Just after getting my cbr250 i wanted to do an oil change and get some spark plugs. Go in to honda place, talk to the person on the front desk (won't say what sex she was, but it probably had nothing to do with the fact that she, i mean ahem the person, knew fuck all about bikes) to get an oil filter and spark plugs, assuming they knew the parts and i didn't have to bring them in myself. How wrong was i, never going back there again.

Calendars and New Plymouth Motorcycle centre are both great places to shop and the guys in there know what they are talking about and come up to you when you walk in to help you.

P.S. Haven't had any problems about eric teh hood, but never going back there again (maybe to look at the aprillia rs250 though )

[marty]

Auckland Shops....

Holeshot - 3/10.: Dont like being treated like shit by the management when I do the usual wander round shop to look and talk about product. Either that or ignored totally. Saying that, I havent been there for a couple of years so they may have improved in some ways, they have had staff changes, but the management is still the same. Still.....? This attitude has cost them 4 potential sales (that I know of, me being one of them)

But these of course, are only my personal opinions from over the last 6 yrs and always subject to change.

i went into holeshot to look at a hayabusa and a tl1000r. asked me if i had my gear, and would i like to test ride them. hell yeah. took the tlr out for a fang up to orewa and back - up the m/way back the other way. was away for about an hour, no questions asked. didn't take the busa (ran out of time) but i'll be looking at holeshot when i do finally upgrade. maybe i should have asked if i could take the rsv.......

colemans were a little standoffish - i went in specifically to look at a busa. it was out for a ride - they suggested i come back tomorrow. bit hard when you live south of the bombays really.

i must say that Bayride in tauranga has always been great to me - on one occasion picked up my bike when the chain flicked, dropped me where i needed to go, then picked me up again when it was ready. never any problems taking bikes for rides either.

Bay City even let me take the Augusta and RSV out......honestly the fastest, licence losing test rides i've EVER been on, and that was trying to keep up with the sales rep!

[Cajun]

None one done anything about Tauranga yet.

1 ) Bay Ride Yamaha(use to be suzuki) wouldn't touch them with a 10 foot barge pole, had many problems with prices, and way treated bikes in there care. 2/10

2) Baycity Motorcycles(kawasaki, mv, ducati, ktm etc) They have been pretty good, got my 1100 from them gave me a good trade on old bike, parts are middle road price. (But my brother in law to be works here so can't be to rough on them either) 8/10

3) Smiths Motorcycles(most dealers in scootors) One of the cheapest parts place in town, does Wof at good price, never really been thru the workshop. 7/10

4) BMW shop. Good little shop even if they only really sell bmw, there parts are well prices, the workshop is prices good as well, and all ways willing to help. 8/10

5) Motogb(suzuki dealer) This is a new dealer ship only really been around for about a year now, havn't gone thru the workshop but i know the guy who runs it and he knows his stuff, and Glen the salesman is always happy to help. and parts are middle of the road sorta price so they get an 8/10 as well.(also were i be getting the new gsxr600 from)

[Devil]

Motorcycle City - Lower Hutt: Ok just a note for people dealing with them or planning to deal with them. Theres a guy there who doesnt really have "service" listed in his vocab, but thats ok if you can by-pass him (he's not bad, just not quite engaging enough).
If you can deal with Graham (or the owner, didnt get his name), you will get top notch service. The lady and I were browsing for our first bike (pick it up this saturday! SQUEEEE!) and this guy was the most helpful easy going guy ive run into. The lady and I have a slight size different (me 5'10" ish, her 5' uhm nothing ish) so we had to try a few bikes to find the best compromise. When it came to test riding, there was no problem at all, gave us all the gear and (at our request) dispatched one of their mechanics to ride the bike down to the riverbank carpark for us to try (bit nervous! never been on the road before!).
Has made the whole deal stress free. Total pleasure to deal with these guys. Will definately come back again.
I will be making sure to organise a thank you letter when we get hold of the bike!

[Slim]

Dowman Honda, Wanganui for servicing. The head mechanic there is a magician and I never got any of the talking-down-to-female marlarky from them at all. I've called him up a couple of times with problems & he's given me advice on non-OEM replacement parts that's never been wrong.

Boyd Honda, Hamilton. They found, called, let me test ride my current CBR6 5+ years ago & have been great ever since. They sold out of their new CBR600RR's late last year, but got me down one from Auckland just for me to test ride (unaccompanied). Servicing is O.K. but they stuffed up the tuning after a valve-clearance-type service so I'm disinclined to take it back when there's a nice ride through the Parapara's in the offing (see above ).

Hamilton Motorcycles. No problems taking bikes out for a test ride and their parts lady is great. Was a bit put off the first time I encountered them. I gave the sales lady (owner??) very specific requests in the search for my CBR600 on price & size and she promptly asked if they could sell me a BMW which was $10,000+ over the price limit I'd just told her. I wonder if the good recent service I've had is only because I'm going out with a guy who's on his 2nd Ducati brought from them ....

Coleman's, Auckland. Used to be good & still ok with PJ (have I got that right?) but if any of the salesmen I don't know are around, they will completely ignore me and head for the guy who walked in with me instead, even if I'm the one with the money to spend. They have a tendency to talk down to females too.

Cyclespot, Auckland. Tend to overprice their bikes and talk down to females. I brought my first bike from them, but can't comment on servicing or anything else. Seedy Used Car Dealer impression is spot on.

Bay City, Tauranga. Seem ok. Have let me take out bikes for test rides no problemo, even if I'm not serious about buying. My Man has a real problem with the owner but I don't know the full story. Apparently their Ducati mechanic is a magician too.

BayRide, Tauranga. Service dept seems good, although I've only had a tyre repaired there. He did tighten the chain too much & put some god-awful chain lube on that sprayed everywhere though. The guys in sales/parts seemed friendly & helpful, but I've not looked at test riding or anything else there.

[MikeL]

My (limited) experience in Auckland and Tauranga:
Sales: Red Baron, Holeshot, Colemans, Haldanes, and Bay City have all been very helpful with test rides (even when I asked to take the same bike out for the third time). Bay Ride was initially helpful but spoiled it when they assured me there was enough gas in the XJR but I ended up having to push it along Cameron Rod). I found the Cyclespot staff a bit off-hand but otherwise O.K. On 2 occasions recently I've been in to AMPS but the place was deserted (afternoon tea time?) and had a hard time finding a salesman.
Service: only experience of Red Baron, Mt Eden and Colemans. Rd Baron was O.K but a bit expensive for a standard service. The other 2 have been very good - no complaints at all. I've had particularly attentive service from Ross at Colemans.
Seems to have been some recent staff movement in a few places. John from the service dept of Mt Eden is now at Colemans and Neville has disappeared (anyone know where?). Joe Mead from Colemans is now at Holeshot.

[sAsLEX]

"Hi, i was after some spark plugs for my CBR250RR, NGK CR9-eh is the model"
"Sure got them out back"

few minutes later returns with three plugs .........

"Hi was after an oil filter for my bike 91 CBR250RR MC22"
looks up in maual, on some computer then some microfilm
"umm dont know what sort you have sorry, you will have to bring it in"

All of these at the Honda shop in New Plymouth, rude service and near no knowledge of their product.

Nothing but brilliant service from calendar and New Plymouth Motorcycle centre.

[Marmoot]

Bought my bike from Cyclespot and never had any trouble in servicing for the last 4.5 years, though quality did deteriorate a wee little bit somewhat in the past 2 years. Not by much, really....but it is noticable.

Red Baron seems a bit overpriced for me. I tried using them about 3 times, and I ended up spending way over estimation. :sneaky2:

Boyd Honda deserves the Dealer of The Year award every year. Friendly caring people that knows their stuff, yo. And, if you have time, get on one of their organized ride-days. Guaranteed experience and satisfaction!

[Cajun]

Yeah boyd honda is really good sales wise, misses brought her vtr1000f brand her 18 months ago, found there services were over priced, $250 for a 5000km service on a vtr, don't need to remove body work, no need to change plugs didn't even need to change oil, thats bloody steep, so took it else were, who can stamp the factory book, did an oil change any how

[KATWYN]

Cycletreads Barrys point road- it has burnt down now (a few months
ago )

Aside from general tired service from them anyway, I had my bike in there
one day with the "experts" putting a front and back tyre on. I was waiting in the coffee room when there was an almighty CRASH out in the workshop

It turns out, that when they raised the bike ramp up by about 2 feet my
2001 Yamaha YZR6 came crashing off the platform onto the floor - cos my bike hadn't been secured well enough on the platform. The dickhead that was responsible for it wasn't even @$#@# fazed by my scratched and damaged bike.

I was so stunned at the incompetance, I couldnt say a word......customers were saying to me "how come you arent spewing...I would be if that was my bike" - I wonder what other things have happened to peoples bikes when they arent around- that they don't know about