Is there room for a new bike shop in WGTN

**James Deuce** · 12th July 2006, 21:02

J'Ville, Grenada, Churton Park, Tawa, Porirua, Titahi Bay, Whitby - the whole region is like the Bermuda Triangle for me. I once turned right instead of left somewhere in Porirua and ended up in Kandallah.

It's all like woooo hills, and woooo, inlet, and woooo, surf, and the woooo some more hills, and wooo when did they move Victoria University to Porirua?

**crazybigal** · 13th July 2006, 12:11

stop living in the past!

Originally Posted by Str8 Jacket

Hey, heres an idea why dont you stop riding on a sunday with ya mates (im assuming you have 1 or 2?) and start riding in the week days by yourself. That way when you stop for a coffee you can talk to yourself as much as you like. I remember it wasnt that long ago when NO shops opened on the weekend, yes Sat AND Sun at all. Good god how did we cope?!

**Str8 Jacket** · 13th July 2006, 12:34

Originally Posted by crazybigal

stop living in the past!

Dude, im only 25! I have worked in hospo as a chef and have worked in retail as well and I can only speak for myself but working 2 day's in the weekend is really horrible and can be really stressful!

**The_Dover** · 13th July 2006, 12:37

Anybody need gaiters?

**gav** · 13th July 2006, 21:08

How about Repco selling motorcycle accessories? More specific m/c oils, filters, aftermarket glitter etc. Open 7 days, would you buy from them if they stocked bike stuff?

**Ixion** · 13th July 2006, 21:14

Well, Repco and Supercheap DO stock some bike stuff. Oil (including two stroke) , bike batteries, bike sparkplugs (including some fairly specific to bikes) , and of course a lot of cage stuff is also applicable to bikes (paint, cleaners, electrical, lot of fuel stuff,tools etc). I buy quite a few bikes bits and pieces from them.

What would be nice is a bike specific "repco" that stocked spare parts and accessories for bikes generally (as opposed to dealers who only stock parts for the marques they are agent for) . Like the overseas ones.

**merv** · 13th July 2006, 21:34

These days always use Castrol GPS in our bikes and lately have bought it at Repco or Supercheap in Porirua saving the run into Welly or the Hutt. Filters at the moment have to get from the shop so usually buy a few in advance. For the Hondas Econohonda is handy because I just ring up and the parts land on the front doorstep like magic. When I bought the XR from Sparky Bills shop and was prepping it for the South Island trip we did it was easier to ring Malcolm and buy filters, spare levers (just in case), air cleaner element etc to take with us than cruise over to the Hutt to buy them. I suppose Sparky is going to tell me he could courier stuff too.

Brendan from Sawyers doesn't live too far from me so at times he has picked up and dropped off stuff at my house - top service really. I will still use Sawyers for the Yamaha stuff.

Today Sparky had the new back tyre fitted to my VFR wheel. Mrs merv was reasonably surprised that after dropping it off for me then going back to pick it up our KB hero even carried it to the car for her which she wasn't expecting. Also he charged her less than he quoted to me over the phone, so top service to Motomart too.

My earlier comment about lack of accessories in stock for browsing in Welly still applies though but as I'm a tight arse and don't buy that much its not such a worry. I've shopped on-line, by phone, in the shop, every which way so these days we can do what we like really but there are those times you do want to touch and feel before you buy.

**The Pastor** · 13th July 2006, 21:45

Just a note to crazybigal. Aussiming your a guy your name means crazy-big-al and not not crazy-bi-gal....?

**et al** · 13th July 2006, 22:15

I don't think we need another Motorcycle shop as such in Wellington however I reckon there is a place in the market for a specialised tyre shop eg along the lines of the Car tyre shops (like Tony's, Beaurepaires etc) where you can just drop in and get your tyres fitted while you wait. How many of us find it frustrating that you have to order the tyre(s) then make a workshop booking up to 2 weeks away when inevitably we tend to put off getting that new rubber until just before doing that long trip, or having just had a "whoopsy" etc?

**Hitcher** · 14th July 2006, 08:49

Originally Posted by merv

These days always use Castrol GPS

So if the bike runs out of oil, you know where you are to within 3m?

**Sparky Bills** · 14th July 2006, 08:55

Originally Posted by merv

Today Sparky had the new back tyre fitted to my VFR wheel. Mrs merv was reasonably surprised that after dropping it off for me then going back to pick it up our KB hero even carried it to the car for her which she wasn't expecting. Also he charged her less than he quoted to me over the phone, so top service to Motomart too.

My earlier comment about lack of accessories in stock for browsing in Welly still applies though but as I'm a tight arse and don't buy that much its not such a worry.

Was no prob dude.
Lack of accessories?? Where were you lookig when you came in?
We probably have more stock than all the other shops in Welly COMBINED!
Road and Dirt.

**Stew** · 14th July 2006, 09:20

I dont think you have more accessories than all the shops in wellington combined because that would mean you would have over a $1,000,000 worth of accessories whitch would make motomart into NZ biggest Superstore for accessories I think a slight exaggeration.
As for opening on Sundays its bloody hard to get staff to work on the Saturday afternoons never mind the most popular ride day (Sunday)

**merv** · 14th July 2006, 10:06

Originally Posted by Sparky Bills

Was no prob dude.
Lack of accessories?? Where were you lookig when you came in?
We probably have more stock than all the other shops in Welly COMBINED!
Road and Dirt.

I said I'm a tight arse so I don't buy much and I do a lot of things myself but when I want stuff I do find it hard to get what I want when I want. The example I gave earlier was trying to buy Scuffproof (or whatever name brand you might have) - we bought the XT Yamaha for Mrs merv before we took off South in April and I'd forgot to get any from Sawyers when we picked the bike up - Barry had put together a box of all the other things I wanted - oil filters, spare levers etc. So I dropped into your shop and being a seller of dirt bikes I thought you'd have stacks of that in stock but I wanted the nice big size metre rolls - Pat was only able to show me a tiny little roll so back to Sawyers I went.

I'm not expecting you to have a gazillion of stock, just the topic of this thread was about more bike shops and I don't really need quantity but a well stocked accessories shop would be nice for us that like to poke around. Whether there are enough spenders in Welly to make it worthwhile commercially I don't know. There's always a trade off between cost of stock holding and sales because if you don't have stock it doesn't cost much to have it, but what potential sales would you make if you had more to sell? The other downside is too much stock can go obsolete rather quickly.

Another item I tried for were new crash helmets when I got my XR from your shop in January, but seeing we already had road full face and Moto-x type helmets we were looking for adventure helmets. There were few anywhere to try on but eventually we settled on the GRex from Sawyers when we bought the Yamaha - Kerry had more of the adventure helmets than anyone else including the Arai but being a tight arse the Arai was too expensive for the purpose as far as I was concerned so we bought a matching pair of GRex. Even then I had to order mine in trusting it would be a good fit because a shop doesn't (and probably can't afford to) hold all sizes.

I guess I'm sounding like a new age computer geek that expects whatever I want I want it NOW - unfortunately many things are starting to condition us to that behaviour. Often if I can't have it NOW I go away and don't buy at all until the next time I think about it maybe months later.

The plus side for you guys is a customer like me costs you no sales time - I decide what I want, walk into your shop and say I'll have that, pay and walk out. No stock though and I say OK see ya.

**Lou Girardin** · 14th July 2006, 11:18

Originally Posted by Stew

I dont think you have more accessories than all the shops in wellington combined because that would mean you would have over a $1,000,000 worth of accessories whitch would make motomart into NZ biggest Superstore for accessories I think a slight exaggeration.

I don't know so much, AMPS has many times that in stock.

**Stew** · 14th July 2006, 13:11

Originally Posted by Lou Girardin

I don't know so much, AMPS has many times that in stock.

Not just in accessories, bikes & accessories yes but not accessories alone.I think we would have to go to Austrailia to see that lvel of accessories stock.