Is Papakura a good spot for a motorcycle workshop?

**crashe** · 27th January 2007, 18:07

West Auckland............ is the place to set up.

We only have "Henderson Motorcycles Ltd' on View Rd. Henderson.

No other bike shops out this way at all.

Central: Motohaus, Red Baron, Colemans.

City: Mt Eden Motorcycles and AMPS.

South: Haldanes and Botony Honda.

North Shore: Cycletreads, Holeshot and Spectrum

Helensville: bike shop

Footnote: Central and City are all reasonably close to each other.

**cowpoos** · 27th January 2007, 18:27

Originally Posted by Shaun

If a New WORKSHOP for bikes was set up in the Papakura area ( For costing reasons) This buisness will be mainly focusing on mechanical repair work, with 2 full time and one part time mechanics, Road and dirt bikes, does the KB Auckland community think this area is a suitable location?

If NO, please explain why and choose a better location

will you pick up and drop off??? pap's is a long way out!

**Swoop** · 27th January 2007, 18:28

I would also suggest somewhere "west-ish".

A very good point was made earlier about being handy to the track if this is a south Auckland venture, but you really do need to consider your main customer base that you wish to attract. Sport/cruiser/farm/etc/???

Somewhere close to public transport so that people can get to work easily (if no loan bikes)?

Best of luck with the idea!

**Ixion** · 27th January 2007, 18:39

Bear in mind this is a "fix it" operation , not selling bikes as primary focus . Workshop, not show room. So west would be competing with Kerry at Motohaus.

Shore has lots - the bike shops, plus Spectrum, and that other guy in Barry's Point Rd.

Central, MotorCycle Surgery. East, Corsa.

I think South probably makes sense.

But what about the back end of Onehunga/Mt Roskill ? cheap rents, easy access from both South Auckland (via the Mangere Motorway), West Auckland (not too bad at present, and easy once they finish that stupid motorway) . East Auckland too (via the SW Arterial) and central (via Campbell Rd). Handy to suppliers and specialist services too. And nothing now in competition that I can think of. Good bus service as someone said, and easy to drop off/pick up clients.

**Motu** · 27th January 2007, 18:54

So no one who can afford a flash bike lives in the lower socioeconomic area of Sth Auckland - surprise surprise....but not unexpected.Several bike shops have tried to survive in Africa south of the Southern Motorway line over the last 40 years....none have survived for long.There is an oft repeated phrase when starting a business - if you are good enough they'll beat a path to your door....sorry,but not in the real world.

**Karma** · 27th January 2007, 19:00

Well not for the small stuff, which is surely how most places make their cash right?

If I wanted an oil change or change some pads, I'd not fancy riding for an hour just to get to the place, then an hour back.

I'm sure your quality would be excellent, but at the end of the day, time is money.

**Zapf** · 27th January 2007, 19:17

Ok.. Paps.... but make sure you have a fleet of loan bikes so your clients can get around. Don't you have some good relationship with Suzuki NZ?

If I know you had loan bikes for day jobs or longer jobs... eg.. work that takes more than a few hours. then I think you'll be back in contention even thou you are out at Paps. But still you'll be limited yourself to the bigger jobs, since its just easier to go to the local bike shop if they can do the easy / simple jobs just as well.

**RC1** · 27th January 2007, 19:17

Originally Posted by crashe

West Auckland............ is the place to set up.

We only have "Henderson Motorcycles Ltd' on View Rd. Henderson.

No other bike shops out this way at all.

Central: Motohaus, Red Baron, Colemans.

City: Mt Eden Motorcycles and AMPS.

South: Haldanes and Botony Honda.

North Shore: Cycletreads, Holeshot and Spectrum

Helensville: bike shop

Footnote: Central and City are all reasonably close to each other.

plus kumeu

**Swoop** · 27th January 2007, 19:25

Originally Posted by Ixion

So west would be competing with Kerry at Motohaus.

Kingsland? That is city, not west!
West = black Holdens and fords, crushed velvet tops for the girls, [gasp] tassels (FFS don't tell scummy!), Lion Red beer, vineyards, and surf beaches. Kingsland does not fall into this category...

**_Gina_** · 27th January 2007, 19:27

Papakura would be okay for us, but Pukekohe is where you need to be I think.
Growing population, lots of people with excess income (read: the abilty to buy toys) and I would gather that the market isn't over saturated with sportsbike type repair shops. From memory there wasn't one up until about 4 months ago.
The lease costs would be okay, in comparison to Auckland West.

And then there is the bonus of being located close to the track, which could possibly give you an income stream off track day work ?!?

Possum Bourne made a good living from being based in Puke, and people travelled to him with no drama.

G

**Shaun** · 28th January 2007, 10:32

Thanks for all the replies so far, the aim of this buisness is purely mechanical repair work, suspension-services, etc, and fitting of after market parts to personalise customers own bikes.

As I said in my first post, I looked at the Papakura area due to buisness lease costs, I would really like a building in the Kingsland-Mt Eden Area, and preferably one with accomodation attached

Example, Papakura W/Shop with one bedroom flat above $22K per year

Mt Eden area same as above $52K Per year

Do I spend an extra $30k PA to be more central for the smaller jobs, or do we do a brilliant servive and treat people with respect and get word of mouth reputation, which will in turn grow our customer net work?

I trully believe that a motorcyclist wants/needs a very genuine personalised service centre that they can call there own, with technicians that care about what they are doing, each staff member will own a percentage of the buisness, I believe this will give all staff members the extra incentive required to generate top quality work manship for the customers.

Keep your comments rolling in please, this is the best way for me to get extra idea's to establish this buisness.