Motorcycle & Powersports News

05.2013

May 2013 VOL. 39 NO. 5

MotorcyclePowersportsNews.com

Volume 39 Number 5 MotorcyclePowersportsNews.com

EDITORIAL Editor – Colleen Brousil cbrousil@babcox.com Associate Editor – Gina Kuzmick gkuzmick@babcox.com Assistant Editor – Matthew Bemer mbemer@babcox.com Senior Editor – Brendan Baker bbaker@babcox.com

Life Is Better On Two Wheels Exploring the Bicycle Cross-Over Market

Columnists & Contributors

By Lee Klancher

Ricky Beggs Heather Blessington Cyclepedia Press Sam Dantzler Steve Dodds II C.R. Gittere Steve Jones Lee Klancher Mark Rodgers Lauren Weidinger

Dealership Operations The Search for the Next Dealership Superstar

8

ART

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The Road Ahead by Colleen Brousil

ADP Lightspeed

Sr. Graphic Designer – Tammy House thouse@babcox.com

14

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Inventory Report

You Can’t Manage It If You Can’t Measure It

16

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Best Operators Club by Steve Jones

Surprising Downward Trend in ATV Market

Official Publisher of the AIMExpo Show Daily, Directory and Souvenir Program

18

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Black Book Market Watch by Ricky Beggs

Tighten Up Around The Shop

20

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Tech Tips by Cyclepedia Press

How to Give Trade Values Without Getting Punched in the Face: Part Two

22

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Peak Dealership Performance by Mark Rodgers

Industry Marketing Profile: How Does Your Dealership’s Digital Marketing Stack Up?

24

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Web Savvy by Heather Blessington

The Credit Union Conversion

26

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Finance & Insurance by Steve Dodds II

The Strongest Pillar in Your Dealership: Service and Repair

28

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The Service Manager by C.R. Gittere

Keep Your Dealership’s Priorities Straight

32

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Dealership Priorities by Sam Dantzler

Motorcycle Mall: Family Business with a Family Atmosphere

6 May 2013 | Motorcycle & Powersports News

Street Apparel Guide Safety, Style and Performance ................................................................ 40

Essentials: Wheels

34

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Destination Dealership by Lauren Weidinger

Product Focus Get Things Rolling Along ....................................................................... 46

THE

Road AHEAD

By Colleen Brousil ADVERTISING SALES Publisher - Greg Cira

Associate Publisher Sean Donohue

gcira@babcox.com (330) 670-1234 ext. 203

sdonohue@babcox.com (330) 670-1234 ext. 206

Display Advertising Sales Roberto Almenar

The Search for the Next Dealership Superstar

Tom Staab Bobbie Adams Doug Basford David Benson Dean Martin

G

litzy showrooms and rows of new bikes don’t make great dealerships — they sure can help, but a dealership is only as good as the team that drives it. That’s why MPN teamed up with Mark Rodgers and the Peak Dealership Performance team to create the Dealership Superstar program years ago. It has been a true pleasure to work on this awards program over the years, and I’m excited to announce the launch of the 2013 nomination period.

So what makes a Dealership Superstar? Dealership Superstars show innovation in their field, great compassion for their dealership and its customers, and remarkable salesmanship. We’ve had so many amazing nominations over the years, and I can’t wait to learn about some more standout employees this year.

Nominations are open in the following five categories: • New and Used Unit Sales • Finance and Insurance • Riding Gear and Apparel Sales • Parts and Accessories Sales • Service and Repair Once the nomination period closes on August 16, our panel of judges will select a Dealership Superstar finalist from each category.

Each of those finalists will win $300 and be in the running to be named the 2013 Dealership Superstar.

The final winner will be selected by our readers through online voting as the ultimate Dealership Superstar and will win double their prize pot and be honored at our Dinner With The Stars, Oct. 17, 2013, in Orlando, Fla., in conjunction with the AIMExpo.

Do you or one of your colleagues have what it takes? Visit www.motorcyclepowersportsnews.com/superstar to nominate a Dealership Superstar today! t

Jim Merle Glenn Warner John Zick Don Hemming

ralmenar@babcox.com (330) 670-1234, ext. 233 tstaab@babcox.com (330) 670-1234, ext. 224 badams@babcox.com (330) 670-1234, ext. 238 dbasford@babcox.com (330) 670-1234, ext. 255 dbenson@babcox.com (330) 670-1234, ext. 210 dmartin@babcox.com (330) 670-1234, ext. 225 jmerle@babcox.com (330) 670-1234, ext. 280 gwarner@babcox.com (330) 670-1234, ext. 212 jzick@babcox.com (949) 756-8835 dhemming@babcox.com (330) 670-1234, ext. 286

ADVERTISING SERVICES Advertising Services Valli Pantuso

vpantuso@babcox.com (330) 670-1234 ext. 223

CIRCULATION SERVICES Circulation Manager – Pat Robinson Circulation Specialist – Star Mackey

probinson@babcox.com (330) 670-1234, ext. 276 smackey@babcox.com (330) 670-1234, ext. 242

AFTERMARKET MEDIA NETWORK Babcox Media Headquarters 3550 Embassy Parkway, Akron, OH 44333 (330) 670-1234 Fax (330) 670-0874 Babcox Media California 18004 Skypark Circle, Suite 260, Irvine, CA 92614 (949) 756-8835 Fax (949) 756-8836 CORPORATE Bill Babcox, President Greg Cira, Vice President, Chief Financial Officer Jeff Stankard, Vice President Beth Scheetz, Controller Copyright 2012, Babcox Media, Inc. MPN (ISSN 0164-8349) is published monthly by Babcox Media, Inc., 3550 Embassy Parkway, Akron, OH 44333 U.S.A. Phone (330) 670-1234, Fax (330) 670-0874. Periodical postage paid at Akron, OH 44333 and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to MPN, P.O. Box 13260, Akron, OH 44334-8660. A limited number of complimentary subscriptions are available to individuals who meet the qualification requirements. Call (330) 670-1234, Ext. 242, to speak to a subscription services representative. Paid Subscriptions are available for nonqualified subscribers at the following rates: U.S.: $69 for one year. (OH residents add 5.75% sales tax) Canada/Mexico: $89 for one year. Canadian rates include GST. Other foreign rates: $129 for one year. Payable in advance in U.S. funds.

Mail payment to MPN - Circulation, P.O. Box 75692, Cleveland, OH 44101-4755.

8 May 2013 | Motorcycle & Powersports News

Inside the Industry Harley-Davidson Motorcycle Dealers Ranked Highest By 2013 Pied Piper PSI Harley-Davidson dealerships were topranked in the newly released 2013 Pied Piper Prospect Satisfaction Index (PSI) U.S. Motorcycle Industry Benchmarking Study, which measured dealership treatment of motorcycle shoppers. Study rankings by brand were determined by the patent-pending Pied Piper PSI process, which ties “mystery shopping� measurement and scoring to industry sales success.

For the first time since 2008, Pied Piper also separately measured how effectively motorcycle dealerships responded to customer inquiries received online through dealership websites.

Harley-Davidson dealerships led all brands in 18 different sales activities, such as encouraging shoppers to sit on a motorcycle, asking for contact information and helping the shopper

10 May 2013 | Motorcycle & Powersports News

Inside the Industry overcome obstacles to the purchase. 11 different brands led at least one sales process category, and brand performance varied considerably from brand to brand.

For example, Ducati salespeople offered a brochure to approximately nine shoppers out of 10, while less than half of Suzuki, Honda or Kawasaki salespeople offered a brochure. BMW, Triumph and Harley-Davidson salespeople were more than twice as likely to offer a demo ride as the salespeople at Ducati, Suzuki, Honda and Yamaha dealerships. Victory salespeople were most likely to suggest arranging a demo ride in the future.

Industry average dealership performance was mixed when comparing 2013 with the previous year.

Salesperson behaviors more likely in 2013 than 2012 include the following: • Offering demo rides (now 19 percent of the time) • Discussing features unique from competitors (now 49 percent of the time) • Encouraging going through the numbers or writing up a deal (now 33 percent of the time) Salesperson behaviors less likely in 2013 than 2012 include the following: • Conducting a walk-around demonstration (now 70 percent of the time) • Overcoming shopper objections (now 74 percent of the time) • Giving compelling reasons to buy now (now 39 percent of the time) 2013 marks the seventh consecutive year of Pied Piper PSI motorcycle industry benchmarking studies. With seven years of data gathered from tens of thousands of motorcycle PSI evaluations nationwide, Pied Piper was able to fine tune the study questions, weightings and scoring for 2013. As a result, Pied Piper reset the 2013 motorcycle industry average PSI score to “100.”

The resulting “second generation” PSI scoring is now even more closely correlated to motorcycle dealership sales success, according to the company. Pied Piper has found that on average, when motorcycle dealerships are ranked by their PSI score, dealerships in the top quarter sell 22 percent more motorcycles

than dealerships in the bottom quarter.

“Any motorcycle dealership faces plenty of challenges that are difficult, if not impossible, to change,” said Fran O’Hagan, president and CEO of Pied Piper Management Co. LLC. “In contrast, how a sales team sells is something a dealership can improve immediately.”

The 2013 Pied Piper PSI U.S. Motorcycle Industry Study was conducted between July 2012 and April 2013 using 2,503 hired anonymous “mystery shoppers” at dealerships representing all major brands, located throughout the U.S. 2013 Pied Piper PSI Internet Lead Effectiveness (ILE) U.S. Motorcycle Study Much has changed over the five years since 2008, when Pied Piper last measured how effectively U.S. motorcycle dealerships handled customer inquiries received over the Internet. Back then, Pied Piper found that motorcycle dealerships responded within 24 hours – in any way – only 30 percent of the time.

The comparable number in 2008 for the auto industry was 64 percent of the time, and auto-response CRM software in 2008 was uncommon.

Fast-forward to 2013, and Pied Piper found that motorcycle dealerships respond within 24 hours 72 percent of the time, while the same 2013 figure for the auto industry is 93 percent of the time.

Unlike in 2008, auto-response CRM systems are now common. Today, the first response to a motorcycle customer Internet inquiry is an auto response 56 percent of the time, a personal response 16 percent of the time, and no response of any type 28 percent of the time.

When ranked by PSI-ILE, Suzuki dealerships finished first, followed by Triumph, Star, Ducati, BMW and Husqvarna. PSI-ILE measures 19 different criteria, and two criteria of particular interest are whether the dealership answered a specific question posed by the customer, and whether the dealership attempted to follow up by telephone. The brands whose dealerships were most likely to answer the customer’s specific question were BMW, Star, Husqvarna, Suzuki and Ducati. The brands whose dealerships were most likely to attempt to MotorcyclePowersportsNews.com 11

Inside theIndustry contact the customer by telephone were Harley-Davidson, Suzuki, Triumph, BMW and Victory.

The 2013 Pied Piper PSI-ILE U.S. Motorcycle Study was conducted between September 2012 and April 2013 by submitting internet inquiries to a sample of 1,117 dealerships nationwide representing all major brands. t

2013 race season. Under this new agreement, Shinko will be the exclusive tire brand used on Gadson’s race bikes along with all motorcycles used for the Rickey Gadson Drag Racing School.

"I can't be more excited about kicking off the 2013 season with Shinko Tire,” said Gadson. “Having their 'Hook Up' tire on my turbo ZX14R tells me I have a winning combination already.

Getting the horsepower to the ground won't be a problem with the help of the Shinko 'Hook Up' tires because they’re created for drag racing. After testing, I can really see the difference that Shinko can make."

Added Scott Casper, Shinko Tire USA representative, “Shinko Tire is proud to be the official tire brand for Rickey this season.

With his professional attitude and drive to win, we are confident that there will be many round wins and championships this season.” t

> Motorcycle Industry Council Launches 'Revive Your Ride! Win Big Spring Giveaway'

> Shinko Tire Partners with Rickey Gadson for 2013 Race Season Shinko Tire USA has announced a partnership with Rickey Gadson and the Rickey Gadson Drag Racing School for the

12 May 2013 | Motorcycle & Powersports News

The Motorcycle Industry Council has announced the launch of its Fourth Annual Revive Your Ride! Win Big Spring Giveaway.

From now through June 30, the powersports promotion offers customers a chance to win one of 50 aftermarket prizes and gift certificates – worth a total of more than $30,000. To enter, customers must visit a participating dealership or retailer,

ADP Lightspeed Dealer Management Solutions are designed to help manage dealer operations by tracking and storing data from every department and delivering information that will assist dealerships in making successful business decisions.

Every night, more than 1,600 Lightspeed Powersports dealers automatically transmit their information to a collective database held at the ADP Lightspeed offices in Salt Lake City, Utah. Summaries and aggregated reports are available to dealers for both current tracking and historical research.

This helps you know how your dealership is performing compared to other dealers across the country.

Parts and major unit inventory information is gathered and used in the highly successful Lightspeed Dealership Locator program. This program is designed for dealers to post obsolete inventory, allowing other dealers from across the country to locate hard-to-find parts and units.

ADP Lightspeed stands ready to work with all parties and move the industry to new levels of understanding, and ultimately to more efficient and profitable operations.

For questions regarding this report or to inquire about a custom report, please contact Lightspeed Data Services at (800) 521-0309.

www.adplightspeed.com

14 May 2013 | Motorcycle & Powersports News

Powersports Dealer New Units in Stock

April 2013 1,620 Lightspeed Dealers, Distribution of Units by Type and Model Year Prior to 2012 Model Year

2012 Model Year

2013 Model Year

10% 16% 74% Scooter 12% 24% 64% On-Road Motorcycle 11% 27% 61% Off-Road Motorcycle 19% 19% 62% Snowmobile 11% 21% 68% ATV 4% 12% 84% Utility Vehicle

Inside the Industry

get a unique entry code that can be posted on Revive Your Ride! posters, and enter online at reviveyourride.org. There are eight gift certificates totaling $13,500, and they are redeemable at the participating dealers’ stores.

Each participating dealer receives two free promotional posters and can also access downloadable banners, postcards and other digital materials – all for free – on the Revive Your Ride! website.

Dealers who have participated in previous Revive Your Ride! promotions do not need to sign up again.

“The Aftermarket Members of the Motorcycle Industry Council are once again happy to fund this dealershipfocused, traffic-driving promotion successfully being used by some 900 retailers and counting,” said Frank Esposito, MIC aftermarket committee chair. “Shops and dealers can really run with this and use it to get customers into their stores, and it costs absolutely nothing to participate. This year, the program is offering a lot of excellent prizes that any rider would be glad to win.”

Lucky customers will ride away with a prize package of gear, parts, accessories or gift certificates. This year's grand prize is a $5,000 gift certificate, while first place is a $3,000 gift certificate and second place is a $1,500 gift certificate. The product package giveaways include a Schuberth S2 helmet, a Tour Master jacket, a Brand 34 sweatshirt signed by Kevin Schwantz, Tucker Rocky gift certificates, a Klim Overland pants and jacket set, a Shoei helmet, a Kendon stand-up lift and more.

MIC Aftermarket Members who contributed to the prize collection include:

ACCEL, AFX, AIMExpo, Avon Tyres, Biker’s Choice, Butler Motorcycle Maps, Haynes Manuals, Helmet House, Kendon, Klim, LeoVince, Mad Maps, Memphis Shades, MotoTV, MotoQuest, Motul, Powerlet, Renthal, RK Racing, Saddlemen, Schuberth, Schwantz School, Scorpion, Sunstar, Suzuki, Tucker Rocky, Two Brothers Racing, Van Leeuwen and Yuasa.

All of the prize packages can be seen at mic.org/reviveyourride. t

many current and prospective investors, it is clear that they are interested in having a better understanding of our markets, customers, business model and performance. Our new site answers many of these questions in a straightforward and intuitively visual way. We believe that it will be the cornerstone of our conversations going forward.”

ARI’s new Investor Relations site includes the latest company news, financial performance trends and history, key governance information, and stock information, including OTC Real Time Level 2 quotes.

“We are committed to providing our customers, shareholders and future investors with timely and accurate information that is accessible and actionable,” said Darin Janecek, chief financial officer of ARI. “The new site accomplishes this objective through new content, intuitive navigation and a mobile optimized design.” t

> Dunlop Appoints New Original Equipment Account Executive for Motorcycle Tire Division

> ARI Network Services Launches Investor Relations Website ARI Network Services (OTCBB: ARIS) has announced the launch of its new Investor Relations website, www.investor.arinet.com.

The new site is designed to provide customers, shareholders and prospective investors with an easy to navigate overview of ARI’s business and essential investment related information.

“As a rapidly growing, profitable publicly traded company, ARI has an exciting story to share,” said Roy W. Olivier, president and CEO of ARI. “Having had the opportunity to meet with

Dunlop has announced the appointment of Rick Zimmerman as original equipment account executive, motorcycle tire.

For the past 11 years, Zimmerman has worked in a number of automotive OEM sales and program management positions. He holds a bachelor's degree in finance from The University of Akron, lives with his wife and son in Akron, Ohio, and is an avid motorcycle enthusiast and rider.

“We’re very happy to have Rick on our team,” said Mike Buckley, senior VP sales/marketing & R&D. “Rick has a tremendous amount of experience on the OE side of the business, and his expertise as well as hands-on riding experience will help us make our already strong OE program even stronger.”

Added Zimmerman, “I’ve always been a fan of Dunlop, as well as a customer. My riding experience told me long before I came here that Dunlop makes high quality tires for discerning riders, and I’m thrilled to be a part of that process now.”

t

MotorcyclePowersportsNews.com 15

BEST

Operators CLUB

By Steve Jones

You Can’t Manage It If You Can’t Measure It

W

e’ll be comparing March data from a good-performing metric 20-group with the national norm numbers and the averages for the Top 5 dealers for this group in each category.

Hmm … total store sales are down from last year through March. As you will see below, this is not attributed to unit sales. The overall sales decrease came primarily from the parts and service departments. This may be a result of fewer folks repairing and updating older units as the economy continues to improve.

Total store gross margins were still anemic for this group — short of the target of 25 percent. However, the margin was up from 2012 for the group and the National Norm. The Top 5 dealer average dropped slightly, but it is still strong at 26 percent.

Part 1 shows us that new unit sales were up for the group and way up for the Top 5 dealers, but margins remained flat. Preowned sales dropped for the group members and the national norm, but increased considerably for the Top 5. These dealers are continuing to focus on the preowned portion of their business. If you question why, just look at the margins dealers hold with pre-owned as compared with new. Gross profit is what pays the bills, folks. This shows up in the Net Operating Profit (NOP). The Top 5 gained, the rest decreased.

The other place we see the advantage of pre-owned is in the number of turns. If you make a $5,000 profit on a given item and it turns twice in a given period, you have $10,000 in your pocket. If it turns six times, however, you have $30,000 and you’ll have to find a bigger wallet!

The pre-owned to new ratio indicates that the group and national norm dealers are selling a little over one pre-owned to

CHART 1 GROUP NORM

TOP 5 DEALERS

Total Store Sales Year to Date

1.5 mil.

2.5 mil.

1.8 mil.

Total Store Sales Change from Previous Year

-10.5%

-27.1%

-13.3%

Total Store Gross Margin Percent

22.7%

25.9%

25.2%

Gross Margin Percent for Prior Year

21.0%

26.3%

22.5%

Contribution to Total Store Gross Profit: New Sales

24.7%

22.0%

27.9%

Contribution to Total Store Gross Profit: Pre-owned Sales

14.4%

35.7%

15.3%

Total Store Stats

Door Swings: Percentage of change from Previous Year Gross Profit Dollars Per Employee Year To Date

NATIONAL NORM

-8.5%

21.8%

-8.0%

$24,119

$31,935

$26,575

CHART 2

Part 1

New and Used Unit Sales

GROUP NORM

TOP 5 DEALERS

NATIONAL NORM

9.3%

66.9%

0.5%

from Previous Year

-3.8%

59.4%

-2.4%

Total New Units Gross Margin Percent

11.2%

14.8%

14.1%

Total Pre-owned-Units Gross Margin Percent

20.6%

25.4%

21.3%

-1.7%

5.2%

1.2%

-4.3%

2.4%

-3.3%

New Units Sold Percent of Change from Previous Year Pre-owned Units Sold Percentage of Change

Change in Total Selling Margin Percent from Previous Years Percent of Change in Dept Net Operating Profit from Prior Year New Inventory Turn

2.1

3.3

2.4

Pre-owned Inventory Turn

5.9

10.6

5.1

0.56

1.09

0.63

Pre-owned to New Ratio

CHART 3

Part 2

New and Used Unit Sales Sales Personnel Expenses per Vehicle Sold Total Advertising & Promotion per Vehicle Sold Flooring Expense per Vehicle Sold Average Customer-Facing Staff Year to Date Gross Profit Dollars per Sales Dept. Employee

16 May 2013 | Motorcycle & Powersports News

GROUP NORM

TOP 5 DEALERS

NATIONAL NORM

$392

$235

$279

$63

$26

$94

$153

$73

$145

3.49

5.03

4.46

$39,137

$63,241

$42,114

every two new. The Top 5 dealers are selling one-for-one. It’s all about the profitability.

Part 2 provides you with some great benchmarks to compare yourself with, regardless of your size. Per vehicle sold is the great equalizer. This chart shows the relationship of personnel, advertising and flooring expenses to units sold. It also gives you an idea of the level of staff these dealers carry. They should all ramp up their sales staff at this point in preparation for the main selling season in most markets.

Gross profit per employee is another of these equalizer numbers. These numbers are valid for any size dealership.

The old cliché, “You can’t manage it if you can’t measure it,” is absolutely true.

You can’t tell if the new processes you implemented made a positive improvement unless you have baseline measurements for comparison. You can’t hold staff accountable for performance unless you can measure that performance. I strongly encourage you to use these numbers to help you target areas for improvement in your own dealership. t

Steve Jones, GSA senior projects manager, outlines dealerships’ best business practices to boost margins, increase profitability and retain employees. His monthly column recaps critical measurements used by the leading 20-group dealers. Access to the new Voyager 5 data reporting and analysis system is available to any dealership for nominal fee. For more information on GSA’s management workshops, data reporting system, dealer 20-groups, on-site consulting or training, send Steve an email at steve@gartsutton.com or visit www.gartsutton.com.

MotorcyclePowersportsNews.com 17

Black Book MarketWatch

By Ricky Beggs

Surprising Downward Trend in ATV Market

ATV

Cruiser

Jet Boats

Off-Road

0n/Off-Road

Scooter

T

he powersports market is slowly but steadily inching its way upwards as spring finally arrives. The rate of increase is a little slower than normal, probably due to a still hesitant economy, but the overall seasonal trend is still upwards with one surprising exception.

First for the bad news: snowmobile prices have dropped substantially, as expected. We mentioned that last month’s two percent decline would most likely seem minor when the latest auction results were in, and we were not wrong. Prices for sleds are definitely

Average Used Values

March to April Used Unit Value Change

ATV Cruiser Jet Boat Off-Road On/Off-Road Scooter Snowmobile Street Utility Watercraft

March $3,710 $8,389 $17,413 $2,499 $4,896 $1,929 $4,662 $7,009 $6,989 $5,297

April $3,609 $8,802 $18,045 $2,556 $5,029 $1,973 $4,255 $7,210 $7,078 $5,485

18 May 2013 | Motorcycle & Powersports News

Percent Change -3.50% 1.30% 1.40% 1.10% 1.00% 0.60% -6.50% 0.90% 0.60% 1.40%

Snowmobile

Street

Utility

Watercraft

headed down, and fast. The segment dropped 6.5 percent during March for the April market guide. The lack of snow in many areas, coupled with the end of winter, means continued weak demand for these units until next fall.

The most surprising vehicle segment this month is the ATVs, which are down significantly at 3.5 percent. ATVs normally increase in value at this time of year, but by smaller amounts than most of the street and off-road motorcycle segments.

Stay tuned next month to see whether this is a one-time adjustment, or part of a larger trend.

Personal watercraft and jet boats are not surprisingly up by 1.4 percent this month. With warm weather on the way, prices for these units should be headed even higher next month.

For the majority of street bikes, cruisers, scooters and off-road bikes, prices are up .9 percent to 1.3 percent, depending on the segment. While these increases are not large for the time of year, they do represent a continuation of the overall upwards pricing trends that we have seen for the past few months. The numbers should be taken as a sign that dealers have confidence in stocking its showrooms as customers start to return in bulk this time of year. t

TECH

Tips

Cyclepedia Press LLC

Tighten Up Around The Shop

E

veryone knows how important oil and air filter changes are to the health of a bike. Checking the condition of brakes, greasing the pivot points in the frame and keeping clean fuel in the intake system all top the list of tasks that must be done to make sure customers’ rides are ready to go when they need to go.

What about the oft-neglected task way down the list of checking the nuts and bolts on the machine? Not very exciting, huh? It’s much more interesting to debate what oil to use than what kind of wrenches to spin, but keeping everything properly tightened should be high on the list of maintenance chores if you want every ride to be trouble-free.

Any good technician should make it a habit to do a slow walk around after every service, and check every nut and bolt they see. In many cases, you should check the nuts and bolts you can’t see as well. The first items that come to mind are exhaust system mounting bolts, especially if the machine is fitted with an aftermarket exhaust. Pipes and mufflers fight a constant battle between the conflicting vibrations of the engine on one end and the punishment of the road on the other. Another sensitive point is the rear sub-frame or rear carrier, especially on a machine that carries luggage of any sort. Having a loose bolt break off or a frame tube crack from errant vibration is sure to slow down a journey and ruin a lot of fun.



Avoid cross threading bolts.

difference between 55 foot-pounds, which you might see on a torque spec for a suspension pivot bolt, and 55 inch-pounds, which would suit a brake bleeder nipple just fine. The difference between the two specifications can mean a suspension bolt that falls out or a bleeder nipple that breaks off.

As a group of folks that spend their days reading through factory and aftermarket manuals digging out hard numbers, we can offer one uncomfortable tip: be familiar with the common torque specifications for general nuts and bolts. As in, a typical plain carbon steel six-by-one-millimeter bolt wants to be tightened to a maximum of four foot-pounds. If you have your factory manual in hand, and it says the six-by-one bolt you’re looking at should be tightened to 41 foot-pounds, you should investigate a little more before you attack it with the wrench.

Yes, there are typos and mistakes in factory manuals, and blindly following an instruction to crank 41 foot-pounds into a six-by-one-millimeter bolt will always break it off. Be aware that anything written down that seems suspect can very easily be an error just waiting to do you harm. Most manufacturers also offer a general torque specification table based on thread size that



A good technician can go through a chassis and check all the nuts and bolts by feel, but a great technician has a torque wrench in his hand and the machine’s torque specifications page open on the workbench. There is no substitute for knowing exactly how tight sensitive nuts and bolts are when you’re finished with the job. The object is not to tighten every nut as tight as you can possibly make it, but to get it right.



Our house technician admits that he can go through any machine and torque common nuts and bolts to seven to 10 foot-pounds all day long with a standard ratchet in his hand, just by experience. However, when a fastener calls for anything less or more, he reaches for the torque wrench. There’s a huge

20 May 2013 | Motorcycle & Powersports News



Use torque specifications.



Thread file, tap and die set, easy-out extractors, drill bits.



Drilling out a fastener.

you can use for an unspecified fastener torque as well as a benchmark for torque specs that my appear inaccurate.

 A sharp eye and a careful hand can find questionable

fasteners quickly, and give you a chance to avert disaster later. Every technician should have a tap-and-die set on hand, metric and SAE to deal with thread difficulties that may come up. Running a tap through a set of balky threads will often clean up a problem waiting to happen, and it only takes a few minutes if the tools are handy.

 In the event that a broken-off bolt is found, it’s good to also have a set of easy-outs on hand, along with a knowledge on how to quickly extract a broken bolt shaft without piling up a huge amount of hours. Thread insert kits are handy, too, for those situations where there’s just no saving a bad connection.



Extracting a fastener with an easy-out tool.

 The key is to try to address every problem possible while the machine is already on the lift, not to get the customer’s bike out the door only to see it again next week — with an angry customer wondering why you didn’t address the issue when you last saw the bike.

A careful eye and a careful hand armed with a torque wrench can save your customers trouble and frustration down the road and improve your reputation for paying attention to all the details. t

Cyclepedia Press LLC authors powersports service manuals, a specification database and training modules to help technicians efficiently service ATVs, motorcycles, scooters and side by sides. Each month, Cyclepedia examines real life shop scenarios with recommended tech tips for handling the problems encountered. For more information about Cyclepedia manuals and professional products, visit www.cyclepedia.com.

MotorcyclePowersportsNews.com 21

PEAK

Dealership PERFORMANCE

By Mark Rodgers

How To Give Trade Values Without Getting Punched In The Face Part Two

I

n last month’s issue of MPN, we discussed some ways to negotiate trade-in values of bikes with customers. For the most part, if you stick to your sales experience, knowledge of your store and knowledge about the vehicle, you should be in good shape to offer the customer the best deal without losing money. In addition, it’s a good idea to start with a low number and then add money to sweeten the deal, instead of chopping money off a large number. Here are some other ways to negotiate a deal without getting punched in the face.

Customizing to the Extreme We’ve all seen extremely customized bikes.

These conversations take extra care and consideration. People align themselves so closely with their motorcycle that to disparage their bike would be to disparage them. It’s time to sit down and explain to them that even though that paint job and those bolt-ons are awesome, it’s usually easier and quicker to sell a bone-stock bike than one that has lots of personality.

It’s not that his bike isn’t awesome, it is — to him. It’s just that it’s going to take some additional time on the floor and maybe even some reconditioning to find the right buyer.

As you may know, we continuously harp on the expert use of language. Here are some words and phrases that can help with these conversations: • Your motorcycle certainly has personality.

• The bike is uniquely you.

• It certainly has character.

• The motorcycle is distinctive.

• Your bike has individuality.

Here are some additional phrases you can use: • Regretfully, in an open market you have to appeal to the greatest

number of potential buyers.

• We will reluctantly have to return this bike closer to stock to be able to attract general interest.

• The dilemma is how to translate your personality to a new buyer.

These approaches will go much farther than, “What in heaven’s name were you thinking when you did this to your motorcycle!”

Retail to Retail, Wholesale to Wholesale You run a great store. You offer superb service and a great depth of knowledge.

You should never feel guilty about making a profit. Your customer doesn’t work for free and neither should you. Your customer will usually tell you what’s important in the transaction without you having to ask. If you get them close to what they’re asking for, it only seems fair that they do the same by paying what you would like for your bike. Isn’t it great when the customer wants you to pay retail for his trade and wants to pay wholesale for his new bike? If they want a deal on your bike, you deserve a deal on their bike. This reality has to be explained to the customer otherwise, you’re not on the path to a long and storied tenure in the motorcycle business.

Picker’s Parallel One of the other ways you can set expectations is to draw a parallel between trade values and reality TV. Many people have seen either American Pickers or Pawn Stars. This is helpful in that it educates consumers on the position of the buyer, i.e. you. You can simply ask your customers if they’ve ever seen one of these shows; many will readily admit that they have.

“Then you understand that the guys on Pickers or Pawn Stars have to be able to buy items at a price that allows them to

22 May 2013 | Motorcycle & Powersports News

earn a reasonable profit. That is exactly our situation as well.”

The Difference is the Difference Take the trade value off the table. Cash buyers with a free and clear title to the trade are usually more interested in the size of the check they’ll have to write than they are about the actual trade-in value. Why start a discussion if it isn’t that crucial to the transaction at hand? Pencil the offer back: “Your bike + $325 per month” or “your bike + $7,000.”

It simplifies the process and allows you to negotiate the only number that really matters: the amount out of pocket required to purchase a bike today.

You have to ask enough questions and listen to your customer to know which approach will have the best results.

If they are fixated on getting a certain number for their trade, be prepared to get incredibly granular and detailed on how you arrived at the figure you did. If it’s all about getting a great deal on your bike, focus your efforts there.

Safety and Legal Requirements and Reconditioning Required You have a store, licenses and a reputation to protect. You also have an obligation, both legally and ethically, to only sell safe and sound vehicles. So, start with a figure.

Subtract for the changes you’ll have to make to ensure legal and safety compliance and then build them back up with some of the good things you can find on their bike. Keep looking. You’ll find a few things to end with on a positive note.

There is no way to get around the things you will have to do to make the motorcycle safe and legal. If your customers were selling the bike themselves, then they could make that decision. You have an obligation to your customers

• Set expectations early in your customer conversations.

• Understand your market, get involved.

• Sales history and time on the floor.

• The words you use and the phrases you choose.

• Use process visuals to paint a picture.

Consider it a relationship building opportunity rather than an invitation to join the bike fight club. Your customers will be happier and your trade values will be fairer for both parties. t

and to your dealership. If you explain the cost of adding a horn or having to replace the handlebars to meet the legal requirements, you will have given a wellreasoned and thought-out justification for the figure you have provided.

Tap Out: Enough Already!

Trade valuation can be tough, but it doesn’t have to be. Think about: • Building a trade value from the bottom-up and not the other way around.

An award-winning author, top-rated trainer and founder of Peak Dealership Performance, Mark Rodgers holds a master’s degree in adult education and the National Speakers Association Certified Speaking Professional designation — only 500 people in the world have this coveted recognition. Contact Mark@peakdealershipperformance.com to improve your performance.

Visual Depiction A great way to create a sense of urgency is to instantiate the situation. Here’s how you can make your point with trade values: Draw a circle on your pad and say to the customer, “OK, here’s where we are right now.”

Ask the question, “What typi2. cally happens to the prices of new bikes in the future? Well, they go up.” Draw a “new bike” line that slants up.

Then ask, “What typically hap3. pens to the value of used bikes over time? They often go down.” Draw a “used bike” line that slants down.

Then make the statement, “The 4. difference between the price of the new bike you want and your trade is here.” Draw the “now” line.

“If we wait until sometime in the 5. future, it will be here.” Draw the “later” line.

And end with, “So, as you can 6. see, we’re never going to be closer on what you’re looking for in terms of new bike price and trade value. What do you think?”

1.

MotorcyclePowersportsNews.com 23

WebSAVVY

By Heather Blessington

Industry Marketing Profile: How Does Your Dealership’s Digital Marketing Stack Up?

T

he March issue of MPN featured an overall industry profile that provided the results of the annual readership survey, designed to gauge the performance of today’s brick and mortar powersports dealer. Today, we are going to dig deeper into the results, specifically as they relate to marketing strategies.

Does your business have a website?

How one expects to run a profitable business without a website is too much for my tech-nerd brain to handle, but apparently there are 22 percent of powersports dealers out there attempting it. Your website is as essential as the sign in front of your dealership. Every day that goes by that you don’t have a site, you are basically handing customers to your competitors.

Enough said.

Listed below are the primary providers of websites for the powersports industry: Powersports Network Company site: http://powersportsnetwork.com Demo site: http://www.psndemo1.com 50 Below, an ARI Company Company site: http://50below.com Demo site: http://www.arrowheaddemo.com/ Dealer Spike Company site: http://dealerspike.com Demo site: http://hd.demos.dealerspike.net/ All of these providers offer new vehicle feeds from the major OEMs so that as new models come to market, they’ll show up on your site automatically. Pre-owned vehicles will need to be manually entered and managed via an administrative tool provided by these vendors. OEM and aftermarket parts, as well as gear and accessories, are added to the website through catalog data feeds; however, each provider offers different options for this feature, so do your homework now so that your site features the content most valuable to your dealership.

You can also opt for a totally custom website solution, whether it be e-commerce or strictly content driven.

Not sure which direction to go in? Give us a call, we’re happy to guide you through the selection process.

What do you see as your highest competitive threat?

Year after year, dealers state that Internet sales threaten their bottom-line more than any other competition. All of the website providers mentioned earlier will allow customers to purchase items online using a digital shopping cart; however, there are a few crucial factors to consider when selecting your e-commerce solution.

1. Shopping Cart Usability Before you ask for a demo, surf around the website provider’s site as if you were a customer. Think about how customers search for products; measure how long it takes you to find a product, test the shopping cart feature itself, and ask how the orders are processed in the back-end to cut down on your fulfillment workload.

2) Product Data Feed(s) Most people use Google search to shop online. If your dealership does not show up in the shopping results of a search engine’s results, you are not even in the running to garner that sale. You can submit your products via a data feed free through these search engines: Google: www.google.com/merchants/ Bing: http://bit.ly/BingMerchants Yahoo: http://bit.ly/YahooMerchant A word of warning: submitting data to search engines according to its specifications is no easy feat. If you don’t have a qualified developer, I highly recommend you consider utilizing a vendor who will handle setup and feed data to multiple channels simultaneously complete with reporting.

My recommendations are: Edgenet: http://edgenet.com Channel Advisor: http://www.channeladvisor.com/ The overarching idea I would like you to walk away with here is that e-commerce is more than just a shopping cart on your website. Your cart needs to be supported by and integrated with all of your other marketing efforts, product data feeds and search engine marketing in order for the effort to truly deliver the ROI you are seeking.

How did your dealership advertise in 2012?

Good ole word of mouth is still on top, with 78 percent of deal-

24 May 2013 | Motorcycle & Powersports News

See the entire 2013 Industry Profile here: http://bit.ly/MPNIndProf ers stating that they rely on it to spread their reputation. Website efforts and social media marketing ranked in the 70 percent range, which shows that the industry as a whole understands the value of digital media. Social media marketing is essentially word of mouth marketing on a global scale, which provides you with reach to your core demographic beyond anything we could have imagined just five years ago. Be sure to integrate your social media channels with your blog and website content for the highest return; and remember, ROI doesn’t happen overnight in the digital world — it is cultivated over time through genuine online relationships with your customers.

Direct mail and Yellow Pages are still being utilized by 36 percent of dealers. I’ll admit that in some rural areas, Yellow Pages still has a glimmer of merit (but, you should be a shark when negotiating your annual pricing with these folks — you are in the power position). On the direct mail side, I can honestly tell you I have never heard of any dealer who had a direct mail campaign that delivered to ROI expectations. This fact, combined with the fact that direct mail costs an arm and leg compared to online marketing, makes a strong case to dump direct mail like a hot potato and shift those dollars into search marketing or social marketing, which is strategically planned to deliver measurable results for your dealership.

At the bottom of the list are reminder cards coming in at 15 percent. Flip this strategy to reminder emails that are dirt cheap and highly effective. Skip hard copy snail mail and move to drip marketing campaigns sent through Constant Contact. Then, take your campaigns to the next level by segmenting your lists by brand preference, and you will be moving one step closer to one-to-one marketing.

Dealers reported that 62 percent of sales came from repeat customers. With statistics like this, doesn’t it make sense to reach out and touch those individuals to let them know you appreciate their business, tell them it’s time for a tune up, or just toss a friendly coupon their way to help them enjoy their passion a bit more? Email marketing is the way to make this happen because it’s quick, easy and affordable.

Award-winning blogger and CEO of Duo Web Solutions, Heather Blessington is a nationally-renowned speaker on social media marketing and a digital marketing veteran. Her company provides MPN monthly columns focused on best practices in Web marketing for powersports dealers.

What is your demographic?

The last statistic I will comment on is the stated average demographic of 81 percent male/19 percent female. Here’s some homework: log on to your Facebook Insights reports and see if your in-store demographic matches your online/social demographic. I think you are due for a wakeup call. The vast majority of dealers find their female customer base is way higher than they realize, and let’s face it — it’s the lady of the house who ultimately signs off on the majority of purchases, so you need to cater to the women right along with the men. t MotorcyclePowersportsNews.com 25

&

Finance Insurance

By Steve Dodds II

The Credit Union Conversion

Swing at the Conversion Every Time, Part 2

I

n this three-part series, I will share with you how top-performing finance managers convince customers to finance with their dealerships instead of using their own financing or cash.

I would like to start by saying that conversions are successful about 10 to 20 percent of the time. This percentage shift adds between $50 and $250 to your per vehicle sold (PVS) average. This can make a huge difference to both you and the dealership.

The most important thing that a successful finance person can do is keep the customer’s ego out of the discussion.

If a finance person comes across as telling the customer what to do with his or her money, the customer will defend him or herself. If, on the other hand, the finance person provides information that makes it easy for the customer to make the logical decision, then the help is appreciated and people go along for the ride.

Step One: Find out where the money is coming from The easiest place to start this conversion is at the finance manager’s first meetand-greet. I talked about this in March’s article, Meet the Customer Early, which is available in the MPN online archives.

After verifying that the customer’s information is correct, complete and legible, say, “The last piece of information I need is your lienholder’s address.” The customer might answer in a variety of ways, and you’ll be able to determine where the money is coming from and whether they have a lien-holder based on how they answer. It’s a reasonable question because you need this information in order to register the lien.

Step Two: Present your evidence There are several different pieces of evidence that you can present based on how step one goes. In this article, I will cover the customer who wants to pay with money from their credit union only.

Credit unions typically cross-collateralize. In cross-collateralization, if the customer were to default (or, in some cases, even miss a payment), the credit union can take money from their savings, checking accounts or other investments.

They could even repossess or foreclose on other loans in order to cover any amount owed to the credit union.

Credit union loans are typically payable upon demand. The credit union can demand payment in full at any time, regardless of your payment history. In many cases, the credit union’s decision to exercise this has to do with their financial situation rather than the customer’s.

Banks do not have that ability. Dealership loans are, in most cases, payable upon default. If you make your payments on a bank loan, you have the right to continue to own that vehicle.

The dealership financing is quick and convenient – many credit unions take much longer for approval than dealership financing. The customer may need to visit the credit union in order to sign paperwork and collect a check. If your customer finances through the dealership, everything can be done on the spot, and he or she can leave with the bike in about an hour.

26 May 2013 | Motorcycle & Powersports News

Step Three: Close You want to include these word tracks when you ask a buyer to choose your financing plan: • “I am not telling you what to do.”

This further disarms the ego.

• “This loan can be paid off at any time.” If customers know that they can pay the loan off or refinance it at their bank, it’ll make them feel more comfortable going forward with your financing plan.

• “If it makes sense for you, did you want to go ahead and finance through us?” When you say this, it makes it hard for the customer to say no. It also allows you to back out if you’re not able to get someone approved. If they say yes, take their information, and assume they are going to finance with you.

I guarantee you this: every time you don’t swing, you miss. Swing for the fences every time, and it will always make a difference. t

Steve Dodds II is a moderator, trainer and consultant for Gart Sutton and Associates with experience in every position in the sales and finance departments.

Dealers rave about his ability to identify areas for improvement and implement the changes that produce superior results. If you have questions about what he or one of our other talented consultants can do for you, contact us at info@gartsutton.com.

THE

Service

MANAGER

By C.R. Gittere

The Strongest Pillar in Your Dealership: Service and Repair

L

ast week, I was working on a project for Experian Automotive. They provided me with a list of vehicles in operation based on registration data from the states. This file allowed me to look at all the individual, state-registered powersports vehicles in the U.S. and what counties they are registered in. Most of the vehicles currently registered are model years between 2002 and 2008, with a huge drop-off in 2008. Other indicators that these model year vehicles are still on the road can be found by looking at sales from the aftermarket parts suppliers, and cylinder repair and re-plating companies.

If you have ever noticed a factory service schedule, many of them require significant amounts of work once the vehicle reaches two to four years old. Repairs like brake line flushes, brake line replacement, and bearing repacking are needed to

28 May 2013 | Motorcycle & Powersports News

keep a vehicle operating safely. As these vehicles age beyond this timeframe, it creates more and more of an opportunity to upsell these services and repairs.

According to the March 2013 MPN Industry Profile, 29 percent of a dealer’s sales are derived from service, and 32 percent of profit comes from service work. Most dealers noticed an uptick in service sales in 2012 versus 2011 and very few noticed a small drop. I would guess that the increase in service is related to the operating age of the units.

The largest category for number of repair orders written per month is more than 70. When I talk with dealers, the average number I find is around 100 per month during the riding season. If you review the service intervals with your customer and find one or two things to upsell, you can generate cubic dollars at the end of the season.

If your dealership writes 100 repair orders per month and you get an upsell of one hours on 40 percent of them, you will generate an extra 40 hours a month in billed labor. The national average labor rate, according to MPN’s research, is $74.60 per hour, which works out to an extra $2,984 per month in sales or $35,808 per year. The best part about these numbers is that 75 percent of the work is already done. The service writer has already checked in the unit, and the mechanic has already put the bike on a lift. These significant incremental dollars do not require huge efforts on the dealership’s end.

Most of the dealerships I work with strive to get a dollar of labor to a dollar of parts sold on every repair order. This one-toone ratio can be important when you look at the possibility of generating an extra $35,808 per year in labor. This means that there is a real possibility to generate an extra $71,616 in sales just on the units that are already coming in your door.

Once upon a time, most dealers were selling pre-paid maintenance, and since 2008, it seems like many of them have abandoned this profit center. During the free fall of late 2008 and into 2009, dealers were barely scraping by just to keep the doors open and the lights on. If you think about it, those maintenance contracts are now expired, but you sold them on the importance of keeping their toy in prime condition. The best way you can capture this is to look at what you sold over the last 10 years to see what your top selling units were. Make sure you are stocking some of the wear and tear parts such as brakes, driveline parts, air cleaners and spark plugs. It’s important to stock some of these common service items, so when the customer comes in and you identify an upsell opportunity, you have the inventory to accommodate the sale.

If your service writer attempts to get the upsell on recommended services and the customer does not say yes, have your service writer makes notations inside your DMS. These notes should be used to send the customer an email, follow-up letter or for review when they come in for the next visit.

There are no hidden tips or tricks to generating this type of incremental business. Your sales and service team needs to be planting the seed with buyers at every visit to the dealership. Always keep in mind that having a great service department can really make the customer want to come back to your store. When customers come into your store for service, and they have to wait around, they’ll see other things like new units and accessories. Service and repair will always be the one thing that will never be an online commodity, and if you strive to make it as profitable as possible, it can be the strongest pillar in your dealership. t

tomer service and increasing department profitability. His monthly column focuses on best practices and unique ways to get the most out of your service department.

More information about Service Manager Pro can be found at www.servicemanagerpro.com.

C.R. Gittere and the Service Manager Pro team specialize in service department efficiency, elevating cus-

MotorcyclePowersportsNews.com 29

PWC UPDATE Yamaha Announces Certified Pre-Owned Program

Combination of Warranty and Financing Promises to Entice Used PWC Buyers into Dealerships

A

ccording to Yamaha, its dealers are missing out on a lot of personal watercraft sales. The competition isn’t SeaDoo or Kawasaki. It’s everyday PWC owners who buy used vehicles in privateparty transactions; transactions that are currently estimated to account for more than 90 percent of the 100,000-plus used PWC sales that Yamaha says take place every year. That’s a lot of consumers doing business outside the doors of a Yamaha dealership.

In early April, the brand revealed that it’s about to change this situation. The solution is one that automakers have already demonstrated to bear fruit — the certified pre-owned concept. Yamaha hopes that, by following suit, it can provide a way for dealers to grab a piece of what the brand calls the “high volume and untapped” used-vehicle market.

The Yamaha Watercraft Certified PreOwned Program promises to bring used buyers into dealerships where they can “purchase used units with 100 percent confidence,” instead of purchasing from thirdparty sellers. It also promises to relieve customers of used products, so that they can buy new models while giving the dealer an opportunity to profit on those used units. In theory, the customer experience is better due to the fact that CPO models are inspected and warranted. Dealers also get the opportunity to build relationships with new customers who have future up-sell potential, as well as increase sales of parts, accessories, apparel and additional years of Yamaha Extended Service.

According to Yamaha National Sales Manager Bryan Seti, it’s a program that received a warm welcome at the company’s annual dealer meeting. “It was one of the biggest ovations we had at the meeting,” he says. “This is something that dealers really wanted from us.”

It’s no secret that Yamaha does extensive consumer research. A portion of this research revealed that 25 percent of used buyers considered buying a new unit before making their purchase. Seventy-six percent of those used buyers noted that a certified pre-owned program was appealing.

To participate in the program, dealers will pay an annual $349 fee that covers numerous in-store marketing materials as well as online promotions. Dealers are

reduced to follow), extended dealer curtailments (first payment not required for six months), special financing (zero percent interest for six months, one point below after six months) and the certification process and administration.

As Seti notes, Yamaha is in a unique position to introduce a program like this to the industry.

“That $349 allows the dealer to offer that warranty. It allows him to offer financing. Those are things customers are not

allowed to buy used models manufactured within the last six model years with less than 200 hours on the engine. Each WaveRunner will then undergo a 35point inspection to qualify. Those that pass can then be resold with a 12-month warranty — or perhaps even longer.

“Many units sold at boat shows already had multiple year warranties already on them.

So 12 months could easily move up to an 18-, 24- or even 36-month warranty depending on what we had at the boat show.”

Dealers pay an individual $349 certification fee per boat. It covers the Y.E.S. warranty, as well as special flooring programs from GE (30 days free and

going to be able to get when they buy on Craigslist or from an independent buyer.

“Yamaha is in a unique situation — we carry our own warranty, carry our own financing and flooring. We have partners, but we share in the profit and loss. We have a big vested interest and have the infrastructure to not have to work with third parties alone.”

“It’s not just ‘here you go, here’s a program, run with it.’ We’re going to back it up, because we really see the long-term benefits. If there’s a customer who likes personal watercraft, we need to make sure he stays in the fold and we know who he is.” t

30 May 2013 | Motorcycle & Powersports News

Dealership PRIORITIES

By Sam Dantzler

Keep Your Dealership’s Priorities Straight Get Your Dealership’s Priorities In Line or You’ll Quickly Be Out of Business

I

n 2007, the U.S. had roughly 7,500 franchised dealers in the country. That number decreased to just above 4,700 according to the most recent count from Motorcycle Industry Council. We can speculate all day about what happened to those 2,300 rooftops, but one thing is certain: be it through discounting, staffing or inventory, they simply didn’t do what was necessary to keep their doors open.

In 2001, I was having breakfast with Ed Lemco while we were training at one

of our Management Development Programs. A dealer came up and asked us how to run a successful dealership. I’ll never forget Ed’s response: “That’s a three-year answer, son, but I can tell you how to make it unsuccessful in a hurry.

Get your priorities out of order, and you’re done.”

Ed was referring to the top four priorities (of hundreds) that need attention in a dealership. He was adamant about the proper order of decision-making: dealership, customer, staff and then OEM. In the years that followed, Ed would frequently hold up four fingers sideways and flip them as to indicate the dealer was getting its priorities out of order. He often did this in a fit of frustration, spitting and gritting his teeth, as only Ed could.

Ultimately, after years of watching dealers get these four priorities out of order, I built a training module around it.

I’ve always taken training topics out of the industry by using analogies to allow dealers to see the comparison more openly. So for this topic, I compared Ed’s four priorities to those that a ship’s captain would consider: 1. Ship = Dealership 2. Passengers = Customers 3. Crew = Staff 4. Cargo = OEM All four of these things are important of course, but what’s the first thing to go over the side if the ship starts sinking?

That’s right, it’s the cargo. If the ship isn’t seaworthy, the cargo is soon to be a sunken treasure. So, you’d better tend to the worthiness of your ship. Think about it on this level as well: a captain wouldn’t need a crew if he didn’t have passengers who paid to keep the ship out of dry dock. I realize they’re all intertwined, but

32 May 2013 | Motorcycle & Powersports News

facts are facts — neither the cargo, the crew nor the passengers matter if the ship can’t sail. As the captain, you have an obligation to keep the ship in good repair, so that you can make it to shore and deliver your cargo, passengers and crew safely. Decisions must be made in a particular order, as life and death depend on it.

In the dealership, you have an obligation to keep your doors open, as it’s the death of the others that come a-knocking if you don’t. The biggest disservice you can do for your staff, customers and OEM is to go out of business. Your staff and their families, as well as your customers, depend on you for life’s gravy — the good stuff, the money, the freedom to do what they want. OEMs need you as an outlet for their product. The daily decisions need to be made in a particular order. Get that order wrong, and you’re done.

Customer: The customer is always right, right? Not always. Just because a customer walks away with a grin because he just purchased a new UTV at wholesale price, doesn’t make it the right decision for the dealership. If it were up to customers, you’d be open 24/7, fully staffed and everything would be free.

Let’s be serious: customers need rules, boundaries and people they can depend on. They want to know that you’ll be open when they’re off work, someone will help them find what they don’t even know they’re looking for, and they’ll be free to enjoy themselves engulfed in the escape of powersports. You did not get into business as a not-for-profit organization. Return policies can’t be, “Whatever you want, Mr. Customer.” Yes, occasionally, taking a hit is doing the right thing for the long-term health of the dealer-

ship, but making the buying process an escape — making it fun and easy — earns you the right to sell wares and services for a profit. Your customers will embrace that attitude, respect it and return.

Staff: If one of four commissioned salespeople quit, the other three will often tell the boss not to hire a new person. In their world, the commission pie is now split three ways instead of four.

What they don’t recognize is that with four salespeople, the store commissions are simply bigger and more profitable, because four bodies can address and capture more customers than three.

Oftentimes, the most profitable customers are just looking. If you run understaffed, a chronic issue in our industry, some customers won’t be greeted. When customers don’t feel the love, they won’t buy as a result. Everyone loses in this

scenario: the dealership doesn’t make the sale, the customer doesn’t get the toy, the salesperson doesn’t receive commission and the OEM doesn’t offload one more unit. Hug your salespeople, love them through it and tell them how awesome they are. However, don’t listen to them when they tell you not to hire staff.

OEM: The OEMs are wholesalers, and we’re best to never forget that. Yes, several have made great attempts to understand the retail side, knowing their success depends on the dealer’s success.

But allowing the OEM to make carte blanche decisions about your inventory can put you in a world of hurt. So only take on inventory you can sell. You’d rather be looking for it than looking at it, and nobody ever went broke based on what he didn’t buy.

There are too many spinning plates in our industry, and only the best can keep them all in the air. The dealership must come first and decisions must be made with the health and future of the store in mind. Some customers, staff and OEMs won’t like that decision, but they’ll learn to respect your decisions when they’re reaping the rewards of your successful dealership down the road. t

Sam was brought on board to Lemco as a sales & F&I trainer in 2001, where he quickly became the director of training and ultimately became a partner in the buyout of 2005. He went solo in early 2009 and now moderates seven 20-Clubs, and also consults and conducts in-dealership training. He continues to do contract work with Harley-Davidson, Triumph, Polaris, Club Car and Arctic Cat as well.

MotorcyclePowersportsNews.com 33

DESTINATION

Dealership

By Lauren Weidinger

Motorcycle Mall: Family Business with a Family Atmosphere

I

n 1975, John Resciniti Sr. and his son, John Resciniti Jr., started selling Indian dirt bikes to local customers out of the garage of their auto body business in Newark, N.J. Pretty soon, their small local side business transformed into much more as bikes started to pile up in the back of the shop. This left the pair with an important decision to make. The final verdict was the purchase of a storefront in Belleville, N.J., where they could continue to sell bikes in earnest.

Within two years, their list of manufacturers expanded to include Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki and Yamaha. As more time went by and the 1990s approached, John Sr. and John Jr. added BRP’s lineup of Sea-Doo personal watercrafts and Can-Am ATVs to add diversity to their inventory.

Due to a lack of storage space, the two purchased neighboring buildings to supply all of their new merchandise, with property totaling 30,000 square feet.

History repeated itself, and Motorcycle Mall yet again expanded into its present facility in Belleville, N.J. The business is currently run by the third

generation of Rescinitis: John Resciniti III, who grew up watching and learning the same business practices his grandfather and father displayed for 35 years. Today, he continues to promote those same techniques that helped Motorcycle Mall to thrive decades ago and explained how those techniques help make Motorcycle Mall unique.

“I think we are special in the way we do business,” says John III. “It was a philosophy that I was taught by my grandfather and my father: You treat people the way you want to be treated and with respect. A customer does not have to come into the dealership, and the big thing is that when a customer makes an effort to come to your dealership, you make the effort to wait on them and give the best possible service that you can.”

Rich Gonnello, marketing and communications director for Motorcycle Mall, reiterates the importance of the Resciniti family’s viewpoint on how business should be taken care of and how it has been an essential factor to their success.

“We have had people that have been buy-

34 May 2013 | Motorcycle & Powersports News

ing from us for 30 years because of the way the Rescinitis do business.”

The high standards John III sets for his staff and the dealership clearly illustrate why Motorcycle Mall flourishes and remains highly rated around the community.

“Even something as simple as calling a customer when a part comes in is a big deal,” Gonnello says.

John III calls Motorcycle Mall a “family business with a family atmosphere” and that goes for the atmosphere he creates for his employees as well as for his customers.

“John stresses that it is fun to everyone that comes in, because people that come in and buy powersports products and motorcycles do it for fun; it’s a passion that people have, and they are passionate, because they love it,” says Gonnello. “For us, we are motorcyclists as well. Yes, it is a business and yes we are serious … but ultimately when people come in looking for a part or come in looking to get their bike serviced, it is a fun atmosphere. We sell fun and that’s why we try to make sure that everyone has a smile on their face. When customers come in, they are greeted right at the door. They are going to share their

experiences and the fun that they have on their bikes, and we are going to sell them these fun products. It is a family atmosphere, and we like to have fun and have a great time.”

Motorcycle Mall is not just a retailer, but it is also a place where many community events are hosted to honor repeat customers and to attract new ones. The dealership hosts many events ranging from a Bikini Bike Wash & BBQ to seminars teaching proper road riding techniques.

Some of the dealership’s most popular events are track days. Motorcycle Mall has teamed up with Yamaha for the events, allowing customers to test drive the newest bikes from the OEM. All of these efforts are designed to make Motorcycle Mall a true destination for enthusiasts. “We truly are making [Motorcycle Mall] a destination dealership. We are one of the largest dealerships in the tri-state area as well as the East Coast at this size.

We try to understand that people are going to be traveling from Pennsylvania, New York or Connecticut to come to our dealership, because we have the biggest selection and the best prices. We try to make

sure that all of our customers know that this is not just a place to buy motorcycles. We have events so that people know it is a fun place to hang out as a community.”

The dealership also makes its presence known through the Web. Through social media outlets such as Facebook and Instagram and its website, Motorcycle Mall benefits from extending its reach to the online world.

“We have a big presence online, because we know a lot of our customers, if not a large majority of our customers, are interacting with us, so that is important to us,” says Gonnello.

Currently, Motorcycle Mall offers 14 different major brands including Polaris, Honda, Yamaha, Aprilia, Kymco USA, Vespa, Ski-doo, Suzuki, Kawasaki, Sea-Doo, Victory, Piaggio, Can-Am and Moto Guzzi.

With an extensive list of manufacturers that are offered at the dealership, it’s no wonder they consider themselves a dealership that appeals to all generations.

“We sell products here from the Victory cruisers and the mod of Gold Wings, where you see the older crowd, to the younger crowd that is buying the 250s, or even to the scooter crowd, who likes the Vespas that we sell,” says Gonnello. “We have the Italian line of Aprilia motorcycles and Moto Guzzi, which is much different than what you see on just the regular sport bikes or on Honda and Kawasaki. It’s almost like a melting pot that we have here at the dealership with everyone: every age, every color, every shape and every size. We like to have something for everyone” At Motorcycle Mall, there is something for everyone, whether customers are looking for a bike, a part, an honest professional opinion or just a fun time. t

MotorcyclePowersportsNews.com 35

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Josh Hayes trades in horsepower for manpower.

36 May 2013 | Motorcycle & Powersports News

t

he fundamental ties between motorcycles and bicycles are deep-rooted. I have a personal theory that spinning along balanced on two wheels has some kind of positive physical effect on human beings. For me, any day with time on two wheels is better than a day without.

History certainly supports my half-baked theory. The bicycle has been in society for ages, and the early ones clearly must have done something good for people’s brains. I say this because they were essentially deathtraps. The velocipede was a wooden bar strung across two wheels with a handlebar — think of it as a Victorian era skateboard. People fell off them and were hurt.

The bikes were soon banned.

The next bicycle was the boneshaker, which coupled an iron frame with wooden wheels and iron tires. It was torturous to ride.

The looniest of the early machines was the highwheeler, which had rubber tires and a very large front wheel. They were as fast as a modern bicycle. They also had a propensity to slap the pilot to the pavement facefirst. Broken noses and fractured wrists were common occurrences for high-wheeler riders. Since they were expensive and dangerous, well-heeled young men bought them in droves.

Eventually, someone created something called a “safety bicycle,” and those were popular from the 1880s to 1900 for reasons I don’t understand or support. If it’s safe, why do it? Maybe they should’ve called it the “boring bicycle.” Boring was good in those days, as more than a million units sold in the U.S. in 1900.

As the safety bicycle craze swept America, German engineer Gottlieb Daimler experimented with ways to provide internal combustion power in compact vehicles. He pursued this interest in engines and left his

Eric dirt Bostro and m on t crank he t s on rack the .

job, bought a cottage in the country and started building engines in a greenhouse (which alarmed the neighBy Lee bors so much they called the police).

Kla nch Daimler built a compact internal combustion engine, and er put his engine into anything that moved: a boat, a stagecoach, a trolley car, and — most famously — a wooden two-wheeler, which is now considered the world’s first motorcycle.

Arthur Davidson also rode bicycles, but as it turns out, he didn’t like them much. He needed a solution to get to his favorite fishing hole faster, so he and his brother, Walter, installed an engine in a bicycle frame. Turns out that this solution was a complete failure at first, but after they teamed with an old friend named William S. Harley, they figured out a solution that worked. You might know the result of this little experiment — a company now known as the Harley-Davidson Motor Company.

The Harleys and Davidsons needed a place to sell their motorcycles. Jean Davidson, author and family descendent of Arthur Davidson, explains, “My great uncle Arthur Davidson went to bicycle shops and talked the owners into selling motorcycles.”

The timing was perfect for the Motor Company, as bicycle shops were struggling. Between 1900 and 1905, the bicycle market shrunk by 75 percent. Davidson put it succinctly: “When motorcycles came out, who wanted to pedal a bicycle if you could just put a motor on it?”

MotorcyclePowersportsNews.com 37

Harley-Davidson became the dominant maker of motorcycles by 1914. In 1917, the company introduced a line of bicycles featuring gorgeous paint and pinstripes that matched the motorcycle line, as well as a beautifully crafted front drive gear with “Harley-Davidson” cast into it. The Davis Sewing Machine Company built the bikes for Harley-Davidson.

“Arthur went back to the same shops that were selling Harley-Davidson motorcycles, and they just laughed at him,” Davidson said. “They put the bikes in the corner and just kept selling motorcycles because they made more money on them.”

The experiment lasted until 1922, and then the Motor Company pulled out of the bicycle business.

Bicycles experienced another resurgence in the ‘60s when the rise of the hot rod Schwinn Stingray for kids and the 10-speed bicycles popular with adults for recreation drove sales of bicycles in the U.S. Sales doubled to 7 million bicycles sold in 1970 alone. From 1971 to 1975, sales doubled again. Time magazine reported that “for the first time since the 1890s, nearly one-half of all bicycle production was geared for adults.”

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, vacant lots in Southern California were invaded by hordes of kids racing around on their Sting Rays and other hot rod bicycles. When director Bruce Brown chose to open his legendary documentary On Any Sunday with kids riding bicycles off-road, he touched off a craze that became BMX. One of the stars of that film was Mert Lawwill. He grew up riding bicycles as a kid in Idaho. “Even as a kid with a bicycle I would take a shovel and make an oval track with banked corners so I could race around it,” he told reporter Shawn MacDonald.

Lawwill first got on a motorcycle when he was 8 years old, and he took to it like a fish to water. “There was just something about riding motorcycles — and riding them fast that just seemed natural to me,” Lawwill said.

Lawwill eventually progressed to racing, and became a Harley-Davidson factory racer. He was a fast rider and an innovator.

He was able to beat the other factory riders by handcrafting a suspension frame and reworking the head and cylinders. He won the AMA Grand National Championship in 1969, and won 161 AMA Grand National

races during his career.

Lawwill starred alongside Steve McQueen and Malcolm Smith in On Any Sunday, and he’s best known today for struggling to win a race in front of Bruce Brown’s cameras.

In the early 1970s, Lawwill was working with Terry Knight to build suspension frames for Harley-Davidson motorcycles.

The bicycle craze of that era led Knight to suggest that he and Lawwill try their hands at bicycle frames.

The cutting edge of bicycling in the 1970s was the mountain bike. Riders would take old 1930s and 1940s Schwinn Cruisers and fit them with better brakes and fat tires so they could blast down mountain trails.

Lawwill and Knight ultimately created the first production version of a mountain bike in 1978 — the Lawwill Pro Cruiser.

When Specialized introduced the Stump Jumper in 1981, it was a better bike and sold for less. Lawwill decided it was time to get out of the mountain bike business.

Ten years later, he was riding a mountain bike down a mountain at about 20 mph, terrified that he’d crash. When he got home, he realized he could’ve gone down the hill at 40 mph on a motocross bike. This led him to design an innovative new rear suspension system for mountain bikes. He took out five patents on the design and licensed it to Schwinn and Yeti. He’s now in both the Motorcycle and Bicycle Halls of Fame for his accomplishments.

Andy Pallemaerts’ passion for twowheels led him to buy a bicycle store in New Smyrna Beach, Fla. The area has great beaches — the best surfing in Florida — and is located a few miles south of Daytona Beach.

A business partner of Pallemaerts had a Polaris dealership, and the two joined forces to start Volusia Motorsports. The dealership sells Polaris ATVs, Victory and KTM motorcycles, Genuine scooters, and a complete line of bicycles.

“Every motorcycle dealer needs diversity. In poor economic times, we still have customers coming in the door,” said Pallemaerts. “We don’t sell watercraft, we sell bicycles. We also sell scooters. Our leisure bike customers cross over to scooters. They can buy that from the same friendly store that sells them bicycles.”

The most interesting crossover he sees is the off-road people. Most of his off-road

38 May 2013 | Motorcycle & Powersports News

customers are training on bicycles.

This is true industry-wide, particularly at the professional levels. Two of the most hardcore cyclists are Ben and Eric Bostrom.

Ben is a road-biking fiend who does 60 miles every other day, and Eric off-roads just as much. Ben raced the 24 hours of Moab solo and finished well, while brother Eric entered with a team and won.

Ben Spies is a very serious road cyclist.

He is a co-founder of the bicycle racing team Elbowz, which sponsors a number of elite amateur cyclists. The team was named the most exciting new U.S. team in 2011, chalking up more than 70 wins and becoming the second-ranked amateur cycling team.

Spies also competed in the 2012 Gran Fondo in Italy, and finished second in his class and 14th overall.

Back in Texas, Steve Littlefield owned a parts and repair motorcycle shop in Wichita Falls. He and his son, Paul, are avid cyclists, and they sold bicycles out of that shop. When they made the move to Georgetown, a northern suburb of Austin, they opened Central Texas Powersports, a large, new dealership that offered everyone a brand: Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki, Yamaha, Polaris, CanAm and Sea-Doo machines. They also wanted to offer cyclists a line, so they added Specialized and Redline bicycles.

The shop is located in a community that is exploding with active retirees moving in to take advantage of the area’s great weather and terrific road cycling network.

The area lacked one thing: a bicycle shop.

The cycling aspect of the business exceeded expectations.

“We were amazed at the amount of crossover,” said John Walker, general manager. “We see it in all aspects. Off-road guys ride mountain bikes. Road bicycling guys ride road bikes.”

Bicycles supply about 15 percent of the business at Central Texas Powersports, which is a huge chunk when you consider how many other lines they carry. According to John, large portions of his customers are retired men.

My theory about bikes having some kind of biologically positive effect is as halfbaked as a theory can be, but I’ll tell you this: when I’m old and gray, I’d like nothing better than to spend my days in a sunny city riding motorcycles and bicycles. t

Need for Bridging the gap between the casual rider and the track day enthusiast, sportbike lovers need high performance gear that'll stand up to the demands of their passion. If you’re looking to add some slick new looks to your collection this summer, we have a stellar lineup of apparel that performs just as well on the road — or the track — as your rider.

Reactor 3.0 Jacket

Joe Rocket The Reactor features a precision-tailored fusion of pliable FreeAir mesh and resistant 1.2-millimeter premium cowhide. Backing the outer chassis is CE-approved armor at the shoulders and elbows. A full-sleeve windproof liner keeps your rider warm and when removed, allows the pliable FreeAir mesh panels to flow massive amounts of air. Other features include a custom adjustment system, a mandarin collar and reflective striping. It comes in sizes small through 3XL and retails at $239.99.

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40 May 2013 | Motorcycle & Powersports News

Speed Sportbike Apparel

Super Speed Pelle

Dainese This jacket featured patented Microelastic inserts and resistant DSkin leather, along with ultra-strong S1 fabric. Other features include co-injected shoulders with titanium inserts, back and chest protector pockets, localized perforation, air inlets on the chest and sides, and an aerodynamic spoiler. The retail price is $799.95.

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Ventech II Jacket

Scorpion USA This jacket is constructed of durable poly mesh with 600 Denier impact panels. CE-approved EXO-TEC ventilated armor at the elbows and shoulders along with a P.E. foam back protector offer protection, while the NightViz reflective trim provides additional safety when riding at night. As conditions cool down, the Ventech II includes a full-sleeve, removable AirGuard windproof liner. It is available in all black, black/silver, black/neon and red/white in a wide range of sizes. It retails at $199.95.

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MotorcyclePowersportsNews.com 41

Hybrid Sport Cooling Vest

Techniche International The Hybrid Sport Cooling Vest offers both Evaporative and Phase Change Cooling to the rider regardless of the track temperature. The vest fits close to the body, allowing full range of motion, and comes backed with a protective cooler bag. This product rings in at $219.99.

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For More Info: www.techniche-intl.com

Sportbike Apparel Turbine 2

Castle Streetwear The Turbine 2 features a Perma-Flow mesh shell, incorporating perforated leather and 600D polyester reinforcements. It has a removable insulated liner plus a removable Hydro Barrier waterproof liner. Pre-curved and rotated sleeves enhance comfort in the riding position, along with removable CE-approved armor in the shoulders and elbows and a removable foam back pad. Reflective elements on the front, sleeves and back add visibility in low-light conditions. This jacket is available in four colors and retails at $179.95.

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For More Info: www.castlesales.com

42 May 2013 | Motorcycle & Powersports News

Street Butane III Jacket

Marathon Jacket

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For More Info: www.flystreetgear.com

For More Info: www.wps-inc.com

FLY Street Gear This anatomically fitted jacket features a durable 600D nylon outer shell construction. Removable CE-approved armor in the shoulders and elbows provide protection, and high visibility reflective piping adds extra safety. Dual Velcro adjustable waist straps provide a custom fit, and a HYDRAGuard membrane prevents water from seeping through while providing breathability. The jacket comes in four color combinations and retails at $169.95.

44 May 2013 | Motorcycle & Powersports News

Spidi To ensure maximum versatility and total comfort, the Marathon jacket consists of three layers. The outer shell is made from strong and abrasion-resistant 220 gram Tenax polyamide, and a perforated mesh lining, along with dynamic air intakes throughout, offer improved breathability. CE-approved protective pads on the shoulders and elbows are included. This jacket rings in at $599.95.

Sportbike Apparel

Accelerator 3 Series Glove

Cortech This glove features a perforated, top grain leather backhand with a breathable neoprene wrist cuff. A molded, two-piece carbon fiber knuckle with a neoprene back panel combines with TPR finger armor to provide comfortable and flexible protection. The pre-curved, outer-stitched palm and fingers improve dexterity and reduce fatigue, while a nash pull tab and hook and loop wrist closure makes the glove easy to put on.

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For More Info: www.cortechperformance.com

Phantom II Race Glove

Held USA This full gauntlet race glove features a kangaroo leather outer shell, Velcro closure at the wrist and gauntlet and perforated finger sidewalls. Its hard shell forearm is covered with Superfabric, while the outside hand features a double layer of leather. A titanium knuckle offers additional protection, and a special flat step seam on the palm enhances feel. This product comes in a variety of color combinations and rings in at $289.99.

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For More Info: www.heldusa.com MotorcyclePowersportsNews.com 45

Essentials: Wheels

15-Inch Billet Center Series Wheel

HD2se Wheel

OMF Performance Designed specifically for UTVs, this wheel’s American-made aluminum rim shell ensures a solid foundation. The billet center allows riders to change the offset, bolt pattern, style or color of the center. A heavy-duty reinforcing ring on the back side of the wheel in addition to a beadlock on the front adds extra strength. The wheel comes in three different sizes and retails at $649.95.

STI Tire and Wheel The popular HD2se Wheel now sports a gloss black finish, in addition to its matte black/machined and gloss black/machined siblings. The new Gloss Black HD2se is available in 12-by-7, 14-by-7 and 15-by-7 sizes. It features an inner and outer heavy-duty wheel lip reinforcement and comes with a new matching low-profile center cap.

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For More Info: www.omfperformance.com

For More Info: www.stitireandwheel.com

Badlands Wheel

Complete Wheels

Sedona Tire & Wheel The Badlands Wheel is manufactured from aluminum and features a black finish. Designed for the larger ATV and UTVs, it comes in 12- or 14-inch sizes with 4+3, 2+5 and 5+2 offsets. Caps are included, and the retail price ranges between $94.95 and $119.95.

Kite/MTA Distributing Kite's Complete Wheels feature billet-aluminum, anodized hubs and stock-sized, seal bearings. Their Excel A60 rims are 15 percent stronger than those of most OEMs, according to the company. Wheels are available for Honda, Yamaha, Kawasaki, Suzuki and KTM in a variety of colors.

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For More Info: www.mtadistributing.com

46 May 2013 | Motorcycle & Powersports News

MarketPlace

Find out more about the classified advertisers in this issue online at www.motorcyclepowersportsnews.com/resourcecenter.

WHO WILL BE THE NEXT

---Dealership Superstars show innovation in their field, great compassion for their dealership and its customers, and remarkable salesmanship.

Five Dealership Superstar finalists in the following categories will win $300 each: • New and Used Unit Sales • Finance and Insurance • Riding Gear and Apparel Sales • Parts and Accessories Sales • Service and Repair One of these finalists will be selected by our readers through online voting as the ultimate Dealership Superstar and will win double their prize pot and be honored at our Dinner With The Stars, October 17, 2013 in Orlando, Fla., in conjunction with the AIMExpo.

Visit www.motorcyclepowersportsnews.com/superstar to nominate a Dealership Superstar today!

Nominations are open until August 16, and self-nominations are accepted.

Finalists will be announced on August 23, and online voting will be open until Sept 27.

Sponsored by

MotorcyclePowersportsNews.com 47

MarketPlace

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Adran Tie Downs ...............................23

AIMExpo..............................................9

Amrep Inc..........................................17

Arai Helmet Americas Inc. ................25 Autodata Publications .......................41 Automatic Distributors .............Cover 3

EMGO International...................Cover 2

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MTA Distributing ...............................29

Nelson-Rigg USA Inc. ........................42

nizeX, Incorporated...........................25 Pacific Sportswear & Emblem Co......44

Protective Asset Protection..............27 Race Tech ..........................................32

Samson Motorcycle Products Inc. .....11 Service Manager Pro.........................28 Short Block Technologies ............12, 31 Sudco International Corp. .........Cover 4

Sullivan's Inc. ..................................4, 5 Team Charlotte Motorsports .............29

Trombetta .........................................19 Vega Helmet Corp. ............................39 Wizards Products/RJ Star Inc ...........45 XY Powersports ..................................7

MotorcyclePowersportsNews.com 49

Essentials

Phubby Phone Caddy AET Inc. This comfortable, stretchy band slips on to a rider's wrist, enabling him to insert a touchscreen phone. The see-through, mesh fabric allows the user to operate a phone without having to remove it. It is available in multiple colors.

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For More Info: www.aetraders.com

Adventure Touring Strap Mount Tank Bag Nelson-Rigg Made from a top quality UV-treated Tri-Max ballistic nylon, this bag is contoured to fit most tanks, including sloped adventure models. It features a protective base material that prevents slipping or marking. Mounting is quick and extremely secure using new, adjustable low-profile hooks that attach to the bag. Each bag maintains shape while empty and includes reflective piping, a lined interior and an office organizer under the lid. It can expand to an extra four inches of height, increasing capacity to more than 21 liters. It comes in black or hi-vis yellow and retails for $84.95.

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For More Info: www.nelsonrigg.com

Brake Pedal Torc1 Racing/MTA Distributing The Brake Pedal is forged and CNC finished from 6061 T6 aluminum for maximum strength and minimum weight. Its replaceable, spring loaded aluminum brake tip moves under contact, and grooved bronze bushing in the pivot area make brake action smooth and effortless. A brake saver cable is included to help guard the brake from being torn off in a crash. Replaceable anodized brake tips are available in black, silver, red, blue, orange, green and yellow.

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For More Info: www.mtadistributing.com

50 May 2013 | Motorcycle & Powersports News