Where do you buy your gear?

[Papachristou]

i agree we need to support the locals. ill give them a chance to match prices or get close anyway. my local cycle gear is really good about it. but ive bought most of my gear online.

[Far Canal]

I buy from a local shop. Sure it costs a bit more but I've built up a rapport with them and get a decent discount. I like to try on my gear for size and I love going into bike shops for a gander and a chat. I find that they are aware I can shop online and are willing to come fairly close to matching prices on most things...and while I'm there I get them to check and adjust my chain, which they are happy to do for free.

[angels05ss]

online mainly...

[Hot.Damn.]

If I can get something at a local shop I prefer to but I almost only buy gear on clearance at insanely discounted prices. Engine oil and other maintenance items I buy at local stores.

[Rink675]

I do a bit of both, the dealerships around here suck majorly! The customer service is garbage, the selection is garbage and of course the prices are highly inflated. I did find one place for apparel which is where I bought all of my gear, they had very close to online prices and in some aspects even slightly cheaper.

It wasn't a dealership though, it was soley a riding gear and apparel store but it was still local. The selection wasn't high in variety but it wasn't all garbage gear either. When it comes to tires I bought all of my tires from motorcycle superstore, the local dealership wanted like 150.00 more for the same set of tires and that was with their "20% tire deal"....I couldn't believe it!

I used to be a runner for a motorsports shop and saw some of the shady work they do on a trade in bike to turn around and re-sell it. Example, a 250 dirtbike came in and the steering head bearing was bad, instead of them adding cost to to replace the bearing they just had the tech basically "fix it the best he can" by greasing the crap out of it. I asked "why don't they just fix it" and he said "this is what they want me to do, I know it's garbage".

I had it in my mind that if I saw anyone looking at that bike I was going to tell them not to even mess with it. Plus not to mention my CBR600RR I bought used from a dealership REALLY screwed me over! Learned my lesson on that one and it was my first bike so I was clueless as to what to look for.

In my opinion.....I wont support local business to just support it, they have to earn it just like any other online company does. STG wouldn't be where they are at without the effort they put into what they sell by doing youtube videos and such. When local business start getting their heads out of their asses then I will happily support them again.

[Nastybutler]

For being from a relatively unpopulated state, there's actually a couple decent gear shops here, plus the usual stealerships. The one I do support on occasion (Alaska Leather) also does alterations and other custom leather work, and I bought my Scorpion jacket from them this summer. They didn't have any pants I liked in my price range, but when I bought my AVG Willow pants online I asked them if they'd be willing to "mate" the connecting zippers to my jacket which didn't have any. They said "no problem" and told me it would be free since I bought the jacket from them. That's something you can't get from an online store.

Having said that, I do buy most of my gear online. Once I know my size with a particular brand, I'm pretty confident in ordering what I need. Case in point, the Bell Star carbon helmet I got for a great price from TJ. Far cheaper than Alaska Leather had it in the non carbon version.

[Rink675]

Do you guys think that it's the local businesses failing or online companies just stealing the show? What I mean is internet deals are more and more appealing to consumers especially with the global economy the way it is. For years past say 6-7yrs ago there weren't as many people shopping online as they do now for the best deals, they would buy from their local business.

Now these dealerships and stores have to adjust to not having the luxury of people coming and paying the local price because people are shopping online more.

So in my eyes it's not the people buying online that's killing local business, it's the businesses not doing a good enough job of adjusting to what the competition is putting out and shooting for volume of sales instead of X percentage of profit per sale. As most of us would agree that if you could avoid paying shipping and walk into a shop, buy a 1pc race suit because it's the one you want and you were able to try it on you wouldn't feel the need to buy online.

[MadMel]

A big part of it is convenience. Here in Brisbane, that concept hasn't really caught on, particularly in the area of opening hours. On the weekend, the time when a guy would like nothing better than to go wander through bike shops all day, most of the local shops close by 1 or 2 on Saturday, and can't be bothered to open on Sunday. They're open decent hours every weekday though... when everyone is at work. So basically, I have to specifically schedule it into my Saturday morning. If they're too stupid to run a business which is convenient for me to use, I won't.

Let's say I need some oil filters. I can wait until I have a free Saturday morning in the next few weeks to run across town to the Triumph dealer, and pay $25 per filter. Or I can order them online from Jack Lilley, pay $15/filter (including shipping to Australia), have it show up on my doorstep within a week. Simple choice. Survival of the fittest, and the local dealers are riding bitch.

[joehill96]

There is still something to be said for being a loyal customer and building a good relationship with a local shop. I order a few things online, but my local shop will price match and even send items back free of charge if they don't fit.

[Rink675]

Originally Posted by joehill96

There is still something to be said for being a loyal customer and building a good relationship with a local shop. I order a few things online, but my local shop will price match and even send items back free of charge if they don't fit.

Yea I don't know of any local shops that price match, sounds like a good deal for you though!