Dispelling the japanese dealer network myth | Page 3 | GTAMotorcycle.com

Dispelling the japanese dealer network myth

Briefly had 4 but usually at least two when in Canada ...maybe up to five including Australia - down to CB350F and an eBike.
Our insurance in Ontario let me put a second bike on after July 1 for 1/2 price and since I rode deep into the year it was always worth while.
 
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So moral of the story in this new world is buy a bike, then buy a parts bike.

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We need BRP to step up and build a motorcycle. Made in Canada, for Canadians.

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Didn’t they already do that? The snowmobile with wheels?


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AllistonGT said:
Then that was poor service from an HD dealer.
Called another dealer at the time. No batteries available. They did install someones used one which wasn't much better. Point is, even simple OEM parts for bikes may not be readily available from any of the brands.
I tried telling my wife, this is why I should have a second bike just in case. She wasn't buying it.
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Your story or the bike?
 
Matt Rain said:
As a vintage-bike rider, and having now worked as the parts guy in a dealership for 9+ months now, I understand both sides of this pickle.

I routinely take mild verbal abuse from people who can't fathom that a dealer has to special-order the sprockets/levers/clutch plates for their bike that's been out of production for 15 years. And I get it. But carrying all this stuff as a multiline dealership would mean becoming a ginormous museum of parts with dozens of million $ in mostly-dead inventory.

Your specific bike is made up of thousands of parts, and there have likely been multiple revisions of it. Every variation of a bike is sold in relatively small numbers in a market like Canada.

One example - I special-ordered a fuel tank for a 2020 M109R the other day, in white/black with copper stickers. The odds I'll get another call for the same part # by the time I retire in ~25 years are effectively zero.

Honda's Toronto warehouse looks to be about 100,000 square feet based on Google Street View. That's one of three major warehouses in Canada.

Parts take up a massive amount of space and money. We can get them in fairly quickly in most cases, unless your idea of "fairly quickly" means same day. I doubt there ever existed a world in which you could walk into a motorcycle dealership and instantly walk out with whatever bit broke on your bike, beyond near-universal-fit consumables like chains. Even brake pads are tricky - EBC's catalogue is a 645-page brick.
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You can't compare bike parts to car parts unless the car is an exotic. The number of cars on the road with near identical drive train parts is far larger than the number of bikes with the same parts.

There are some exceptions like Goldwings that go largely unchanged for years but plastic ages and cracks and metal wears.

Wings from the 1500's on had a lot of trike conversions and rear ends were sometimes being sold off for the price of the wheel. That was largely a USA thing though.
 
Really curious as to what exactly the OP's realistic expectation of parts should be. Would love to review what the financial cost to a dealership would be based on the answer given, and how the additional overhead would translate into additional markups and hourly rates for the average motorcyclists.

People: DEALERS CHARGE TOO MUCH MARKUP, ********

Seasonal Motorcycle Dealers: *try to keep overhead down to a functional minimum*

People: WHY DON'T YOU ******** HAVE A SPARE OF EVERYTHING IN STOCK RIGHT NOW?

Seasonal Motorcycle Dealer: What in the **** do you realistically want from us????
 
adri said:
Really curious as to what exactly the OP's realistic expectation of parts should be.
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The purpose of this thread was not really about my expectations as it was to dispel certain voodoo myths.

Its often implied if you own a jap bike, with many dealers, that you'll always have support and readily available supply of parts should you need them. After all, just look at all those Honda dealers everywhere!

The reality is quite different from this obviously.
 
PS: Itchy Boots as a point of reference doesn't really make sense... she's looking for parts for a motorcycle that wasn't ever sold in the market she's in... of course they aren't in stock.

I'm trying to ship my BMW G650GS to Italy, to ride across Italy and France... part of the appeal of sending the G650GS is that it was sold in both markets I'll be riding in.

Just because Noraly did something a certain way, doesn't mean it's the most efficient way. Have you seen how much backtracking that girl does in a given week? lol
 
bigpoppa said:
The purpose of this thread was not really about my expectations as it was to dispel certain voodoo myths.

Its often implied if you own a jap bike, with many dealers, that you'll always have support and readily available supply of parts should you need them. After all, just look at all those Honda dealers everywhere!

The reality is quite different from this obviously.
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Right, so what is your definition of support and readily available supply of parts?
 
I’d say the examples used to start this thread aren’t exactly representative of people’s experience…

Bikes breaking down in far and away lands from the nearest shops is going to be bad no matter what you’re riding.

If people want readily repairable bikes on a whim with sticks and stones…buy a KLR.

I worked for a parts department for cars and there’s zero chance we would stock every single part. Zero.

Oh you’re driving a 1995 Jaguar XJ6? Guess we’ll wait for the UK to ship us one of those pieces.

Oh you’ve got a 2005 X-Type that needs a new gas tank? Here you go!

Inventory costs a lot of money, the square footage to keep that inventory is even more.

Honda, Kawasaki, Triumph, or BMW…get stuck in a far away spot with a part that doesn’t typically fail….I hope you’ve got a place to stay and wait.
 
mimico_polak said:
I stand corrected. Thought the KLR had a worldwide easily accessible network.

From your examples it looks like Mexico is the problem.
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or you've been putting too much faith in internet myths

Just sayin
 
bigpoppa said:
or you've been putting too much faith in internet myths

Just sayin
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Not particularly. I actually don’t care either way.

I have a common bike in a populated location.

So if I need to wait it makes no difference.

EDIT:
The only way to confirm your theory / argument beyond those very rare and random examples would be simply to take 5 bikes…get X number of broken parts on each bike and call their respective dealers to see availability.

But that’s a whole lot of effort and time wasting for someone. And the parts advisors time which I don’t believe I’m doing.
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