Triple-H

I scooted out at 4:40 and made three stops, here is how it went...

LOWES- I looked and looked, no blue can multi-use DuPont spray could be found, oh well, NO BIGGIE. I have the yellow can on order, should come soon enough.

TOTAL CYCLE- My second time there, the first was last year, they were cleaning carpet and I could not get in. Yesterday I pulled up and right out in front of the store was a bike going through a NYS Inspection. COOL. I go inside, the store front is small, smaller than Mark's garage, but clean and well laid out with a nice little supply of basic stuff, but there is nobody there working. ???. I go back outside and the guy doing the inspection is down on the ground and says I'll be right with ya, almost done. WOW. The storefront is being run by someone so capable he even does inspections. INTERESTING.
When the guy was done with the inspection I found out he was John, nice guy. He gave me a price of $34/wheel for mount and balance if I bring in the wheels and the new tires plus $2/old tire for NYS disposal fee. He looked at the tire info I had, said he would get a price, hang on. Well, he played with that calculator fr so long I was starting to think he was mathematically challenged. He called me back to the counter and said, no way, those are great prices, I can't match them, I can't even get close to them, he even said he has a sale on buying a pair of tires in May and even that can't get his price down that low. HONESTY He looked me in the eye and said, just buy them on-line and bring them in, the BT-023 is the newest Battlax so the prices are not low because they are trying to move old stock. Then he really surprised me, he asked to make a set of copies of my lasers, he wants to review it with the owner because he knows the owner is going to want to have a talk with their tire distributor. MOST IMPRESSIVE. My whole experience there felt good. John said just get on over here Tues or Thurs by 5:30 and I'll get that Viffer of yours legal. NICE.

CYCLE ENTERPRISE- What a dump, one old building added onto another old building added onto another old building, and inside it smelt bad, like maybe a mold issue was working. YUK. I go to the back and find a counter, there is a guy helping a customer change his helmet visor, he does not acknowledge me at all. The customer leaves, I get up to the counter, still no hello or anything, guy looks right at me, says nothing, then the phone rings and he jumps right on it, he was on the phone for 8-minutes, looking up a set of spark plugs, thumbing through catalogs, yes, I said catalogs. ARE YOU KIDDING ME. Eventually he gets off the phone and greets me, I ask him about mounting and balancing and he looks at me like I have seven heads and says well I don't know, that's a service question. Ok, where's service now that you have had me wait 15-minutes? Oh, ya, sorry... HE WAS NOT HONEST RIGHT THERE! I finally make my way through the maze outback to an even worse building and I meet Mike who tells me mount and balance if I bring in new tires will be $43/wheel plus $4/old tire for NYS disposal fee. I ask him why so much and he replies it's the owner's policy, we increase the price if you don't buy tires from us. THAT'S BS IN MY BOOK. So I ask if he can give me a price on the BT-023, he plays around for a while, makes a phone call and comes back to yes, we will match that price, here, I'll requote the mount and balance and disposal. WFT?!? Now the mount and balance is $28/wheel plus $2.50/old tire for disposal. KMA! Sure the willingness to match the tire price is nice, but I'm not feeling the love, I don't like the way I have been treated and I do not like the policies of this owner. GOOD BYE.

CONCLUSION- I would rather pay a few bucks more and go to a nice shop with decent policies where I feel like a valuable customer, at a place where they seem to be looking out for me.

MARK
Thanks for the suggestion, I'm glad I went and checked out Cycle Enterprise, they indeed helped me to know, for me, I do indeed need to give Total Cycle a shot at my business.

Crazy_Schizo

What are some of the best sources you use to determine value for a bike?

FOund this one out in PA, but the price seems WAY too high for the age and mileage:

http://allentown.craigslist.org/mcy/2368103745.html

Conedodger

I should have told you to look in the tool section, that is where I found it.

Conedodger

Kelly lists retail, (Dealer price), at $3300. Private party should be less. I have no idea how acurate it is.

Kelly BB Value

Kelly lists mine at $4750. Actually seems a little on the low side for retail.

Conedodger

West Side Cycle did mine for $25 a tire last time, but had me take the old tires with me. Not a problem for me, as the town will take them for free during the spring cleanup. This time, he quoted the same price, but I'm buying the tires from him. Not sure if he would raise it if I wasn't buying tires from him.

Last time I went to Hollink, it was $45 a tire if you didn't buy from them.

Crazy_Schizo

That's what I thought. WAY overpriced.

Don't feel like browbeating a seller down to a sane price.

Conedodger

Looks like I will have to try the epoxy. I ran the heaters this morning, and now the grip is slipping again. Guess the adhesive softens with heat.

Triple-H

Not only the places Mark suggested, but ALSO, all the ads!!!

Are you making screen grabs of all the ads like I suggested? As you have your mind fixated on a specific year, specific color, you need to judge what you are willing to spend based upon what those specific bikes are selling for at the time you are buying.

If I look at just the sites Mark listed I could easily find I paid too much money for my GEN5 VFR with 24k miles, however, based upon the fact that I wanted a specific GEN/engine I realized I would need to judge the "fair price" based solely upon what other GEN5 bikes were actually selling for. Yes, I could have bought a GEN6 for the price I paid, but that is not what I wanted, I love the fact that I have gear driven cams, one of the most outrageously costly ways to manufacturer an engine, and I love the whine, it's a classic, and to me it was worth every penny.

Triple-H

What?
You don't feel like fighting for the bike you want?
Really?

Watch the ad, see if it has any activity
If the price it just too far out there the listing may run out and the seller will still have the bike
That's when you make the phone call and go for the kill

Triple-H

I figured once I found all the other things like white lithoim spray grease and WD-40, if they had it it would have been with those products