Another Dealer Goes To The Wall

Amazing. Some of the greediest gits going. Always seemed a bit up themselves whenever l went in....won't miss them one iota personally

 

Also see Harley at Winersh have disappeared.

 

I bought my Scrambler from them in March. They arranged a test ride the same day and gave me quite a reasonable deal. They also did my first (600m) service at parts cost only, promptly while I waited so can't say anything bad about them TBH, unlike another more local dealer who cancelled a pre arranged test ride on the morning I was due to take it as they hadn't been able to get the bike through the workshop in time. P*ssed off didn't cover it.

 

Another just closed in Bridgend, Completely Bikes, formerly ThunderRoad. £17.1m business reckoned to have closed down due to a slowdown in sales through the summer. Receivers called in looking to restructure as it’s across 3 locations I believe.

 

SMC in Sheffield closed a few weeks ago. The guy who owned it also has a classic bike shop just out of town and apparently he wants to concentrate on that side of the business.

 

I mentioned elsewhere that Saltire Motorcycles in Edinburgh have closed, but maybe it is not just dealerships who are struggling. I saw this in an internet news article -

"Pierer Mobility AG, which owns motorcycle brands like KTM and MV Agusta, is now facing such severe financial difficulties that management is working on a rescue plan.
The Austrian motorcycle brand KTM, along with its family brands GASGAS, Husqvarna, and MV Agusta, is in financial trouble."

I read recently that VW Group are looking at closing 3 factories in Germany and/or cutting staff and wages. Also, Jaguar have now stopped selling cars, planning a theoretical relaunch in 2026 as an all EV brand.

Tough times, tough decisions......

 

KTM is in a spot of bother too.
https://www.crash.net/motogp/news/1060779/1/ktm-attempts-stave-bankruptcy-restructuring

 

Surely KTM will have to pull the plug on their Moto gp efforts if they are that deep in the sh1t!? Has their corporate greed led to all this? Buying up smaller brands when the going was good and then creating an unmanageable monster? Sad for their workforce especially at this time of year.

 

I think a lot of the problems that the bike industry is now facing, is purely down to the cost of the bikes. Lets face it with the bikes out today, how many people ( Me included ) really need all this technology on their bikes. I've ABS on my V Strom 650, and that's it. Do you really need all these modes on bike, if it's raining I slow down and take extra care, I don't need a computer to do it for me. Maybe because I've always had bikes that have none of these so called aides, that I just don't see the need in it all. But if other people like them, then I'm nobody to criticise them for buying a bike with the whole 9 yards on it.

 

Modern bikes are complex and expensive, but I think that's only part of a bigger problem. The people who ride them (us!) are in the main older 40's, 50's, 60's, 70's (mebbe a few diehards in their 80's?) and as we get closer to the end of life's conveyor belt, our desire , motivation or ability to ride diminishes. There are younger people of course buying bikes, but compared to the 60's, 70's and 80's (I'm talking 20th century decades now) there are comparatively few. I think the target audience, for want of a better term, is rapidly evaporating. Dealerships therefore are searching around for fewer and fewer clientele and so closures are inevitable IMHO.

 

I reckon you’re right, then add to the mix some of us who have owned brand new bikes then sold them for whatever reason and jumped on the retro band wagon and realised that our road condition and driving standards being what they are in the U.K. how relevant is a 160mph track scalpel any more?

 

I sold a 4 year old MT10 for best part of £9k and got a useable classic T595 finished and on the road for £1500 and for the enjoyment that gives me (plus a little annoyance due to shit previous owners doing stupid shit) the T5 is a joy to ride and has stacks of torque and people actually want to talk about her instead of just walking past a brand new bike and not knowing one from another. It doesn’t have the idiocy of riding the MT10 (which I slightly miss) but it’s a bike with enough torque to make every ride memorable.

 

Yes spoke to the peeps at Bulldog yesterday. They said they were still doing well. But wary now about buying used bikes or to many of them.