Some motorcycle shops are laughable

[johnnyb46]

Hi to all.
I've not had a motorcycle now for some 25 years up until recently that is..I've just bought a small peugeot scooter which I'm enjoying immensely. This week I thought id check out the local bike shops in my area .The first one I visited in my home town I duly asked for an air filter for my little speedfight. The guy behind the counter started breathing through his teeth and looked very stern as he looked on his computer for one. One hour later !! I was still there while he trawled his mighty data base looking for a bit of foam for my bike. In the end I asked him if there was a problem in trying to find an air filter for my extremely rare peugeot speedfight. ( after all they only produced 5 million of the dam things ) Eventually he disappeared into his stock room and returned with the said part..What was so complicated about that " god knows "
The second shop I visited today was a Lexmoto dealer..It was full of very nice looking Chinese tat all shiny and bright. The Gladiator scooter looks very well screwed together and there was a good looking Life king 125 custom bike sitting there. It looked huge for a 125. More like a 750. I could well imagine it would turn to rust though after its first shower of rain on it...
I kindly asked a member of staff if they can get hold of peugeot spares if ever I needed some. Sorry sir no can do , not interested , please go away if you don't want to buy one of our brand new Chinese bikes was the response I got.
No wonder shops are closing down by the bucket load if this is the attitude they hold towards potential customers. Ebay seems to be the only place were choice is abundant for spares and decent service nowadays

[NJD]

Go by recommendations made by other bikers in your area, find a good egg and stick with them, I chose a shop that's god knows how many miles away from home for this reason rather than one that's literally a few miles down the road.

I visited my local bike shop once, asian gent in their asking about a battery for some bike, some MOT questions, couldn't speak proper english but all the guys in the shop wanted to do where to sit around eating chips and making fun on him, then they looked and smiled at me as he walked out attempting to get me to do the same, walked out and haven't returned since, their existence makes me

[Ste]

You waited an hour?

As an idea, have you considered going to a Peugeot dealer?

[Pol Anorl]

[stevo as b4]

Mainstream dealer's probably don't need to care that much about what they do or how they treat customers.

Bikes a small fry sales wise, and bike shops don't seem to make much profit on new bike sales, so expecting them to be the most customer focused and go the extra mile is possibly expecting too much in many cases.

Best off never buying a new bike, but buying and fixing up old bikes. There's more money to be had from parts, and specialist services, along with paintshop and restoration business's, so these type of companies and business's will often treat you much better and be helpful compared to new bike showrooms.

[CaNsA]

[hellkat]

You went in there and asked for four candles first, though didn't you. Admit it. You'll get off so much more lightly if you do.

https://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HA0znfpVO9Q/TMQWgcyLw1I/AAAAAAAAAI0/n0KBf5Swikg/s1600/four_candles_screenshot_1.png
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Not nearly as interesting in real life.

[Copycat73]

[johnnyb46]

Thanks all for all your advice.
I've just tried the peugeot web site to find a local dealer near to me but it seems to be broken. I will try again later.

[Ste]

It's working fine for me.

[johnnyb46]

I'm using opera mini on my phone to access the web. Maybe this is causing problems in the peugeot web page. Does anybody know of any peugeot dealers around Shrewsbury / Wrexham area .
Many thanks
Johnny

[Ste]

Their website says the nearest is in Crewe.

Ordering online is probably the easiest answer.

[johnnyb46]

Cheers buddy for having a look for us..Very much appreciated..
As I said before I've not had a bike for 25 odd years and the last one was an RD500. How I walked away from that thing without wrapping myself round a lampost " I dont know "
I'm really enjoying plodding around on this little scooter. It will do around 60 ish if I wring its neck but I'm perfectly happy taking it easy at around 45/50..
£17 a year to tax against 280 for the car and £5!!!! to fill it up. I can park virtually anywhere too..I just cant believe I've let 25 years of my life slip away without having a bike. As the weather's been fantastic of late I've virtually used it everyday. I'm pkanning a longish trip if around 70 miles each way soon. Do you think I'm being a little foolish undertaking it on a small 100cc 2t scoot ? The roads will be twisty A roads with no busy dual carrage ways ect through Wales. I'm quite happy keeping the speed to around 40/45 mph.

[Rogerborg]

If you're grinning, you're winning.

Cheap bikes and scooters do rather seem to be considered disposable, but it does vary. One of the local sellers of Lexmoto, WK, Sinnis and similar seems to have no interest in anything other than punting bikes out the door, take it or leave it, mate.

However, the other one is a friendly hubby and wife shop with a big stock of consumable parts, and they'll happily talk your ears off given half a chance. So it's worth looking around if that's what you're after.

On Lexmotos, they're actually very well supported via https://www.chinesemotorcyclepartsonline.co.uk/ (another trading name of the Lexmoto group). Why order a part into a dealer when you can just get it delivered to your door? If they don't want the business that's literally their loss.
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Biking is 1/20th as dangerous as horse riding.
GONE: HN125-8, LF-250B, GPz 305, GPZ 500S, Burgman 400 // RIDING: F650GS (800 twin), Royal Enfield Bullet Electra 500 AVL, Ninja 250R because racebike

[WD Forte]

Just looked on Ebay and found a Peugeot speedfight air filter in
milliseconds.................
pity you aint got the interweb where you live
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bikers smell of wee

[monkeybiker]

[Dave70]

[johnnyb46]

Hmmm I take it your not a fan of peugeot scooters then.
I personally think youngster's and peugeot speed fights are or where the " in thing " to have because of there sporty appearance's..
This then leads to them being modified and having the guts thrashed out of them..Any bike that's consistently abused will have a high failure rate. If there left standard and ridden within there tolerances and serviced properly they are just as reliable as the next small scoot.
Back in my day I used to thrash the guts out of my Yam RD 350 lc..
The engines were completely knackered after a couple of years of abuse. If I would of behaved a little more mature they would of lasted a hell of a lot longer ,
As for internet shopping for spares I think it will be the way to go now on for buying my bike stuff..As it happen my next door neighbour is a bike mechanic ( only just found out tonight ) and he's offered to take care of the more complicated stuff for me. ( that's virtually everything then lol )
Those Lexmoto bikes really do look impressive though. There was one 125 model ( cant remember name ) that even had an MP3 built in to it. It was fitted on top of the tank and god knows where the speakers were ,,
The plastics and general finish looked very good but its questionable about the long term durability...If there just used as a summer bike I suppose they wouldn't be to bad.

[talkToTheHat]

Used to have a spares guy that appeared to have the entire shop inventory and the specifications in his head. Usually had the right part there and then, if not it would be there the next morning. Retired now though.

J&S parts counter is a joke.

Local independent garage will throw Yamaha parts for me on their next order and appear to have a reasonable grasp of the computerised parts list.

Colin Appleyards will sort parts out for me over the phone and post them out. Not the cheapest source, but good for genuine parts.
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Bandit. does. everything.

[Dave70]

Just visited my local Yamaha dealership, which is an enormous store, as this time I was after a battery for my bike.

I received the same response that I have got every single time I've been in there to buy something. "I'm sorry sir but we don't have any in stock. We can order one for you though."

Thanks but, strangely enough, I can actually do that myself from the comfort of my own home and get it delivered to my front door, so I don't have to come down here again to collect it and it'd be cheaper too.

It's not like the parts I've ever been after are rare and unusual. They have been basic things like tyres and batteries for one of yamahas biggest selling bikes. The reason I have taken time out to visit your shop is that I could do with the part now not next week.

Ffs my local shop back in the IoM, which was tiny, had a better range in stock than these guys who have a store ten times the size.

/rant.
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There ain't no devil, there's just god when he's drunk.

2012: R125 killed by white van. 2016 R125 killed by 30,000 miles of redline. Current: 2016 Kawasaki ER6f.

[Rogerborg]

[bassmastergen...]

[stevo as b4]

[johnnyb46]

Cheers steve.
Much appreciated buddy