Rider and ride care facility; would this interest you?

[The_Monkey_House]

Good morning to the BCF community,

What I would like to enquire about today is the potential of a new rider and ride maintenance care facility in Kent being established and whether it sounds like something the community would get on board with.

I will list the services that will come available and what I would like to get is some feedback on whether it would be a service you would utilize, if you have any other services you would like to see fire in a comment. So here we go;

#1. A motorcycle repair facility for the servicing, repair and diagnosis of your pride and joy. With this service we are looking at offering maintenance courses on basic repairs and servicing so you would be able to learn how to take care of it yourself or learn a little more about your machine.

#2. A café, somewhere to sit and relax over a brew and a meal/snack by day and potentially turn into a restaurant/bar in the evening.

#3. A traditional Barber and tattoo studio. (Ronseal)

#4. A hair and beauty treatment centre. for those people who prefer a hair styling salon rather than a barber, and also a beauty therapy centre for beauty treatments and massage therapy (no happy endings, not that type of business before I get an onslaught of comments ) to take care of tired bodies from riding fatigue for instance.

#5. A virtual tactical firearms range, a facility to use real imitation firearms and fire on numerous standard and fun shoots all the way up to reactive scenario based shoots created and used by military and police firearm teams. A system useable by shooters of all ages and abilities.

We aspire to be a business to offer a number of services all under one roof, we don't plan on selling bikes because we feel that aftercare is our priority not flogging you a new bike every chance we get.

We have a number of interested investors that want to get behind the idea and back it up into creation, but what I would like to know from yourselves is whether some or all these services would be of interest to you so we can service your needs better.

I thank you all for your time in advance and would love to hear your feedback, I am new to BCF so apologies if this hasn't been written in the correct section or doesn't format correctly.

Cheers guys and gals.
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The_Monkey_House
For all your ride and rider needs.

[stinkwheel]

A servicing/repair bay which you can hire by time for people who don't have workshop facilities isn't the daftest idea. They have similar schemes for bicycles in some towns.

I'd just be worried when you see how stupid some people are (read through the workshop section). Would you/your business get dragged into a mess of fuckwittery with young-uns trying to ineptly tune their restricted bikes/scoots then expecting someone else to sort out theri mess.

People also like washing their bikes for some reason and car washes aren't really ideal for this.
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“Rule one: Always stick around for one more drink. That's when things happen. That's when you find out everything you want to know.”
I did the 2010 Round Britain Rally on my 350 Bullet. 89 landmarks, 3 months, 9,500 miles.

[The_Monkey_House]

[wr6133]

[Polarbear]

[The_Monkey_House]

[Clanger]

Somewhere to sit and enjoy a cuppa is a blinding idea, especially if you have outdoor seating and helmet shelves (so they don't have to go on the floor).

I would be happy to have a valet-type service or something like Year Round Biker clean with ACF50. Or something simpler like getting the downpipes cleaned and the chain cleaned and oiled. Plus a visor clean.

If you are close to town, then a locker for helmet, gloves, jacket etc. so that you can leave your stuff - and mooch around town for some light essentials.
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Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter won't mind - Dr. Seuss

[Easy-X]

[Bhud]

[Riejufixing]

I can't see why you haven't been flamed out of existence, but to go along with the unusually helpful crowd:

[Eddie Hitler]

Somewhere to tinker with your bike/offer courses with a cafe sounds good. Everything else you mentioned would make me actively avoid the place. It almost seems like you'll alienate most of the biking community with a firing range, tattoo studio etc. The hells angels would be really interested though.

Just to add, from my perspective if you really focused on creating a business on maintenance courses with a great cafe (so good that people would visit regardless of the motorcycle business) I can see it being popular. Those 3 other points just seem to dilute and add to the potential failure? People won't randomly decide to get a tattoo from a place that also offers a firing range, massages and haircuts..

Motorcycle courses/cafe/small shop?

Just my 2p.

[martin734]

Battistinis had something very similar in Bournemouth a few years ago. It was a custom bike shop/workshop with a tattoo parlour and cafe. When it first opened it was very popular and a good place to hang out with bikers of all types. After a while though it became very cliquey when a particular group of bikers began to frequent it more and more and a lot of the regular bikers stopped going. It closed in 2012.
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Current bike: ST1100 "Big Red"

[iooi]

Seem to remember this idea years ago...
Lasted a while then they all closed down as no one went anymore.

Sadly if you think that it will attract the learners of today to service & maintain their bikes/scooters. Then you might get the odd one or two.
The rest all have mates, that know exactly how to fuck them up...
You only have to checkout the workshop section for some of them...

You only have to look at how bike dealers are shutting up shop to realise that the biking world (like this forum ) is on it's last legs.

So what you are really saying is Bring your bike & your body in for a full service at the same time
Just you are never going to get the happy ending you really want
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Just because my bike was A DIVVY, does not mean i am......

[wr6133]

[Hong Kong Phooey]

Hmm numero uno, from my experience it's a nope.
Ride out miles, arrive, actually on stripping it down required parts aren't available come back next week pal when it's pissing down.

If fixing own bike away from home, guarantee something happens, seized or snapped bolts etc. that means you need to leave your bike there. There's a reason a lot of people do their own maintenance at home, even if it means abandoning your bike on the pavement outside your flat for the council to mistakenly collect as scrap.

MAN-icuring is a no, I shave my own heed, beard and sack.

Tattoos, not my thing but I'd go somewhere that was recommended, not just because it was convenient while waiting for my bacon butty.

Pew-pew guns with ex-SAS Derek, nah mate.

If your wanting to do something bike related then I'd pick one thing and do it well.
Ride in ride out tyre changes for example. Good reasonably priced food while you wait, yes that's a good idea.

Doing loads of things like a biker theme park spa sounds a bit odd, maybe it'll be super awesome, and I'm just a miserable old self sufficient miserly bastard, but that pretty much describes most of bikers I know.

Ahm oot.
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'81 CG125, '97 FZS600 : '99 CBR600F4, '09 KTM RC8

[hellkat]

It would certainly be helpful to go for a service and have someone show me how to do it myself next time, if it was something relatively easy - or even just the opportunity to watch-and-ask-questions of someone fixing it for me would be immensely helpful to me.

Not so fussed about the guns or the tatts.
Not my kinda thing.

But if you could arrange for me to be able to get my nails done ...
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Not nearly as interesting in real life.

[martin734]

I think this sort of thing will only work in London where you have plenty of hipsters who like to show off their cafe racer/brat chops and lumberjack shirts while drinking their craft beers and getting their beards oiled and maybe getting a new tribal/gibberish Chinese tattoo. If you want to appeal to proper bikers rather than posers then a simple cafe selling good food in large portions for a decent price (free coffee refills?) with plenty of parking and seating would be a good start. The most important thing though is location. Forget opening in towns or cities or near motorways, and dual carriageways, most riders just use these roads to get somewhere else and aren't usually interested in stopping along them. Find out where guys just go for the fun of riding and try and open something at the end of one of those routes.
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Current bike: ST1100 "Big Red"

[Teflon-Mike]

Sorry, I got stalled at the suggestion of a 'Hair Cut'...
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My Webby'Tef's-tQ, loads of stuff about my bikes, my Land-Rovers, and the stuff I do with them!
Current Bikes:'Honda VF1000F' ;'CB750F2N' ;'CB125TD ( 6 3 of em!)'; 'Montesa Cota 248'. Learner FAQ's:= 'U want to Ride a Motorbike! Where Do U start?'

[Bhud]

I think we've been had.

Couldn't have been serious about a business model where the customers need or want to use your facilities maybe twice a year at most.

It must have been a dig at cosplay cruiserists and their wives. Sort of, let's create a Nevada experience in Kent. Exercise our god-given rights and get a cryptic tattoo while the wife gets her hair and nails done. Well-played.

This bit was a gem:

[hellkat]

I think its probably some baby-hipster student who thinks they've come up with a viable new business model.

Sitting there in their nappies going "Omfg I can't believe nobody's ever thought of THAT before! Let's do it, we'll clean up in a new market!".

And not realising there's A REASON nobody ever did that before

But seriously, about the nail bar ...
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Not nearly as interesting in real life.

[1198]

I think that points one and two are your best bet from a business sense, although I do think you’d struggle to make ends meet in this day and age. Most people simply ride their reliable bikes, take them to the garage when required for servicing. The day of most people ‘tinkering’ with their steeds has long passed id guess.
Points three to five are far too niche I’d say.
‘I’ll pop out and change the belts on my Ducati - and while I’m there I’ll get a tattoo and a massage’ is far too small an audience in my opinion. Maybe a cheap coffee / butty van would make a few quid, but that’d be it in my opinion.
I used to be a member of a car club in a MOD base which was run on this kind of idea - it had three or four car lifts, a pit, and endless tools. It didn’t do badly as I recall, but that had no outgoings to speak of as it was on MOD land anyhow so no outgoings such as rent, bills or indeed specific insurance. These would be the crippler were it run as a civilian business.
Obviously this is just my opinion by the way, and as you know opinions are like arseholes anyhow...
If you go ahead, best of luck and please keep us informed!

[Fisty]

https://thumbs.gfycat.com/RigidLoathsomeAztecant-mobile.mp4
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Quietly and consistently taking the piss.
TL1000R | Hayabusa | ZXR400 | TL1000S | Bandit 400 V
Fatter and faster than Fret

[hellkat]

Where can I get me one of them hats?
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Not nearly as interesting in real life.

[Fisty]

[Riejufixing]