Bike Broker?

[P]

Hello.
Can anyone give me some feedback on an idea I'am considering developing?

After trying to find the best deal on a new SV650S I discovered there are an awful lot of bikes out there, be it new official UK bikes or parallels, with pretty substantial discounts. The only thing is, you can only find most of these deal by spending a while surfing the various dealer websites or by looking through loads of magazines like MCN or RiDE.

This got me thinking. How about one website that offers all the popular manufacturers with the best deals on each model, UK wide. For example, you could search for the cheapest new GSXR-600 in the UK. The site would act as an advertisement for dealers who would post their latest offers, so the customer would deal direct with the supplier, no middlemen involved. The site would list the top fiver or six prices throughout the UK. There would be a facility to narrow the search down by distance from your post code. There would be no point in the site listing only the cheapest bike in the UK if that dealer was 400 miles away from you. By the time you pay transport costs it might be just as good searching the site for a deal closer to home.

I wouldn't charge any dealers to place their bikes on the site so that as many as possible deals are on the site. Also, the site doesn't then go head-to-head with MCN and Biketrader, bigger and more exposed sites. In future, if the site became successful, I might look to charge to advertise on it (insurance companies, accessory dealers, finance companies, etc) but there would never be a charge for a bike supplier to list their deals.

There are loads of multi-franchise brokers for cars, but none I have seen for bikes. I've spent 4 years in the car industry and have seen how well it works there, so why not for bikes?

Sorry if this is allot to read but I'm trying to give as detailed a description as I can.

All opinions good or bad welcome!

[MarJay]

Someone tried it.

It hasn't done too well...

Old Dickie Branson and his Virgin empire tried it. Even said they would deliver the bike to your door.

The URL that Virgin Bikes was at is now no longer in use.

Bikes are a VERY different commodity to cars and the sales principles are very different to cars IMO. Plus you want to watch out promoting a possible commercial service here!

Sounds like a recipie for complaint and disaster to me. How would the customer get the bike that was not at their local dealer? I might drive my brand new A8 from Birmingham to Reading get the best deal, but you'd never catch me on a Husky supermoto riding even a quarter of the distance. For petes sake my nearest Triumph dealer is 40 mins away by bike!

Further, if the customer is not happy with the bike, they have further to go to complain. Hence complaints become aimed at the broker.

Good idea in principle, but you've got to wonder why no one else has made a go of it...
____________________
British beauty: Triumph Street Triple R; Loony stroker: KR1S; Track fun: GSXR750 L1; Commuter Missile: GSX-S1000F
Remember kids, bikes aren't like lego. You can't easily take a part from one bike and then fit it to another.

[Azmodeus]

Hmmmm, a Kelkoo for vehicles. Sounds like a good idea.

In fact, I cannot see why it isnt around now.

[P]

Yeah the Virgin Bikes thing was a bit of a flop. I read somewhere that it was one bloke in a car showroom running it when he had some spare time. That's a recipe for disaster if there ever was one.

My site would be a non-commercial site to start with. Only if I became serious popular, think MCN & Biketrader, then maybe it might carry some advertising banners. But that would be a long way into the future.

I wouldn't get involved in the sales process. The site would list all the best deals with the supplying dealers contact details. As
Azmodeus said, like Kelkoo, but for bikes. There are plenty of companies out there offering to transport your bike all over the country for a reasonable cost. Gone are the days when you buy your bike, car or whatever from your local dealer because it's convenient. Servicing and warranty work can be carried out almost anywhere in the UK, regardless of where the bike was supplied from.

[instigator]

Hell yes, I think it would be a goood diea but to even begin to comprehend what would be involved in making such a site, I wouldn't know where to begin!!! Good luck though, good idea, but as has been said, the bike and car market are very different.

P.S Where abouts in glasgow are you?

[P]

Instigator, thanx for the positive comments. I've got a good idea of how I want the site to look/contain.

I live at the west side of Glasgow, near the clyde tunnel. Where you from?

You ever had any experience of dealing with that tight git Mickey Oats in port dundas? He's got a new SV650S K4(the old model) in black and insulted me by offering me 50 quid off the price as an incentive to buy it.

Be interesting to hear from anyone else whos had experience of buying a bike from him.

[instigator]

£50???? hahahah, absolute rip off. Ride on in pollockshields is apparently struggling, bikes have been in that showroom for ages now, and they charge a ridiculous amount for spares.

I'm over at kelvinbridge myself, a stones throw from great western road

Come to think of it, I havent really heard a good thing from customers from mickey oates. Bike rite are apparently really good though, goood family run business Think I'll actually book my er5 in for an MOT this week, if they have time.

Other than that, I jump over to stirling to get bike bits, (rear tyre, dyno time) at J.C motorcycles, I think thats it.

[P]

I think I've been round most bike showrooms in west central Scotland! I don't know why because I know what I want, sometimes I'm just bored and decided to go drooling over bikes.

Don't think Bikerite would be too pleased to see me again! Kinda messed them about, they booked lessons and a DAS test for me when I told them I wasn't sure if I wanted to go-ahead. Had a big falling out over the phone with the woman that runs the training centre. But I passed (3rd time) with Harleys in Springburn last December.

Out of all the dealers I've been to, west coast suzuki where the most helpful. They're still looking for a new SV for me.

So how do you like the ER-5? I passed my test on one of those! Although mines spent allot of time in the horizontal position, surrounded by bits of mirrors and indicators with my instructor telling me what I'd done wrong in my right ear!

[instigator]

hahahahaha....

Yeah, er-5 was great to begin with, I rode about on it when it wasn't restricted. Then I took a step back to get it restricted and found it ever so mundane, so I unrestricted it and now its more fun. Doubt it'll hold my satisfaction for long though. Maybe its all the town riding I do, I dunno. Just havent had the chance to take it up to the ton yet

West coast suzuki you say? Would that be cupar motorcycles by any chance? I've seen in the ride magazine that they have the best feedback in customer service up here.

You sound like you had good memories on the er5 Let me know when you get your sv650 sometime. You coud just sway my silly thoughts away from a zxr1200 and onto a nice sv for my next bike (next october)

[P]

West coast suzuki are in irvine, next to the giant tesco that has the blue lights in the bogs to stop the junkies going in there and shooting up. Which is obviously a great advert for that seaside town!

I spoke to cupar in Fife as well(RiDE magazine recommendation). They where really helpful but they couldn't find a bike in the colour I wanted and unless I went a round trip of 150 miles, I'd loose out on my free first service. The price was just the same as west coast and mickey oats.

ZXR1200 is a bit of a different animal than a SV650S! Maybe an SV1000S would be better if you don't fancy the smaller capacity bike.

Found your short film of you on the ER-5. Where did you shoot that? And what happened to the the fly screen I seen on another picture of you bike?

[instigator]

Well, I bought the bike off ebay from a guy that was emigrating to america and needed to get rid of it ASAP. Bought it for £1100, 2001 model 9800 miles. I didnt reallly need the rack at the back, so took that off and sold it for £25. I bought the er5 because I liked naked bikes, so I took off the front cockpit fairing too and sold that on ebay, for £31. With the money saved, I went and nabbed a full remus stainless steel system for my bike on ebay (bargain at £80).

So my bikes changed a fair bit since the pictures.

I'll be after a bike that won't get stolen basically, and since theres an sv650 not tooo far from me as well as a tl1000r over the road, I reckon it won't really get touched. Just really love the zxr1200, ever since the first time I seen one. Probably good for touring I reckon, which I plan to do.

Video was taken opposite bute (you can see the ferry point in the video from where it sails to rothesay). Only 7 miles inbetween largs and greenock.

[P]

That sounds a good deal you got on the ER-5. Looks allot better than the shitter I used for my DAS! Then again, those ones had more hits than the Beatles.

I guess when you say the ZXR1200 you mean the mental 188bhp hyper bike? Isn't that a bit of a quantum leap from an ER-5 to a ZXR12?

Nice U-turn on the video!

[instigator]

You know, I kept thinking why google wasn't coming up with a lot of pictures.....I mean ZRX1200....

R or S model, who knows, but thats definetely what I fancy. I'll be able to buy the bike no problem, but we'll see how the insurance company take it. Got a quote a while back for £500 tpft, £650 excess (which I would take) so, anything along those lines and it'll be a definete buy

[P]

ZRX looks a good bike.

You should try Carole Nash for insurance. They gave me an outstanding quote for a new SV650S (£560 fully comp). That was compared to the arse of a quote Bennetts gave me at over £1,200

Wicked quotes where pretty resonable too.

[Dom]

The site's a nice idea but it would be very hard to get it off the ground. You'd need to convince all these dealers that it was worth their time putting bikes on the site, or are you talking about putting them on yourself? If you were asking the dealers to put their bikes on I'd be surprised if many were interested since they'd want to see some traffic going to the site else they'd risk spending their time for nothing if it didn't take off. Maybe it'd be worth starting a 'mini' version of the site for bikers in your area, instead of trying national right away. It'd be cheaper and easier to get running and you'd be able to get an idea if it's possible to do and if people will use it.

If it did work though, it'd be huge, so good luck to ya.

[P]

Thanx for the support Dom.

To begin with I'd select half a dozen dealers(one with good deals, obviously)and have them submit offers to the site. They could each have their own login and password and via a simple admin panel put some pictures as well as the bike details on the site. I might put an option for them to mark one deal per day as a hot offer and this would show on the homepage. There's loads of ideas I have for the site but to begin with I think I'll keep it quite straighforward.

There will be some money spent on advertising. Possibly through google and some small ads in the motorcycle press. I'd like the site to be known through word-of-mouth to. So I'll be going out to bikemeets and places where bikers go. And every bike I see parked at the side of the road will be getting a business card stuff on it.

Sometime far, far away I might be able to retired to Hawaii and lye in a hammock all day smoking £70 cigars, using a ducati 999R's tank as an ashtray! LOL

[Dom]

Lol, yeah millionaire in no time mate.

If I were you I'd leave out the Google advertising as it'd be too widely spread out, I doubt you'd hit many of the people you're after. Bike meets etc sound like they'd be a good idea though, especially if you could go along at busy (ok, maybe the wrong word since it's January 'n all) times to talk to people about the site.

Since this site requires a big database of bikes matched up with dealer prices, why not take it a step further and have spec sheets and some pictures of the bikes? If you can persuade some dealers to put their prices on the site then no doubt they'll be happy to give you the various PR sheets with all of that on. You could also link to consumer review sites in the form of a search for that particular bike I'd have thought, which might work well. This way you've not only got a site people use when they're looking for a bike but one which any biker who fancies a stats fix can look at and find what they're interested in nice and quick. Would increase the appeal of the site and mean that initial traffic would be easier to come by than if you just had a site with a few prices on.

Just my

[dotti]

In NZ we have something similar to what you're preposing. If it's any help to you the URL is:

https://www.traderpoint.co.nz

When the page loads you need to click on bike to see the bike specific page that I'm referring to.

Hope this helps.
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Dangerous traffic offences spotted on 50-minute trip: Lost count after 100. Number of traffic cops spotted: One, sitting by a speed-trap camera

[P]

Thanx for the URL dotti. Similar to that site. Just lots of great deals in the one place.

Watch this space!

P.S. Any jobs going spare in NZ for a Scotsman?! LOL

[Azmodeus]

2 That I know of:

Shepherd
Cleaning up after the LotR crew.

[dotti]

There's jobs going for anyone right now. Theres only 3% unemployed over here right now, so it's really hard to find good employees (but turn that on it's head and it's the perfect time to be looking for a better job) Recently started a new one myself
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Dangerous traffic offences spotted on 50-minute trip: Lost count after 100. Number of traffic cops spotted: One, sitting by a speed-trap camera

[KnightTyme]

If you go with this, and then start to look for paid for service adverts (like insurance) you should consider visiting Trade Doubler. There's a whole load of affiliate programs from leading companies such as Churchill, Direct Line and so forth for insurance. As well as companies that deal with personal loans (like Dial4ALoan). This is where all the big companies go to run affiliate programs. Well worth a visit, even from the start, as it may be a good way to promote income without worrying about detracting from the desirability of your site to potential motorbike/part vendors.

Most programs offer graphical elements (such as premade banners or 'screen posters') which you can use on your site, as well as text links, and many programs offer 'Deep Linking' which means you can direct a visitor to a specific product on the company's web site.

[P]

Anybody like to tell me what features they would really like to see on as site like this? Especially if it's something no other website does. Now that would be useful.