[firecaptp7]

 

[Richard230]

FWIW – I’m hearing that many of the small shops outside of large urban areas that are selling Royal Enfields now won’t be selling them under the new distributor system. Some of them are already taking steps to liquidate what remaining motorcycles and parts they have on hand. I just can’t picture RE being incorporated into the “mega-dealerships” that make up most of the urban motorcycle shops today?

That does seem to be the latest motorcycle marketing and distribution scheme.  Certainly all of the European motorcycle manufacturers are doing that. Dumping the little shops out in the boondocks and opening up (relatively) large and fancy stores in large, rich and prosperous urban areas. That where the money is to be made and the motorcycle business is now all about making as much money as possible with as little effort as possible.  The little "mom and pop" stores just don't generate enough income to make it worthwhile for large multi-national manufacturing companies to want to deal with. They want money, not (from their point of view) headaches.

[ace.cafe]

Call me crazy, but I feel like I would prefer to deal with a company that wants to make motorcycles, not money.
Not that money is necessarily bad, but the motorcycle should be the first priority.

Regarding what is to come, I hope for the best. However, I realize that as companies get bigger and more corporate, things rarely get better.

[gizzo]

Has happened in Australia as well.. new importer wants large volumes in flashy showrooms, so my local Enfield dealer (mainly a HD workshop but not a new bike dealer) has lost their franchise because they don't have the space to keep a dozen new bikes on the floor. Too bad,because they're the only guys in town who know the bikes, or give a shit about them apart from taking $ in a new sale.

[pknopp]

 Not that it's important......I've never set foot in a R.E. dealer. I hear there is one about an hour or so away now. I wonder how long it will last?
 
 I bought my 2000 Deluxe in Oct 2000. I saw an ad a couple months earlier and was intrigued so I started looking into what I could find. I'm in WV. There was a large Harley dealer in Texas with this one bike left. I called and talked to them. I'm not sure why now as I wasn't going to Texas to get it. The guy I talked to said it just wasn't worth the effort to sell a bike now and then and was getting out of R.E.
 
 As it would happen he said he had to come to North Carolina to pick up a couple Harley's and if I wanted the bike he would drop it off on the way for $3200 delivered. I wasn't sure I would ever get it started the first time. Almost 15 years ago and I've still never been in a dealership.
 
 So.........you don't need a dealer I suppose but my story also points out the problem with selling these out of a large dealership. They quickly lose interest.

[1 Thump]

Call me crazy, but I feel like I would prefer to deal with a company that wants to make motorcycles, not money.
Not that money is necessarily bad, but the motorcycle should be the first priority.

Regarding what is to come, I hope for the best. However, I realize that as companies get bigger and more corporate, things rarely get better.

Its both....Cant make good money w/o making a good motorcycle.....you can pull off a scam for a while but the market catches on quickly. I think RE is in good hands (Siddharth Lal rides an RE, not just sell it). Things are going to be just fine........Its the free market at play. It is what it is.   

[Ice]

Mr. Lal was a Bullet rider before taking the reigns of R.E.  How passionate is he about the bike ? He showed up for his own wedding on his Bullet.

 He campaigned incessantly and unceasingly to save R.E. when Eicher group was serious about pulling the plug. They put him in charge and now here we are.

[barenekd]

Since Eicher owns several brands, they can just load up their existing dealers with REs.
Did see an article that says the Harley Street 750, built in India is outselling the Continental GT. But the biggest RE sales in India are the 350s.
http://www.businesstoday.in/magazine/cover-story/emerging-companies-2015-eicher-motors-siddhartha-lal-future/story/221081.html

[Richard230]

That was an interesting article, barenekd.  Thanks for the link. I do get a kick out of my nearest dealer. They really know a lot about the Royal Enfield company.  A few weeks ago I asked the salesman how many motorcycles RE made last year and he told me around 5,000.  Apparently he was misinformed, as the article mentioned that RE sold 336,000 bikes last year and was expecting to sell 450,000 units this year.     I wonder what else he doesn't know?   

[Guaire]

"Lal believes there are customers there who want to move away from the existing offerings of extremely heavy and powerful machines, to the middle-weight, leisurely Royal Enfields."
  I sold my 2006 Yamaha FJR1300 (145 bhp). Now I own a 2014 Conti GT. Works for me. Just waiting to heal up from my surgery, then add the "Fireball"!!!!

[dginfw]

I hope they do well, but I'm not convinced that the mega store business model will work with the Royal Enfield line up....
I think if they go that route, in about 12-18 months the used bike market will be flooded with used RE's ..

[Farmer_John]

I like my small Mom n Pop shop. They know their stuff. Work on cool stuff other than Enfield, and are just overall good guys.

https://www.facebook.com/100009441096756/videos/1478371922487497/

Sorry if y'all don't Facebook...

[medra42]

RE has been a "lifestyle" brand in India for a while now, which I think will fit in well in the US. We have to admit that these things are sometimes accessories or appliances, or at the very least symbols that some people buy to send a certain message.

As for the claim that they won't fit in with mega dealers? I don't know. If they bring their big company dollars over, they'll have the reach and structure to provide plenty of good service. And if they open up branded stores along the lines of what I've seen them post around India and England, they'll fit in with Apple and the others.

As for the displacement/power.. again.. I don't know. There are plenty of smaller bikes on the road. While riding the bus home today we got passed by someone doing 70 on a CBR250R, and I've seen plenty of 600-ish dual sport commuters mixed in with the 300cc Ninjas. I mean I've seen just as many as these smaller bikes as I have seen 1600cc cruisers, BMS tourers, or super sports.

At any rate, I hope they bring a stronger support system in. All credit to Kevin an the gang. On the other hand, my local dealer just closed until "we don't really know when" and sold off most of their new bike sales. They're moving further north and adding Triumph to their lineup. They said they'll keep selling REs when they reopen, as part of their vintage shop... go figure.

[Richard230]

The problem that I see with following in the footsteps (if that is the intent) of Harley, BMW and Ducati brand-specific "mega" stores in the U.S. is that the dealers have to fork out hundreds of thousands of dollars to conform to the corporate standardized design.  The H-D shop near me spent several million dollars building a shop that met H-D requirements.  They bought a 40,000 sf old warehouse, added a second floor, earthquake-proofed the building and installed 20,000 sf of hardwood floors, among many other amenities, including lots of landscaping and other infrastructure improvements. No motorcycle dealer would make those sort of improvements to property that they were leasing and most all motorcycle dealerships just don't have the cash or credit to create a "mega" store, not even dealerships in prosperous urban areas, like where I live. H-D and BMW can get away with it because they have established world-wide brand names and customers that are willing to pay a premium for their products that generate enough income to keep those fancy dealerships flying (at least most of them).  But I don't see that happening for Royal Enfield - at least not in the U.S. Here, no one has ever heard of the brand.   

[Uncle Billy]

It seems to me that those of us who are drawn to bikes like REs and Urals find ourselves in a Third World experience - distant dealers but dealing with simple machines that can be maintained and repaired by owners in the motorcycle "hinterlands", which is apparently rapidly becoming "everywhere" as regards Royal Enfields in the US and Australia.

This requires some knowledge and talent of owners beyond tire pressures and chain adjustments, but being "on the frontier" as we are, self-sustenance is part of the deal. 

By nature REs are a misfit in mega-dealerships that sell computer-operated techno-wizardry in carpeted lounges; the "retro" style of the bikes extends past what they look like to include what living with them entails.  That's okay with me, I do all the work on my bikes that they require because I like doing so, so having a GT and other bikes that I have no alternative but to get involved with is part of the satisfaction.  That's more or less mandatory since one of the others is 31 years old and the other is 42 years old which makes them too out-of-date for their respective dealers to deal with.  My GT fits right in with them.