Having been a berg owner since 96 I thought I'd throw my two cents in here........
When I first bought my 94 501 Husaberg's were still imported by KTM. And parts were as available as any other Euro bike at the time, which wasn't too bad. But was not on par with the Japanese bike shops which seemed to have anything you wanted. And from what I see now, the opposite is true.
Then KTM NA decided way that they no longer wanted to be the NA importer for HBG's so they gave it over to some guy named Knight I believe. He had been the gas gas importer if memory serves, but, the main thing was that he, for what ever reason totally screwed things up and parts were not available for some time in NA from a "certified" importer. And it seemed it like it took for ever for someone to take up the baton, and that was BMG. I think this was around late 01 or early 02, I've slept since then so it's kind of hard to remember.
In the interim, anyone connected with the UHE was able to get their parts from other countries since there was no parts flow here in the United States. I believe there was a very nice man that I communicated with in Australia, another in Portugal, and another in England.
After a while BMG came up to speed and parts became readily available and, again, if memory serves, Berg owners enjoyed parts availability like never before. Jedi, and Brett Saunders from BMG, was visible here at the site, and there was a pretty good level of product support, and 1 year warranties. All parts came from Canada at this time. Then for some reason the parts for the US moved to Dixie sales in TN. Again, parts were flowing. And product support was good, as could be witnessed by the 24 hour Dirt Rider test, where UHE member Fryguy gained infamy for being the only one to clear the K barrier obstacle, that was later removed from the course after several mishaps and severe bike damage, to other brands.
During this time as well, BMG was signing up a lot of dealers. Dealers I might add, well there is really no pretty way to say this, they were posers. Not all of them, but, quite a few.
So then for what ever reason, there was quite a lot of speculation at the time here on the site, BMG contract was not renewed. Enter KTM.
KTM had all the Husaberg dealers re apply to be a dealer again. While this may be viewed as a bad thing, KTM's request was not unheard of as far as the motorcycle industry is concerned. They required a $100K line of credit from GE capital, and for a dealer to take at least 4 bikes a year, and they required flooring. And I believe this is what is required for someone to be a KTM dealer.
Either way it was not a good thing for me personally as my local dealer did not re up with them, and neither did the dealer that I was buying my parts from.
I remember my local dealer didn't even have an 07 bike on the showroom floor b/c he said he couldn't sell them. Well one thing's for sure, if you don't have one sitting there, you aren't going to sell one. Anyway, like I said, I wasn't really happy about losing my local dealers. The closest one to me now is a 2 hour drive.
However, the writing was on the wall for some time if one looks through the old hindsight glasses. They moved production to Mattigophen for the 04 production run and the quality of the bikes improved, as well as the bikes getting the FCR carb and kokusan ignitions-both huge improvements. And as we now know the test mules for the 09's were starting to come together in 06 sometime and were in prototype form for a couple of years being tested around the world.
So here's my point. If you are KTM, and are now considered to be one of the big "5" instead of just the big 4, and are investing a lot of money into R&D for the KTM brand, as well as a boat load of money on a radical newly designed motorcycle, do you want to have dealers that are not at least as comitted as your basic KTM dealer? And by comitted, I mean put your money on the barrel head. And as mentioned earlier in this thread, dealers are not allowed to ship bikes to people, so that rewards those who have comitted to being a dealer with sales in a given area. And of course that does not preclude anyone from driving to a particualr dealer to buy a bike.
Motorcyle dealers and manufacturers are in business to make money. Some shops are more interested in their customers than others as Team SOS stated, and got into the business for the love of the sport. As for the dealers in this state, 2 to be exact, to the best of my knowledge I have never seen them on this site. And since the dealers on this site support this site with advice, knowledge, and solutions, I support the dealers on this site, and in particular, the one who I bought my bike from, and he in turn supports me with a good deal on my parts.
So fast forward to the topic of this thread. Imagine 6 or 8 years ago being able to go to a dealers web site and place an order on line for the particular part you need and have it shipped to your door? That's pretty good customer service don't you think? I still enjoy calling Kurt at Bike Barn and chatting with him a bit when I make an order though. And even if he went to an on line system, I would still call and say hi. Kurt and his wife were very nice to me when I travelled up to Medford to buy my bike. Thanks again Kurt!!!
Every shop that I have dealt with that adverties on this site has been great, they are enthusiasts, aka people who are active in the sport most always have good customer service, like Rick Bosarth's shop. One that is not here now that I wish still was, is Motoxotica. Dan and Anne are two folks that did not benefit from the re org of the dealers and the pitty of it is, that in addition to being really nice folks to deal with, they always had the parts on the shelf, and were the go to people for parts.
In closing I wish to point out something else. There was always talk about Husaberg/ KTM not supporting it's custormers, they should be doing this and that and this other thing. So now we have the National Sales manager keeping an eye on this site and jumping in and helping whenever he can, he is trying hard to make the brand grow and get more dealers and that's a good thing. I mean what more do you want? All of you here have access to him via pm, I'd say that's pretty darn good customer service too.
So yeah, I don't have a dealer that's close anymore, I knew that before I drove 1600 miles round trip to buy my 09. And I don't care. Why? Because I bought the bike I wanted. And I knew that it was going to be a good bike b/c of the inside scoop I had got from members posting info on this site.
When I first bought my 94 501 Husaberg's were still imported by KTM. And parts were as available as any other Euro bike at the time, which wasn't too bad. But was not on par with the Japanese bike shops which seemed to have anything you wanted. And from what I see now, the opposite is true.
Then KTM NA decided way that they no longer wanted to be the NA importer for HBG's so they gave it over to some guy named Knight I believe. He had been the gas gas importer if memory serves, but, the main thing was that he, for what ever reason totally screwed things up and parts were not available for some time in NA from a "certified" importer. And it seemed it like it took for ever for someone to take up the baton, and that was BMG. I think this was around late 01 or early 02, I've slept since then so it's kind of hard to remember.
In the interim, anyone connected with the UHE was able to get their parts from other countries since there was no parts flow here in the United States. I believe there was a very nice man that I communicated with in Australia, another in Portugal, and another in England.
After a while BMG came up to speed and parts became readily available and, again, if memory serves, Berg owners enjoyed parts availability like never before. Jedi, and Brett Saunders from BMG, was visible here at the site, and there was a pretty good level of product support, and 1 year warranties. All parts came from Canada at this time. Then for some reason the parts for the US moved to Dixie sales in TN. Again, parts were flowing. And product support was good, as could be witnessed by the 24 hour Dirt Rider test, where UHE member Fryguy gained infamy for being the only one to clear the K barrier obstacle, that was later removed from the course after several mishaps and severe bike damage, to other brands.
During this time as well, BMG was signing up a lot of dealers. Dealers I might add, well there is really no pretty way to say this, they were posers. Not all of them, but, quite a few.
So then for what ever reason, there was quite a lot of speculation at the time here on the site, BMG contract was not renewed. Enter KTM.
KTM had all the Husaberg dealers re apply to be a dealer again. While this may be viewed as a bad thing, KTM's request was not unheard of as far as the motorcycle industry is concerned. They required a $100K line of credit from GE capital, and for a dealer to take at least 4 bikes a year, and they required flooring. And I believe this is what is required for someone to be a KTM dealer.
Either way it was not a good thing for me personally as my local dealer did not re up with them, and neither did the dealer that I was buying my parts from.
I remember my local dealer didn't even have an 07 bike on the showroom floor b/c he said he couldn't sell them. Well one thing's for sure, if you don't have one sitting there, you aren't going to sell one. Anyway, like I said, I wasn't really happy about losing my local dealers. The closest one to me now is a 2 hour drive.
However, the writing was on the wall for some time if one looks through the old hindsight glasses. They moved production to Mattigophen for the 04 production run and the quality of the bikes improved, as well as the bikes getting the FCR carb and kokusan ignitions-both huge improvements. And as we now know the test mules for the 09's were starting to come together in 06 sometime and were in prototype form for a couple of years being tested around the world.
So here's my point. If you are KTM, and are now considered to be one of the big "5" instead of just the big 4, and are investing a lot of money into R&D for the KTM brand, as well as a boat load of money on a radical newly designed motorcycle, do you want to have dealers that are not at least as comitted as your basic KTM dealer? And by comitted, I mean put your money on the barrel head. And as mentioned earlier in this thread, dealers are not allowed to ship bikes to people, so that rewards those who have comitted to being a dealer with sales in a given area. And of course that does not preclude anyone from driving to a particualr dealer to buy a bike.
Motorcyle dealers and manufacturers are in business to make money. Some shops are more interested in their customers than others as Team SOS stated, and got into the business for the love of the sport. As for the dealers in this state, 2 to be exact, to the best of my knowledge I have never seen them on this site. And since the dealers on this site support this site with advice, knowledge, and solutions, I support the dealers on this site, and in particular, the one who I bought my bike from, and he in turn supports me with a good deal on my parts.
So fast forward to the topic of this thread. Imagine 6 or 8 years ago being able to go to a dealers web site and place an order on line for the particular part you need and have it shipped to your door? That's pretty good customer service don't you think? I still enjoy calling Kurt at Bike Barn and chatting with him a bit when I make an order though. And even if he went to an on line system, I would still call and say hi. Kurt and his wife were very nice to me when I travelled up to Medford to buy my bike. Thanks again Kurt!!!
Every shop that I have dealt with that adverties on this site has been great, they are enthusiasts, aka people who are active in the sport most always have good customer service, like Rick Bosarth's shop. One that is not here now that I wish still was, is Motoxotica. Dan and Anne are two folks that did not benefit from the re org of the dealers and the pitty of it is, that in addition to being really nice folks to deal with, they always had the parts on the shelf, and were the go to people for parts.
In closing I wish to point out something else. There was always talk about Husaberg/ KTM not supporting it's custormers, they should be doing this and that and this other thing. So now we have the National Sales manager keeping an eye on this site and jumping in and helping whenever he can, he is trying hard to make the brand grow and get more dealers and that's a good thing. I mean what more do you want? All of you here have access to him via pm, I'd say that's pretty darn good customer service too.
So yeah, I don't have a dealer that's close anymore, I knew that before I drove 1600 miles round trip to buy my 09. And I don't care. Why? Because I bought the bike I wanted. And I knew that it was going to be a good bike b/c of the inside scoop I had got from members posting info on this site.
He pays the exact same price that the other dealers did for their product. When we discounted 2008 Husabergs, we offered the dealers who had them at the old price a program where they could get their 2008s discounted to the same price. It is the advertising and promotion that is growing his business, not discounting.
