Tyres (more specifically, Bridgestone tyres)

G'day, folks...

That time has come again, when the black stuff that keeps the shiny bits up
top needs to be replaced.

I have an '04 Vulcan 800 Classic (VN800B) requiring a 140/90-16 rear tyre.
The factory-standard one was a Bridgestone Exedra G702, which I'd like to
get back to.

I have on it at the moment a Pirelli T66 (MT66?) which does its job well,
except for the fact that it's lasted 25% less than the original (got around
20,000Km out of each of the Bridgestones I had before but the Pirelli's on
its last legs at just over 14,000Km).

Doing the rounds 'round a couple of the bike dealers yielded no fruit WRT
Bridgestone (everyone seems to have gone Pirelli these days?), so I'd like
to ask you learned and informed folk for recommendations of where I could
get the Bridgestone from. I'm located in Liverpool NSW and would prefer to
pick the tyre up rather than paying for freight, so recommendations of North
Perth probably wouldn't be too helpful.

On a mostly unrelated note...

Has anybody ever heard of or used bike-parts.com.au? Seems a bit of a shonky
operation, with no contact information whatsoever and every "buy now" link
shuffling off to cyclegear.com in the USA. To make things worse, absolutely
none of the "buy now" links work - they land a 404 (page not found) error at
the remote end.

 

They certainly sound dodgy with this first ad.

BRIDGESTONE Exedra G702 Street Motorcycle Tires 140/90-16 TT REAR
Price: $100.79






Then when you click on that, up comes
Features and Benefits Uni-directional pattern for reliable performance on
dry and wet surfaces Designed primarily for Japanese cruisers, the Exedra G
series provides long mileage, good stability, crisp handling and riding
comfort G700 series is the popular original equipment choice on many of the
Japanese cruisers such as Yamaha Royal Star, Kawasaki Vulcan and Suzuki
Intruder


Product Details
Brand: BRIDGESTONE

Our Price: $154.59



Price had gone up $54 just by clicking

Wonder what would happen if you actually went through with a purchase?

The prices on everything there goes up $50 odd when you click on

 

In aus.motorcycles on Thu, 5 Jan 2012 03:23:32 +1100

Have you tried Chivos in Granville? (02) 9682 5950

Zebee

 

G'day Bob.

A bit further away than North Perth, I have had good service from this
mob in the U.S.

http://www.rockymountainatvmc.com/

The US prices are sufficiently good that the shipping still leaves them
ahead of the local prices.

regards,
CrazyCam

 

I recall you mentioning this a while ago Cam, at the time I thought it would
be better and still do.

 

Thanks Zeb, I'll give 'em a call in nthe morning.

 

Thanks Cam,

I've already got details from another US-based vendor to have the tyre
landed here for about USD$190 (using cruisercustomizing.com's price-match
deal against motorcycle-superstore.com's lower tyre price - the latter
doesn't ship to Australia), but thought I'd give the locals a chance first.

Call me a patriot (despite my wog heritage), but I'd quite happily pay up to
20% more for a product from a local vendor than get one from overseas.
Anything more than 20% though and I'll order online like everyone else.

At the moment, I have absolutely no idea what these tyres are going for in
Australia (long time since I bought the last Bridgestone, old age, lack of
sleep, too much sex, etc., etc., etc...) so I've no way of knowing if that
~$190 is worthwhile or not.

 

As I originally noted, clicking on any "buy" link takes you to a
non-existent page on cyclegear.com in the USA.

Hmmm... Interesting... Manually going to cyclegear.com and finding the
requisite tyre, I find they're actually cheaper than the previous sites I'd
seen - and they ship to Australia: $USD154 (actually USD$153.98) including
shipping.

That still doesn't explain the strange bike-parts.com.au site. The domain's
registered to Erobotics Pty Ltd, ACN 138-022-705.

 

Well, now I have something to work with - Chivo's quoted $230 for the tyre,
which I have no reason to suspect is an inflated ('scuse the pun) price for
an Australian retailer (based on that price, I can only suspect other bike
shops would want $250+).

So the US-website-purchase route seems to be attractive enough to go with.

 

Sad, but....<shrug>

regards,
CrazyCam

 

I wanted a new brake booster and master cylinder for my 64 pickup ,
repco and bursons wanted close to 750$ , a new one took 10 days from the
states and cost 247$ with freight , seems to me retailers forget a
comparison is all to easy these days

It never harms to shop it to death

--









X-No-Archive: Yes

 

I don't blame the retailers that much (though admittedly there're some who
want their customers to bleed through their wallets); Australian
importers/distributed have been known for a long time to ramp the prices up
astronomically.

Several years ago I bought a new set of pipes from the USA, air freighted in
(3 days), at less than half what they'd have cost me here. I mentioned this
to a local bike dealer, who then took me into his office and showed me the
distributor's wholesale price list. The distributor's price was almost 50%
more than what I'd paid from the USA (including freight), so there was no
way the retailer could've competed - not even if he'd sold them to me at his
cost price.

 

I've had the same experience with Panasonic and their cameras and lenses. There is a massive markup (by Panasonic) for the local market, and local retailers can't compete.

 

Add Triumph to that list. I needed a throttle position sensor for the
Thruxton. Local bike shop $280 plus 8 weeks wait. UK bike shop was
$140 delivered to my door and there in a week. Thank you
jacklilley.co.uk and whoever it was here who recommended them.

 

What is the purpose of distributers? Every industry I've dealt with
(computers, camera, bicycles, motorbikes) has the Australian
distributer making insane profit margins. If I can go to the web, why
can't the bike shops? Sure, the distributer would get pissed off and
cancel their agreement with the shop, so it's an all-or-nothing
affair. Maybe just too much work? Or are there still parallel import
rules in effect somewhere?

Gerry Harvey can whinge all he wants, but it's not the GST that's
"killing" his business. And he is the fucking distributer.

 

Pivot pegz made in Tassie. I didn't know this until I opened up the
box that arrived from the states, $50 cheaper than if I purchased
online locally (and difficult to find in Australia too).

 

There're admittedly fewer reasons today than there were a couple of decades
(or more) ago, but there're still some good reasons why a retailer would
source their products from a local distributor, rather than from overseas;

1. The local distributor provides the warranty on the products. It's easier
(and cheaper) for the retailer or customer to hand faulty products back to
the local distributor for repair/replacement than it is to send them
overseas.

2. Consistency of supply. Most of the online suppliers we (the consumers)
buy from only have stocks of a few units of a particular item, and there's
no guarantee they'll be available the following week, let alone the
following month or year - and there's certainly no guarantee of a consistent
price.

3. Ordering quantities. Most overseas wholesalers and manufacturers will
simply refuse to ship a few items at a time, and generally retailers can't
afford to order 1000 units of a particular product if their turnover is 1 or
2 products per week or even less.

4. Ease of ordering. Whereas a retailer might have to deal with 100
different suppliers for 100 different product lines, they're likely to be
able to source at least 25 product lines locally from the same distributor.
In order to save on the mark-ups, the retailer would have to employ at least
one full-time staff member to keep on top of the product-to-supplier
relationships and order control.

That all of course doesn't in any way justify the ludicrous mark-ups
Australian distributors impose on the products they handle. What's even
worse though, is the Australian subsidiaries of overseas companies - they're
already making their profit at the manufacturing level, so why does their
local office need to append a massive premium to the price?

I can quite proudly proclaim that I've spent a net total of $30 with "Mr.
Harvey" since his metamorphosis from Norman Ross. Anyone with more than
three brain cells will immediately see that their prices are always more
expensive for the same product than any other retailer in their respective
field, and the products which are heavily discounted aren't worth even the
value of the carboard box they come in.

Alas, there're far too many people in this world with fewer than three brain
cells :-/

 

It may very well be that local distributors told each of the manufacturers
to "FOAD" when they approached them to distribute their products, so their
only option was to employ the services of an overseas distribution point.

Then again, there may be other forces at play. I remember when Ford
announced the "new Capri." I can't quite recall how much it was selling for
in Australia, but remember hearing that its price in the US (despite it
being made here) was about 30% cheaper - even after the add-on costs of
freight and distribution.

 

Warranty.

Nev..

 

Yes, the Capri was cheaper to buy in the USA, but that wasn't an
anomoly, it was the same sort of marketing strategy that any
manufacturer uses to get a foothold in a new market, by entering the
market with a subsidised product and wearing a loss until, hopefully,
demand for the product allows them to increases the price and recoup
their losses.

Nev..