We stopped off at the Superbike Factor cafe on our way home today for a late breakfast.
The cafe was quite busy but the service a quick and polite, just not chatty. The food was fine, if a little over-cooked. Nothing worth complaining about and I’d go back again.
We didn’t have much time to hang around but as it was my first visit we had a quick wander around the halls lined with bikes. As you’d expect, there was a huge range. They all looked clean and shiny but I didn’t look that closely to see if it was only skin deep.
This sign is on almost all the bikes, not just the ones already sold.
Part of the shopping experience, even just browsing, is feeling what a bike is like when you plant your backside on the seat and grab the bars. They will pull bikes out for you but that’s not the service I want and it sets a poor precedent.
For this reason alone I will be going somewhere else to buy my next bike and I don’t recommend the Superbike Factory as a place to go.
Unless a bike has a “Try Me!” type sign on, I always ask in a dealer whether I can sit on a bike or pull one out. We asked the other week if we could in Fowler’s and the staff thanked us for asking.
I don’t want a sales assistant hovering over me while I browse the bikes. I may want to look at a few. You’re not even supposed to touch them, let alone sit on them. I do generally ask at a dealer’s but I don’t expect to have to ask for each separate bike.
My preference is to mooch around and see if anything looks interesting and try it on for size. For example, there was a ZZR1400 there today and my first thought was to see what it was like to sit on. But I couldn’t. So no further interest from me in that machine.
Almost no one else does this with unsold bikes, so my choice is to go elsewhere.
Different environment I suppose, never been to a bike dealer that big, I imagine impersonal, so I’d probably be with you…
But I’m also with “The Visors” I would always ask before sitting on a bike, not sure why I’d need to otherwise “touch” one.
And a hovering sales assistant is far preferable to the ones that ignore you IMO.
However I once went apeshit at some guy who seemed to think it was ok to try out sitting on my bike (I was just coming back to it) when it was parked up at a bike meet, so rude!
I suppose a dealer’s situation is a bit different, … but not so different?
Another strange thing about The Superbike Factory setup is that you cannot test ride a bike before buying it. …. My guess is that they will be the next big dealer to go broke. They have huge amount of stock, huge warehouses to pay for and the climate is not great for bike buying at the moment.
I would never buy a secondhand bike without a test ride.
Probably doesn’t apply to Superbike Factory if they’re only used bikes but recently read those dealerships that have already failed are partly blaming manufacturers for forcing them to carry excessive stock.
Hoping my local BMW dealer doesn’t go the same way. This is in their showroom, being in one of the poorest areas of the country I can’t see it selling any time soon!
Apparently BMW’s business model now is for car and bikes to share the same premises which will hopefully help them weather the storm.
Perhaps car and bike buyers sharing the same space also helps break down anti bike prejudice?
It seems to be their business model to combine both in the same location along with Minis. I guess they twist the dealers arm, knowing the car side is a profitable one so they have to take on the bike side too. Mind you the mothership had it’s most successful year for bike sales last year so they must be doing something right. It’d be interesting to know how many BMW bike owners also have bought a car from the same dealership
At least mine has the bikes and cars in different parts of the overall complex, they probably want to keep the scruffies away from their nice new shiny mootahs. I hear they get fresh pastries in the car showroom
Yeah, Ocean Falmouth BMW has Mini too (smallish dealership, main one is at Plymouth). Bikes are upstairs but they were showing off the M bikes downstairs with the cars. Perhaps £33k seems a bargain to the car buyers.
Didn’t catch anyone trying them for size though
