Iron Butt
Posts: 1158
Richmond, Virginia | So with the news of Catlin Kustom Cycles closing, the next closest dealership to Richmond was
Regent 2000 of Lynchburg Va. They had their open house this weekend with the Victory Hauler there
complete with demo bikes. We figured we would go up, check out what could be the closest dealership to us (for now). The ride was awesome, perfect temp, the bike ran great, mountains looked awesome blah blah blah.
Once arriving at Regent 2000 and checking out the place I immediately got the early morning slap in the face wake up call that I HAVE BEEN SPOILED. Now I wont tear up this dealership because I dont know their history or future plans with Victory. So I will describe what I saw and MY interpretation based on what i saw.
People, friendly. The dealership screams of an ATV. Lawnmower dealership that was "forced to sell Victory motorcycles by Polaris. When you walk into the main building there were no bikes in the showroom. There were about 3 shelves of ATV helmets and about 4-6 motorcycle helmets. To a new
visitor, you would not know they sold motorcycles. You only learn that they do once you walk past the
showroom and around the corner into a 20x20 ish size room that had Victory accessories on the wall.
There were two bikes on the floor. The ceiling lights were not even turned on.
There was a huge showroom next to them and I thought "oh, this is where their motorcycle section must be....... In fact it was an empty room with 4 Zero turn mowers lined up.
To be fair to them, the perimeter of the outside was lined with bikes, but most of them if not all of them
were visitors bikes parked to come demo the new bikes. Were there new bikes moved outside to view?
If so, you couldnt tell.
In comparison, the Catlins do an open house with catered lunch, music either by DJ or live band,
and a showroom with at least 15 bikes of their own not to mention the Hauler bikes. The refreshments and food from Regent 2000 was provided by a towed enclosed Trailor with a guy who sold hot dogs and drinks.
I am choosing to give Regent 2000 the benefit of the doubt that they are new at this and that someone
in management there, has some marketing skills and understands that we motorcyclists spending 20,000 and up on a motorcycle dont want to deal with someone who is more interested in selling lawnmowers then bikes. I doubt any of us would feel comfortable walking into a Lexus dealership
and the showroom was filled with golf carts.
Yes the place was clean, Yes the people (few who spoke) seemed friendly, but its gonna take more then that to make me want to drive 2.5 hours to buy a bike or get mine serviced. Lets hope 2011
is a great year for them and they really step up to the plate and become a true VICTORY dealership.
..... it has to be said that given the chance I would have taken out that 90 inch radious cutting Zero Turn lawnmower for a spin,, that monster is freakin awesome. |
New Dealership vs IM SPOILED
