A call to arms.
I am sure by now some blog posts written by extremely influential blogs have come to your attention. Both 2strokebuzz and thescooterscoop have extremely lengthy posts dealing with the current condition of the scooter industry and market. In short, it isn’t looking peachy. The main example being used is the Chapter 11 bankruptcy of The Scooter Superstore of America. They were out to be a true superstore. They have/had all the right brands from the budget bike to top of the line. From the outside it’s easy to point out the flaws of the business model. It’s a cinch to point fingers, hindsight is 20/20. The biggest thing to pull from these articles isn’t what is happening to a big distributor based in Fort Lauderdale, or even the current issues with Piaggio, the main point is to know what’s happening in our backyard and doing out best to change it.
Now is the time to keep talking up scooters to your friends and family, now is the time to buy that rear rack or top case that you’ve been putting off, or to replace that helmet that’s three seasons old. You get the point. The fact is you can do a little to help fix this, spread the word, keep it local, and more importantly keep riding.
From what I gather, the gentleman who owned SSoA recently died suddenly and unexpectedly, and the business’ affairs were not completely in order for his heirs to just pick up and run things. So that has also played a factor (but being more than $5M in dept to your floor plan financier doesn’t seem to be a great place to be in 2010, either).
(or “debt,” as its spelled in English… sure do wish that edit function was consistent throughout the site)
No edit on comments? I have it for some reason. I can track it down tomorrow.
I can edit some of my comments, and not others. For instance, the first post I make in a new thread on a forum seems to not be editable.
I got a great helmet at a great price at East Side Scooters.
Sweet…which helmet did you buy? I was thinking about dropping in on ESS tomorrow just to say hello. Anyone else gonna be around?
I’ll be at the shop most of the day if not all.
I’ll try to drop in. Was gonna go today, but I got into a sneezing fit that led to Benadryl, which led to an unplanned, lengthy nap.
I got this one:
http://www.bikersden.com/public/ProductImages/3245/Image1.jpg
I love it. It’s small, light and matches my gloves.
That’s a Daytona half — the thinnest DOT-approved half on the market.
Never let it be said I didn’t follow the limit of the law…