| Author | Message | ||
     Toona |
oh well, I tried. Good luck in your search. If I come up w/ anything else, I'll let you know. | ||
| Spiderman |
np, thanks for tryin  | ||
| Wolf102 |
hi i have a 1995 s2thunderbolt i love the bike. she is my baby.i live in northeastern wisconsin does anybody have any recomendations for mechanics that are qualified to work on her? she just needs to be matnenced | ||
| Buellinachinashop |
Northern Lights in Minoqua is probably your closest option Wolf, or it's down to Wausau Harley/Buell on Hwy 51. | ||
| Rustyx1w |
Can anyone tell me how many 2002 X1W bikes were built? I was told the number 742 back when I got my bike, but another guy riding one like mine told me that less than 500 were built. I have had my share of issues with the bike, but nothing I could not find a way to get taken care of. Gail's HD in KC is my nearest Buell dealer, but they are almost 50mi from my house and the last time I went there for parts, their staff acted ike my money was not worth their time. Gails handles the Buell sales, but never advertises Buells and I know alot of Buell riders who won't go there for anything. Dave Stueve in Appleton Wi. HD is the best parts guy for Buells I know.  | ||
| Buellnick |
I just saw that my local dealer (Thunderbird HD) received a Pegasus Award... Who knew this was one of your premier dealers in the country? I have no idea what kind of sales these guys do but I can tell you this dealer has few bikes on the floor, no clothing, no accessories, few parts, and absolutely no riding club/events for Buells. They are your typical HD dealer... There are NO visible reasons for this dealer being bestowed a Pegasus Award honor. I have many bad stories to tell about less than satisfactory salesmen, service, etc. I have made it a point to avoid this dealer and go to the next closest one (Santa Fe HD/Buell) for all my Buell needs. Santa Fe has the Zia Thunder club and sponsors the annual Taos Rally. The service department is hands down better for Buell owners... If volume sales is your biggest determinant for the Pegasus Award then I can see the Albuquerque dealer doing better because it is in a more populated area... I don't know what really goes in to winning a Pegasus Award... Please shed some light on this... | ||
| Mutation_racer |
buellnick, sorry to here about your local winner of that award. The dealer i work for carrys most parts, every piece of clothing they offer, open houses for our buell riders, race the bike (I'm the rider), and try to make it one of the best buell dealer around and still no award for us. maybe we need to be more like this dealer you are talking about | ||
| Buellnick |
Mutation_racer, Liberty HD, PA? Does the dealer do mail orders?? I also heard the dealer in question sells itself Blasts for the Riders Edge program...bumps up the units sold numbers. Good Luck on the Pegasus Award... but keep providing customer service first. Sales will certainly follow. | ||
| Court |
I'd pay little attention to the Pegasus Award. | ||
| Mutation_racer |
I know court but its just funny how it all works | ||
| F_skinner |
I would agree that the Pegasus Award itself is not a indicator of a "Buell Friendly" dealer or service department however, we do not have much more to go on besides word of mouth and what is posted on the BadWeb and other Buell related boards. By the time I figured out East Coast HD/Buell, in Wilmington NC, sucked it was too late. I would bet that a lot of people that own Buells are not on this site and have no idea what they are getting into when they go to a below average Buell dealer. I bet they do not stick with the Buell brand long after having work done by a service dept that looks at Buells as nothing more than something to ride until you can "upgrade" to a real bike. This hurts BMC sales and I would think it does not do much for HD sales. I use the same dealership as Nick. I use it because they support Buells, are active in Zia Thunder, sponsor a Buell Rally, have Buell related stuff. They know Buells, Buell Riders and Buell history. They went above what they needed to do to make sure I was taken care of. It is a 600 mile round trip for me but well worth it. The Pegasus Award is only worth the value they attach to it. Every dealer I go to when traveling I try to make an assessment (sometimes wrong) right off the bat. I look for Buell related products on display. A separate Buell area for bikes and someone that can find his or her a$$ with both hands to talk Buells to me. But hey, thats just me. My girl makes me be nice but I do recall walking into a dealership on my way home from a trip and saw one Buell on the floor. I looked at it until someone came over (12 minutes) which seemed like a long time since no one else was in the store. He did ask if I was interested in Buells. I said yes and asked if he had any other "real" bikes or just this one. He laughed, I smiled.... I was not kidding! I left. How about this: Buell riders around every dealership get to pick if their local dealership gets a Pegasus Award. The dealership would not be required to submit any paperwork. They are not even considered unless they are active their local Buell community.... I think I am on to something here... Frank | ||
| Court |
>>>How about this: Buell riders around every dealership get to pick if their local dealership gets a Pegasus Award. That's not the purpose of the Pegasus Award. But such a thing as you allude to have been discussed. | ||
| F_skinner |
Right, but it is all we have besides the info on the BadWeb, which is a lot. More than likely it would have to be some type of Buell Owners Appreciation Award which would put the onus on the riders with guidelines from BMC I imagine. I should have figured someone a lot smarter than me has already thought of this.  | ||
| Reepicheep |
For next years inside pass events.... The free shirt is cool, but offer some "at cost" shirts as well. Some really nice crazy heavy long sleeve cotton (like the Carhart T-shirts), and some nice flat stitched seam sweat shirts. Have some cool understated graphics, like that 1125 silhouette graphic Court showed. Make sure they allude to the fact that I did a track day. They should be expensive shirts, $30 or so, but let that all be cost, not profit. Make it a *really* nice shirt. I'll wear the daylights out of it... and always be ready to talk about "what is an inside pass event" and "what bike is that?". | ||
| Davegess |
If Blake wanted to really piss off people and do a useful service he would award a "Badweb Dealer Award" for good Buell dealers. How he would pick them.. don't ask me I just toss out ideas I don't have to worry about them actually working; I should be a designer;) | ||
| F_skinner |
Dave, I do not think anything should be done to piss the dealers off but if there is a way to stir a little competitive spirit that would be cool. Sorry for being long winded in advance: I think all the dealers that sponsor the BadWeb all deserve something. Maybe they are getting a lot more business. I know they get mine. I guess my emotions got the better of me. I am thinking, very selfishly, about local riders. This stems from mine and other rider relationships with our local dealers. From what I read it may be the same in other places as well. We started a BRAG club in 2005. I had nothing to do with the organization of the BRAG club but a couple of loyal Buell enthusiast put it together and got dealer sponsorship. They did a great job and we were off and running. After a few months our club direction and possibly personality issues between the club and the dealership surfaced. For once I was not at the center of such a heated debate but soon after, without leadership, we fell apart. No one was posting to the web site and it was destined to fade into BRAG history. When BRAG went away we figured we did not need the dealership anyway and went about our business. I now see the problems in our decision. Although we do not NEED our dealership it is nice to have a dealership within 100 miles that could help us out with service and parts. We do need the dealership to help us with our numbers. They are the only game in town and when someone buys a Buell it is as easy as telling them about our club and writing down our web site. Since I was not involved in the original confrontation between our club and the dealership I went to talk to them about telling other Buell riders about our little group in an effort to unite the Buell riders in this area. Well I do not know what their thought process was but all the cards and tri-folds I supplied them ended up somewhere other than in potential Buell owners hands. I had failed in my task. While shopping for a Christmas present for my brother (Harley rider) in the same store I was approached by a young man that asked me if I rode a Buell. I thought for a second I was busted and they were going to ask me to leave. I forgot I was wearing a Buell sweatshirt. He mentioned Homecoming to me as they had just gotten a flyer about it from Buell. We chatted and he was real interested in our local club. I went over the history of the club, good and bad, and we exchanged email addresses. I told him to contact his owner to see if they want to establish a relationship with us. The members of our club wanted more parts, clothes, better service. With any relationship there is a give and take. What I wanted is from them is to sponsor a Buell Event, maybe even statewide event and I offered our club to help with demo rides if the Buell Demo team ever came to town. We would start our rides start from the dealership but it was up to them to earn the trust and business of the other members. All I really wanted from them is to recognize us as the Buell Club in the area and tell customers about us. It does no one any good to hold a grudge. I firmly believed I was acting in the best interest of the club. And again I have failed but I have not given up. I thought if we could offer them more than buying a few parts or a Tee Shirt or an occasional bike we would have some leverage then maybe they would reach out to us. That is when I started thinking about the Pegasus Award but as Court points out that is not the purpose of the award and to not put too much stock in it. So, after giving it at least 2 minutes of thought I came up with the idea of an Owners Award. This is a way for the local Buell riders to reward their dealership for great Buell customer relations. That is easier said than done. It would have to be objective and would have to measure results in a quantifiable scale. I would think it would have to be approved by BMC unless it was done on a local scale only and that is up to each individual club. Of course the deciding factor is the value of earning an award like this is only worth the value the dealership puts on it. That is why I think BMC would have to be involved. Unfortunately, and I have to keep reminding myself, each Harley Davidson dealership is really run as any independent shop but has to meet some guidelines put down by Harley Davidson. I think, but am not sure; it is stuff like store layout, location and probably some restrictions on club sponsorship. I am almost sure that a dealership can only legally sponsor a HOG group. That is fine and I am not looking for dealership sponsorship, just dealership recognition. Here is how it goes, very rough draft: Buell Riders Award for Dealership Appreciation (BRADA) The award would be presented to dealerships that demonstrate a genuine interest in the Buell community in their area. This award would have to be objective with certain criteria the dealership would be rated on. The criteria should not duplicate the Pegasus Award criteria (I am not sure of the Pegasus Award criteria). The award can only be presented by an official, recognized by Buell, organization of riders, meaning that the organization must be registered as a Buell organization on the Buell web site. The organization of riders that wish to participate must abide by any stipulations set by the BMC. The organization of riders must have 15 (that is a random number) Buell riding members continuously for the course of one year (Jan 1 to 31 Dec) in order to rate a dealership. Multiple dealerships with single owners will only be rated for the dealership that sells and services Buells unless the multiple dealerships all sell and service Buells in which case only one award will be presented if earned. The Criteria: Ability of the sales staff to talk about the unique qualities of the complete line of Buell motorcycles to include, but not limited to, the trilogy of tech, mass centralization, fuel in frame, brake and wheel design, mass centralization and short wheelbase. (Rated: 1 = Bad to 10 = Great) Demonstrate knowledge of local Buell clubs in the area to include points of contacts, flyers, rides etc or the ability to locate and provide that information. (This above all demonstrates their involvement in the local Buell community) (Rated: can, cannot or will not) Demonstrate knowledge of BMC events such as demonstration rides, track days and Buell promotional items. The ability of the parts staff to provide common parts (common parts would need to be defined) for Buells, order parts and receive parts in a reasonable amount of time (reasonable amount of time is subjective) or faster if in the case of an emergency. (Rated: 1 = Bad to 10 = Great) Sponsor or co-sponsor a Buell rider event in the local area not to include Buell sponsored demonstration rides. (Rated: Met or Did not meet) Demonstrated ability of the dealership to improve Buell customer relations. This must be measured over time. They may have the ability but not the drive to do so. I am not sure how to rate this one. (Has ability but not willing / Does not have the ability and not willing / Has the ability and is willing) Unfortunately this would be too subjective. Well, I think it is impossible to have a total objective rating system and am sure emotions would come into play but if examples of how they met or did not meet the criteria then that might be better. BMC would have to push this and I am not sure, without BRAG, the medium exist for something like this to take place. I am just thinking while typing. All that being said I will tell you I was part of the problem for many years. I did not get involved when I should have and I never supported any dealership or HOG or BRAG organization. The point being is our dealership does not deserve all of the heat and I will certainly take some of the rap but it is a hard road to travel. Frank | ||
| Blake |
"If Blake wanted to really piss off people" Dave, you sure got my attention with that lead-in!  | ||
| Davegess |
 It is certainly one way to do it. Of course I could have just sicced Rocket on you;) | ||
| Blake |
You sick Rocket on me and I'll return the favor and tell everyone on BadWeB that you are the one responsible for their faulty XBR headlights. Go get'em Frank! Yikes! | ||
| Buellnick |
Still no insights on what criteria are used for the Pegasus Award... ANYBODY know? Strictly Sales? in units or dollars? Variety of models sold? Combination of things?? btw: good to hear from you Frank. | ||
| F_skinner |
Nick, I imagine the award is very statistical in nature. Searching the BadWeb I found something that someone else posted. It is as follows: Sales volume and % of increase from the previous year. They break this down by XB,Blast and P+A Sending sales and techs to Buell classes at HDU Having Buell events Offering Buell demo rides and having bikes available for this Sponsoring a BRAG club(this one has gone away for 2007) Having a Buell area in the showroom Having a Buell sales person Submitting a one year and 5 year Buell business plans Accepting your entire allocation of Buells These are the things I can think of off the top of my head, there are more. It is based on a points system, you get points for each criteria. At the end of the model year,July 31st, Buell adds up all your points and the ten dealers with the most points are awarded the Pegasus. Most of this, IMO, is what the dealerships should be doing anyway. I know, from talking to a mutual friend of ours, that it is up to the dealership to submit that information to BMC and I suspect you know that as well. The award does not give a clear indication of the dealerships that are "Buell Friendly" but I think most of us figure that out soon enough. I do not know what incentive the dealerships have to compete for the award and it boils down to what value they put on the award. IMO it is just the nature of the world we live in and I do not see it changing anytime soon. We are linked to HD for good reasons and it will most likely be that way for a while. However, I do feel that we as consumers and interested parties in the future of BMC should voice are FACT based experiences whenever possible. Maybe BMC will do a shakedown to determine which dealers worthy of showcasing, selling and servicing their product. I would not be telling you the truth if I said I do not mind driving 600 miles round-trip to have a dealer work on my bike but the experience of dealing with Buell people is always great. See you at the Taos Buell Rally next year! Frank | ||
| Court |
Hearsay | ||
| Buellnick |
Pegasus Award - The big mystery...closely guarded...only meaningful to insiders. The self-licking ice cream cone ;) As noted earlier, regular customers should just disregard the award. btw; Frank, I'll be in Taos rally next year - although we may change the location to another overnight place and maybe change the name of the rally. I would like to do it in Sipapu... | ||
| Gohot |
Well we all have had issues with some HD dealer at some point in time, or if we havn't we will. While living in So. Cal. the very best service in getting parts was from Pomona Harley Davidson, and the guys there even delivered them to me free, as Floyd's used HD's was next door to our shop, and the parts counter guy lived in our town. Now I'm in north carolina and there are really no satisfactory Beull sorces that I know of, well I havent tried Salsbury HD, but ? | ||
| Trapper |
I was over at Utica HD/Buell yesterday. My primary mission was to look for and/or purchase a new helmet for my grandson. On the way over he asked if he could get one with flames and I kinda blew him off. It just so happens, one of the only two suitable helmets(of course they had NO Buell ones) they had actually had flames, So we bought it (It is a flip front style). Since we are planning a ride to California next month, while he is on Spring break I had also thought about picking up some spare parts to take, because dealers seem to keep only a bare minimum of Buell items on hand I figured I'd have to order what I wanted. Thought it best to bring some items rather than be stuck somewhere for who knows how long waiting for a fan or belt! Any way, I went to the parts counter to pay for the helmet and order parts. After having to wait more than ten minutes to talk with a clerk (They were having a sale & had the place full of folks, mostly just looking however)I decided to also get out the coupon for the neck gaiter I had downloaded, after seeing it advertised, not only on line, but in several motorcycle magazines. And Utica HD/Buell, as usual was listed as a participating dealer. SUPRISE, I was informed they did not get any to give out as Buell has advertised! This has happened to me every time I have seen one of these give aways advertised and I am always told they don't know why they never got a shipment. They (The Mgr) has told me he orders the stuff but they never get any. I think he lied and they(Utica HD/Buell) just do not even try! I got so upset I forgot about ordering the several hundreds of dollars in spares I was going to get. I remembered when I was almost home (a 40+ mile drive in my gas guzzling pickup). Maybe I should just order them from somewhere that actually supports Buell riders and not just wants some of their money, If they want to come buy a bike. Heaven knows the sales folks there seem to ignore folks looking at the few Buells they have on display. But I saw them jumping at folks that even hesitated near a Road King or Classic. I know from reading here on Badweb that this is not a localized problem but all over, however I had to vent somewhere!  | ||
| Court |
Trapper: Things in the Buell dealer community are getting better but at an agonizingly slow pace. If it were a 100 yard dash, I'd put Buell 7 yard from the starting blocks. While it's good to post this here It's a little like seeing the pheasant, turning 180o and firing straight into the air . . . I'd encourage you to print that in a letter and mail it to Jon Flickinger and Bill Evers who handles the dealer relations. One of the greatest impediments to Buell's success are many of the Harley=Davidson dealers. If you need addresses, drop me a note. You've hit on about 6 of the serious deficiencies in a single visit. Court | ||
| Markwoodlief |
Another bad dealer? I bought my 07 Ulysses with 4700 miles on it from Eastside Harley for 9500 out the door. Paid alot but didnt mind as I had asked numerous times about the service on the bike.. they said the 1000 miles had been done and the 5000 mile service was just done. I then went back a few days later,for something unrelated and asked the service department to printout the service log on this bike.. He did that and apparently they didnt do the 1000 mile service till 1700 miles and they did not do the 5000 mile service at all. I went to the Salesman with this information and he said, oh well.. you can go over a 1000 miles or so..  Now after riding back and forth to the dealer for this, i have 4930 on it, and I will have to pay the 500 dollar price tag for my 5k mile service.. after I just gave them 9500 bucks, cold hard cash.. didnt finance it.. Terribly dissappointed and will not go back there again.. funny thing is my boss was going to buy another one, cash, the next day, we are going to another dealer!! Eastside Harley Davidson, Bellevue, WA | ||
| Retrittion |
Yeah, I have had the same issues with the sales and parts guys at H-D of Seattle. Asked for parts/info, they told me they would call when they found out what's what -- never called, ever. Interested in the 1125, sales guy said he would call me when they got one in to demo, never did. Walk into the dealership, see the new Buell corner (back by the food), look around and pause for a while on the 1125 -- no sales guy comes near me, including the two with Buell shirts who walk right past me. All the riders outside are cool with Buells, even the random Triumph guy and girl passing though -- does Mr. Buell ever go to a dealership to see the apathy these great bikes and their potential owners suffer? The service guys at H-D of Seattle are decent folks but I don't go near the other parts of the dealership anymore. Kinda a problem since my fiancee wants a XB12Scg -- and I will not be going to that dealership (or maybe any others) to be treated like a leper and an idiot too stupid to buy a Sportster or V-Rod. Bah! Still love my XB12R though! | ||
| Bombardier |
How does Buell USA run their test ride fleet? Here in Oz they have a dedicated test fleet which they send around to the dealerships on a rotational basis. There is a 1125R at my local dealer with the ignition key still cable tied to the rear suspension as of last week. No test ride there. No 1125R in the test fleet that visited either. It really is a shame as the reason I ended up buying my current 07 Bolt was on a chance test ride. | ||
| Panhead_dan |
I bought a new '97 HD from Eastside because they had the best price at the time. I deal with Shumate Motosports in Kennewick, Washington now and am satisfied with all my dealings there. 4 new bikes there so far. If it's not too inconvenient, Come down to Shumate, find Kevin in sales and tell him Pan Dan sent you. Tell Kevin where you are from also. He will take good care of you. For a new bike purchase, it may be worth the trip. I'm sure it's too far to come for service but just as a side note- Frank is an ace Buell tech and tuner. He rides his Firebolt to work every day, year round. |
