Where oh wear do I buy my jacket?

[emptysea]

Great pics, btw

[ClassicVW_imp]

Yes, Harley has made more income from the clothing and trinket line than motorcycles since at least 2001. Every Honda dealer I've been to in my expanded area only carried clothing for dirt riders. I would love to be able to buy a casual Honda shirt or even a jacket. Jeez, how many styles of shirts can you close from at a Harley dealer? Not just tees, quite a few styles. And jackets, (not just M/C styles) and helmets, and gloves, and posters, and tin signs, and yes, office trinkets like pencil holders.

[furious_blue_imp]

The genie is out of the bottle. The internet is slowly squeezing the life out of local dealers accessory wise. Additionally the choices available to us the consumer make it a prohibitively expensive proposition to carry an inventory that will entice the buyer to stay local. For many years I had a friend that owned a high end sport bike dealership in AZ. Ducati Aprilla and Hinckley Triumphs and Guzzi's. I bought many bikes from him over a 10 year period, about 9 bikes actually. I would always buy a new jacket, helmet and gloves every time I bought a new bike from him. I started shopping the internet when my friend decided he no longer wanted to compete with internet retailers. We had a long discussion about this back in 2014 just before he finally sold out to the largest multiline dealer in AZ. I've recycled many of my jackets on ebay over the years. Now I actually prefer to purchase my accessories via the Web. Return policies are generally excellent and Pay Pal adds an element of security. I recently bought a new Schott leather jacket on line and I couldn't be more happier. This is the new world of retail.

I want to support my local dealer as they've been there when I needed a little 'extra' (e.g. I'd really like to schedule a time to just ride the bike in, wait and ride out with new tires, and they accommodate)...

There's no disputing the convenience and pricing of internet retailers though. For bigger ticket items, I usually ask the dealer's parts dept if they'd be willing to match the web price. They almost always do so I order it from them and pick it up from the store (they are not too far away).