Sherco
 

I wanted to let you all know that today we began taking orders from our dealers for the 2013 Sherco off road line. At this point they only offer a 300i and 250i Racing version and the XRide to us. Early next year we will get limited numbers of their new 250 and 300 two strokes. In the spring they will be finishing up new engines for their 450 and 510 4T models.
We're pretty excited about this brand. Mark Berg and I visited the factory in France back in July and we were impressed with the company and the motorcycles. The fit and finish on this brand is really nice.
Some of you are probably wondering how this affects Gas Gas. It does not. Gas Gas is still our main line but we did realize back earlier this year that we had all of our eggs in one basket. We decided we needed a back up brand in case our main brand stubbed it's toes again.
If you get a chance, go over to www.sherco.com and look what they have to offer.

Congrats - Another top quality Euro brand. I can't wait to see the 2T enduro bikes:)

Surely to be a winner if you and Mark handle Sherco as you have GG.

Good luck.

Same form as my local dealer! Good work Clay

A few years ago I had the pleasure of test riding a Sherco 450i, and came away very impressed with the performance. Looking the bike over, I was even more impressed, so impressed that I wanted to order one of the 250i models, but that is about the time the ecomony went down the tubes and RYP quit bringing in bikes in volume.
Clay bringing in the Sherco 250/300 models is great new indeed. From what I have read, the Sherco is the only bike out there that can challenge the brilliant KTM 250 4T offroad bikes (I love the XC-F).

look here :D

http://www.picfront.org/d/8NyE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDn-g-nD9Qc

Hmmmm thanks for the heads up Clay. I may have to look into the XRide :).
Sweeet!

WOW I just look at the XRide specs. and WOW! Take the blinkers off and call it done. Price ckeck and availability please :D. I've been waiting for someone to build something like this before I have to do it myself.

Good deal, if I ever move back 2 4stroke they will def get a look:cool:

Very nice bikes from a QC point of view. Got a good look at a 450i but never rode one. They were not cheap though under RYP.

We can be fairly competetive now with the orange guys. The Sherco 300 is the same price as the KTM 350. I was told that Moto Verde in France and another mag, I think in Australia, picked the Sherco in a shootout against all of the other 300 to 400cc 4Ts, including the KTM 350. I was impressed with it when I rode it, especially the 6 speed tranny.

The 2T 250 was pretty sweet. Electronic controlled pv, 6 speed, e start designed with the engine rather than added on. It had tons of torque.

The fit and finish on the Shercos is pretty incredible. While at the factory I noticed that there were two steel plates bonded to each side of the swingarm and I asked what they were for. I was told that they did not believe that steel wheel spacers should come in contact with an aluminimum swingarm. They ordered fuel from the US to map the efi on the bikes with our fuel. They do their own final milling on close tolerance parts in house rather than letting the supplier do it. And they actually have an owner's manual with suspension settings and technical bulletins. I was pretty impressed!
I think Sherco will be a good addition to our business.

We can get the XRide. $7999 MSRP. If anyone wants one, please call your favorite dealer and ask him to order one for you. We can bring them over in the same container.

Good choice,- to bring in another brand(especially Sherco). Not that I care, since I'm not living in the US, but I am the lucky owner of a 290 Sherco trials(love that bike), and I have wet dreams about the XRIDE every night.. What a brilliant bike:D I just got to get one of those..
But that would mean selling the gassers first, and no matter how much I want the Xride, That's never gonna happen...

And In the end, I have to say, that you guy's from the US are very lucky to have a such a good Importer & dealer network, my full respect to Clay, and the way he run the buisness..

Thanks Clay. On the XRide are they comming over here as a street bike? Did you get a chance to ride one and are they actually already in production?

John,
XRide won't be street legal. No way to get a 2T through the EPA approval, even if it is a milder tuned trials type motor. I did ride one a little bit. It is a pretty cool bike. They were not in production then but are now.
Clay

Thanks for the kind words.
All you guys in the US ....make sure you listen to this wise man! LOL!

how does the x ride compare to the pampera? I like my pampera alot for the right contitions, but the 300ec (plated) is what almost always gets rode

ktm xc-f 350 = $9,199 msrp You are importing the Racing models, correct? I think I found my next bike. Delivery is when?

Here in Brasil we have Sherco for 1-2 years and the bikes looks reliable. I had a chance to ride one 300 and it is very nice.

Yes it is $9199 msrp. We are only bringing the Racing model with WP suspension. Delivery should be in about 90 days. We still have a lot of EPA paperwork to do.

I would be making things up if I gave you an answer because I just don't know that much about the Pampera. My impression, which, could be wrong, is that the XRide is more off road and less trials than the Pampera.

One other thing.....
A big concern for customers is going to be parts availability. We plan to stock about $10 to $15,000 in parts for the 250i and 300i Racing. Your local dealer can stock the normal breakable stuff like levers but we will stock the main items. If you need a part the dealer does not have, then you order from us and we pay your dealer a commission for the sale. We cut out the shipping time from us to the dealer then to you but we do not cut out the dealer in profit. We also cut out sales tax for 49 states. It is impossible for a dealer to stock a high volume of parts for a low volume sales brand. These parts will be stocked here in Tennessee. I also plan to keep a complete bike here in case someone breaks something we did not plan on.
What do you guys think of this plan?

Thanks for the answers Clay. I don't want it street legal I was just wondering how much trouble it would be to remove all the blinkers and tail light; good it looks like I won't have to.

Thats an awesome plan Clay. I'm sure the dealers will like it also. LOL if I stocked a complete bike for "parts" I think my customers would be getting used parts. Great idea on that btw. Carry on...:D

Do you have intentions doing this with Gas Gas also?

Excellent. Now hopefully my local GasGas dealer elects to carry the Sherco enduro line.

John...Got it. That makes it easier for you.
Steve....This could be a test bed for Gas Gas parts, if dealers and customers like it.
Tm....Jeff Tasky has already gioven me an order if he is your closest dealer. If not....Nothing will encourage a dealer more to order a bike than a call from a customer!

I like the way you think Clay. I'll bet that plan will go over well with the dealers also.

Gday clay, Australia's big is the u.s small, so our guys do our small really well. Beta aus already does your sherco parts 'model'. Their website is awesome. its an instant proforma for you.

We have an awesome dealer over here who ships gasser parts overnight and seems to have just about everything, but a beta style website would be great as the phone isn't always convenient.

http://betamotor.com.au/betaenduro/

Hope that helps

I just spent 30 mins on youtube checking out videos of the 2012 models. I'll say that I'm pretty intrigued. What is parts pricing going to be like? Similar to the Gas Gas stuff or will it be pricier?

Tasky isn't too far away, but I'll check with Skagit Powersports, they are much closer and are great to deal with.

Simmo...Thanks for sending that link to me. That's a help.
JKosmo...Honestly haven't gotten into parts pricing yet. I'm waiting on some more infro from Sherco so that I can start my order with them. My goal is to be on par with the orange company.
TM...call Bill at Skaggit and tell him to get on the bandwagon!

Thank you all for your help and support. It is appreciated!
Clay

Haven't been around here for a good while but this is awesome news IMO and the Sherco bikes are sweeeeeet and a great addition especially with Clay doing the dirty work.

A few years ago that 300i was just coming out and I contacted RYP about getting one. His response was between 10-11K, I had to pre-order it (they were just hitting production), pay for it in full up front and wait 3 months for it to arrive. OUCH, no thanks! He was obviously trying to stifle the enduro line.

Nice job getting Sherco enduro Clay and really hope it goes well with both lines.

Good plan on the parts. I would like this for GasGas. I have a local dealer but he is still far enough away that it is not easy to pick up parts. hence he pays for shipping comming in and I pay for shipping going out. Your plan removes cost while maintianing good customer service and keeps the dealer profitable.

I had the same experience.

I think you will see this model of doing business becoming a lot more popular in the next few years. A lot of small enthusiast run shops are cash poor and cant afford to stock a lot of parts and buy bikes. They also do not qualify for GE flooring.

If I was a distributor I would think long and hard about asking "dealers" to buy 2 demo bikes that cannot be sold for 9 months at a BIG discount and stocking $1000 in essential parts like filters, levers, shifters, plastic etc..

Customers can view and demo bikes at the dealership but would go online and purchase their new unit from the dist. The dist would ship the unit to the dealer who would PDI and prep the bike for the customer.

Customer leaves dealer with bike in the back of the truck and dist sends dealer a "commission" for doing the PDI and delivery. Same with big dollar parts. Customer goes online, buys parts and has them shipped direct to their address. Selling dealer gets a commission. Everyone wins.

What do you guys think about this model? I personally think it would be a perfect fit for a smaller "weird" euro brand like GG or Sherco.

Any chance the DOT will bless the 4t bikes for dual sport use?

With a fat enough check many things are possible.

I think this makes a lot of sense. In fact, it could redefine the traditional definition of "dealer". Why would you need a full dealership and its associated overhead? What if you just worked out of a small home business, like some top suspension guys do? What if your a guy like Clay that travels to all the races with demos in a trailer, even parts? The dealer base could rapidly expand. Personally, I'd like it if Spain could ship me a crate of parts cheap and give Clay a commission.

There are still whiners though like a lot of the orange guys who need a dealer on the corner with a complete parts stock and orange binkeys while they wait.:D:eek:

If this was the case I'd be MORE THAN INTERESTED in setting something up.
If there was a way to get involved with an existing dealer such as Scott, and stock the necesities along with variables such as differing make/models to complement the MAIN dealer. Now that could expand on the diversity/availability for the better.