VIN Decoder

[nknudsen]

That's fun to read about how things were done in years past. Thanks Jim!

What street legal equipment/parts did you offer in the shop?

[Jim Cook]

Originally Posted by nknudsen

That's fun to read about how things were done in years past. Thanks Jim!

What street legal equipment/parts did you offer in the shop?

All the equipment that was supposed to be on the EC, but wasn't, that would have made it street legal in the rest of the world. (switches, turn signals, tail light/license plate holder, tail light, horn, voltage regulator/rectifier, ie. the works.)

Plus, we stocked Trail Tech, and many other DS type accessories, as well as off-road replacement and upgrade parts.

I was a better enthusiast than I was a businessman.


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[nknudsen]

Jim, so the switches, brake light switch, horn, tail light & plate holder were all a dealer/owner add on for my US EC?

Why did some bikes have radiator overflow bottles? Mine does not.

What year did you sell the most bikes at your dealership? What was a good yearly average # of bikes sold? Thanks!

[Jim Cook]

Originally Posted by nknudsen

Jim, so the switches, brake light switch, horn, tail light & plate holder were all a dealer/owner add on for my US EC?

Why did some bikes have radiator overflow bottles? Mine does not.

What year did you sell the most bikes at your dealership? What was a good yearly average? Thanks!

Not completely necessarily. Being a 2000, it might have been an early 2000 model, which was imported with the street legal parts, before GGNA had to step around the DOT requirements for importing the bikes as such. Part of why he wanted the bikes "less equipped" was to keep the DOT from getting into his business.

The XC models didn't have the "expansion tanks" (as opposed to an overflow bottle, since they were "in line" and pressureized), but we always kept them in stock. We also always kept the KTM 1.4 bar radiator caps as replacements.
It surprised me when I saw that my 2011 EC250 came with a 1.8 bar radiator cap.
In the spring of 2002, with GGMA (Tampa, FL) doing the importing, the new bikes coming in were more complete, with full wiring harnesses and expansion tanks, and large ignitions, switches, and horns. (No turn signals installed) Basically, they were just stripped enough to not be called street legal, but the horn was loud and the lights bright at idle, with the large ignition.

I don't know exactly when I sold the most bikes. I know that I never sold enough to make a good profit. I also know I wasn't the most popular with all the other dealers, due to shipping bikes to customers in other dealers' areas, and our low prices. We were very aggressive, and offered many services that a lot of other dealers didn't perform.
Until GoFasters came into play, we sold over 30% of the parts in the country.

We just didn't make enough money, and GasGas Spain didn't help, due to their policies and concerns, many of the same problems they cause Clay today. (late delivery of new bikes, etc.)
I still loved, and love today, the bikes. I just had to eventually close the shop so I could make a living.


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