Quote:
Originally Posted by Occitiger
For every one of you, I'd bet that there are at least 10 that would pay the $299.00.
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You're right... Sadly. My buddy was due for tires bad, and we started the process because I'll be due soon. I had a bike a little before him and had already done a bit or early searching, and decided that about $100 per seems a rough guess for OEM for my 800 Classic.
So first step, the dealer. Without a word of lie, by the time a single, rear tire was bought, installed, balanced and taxes paid, it would have been just short of $300 all said. ONE TIRE!!! And they would not install tires that they didn't sell. Honestly, there was a moment he was considering it, but after we scraped our jaws up off the floor, we made a pact that we would find a better way...
Ordering and having them shipped to Canada is not a solution - duties and shipping fees would offset any savings. The closest U.S. town to us if we wanted to go get some there is Ogdensburg, but there are no bike shops there... And there's still the problem of installation... And I think the dealers know all this which is why they can get away with charging what they do.
And that right there is why you are so right, occitiger... My buddy puts a number on it: we are the five percenters. The other 95% would just pay the $300 and move on...
The end of the story is we ordered them and had them shipped to the UPS store in Ogdensburg, picked them up and like I said in an earlier post, found a little custom bike shop that will install them for $15 per. In the end, he'll have paid about $250, for
BOTH TIRES!!! That's insane... a difference of two for the price one, with just a little effort. I still haven't ruled out buying the tools... we'll see what happens when he has his mounted.