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[Richard230]

A Honda/Suzuki/Royal Enfield dealership near me recently closed after many years in the business. (I bought my wife's Honda CB100 there in 1970.) A friend of mine used to work at the shop during the 1970's and sent me this interesting story of his experiences working at that dealership and a couple of others while he was in high school. You can't run motorcycle dealerships like that anymore - which I guess is why this one might have closed:   

Stan Madill opened that store in 1964 as an addition to San Francisco Honda. Stan closed the San Francisco store perhaps 1976, in maybe 1977 Stan passed away. The store was left to his goofy wife Toni who was trying to extract BIG bucks out of the place, but there weren’t any big bucks to get.

Let me see, as I recall John went to work there for Stan in 1968, he was fixing to leave 10 years later. I was working there at that time. Grand Prix in San Jose had made him an offer and he was going to bolt. For one reason or other he didn’t, suspected that GPX was going to want too much of a hustle out of him, and John didn’t dance to any drum but his own.

Another interesting factoid – Stan operated a company called “Dell Imports” – he bought and sold miscellaneous imported goods (not motorcycle related) – and I suspect that propped up the motorcycle business, Stan wanted to retire, and sold Dell Imports, perhaps 1975 (before I worked for him) Things started to slide quickly after that.

The shop was always in a state of financial crisis. There were insurance bills to pay, and Toni Madill coming in demanding seemingly huge cash from John. During the slow months the store was often on credit hold with American Honda, but that didn’t stop us from taking customers upfront payments for parts that John knew at the time he was unable to order in a timely fashion. The shelves were always empty of any fast moving parts, light bulbs, tail light lenses, oil filters, the bread and butter. We did have a huge stock of obsolete parts- it would be gold today. The bikes had been on the floor for an excessive long time, flooring costs were through the roof, on some bikes we had to sell them over list, but John was a very good salesman, and he could find the right sucker he would reel ‘em in and boy would they pay. There was a recession on at the time, john had eluded to the fact that in the early 70’s the place was hopping, but in the late 70’s it wasn’t the same anymore.

As john was proud the say “Tight Screw Becheap Honda” He was proud of the fact he could run the place on almost nothing. I think you could say he was a survivor.

I do know that John was doing so little business in those days that AHM wanted to revoke his dealership. They sent the US head of AHM to have a look. I have forgotten his name, he was very Japanese – he called with a thick accent and wanted to talk to John. I put the call on hold and buzzed John. When John picked up I heard that “He shouldn’t revoke the dealership, it would put several people out of work” A bunch of high class pleading ensued. Later the leader of AHM flew up from LA, and did a drive by, a big black limo stopped in front of the store, the rear window rolled down and a very Japanese looking face gave the edifice a hard look. That was the last I heard of that. I really don’t know if that was the president of American Honda, but he sure looked the part, and I just caught a glimpse of this, he didn’t stop in.

My days there were really fun. I was never on the payroll, everything was cash under the table. Sometimes quite a bit of cash. I was the shop kid, and I was trusted. I had a key. I sold parts, bikes, did repairs, got to work on and ride a bunch of different hardware, all makes and models and ages. During one winter I was the service department coming in after school (I had “work experience” class, if they had only known what I was doing *EEEP!) so I got away from school an hour early. I would get to the shop about 1:45 and world work into the evening. Summers I’d be there all day. I did a lot of “on the side” jobs – John wasn’t really paying me anything, so this was blessed by the massa. Geez, this was fun, about the best job a 18 year old could have. Junior and senior year, plus and extra year while I attended college. I eventually went to work for Wally Will – Belmont HD, worked there a year and when I did the last two years of my degree I went down to SLO and worked for a rag-tag Harley dealer there. What a culture shock. I would have to stop by the casa (a converted detached garage on the very wrong side of the tracks (I used to roll the motorcycle into the “house” when I wasn’t using it) and “dress down” before going in. It was me, SLO, my Harley FX/E (a facsimile if which I now own) and SLO Harley Davidson. Very different experience, but also fun. Sort of the age of my enlightenment. Man, I learned about life from all of that.

Later John bought the store (I don’t know when) and appeared to have sold the departments off to separate people, Jim had the parts concession, Pat had the service concession. I doubt that AHM and Suzuki knew about this, but it seemed to work for John. He had the store running this way for years and years. John really improved his sales numbers, but the economy got much better.

Oh well, good riddance. That place pissed me off so many times I just quit going in.

I want the “Executive Lounge” sign off the restroom door I had made and put there.

[CrashCash]

I remember when Orlando Yamaha (where I bought my Zero) was T&D (Ted & Dave) Yamaha, and boy, does it sound like your story. I made the mistake of buying my RZ-350 there, and found out it didn't even have working speedo or tach as I rode off. I remember trying to order chains/sprockets/air filters/oil filters for bikes and it was such a hassle.

They'd never call to tell you your parts were in. "Oh yeah, that came in 2 weeks ago"

They were so bad, I started ordering from places like Dennis Kirk (before there was the internet and you had to call in your order on the phone and give them part numbers)

However, the guy that owns Orlando Yamaha runs a fair, tight, clean ship.

Fortunately, the bad recession 8 or 9 years ago killed a lot of those nasty dealerships, and the ones that are left are good businesses.

[MrDude_1]

Fortunately, the bad recession 8 or 9 years ago killed a lot of those nasty dealerships, and the ones that are left are good businesses.

Maybe there.. but in some places, the crooked, anything-for-a-sale con-artist dealerships weathered ok.. but the nice guys got put out.