Do we ever really know what he`s on about ?
As per Ricks comments ;Hmmm.
We`re moving in very different areas. 99% of my customers ar new to Triples. None are in the club. so they`ve not become afflicted with an obsessive behaviour disorder !!
They just want to put their trust that they`ll get a decent bike mechanically correct and all shiney. I always go through and point out any replica parts, or minor deviations from absolute concours correctness we do. ( For practicality,safety, and/or price & availablility reasons. ) Many return to buy a second and third bike. So I must doing something right !!
It`s the 80/20 rule at my place. 80% of the work takes 20% of the time. As we turn out a bike at a fixed price within a 3 month period, I set the prices as reasonable, considering we need to make a small ( and I stress small ! ) profit.All the hard works been done. Mechanically etc fully redone.
To spend hours every night trawling E Bay and paying the prices in competition with all you guys, to get that last 20% "perfection" is not commercially viable. I`ll leave the TOP end prices to the blokes who do it as a hobby, and can spend more time doing up one bike at a time.
Meanwhile, there are a lot of people who are very happy to get a decent bike at a price well below "properly " restored bikes. By which I guess its that extra £200 worth of nos nuts or bolts, rather than the original parts we rezinc etc.Or the pattern replica parts we use. ( Like the brake master cylinders. It`s more effective to fit a brand new one than try and restore an old one. There again some folk will use really crappy tyres because they`re original !! )
Unusualy perhaps for me, this isn`t a rant. Although it could be read that way ! It`s merely a musing about our business philosophy which I don`t think I`ve ever explained before. Well, now I have !!
