I have been looking for a new 2 stroke for a few months now, trying to decide between a KTM/Husky 125/250 for MX. The local Husky dealer let their web site get closed and some employees are at 1/2 time, they do not seem to have much life left. A local hondayamsuki dealers web site showed them to be open on Sunday, their store was not open. I stopped by a Honda/Yamaha place and asked about leftovers, the salesman told me to come back when I was serious about buying. I have responded to three different dealers about bikes listed on their web sites and the bikes are no longer there. Some dealers list all models from the current and last years and infer that they have the bikes on the showroom. I have finally decided on a WR250 if I can get a good deal on a 2009. What is so hard to spend a few bucks to keep a web site up to date?????
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Hi everyone,
As you all know, Coffee (Dean) passed away a couple of years ago. I am Dean's ex-wife's husband and happen to have spent my career in tech. Over the years, I occasionally helped Dean with various tech issues.
When he passed, I worked with his kids to gather the necessary credentials to keep this site running. Since then (and for however long they worked with Coffee), Woodschick and Dirtdame have been maintaining the site and covering the costs. Without their hard work and financial support, CafeHusky would have been lost.
Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been working to migrate the site to a free cloud compute instance so that Woodschick and Dirtdame no longer have to fund it. At the same time, I’ve updated the site to a current version of XenForo (the discussion software it runs on). The previous version was outdated and no longer supported.
Unfortunately, the new software version doesn’t support importing the old site’s styles, so for now, you’ll see the XenForo default style. This may change over time.
Coffee didn’t document the work he did on the site, so I’ve been digging through the old setup to understand how everything was running. There may still be things I’ve missed. One known issue is that email functionality is not yet working on the new site, but I hope to resolve this over time.
Thanks for your patience and support!
Dealer Rant
- Thread starter deluxe68
- Start date
deluxe68;80741 said:
ummmm. I don't even have time to read the threads on this site anymore. The work on the back end is *huge*, and this is a tiny site.
- Ideally they would have someone that was up to speed on a way to edit their site, and when there was 10 extra minutes once a week they would update it.
- Or, they could keep the wording more general.
- Or, they could specify last edited date and say "please call" for current inventory - but that would look bad in a month.
Did you notice if some of the sites said "power sports network" or some other network? If so those changes need to be approved by the bike shops senior people, then sent to that network for changes, along with $ for those changes.
deluxe68;80741 said:
Bills in Salem, OR has an 09 WR 250 sitting on the floor, or at least they did when I was there Saturday. He will be happy to ship it. His website aint nothing special, but it has the phone number. Ask for Bill.
www.billshusky.com
Bills Motorcyles Plus
1126 12th Street SE, Salem, OR 97302
1-888-806-1153
And, if you work your ass off 6 days a week giving personal attention to the people who come into your shop or call, you might not really have time to mess with a website, in which case keeping it simple is the best way to go. No inventory list is better than the wrong inventory list. (And I'm a software guy saying that) In this economy, hiring someone to do website work is a luxury that small dealers may not be able to afford. And you would be surprised how hard it is for a motorcycle shop to get what they want out of a web developer. Kinda like me trying to figure out if my cardiologist really knows what he is talking about.....first we have to find common language.
Since Ive both worked in dealerships and done websites it is easy to see what a tricky situation this is, and as Coffee points out many end up on PSN which is expensive and difficult for them to manage. My BMW dealer, OTOH has a nice website (and I catch them with out of date stuff occasionally), and I help pay for it every time I visit.
Kevin_TE250
Husqvarna
Pro Class
I'll second Bills MC Plus... a good honest guy to do business with...
motosapiens
Husqvarna
A Class
deluxe68;80741 said:
No one ever seems to keep their website constantly updated with inventory. so you should call. Anyone who has a wr250 should make you a good deal on it since husky apparently has very good incentives on the 09's now (about $1000 off, free freight, perhaps other stuff).
If you have a real husky dealer nearby, they should be able to order 09's at good prices and get them in quickly (i know 300's are still available). If you don't have one, or if you hate them, then you could do worse than dealing with bill's in salem.
Bottom line, stop ranting, and pick up the phone. It's way faster and easier for most dealers than email.
