It's a funny thing isn't it? Friendship. Being new to things like Facebook it took me awhile to get used to people using the term "friend" when in reality most of those people barely know me. Some of my Facebook "friends" don't even know what I do for a living it seems. Others are people that I would consider friends in the more conventional sense of the word, at least my definition. To me a friend is someone that's part of your life. Share some common interests, hobbies, etc. Someone you can talk to when you need to vent or need some advice. Someone you can lean on if you need to, or can lean on you when the going gets tough. Someone that has your back so to speak. So I guess looking at the term "friend" in those terms I really have a very small circle of those types of friends.
I have some friends through my shop, people that are in my industry and we have a common bond being in the motorcycle biz. Those friends I am very loyal to and always try to help and support whenever I can. In most cases they have been my friends for a long time, some even before I actually started my first shop.
I used to think I had a lot of "friends" that were our customers too. I think I still do in some cases but I realized most of them really aren't "friends" as much as just true customers, different relationship in most cases. Those people tend to be less loyal I've found. I remember back before I started in this biz and I had some friends that owned shops. I would never even think about taking my money to anyone else, these people were my friends. Not the case anymore. Too bad. Building a relationship with your local shop guy has it's advantages. The issue is when the local shop guy realizes you're not very loyal with him, then the relationship can become tough to deal with. I mean this is how some of us feed our families, pay our car payments and mortgages so when we find out people we thought were our "friends" have been supporting our competitors in a very highly competitive business, well, it's not so good.
See to me friendship requires a few things. It needs to be a two way street. You need to be supportive and should expect the same in return from a friend. I go out of my way to help my friends. I'll make calls or send e-mail on their behalf for numerous reasons. If possible I'll do whatever I can to ease my friend's burdens. I don't keep score about how many times, when I did it or how things turned out. I do that for people dozens of times a week and I guess I expect it to go both ways. I don't ask for anything in return either, a thank you is more than sufficient for me. It's not a huge inconvenience for me to help them out.
If I had a friend say in the tattoo biz and I wanted a tattoo done. I'd never even think about going to anyone except my friend as long as he could do the work I require. Now if he happened to own a motorcycle then I'd probably be within reason to think he'd support my shop just as I had done for him. Seems my thinking is out of date anymore I guess.
Another example, if I had friend in the body shop biz and my car had been clipped or needed to be fixed. I'd support my friend before supporting anyone else's shop, right? I mean if he's a friend he'll look out for me and maybe go that extra step to make sure my car or truck or whatever is fixed properly. Makes sense to me. Maybe not to others.
I have "friends" from outside the motorcycle biz too. They come from various walks of life. Funny thing about them. One that I thought was somewhat of a close friend just reamed me because she thought I was somehow disrespecting her and trying to make her look stupid. This after she went out of her way to make a phone call on my behalf one day. First, I am a smart ass, 100%, always have been. The things she thought make her look stupid were a joke, nothing mean spirited about them at all but I guess she took them the wrong way. That or she just has no sense of humor. This person says I am mean to her and never thanked her for that phone call she made for me. Well now I have thanked her and told her we don't need to be "friends" any longer. I have better things to do with my day than get bitched at by a woman I don't have to wake up next to in the morning.
Recently someone that I never considered to be an especially close "friend" said she thought I was a good example of a friend and someone who lived his life by a certain set of ethics. I thought that was a very nice thing to say. So someone that I knew, liked and work with although I never thought noticed how I conducted my life made a difference to me. That's a friend.
If you have a true friend, let them know about it. Support them and let them support you when you need it.
FTF
Ride free.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Sunday, April 26, 2009
INTEGRITY PT. 2
As most of you have probably read, I am a pretty outspoken person and tend to speak my mind. One of my issues has been the lack of integrity in my industry. I think it's become a very short sighted industry where everyone is out to screw everyone else, in most cases. Not always though. I always try to support those people that I think still have high standards for quality as well as integrity. The people I buy parts from and have do work for me all fall into this category in my opinion. I'm a loyal person and wil support those that have supported me. I feel friendship and support are both two way streets so I always try to remember those that have supported me in the past. For those I feel have somehow done me wrong I do tend to hold a grudge and will remember that in kind.
This brings me to one person that I have dealt with in the past. I won't bother to give his name, he doesn't need to get any free press. He actually contacted me as a potential customer. He wanted me to do design work to build a custom bike for him. He spoke to me numerous times and seemed like he was actually serious about the project. I have started to weed out the real customers from the tire kickers so I hopefully won't be wasting my time if the project isn't really going to move forward. This person asked me to put together design ideas for what would be a very expensive, one off project. I did as he asked and spent countless hours tracking down his requests and working out designs that would actually work in the real world. Some of the items he wanted were very high dollar and in some cases we would have had to make one off pieces for the project. After doing the design work and showing him our ideas he suddenly disappeared and wasn't answering our inquiries about moving forward with the project. This happens, it doesn't make me happy to have so many hours wasted but it does happen. I've tried to minimize the times it happens but every once in awhile someone sounds serious when they really aren't.
Several months goes by and this person calls me. He wants to know if I'd be interested in joining his team for some project he has cooking. I'm not. Basically what he's done is taken my design ideas and is having someone else use them. He also plans to try for some speed record at Bonneville and since I started that idea almost two years ago he seems to have tapped into the same sponsors I have. So while this isn't plagiarsim in it's truest sense it is close to me. He's using a lot of my ideas and design ideas that he got from my spec sheet, cost to him, nothing. He's also managed to talk some really good people into donating their parts to this project when in reality it looks like he's building his personal bike. I guess if you can talk people into "sponsoring" your personal bike build then all the power to you. It does piss me off when it effects my friends though.
Yesterday this person sends me an e-mail saying he doesn't think I like him much. I don't. I don't care for people that waste my time just to get a spec sheet from me. If he wanted me to do the design work I would have but not for free. Time is money to any business owner so this guy wasted my time and money not to mention has "borrowed" my design ideas. I spoke with one of his sponsors that happens to be a good friend of mine. My friend says this person has told him he wants him to build parts for his production bikes. This guy doesn't have the capability to produce bikes nor is he really going to be building more than this one bike. Again, wasting people's time and money. The bike he wants to build isn't something that will set a speed record anyway and I'm not going to tell him where he went wrong. He can spend his own money to try and figure it out. Not sure who his builder is but he doesn't know much about speed record bikes. I hope to be there if and when he does get there to try though, it should be interesting.
Some people really don't get it.
FTF
Ride Free
This brings me to one person that I have dealt with in the past. I won't bother to give his name, he doesn't need to get any free press. He actually contacted me as a potential customer. He wanted me to do design work to build a custom bike for him. He spoke to me numerous times and seemed like he was actually serious about the project. I have started to weed out the real customers from the tire kickers so I hopefully won't be wasting my time if the project isn't really going to move forward. This person asked me to put together design ideas for what would be a very expensive, one off project. I did as he asked and spent countless hours tracking down his requests and working out designs that would actually work in the real world. Some of the items he wanted were very high dollar and in some cases we would have had to make one off pieces for the project. After doing the design work and showing him our ideas he suddenly disappeared and wasn't answering our inquiries about moving forward with the project. This happens, it doesn't make me happy to have so many hours wasted but it does happen. I've tried to minimize the times it happens but every once in awhile someone sounds serious when they really aren't.
Several months goes by and this person calls me. He wants to know if I'd be interested in joining his team for some project he has cooking. I'm not. Basically what he's done is taken my design ideas and is having someone else use them. He also plans to try for some speed record at Bonneville and since I started that idea almost two years ago he seems to have tapped into the same sponsors I have. So while this isn't plagiarsim in it's truest sense it is close to me. He's using a lot of my ideas and design ideas that he got from my spec sheet, cost to him, nothing. He's also managed to talk some really good people into donating their parts to this project when in reality it looks like he's building his personal bike. I guess if you can talk people into "sponsoring" your personal bike build then all the power to you. It does piss me off when it effects my friends though.
Yesterday this person sends me an e-mail saying he doesn't think I like him much. I don't. I don't care for people that waste my time just to get a spec sheet from me. If he wanted me to do the design work I would have but not for free. Time is money to any business owner so this guy wasted my time and money not to mention has "borrowed" my design ideas. I spoke with one of his sponsors that happens to be a good friend of mine. My friend says this person has told him he wants him to build parts for his production bikes. This guy doesn't have the capability to produce bikes nor is he really going to be building more than this one bike. Again, wasting people's time and money. The bike he wants to build isn't something that will set a speed record anyway and I'm not going to tell him where he went wrong. He can spend his own money to try and figure it out. Not sure who his builder is but he doesn't know much about speed record bikes. I hope to be there if and when he does get there to try though, it should be interesting.
Some people really don't get it.
FTF
Ride Free
NESS SHOW
On April 18-19 the 3rd annual Arlen Ness show was held at the San Mateo Expo Center. This was a new venue for this show and in my opinion a better venue in most ways. It's much easier as an exhibitor to get your truck and trailer into the venue plus there was actually trailer parking available for the event. In past years there really wasn't any trailer parking and the load in and out was a nightmare to me. I did the first one and then skipped last year. I decided to give it another shot at the new venue so we had a space there. The other downside to this venue is they don't allow you to ride your bikes into the building. If I wanted to push bikes in and out of shows I'd be in the bicycle biz. It's a motorcycle show people, that means we want to or should want to ride our bikes into the building. I will say the vast majority of the bikes I saw coming in and going out of the building were never even started. Do they actually run? My guess is not very well. To me they should have to ride the bike up to the door or they can't compete. All of the hot rod shows I've ever done make you prove the bike runs and will move under it's own power. I guess the motorcycle biz has gotten to be too damn soft for that type of a show. I mean why would anyone want to build custom bikes that actually run, right? I actually watched numerous baggers being loaded onto trailers to be trailered home after this show, now that's really BS to me. No trailer queens. I guess I'm too old school for that shit. Ride the damn thing, especially a bagger.
My other issue with this show is the people that run it. It's not Arlen or the Ness family. They just license their name to the promoters of this show. The promoters are there to take your money but I never once saw anyone from the show for the rest of the weekend. They charge way too much for the patrons to come through the doors too. Over the course of this show I also realized that loud pipes are no longer the big deal anymore, it's loud stereos on these baggers. The entire weekend was peppered with bike show entrants blasting their various bike stereo systems. I'm a fan of music too but come on guys, that was bullshit. The problem here is the people trying to do business at this event like me really couldn't because we had to scream at our customers just to be heard over this noise. Did the promoters tell them to stop? Nope. They're allowing the show entrants to drown out the people that paid a lot of money for vendor booth spaces, again, bullshit people. I had to take off my bike builder's hat and put on my event security hat(I also do that as a second job by the way). I did my best to get these discourteous and rude people to shut down their loud stereos, something I shouldn't have to do as a vendor. The security company working for the venue is one of the worst in the industry so I knew they weren't gonna say anything. They were too busy telling people they couldn't bring in any outside food or beverages. Another downside to this venue. They want you to be forced to buy their over priced food and drinks, I won't even go into the quality of their food.
The attendance was barely worth being there by show's end. Most vendors I spoke with were extremely unhappy with the turnout. The people that did come in really weren't spending any money with the vendors either. They were there to see the bikes and kick tires, not buy anything. It's partly a sign of the times I guess. The economy is tough for everyone.
I will say the actual show part of this event hands out a truckload of trophies. That's probably the sole bright spot of this event to me. So now after doing this event a couple of times I'm thinking maybe I'll just enter bikes into the show to compete and save my money. It's a lot cheaper to compete in the show than buy a vendor space.
FTF
Ride Free
My other issue with this show is the people that run it. It's not Arlen or the Ness family. They just license their name to the promoters of this show. The promoters are there to take your money but I never once saw anyone from the show for the rest of the weekend. They charge way too much for the patrons to come through the doors too. Over the course of this show I also realized that loud pipes are no longer the big deal anymore, it's loud stereos on these baggers. The entire weekend was peppered with bike show entrants blasting their various bike stereo systems. I'm a fan of music too but come on guys, that was bullshit. The problem here is the people trying to do business at this event like me really couldn't because we had to scream at our customers just to be heard over this noise. Did the promoters tell them to stop? Nope. They're allowing the show entrants to drown out the people that paid a lot of money for vendor booth spaces, again, bullshit people. I had to take off my bike builder's hat and put on my event security hat(I also do that as a second job by the way). I did my best to get these discourteous and rude people to shut down their loud stereos, something I shouldn't have to do as a vendor. The security company working for the venue is one of the worst in the industry so I knew they weren't gonna say anything. They were too busy telling people they couldn't bring in any outside food or beverages. Another downside to this venue. They want you to be forced to buy their over priced food and drinks, I won't even go into the quality of their food.
The attendance was barely worth being there by show's end. Most vendors I spoke with were extremely unhappy with the turnout. The people that did come in really weren't spending any money with the vendors either. They were there to see the bikes and kick tires, not buy anything. It's partly a sign of the times I guess. The economy is tough for everyone.
I will say the actual show part of this event hands out a truckload of trophies. That's probably the sole bright spot of this event to me. So now after doing this event a couple of times I'm thinking maybe I'll just enter bikes into the show to compete and save my money. It's a lot cheaper to compete in the show than buy a vendor space.
FTF
Ride Free
Friday, April 24, 2009
I'M BAAAACCCKKK!
Okay so I know it's been a long ass time since I've posted to the blog. I was a little tired of it all and was just bored with everything in our industry and on the net. But I've been urged to go back to posting on here and will add this as a link to my web site for everyone to be able to read.
Since my last update last July a lot has happened in the motorcycle biz. Hollister for 2009 has been cancelled. Not s surpirse to me. The city wanted to get into the t-shirt biz and lost their collective ass on that idea. They also pulled the all time dumbest move for 2008 and moved the rally from the 3 day 4th of July weekend to the weekend of the 11th. That had to be the dumbest thing I've seen in all my years of going to rallies. Last year's attendance sucked ass. Friday was a total bust and Sunday is when everyone is going home so that left Saturday for everyone to try and make back the HUGE sum of money HP promotions was charging to be downtown. Luckily for us we are always at the Corbin facility where prices are reasonable. We had a barely tolerable rally to be honest. While the weather was good the attanedance overall was a total joke. I've been ciritcal of this event for years and will continue to do so. The city of Hollister is just fucking stupid to me. They are greedy and now don't want a rally anymore. This has happened in the past and may or may not be the end of this event. I know the promoters are basically belly up but to be honest I thought they needed a lot of help. This has the potential to be a huge event but between the city and lame promoters all wanting their share of the pie I doubt it will ever live up to it's potential. I have numerous ideas about how this could become as big as Sturgis and I've handed out those ideas but I've been told I don't know what I'm talking about. Yup, been doing rallies for well over 20 years and been to almost every event known to man but I don't know what I'm talking about. Okay, I'll keep them to myself from now on.
So that's my 2 cents on Hollister. With that and another $5 you can get a cup of coffee at the latest yuppie coffee shack.
More to come...............
Since my last update last July a lot has happened in the motorcycle biz. Hollister for 2009 has been cancelled. Not s surpirse to me. The city wanted to get into the t-shirt biz and lost their collective ass on that idea. They also pulled the all time dumbest move for 2008 and moved the rally from the 3 day 4th of July weekend to the weekend of the 11th. That had to be the dumbest thing I've seen in all my years of going to rallies. Last year's attendance sucked ass. Friday was a total bust and Sunday is when everyone is going home so that left Saturday for everyone to try and make back the HUGE sum of money HP promotions was charging to be downtown. Luckily for us we are always at the Corbin facility where prices are reasonable. We had a barely tolerable rally to be honest. While the weather was good the attanedance overall was a total joke. I've been ciritcal of this event for years and will continue to do so. The city of Hollister is just fucking stupid to me. They are greedy and now don't want a rally anymore. This has happened in the past and may or may not be the end of this event. I know the promoters are basically belly up but to be honest I thought they needed a lot of help. This has the potential to be a huge event but between the city and lame promoters all wanting their share of the pie I doubt it will ever live up to it's potential. I have numerous ideas about how this could become as big as Sturgis and I've handed out those ideas but I've been told I don't know what I'm talking about. Yup, been doing rallies for well over 20 years and been to almost every event known to man but I don't know what I'm talking about. Okay, I'll keep them to myself from now on.
So that's my 2 cents on Hollister. With that and another $5 you can get a cup of coffee at the latest yuppie coffee shack.
More to come...............
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