I promised you some comments about the current internet versus bricks-and-mortar shopping argument.

This is a subject that anybody in business needs to take very seriously, including magazine publishers; our publishers are getting in there with an electronic version of Australian Road Rider, both iPad and computer friendly, which will launch soon.
But what about the motorcycle industry? We’re going to do a serious story about this in ARR soon, but in the meantime, here are some thoughts.
It’s clear that more and more people are shopping on the internet. Gerry Harvey did his bit for online shopping by drawing attention to the disparity in prices, something that I just… suspect he didn’t intend. But there can be other advantages, too, including quick delivery.
It is, however, easy to get carried away with the advantages. There are disadvantages, too. You can’t (directly) see and feel the goods; you don’t know that you can trust the seller; you may find that the bike accessory you’ve bought fits the US version of your bike, not the Australian one; you may be stuck with something that runs on a different voltage, or that is superseded, or just plain wrong.
And you’d better be sure that the instructions are comprehensive and understandable, because  you can’t just duck down to the bike shop and get things cleared up for you.
Ah yes, the bike shop. I hear a lot about profiteering by bike shops. All I can say is that their owners must be bloody good actors because they don’t seem all that prosperous to me. Nobody I know who runs a bike shop drives around in a Bentley.
So please keep this in mind: if the bike shops disappear, which they could in the highly unlikely event that most motorcycle-related purchases switch to the web, your everyday life as a motorcyclist is going to become a fair bit harder. Not just because you won’t be able to get your bike serviced, either.
But more on that subject when we compile our big retail report!

Peter “The Bear” Thoeming