Motorcycle Parts, Accessories and More

Motorcycle Superstore review

My first look at online motorcycle superstores had to be this one I guess. Motorcycle Superstore has been selling online for the last ten years, and during that time has become one of the most popular online stores for motorcycle parts, gear and accessories.

Ease of finding what you are looking for
Selection of products
Clarity of product information
Overall look and design of site
Shipping charges
Variety of shipping options
Charges stated clearly before order submission

Click Here to Go to the Motorcycle Superstore* Site

The site has an excellent track record, indicated by the large number of testimonials posted for the site by satisfied users. A selection of the testimonials are shown below:

BizRate Review
Great service and prices! I will come back for sure!!!!!
by Online Shopper, Thursday, March 04, 2010

BizRate Review
If every business had their act together like you guys my bike would be done by now. Thanks!
by Online Shopper, Thursday, March 04, 2010

BizRate Review
I ordered a set of tires for my bike. Moto Superstore’s prices were competitive and the delivery was prompt. They even provided a list of local installers. It was an excellent shopping experience!
by Online Shopper, Thursday, March 04, 2010

BizRate Review
Great website, lots of products to choose from at great prices. Easy menu to navigate through too!
by Online Shopper, Thursday, March 04, 2010

BizRate Review
This was a great shopping experience! I have always preferred to be able to put my hands on something before purchasing it. However, with an $80 savings on a $225 tire and free shipping! I am certain I will be shopping here again!
by Online Shopper, Thursday, March 04, 2010

BizRate Review
Best price’s I have found online for these tires. Plus free shipping! Thanks Motorcycle Superstore*
by Online Shopper, Thursday, March 04, 2010

BizRate Review
Excellent selection of items I am interested in and my order arrived one day ahead of scheduled delivery. Great service!
by Online Shopper, Thursday, March 04, 2010

BizRate Review
Keep up the good work. I have had no problems with any purchases that I had done with this store. They are my first pick for any motorcycle gear. Thank you.
by Online Shopper, Thursday, March 04, 2010

Facebook Comments
Thankfully I live not far from my favorite toy store. You guys are wonderful. Think I’ll stop by tomorrow and say howdy and see what I “need”! As someone else said. YOU GUYS ROCK!
by Michael V., Monday, March 01, 2010

Facebook Comments
My name is Pat and I am a five time customer of your website. I want to thank you and praise your business. I am extremely satisfied with not only my purchases but also the fast delivery, and the jaw dropping amount of products you have on your website. I will highly recommend your website to all my friends and family. Thank you for everything! I will be purchasing many more products from you in the future.
by Pat T., Monday, March 01, 2010

BizRate Review
Great buying experience! Really good prices and the quality of the products is great as well!!! I will shop here again soon.. Thanks so much!!!!
by Online Shopper, Monday, March 01, 2010

BizRate Review
Motorcycle Superstore was the easiest website to navigate by far. The prices are fair and I really cannot complain. I am a first time buyer and will more than likely return. This place has almost everything! It’s great. Thank you!!!
by Online Shopper, Monday, March 01, 2010

BizRate Review
Best prices for motorcycle tires on the net! When I called the representatives at Motorcycle Superstore, they were very helpful. Good Service and quick Shipping guarantees I will do business with them again.
by Online Shopper, Monday, March 01, 2010

BizRate Review
Super fast delivery without any problems. All around good service at Moto Superstore, with no hassles. Thanks!
by Online Shopper, Monday, March 01, 2010

BizRate Review
I posted on Facebook that if everything at MS is still good my tire should arrive around 2:00. My tire arrived at 2:02. I will pass blame for this egregious tardiness to the UPS guy. YOU GUYS ROCK. Tire is mounted. Knobbs are better than Nibs
by Online Shopper, Monday, March 01, 2010

BizRate Review
Keep up the good work Motorcycle Superstore! Search feature is great. Customer reviews are very helpful. Free shipping tops it off!
by Online Shopper, Monday, March 01, 2010

BizRate Review
Products were on time and exactly what I was looking for. Highly recommended!
by Online Shopper, Monday, March 01, 2010

BizRate Review
I found this to be a good experience. I liked the way the website was set up and everything was easy to find.
by Online Shopper, Monday, March 01, 2010

BizRate Review
The Motorcycle Superstore*site is a great place to shop on line. Great service and fast shipping!
by Online Shopper, Monday, March 01, 2010

BizRate Review
Great web site, great selection and quick shipping. I’m a previous customer and I will return for sure!
by Online Shopper, Monday, March 01, 2010

These comments are just a few of the 785 that hav been submitted to external websites (mainly Bizrate) since April 2009. when you consider that people are usually quicker to post complaints online than testimonials, this is a very impressive performance from Motorcycle Superstore.

How do I rate the store? I have chosen a number of factors to try and compare the top online motorcycle stores and I will give a star rating for each one. Lets start with the ease of searching on the website…

How the Motorcycle Superstore home page looks at time of posting

The layout is extremely clear, with good navigation down the left hand side and the current specials shown in the centre of the page. The navigation is very easy to follow for anyone familiar with motorcycle gear terms, there is also a search bar clearly displayed in the top header on the right hand side. Really the Motorcycle Superstore* website is a hallmark of web usability.

how about selection of products? Again its difficult to fault Motorcycle Superstore on this score. In fact I would say it is second only to Bike Bandit* in terms of selection of parts and accessories, and that is only because of Bike Bandits emphasis on OEM parts. JP Cycles also has a large number of parts, but historically their focus has been on the Harley and metric chopper parts. So if its ger you re after, Motorcycle superstore will probably have what you are looking for, OEM parts might be a different story.

The clarity of product information on the website is pretty good, but not out of the ordinary. Like many site of this type, Motorcycle superstore has struggled to make the product description its own, which is understandable given the number of products parts and gear on the site. The product info is supplemented however by customer reviews for some products which does help a little.

The overall look and design of the site is incredibly user friendly. Customer reviews help greatly, and the sit has all the relevant web security accreditation, so you can be confident of purchasing from this company.

a snapshot of the Verisign and Bizrate accreditation

The charges and variety of shipping charges are clearly indicated in the checkout area. Free shipping is offered for orders over $75, and there is the opportunity to add promo codes and other information in the checkout process

Motorcycle Superstores checkout page

All the charges are clearly stated before you checkout so there are no nasty surprises when you see the purchase on your next credit card bill. Oh and by the way if you choose PayPal, the purchase is listed as “motorcycles”

All in all this is a great website. I have no hesitation in recommending the Motorcycle Superstore* website for any purchases you may want to make for any of your motorcycle gear.

Oh and to top it off they have an excellent price match that you may want to test them on, but I don’t think you’ll catch them out…

online motorcycle superstore reviews are coming soon…

Well with the 2010 riding season almost on us, I thought I would take the chance to look closely at the online motorcycle superstores we like to search out the bargains on. Even though times are tough, its actually good for us because we can get more bang for our buck! But getting a great deal is only part of the equation especially when buying online. so I sat doen and thought about what is really importatnto me anyway when I look to make a purchase online, froma motorcycle gear store or anywhere else for that matter.These are the things I came up with:

Its no fun trying to trawl through asite that just doesnt seem to want to let you find what you want , you know what I mean right? SO I took a good look at the sites and gave mark out of ten for ease of use.

A good selection of products is a gimme, so again marks out of ten for the product selection at these motorcycle stores

The product informtion is ususally a cut and paste from the manufacturers spiel on the product. some take the time to add a litle more info. Again I marked the online motorcycle superstores out of ten ofr the information thay provide.

Say what you like but the look of a site definitely adds to the buying experience. Marked out of ten.

what are the shipping charges? is it free shipping? how much do you have to buy to get free shipping? You guessed it, marked out of ten again.

Not very likely but some online motorcycle superstores may et a few extra marks for a choice of shipping option.

we all want to know how much we are spending right, ( as long as the significant other doesn’t know, sorry Sarah!)

all these things matter when you are shoppngonline. I am looking at the main online stores that sell motorcycle gear. I will happily look at any store and give it a rating.

Some of the stores have waht are know as affiliate links. This is a way of a compensation program for publishers like me who get paid a small commission when someone buys something from a company running an affiliate program. The links are trackable so the comapny knows when they need to credit the publisher like me.

All the affiliate links in these reviews will be the company name marked by a *. for example, if Ridegear run an affiliate program, and I include a link to ridegear that I may benefit from it will look like this:
Ridegear* (that is not an afiliate link its just an example.)

If I am really unhappy with any of the stores involved I wont recommend them so I wont include an affiliate link.

Is that clear? I hope so because I am definitely confused as hell right now…

Anyway look out for the first review coming up later this week. And please make some suggestions of online motorcycle superstores you would like to see covered in this review.

Response from the Bear at Old Bike Barn

Barrie Houghton came back to me regarding some of the “issues” that had occurred when bikers had tried to order parts from his site and found it wanting.

This was never meant to be a bashing session for Old Bike Barn, and Barrie deserves the chance to respond, so here it is.

I received this a couple of weeks ago and it is entirely my fault I havent posted it before, so apologies for that

Hi its Bear from Old Bike Barn, I did not respond because I have been busy fixing all the issues, could we speak by telephone?

My apologies for the delay in response, I wanted to wait until had all of the new measures in place to address the issues properly. A few months ago we launched a new back and front end for our website – rapidly our phones began to jam up with calls. The increased volume was near unmanageable for our family run business. Customers were waiting on hold for as long as 45 min, and our shipping department was backlogged with new orders, finally and issue with our credit card processing further complicated matters and dealing the bureaucrats at the bank has been fun to say the least.

I’m an honorable man, and a decorated Veteran, there is no hokey pokey going on here, just a list of complex events. Companies that are up to foul play don’t have pictures of the owner on them, nor do they take thousands of hours to build, or stick around after to clean up the mess when there are issues.

I would like to personally speak to all the customers that had a bad experience during these past few months, as well as any that had a positive one I notice a few are defending us, but it the norm for happy customer to not say my much while unhappy one are very vocal. The tragedy is, some of this has clearly been aggravated and pushed to prominence by my competitors; some even splashing their names in posts about Old Bike Barn. Now some people may cite complaints going back to 2005, but one need consider the number of complaints pales in comparison to the 10’s of thousands of people that we have pleased helping keep their vintage bike rolling.

My personal email is bear@oldbikebarn.com – email me with a number to reach you and I’ll personally look into your issue and return your call. Or call our new number 1 888 851 5559 we can’t take every incoming call on the spot but if no rep is available, I have put in place measures for customers to leave a message rather than sit on hold. It’s now company policy to return all calls by the end of business the following day or sooner.

About the changes at Oldbikebarn.com:

1. Improve phone system and messages with ALL CALLS will be returned by the end of biz the following day!

2. New, improved web site with improved search by bike features, also, the ability to park your bike in the “Your Old Bike Barn Garage” to refer back to at a later time and see all the parts for your machine(s) in one spot.

3. Used parts: a vast selection of used parts are now available and in stock, or if we don’t have it we can try to get it through our network of over 200 yards nationwide.

Thanks for reading folks, Old Bike Barn is here for you, you vintage or modern bike and so am I!

bear@oldbikebarn.com

Online Motorcycle Superstores you can rely on.

After posting a note about a coupon offer at Old Bike Barn, I received lots of feedback on the “motorcycle superstore” in question; almost all negative. This has made me a little hesitant about posting on other motorcycle retailers. But then I thought, Hey this is the perfect opportunity to do a bit of research on the other guys out there who want our business and are actually doing a pretty good job most of the time. So Starting very soon I will be profiling some motorcycle superstores online that catch my eye. I will take a close look at them, and give my honest opinion on the good ones, the not so good ones, and the ones that quite frankly stink.

There are lots of online motorcycle stores that really want your money and are prepared to give some great service to get it, so lets find out who they are…

If you have some suggestions on stores you would like me to highlight, please post a comment below. I already have a pretty good list to go at, but as they say, the more the merrier!

Old Bike Barn posts now closed

Just a short note to say I have closed the comments on the previous posts about Old bike Barn. My intention was to try and generate some response from the company after you guys had vented your spleen. None was forthcoming. To say I am disappointed is a bit of an understement.

Anyway, this post will be your last chance to make any comments about Old Bike Barn. My next post will ba an opinion on aother online motorcycle superstore, you will be able to comment if you want, hopefully we will hear some good things about online motorcycle superstores in the next few weeks.

Thanks again for your contributions.