Bike Motor Kit Dot Com

[Davezilla]

I'm doing something similar over here because I get so many people who see my bike at the shop and ask me where they can get one so ive been gearing up with extra tooling and gathering parts so if business slows down again this fall I will have another way to keep the money coming in... I noticed back in November that people are saving their money for the black Friday sales so they're not going to fix something with their car unless its urgent, then after thanksgiving I get a nice surge of customers but that falls off because they're now spending all their money Christmas shopping... then after January everyone is broke so things don't pick up until about mid February... then business picks up really strong until about the first week of November again... if I can have about 5 or 6 bikes built and sold in November and December that would fill in the gaps in income since people will buy these as gifts during this time then I can keep spare parts in stock for repairs and upgrades.
I could probably sell a few bikes a month if I had the time to build them now but this part of the year is when I got money but no time... then I end up with a lot of time but little money around the end of October until about the beginning of February so this is when I plan on building and selling the ones I'm gathering parts for now...

 

[KCvale]

Dave,

Took a giant leap of faith yesterday and applied for an Idaho retail sales permit as Boise Gas Bikes.
Then went with go daddy to get a web site as boisegasbikes.com.
No web site yet, I will need help constructing it.

Hi Don,
Good for you man!

There is money to be made and fun to be had building MB's for a living, especially if it's just extra money and you don't need to rely on it to eat.

I started pretty much like you are in 2009 and doing pretty well so here are some tips for you to get started.

You secured a domain name through GoDaddy.
Now that you own the name, you can set the DNS server to point BoiseGasBike.com anywhere for your web site.

A good web site is what got and keeps my business lucrative just working from home.
You can ask me about that, I have my own server and made all my web sites.

offer to build on their bikes, or custom builds at their request/direction

That is the most lucrative way, and get full payment up front, it's really not worth the time, money and frustration to deal with the guy that has no money and end up just being another guy he owes.

The most fun part is trying a different way to motorize than just the 2-stroke direct drive.
Electric are meant for cold country and little 4-strokes are pretty nice.

Will see where it goes.
I'm hoping my second build will be the showcase of my talent to draw would be customers in.
Don

Absolutely.
Riding around is always the best free advertising so carry plenty of business cards to hand out, they seen your bike in person and cards are cheap.

Nothing else however beats really good pics of everything you build with a good description of what it is and has on it.

I can't stress good pics enough to everyone!

A consistent neutral background and proper framing, lighting and size and the viewer focuses on just the bike in detail, not the background.

I have a 'Photo Wall' just because it's easy.

I just roll the bike out the shop door to the west facing outside wall of my shop with a piece of plywood and old carpet on the ground and catch the sunlight right.

Anyway, sorry for rambling but I sure wish someone that has done this before and how they did it shared.
So I just did for the next guy ;-}

 

[dtv5403]

A lot of companies would not go that far to help a customer this long after a purchase was made. Seems these guys are very customer service oriented. That's good to know, because some of these vendors can be shady from what I hear.

 

[dbledsoe]

KC,

Thank you for some outstanding information and enthusiasm!

I have been quiet on the forum for several months but not on building gas bikes. I have two gas bikes in final stages of completion, well actually they are complete but I will be putting them through a lot of testing to discover and work out bugs... bugs that always appear.

Bike #2 (bike #1 was the Specialized mountain bike I put a bike motor kit dot com 66/80 engine in) is based on a Skyhawk GT 2A frame with a gas bike.net GT5 engine and the other (bike #3) is based on a Worksman INB frame (another GT5 engine is in it), with gas tank, and other parts, supplied by Sportsman Flyer (Pat @ Sportsman builds incredibly beautiful parts and bikes). Both are built with Worksman aluminum wheels and brakes. Rear hub sprockets also come from Sportsman. Bike #3 looks somewhat more like a board track racer, except the handle bars.l

Bike #4 and #5 are also in the works. Bike #4 is a Sportsman Flyer with a 79cc Harbor Frieght engine and Pat's engine mount. Bike #5 is another Skyhawk GT2A frame currently at the powder coater's shop for a nice gloss black powder coat paint. It will also get a GT5 engine.

So far all the engines are stock, but that is changining in the quest for a bit more power and reliability. Bike #2 recently received a Delorto clone carb to replace the supplied NT carb. It is in the testing phase. I make one change at a time so as to better determine if the change is good or not so good... hence all the testing before I put anything up for sale.

Building gas bikes is enjoyable work and I am learning a lot about them. Learning is always good. Maybe next spring I will be ready to sell one once I am confident all the bugs are worked out (Idaho winters are not conducive to selling any vehicle that has no operator enclosed area, except maybe snow mobiles in the winter).

Regards,
Don

Hi Don,
Good for you man!

There is money to be made and fun to be had building MB's for a living, especially if it's just extra money and you don't need to rely on it to eat.

I started pretty much like you are in 2009 and doing pretty well so here are some tips for you to get started.

You secured a domain name through GoDaddy.
Now that you own the name, you can set the DNS server to point BoiseGasBike.com anywhere for your web site.

A good web site is what got and keeps my business lucrative just working from home.
You can ask me about that, I have my own server and made all my web sites.



That is the most lucrative way, and get full payment up front, it's really not worth the time, money and frustration to deal with the guy that has no money and end up just being another guy he owes.

The most fun part is trying a different way to motorize than just the 2-stroke direct drive.
Electric are meant for cold country and little 4-strokes are pretty nice.



Absolutely.
Riding around is always the best free advertising so carry plenty of business cards to hand out, they seen your bike in person and cards are cheap.

Nothing else however beats really good pics of everything you build with a good description of what it is and has on it.

I can't stress good pics enough to everyone!

A consistent neutral background and proper framing, lighting and size and the viewer focuses on just the bike in detail, not the background.

I have a 'Photo Wall' just because it's easy.

I just roll the bike out the shop door to the west facing outside wall of my shop with a piece of plywood and old carpet on the ground and catch the sunlight right.

Anyway, sorry for rambling but I sure wish someone that has done this before and how they did it shared.
So I just did for the next guy ;-}