UCE Availability -or- You guys might want to get a new brand store

[doomed1]

Long story short, i'm getting my G5 in Minnesota now as opposed to back in New Jersey. so, in order to get my ducks in a row before next month, when i actually buy the thing, i gave Twin City Indian a call, the current brand store for Royal Enfield. You can imagine my shock when they said they weren't going to have any until next year. well, not quite, the C5 was the one out of stock until next year. i asked if it was because they sold them out, and they said "no, we just aren't getting any" when i know that there's a new shipment coming in very soon. now those could be sold out too, i have no idea, but he would have said so if that were the case. instead he went on about how rare the bike is in the US. i cocked an eyebrow, but didn't pursue it. i wanted to know about the G5.

now, i want something funny for my bike, i want a deluxe with the chrome fenders swapped out for standard blacks. i have several reasons for this, ones i would type out if i weren't so lazy. i'll tell if you ask, but i digress. i was hoping to instead of just buying a set of blacks, that i could trade them for my chromes, they could sell them as an accessory, and all would be totally radical. i was going to do something like that back in Jersey and while i would pay a small convenience fee, it would be better than buying the fenders outright and then having a set of chromes that i don't need. so after being transfered to the "special Royal Enfield guy" i went and told him what i wanted. he said he might be able to get all that, but in order for him to even put down the order, which would take a few weeks to get everything moving along. i wouldn't have the means to put any money down on it, but it was fine, just a minor inconvenience was all.

BUT, i would have to pay up full price for the fenders. the RE guy suggested Craigslist or Ebay to get a price back for the fenders. i nodded my head and said to him yes, i guess that's alright, but in my head i said "no way in HELL am i doing that." so after giving him an email and a phone number for the quote, i immediately hung up and called another option. Go Moto was the one. it was closer to where i am too (though still in the Twin Cities area), so more convenient for me. i called up and talked to Marty, who was immaculate to talk to. very nice, very straightforward (the guys at Twin Cities had this condescending tone that said "oh, this is really a bother for me" the whole time. not very helpful sounding), and he had the base bike on the floor and was more than willing to accommodate my wants, for cheaper than even the Jersey guys managed by quite a bit. needless to say i was blown away.

now this sort of situation brings up three possibilities, you guys at CMW haven't been your Brand Store enough, or the brand store isn't supporting Royal Enfields enough. of course there's the other possibility that there really is a huge shortage of these bikes, to which i question since there doesn't seem to be any huge surge in popularity of the RE brand. over all, i think i'm going to give the benefit of the doubt to CMW here though. when i was perusing Twin City Indian's website the other day, i noticed that they were selling the AVL bikes for as much as $500 above price, and those were for the stock bikes. i suppose they've become pretty focused on selling their $30 thousand Indians.

tl;dr: if there aren't any supply problems, Twin City Indian seems to be a terrible brand store. find a dealer who can focus most of their attention on the Bullet, if not totally devote themselves to it.

[cycleicons]

Doomed,
Ping me off line, I'd be curious to discuss this with you.

Thanks,
Leon

[Blue Ridge Wheeltor]

Dealers are an odd lot. I learned with the Ural that unless you had a good dealer within an hour of you, the "Nearest" dealer is not always your best option. I have a Ural dealer 2.5 hrs from me that I wouldn't piss on if he were on fire.

The phone and the computer are your friends, along with a site like this.

I am amazed at the varience in prices. Some take msrp and add setup and shipping, some sell at msrp, and one dealer who sells at msrp told me of a local competitor who undersells him. One dealer who sells at msrp++ claims the margins are so slim, he may get rid of the franchise. There is another dealer who has a new c5 on craigslist for $4999.

I will admit there are a few dealers around who are worth whatever they charge. i called around when I was looking for a bike and found a dealer several hundred miles away who I thought was way high. I ended up buying a used (nearly new) bike on ebay thay originally came out of his shop. I must admit that it was well setup and now knowing his reputation, it would have been worth the extra $$$.

[Kevin Mahoney]

There is no shortage at all for G-5's. C-5's are another matter. Which cities Craigslist is the C-5 on? At that price I'll buy it.

[northshore_paul]

Here it is Kevin, not a bad price for a new UCE, huh?

http://saltlakecity.craigslist.org/mcy/1319666224.html

[UncleErnie]

Why does he need to "blow it out"?

[Blue Ridge Wheeltor]

Think maybe he is giving up the franchise, or not ordering any more?

[REAZ]

The C5 was put on Craigs List by "Rapid Cycle", UT. This is what you can read on their website: "Rapid Cycle is going out of business - last day is Aug 30th, 2009! " This might explain the blow out price. Bad for the dealer, good for the buyer. The kind of zero sum game that is not good for anyone in the long run.

[Ice]

Welcome aboard REAZ .
Lots of good stuff here for all.

[REAZ]

Thank you, Ice!
It is a great honor for us to belong to the community. I've waited for this moment for over six years. I'm happy as a clam. The tide is definitely rising 

[Geirskogul]

Why would there be a shortage of C5s but not G5s?  I think the G5 is better, both in looks (Personal) and the fact that it has a kickstart (Essential).  Plus there's the G5 military...yum!

[doomed1]

Why would there be a shortage of C5s but not G5s?  I think the G5 is better, both in looks (Personal) and the fact that it has a kickstart (Essential).  Plus there's the G5 military...yum!

because the C5 has whole new frame and components that the G5 can get away with because it's essentially an Electra with a UCE. makes enough sense since they're obviously popular, but i just want a deluxe to trick out. the C5 doesn't let me do that nearly as much.

[Kevin Mahoney]

There are several reasons that the G-5 is more plentiful than the C-5. Because of Euro 3 the European importers could not sell Lean Burn engines. this put them first in line for the C-5. Since it an all new model the production was slow which meant that there were barely enough for them. The G-5 is a model that was built only for the US. It was easy for REM to put the UCE in what was essentially an Electra while satisfying Europe's needs as well. In some ways it started as an interim model in the US, but all that has changed.
The G-5 has been very well received and developed it's own following. It has all of the technological advantages of the C-5 and the look of the conventional Bullet. It's handling is different since it has a different frame and 19 inch wheels. It really is it's own thing. We have decided that it is here to stay.
 At present the C-5 is  built on its own line and they only make 10-12 a day so the C-5 will continue to be in short supply for at least the rest of this year. We just got two containers (72) C-5's and they should be on dealers floors by late next week. In the meantime we are well stocked with G-5's.