Its about the same reason as when people go to there car dealers for repairs.
The owners can't buy that million $$$ house if they don't.

I have bought my tires online for yrs now and have my Indy change them out, figure every 3rd set is free with the $$$ saved doing it, and yes they are the same HD Lops that U can buy at the dealers.

 

I buy almost everything for my bike aftermarket. Harley has cut off dealerships from being able to wholesale to other shops, and it's just to protect the high mark-up that dealerships want to put on their parts. I get tired of Harley's perpetual back orders, high prices, and constantly having more and more stuff made overseas.

The industry, in general, doesn't want you to price shop. Sooooo many manufacturers and suppliers have "MAP Policies" which prevent parts dealers from showing anything other than MSRP. That doesn't mean you can't get a discount though. I buy most of my stuff through mandmcycles.com. All the prices they show are MSRP, but if you add the part to your cart and go to check out, you will get an email quote back with a lower price...the prices are good and you don't even have to ask for a discount...they just give it to you. And if you have a question or an issue with a part, give them a call...they've always done right by me. So, I'm still getting good customer service too.

I used to think websites that say "email for price" were just trying to get me on the phone so they could try to "sell" me. I now realize it just means they have low prices...so low that the big boys they compete against don't want them to show those prices, so they lean on the suppliers to setup MAP policies, and then the suppliers makes everyone list things at a higher price.

I think MAP policies are just a new way of price fixing. If a company has low prices, but bad customer service...they won't survive. We don't need a MAP policy for our protection.

For those of us who shop around, MAP policies just make it harder to find a good price...they don't stop it.

Sorry, my first post to this site turned into a rant...

 

I'm going to do you a big favor here Ron. Here's how this works. You goto an indy and get your tire mounted, and you know you can actually get a good tire and the same price you buy a crap tire from harley. There you go!

http://www.motorcycle-superstore.com...?ZipCode=54901

 

Olathe, KS has Rawhide. I'm going there Saturday to kick the tires on a 48. Otherwise, yeah, I think the Worth family owns the other three (Gail's, HD Blue Springs and Worth HD) locally.

 

A little bit of the squeeze, there are still 3 Worth dealers in the KC MO area, but there are 2 different ones over on the KS side. 1 is Central HD and the other is Rawhide HD. Rawhide is new, I have not been there before.

 

Did you ask for a discount? I have never paid for anything at a dealer without a discount.
I always chat them up a bit then ask for a 15% customer loyalty discount as I shop there so much. They always say, " I can get you 10%" and I say cool, thanks.
You would be surprized what you can get if you ask for it and this applies everywhere.
I just bought a brand new 2011 dodge ram laramie msrp 49k. I offer 37k and they came back with 41k. I said no, left my offer open, and walked away. They called a month later and accepted my offer . I love dealing.

 

dealer here yesterday would not negotiate on anything. i needed a rear tire bad. dealer wants $207 for a rear Dunlop, 402, harley davidson on side the whole deal.
plus $170 to install.
so i ride to the local Indy shop, who sells 40 plus tires a week!
$140 for the tire, $15 for the tube, and $40 to install. rode out 45 mins later, with a new tshirt on top of it.
screw the stealers.
oh, should mention for the EXACT same tire, and actually newer date code than what stealership had.

 

Sad thing is the MoCo isn't learning a damn thing here .

 

If all my customers had paid me MSRP for the cars I sold them I would never have left the business.