8/18/2010
Well Sturgis has come and gone for another year. We had a good showing again this year and will be returning next year in the same location, which is next door to Sturgis Harley Davidson. We had the Impact Gel guys from La Crosse Wisconsin set up with us this year and they had a good show and it worked out really good for us both. I doubt we will be able to do that again though, I learned a few things at this rally and we'll need all the real estate we can get to have everything that I have plans for next year.
Scheduling is remaining strong and we have been able to maintain the 2 weeks out on scheduling which works really well. Same turnaround time as usual, overnight. It amazes how some people don't understand the scheduling. I know I have gone over here time and time again and it is clearly explained on the scheduling page and then the turnaround time blows their minds.
We have two maybe three more events to set up at this year before we start planning for next year's rallies. Two of the next three are in NC in Maggie Valley. We are already locked into the Thunder in the Smokies and are working on getting in on the Carolina Harley dealers rally which is called the Rally in the Valley but that one is still in the air right now. The last rally will be the Thunder Beach Fall Rally. We will be setting up at the Marriot again which is the same location that we setup for the spring rally and hopefully will be our home away from home for all the rallies there.
Again, I have to thank Steve and Brent for keeping the shop up and running while I was gone to Sturgis and I have to thank my buddy Robbie for his help in Sturgis. These guys made my job a lot easier and all of us working together made the trip worthwhile. Although, we did experience a few problems on the way back. We weren't even a hundred miles outside of the Rapid City when one of the trailer tires blew out which ended up putting us 2-3 hours behind while getting that fixed. The only other issue we had was a bike breaking loose in the hauler which happened after our last fuel stop. Luckily nothing much happened to Robbie's bike but my gas tank now has a few big scratches and a couple dents in it which sucks but we made it home safely and that's the most important thing.
Next month we will be holding our 5th annual VTX Tech Session here at the shop. I can't believe we have been holding these for 5 years now. This will be the first one held in our new shop and I am sure the regular attendee's will be in for a big surprise with all the room we have now but that seems to be going away rapidly though.
I am going call it a wrap on this week's update. Sturgis was fun but it's good to be back home and sleeping in my bed again. That army cot is good for a few days but two weeks sleeping on it gets old.
Till next time be safe and enjoy the ride.
7/30/2010
One thing I really like to do is keep up with statistics. I guess I got hooked with stats back in my Navy days. At the end of a 6 month deployment they would always give us the stats of how much fuel the ship used, how many gallons of JP5 that the air craft used, the number of launches and arrest. I always thought it was cool and really put into perspective at how much it took to supply an aircraft carrier. So now I like to keep track of how many hits the website gets a day and how people get to us. I remember back when the site first went up, it would get around 10-15 hits a day and by the end of the first year it was getting between 35-50 hits a day. Almost 7 years later and we average around 350 unique visits a day to the website. The most hits in one day is 567. In perspective it really isn't a lot considering the internet is worldwide but most people who go to the website have one thing in mind and that is making their motorcycle seat more comfortable. Another number I watch is the number of schedules per day. In the busy season we usually schedule 15-20 seats per day and in the off season 3-5 seats a day. Google is by far the leader in sending people our way via the internet and the top 5 searches all included Mean City Cycles in some configuration but motorcycle seat modification and custom motorcycle seat is also in the top 8 searches.
One day I was on the net and had just got off the phone with a person who scheduled and thought I would do a search for Mean City Cycles on Google and was shocked at how many results came up. Over 2 million results...now that was a huge shock. So I started going through the pages and was amazed at how many different forums had people talking about our work. We get a lot of testimonials sent to us and we try to post them all but having all these testimonials on different forums gave me a warm fuzzy feeling knowing that we have helped so many riders and that they were spreading the word about us. I have said it before and I will say it again, there is nothing like word of mouth advertising you just can't buy anything that even compares to it.
Tomorrow the Sturgis crew heads out. 1360 miles one way. Last year I think there was around 325,000 people in attendance and I heard that they are expecting over 800,000 this year with it being an anniversary year (70th). We did pretty good last year and hopefully this year will be as good or even better. I always thought it would be pretty cool to be able to go to the rallies and set up to do seats on the spot. So I started thinking about it and bought the hauler in 2008 but when I started checking on setting up at the rallies I was shocked at how much it would cost just for the spot then you have to take into consideration all the other aspects, like hotel cost, fuel and food plus labor. It really added up quickly. Myrtle Beach is where I figured we would be for our first big rally but that never panned out, the cost of setting up there was just too much to gamble on. I have looked at a lot of different rallies, Daytona, Laconia and several others and never would have thought I would be able to go to Sturgis because it's such a large rally and traveling that far would be tough. So I was surprised that we were able to work things out last year but am glad we did and I look forward getting out there again but just like last year I am nervous and hope we can break even. This year the cost is double of last year so we'll see.
Last thing and I'll end this. I just want to thank Brent and Steve for all their help at the shop. It is nice being able to leave the shop for two weeks and know that these two guys are there running it and keeping things rolling. The shop is our main source of income and it can't close while I am at a rally because there is always the what if we flop at the rally and then the bills don't get paid, so thanks guys for all your hard work and dedication to the business.
Till next time be safe and enjoy the ride.
7/24/2010
Well a week from today the Sturgis crew heads out. They will be arriving in Sturgis Aug 2nd and will be opening either the 5th or 6th so if you are going to there stop by and say hey. We will be set up right beside Sturgis Harley Davidson on Main St.
While the Sturgis crew is working hard at the rally the shop don't slow down any, we have a crew stay at the shop. A lot of people seem to think we shut the shop down but we can't do that, just too many seats coming in and we have people calling wanting to schedule all the time so Yes the shop will be open and operating as usual.
I've been able to put a lot more miles on the new driver and passenger backrest modifications and all I can say is "WOW" I really like this modification and glad we got it worked so we can offer it. It took a year to get from the drawing board to use but the time was well spent.
September 18th we'll be having our annual VTX Tech Session. I can't believe we have been holding these for 5 years now. Every year it keeps getting bigger and bigger and this year is going to be the best one yet. I have several surprises lined up. We have riders riding in from Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina and one special guest all the way from Houston Texas. The tech session is for all VTX's 1300 and 1800 but we welcome anybody who rides to stop by.
Till next time be safe and enjoy the ride.
7/17/2010
Another week has passed and this one has been a busy one. Scheduling has been heavy and we had a lot of drop off seats this week also. We are still holding onto the 2-3 weeks out on scheduling though and we are doing everything we can to maintain that.
The road crew is starting to get ready to head up to Sturgis for the 70th Annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally and Races. If you haven't ever been to Sturgis I highly recommend going. The riding there is just outstanding and the rally isn't as wild as the TV shows make it out to be...really. It's pretty cool where we are set up which is right on Main Street beside Sturgis Harley Davidson. About 8 to 9 AM you start hearing a rumble of engines by noon it sounds like a constant thunder and stays like that till about 11 PM at night.
We have been outsourcing our embroidery work for the past few years now and this really adds time to the turnaround time. While most seats are in and out in 24 hours the seats requiring embroidery could take anywhere from 36 to 72 hours. We tell customers this and a lot of times, especially in the summer riding month's guys don't want to be without their seats that long and I fully understand that. Well, this week I have started inquiring about embroidery machines and we should have our own in the next month or two. I think this will really speed things up but it will also let us get more creative on what we can offer and make some really cool stuff. I am looking at a few different models and I have it narrowed down to three different mobile units. I believe this will give us a huge edge being able to load it up and take it with us to the rallies. I am really excited about getting this.
I want to thank Brent and Steve, these guys do a great job at the shop and take their job seriously. It's hard to find employee's who care about what they do and these two guys give a 100% all the time. Thanks guys for the hard work and putting up with me. I had a Senior Chief in the Navy who thought if you weren't moving you were wasting time and it kind of rubbed off on me so I know these guys have a hard time understanding my mindset but Brent was in the Army so he kind of understands the way I operate.
One more thing, while in Sturgis the shop will be open back home. We have two crews, one that does the shows and the other that works the shop. The reason I say this is because some people don't realize that the shop is open when we are at Rallies. We get emails and phone calls about this is why I point it out so, Yes, while we are working rallies we have a crew at the shop also working on scheduled seats also.
Till next time be safe and enjoy the ride.
7/1D/2010
I hope everybody had a great 4th of July. We took a few days off and enjoyed the time riding the bikes. We are currently scheduling the last week of July so we aren't losing any ground so that's good but this past week I was shocked that we were able to maintain with the number of people who scheduled.
We were supposed to be set up in Charlotte today for an attempt to break the Guinness World Book of Records for the biggest poker run but something went wrong and it got cancelled sometime yesterday. I apologize to anybody who went because we were going to be there but I didn't find out till 8:30 PM last night and found that out on Face Book of all places and confirmed it on one of the Harley dealer's website.
As always when the weather is good we have a lot of riders stopping by the shop to see about getting their seats done and talk about options and I have found that when a customer sees some of the custom cover work we do they end up getting a cover done also. The custom cover's page just doesn't do the covers justice.
Lets wrap up this week's up day, I know it isn't that exciting but we are in the summer stretch now and it's just work you butt off all day and do it again the next day.
Till next time be safe and enjoy the ride.
7/01/2010
What a wild week this has been. The scheduling has really started picking up this week and the local drop off has as well. We have been experiencing a pretty good heat wave here in NC with temps in the mid to upper 90's so everything has been HOT.
We are going to be closed Saturday July 3 through Tuesday July 6th for the 4th of July holiday so email responses will be slow during this time frame but be patient we will reply.
I am going to keep this update short and sweet. Have a great holiday and thanks again to everyone who has been recommending our services.
Till next time be safe and enjoy the ride.
6/22/2010
This past weekend was the NC HOG Rally and this year was held at Charlotte Harley Davidson which is in Matthews NC. We rode down Saturday to check things out and had a good time. There were a good number of vendors set up, one of which was a small brewery. Yes I sampled their frothy beverages and they were good. They also had a Roller Derby exhibition which I really enjoyed watching, nothing like seeing woman battling it out on roller skates.
June is flying by. We are currently scheduling the middle of July and after July 4th it will be time again to start preparations for the yearly trip to Sturgis. It is hard to believe that it's almost been a year since the last rally. This year will be the 70th Annual event and they are expecting a larger than normal crowd this year. The reports I am hearing is that the camp grounds are filling up quickly. I am expecting to see a larger crowd than normal in Sturgis itself this year due to Harley Davidson bringing their main deal into town.
We do have one more event to do before heading to Sturgis though. July 10th there is going to be a Poker Run that the organizers are calling the Record Breaker Poker Run, what they are trying to do is break the Guinness World Book of Record for the largest Poker Run ever held. It starts at Pat Roger's Harley Davidson in Concord NC and ends at the Charlotte Harley Davidson in Matthews NC. We are going to be setting up at Charlotte Harley Davidson along with several other vendors. There will be live music, food and fun for everyone so if you're interested in being part of the largest poker run every held be sure to check it out.
That's going to wrap up this week's update. Till next time be safe and enjoy the ride.
6/12/2010
This week has been extremely busy. Working on seats, finalizing another event for us to set up at and finishing two new modifications and working on two others.
We will be setting up Charlotte Harley Davidson for the Record Breaker Poker run on Saturday July 10th. The ride starts at Pat Rogers Harley Davidson with the final stop being the Charlotte dealership. There will be vendors, live music and several other things going on so make plans now to come out and help break the record and make this the largest Poker Run ever.
We have been asked over the past 6 years if we work on backrest and the answer has always been "no". Well now we do. We just finished working out the details and road testing and we have come up with a solution to those hard backrest pads. We have a new foam which is best described as a memory foam and gel mix. It forms to your back yet gives great support. I think this is going to be a huge hit myself and actually have it in my driver and passenger backrest on my bike. Right now that is all it is offered for are Backrest and not tourpak pads. I am working on the tourpak version now and I am hoping we can start offering it before the end of July.
Just a quick update on scheduling, we are currently 3 weeks out on scheduling. We have been working our butts off trying to get to this point and finally made it. I hope we can maintain it at 3 weeks but I cannot promise it because we are getting a lot of orders everyday so if you want to get your seat done now is the time to call and make your appointment while the time frame is where it is at. And I will also say this because some people don't read everything or read it out of context. Our turnaround time is 24 hours as long as you schedule. Your seat has to be at the shop the day before it is scheduled, then the next day it is completed and shipped back. You would be amazed at how many people will call and ask "How long is your turnaround time, 3 weeks?" No, our turnaround time is 24 hours, it has been for the past 4-5 years now and I don't see us changing the format because it works so well.
Well guys that is going to wrap up this week's update. It's a beautiful day here in NC and I am going to go ride my bike. Till next time be safe and enjoy the ride.
06/07/2010
This past weekend we attended the Hog Happenin in Lincolnton NC and I must say that the turnout was HUGE and was the biggest event they have had so far. This was their 10th year holding the event and our 3rd consecutive year setting up. While the event was the biggest it was our worst year ever there. All the bikes park right on main street and the past two years that is where we have been set up so all the biker's riding in would see us and when walking around checking things out we were right in the mix of things. Well this year they decided to move us. We were not on Main Street any longer and they put us as far away from the bikes as they could, we were the last vendor on the other side of town over 2 blocks away from the court house. Luckily we had already been telling people we would be there doing seats or we would have been really screwed over. We had 3 people who didn't know we were going to be there get their seats done, everything else we had already arranged and these people even had a hard time finding us because we were stuck behind all the kiddie stuff and most people didn't walk down through there because they would see all of the kid's stuff and thought that is what was down that road. The past few years we would get a lot of work because of this event both on location and the following weeks because there are a lot of people in our area who don't even know we are here. Needless to say I am not too happy with the promoters right now but it's water under the bridge but I can say unless they guarantee us a spot on Main Street for next year this was our last year going to this event. I am sure all the biker's are happy they had a endless supply of Juju Beads on main street to look at but you don't put motorcycle specialty vendors (yes we weren't the only ones stuck back in the abyss) as far away from the bikers that you can and to add insult to injury put all the kid's games in front of them.
Sorry for the ranting, location is key in this business and I just feel like we were done wrong. I was told we were moved 3 times because we took up so much space...What?
Well moving on. I did get good news this week from Sturgis. Some of you may have heard that Harley Davidson is moving their main factory back setup away from Rapid City to the heart of the Sturgis rally which is downtown Sturgis. We haven't learned of the exact location yet but there is a very good possibility it will be right beside of where we set up on main street or across the street from us and that is AWESOME. We did pretty good last year in Sturgis and if Harley Davidson sets up in our area we should have a great turnout this coming year. Like I mentioned before location is key and our location is one of the better ones in Sturgis being next door to Sturgis Harley Davidson but having the corporate set up next to us also will make our location even better.
I know I do this a lot but I have to thank all of our customers. We get so many referrals from previous customers that it just keeps growing our business and that makes the job all worthwhile. I have cut back on our advertising this year some, we aren't in any of the magazines we were last year because we keep track of how people find out about us and the cost of advertising is ridiculously expensive and usually don't pan out but word of mouth advertising is free and is the best advertising you can get. So thanks to everyone who has recommended us, you guys ROCK!
That's going to wrap up this week's update. Till next time be safe and enjoy the ride.
5/26/2010
Looks like the weather is finally starting to get pretty good and the weekend forecast looks like we may get to do some good riding and it's just in time for a long weekend with Memorial Day being on Monday. The shop will be closed Saturday, Sunday and Monday for the Memorial Day weekend. Be sure to thank a Veteran when you see one, if not for their service we wouldn't get enjoy life as we do.
Next weekend is the Hog Happenin in Lincolnton NC. The event features live music, a BBQ cook off, Poker Run, Bike show and several other things happening. We will be set up again this year and we will be working on seats during the event so if you want to get your seat done and check out the other stuff going come on down. All the information about the event is on their website www.hoghappenin.org I am not sure where we will be set up, hopefully on Main St again but you never know. Last year's event had the largest turn out I have ever seen and the event keeps growing every year.
We are still maintaining about a month out on scheduling but after next week that will probably go back up to over a month. We usually get hammered right after Memorial Day so if you want to schedule I would really recommend to try and schedule this week if you can.
We are supposed to get our hauler back today. It has been in the shop getting the front repaired from the hit took on the way back from Thunder Beach. Getting it back just in time to so we can make a few changes before heading out next weekend too, I love it when a plan comes together.
Everything at the shop is really running smooth now. The new location is really good for us and it is easier to find than the old shop was plus the added room helps a lot also. There are a few things I still want to change but for the most part it is set up perfectly. If you happen to be in our neck of the woods feel free to stop by, we are open Mon-Thur 8-5, Fri 8-3 and Saturday 8-noonish.
That's going to wrap up this week's update.
Till next time be safe and enjoy the ride.
05/15/2010
Half way through May now and I swear time is flying by. So far this year has been extremely busy. We have been working extra hard and have gone from being 7 weeks out on scheduling to right at 4 weeks and for this time of year that is extremely good. Sitting here at my desk thinking about how much has changed since MCC started over 6 years ago I would have never thought that we would be where we are and doing the things we do. It's pretty cool and it still amazes me every day that the business has turned out so successful. What started in my dad's garage with a simple modification to a motorcycle seat would have us working on peoples seats from all over the world. Canada, Mexico, Australia, England, Italy, France, Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Puerto Rico and of course we have seats in all 50 states. Looking back I wish I would have put up a world map and kept up with where all the seats have gone.
I have been thinking about a couple new modifications that I think will work really well. One thing is backrest. Our foam manufacturer has been working on a new foam that is a blend of a gel type material and foam mixture. I have received a few samples and have tried it in several different applications and it has worked really well so there should be a backrest modification or two coming out soon. Backrests are really tricky to work on. Some are really thin and don't have much foam in them while others have plenty of foam. The foam we use for seat modifications don't work well for backrest because it is too firm for this and it's designed for sitting on. This new foam will work in several different applications and it is soft enough to use in backrest or at least the backrest that we can do the modifications on. The second thing I have been thinking about is a new seat modification that I don't want to go into a lot of detail right now about but if I can get what is in my head out and into a design I believe this will be become very popular without a doubt. I hope and emphasize the word "hope" that I can have this off the drawing board and at least have a working sample in the next month or two.
Emails. I have had several people over the past month or so say they have not received replies to their emails. The only thing that comes to mind is that you need to check your spam folder. We reply to every email that requires a reply which is 99% of all the emails we receive. We answer emails as fast as we can and usually reply in no more than 6 hours after receiving it if that long. I know I answer a lot of emails within an hour of receiving them and sometimes faster than that. If you sent a email and have received a reply you can just call us 866-550-SEAT(7328) and talk to us on the phone, the number is toll free to so it don't cost you anything to ask questions, that is what we are here for.
That's going to wrap up this week's what's new. Till next time be safe and enjoy the ride.
5/6/2010
We made it back from Thunder Beach safe and sound and had a pretty good time and we fared pretty well considering everything that went wrong. They were supposed to have us hooked up and power on around 1:30 to 2 PM on Wednesday.At 8:30 PM still no power but we were told the electrician was on his way but it was going to another hour or two before he got there. We called it a night and everything was ready, we just needed to test all the equipment.Thursday morning we head back early, get to the hauler around 7 AM and we were hooked up but the power wasn't on. Around 8:30 the power came on and we started testing everything. The first problem hit, the compressor wouldn't come on. We did a few tests with what we had and we had power to the compressor but it wasn't even trying to come on. We headed back to the hotel on the bikes to get the truck. I called my buddy Matt who wired the hauler up and he thought it was the way we were hooked up to power that was causing the problem. Long story short, 11:30 AM we were finally up and running and we had 8 people waiting on us to do their seats. Not the way you want to start out. The rest of the day went smooth and we were busy.Friday morning we go in and everything is going great. We were on our 8th seat by 1:30 which is busting butt and then the rain started. We were lucky compared to other location because we only got a light shower but further west they got flooded. The bad thing though that 8th seat was our last one for the day because the rain stopped all the riding. Saturday morning started the worst. We get the hauler early because we had a lot of people saying they were coming back first thing in the morning and our glue container had fallen and busted. 4 1/2 gallons of glue all over the place.We started cleaning it up and sure enough here comes the crowd. Luckily our glue is non-toxic and water soluble but there wasn't a water hose for 500feet so we had to haul water to our spot which took around a hour to clean everything up. The rest of the day was very busy and Saturday was by far our best day. But the bad luck didn't end there. On the way home got hit by a tractor trailer tire tread and it mashed in the right front of the hauler so now the hauler looks wrecked but the good thing is we made it home safely but with the damage to the hauler it probably took us out of the green and put us in the red for that rally.
I am not sure what is going on but the past few weeks have been terrible.First I didn't get take my bike with us because the clutch cable broke onFriday, two weeks before that the glue gun in the shop broke, the Monday before leaving 3 staple guns broke then with everything that went wrong at the rally I almost thinking someone put a curse on us. But looking back,the past couple of years everything has gone smoothly so hopefully all the bad karma is gone now and we can get back to doing what we do best and not have to repair anything else.
The scheduling has been very good the past several weeks and to my surprise we have actually been able to get our back log down a little bit also. We are just over 4 weeks on scheduling right now and that is awesome for this time of year but I feel like we will be getting another surge soon.
I want to thank the guys at the shop, Brent and Steve did a great job while Robbie and I were in Panama City Beach. It's nice not having to worry about what is going on at the shop while I am away and to know our customers are getting taken care of just as good as if I were there, thanks guys. I also want to thank Robbie for all his help in Panama.
That's going to wrap up this week's up update, I have to get back to work, we have a busy cover day today.
Till next time be safe and enjoy the ride.
4/27/2010
This week has started off like the other weeks two previous weeks have. Freaking tools breaking. I got in bright and early yesterday morning, got the first seat reshaped, memory foam installed and shot one staple and the staple gun broke. Great! So, I pulled the backup staple gun out of the haulers tool, shot 5 staples and it broke...Oh boy! Now I get the main gun from the hauler, shoot about 12 staples and it jams. I am thinking, what the hell is going on here? Luckily I was able to get it un-jammed and it's been working just fine since. But that leaves in a bind because I knew that I needed that gun for Thunder Beach and I have to have a working gun here at the shop for Brent and Steve to use. So as soon as I finished the seats I needed to I was on the road with two broke guns and going to where I had previously dropped off another broke gun 4 weeks ago. Needless to say it wasn't fixed yet so I picked it up and added to the other two and went to another place that works on them and dropped them off, the bad thing is they don't know if they can fix them or not. So when I got back to the shop I was on the horn trying to track down some staple guns. After a few calls I finally found 3 and picked them up and after a little oiling and testing they all seem to be working good so we are back 100% with spare guns just in case.
The glue gun that had broke got returned on Friday and I got it hooked up Saturday. Worked flawlessly till yesterday around noon and it started leaking again. I called the rep and left a message and after an hour or so of waiting on him to call back I tore into the gun and cleaned it up again. It looked like the tip was a little loose so I tightened it up and it's been working just fine now so hopefully its good. I didn't no more than get in my office and the rep calls. I told him what I had done and he told me if we have any more issues he will overnight us a gun which made me feel a lot better knowing that if it's not fixed they will have a gun here the next day so the shop can continue running.
And while we are on the as the World Turns at MCC let me tell what happened to my bike last week. I have been making a few changes on the bike. Derk at Baddad www.baddad.com wanted me to try a new rear fender he had come up with. After looking at it and thinking about it, it really wasn't the look I was after because it utilizes the stock brake lights and signals. So after him and I talked a little he offer to send one of his regular fenders...Hell yeah! I have always liked their rear fender. Anyways, I decided this would be a good time to switch exhaust on the bike, so I did. D&amo;D Fatcat 2 into 1. I got the bike all back together about 3 weeks ago and really that's when everything started falling apart. First, the new front fender started rubbing the tire, no idea why or how. This started on the way back from a pretty long ride, around 185 miles. I tried adjusting the fender and it didn't matter how the position was changed it would rub in a different area. So that fender was scrapped and another put on. Fixed that. The bike was tuned for a true dual exhaust and with the 2-1 it was dead. Between 2-3k rpm it felt like it was dying. So, I scheduled a dyno tune. I was really pleased with the numbers 105 HP 110 TQ. I was riding her home and heard spark knocking. Called the dealer, service guy said bring her back one day next week and he'll ride it. The first opportunity I had to take it in was last Thursday. He took her out and came back and said, yep, she is spark knocking. He said the next opening was in two weeks. Grrrr! I told him I was leaving on Tuesday for Thunder Beach. He said oh shit man, bring it in at 9 AM Tomorrow (Friday) So, 9:01 AM and I roll in. I go back to the shop and all is good. I had to leave early Friday to take the truck in for service (oil change and the usual bs) at 1 PM. About 2:30 the service manager calls me about my bike. He says I have good news and bad news. The good news was, the ping is gone. The bad news is the clutch adjuster broke on the clutch cable. I am thinking here we go again. He said they are pulling the cable off and are trying locate one that will fit my bike.(ape hangers +4 length) told me they would call me and let me know. Well, Saturday I called to see what they had found out. The part is supposed to be there Tuesday, UPS is bringing it and they either arrive at 9 AM or they come at 5 PM. So, my bike is getting fixed today I just don't know if it is going with me or staying home this trip. Luckily I have another bike I can take but damn I really like my street glide and have never left her behind so I am hoping UPS runs early today so I can take it. So this month has been a real challenge, if it can break, it has broken. Come on May!
We have been busting butt here at the shop are working the back log down to more in the area I prefer to be in. Currently we are just over 5 weeks out but I think by the end of this week we should be in the 4 week range which is really good for this time of year. The number of orders being called in have fallen a little bit but the drop off seats have picked up but we have really been digging trying to get wait time down.
While I am at Thunder Beach setup Brent and Steve will be running the shop so it will be business as usual here. I couldn't ask for two better employees. These two guys really like their jobs and it shows. Both are customer friendly and have the same desire as I do to make every customer happy so just because I won't be at the shop don't think the shop is closed. Feel free to call them and ask any questions you may have or to schedule. One emailing questions note. You will probably want to email Brent brent@meancitycycles.com for the quickest email responses while I am at Thunder Beach. I will have email access and can reply but at the rallies we get extremely busy and I usually don't check emails but once a day and that is at night after we have shut down.
We are setting up at a new location this year at Thunder Beach. They have moved the rally head quarters to the Bay Pointe Marriot and that is where we are setting up this year. Last year we were at Club La Vela which is a good location but nothing like being at the rally head quarters because everybody goes there. They have vendors setup inside and out and it has the biggest draw of riders so I expect we will be really busy, hopefully even busier than we were at the fall rally which was a real good rally for us. I will be updating our Facebook page and Twitter page while there so be sure to check those pages out. I will be posting pictures on Facebook also, you never know what you're going to see at a rally.
That's going to wrap up this weeks what's new. I have been loading the hauler since Friday and I have a few more things to put on it and it will be ready to hit the road.
Till next time be safe and enjoy the ride.
04/19/2010
Don't you just love Monday's? It's really not that bad compared to the previous weeks but we just have to take it in stride and keep chugging along. There is some bad news this week and that is we will not be setting up at the Thunder in the Valley rally. First, one of our spray guns starting messing up and it had to be sent in for repair. I know some guys are going to say, why don't you have a spare? Well, long story short is money. The glue guns we use are totally different from any other on the market thus they are expensive and normally we do have a spare, the one that is used in the hauler and its getting used now and our main shop gun is the one that is sent off for repair. It should be back, hopefully Friday of this week and we'll be good but worst case scenario it will be back early the following week which will be just in time for us to get the hauler ready for the next rally which will be Thunder Beach and if it push comes to shove we'll buy another gun to ensure that we are there. So Thunder in the Smokies is out but Thunder Beach is a definite go.
The past few Mondays we have been breaking scheduling records. We are still holding right at 6 weeks out on scheduling which is pretty good really for this time of year and especially with all the seats we have been scheduling. We have been working our butts off keeping us where we are and hopefully we won't get any further out.
A few years ago we started offering our modifications on aftermarket seats and this has almost doubled business. At one of the rallies a while back I noticed a couple aftermarket seat employees snooping around the hauler and really didn't think much of it. Then back around December we had an aftermarket seat to work on and I saw a change in the glue they were using. It looked like the glue we use. I forgot to say something to our glue supplier to see if the company was using their glue at the time but last week we had another one come in with the same glue and I was talking with the rep that day and mentioned it. He verified that the company had started using their glue also. Hmmm...looks like I need to keep our products a little more discreet. But I am happy for my supplier, they make a great product and they deserve more sales.
I have already started getting emails about where we will be set up at in Sturgis. We will be set up in the same location as last year which is right beside Sturgis Harley Davidson on Main St. It's real easy to find. If you are standing in the Sturgis Harley Davidson parking lot we will be to the left of it, you can't miss everything set up in the lot. Our spot is right beside of Amsoil's BIG tent. We will be offering our modifications there again this year and from all of the emails I would say we will be busier this year than last year which is good.
Pretty much the same questions about Thunder Beach. We will be set up at the Bay Point Marriott Golf Resort & Spa which is the rally headquarters for this year's event. They will have vendors inside and out and we will be setup in the lot outside. My good friend Robbie is going with me to this rally to help and he will also be going to Sturgis again with me this year. Thunder Beach is about a 7 hour drive for us while Sturgis is 28 hours.
That's going to wrap up this week's update. Till next time be safe and enjoy the ride.
4/09/2010
I have been really stretched thin on time to sit down and write a What's New update the past several weeks. This past week we were closed Friday through Monday for Easter and we got hammered Tuesday. We scheduled well over 20 seats on Tuesday alone and that isn't including the people who stopped by the shop. Wednesday wasn't too bad but yesterday was another busy day and luckily today things have settle down somewhat.
Time has really been flying by the past several months and business has been really good. We had our first event of the year the last week in March and it went really well and looking at the calendar the next one is only two weeks away with another one the following week.
I want to thank everyone who has been recommending us to their friends and fellow riders they meet. MCC wouldn't be what it is today if it weren't for all you guys and gals spreading the word about us and I just want to thank you all. It really amazes me at how much the business has grown in 6 years and knowing that I have been trying to keep from growing too fast. This year looks to be our best yet and I really need to do some planning so it can grow some more but there is the time issue and finding the right people who will fit in with what we do.
This past Sunday my Ex-wife and daughter Megan was in a head on collision just outside of Maiden. I won't get into a lot of details but both on are recovering now and hopefully my daughter will be out of ICU in the next few days. Both are at Carolina's Medical Center in Charlotte NC and the best doctors in the state are taking care of them. I want to thank everyone who has been praying for them and ask that you please continue to do so. Both has several surgeries still in their future and a long way to go yet.
That's going to wrap up this week's What's New. Till next time be safe and enjoy the ride.
3/26/2010
This past week has been pretty much a carbon copy of the previous weeks with us working our butts off, which is a good thing. The scheduling has remained very strong and we have been keeping right on schedule so everything is working and flowing really good. We are currently booking the first week of May now which is further out than I would like to be really but I don't want to get where we are having to rush through seats to get everything done, even though we are busy we still have to take our time on each seat to ensure it is done properly and if we would add another seat to each day's work it would most likely be too much and I do not want to lose quality.
It looks like spring time is finally hitting our neck of the woods. This past week we have had several days in the low to mid 70's and that always brings in traffic to the shop. Our new location is really paying off and walk/ride in traffic has increased around 75-80% over the old shop but we are on Main Street now and not hidden like we were.
This afternoon we head out for our first event for the year. We will be setting up at the Charlotte NC CBA Swap meet this weekend. If you are interested in checking it out, information can be found here www.charlottecba.org the swap meet part is around the 5th button from the bottom on the left hand navigation bar. Saturday's hours are from 11 AM to 6 PM and Sunday 10 AM to 6 PM. The weather on Saturday is looking pretty good but Sunday they are calling for a chance of rain.
I know I have said it before but it's something that I cannot over emphasize, Thank You! 99% of all of our work comes to us via word of mouth and I just want every one of our previous customers to know that we appreciate them telling their friends and family about us and our services. Word of mouth is the best advertising there is hands down and it really makes me happy that our customers are that happy with our work. Thank you guys, we really do appreciate you guys spreading the word about us. This really helps us keep our cost down because we do not have to spend much on advertising. Last year we put a few ads in a couple of national magazines and honestly it really didn't pay off. The first month it would be decent but after that we would get maybe one person who told us they saw our ad in a magazine. Sure it was cool seeing our ad in them but honestly it was a waste of money and the only way to keep on doing it was to either raise our prices to compensate for it and that isn't going to happen.
One really big surprise, well maybe not that big of a surprise really after thinking about it but the Impact Gel sales have jumped off the chart. We switched from our own Comfort Cruizer gel pads to the Impact gel pads last year after talking with Impact Gel at the Thunder Beach rally last year. Why? Because they have a better product than what we had and I am all about using the best stuff available. Last year we installed around 125-135 Impact Gel pads, this year we have already installed over 75 and that is in less than three months. Like I said when we brought them in our product line, these are the best pads you can buy and that is why we switched.
One last thing. The shop will be closed this Saturday March 27th so if you call, just leave a message and we will return your call on Monday. Also next Friday April 2nd thru Monday April 5th we will be closed for the Easter holiday. Again, if you call just leave a message and we will return your call on Tuesday April 6th.
Have a great weekend and if you're at the swap meet this week end stop by and say hey. Till next time be safe and enjoy the ride.
3/16/2010
The past two weeks have been extremely busy both here at the shop and working on different rallies and other motorcycle events to setup at. Last week we finalized two new events.
The first event will be March 27th and 28th. We are going to be setting up at the Charlotte CBA swap meet www.charlottecba.org I have attended this event several times over the years and they have a huge turnout and kind of kicks off the riding season in our area. We will be setup in the parking lot and will be working on seats there.
The second event will be Thunder in the Smokies. Which will be April 23rd - 25th. I haven't ever been to this event before but have talked to a lot of people who go every year and this weekend rally has been growing bigger and bigger each year. They have riders come in from as far as Arizona.
I also got word this week as to where we will be setting up for Thunder Beach. We will be at the Rally Headquarters which is the Marriot hotel.
So as of right now we are scheduled for 7 events this year and of course the big one will be the 70th Annual Sturgis Rally and Races, my favorite rally. A few of the shows the shop crew will be at but I am also going to have to use some road crew because we don't close the shop while the events take place in most cases. This year is going to be very busy and we will be burning up some miles and diesel fuel.
We are right at 6 weeks out on scheduling and we are doing everything we can to maintain this but it's probably going to get another week out or so before we hit the peak. We are all working our butts off trying to keep up and work everything in but we are just getting so much business right now it has been tough keeping up with it all. This isn't a bad thing really when you take in consideration that our turnaround time is still overnight because the seats only need to be at the shop the day before they are scheduled for then the next day they are completed and shipped back.
I have to give a shout out to the crew, Brent and Steve. These guys have been busting butt working on seats and if it weren't for them the schedule would be a lot further out so thanks guys for the hard work.
That's going to wrap up this week's up date, gotta get back to work. Till next time be safe and enjoy the ride.
3/09/2010
The past couple weeks have been really busy and that is always good. We are scheduling the middle of April currently and have adjusted our daily output to compensate for the increased number of orders to keep the scheduling in control. The first year we started scheduling we got out to three months, last year we were able to keep it within 2 months and the goal this year is to keep it within 6 weeks and we should be able to maintain that...hopefully.
I want to thank everyone who has been recommending our services, we really appreciate it. We enjoy our job and enjoy meeting and talking to fellow bikers/riders. Everybody at the shop rides so we understand the importance of a comfortable motorcycle seat on long rides and short rides for that matter.
Daytona has come and gone again and from what I have heard the attendance was down and the weather wasn't too good. I felt like attendance was down this year because usually we will have several people stop by the shop on their way down to have their seat worked on and this year we didn't have any which was kind of weird but our scheduling was up during the Daytona time frame which usually it will drop off a little. Maybe the high prices they charge down there are starting to catch up to them and make them rethink their I am going to make all my money in two weeks out of the year and charge accordingly. I know Sturgis raises their prices during the rally but nothing like Daytona does and we can actually go to Sturgis and make money where we would be lucky to break even going to Daytona and it is half the distance to travel..go figure.
I have been posting pictures of custom covers and some other seats we have done recently on Face Book so be sure to keep up with us there and on Twitter, although I do get too busy from time to time and forget to tweet but I try to stay on top of what we have going on there also.
That's going to wrap up this week's what's new update. Till next time be safe and enjoy the ride.
2/26/2010
Another busy week is almost over and I am ready for the weekend myself. We are running right on schedule and haven't had any issues getting all the seats done on time which is always a good thing. We have been scheduling the seats for 3 years now and haven't had to change a thing because it works so well. It's really hard to believe that we got that right on the first try, usually you have tweak stuff to get it just right over time but I guess we got lucky. Well, let me take that back. We did have to tweak it the second year a little bit.
This past week must have been aftermarket seat week. I know I have had over 30 emails requesting work on the aftermarket seats and we have had 9 or 10 people stop by the shop with different ones also. Save your money and get your stock seat re-worked. The aftermarket seats are still a one size fits all seat but they just cost a lot more.
We are currently scheduling the first week of April and I have been adding more seats to be day each day also, I love being that far out on scheduling because I know next month is covered but customers don't like waiting that long to send their seats so I am going to start putting a few seats in ride in time slots. With the weather being so crappy this year we haven't been getting ride in customers every day and this will help us get to where I would prefer us to be on the scheduling. The people who take a ride in slot will still have to schedule and the same rule apply that the seat must be here the day before it is scheduled but instead of the seat being shipped the day it is scheduled on it will ship the next day because the seat will be completed after FedEx picks up. There may be an instance where the seat will ship the day it is scheduled on but those will be far and few between.
Speaking of weather, I don't know about you guys but I am tired of all the snow we have been getting. Usually in North Carolina the winters aren't too bad and usually you can ride at least once maybe twice a week but this year I know my bike has sat for over a month but this past weekend was pretty good and I did get a fix. Let's hope this crap gets gone and the weather takes a turn for the good so we can start riding more.
That's going to wrap up this week's update. Thanks to everyone who has recommended us and to everyone who is using our services. Till next time be safe and enjoy the ride..
2/22/2010
Sorry for not updating till now, we have been extremely busy and I just haven't had much time to sit down and write on what's been going on here at the shop. As usual this time of year is really busy for us and this year we are busier than ever. With all the scheduling we have been doing and with me working on trying to get thing finalized for the rallies it has kept us jumping from one thing to another. The orders for new covers have really picked up this year also.
Daytona, No we are not going this year. The cost is just too much and quite honestly with all the work we have coming into the shop we just can't spare the man power to go either so while I would have liked to have been able to go it just isn't going to happen.
I want to thank everyone who has been referring us, as I mentioned before this year has been our busiest yet and there are a lot of people saying that previous customers have recommended them and thank you all for that. As I always say, happy customers send more customers and that couldn't be further from the truth...thank you all. I have to thank the crew here at the shop also, these guys have been busting butt to keep us on schedule and get the seats done, thanks guys.
We are further out than I prefer to be right now, as of today we are booking April 6th which is over 6 weeks out and that is just too far so we are going to do some creative scheduling and I want to get this back down to a maximum of 4 weeks out. What I am going to do is start booking seats in ride in time slots, with the weather here being what it has been we haven't been getting many ride ins right now so this should help us get our time frame down a little.
That's going wrap up this week's up date, I have a thousand things to still get done but wanted to let you guys know we are still here and working out butts off getting seats done. So, till next time be safe and enjoy the ride. Spring is just around the corner.
02/06/2010
Another wintery mess has hit us again. This time it was mostly a sleet and snow mix and the roads were really slick Friday morning so to ensure no one took a chance of having a accident and getting injured the shop was closed Friday. They are calling for another wintery mix Tuesday into Wednesday but I am keeping my fingers crossed in hopes we won't get anything or just rain.
Our website was down Thursday. There was a problem with the servers but our web guys got that fixed and everything is back up and running again. Thanks to everyone who sent emails and called to let us know about this problem. We try to get on the web site several times a day to ensure everything is up and running but sometimes get too busy to check and won't know anything is wrong for several hours but it's good to know we have customers out there checking up on us.
I am almost certain now that we will not be in Daytona this year. The cost of setting up there is just way to expensive. It isn't that we do not want to go, it's just that I am not going to pay five grand for a spot to set up and that isn't even a good location. The better locations are anywhere from eight to ten grand and I blame that on the greedy businesses. Sure they need to make money but they want to get it all at one time and excuse my French but fuck'em. After the travel expenses down there and back, lodging for 12 days and the spot cost we would be lucky to break even and that would be working our asses off every day and one bad day then we would be coming home in the hole and to me that isn't smart business. So we will skip Daytona again this year. If you want to stop by the shop on your way down that is cool but Daytona isn't going to be on our 2010 tour list.
This year has been very busy and our back log has filled up quicker than previous years. We have been working our butts off trying to keep the scheduling under a month but we are out just a little over a month right now. We will continue to keep working hard to keep this down but one good thing about scheduling is you do not have to send your seat in right away so you can continue to ride and not be without your seat very long. This has been working very well for us and our customers for the past three years now and we will continue to use this process because it works great for us and our customers. We do still offer our Express service but personally I would rather have everyone schedule because it keeps everything nice and simple and it flows good.
Last thing, just a thank you to all of our customers. This year we have seen a big spike in referrals from previous customers and I want to thank each and every one of you for letting your friends and fellow riders know about us. We work hard on every seat and we want our customers happy and when someone tells us that a previous customer told them about us it gives us a warm fuzzy feeling knowing that our work is appreciated and that we are doing our job right. So thank you all for spreading the word.
Till next time be safe and enjoy the ride.
1/23/2010
Another busy week behind us and we are rolling along pretty good right now. When we started scheduling this was for two reasons. The first one was to cut down turnaround time. The second was to help control the number of seats we have in house better. Your seat has to be at the shop the day prior to its scheduled date then the next day it is completed and shipped back. So far this has been working really well but we are still having a few people sending the seats in un-scheduled. It hasn't been a big issue yet but what we do on these seats is put them on whatever day we are scheduling when the seat arrives. For example say we get a seat in today(1/23/2010)and we are scheduling Feb 23rd then we would put that seat on that date to be done. Right now with the cold weather it isn't a issue for most people really but as we start getting into the warmer months this will become an issue so I always recommend scheduling this way you get to keep your seat longer to ride on and the seat will only be at the shop overnight as long as it is here the day before. I am trying to make this as easy as possible for both you and us.
I have sent in the rallies dates to be posted to our web guy(Ron)and he should be updating the upcoming rally dates soon. I did get some bad news from one of the rallies. We will not get our same location for Thunder Beach this year which really sucks because I liked that location and it worked really well for us. I am in talks with them now trying to land a good spot for the rally but it is looking like they want to put us out at Frank Brown Park and if that happens then we will not be going to this rally. Frank Brown Park is nice but it is a grassy field and while Panama Beach generally has good weather if it would rain then nobody is going to go there as to where we have been setup was a paved lot and bikers don't have a problem riding on wet pavement, they won't touch wet grass. I will keep you posted, I am very optimistic though and feel sure we will come to an agreement.
We have been doing some pretty cool new covers with different color combinations and I will be sure to get these pictures posted soon and I am also working on some new stitching designs also. Currently we are only offering two versions of flames, traditional and tribal in various colors.
It is hard to believe that January is almost over already. Seems like we were just coming back in from Christmas but as they say time fly's when you are having fun so I guess we have been having fun.
I have started tweeting and have created a Facebook page for MCC. If you want to follow us on Twitter just go to www.twitter.com/meancitycycles and if you have a Facebook page you can become a fan of ours, simply search Mean City Cycles. I have already uploaded a lot of pictures and have a lot more to do and have been tweeting our daily progress on seats. I am thinking about getting a little more detailed on the tweeting but I just need to figure out what type of format to use.
That's going to wrap up this update, this coming week is going to be another busy week.
Till next time be safe and enjoy the ride.
1/16/2010
2010 has started out really busy for us. We are almost a month out on scheduling and by the end of next week we most likely will be but we will make some changes so we don't get too far out. By the end of February we will have a real good picture as to how things are going to be this year but so far so good.
There isn't really anything new going on right now. We are just working on seats, answering emails and phone calls which the phone calls are really picking up and the emails are coming in spurts. One quick note about emails. If you send us a email with a question we will reply and it is usually within 8 hours, most of the time its less than a hour so if you do not have not received a reply within 12 hours from us you need to check your spam folder because we reply to every email. I have had several guys call in and say they sent a email and never received a reply but when they checked their spam folders they found our reply.
I am still getting asked, Are you going to Daytona? I don't know. I have been trying to find a location and am going to email a couple places today to see what their rates are but until I can find something reasonable I doubt we will be there honestly. If any of you guys know someone who has a 20 ft x 30 ft spot somewhere that gets good traffic in the Daytona area let me know or have them email or call me. Do I want to go? Yes, but as I have stated in the past I am not going down there and working my butt off for 10 days to just hope to break even. Most places I have heard from want anywhere from $5000 to $10,000 for a spot and that is just crazy.
We still need to get some recent pictures of the new shop posted on the site. We are settled in pretty good and the location is working out good for us also. It has surprised me how many motorcycles ride by the shop each day but that has been somewhat off the past few weeks with the weather being as cold as it has been but we were able to get our bikes out the past couple of days and enjoy some low 50 degree riding. It was nice to be back on two wheels again.
Well that's going to do it for this update. As usual be safe, stay warm and enjoy the ride.
01/05/2010
This year has started off with a big bang. December is sort of our kick off month for the new season because that is when orders start picking up again and again this year that holds true. January is usually a pretty good scheduling month and so far this is being one of the best January's to date. We have already filled one week in just two days, looks like this may be a busy year if the scheduling follows its normal pattern and we certainly need business to be good.
I am still getting a lot of calls and emails asking about if we are going to be in Daytona this spring. It is looking doubtful seriously. Like I have mentioned in the past, the cost of setting up there is outrageous and I just don't want to get into a situation to where I am working my butt off to break even, that isn't worth it to me. I will say however that I had the same experience when trying to find a spot for Sturgis and luckily found a great location at a decent amount so I won't rule Daytona out yet but it is looking very doubtful. I want to go so hopefully I can get something worked out. I have found a accommodations that are reasonable but not a location just yet.
While I am talking about the events I am about 80% sure we will be at Thunder Beach this spring. Then we will have a month off before the event which will be in Lincolnton NC for the Hog Happenin then the next month we are off to Sturgis again. I just signed a 5 year contract with our lot owner so that will put us there for the 70th Annual and the big 75th Annual rallies plus the 4 in between. I am really excited about going back to Sturgis again but I will say I am dreading the drive there. It took us 28 hours last year to get to Rapid City which is where we spent the night Sunday then rode into Sturgis Monday morning and started setting up. This year should be smoother and I have worked it out with the lot manager so we do not have to get there a week early to set up. I have also added some new things to the hauler that makes it easier to move around by hand. Then after the Sturgis rally we will be heading back to Panama Beach to cap off the year. There are some other shows and events that I have not mentioned that are in the negotiating stages and as soon as everything is finalized for each event we will post it on the site in the Events section.
I am going to call it a wrap for this week's up date. Talking about the rallies and such I just realized I need to send this information to Ron so he can get it posted on the site. So till next time be safe and enjoy the ride.(brrr...it's cold too)
12/15/09
This will be the last what's new update for this year so I thought I would do kind of a review of this past year.
2009 has been our best year yet and the outlook for 2010 is even brighter. This year marked many first for MCC. The most notable would be going to Sturgis and setting up. Sturgis was a great time really and it proved to be a worthwhile endeavor. The only drawback that I had was being out of the shop for two weeks but the shop crew kept things up and running, I just don't like being gone from my baby that long. The ride to Sturgis was a long one though, 28 hours straight through and that was with Robbie and me taking turns napping and driving. The first day we were open which was the Friday before the rally started I was really nervous, mostly after we closed and all we did was one seat. Yeah, one seat. We took in a hundred bucks plus the tax. It had me wondering how we were going to get home. The gas bill to Sturgis was over $800 so I knew I had to come up with $800 to get us back home and plus I had to pay Robbie, I knew I could go without being paid but luckily the next day we got busy and then on Monday which was the day the rally officially started we got really busy and it held out all week long. We actually came out in the green and I was just hoping to break even.
But probably the most important thing leading up to Sturgis was getting the trailer finally finished so we could work out of it and doing the test run at the shop in it then going to the Hog Happenin in Lincolnton NC. Things started off slow there but once it got going we had a good day and found some kinks we needed to work out but the success we had there is what lead me to pursue going to a larger event.
2009 also was the first time I had to hire more employees's to keep things running. We had 5 people at one point which I know isn't a lot but for the size of our shop and what we do I think that is pretty good. All we work on is motorcycle seats and to be able to bring in enough seats for 5 people to be working is a lot of seats.
We had more ride in seats this year than we ever had in the past, I don't have the numbers tallied up but I estimate we had between 150-200 ride in customers this year. It started really early this year also, we had guys scheduling ride in appointments in January and as the temperature warmed up we were having 2 to 3 a day and we were booking them up weeks in advance.
There are two downsides to 2009, one was my dog Axle passing away brought him home when he was just 6 weeks old, I still miss him today. The other was leaving the old shop. I still remember the first day in the shop after it was built. I looked over the shop and thought, man I will never out grow this place, there was so much room. I think a month later we added on to it again.
Another highlight of the year was having two bikes that we did seats on win in Daytona. One won the Rat Hole show which is one of the biggest bike shows of the year and the other won the Boardwalk show, pretty cool I think. I don't consider MCC a Custom Bike seat company and it's not really our forte but it's pretty cool to be able to say that we did those two seats.
This year we quit offering our Comfort Cruizer gel pads and became the National installer of Impact Gel. I had seen the infomercials about their shoe inserts and had no idea they even made motorcycle seat gel pads but when I was at the Thunder Beach rally I met the Florida sales rep and was really impressed with these pads. He put his hand under a gel pad and whacked the crap out of it with a hammer. I couldn't wait to get back to the shop to see if I could that with our pads, needless to say I couldn't. I tried it with our pads and if I barely hit it I could feel it. I called Impact gel that day and well, the rest as they say is history. I have always wanted to offer the best products out there and I can honestly say that the Impact Gel pads are the best and I am happy that we have them. We have installed more gel pads this year than we ever have in the past and I think 2010 will beat this year easily. We have installed somewhere around 250-300 of the Impact gel pads and have not had one complaint, that says a lot right there.
This year was the first year we were in a major magazine and ended up being in 5 different ones which is pretty cool. I actually advertised in one for a while but I have found that nothing beats word of mouth so I doubt we will go down that road again but you never know. I also I had my first interview this past year, sure it was a local paper but people are starting notice that MCC is here and we are the real deal. The funniest thing about that interview was a question the reporter asked. "How does it feel to be expanding your business in Maiden with Ethan Allen and Apple(computers)?" I held back my laugh with that one, having MCC and Apple computers in the same sentence about growth is just too funny but again it makes me realize that people are noticing what we are doing here and they are seeing us grow which is really incredible in this economy.
The last major undertaking of this year was moving into the new shop. Located right on Main Street in Maiden, everybody in Maiden knows we are here now. The old shop was hidden off the beaten path but not anymore. Since moving into the new location our local business has really picked up and before it turned cold we were having 7-10 people a week bringing in seats to have them worked on which is really big because all of our work had mainly came from people in other states who heard about us through internet forums or word of mouth from previous customers. So having local people having their seats done is going to drive up business more and like I said the future looks mighty bright.
The thing that really hits home for 2009 is our 5 year anniversary is over. 5 years ago I wouldn't have ever thought MCC would be where it is today honestly. Who would have ever thought? It all started out of my dad's garage, making a mess but making motorcycle seats comfortable. If you were to compare one of the first seats that were done to what we are doing today there is a night and day difference really but the basics are still the same. My first and most important aspect of every seat is making the customer happy with their seat and shaping it to fit each person and that will never change. Why would I?. That is what has brought us to where we are and we need to stick to the basics, customer service and quality because they are a proven winner.
Well, that's it folks. Thanks to all of our customers of 2009 and previous years, if it weren't for you guys and gals MCC wouldn't be here and that's a fact. You have made us what we are today and thank you for the support. I hope everyone has Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Till next time be safe and enjoy the ride.
12/05/09
I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving; it's hard to believe that we are heading towards Christmas now. Where does the time go? Seems like yesterday that we were heading down to Panama for the Spring rally and here we are planning for the next spring rally there.
Just as previous years, the scheduling has picked up even more after the Thanksgiving holiday. We are still maintaining our one week out though but I doubt that will last much longer because the numbers scheduling is starting to overtake the time slots for each day.
The new shop is about 90% complete now. Our sign guy came today and put up the main sign on the front of the building. There is one wall to finish in the back to close up the office. I had a Pepsi rep stop by a few weeks ago and we were supposed to have a Pepsi machine in the shop but it hasn't showed up so we may be going a different route. Aaron(our sign/screen printer)said they have a machine that has drinks and snacks that a local vending company stocks so we may go that route and have our own Gedunk machine...bet most of you don't know what that is....Old Navy term, google it.
I'll get some pictures of the shop since the old pictures were still a work in process and post them next week, its really looking good and is so much more efficient now. The last thing to wrap up will be the new seat fitting area that will be available for our ride in customers and when that is done we will be finished for the time being anyways. I am guessing that area will be completed sometime in January to early February just in time for the riding season.
Till next time be safe and enjoy the ride.
11/25/09
A quick reminder that we will be closed tomorrow through Saturday for the Thanksgiving holiday. Everyone here at MCC wishes everyone a Happy Thanksgiving.
The past two weeks scheduling has really picked up which is really good for this time of year. If this is any indication of what the new year has in store for us we are going to be busier than ever. We are still around one week out on scheduling so the wait isn't too long right now so don't wait too long if you are wanting to have your seat done because we will book up rather quickly through December and get really busy in January.
I want to thank everyone who has used our services this year. This was by far the best year yet and as the word spreads we keep getting busier. It really amazes me how people find out about us. One of the coolest I heard was three weeks ago. A guy and his wife stopped by the shop. I noticed they had Wisconsin tags. He asked the normal seat questions and after we were finished talking about his seats I asked him how he heard about us. He said he was bass fishing in Washington State and came upon another guy fishing. Somehow motorcycles came up and how bad seats are. The guy told him about us and how happy he was with his seat. So as soon as he got home he looked us up on the internet. He had a trip planned to Charlotte so he stopped by the shop to talk to us in person...pretty cool.
I am going to wrap it up for this week, again we wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving
Till next time be safe and enjoy the ride.
11/15/09
This has been an extremely busy week. Scheduling has picked up tremendously for this time of year and our walk/ride in business has really been up for this time of year. I guess people are planning ahead this year or it could be the slow period is already over which would be a couple weeks earlier than previous years which is good.
The only part that has started picking up is the new/custom cover work. We get asked all the time if we offer covers and yes we do. For the new guys checking us out we have a custom cover page There are several examples of custom covers we have done for past customers shown there.
The weather has been pretty crappy here in the south east the past few days but this past weekend was great. Mid to upper 70's and to me that is the perfect riding temperature. We rode out to the CBA Swap meet to see what was going on over there and check out the bikes entered into the bike show.
This week we have a pretty full schedule of seats to work on and have a couple ride in customers coming to see to us. If you want to schedule all you have to do is call us 866-550-SEAT(7328) we handle all the scheduling on a first come first serve type basis and we have already started scheduling seats for January and February of 2010 so there are some guys planning ahead which is good because after Thanksgiving the calls start pouring in and we have filled a entire week in one day before so planning ahead pays off if you have a dead line and don't want to wait till the last minute.
Our Holiday schedule will be as follows. We will be closed November 26-29 for Thanksgiving and we will be closed December 24-27 for Christmas. We will also be closed Jan 1-4 for the new year.
Till next time be safe and enjoy the ride.
11/5/2009
We are pretty much settled into the shop now and after a few withdraws from being at the old shop it is starting to feel like home now. This marks our 3rd week here and I really think this is going to be much better for us business wise and be more efficient. What I really like is the extra room but I feel sure we will fill it up soon.
We would get some walk in traffic at the old shop but that has really picked up in the new location and while the address says East Main Street, it is actually 321 business and we do get a lot more traffic passing every day so that is a plus and is helping drive that aspect also.
Just like the past 5 years November is being our slowest month as far as scheduling goes. We are staying right at a week out on scheduling so we are keeping plenty of work rolling in we just aren't getting a back log which is nice to not have to kill yourself and it makes me wonder where are the people who at the end of February and March who want their seats done and back before Daytona are? Now is the time to get your seat done in a hurry but just like the previous years the procrastinators will wait to the last minute and we will be working 12-16 hours a day trying to accommodate their needs then...it's all part of the job I guess.
I have started working on the events for next year. I know we will be at the Hog Happening in Lincolnton NC again next year and feel confident we will make the trip for both the Spring and Fall Thunder Beach rallies. I have already started communicating with the same place we set up last year in Sturgis with hopes we can work out a deal where we will be in the same location for the next 5 years there. Of all the rallies I have been to, Sturgis is by far the best rally. There is so much going on, so many great roads to ride and things to see there. Daytona is a toss-up right now. The hotel rates are crazy high and to set up there is just outrageous. I feel sure we would do well but I honestly don't want to work 12-14 hours a day to just pay for the spot, if we can't make a profit then there isn't a reason to go in my opinion and if the weather is bad and turn out is low then you are talking about losing thousands of dollars and that just don't make sense to me. But with that being said I did find out about a place to stay that has brought my interest level back up about the rally and I am trying to find a location to setup but I am not that optimistic about it but I think I said the same thing about Sturgis last year and about a month before the rally I worked up a deal so I won't give up till the fat lady sings. We will probably hit some of the local events next year also. We had several people contact us about setting up at several weekend events but the timing wasn't there for us to make them but this year should be different. The mobile shop is all good to go now, where last year when we got back from Sturgis we were making some major changes to get ready for Thunder Beach, this year all we need is a date and we can be there unless already committed to another event.
That's going to wrap things up for this week so till next time be safe and enjoy the ride.
10/22/09
We have made it into the new shop and are up and running. We remained operational at the old shop till Tuesday morning then the phone company moved the numbers over late in the morning and we started loading up the hauler. By the end of the day we had everything we needed in place and we spent all day Wednesday getting the shop ready to work out of. We had to move the air compressor and run all the air lines and I hooked up the last air line around 6:30 Wed night. I figured I would be pretty excited about working out of the new shop on Thursday and would wake up early but I guess I was so tired that I actually overslept but still made it in before 5.
Our first day fully operational went really smooth and we touched all bases doing almost every modification we offer including a new cover and a ride in. We don't have the new ride in section of the shop completed just yet but we can still do them like we did at the old shop which is what we did. I took some pictures of most of the shop and will have Ron post them so you guys can check it out.
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See more pictures of the new shop. >>
Scheduling this week has been pretty lite and I think a lot of that has to do with some phone issues we were experiencing. All the phones are up and running now and we have our answering machine back on, it wouldn't work with the new phone system so it had to be installed in front of it so if we missed your call I apologize for that.
There is a thousand things still to get finished though. Our store front isn't ready yet because we can't get the display cases out of my buddy Larry's basement, still waiting on the elevator repair guy to get out there to fix that. So with no display cases we haven't finished the tile in the front, I learned my lesson the hard way at the old shop. You do not finish he floor till everything else is finished because moving stuff across it a hundred times will mess it up fast and I would like to keep it looking good for as long as I can. We need to build a room around the air compressor because it is inside the shop now and that thing is a little loud. I am finding to be almost like a motorcycle, as soon as you think you are done you find something else to change or needs changing so I am afraid this deal may turn into a ongoing thing like my bike has.
The good news though is we are getting a lot of traffic in already with the new location and its kind of funny when someone ask me why did you pick Maiden? I tell them we have been here for almost 6 years just outside of town. We aren't downtown though but I like to call it the new Uptown section of Maiden.
If you are in the area or just want to come check things out please feel free to stop by. We will be here working either on seats or on the shop.
Till next time be safe and enjoy the ride.
10/21/09
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| Congratulations to Mikie Gibson for Winning the Rat’s Hole bike show and coming in 3rd at the Boardwalk show at Biketoberfest in Daytona. | ||
Also congratulations goes out to Stan the man up at Freedom Rider Cycles in Hickory for winning the Boardwalk show in the Sportster class.
Thanks to you both for choosing Mean City Cycles.
Till next time be safe and enjoy the ride.
10/15/09
This week's update is going to be short but sweet. We are getting really close to having the new shop ready to move into and we should be getting our Certificate of Occupancy today which is two days later than I was hoping to get it. The Inspector and Fire Marshall came out Tuesday and at first I thought we were good but they went back through a second time and wanted a few things changed which I took care of first thing yesterday and when I called them to get them back in the inspector said it would be 1 PM today before they could get back out so that threw a wrench into the moving plans.
Another set back at the new shop also took place this past Monday. The rear drive was paved which is the access to the ride in area and the front parking lot was looking somewhat rough so it was repaved also. We got a little rain on Monday and the parking lot is sloped towards the building with the low point being at the front doors and we had water running under the doors which flooded, well tried to flood the showroom which we ended up fighting the problem for several hours and finally came up with a solution to stop the water from coming in. The pavers are coming back to fix this the next time we have a sunny day. Actually we hit another speed bump Monday also. I bought a couple display cases from a buddy of mine who runs a music store in Hickory. He is downtown and in one of the older buildings. The display cases are in the basement of the store. All the doors are small and there is a exit from the basement to the alley behind the store which is the way we would have to get them out. Well, the openings are too small and we couldn't get them out so the display cases are still in his basement. He said he got them down there using the elevator but it is out of service and he can't get the repair guy out after several calls. Looks like when we get moved in the show room won't have much in it right off the bat but that part don't really have much to do with day to day operations but having it is going to be a big plus.
That's going to wrap up this week's update. Hopefully the next one will come from the new shop.
Till next time be safe and enjoy the ride.
10/07/09
This week has been one wild and crazy week. We have started getting the new shop ready for us to move into and while I knew it would be a lot of work I really didn't realize how much work it was going to be. I have been getting to the shop earlier than usual so I make sure everything here is taken care of then heading over to the new shop to ensure the work there is getting done and in the mean time trying to find some stuff for our store front. If all goes accordingly we should be in the new shop at the end of next week with our first day of business in it Oct 19th but with that being said I know there are a few wrenches going to be thrown in the way and will slow things down. I roughly figured how much it was going to cost to get into the shop and to no surprise everything seems to running three times as much as I had anticipated.
Since we returned from Thunder Beach the phones have been ringing off the hook with people scheduling. I certainly am not complaining at all so don't take it that way. The reason we are working on the move now is because usually October and November are our slowest two months out of the year and it made sense to do the move in that time frame so we would be ready for the increased orders in December but like I said I am not complaining and am really happy to see this month being as busy as it is.
One thing about the new shop I am really excited about is the store front we will have. It will give our ride in customers a good opportunity to try some of our different modifications and see some of our custom cover work in person. I have been asked if we were going to start selling parts and accessories and the answer is no. We only work on motorcycle seats and that's it. I don't want us to get distracted from what we do best. There is one other thing I am pretty excited about also and that will be our ride in service bay. Ride ins will pull their bike into the shop and will park their bike in a bike stand. This will allow the customer sit on his/her bike and sit in their actual riding position with feet on the pegs or floorboards like they are riding down the road. This will help us to see their riding position better and let the customer get a better feel of the seat as we modify it for them.
Once we get in the shop and have the bugs worked out of it I will start scheduling next years rallies. I do know we will be at the spring and Fall Thunder Beach rallies, Hog Happening in Lincolnton NC and Sturgis again. I am hoping to be able to get to Daytona for Bike week next year but from what I have seen so far that isn't looking good right now due to the high cost of setting up there. We would be there for almost two weeks and if you price a hotel room for two weeks you will understand but I am going to do my best and if we can get there and not have to work our butts off just to break even then we should make it.
That's going to wrap up this weeks what's new. In next week's I will try to have a few pictures of the new shop so you can see whats going on with it.
Till next time be safe and enjoy the ride.
9/28/09
We're back! Thunder Beach was a great rally and while the numbers are down from the spring rally there was still a large turnout for this event. The weather was almost perfect, plenty of sunshine but damn it was HOT!
I want to thank everyone who stopped by to see to us and have their seats worked on. We had a great turn out and actually started running out of supplies late Saturday and it was a good thing that was our last day of operations.
One thing I really like about this event is it is billed as the most biker friendly event in the world and I have to agree with them. They really make you feel welcomed in Panama City Beach while you are there. Everyone is just as freindly as they can be. This was my second trip down to PCB for one of their rallies and it just a nice place all the way around. White sand beaches, clear gulf waters and plenty of sunshine.
Brent and I both tried to stay on top of the emails coming while at Thunder Beach. I got a little behind but I am caught back up now. If you sent a email and didn't get a reply most likely your spam filter caught it or your email bounced, I had a few bounce on me so make sure you enter your email address correctly.
Thunder Beach was our last rally for this year. We may hit a few local small events but that will do it for the 2009 tour. I am currently working on getting events lined up for next year. Probably sometime in December we will update the events page with our 2010 tour dates and locations. There is a lot of work that goes into setting up and working these events are not cheap by any means. Our three largest cost to set up at a rally is the spot for your hauler which is usually our largest expense, the event organizers almost make it unprofitable for us to go and we take a big chance because if it rains everyday of the event then we are going to be in big trouble. Next would be lodging, the hotels as you know jack up their rates when they know we are coming to town or at least most do and then the third biggest cost is fuel. Just for the Sturgis rally our fuel cost was over $3000...OUCH! That really puts a lot of overhead on a trip but getting our name out there and letting people see us and see our work first hand usually seals the deal for them and they are a MCC customer.
Thats going to wrap up this weeks update. Thanks again to everyone who stopped by to see us at Thunder Beach, we had a great time meeting everyone and we look forward to seeing you guys again at the spring rally in 2010.
Till next time be safe and enjoy the ride.
9/18/09
Where does time go? There never seems to be enough time in a day for me to get all that needs to be done finished but I have a lot of people tell me they experience the same thing so I guess it's not just me.
The past two weeks have been wide open here at the shop. The scheduling has surged the past couple weeks also which is always a good thing to have coming in. If you are wanting to schedule we do all these by telephone and not through website so you will need to call us 866-550-SEAT(7328).
We head out Tuesday afternoon for Panama Beach Fl and the annual Thunder Beach Fall rally. We have been getting a lot of calls already from people going down wanting their seats done so it looks like we are going to be pretty busy. We don't schedule for the rallies, we operate on a first come first serve type basis and normally it takes between 1 to 1 1/2 hours per seat. We open up for business Thursday morning at 9 AM and should close around 8 PM or at least till the last seat is done for that day. The shop is going to be closed Wed-Sat of next week but we will be back in the shop Monday to return calls and get back to scheduling for ship in seats.
We have our new awning installed and this will be a big plus for us. It will allow us to utilize the entire length of the trailers side and give us more space. We felt a little cramped in Sturgis and this should fix that problem. The awning on the trailer we almost have the same amount of room as our first shop square foot wise.
Speaking of shops, after we get back from Thunder Beach I will re-direct my attention from the trailer to the new shop and trying to get it set up and ready to operate out of. I am really excited about us going to have a store front and all the extra room which I feel sure won't be enough after a month or two in it. I remember the first day I was in the current shop and it looked so big I thought there is no way I will outgrow this and after two additions here we need more room again.
That's going to do it for this week's update. If you are going to be in Panama City next week stop by and see us. We will be set up at Club La Vela.
Till next time be safe and enjoy the ride.
9/3/09
Big news for this week's update. I have been looking around for a larger building to move into and this past week I found two that really caught my eye, actually one of them I was looking into last year and it never panned out. Both are in really good locations with easy access from I-40, I-85 and Hwy 321. After visiting both locations and talking with the owners it looks like we will be moving in the next few months. The building will require a few changes on the inside so we can operate efficiently. One thing I am really excited about is we will have a store front at the new location where you can sit on the different seats with different modifications done to them which will be a big plus and we'll have a few seats set up with custom covers. Did I mention the building is 3 times bigger than what we have now? But I never thought we would out grow what we have now and 3 additions later we are going even bigger.
This past week must I would call aftermarket seat week because we worked on 2-3 aftermarket seats a day and it seemed like every call we got was about modding an aftermarket seat.
We will be closed Saturday Sept 5-7 for Labor Day. As usual I will be checking emails over the long weekend so if you have any questions just shoot me a email or you can call and leave a message on the machine and we'll call you on Tuesday.
That's going to wrap up this week. We hope you all have a safe holiday. Till next time be safe and enjoy the ride.
8/26/09
Last week was a very busy week and this week has been the same. Sorry for no update last week, it was hard to find time to sit down and think about what is going on and put it into words.
From what we learned in Sturgis the trailer is getting a major overhaul getting it ready for Thunder Beach which has caused us to cancel the two events we had scheduled to do. This improvements will help us do our job better on location and give us a better set up to work out of. There is a lot of work to do before we head south and not much time to get it done but we will have it ready so if you are going to Panama City Beach be sure to stop by and see us, we will be set up at Club La Vela.
The scheduling last week picked up some from the previous weeks and this week seems like it going to be a heavier week scheduling also.
Last week we started getting the new 2010 Harley seats in for modifications, it amazes me how bad some of these seats are. But its not just the Harley seats all of the manufacturers continue to make seats that suck and that is why we are here.
One last thing that I thought was pretty cool. We try to keep track of how people learn about us and well over 90% is via word of mouth, the best advertising you can get. Brent asked a guy how he heard about us and he said he was riding through Wyoming and had stopped for a break. There were a few other bikers there heading home from Sturgis and he was talking to one of the guys and they got on motorcycle seats. He was telling the guy how bad his stock seat was and the guy told him, when you get home Google Mean City Cycles. He said they will fix you right up and for a lot less than a aftermarket seat. He did it and called us to set up a appointment....So whoever recommended the guy to Google us, Thank you and to all the other riders who do the same THANK YOU ALL!!!
Till next time be safe and enjoy the ride.
08/12/09
I'm back. Sturgis ROCKS! If you have never been it is certainly a must do. The riding out there is amazing and the atmosphere is totally different from any rally I have ever been too. We didn't get to ride much but we did get to ride one day and enjoyed every minute of it but after that it was all work from there on till we packed up and made the 26 hour drive home.
I want to thank everyone who stopped by to see us and everyone who had their seats done by us. The first day we were open was somewhat slow but the next day we were wide open and it stayed like that the rest of the time. We met people from all over the world while we were there and saw some of the baddest bikes and met the nicest people. I know we are going back next year and hopefully be setup in the same location, we'll just have to wait and see.
A big thanks goes out to Kevin, Jeremy and Melissa from Impact Gel. They gave us great support bringing us supplies and keeping us up and running during our stay.
The thanks don't stop there though; there were a lot of people behind the scenes who made the Sturgis trip happen. My buddy Robbie went with me and helped get everything setup and keep everything running while we were there and having a buddy to sit around with and drink a few cold beers after a hard days work. Brent and Steve back at the shop to keep that end of the business running, without these guys the shop would have been shut down for two weeks and that certainly would not have been a good thing to have happen. My buddy Matt for helping getting the trailer wired up so we could run off two separate electrical circuits and making one hell of a glue stand set up. There are a lot more people to thank and I am sorry I didn't mention everyone but I would be here all night but you guys know who you are and your hard work and efforts are appreciated.
While I am on the thank you train I have to give a shout out to my buddy Ron at Carolina Cyber Solutions for all his hard work he puts in on the website. Almost everybody I talk to always compliments us on our website and Ron is the man behind the scences who keeps the site up and running and looking as good as it does.
Some things I learned in Sturgis is you need a hot babe in the booth and that is in the works a long with several other things to improve our setup and operation while working the future events. The next big event is Thunder Beach in Panama City Florida Sept 24-27 and we are going to be setup at Club La Vela so if your going be sure to stop by and see us.
That’s going to wrap up this weeks what’s new update. Till next time be safe and enjoy the ride.
08/05/09
Sturgis is wide open now and we hav e been putting in some real long days and have had great response from everybody who has had us work on their seats. The word of mouth advertising works here also. Guys will get their seat done then then next day their buddies are here lined up to get theirs done.
The HDForums has been well represented. We have been averaging 6 a day from people who have read about us on there.
We have 5 days left of the rally and honestly I am about beat. We are up at 6 and are open by 8 and usually finish the last seat around 9:30. No complaints though, it has been well worth the trip out here. Being in Sturgis is a very cool deal and I feel sure we will continue to make the trip out.
I want to thank Brent and Steve back at the shop for all their hard work. They are continueing daily operations there and are scheduling a lot of seats.
This will be my last report from Sturgis. The next few days we will be very busy and we have 1650 miles to drive home so til next time be safe and enjoy the ride.
07/31/09
Well after some serious driving we have arrived in Sturgis. We are setup and opened for business today and we actually got started before we were supposed to open because our first customer was here at 7:30.
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Robbie and I will be here til August 9th while Brent and Steve hold the fort down back at the shop. There is already a lot of bikes here and they just keep pouring in. If your here and want to get your seat done come on over. We are set up right beside Sturgis Harley Davidson.
We had a real strong scheduling week this week and there isn't any signs of it slowing and we are still just under two weeks whichis really for this time of year.
That's going to wrap up this weeks update so tik next time, be safe and enjoy the ride.
07/26/2009
This past week was a fast one with everything we had going on. Along with our usual work at the shop we were getting the trailer loaded up and ready for Sturgis. We had a real strong scheduling week again which is always good and what is really good is we have been able to keep our wait time down and are scheduling just under 2 weeks right now.
Robbie and I headed out early Saturday morning for Sturgis and arrived in Rapid City Sunday. Talk about a long ride, holy crap!. It took us 28 hours on the road and the last 4 hours in South Dakota was flat, straight and pretty boring honestly. It was pretty cool though driving through the Badlands and grass plains.
Brent and Steve is holding the fort down at the shop and if you have any questions I would recommend contacting them versus me. I will be working some long hours here in Sturgis 9AM to 10PM daily starting on the 31st and won't have much time to check my emails and but I will answer them as I have time to.
Thats going to do it for this week. I am pretty tired from the trip and we have busy day tomorrow getting everything set up and ready to start operations here.
Till next time be safe and enjoy the ride.
07/15/09
The past two weeks we have been extremely busy and it is a little weird the way it has been. Monday and Tuesday have both been pretty steady but when we hit Wednesday it starts accelerating then Thursday it is WFO and it flows right over into Friday but when we come in on Saturday morning it is peaceful and calm again. With that said if you want to call and schedule on Saturday morning that would be a good time to call because other than the ride ins scheduled for that day the phone stays pretty silent but I can't say that for the rest of the week.
A week from Saturday the road crew heads up to Sturgis for bike week and there is still a thousand things to get ready before loading the trailer up. I went yesterday and picked up all the memory foam for both the shop and Sturgis, it filled up half the trailer...thats a lot of foam. Luckily our supplier is only a hour and a half a way so that going up there myself and picking up saved us right at $500 in shipping which of course we pass these savings along in our prices. We had a price increase last year and luckily we haven't had to increase them this year which is really good.
While we will be in Sturgis for bike week it will be business as usual here at the shop. We are scheduling the week of August 3rd - 7th currently which this is the first time we have had the scheduling down under 2 weeks in a long time which is really good but like I mentioned before we have really been working hard to get to this point. One reason is to keep the crew at the shop from getting overwhelmed and mostly to help you guys get your scheduled date sooner so you don't have to wait 4-6 weeks before your date.
I haven't thanked you guys for spreading the word about lately so I better thank you. I know I do that a lot but you guys are the ones who have made the business what it is today and we Thank you for it. We started keeping up with how people have heard about us about 6 months ago and it really makes our day when a previous customer recommends us to their freinds and i would say at least 95% of our business is word of mouth and that is best advertising out there.
That is going to do it for this weeks update. I'll have one more for next week and then I will be updating you guys from Sturgis.
Till next time be safe and enjoy the ride.
07/08/09
I hope everyone had a great 4th of July. My wife and I did a little riding over the extended weekend and had a great time. We rode down to Columbia SC to check out Thunder Tower HD on Friday then we headed up to Lake Lure and spent the night there at the Lake Lure Inn and Spa. A very cool hotel that was built in 1927. The place was really nice to say the least. We then traveled up the parkway to Boone to eat at one of our favorite restaurants Pssghetti's, yes I did spell it correctly. This place has the best Italian food and everything is made fresh daily including the noodles they use. We stayed the night in Boone and planned on riding over to Tweetsie to see the fireworks but we missed out on that this year. Sunday morning we headed back down the mountain to the house, so it was a short but sweet vacation.
Things are really starting to ramp up for the Sturgis trip. I'll be heading out two weeks from this Saturday and the plan is to arrive in Sturgis on July 27th where we'll set up camp for 2 1/2 weeks. Right now the start date is kind of in the air but it looks like it will be either the 30th or 31st. Once we get rolling we will be there operating till August 9th. If you're going to be in Sturgis for the rally be sure to stop by and see us. We are across the Street from Sturgis HD behind the service Dept with all the other vendors.
The Impact Gel inserts sales and installation has really picked up the past few weeks along with the Mile Buster top pads. I have never been a huge fan of gel pads but these things simply ROCK! If you don't need your riding position changed I would highly recommend going with these, they are by far the best I have ever seen and I feel pretty sure I have seen them all.
I know there is something I am missing on this week's up date but my time is limited and it's just not coming to me. I do want to say thanks to Brent and Steve for the job they are doing at the shop. It makes my life much easier having these two guys and I feel very fortunate to have people who care as much about customer satisfaction as I do.
Till next time be safe and enjoy the ride.
06/26/09
Hello guys and gals. Summer has finally hit and we are in our first true heat wave. Personally I am happy with it. After the really wet spring we have had here in NC I am just happy to be able to ride and not get caught in down pours.
With the dryer weather the ride in's have really picked up. We are working two ride ins a day in currently on top of our scheduled seats to help keep the wait down as much as we can. This is really my favorite time of the year because we get to see a lot of different bikes and see how everybody changes them to make them their own. Sure a lot of bikes look pretty stock but the ones that guys have really personalized are cool as hell to see and to get ideas from.
We have started doing some inserts to stock HD seats covers and have worked out replacing different panels of the seats. For example let's say you have a hole in your cover, as long as the rest of the cover is good we can replace the bad panel with a new one. The only down side to this is matching the panel perfectly. It don't take the sun long to start fading the cover and replacing the panel with a new piece most likely won't match perfectly but at least the hole is fixed. On the Road Glides, Electra/Ultra Glides and Street Glides we have been changing the center panels of these seats to a different material. We just did a 09 Ultra yesterday the guy was actually coming to see us for a ride in and his cigarette butt fell onto the seat and burned a hole. I showed him what we had in stock and he chose to go with a black Ostrich for the center of the seat and that looked really good on there. A few weeks back we worked on a Road Glide that we changed the center perforated section of the cover to a brown gator that is very similar to 08 anniversary colors and matched his backrest also, I posted some pictures of it on the HDForums.
Almost finished up finalizing everything for Sturgis. We have our spot locked in and I am currently working on getting all the legal stuff required by South Dakota and the city of Sturgis done. I have actually been getting calls and emails from guys attending asking how we will be operating up there so I thought I would give a little insight right quick. Currently the plan is to operate on a first come first serve basis. If we get to the point to where we are getting a lot more than we can do we may start scheduling but we'll just have to wait and see. Our hours of operation will be 9 AM to 10 PM so we will be working our butts off. I think we will have a good time though and we are really looking forward to meeting a lot of people. I am not sure if we will have our t-shirts with us but most likely we will. I started offering the shirts 3 years ago and it's pretty cool to see someone out with them on. We will be offering the following modifications while in Sturgis. Driver seat modifications will be the memory foam, double decker memory foam, the Impact Gel insert and Impact Gel insert with memory foam. Passenger seat modifications will be the Passenger pillion modification (basically memory foam mod for the passenger) the double decker and the wide double decker modification. I am going to try and make up a few covers also; most likely they will be a few for the VTX's and a couple different Harleys. If you want a new cover, call us and we can make one and bring it with us, we will require a deposit for this though and if for some reason you order one and can't make it you can get it shipped to you or you can send your seat in and we will be glad to install it.
During the Sturgis rally the shop will be open and we are still scheduling seats for this time frame. Brent and Steve will be running the shop while I am a way and we will still be offering all the modifications with the exception of custom covers, I like putting my hands on these personally so during the Sturgis trip we won't be scheduling any custom covers but all the other modifications we will be.
Last thing, the shop will be close July 2nd through July 5th for the Fourth of July holiday. We will re-open on Monday July 6th and pick right up where we left off. Over the fourth holiday email responding will most likely get a little slow, I told the wife that I won't take my computer with me, we are going to go ride the parkway some and see the fireworks in Boone Saturday night but I will have my Blackberry and will try to answer emails when she isn't looking...hehe.
Take care guys, have a great Fourth of July and most of all enjoy the ride and be safe.
06/20/09
We have really be been busy the past several weeks. Since we did the event in Lincolnton it seems we have hit another gear and have had to pick things up a notch but that is very good. We almost had our scheduling down to two weeks but we have slowly started creeping back up and are right at 3 weeks again.
The past couple of weeks the new covers have really been rolling out and we keep getting more and more orders for new covers and have actually started getting seats that are sent to us just for a new cover which is really exciting. All of the vinyls we use are high quality marine grade and our leather is very high quality imported European leathers, these are the same leathers used in the auto industry and aircraft. One thing on the covers I am really excited about is a new process called direct printing which means we can take a picture and have it printed onto the leather. We have only done two of these covers so far in testing but one of the main sample seats got 750 miles put on it one weekend and the seat was taken to Laconia this week to be on display up there. I think this is going to be a really cool option to offer but we are still a little ways out before we start offering these covers.
I have been busy the past couple weeks trying to lock up dates for us to attend different events. I am very happy to announce that I just finilized the details for us to set up at the 69th Annual Sturgis Rally in Sturgis SD. This is going to be very cool getting to make this trip. I can't say I am looking forward to the 1660 mile trip there but it is going to be awesome to be in Sturgis.
That is going to a wrap for this week. Don't forget if you want to schedule to get your seat done just give us a call 866-550-SEAT(7328) we can get you on the schedule and answer any questions you may have.
Till next time be safe and enjoy the ride.
06/09/09
As mentioned previously we were setting up Lincolnton NC for the Hog Happinin event which was this past weekend. All I can say is WOW! Friday was pretty much a wash out. We started setting up and as I was pulling the awning out the rain started. Saturday, you couldn't have asked for better weather. The event was to start at 10 AM but by 9 we had people stopping and asking questions. 10:30 AM and we were working on our first seat of the day and we stayed pretty busy working on seats till around 2 PM when our air compressor decided it wasn't having fun and started cutting off. We worked with it a while and got it running but it still was giving us trouble so I cut off the seat modifications around 3 or 3:30 because I didn't want to get half way finished with a seat and not be able to finish it.that would have sucked. After that we mainly talked with people and there were plenty there to talk to. This was our second year setting up for this event but it was 5th time I had been to it and this was by far the largest crowd that they ever had, it was a huge success and everybody I talked with said they were really impressed with it so I feel sure this event will continue to grow and next year should be even bigger.
With our first event behind us with the mobile shop up and running we are eager to get to the next one and are already in talks with several other places. I get asked all the time about setting up at Daytona and Sturgis and I am trying to find a location in Sturgis to setup. The only bad thing about these events is the cost to set up. Most good locations want anywhere from $3500 to $6000 to just set up then you have to purchase city and county permits which run around $600 each. I hope that we can be in Sturgis this year, I am really trying hard to get us a good spot but it is too early to tell right now if it is going to happen. To keep up to date on which events we will be attending we have started a Events page and will be updating as we lock into a new event so be sure to check that page out to see where we are going and when we will be there.
I know I say this all the time but I really do mean it. Thank you for spreading the word about us. We get so many calls from people saying their neighbor or friend or co-worker had their seat done and loves and recommended us. Well over 90% of all our business comes via word of mouth and that is flat out the best advertising you can get and we appreciate everybody recommending us.
Do you work on scooter seats? That has become a common question and the answer is yes we do. It don't matter to us what you ride, if the seat sucks then we are here to fix it. We have worked on everything from Piagios to Vespas and countless China scooters. The only thing is that there are so many out there that it is hard to keep up with them all and when I say cheaply made seats some of the china models are so cheap that there isn't a lot we can do but we can make them better.
That is going wrap up this week's what's new update. I am working on resizing pictures and should have around 30 new customer rides posted in that section of the site today sometime. If you want to have your bike posted please email them to meancitycycles@bellsouth.net and I will get them up.
Till next time be safe and enjoy the ride.
06/04/09
I have been putting off writing the what's new update since Monday because I wanted to give the latest news on what we have going on and make sure I had a few things worked out and today it all came together. We completed the trailer so now we have our mobile shop operational and this coming weekend we will be in Lincolnton NC for their annual Hog Happenin event. Hog Happenin This will be our second year attending this event and last year we had a great time and this year promises to be even better. Friday's forecast is iffy but Saturday the weather looks great, I like sunny days. If you went last year I am sure you remember how hot it was.
This week has been a pretty normal work week. We have been real busy scheduling seats and I think we are right at 3 weeks out on scheduling and we are running right on schedule so if you have a appointment date coming up, don't worry we will get you out right on time.
One thing that I am really happy about the new covers and custom covers we are making. I am somewhat picky on the way I think things should look and while I thought we did a good job in the past but I knew we could do better and the improvements over the past several months has me really proud of our covers and the effort everybody has been making, I can be a picky bastard just ask one of the guys here at the shop.
That is going to do it for this week's update. Since we have the mobile shop going we will start booking more dates for shows. I can tell you now though, don't count on us being in Sturgis just yet. They want $4k for a spot to set up and combine that with travel expenses and paying employees then you see we would have to work our butts off to break even but you never know and if you know of a good 2-3 day rally email me and let me know about it. If it is doable for us we will certainly try and make it.
Till next time be safe and enjoy the ride.
05/27/09
May is almost gone and honestly I am somewhat disappointed. Not with anything here at the shop but at the sucky weather we have had so far this year. This has to be the wettest spring we have had in nine or ten years. It really is a double edged knife for me. The good side is my yard is getting some much needed rain but I think it may be turning into a tropical forest rather than a yard. I haven’t looked at this year’s totals but I do know for the month of May we normally get just over three inches of rain and so far we almost have seven inches and we still have 4 more days to go and the next two have good chances of rain in them. The bad side of all the rain is we can’t ride or I won’t ride if I know it is going to rain..I know I am a wuss, I just don’t like having to put the rain suit on first thing in the morning and usually my feet get soaked and that sucks. The surprising thing to me though is we are still getting all of our scheduled ride ins done, most are just bringing their seats versus riding the bike but everybody is still making it, one way or another.
Next weekend is the Hog Happenin in Lincolnton NC and we will be set up there. Not sure just yet if we will be offering seat modifications on the spot but that is my plan. I had a custom bike come in last week and I pulled the trailer in front of the shop into the yard so we could put the bike in it while I was working on the seat. I didn’t want it in the shop with all the traffic we get. I told the customer the seat would be ready Friday and they could pick it up which they did but I rode the bike to work and couldn’t move the trailer and by the time I got back with the truck on Sunday it was raining…imagine that. So it sat in the yard till today. We had to clean it up for some more lettering and thanks to Steve it looks brand new again. I took the trailer around lunch to the decal shop and dropped it off and I had planned on having it back tomorrow but it looks like it may be Friday or even as late as Monday before its back and we can get to work finalizing a few things in it and do a couple seats at the shop before we head off to Lincolnton next Friday to set up. I am trying to be optimistic and think it will be ready to work out of but the way things have been around here the past few weeks I am not sure if we’ll have it operational or not. I have had several things planned to do and the work load just hasn’t allowed them to happen but I am keeping my fingers crossed.
I have to give a shout out to several dealerships that have been sending us a lot of business. First, Blue Ridge Harley Davidson who is our local dealership for you guessed it, Harley Davidson motorcycles and JE’s Honda of Hickory who is our local Honda shop. Carolina HD Laconia HD and there are several others that fail to come to memory right now. It really makes me happy when dealerships recommend us because these guys could easily sell the customer another seat but refer them to us instead and that means a lot to us. They know we take our work serious and we always do our best to make each and every customer happy.
Our scheduling system is really working well as it has the past two years and we get positive comments all the time about it. Occasionally we will get a negative one thrown it but I just can’t figure out what there is that makes is so difficult really. I mean we pretty offer overnight service because your seat only has to be at the shop the day before it is scheduled then on the scheduled date it is completed and shipped back. Another thing that has surprised me is the Express service has been doing very well.(you can reference back to the second paragraph about things not getting done, this is why). I thought a few people would take advantage of it but I never thought we would be getting so many and it seems when they come, they all come on the same day or we’ll get them three to four days in a row which makes the days a little longer.
One thing I have been trying to work out is going on the road to some local motorcycle spots on the weekends. I have sent a few emails to people at Deal Gap(tail of the dragon) about maybe setting up there on a Saturday and Sunday once or twice a month but I haven’t had any responses yet. I think it would be beneficial to this but we’ll have to wait and see if anyone gets back with me on it. I need to get in touch with some people up at Lake Lure also because that place also becomes a motorcycle meca on the weekends. If I can get these locations worked out we’ll be sure to mention this along with the location and if you are in the area and want your seat done we can do it right there on the spot which would be pretty cool. If this does happen most likely we’ll start having the shop closed on Mondays but we’ll have to wait and see what we can do.
Well, that is going to do it for this week. Let’s all hope the south east gets some sunny skies so we can get back out riding again.
Till next time be safe and enjoy the ride.
05/18/09
Mean City Cycles, LLC is very happy to announce that we are now the national installer of Impact Gel® motorcycle seat pads and also offer the Impact Gel® Mile Buster top seat pads. I am sure a lot of you guys have heard of Impact Gel, they are featured on the show Pitch Men with their shoe inserts. Here is a link to YouTube that has a very good product demonstration of the impact absorption of the pads. One thing I have to mention is that in the video he is using a 1/4" thick pad and not a 1/2" pad and that is what our new gel pads are, a 1/2 thick so if the he can slam his with a 1/4" pad imagine how much better a 1/2" pad is going to be.
I am sure some of you guys are skeptical, I was and I have said before that I am not a big gel pad fan but these gel pads are absolutely the best gel pad I have ever seen. I thought our Comfort Cruizer pads were good but I will honestly say they are no where as good as the Impact Gel® pads. Yes, I have tried putting my hand under the pad and hitting it with a hammer and it works, just ask Brent he stuck his hand under the pad and let me hit it but only after seeing me try to smash mine first. Currently we are offering the Impact Gel seats pad installed in the driver's seat only. The only draw back is we can't move the riding position very much and on some seats we won't be able to move it all but the good news is if your happy with your current riding position we can keep you right where you are. Now one thing we do differently from a lot of places who offer services similar to ours is we remove the cover then we inset the gel pad into the foam and wrap the entire seat with a 1/4" layer of foam. We do not just lay the gel pad on top of the stock foam like a lot of other places do. We have been seeing a lot of seats come to us and nothing was done other than the gel pad laid over the top of the stock foam and not inserted into the foam and that isn't doing anything but raising your riding position and moving you forward. We are also offering the Impact Gel Mile Buster seat pads which feature a cover with 100% sheep's wool cover which is what a lot of guys like if they tend to sweat a lot.
I am really excited about these new products. It take a lot to impress me and I am more than impressed and I am sure you will be also. There are some changes being made to the website. We are working to get all the Impact Gel stuff posted and we have added a events page. We do not have a lot of events planned currently but we do have a couple dates booked already and should have those dates and locations posted this week sometime.
Well guys that is going to do it for this week. Till next time be safe and enjoy the ride.
05/04/09
Hey guys and gals. This weeks what's new is going to be short and uninformative because I can't spill the beans just yet but I do have a major announcement to make. Hopefully by the end of this week but no later than early next week it will be made I promise. I can tell you it is big and pretty darn cool stuff. We have the ball rolling and everybody is working hard on this so stay tuned and the next What's new will have all the information.
Till next time be safe and enjoy the ride.
05/04/09
I just got back in from attending the Thunder Beach rally in Panama City Beach Fl and all I can say is WOW! We had a blast. We headed out Tuesday on the bikes and stayed overnight in Atlanta at a buddy’s house and rode out early Wed morning for the rally. The locals were happy to see us and everyone I talked with were having a good time and really enjoyed it. I will be back next year for the rally also but this time it will be working. I think this rally will take over where Myrtle Beach dropped us and will actually be a even better rally. White sand beaches and the sun was shining all week long.
I do have to apologize. The hotel we stayed at said they have wireless internet and they did but it sucked. I tried replying to them early in the week only to have the server crash on me and just started forwarding the emails to Brent back at the shop so he could answer them. So if you sent me a email this past week and haven’t gotten a reply that is why and I am sorry and if you don’t mind please resend it and I will be more than happy to answer any of your questions. I guess I’ll have to do something else to ensure all the emails get answered quickly when a way like this.
Thanks to Brent and Steve the shop ran flawlessly this past week. The guys busted butt all week and had another great scheduling week and it made life easier on me not having to worry about the shop while I was a way so thanks guys.
We have a busy week scheduled this week so all of us will be here at the shop. If you’re on the fence about scheduling and want to talk about which modification would be best for you all you need to do is call us 866-550-SEAT(7328) and we will be more than happy to help, that’s what we are here for.
That’s going to wrap things up for this week; I have a ton of things to get done so till next time enjoy the ride and be safe.
4/27/2009
Another solid week of scheduling and a just as I thought last week our Ride In’s are picking up again since the weather has turned good again. This past week the weather was awful with more rain and cool temps but as we got closer to the weekend the weather cleared up, the sun came out and temps got up in the low 80’s. I think we are good from here as far as temps go and hopefully it will only rain on us one or two days a week and leave us with some nice clear weekends.
I must have seen a thousand or more bikes out Sunday. This past weekend was the Cherokee Survivors Rally up and from what I saw they must have had a great turn out. There was a steady stream of motorcycles heading east on I-40 all day along with campers pull trailers. It is good to see this rally doing well.
The two newest modifications are still being tested. With all the rain we have been getting here and cold temps really has put a hamper on testing but yesterday I was able to get out and put around a hundred miles on one of the new modifications and so far it is working out perfectly. I also did this modification on a local guys Honda Goldwing seat and his first two reports are very good also. I think this modification is going to be a real winner. This coming week will be the real test. I am riding down to Panama City Florida for Thunder Beach on it. I believe it is around 550 miles one way so if it passes this test it will be offered very soon. The second modification is only on the drawing board but everything is in place to get it done and start testing it so hopefully it won’t be much longer and two new modifications will be offered.
If you’re heading down to Thunder Beach ride safe. My wife and I along with some friends are riding down this week. I was planning on setting up for this rally but not having attended it I wasn’t sure which location would be best so we are going to go down and check things out and hopefully get everything in order to start attending this rally as a vendor. I have heard this rally is starting to get really big and the people down there want us there unlike some other rallies. The website for the rally is thunderbeachproductions.com.
We are getting calls asking if we will be at Myrtle Beach. The answer is plainly “NO”. They don’t want us bikers there and I am certainly not going where I am not wanted so until further notice we are boycotting anything to do with the Myrtle Beach rally and Myrtle Beach in general. I always looked forward to the ride down there and we always had a good time but since the city council has determined we are undesirable to have in their town I have no desire at all to go back and won’t. RIP Myrtle Beach.
While I am going to be gone a lot of this week the shop will still be running full speed ahead. Brent and Steve will have the reins and it will be business as usual. I will have my laptop with me so I can stay caught up on emails but for quicker responses I would recommend either emailing Brent brent@meancitycycles.com or just calling 866-550-7328.
That’s going to do it for this week. I hope everyone has a great safe week of riding and don’t forget the sunscreen. Till next time be safe and enjoy the ride.
4/20/2009
Our scheduling format is working great just like it was designed to do and we are getting a lot of positive feedback from just about everybody who schedules. There are a few people who just don't get it for some odd reason but I will take the time to explain it again. A couple years ago we had over 150 boxes of seats sitting in the shop waiting to be done and that is around 4 to 5 weeks worth or work maybe a little more. There wasn't much room to move around in the shop and we had to move the seats around every day to make room for the seats that were coming in. So we came up with a scheduling system where you would have to have your seat here the day before it is scheduled then the next day it would be completed and shipped back which makes our turnaround time overnight. This helped eliminate several problems. One, you know exactly what date your seat will be completed and shipped back. Two, it eliminated around a hundred phone calls every week from guys wanting to know when their seat would be done which let us keep our focus on getting seats completed. Three, guys could keep riding their bikes longer because their seats wouldn't have to sit in the shop for several weeks waiting to be worked on. I could go on and on but it just a good system and overnight turnaround is great.
I will be updating the customer ride's page this week so if you want send a picture of your bike with your modified seat in to be posted please send it to meancitycycles@bellsouth.net and I will get it included during this update. I probably have around a hundred new pictures to post right now so it's going to take a little time to get this done.
One thing I am going to be working on also is updating our About Us page. Brent and I have been on there for some time now but no pictures and there isn't much information about us. I will be adding Steve and Dalynda to the page and have thought about adding a little about our personal bikes also.
We are scheduling May 21st currently which is really good I think. Last year at this time we were over two months out and with the addition of Steve to the our work force we have been staying around a month and a week or two. It seems everything is coming together good. We need more room in the shop but that's a whole other deal there and as long as we can keep it all flowing good we can make do with what we have for now anyways. The addition we did late last year has been very helpful but our actual work space needs to double in size and this would let things flow even better.
We started the year out very strong with ride ins but the past month that has slowed down a little due to the rainy weather we have been having. Hopefully all this rain will move on and we can get back to doing more ride ins. To do a ride you do need to call and schedule to do this and we do require a $25 deposit. We offer ride in service 6 days a week Mon-Saturday and the hours are Mon-Thursday after 1 PM. Friday after 11 AM and Saturdays 8 to 9AM. This gives us plenty of time to get your seat done. We have several guys ask about local hotels when riding in from out of state. Maiden does not have any hotel/motels so I always recommend staying in Lincolnton NC or Hickory NC. Lincolnton has a new hotel right off hwy 321 and Hickory has several to choose from right off I-40 and hwy 321. Hickory is about 15-20 minutes from the shop and Lincolnton is about the same.
Well guys that should do it for this week's update. If you have any questions please feel free to email me or Brent, we both check our emails regularly and answer them as fast as we can, normally within 12 hours unless it is on Sunday but I check mine then also so we respond fast.
Till next time be safe and enjoy the ride.
04/08/2009
Mid week and we are really getting worked hard which is a good thing. Orders are coming in stronger than ever and I certainly am not complaining about that.
Normally I talk about what all we have going on but this week I want to change the tune a little bit and talk about a great guy I met several months ago. We were working pretty hard one day when a guy walks into the shop and tells us about his custom paint shop on the other side of town. I had heard about him in the past and actually sent him a few emails but our schedules conflicted and I wasn't able to use his services. Well a few weeks back I had something come up and I thought I would give it a shot again. This time our schedules worked out great so I took the parts I needed painted over to him and look at some of his work. HOLY COW! He had 3-4 jobs in the works and one was a true fire paint job on a sport bike and this was the most realistic true fire I have ever seen in my life. Dude can paint. But lets not stop there. I talked with him and explained what I was wanting done and he said no problem. After more talking a few days later I asked for suggestions. He recommended adding some true fire to what I was wanting as a highlight and after seeing his work I knew he could pull it off but keep it subtle. All I was wanting was my tank halves painted back black with the Harley Davidson logo painted on in silver with a red pinstripe. Here is what I got
When I saw it I was in awe because it came out better than I ever imagined. This guy has the talent and skill to paint anything you could ever think of and best of all his prices are more than reasonable and I think cheaply priced for his work and compared to other guys prices he is down right cheap. But I tell what impressed me more than anything was how friendly he was and he is like that everytime I talk with him. I've talked to Robbie several times since and he is always thinking outside the box and is always trying to come up with something no one else has done before. If anyone is looking for a slick, custom paint job I highly and mean HIGHLY recommend contacting Robbie at Robbie's Custom Show Paint www.robbiescustomshowpaint.net Tell him Allen from Mean City told you get in touch with him and he will certainly take care of you and your friends.
Last thing. We will be closed Friday April 19th and 20th for Easter. I meant to mention this last week and forgot so the email replies and phone calls will be returned on Monday April 22nd.
Well, thats going to do it for this week.
Till next time, be safe and enjoy the ride.
04/02/09
Holy cow how time has flown by the past couple of weeks. We have been extremely busy both with seats already scheduled and we have been scheduling a lot of seats. Last month broke our monthly web site hit record with us averaging over 18,000 hits per day.
I have always thanked everyone for spreading the word about us. I would say 92-95% of all orders are from referrals but we are starting to see a increase from people searching the web for what we do. Plus we are starting to have a increase from people finding us in a couple magazines that have ran press releases on us so the word is really starting to get out there.
The new modifications I talked about several weeks back are still sitting on the back burner. Our weather here has been crappy to say the least. We have had more rain the past 8 weeks and it really sucks having to drive a cage all the time. Hopefully mother nature is getting this out her system so we can have some good riding weather the remaining spring and summer.
I feel like this is going to be our busiest ride in year yet. We have already had a tremendous amount of ride ins so far this year and that is with people dodging the rain and once it gets cleared up good and the temps rise a little more I expect we will be covered up with ride ins. While we have increased the number of scheduled seats per day we will be doing the same with the ride in numbers since there are two of us strictly working on seats on the time. We aren't to the place where we can double the scheduled seats but ride ins will be doubled. We offer the ride in service Mon-Fri after 1 PM and Saturday's starting at 8 AM but I would highly recommend calling to schedule these because if we are booked up and you just show up chances are you will be turned away that day.
That's going to do it for this week, short and sweet. Till next time be safe and enjoy the ride.
3/17/2009
Hey guys and gals. Another week has went screaming by us and we are running wide open. As luck would have it this past week ended with gloomy wet weather so that has put a hamper on getting the new modifications finalized and fully tested. As they say if something can go wrong it will and that is a all too familiar phrase when trying to get a new modification completed and released or at least it seems like it to me.
We are scheduling the last part of April and early May currently and as previously stated I have brought in more help this year to try and keep our scheduling a little more in hand but as it would be we are getting around 35-40% more calls this year and while we are doing more seats per day than last year we are still having a little trouble keeping up with the demand. Right now we are pretty much peaked out on the number of seats we can do per day without bringing in more help and this brings up another issue of not having enough room for more help in the shop. We are pretty much walking on top of each other now and I really do not foresee another addition to the current shop. I have been looking for a larger building but nothing has really caught my eye and unless something just pops up I figure and kind of hope we will be in this location at least another year before that step is taken.
So, with all that being said I am starting to get emails and calls asking if we have any dates sooner than what we are scheduling and the answer is "no". Then comes the, well if I send my seat in early and there is a cancellation can I get that spot? Since we have gone to the scheduling system and require the $25 deposit it is very rare that anyone cancels. If I remember correctly, we have had 2 so far this year due to the person getting laid off or having a spouse laid off from work.
I keep getting emails asking what our turnaround time is so I guess I had better address this again. The first thing you need to do is call and schedule your seat 866-550-SEAT(7328) Your seat will need to be at the shop no later than the day before it is scheduled to be worked on. Then the next day(Your scheduled date) your seat is completed and shipped back once final payment is received. So basically our turnaround time is overnight if you plan your shipping accordingly. We do not have a 2 week turn around or 4 week turn around it is overnight turn around as long as your seat is here the day before it is scheduled. Now, I do not and would not recommend overnight shipping. This can be very and I do mean very expensive for the size of box that is required to ship a seat in.
While we are talking about shipping I feel I need to touch base on this also. The shipping companies, UPS and FedEx charge shipping by the size of the box and not the weight of them. A normal sized solo seat fits in a box roughly 24" x 16" x 12" and shipping on a box this size is normally $10-15 about anywhere in the US but when you use a box 28x20x20 to ship the same seat in the shipping cost normally doubles or close to it so be sure to use the smallest box you can get your seat in safely. You do not want the seat pressing on the sides of the box but have a little padding in it to prevent it from rubbing the box because that can scar or even rub a hole in the cover that isn't a good thing.
Last thing on shipping and I will be done. When shipping your seat and I know it is convenient to use the UPS and Kinko’s stores because they are located in convenient areas. Normally they charge a pretty decent rate to ship but they will be higher than taking it directly to the FedEx or UPS terminal, the actual terminal is where you will get your best shipping rates. Now the mom and pop stores that ship via UPS and FedEx add a on to the shipping cost over the UPS and FedEx fee's because they have to so they can stay in business. I have heard of these places charging $100+ to ship a seat via UPS or FedEx so while I truly believe in having your own business and trying to achieve the American dream, these people are trying to stick it to you. Just yesterday, we had a oversized box that a seat came in the shipping was somewhere around $30-35 for us to ship it back. The person asked us how much the return shipping was and we told him and we were told he was charged over $100 to ship the seat to us...that’s freaking crazy! I highly recommend when shipping a seat to us to use the ground shipping option, this will be the least expensive and 9 times out of 10 the seat will get here just as fast as 2nd day and especially 3 day select which cost 3 times as much as standard ground shipping. I have been asked in the past, why don't you tell your customers this? I have posted several times on this in the past and I think I have mentioned this in the FAQ's also, if not I will get that changed but you wouldn't believe how many people don't really read all the information that is on the site and just read a little and call and ask the same questions that have been answered on here and are in the FAQ's. But that is what we are here for, to answer questions and help you get comfortable so you can ride all day.
Till next time, be safe and enjoy the ride. Spring is just around the corner.
3/9/2009
What a difference a week makes. Last week we were getting snow and it was freaking cold to say the least. All this snow and ice we got threw a wrench into our work schedule for Monday and I made the call to keep the shop closed. I didn't want to take any chances of someone having a accident trying to the get the shop. The morning news was showing accidents so I just didn't want to take a chance. Tuesday we hit the door running wide open and by the end of Wednesday we had gotten caught up and was back on schedule.
New modifications are coming and I am going to be dropping a couple that are already offered because these new ones are going to be better than what is being offered. Motorcycle seats is pretty much all I think about 24/7. We do a lot of work on previously modified seats that other people have worked on and most of the stuff I see is just all wrong but occasionally I will see something that was a good idea but just applied incorrectly. Harley Davidson came out with a new seat call the Hammock seat, it is a stock seat on the Screaming Eagle Ultra. It is a very old technology that is actually still being used by some furniture factories that build cheap furniture and I couldn't believe they actually put it in a motorcycle seat. Then this past week I got a seat in that was previously modified by someone else that used a different type of webbing but it wasn't applied correctly but was actually a good idea so this got me thinking about how the application of these two things could be improved and it dawned on me that applying what was done to the previously modded seat but applying it correctly but in a manner close to what the hammock seat is. So I was needing a new seat for my bike and I had one to try this on so Thursday after all the schedule seats were completed I started work on it. When I got it the seat completed and put on the bike and sat on it the first time, it brought a huge smile to my face because I realized I had just came up with something new and was going to be huge. I had Brent and Steve sit on the seat and both agreed this was a sweet sitting seat. I got to put some miles on the new modified seat this past weekend and put over 500 miles on it and it needs just a little tweaking and hopefully by next week this new modification will be available. There is some other things I have to research first before I can release it.
There is another modification that I am working on also but I haven't gotten to test it yet but should have it done sometime this coming week the bad news is the weather is supposed to go bad again towards the end of the week so I am not sure how much testing will get done so it will probably be a few weeks before it is talked about much further.
Last thing and I will be done for this week. I just want to thank Brent and Steve for their hard work this past week. Both guys dug in and worked their butts off getting us back on schedule quickly.
Till next time be safe and enjoy the ride.
3/2/2009
As we near riding season we get a blast of winter and our first real snow accumplation of the year here in North Carolina. I am not sure about all your guys and gals but I am ready to ride. This has been a cold winter for us, the worst in at least the past 5 years...maybe is because of Global warming?
The past couple weeks we have seen a spike in the scheduling. We have started scheduling a few more seats per day to try and keep us from getting real far out but at the peak of last year we were at 3 months out. While I hope we don't get that far out its a great problem to have honestly and its a good feeling knowing that we have the work and most importantly that we are doing our job right.
I am currently working on restructuring the modifications some. The more we are using our new foam we are learning even more and I feel I need to make a few changes. I think this will make the modification selection easier and overall make things a little leaner looking on the page.
That is going to do it for this week. Till next time be safe and enjoy the ride.
2/23/2009
WOW!!! That is about all I can say honestly. With everything on TV telling us how bad the economy is all that comes to mind is WOW! with the number of seats we are scheduling. Last year I started planning for this year. Last year at this time is when we went to the scheduling format because of the number of seats we were getting. This kept our turn around time down but we got pretty far out with the scheduling at just over 3 months before it started settling down. So this year the plan was to bring in another upholsterer to help us maintain but I was worried about doing this because of all the doom and gloom the news has been telling us and I didn't want someone to quit their job then I have to lay them off because we didn't have the work. Well, as it is turning out we are actually getting more work this year than we were last year which is what I had figured would happen but with the economy in the tank as they say I wasn't sure what we would have but thankfully we are wide open and we are all working full weeks. Thanks to everyone who has scheduled and thanks to everyone for spreading the word about us, we keep getting more and more referrals from our past customers and you guys and gals are what is keeping us busy.
I don't usually rant on here but I really think this issue is something I can rant about. Myrtle Beach Bike Week. I really enjoyed going to Myrtle Beach Bike Week and checking things out and just hanging out with a bunch of fellow riders plus getting to see a lot of the new stuff that came out each year in person instead of only in a magazine. Well, as a lot of you know the great elected leaders of Myrtle Beach has decided they no longer want us there and have passed several new Anit-biker laws. One a helmet law for the city limits of Myrtle Beach. I honestly don't think they can do this but I am no lawyer but in a state which has a no-helmet required law I do not see how one little city can require this and I feel sure it can be beat in court and you could probably call these new laws profiling which our legal system has been using a lot lately with the illigal aliens and terrorist from certain parts of the world. I for one though will never go back and yes i said NEVER. The bike weeks pumped a lot of money into the Myrtle Beach economy and I do mean a lot. But this little city thinks they no longer need our money so they won't get mine and I hope they won't get you’re money either. thunderbeachproductions.com that is where we are going to start going...Thunder Beach in Panama City Florida. They want us there and they say it is a biker friendly rally. So F'k Myrtle Beach. These comments are not by no means directed to the people of Myrtle Beach but the elected officials who think that they can turn their backs on a event that has built up the city over past 68 years and have profited off it.
Well, enough of that. On a positive note. As mentioned in the previous update my dog Axle passed away. Thanks to all who sent condolences. I have acquired a new pup. He is a English Bull Terrier like Axle but instead of getting another all white one I got a black and white one. His name is Saul. He is 18 weeks old and has a personality all his own. He thinks he is supposed to be the center of attention and wants to be a lap dog which is fine for now but when he gets full grown and 50 lbs I don't think I want him hopping up on my lap. I'll try get some pictures of him posted up in the future. The movie Saw is one of my favorites...I know I am twisted so when I heard his name Saul I knew he would fit in good. His AKC name is Mean City Jig Saul named of course after Jig Saw from the movie.
Till next time be safe and enjoy the ride.
2/11/09
RIP Axle
9/27/97 - 2/10/09
Currently we are booking the middle of March, I know over the next week we will be getting calls from guys going to Daytona wanting to get thier seats done before Daytona and unfortunately that isn't going to happen. We are booked solid. We have also started getting ride ins which is somewhat unusual for this time of year so I believe this is going to be a very busy spring and summer with these. Steve, got his first ride in this past week and is really picking things up very fast which I knew he would.
Yesterday was a sad day at the shop. The guys who rode in when we were over at the old shop would often see our two dogs Axle and Mari. They are English Bull Terriers and have a very unique shaped head, if you have ever seen the target dog or are old enough to remember Spuds McKenzie that is what they look like. I had always wanted one of these dogs ever since I was little and watched Black Sheep Squadron. Pappy Boyington had one on the show and I just thought they were the coolest looking dogs. I finally found a local breeder and purchased Axle and brought him home when he was just 6 weeks old. We found out Monday his heart was failing him and when I got to the shop yesterday I found him dead laying in his favorite spot where he use to soak up the sun. I laid him to rest down by the pond where he loved to go swimming in the summer. He is missed already and will be for a long time.
Till next time be safe and enjoy the ride.
02/02/2009
It's been a couple weeks since my last update and we have been wide open. I want to thank Brent and Steve for all the hard work at the shop first off, the phone has been ringing off the hook and emails are pouring in and everyone is staying right on top of things which is very good because customer service is top priority.
I am always trying to think on what we can do to improve our services, keep cost down and make our modifications the best value on the market and the past couple of years I have came up with new modifications. This year I haven't been able to come up with anything new but just improve the modifications we already offer. I feel like we can always improve what we do and I am thinking 24 hours a day on how to make things better. Since switching foam suppliers back in August we have learned a lot about the new foam and the main thing I have learned is this is the best damn memory foam I have ever worked with.
One thing that is currently in the development stages is a custom seat designed by me. I am making a seat to sit the rider down on the frame rails or at least as close as humanly possible to get there. Last weekend I make the first pan for a popular metric bike and once I have this seat worked out I am going to do one for a Street Glide/Road King and then we will start testing the waters to see if there is much interest in this type of seat. It will be a solo only seat and I am hoping it will be comfortable enough to not be classified as a bar hopper seat but most likely that is what it will be categorized in, going this low there just isn't much room for foam.
With the addition of the new office and cover facility I was hoping that taking this stuff out of the main shop would open up some much needed space which it did but we are already getting crowded again in the shop. I wish we could get into a larger building but that would just cost too much right now and I do not want to lease a building or pay rent so we are trying to make do with what we have and utilize every inch of the shop. Its amazing that when the shop was built and the first day in it I was thinking....maybe I went too big but I quickly learned you can never have to much room.
We are getting a lot of new cover orders this year and we have already passed the number of covers we did all of last year so this part of the business has really boomed for us and I see it getting even bigger as time passes. We have actually started getting seats in that are just for recovering with no foam work and that is a first for us because usually everybody wants to change the seating position. I look for the re-covering to become really big and take us to the next level.
Thanks to everyone spreading the word about us. We have been keeping notes on how people find out about us and I would say 85% is word of mouth which is slightly down but that is due to the number of people who are searching on Google and finding us is up.
We love hearing from our customers and we recently got a customer testimonial that made me really happy. Chloe Conner had contacted us about her seat a while back and we discussed what we could do to help her with her seats comfort and getting her feet more securely on the ground. Well, she sent us a before and after picture and they are posted on the customer testimonials page. It still amazes me to this day that we can do what we do. To me working on the seats comes natural and I really don't think we are doing anything spectacular but getting customer feedback like hers and seeing the results makes me proud that we are providing our services and at a great value. I have had numerous people tell me we should charge more than we do but it's not all about money to me, it’s about helping our fellow riders and that is why Mean City Cycles was started to begin with.
That’s going to do it for this week. I hope everyone has a great week and is wishing for warmer temperatures because it’s been cold. So till next time be safe and enjoy the ride.
1/19/2009
Two full weeks into 2009 and we are getting real busy again. We have scheduled over 100 seats since the beginning of the new year and if things goes as previous years we will be getting a lot more seats scheduled. We have been keeping track of all the scheduled seats this year and after the first two weeks word of mouth referrals are the highest it has ever been and that means a lot to me. Knowing what we are doing is helping other rider's along with saving them money is what this business is all about. So to all our past customers who are out there spreading the word about us, Thank You!
Starting today we have brought in our third full time employee. As mentioned in my last what's new update Steve will be working his first full time day with us. He has a lot to learn yet but his previous upholstering experience, motorcycle riding experience and determination to be the best is going to make him a a tremendous asset to us and all of our customers.
This past week started out horribly but ended up on a good note. It all started Sunday actually, I went to the shop to get some things ready for Monday and right away I noticed there was a problem. I flicked the light switch on over in the office and no power but it was on in the shop so I started checking breakers and the office's main breaker was tripped. I reset it and as soon as I sat down at my desk it went off again. This time during the reset something in the main box arched and then it all went down hill from there. Monday morning half the power to the shop would come on and go off with no breakers tripping. We ended up having to get the main box replaced and by 5 PM we had power back on. So we feel a day behind right off the bat and battled all week long trying to get caught back up which we finally did Saturday.
Well, that should do it for this update. Till next time be safe and enjoy the ride but most of all stay warm.
01/03/2009
My first update since we are in the New Year. I hope everyone enjoyed the holidays. Christmas day weather here was perfect and we hit a high 66 degrees and I actually got to ride some Christmas day. Could you ask for a better present than that?
2009 marks our 5th anniversary. It is hard to believe that Mean City Cycles has reached this milestone. I honestly never thought it would but a lot of hard work, long hours and a determination to make butts happy seems to be a good combination for a business to grow along with our customer service which is considered by many to be the best. This year does look like it is going to be a challenge though with the economy turning south like it has but one good thing is the sun will shine on everyone again and its just a matter of time before things start picking back up for everyone.
We are getting geared up to start doing some motorcycle shows and events this year. My buddy Matt has made some motorcycle seat stands that we have mounted stock seats to and will be modifying these seats for people to sit on and get a first hand feeling of what our modded seats feel like in person. Our first show will be the Easy Riders show in Charlotte NC January 23-25. I am really excited about getting to do this and look forward to meeting a lot of people. The next date on the calendar will be in April I believe and that will be Thunder Beach in Panama City Florida. We will be set up with our display and if all goes accordingly we will be modifying seats there also.
This past week business has really started picking up. We stay pretty busy about all year with November and December being our slowest time and January through August being our busiest. Currently we are booking around 1 1/2 weeks out which isn't too bad and I have planned on bringing in another upholsterer this year. I have known Steve Belcher for about 6 or 7 years and this past year I started bringing him in part time to get familiar with what we do better. Steve has around 20 years of upholstering experience and will be a big asset to our team. He also rides and understands what makes a good sitting motorcycle seat.
Emails. If you send me allen@meancitycycles.com a email and you do not get a reply try sending emailing me at meancitycycles@bellsouth.net. I reply to every email I get which this week was just over 150 emails. I still hear that some people do not get my replies and this has to be due to a spam filter catching them. The meancitycycles@bellsouth.net account don't seem to have this problem. Also be sure your email reply address is correct, I get 5-10 returned emails stating that the email account isn't a active account or some other type of error. If you do not get a reply in 24 hours I would say that there is a email problem of some sort. Usually I reply within 4-6 hours of receiving a email and normally it is quicker than that.
My last thing to touch base on before I finish this update. We are getting around 20-30 calls a day right now and this will be picking up over the next few months. We have added another phone line to help handle the calls. Our three phone numbers are 828-428-1521, 828-428-1535 and our toll free number is 866-550-SEAT(7328) Hopefully this will help keep people off hold better and allow us to get through more callers a day.
Okay, that will do it for this week and it’s time for me to get back to work.
Till next time be safe and enjoy the ride.
12/22/08
Another Christmas is upon us and I hope you all have your Christmas shopping done. As usual I am running behind on mine and I was hoping to get it completed today and the way the day has been I won't.
The shop will be closed December 24th -28th for Christmas and we will be closed January 1st only for New Years. So if you have any questions it would be best to email me during that time frame. The biggest question we are getting right now is what dates are we booking. Currently we are booking the Friday after New Years but most likely everyone calling after Christmas will have to book the first full week of January.
I want to say thanks to all our customers. I would say 99% of our business comes in by word of mouth and that really means a lot to me knowing that our customers are that happy with their seats that they would recommend us to their friends and fellow riders.
I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. This will be my last what's new of 2008. 2008 has been a good and a extremely challenging year for us. I want to thank everyone who has helped out here at the shop over the past year. Robbie, Brent, Mike, Steve, Dalynda and yes even that old guy Ed.
Till next year ride safe and enjoy the ride. Merry Christmas everyone.
12/06/2008
With Thanksgiving behind us things are starting to pick up and once we get past Christmas the ball will be rolling again big time. We are already scheduling over a week and a half out and as we get closer to the new year most likely it will get a little further out. Why I am saying this? Well, everyone always ask when is the best time to schedule and right now is the best time.
Before you fill out the modification order form be sure you hit the refresh button to ensure you are seeing the correct prices. The correct prices are posted on the seat modification page but for some reason there are a few people getting different prices on the order form and this should be corrected by hitting the refresh button. I apologize for any confusion this has caused and we will certainly be more than happy to over the pricing on the phone or via email.
To better serve our customers we have added two new phone lines this past week. One is a fax line and the other is another direct line. The new direct line is 828-428-1535.
We finished up several custom cover jobs this week and will be updating the custom covers page short with these. I am also working on some really cool new things we will be adding to the line up.
I want to invite everyone with a myspace page to join us and be our friends. MCC's myspace page is myspace.com/meancitycycles Its nothing fancy but we have to start somewhere.
Till next time be safe and enjoy the ride.
11/28/2008
I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. It was nice getting to sleep in Thursday and while we didn't have the traditional turkey we had a Honey Baked Ham...Mmmm.
First thing I want to talk about the shop this week is our newest employee. As many of you know who follow the weekly updates we have had a hard time keeping a good sewer and while many of the sewers we have had were not really cut out for motorcycle seats we have had a couple that were up to the task but they never gave us a good chance to build the cover end of the business up to where it needs to be to carry a full time sewer. I have been doing a lot of the sewing the past couple of months but there is some sewing that I just don't have my skills honed enough to perform. Well, I feel like the search for a reliable person who has the skills is over. So let me welcome Dalynda to the team. She has been sewing for a long time but never a motorcycle seat till a couple weeks ago and man she is knocking these things out of the ball park. Her attention to detail is just amazing and I feel we are going to be getting well known for our custom covers also and not just our seat rebuilding.
While we are talking about covers I have some even more exciting news to put out. I have 2 local sources for the vinyl and leather we use on the seats. I also have been using one internet source for some of the vinyl because the local guys just don't seem interested in carrying or supplying what we want. Well, a couple weeks ago I found another source of leather and this is by far the best selection of leather I have ever run across and the quality is second to know. I have made this company our main supplier of leather and we are now using only the finest Italian and German leather that is available. We can get just about any color imaginable. We also have gator and ostrich embossed leather. Being able to offer these leathers is going to be huge for us and best yet this is going to give our customers a excellent quality leather that others only wish they had.
2009 will mark our 5th year in business and I want to thank all our previous customers for spreading the word about us. This past year the local dealerships have really taken notice and have been sending in a good amount of work and big thanks goes out to them for doing this. It gives me a warm fuzzy feeling when I walk into a dealership and salesman tells me that a customer he sent in stopped by to thank him for telling them about us and how happy they are with their new seat, that just makes my day.
I try to keep up with what other guys in the business are doing and what materials they are using. I have been noticing a good number of new guys coming in which is great but what concerns me is the quality of foam they are using. Most of these new guys don't have much experience working with foams and are using Ebay memory foam mattress pads which is cheaply made and does not have the correct properties for motorcycle seats and in my honest opinion I wouldn't even use them on a bed because they are just too soft. The memory foam we use is made for sitting on. It won't break down, even if it gets wet. We use the best memory foam money can buy and that is no lie. It is a stand alone foam, meaning we can go all the way down to the seat pan and your not going to sink through it where the foam from Ebay will let you sink through it quickly. One question we do get a lot of is the foam thermopedic? Yes, all real memory foam is thermopedic because all real memory foam is a temperature sensitive. So where is this lesson in memory foam going you ask? I read a lot of different message boards and there is always one or two guys who jump in the seat threads talking about how their memory foam seat broke down after a short use. Well, it is like this. If you use cheap foam that is not designed to do a certain job then it is going to fail, period. If you use the correct foam you will enjoy the seat for a long, long time. Currently, I have several guys with seats we did 4-5 years ago that are still riding their original modified seats and have over 50,000 miles on them and I just got word this week we have one rider who has over 100,000 miles on his seat and he told me it is even better now than it was when he first got it back. Thanks for letting me know Mark about this milestone.
Till next time be safe and enjoy the ride.
11/17/2008
Another wild week behind us and things are really picking up early this year. Currently we are booking the first week of December and hopefully things will continue. With the holiday season quickly approaching us I do want to say we will be closed Thanksgiving day and will only be open the Friday after Thanksgiving till noon.
5 years ago when I started Mean City Cycles I had no idea that it would have become what it is today. I started out doing these modifications for friends and the word has really spread throughout the motorcycle industry. It just amazes me that we are where are and looking into the future things really look great for MCC. It is really surreal the things that happened and how much things have grown. We are in the December issue of American Bagger magazine in the Buyer's guide for Holiday gift ideas.....how cool is that? I think it freaking ROCKS! And I think we are going to be in the January issue of VTwin magazine...I think. These guys don't tell you when your going to in them you just kind of show up. I knew we were going to be in a issue of American Bagger but I didn't know we were in it till a customer called to schedule and said he read about us in the magazine so I started looking for the issue and finally got a copy this past Friday.
I am sure I will say this again as I have in the past, thanks to all who have made MCC a success. I have been approached many times in the past about advertising and the cost is unbelievable but the best advertising we have ever gotten is the word of mouth advertising our customers give us. Thank you all for making MCC what it is.
Till next time be safe and enjoy the ride.
11/09/2008
Where is this year going? Man time is flying by and the next riding season will be upon us quickly. I am looking at the dates for next years rallies and trying to figure out if we are going to go to any of them. The biggest factor that I am looking at is the cost of setting up at these events. I already have a few on the list that I feel pretty confident we will be at but none of the major ones yet. We were almost ready to commit to this past Myrtle Beach Fall Rally when the Myrtle Beach city council decided to raise permit cost and install a bunch of crazy laws against bikers and that tells me they don't want our money so I am having a hard time on committing to any thing in Myrtle Beach. Just to give you a brief glimpse at the cost involved in setting up in Myrtle Beach. If were to setup at the Myrtle Beach Harley Davidson dealership it would cost us $5400 plus $800 in permits. This would be the ideal location because everybody goes to the dealership. The other location I have looked at is Colonial mall and the cost there is $3400 plus the $800 for the city permits. So we would be looking at either $6200 or $4200 to setup and folks we will have to work our asses off to pay for those spots. Also, those do not include fuel to and from the event or a place to rest our heads at night and we all know the hotels jack the prices up big time for the rallies so that would probably be another $1500-2500 for that. And if we would go and set up there are no guarantees that we will even break even and I am not a big gambler so I doubt seriously if we will make any of the big events because Sturgis is even higher as well as Daytona. But if there is anyway we can financially make one or all we certainly will do what we can.
I have mentioned the past week or two that this is our slow time of the year. November is usually the slowest but we are staying pretty busy this year and the phone has really been ringing the past couple of weeks with people scheduling which has really been surprising but good. We are already booking slots in January right now but we do have a few spots open in the later weeks of November and in December.
I do want to give a shout out to the local shops that have been spreading the word about us. J.E.'s Honda Motorcycles has sent us a lot of business this past year, and Blue Ridge Harley Davidson has sent us a good amount of work. It surprises me that any dealership would do this but we are thankful these guys have such high regard about our work. There are also some other dealerships that aren't local and unfortunately I cannot remember these dealerships names off hand.
I am going to add a links page and it should be up in the next few weeks. We have a lot of different websites that link to us and I really need to return the favor to these guys and gals.
Last but certainly not least. THANK YOU to all our previous customers for spreading the word. Without you guys and gals doing this Mean City Cycles wouldn't be where it is today and everybody is spreading the word. It seems everyone who is scheduling says we have read about you here or there or a previous customer of yours rides with me and he told me to call to get my seat done. So I want to thank everyone for spreading the word.
Till next time be safe and enjoy the ride.
11/03/2008
This past week was a very busy week scheduling and was almost full song as we are in the summer months which is great and we are keeping the turn around time and scheduling time down right now which is also good.
This past weekend we held our 2nd annual VTX Tech Session and had a great turn out. We open up the use of the shop and let fellow VTX rider's bring in their bikes and learn how to do different types of maintenance and repairs. This consist of basic oil changes to changing the neck bearings and fork springs, pair valve removal and about anything you can think of. Last year we had 8 bikes and this years size doubled to 16 bikes at the highest point. After the session was over I led 11 bikes up to Iron Thunder beside Blue Ridge Harley Davidson for some good food and a cold beer or two. I want to thank everyone who came out and participated in the event. I especially want to thank the companies who donated door prices.
I am open to holding these for any bike makes and models so if you and your friends want a place to meet up and have a shop to use let me know and we'll arrange a day and time when we can do this.
A quick thing on our warranty. I don't have anything written on the site and there are several reasons why. The first reason, we stand behind our work 100%. If you aren't comfortable then we are going to make it right for you and get you as comfortable as we can and we bend over backwards trying our best to do this. The reason I started Mean City Cycles was to help my fellow riders save money from having to buy the expensive after market seats and that has been our goal since the beginning and it hasn't changed and won't change. The second reason and I hate to say this but there are people out there who will take advantage of it and have. We are here to help before and after the sale so please do not hesitate to contact us if we miss the target because we do want you to be comfortable plain and simple.
Till next time be safe and enjoy the ride.
