My son is a new rider and looking for some gear. He wants a leather jacket but hasn't had much luck in finding anything local. The CG in Santa Rosa use to have a good selection of leather jackets but now it's all Bilt & Sedici. He bought a pair of Bilt gloves and the gauntlet strap pulled off the first time he went to strap it. I had him return that crap and gave him a pair of my gloves to borrow until he finds something he likes. I was thinking we'd take a day to hit some of the larger stores. I was thinking about hitting the Daniese Store in SF to window shop, I think Daniese leather is out of his budget but would give him a good idea of how nice they are. Then hit up Scuderia West and maybe head down to Road Rider. I haven't been to Road Rider before, how is the selection, are they the largest A* dealer around? If you were doing a trip from the North Bay are those the stores you'd hit, any others worth checking out?
I know up here, we are kind of limited. Northbay Motorsports is a large shop, but their gear selection could be better. But hey, they can discount stuff.
Santa Rosa Powersports has a small selection along with G&B and Cycle West in Petaluma.
Only place that seems to have a decent selection of gear is Michael's....Harley Davidson in Cotati....if you need/want things all Harley in your life.
Then you have other shops like Santa Rosa Vee-twin, The Motorcycle Shop, etc that have SOME gear.
I'm sure any place can order what you need just make sure they have a good return/exchange policy.
As for using stores as a fitting service, that's on the stores for not being competitive or not willing to price match online. Yes, I get the idea of overhead, possible re-seller restrictions, and thin margins so let's not start there.
With shipping not always free and internet sales tax, doing that routine will reduce the idea of using stores as a fitting service and hopefully more people shop in store. I know I have recently. :teeth
