Mid-Life Rider

I started wandering in and out of Ride West, the Seattle BWM dealer long before I bought one of their bikes.  The truth is that I wander in and out of a lot of bike shops, but there was and is something different about Ride West.  Everyone is just that much friendlier.  The place is that much better merchandised.  It’s all the little stuff.

Along the way I bought a lot of gear there and then late last year, I “drank the koolaide” and bought one of the mighty K-Bikes.

I’ve known Dave Swezey, the manager, casually for the last year of so.  Ride West is a very involved sponsor of two track days that I teach through Puget Sound Safety so we’ve met and talked along the way.  Without taking anything from Dave, he’s like a lot of people I’ve met in the business: Passionate about motorbikes and the people who ride them.  It’s one of the best parts about any enthusiasm  — it’s just different walking into a bike shop vs. walking into a Home Depot.

Motorbike dealers come in for a full range of commentary.  I know there are some great dealers out there and there are some less than great.  Everyone I know has both kinds of stories.  I’ve mostly had good stories and one of my best leads back to Dave.

A couple of weeks ago I was getting ready to teach one of those track days I just mentioned.  Two days later I was going to go on 2500 mile tour.  The day before all this was to happen I went to the garage to get on my bike to ride to an appointment and nothing.  Wouldn’t start. Something to do with the key antennae.  Whatever.  Still wouldn’t start.

One of the great things about owning a BMW is that there’s an 800 number you call followed by a flatbed showing up less than 90 minutes later.  No charge.  Somewhere in there Dave heard about my problem.  His response was, “We’ll either have your bike ready to go or we’ll put you on a 2009 K-1300 S.”  And they did.  Drats.  I was looking forward to taking that orange beast out on the track.

Which leads me to a conversation I had with Dave just the other day.

Dave, tell me about Ride West.

We have been here for 14 years.  We’ve been a top ten dealers for BMW for ten years.  There are about 150 dealers in the country.  Keith and Anne purchased Buckingham BMW in Green Lake.  It had one of the worst reputations.  They have done an amazing job of being ambassadors for the brand and for motorcycling in general.  Now we have two dealers in top ten (Ride West and South Sound).

When you say top ten . . .

Keith and Anne are absolutely committed to taking care of the employees so they take care of the customers.  It starts at the top.  People talk about doing that, but they really do.  There aren’t two individuals who are as committed to motorcycling as they are.  That commitment flows down to all our employees.

Top ten means new BMW sales.  We were in the top five forever but got pushed down by some big dealers that have grown by doing Authority sales (law enforcement)  We don’t do police sales because Washington isn’t a big market.  For years, all CHP bikes were BMWs.  That’s how we’re ranked by BMW and we think it says a lot about us.

Interestingly we sold more pre-owned bikes in 2008 than new ones.  In this business, if you can do 1:1, that’s incredible.    We may be number one for BMW dealers when it comes to used bikes.  It’s because we take trades.  A lot of dealers don’t like trades.  Any motorcycle we’ll take it in.  If we can’t move it, we’ll get a bid from another dealer.  We took an Aprilia from you when nobody wanted it.  We’ll also take cars, RVs, ORVs, you name it.

We want to make it easy for someone to get onto the bike they want. When you trade a bike in, you get a sales tax credit.  That’s huge!  That means something.

Tell me some things about you.

I’ve been in the business for 30 years.  I started in cars in 1979.  After 22 years I decided to get out.  There was no passion left in the business.  I took some time off, not really knowing what I would do next.

A friend of mine told me about Ride West.  They were looking for someone to do Finance and Insurance.  I said I wasn’t interested.  He kept after me to come talk.  So I finally came in sometime in July 2001 just to look around.  I didn’t say who I was or why I was here.

It was kind of an amazing experience.  Everyone said hello.  Everyone talked and was personable.  It was just a great experience.  So I asked to meet the owners and told them why I was here.

Keith and I chatted for a while and then he disappeared upstairs for a few minutes.  He came back and said, “We ever do this, but I would like you to meet the owner, my boss, my wife . . . “  That’s a heck of a setup if you think about it.  The next thing you know, here I am.  I set up F&I, moved into sales management, and then general management.

It’s been a blast.   I can honestly say that there has never been a day in eight years where I haven’t enjoyed coming to work.  Sure there have been lots of challenges, bt this is a great company, in a great industry, selling great product, with a lot of passion.

How many bikes have you owned?

I started with a moped.  I was a teenage.  I wanted this moped so bad.   The kind you pedal.  I finally bought it and a buddy and I worked on it forever.  We towed it behind a car and did everything we could to finally get it running.

I’ve owned a lot of dirt bikes, some street bikes, some three wheelers.  Then I laid off for awhile.  Got married, sold my toys, had kids.  But I always had a dirt bike or ORV.

I would go down to Oregon and ride the dunes on a three wheeler.  We would have a blast.

When I got back into riding, I bought a Maxim.  Not enough bike.  Not long after I came here and the bikes started flowing.

What I really enjoy now is touring: adventure touring, long distance . . . that’s what I’m passionate about.  Getting out and riding.  Truthfully, I shouldn’t have gotten in the industry if I wanted to ride more.  I have to live vicariously.

My trips aren’t very long, but they’re intense.  My wife isn’t interested in going along.  So I go on very intense, what I call, “reconnaissance trips.”  Like last year I went to the MOA Rally, and road 1100 miles a day two different days.  I just don’t get to stop and enjoy it.  But I cover a lot of ground west of the Rockies.

What have been some of your memorable bikes?

When I really started riding distances was when I started here.  The year after I started, my brother got married in Lake Tahoe.  I was going to fly down.   I looked at Keith and said, what am I thinking?  I should take a bike.  He said, “Sure.”  He gave me some routes down and I took a 1999 R1100 RT.

I did this amazing north/south ride on these amazing roads.  That was the beginning of my love affair with long distance riding.  That bike will go down as the beginning.  That was it.  I have a real wanderlust.

I was never really interested in sports bikes back in the day.  I started with that little Yamaha and rode the wheels off it.  A good bike back then.  I didn’t have a lot of budget.  I didn’t look at a lot of bikes.

On the dirt, I’ve ridden a lot of stuff.  I took out the G450X the other day.  It is a full blown, street legal, dirt race bike!  It brought back a lot of memories.  It also reminded me I’m not in the kind of shape I used to be!

I still snowmobile.  I keep some sleds up in Alaska with a friend.  He’s the same guy I used to ride ORVs in the dunes.  Those were great times.  That was a substitute for not doing street riding.  That was okay with my bride at the time, but I got thrown more times on them than I can count.

Let’s talk about the new bikes . . .

The image of BMW until recently is that they were meant for old, gray haired riders.  Worldwide, BMW has figured out that they’re saturated the market for their kind of bikes.  But the US isn’t that way.  We only have 2% share.  So finally, after the last few years, they’ve started creating new bikes for our market.

Who would have thought they would go from parallel twins to vertical twins, fours, belt drive, etc?

The new superbike was just introduced at Miller Motorsports.  We sent ten people to that, five people went on our bikes.  They had a blast.  We have five deposits.

BMW thinks that the new superbike will be 20% of US sales.  We’ll see the first bike in the fall, and be ready for delivery in January.  I have a pre-production bike with Jason Turner coming to Sport Bike NW.  He’ll be running the bike up and down Maryhill, talking about the bikes, doing some show and tell.

That’s a market we didn’t think BMW would get into.

Talk about the GS market.  Look at the 650, which includes ABS and heated grips.  It’s $8200.  Then there is the F650 twin.  And the 850 GS, which is my bike.  I just did 2400 miles in 2.5 days.  It’s an incredible machine.  I think it is right now the best dual sport bike.  Light.  Nimble.

From there you have the GS and GS adventure.  It’s a full line and the best in the industry.

Then you have touring bikes.  The same thing.  These are awesome bikes.

Then you have the 450.  There’s a bike out there for everyone.  The one exception is that BMW tried the cruiser market and it didn’t go that well for them.  We don’t think they’ll do that again. But who knows?

All these new bikes are exciting.  We needed to reach a different clientele.  That’s healthy.  It’s good for the industry.  There are lots of options out there about BMW. The truth is we’re affordable.  And they’re awesome bikes.

You’re going head to head with the big four.  Those are their very best bikes they make.

BMW announced their attentions at a dealer meeting that they said they were going to go head to head.  The said they wanted to beat them on power to weight and lap times.  So they said to the engineers, “We want to do this, for a 10% premium.  Don’t tell us you can’t do it.”

They’ve done it pretty well.  The electronics and tires may still need some work on the track.  By the time the bike comes out for production, it will be dialed in.  They don’t do anything part way.  They are committed to seeing it through.  A 400 lb bike, competitively priced, with a three-year warranty.  That’s unheard of.  I’m hoping it’s my next bike.  It really redefines BMW in a lot of ways.

It’s 193 hp at 13,000 rpm with dry weight of 403 lbs.  Race ABS, dynamic traction control, and speed shifter.  By the time it is released, it will have a year on the track.  That’s all direct input to the bike.

I’ve ridden the R1200 GS.  You’ve asked me about bikes.  If I could only have one bike, it would be that bike.

Like when I came back from Yosemite and went over Monitor pass.  There was a lookout up a gravel road.  So I just took off up the road to the top.  It was so cool to be able to flog the bike in the twisites and then go flying up a gravel road.  It’s just awesome.

The F800 is lighter, nimble, liquid cooled, wet clutch.  One bike only?  A tough choice.

You’ve ridden most of the good roads west of the Rockies . . .

Here’s what I concentrate on.  With a choice you’ll only see me on two lanes.  I’ve done a lot of them east of the Rockies.

I use a camp half the time, and a motel half the time.  I’m usually the first guy out in the morning and will ride a tank full of gas before breakfast.  Then I ride through a small town and smell the coffee.  I look for the locals, have a cup of coffee and have a great conversation and about the best roads.  It’s amazing what they’ll tell you.

And then I take those roads.

At lunch, I have a snack and have 400 miles under my belt.  I gas up and go.  If I’m camping, I’ll get the last gas of the day, put some ice in a cooler, put some beverages and food in, set up camp and visit with people in the camp ground . . . it’s great conversation.  Because I ride hard and I don’t have a lot of time, I ride alone.

People are always interested in people on a bike, particularly if you’re traveling alone.

I could be passionate about any bike.  Through dumb luck, I fell into BMW.  Everything about these bikes is engineered to fit with what I like to do.  All the technology and safety features.

Everyone has gotten into situations where the conditions are beyond what you expected.  Because of the BMWs, I think I’ve gotten through where I might not have.

Tags: RideWest BMW, South Sound BMW, Dav Sweezy, Puget Sound Safety, Sportbike Northwest, BMW, 800GS, K1200 GS