This is a bit of a bump, but I was having a laugh at some of this.

I'm over KRudd or anyone telling us to take a hit, spend your money here/there, guilt trip and spin etc. Why? So I have less of the folding stuff and someone else pockets more? Ridiculous. As people and individuals we should be thinking microeconomically. Let the dicks in charge stick their shoddy protectionist tariffs here/there/everywhere to manipulate the macro. You can avoid most of these on Ebay for starters. And you're helping the balance-of-trade deficit figure out too if you do hehehe.

That said I am happy to state that what we don't use, we lose. Buy your meat and groceries from supermarkets and it's bye-bye boutique butchers and green grocers -cheap n nasty v a premium for quality. However, given that anything Harley-Davidson is an imported product to Australia, how much sympathy would you have for stores here feeling the gripes listed above? HD products in this case are entirely different matters.

Probably why Australia has hybrid HD dealerships (like peter stevens) here selling jappers and italians and triumph as well - they diversify their stock, and its a necessity. Foolish trading with only HD eggs in one basket. These dealers shouldn't ever be crying as they're not dumb and know they have the monopoly on selling HD bikes, so with the reason $AUD drop, they pass on the currency lost at their list price on their new bikes. It might slow sales a little, but their margins are protected. And besides, where else you gonna import a bike by your lonesome? The MoCo won't sell to you direct.

A better strategy for these stores is to quietly jack up their accessory fitting/assistance to include the loosely termed 'bastard tax' - an extra hit/premium for the customer for the nuisance involved with fitting a product bought elsewhere. Thus, buying the accessory from the fitter sees the penalty foregone and gives a 'virtual discount'.

Telling potential customers to 'fuck off' is stupid business practice when they're willing to be paying for your service (and build rapport), even if you missed out on a sale earlier in time. In fact, this sort of hoopla is why HD franchise dealerships are avoided wherever possible by most owners.

Use the "fuck-off", or better, insist on your services - if people only want free advice. First rule of business: don't do something unless you can charge and make a buck for it. Its called 'value-added'. The banks are masters of it.

Moral: Sorry to sounds like Terry McCrann however if you can get it cheaper somewhere - go for it, naturally accepting that you are open to the risk of all things Ebay. If you can't fit it, someone wise enough somewhere will surely sell you their time and experience to help out. And don't feel too bad for Au$$ie John's HD-Only Imported Acce$$ories Store if his enterprise goes bad - unless you're a shareholder!