Motorcycle Stores

So you’re probably looking to make a purchase through Motorcycle Accessories Supermarket (MCAS) but want to read reviews first.

After all, it’s your hard-earned money at play here. You want to know if the customer service and their reputation stacks high.

Because sometimes you’ll come across stores with the cheapest pricing, yet they let their customers down on the back end.

Through our unbiased review of MCAS, we’ll let you know if they’re worth spending your dollars with. We have no commercial relationship with this Australian online parts store and aren’t paid for our reviews.

Let’s begin.

MCAS Review

Motorcycle Accessories Supermarket exists across several Australian cities and states. Those in Sydney and Brisbane are well served and it’s one of the most common places where we can buy our gear online.

They stock a wide range of accessories, tools, spare parts and gear for a great day out there on the trails. All the big brands are there including some small brands too, except for Frontaer. As we build our brand, we expect to be on the shelves real soon.

Compared to most other motorcycle stores, the reviews for Motorcycle Accessories Supermarket are surprisingly quite high. Why? Because they have the customer experience down pat.

One of the biggest issues with these online retailers is that you aren’t dealing with someone face-to-face. You can’t even be sure if they’re actually genuine motorcycle riders. Compare this to MCAS and it’s apparent that they actually ride. Simply look in the staff carpark and you’ll see that most staff actually ride their bike to work – rain, hail or shine!

Negative Experiences

Guess what? Not everyone has a positive experience and that’s true of MCAS. While the vast majority do have a great experience, some people just don’t. That said – these are minor as a percentage than compared to what their online reviews represent.

When someone gets good service, it’s unlikely that they’ll share that experience online. When someone gets bad service, then all hell generally breaks loose. Given the anonymous nature of the internet, anyone can log in and share some bad experience to ‘warn’ all their friends and family.

It’s natural given the nature of motorcycle riders and typically we see this with the MX crew. That said – some bad experiences do happen and this is the case with all distributors.

Motorcycle Accessories Supermarket does have a higher proportion of positive reviews and this is due to their mostly offlline status. They haven’t quite progressed to mostly doing their business online and thus, people are more likely to leave a positive reviews when dealing with real staff members.

In short, do take bad experiences with a grain of salt and realize that it’s impossible to keep everyone happy in the real world, despite our best intentions as humans.

Phone Ahead

It’s always best to phone ahead to check availability of stock before driving in (or better…riding in!) to a store near you. Sometimes the system isn’t so accurate.

Given the distribution and numerous stores in each state, they can actually advise you if another store has stock. This is helpful so you don’t get the run around…and they sometimes move stock between stores.

So our pro-tip is to call ahead especially if it’s a crucial part that you need for this weekend’s cruise that you’ve been planning for a while.

In Closing

Like all motorcycle stores, you can’t keep every single customer happy. It’s a tough-enough challenge running the daily operations of a motorcycle-related business. We should know! Frontaer is a constant work in progress.

Of all the stores we’ve found across Australia, MCAS has given has the best experience so far across 2 stores that we visited. This is our personal experience and yes, others may differ, but we’re willing to bet that you’d have a great experience too.

Yet as we say, phone ahead first and their helpful staff can point you in the right direction.

MX Megastore is well known among dirt bike riders in North America, and here’s our opinion in this unbiased review.

After all, we have no commercial relationship with this brand and are simply sharing our experiences and opinion.

We’ll give you the low down on their ratings. Let’s begin.

MX Megastore Review

Have you been looking to buy online but are worried about negative reviews? It can certainly stop you from wanting to head to the checkout section.

Fortunately, with MX Megastore, the buyers are very impressed with the service. Currently they rank at 4.7 stars at their Wisconsin store and that number has been built over several years. While they rank lower on Facebook, it’s only marginally lower. So it’s clear that this company is doing something right.

Unlike most big-name motorcycle stores who try to serve so many people, MX Megastore chooses to do things different. If you’re a dirt bike or motocross rider, then you’ll be well served here. Even ADV riders might find what they’re looking for…but not all the time. Clearly this is a haven for MX riders nationally.

The well-known featured brands such as Thor, Fox, Klim, Alpinestars and Bell are found here. In fact, there’s so many other brands too that you’ll inheritly find what you’re searching for in most cases. Many parts and MX tools are also in stock as well as discount deals held often. Have you seen their $1 goggles and T-shirt offers? They are sensational!

Now, there is some snowmobile and water sports gear in stock but this isn’t their main focus. MX is at the core of their range to help fellow riders either start or continue their journey in the sport.

What They Do Well

As we’ve outlined, MX Megastore has really dialed in to what they do well. They haven’t tried to market towards all types of motorcycle riders and they lost most of them along the way. After all, it’s hard to be all things to all people out there.

If you want to build a business, you should segment down instead of being broad. They clearly know this lesson well. You’ll find them sponsoring MX events including children’s events. This is great as they can keep the costs down for both the sponsors and the competitors, some of which are funded by their own parents.

Their reputation is built on the fact that they know motocross very well. If you need a hand with something – either in store or online – then their reps are very helpful and can point you in the right direction. Essentially, you won’t have to read many blogs first before going in store.

As a result, you’ll find many customer testimonials posted on their social media profiles. This is a testament to the amount of work that they’ve done here in this space.

Negative Reviews

To be fair – not everyone is happy. This is true of any motorcycling company as the end-user demands excellence. Now – there is always a skew in the portion of positive to negative experiences.

When people get a good experience, they are less likely to share it. With a bad experience, they’ll tell the entire world about it. Thus, you’ll find people being negative and somehow believe that this is a large proportion, which it isn’t.

Essentially, you should take negative reviews with a grain of salt and recognize that most people do have a good experience. It could have been just 1 staff member that was having a bad day that has since left this store.

In Summary

We believe in supporting the little stores instead of the large corporate businesses. MX Megastore has been built by racers and for racers. They have some of the best deals around in business and you’ll easily find what you’re searching for.

With new apparel arriving daily, and with more brands being added each month, we do look forward to seeing Frontaer on the shelves real soon.

Cycle Gear is a popular online motorcycling store that we felt would be good to provide an unbiased review towards.

After all, we have no commercial relationship with this distributor and are simply sharing our own opinion.

Let’s begin.

Cycle Gear Review

Generally speaking, most riders are buying their gear online these days. It’s so much easier to find exactly what you’re looking for and you don’t have sales people in the store hassling you with upsells.

Cycle Gear is one of the numerous marketplaces out there who sell motorcycling gear. In fact, they have almost 1 million people on their online store each and every month. Talk about creating a movement!

Unlike many of the online stores, they didn’t start out this way. They were actually founded in 1974 in California and given the rise of the internet, have transitioned towards online sales.

Their humble beginnings evidently show up on their website. It’s clean and simple and appeals towards road-motorcyclists more than the MX crowd that we’re typical of serving.

And while they have their online presence, there is still physical stores around. In fact, there is close to 100 stores across North America if you don’t want to wait around for your gear to arrive with USPS.

What They Doing Well

Good old-fashioned values of customer service and honest pricing is one that they’re doing well. While that’s evident in the stores, you’ll also find that online too with excellent shipping rates which are often bulk discounted.

If you need help shopping parts for your particular motorcycle, then they certainly can help! Their team all ride motorcycles so they know more of the specifics involved.

What we really love is their adventure riding gear. As fellow adventure riders, we often find slim pickings in most stores but Cycle Gear has clearly put their best foot forward here. With popular brands in stock, you’ll almost always find what you’re looking for…and we look forward to seeing Frontaer on the shelves real soon.

One thing that we’d love to see them improve upon is their YouTube content. Unlike the bigger players such as RevZilla, Cycle Gear has very few subscribers and their content just isn’t as engaging. We do raise these points to be fair, given that we’re doing an unbiased Cycle Gear review here.

They are huge on sponsorships of local events including MX events for kids. This is excellent as it keeps the costs down for both the spectators and the participants, as well as the parents too.

Negative Reviews

Have you read the negative reviews of Cycle Gear? They often sound like “I got screwed around” and while some of those cases are true, they aren’t a true representation of how they actually operate.

You see – when companies like Cycle Gear give excellent service, it’s very rare that a customer will leave a 5-star review. On the flip side, when someone doesn’t have a good experience, they will run to tell the internet about this.

Therefore, the review ratings are skewed and aren’t a true representation of the company themselves. Remember that it’s a small percentage of people who have a bad experience while the rest are receiving the experience that they expected.

In Summary

In a world of eCommerce booming and online purchasing being very popular, it’s companies like Cycle Gear who are doing well with their physical stores and presence nationally. People recognize the brand and understand exactly what they do.

Instead of waiting days or even weeks to get your gear delivered, you can simply head into a store and indeed that’s what thousands of people do each week. While Cycle Gear hasn’t fully embraced the online selling channels, we’re glad to see a store still thriving in the offline space.

Are you about to make a purchase from Partzilla but want to read an unbiased review first?

We’re going to share our opinion as a brand who has no commercial partnership. While Partzilla isn’t part of RevZilla, they are quite similar and serve the same audience.

But you’ll want to know if they’re safe to order from, so let’s begin.

Partzilla Review

Partzilla has been in the business of serving the motorcycling community for many years. Whilst others focus their attention on selling apparel, Partzilla is all about the parts. After all, not all of us have the finances to keep replacing our dirt bikes each and every year.

It’s not just about the 2-wheel community either. They also serve those in the ATV, jet ski and marine world very well. If you need a part, then it’s likely that’ll stock it…even for 15-year-old engines.

While Partzilla is based in the United States, they do have global distribution. This is why you may have landed on their store while being based in say, New Zealand. They certainly ship internationally with delivery times generally being less than 2 weeks.

Essentially, Partzilla is a good distributor though some people have negative experiences. There are complaints about sending the wrong part or shipping times were delayed, though these same issues happen with just about every online merchant these days.

This is why it’s important not to simply look at reviews of Partzilla but to understand:

1. How long they have been in business
2. How much content is on their YouTube channel
3. The brands that they support with parts and accessories
4. Realistic shipping times from their distribution centres

They’re simply not as quick as Amazon in some cases and when you want parts urgently, you may wish to choose express shipping and pay the premium rates.

What They Doing Well

What we see them doing very well is their content. For a parts store, there happens to be more than 70,000 subscribers on their YouTube channel which is surprising.

They’ll teach you how to rebuild engines in both English and Spanish, or do small jobs like oil changes and fitting new spark plugs. It’s quite engaging and helpful.

Every their ads are well produced:

The stock they range is impressive and parts are clearly labelled. In addition, they have robust warehouse fulfillment system to ensure parcels aren’t getting lost or put on the wrong truck.

Clearly this company is doing things very well.

What Could Improve

Have you found some negative reviews about Partzilla? It’s quite evident that people are unhappy with their service with customer complaints easily found online.

Unfortunately, it isn’t telling the whole story. You see – many people have positive experiences with Partzilla and actually don’t leave feedback online.

On the flip side, you have a small percentage of people who have a bad experience and run to the internet to tell their story. Perhaps it was a shipping delay, the wrong part sent or they got messed around. These things happen occasionally and things like missing freight and outside the responsibility of Partzilla.

Essentially, there is a skew in the data and ratings for this company. If more people relayed their experiences, then this company would be closer to 5 stars. So they could put more improvement into increasing these ratings.

In Summary

Partszilla has been around for years and stocks tens of thousands of parts for all types of motorcycle and marine engines. With global distribution, they serve millions of customers each and every year.

Are they the cheapest in town? Not always, but they have the widest range with very helpful staff who know their stuff. There aren’t too many others who have built such a good platform as Partzilla, and certainly one place we’ll continue to order from again and again.

Are you looking to buy from Bike Bandit but a little concerned? We’ve written this unbiased review to help you move forward.

We’re a motorcycle brand and like you, enjoy getting out there behind the handlebars instead of behind the keyboard.

We have no commercial relationship with this brand and we don’t get paid for our reviews. We just feel a genuine need to provide our opinion as an emerging brand in the ADV riding world.

BikeBandit Review

It’s really hard to keep everyone happy online. Generally speaking, there will always be a sub-segment of people who have negative experiences with a marketplace or product.

And you know what happens when such experiences happen? They blast the internet with negativity. They somehow need to let the world know how they were wronged.

Bike Bandit is unfortunately one of those victims too. Most of their customers have excellent experiences yet won’t tell the world, while Bike Bandit’s negative customer experiences are mostly made up of those who had a bad experience.

And what is a ‘bad experience’? Generally a shipping delay or lost parcels. They use 3rd parties to deliver their stock and some stuff does inheritly go missing, just as you would order through Amazon or any other marketplace.

What They Doing Well

There are actually a lot of things which Bike Bandit is doing well. For starters, their staff all rider motorcycles. This is important as they can recommend the right gear for you as fellow riders.

We also really enjoy their content creation yet they could do better. Check out their YouTube channel for great content although we enjoyed RevZilla and Rocky Mountain much more.

Their brutal honesty is compelling and they clearly know their craft very well. Clearly riders at heart who keep the industry moving along.

On their website you’ll find plenty of gear, spare parts, tools and accessories. They’re well stocked but don’t always have everything that you’re looking for. On that same token, the giants like RevZilla tend to sell out first which brings customers over to BikeBandit.

All in all, they are certainly one of the better stores to buy gear these days.

The Underdog in the Motorcycling World

BikeBandit is certainly the underdog and one that could rise much higher. Their channel views and social media followers are certainly on the low side.

That said – there’s power in supporting the underdog instead of the corporate giants in the industry. It just feels more like a family operation as opposed to something huge.

Such smaller distributors also let brands such as Frontaer step up to the plate and distribute through their platforms much more easily. As a brand, we’d stand little chance with some of the bigger distribution channels unfortunately.

In Summary

Would we recommend BikeBandit? Absolutely. Is everyone happy? Not quite, but their reputation is strong and improving each and every day.

It’s difficult (or rather, impossible) to please everyone in the space, and so keep in mind the negative experiences aren’t the perfect snapshot of customers in general.