Bonneville America Forums Forums Off Topic Discussion Forums Lounge TULSA DEALER CLOSED

The Tulsa dealer closed his doors this month. after some problems with finances and audits by manufacturers, he had to sell. Still no word on who bought him out. He should have taken my offer to buy his Triumph line a couple of years ago. I'm glad that I never relied on him to do any service work........ANGELIS

I think someone will get the Triumph line thats what I have heard,no idea on the BMW part of it, guess OKC is the place to go for those.
WE should see something by early next spring,from what I been told a local bike shop will probably get it set up and going...I sure hope so!

Wow...Was that Atlas? I didn't know they closed. I moved to OKC a couple of months ago from Tulsa and used to go in there just to look around. Almost bought a Trident from one of the guys there who owed the bike personaly. I bought my Speedmaster from the one Triumph dealer near Oklahoma City-Performance Cycles in Bethany.

Bob

Yeah, I rode by there and there is a for sale sign on the property. Kind of sad. Atlas was there for many years, ever since I came to town in 1984 from Colorado.

I have no clue what happened in Tulsa, but one might guess it wasn't because they were selling too many units, or making too much profit.

It would seem Triumph has an uphill battle trying to notch out a market share from the other players. One would think they would be working overtime to get their brand out into the market's face. Tain't so. I even believe Triumph has that 'cool' thing going on, where they could get non-customers to fly their flag, and turn it into a promtional synergy, like the OCC guys have going on. People who don't know a motorcycle from a wrist watch fly the OCC flag for them, and even pay for the privelege. Phew! Remember also the surf fetish clothing thing a few years ago. O'Neill had hundreds of thousands of non clients wearing their colors. I think Triumph could pull that off, but they would need to cough up some freebies to get it rolling. But that's a story or another day...

In my humble opinion, their lack of promotional skills is fairly damning. One small example - at a recent factory sponsored event, there were zero branded items available for either comp or sale. Nada. Nuttin. Not even a Triumph pencil for 25 cents. Can you imagine going to a Harley factory sponsored event, and seeing no Harley logo'd gee gaws? Love 'em or hate 'em, Harley knows one thing extremely well - how to market.

How can you build brand when you all but hide the company colors? When was the last time you spotted a Triumph bumper sticker? Me neither.

I personaly think Triump is off their rocker for what they want to opena dealership.. It would cost me almost 3 million dollars to sell and srvice Triumps at my store.. Not to mention wat I would have to pay in extra marketing and so on.

Oh geez Martin, you DO realize that you've now opened up a whole "Pandora's Box" here, and that you're sure to get all the people who think that owning a Triumph is "mainly cool" because they're so few and far between, are now going to post on this thread, don't cha???

I mean, personally I AGREE with ya ol' buddy, BUT can't you see what you've done NOW with all of this "Triumph sure doesn't know how to promote their product" talk is sure to be the next (and old) "controversy" here.(you know, we don't like "ruffling feathers" around here anymore)

O' course, "simple little things" like SHOP CLOSINGS 'cuz maybe they can't sell enough units to be a viable enterprise, or being a TRIUMPH dealer but having to take on other brands (and duluting the core business) in attempts to keep one's dealership from failing financially have no bearing on this issue at all, do they???

(boy, I sure love this here sarcasm crap, don't I?!...usually get's my point across pretty well though)

That is sad about Tulsa. I have never been up that way, but it was nice to know that there was at least one more dealer in the state. Performance Cycle has been my Triumph connection and they are a great bunch of guys. Their floor traffic would also suggest that they will be around for a long time, but they also sell Suzuki. It would be interesting to know what the difference in numbers between those brands is for thier store. I would also have to agree on the whole marketing thing. However, it is interesting to note that along with some movies featuring Triumph bikes, one of the main characters in the Unit is often wearing Triumph t-shirts but does not own a bike. Maybe they are beginning a push.

The problem they had was marketing Triumph no advertising nothing,no accessories,no parts on and on.When I bought my 2002 TBA there nobody knew nothing about the bike,it took me a few weeks to find this website and finally shed some light on what I had just bought.
The owner was more interested in selling BMWs,Ducatis,Aprillias,Moto Guzzis and the Triumph line was most of the time in back of the store,finally when the R3 came out they finally had a place in the stores line up.
I just hope we get a good dealer that can finally market a great bike and have a service department to back it up..

Donny you're exacly right. I used to go into the Tulsa Atlas dealership and all I could really see when I walked in was wall to wall BMWs and Ducatis. A few Triumphs were near the back of the sales floor. I think they were the Speed Triples but they were flanked on both sides by Ducati Monsters. I guess they didn't sell that many Triumph Bonnevilles etc. or they just made a better profit on the BMWs and Ducs. I am glad to have the Performance cycle dealer in OKC where I got my bike because as stated before they are good people and seem to be pushing the Triumph line of cruisers and accesories just as much or more than their Suzuki line.

Bob

BMW was the number 1 selling european bike for awhile, but Triumph has been steadily growing and has now surpassed the other european brands. ........ANGELIS