WeaponZeroI live in PA where the MSF class is supported by the state and is free, so local dealers don’t have anything to do with it. Everyone takes it regardless as a result.
As far as markup is concerned, the only place I’ve found that isn’t a total ripoff is Cycle Gear. They do come close to matching online prices, but all the other places I’ve been to charge up to 50% more over online prices. I even had one guy at a dealer flat out tell me I’d be better off buying online than buying from them when I asked him to look up how much it would be to order something they didn’t have in stock. The extra cost was like $50 more on an item that, online, didn’t even break $100 for the price. Dealerships around here (and I’ve been to quite a few) are a complete and total ripoff when it comes to accessories and apparel. About the only exception I’ve seen was on gloves where they ONLY charge $10-$20 more than what online retailers sell them for. And as far as “qualified service personnel” goes, I have never in my experience of dealing with dealerships met with ANYONE who is as helpful and as courteous and knowledgable as the guys on the phone at sportbiketrackgear.com. They have done more to help me over the phone with service and questions than any place I have been to in person.
Also I really like the fact that sportbiketrackgear is very picky about what brands they carry and why they refuse to sell brands such as Joe Rocket. I asked Brian Van in an e-mail once why they don’t sell Joe Rocket and he sent me a long reply telling me the story of Joe Rocket’s “Fall From Grace” years ago when they started outsourcing production to sweatshops overseas and how quality sank as a result, how the original founders abandoned the company to start out fresh with the Speed & Strength line to put that whole mess behind him, and how Speed & Strength is far superior to the current incarnation of JR in terms of quality. I found it great that he knew that much about it and was willing to take the time to tell me the full story about what happened in detail.
