RE: Wales: Riders in Cardiff closing - 2

Well since M&P appear to have been at least partly instrumental in Riders demise I'm not inclined to give them any of my business if and when they do open here. I haven't had a chance to visit Dick Lovett in Bristol yet, does anyone have experience of them? Anybody know what's happened to Craig and the rest of the team from Riders?

I've no idea who Mouse is I'm afraid. Seems like I'll have to visit Bristol and maybe Cheltenham when the weather improves and I get rid of this stinking head cold. Thanks for the guiding offer!

I bought my bike from Luke at Dick Lovett, great service, totally different from Riders. I went to riders quite a few times and apart from Craig in the service department, most of the staff seemed disinterested and I never had a good feeling there.
As soon as I walked into Dick Lovett I was invited to help myself to a decent coffee and they showed interest without any pressure, gave me a great part ex on my Ducati Hypermotard too even though I wasn't having finance or anything.

i bought a 6-month-old 2015 R1200R but it had a low seat, they swapped it for a regular seat no problem. A few months after buying the bike (I bought a 6 month old one), I had a faulty kill switch and couldn't start the bike. luckily I was at home, I phoned BMW support and there was a bike transport lorry there within 2 hours, took my bike to Bristol and I had it back the next day. They offered me a courtesy car too (I know that's mostly down to BMW support but Dick Lovett kept me up to date and made sure I wasn't without my bike for long).

Thanks for that Luke, encouraging - if we get a nice day next week and I stop croaking I'll tootle over and see what's what (still toying with the thought of an RT....heresy!).

I found Doug, John and the other guys friendly and helpful, it must have been you

Zitat von Yoda im Beitrag #20

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I found Doug, John and the other guys friendly and helpful, it must have been you

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Well I tootled over to Dick Lovett in Bristol today to have a look around. The staff were friendly enough but I found the showroom disappointing compared to the old Riders one. It was full of bikes but not many of them were new and there was a very limited selection of clothing and accessories - I spent £1000s in Riders on clothing, luggage, helmets etc. over the years - a lot because the display was tempting and it was usually easy to try things on. I feel DL are missing a trick there, or maybe Bristolians don't buy much BMW gear?

Zitat von wessie im Beitrag #23

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Zitat von Yoda im Beitrag #22

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Well I tootled over to Dick Lovett in Bristol today to have a look around. The staff were friendly enough but I found the showroom disappointing compared to the old Riders one. It was full of bikes but not many of them were new and there was a very limited selection of clothing and accessories - I spent £1000s in Riders on clothing, luggage, helmets etc. over the years - a lot because the display was tempting and it was usually easy to try things on. I feel DL are missing a trick there, or maybe Bristolians don't buy much BMW gear?

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See, I told you to come to Cheltenham where there are 2 floors of bikes, free coffee and cakes and the new, bigger clothing section should be open now.

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Zitat von wessie im Beitrag #23

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[quote=Yoda|p10945]See, I told you to come to Cheltenham where there are 2 floors of bikes, free coffee and cakes and the new, bigger clothing section should be open now.

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Zitat von Fugly im Beitrag #25

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Zitat von wessie im Beitrag #23

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[quote=Yoda|p10945]See, I told you to come to Cheltenham where there are 2 floors of bikes, free coffee and cakes and the new, bigger clothing section should be open now.

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Sounds like a forum rideout to Cheltenham is in order?
In fact we can stop for coffee and cake on our way back from Somerset

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Since it is a nice sunny afternoon I decided to pop over to suss out MandP in Swansea.

The first thing I discovered is that the ride to the other side of Swansea felt a lot longer than the ride to Bristol yesterday.

The second thing I discovered is that they're not even open yet - "Authorised dealer coming soon" it says in the window. Looks like they have Honda on the same site and HD across the road.

So a visit to Cheltenham is on the cards. However, they are all a heck of a long way to go for someone who used to regularly pop into Riders just for a chat and on the off chance that there would be something interesting there, which there frequently was (the RS purchase was a result of one of those visits).

By forcing them to close BMW have lost any brand loyalty as far as I am concerned. I'm seriously thinking of moving to Triumph. We have a dealer (Bevans) here who were here when I came to Cardiff 53 years ago and are still here. Maybe they will be my next stop.



Thoroughly pissed off.

Thanks for that link, I didn't know about Phil. But I presently have the BMW extended warranty so am stuck with main dealers I guess. As my RS is 4 this year I was toying with changing - I would probably have a new RT from Riders by now if they had still been there. DL advised that any GS ordered after 28th March will be subject to a surcharge of about £500, other bikes will no doubt follow suit and if (when) the pound nosedives I guess it will be worse still.

Back in my previous biking life there were several dealers here who seemed to have been around for a while - Honda and BSA House on City Rd, the aforementioned Bevans who were next to the Angel Hotel opposite the Castle then, Richards Racing and another whose name I can't remember on Whitchurch Rd, and a few others as I recall. I don't know when Riders started here - until I was "born again" and bought my first (of three) BMWs from them 10 years ago I was unaware of their presence.

I live in North East Cardiff with fairly quick access to the M4 (and the A470!) - been to Thunder Road in Bridgend just to have a look around, unless they do shaft drive I'm not interested . Wherever I end up, I'm pretty sure it's not going to be M and P.