I recently purchased a BMW R1200GS. I spent a lot of time researching accessories for the new bike. Touratech seemed like the perfect company!
I live in Vancouver, BC, so I decided to ride to Seattle so I could get help in person. When I walked into the shop, no one seemed too excited to help. When someone did come talk to me, I told them about my new bike and how I was looking to get kit for it.
The salesperson was very helpful at this point. He started going through the list of accessories that would be helpful for my needs. We decided on crash bars, cylinder head guards, fuel line guards, throttle potentiometer guard, oil cooler protector and a headlight guard. He offered a few other suggestions, but I was reaching my budget limit. I also purchased a pair of Sidi Adventure Rain Boots. After about 15 minutes in the store, I was looking at a $1500 bill.
The salesperson asked if I was going to strap everything to the bike for the ride back. During my research on the website, I saw a video of the president, Tom Myers, talking about the "thousands of enthusiasts" he sees bolting things on their bikes. He talks about how the clients ask for tools and Touratech provides them, as well as help and advice on installing them. The video can be found at http://www.touratech-usa.com/Adventure/Blog/Jscajh/Essential-Accessories-for-BMW-R1200GS
When I asked for the tools, the salesperson was happy to provide them and also provided Loctite for the job. As far as help and advice went, I received very little. The only reason I received help is because I asked for it several times. Another client was also having difficulty attaching items to his bike also seemed to receive very little help. I heard the salesperson state they were very busy inside and if it were any other day, it would have been better.
The instructions provided with the products were not very clear. The black and white photos were hard to see and the written instructions assume you have a lot of knowledge about how motorcycles are constructed. I do not.
After a few hours of frustration, I rode away with the crash bars, cylinder head guards and throttle potentiometer guard installed and everything else in my panniers. I'll try to put those on at a later date when my frustration levels have gone down!
The products themselves seem excellent. I am looking forward to testing them out with my new bike!
I guess I expected more from the shop than I should have. I could have saved myself several hours of travel simply by ordering from their website. In the end, I would have achieved the same results! read more