Where do I get aftermarket motorcycle parts in Portland?
Ted Mittelstaedt
I can walk into dozens of auto parts stores in the Portland area and
there's
a shelf of oil filters by Purolator, Fram and others for cars.
Where can someone do the same thing for motorcycles? I've got a Honda 750
and
I can go to Beaverton Honda and spend $8.50 for a factory oil filter, or I
can
go online and get an EMGO oil filter for $2.50 plus shipping. But none of
the dealers sell EMGO, they sell the factory overpriced filters. And none
of
the motorcycle repair shops have a shelf of filters nor are they really
interested
in dealing parts, and I don't blame them, they make their money off service,
not
parts sales.
Is there any "motorcycle retailer" in the city that simply sells retail
motorcycle
accessories and aftermarket parts? It would seem to me that there would be
some
money to be made doing this. There certainly is in the auto market. But,
it seems
like the motorcycle dealerships are all affiliated with one of the factories
(Honda,
Kawasaki, Harly Davidson, etc.) and because of that won't sell aftermarket
parts.
I'd be perfectly contented if I could walk into a store and buy an oil
filter off the
shelf for my bike for $4.99, the same way I can for my car. But where can I
do this?
I certainly am not going to continue paying the Honda dealer $8.50 for one
that is
constructed of exactly the same materials and design as a $2.50 aftermarket
filter.
And it's not like Fram, Champion and the other major car aftermarket parts
manufacturers don't make oil filters for bikes, all of them do. But none of
the
parts places that sell the car filters stock them, and if I were to have
them order
the filter I might as well do it myself from an online retailer.
Despite reports to the contrary, some of us still change our own oil in
our own
vehicles!
Ted