Old Riders....But not "Old School"

PB Forum :: Pinkbike Groups
Old Riders....But not "Old School"
Author Message
O+
Posted: Apr 16, 2021 at 6:45 Quote
I have to think Aerodiscs are kind of like carbon brakes or a giant wing - on a supercar, maybe. If you're one of the rare people that is at a track, yes. If you're just driving it go get an espresso once a month (like a lot of these cars) they're ugly. Cool idea though. I like all the aero things that are happening. LIke active aero.

When you see them on a 2008 Hyundai Tiburon is when we hit Peak Aerodisc.

Posted: Apr 16, 2021 at 7:06 Quote
Huss....speaking of aero Rolleyes

had this dude come in one day for an alignment on his E36 M3. He stated he needed one because he just installed a carbon splitter under the front bumper. (points to this ungodly DTM lookin' thing Eek )

Homie did this on a car that had basically no other mods done to it except some bullshit "hot air intake" (you know the ones I'm talking about - a cone filter in place under the hood with no actual airbox to keep it from sucking in straight hot engine compartment air)

In his infinite wisdumb, he asked if we needed him to sit on the front end of the car during the alignment to replicate the added downforce this splitter was gonna generate during driving.
Facepalm

With a dead straight face I asked him how fast he intended to drive to Starbucks.

He was really a good dude, just not a ton of common sense when it came to performance mods. Convinced him to save his money. Told him I'd eventually get it from him some way, but ONLY for something he actually needed. Wink

Posted: Apr 16, 2021 at 7:14 Quote
would definitely use aerodiscs on my mini-van though.....


Posted: Apr 16, 2021 at 7:29 Quote
My brother-in-laws Tesla has those fugly aero disk things. Nasty looking bit of kit but I guess it works.

Posted: Apr 16, 2021 at 7:37 Quote
[Quote="adm750"]dood.....

that was by far the creepiest video I've watched in a long time Eek

yeah. what the f*ck. looked like the creator was a part time ransom note writer. f*ckin weird. ( how do i casually mention that i only watched the first half of the video before posting it?)

point is, the aerodiscs are fuggin ugly, and there are air intakes on the grill that could direct cool air at the brakes, and there are countless examples like the GT3rs of front brake vents above and behind the front wheel wells to release that heat as well. i saw a brabus mercedes sedan with aerodiscs on it and wanted to poke my eyes out. and i like the brabus mods on mercedes.

Posted: Apr 16, 2021 at 8:06 Quote
[Quote="obee1"]
adm750 wrote:
dood.....

that was by far the creepiest video I've watched in a long time Eek

yeah. what the f*ck. looked like the creator was a part time ransom note writer. f*ckin weird. ( how do i casually mention that i only watched the first half of the video before posting it?)

point is, the aerodiscs are fuggin ugly, and there are air intakes on the grill that could direct cool air at the brakes, and there are countless examples like the GT3rs of front brake vents above and behind the front wheel wells to release that heat as well. i saw a brabus mercedes sedan with aerodiscs on it and wanted to poke my eyes out. and i like the brabus mods on mercedes.


hahaha...yeah, that shit was definitely ransom-note creepy.

greywolf mentioned about bmw's M-cars having vented discs. and they were directionally vented at that, drawing air in around a gap near the hat of the rotor and ejecting it out the edges. The shit thing was that they all had legit brake cooling ducts in place from the factory too, but only the euro cars ducts actually worked. All of the US-spec M-cars brake ducts were blocked off in the front rendering them useless. We used to drill holes the lower grill openings with a 1" bit for the track day guys.

My wagon (being a euro car) had the grille with the cooling duct opened in the front from the factory. And I took full advantage of that shit. Big Grin

O+
Posted: Apr 16, 2021 at 8:17 Quote
adm750 wrote:
Huss....speaking of aero Rolleyes

had this dude come in one day for an alignment on his E36 M3. He stated he needed one because he just installed a carbon splitter under the front bumper. (points to this ungodly DTM lookin' thing Eek )

Homie did this on a car that had basically no other mods done to it except some bullshit "hot air intake" (you know the ones I'm talking about - a cone filter in place under the hood with no actual airbox to keep it from sucking in straight hot engine compartment air)

In his infinite wisdumb, he asked if we needed him to sit on the front end of the car during the alignment to replicate the added downforce this splitter was gonna generate during driving.
Facepalm

With a dead straight face I asked him how fast he intended to drive to Starbucks.

He was really a good dude, just not a ton of common sense when it came to performance mods. Convinced him to save his money. Told him I'd eventually get it from him some way, but ONLY for something he actually needed. Wink

You let him sit on the hood for the alignment, right?

It's good material for photos.

Posted: Apr 16, 2021 at 8:21 Quote
husstler wrote:
You let him sit on the hood for the alignment, right?

It's good material for photos.

shit...no. Facepalm

that's my bad yo

O+
Posted: Apr 16, 2021 at 8:25 Quote
Yeah I would have been like dude was are going to need three dudes to get the downforce your going to make now.

Posted: Apr 16, 2021 at 9:14 Quote
lol...I totally effed that up. Frown

Back in the day we would always pull shit like that. The car business was crazy but we had shit tons of fun. Work hard play hard was a monumental understatement. We'd have never let an opportunity to f**k with someone like that slip past us. lol lol But as the years went on, the business just got un-fun and that's part of why I got out.

the last dealership actually had to re-assign someone to handle all my phone calls and set appointments for "my" customers. It was cool that I had such a large and loyal client base, but I was getting like 90 voice mails a day (on top of the phone calls), working with 20-30 people a day face-2-face trying to get their cars through that shop, all the e/mails. Man, it was 14-15 hours days for a good 8 years. I was doing over $3 million a year in non-warranty service sales myself through there. That's roughly 12 grand every day.

owner would come by after hours and counsel me on giving shit away. Giving to get was never a bad thing, and I felt it was key to help build long term relationships.

I'd be like "...you dumb motherf**ker. That guy just wrote your business a check for $4800 to fix his X5....I gave him $80 worth of wiper blades because when the porter pulled his car up for him in the rain, I noticed the blades streaking..."

owner says "well, if he paid $4800, he would have paid $4900...."

True...I don't disagree....but answer this Mr. Smart-guy Dealership Owner, when this dude's at the golf course talking about his service, what do you think he's gonna be telling his buddies who drive Audis and Benzes..or BMW's...?? That he just paid 5 grand to fix his car ? f**k no...He's gonna be talking about his service guy that hooked him up with a set of wiper blades at no charge after a big repair bill. If he dealt with you, he'd be talking about the cheap f**k who knicked him for another hundo after shelling out 5 grand on his car only moments ago.."

f**kin' for real yo...

Posted: Apr 16, 2021 at 9:26 Quote
goddam adm, the world needs more meta thinking in every business just like that.

this new M4 is gonna make zee germans over at benz a little uncomfortable. even with its retarded kidney beans

https://carbuzz.com/news/new-bmw-m4-looks-way-better-as-hardcore-gts

O+
Posted: Apr 16, 2021 at 10:12 Quote
That's how my local bike shop got my business by doing shit like that. The current shop manager basically took it from almost going under to successful business.

He was willing to give loaner shocks when they are out for rebuild and even "demo" bikes out for weeks at a time just to help out his regular customers if something was off for service or warranty work. He still does sometimes but he has gotten soo busy and with Covid there is no stock at the moment.

O+
Posted: Apr 16, 2021 at 10:19 Quote
mtbman1980 wrote:
That's how my local bike shop got my business by doing shit like that. The current shop manager basically took it from almost going under to successful business.

He was willing to give loaner shocks when they are out for rebuild and even "demo" bikes out for weeks at a time just to help out his regular customers if something was off for service or warranty work. He still does sometimes but he has gotten soo busy and with Covid there is no stock at the moment.

We did that at the shop where I worked/later managed. Made for some super loyal clients, and some very understanding ones when we were trying our best but a warranty chainstay just wasn't available yet.

Posted: Apr 16, 2021 at 12:25 Quote
yeah guys....I truly believed that some goodwill now and again buys you some loyalty. I was the big promoter of doing good solid honest relationship-based business. Plus, I love cars. So it was enjoyable helping people keep their cars in good maintain, and nice to give them something back once and a while for all their loyalty. And we're not talking small money. The $4800 repair example was a very good client of mine. When I sold that job, he asked me how much he had spent on that car with me since he bought it (V8 powered X5) 6 years ago. I told him you've spent just a tick over $50k on it with me so far. He mumbled some quick math under his breath and said. "yeah..fix it. Still well under my 'cost of ownership' target...call me when it's done...."

Like dude with the M3 and the splitter. I told him that if he decides to do a track day with just give me a call. I'd do his track day pre-inspection, flush his brakes, and we'd set up his suspension for the track properly, (then back to street specs when he was done) for no charge. We had several BMWCCA racers and one instructor as techs so we'd get him hooked up. I'd do that shit at no charge but let him know that if he planned to do another one, this is what it would have cost so he could expect to budget for that in the future should he decide track days are his thing.

All my customers would basically get a plan.

Here's the big picture needs and expected dollars that I either see now or can predict.
Here's Part 1 - the things I'd say you really should address on the car. True immediate needs like safety items, things that would leave them stuck, etc....
Here's Part 2 - the things it needs, but can wait. Car needs these, but Part 1 is most important right now. I'd say do these items within X time period (next week, next month, etc...)
Here's Part 3 - the things we just want to keep an eye on, so when you come back for Part 2, we'll look them over and make a new plan. I'd document all of this so they had a clear picture for the future barring anything unforeseen. We'd just keep adjusting the plan as they owned the car. I did this for everyone.

I was my own entity within the business, but it wasn't my business. It belonged to someone else. But I was one of the faces of that business and it was very important to me that people trusted what I was (..and we as a business were) telling them and how they felt they were treated. It helped ensure you had a future.

sorry to blab on...

O+
Posted: Apr 16, 2021 at 13:20 Quote
Any of you Canadians know where I could grab a SRAM 12spd chain online?


 


Copyright © 2000 - 2024. Pinkbike.com. All rights reserved.
dv56 0.045801
Mobile Version of Website