DoomCrew wrote:
roadiemort wrote:
Your success will be determined by quality and aesthetics no matter which way you go, this costs money, cheap and quality seldom go together.

I agree. However, cheap and affordable are 2 different things.

I'm going against the grain here apparently

You might (key word, might) sell more bagger goodies but they'll be very customer specific as far as options so you might find yourself kind of heavy on inventory going that route.

You might be better off starting with a few bobber fender & seat kits to see if anyone is willing to put money down on a new product before you find yourself with $5000 worth of unsold fairings & bags. At least if nobody buys them you could get more of your investment back shoveling them out on eBay.

Search eBay for both chop/bob body parts and bagger body parts under the completed auction listings(you have to be logged in to use the advanced search including Completed). The green closed auction prices were actually sold, not just listed & relisted.

Personally if I'm building a bagger, there are so many other bagger kits that are proven workable options for the Roadstar that I'm not sure how many would choose yours over just modding HD bags. You'll find everything from mild to wild on a Roadstar with a simple google search of images. Our own Warden (Jim @ Wicked Wheels of Wisconsin) is making his own fiberglass custom HD stretched bags using his own molds now.

I AM building a bobber and I am shopping at the moment for tight fitting fenders that don't look cheesey but also don't cost as much as 'custom' bob/chop fenders. Since when did a short plain steel fender require a $400 investment?

BubbaKahuna wrote:
Since when did a short plain steel fender require a $400 investment?

You know, This is dead on here, Remember when you could get motorcycle and "chopper" parts on JC Whitney? any bike magazine would have classifieds in the back of people who made stuff that was for sale and they could snail mail you a brochure. or it would be a small picture ad if they sold a lot. Could be pretty simple or it could be complex. Prices were what seemed to be real fair!

Are the parts really that much more money? Depends, If you have a storefront or a "legitimate" online business, you have a lot of overhead, you have to pay all sorts of taxes, salaries, benefits, fees of all sorts, water, sewer, garbage, electricity, tools to make your product and the consumables that they use, the materials you need to create your product, advertising (that is a time suck in itself, especially marketing to a specific crowd of people via all of the various forums and such) and also make some money for yourself and expanding your business and creating new products. Can't forget about liability insurance as well, because someone is most likely going to sue you if you made a faulty product and they got hurt or worse yet, died.

SO you just make a few widgets, and sell them to a few people to make some mad money, not nearly the overhead so you can have a lower price. Taxes? Meh, not likely to get caught. Making a living making them, yeah, you want to be at least an LLC. I think we have so many more things in life that we have to pay for now that we have less money to go around, It used to be your car, your bike, house, utilities, phone, a little money for your health insurance (if you needed it) and of course taxes. Now we have so many more expenses, like internet, Cars are no longer simple so the costs for them have gone WAY up, we have subscription Radio, Cable TV, Movie channels, and on and on...

A simple fender should not cost $400, but if people will pay it, do you blame the people selling it? Or ou create something cool and useful and you start selling like hotcakes and some company in China sees it and starts selling at 40% less than you. Give up or advertise more or lower your margin, etc .. Or charge a high price, and get what you can while you can..

Hehe, didn't mean to go so far off topic, or write a novel, but it is interesting how things have changed...

I don't care what you make... if it's for a bagger, I won't look twice.

I love bobbers. If you have any cool stuff for bobbers, I'll look it over and consider making a purchase.

I would also Vote Bagger, Why'll I like Almost all style of bikes, Baggers the Direction I lean towards more & like Rockstar said, Would love to have something New/Custom not retro fitted HD parts.

Bagger

Frame mounted faring

Bagger. But not just for show

Bagger for sure