My Visit at the QLINK Booth
Dealer Expo
Indianapolis, IndianaWilliam R. Ramby
February 21, 2007I spent a lot of time this last weekend at the QLINK booth at the Dealer Expo in Indianapolis. For those interested in knowing what goes on at these booths here's a quick synopsis.
They show day started on Saturday, February 17, at 10:00AM. I got to the QLINK booth at about 11:30 and things were already going strong. When I arrived, I was greeted by Adonis Lee, the man in charge of Quality Control for QLINK at the Chinese factories where the QLINK's are built. I had met him previously the night before at a dinner hosted by Johnny Tai.
I sat there a while watching the traffic go by and coming in and out of the booth. Business seemed pretty brisk with many dealers stopping to look and getting information from Johnny, Dennis McCartney, and Adonis. There were others working the booth as well. In total, about six men and two women all promoting QLINK.
I left for a while to look over the show and came back about 2 hours later. Again,business was brisk and hectic. Since everyone was busy I took the opportunity to look over the bikes offered by QLINK. Here I am going to focus on two, the Legend 250 motorcycle and the Commuter 250 Scooter.
First up for me was the Legend 250. I was keenly interested in this bike because QLINK does not offer it yet in the U.S., though it is coming this spring. The Legend is powered by a 233cc Parallel Twin air-cooled engine that sports 18 horse power. This bike has lots of chrome and probably the biggest headlight housing I've ever seen on a 250.
Click any picture to see a larger view. I sat on the bike and was pleased by the feel. It sits very comfortably with a height of 25-1/2 inches. I worked my way through the gearing and found myself disappointed. The shifting felt very dodgy. Since this is their one Legend show bike, for the moment I will chalk it up to thousands of people sitting on it and doing the same thing I was. If the stickiness of the shifting persists in street models when they are introduced in the spring, then QLINK may have a problem. Time will tell.
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The bike was painted solid black and looked good that way. Sometimes bikes lend themselves to two tone colors, but the mono-color of this bike seemed just right. The seat, pillion and included backrest were all studded and looked very sharp. The gauges were very interesting as well. There is an indicator on the gas tank that shows gear position in a series of dots along with a bar-type electronic fuel gauge.
The next bike I looked at was the Commuter 250 Scooter. It's a rare day when a scooter captivates me, and I guess today was the day, and the scooter was the Commuter.
The Commuter 250 is a large scooter that is very reminiscent of the Honda Helix. It has a 244cc single cylinder liquid cooled engine that produces 18 horse power. The scooter itself is large and roomy, easily sitting two and still providing a lot of storage capacity including an integrated trunk and an add-on top case.
Click any picture to see a larger view. Integrated into the top case is a backrest and two speakers for the AM/FM Cassette Stereo that is mounted into the integrated trunk. While the stereo is cool, I think a CD player would have been better, or a USB connector at least, ala the Sapero and Legacy. Later discussion with Johnny and Dennis leads me to believe that this will be changed at a later date. But even if it isn't, it shouldn't be to hard for the consumer to swap it out with something better.
I'm really in a dilemma here. Which do I want to test first? The Legend or the Commuter. Normally this wouldn't be such a problem for me, but the Commuter has actually sucked me in. No matter which I ride first, I'm sure I'll enjoy them both.
Seeing that everyone was still busy talking to dealers and prospective buyers, I left to go enjoy more of the show.
The next day was more of the same, only more so. I couldn't believe they could be even busier than the day before but they were. Many of the dealers who had come by to only look the day before were back to either look some more or sign up as QLINK dealers.
They were so busy that little time could be spent talking to me answering my questions about the bikes. So I left to go look at more of the show.
In all seriousness, when I say they were busy, I really mean it. There was a constant stream of dealers coming into the booth. Each of these dealers got a personal presentation of the bikes available and then sat down to go over specifics of the dealership requirement. And those requirements are quite steep considering that many of the exhibitors there would sell you crates of bikes at the drop of a hat.
Some of the requirements I'm aware of were; the dealer had to have a motorcycle showroom, had to have a qualified motorcycle mechanic on duty or access to one, and must have a retail operation with a cash register in use. There are more qualifications, but these were the ones I overheard from one presentation or another.
Click any picture to see a larger view. These are actually fairly stiff requirements. What they mean is that there will be no internet only operations. Each dealer must, emphasize MUST, support the QLINK product. If you've ever heard any of the horror stories about drop shipping, you will realize that the QLINK dealer requirements are put in place to avoid these problems and to present the consumer with a feeling of confidence.
And guess what? Many of the dealers I saw had badges that showed they were dealers of Harley-Davidson's, Kawasaki's and other major brands. They came in to look at the automatic Sapero and Legacy or the scooters. Once they got down to brass tacks, you could see how pleased they actually were by the requirements to be imposed on them by the agreement. Weird huh? Equally impressive to potential dealers was the fact that QLINK has not one parts warehouse in the U.S., but two. Thats not common for companies that import Chinese bikes to the U.S. market.
I dropped in and out of the booth throughout the rest of the show. Johnny took a few moments to talk to me when a brief lull in the traffic provided some breathing room. He was very pleased with the turnout at the booth. Very shortly he was back at it talking to another dealer.
They were so busy throughout the day that when the show was over for the day security had to ask them to get out so they could lock the doors because dealers were still coming by. All in all, it was a very fruitful event for QLINK.
You may have guessed that I am impressed by QLINK and it's staff. Your right, I am. They believe in their product 100% and back it up. Thats good enough for me.
Happy Birthday!
