Monster Powersports

Reviews 3

A

A Private User

I was looking for a bike for this summer that I could pay cash for. I visited many dealerships in the area, including Northwest Honda in Crystal Lake, Road, Track and Trail in WI, and BBK in Elgin. The guys at Monster were, no question, the friendliest and most helpful I ran in to. The general attitude I got at the other dealerships was one of indifference as I had a firm price I wanted to stick to, and once the dealers realized they couldnt gouge me into buying an overpriced used bike, they ignored me. I saw a few bikes on Monsters site that I thought looked interesting, so I decided to go visit, being a bit cautious due to the 1 star review trend. Eric was the first to help me when I walked into Monster, and was helpful answering questions I had about the bikes on the floor. I went back two more times, finally deciding on a bike that needed some minor attention, but overall looked to be in good shape. Before I even got the bike, Scott and Eric identified that it needed tires, and new brake pads which service took care of. Scott told me when I picked it up, "Now we guarantee the bike for 30 days, if you notice anything, give me a call." I have to admit I took that with a grain of salt at the time. With no new bike sales there, they dont have a manufacturer to keep appeased, so I figured the after purchase relationship would approach the "deer in the headlights" look if I came back post-sale for anything and mentioned that Id bought a bike from them. As you will read, I have not had that experience whatsoever. After I got the bike home, I went through it somewhat thoroughly and realized after a good warmup, that the clutch would start to slip when rolling on the throttle in higher gears, and the steering head bearings felt like they should be replaced. I called them up, thinking I would have to argue about it, but at the same time realizing I /did/ buy a used bike. Talked to Scott and he offered to pick up the bike and inspect it, however, for my own reasons I elected to take it to them instead. Im now writing this review after having the bike back, delivered to me at work by one of their service guys, Brian, who was polite and careful with the bike. They replaced the clutch, springs, necessary gaskets, steering head bearings, and seals. My out of pocket? $0. The work order they gave me with the bike? $525 in parts alone plus labor. Now of course it didnt cost /them/ that much for dealer cost, and I would assume from working in the business in the past, their service techs dont get paid normal rates for in-house work, but all the same, their customer service was above and beyond. For all the 1 star reviewers, I must ask if you went into this place with a chip on your shoulder, or what? I would totally feel comfortable walking in there and buying another bike from them, confident that if I found anything wrong, they would make it right. I really cant believe that the previous reviews and mine are about the same shop, except the names are obviously the same.

JE

Jeremy D

I just bought my 5th scooter from these guys yesterday. I read some of the reviews here and made the drive out there with trepidation. However, when I talked to Tim on the phone, he was professional and straight-forward; none of the vague answers on anything. I confirmed their return policy (end of business day) and warranty. (30 days, split cost 50/50) It seems fair to me, for a used bike! By comparison, I called Countryside BMW about another scooter: no warranty at all and lots of dodgy answers. Ive had 10 motorcycles over the years, ranging from 250s to 1300s, so Ive got experience with several other shops against which to compare. There are no test rides, but one can see why a small ma n pa dealer would not want to allow it. Insurance for that has got to be a bear, and the only access to the showroom is from IL. 59, which pretty commonly has traffic coming over a hill at 75+ mph. Not a good situation to test a scooter! The prices are fair. I had a couple of concerns with the bike, but no surprises: it only had one OEM key, no manual, no tool kit. Ill have to replace them on my dime, but these are the kinds of things you have to accept with used bikes for the substantial savings vs. new. The brake levers were rotated down a bit too far for me, so Tim had the mechanic come out and adjust them for me in 5 minutes on the way out. Hes also a friendly guy. If youre buying a bike, you get 15% off gear. I took advantage of that and got a nice armored mesh jacket and a full face helmet. There were no surprises on the bike. I asked about tire wear, and he admitted that the rear would need replacing soon. Again, not a surprise or a dodgy answer to try to hide it, and part of the cost saving. Brakes and engine are strong and quiet. If you want a Harley 880, have a look here; theyve got a whole ROW of them and would probably make you a great deal on one. Same with metric cruisers and 250 class motorcycles. They have a nice line-up of older serviced bikes, which leads me to believe that their mechanic is good. Must be at least 30 bikes waiting for pick-up. Their accessory department is limited; most of the shop is full of bikes. For example, helmets are mostly either black or gray, and mostly just HJC and a nicer Chinese brand, which I bought one of. (is DOT certified and has an internal smoke shield that flips down nicely) Ill probably go back to them when the rear tires done and see how their service is. He quoted a fair price for it. ($150, including (scooter) tire, mounting and balancing) Ill update or write another review down the road as I get more experience with them. Its nice to be able to support a ma n pa motorcycle shop these days, you know?

A

A Private User

I am new to motorcycling. I went up to Monster to have some saddlebags installed. I bought them from Viking Saddle Bags online (I had already cleared with Monster that they would be glad to install bags that I didnt buy in their shop.) When I picked up the bike, they had charged me one and a half hours to install the bags, which came to $112.50. The reason I took these bags to them was that I wanted them "hard" mounted. The kit came with the bags and the necessary brackets. When I went to pick up the bike, I immediately noticed that they didnt look right. They were riding way to high and were not "hard" mounted at all. They were installed under the seat, and they were tied to the brackets, which were installed completely wrong. The guy at the shop told me that the brackets werent designed for my brand of bike, but instead were generic. As it turns out, the brackets that are included were designed specifically for my bike. When I got home, I went to the Viking web site, where they house perfectly easy installation instruction videos. This job should have taken about 15 minutes for the hard mount install. They completely ripped me off, and sold it to me that what they did was completely correct. I feel they took advantage of a new rider in this case, unless they are just incompetent. They are very nice guys there, but clearly did not know what they were doing with my bags. Never called me to check on how I wanted them installed either. Im not going back to that shop, ever. Too bad for them too, as I see myself spending more money on my bike as I get better. (To be fair, I didnt tell them I didnt like the install when I first saw it. I just didnt know how it should have looked until I got home.)