Ron Wright is the owner of Wright Brothers Bikes and has
been selling trikes in Kansas City for three years. Wright Brothers specialize
in Harley-Davidson and Honda conversions kits you can build yourself or have one
of his highly trained mechanics build to your specifications. All trike
conversions feature a D.F.T. manufactured fully independent suspension. For more
details about what Wright Brothers offers, check out their business information
page by clicking on the link above or just visit their web site.
I was able to sit down with Ron for a little Q & A about
his shop and as you can tell Ron has quite a sense of humor. But when it comes
to his passion for bikes, trikes and hot rods, trust me it’s all business. Make
sure you check out the pictures of some of Wright Brothers Trikes, an S10
conversion kit that Ron is also now offering and keep watching for some new cool
items that include a streamlined trailer for your trike.
CC:
What are your business hours?
Ron: We are open when
we are there and closed when we are not there. Usually, the doors are open 9-5
M-F and 10-2 Sat, but don’t bet on it. If you’re coming from across town, its
best to call first. Test rides are available daily by appointment. By the way,
we ship do-it-yourself kits all over the world.
CC:
Are you the sole owner?
Ron: Yes, and no my
other brothers are not Orville and Wilbur, but they are bikers and are really
mean and ugly.
CC:
What do you ride?
Ron: A 2003
Harley-Davidson Electra Glide trike and a 2002 Harley-Davidson Softail trike, of
course.
CC:
How did you come up with the name of your business?
Ron: Naturally.
CC:
How did your business get started?
Ron: The hard way. The
story of how the business got started, begins 20 years ago with the line; “I met
this chick…”
CC:
How long have you been in business?
Ron: Three years.
CC:
Have you always been at this location?
Ron: Yes. ‘cept when we
wasn’t.
CC:
Why did you pick your current location?
Ron: Cheap rent, few
neighbors, and it’s hard for the ex to find. Also the area provides lots of room
for test rides and no one minds if your pipes are really loud.
CC:
What makes your business stand out from the competition?
Ron: Trikes are our
specialty, not a side line. We ride trikes daily. We convert Harley-Davidson
and Honda mostly, but any chain or belt drive bike is a candidate. We also
sell three kinds of trailers to pull behind your bike, and one to pull your bike
on.
CC:
What was your biggest obstacle in starting your business?
Ron: The Government,
insurance companies, and bankers. Oh, and Lawyers too. Let us not forget the
lawyers.
CC:
What is the biggest change in business you have seen in the past few years?
Ron: From a marketing
standpoint, trikes are definitely more popular than just a few years ago. The
baby boomers are discovering a new way to ride. Trikes are fun and different.
They’re really cool!
But from a trike
industry viewpoint, the wave of the future is independent suspensions. There
has been much debate over that last decade as to the benefits of solid axel
suspension units vs. independent style units. It’s pretty clear now that the
jury is in. Independent designs are the choice of every new trike manufacturer
that’s come on line in the last few years. Even some of the older trike
companies that used to make solid axel designs have switched to independent
designs. Our primary product is an independent design that’s been on the
market, undergoing real world testing, for 11 years.
CC:
How do you keep your customers coming back?
Ron: Candy.
CC:
Do you do much advertising?
Ron: Graffiti has
proven to be the best use of our advertising dollar to date, but now that we
advertise with Cycle Connections, we are confident that our use of graffiti as
our primary advertising medium will soon be a distant, albeit fond, memory.
CC:
Let’s hope so. Do you participate in bike shows or other motorcycle events?
Ron: Yes, all that we
can.
CC:
Do you sponsor or participate in any charity rides or events?
Ron: Bikers for Babies
is probably the biggest, but there are really too many to list.
CC:
Where do the majority of your customers come from?
Ron: Earth. We don’t
do any scientific polling on this matter, but I can say with confidence that 99
percent of our customers are from earth.
CC:
Do you offer any specials or promotions for bikers?
Ron: The only people we
sell to are bikers, and everything we sell is special. But in honor of our new
affiliation with Cycle Connections, we are offering a deal on our bike cleaning
and polishing products and our Signal Sorcerer traffic light activator.
Anyone that can find
their way to the shop and mentions that they saw this article can get the second
cleaning product for half price, when they buy the first one at regular price.
Same goes for the Signal Sorcerer. Signal Sorcerers go for $19.95 and cleaning
products go for $10 - $20. We need to add some fine print here; limit one deal
per customer, offer expires 11/30/2004, and all that other usual, reasonable
crap that some ya hoo will think doesn’t apply to them.
CC:
You might want to explain
just exactly what a signal sorcerer is.
Ron: It is a very
small, very powerful magnet, about the size of a match, which creates magnetic
field powerful enough to activate traffic lights. It’s perfectly legit; just
makes up for that lack of mass that makes traffic lights ignore bikes.
CC:
That’s too cool. What other information would you like our readers to know about
your business?
Ron:
Don’t let people that don’t know what they’re talking about, talk you out of a
trike.
CC:
Nuff said.
So if you’re in the market
or just thinking about owning a trike, you really should give Ron a call and at
least go down to the shop and check them out. You‘ll be glad you did. Besides
he’ll give you candy.
Story by Wayne Thompson
