Were are all the Hero / Full members ?

[Super Dirt Dud]

Just going through the members directory and notice non the the Hero members are active so why not ? Unless they were just full of it they were valuable to this forum .
My company send gifts / notes , and specials out to keep them with us . I enlist the help of my venders {Kymco ] in this case to go after them .

Keeping an existing customer is 100 times easier that find a good new one

[Neil955i]

I'm only guessing, but do they dip in and out?  Or maybe busy out riding?  (Wish I was, damn Covid lockdown!)

Certainly when I've posted questions I've been very impressed with the speed and quality of replies.

[CROSSBOLT]

Just going through the members directory and notice non the the Hero members are active so why not ? Unless they were just full of it they were valuable to this forum .
My company send gifts / notes , and specials out to keep them with us . I enlist the help of my venders {Kymco ] in this case to go after them .

Keeping an existing customer is 100 times easier that find a good new one

Well, I'm retired. But am not a retired blabbermouth! I love this forum. There are many who show and go, guys with 50's that won't start or run, come here get it fixed and either ride off or get discouraged and disappear. I love to help troubleshoot and learn. I take particpcular delight in retraining dealers to pull their heads out and take care of customers. That has diminished greatly since the importer has failed everyone and the dealers have diminished in numbers.

I see this scooter thing as a niche market in this USA where it is a big deal in foreign markets. I see a troublesome thundercloud with dealers that cannot make any real money on scooters while the motorcycle market is really depressed. ATV and side-by-sides are pretty regional. I see dealer techs who are disinterested in servicing anything that is nearly impossible to make a commission. Plus most of the techs I have met are seriously challenged.

I see a real opportunity for the importer to make things really attractive to handle scooters but they suffer from Not Invented Here, NIH, philosophy: they didn't think of it so it's not a good idea.

There is NO tech school on Kymcos. That's okay since they are not that complex anyway but the service manuals are really deficient to assist the tech learning the systems. That's where we come in. We, here, have learned things about the different models the dealers will never take the time to learn. That's okay, too, because we have been volunteered (well, I have volunteered us!) to assist since we have fixed things the dealers were unable or unwilling to fix. That offer has been ignored to date.

Now, you have an idea for a new shop in east PA. That's good. There are niche businesses that do well because they are good and reachable. You may want to consider a location that is not so tax crazy as the general northeast.

[Stig / Major Tom]

I'm not certain KymcoUSA knows this forum exists - or if they do, they've forgotten - or decided they'd rather not be associated with this gang of misfits.
As for Hero members - I don't know - people might tend to stay as long as they have a scooter, or have a scooter with problems.

At one time we had a scooter riding Kymco dealer mechanic from the north west who was knowledgeable and helpful. He moved to 'Frisco and rear-ended a car on the Bay bridge or something......then stopped contributing.

I was sad to see him go - because he could read with comprehension and he had no obvious anger issues! Great attributes for any supposed scooter mech!

Stig

[Iahawk]

I think it's more common for people to post once or twice with a problem and then disappear forever. Even some of the long time posters tend to come and go. I find it interesting to look at old posts on my Ninja 300 forum and see that all the top posters from 4 or 5 years ago are long gone.

And veering a little off topic..scooter dealers and powersports dealers in general are in trouble. My local Kymco dealer is a big, full line Japanese bike dealer with also Triumph and BMW plus a few scooter lines but they stock no Kymco scooters. I think they have a few leftover side by sides from Kymco in stock.

It's hard to sell a $2000 50cc scooter when the used car lot / scooter dealer in town has a hundred cheap no name Chinese 50 cc scooters for sale at $700-$900. Scooter sales are tough..plus few ever bring them to the dealer for service and it's no wonder why they don't want to remain a dealer. 

[Viper254]

Plus, I would add that social media (one site in particular) has killed the forum format with it's "groups" concept. There's no concept of archiving there and information is transient, and so the same questions come around and around again and then get lost in the passage of time.

I prefer forums because they are much more searchable and better indexed for information, but there's no doubt they are a format in decline, in my mind.