Page 8 - PULSE_5_IRONPONY

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THE PULSE • ISSUE FIVE
In addition to selling and renting motorcycles and recreational vehicles, you offer a riding Academy as well which definitely exceeds the boundaries of a
normal dealership. Could you talk a little bit about that? We’ve created Iron Pony Riding Academy to help new riders or assist returning riders in regaining their skills. We wanted to offer three, four, or five different types of bikes that you could ride whereas the the state program typically only has one or two and they’re older. We refresh our bikes; no bike is in our riding academy for more than about two years. We have a couple Hondas, Suzukis, Kawasakis, and Yamahas and our Riding Academy on most weekends typically has one or two spots available to get in. Most of the time if we have someone that needs to get into a class quickly, we can accommodate that. We have the best instructors, the best maintained bikes, and our front parking lot was large enough to meet the state regulations for space. I think it works out really well. It’s not a money maker for us, in fact
it’s normally something that puts us at a loss, but we want to get as many quality riders out there. If people are safe, conscientious, and make better decisions on what machines to buy; I think they’ll become long term customers. Whether or not that’s with Iron Pony or just within the motorcycle world, that’s still good for us.
For customers that don’t live in Ohio, you offer a full catalog of options on your website as well. That’s an important part of business this day in age.
Would you say that helps a lot with your national footprint? Absolutely. What we really do best with ironpony.com is our buyouts and our closeouts, we’re one of the largest LS2 deal- ers as well as some other helmets. One of the things that we’ve done for about twenty years: if you make a $150 dollar or larger purchase, then you can get a free Iron Pony t-shirt. Even if I can’t make it to Austin or Laguna Seca for the MotoGP or WSBK races, I’ll always get something from one of
my buddies that has taken a picture of someone walking around in an Iron Pony shirt. You can buy
a helmet anywhere or a tire anywhere, but we want to create Iron Pony as a brand. If you didn’t buy your helmet at Iron Pony then maybe you didn’t get the best experience in the motorcycle industry, and that’s what we’re trying to do with Iron Pony. It’s pretty neat and it’s even cooler to talk to people from outside our industry that don’t know exactly what it is but they recognize the design; I think that’s really cool.
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