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Let me introduce you to CBX Man. Traveling down Main Street in Edwardsville, you pass CBX Man Motorcycles, a company that has more under its roof than you can see from the street. It is a rather humble exterior that reminds you of a warehouse. What you don’t see is the amazing crew and the large variety of power sports vehicles inside. What you also don’t see is the fact that this is not only a showroom but also a worldwide, world-class distribution center for its product offering.
The other thing that you won’t see from the street is that from its Web site www.cbxmanmotorcycles.com, CBX Man Motorcycles has products and services for the world at large. This site is a large part of its business and was designed by Matt Martell of 9Ball Design, a King’s College mass communications graduate. The site has played a large part in the growth of the business. Dennis keeps the stats on this site, and at last look there were “four million unique hits on the site each month and a Web site ranking of 2,100 out of over 15 billion sites,” according to Dennis.
The whole thing started when Dennis McCartney, the president, retired from his first business, Apex Building Products, in 2002. It was here that he met his wife Susan. Most people get an RV and travel the United States or move to Florida. Not Dennis. He retired for about two weeks — about the same amount of time most people take for their vacations.
What he decided he wanted to do next was to buy and restore Honda CBXs and to buy parts for them. This is the CBX Man side of the house, and that has its own Web site, www.cbxman.com, where shoppers can find rare and original parts for their CBX restorations. You would be surprised at the number of parts you need, including decals to make a bike “original,” during a restoration process. Dennis prides himself on the work that he and his team do to make each bike that leaves their shop a top-quality machine. Just talking to him you can feel the pride of workmanship and dedication to the customer from Dennis and everyone at the company. Even Remy and Dominoe, the mascot dogs of the showroom, make you feel welcome when you walk in.
Currently, Dennis and the crew — Alex and Angel — are working on their first “ultra-customized CBX” in a workroom not far from the sales floor. Dennis says, “Certain things we can do that no one else can do, and that’s what CBX Man is all about.” Looking at their highly organized assortment of parts, accessories and those decals, you know that he’s telling the truth.
In 2005 Dennis expanded the restoration business to a showroom floor and started selling scooters and ATVs.
“We learned how to soup up scooters, and we sell those parts online,” Dennis says. In 2006, the company picked up the QLink line of motorcycles. “Essentially QLink is a distributor,” Dennis explains.
Looking at how many different bike styles and companies are offered, it’s hard to imagine that Dennis says, “I just wanted a scooter shop and to restore CBXs.” According to Dennis, “The relationship with QLink and of course customer demand” led to the expansion in style options.
“China bikes have a real stigma to them,” says Dennis. He continues by explaining how QLink is very particular and is a stickler for quality. It even has one year roadside service assistance. He continues, “The products are holding up, and we’re not working on our own bikes, they are not broken.”
CBX Man is not limited to working on the scooters that it sells. According to Dennis, “We do performance enhancements; whatever you’re riding, we can make it faster.” I’m not so sure I need to go any faster!
He tells me that his main demographic for the automatic shift and the scooters is the over-50 male rider. The experienced riders are “tired of the heavy Harleys. They [scooters] look friendly, and we’re friendly, and for a first time rider it’s easy.” He even invites experienced riders to try the scooters.
“We sell motorcycles all over the country, and what we send out of here is fully assembled. Every bike that leaves has seven–12 miles on it. If it has 12 miles on it, that means that Dennis found something wrong and made the techs fix it.”
The next time you drive by CBX Man Motorcycles, do yourself a favor and stop in. You’ll learn a lot about automatic-shift motorcycles and meet some very good people who are interested in quality and their customers having a great experience with motorcycle and scooter riding.
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