BFly,
I disagree with you. I've seen plenty of business models where field service is beneficial, and in many it's become the gold standard. John Deere dealers, for instance, Ag, construction, and even lawn & garden all have field techs with fully equipped service vehicles. In the computer business, it's also far more common, with much of the warranty work now being provided in-home or in-business.
The litmus test is A) if it's easier for the consumer to have the service done at home? B) Are consumers willing to pay a slightly premium price to have it done at home?
Usually it's 10-20% higher cost (labor wise) to have service work performed in the field. This is usually an acceptable factor *IF* the time involved to take the product in to a shop to be serviced is abnormally troublesome, and 100% acceptable if the problem can't be resolved detatched from it's environment (you can't troubleshoot PC LAN problems with the PC detached from the network). The second case isn't really an issue in this argument, but I thought I should bring it up as it does indicate that there is a need to prove the service is viable.
Consider your demographics for track day / racing. I would think they have a very good audience for this service because of the following factors:
* Most of the motorcycles involved are not street legal / titled / insured, and cannot be "ridden" to the shop.
* Most of the people doing this sport are (generally) well off, and can afford to pay a bit extra to not be hassled with trailoring in a motorcycle.
* Some people don't have trailers of their own, making it impossible to bring bikes in without hassling friends.
* The type of work we need is significantly different from what dealerships are used to on a day to day basis, and not all are equipped to deal with the beat up bikes these guys patch together on any given weekend.
(For reference, when I took my 1098 in to the dealer, the junior tech couldn't figure out my rear stand. You know, the one that slides in to the axle on the single sided swingarm and levers the bike up? Then he commented "wow I never seen a race bike before"... and this is while I still had a "B" sticker on. Think about it.)
Anyway I believe there's a real market for this, but you do make a valid point. There's two options.
A) Have a pickup & delivery service. Pick the bike up, take it to the garage for the customer, and return it when it's done. This is less expensive than putting the tech in the field, hiring another tech to do field work (big gap in labor rate on delivery vs. technical), and requires far less duplication of tools.
B) Build up the business to the point a second field tech can be dedicated to this. They'd need to be hugely active on marketing though, which is costly.
To get this really established, they need to get the word out to the street crowd. Maybe consider doing "trackside support" at bike nights and so on. After all, the other target market would be ... err.. squids. You know the ones that wheelie, stoppie, and crash altogether too much?
Speaking of squids and stunters.. they are very much as much of a target audience as we are. They consume a great deal of "special" parts (sprockets, sliders, bodywork, etc), they need crash repairs as often or more often than we do (usually of the same degree haha), etc.
Given that they are in / near a major population base (Chicago) the local environment would support a highly specialized business. Would it work in Delavan, IL population in the triple digits, where there's all of four sportbikes (3 of which are in my garage)?? Nooo... But in a major metropolitan urban sprawl, there's MORE than enough people to make it happen.
The trick is A) getting the word out, which they are doing, B) providing a good service, which they've done a stellar job at, and C) having a solid plan of action or approach to the issue, which they must have put some serious thought in to before posting up on the NESBA / CLSB forums.
Anyway I think it's a good idea. It's a good group of guys, with a good outgoing marketing person with a solid pedigree in racing to back up his personal reputation (Marshall) and a couple of very technical guys with TONS of experience patching up bikes. They've obviously gained a great deal of skill with logistics and planning - you ever seen them set up or tear down, you know they got this stuff down to a fine science.
Just some thoughts. Turn one IS good, and they're highly practiced at doing field work. If anyone WOULD be capable of pulling it off, it's them.
