“No 12-15 year old kid is going to walk into such a place and be able to ask a salesman or partsman or mechanic silly stupid questions as I was able to oh so many years ago.?”
Good point. The first lawnmower I bought was to earn money towards one of the motorcycles sitting in the same showroom. A few years late, a drivers license and a real job at the gas station, I was on the bike.
I can remember when I was 14-15, two friends & I walked into Kelly Motors the dealer and the midwest distributer for Triumph, Norton, Moto Guzzi & Ducati in Dayton, Ohio. A salesman, Hell maybe JR Kelly himself took us over to look at 3-4 bikes parked together and asked us what we thought of them. Let me tell you, that made threee teenagers feel like something special.
At that time he was seriously considering taking on a Honda franchise. Yep, we all three told him they were too damn ugly for us. Well he did not take on Honda but about 5 years later Honda of Dayton did.