Ease of finding what you are looking for
Selection of products
Clarity of product information
Overall look and design of site
Shipping charges
Variety of shipping options
Charges stated clearly before order submission

Click Here to Go to the Motorcycle Superstore* Site

The site has an excellent track record, indicated by the large number of testimonials posted for the site by satisfied users. A selection of the testimonials are shown below:

BizRate Review
Great service and prices! I will come back for sure!!!!!
by Online Shopper, Thursday, March 04, 2010

BizRate Review
If every business had their act together like you guys my bike would be done by now. Thanks!
by Online Shopper, Thursday, March 04, 2010

BizRate Review
I ordered a set of tires for my bike. Moto Superstore’s prices were competitive and the delivery was prompt. They even provided a list of local installers. It was an excellent shopping experience!
by Online Shopper, Thursday, March 04, 2010

BizRate Review
Great website, lots of products to choose from at great prices. Easy menu to navigate through too!
by Online Shopper, Thursday, March 04, 2010

BizRate Review
This was a great shopping experience! I have always preferred to be able to put my hands on something before purchasing it. However, with an $80 savings on a $225 tire and free shipping! I am certain I will be shopping here again!
by Online Shopper, Thursday, March 04, 2010

BizRate Review
Best price’s I have found online for these tires. Plus free shipping! Thanks Motorcycle Superstore*
by Online Shopper, Thursday, March 04, 2010

BizRate Review
Excellent selection of items I am interested in and my order arrived one day ahead of scheduled delivery. Great service!
by Online Shopper, Thursday, March 04, 2010

BizRate Review
Keep up the good work. I have had no problems with any purchases that I had done with this store. They are my first pick for any motorcycle gear. Thank you.
by Online Shopper, Thursday, March 04, 2010

Facebook Comments
Thankfully I live not far from my favorite toy store. You guys are wonderful. Think I’ll stop by tomorrow and say howdy and see what I “need”! As someone else said. YOU GUYS ROCK!
by Michael V., Monday, March 01, 2010

Facebook Comments
My name is Pat and I am a five time customer of your website. I want to thank you and praise your business. I am extremely satisfied with not only my purchases but also the fast delivery, and the jaw dropping amount of products you have on your website. I will highly recommend your website to all my friends and family. Thank you for everything! I will be purchasing many more products from you in the future.
by Pat T., Monday, March 01, 2010

BizRate Review
Great buying experience! Really good prices and the quality of the products is great as well!!! I will shop here again soon.. Thanks so much!!!!
by Online Shopper, Monday, March 01, 2010

BizRate Review
Motorcycle Superstore was the easiest website to navigate by far. The prices are fair and I really cannot complain. I am a first time buyer and will more than likely return. This place has almost everything! It’s great. Thank you!!!
by Online Shopper, Monday, March 01, 2010

BizRate Review
Best prices for motorcycle tires on the net! When I called the representatives at Motorcycle Superstore, they were very helpful. Good Service and quick Shipping guarantees I will do business with them again.
by Online Shopper, Monday, March 01, 2010

BizRate Review
Super fast delivery without any problems. All around good service at Moto Superstore, with no hassles. Thanks!
by Online Shopper, Monday, March 01, 2010

BizRate Review
I posted on Facebook that if everything at MS is still good my tire should arrive around 2:00. My tire arrived at 2:02. I will pass blame for this egregious tardiness to the UPS guy. YOU GUYS ROCK. Tire is mounted. Knobbs are better than Nibs
by Online Shopper, Monday, March 01, 2010

BizRate Review
Keep up the good work Motorcycle Superstore! Search feature is great. Customer reviews are very helpful. Free shipping tops it off!
by Online Shopper, Monday, March 01, 2010

BizRate Review
Products were on time and exactly what I was looking for. Highly recommended!
by Online Shopper, Monday, March 01, 2010

BizRate Review
I found this to be a good experience. I liked the way the website was set up and everything was easy to find.
by Online Shopper, Monday, March 01, 2010

BizRate Review
The Motorcycle Superstore*site is a great place to shop on line. Great service and fast shipping!
by Online Shopper, Monday, March 01, 2010

BizRate Review
Great web site, great selection and quick shipping. I’m a previous customer and I will return for sure!
by Online Shopper, Monday, March 01, 2010

These comments are just a few of the 785 that hav been submitted to external websites (mainly Bizrate) since April 2009. when you consider that people are usually quicker to post complaints online than testimonials, this is a very impressive performance from Motorcycle Superstore.

How do I rate the store? I have chosen a number of factors to try and compare the top online motorcycle stores and I will give a star rating for each one. Lets start with the ease of searching on the website…

How the Motorcycle Superstore home page looks at time of posting

The layout is extremely clear, with good navigation down the left hand side and the current specials shown in the centre of the page. The navigation is very easy to follow for anyone familiar with motorcycle gear terms, there is also a search bar clearly displayed in the top header on the right hand side. Really the Motorcycle Superstore* website is a hallmark of web usability.

how about selection of products? Again its difficult to fault Motorcycle Superstore on this score. In fact I would say it is second only to Bike Bandit* in terms of selection of parts and accessories, and that is only because of Bike Bandits emphasis on OEM parts. JP Cycles also has a large number of parts, but historically their focus has been on the Harley and metric chopper parts. So if its ger you re after, Motorcycle superstore will probably have what you are looking for, OEM parts might be a different story.

The clarity of product information on the website is pretty good, but not out of the ordinary. Like many site of this type, Motorcycle superstore has struggled to make the product description its own, which is understandable given the number of products parts and gear on the site. The product info is supplemented however by customer reviews for some products which does help a little.

The overall look and design of the site is incredibly user friendly. Customer reviews help greatly, and the sit has all the relevant web security accreditation, so you can be confident of purchasing from this company.

a snapshot of the Verisign and Bizrate accreditation

The charges and variety of shipping charges are clearly indicated in the checkout area. Free shipping is offered for orders over $75, and there is the opportunity to add promo codes and other information in the checkout process

Motorcycle Superstores checkout page

All the charges are clearly stated before you checkout so there are no nasty surprises when you see the purchase on your next credit card bill. Oh and by the way if you choose PayPal, the purchase is listed as “motorcycles”

All in all this is a great website. I have no hesitation in recommending the Motorcycle Superstore* website for any purchases you may want to make for any of your motorcycle gear.

Oh and to top it off they have an excellent price match that you may want to test them on, but I don’t think you’ll catch them out…

Its no fun trying to trawl through asite that just doesnt seem to want to let you find what you want , you know what I mean right? SO I took a good look at the sites and gave mark out of ten for ease of use.

A good selection of products is a gimme, so again marks out of ten for the product selection at these motorcycle stores

The product informtion is ususally a cut and paste from the manufacturers spiel on the product. some take the time to add a litle more info. Again I marked the online motorcycle superstores out of ten ofr the information thay provide.

Say what you like but the look of a site definitely adds to the buying experience. Marked out of ten.

what are the shipping charges? is it free shipping? how much do you have to buy to get free shipping? You guessed it, marked out of ten again.

Not very likely but some online motorcycle superstores may et a few extra marks for a choice of shipping option.

we all want to know how much we are spending right, ( as long as the significant other doesn’t know, sorry Sarah!)

all these things matter when you are shoppngonline. I am looking at the main online stores that sell motorcycle gear. I will happily look at any store and give it a rating.

Some of the stores have waht are know as affiliate links. This is a way of a compensation program for publishers like me who get paid a small commission when someone buys something from a company running an affiliate program. The links are trackable so the comapny knows when they need to credit the publisher like me.

All the affiliate links in these reviews will be the company name marked by a *. for example, if Ridegear run an affiliate program, and I include a link to ridegear that I may benefit from it will look like this:
Ridegear* (that is not an afiliate link its just an example.)

If I am really unhappy with any of the stores involved I wont recommend them so I wont include an affiliate link.

Is that clear? I hope so because I am definitely confused as hell right now…

Anyway look out for the first review coming up later this week. And please make some suggestions of online motorcycle superstores you would like to see covered in this review.

This was never meant to be a bashing session for Old Bike Barn, and Barrie deserves the chance to respond, so here it is.

I received this a couple of weeks ago and it is entirely my fault I havent posted it before, so apologies for that

Hi its Bear from Old Bike Barn, I did not respond because I have been busy fixing all the issues, could we speak by telephone?

My apologies for the delay in response, I wanted to wait until had all of the new measures in place to address the issues properly. A few months ago we launched a new back and front end for our website – rapidly our phones began to jam up with calls. The increased volume was near unmanageable for our family run business. Customers were waiting on hold for as long as 45 min, and our shipping department was backlogged with new orders, finally and issue with our credit card processing further complicated matters and dealing the bureaucrats at the bank has been fun to say the least.

I’m an honorable man, and a decorated Veteran, there is no hokey pokey going on here, just a list of complex events. Companies that are up to foul play don’t have pictures of the owner on them, nor do they take thousands of hours to build, or stick around after to clean up the mess when there are issues.

I would like to personally speak to all the customers that had a bad experience during these past few months, as well as any that had a positive one I notice a few are defending us, but it the norm for happy customer to not say my much while unhappy one are very vocal. The tragedy is, some of this has clearly been aggravated and pushed to prominence by my competitors; some even splashing their names in posts about Old Bike Barn. Now some people may cite complaints going back to 2005, but one need consider the number of complaints pales in comparison to the 10’s of thousands of people that we have pleased helping keep their vintage bike rolling.

My personal email is bear@oldbikebarn.com – email me with a number to reach you and I’ll personally look into your issue and return your call. Or call our new number 1 888 851 5559 we can’t take every incoming call on the spot but if no rep is available, I have put in place measures for customers to leave a message rather than sit on hold. It’s now company policy to return all calls by the end of business the following day or sooner.

About the changes at Oldbikebarn.com:

1. Improve phone system and messages with ALL CALLS will be returned by the end of biz the following day!

2. New, improved web site with improved search by bike features, also, the ability to park your bike in the “Your Old Bike Barn Garage” to refer back to at a later time and see all the parts for your machine(s) in one spot.

3. Used parts: a vast selection of used parts are now available and in stock, or if we don’t have it we can try to get it through our network of over 200 yards nationwide.

Thanks for reading folks, Old Bike Barn is here for you, you vintage or modern bike and so am I!

bear@oldbikebarn.com

There are lots of online motorcycle stores that really want your money and are prepared to give some great service to get it, so lets find out who they are…

If you have some suggestions on stores you would like me to highlight, please post a comment below. I already have a pretty good list to go at, but as they say, the more the merrier!

Anyway, this post will be your last chance to make any comments about Old Bike Barn. My next post will ba an opinion on aother online motorcycle superstore, you will be able to comment if you want, hopefully we will hear some good things about online motorcycle superstores in the next few weeks.

Thanks again for your contributions.

Read it and weep. Up til now I have had no response from Old Bike Barn despite several attempt to bring this customer dissatisfaction to their attention. By the way, the Mike in these comments is me…

If you have comments to make about Old Bike Barn, please place them here from now on so everyone can see all the posts.

steve boettiger

My first order from old bike barn was in April. I was told that it was in stock.Repeated email have gone out with no reply, phone calls have not been returned and when I did get to a human ( i think) I was told another 4 to 6 weeks. Word of mouth works both ways. Any other stories out there???

From Todays Bargain Buster – Old Bike Barn has seen the light…, 2009/06/03 at 12:52 PM
2009/06/03

Mike

Steve I’m sorry to hear about your experience with Old Bike Barn, I thought a company willing to advertise coupon deals like this might offer a slightly better customer care program than that. I would love to see Old bike barn give a response to this on this blog….

From Todays Bargain Buster – Old Bike Barn has seen the light…, 2009/06/03 at 2:20 PM
2009/06/03

Jim

I ordered parts on May 27, 2009, and my credit card was charged on the same day. On June 2, 3 and 4 I tried to contact them re: my order, which was listed on their site as \”awaiting fulfillment\”. They never answered the direct phone line nor the 800 line. I posted a note on their site to cancel my order and refund the money. Guess what, the parts were shipped the next day. Forget those guys with all the hype if they can\’t do business in a professional way.

From Todays Bargain Buster – Old Bike Barn has seen the light…, 2009/06/05 at 6:38 AM
2009/06/05

Mike

Jim I appreciate your comments. I put my post up about Old Bike Barn to flag their %15 promotion, but after seeing these two posts I feel a slightly different blog coming on. On my main site, wwww.motorcycleparts-accessories-andmore.com, I have removed links from companies who received some bad pres which was backed up by the buyers with evidence of course. I agree with you, in this climate there is not much of an excuse for mistreating your customers.

From Todays Bargain Buster – Old Bike Barn has seen the light…, 2009/06/05 at 10:51 AM
2009/06/05

Stu

I’m currently undergoing the “pending fullfillment” dance with Old Bike Barn. I ordered parts on June 1st and as of the 9th they still haven’t shipped. My email on the 5th has still gone unanswered.

From Todays Bargain Buster – Old Bike Barn has seen the light…, 2009/06/09 at 10:19 AM
2009/06/09

tom carter
I ordered part from them on 6-9-09, no parts by the 16th, so I e-mailed them, no response, I called, no answer. I have e-mailed at least twice with no response. My order is Pending fulfillment. I have now initiated a claim with my bank in regards to this transaction. It is now 6-27-09 and nothing. I did place an order for some parts with Bike Bandit on the 17th, and the parts arrived in 3 days! No more bike barn for me!

From Todays Bargain Buster – Old Bike Barn has seen the light…, 2009/06/27 at 8:23 AM
2009/06/27

angie

Ordered a part from Old Bike Barn on June 14th. The money has been taken out of my account but my order is still “pending fulfillment”. Can’t get anyone on the phone. All they have is a recording saying that no one is available to answer my call. I will NEVER order anything from this company again.

From Todays Bargain Buster – Old Bike Barn has seen the light…, 2009/06/29 at 6:27 PM
2009/06/29

Kathy

Same story here, ordered parts on 06/16 and on 07/13 SOME of them were shipped…I am now going to find another place to get parts for my 1986 VS700 Intruder Maybe I will try the Bike Bandit….This is not a good way to do business in a very tough economy….I AM DONE Old BIke Barn
Any Ideas beside Bike Bandit for Vintage Parts???

From Todays Bargain Buster – Old Bike Barn has seen the light…, 2009/07/17 at 11:39 AM
2009/07/17

Mike

This is a really sorry tale of p*** poor customer service. What with the news out that HD ar laying off 1000 workers and closing four plants, you would think that companies in the motorcycle parts selling game would be bending over backwards to keep customers. Not Old Bike Barn it seems.

Thanks for all your comments, just so that you all know on your behalf I took the liberty of filling in a customer complaint form on their site. detailing this thread of complaints and inviting a response. So far? Nothing.

But hey we can live in hope…

From Todays Bargain Buster – Old Bike Barn has seen the light…, 2009/07/17 at 1:53 PM
2009/07/17

Sam Battaglia

Yep, Old Bike Barn is up there with the best of scams.
You order an item/items, they charge your credit card more than what your order should have been then nothing….No merchandise, No contact etc.
If this happens to you, save all of your attempts to contact them, receipts etc. and contact your bank that you have your card with and they will go after them. Stay clear of these guys…

From Old Bike Barn loses another customer…, 2009/08/14 at 2:23 AM

Jarrod

I placed an order with bike barn June 4. Sent an e-mail June 17th with no reply. Called several times but automation won’t take calls. This is my first time shopping with old bike barn and i’ve got a very bad taste in my mouth about it. Bike Bandit is much better about shipping but don’t have the same selection for older bikes as old bike barn. But what good is the selection if the parts never get sent. If anyone else has ideas on a good place to get old honda cb750 parts, please let me know.

From Todays Bargain Buster – Old Bike Barn has seen the light…, 2009/07/21 at 1:28 PM
2009/07/21

Mike

I am going to have another go a bringing this to OBBs attention, I will let you know how it goes. Thanks again for you comments. I honestly believe that this kind of feedback is great for anyone looking for a dealer who will deliver on all counts. OBB clearly isn’t doing that on any.

From Todays Bargain Buster – Old Bike Barn has seen the light…, 2009/07/22 at 12:23 AM
2009/07/22

Harry

I placed an order with O.B.B. on July 6 for some fairly generic Honda Magna V30 parts. I had attempted to place the order several days earlier, but their website seemed to be experiencing problems. When it finally did accept my order, it charged my credit card immediately, but didn’t credit the 15% 4th of July discount code they were currently offering… and which I’d entered when ordering. Like others, my order status has showed “Pending Fulfillment” for several weeks now and the company has not been responsive to either e-mail and/or phone messages.

After repeated attempts, I finally reached a sales representative who said that my problems (15% credit & shipping details) would be taken care of shortly. Well, I’m still waiting… and, now I’m not able to access my order on their website at all, although it does show me as being logged in. And, again it seems impossible to reach them by phone.

I hope this is only a rare glitch, and that they are great guys, but…

From Todays Bargain Buster – Old Bike Barn has seen the light…, 2009/07/23 at 12:54 PM
2009/07/23

Loren

This website is horrible, i am having the same problems as everyone else. Lying about it being in stock, and my parts have been delayed for about a month now. Wondering if i will ever get my parts.

From Old Bike Barn gets a bashing…., 2009/07/27 at 3:56 PM

SCREWGED

I do not recommend The Old Bike Barn for online orders. I purchased on July 8th, cancelled due to no activity on the 18, received a reply on the 22nd from one of three inquiries, and was told that my refund had been processed on the 29th. Still no refund on August 1st. Luckily I’m not out much on the order. So what are the possibilities that ODBB is holding orders for the interest on the purchase? Maybe just greedy?

From Todays Bargain Buster – Old Bike Barn has seen the light…, 2009/08/01 at 7:37 AM
2009/08/01

Paul

I placed an order July 9, 2009 still haven’t received anything in almost a month. Emailed them a few times getting no response back, calling multiple times a day to get their recording. When I wrote an email saying I want to cancel my order and get a refund, I got an email back from them within an hour saying the parts were on back order but they have them ready to ship now. Funny…. I still demanded a refund cause I do not want to support such a poor company. Now I get to see how long it takes them to do a refund. Horray!

From Todays Bargain Buster – Old Bike Barn has seen the light…, 2009/08/07 at 9:30 PM
2009/08/07

Mike

For your information guys, I contacted OBB on July the 7th via their support ticket system. I received a reply August 7th, with a link to the reply online which unfortunately I cannot open! as soon as I know what the reply is I will post it.

From Todays Bargain Buster – Old Bike Barn has seen the light…, 2009/08/08 at 1:28 AM
2009/08/08

Tim

Another old bike barn problem here too… Ordered July 20th and my card was charged the same day. Two weeks later the order is still ‘pending fulfillment’… I complained by email and now the order is ‘closed’, but they still have my money. I filed a report with The better Business Bureau, scheduled an appointment with a US Postal inspector for possible mail fraud (the order was to be shipped priority mail). I’m headed to the bank in the morning to dispute the charges. I recommend that you DO NOT have anything to do with this company. By the way, then display the Better Business Bureau logo on their site… its a copyright infringement as they are NOT a member of the BBB.

From Todays Bargain Buster – Old Bike Barn has seen the light…, 2009/08/13 at 6:40 PM
2009/08/13

Cole

I wish I found this blog sooner.

I ordered $266 worth of parts on July 26, and they took my money that day. Three and a half weeks later, and I haven’t received ANYTHING. I’ve contacted them several times by email but all they do is open a support ticket which gets ignored. They wont even tell me what “pending fulfillment” means. They dont answer their phone.

I’m contacting the Better Business Bureau today as well as announcing on every message board I’m a member of to NOT shop here.

Extremely shady and unprofessional.

From Todays Bargain Buster – Old Bike Barn has seen the light…, 2009/08/20 at 10:49 AM

Rocket1

DO NOT waste your time or money dealing with these scam artists!!! Three weeks and counting now and I can’t get hold of a human or get any type of response from them. Most likely going to request a refund, which will probably lead to a dispute of charges with my card issuer. What a bunch of jerks!!

From Todays Bargain Buster – Old Bike Barn has seen the light…, 2009/08/21 at 10:30 AM

Cody Zander

I also order parts on June 20 and have not seen them yet. Interesting, it seems they have taken the 1-800 number off the website. I could choose to be really upset, but I am more curious as to why the sudden demise of what appeared to be a decent company.

From Old Bike Barn gets a bashing…., 2009/08/26 at 4:36 PM
2009/08/26 Approve | Unapprove | Spam | Delete

j0eb0b

I think this is a sad situation that is probably indicative of the times. I have bought numerous parts from Old Bike Barn over the last 4 years and they always were delivered as advertised, as recently in May 2008. I placed an order for a single set of brake pads 08/11/09 and though my credit card was charged, haven’t received anything. Like others have reported, no one answers the phone, and the email “case file” remains unanswered. I too am “awaiting fulfillment” according to the order log on the website. I’ll dispute the charges with the credit card company and probably won’t lose anything. I don’t think the Old Bike Barn is a scam, i think they got crushed beneath the wheel like many businesses and home owners and are probably finished. I agree with the advice to not order anything more from them (I won”t) but disagree that this is an outright fraud based on my previous experiences. Their BBB certification is a false claim, however, which doesn’t give anyone a warm and fuzzy about their honesty.

From Old Bike Barn gets a bashing…., 2009/08/26 at 4:13 PM

I did fill in a request on the OBB website telling them about all the complaints relating to their company that has popped up on my blog, but I received nothing in reply.

I wouldn’t like to say what impression that leaves, but what do you think?

Come on, post your thoughts and lets share some good quality info on some of these online retailers…

Diesel Motorcycle from Evaproducts

The engine will supposedly give a 45bhp and 78lb-ft of torque, but of more interst is a claimed fuel consumption up to 140mpg for general riding – twice the economy of the most efficient large capacity petrol motorcycles.

The chassis is designed to compete in the adventure motorcycle class against bikes likethe KTM 990 Adventure and BMW R1200GS. The designers have given it WP suspension, Brembo brakes and a modern trellis frame.

Here is the full review of the worlds first production diesel motorcycle from MCN…

Bizarre
Starting the Track T800CDI gives an unusual experience – it clatters into life like a tractor giving rumbling vibration and the disgusting-smelling exhaust gases rising from the small forward-facing silencer in front of the right footpeg will be familiar to anyone who’s ever got stuck behind an old school bus. You can’t blip the throttle either – doing so will engage drive and send you shooting forward.

Lazy
Open the throttle to pull away and the feeling is like a CVT scooter – the drive itself takes up smoothly but the rising revs are accompanied by rising vibration. The shaft drive has no anti-rising mechanism, so you can feel the torque reaction cause the back end to rise slightly. It’s not a problem, but it adds to the unusual feel.
Opening the throttle hard doesn’t give the rush of drive you’d get with a turbo charged car – acceleration is leisurely even though the engine responds quickly to throttle input. 45bhp still isn’t much despite the respectable torque.

Crude
It doesn’t get better with speed – vibration subsides a little but it’s still enough to be intrusive, and the CVT means the engine is always at the same revs giving a monotous tractor-like noise, which even on MCN’s short test ride became tiresome. Even with an open mind there’s no getting away from the fact is just isn’t quick or refined enough to be compared with petrol rivals on riding enjoyment.

Well-designed
It’s a shame the engine isn’t much cop – the rest of the bike is built to a high standard, and the chassis is as good as any major manufacturer. The look is distinctive too, and the riding position is adjustable so it should prove comfortable over distance.

Tough
The reason for the bike’s low power output is Evaproduct’s desire to make it last– an engine life of 250,000 miles is claimed – and give excellent fuel consumption. Those qualities only appeal to a limited number of people – for the rest of the world, they’re attributes of limited use that come as the expense of riding enjoyment, so until diesel bikes tune in to the needs to the wider biking public, it’ll stay as a niche machine.

A pretty fair review, especially the comments about the trade off between economy and performance. I’m not sure I could go with a bike which had limited performance potential, even though I was doing my bit to save the planet…

THE FACTS

Track T800CDI
£15,000
Engine: 799cc, six-valves, liquid-cooled three cylinder turbo-charged diesel, common rail fuel injection, constantly-variable transmission.
Power (claimed): 45bhp
Weight: 220kg (fluids, no fuel)
Colours: Silver, black or white
Contact: http://www.dieselmotorcycles.eu/

WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif.: 26 May 2009 — Arai ranks highest in satisfying motorcycle helmet owners for an 11th consecutive year, according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2009 Motorcycle Helmet Satisfaction StudySM released today.

The study measures the overall satisfaction of motorcyclists with their new helmet in three key factors: ventilation, face shield, and design and styling; which consist of 11 attributes: quietness; ventilation/air flow; de-fogging; face shield ability to keep wind out; face shield ability to resist scratching; ease of replacing face shield; scratch resistance of shell; color/graphic design; weight; ease of fastening the strap; and fit and comfort.

With a score of 830 on a 1,000-point scale, Arai ranks highest and performs particularly well in the ventilation and design and styling factors. Shoei follows with a score of 815 and performs well in face shield. Icon ranks third overall with a score of 806.

“Arai continues to improve in the areas critical to customer satisfaction, which has further differentiated it from other manufacturers,” said Tim Fox, research manager of the powersports practice at J.D. Power and Associates. “Arai’s focus on fit and comfort—the most important consideration when purchasing a motorcycle helmet—and its ability to cater to different types of riders have given the manufacturer a consistent edge in satisfying customers.”

Overall satisfaction with motorcycle helmets has increased to an average of 766 in 2009—up 5 points from 2008—the highest level since the study’s inception in 1999.

The study finds that while the percentage of helmet owners who conducted research online before buying has remained relatively steady from 2008 at 36 percent, the proportion of helmet owners who purchased their helmet online has increased—up to 17 percent in 2009 from 14 percent in 2008. Additionally, those who purchased more expensive helmets ($200 or more) are more likely to both research and purchase their helmet online. More than one-half of these helmet owners researched online prior to their purchase, and 22 percent of them made their purchase online.

The 2009 Motorcycle Helmet Satisfaction Study is based on responses from more than 4,600 purchasers of new 2008 model-year motorcycles who provided information about their most recent helmet purchase experience and helmet use. The study was fielded in September and October 2008.