Owners clubs? Pah!

[Pete B]

How cool is this forum? Anyone can visit here, view all the topics, gain information etc. To register, no fees, just a name and e-mail address. Then the world is your oyster, in a layed back, chilled, friendly environment.
How different some owners clubs can be. The Pug 406 owners club (yes, really! 406oc.co.uk) is great, much like here.
But tonight I ventured onto the 'International Laverda Owners Club' site, hoping to get on the forum and perhaps get a bit of the technical info I need to get my bike running so making it a better prospect to sell. However, it's not possible to even view the forum, library or pretty much anything other than a calender of events without joining the club for an annual fee of £25. I fully appreciate it is a fully fledged owners club and that inccurs expence, but having to pay a fee before really knowing what they are all about seems a bit strong to me. Maybe the lack of welcome partly explains their boast of 'international membership in excess of 650' whereas Earlybay.com has 3679 registered users.
May well have to join though, the difference in value for a runner compared to non-runner has to be a sight more than £25!!

Point being, just out of curiosity, any other owners clubs that seem to be a bit, erm, 'insular'? (read anal)


By the way, it's a '94 650 Sport, (kevlar edition) 12,000 kilometers, 'B' chip in ecu, Brembos, White Power USD front, WP rear, Marchinessi rims, Lanfranconni exhaust, .........and a dodgy fuel pump......if anyone's interested......

 

[sparkywig]

It's a '94 650 Sport, (kevlar edition) 12,000 kilometers, 'B' chip in ecu, Brembos, White Power USD front, WP rear, Marchinessi rims, Lanfranconni exhaust, .........and a dodgy fuel pump......if anyone is inerested......

This post is worthless without pics.


But the Mercedes W201 forum is a bit insular as well. :lol:

 

[67panel]

i thought laverda was a dance :roll:

 

[Pete B]

Should be red, po had it painted.

Sorry mods, it's not meant to be an advert.

 

[aogrady]

How cool is this forum? Anyone can visit here, view all the topics, gain information etc. To register, no fees, just a name and e-mail address. Then the world is your oyster, in a layed back, chilled, friendly environment.
How different some owners clubs can be. The Pug 406 owners club (yes, really! 406oc.co.uk) is great, much like here.
But tonight I ventured onto the 'International Laverda Owners Club' site, hoping to get on the forum and perhaps get a bit of the technical info I need to get my bike running so making it a better prospect to sell. However, it's not possible to even view the forum, library or pretty much anything other than a calender of events without joining the club for an annual fee of £25. I fully appreciate it is a fully fledged owners club and that inccurs expence, but having to pay a fee before really knowing what they are all about seems a bit strong to me. Maybe the lack of welcome partly explains their boast of 'international membership in excess of 650' whereas Earlybay.com has 3679 registered users.
May well have to join though, the difference in value for a runner compared to non-runner has to be a sight more than £25!!

Point being, just out of curiosity, any other owners clubs that seem to be a bit, erm, 'insular'? (read anal)


By the way, it's a '94 650 Sport, (kevlar edition) 12,000 kilometers, 'B' chip in ecu, Brembos, White Power USD front, WP rear, Marchinessi rims, Lanfranconni exhaust, .........and a dodgy fuel pump......if anyone's interested......

Hi!

The ILOC is a bit clikky to be honest, used to be in it years ago, never bothered in recent years - I have a 1997 650 Formula C, which i bought brand new, sold it, to buy a new 750 Formula, sold that and was bike less for a few years, and then bought it back a decade later! It's been mothballed for around 4 years now, really needs a service and tyres and sprockets and battery, but other things come first as always. Soz pic fuzzy.....

Save your £25, you may want to try the Zanelist for all the info you need, it's on Yahoo! Groups, free, very usefull, I still get a daily digest of all the mails, but it is a little bit quieter in recent times.

http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/zanelist/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Mail me off forum if you want to chat about the Laverda...... 8)

Cheers!

Alistair

 

[Guest]

we would have alot more registered (in the 1000s) if the email wasn't fubarred. sorry lads . we will have the revamp online soon (couple of weeks) and the site will be faster and have a few extra bells and whistles.

 

[gninnam]

we would have alot more registered (in the 1000s) if the email wasn't fubarred. sorry lads . we will have the revamp online soon (couple of weeks) and the site will be faster and have a few extra bells and whistles.

I like bells and whistles :lol:

Whoops - forgot to say nice bike - what ya looking for the bike, cost wise?

 

[ed.]

bells AND whistles, you are spoiling us :lol:

 

[lard]

(nice bike btw! 8)

I think it's an evolution thing - some established clubs, like the TSSC (Triumph sport six club), have operated for years with a membership fee which gives access to events and also usually a monthly/quarterly newsletter

As the interwebs took hold a lot of these clubs were late to embrace or didn't understand the impact of web based clubs - the outcome of which being that they couldn't use traditional revenue generating membership to fund sponsored events and the admin side of the club (a lot of them run offices with a few permanent staff such as membership secretaries e.t.c.) - as more alternative "clubs" establish themselves on a not for profit/voluntary basis this further erodes their revenue/membership - to counter this they launched websites and forums for existing members with a "pay wall" in place - a half way house to appease existing members without opening up "free" membership and becoming an online organisation,

It's another example of the internet changing traditional organisations and processes - earlybay.com is a fine example as is the gaming clan I run - these old clubs are going to decline unless they offer something more than "membership" for a fee - as it doesn't cost nearly as much to host a forum than it does to run a paper based newsletter and administrator a club based on old style organisations,

As with the music and film industry these professional membership clubs need to transform themselves with technology or significantly reduce costs - such as premium membership, ad support or negotiated benefits for members. As it is earlybay.com and many others aren't around to make a profit or have to pay permanent staff and only need to cover minimal costs (in comparison to the size of the membership base)

It's this on-line community involvement and shared interest for the greater good of the vehicles in question which is changing the landscape of enthusiast clubs - we're on the crest of the innovation wave 8)