Badlands: Protecting quality, watching costs

Focusing on quality, rather than on just price, can be a major dilemma for any small manufacturing company.

Badlands Motorcycle Products, a Sparksbased company, is a good example of this.

The company produces high-quality after-market items for Harley Davidson Motorcycles.

"By trade I'm a carpenter," said Rick Eckhardt."I had a couple of Harleys that I customized then I started working at Reno Custom Cycle in 1990."

Working in that shop gave Eckhardt a good look at what was available and the shortcomings of many after-market products.

In 1994 he and partner Bob Pearce bought the shop and changed its name to Badlands Custom Cycle.

The store recently moved to 3060 Mill St., just east of Terminal Way and Greg Street.

"I used to go to Sturgis and thought the name connected with the Harley scene," Eckhardt said.

Sturgis, S.D.

which bills itself as Motorcycle City,U.S.A., is located near the Badlands National Park.

Eckhardt then went full time into producing quality accessories.

Giving some very appreciated assistance is Linda Sheffield, who helps the company run smoothly.

"She does everything from being the secretary to shipping products," Eckhardt said.

At first, the company tried traditional advertising.

"There wasn't a lot of response," he said.

"Then we put our product line in the Drag Specialties catalog, which is in every bike shop in the country."

At that time the catalog was a quarter of an inch thick but now it's expanded to almost four inches.

Badlands also has 20 distributors of its products, which also appear in another catalog, Custom Chrome.

Eckhardt explained that the motorcycle accessory market is a bit seasonal.

"We're fortunate as some areas are warmer and people are still riding," he said.

At Badlands the focus is on quality.

Subcontractors make the components, which are shipped to Sparks where they are checked, assembled and shipped to customers.

After recovering from an almost fatal downturn in business from the aftershocks of the Sept.

11 attacks, Eckhardt now is grappling with several challenges.

Now, rather than 300 competitors there are 3,000 and many outsource their work overseas.

This has put Badlands at a price disadvantage.

Despite paying top dollar for their bikes, many Harley owners consider price rather than quality when purchasing accessories.

Another challenge to Badlands is the threat of copycats.

"We have patents on our most popular items but they are unenforceable.

If one minor thing is changed, then the copy is a new product," Eckhardt said."A patent costs about $5,000 but it's not even worth it anymore."

Eckhardt cited an example where another manufacturer changed one circuit on a board, which meant it was a "new" product.

While the Badlands component has a sealed circuit board the other doesn't, which can allow water into the unit and short it out.

Because the other component is produced overseas, it sells for about half of what the Badlands unit does.

Now Eckhardt is mulling if he too should outsource his components to foreign manufacturers.While his retai price would be lower, he worries if the Badlands quality can be maintained.

"Whenever we get calls for tech support,most of the time the caller will add that they never have problem with our products," he said.

Another challenge is the market itself.

"It's saturated," Eckhardt said.

"And many people out there don't know what they're doing."

Eckhardt's biggest challenge is to figure out how to move Badlands to a more competitive position while not sacrificing its reputation for quality.

For a man whose passion led him into the business, Eckhardt knows what he's up against and he's committed to keeping Badlands on the road.