Sabatino Moto: The Crown of Royal Enfield - Motorcycle & Powersports News

Sabatino Moto sells a lot of motorcycles. The shop is often the top seller of Royal Enfields in the Western United States. In some months, Sabatino is the top Royal Enfield seller in the whole United States. Sabatino does more with less — the dealership only has five employees. In a world of Goliaths, this David is doing well.

Eric Sabatino started out working on classic Vespa and Lambretta scooters, then branched out into older British motorcycles. At first, he lived in an RV next to his shop. Sabatino’s first step up was a contact with Tomos mopeds, who talked him into renting a small commercial space. The nascent dealership prospered, and Tomos mopeds were soon joined by Sym lightweights.

Sabatino Moto was then located in one unit of a larger building. When the pandemic hit, the other tenants gradually moved out, and the dealership rented the rest of the building. Eric then convinced Royal Enfield to give him a franchise, which they agreed to if he would move to a larger space across the street.

“I was in the right place at the right time,” Sabatino says. When Sabatino got its franchise, Royal Enfield was selling motorcycles geared to Western roads and riding styles and offering a quality product, a three-year warranty and very attractive pricing. Shortly afterwards, the dealership picked up a Moto Morini franchise.

At present, Sabatino sells Royal Enfield, Moto Morini, Sym and Royal Alloy scooters, and a wide range of pre-owned motorcycles and scooters, some of which qualify as vintage machines. The shop also continues to work on the classics.

“We like vintage bikes,” Sabatino admits. “The other vintage repair shops in this area closed this year, and we are now the only shop in town. It’s not the most profitable part of the shop, but we do make money – and vintage people will often want to buy an Enfield to ride when the BSA or 1960s Ducati single is down.”

Sabatino Moto quickly established itself as a people-friendly space, and soon became a hub for riders and friends. The dealership is right next to a motorcycle-themed coffee shop. Riders come for the coffee and pastries and then go look around the dealership.

“Our slogan is ‘Sell motorcycles and be nice to people,’ Eric says. “We are successful because people can come here, hang out and talk bike, and we have competitive prices. There are even two retired guys who are here a lot and act as volunteer salespeople.”

Besides the customer stream that results from having a dealership right next to a biker hangout and word of mouth from enthusiastic owners, Sabatino gets door swings from events the shop either puts on itself or sponsors. The dealership puts on a variety of events, including hot dog evenings, where the dealership brings out a grill, hot dogs, buns and condiments, and invites anyone with a motorcycle to show up, and demo days. The shop also sponsors most motorcycle-oriented local events, including charity rides, such as the Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride, the Spring Scooter ride, and bike nights.

“It gets our name in front of people,” he says. “Our shop location is key. We are near a suspension bridge that leads directly out of town and onto great, twisty roads.”

Once a potential customer walks in, the dealership wants that person to feel comfortable. Sabatino works hard to make his shop an unintimidating place for any potential customer. “I try to push back on machismo. I like making bikes accessible.” Women make up 30% to 40% of Sabatino Moto’s customer base, drawn by the friendly atmosphere, the variety of new and old scooters and smaller and pocketbook friendly motorcycles – and the sight of women employees.

“Women like to see women at a dealership,” he notes. “They don’t like walking into what looks like a men’s club.” New employees are trained never to assume that the male member of a couple is the one who wants to buy a motorcycle, and to make sure to talk to both people.

Sabatino’s customers are a cross section of the Portland public – old riders, first time riders, all sorts of people. Sabatino Moto started to see a lot of new riders during the pandemic. While this has tapered off a bit, the shop still sees a lot of new riders and has Team Oregon motorcycle training brochures to pass out to interested people.

Team Oregon is the trademark of the joint program of Oregon State University and the Oregon Department of Transportation to provide motorcycle training to new riders. The dealership also advertises with Team Oregon, which means that Sabatino Moto is featured on the Team Oregon website, seen by every new rider in Oregon as a Supporting Dealer, with a link to Sabatino’s website.

Sabatino does not have an extensive website, and there are few bells or whistles. It lists new and used machinery for sale. There is an application to take a test ride, a finance application, an application for an insurance quote, a page to contact the dealership, and not much else.

It doesn’t seem to matter – eager buyers flock to Sabatino Moto regardless. Sabatino has a 4.5 star rating on Yelp and a 4.8 star rating on Google. Reviewers cite being greeted on arrival, the friendly staff and intelligent answers to questions. Kudos were given to the shop for giving a realistic time for pickup after completion of maintenance work and for making phone calls to customers stating their bike was ready.

“We are a small dealership,” Sabatino says. “We work hard. I have no idea what will be happening in five years, because everything is a surprise. I hope in the next five years I pay off debt, keep my crew and keep doing what I am doing.”