Hobbystores slow to go brushless?

[Deadleg Roberts]

Is it me, or do the smaller hobby stores seem to be slow in embracing brushless technology?

 

They usually have plenty of nitro, with HPI seeming to be the dominant brand around my area, but they don't seem to carry the range of brushless. This is especially true for 1/8th scales. Cheaper 1/10th brushless and brushed are usually stocked but not the bigger cars.

I'm not dissing nitros, and I must point out that I have never owned one. However, I have known a few people who owned them and simply had too many problems, not known how to fix them, so gave up the hobby. Obviously for an experienced Nitro owner maintenance and tuning would not be so much of a problem. Brushless seem to be pretty much plug in and play.

Brushless conversions are pretty popular aswell, so that speaks volumes.

 

Anyone noticed this? Is it the initial cost, or simply tradition?

 

[everclear1984]

The owner of my lhs is convinced that brushed is the only way to go. He tried hard to talk me out of buying a Firestorm Flux, maybe because he had a brushed one on the shelf I guess.

[Nitroholic]

Any hobby shop will only be as good as the guy who runs it .... and will always try and push what they stock.

 

The cost of entry into brushless is higher in a lot of cases. You need LiPo batteries, a charger that can handle them and if the shop doesn;t stock all that...they lose out on the sale.

[Si Coe]

Shops stock what sells, and don't like expensive stock that takes a lot of time to shift.

 

A Noob coming into a shop wanting a new RC won't get the brushed/ brushless distinction - they might recognize 'engine (nitro) vs battery' but that's it. So shops can shift the cheap brushed models, and cheap nitros but more expensive brushless items sit on the shelf gathering dust and costing money until someone who knows walks in. This is not good for business.

 

The other thing to remember is that many hobby stores only stock cars at all because people buy them. Their real interest is in planes or boats. OK brushless is big in those fields too now but you can't expect them to be experts on brushless cars.