Bike Bandit declares bankruptcy

And thieves a bunch of customer money in the process.

Interesting read for those of us not familiar with these types of possible scams

The fact that they did this and are seemingly getting away with it is shocking

Should we really be surprised?  I mean, bandit is part of the name!

Seriously though.  It could be that there was a nefarious plan to fleece the customer but it's also possible that they owner just desperately hung on to the dream longer than they should have.  Not that it's OK to take money for orders you can't fulfill but having been involved in a variety of business over the years I can tell you that deciding that it's time to close a business is a very hard choice to make and that it's tempting to hang on long after one should.

But have they been able to process the payments for those orders?

If so, then credit card shoppers shouldn't have much trouble getting their money back. Debit card users and PayPal customers may have a harder time. 

Good. 

Man the guy that ran that company is a total sleezeball!

What I'm seeing here is a business that was built up by an individual and earned a good customer base and reputation, then got sold.  Eventually, someone with bad intentions got hold of it and burned the company for a one-time payout. There will be many credit card disputes and those customers will get their money back, but not immediately.

I feel for Ken Wahlster, the guy who started it. He probably got paid when he sold the company, but nobody who builds a business like that wants to see it become synonymous with a high profile fraudulent flame-out.

BikeBandit claims to have made $23 million in revenue in 2020, dropping to $7.7 million in 2021.

I'd like to know what 2019 revenue was. 2020 was a very good year in the aftermarket for the same reasons Home Depot did well, but 2021 was not a total collapse. That $3.1 million in inventory will definitely be sold at 10 cents on the dollar to Vey’s Powersports.

I was restoring my 2002 Honda Blackbird back in 2015ish.  I put in a big order, couple thousand bucks.  I get an email saying it's all on backorder(they don't stock anything anyway), so I try to cancel the order and they want to charge me a 25% restocking fee on parts they never had.  Screw those guys.  Look at Rocky Mountain ATV if you need OEM type parts.

I've ordered tons from them over the past ten years. Nothing in the past year or so, but still. WIld turn! 

They were a solid resource, especially if you had a slightly older bike. 

In reply to Patientzero :

Add partzilla to good list. 

Used to use Bike Bandit a fair bit around 10 years ago. Back in spring of 2020 I ordered some o-rings for the intake boots on my old Suzuki Bandit 600 that had been sitting for a couple years and I'd decided to revive (was chasing an air leak) and waited, waited, waited some more before eventually I just threw it up for sale as is in the height of the pandemic craziness. They finally showed up one day like 6 months after the bike was out of my possession. Whatever, chalked it up to the typical supply chain craziness of the time. 
 

Then earlier this spring I needed some things for the swap meet KLR250 I'd bought. Checked out Bike Bandit, as per usual, and found EVERYTHING on back order. Not just what I was looking for, not just for this bike, but seemingly the whole damn site. Got a weird vibe, took my business elsewhere (IIRC Rocky Mountain.) Glad I did.

What's the real crime here?   BB stealing money or trying to read the Jakopnik article and not figuring out where it continues or ends.

Well, they did say they were bandits, why is anyone surprised here?

So Cheap Cycle Parts was the same company?

I ordered parts from them a couple of years ago.  Stuff still shows up but the bike is long gone.