Superbike Factory Employees Report Seeing Warning Signs But Not Realizing How Bad Things Were

A couple of days ago, we told you that the UK-based used motorcycle chain Superbike Factory had officially gone into administration. Since that time, more details about what went on behind the scenes that may have contributed to its collapse have emerged.

Our colleagues at VisorDown spoke to two employees of Superbike Factory who had, until this past Monday, been employed by that company in different positions. One was a truck driver, and one was in management. Both declined to give their names for obvious reasons, but wished to speak about what they'd observed in the past weeks and months leading up to the events currently unfolding.

The entire piece is worth reading if you want to gain some insight; and naturally, given the different vantage points of both employees, they both have interesting observations about what they witnessed. Things like how, as you'd expect, business tended to slow down over the winter months and then usually would pick back up in the spring.

But it reportedly never picked up in spring of 2026, instead remaining at the dormant winter levels. 

The truck driver was also quoted as saying, "We kept getting messages saying there were IT problems...Then we were told not to use the fuel cards because they weren't working."

Definitely not a good sign for any business that includes delivery drivers on its staff. At the other end, the former member of management staff mentioned how in the past, SBF would occasionally stop buying used bikes when it had an oversupply already in stock. That makes sense; you don't want to end up in a KTM situation where you have way too many bikes in your warehouses, right? And that's true whether it's new or used bikes, or really any other physical inventory situation.

But this manager said that recently, the stoppage in bike buying was longer than usual. Previously, it'd be around two weeks or so; this one, they said, was five or six weeks.

Then, both employees reported being called to a meeting at 2 pm on Monday at the company's Macclesfield headquarters, and both said that they strongly suspected the writing was on the wall. Sure enough, although they'd heard rumors about the company going into administration on social media and via motorcycle news websites, that's when they were all told they had no jobs, effective immediately. 

They were also reportedly told that they wouldn't be paid for the first three weeks in July (which had already passed), and that they should apply to the UK government's redundancy scheme to get compensation. They were also reportedly not instructed how to go about navigating that process, which I would imagine to feel like an additional slap in the face. 

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Help For Superbike Factory Employees Who Have Now Been Made Redundant

If you are a Superbike Factory employee and you're reading this, you should know that I'm not based in the UK. However, in case you've not yet come across it, here's the official UK government website regarding redundancies and your rights as a UK citizen.

There is also a very specific page full of information about your rights if your employer is insolvent, including if it enters administration as Superbike Factory has done.

According to the UK government, depending on your situation, you may be able to apply for things like redundancy payments, outstanding holiday pay, unpaid wages/overtime/commissions, and also statutory notice pay. Unemployment benefits may also be a possibility, which are a separate matter; click through the link above to find out more about all of the topics mentioned in this paragraph.

But Wait, There's More

Another former employee of Superbike Factory, who is also a motorcycle YouTuber, has posted the video linked above discussing his time at the company. He says that he worked in sales (and comments on the video from former coworkers and customers seem to back this up), and that he observed some troubling trends during his time there. 

He's careful to keep the discussion to personal observations, and delving slightly into things he's heard from friends who still worked at the company after he left; after all, he doesn't want to face legal trouble. However, to hear him tell it, one systemic problem he observed was an emphasis on salespeople making phone calls to anyone and everyone they could get to answer, rather than actually dealing with in-person customers who were waiting to buy bikes.

He also talks about how, drawing on his combined sales experiences, he felt that he'd learned how to approach customers when trying to upsell them on add-ons and accessories they might need, such as trackers or ceramic coating on their bike purchase. And how it's a lot easier to convince someone who tells you that they're looking for a new bike because their old one got stolen that they should splurge a little bit on a tracker. 

Makes sense, right? Surely, this seems like plain logic. And yet, he goes on to talk about having had a discussion with the CEO of the company at that time, who told him that he wasn't being paid to think, and that he should just try to upsell everyone on everything all the time. He then goes on to cite this as the incident that made him immediately start looking for a new job after he got off work, the very same day that happened.

As the weeks and months roll on, it's clear there will be more to this story. What about the customers who had bike-buying transactions in process, but not yet completed? One Redditor tells a tale of SBF having done hard credit checks on them that they worry may affect their ability to get financing for anything else, and that the money has left their account but they weren't able to take delivery of their new bike before this happened. They go on to say that their finance company is taking care of things, and notes that both their finance company and the bank say they've had multiple calls about similar instances since SBF announced its administration.

Here's hoping that Superbike Factory's employees and customers are able to get satisfaction for what they're owed.

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