Top Gear Powersports

The best shop in the area out of the 3 in the area. 1^st time visiting the store and I loved the staff the most friendly and down to earth staff, also I love how the owner is very hands on and is even willing to help you out to. I could say it’s worth the drive to this shop and I’m Come from Chicago.

Top Gear Powersports, best Gear and Accessory shop around. Tony and his crew are the best! Check out their Tuesday evening gatherings too, you’ll see some of the finer high performance bikes around. Easy to find too, half block south of Elgin O’Hare on Roselle Road.

Awesome place with a really nice staff. They price matched a ridiculously low tire price from bikebandit so I could have the convenience of picking it up local. Highly recommended place! Support local business!

Nice selection, the friendliest staff, and they really go the extra mile to help you. I was in yesterday to pick out my first helmet, and the staff was there to answer any and all of my questions. Really appreciated the great help and all the pointers. Will defiantly be going back for some more gear!

I’ve stopped in Top Gear a few times. The staff is Five-​stars all the way. Always super friendly, polite, and knowledgeable. The store is brightly lit, well laid out, and comfortable. Unfortunately, I feel this local business is doomed to fail. The physical signage on the store (A vinyl banner and some yard signs in front of the parking lot) is easily missed and looks really low-​rent. I’m sure the tinting on the windows helps a lot with the store-front’s Westerly exposure, but when driving by they always look closed from Roselle Road because the tints are so dark. Their web/​Facebook presence is — in the most literal sense of the word — pathetic. And honestly, going to Top Gear is like walking into a brick & mortar Parts Unlimited catalog, but with only 5−10% of the catalog actually in stock. Nearly every item we asked about resulted in «we can order that for you.» Well, that’s great… I can order that for me too.
I want this place to succeed, but in all honesty, I just don’t see them lasting. They need to distinguish themselves. We’ve got CycleGear for the inexpensive mass-​market gear. We’ve got the Dainese Store for the ultra-​high end fashion-​conscious rider. I would suggest Top Gear try their hand at offering hard to find, high quality, value driven brands like Suomy, Kali, and Vemar Helmets; Held and Knox gloves; Gaerne and Sidi boots; RS-​Taichi leathers; Frog Togs rain gear; etc.
They desperately need to take advantage of this wonderful thing called the internet! they need a real web-​page and an active and useful facebook presence. Hold an open house, a bike night, or have the store serve as the starting point for a group ride. Get some liability insurance and state permits and start doing some small service and maintenance out of the back of the shop such as oil, coolant and brake fluid changes; spark plugs and plug wires; chains and sprockets; tire changes; etc… small jobs that won’t require expensive specialty tools or factory-​certified mechanics, but that are intimidating for the non-​DIY rider.
Come on Top Gear, we’d love to see you succeed, and I’m offering criticism meant to be taken in the most constructive way possible.
Update (8.30.13): They have replaced the vinyl banner with a great looking illuminated sign! A big step in the right direction.
Update (6.14.14): Top Gear has been using their Facebook extensively to promote events and new products, They have also begun offering motorcycle maintenance services, are selling bikes on consignment, and are now hosting bike nights. Going in the right direction — even if they now seem to be attracting the Squidly Stunta’ crowd that gives sportbike riders a bad reputation. But that’s not Top Gear’s fault.

I found this place since it was one of the only places open on a Sunday! Even though I was 20 miles out, it was a great ride out there.
I needed a jacket, and Mike was extremely helpful in pointing out some of the benefits of the jackets and was very knowledgeful about the different brands.
Once I settled on the one I liked, as I was getting on my bike with the new jacket and noticed that one of the air vent zippers was either misaligned or damaged in some way that it wouldn’t zip. Mike didn’t have another of that size, so he had me wear it home and return it the next weekend after getting his dealer to send a replacement.
Its great to know that there are good businesses out there who take care of their customers, I’ll go back anytime for more apparel or accessories.

Top Gear Powersports is the new kid on the block for us motorcycle riders in the area who are hungry for gear. They opened in Fall 2012, and it’s nice that they’re around. There aren’t a lot of brick-​and-​mortar shops around here that offer gear, and it’s really important to be able to try gear on for proper fitment. With the rise of online shopping, it’s very easy to order stuff — but brick-​and-​mortar shops have an advantage in that you can actually try things on in person before you buy them.
Top Gear has a little bit of everything. Rather than just catering to sport or touring or cruiser or ATV or off-​road enthusiasts, it has a little something for everyone. They also carry a lot of Spectro oils and various other fluids, including Engine Ice coolant and even mineral oil (if you have a KTM, for example). Prices are consistent with other shops’ pricing for those fluids. Top Gear also has several different colors of bungee nets to strap stuff to your pillion seat, as well as various bike and gear locks.
Now here’s where they can improve: offering more niche items to differentiate themselves from the few other shops there are in this market. Shops like MCC and the D-​Store will succeed, because they’re offering this area something that no one else in the area is. Top Gear isn’t — so far.
It’s a young shop, so my hope is that they’ll become something great. As I said, there aren’t many shops around that offer motorcycle gear in the first place (and there are even fewer since Chicago Cycle closed up shop), but two others that do are DGY and the newly-​opened Cycle Gear in Schaumburg. I mention these two particularly because their gear selection and Top Gear’s overlap. All three shops carry lots of stuff in the Parts Unlimited catalog. Nothing wrong with that, but if three different stores in the area offer it, what’s going to make you choose one over another? You’ll probably choose based simply on geography, assuming pricing is similar across the board and all the shop employees are reasonably nice.
I really want to see Top Gear succeed. To do that, I really hope they’ll consider carrying boutique items that you can’t find anywhere else around here. Stuff like Suomy helmets, for example. Until the D-​Store arrived, where could you find AGV lids to try on? Nowhere. You had to order that stuff online. Vemar (especially the Powerpuff Girls lids) would appeal to female riders. Held gear is wonderful, but you can’t find that in stores around here, either. RS Taichi is another high-​end brand that you can’t find in stores. Dainese gear is now pretty well covered by both the D-​Store and MCC — which both saw a niche and sought to fill it. Even stuff like the DOT-​approved Atelier Ruby helmets from Paris. (OK, maybe that would be a tougher sell given their price — but maybe not. If they’re the only game in town for this stuff, customers who are interested will have no choice but to go to Top Gear to try it and buy it.)
So that’s one step. Another step will of course be getting the word out that this shop exists, and that it carries all this wonderful specialty stuff. Top Gear already has a web presence, and offers its wares for sale online. That’s a good and important step. They also have a Facebook presence that one of the employees tells me is something they’re trying to expand. When I asked if they were on Unilocal,he said he didn’t know, and that someone else (who I later realized was a friend of mine) had asked the same thing. Try as I might, I couldn’t find it – so I listed it. As I said, I really want to see these guys succeed (after all, they’re right by my house).
Their shop is tiny, and their sign is easy to miss from the road as you go by if you’re not looking for it. I live in the area, and I’m interested in and frequently riding my motorcycle, and I still wouldn’t have known about it if a fellow rider friend hadn’t told me about it. Even then, we drove and rode past it several times before realizing exactly where it was.
So more people need to know about this place, and this Unilocal listing and review will hopefully help. I’ve found out about a bunch of stuff I never would have known about because of Unilocal.Establishing themselves in the local motorcycling community would also help. Maybe they could host bike nights or encourage local riders’ groups to begin group rides there. I know right now is the off-​season, but that’s exactly the right time to start this stuff. Motorcyclists get frustrated when they can’t ride for long periods of time. Maybe arranging a showing of motorcycle races at the shop and advertising it would help build their community presence. (Hint: the WSBK season starts at the end of February. Unfortunately, it looks like Speed will no longer be carrying it in 2013… grrr. But if Speed will still be showing AMA races, that’s something they could show, and that people would come watch!)
C’mon, Top Gear. I’m cheering for you. I know you can be awesome if you try. ;)

This is my new favorite motorcycle gear shop. First off, there is actually women’s gear here so I can try before I buy. Besides jackets/​pants/​gloves, there is also a good selection of helmets (and different brands), luggage, and accessories too. Second, the service here is amazing. I came in for a helmet lock (which was not in stock but was ordered and in the store ready for pickup within 2 days) and the salesperson, Tony, was really nice and asked about my bike and talked with me for awhile. When I went to pick up my lock, Mike (the salesperson there that day) had notes about exhaust systems that Tony and I had briefly talked about and even had a catalog earmarked for me to check out. If that’s not amazing service, I don’t know what is. When I am ready for new gear, or that new exhaust system, I will definitely be ordering from Top Gear. Definitely check it out.