www. PowersportsBusiness. com Powersports Business • October 2026 • 31

CONFERENCE

Located in Central New York, just a few miles from Lake Ontario, Peake Powersports stands out for its exceptional customer experience, but it is far from the only prominent powersports dealership in the region that caught our eye.

In August, as part of promoting this year’ s Big East Powersports Show, held Oct. 3-4 in Syracuse, New York, Powersports Business visited close to a dozen dealerships around the surrounding area and came away impressed by the region’ s strong powersports presence.

In all, PSB spent two days and traveled about 500 miles through Central New York, going as far West as Rochester and as far East as Rome. We caught up with some old friends such as Adventure at Burritt’ s, located in Oswego, which will be manning the Arctic Cat exhibit at Big East, and Wheel-A-Way, located in Fulton, which is overseeing this year’ s CFMOTO booth.

We also stopped in on the dealership formerly known as Empire Powersports, where we learned the store is now part of Maddie’ s Motorsports’ family-owned dealership group that has six rooftops in Western and Central New York. This year, Maddie’ s will represent the Ski-Doo exhibit at Big East.

During PSB’ s Syracuse tour, we stopped at several powersports dealerships including, clockwise from top left, Moto-World in Utica, Maddie’ s Motorsports just outside of Syracuse, Adventures at Burritt’ s in Oswego, and Wheel-A-Way in Fulton.( Photos: PSB)

But it wasn’ t just all familiar faces on our New York trip; we also stopped by Moto-World in Utica, and met with ownership for the first time. Moto-World is a major player in the used market and is one of— if not the largest— pre-owned powersports dealers in the Northeast.

PSB would like to give these Central New York region dealers a shoutout for having such a wide range of machines, brands, and enthusiasts that exemplifies the passion behind the powersports industry. or ATV category, and the rest falling under tractors, PWCs, and dirt bikes.

Peake’ s motorcycle brands don’ t include some of the bigger names; he’ s had success selling CFMOTO, Moto Guzzi and Aprilia, machines that aren’ t as well known, but have a strong following. Thad does recognize the currently strong UTV market and the category shift toward comfort, capability, and value. But in order to make a stronger push into the UTV segment, first the right personnel need to be in place.

“ It all comes down to who you have in your sales team and what they like to do. Right now, the ladies that we have are super enthusiastic about motorcycles, and that’ s what gets them excited,” he says.“ We’ re actively looking for that person who loves side-by-sides. But that’ s been a little tough to find. For us, it really depends on who we have driving the bus in the sales team.”

A WANT-BASED INDUSTRY Not just experience, but passion is a prerequisite to be a part of the Peake team, and having the right technicians in place is equally important.

“ If you’ re going to buy a vehicle, you’ re going to see my service department all the time. So we make sure you’ re

comfortable there. We make sure you know who you’ re talking to. And we make sure you trust us. Service is where the relationships are maintained. Sales is just where it starts,” Thad says. Coming from an auto background, Thad also weighed in on the main difference between selling automobiles and powersports, which he says comes down to a motivation factor. Customers need to buy a car. That’ s not entirely true when it comes to powersports vehicles, where, in most cases, customers want to buy.

“ The only big difference between auto and powersports is you’ re going from a need-based industry to a want-based industry,” he says.

That fundamental element changes the sales approach. Transactions are less stressful, and sales-customer interaction is predicated on establishing a relationship, rather than generating a sale.

“ Build trust, figure out what they’ re after, give them a great show, and then get down to the numbers,” Thad explains.“ In powersports you need to recognize that the customer who comes into the store doesn’ t necessarily need anything that you sell.”

MORE THAN MACHINES In addition to major units, some pre-owned inventory and