| Author | Message | ||
     Torque |
Anyone know where i can purchase a right side fiberglass air scoop to match the size of the left side? I found a site in england but would rather deal in the us if available. Thanks, John. | ||
| Buellinachinashop |
American Sportsbike is a sponsor and sells it. | ||
| Ccryder |
Look here: RSS or RSS LSS Copy Neil S. | ||
| Wantxbr |
http://www.americansportbike.com/shoponline/ccp0-p rodshow/9160.html | ||
| Torque |
Thanks guys but the only scoop they offer is a carbon fiber and i just cant see my self spending $269 for a carbon fiber. would like the fiberglass version. Know where to find one? John. | ||
| Ccryder |
You can get by for $229 for the prepreg f-g version ;+}. If I went that route, I'd go CF. There is a plastic one made over across the "pond" but that one is in the $200-270 range too. Neil S. | ||
| Buellinachinashop |
#9160F Fiberglass Right Side Scoop - Add $229.95 That's about as good as its going to get John. That scoop is also from American. I've added a bunch of American carbon fiber to my bike and the quality is very nice. | ||
| Dre99gsx |
I just received the scoop from Sporttwin.com This one is from UK. I had thought it was the same plastic material, but it looks to be figerglass and painted black. I think CF is the better route, or pure plastic. Too easy to hit this thing and crack it IMHO. | ||
| Hexangler |
How about hand pounded Aluminum? then either mirror polished, peened, or painted Buell frame gray? Anybody make one? Anybody interested? I've got a fine TIG welder...What will the market bare? Hex | ||
| Fmaxwell |
What the market really needs is a right side scoop that mirrors the left side but that doesn't cost $200 or more. Find a way to make decent quality scoops at a profit with a $99 selling price and you'll probably have a lot of orders. I'm not after carbon fiber, kevlar, titanium, or chrome. I just want a good quality product that does not look like some kind of cheap add-on. | ||
| Torque |
Say no more! Some one needs to take there aftermarket scoop and have a mold made and start manufacturing some cheap scoops. Plastic prefered. A $1.50 worth of plastic or fiberglass should not cost $250. | ||
| Hexangler |
So why doesn't Buell sell it as an after-market component in their parts catalogue??? Exactly as the other side? Come on guys, do us another favor, pleeeze??? (I'll take it off for winter riding, I promise.) Hex My bike is HOT riding home from work on Sacramento urban streets. | ||
| Torque |
Hexangler, do you ever get up towards Redding for any rides? Im only a rock throw away.  Me and 7 other buddies are headed to the coast and then up to oregon for a 3 day ride. Interested? Leaving on Friday. | ||
| Hexangler |
Torque, PM sent. Hex | ||
| Torque |
Hexangler, PM sent. | ||
| Midnightrider |
I asked about Buell producing a RSS in "ask the factory" some weeks ago. Never got a reply or acknowledgement. | ||
| Midnightrider |
I asked about Buell producing a RSS in "for the factory" some weeks ago. Never got an answer. (Message edited by midnightrider on August 22, 2007) | ||
| Buellinachinashop |
There's gotta be an injection molding company who makes the LSS. Court or ANON? | ||
| Fmaxwell |
The problem isn't the injection molding company, it's creating the mold. That's what's prohibitively expensive. Sure, the company doing the LSS could do a RSS -- if you could get them a mold for it. (Message edited by fmaxwell on August 22, 2007) | ||
| Buellinachinashop |
Maybe one of the guys who bought one could lend it to us for a winter?? Any idea why the LSS isn't standard? | ||
| Jfoster |
I would buy a RSS if it were more affordable. I don't know why noone makes one just like the LSS ... and about the same price ... | ||
| Buellinachinashop |
If it was standard and it was replaceable, like other parts, it'd be cheaper because it'd be mass produced for bikes. But now? I agree, $280.00 is pricy. After I get done with some motor and exhaust mods, I'm buying RC's if nothing else is available cheaper. Some argue functionality, if it keeps the rear just a tad cooler and balances the looks of the bike out more, it's worth it. | ||
| Brent_crossbronkos |
I think there was mention on an earlier thread that someone had asked an engineer at Buell about the RSS and there was concern that in slow stop and go traffic the RSS could impede flow over the rear cylinder head and that with a production bike everything is a compromise due to the fact that bikes get sold all over the world and have to perform reliably under all kinds of conditions. This of course makes sense, and is a possible reason why the bikes don't come with a RSS. I would have to think that the engineers at Buell have put a lot of thought into this issue and decided it was better to not have one. Of course that decision doesn't help the guy riding in Arizona frying his thigh and listening to his fan run constantly! As a side note: American Sport Bike's RSSs have been on backorder for a while due to a manufacturing supply issue but I understand they are now starting to trickle in (in case anyone is interested). | ||
| Al_lighton |
I'll chime in on a few points here. Why are they so expensive? Because they aren't injection molded plastic. The cycle time on an injection molded part is less than a minute, the cycle time on prepreg carbon or fiberglass is several hours. Injection molding is a virtually automatic process, CF and fiberglass parts have a LOT of hand done processes in them, from cutting the prepreg, laying it in the tool, bagging it, attaching the vacuum lines, then removing it, edge trimming it, drilling it, etc. If we made them in china, we could pull a lot of labor cost out...until the chinese company knocked the product off and started undercutting us. I'm not doing it, I'm staying with made it the USA. The cost of the plastic in an injection molded part is measured in cents, for high quality prepreg carbon scoop, in scores of dollars. Hand laid up fiberglass or carbon is a lot cheaper, but it yields heavier, brittler parts of much lower quality. We only use the good prepreg stuff, aerospace quality. Quality costs. All the cheap stuff on ebay sells cheap because they use the cheap stuff. A good injection molding tool in tool steel for a part like that will be well over $100K. A short run aluminum tool, maybe half that. And that doesn't count the solid modeling time that it takes to develop the 3D geometry to develop that tool from. Developing that 3D geometry can be tricky when you don't have the original files and/or exact constraints for the bike itself. You can't afford to have it not fit when you're spending $100k on a tool. My tool costs much less, but still isn't cheap. My tool was made from a foam plug that I developed from scratch, took several attempts to get it right. I'm sure I'm into my tool for well over $10K all costs considered, and a lot of sweat and lost Saturdays for making the original plug. It was a tricky part to get right. The first one fit great, on an XB9, but didn't clear the XB12 header. Back to the drawing board.... Which is why I get a little miffed when I hear someone write "Maybe one of the guys who bought one could lend it to us for a winter".  Buell amortizes their tooling costs over 10000 units per year, now on their 6th year of production. I'll be ecstatic if we sell even 1000 scoops over the life of the product, because many folks claim you don't need it. Which is probably true, you DON'T need it. The factory bike doesn't have it, and you know they've done lots of testing that shows that you don't NEED it. There are precious few things we sell that anyone truly NEEDS, the stock bikes work pretty well overall. In the case of the RSS, I'm comfortable with the testing we've done that shows that the rear cylinder will run cooler because of it. I am absolutely certain that the RSS will cause the FRONT cylinder to run hotter in certain slow speed situations. I'm OK with that, as I'm convinced that the overall amount of time that both cylinders are running hotter is reduced with a RSS than without it. And if it means not having to listen to that fan droning down the highway, well, that's bonus. I know my costs, I know my price, I'm comfortable with what we ask for it. If you think it's too expensive for what it does for you, well, don't buy it. If you think we're gouging, don't buy it. But don't go proclaiming on the web that we are if you don't have the numbers in front of you to back it up. The autoclave thermal controller malfunctioned earlier this summer, went into thermal runaway, melted the RSS tool. It's been a couple months and MORE plug work (and $$$) getting it back up and running, but as of yesterday, we are no longer backordered on CF RSS scoops and have several in stock. Next week, we will have all the backorders cleared on fiberglass RSS scoops as well. Al | ||
| Southsidebuellone |
Why don't you just make a plastic one then? duh | ||
| Fmaxwell |
Al wrote: Which is why I get a little miffed when I hear someone write "Maybe one of the guys who bought one could lend it to us for a winter". Al, having been involved in enough controversy on here lately, I didn't want to be the first to respond to that. I'll go on record as saying that I won't buy a scoop that's been created from a mold taken from any commercially available aftermarket scoop. Fair is fair: If someone wants to make a cheaper scoop, then it's up to them to do the R&D, not steal someone else's hard work. Southsidebuellone wrote: Why don't you just make a plastic one then? duh Because the mold would cost $50K to $100K, like he said. duh If you think that there's such a huge market for right side scoops for XB series Buells that you could make a profit selling plastic scoops, amortizing a $50K-$100K tooling investment in the process, "why don't you just make a plastic one then?" I have no doubt that Al's prices are fair and reflect a modest profit on substantial R&D and production costs. That I can't justify buying something, or am seeking a less-expensive alternative, is no indication that Al's price is unfair. | ||
| Brent_crossbronkos |
"I'll go on record as saying that I won't buy a scoop that's been created from a mold taken from any commercially available aftermarket scoop. Fair is fair: If someone wants to make a cheaper scoop, then it's up to them to do the R&D, not steal someone else's hard work." I agree. "I have no doubt that Al's prices are fair and reflect a modest profit on substantial R&D and production costs. That I can't justify buying something, or am seeking a less-expensive alternative, is no indication that Al's price is unfair." Ditto. "If we made them in china, we could pull a lot of labor cost out...until the chinese company knocked the product off and started undercutting us. I'm not doing it, I'm staying with made it the USA." Good for you AL - we need more people thinking like this! "I know my costs, I know my price, I'm comfortable with what we ask for it. If you think it's too expensive for what it does for you, well, don't buy it. If you think we're gouging, don't buy it. But don't go proclaiming on the web that we are if you don't have the numbers in front of you to back it up." Well said. "And if it means not having to listen to that fan droning down the highway, well, that's bonus." Amen to that!!! | ||
| Teeps |
There is a simple reason you won't see a plastic right side scoop. A plastic right side scoop will melt the first time the bike is allowed to idle for more than a few minutes, in still air. | ||
| Fmaxwell |
It all depends on the type of plastic. Certain types of thermoset plastic would survive the heat without problem. | ||
| Ccryder |
Being in the business of designing, building and, purchasing these types of products, it ain't cheap to follow the whole route and sell them for a reasonable profit (after all, that's why we all do things for work is to make a profit). You can get tooling from China, and get it molded over there but, the R&D and design would probably be done here. Al and suppliers like him have spent considerable time and money to get these low volume products to us at a reasonable price. Without knowing Al's costs or pricing I would just bet he is not making much on the CF or glass parts and just pays for the parts. The other volume parts is where he makes up a little. I'll be buying a RSS from Al here in the near future. We need to support our suppliers otherwise they won't be around for the other parts we also need/ want. That's my feeling on this matter. Neil S. |
