New Company EZM

Hi Arceeguy,

The original idea was to release the product in December of 2008, however we had the pleasure of trying to use American labor in the process. It appears using American labor had many problems we weren't expecting. When we sent our tested designs to have them produced we had to deal with everyones idea of how it should be made. After many unauthorized re-designs, delays, price hikes, and expensive "screw-ups", we finally received the production parts for assembly, only to find out the last vendor re-designed a part because of ordering the wrong size metal.

I have been working in my shop for the last month, hand making several of the parts that American companies made wrong. We have started shipping to the authorized dealers this week for final testing.

Along the way we felt it important to protect out unique design, and have taken the necessary steps to apply for a patent, but it seems some countries feel it is OK to copy others designs & hard work anyway. I was contacted by several companies trying to
"lease" , "pay royalities", or just plain ask me if it was OK to copy our drive system. It is for these reasons we haven't supplied pictures prior to production, but make no mistake, the authorized dealers have access to the designs, photos, and many have actually ridden the early test bikes.

While it isn't our problem that other companies sold products that weren't tested, or the quality control was nonexistant, the end result is posted all over this site. We just don't want to be added to the list of companies that do business in that fashion.

I will gladly tell you our suggested retail price [now that we are sure of the prduction cost], however you won't be able to purchase one until we receive test results from our dealers that they are satisifed with the quality of our kit. We will suggest to the dealers that they market the kit for approx. $649.00., however the final price will be up the individual dealer.

It wasn't our idea to "hype" the product, but to simply let everyone know there is a better idea for connecting the power of the motor to the rear wheel and other choices will be available in the near future.

BTW we don't have a dealer in NJ, but have dealers setup in many states on the east coast near you.

I hope this answers your questions, but feel free to ask more.

Have fun,

Quenton Guenther said:

Hi Arceeguy,

The original idea was to release the product in December of 2008, however we had the pleasure of trying to use American labor in the process. It appears using American labor had many problems we weren't expecting. When we sent our tested designs to have them produced we had to deal with everyones idea of how it should be made. After many unauthorized re-designs, delays, price hikes, and expensive "screw-ups", we finally received the production parts for assembly, only to find out the last vendor re-designed a part because of ordering the wrong size metal.

I have been working in my shop for the last month, hand making several of the parts that American companies made wrong. We have started shipping to the authorized dealers this week for final testing.

Along the way we felt it important to protect out unique design, and have taken the necessary steps to apply for a patent, but it seems some countries feel it is OK to copy others designs & hard work anyway. I was contacted by several companies trying to
"lease" , "pay royalities", or just plain ask me if it was OK to copy our drive system. It is for these reasons we haven't supplied pictures prior to production, but make no mistake, the authorized dealers have access to the designs, photos, and many have actually ridden the early test bikes.

While it isn't our problem that other companies sold products that weren't tested, or the quality control was nonexistant, the end result is posted all over this site. We just don't want to be added to the list of companies that do business in that fashion.

I will gladly tell you our suggested retail price [now that we are sure of the prduction cost], however you won't be able to purchase one until we receive test results from our dealers that they are satisifed with the quality of our kit. We will suggest to the dealers that they market the kit for approx. $649.00., however the final price will be up the individual dealer.

It wasn't our idea to "hype" the product, but to simply let everyone know there is a better idea for connecting the power of the motor to the rear wheel and other choices will be available in the near future.

BTW we don't have a dealer in NJ, but have dealers setup in many states on the east coast near you.

I hope this answers your questions, but feel free to ask more.

Have fun,

Click to expand...

Thank you for releasing the MSRP of the kits. Was that so hard?

I'm pretty sure that everyone here has gotten the message that you want quality to be unsurpassed, and that you are using American companies to supply parts. But it does sound like these American suppliers are doing exactly what people accuse the Asian suppliers are doing! It is good to now that you will be closely monitoring the quality of the parts that are going into your motor bike kit. There are many quality items that come from China, sold by importers that tightly monitor and control the manufacturer. For example, I have recently purchased some Grubee Gen II and GenIIa kits, and they are of much higher quality than the other kits I have purchased, even though they look identical to the casual observer.

As far as your unique drive system goes, you've kept such a tight lid on it that I would think it impossible that any other company would know that they want to copy it! Did one of your dealers leak pictures or something? I have purchased some products that were labeled "patent pending" or "Patents applied for" - which tells me that an actual patent has not been granted yet, but the process has been initiated. I don't know how long the American and International patent process is, but if you plan on selling these kits before a patent is granted, then releasing pictures now would be of no ill consequence, right?

I know you and your dealers want to create interest around your product, and I want to see you succeed! I think the best way would be to plaster this site with as many pictures, videos and information as possible. After all, you can't keep it locked in a vault forever because of fear that someone will copy it. Because chances are, if someone does rip off your design, they will not really care if it has a patent or not.

No dealer in NJ? You've got me thinking......

Oh, quit complaining you guys. If you want to see the proto type visit Quenton like I did & you can see it & ride it. All good things take time as the old saying goes. Let's all wait patiently & soon the good thing will be available to us all. I can understand though why everyone is biting at the bit, hey that's another old saying, to get it.
Jay
P.S. Quenton, that primary cover, as us old Harley riders call them, looks great!!!

jbcruisin said:

Oh, quit complaining you guys. If you want to see the proto type visit Quenton like I did & you can see it & ride it. All good things take time as the old saying goes. Let's all wait patiently & soon the good thing will be available to us all. I can understand though why everyone is biting at the bit, hey that's another old saying, to get it.
Jay
P.S. Quenton, that primary cover, as us old Harley riders call them, looks great!!!

Click to expand...

Complaining?

You know, when you guys circle the wagons for Quenton and kiss his butt, you do create a certain amount of animosity towards Quenton and his dealers.

All people want to know are specifics about the product, that's all. When you tell us to visit Quenton in North Carolina if we want to see it, well, that's ridiculous. Isn't it up to the seller and his dealers to provide the general public with some specifications, pictures and maybe even some videos of their product? At this point, I'm sure that there are a few people that are tired of hearing how thoroughly tested it is, or how many miles it has, or how it won't be like "those other" kits. It's been months now.

kiss butt?

Hey come now. What's this kiss his butt stuff. I don't kiss anyone's butt. That sounds like the guy that blows his horn at me & at the next light I get out (and I do) and he won't look at me & locks his doors. Let's be nice. I'm in Pa. & you're in N.J. we'll probably meet in the future & we want to bet friends not adversaries. I just said we should wait patiently for the good thing.
Jay

jbcruisin said:

Hey come now. What's this kiss his butt stuff. I don't kiss anyone's butt. That sounds like the guy that blows his horn at me & at the next light I get out (and I do) and he won't look at me & locks his doors.Let's be nice. I'm in Pa. & you're in N.J. we'll probably meet in the future & we want to bet friends not adversarys.

Click to expand...

Me "blowing my horn at you" - that's a good one. It's the other way around.

jbcruisin said:

I just said we should wait patiently for the good thing.
Jay

Click to expand...

No you didn't, you told us to "stop complaining", lectured us with some worn out cliché and told us to visit Quenton if we wanted to see it.

The "butt kissing" part was the:

jbcruisin said:

.......P.S. Quenton, that primary cover, as us old Harley riders call them, looks great!!!

Click to expand...

I'm sure it looks great, too bad nobody else knows what the devil you are talking about.

Like I said before, it is this type of behavior that is creating frustration with people who are genuinely interested in becoming dealers or are interested in purchasing one. Instead of keeping things "hush hush", I think we should all be kept "in the know". The reluctance to post specifics and pictures is becoming a PR nightmare IMHO.

Hi everyone,

The only reason I was delaying the MSRP was because our cost wasn't nailed down until just a few days ago and even now that you have a 'ball park" number it still doesn't mean anything because only authorized dealers will have access to the kit, and their price isn't the MSRP.

It is also important to explain the issues with American vendors, they didn't make poor quality parts like most off shore suppliers, in fact all the parts they supplied were very, very, high quality. However high quality parts made different than our plans still delayed our release date. Because our drive was designed to adapt to different requirements & demands, the American vendors just didn't understand the need to allow quick change options. They took our original proto-type and down-sized it, not understanding why we made & located certain parts the way we did. This was the main reason for the extended delays in production, and caused us to fabricate several parts in my personal workshop [still making parts today]. Therefore the first test kits [less than 75]will have several "hand made" parts, including guide pins, arms, bolts, nuts, and even the drive covers will have my personal envolvement. The majority of the drive parts were made in CA & NC [3000 miles apart], so we can state the EZ Motorbike kit is a nationwide effort in the quest for quality.
I would detail our latest venture for a very special HD bicycle [taking place in MI & NY], but I don't want to create more "anticipation" in the market place until we/they are closer to production.

We still don't have a authorized dealer in NJ [Arceeguy we need to talk, PM me if you want to join our team].


Have fun,

Quenton,

I know you guys probably think I m just trying to be a pain, but the truth of the matter is that I really want to see you, your company and your dealers succeed! I am just letting you know that there is a level of frustration regarding information about your product, and I think that it is in your best interest (and the interests of your dealers) to release as much information as possible. Spring is coming, and people are planning on new builds. I'm sure some would hold off on buying a 4 stroke kit if they knew that your kit was a cut above the rest. You might be losing potential customers by withholding detailed pictures on how easy it is to change ratios, etc. We all realize that "specifications are subject to change", and that you are in a early production phase. So I doubt anyone will hold you to a price, etc. If your system looks and runs as promised, I would definitely consider being a dealer (If you'll even have me! ) For me, it's just been the HT kits - but I have moved quite a few since discovering them last summer. There definitely is a market here in NJ!

Thanks for listening!

Arcee, I can sense your frustration about the lack of information coming out, but keep in mind that with any project, until everything has finally reached the full production stage, things are bound to change. I'm sure Quenton, or anybody else who is a cautious businessman does not want to mislead any potential customers by releasing preliminary information that could possibly change once a final production version is reached.
To illustrate my point, let me tell you about a startup aircraft company that fell victoim to what EZM is working to avoid. This company burst onto the scene, making bold claims about performance, reliability and above all, PRICE well before the metal was cut to build the first prototype.
This company (Eclipse Aviation) was going to revolutionize the jet industry, creating a "Very Light Jet" and defining a whole new category of aircraft. This jet was being introduced with claims of weight, performance and price that were simply not possible. At introduction, they quoted the ridiculously low price of $800,000 for a brand new twin-engined jet! They had plans that were going to revolutionize the industry. People jumped on the bandwagon in droves, and the company pushed development of the aircraft through at a rapid pace to get it out to the customers as quickly as possible.
As the aircaft went through development, weight, performance and price all became issues. The company worked through most of these issues, but could not escape the fact that they took hundreds of orders for this aircraft at a retail price that ultimately turned out to be half of what the aircraft cost to build. The company was given a provisional FAA type certification to allow the planes to get into the hands of customers who were anxiously awaiting the delivery of their jet. This allowed the aircraft to be operated with restrictions until full certification was issued. As a result, the early aircraft were delivered in what amounted to an incomplete state, with a promise to upgrade to final production specifications once full certification was reached.
This spelled financial disaster for the company. The early jets were not meeting all of the permormance specs, and there were other issues as well. The brakes were notoriously bad, as though they were taken from a 1952 Dodge with worn pads. All was not well at Eclipse, which was bleeding money faster than money was coming in.
All told, Eclipse fell victim to its own optimism, plus a hurried development schedule in order to get its product to their customers. The aircraft that made it into customer hands failed to meet the promises made by the company.
Eclipse folded late last year and went into chapter 7 bankruptcy. This is the biggest business failure in the history of general aviation, having gobbled up billions of dollars in the process.
http://www.flyingmag.com/leftseat/1357/what-went-wrong-with-eclipse.html
Now you may say I'm comparing apples to oranges, because we're talking about engine kits for bikes and not multi-million dollar aircraft. But when it comes to business plans, the Elcipse debacle illustrates that one needs to be careful about providing too much information before final production-spec is reached.

I for one appreciate the little updates regarding X-number of miles on the prototype without any problems, as it shows that the testing is ongoing, and that there is no complacency. I'm anxiously awaiting the release of these kits as well, but I'm glad to see that they are not being rushed to market with potential problems lurking ahead. I appreciate the level of testing being done and also realise that this is something that cannot be acheived in a short period of time.

Here's a picture of the primary cover side. It's on the forum. Nothing new.
Jay