BMP revival

I noticed that James from the former BMP has got a kickstarter campaign going to revive his friction drive kit business. I'm not connected in any way but thought I'd mention it here for anyone who might be interested. It doesn't look like it's getting a whole lot of support but there's ten days left in the campaign. Good riding to all.

link:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/548672532/roadbug-motorized-bicycle-kit

Glad to see Jim back in business. I've always liked his kit the most.
Great quality parts such as the SS clutch drum, heavy duty angle iron hardware & aluminum uprights.
-Lowracer-

lowracer said:

Glad to see Jim back in business. I've always liked his kit the most.
Great quality parts such as the SS clutch drum, heavy duty angle iron hardware & aluminum uprights.
-Lowracer-

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I agree - great quality.

Hows the Tanaka Low Racer?

lowracer said:

Glad to see Jim back in business.

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To be honest.........I think he's looking to see if there is enough support out there to get started back up again.
He is offering a pretty good discounted deal for early supporters.

Don't know James personally but the way he went out of business without any explanation to his previous supporters leaves a bad taste in my memory. He left us hanging for 6 months with never a word mentioned. I put off buying a kit waiting on him to resume bizz. I just think we could have been treated better than that with all the support this forum gave him. I would buy from him again but I would never count on future orders...... not saying anything bad about BMP or the owner, it was just the situation and how it went out of bizz.

darwin said:

Don't know James personally but the way he went out of business without any explanation to his previous supporters leaves a bad taste in my memory. He left us hanging for 6 months with never a word mentioned. I put off buying a kit waiting on him to resume bizz. I just think we could have been treated better than that with all the support this forum gave him. I would buy from him again but I would never count on future orders.

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Id have to agree with you - I tried to contact him, but to no avail. I needed to get the instructions for the jackshaft - chain - belt option, but to no avail.

I the same breath, I do ALWAYS root for the small business owner to do well.

So James, if you get to read this, some guidance about your kit would be appreciated, and best of luck getting back into the business.

darwin said:

Don't know James personally but the way he went out of business without any explanation to his previous supporters leaves a bad taste in my memory. He left us hanging for 6 months with never a word mentioned. I put off buying a kit waiting on him to resume bizz. I just think we could have been treated better than that with all the support this forum gave him. I would buy from him again but I would never count on future orders...... not saying anything bad about BMP or the owner, it was just the situation and how it went out of bizz.

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There's often a back story to things. I don't know the guy well but had a few phone convos with him some time back. Based on that, and experience myself running small businesses, my take is different. There's always pressures going on running a business that no one else can see and you don't want to wear it on your sleeve. But I also saw the price war games going on back then. One of the other players in the MB parts biz, who shall remain nameless, took a kit and had it offshored to China, sold it for $89 initially and after BMP went out predictably moved the price back to a buck fifty. We can speak about wanting things made in the USA, but money has got to talk as well.

On the whole, it's a pretty small customer market so it might be easy to overestimate the amount of support given in a real dollars sense versus time and cash invested. I know this was a second job for the guy and I assumed more a labor of love rather than making a living, especially considering the Utube vids he posted on DIY builds. Even so, no one wants to lose money on the deal. I do know that I've not heard of anyone thinking the guy was untrustworthy or being ripped off, being disappointed with the kits he was producing, their quality, customer service/shipping and perhaps most importantly price point and value.
Anyway, thought folks might be interested, the guy maybe trying to do it better and offering a pretty nice discount at no risk for backing the venture early on.

I hope Roadbug is successful, if he's up and running when ever in the future I need a kit I will buy from him. That time isn't now unfortunately with 2 bikes currently.........I do have an ad on craigs locally, ya never know......at one time I had an inkling to put together a rear chain drive using his kit with a Honda 50 motor. Didn't see any thing mentioned about the chain drive option, have to keep an eye out for that.

I bought a kit from James about three years ago. Had a few phone conversations with him. No one's convinced yet that there is a better friction drive kit for the price that James sells them for. If I ever want or need another one, James will be my first choice. I hope he gets up and running again with great success.

I really wish him well .
I hope he gets it off the ground, and can reopen and make it a success.

I know a little about haven to go out of business.
After my accident I could no longer drive, so I had no choice but to close my 1 man haul away company down.
Even if he did offer a good kit and good service, in business, what counts is how you treat your former customers as/after going out of business.
Especially if you are ever planning to reopen.
A simple email ,or posting on his website or even a posting here, saying he was going out of business.
When I did go out of business I posted on my webpage, I emailed, and snail mail everyone of my 10,000+ customers telling them that I closed the company and thanked them for there business.

I can see people being a little skeptical at first, as with all vendors it does not matter how good of a kit/service you offered last year or even last week, all that matters is how good of a kit/service you are offering this week.