CYCLONE GEARBOX – BATCH 2 RECALL

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soosh
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ducksta wrote:not everybody has the time and patiance to put up with poor parts i agree its part of scootering but still these are not £10 parts. take sip px speedos some work some dont £135 cost sending back to germany
Sure,see what your saying but i wouldnt put the aftersales service of these two dealers in the same category,one will do everything they can to help and the other simply cant be bothered to answer emails about a shite product they have sold.
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drunkmunkey6969
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soosh wrote: Sure,see what your saying but i wouldnt put the aftersales service of these two dealers in the same category,one will do everything they can to help and the other simply cant be bothered to answer emails about a shite product they have sold.
I agree.

I've heard of some dealers saying "never heard of that before" as they have a batch of 3000 units sitting on the shelves still to be sold! And other dealers taking cash off customers for engine jobs and then the scooter failing on the journey home.....only to be told "nowt to do with me!".

What Dean has done.....to ring 120 customers individually and personally, and to put out recall notices on forums etc deserves a lot of credit, no sweeping under the carpet jobs here. An honest error in production, now being rectified as efficiently and honestly as possible. Give the guy a break....
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Paul Calder
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I'm new to this excellent forum so don't know if my opinion is of any merit, but as I'm waiting on a Cyclone for my TV here goes:

I have a precision engineering section in my company. Interference fits are a nightmare to get right. Dean and DRTDenis had it right with the first Cyclone; I've got one in my SX and it's a fantastic piece of kit. I've not had a days bother with it. Changing the interference fit on the cluster by a fraction of a fraction of a millimetre would have probably been seen by the engineering team at DRTDenis as a minor revision to improve a tried and tested product. If only life were that simple....

Right now I imagine there are a lot of hacked off people out there who have invested a lot of time and money to put a 5 speed box in their Lambretta. I'm one of them. Spare a thought for Dean at RLC though. I bet he's barely slept a wink over the last few weeks. He's a perfectionist and this will be grating on his very soul. His frustration will be a 100 times ours. I'm sure he'll be substantially out of pocket too, but knowing Dean that won't be his primary concern. He wants to see his gearbox in our scooters because first and foremost he is a scooterist himself and he's always dreamed of pulling this product off. He's a good guy Dean; one of about a dozen or so guys who have risked everything over the years to bring us the scooter products and services we want. I admire the guy. To develop a product like the Cyclone takes real determination and nerves of steel. The financial investment is massive, you could lose your home if you get it wrong or be dragged through courts in lawsuits. It's not for the faint-hearted.

A lot of people may think that if Dean gets the Cyclone right he'll be retiring in 3 years to sit on a desert island; that he's making a fortune. I'm pretty certain that's nonsense. I've done some rough sums on the Cyclone development and Dean will have to sell a hell of a lot of gearboxes just to break even. I hope he does a lot better than that, but he'll never be a millionaire; the market is limited and the margins tight.

So, anyway, I'm going to cut him a bit of slack and wait patiently for my Cycloned TV. 4 gears will do for the moment; it's not like my scooter is sitting on bricks.

I will say this though: Hurry up Dean!!!! :)

Cheers, Paul

PS: I am an RLC customer like the rest of you waiting for Cyclone boxes. I'm not his best mate or cousin or business partner :)
10 inch Terror
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Paul Calder wrote:I'm new to this excellent forum so don't know if my opinion is of any merit, but as I'm waiting on a Cyclone for my TV here goes:

I have a precision engineering section in my company. Interference fits are a nightmare to get right. Dean and DRTDenis had it right with the first Cyclone; I've got one in my SX and it's a fantastic piece of kit. I've not had a days bother with it. Changing the interference fit on the cluster by a fraction of a fraction of a millimetre would have probably been seen by the engineering team at DRTDenis as a minor revision to improve a tried and tested product. If only life were that simple....

Right now I imagine there are a lot of hacked off people out there who have invested a lot of time and money to put a 5 speed box in their Lambretta. I'm one of them. Spare a thought for Dean at RLC though. I bet he's barely slept a wink over the last few weeks. He's a perfectionist and this will be grating on his very soul. His frustration will be a 100 times ours. I'm sure he'll be substantially out of pocket too, but knowing Dean that won't be his primary concern. He wants to see his gearbox in our scooters because first and foremost he is a scooterist himself and he's always dreamed of pulling this product off. He's a good guy Dean; one of about a dozen or so guys who have risked everything over the years to bring us the scooter products and services we want. I admire the guy. To develop a product like the Cyclone takes real determination and nerves of steel. The financial investment is massive, you could lose your home if you get it wrong or be dragged through courts in lawsuits. It's not for the faint-hearted.

A lot of people may think that if Dean gets the Cyclone right he'll be retiring in 3 years to sit on a desert island; that he's making a fortune. I'm pretty certain that's nonsense. I've done some rough sums on the Cyclone development and Dean will have to sell a hell of a lot of gearboxes just to break even. I hope he does a lot better than that, but he'll never be a millionaire; the market is limited and the margins tight.

So, anyway, I'm going to cut him a bit of slack and wait patiently for my Cycloned TV. 4 gears will do for the moment; it's not like my scooter is sitting on bricks.

I will say this though: Hurry up Dean!!!! :)

Cheers, Paul

PS: I am an RLC customer like the rest of you waiting for Cyclone boxes. I'm not his best mate or cousin or business partner :)
Fair enough I say..
rbgaz
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i think there is a valid point to be made here , two years testing the first box bullet proof , second batch change things no testing how stupid imo
gp200ts1
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But Dean never altered the spec of the second batch, it was DRT who changed things so why should Dean have worried about testing? it was probably DRT who admitted it after the second batch of clusters started failing
psychedelicropcircle
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gp200ts1 wrote:But Dean never altered the spec of the second batch, it was DRT who changed things so why should Dean have worried about testing? it was probably DRT who admitted it after the second batch of clusters started failing

The word probably sounds like your speculation.
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Diablo
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I am the only other dealer allowed to buy direct from RLC other than Stuart Owen so know some of the details behind this.
The spec of the interference fit was changed without Deans knowledge but with the best intentions of improvement by DRT. It didn't work it was a cock up and they have dealt with it.
Every British customer that Stuart has given Dean phone numbers for has been called personally by himself. He has done everything in his power to rectify the situation and the new clusters are being extensively tested as we speak. As always on forums its the people who haven't actually bought one that moan the most-not sure how that works but hey it won't change.
Deans main concern and the thing that's been keeping him awake at night is the thought that a failure may cause an accident not how much money he may lose.
You'll never change people begrudging others from making a living from Scootering because they all remember the days when you could buy a scoot of an old boy for £50. Those days are gone get used to it.
If you think RLC are keeping prices artificially high I'm sorry I think thats nonsense. You can't get two blackjacks for a penny anymore either....
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jonashford
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Nice one Al, I was thinking the same myself, most of the people having a pop, haven't bought one.

I'm bored of hearing wingers winging about nothing. To change a gear cluster isn't a chore it's part of owning a 40 + year old scooter, it only takes an hour FFS!
Timbo
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Diablo wrote:I am the only other dealer allowed to buy direct from RLC other than Stuart Owen so know some of the details behind this.
The spec of the interference fit was changed without Deans knowledge but with the best intentions of improvement by DRT. It didn't work it was a cock up and they have dealt with it.
Every British customer that Stuart has given Dean phone numbers for has been called personally by himself. He has done everything in his power to rectify the situation and the new clusters are being extensively tested as we speak. As always on forums its the people who haven't actually bought one that moan the most-not sure how that works but hey it won't change.
Deans main concern and the thing that's been keeping him awake at night is the thought that a failure may cause an accident not how much money he may lose.
You'll never change people begrudging others from making a living from Scootering because they all remember the days when you could buy a scoot of an old boy for £50. Those days are gone get used to it.
If you think RLC are keeping prices artificially high I'm sorry I think thats nonsense. You can't get two blackjacks for a penny anymore either....

Hopefully this will put an end to all the speculation and guess work and was my understanding of events. The Cyclone has greatly improved my enjoyment of riding a Lambretta. Only if you have one or have ridden one would you understand...... 8-)
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