Nobody is going to spend all the money on tooling to sell 20 steel sprockets. Just spend the money and get a sprocket specialist. I have been racing with these sprockets all year.

Building parts for the DS is a tough thing. 1 out of 100 calls you get are for the DS. There just is not enough of them sold.

 

Dez,

There are people and companies making new stuff. Big Gun (CDIs), MBRP, LTE (exhaust), Lectron (carbs), and more. The problem is that there are the extablished rotax motor head companies that seem to be lagging behind the new guys. While my post is a call for more stuff from new vendors, its also more of a challenge for the extablished motor heads to come up with something new of some consequence rather than sitting on thier duff and making air boxes for already fast quads.

Marky

 

Ironrod, I think a classic example is Eldelbrock. They developed a new line of performance atv carburetors and for the DS only need to nail down jetting and make a mount. Wrapping up hours of R&D time they get it done but decide not to produce them for the DS. Way to go, wheres the risk?

 

Ya know, something I saw on a Truck website was a collaborative buying forum. Where on a scheduled date, a bunch of people would all buy one product to get a discounted price etc. It seems like we could easily start doing that for DS650 parts. Just get a couple of core people together, ready to buy a certain part, post a date say one or two months away that the purchase will be made on, then people sign on & the purchase is made in a small volume. This pleases the manufacturer, as well as the customers. If this is handled correctly (I'm sure the sites which have been doing this for years have most of the bugs worked out) it seems it could boost sales & provide incentive for a company to produce a product.

 

Where most of these companies fail is finding someone to market thier product, and get the word out. Then once they do, they sit on thier duff and forget to continue with R&D.

 

Edelbrock made a Carb and there was no interest for it at the time. I will get my Edelbrock on Tuesday and they should be ready to sell in a Month or so. But guess what the new Honda TRX450r carb needs to be done first.

 

Quoted from ironrod:
" Where most of these companies fail is finding someone to market thier product, and get the word out. Then once they do, they sit on thier duff and forget to continue with R&D."


-This is the exact problem that Edelbrock has. I own two DS650s - and how would I ever know that I wanted an Edelbrock carburetor if I've never heard of one?!?! (The only way I'd ever heard of Edelbrock was from a user here on the forums BillDS650 who has the only Edelbrockcarb. for the DS650 in existance!) If the average DS650 owner has never heard of Edelbrock carburetors and has no idea what they do etc. how in the hell are they going to want to buy one? A company that simply says 'oh there is no interest' - This is bull crap. The only way to create interest is marketing! People have to know that the product exists to know they might want one. (I'm sure that ATVConnection.com & other companies would LOVE to help Edelbrock sell more carburetors - all they have to do is call.)

It seems to me, most of these lame *** people who produce aftermarket parts for off-road vehicles expect their company name to market itself. I guess they think they are sooooooo damn wonderful that everone in the world should already just know about their company, and instantly call them & sign up to pay $xxxx amount of money for a product that has not been produced, ahs not been tested, and especially has not been compared to other products. (No one is THAT wonderful!) When BillDS650 first started talking about his Edelbrock carb. & how good it was I became interested, however I still wasn't going to call & try to order one without seeing it go head to head with the TM45 (& now the 46HV - which I still want to see these two go head to head.)

Another example would be the first skid plate I bought - it was sold to my local shop by White Brothers - so I figured it was pretty good. Well, hindsight I wish I would have bought a different brand because this one isn't even half as good as the Pro-Armor skids I have on my Baja - which I bought after seeing them on someone else's ATV; this way I KNEW they were good. However in 2001 when I bought the White Brothers skid (which is actually a DG Baja skid with a White Brother sticker stuck in the bag) I didn't know Pro-Armor was even a company.

I'm not even sure what the next product is that I will buy - I really want high performance (you know, something to put a big grin on my face!) but I have yet to see an exhaust system that I can use! 99% are too loud & the other 1% the jury is still out on. What I find REALLY funny is the majority of the companies that make exhausts for the rest of the country are located right here in Southern California (where we now have very strict sound laws!) - yet they are the ones producing the loudest exhausts. I think someone should follow those people around & every time they try to go out riding report them to the Rangers for sound. If the people making these non-legal exhausts got a sound violation ticket like the rest of us do every time they went out riding they would come up with a quiet exhaust in about a week that could probably perform as well or better than their current exhausts. This is NOT the 1800's we DO have technology to make quality products; all we have to do is fuel the desire.

I wonder if there is any way to fuel the fire for quiet yet powerful exhausts - a telephone campaign? get hundreds of ATV owners calling all of the shops all day to request a quiet exhaust? I know the Blue Ribbon Coalition has a slogan "Less Sound = More Ground." So this quiet exhaust thing is definatly not just a one or two person idea. Perhaps we could contact the BRC for help in encouraging these idiot shops to make quiet powerful exhausts? Or other organizations like the ASA, CORVA, SDORC, etc, etc...

 

How many Carbs do you think Edelbrock would really sell? It takes allot of money to R&D new product. It is a big gamble making something for the Bomb. There just is not enough units sold compared to the other sport quads. Edelbrock will sell 500 400ex carbs to 1 DS carb. Why do you think Roll, leager, Lonestar dont make Aarms and swingarms for the DS?

 

Well you asked so here I go. I talked to almost anyone who was manufacturing quad parts at the Sand Sports Super show and 90% of them told me that the DS was so well made that there was no need to upgrade from stock. Meaning that the DS is all around, already a great quad that there is no real need to upgrade anything. The DS outperforms and out handles almost everything already made stock. This would explain the lack of companies manufacturing parts.

Also I wonder how many DS are made/sold for every Raptor/Z400? It is simple economics to manufacture parts for the mass market.

I just think if more folks would try the DS then they would buy one. Heavy ? Who cares when you have Rotax power and a foot of travel is what I tell them.

 

Oh come on. Who said that?

Why then are there huge differences in exhaust - even end caps make a difference. Why are there guys that are at double the horsepower with pistons, cams and CDI units. Why does everyone get new clutch springs? Its not a question of upgrades, its a question of the quality of the upgrade. I think that most manufacturers are missing the boat because they equate the riders of the DS 650 like any other owner of quads. But I think the demographics of the DS owner are quite different - Hell, we even look different - older, more established and quality concerned. If Ron Wood Racing sold a nikel plated or stainless steel exhaust that was spark arrested and under 96 DB, they could not keep them in stock. Thats a fact that they do not understand. Look, MBRP made a run at it and about half the people in this forum baught them - the problem is they didnt perform.

Come on Ron get off your duff and start some R&D up again for us sand riders.

Marky