Unique Business/Design Opportunity

[Lessss]

Do you have some contacts that you can offer either here or off-list ? We have no experience dealing with these countries.

Unfortunately no. I'm just hunting around for locations to move to where my modest bank account will stretch alot farthur. Call it a permanent and premature retirement .

Just pointint out two countries I know have preferential export ability. It may require creating the business locally from scratch - - or not. Thought I'd pipe in with two possibilities.

 

[Battboy]

Thanks, we will check it out. The big obstacle in doing electric bikes or trikes is always the price. The buying public just can't get by that one, so it really makes it tough to come out with a quality product that meets everyone's expectations. Thank you again for your suggestions.

Best,

Don Harmon

 

[Joshua Goldberg]

Hopefully this one works and Tyler D. isn't a Moderator

I have a problem with what I have read from Tyler D., problems actually.

He does not appear to know where he lives, his Profile says Location, Location which is really smart for a 6 yearold.

He appears Anti-American or has an extremely low opinion of American Engineers and seems to favor the Chinese.

Don Harmon did NOT go running to Bob McRee seeking Bobs help, I asked Bob to connect to Don Harmon.

I have been following Lifepo4 for 4 years and I got Don into LIFEPO4 originally and he has done a Stellar job so far and here again is smothing that bothers me about Tyler D., he seems to favor the Crap made in China over Lifepo4 made by PSI in the ROC and Don (who is an American) is a part owner. So Tyler D. how many of your Made in China Lifepo4 have American Citizens in a position to dictate what enters North America for North Americans??

AS for Don soliciting the Wisdom of Members of Endless-Sphere for his planned T-REX in 2009, would you prefer Don Harmon only seek the imput of Engineers and Electronic specialists residing in China??

I know Don has already paid a Canadian Trike Designer far more cash that he should have for that person's design ideas for the T-REX and that brings me another point Tyler D., what is so bloody wrong with an American wanting to have an E-Trike Designed and Manufactured on THIS Continent, would you prefer Don Harmon ignore the Wisdom of Members of this Group and NOT employ Americans because that is how you are coming across in your Posts.

We should be Supporting people who are working for us, creating employment, paying Taxes and making Product WE want to see on our streets and not support the Chinese who contribute little for us----so which side are you on Tyler D.?

 

[mvadventure]

Joshua makes a good point, Don is here to garner ideas and has been very open with answering questions. I share a similar view from my windows but include the ICW and our boat in it and make no apologies for it, it took a lot of years of very hard work to get here. It's going to take entrepreneurs to run with the LiPO4 technology to make it work. Zane of Aten Energy is one of those individuals and I feel Don is doing his best to bring a quality product into the market. He is one of the fellows actually working in the business, good - bad or indifferent he is working at it.

For what it's worth I seriously considered a Raptor last winter prior to purchasing my 5304. The well designed web site gave me a lot of information. I was turned off by the price but that wasn't the final factor. At the time I was considering pulling a small trailer to haul my golf clubs but eventually saw a mental picture of me on a trike with a trailer with a golf bag on it trying to stay in the bike lane. The picture evolved into my trips into town on a trike rather than a bike and unfortunately for the Raptor company I decided on converting my bike. To solve the golf club problem I merely decided to keep a set at both of my clubs courses and that problem was solved. To me, at least, buying a Raptor and hooking it to a trailer kind of defeated the purpose of what I wanted to do with my transportation. At that point it was simply easier to take the car. I've very happy with my bike with the 5304 and the LiPO4's that give me all the range I need.

I do think the Raptor has a market and that the market has not been identified or developed. Sixty units a year seems mighty small to me and once the market is identified I believe Don has the potential to be sitting on, if not a gold mine, a extremely viable product. I would welcome a PM from him further identifying marketing concepts and development. This is not to say I'm standing in line to invest much time or money in any project but simply to say there is an interest and a potential in this product. Lots of stuff comes and goes and I darn sure didn't get rich in my first business attempt. Or my second. Or my third. etc.

Mike

 

[TylerDurden]

Hopefully this one works and Tyler D. isn't a Moderator

I have a problem with what I have read from Tyler D., problems actually.

He does not appear to know where he lives, his Profile says Location, Location which is really smart for a 6 yearold.

He appears Anti-American or has an extremely low opinion of American Engineers and seems to favor the Chinese.

Don Harmon did NOT go running to Bob McRee seeking Bobs help, I asked Bob to connect to Don Harmon.

I have been following Lifepo4 for 4 years and I got Don into LIFEPO4 originally and he has done a Stellar job so far and here again is smothing that bothers me about Tyler D., he seems to favor the Crap made in China over Lifepo4 made by PSI in the ROC and Don (who is an American) is a part owner. So Tyler D. how many of your Made in China Lifepo4 have American Citizens in a position to dictate what enters North America for North Americans??

AS for Don soliciting the Wisdom of Members of Endless-Sphere for his planned T-REX in 2009, would you prefer Don Harmon only seek the imput of Engineers and Electronic specialists residing in China??

I know Don has already paid a Canadian Trike Designer far more cash that he should have for that person's design ideas for the T-REX and that brings me another point Tyler D., what is so bloody wrong with an American wanting to have an E-Trike Designed and Manufactured on THIS Continent, would you prefer Don Harmon ignore the Wisdom of Members of this Group and NOT employ Americans because that is how you are coming across in your Posts.

We should be Supporting people who are working for us, creating employment, paying Taxes and making Product WE want to see on our streets and not support the Chinese who contribute little for us----so which side are you on Tyler D.?

Uh... right. That must be why I run 48AH of Canadian emoli. (As if Harmon offers anything of domestic mfr.)

"Don't just write to a board, be a part of the revolution".... tell that to Buzzz, Maxwell, Fechter, Malcom, PJD, Denise, Silicum, et.al. who in a weekend, can best most of the available tech on the market, and have openly shared their efforts with the world. Harmon's little slip reveals how he regards the ES membership: as a cheap resource to pander-to and take as much as he can get, calling it an "open-design", when he is setting the spec.

Why buy the cow, if you can get the milk for free?

 

[fechter]

The way I see it, Don has been straightforward and has openly stated that he is in business to make money. I don't have a problem with this. I am all in favor of companies producing a decent product at a reasonable price. Most of what is on the market today is really crap. Many of my ideas have been picked up by various companies and used to improve their products. I didn't make any money off this. I'm OK with that. I think of it as my contribution to advancing the use of electric power.

 

[Joshua Goldberg]

Good reply Tyler D., I was expecting something way more vile and evil but I suspect you are pacing yourself and will eventually blow a fuse and embarass your species LOL

Don Harmon suffers from having a short fuse and tends to take his marbles and leave the playground in disgust way too easily, but he has not been exposed to the E-Bike Industry long enough to realize we tend to eat our young and these EV Groups are often a Gauntlet that people new to our EV World have to run through covering their balls before we take them seriously and those who cannot handle it are Culled from the Herd early on. Often I think we consider ourselves on these various Message Boards to be the EV Police laying in wait for some new player to slip up and we exist to kick their ass and get them to straighten up or get out.

On the TidalForce Forum Harmon was being attacked because he wanted to make a profit and that was soooo silly because without a profit you go out of business really fast. This is NOT an Industry you get into to get rich. The old joke on how to make One Million Dollars selling e-bikes was you start with Two Million Dollars and sell Crack on the side to pay the rent.

When Harmon was putting the Raptor together he asked Members of E-Motor-Assist for their suggestions and quite a few of the suggestions made it to the final Version of the Raptor. You see this as wrong but I don't because people in the past who have helped Don along get his appreciation which has for Members translated into discounts on their Lifepo4 purchases and for more detailed help Don has forked out cash. We have a good number of retired Engineers who are eager to assist not expecting payment but do it because they can and it is a nice warm and fuzzy feeling being involved in Projects in Progress again....going fishing in retirement is highly overated

Even if the T-REX never gets built it still gives people something to be involved in where they can exchange ideas and be a part of a Project and it sure beats doing nothing and waiting for the kids to have you shipped off to a Nursing Home and declared mentally incapable so they can get our house and assets.....our future. The cliche of Use your Brain or Lose it.

For the person who thought about a Raptor for his Golf Clubs, try this instead http://www.tstrykes.com it uses a Crystalyte 5305 on a 40A X 48V Controller and has a rear rack for Golf Clubs (and it is Made in the USA) and before Tyler.D. says the Crystalyte is a Chinese Motor System, well the Crystalyte Motors were Designed by an American EE in New Mexico and the Dual Speed came from an Engineer in Toronto and assorted other EE's (None are Chinese and None asked for payment).

When I started with Crystalyte in 2001 I did so because I saw a new Chinese company eager to manufacture products that Americans wanted and for the next several years Crystalyte made what Members of the Yahoo Power Assist Group and myself asked for. My idea was the Series 5000 motors. It never donned on anyone to ask for payment from China for our work and lots of Retired American EE's loved being involved in moving Crystalyte to the top of the food chain. Malcolm Currie and Malcolm Bricklin and the others ignored us and they built what they felt we deserved and went out of Business.

What Don Harmon was asking for was not different than what I got started with Crystalyte re: to get imput from Members of these Groups to move our EV Industry forward. You'd prefer Currie or Wavecrest Labs who ignored us and gave us what they wanted??

 

[recumbent]

Don, how about modifying this great design with rear suspension that everyone asks for.
It also comes with a 7 speed internal "Nexus" hub which can be swithched while stopped.