TRexTechnician
Registered
Hi Everyone,
This is Tom. I am the technical supervisor at T-Rex Racing. Yes you got me. I did copy the four sliders about four years ago. Just like many companies, we try to learn and adopt anything that we deemed good as long as it is legal and beneficial to our customers. Under the law, if one claims that he/she is an intellectual property owner of a product. He/she must have a patent for it. Without a patent, it is an invitation “please go ahead and make them†for everyone. Companies do this everyday. Look at the similar design between Bike Design and R&G:
,
They are both in the shape of tear drop.
About the cracked sliders that you see, please allow me to explain. I did have one single batch of sliders was injection molded for the 06 Yamaha FJR1300 about ago. This is an experiment with the popular injection molded method that used in 99.9% of all the plastic that you see every day: anything from plastic cup to computer keyboard to cell phone plastic case etc... The pucks were fine but on some sliders there were bubbles inside. I only used these pucks on the left side slider of this specific FJR model only. We had contacted and replaced all of our FJR pucks. To my knowledge, there is not a single FJR was damaged with the defective pucks. The problem does not happen to other model whatsoever, since they have always been machined from solid rod. I tell all my customers who worry about the strength of our slider pucks that if he can break the puck with the biggest hammer he can find I will refund the 2X the price of the sliders + shipping. I have been trying to fix this image problem of our sliders ever since that one incident. But still, every once in a while I have someone brought up the problem, as he heard it from someone or read it from a thread few years ago in a forum. Anything written on the internet seems to be around forever.
As for the problem with the 2008 - onward Hayabusa no cut frame sliders, I have sold hundreds of these sliders. The steel brackets are assembled and tig-welded by hands. It could have been that the bracket was moved in the welding jig causing a slight misalignment. As the result, the slider may touch the plastic slightly. If this is the case, I more than willing to send you another bracket. Just send me an email at tomc@t-rex-racing.com with your info. Any company can make mistake, but what one do afterward is what count.
As far as whose product is better quality, please allow me to point out some technical details. Both T-Rex and Bike Design use same kind billet aluminum spacer and plastic. However, we, T-Rex use grade 12.9 for all our bolts. Bike Design uses grade 8.8 bolts see Fig 1. 8.8 bolts is carbon steel at half the price and half as strong compared to 12.9 alloy bolts. You can verify this by calling any metric bolt suppliers and ask which is stronger and more expensive: 8.8 or 12.9 grade? Our steel brackets are tig-welded and powder-coated in black to blend in with black frame.
We have billet aluminum inserts in our frame sliders. Bike Design don’t. W/o the aluminum insert the sliders tend to crack under the pressure exerted by the bolts being torque to factory standard, about 35-45 ft/lb. The crack can develop right then or afterward. Here is a complaint from one of Bike Design’s customers example:
Bike Design sliders suck - TLZone Forums
About the argument that T-Rex no cut sliders make Bike Design no cut sliders looks bad. This is like saying, Kia makes bad cars. Somehow, it makes Toyota looks bad b/c it also makes cars. It is totally non-sensical. Bike Design is mad b/c it feel threatened and could not charge customers for $200+ /set of frame sliders in this economic downturn.
As far as why T-Rex sliders are cheaper? We sell direct to customers. We don’t do expensive advertising like $2000 for a 1â€x2†space on magazine. We don’t go through distributor and dealer. Each of these of middle men raise the price by 50-80% mark-up. If anyone have a question, please feel free to send me an email tomc@t-rex-racing.com.
This is Tom. I am the technical supervisor at T-Rex Racing. Yes you got me. I did copy the four sliders about four years ago. Just like many companies, we try to learn and adopt anything that we deemed good as long as it is legal and beneficial to our customers. Under the law, if one claims that he/she is an intellectual property owner of a product. He/she must have a patent for it. Without a patent, it is an invitation “please go ahead and make them†for everyone. Companies do this everyday. Look at the similar design between Bike Design and R&G:
They are both in the shape of tear drop.
About the cracked sliders that you see, please allow me to explain. I did have one single batch of sliders was injection molded for the 06 Yamaha FJR1300 about ago. This is an experiment with the popular injection molded method that used in 99.9% of all the plastic that you see every day: anything from plastic cup to computer keyboard to cell phone plastic case etc... The pucks were fine but on some sliders there were bubbles inside. I only used these pucks on the left side slider of this specific FJR model only. We had contacted and replaced all of our FJR pucks. To my knowledge, there is not a single FJR was damaged with the defective pucks. The problem does not happen to other model whatsoever, since they have always been machined from solid rod. I tell all my customers who worry about the strength of our slider pucks that if he can break the puck with the biggest hammer he can find I will refund the 2X the price of the sliders + shipping. I have been trying to fix this image problem of our sliders ever since that one incident. But still, every once in a while I have someone brought up the problem, as he heard it from someone or read it from a thread few years ago in a forum. Anything written on the internet seems to be around forever.
As for the problem with the 2008 - onward Hayabusa no cut frame sliders, I have sold hundreds of these sliders. The steel brackets are assembled and tig-welded by hands. It could have been that the bracket was moved in the welding jig causing a slight misalignment. As the result, the slider may touch the plastic slightly. If this is the case, I more than willing to send you another bracket. Just send me an email at tomc@t-rex-racing.com with your info. Any company can make mistake, but what one do afterward is what count.
As far as whose product is better quality, please allow me to point out some technical details. Both T-Rex and Bike Design use same kind billet aluminum spacer and plastic. However, we, T-Rex use grade 12.9 for all our bolts. Bike Design uses grade 8.8 bolts see Fig 1. 8.8 bolts is carbon steel at half the price and half as strong compared to 12.9 alloy bolts. You can verify this by calling any metric bolt suppliers and ask which is stronger and more expensive: 8.8 or 12.9 grade? Our steel brackets are tig-welded and powder-coated in black to blend in with black frame.
We have billet aluminum inserts in our frame sliders. Bike Design don’t. W/o the aluminum insert the sliders tend to crack under the pressure exerted by the bolts being torque to factory standard, about 35-45 ft/lb. The crack can develop right then or afterward. Here is a complaint from one of Bike Design’s customers example:
Bike Design sliders suck - TLZone Forums
About the argument that T-Rex no cut sliders make Bike Design no cut sliders looks bad. This is like saying, Kia makes bad cars. Somehow, it makes Toyota looks bad b/c it also makes cars. It is totally non-sensical. Bike Design is mad b/c it feel threatened and could not charge customers for $200+ /set of frame sliders in this economic downturn.
As far as why T-Rex sliders are cheaper? We sell direct to customers. We don’t do expensive advertising like $2000 for a 1â€x2†space on magazine. We don’t go through distributor and dealer. Each of these of middle men raise the price by 50-80% mark-up. If anyone have a question, please feel free to send me an email tomc@t-rex-racing.com.
about making frame sliders and f\_/cked up a 99-07 kit to make an easy 08-09 kit that has a rubbish fit and compromises the effectiveness of the kit in a crash and even passively (see wiring). Ours is not as cheap (in any meaning of the word), but I hope you now see why...
This material has a lower friction coefficient then aluminium... It's very tough. 
lease:
