DIXO/3a wholesale CF feedback

Re: DIXO/3a wholesale CF feedback (Mental998)

Ok guys here is the scoop, seeing as I am in the Carbon fiber business and I know as the last poster correctly said if you pay 89 dollars your gonna get 89 dollars worth, Well when Dixo and or 3A wholesale appeared on Ebay I started to do some research. I was contacted by a company in China by the name of the Carbon-Composite lab, they where looking for an importer for thier carbon fiber as they put it and I qoute " we are going to blow this market wide open."

After speaking with them they sent me thier pricing and some pictures, It looked good in the pics and the prices where unbelievable to say the least, at that point the old to good to be true raises a red flag.

Well the next Day I am contacted by a comapny in CA called O Peak who are based in France and have a distributor in CA, He sends me his price list and it is the same pictures as everyone in this loop, Dixo 3a and Opeak and Carbon Edge all the same product.

After more investigation I have finally got to the bottom of the whole deal, 3A and Dixo are the same person/company, a while back they purchased an initial stocking order of $10,000 of carbon from OPeak, thay have since been cut off due to thier business practices so beware all!.

Opeak/Carbon Edge are the same deal and are selling the same quality of carbon they sold to Dixo/3A.

Now being the curious person I am I asked Opeak to send me samples which they have done and I have them here in my office, they carbon is good 3k carbon, the molds they are using are either old or very poorly manufactured as they quality of the end product is to say the least bad, I also got a rear hugger from them that does not fit the bike properly (916 etc). Also they are re-clearing the product with what looks to be a yard broom and a bucket of sand.

So I would say to you all as I have spent alot of time researching this for my own reasons, if you are building a race bike and it's got to be ridden, rather than keeping it in pit lane for pose value then this would be money well spent, If you care about the looks of your bike then this will be a very dissapointing purchase. I have spoken with the factory and they are telling me they are making new molds and will have better products coming soon, I am in touch with them and will see what transpires but for now there it is, I hope this will clear up any questions any of you have.

Anyways thats it for now, as I get more info I shall keep all updated.

regards

Ryan @ CASOLI

Re: DIXO/3a wholesale CF feedback (Mental998)

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Mental998 »</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I’m not sure why everyone seems so surprised that they get a piece of carbon fiber crap when they pay so little for the item....? If you do any research at all before making the purchase on say, a CF rear hugger, an $89.00 unit should raise a red flag.

If you pay $89.00 for a rear hugger with chain guard, your going to get CF that is worth $89.00. A good CF rear hugger will cost well over $200.00 </TD></TR></TABLE>

hey guys i'm poking in from RC51 as the issue is coming to light with us as well....i was the third poster on the subject....there is more than one seller of these units.....check it out

my C/F from them was directily returned due to quality and fitment issues....mounts didn't even line up.......see my post.

my fender was MAC manufactured...this is the same stuff that OPP Optimum Performance Products is selling. I have the upper and lower in C/F and am not impressed for the the $530 you pay for each.......so what you pay doesn't reflect the quality you should get all the time!.....these guys have a shiny website and a good pitch........but the C/F is average at best.




Modified by throttlehead at 7:44 PM 12/1/2004

Re: DIXO/3a wholesale CF feedback (Ian748L)

Ian, I do manufacture all the parts we make in 3 formats we do fiberglass, 50/50 both Fiberglass and carbon and full carbon, We have just got some injection moulded plastic kits for the 749/999, So I can supply cheaper fiberglass full race kits for all the models, The problem currently to be very honest with you is the cost of man hours, Our factory in England for example, It can take 1 guy a week to perfect a mold for a new item, so you have 1 weeks labor, Then after the mold is made we pull 3 testers from the mold which are all GRP Fiberglass, this ensure the interior quality of the mold is good and has not pitting etc here we have another 3 to 4 days at least plus the cost of materials, finally when the mold passes quality control we will throw the first full Carbon item which is then tested for fit finish etc.

Now all this in mind and going back to the Dixo $89.00 rear hugger, just for a rear hugger for a 996 the mold will cost us upwards of labor and materials will net me in at 1500.00 British pounds currently 1.913 todays exchange rate.

Now you have to figure to make that part properly takes 1 man nearly a day in start to finish time and those pesky Brits are not cheap per hour let me tell ya, so hence why Carbon is not cheap.

At the start of this year I have been activley seeking and talking with many companies overseas where labor is considerably cheaper, HOWEVER there in lies the problem CHEAP LABOR CRAP PRODUCT, I have samples here from many manufacturers and I have yet to open the box and be even marginally impressed, Believe I understand this product is expensive but currently only the Europeans are making a quality product that is worth vendors like myself, or Motowheels, Yoyodyne etc selling to you guys.

Buy a machine I hear you guys say, well put it this way a Dyno is alot of money but you make your money back in no time an autoclave !!! Well if I where in the Aerospace industry maybe viable but not for the bike industry, sorry.

I have not given up my search and I am currently working very closley with several comapnies based all over the world and will eventually come up with a solution that has consistency and fits the bikes properly, and when I do you guys will all know about it but until then Ian unless we can all petition the the European Union to drop thier labor rates we are paying top $ for the stuff.

I can get any of you cheap carbon, But I will tell you all now It's Crap ............ But if any of you want it, It is available just please don't give me the chance to tell you I told you so,

Hope this helps all.

Cheers
Ryan @ Casoli

Re: DIXO/3a wholesale CF feedback (doocatiboy)

I received my CF side panels for the monster today from Dixo and they really are not too bad at
all. It was something like 50 bucks for both, and for my daily driver monster, i think they are good. The CF is not for those wonderful pristine ducs out there, but for your go everywhere, biker on a budget(save your $ for track days) I think these Dixo side panels are cool. They fit, which is a plus, and came very nicely packaged. The carbon had a few dimples in it, some dark spots, but overall was good, and clearcoat looked nice. For what its worth that was my experience. They took awhile to process the order, but since I got a shipping notice yesterday, and they arrived today, the actual ship time was great. If you are not looking for amazing stuff Dixo could work, but I really wouldnt buy anything you really wanted to look amazing from them, but if you have a monster with a missing side panel(you crashed!) then you might want to go for it. Perhaps I just got lucky, since so many others seemed to have been screwed.!

Re: (mikeinwi.)

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by mikeinwi. »</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">...my guess is these guys won't be around long.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Remember that softdrink that came out about 10 years ago with the upside-down label, funky color, and tasted like 10 different sodas mixed up (because it was)? It was touted as a gotta try new drink and was NEVER supposed to be a giant killer (Pepsi, Coke), nor was it ever supposed to last very long.

What they needed was not for people to like it, but simply for people to try it. As long as enough people bought a 20 oz bottle they would make their targeted revenue and attain their goal. It was extremely inexpensive to make and therefor the margin was high.

So lessee...Dixo/whomever sells low margin crap for such cheap prices that they cover their costs and make some money. The parts are so cheap that people don't bother to send them back because the return postage costs more than the part. Lets use you as an example. You tried 2 parts and will be returning none. To Dixo this is a successful sale. I am sure Mr. Dixo has no intentions of being a giant killer and just wants enough people to try his product, sell out his inventory make some scratch and move on.

Seems to me the system is working, sucker!

Re: (Nick D.)

here is my current status with my returned fender / email from company.
Hello Eric,
We did receive the package back here, and I checked in the warehouse for a new one. They told me that the ones we have now are better quality, and should fit on your bike. We will send the new one today via fedex and the tracking number is ************. We will also send a check for the shipping you paid to return the package here. I would also ask you for a big favor if that is possible. We do not have a bike here to check if the part fits it, but the manufacturer assured us that everything is fine with these parts now. Please send me an email when you get the package to let us know if the problem was resolved and the fender fits the bike.
Thank you and have a great day
Adriana
----- Original Message

Pretty good service once you get their online customer service address.....


I'll keep everyone posted......not holding my breath though


here is the ebay company and my winning auction for a mere 49 smackers!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors...%3AIT