www.fastbikegear.co.nz. Anyone used them?

[Pumba]

As per the thread title www.fastbikegear.co.nz anyone used them before.

Looking at getting some Pazzo lever for the Speed Triple.

Alternativly anyone got a good place (read cheap) to get some from?

[Kendog]

As per the thread title www.fastbikegear.co.nz anyone used them before.

Looking at getting some Pazzo lever for the Speed Triple.

Alternativly anyone got a good place (read cheap) to get some from?
We got ours from Motomummy (http://www.motomummy.com/store/home.php?cat=357), couldn't find a set for the FXR.

[Pumba]

Cheers Kendog. Christ at the rate I brake levers putting them on the FXR would be the last thing I would want to do.

Hmmm, bit surprised there havent been any more responses. Doesnt bode well for there business if they are practicaly unkown on the biggest biker forum in NZ

[Owl]

Didn't know they existed Pumba, but their Pazzo's are a great price at $264.

[p.dath]

The domain was first registered 12/2/2010, so they have only been around 3 months.

[Pumba]

Didn't know they existed Pumba, but their Pazzo's are a great price at $264.

No neither did I till I stumbled accros their site. I thought the price was pretty good as well.


The domain was first registered 12/2/2010, so they have only been around 3 months.

Thanks, good info.

[Robert Taylor]

Note that they are NOT an authorised Ohlins distributor, nor have they any expertise in this field and will be incapable of providing the backup service that such a high quality product should come with. Dont be fooled, they are just piggybacking onto a big US dealer. And their prices are actually more expensive.

[Pumba]

A fair and good point to make Robert. I personally had already put two and two togeather based on your comments in the suspension part of this site a month or so back

[YellowDog]

As per the thread title www.fastbikegear.co.nz anyone used them before.

Looking at getting some Pazzo lever for the Speed Triple.

Alternativly anyone got a good place (read cheap) to get some from?

I wouldn't buy from such a new outfit without a recommendation.

Pazzos are a commodity item and cheap is good. I got mine on ebay and rate them highly.

If you are looking at Ohlins stuff, best to go somewhere with expertise.

[PeeJay]

Note that they are NOT an authorised Ohlins distributor, nor have they any expertise in this field and will be incapable of providing the backup service that such a high quality product should come with. Dont be fooled, they are just piggybacking onto a big US dealer. And their prices are actually more expensive.

I take it from your comments you have first hand knowledge of their expertise and capabilities ?
Or do you just "know" because if they're not "authorised" then they cant be competent.

The only "fact" in your post is they arent an authorised Ohlins distributor, not that they claim to be, evrything else is just sour grapes and having a dig at someone elses business.

As for "Dont be fooled, they are just piggybacking onto a big US dealer" is there something underhanded about this? are they trying to fool the NZ motorcyclist? if so how?
I think 99.9% of NZ motorcyclists realise that 99.9% of the mc products they buy are sourced overseas, including Ohlins and Race tech

If you have such a problem with these "parasites" as you like to call them, who bring in Ohlins, instead of whinging about them maybe you should get stuck into Ohlins. And dont carry on about the pricing that US dealers get compared to yourself because we have heard it all before. If Ohlins cant look after you then maybe you should "piggyback" off a big US dealer if they can give you a better deal.
No doubt loyalty integrity ethics etc will come into it, but loyalty etc is a 2 way street and business is business. Why you feel you should display these admirable attributes whilst bent over is beyond me.

[OutForADuck]

Got my track bike levers from here Carl SportbikeTrackGear (http://stores.sportbiketrackgear.com/Categories.bok?category=Triumph+Performance+Parts% 3ADaytona+675%3ALevers). The're good levers and a damn site cheaper than Pazzo's.

The ones I have on the Streetfighter are ASV's and they are awsome.... But more expensive than Pazzo's

[Robert Taylor]

I take it from your comments you have first hand knowledge of their expertise and capabilities ?
Or do you just "know" because if they're not "authorised" then they cant be competent.

The only "fact" in your post is they arent an authorised Ohlins distributor, not that they claim to be, evrything else is just sour grapes and having a dig at someone elses business.

As for "Dont be fooled, they are just piggybacking onto a big US dealer" is there something underhanded about this? are they trying to fool the NZ motorcyclist? if so how?
I think 99.9% of NZ motorcyclists realise that 99.9% of the mc products they buy are sourced overseas, including Ohlins and Race tech

If you have such a problem with these "parasites" as you like to call them, who bring in Ohlins, instead of whinging about them maybe you should get stuck into Ohlins. And dont carry on about the pricing that US dealers get compared to yourself because we have heard it all before. If Ohlins cant look after you then maybe you should "piggyback" off a big US dealer if they can give you a better deal.
No doubt loyalty integrity ethics etc will come into it, but loyalty etc is a 2 way street and business is business. Why you feel you should display these admirable attributes whilst bent over is beyond me.

1) In other posts I have stated that we have recently negotiated better pricing with Ohlins, that cuts out these parasites. No apologies for that word, that is exactly what they are.

2) They will not have competency in the product because they dont attend training schools at the factory in Sweden, nor could they as they are not an authorised distributor. Nor are they privy to continual updates, nor are they privy to a distributor access only website with a whole plethora of privileged technical info. It should never be underestimated how vital such information is to do specific work to the standards expected.

If you have never been in the wholesale side of this industry with direct links straight to the manufacturer then I guess you will have a little trouble understanding what I have said above. I dont take it lightly that I spend tens of thousands setting everything up right to be shafted by parasites that just pick the eyes out of everything, just to make money, without having proper support.

Loyalty is indeed a two way street, my business is loyal to its customers in providing excellent backup service for a highly technical product. Its a little bit different to selling fine crystal or fancy levers.

[Quasievil]

I take it from your comments you have first hand knowledge of their expertise and capabilities ?


Liam Venter from fastbiketrackgear isnt a Suspension technician at all, at least thats how I remember it when he told me about the site.

Each to there own, but for me I prefer to buy from who I know will be able to apply the correct product for the correct application along with the correct backup and service whoever that might be for the product concerned.
But thats just me.

[FastBikeGear]

Hmmm good thread....

FastBikeGear is a new business. We have been operating for just on 12 months now and only went live with our web store earlier this year. The business has very pleasingly grown faster than expected.

I am an experienced business owner. I founded and ran a multi-million dollar IT import and distribution business supporting over 500 resellers for 13 years, which I sold in 2005. A number of past customers of this business are avid motorcyclists and members of this forum and now customers of FastBikeGear.

Everybody knows that New Zealand is a small place and you only get one chance with your reputation!

While FastBikeGear does some marketing and we are providing some limited sponsorship to a couple of racers, most of our business is coming from word of mouth. A surprisingly large amount of business is already repeat business from customers.

Our target is to provide fast delivery and competitive pricing. We achieve this by running a professional business with very few unnecessary overheads and selling direct to customers (Although recently we have also started supply a subset of our product range to a few bike shops).

FastBikeGear purchases products directly from manufacturers in Italy, China, America, UK, etc ...and we also purchase some equipment from distributors in New Zealand and overseas where it makes sense to do so. We even manufacture one of our products here in New Zealand.

We make no false or misleading claims on the level of expertise or after sales expertise that we can provide.

It's not what we say or claim that will sway customers, what matters is what our customers experience and what they say about us.

Once a customer has purchased a product from us they can publish their feed back directly on our web site for anyone else to read.

If you want to know what our customers think of our service then visit www.fastbikegear.co.nz and check out what they have to say.

Many thanks to all of our customers for the great feedback so far.

I fully recognise that our business success will be determined by our customers and we know that we need to keep listening to you to improve our business and keep working hard to secure your support and win your business.

Many thanks
Liam Venter

[Bounce001]

We have bought stuff from Liam via Trademe and from his website fastbikegear. Only have good things to say! Response time was quick and items were received the next day. Awesome service and really friendly and helpful.

Keep it up Liam. Will very happily trade with you again.

[birdhandler]

I was rather gob smacked at the 300.00 brake levers to be honest
I have bought 2 stebel horns and some riding lights
I got the next day service as well and I thought there pricing was pretty good
Cheers

[Pumba]

Always ment to come back and make comment on this thread but never did get round to it.

In the end I ordered some Pazzo levers off Liam. Now there was an issue surrounding the supply of the levers,outside of his control, but Liam called me several times and kept up to date all the way through the delays, and even dispached the two levers seperatly to ensure I had at least one for my trip away at Queens Birthday Weekend.

All I can say is that the sevice was great and I will happily deal with Fastbikegear and Liam again in the future.

[Madness]

I bought a set of levers from fastbikegear.co.nz and was (still am) very happy with my purchase, including both the product and the service. I love my Titax levers. The Pazzo's looked a bit too ghey for me with all those fucking swirls in the finish.

[Biggles08]

As per the thread title www.fastbikegear.co.nz (http://www.fastbikegear.co.nz) anyone used them before.

Looking at getting some Pazzo lever for the Speed Triple.

Alternativly anyone got a good place (read cheap) to get some from?

Yup...he sponsors me Pumba...forget the Pazzo's though, get some TITAX brother!

[FastBikeGear]

Yup...he sponsors me Pumba...forget the Pazzo's though, get some TITAX brother!

I have to agree with Biggles. While we have been selling both Pazzo and Titax levers we do have a preference for the Titax levers and it seems that this is shared by most of our customers.

Many thanks to Biggles and our other customers in this thread for your supporting comments.

[Pumba]

Problem was you wernt stocking Titax when I made my purchase:shit:

[Biggles08]

Problem was you wernt stocking Titax when I made my purchase:shit:
make another purchase then :woohoo:

[Grubber]

Hmmm good thread....

FastBikeGear is a new business. We have been operating for just on 12 months now and only went live with our web store earlier this year. The business has very pleasingly grown faster than expected.

I am an experienced business owner. I founded and ran a multi-million dollar IT import and distribution business supporting over 500 resellers for 13 years, which I sold in 2005. A number of past customers of this business are avid motorcyclists and members of this forum and now customers of FastBikeGear.

Everybody knows that New Zealand is a small place and you only get one chance with your reputation!

While FastBikeGear does some marketing and we are providing some limited sponsorship to a couple of racers, most of our business is coming from word of mouth. A surprisingly large amount of business is already repeat business from customers.

Our target is to provide fast delivery and competitive pricing. We achieve this by running a professional business with very few unnecessary overheads and selling direct to customers (Although recently we have also started supply a subset of our product range to a few bike shops).

FastBikeGear purchases products directly from manufacturers in Italy, China, America, UK, etc ...and we also purchase some equipment from distributors in New Zealand and overseas where it makes sense to do so. We even manufacture one of our products here in New Zealand.

We make no false or misleading claims on the level of expertise or after sales expertise that we can provide.

It's not what we say or claim that will sway customers, what matters is what our customers experience and what they say about us.

Once a customer has purchased a product from us they can publish their feed back directly on our web site for anyone else to read.

If you want to know what our customers think of our service then visit www.fastbikegear.co.nz and check out what they have to say.

Many thanks to all of our customers for the great feedback so far.

I fully recognise that our business success will be determined by our customers and we know that we need to keep listening to you to improve our business and keep working hard to secure your support and win your business.

Many thanks
Liam Venter

Firstly i would like to make the comment that the above has been written without one snarling comment about their competitors. All very self promotion and direct. Not one sentence has been derogatory towards any of their rivals. Well done i say.
Secondly, i purchased a set of Titax levers form these guys and would have say the service was second to none. Made the inquiry and then the purchase. they arrived the following day. Perfect. They then made it their job to get in touch to see if i was happy with the goods.
I will be back to shop there again for sure.
Cheers Liam, thanks again.
:rockon:

[Grubber]

Hmmm good thread....

FastBikeGear is a new business. We have been operating for just on 12 months now and only went live with our web store earlier this year. The business has very pleasingly grown faster than expected.

I am an experienced business owner. I founded and ran a multi-million dollar IT import and distribution business supporting over 500 resellers for 13 years, which I sold in 2005. A number of past customers of this business are avid motorcyclists and members of this forum and now customers of FastBikeGear.

Everybody knows that New Zealand is a small place and you only get one chance with your reputation!

While FastBikeGear does some marketing and we are providing some limited sponsorship to a couple of racers, most of our business is coming from word of mouth. A surprisingly large amount of business is already repeat business from customers.

Our target is to provide fast delivery and competitive pricing. We achieve this by running a professional business with very few unnecessary overheads and selling direct to customers (Although recently we have also started supply a subset of our product range to a few bike shops).

FastBikeGear purchases products directly from manufacturers in Italy, China, America, UK, etc ...and we also purchase some equipment from distributors in New Zealand and overseas where it makes sense to do so. We even manufacture one of our products here in New Zealand.

We make no false or misleading claims on the level of expertise or after sales expertise that we can provide.

It's not what we say or claim that will sway customers, what matters is what our customers experience and what they say about us.

Once a customer has purchased a product from us they can publish their feed back directly on our web site for anyone else to read.

If you want to know what our customers think of our service then visit www.fastbikegear.co.nz and check out what they have to say.

Many thanks to all of our customers for the great feedback so far.

I fully recognise that our business success will be determined by our customers and we know that we need to keep listening to you to improve our business and keep working hard to secure your support and win your business.

Many thanks
Liam Venter

Firstly i would like to make the comment that the above has been written without one snarling comment about their competitors. All very self promotion and direct.
Secondly, i purchased a set of Titax levers form these guys and would have say the service was second to none. Made the inquiry and then the purchase. they arrived the following day. Perfect. They then made it their job to get in touch to see if i was happy with the goods.
I will be back to shop there again for sure.
Cheers Liam, thanks again.
:rockon:

[avgas]

Oh noes, its the bike sales competition wars in NZ :violin:

Good on ya Liam.

[Pumba]

make another purchase then :woohoo:

Why am I not surprised you said that

[yachtie10]

Ive been a customer of Liams for about 20 years and I have 2 complaints
1. He has never bribed me with overseas trips or hookers
2. He has not responded to my request to be a product tester for any his bike products

Will probably buy some stuff off him soon (when I get paid)

[Biggles08]

Ive been a customer of Liams for about 20 years and I have 2 complaints
1. He has never bribed me with overseas trips or hookers
2. He has not responded to my request to be a product tester for any his bike products

Will probably buy some stuff off him soon (when I get paid)

Your doing something wrong then...why just the other day he......:shutup:

[Bulldog]

I'm just happy to see someone in NZ with the balls to start this type of business. Myself and a mate are senior IT managers and have been running businesses for quite a few years now and have also been riding bikes for years.

We've both been pissed off with parts dealers and the lack of competition in this space hence we see crazy prices, lack of product selection and shithouse delivery times. Don't get me started on service in this country. Most of us end up buying direct and paying crazy shipping as it's still cheaper or you can't be bothered waiting 6 months for the 'next shipment'.

Anyone who is actually providing good service and they're doing all they can to reduce prices and delivery times....I say support them as it will only drive better competition.

Well done Liam & co.


:scooter:

[FastBikeGear]

I am pleased to be able to report that my wheel alignment system is now being manufactured in the US for one of the top racing series!

It was initially designed and manufactured for use in Kart racing but is easily adaptable for use on other types of open wheelers.

You can see information on the system here http://www.freepatentsonline.com/y2002/0194742.html

I see a real difficulty in people like myself who have not got a proven track record racing at the top level trying to provide suspension expertise from the sideline. This is why most top coaches in most sports have a background as competitors. If you haven't experienced it how can you fully understand it? Books and classroom time can give you the theory but the theory is only the starting point for analysis and understanding and many of the books repeat fundamental misunderstandings and then these misunderstandings are repeated by the so called 'experts'. For example most motorcycle handling books state that front fork suspension compression causes weight transfer! This is simply incorrect, front fork suspension compression is the symptom of weight transfer. A vehicle with no suspension will still transfer weight to the front whee(s) when you brake or roll off the throttle.

I and a friend (a keen motorcycle racer) redesigned the suspension system of a clubman racer and also modified the chassis significantly. A key part of the success of this project was being able to take it out on the track and test it to find out what worked and what didn't first hand. Some things we did resulted in no measurable performance gain but improved the feedback so that I could drive it more consistently near the limit. No one on the sideline could have predicted some of the things that worked and didn't, nor could they appreciate the value of the extra confidence the improved feed back provided. Incidentally this is probably the only car ever built in the world to feature two transverse Watts linkages and a WOB link on the rear axle. I won the first ever race I entered with this car and two consecutive championships.

I also raced karts for a few years (I got some good results in an older kart that I modified so that the chassis was torsionally adjustable by the driver during the race - amazingly this kart wasn't outlawed - probably because no one noticed the two levers or realised what they did). This first hand experience allowed me to assist others with their race set ups and to develop handling adjustment flowcharts. I pit crewed for a couple of past New Zealand champs. Again without this first hand experience the quality of the dialogue I would have been able to have with the drivers to determine where we needed to go with the setup would have been that much poorer.

When I swapped from racing cars to karts I found that the fundamentals of suspension setups for the two types of vehicles and what was desirable to achieve could not have been more different! Only a little of what I had learned in setting up one type of vehicle was useful for the next.

Motorbikes are again completely and utterly different which is why I claim no expertise, other than some very low value theory. Although I have done the odd track day I will never race bikes at the top level or even ride a bike at ten tenths. As any top racer in or on any type of race vehicle will testify, what the vehicle does at eight tenths is very different from what happens at ten tenths! A vehicle that feels fantastic at eight tenths is sometimes downright scary and unrideable at ten tenths and vice versa.

Given that I will never race a bike at ten tenths I am currently using my back ground in electronics and wireless data communications to explore a new approach to the on-track measurement and data logging of motorcycle suspension systems. This is definitely at the exploratory stage and I am a very very long way away from having a commercially available system for sale.

I think the current approach of mapping suspension movement in relation to time and/or distance only provides a small part of the information required to be truly meaningful.

This project is entirely for my own interest and is unlikely to ever be of any commercial significance.

[FastBikeGear]

We have bought stuff from Liam via Trademe and from his website fastbikegear. Only have good things to say! Response time was quick and items were received the next day. Awesome service and really friendly and helpful.

Keep it up Liam. Will very happily trade with you again.

Many thanks for the fantastic and generous feed back!

[FastBikeGear]

Guys you can post and view over 90 pages of our customers feed back on our web site here. (http://www.fastbikegear.co.nz/index.php?main_page=reviews&page=1)

We are really proud of the feed back we receive and it gives me immense satisfaction to be running a business where we have such great customers. The brotherhood of motorcyclists is an amazing thing and bkers are the most amazing group of customers you could ever want to work for.

One of my favourite pieces of feed back was from many of our overseas customers (People purchase form our web site from just about every country in the world).

"Last night when I got off work, the carriers were waiting for me on the doorstep.

Wow! They look and feel great. quality product. I can hardly wait until I have the time to fit them.

Thank you!" .....I managed to set aside the time to replace the rotor carriers on my 900SS:

I will start off by saying that these carriers are of great quality. I think they are actually nicer than the Brembos that were on the bike.

The 900ss that I picked up last month, has been ridden quite a bit, it sat, and of course its 18yrs old... these new carriers are so nice, that I started to feel like they were too nice for my bike, but that only lasted about a micro second, as I started realizing exactly how worn my old carriers were.

A nice surprise came when I decided, to flush the brake fluid, and may as well, clean up the calipers as best as I could without actually removing them and rebuilding. so the job was all done this evening, I took the bike out, and WOW! I was amazed to actually have modulation in the front brake, and best off all... no more shuddering/vibration under hard braking.

WHAT HAPPENS:
These are floating rotors. the interface between the rotor carrier (gold) and the "buttons" (the black round pieces), wallows out. The original carriers are made out of softer aluminum than the buttons. over the years, the braking force starts to open up that interface. Symptom: vibration during hard braking. While I have yet to read of an incident due to rotor carrier failure, I decided that A: this was a very unique opportunity to get a custom limited run on these carriers. Originals are which is just about impossible to find, B: Hopefully bring the bike a bit closer to its performance potential, C: SAFETY, D: Learning experience, and E: better understanding of the bike. Super stoked! Liam Venter did an outstanding job on these carriers I'm a kid again, when I wrench on a motor bike. a good read is "Shop Class as Soul Craft" http://matthewbcrawford.com/index.html Explicit and tacit knowledge Read, study, hands on/actually hold the parts/study them/measure them/get to know what it is, wrench, and ride.

In this case, I am amazed, that someone like Liam loves these bikes to such an extent that he'd garner interest in covering the cost to do a batch, engineer the product, source the materials, make the product better (by using a harder aluminum) seek out a higher quality anodizing process, build prototypes, then actually start production run, deal with paperwork, politics, establish a retail outlet, and finally sell the product.

Again.. thanks to Liam for the great product!

Devian Gilbert.
Pacific Grove
California."

Many thanks Devian, Liam.

[biketimus_prime]

Hi,

How good are these? http://www.fastbikegear.co.nz/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=786&products_id=1265
I have a box helmet and I can't be bothered taking around a tinted and clear visor and this seems like the perfect solution, but seems too good to be true for the price.
Can you give me your honest opinion? Am I better off getting a tinted visor instead?

[FastBikeGear]

Hi,

How good are these? http://www.fastbikegear.co.nz/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=786&products_id=1265
I have a box helmet and I can't be bothered taking around a tinted and clear visor and this seems like the perfect solution, but seems too good to be true for the price.
Can you give me your honest opinion? Am I better off getting a tinted visor instead?


I can give you an honest opinion ( I have one fitted to my helmet) but you are probably better to read our customer reviews on this product here (http://www.fastbikegear.co.nz/index.php?main_page=product_reviews&cPath=786&products_id=1265)

At $39 we don't think the price is silly cheap, just reasonable

Thanks
Liam

[meteor]

Hi,

How good are these? http://www.fastbikegear.co.nz/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=786&products_id=1265
I have a box helmet and I can't be bothered taking around a tinted and clear visor and this seems like the perfect solution, but seems too good to be true for the price.
Can you give me your honest opinion? Am I better off getting a tinted visor instead?

If you have a helmet without an internal or tinted visor these are excellent as they kill the change of light or sunstrike glare that catches you out. If you have a tinted visor these would help with anti fog. Actually they are great anti fog you just have to be sure where you fit them but that's easy.
I've had two already and will be getting another for my new helmet.

As for the shop owner (Liam) he's a bloody good bloke, nothings a bother, will help you with any problem. I went to him for some wiring options on my stebel horn (didn't even buy it from him) he not only sorted that out but ended up setting up my front suspension. Where do you get that sort of service. Brilliant.

[FastBikeGear]

If you have a helmet without an internal or tinted visor these are excellent as they kill the change of light or sunstrike glare that catches you out. If you have a tinted visor these would help with anti fog. Actually they are great anti fog you just have to be sure where you fit them but that's easy.
I've had two already and will be getting another for my new helmet.

As for the shop owner (Liam) he's a bloody good bloke, nothings a bother, will help you with any problem. I went to him for some wiring options on my stebel horn (didn't even buy it from him) he not only sorted that out but ended up setting up my front suspension. Where do you get that sort of service. Brilliant.

Many thanks for the generous feed back, much appreciated, Liam.