Jay has certainly gone out of his way to help me with our Sportster / Kenna rig. My hat is off to him for his quality parts and taking the time to understand the issues and then offer advice via internet & phone. The parts fit like a glove. Thanksssssssss!! Jay ........... steve & Mary, Nowheresville Idaho
"I can't think of a better place to wake than in the middle of nowhere" ...... Steve McQueen
Steve and Mary, You live at the foot of the Teton mountains. How can you call that Nowheresville Idaho. Thats Gods country.
Sergio,
Go to the Sidecar section of Chromeheads. Read all of the posts regarding sidecar options. Others junked the sub frame and started over with a Hannigan's sub frame. Pokie has a great article of what he had to do. If you need the links, let me know.
Mike
Hi-
I've already set up my 1200C rig using a highly modified Dauntless subframe. It actually works good and Dauntless refunded me half the price of the subframe for all the troubles and expenses that my installer had to go through.
Thanks sergio
Both Hannigan and Dauntless are good. I have a Dauntless subframe on my Valkyrie and a Hannigan subframe for a 1500 Goldwing hanging on the wall in my garage, just in case an orphan Wing comes along. The Dauntless unit is much heavier built and much more professional looking, but both products are very well made. I don't think you could go wrong with either.
May be. I have no experience with Dauntless. There are more than one negagtive story regarding Dauntless on the net. Enough to keep me away.
hey,
let's go ride our bikes.........
mp in az
Originally written by hackellis on 6/11/2006 12:50 PM
May be. I have no experience with Dauntless. There are more than one negagtive story regarding Dauntless on the net. Enough to keep me away.
That's too bad; Dauntless makes a fine product and bends over backwards for it's customers. They are a small shop experiencing growing pains, so there can be a substantial wait for delivery at times, but their standards of manufacture and service are of the very highest caliber.
You can find a horror story about every shop out there-you can't make everyone happy. You will find much more favorable comment than negative regarding Duantless.
Hannigan, Champion, Motovation and I am sure a number of other shops also provide a great product and service to match.
It sounds like the problems that started this thread were addressed to the customers satisfaction, so what is the point of dissing anyone? Good sidecar riggers are few and far between-don't be reducing your options, you may find you need these guys some day.
VW
The reasons to pick a product are as follows:
1. Quality
2. Delivery
3. Value for the $
No where in that formula is the fellow is a nice guy that tries real hard to please. When the phone company at the end of the month it is uninportant that I am a nice guy that tries hard to please. I have no vested interest/connections with any of the manufactures. My observation is purely what I have picked up on the web and talking with other sidecarists at gatherings. There have been many negative comments made regarding Dauntless. I stand by my statement.
Originally written by hackellis on 6/11/2006 7:51 PM
The reasons to pick a product are as follows:
1. Quality
2. Delivery
3. Value for the $
To that I would add:
4. Service
Like - how does a company react when something goes wrong, or if the product breaks two years later.
The way I am treated in this situation is just as important as the other three points. (Actually, it's even more important than points 2 and 3.)
I agree...if it wasn't for the person that installed the hack demanding I get some money back I would have been out of luck and the subframe would had cost me twice as much.The handfull of sidecarists that I met here in S.Florida all had bad experiences with Dauntless.
Also if any of you are planning on attaching a hack on a 1200C with a Dauntless subquality frame, you won't be able to use your right side touring bags because the subframe is in the way.
Sergio
ALL of the points mentioned are important no doubt. Service and caring about the customer are paramount and it seems like we have seen this exhibited here. There are no real excuses for mistakes but they do happen because we are all human. The more important truth is that under no circumstances is there any excuse for bad service. Frustrations arise when any product is not what it was thought to be and that is understndable. These frustrations when expressed by a customer must not be ovrlook or ignored no matter how stressed that customer may be. Standing behind a product is what is important. Some customers are more understanding than others but that is not the main issue. The issue is whether the provider of the product is willing to make it right or not.
I have used Dauntless Subframes with overall good results. I have also used Motorvation. Personally have not used Hannigan but would do so in a heartbeat as their reputation is excellent and they are great folks. We have also built many subframes of our own design and they worked well.
Overall,I can say that tooling up to reproduce a subframe for a given bike with a jig is not as simple as it sounds. If one thing changes on another model year the first jig is not going to work right in most cases. Small changes make for large errors.From there think of all the bike models there are and all the variations of sidecars we have around. Heck the numbers get pretty heavy real quick.
But...no excuses it is all part of it.
Originally written by hackellis on 6/11/2006 4:51 PM
The reasons to pick a product are as follows:
1. Quality
2. Delivery
3. Value for the $
And I stand by mine. My experience with Dauntless Motors has made me a repeat customer. I am sorry if your experience has been different. By all means shop where you feel you get the most value.
I can reccommend Dauntless without reservation, based on my personal experience. They have set up two bikes for me, one using my design , one using theirs. Both were excellent. They have helped me by supplying hardware for a number of other rigs, my own and those of freinds. The support and the quality of the parts has been second to none. I have seen a number of other Dauntless subframes and bikes and have driven several of them. All were very good.
I'm with Vernon. My experience with Dauntless has stretched over quite a number of years now and has always been top shelf. Out of curiosity, I Googled Dauntless subframe complaints and the only one I can find is ten years old and is about some guy expecting something for free. I'm active on quite a number of sites, Goldwing, Valkyrie, year round, and sport bike, and only hear good things about Jay unless it's one of those "my neighbor's friend's second cousin told my sister". stories. If you have a legitimate complaint abvout the business, we want to hear it. But if you only want to bad mouth someone based on gossip and rumour, take it somewhere else.
SidecarMike,
I am sure you have the best of attentions and respect for Dauntless. I do admire that. But I have to respectively and aggressively disagree with you regarding complaints about Dauntless on the net. I personally counted more than 10 complaints and heard of complaints from (more than one) fellow sidecar owners. I have said earlier. I have not done business nor have I had any personal dealings with Dauntless. I was repeating what I personally saw and heard.
If this makes me a terrible person, I do apologize. But I would hope that the forum is a fair and unbiased forum that welcomes opinions as long as they are not personal attacks from anger or inflammatory in nature.
Mike
