X2!

That is clearly a defect in workmanship, hence one of the reasons for warranty! >:(

yup hopefully i get a warranty on this.

excalibur has yet to respond and i will keep everyone informed on their choice to correct this mishap.

being able to contact the seller and ask questions about the bike and get answers is great, but the real question is whats the service like when something goes wrong and it's not just chitchat over the phone (actions need to be taken).

as i expressed earlier, if excalibur can send me a replacement unit to correct the issue i would recommend doing business with them, but if i am stuck with a unsafe unit and no refund or new unit i would say buyer beware.

Wow, just got to this thread, and as someone who has put around 20k miles on two different TMECs (an '09 and a '14), this is definitely an anomaly. I commute 33 miles a day, year round and have never had chain issues, so I do see the defect here. The other TMEC owners over the years have never mentioned this defect, either.

I am fairly certain Wade will correct this issue. In my impression, he sells Chinese products like a major distributor (i.e. Suzuki, Honda, etc) does. I am quite sure there are issues that arise even with the big boys, and there are no overnight fixes. It will take a little time to work things out.

Glad to see culcune is involved in the thread now, as he has more TMEC experience than probably anyone else.

And, culcune, I'm going to shoot you a message with a few questions about TMEC bikes, but unrelated to this thread.

Hi Gentlemen,

This is Wade from Excalibur Motorsports. I am very glad to see this thread of discussed on a dual-sport motorcycle that we distribute to American commerce.

We have been importing these bike (TMEC200) and selling them to dealers since model year 2009, only until some time last year (2014) we sold some to consumers in the region where there are no dealers of ours carrying these bikes. Most people obviously contacted us mainly after having read the discussion on this forum. So we broke our rules and sold quite a few directly to end users in order to satisfy the demands, most of them were assembled by us and PDI by our technician, so we have not received any negative feedbacks or complaints.

This unit with chain rubbing the lower lateral bar on the frame is the first one to my knowledge. The gentleman (TMEC808) who purchased this bike owns and runs a moped rental business in Kapaa, Hawaii. After he rode the bike for 17 miles, he called me to inquire why the chain was rubbing frame. I immediately requested him to send me some photos so to identify what he was talking about and I text messaged him a few photos off a fully assembled bike on our showroom floor for him to compare with. I did receive a few images on my phone, but the quality is not good enough for me to tell what exactly went wrong. After some more back and forth texting, I suspected the chain roller mounting bracket is not high enough to create the needed clearance. We immediately ordered a bigger rubber roller and a chain guide which side-mounts onto the swing arm with a spring loaded nylon roller and have them sent to him directly since they are different from our stock parts.

Making customer happy is very important to any business especially in today's marketplace. There are many ways to handle a claim. As a distributor and servicing company, there is a claim procedure we have to go through to get the claim taken care of, starting from identifying the issue with examing and finding possible solution to solve the issues. We've been in business for almost ten year and we tried very hard and even go extra miles to achieve the goal of making our customers satisfied. We earned many many dealers trust nationally. We do have our warranty details listed on our website very clearly for many years unchanged. Many people would think the manufacturer should warrantee this kind of defects, unfortunately, TMEC is not like those brand name companies with a headquarter setup here for their North America operation. Literally speaking, we are on our own once we import their products from China. If we are not offering any warranty to the products we sell, we shouldn't even react that quickly to order the roller and chain guide in such a timely manner for him. We first need to explore the possible options. If the bike is near by, I don't think all of you would be able to read this thread. Since the bike is in Hawaii and we are in California, so it takes some time to get it resolved.

I have requested to have some better images showing the problem in detail sent to me, instead, they appeared here in this thread, now I do see the problem being the mounting bracket not welded on properly. One thing I have to say, this forum is a public domain, it is not appropriate and it is irresponsible to bad mouth a company when an issue or a claim is still in process. I understand his frustration and apologize for the inconvenience caused by the fact. But this is a single case that does not apply to others. I really do not appreciate the email I received full of threatening and hostile tone. I don't think that will be good to any business. If we don't have the basic respect to each other, we should not even need to do business. Please do not assume what a $10 item can do or can't do before you try it. Toyota got fined heavily by missing a $10 part in their cars, GM got fined for 9 Millions recently by not installing a few dollar part in those affected vehicles, Ford Motors once also got fined for missing a $1 part intentionally.

Many great discussions and feedbacks will help manufacturer improve their design and quality. We American consumers are the ones who raised the bars higher and higher to those brand name manufacturers by putting our minds together discussing constantly with great ideas. Of course this will only benefit those who listen and act upon. Many Chinese manufacturers will still have quite some way to go to catch up in R&D and quality control. Most of them are still in the stage of copying other brand name products without any creativity. I don't think we will be able to see any changes down the road for next few years, at least I can say from the experience that I dealt with.

Once again, I appreciate the suggestions you guys came up regarding to this chain position issue.

Thanks.

thank you for the response wade.

i knew if i started a forum post you would start to reply to me. sorry but it gets a little frustrating when you will only send me txt and only at your convenience.

i understand this is a business matter but i get worried when i spend money on a product and don't get what i paid for and, with no timely response from the seller i will try to find help wherever i can.

you say
"this forum is a public domain, it is not appropriate and it is irresponsible to bad mouth a company when an issue or a claim is still in process"

but you post on this forum before sending me an email or giving me any updates for over 3 days. is that appropriate?

i don't feel businesses should hide these issues. This forum will be a great place for people/consumers to see exactly what they will be getting into when/if something like this occurs

you keep telling me how we can "fix" this defective unit, but, as I've said before many times i don't feel it is safe for me to run a bigger aftermarket chain roller and chain guide to "fix" this issue. (It seems every time i express this you stop responding to my emails/txt.)

On top of that i have tried to install both items 1. bigger roller and guide 2. chain guide attached to rear swing arm (all at the expense of my own time and efforts) and both did not fix/help the issue.

please let me know if you will send me a replacement unit, or, you can send me a replacement frame and get a quote from one of the local bike shops and send them payment for the work to be done.

either way would work fine.

i am not a unreasonable person, but i do not feel safe renting this particular vehicle out. I'm sure if anyone visits Kauai, Hawaii and knew of this issue they definitely would not feel safe riding/renting the bike either.

if you respond directly to me and in a timely matter we can leave the rest out of this forum

Hi Rustan, I always responded to your texts or emails in a timely manner, except once while I was in a seminar when you text me in the very late evening, remember you are 3 hours behind us. If you send me in the weekend, I am hiking in the mountains, but I always respond to you the next day. I never feel it is right not to answer any concern from our customers. The only reason I have replied to your last email is I am waiting to see if you have received the chain guide and try it on before we go to next step as I stated in my last email.

I"ll say one thing about Wade, he got back to me with a shipping price right away. I have been waiting for shipping prices on other bikes from maybe 4 other sellers of other bikes for weeks. Those sellers are ignoring a possible customer.

thank you wade, again you can contact me directly instead of posting on this forum.

i still haven't had personal contact from you (4 days) but again you post on this forum.

you say

"The only reason I have replied to your last email is I am waiting to see if you have received the chain guide and try it on before we go to next step as I stated in my last email"

and as i have stated earlier i do not feel safe nor would anyone else with a $10 cheap chain roller trying to hold everything together.

i will post pics today of the chain roller and chain guide and show that even with both installed the chain is still rubbing on the frame. How many more hours of work will i need to put in trying to find a band-aid that will fit the size of this problem?


as i said in the earlier post we can keep the conversation between businesses/us if you would just contact me directly instead of posting on this forum. i am still waiting for a response.

thank you

i will second this. when called for quotes/purchasing wade was very prompt and helpful in every step of the way.

pictures of the bigger chain roller and chain guide but chain still touching frame.

even if this did take the chain off the frame by 1 inch i still wouldn't feel safe knowing all it would take is a little wear and frame contact is happening again.

http://i1068.photobucket.com/albums/...pscki8hkaq.jpg

http://i1068.photobucket.com/albums/...pszuky0plc.jpg

Also the $10 chain guide is made very cheaply. doesn't line up very well and everything everything on it is very lose. as you can see the chain barely sits on the roller and is adjusted all the way to the most outward position.

http://i1068.photobucket.com/albums/...pslngu7ypu.jpg


http://i1068.photobucket.com/albums/...pseglkpy5d.jpg

If I was anywhere near you, I'd relocate your chain roller for you.

same here... im cutting/welding things at the John deere dealership all the time... i love having access to some pretty nice machines....

that would be nice. went to a few shops and they told me better/cheaper to purchase a new unit. prices/shop rates on the island are crazy auto shops are averaging $100/hr for labor with $80 minimum. i have paid $80 before to get my truck scanned with a obd2 pro scanner and only took 4 minutes.

anyway this really does burst my bubble a little.

i did re-search and seemed like a OK budget bike so when i purchased the bike i also purchased some things to make it run a little better

jt 48T rear sprocket & klr650 foot pegs.

http://i1068.photobucket.com/albums/...ps2zqfuomw.jpg

too bad i don't have a working bike.

i am still waiting to hear personally from Wade at excalibur. i wish he would send me an update on whats going on and if they are going to help me with the problem.

so still no reply from excalibur motorsports.

i guess that's how they take care of business.

sell a bad product to a customer then no calls, emails, or contact. beware doing business with this company.

although the tmec200 seems to be a OK bike beware when purchasing because if there is an issue with the bike you are on your own.

I'm out $1500 from the defective tmec that excalibur motorsports sold to me, and i get no support or any kind.

they did send me a $5 bigger chain roller and $10 chain guide but both did not fix the problem and i am yet to hear from anyone at excalibur to help me any further.