Sorry I have been so absent for a while here. Got laid off from my career position of 15 years in January. Was offered another job which was fantastic, but at a much reduced salary. This meant the home had to go and a move was in order.
We are starting to settle in now and getting our lives back, but I digress. The new product.... I now work for Happy Trails. Most of you know them, or at least know who they are. I guess I should say that what follows is SPAM, but, since products are so rare for the Tiger, I thought you guys would like to kow.
Anyway. We redesigned an old tail rack design for the girly and made a production run. It is a bit larger and much flatter than stock. I am now going to mount up a Happy Trails top box with a quick release puck system on top of it (tomorrows project).
Here is the rack. We have 6 in stock and I think my father and one of our riding buddies are going to buy one as well.
(http://sasquatch.smugmug.com/photos/535809011_ieCwz-L.jpg)
(http://sasquatch.smugmug.com/photos/535808536_K3mXZ-L.jpg)
Price is $139usd.
I think I have them convinced to revisit the crash bar project as well. This time with a redesign that allows you to purchase it in stages, not the whole $700+ package at once. Many wanted just a skid plate, or just the highway pegs, etc. I need to see if I can make that happen. Let me know if there is interest.
Good stuff.
I read your post on ADV about your changes. Sorry to hear it, and I hope things work out well for you and the fambly.
I'm moving this to 'Everything Else For Sale', but with a shadow in the original location for folks to see and click on.
So this is why Jason was telling me that HT was revisiting some older products such as skid plates etc,,,,congrats. Sorry to hear about all the other drama though. Best of luck to you there, I think they are pretty top notch but definitely need some good help in some areas and Im sure you can afect this change!!
Dave
Great to hear you recovered from the layoff. Hopefully your passion for bikes and the new gig make up for the shortcoming in the $.
:thumbsup
That looks great. I can see it will fit with a Corbin, will it work with my HT rack?
Dream mode:
I am not willing to give up the comfort of my Corbin, but I have always hated the wasted space on the passenger seat as I rarely have passenger. It would be realy cool to have a rack like that with a sliding (or hinged) extension that could attach a driver backrest and perhaps support something like a fuel cell. I could keep the weight more forward and just slide it back if I needed to pop the seat.
What do you think Jay?
Man, I'm glad things worked out for you. I'm assuming you were a welder/fabricator in your past life... I don't need to tell you how much manufacturing is hurting in this country... its a sad state of affairs...
That rack looks pretty good but to be honest I've never personally needed a bigger rack.
Now... what I AM interested in is buying some of those mounts you've made up to attach some aluminum panniers to the stock brackets. Whaddaya say???
I'm anxious to see a skidplate solution.... I already have crash bars... Hepcos... and my buddy has made me a great skidplate but the problem is it's outta STEEL and it weighs a TON.
Quote from: "flux"Now... what I AM interested in is buying some of those mounts you've made up to attach some aluminum panniers to the stock brackets. Whaddaya say???
I have the only set of those in existence. While there are aspects of them that are nice, if I had to do it all over again, with my own money, I would have just bought a set of the HT SU racks and mounted the boxes to them. Much stronger, more secure and less hassle in the long run.
Because of that, I support HT's decision to not produce them. We would loose every cent of profit made just handling the tech support calls and irate customers because they are not that stable.
Quote from: "Bruincounselor":thumbsup
That looks great. I can see it will fit with a Corbin, will it work with my HT rack?
Dream mode:
I am not willing to give up the comfort of my Corbin, but I have always hated the wasted space on the passenger seat as I rarely have passenger. It would be realy cool to have a rack like that with a sliding (or hinged) extension that could attach a driver backrest and perhaps support something like a fuel cell. I could keep the weight more forward and just slide it back if I needed to pop the seat.
What do you think Jay?
Nice idea, but I seriously wonder if enough could be sold to pay off the R&D and production costs to make it viable.
I have always wished for a solo seat and to convert the passenger area to more storage. never got around to that one though.
We made a goof on this rack, but yes, production runs will work with the HT SU racks.
Quote from: "Sasquatch"Quote from: "flux"Now... what I AM interested in is buying some of those mounts you've made up to attach some aluminum panniers to the stock brackets. Whaddaya say???
I have the only set of those in existence. While there are aspects of them that are nice, if I had to do it all over again, with my own money, I would have just bought a set of the HT SU racks and mounted the boxes to them. Much stronger, more secure and less hassle in the long run.
Because of that, I support HT's decision to not produce them. We would loose every cent of profit made just handling the tech support calls and irate customers because they are not that stable.
Good feedback, thanks. I can see how it would be hard to make them stable.
I'll be watching to see what else you come up with.
The backrest thing is a neat idea but I agree... I don't think you'd sell enough of them. Before I had my Corbin I tried coming up with ideas to ditch the passenger seat in favor of something more along the lines of what the BMW GS series bikes offer. It kind of got to the point of being a pain in the rear though.
+1 for a skidplate, but in my case it needs to fit the 885i Girly
Skid plate please!!!!! Something like Touratech that would work with different crash bars (or none), but not cost an arm and 2 legs would be awesome!
A big - welcome back - Sasquatch.
Good to hear from you again Squatch!
Very nice rack!
That would be a great farkle if I owned a Girly.
Sorry to hear things have been bad, Sas, but it's good to have you bakc and maybe you can slant those HT guys to make some cool stuff for us (which obviously you are working on already).
Quote from: "Sasquatch"...I seriously wonder if enough could be sold to pay off the R&D and production costs to make it viable.
I have always wished for a solo seat and to convert the passenger area to more storage. never got around to that one though.
We made a goof on this rack, but yes, production runs will work with the HT SU racks.
Glad to hear it will work with the SU rack :D
I understand the volume issue completely. Ya gotta pay for your keep anywhere these days. I may have to get one and fab up my own extension. I see some possibilities from the photos. Do you have some side views?
One more thought,
Could this new rack be made ready to mount Givi lugs (like the SU racks)? I think that would make it more versatile and perhaps more price competitive with the Givi universal plate.
:spam4
And here's a link to the Happy Trails website for those that haven't found it: http://www.happy-trail.com/Default.aspx (http://www.happy-trail.com/Default.aspx)
I've put HT stuff on three bikes and have loved it for each of them.
SAS...
I hope this change works well for you and your family.
We know that if YOU are leading the charge... you have many folks who pay attention.
We love our Tigers.... but that's not a big enough market .... we understand.. just tease us with 'stuff' ..... better yet.....
put together a HT annual 'homecoming' ... that could be awesome!
Hang tough.... best of success.
Quote from: "TigerTrax"SAS...
We love our Tigers.... but that's not a big enough market .... we understand.. just tease us with 'stuff' ..... better yet.....
put together a HT annual 'homecoming' ... that could be awesome!
Hang tough.... best of success.
Working on something. A combination Tiger ride in and ride for my suspension customers. Others have wanted me to put on a weekend event where there is riding during the day and some seminars in the evenings on various subjects. Would like to make it an annual event of socializing with good friends, making new ones, enjoying the rides, and learning something new.
That's a good idea :D
Just did my first ride in 11 months last sunday..she's running better than ever now! I'd love to come back out..keep me posted!
SAS...
Just let me know how I can help if you want to pursue.
We have Lake Tahoe area this Sept. ????
Trax