Tag: competition

Quality Of A Knock Off and Racing Motorcycles

Published on by Brian FarnoLeave a comment

That’s right folks, the first track day of the year is getting close.  The first for this year will be held at Putnam Park Road Course, with Midwest Cafe Racers Association.  We will be heading out on Friday, April 19th, for the weekend.  The preparations already began a few weeks ago, actually over a month ago.  This year I am not only prepping my track bike, but also my friends track bike.   The best part is, I am learning more and more about his bike, and the bells and whistles that it has.

One of the many parts to prepping the bike for the track was changing out the coolant to a non-glycol based coolant, changing the tires, removing all glass / plastic from the bike.  Not to mention drilling and safety wiring the oil filler cap, oil drain plug, and oil filter.  Those are simply the necessities, we have taken it a step further and changed out some other stock parts for nicer track ready parts.  The main obstacle has been that he elected to go with a non-branded rear set foot control.  These were copies of a very large name brand rear set foot control.  Everything seemed to fit together until I went to install the shift linkage.  The linkage length should be 9″ long, the one they sent with the new set was actually 9-5/8″ long.  Because of this it actually placed the shift lever about 3″ too low and will not work.   Luckily, I have the knowledge and ability to modify things like this.  After cutting the extra length off and re-tapping the hole, the linkage is now to the correct length on the bike, and ready to go racing.

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The point to the story is this:  my friend went with the company who said they were just as good if not better than the big name brand, yet considerably cheaper and not made locally.  In the end the quality of the product was not what they made claims of over the internet and they don’t have near the level of support that the brand name does.  After some fixing, the units will work but it could have been a costly replacement as the manufacturer of these doesn’t stand directly behind their product.

Here at EXAIR we have instilled quality into our product and customer service.  If you were to receive a part that doesn’t work, we will be here to help figure out why, and then make the correct actions to remedy your problem as fast as possible.   So don’t always believe what you read on the internet about how great some products are when they are so much cheaper than a well established, market leading brand.

Brian Farno
Application Engineer
BrianFarno@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_BF

Recognize Your Competition, Don’t Spit on Them.

Published on by Kirk Edwards2 Comments

Do you have competitors?      Of course.

Do they speak badly of you?     Some of them.

What do you do about it?     Typically nothing.

This is how I perceive some of our competitors, and generally how we respond to them. Is doing nothing a learned behavior – you bet it is. It certainly does not come naturally for me. Doing nothing when you’re attacked is certainly not a natural reaction, but when it comes to competitors in the business world, it has worked. 

My natural tendency is to get into a spitting contest. And with social media tools at our dispense it could be easy to launch a retort, to spit at the competition. It’s one of the things I do best, I’m a great spitter. I am especially adept at spitting until I have forgotten what the problem is (or was), or spitting in another direction as to distract my opponent.

The thing about getting caught up in it is I have such passion for the debate or argument that I sacrifice the energy for other things – mostly things they pay me for around here: providing customer solutions, saving customers energy, increasing customer safety etc… That ability to do my job well is quickly quelled by taking on the angst of a petty, baseless remark or insult.

So fortunately for me, I have some good examples around here and in my life who have helped illustrate the stupidity of getting caught up in making a senseless point. I am sure it comes to many of us naturally, to defend ourselves. But also remember to choose your battles wisely because those little barbs and jabs are never-ending and rarely worth fragmenting your attention.

Certainly, our competitors will continue to lob insults and run their mouths. I choose to let them fragment their own attention and hold their own angst while we collectively respond by sticking to business as usual and continue growing. Recognition of competition offers reason to grow, spitting at them is pointless.

Kirk Edwards
Application Engineer
kirkedwards@exair.com