News from Spooky Tooth Cycles

azbill

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I just recieved this from Roland at Spookytooth

"Website is up and running

Hi Bill Boulton!

Our 10 day bummer hay-ride is over. After a Denial of Service attack (DDoS) kicked our asses, we are back in business. For the last week and a half our shop remained open but no one could contact us or the website because of a rogue brood of hellions who sought to fight the forces of good. Light clashed against Darkness. Evil reigned strong while Rydia battled the Great Leviathan (Final Fantasy 4 reference just kidding anyway). But seriously, we missed seeing you around our website. The cyberattack we experienced was pretty rough but we did make it through intact. When we first caught on to the action, we attempted a domain redirect to another registered domain name but our allies at Bluehost.com were too weak to aid us in battle. In the end, the impish fiends sprightly trolled along their urchin path and we were left alone. Our web security specialist did a fantastic job and we most certainly promise this type of attack will not hit with such force in the future... if ever. We want to thank all of our loyal customers and community members for sticking with us.

We appreciate you very much!
-The Spooky Tooth Crew

A new engine?
Zig-Zag and I started this business years ago from the back yard of my Bean St. house. Since then we've had a bohemian shop on St. Mary's, changed a state law, and legalized alt. transportation bikes in our city. I don't think any of those milestones are as important as what I am about to share with you.

I want to tell you about what I have been working on. Our new patent pending bicycle engine transfer case is complete. This is a new design that the world has never seen before. This motorized bicycle engine should, hopefully, change the face of... everything? The transfer case is designed around the Robin-Subaru EHO35 engine. With our system, power is transferred from the engine to centrifugal clutch. From there, an inner chain drive transfers power to a timing belt pulley which then runs to another timing belt sprocket mounted to the rear wheel. The little Subaru motor comes with a 1 year warranty and an iron lined cylinder. I hear anecdotal stories of some Robin-Subaru powered motorized bicycles, mounted with the competition's design, having 50,000+ miles and not ever having to even change a spark plug. That's what we are shooting for.

The Subaru transfer case design has 2 mounting positions for a bicycle.

First mount position is in the middle of the frame, like our normal Spooky Tooth motor-bicycles.

The second mounting position is above the rear wheel allowing adaptation to a full suspension mountain bike, Golden Eagle Bike Engine style.

The patent for this design is based on the unique freewheeling inner chain drive system which transfers power via a timing belt to a rear wheel when the engine is mounted in the mid-frame of a bicycle.

This system should run at 30 mph and get 200-300 mpg(?). With a variable size of pulley on the output shaft, gear ratio changes from 12:1 all the way up to 25:1 can be made easily. All parts have been designed and will be machined in Tucson by professional machinists out of solid aluminum with high quality sealed cartridge bearings.

To test this, Larry and I are planning a test run of a pair of engines on a bicycle trip up to Canada. This is kind of a big deal as well. Our take off date is scheduled for this week. We will be writing about our adventures in the NEW Blog section of www.spookytoothcycles.com . We will be gone a month riding from Mexico to Canada on the old Highway 89, but the shop will still be open.

Please keep in touch with our website over the following weeks to stay updated with our meanderings.

Cheers, Roland"

I hope this works, it seems to be what all of us need...an american made solution to dealing with inferior equipment :D:D:D
 
Sounds like a solution could be on the horizen sooner than expected!!:eek: go get 'em Roland, I'm stoked...
 
YAY the web site was always weird. I had been trying to write a review for my bike since Sept 5 and the web site just would let me submit!
I love my Spooky Tooth cycle. Has just a few hundred miles on but so far has been a flawless purrring kitten of a machine! Starts very easily. Most excellant front and rear brakes controlled on the right handle makes stopping easy.
Its a bit too big for me and its heavy, other than that thats its been pefect.
I ride it to work everyday, 20 mile round trip. It just barely sips gas. Goes 20 mph effortlessly.
YAY Spooky Tooth!
 
great news

with the way things are in the motored bike industry,i wont even build for people,this is good news.i will be a customer!i was trying to buy this summer but had no luck getting ahold of spooky tooth,well ill try again this week.great stuff,if your near victoria bc youll be setup.good luck guys.
 
spooky tooth...

Not there when you need 'em.

I bought a bike on craigslist that wasnt working. And I brought it in to spooky tooth to have it fixed. When I came in next they had a bill of $119.00 for me. ...I paid it, even though it was never explained to me what they had fixed on the bike. And two days later it stopped working again.

I gave up on the bike and sold it again on craigslist, for $75.00 (Which didnt even cover the work that had been done on it)

I decided I buy completely brand new this time. And went again to spooky tooth cycles, to which...no one was at the shop. I called the phone numbers and no answer.
I came back a week later, and had a friend with me. The manager was helping some other person even when they had arrived after us. We waited for an hour to be helped.
I bought the bike that day, and on my 1 mile ride home I noticed that the fenders around the tires were broken. I dont know whether they broke during my ride...or had been broken before I took it out of the shop. but either way...what kind of cheap fenders are spooky tooth putting on their bikes that they break within the first mile?
I called spooky tooth and no answer. I left a message. Two weeks later I get a call. By this time, the bike had stopped working on me five times, causing me to be late to my new job that many times (which I can prove, from people that work there). These tardys caused me to lose my job. I brought my bike in to be fixed by spooky tooth, and five days later I get a call to have it picked up. Another bill, and another breakdown was the result.

The bike is still not working.
 
I have no experience with Spooky Tooth cycles except a few emails I had with their Bohemian leader.

However, Spooky Tooth is just like any other MB retailer. They simply take available, off the shelf bicycles and install the motors on them. They do mix and match some parts here and there, but for the most part, they use Greenline Bicycles. So questioning their quality is somewhat....well, not exactly fair. These bicycles are $200 bikes with $200 motor kits. What do you expect? This is NOT a Honda Scooter that is completely designed and manufactured by one maker and designed for long term durability. All MB's from any one retailer are based on inexpensive bicycles.

Spooky Tooth also warns all customers in their website about the nature of MB's. Owners NEED to have some mechanical aptitude, tools, and a willingness to do some wrenching on a regular basis to keep these machines functioning properly.

Ultimately, the reliability of our MB's is only as good as the bicycles and the motors that are used, as well as the owner's constant vigilance in keeping everything buttoned down and running smoothly.
 
uh...

you cant make excuses for a company's product to be bad. Maybe if I bought a toy from mcdonalds I would be stupid to write them and ridicule them for their toy breaking. but to pay $775.00 and have someone tell me that it's not spooky tooth's fault that their product is cheap?!? that makes no sense atoll.
 
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