I've dealt with him and have had no problems. Good product and fast shipper.
Would you care to post some evidence of your dealing with him.
I see you just joined here. Did you join just to bash him???
-
Enjoy XS650.com? Consider making a donation to help support the site.
XS650.com receives a small share of sales from some links on this page, but direct donations have a much greater impact on keeping this site going.
Cruzinimage drops e-bay
- Thread starter timbeck
- Start date
Would you care to post some evidence of your dealing with him.
I see you just joined here. Did you join just to bash him???
I posted my evidence here. Honestly IF I could buy .5mm oversized rings I would just move on, but I cant I had to buy another complete piston set from another retailer for $90.
http://www.xs650.com/threads/cruzinimage-is-a-rip-off.58003/
http://www.xs650.com/threads/cruzinimage-is-a-rip-off.58003/
Re. issue with getting small batch specialty parts made, that's all too often an excuse for shoddy business practices. Examples abound, but here's one of many. Mike Lalonde replaced the OEM carb boots distributed by his old employers at K&L Supply under the Tour Max label with badly made Chinese boots. He didn't do this because the good stuff wasn't being made--it's still in current production. Another example: for years Mike's XS has sold badly made cam chain dampers with questionable material. Gary Hoos, a small shop owner, was able to get quality dampers made for the same buck. To me this indicates that Mike's quality problems resulted from buying low quality to maximize profit. Part of the problem is our own behavior as consumers. Most of us insist on buying the cheapest stuff we can find, and that isn't the way to get quality parts and service.
Re. Crusinimage: Quality of service rather than quality of parts seems to be the problem, and dropping e-bay due to bad customer ratings would indicate to me that the problems are real. His business model is commendable: bargain prices on quality goods. But when those prices are offered at the expense of quality service and customers complain and leave, it might be time to raise prices a bit to cover better staffing and the overhead involved in correcting mistakes.
Re. Crusinimage: Quality of service rather than quality of parts seems to be the problem, and dropping e-bay due to bad customer ratings would indicate to me that the problems are real. His business model is commendable: bargain prices on quality goods. But when those prices are offered at the expense of quality service and customers complain and leave, it might be time to raise prices a bit to cover better staffing and the overhead involved in correcting mistakes.
650trader
XS650 Addict
Grizld : You are spouting BS as usual. I checked with Mike and he never ever worked for
K& L, Tour Max is a Japanese trading company name used on many of their products
and in the case of carb holders they are made by Ars and they also reacted badly to ethanol
which was never in Japanese market Gas. HE said he informed the Japanese about the
methanol problem but they did not believe it as they at that point had not had any problems.
Mike Never ever sold carb holders made in China.
Mike has been out of the XS business for 10 years but it seems you leap at every chance you
get to bad mouth him with information you know is false.
K& L, Tour Max is a Japanese trading company name used on many of their products
and in the case of carb holders they are made by Ars and they also reacted badly to ethanol
which was never in Japanese market Gas. HE said he informed the Japanese about the
methanol problem but they did not believe it as they at that point had not had any problems.
Mike Never ever sold carb holders made in China.
Mike has been out of the XS business for 10 years but it seems you leap at every chance you
get to bad mouth him with information you know is false.
More bluff and guff from our resident shill. I've used Tour Max boots for decades on XS650s, most of those years when 10% ethanol fuel was all that I could buy. Methanol might be another question, but I've never seen methanol fuel sold. The problem with the boots sold by Mike's XS was that the compound used had the consistency of stiff foam rubber. Vulnerability to alcohol as a fuel additive was an excuse that's as flimsy as the product. Go ahead--tell me again that I don't know what I've held in my hand. Run a search on this forum and check out the failures of Mike's boots (many) and compare to complaints about Tour Max boots (none).
650trader
XS650 Addict
The problem with you grizld is that you name Mike Lalonde specifically for these problems which is
BS . Tour Max is the Brand applied by MC International and Sold all over the world. Mike Lalonde
and some of his companies has always bought from them directly and was a customer as far back as
1977. Would you like to tell him face to face about how you are an expert on him ?
BS . Tour Max is the Brand applied by MC International and Sold all over the world. Mike Lalonde
and some of his companies has always bought from them directly and was a customer as far back as
1977. Would you like to tell him face to face about how you are an expert on him ?
I was under the impression that K&L Supply branded ARS boots as Tour Max, but I defer to your superior knowledge of who sells what. My point is that they are made by the original equipment manufacturer, hold up for decades, and have been used successfully with 10% ethanol fuels for many years by myself and many others. I have a better idea: Would you like to discuss products in question based on your own experience on your own machines? We have yet to see any of that from you; you change the subject to the superior knowledge of certain vendors, which has nothing to do with the quality of some of the items that they sell, and assert that criticism of those items has no validity unless the critic has standing as a master tuner. That line of argument is both logically flawed and rhetorically dishonest.
vr3506
vr3506
Question about cruzinimage, they sell clutchplates, can anyone tell something about the quality comparing to the original Yamaha ones?
Regards from Holland
Regards from Holland
Do the Alto 8 plate conversion?
http://www.xs650.com/threads/interest-in-8-plate-clutch-conversions.56486/
650trader
XS650 Addict
Sir Grizld : K&L is Not the originator of Tour max the trading company in Japan is.
K& L is just ONE of the North American sellers just as is Sudco. Everyone agrees that
the material used is not the best but no one has a material that will take the Ethanol
gas which is not in Japanese gas. Maybe Tygon or Viton would work but the price may be
a problem. In any case there should not be much liquid gas at the carb holder area.
Mike said that when he got samples he would even soak the carb holders in fuel to
check the reaction and he does not know what the current owners of Mikes XS are
selling. Since it's 10 years on and the Mikes XS owners are switching a lot of items to Mainland
China suppliers, who knows ?. When you call out Mike Lalonde by name as being the problem you
are just pushing your years old ( 10 ? 15 ? ) rant against him. At one time Mike supplied just
about everyone with all or part of their 650 parts and all of the buyers had input to him.
He supplied - XS650 Direct ( Canada ), Sudco ( Commerce Ca ), Shell Thuet ( Bakersfield ),
650 Central ( San Diego ), XS650 Shop. de ( Germany ), Heiden Tuning ( Holland ), Halco ( England ),
Rabbit ( Tokyo ), 650 shop Australia, plus about 3-4 others in Scandanavia and some 28,000 retail
customers when he sold. They All came to him he did not solicit them. After about 43 years in
the bike parts biz he has the sources and knowledge that NO ONE else has. You seem to think
that he made his stuff defective and that price is his only standard. When the current owners
of Mikes xs bought they were shocked when he told them that he could charge much more for
parts if he wanted to ! When he started up in 1999 there were few parts available and the
customers would say - " Where did you get those - We haven't been able to get those for Years "
K& L is just ONE of the North American sellers just as is Sudco. Everyone agrees that
the material used is not the best but no one has a material that will take the Ethanol
gas which is not in Japanese gas. Maybe Tygon or Viton would work but the price may be
a problem. In any case there should not be much liquid gas at the carb holder area.
Mike said that when he got samples he would even soak the carb holders in fuel to
check the reaction and he does not know what the current owners of Mikes XS are
selling. Since it's 10 years on and the Mikes XS owners are switching a lot of items to Mainland
China suppliers, who knows ?. When you call out Mike Lalonde by name as being the problem you
are just pushing your years old ( 10 ? 15 ? ) rant against him. At one time Mike supplied just
about everyone with all or part of their 650 parts and all of the buyers had input to him.
He supplied - XS650 Direct ( Canada ), Sudco ( Commerce Ca ), Shell Thuet ( Bakersfield ),
650 Central ( San Diego ), XS650 Shop. de ( Germany ), Heiden Tuning ( Holland ), Halco ( England ),
Rabbit ( Tokyo ), 650 shop Australia, plus about 3-4 others in Scandanavia and some 28,000 retail
customers when he sold. They All came to him he did not solicit them. After about 43 years in
the bike parts biz he has the sources and knowledge that NO ONE else has. You seem to think
that he made his stuff defective and that price is his only standard. When the current owners
of Mikes xs bought they were shocked when he told them that he could charge much more for
parts if he wanted to ! When he started up in 1999 there were few parts available and the
customers would say - " Where did you get those - We haven't been able to get those for Years "
Re. ARS/Tour Max boots, empirical evidence in the form of reported rider experience shows them to last for many years when used with ethanol fuels. I agree with you entirely that there shouldn't be much liquid gas in contact with the carb boot, which is one reason I believe that blaming carb mount failures on ethanol fuel was deceptive. Sure, many good items were and are sold by that Mike's XS: main bearings that are available nowhere else and connecting rods which are the best bang for the buck out there, to name just two. But there was defense reaction whenever a defect was pointed out, however diplomatically, instead of any positive response, and parts known to be bad continued to be sold. I ordered a lot of stuff from Mike's by phone, and it seemed to me that most of the problem items got into the offerings with the change to online sales and resulting isolation from the customer.
Anyway, at this point I'm wondering if you even ride and maintain an XS650, since you're still following the pattern of name dropping to establish credibility in lieu of citing personal experience.
Anyway, at this point I'm wondering if you even ride and maintain an XS650, since you're still following the pattern of name dropping to establish credibility in lieu of citing personal experience.
650trader
XS650 Addict
Yes I ride but little the last few years. Have about 50 engines in my garage and have done a lot of wrenching since
I got my Aircraft and motorcycle certification about 1973. Also have a stable of race only outboards and special
parts that I have offered up to the new Yamahaxs650.com upcoming Biz. Remember Mike has been out of the
Biz for 10 years and it is the new owners of Mikesxs.com who choose to sell what they have and to price it where
it is now. Mike Left behind phone sales over 15 years ago and you would to with 28,000 customers. Mike says
retail customers want to tell you the story of their life and their bike but no one has that much time in the business
day. With customers world wide the phone rings 24/7. The tour max boots would come apart with the ethanol so
perhaps in the end maybe they listened to him and changed the rubber formula.
I got my Aircraft and motorcycle certification about 1973. Also have a stable of race only outboards and special
parts that I have offered up to the new Yamahaxs650.com upcoming Biz. Remember Mike has been out of the
Biz for 10 years and it is the new owners of Mikesxs.com who choose to sell what they have and to price it where
it is now. Mike Left behind phone sales over 15 years ago and you would to with 28,000 customers. Mike says
retail customers want to tell you the story of their life and their bike but no one has that much time in the business
day. With customers world wide the phone rings 24/7. The tour max boots would come apart with the ethanol so
perhaps in the end maybe they listened to him and changed the rubber formula.
One more time: there are no posts from users, here or elsewhere, complaining about premature deterioration of Tour Max boots with 10% ethanol fuel, nor have we seen problems in local shops. Alcohol free fuel is now available in a few stations in Illinois, but for over 30 years it was all we could get, and older ARS boots stood up to it just fine. Eventually any synthetic rubber part will offgas and grow brittle with age, but I've seen 20 year old ARS boots used with 10% ethanol still doing what they should.
