Big Bird
06-16-2004, 06:35 AM
Hi all,
I've got an exam tomorrow and I'm procrastinating, so here I am on the forums again.
I have been talking to Yamaha Australia a bit over the last few weeks about engine supply, after a few queries to our team about WR450 engines. YMA are pretty impressed with the growing professionalism in our comp, and are considering organizing supply of engines at landed cost price to Oz FSAE teams that are interested. Those who've been in the bike industry will know that you can't normally buy a new engine on its own, as the Japanese companies only build enough engines to suit the number of bikes they are building.
For those of you running or wishing to run R6's and other road bike engines, this might or might not be of assistance. YMA would need to know around three months ahead of the production run to notify Yamaha Japan, and supply would generally be around two to three months after by the time it was built and shipped. Given that new road bike engines can be sourced often from wrecks / auctions etc, the wait for a brand new engine might or might not be worth it.
The main reason we have been pursuing this through YMA is for supply of WR450 engines or similar. These are harder to find, simply because they are a new model, and wrecks just don't make it to the auctions (when you crash a dirt bike you just pick it up and keep riding).
Now, details about lead times and stuff. The WR450, like YZ's and other specialty racing stuff, are only produced in one production run per year. This is usually around Sept/Oct/Nov. Supply to Oz is then around two months after production, therefore maybe Dec/Jan . As mentioned above, ordering would need to take place a good two to three months before production, meaning in this case within the next couple of months.
Can't give exact costs here and now, but going from past experience Yamaha tends to sell new engine blocks at around 50-60% of the cost of the donor bike. The engines are usually supplied as a complete engine with electrics but no exhaust. Can't remember if they supply the carb, I think they do.
Payment would need to be cash in advance. YMA are generally hesitant to order engines due to past situations where stuff was brought in for in for people who then shot through, leaving them with expensive goods they couldn't sell.
If any Oz or NZ teams are interested in looking into this option, please email me on s2111344_don't_spam_me_@student.rmit.edu.au and we'll try to organize something. Please do NOT contact YMA directly, there are specific people in the company who are dealing with this and you probably won't get through to them. I've offered to act as go-between to minimize their inconvenience.
For Euro, US teams etc, I can't speak for your local Yamaha distributors but if you are keen let me know and we'll see if can organize contacts and processes from here. We are most likely visiting the UK distributor when we go to FStudent, so will mention it to them when we get there.
This is all big-time forward planning and it won't suit everyone, but this might help out teams looking to try something different. And sorry for the longest post yet, but i just wanted to make sure all the details were attended to.
Cheers all,
I've got an exam tomorrow and I'm procrastinating, so here I am on the forums again.
I have been talking to Yamaha Australia a bit over the last few weeks about engine supply, after a few queries to our team about WR450 engines. YMA are pretty impressed with the growing professionalism in our comp, and are considering organizing supply of engines at landed cost price to Oz FSAE teams that are interested. Those who've been in the bike industry will know that you can't normally buy a new engine on its own, as the Japanese companies only build enough engines to suit the number of bikes they are building.
For those of you running or wishing to run R6's and other road bike engines, this might or might not be of assistance. YMA would need to know around three months ahead of the production run to notify Yamaha Japan, and supply would generally be around two to three months after by the time it was built and shipped. Given that new road bike engines can be sourced often from wrecks / auctions etc, the wait for a brand new engine might or might not be worth it.
The main reason we have been pursuing this through YMA is for supply of WR450 engines or similar. These are harder to find, simply because they are a new model, and wrecks just don't make it to the auctions (when you crash a dirt bike you just pick it up and keep riding).
Now, details about lead times and stuff. The WR450, like YZ's and other specialty racing stuff, are only produced in one production run per year. This is usually around Sept/Oct/Nov. Supply to Oz is then around two months after production, therefore maybe Dec/Jan . As mentioned above, ordering would need to take place a good two to three months before production, meaning in this case within the next couple of months.
Can't give exact costs here and now, but going from past experience Yamaha tends to sell new engine blocks at around 50-60% of the cost of the donor bike. The engines are usually supplied as a complete engine with electrics but no exhaust. Can't remember if they supply the carb, I think they do.
Payment would need to be cash in advance. YMA are generally hesitant to order engines due to past situations where stuff was brought in for in for people who then shot through, leaving them with expensive goods they couldn't sell.
If any Oz or NZ teams are interested in looking into this option, please email me on s2111344_don't_spam_me_@student.rmit.edu.au and we'll try to organize something. Please do NOT contact YMA directly, there are specific people in the company who are dealing with this and you probably won't get through to them. I've offered to act as go-between to minimize their inconvenience.
For Euro, US teams etc, I can't speak for your local Yamaha distributors but if you are keen let me know and we'll see if can organize contacts and processes from here. We are most likely visiting the UK distributor when we go to FStudent, so will mention it to them when we get there.
This is all big-time forward planning and it won't suit everyone, but this might help out teams looking to try something different. And sorry for the longest post yet, but i just wanted to make sure all the details were attended to.
Cheers all,