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Originally Posted by camtunkpa
Okay, off my soap box and back on topic.
It sounds like Outback is taking a big hit here. Let me add some fuel to the fire. What if Outback just makes the assembly and leaves it up to teams to get their own belts. The belts from Brecoflex still have a 2-3 week lead time. With that said it's a shame to see Outback, who's trying to give teams an excellent choice for drivetrain, being severely scrutinized. Let's show this company some GP for what they are trying to bring to the table rather then possibly scaring them away from offering any products for FRC teams.
I apologize for the length of this post, but I wanted to do my post justice. Good Luck to everyone in the upcoming season!
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I do not intend to scrutinize this group moreso than any other and I certainly am not trying to make it so they cannot make their product available to teams. They do, however, represent the catalyst that made me consider some of the issues mentioned above and I think it's possible to discuss those circumstances without specifically tailoring the responses and interpretation to the product these guys are intending to offer.
I've been asked severaly times if I'd consider selling some of the things 488 has worked on to other teams in the Pacific Northwest. I couldn't possibly meet the demand of 300 teams across the country ordering a set of omniwheels (which use rollers from AndyMark, by the way), but would have little trouble building ten or twenty sets for teams in my region. If don't advertise the sale of this product outside the region, my expectation would be that I will not receive orders from more than the number of teams in this area. Is that a fair way of determining interest for the purposes of stocking product?
I'd love to make a little money on the side by providing design advice or finished products to a small number of teams, but I don't see that I can do it with the existing rules. It seems there needs to be some minimum production run criteria or something for consideration as a VENDOR, but it's also impractical to sell a product with the associated caveat that its use will be illegal unless you can guarantee nine other orders or something similar.
I was speaking with Cory about some of this last night and we were curious -- is it
ever possible to get Brecoflex belts shipped in fewer than five days?
There are a lot of questions and circumstances that don't
need to be answered -- I'm not carrying a torch and a pitchfork here -- but it would serve the community well if they were explored, answered and examined with a bit more depth.