Bluemoonscooter

[tricyclerob]

First let me apologize in advance for the length of this post. And also let me state that Danny does seem responsive and does seem to care about the products he sells, however, I have to say that my experience with Blue Moon Scooter has been mixed at best.

I bought the stainless pushrod tubes which were sent w/motor to Vech, who contacted me to say they didn't fit. I threw them in the spare parts box.

I bought the sidestand, which broke at the first application of weight. I have to say that Danny responded very quickly, and sent the new shaft portion of the stand. This has been on my R69 for 3-4 years now with no issues. It appeared the weld on the shaft was ground too aggressively, removing too much of the weld. It also appeared the weld had poor penetration.

I had been looking for a set of Enduro bags for a while. The used ones from Luxor Marine, for the most part did not appear to hold up well, and the brackets for those appear iffy.

After the nice write-up on the enduro bags by "808", I "won" a set on E-bay.
A day after the auction, Danny wrote to say the set he had, had scratches and he was sending a set direct from Viet Nam, where I believe all of his products are made. I was encouraged by this and didn't mind the "week to 10 day delay". About a week or so later the first bag arrived. The box was in somewhat poor condition, and it did not appear it was very well packed. The package of bolts was open and the bolts were loose in the box. The bottom brackets came with this bag.

The bag itself was wrapped in thin foam sheet, and it appears this was rough enough that it abraided the finish on the outer side of the bag. Fine scratches, that rubbed the gloss off the finish.

I thought, no big deal, I can buff that out. I later wrote to Danny suggesting improvments in the packing, esp. to put the bad in a plastic bag first then wrapping, to prevent the abrasion issue.
Also, it appeared the loose bolts had caused some nicks.
To be honest I was not "too" concerned about all this as my R69 is mechanically restored, but the paint on the frame and tin is original and is decent but far from perfect.
If the bags had looked too good, it would not match the rest of the bike. That being said, the finish on the bag can only be descrided as "uneven" at the very best. If you have new paint on your bike, these would need to be sanded and re-painted to look right.
Danny said that the finish is the "Gel-Coat", but , in view of my polishing having no effect, I wet sanded with 2500 wet or dry, and got a whiteish residue, with no hint of dark gelcoat. My brother in law, 35 year owner of a body shop, said it looks like a clear Laq. finish. So at this point I'm not sure what the finish is.
In addition, there were swirl marks from sanding, and the holes for the inside bracket were mis-drilled and the "wrong holes" were noticably filled. The inside bracket had no less than 3 sets of holes drilled in it.

I'm probably going to mount and use as is, then plan on painting next winter.

Anyway, the second bag was said to arrive a few days later, but after a week, no bag.

I wrote to Danny who suggested it was held up by "Customs". After a number of e-mails, still no bag. I finally wrote that I had given up on that bag appearing and another bad should be sent.

I rec'ed the second bag almost 8 weeks later. This was packed no better than the first, had the same scuff marks on the surface, as well as a chipped corner.

The top brackets came with this bag, and had a really lumpy looking powder coat finish. One bracket looked good, the other was a bit "bent" looking, with noticable hammer marks.

In e-mail conversation, Danny admitted to having some "quality control problems", and said the "next batch" were going to be base coat/ clear coat painted. I suggested that to more closely match the paint on the bikes these were to be mounted on, a one step acrylic might be a better match.

Anyway, I like the construction and shape, and as I'm going to repaint and restripe anyway, no big deal. But if you have a nicely painted bike and for $500, expect a nicely painted, bolt on bag, you may be disappointed.

Others may have a completely different experience,
Rob Jones