1976 Kz 900 A4

wrote:

For roller bearing cranks, the ONLY places I will send one is to John Pearson in Ohio, Stan Gardner in Maine, or Bob Mosher in Florida. I wouldn't ask Falicon what time of day it is!
 

I can't find any contact info for John Pearson or Bob Mosher (Accurate Crankshaft?), and Falicon is gone.  There is a "Pearson Racing" FB page, but I can't figure out if that has anything do with crank service.  

It seems like Gardner Racing is the only one still advertising crank service.

I found this in a search on Falicon on line  450 forum
All interesting  . It was posted 2 years ago by the guy who bought out and sold  off Falicon
to relocate business to Cleveland 
I personally had a great experience with Falicon, but that was as I say Back In The Day
The original owner  did first class work but sold out  at some point  and the quality came  under fire
Has anyone heard of this before ???
Dave



The rest of the story.

Good morning FaliconKen, please allow me to introduce myself, I am the CEO of Race Winning Brands. I’m a rider, a racer, and a fellow engine builder. I’m not a bean counter or some corporate guy. I’d love to chat with you today and share facts about the future plans for Falicon (BTW no one at Falicon was named Ken during our ownership? So whatever you're posting is rumor, and not recent facts. We confirmed with Glenn today, there was a Ken that worked at Falicon many year ago who did Marketing, assuming this is FaliconKen?) - Anyway, it’s a much brighter vision than you’ve posted! We are investing in making cranks and rods in Cleveland Ohio. The core elements of Falicon have provided us this base foundation, which we will build on! Moving to Cleveland was not our first plan, but we struggled with ramping up production on the old equipment and limited team in Clearwater and realized our best path for success would be moving the operation to Cleveland and utilizing our extensive CNC equipment and operational team. Before doing anything, I personally offered to sell the business back to Glenn (at a fraction of what we paid). Unfortunately, this wasn’t an option, but Glenn was understanding and did a great job helping us manage the transition to Cleveland. I sent our VP of Ops to Florida to manage the transition. He offered jobs in Cleveland to the Falicon employees. He worked with all the guys to find them a job or a path forward. He gave equipment and materials to employees that had side businesses and wanted to continue on their own. He hustled to get the building cleared out quickly, to help Glenn close a deal on selling the building. He managed orders and customers during this move. He really did everything I could ask to manage the transition gracefully, with class, and in the best interests of all those impacted. We shipped the crank grinding equipment to Cleveland, and we are getting setup and cutting chips on new rods now (see attached photos of the Falicon equipment relocated in Cleveland - setting up!), and will work toward cutting chips on cranks next. We shipped the clutch making equipment to Rekluse to rejuvenate and relaunch the offering. And we liquidated the old and tired CNCs we didn’t need. Ultimately, we intend to have new cranks and rods on the shelf. However, we are not planning to continue “repairing” cranks or making “one-off” cranks at this point; that is a challenging business and without the experienced repair guru, we do not want to offer anything less than perfection. We are happy to connect you directly with ex-Falicon employees who are offering repair services on their own, or other business referrals for this type work. As we get back online in Cleveland, we will remain open minded to expanding as needed.

Today, we welcome customer calls and would be happy to work with you however needed. The best way to connect is by calling Tom Davis Ext 3109, Al Pizzinio Ext 3105 or the Powersports Team at 800 321-1364.

Our mission is to lead racers to victory and enthusiast to enjoyment. Please connect with me any time (PM me or email me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.), I am here to make sure we successfully accomplish our mission.


 

Race Winning Brands is the corporate umbrella for a bunch of brands we are all familiar with such Wiseco. It seems their approach is oriented towards off the shelf products which typically are more lucrative from a business standpoint than one offs and repairs. a year ago or so I had JE (also owned by RWB) make customs pistons for me. The first set of pistons were not engineered correctly and they replaced at their cost with zero fuss. I have yet to install and run the second set of pistons, however they look very well machined and the dimensions I measured were in spec. FWIW i had the old Falicon do two cranks for me and both were good.

Here in Western New York. My longtime machinist top fuel racer Jim Mangus "Jim's Cylinder Heads" he is semi-retired. He sends and refers anyone who asks to "Stan Gardner" up in New England. Paul Gast (FBG) actually sends cranks to Stan also when he is busy. It's a lot of work! Even to weld a KZ style crank. Has to be dis-assembled cleaned, indexed and 90% of time new thrust bearing. before put back together and welded.
Just my little opinion.

I appreciate all the input. Thank all.

I called the 800 number in that letter. Left VM for ext 3109, what I hoped was Tom Davis. Well he called back. He is completely at a loss how his name was mentioned in that letter. He has never heard of said and doesn’t know penned it. He doesn’t work for the power sports team. He never worked at Falicon. He actually works for Wiseco. The 800 phone number in the letter rings to Wiseco. He had no leads for ex employees of Falicon that may have received machinery to continue crank repairs. He did refer me to three potential shops but wasnt sure if they even work on mulit piece roller bearing crankshafts. One other caveat he wasn’t familiar with Stan Gardner. All he was able to confirm was Race Winning Brands is Wisecos parent company. 

I stopped by the builder welding up my head, we agreed he miss a few spots and will do additional buildup. Also he checked his equipment and didn’t have any bore gauges small enough to mic out the 17mm small ends of the rods. He commented how strange it was the rod wasn’t bushed. It’s looking like any changes I have with this crank is to explore Gardner Racing. I’m not willing to through this crank into the scrape pile based on maybe, what if, could be. I’d like a solid thumbs up or down before I make a decision. A big factory though will be balancing shipping, and inspection cost against the price of another used crank. Even that choice needs the weight of another used cranks unkown condition? I don’t seem to have much luck with used engine internals, 3 attempts to buy cam chain idles have all been a big bust.

 

Pics of the rods? Mine were a little discolored on both cranks but the pins were nice and snug. My 903 crank was $50 plus shipping after I took a close look at it and the others. 4 years later it's still going strong even after wasting #1 piston. The wrist pins seem to take most of the wear.
Steve

Steve, I’ll try to get some closeups of the rods. What you mentioned worries me, snug. I have wrist pins that are within spec and when test fitting them to the rods I have wiggle. I only find spec and out of spec sizes in the FSM. I have a digital caliper and can size the pins. But I don’t have a bore gauge to size the rod. The FSM doesn’t give me a wiggle tolerance and not experienced enough to judge wiggle. I think I’m forced to find a reliable shop that can size the rods and tell me the results. Unfortunately in the current crazy Kz boom (price gauging) $50 crankshafts are a distant memory. 

For DOHC and everyone who needs him: 
John Pearson at Pearson Racing, West Alexandria Ohio 937.839 9723

ps. I had a Mk2 crank done by John a couple years ago and it's beautiful....full race welded with a #5 thrust bearing.  He checks everything and does great work....highly recommend his business. All I have to do now is get my build started, then I can put that crank in along with the head done by Larry Cavanaugh....one of these days....

Maybe snug was the wrong word. You will have a small amount of play. When I seized #1 piston in 14 the wrist pin was trashed but the rod end was till good. Had a small amount of marking so I cleaned it up with fine paper. Ran it until I got the 903 crank.
Steve
.  

wrote:

For DOHC and everyone who needs him: 
John Pearson at Pearson Racing, West Alexandria Ohio 937.839 9723

ps. I had a Mk2 crank done by John a couple years ago and it's beautiful....full race welded with a #5 thrust bearing.  He checks everything and does great work....highly recommend his business. All I have to do now is get my build started, then I can put that crank in along with the head done by Larry Cavanaugh....one of these days....

To Me
This is the best bet and not to far for a road trip
Dave
 

wrote:

wrote:

For DOHC and everyone who needs him: 
John Pearson at Pearson Racing, West Alexandria Ohio 937.839 9723

ps. I had a Mk2 crank done by John a couple years ago and it's beautiful....full race welded with a #5 thrust bearing.  He checks everything and does great work....highly recommend his business. All I have to do now is get my build started, then I can put that crank in along with the head done by Larry Cavanaugh....one of these days....

To Me
This is the best bet and not to far for a road trip
Dave

 

I agree, thanks for posting the contact information. It’s the closet for sure. Details to follow.
Thank you

wrote:

This is the best bet and not to far for a road trip

 

It's a 4+ hour drive from me, but still much closer than Maine.  I sold a crank on Ebay about 10 years ago.  Packing it up for shipping was a ton of work.  Also, the crank and rods/bearings weigh over 50 lbs.  If feels like it's bolted down to the table when you try to pick it up.

I had a very sturdy double walled box from some car shocks.  I made a plywood base that just fit inside the box, and then built up pads to support the crank at the bearings, and screwed blocks over the top in the center so it couldn't roll around.  Then I packed the box with foam.  It's probably one of the best packing jobs I've done.  It was so heavy, I was really worried that if I didn't bolt it down in some way it was just going to explode out of the side of the box like the Kool-Aid man.