The High Roller Adult Size Big Wheel Drift Trikes are going to be featured on the Steve Harvey Show this Monday morning! To find a station in your area check http://steveharveytv.com/watch/

The High Roller Adult Size Big Wheel Drift Trikes were featured on the Steve Harvey Show in Chicago recently. They had me come out for two days for a taping in their studio at the NBC tower. Steve Harvey showcased the High Roller on the segment of his show called “Just One More Thing” and raced it around the stage. He did a fantastic job of powersliding and drifting the High Roller. The audience was going nuts and he had so much fun that he was still riding it long after the segment was done. Thanks, Steve!

Here in January, orders continue to pour in during what is usually a completely dead month. I think that means we need to grab hold of something solid and get ready for the rocket sled ride that’s coming this spring!

As always, thank you, thank you, THANK YOU for your unwavering support during this adventure!

Matt
Designer, CEO
www.HighRollerUSA.com

More details to follow, but I thought that would be the most important thing you’d want to know.

This will be you on Christmas:

Talk to you soon!

This will be brief, without the bunch of photos I’m usually fond of:

The High Rollers have begun shipping!

Here’s how it happened:

Our Seat supplier had an issue with uncured adhesive glue leaking out onto the seat. I found this out the day after I placed the order for 300 seats. Their remedy was to clean each of the seats and get it up to spec, then ship out in October. Evidently this didn’t go so well, and they had to order a new manufacturing run of seats. We finally got a partial shipment of 49/300 on Monday with the remainder coming “soon”.

Despite being “ready to go at any moment” yet 3 months behind schedule, our Rear Wheel molder in Ohio was totally surprised when I placed the order and required delivery before Thanksgiving. This was after he had misquoted the order, failed to read the part drawing, made the molds wrong, and used the wrong material. Fixing all that, he finally rushed out 30 pairs of wheels and then informed me last week that he’d taken a position at another company and was shutting his business down. [Note to politicians: this is why we send work to Taiwan instead of Ohio.]

“That’s bad. No, wait, that’s good!” Immediately we were able to replace the molder with a quality factory here in Denver. We’ve rushed the molds to Littleton Plastics who will receive them on Monday and be making sample parts by Wednesday, and production parts by Friday. I’ll be there on site to watch the whole process and work with them to ensure it’s done right. It will be four times the cost, but it will be done right and fast.

The warehouse has ordered extra boxes and is staged to ship as soon as parts hit the floor. My “do or die” is to have all the High Rollers to our customers by Christmas. I remember that Christmas morning in 1974 vividly, and I think everyone should have that same experience!

I’m writing to you from the road as my sis (yup that’s here in the Strawberry Shortcake dress in the pic above) and I have road tripped to Memphis for the 2nd annual Beale Street Big Wheel Relay races featuring the High Rollers this Saturday. Along the way two of the High Rollers have been hand delivered to customers in Oklahoma City and Tulsa. Ryan, a Kickstarter backer, has been waiting about 5 years since he first contacted us about making an adult size big wheel!

To Ryan and all our backers, your day has finally come.

THANK YOU,

p.s. If you didn’t see it, the Wall Street Journal just featured the High Roller trikes in a great front page article. They also have a really fun video they put together while they were out here in Denver.

Well it feels like just a couple weeks ago I posted an update, but looking back I realize it was the end of June since you got a data dump. That’s testament to just what a jam-packed, crazy summer it’s been for us here at High Roller. Before we launch into the meat of what’s been happening, let’s cut to the chase:

1) Shipping container from Taiwan arrived on schedule and we’ll be unloading it Wednesday!

2) Domestic suppliers of the Seat and Rear Wheels have both had problems.

a) Seats had a recall and all supplies have been pulled back (we’re working to release acceptable seats right away).

b) Plastic molder has been using the wrong material for the wheels (we’re working with them to correct the problem or source a new manufacturer).

Upshot: We won’t have enough parts to complete the build until late October. It’s been absolutely maddening for us that our suppliers with the hardest job from the furthest away were able to deliver as expected, and our American suppliers have been tripping over themselves trying to produce one good part.

Ok, so here’s what’s been happening:

Throughout July, parts flowed into our assembly factory and got put together. Here’s what 300 rims look like when they arrive.

And here’s 300 wheel sets all built up.

And 300 frame sets back from the painter:

In August, everything got put together and was packaged for shipment:

Here’s all the front wheels assembled with the disc cover:

and ready to be mated to these 300 forks:

And boxed with these 300 handle bars:

With all the talk lately about foreign labor, outsourcing, and manufacturing, did you ever wonder who actually builds your bikes in Taiwan? These guys do:

And they had to put every sticker on every frame by hand:

There are no automatons that do this for us. No gleaming assembly robots. It’s all people like us who have a job and do it to the best of their ability, day in and day out. And trust me, having built up just a handful of these things, they have my utmost respect. It’s hard, tedious work done to exacting standards (demanded by you and me), where mistakes are not tolerated easily.

All of the small parts and fasteners are boxed separately, including all the tools you will need for assembly!

At the beginning of September, everything was packed into a shipping container and sent to us:

Ours is the red one!

So what’s left to do?

We’re negotiating with the seat supplier right now to see if there are 300 good seats in the 1600 seats they recalled (the recall is for cosmetic reasons, not structural or material issues). We’re willing to drive or fly out to their warehouse and cherry pick the best ones if they’d be willing to accommodate us. We should know in the next couple days if that’s something that can happen. If they say no and make us wait for the replacement seats, it will be mid to late October before we see them.

Our rear wheel molder is getting a sample of the proper material in this week and will be making some sample parts by the weekend. They’ll then send those parts to us for evaluation. All of that will take at least a week. Once we approve the parts, they can begin molding and will work around the clock for about 3 weeks. The wheels will get freighted to us and we’ll repackage them with the rest of the High Roller and send it out to you. If all goes well, that will be about late October.

Not putting all our eggs in one basket, we’re also getting quotes from local rotomolders in parallel. That way if we hit another snag with the first rotomolder, we have a backup plan. It will probably take a little longer, and will definitely cost a little more, but we will have the quality control to ensure that we get good parts.

Well folks, that’s probably enough for one big message. Tomorrow I’ll update you with some of the fantastically fun stuff that’s been happening in the last couple months while we’ve been waiting for production! Trust me, it’ll be a kick! It’s what keeps me going every day.

Thanks!