Let me ask you all something. If Keith had not announced that he was DEVELOPING this engine 2 years ago, and you were all sitting there fat, dumb, and happy. . would this thread even exist?

DA has about 8-10 times the resources of BME, 3W probably 50-100 times as much, yet you all expect that BME will slam out new designs and engines as fast as the competitors. It takes a lot of time, effort, MONEY, and concentrated focus to get a product like this to market. I'm not making any excuses for BME, that an announcement of production being eminent was made was, at best, misleading. Keith and I talked about this in November, and a couple of BME competitors have made the same mistake and also vowed never to do it again. I realy bet you will NOT hear about the DA 75 before they have about 50 ready to ship. . . .

The 55 will be here when it GETS here. Not sooner. Conjecture as to WHY (oh it has to be SOMEBODIES fault, right???) BME cannot crank out 40-50 engines a week, why YOU didn't get YOUR engine when YOU wanted it, why why why (waahhh I want it NOW. . whimper whimper whimper tantrum and destructive throwing fit. . . . . . ).

Now, a few suggestions, .. .first off, stop conjecturing as to why BME may, or may not, be shipping engines to whomever. The truth is that except during the Christmas season they have been steadily cranking out about 20-25 110's per week, about 30-40 50's (as asked for) PLUS repairing engines as quickly as they can get parts for them (remember a lot of older designs are weedie based, sometimes it takes 3-4 weeks to get replacement parts) Second, if you want a 55. .wait . .if not, go buy a DA50, I highly recommend it, or order the BME 50, which is as good a motor as the DA50 ever thought of being. Third, forget about yelling about "ignition" shortfalls, C&H has been giving BME all the ignitions they order, and every engine ships with an ignition now. Fourth, BME has two guys working there. . . maybe they are BUSY. When I was there I answered a few phone calls while Steve and Keith WORKED, I even wrote down a few orders and boxed some stuff up for them. I can't recall ONE phone call that lasted less than 10 minutes, and a couple lasted about 25-30. I was on vacation, and spent about 6 hours of it talking to BME customers. . it gave me a bit of insight into what Keith goes through on a daily basis, and it was NOT encouraging. Imagine doing that for TEN years ! ! When they don't pick up the phone, I leave a message. Simple as that. I get an answer on my machine or Email, usualy.

Lastly, BME is a "small business", and I do mean SMALL. They have a great product that is currently the cutting edge in its market, but that does not mean that they will ever satisfy everyone. Keith knows people are frustrated and impatient .. calling him up and telling him about it doesn't help much. Put yourself in his shoes . . .he got what he wished for. . now the world wants it and he can't deliver fast enough. Personally, I'm surprised he puts up with as much as he does, but he has a lot more patience than I do. . .