RE: What is up with Neu?
Not just you George...
I bought my Neu from Esprit this summer. To say I had issues would be an understatement... The quick version is that the mounting holes were not tapped in the motor. Looking at them they appeared to not be machined straight. So I sent it back. Once there, I got a call saying that I had the old version of the motor (it had only been out for a couple months...) and that in addition to the repair on the gearbox I would need new wires and another mod that I forget right now. Unfortunately, no parts... About three weeks later I finally get my motor shipped back to me... once I got it, the repair to the gearbox was NOT MADE. Emailed Neu and got no response. Fine, whatever, I got my motor...
I flew it for about a hundred flights. It was good, had power, but not very smooth. I tried a couple other motors and thought maybe I should just sell the Neu and start over. When I took the motor out of the Black Magic I decided to clean it and lube it prior to sale. I noticed that one of the front bearings was rough... and I mean like filled with rocks... now what to do? Can't sell it that way. I had bought a couple motors from a guy who said, "oh their fine" once... yeah, one trashed and worthless, one requiring a $200 repair, and the other was runable. To sell something knowing it's screwed up would not be right. Anyhoo...
When I went to the AMA show in SoCal I talked with one of the techs at the Neu booth about my situation and he apologized for what happened and said to send it in for repair. I told him it was probably going to be waiting for him when he got back to work. Couple days later he called to say that it was on it's way back to me and that he replaced the gearbox. Much better service this time...
Motor sat on the shelf while I tested a few others and weighed my options. Finally I brought it out and put it back in the plane and I have to say that I like it. I wouldn't have thought that a bad bearing (that was always there) would make that much of a difference. Motor runs smooth and strong and sounds much better than it ever did before.
I like the motor now, still not sure I made the right decision to stick with it, but we'll see how it all turns out. Customer service is bad (but has improved at least for me)... repairs are slow as is production. I hope this gets fixed at some point as I don't think pattern guys will put up with it for long.
If you get a motor George, I think you'll like it. But don't believe the hype, it's just another motor with just a bit more power than most, but you pay for that with the higher amps.
Tom M