WTB - best price to DLC or TiN fork tubes?

cdoggy81
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Edited Date/Time 7/16/2020 1:34pm
I wanted to see who has the best price to coat suspension parts. LMK what you guys are paying for fork tubes, shock shaft & if they give you a break for getting both done at once.
Thanks guys!
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UGOTBIT
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7/2/2020 6:59am
SGB does a lot of coating work as well.

That being said Billy from Luxon is always on the form answering questions, putting out juicy tech and innovating new products.
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sesker15
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7/2/2020 7:01am
Ebr performance has a good price for DLC lowers.

The Shop

cdoggy81
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7/3/2020 9:45pm Edited Date/Time 7/16/2020 9:58am
Thanks guys. Yes I agree, Billy from Luxon is good peoples for sure! 👍🏻😎👍🏻
Didn’t see any prices listed for EBR or SGB.
7/5/2020 12:08pm
cdoggy81 wrote:
Thanks guys. Yes I agree, Billy from Luxon is good peoples for sure! 👍🏻😎👍🏻
Didn’t see any prices listed for EBR or SGB.
When I talked to SGB they quoted me 700 for lower coatings although he didn’t specify what kind of coatings
cdoggy81
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7/13/2020 6:26pm
So the cheapest I have found so far is $500 for the forks & $200 for the shock. Anyone find anything better?
jaredkeller96
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7/13/2020 7:28pm
cdoggy81 wrote:
So the cheapest I have found so far is $500 for the forks & $200 for the shock. Anyone find anything better?
if you do it yourself..350 for fork tubes from Raptor Carbon. Denver NC. Place Jgr has used in the past as well as some other reputable places...DLC only
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cdoggy81
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7/16/2020 9:57am Edited Date/Time 7/29/2025 7:26am

Yeah that is IHC I believe. There can’t be 2 companies doing DLC in a little town of Denver right? 😎I will confirm that a lot of places use them for their DLC but in the past you must have a resale license or an account with them. I didn’t think they do onesie-twosie stuff for retail customers but hey, I could be wrong & things change over time 😁

My goal is to get set up to do DLC & TiN (plus a few other color options & services) for you guys at a much better price point. I am seeing $500 for forks $200 for a shock on average which is a lot for us to spend. Cheapest I have found so far is $400 on a package deal. If I can do a set of forks AND shocks for someone for $300-$325 I think that would be a win - win for everyone.

1
jaredkeller96
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7/16/2020 10:00am
cdoggy81 wrote:
Yeah that is IHC I believe. There can’t be 2 companies doing DLC in a little town of Denver right? 😎I will confirm that a lot...

Yeah that is IHC I believe. There can’t be 2 companies doing DLC in a little town of Denver right? 😎I will confirm that a lot of places use them for their DLC but in the past you must have a resale license or an account with them. I didn’t think they do onesie-twosie stuff for retail customers but hey, I could be wrong & things change over time 😁

My goal is to get set up to do DLC & TiN (plus a few other color options & services) for you guys at a much better price point. I am seeing $500 for forks $200 for a shock on average which is a lot for us to spend. Cheapest I have found so far is $400 on a package deal. If I can do a set of forks AND shocks for someone for $300-$325 I think that would be a win - win for everyone.

Yea it’s the same company IHC/carbon raptor. They do stuff for average people. I’ve inquired about it before I had any affiliation with the team
cdoggy81
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7/16/2020 10:11am
Cool, figured as much. Is Matt still over there? He was a good dude every time I called.
CoyoteCody
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7/16/2020 11:07am
cdoggy81 wrote:
Yeah that is IHC I believe. There can’t be 2 companies doing DLC in a little town of Denver right? 😎I will confirm that a lot...

Yeah that is IHC I believe. There can’t be 2 companies doing DLC in a little town of Denver right? 😎I will confirm that a lot of places use them for their DLC but in the past you must have a resale license or an account with them. I didn’t think they do onesie-twosie stuff for retail customers but hey, I could be wrong & things change over time 😁

My goal is to get set up to do DLC & TiN (plus a few other color options & services) for you guys at a much better price point. I am seeing $500 for forks $200 for a shock on average which is a lot for us to spend. Cheapest I have found so far is $400 on a package deal. If I can do a set of forks AND shocks for someone for $300-$325 I think that would be a win - win for everyone.

$300-$325 is a great price point for a package. Curious, would that include upper AND lower forks plus shocks or just one fork piece plus shocks? Either way count me in.
Luxon MX
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7/16/2020 11:54am
cdoggy81 wrote:
Yeah that is IHC I believe. There can’t be 2 companies doing DLC in a little town of Denver right? 😎I will confirm that a lot...

Yeah that is IHC I believe. There can’t be 2 companies doing DLC in a little town of Denver right? 😎I will confirm that a lot of places use them for their DLC but in the past you must have a resale license or an account with them. I didn’t think they do onesie-twosie stuff for retail customers but hey, I could be wrong & things change over time 😁

My goal is to get set up to do DLC & TiN (plus a few other color options & services) for you guys at a much better price point. I am seeing $500 for forks $200 for a shock on average which is a lot for us to spend. Cheapest I have found so far is $400 on a package deal. If I can do a set of forks AND shocks for someone for $300-$325 I think that would be a win - win for everyone.

I'll save you some time...

IHC is a good company and does a great job with coatings. There are cheaper places out there, but the good ones cost more for a reason! IHC charges one-off customers $350 for a set of fork tubes. DLC black only, no colors or TiN. You'll have to receive tubes from someone, take the time to inspect that they actually sent clean tubes with everything removed (and clean/disassemble if they didn't), re-package everything and pay to ship it to IHC (~$20 without insurance). IHC will coat them, then ship them back, but they insist on insuring the package for at least the cost of the coatings, so you might be up to $40 or $50 in shipping back to you. Then you need to unpack them, inspect that the correct tubes were shipped back to you, then pack them up again and pay to ship them back to the customer (another $30).

So, $350 for the coating, $20+$40+$30 in shipping comes to $440 for fork tubes if you give your time away for free. You'll save a little on shipping sending multiple sets, but not as much as you might hope as the weight and insurance rises with each set added.

You're also taking on risk with all the shipping for damage or lost shipments as well as the risk of an unhappy customer since you won't have 100% good coated parts come back. There are sometimes blemishes, especially on used tubes. And you'll be bombarded with questions.

You can get a slightly lower price as a dealer, but you'll need a resale license and a first order of at least 10 sets of tubes. In the end, the margins are tiny, and if you're giving them away for your cost, then you lose your time and take on a bunch of risk with little reward.

...

Or you can just pay us $500-$600 (depending on color), take on little risk, and not lose a bunch of time!

3
cdoggy81
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7/16/2020 1:27pm Edited Date/Time 7/29/2025 7:24am

Hey Billy,
I agree with what you have stated as those are all valid points. I even plugged you guys in post #6 above before you commented on this thread. You all do great work, have great products.  I have not heard a single negative comment about Luxon in general. Your parent company did some consulting work for a large national customer of mine (I’m in industrial supply & MFG) & they even praised you all. Heck, you personally even helped a friend do a little machining on his YZ to get the YZF swingarm conversion fitted up & aligned properly. I have also been meaning to reach out to you as well to discuss a few things I am personally interested in that you all offer.
I was in no way trying to encroach on anything Luxon does. I hope you do not view it as such so I wanted to make sure & clear the air so to speak. I view your products & services as top line as your prices & quality properly reflect that. If people want the best & have the financial resources to do so I will continue to drive customers your way. However if people would like a cheaper alternative & I can help them, I would like to try & do that too... That said I was able to work with others & bring a few new carbon fiber products to market for the YZ guys & that was a great feeling. I helped the manufacturer as well as the customers without any financial gain. Its a long shot but if I am able to get everything lined up for this stuff & move forward in some capacity I will Smile That said, I do agree with you, the margins will be tiny but again, I’m not in it to get rich. More so to try & help the avg moto guy get some cool trick parts for their bike without breaking the bank.
Long story short is - don’t worry, I am not quitting my day job to pursue the niche market of fork coatings 😎 Keep up the good work!

2
cdoggy81
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7/16/2020 1:34pm
CoyoteCody - no the uppers are different from the lowers (also called sliders or tubes) & they are typically anodized. That is a different service & cost structure than the coating of the fork tubes. Thanks for your interest 👍🏻
Luxon MX
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San Diego, CA, USA
7/16/2020 1:58pm
cdoggy81 wrote:
Hey Billy,I agree with what you have stated as those are all valid points. I even plugged you guys in post #6 above before you commented...

Hey Billy,
I agree with what you have stated as those are all valid points. I even plugged you guys in post #6 above before you commented on this thread. You all do great work, have great products.  I have not heard a single negative comment about Luxon in general. Your parent company did some consulting work for a large national customer of mine (I’m in industrial supply & MFG) & they even praised you all. Heck, you personally even helped a friend do a little machining on his YZ to get the YZF swingarm conversion fitted up & aligned properly. I have also been meaning to reach out to you as well to discuss a few things I am personally interested in that you all offer.
I was in no way trying to encroach on anything Luxon does. I hope you do not view it as such so I wanted to make sure & clear the air so to speak. I view your products & services as top line as your prices & quality properly reflect that. If people want the best & have the financial resources to do so I will continue to drive customers your way. However if people would like a cheaper alternative & I can help them, I would like to try & do that too... That said I was able to work with others & bring a few new carbon fiber products to market for the YZ guys & that was a great feeling. I helped the manufacturer as well as the customers without any financial gain. Its a long shot but if I am able to get everything lined up for this stuff & move forward in some capacity I will Smile That said, I do agree with you, the margins will be tiny but again, I’m not in it to get rich. More so to try & help the avg moto guy get some cool trick parts for their bike without breaking the bank.
Long story short is - don’t worry, I am not quitting my day job to pursue the niche market of fork coatings 😎 Keep up the good work!

No hard feeling or anything on this end, I was just literally trying to save you some time! The DLC coating side of things is super tough to make any money at, and you'll get a headache in the process... I'd considering dropping it entirely, but it compliments our Kyokote process, so it's staying for now.

Shoot me an email with what you'd like to discuss whenever you get the chance and we'll sort it out!
2
racerx217
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USA
7/16/2020 6:11pm
cdoggy81 wrote:
Yeah that is IHC I believe. There can’t be 2 companies doing DLC in a little town of Denver right? 😎I will confirm that a lot...

Yeah that is IHC I believe. There can’t be 2 companies doing DLC in a little town of Denver right? 😎I will confirm that a lot of places use them for their DLC but in the past you must have a resale license or an account with them. I didn’t think they do onesie-twosie stuff for retail customers but hey, I could be wrong & things change over time 😁

My goal is to get set up to do DLC & TiN (plus a few other color options & services) for you guys at a much better price point. I am seeing $500 for forks $200 for a shock on average which is a lot for us to spend. Cheapest I have found so far is $400 on a package deal. If I can do a set of forks AND shocks for someone for $300-$325 I think that would be a win - win for everyone.

Luxon MX wrote:
I'll save you some time... IHC is a good company and does a great job with coatings. There are cheaper places out there, but the good...
I'll save you some time...

IHC is a good company and does a great job with coatings. There are cheaper places out there, but the good ones cost more for a reason! IHC charges one-off customers $350 for a set of fork tubes. DLC black only, no colors or TiN. You'll have to receive tubes from someone, take the time to inspect that they actually sent clean tubes with everything removed (and clean/disassemble if they didn't), re-package everything and pay to ship it to IHC (~$20 without insurance). IHC will coat them, then ship them back, but they insist on insuring the package for at least the cost of the coatings, so you might be up to $40 or $50 in shipping back to you. Then you need to unpack them, inspect that the correct tubes were shipped back to you, then pack them up again and pay to ship them back to the customer (another $30).

So, $350 for the coating, $20+$40+$30 in shipping comes to $440 for fork tubes if you give your time away for free. You'll save a little on shipping sending multiple sets, but not as much as you might hope as the weight and insurance rises with each set added.

You're also taking on risk with all the shipping for damage or lost shipments as well as the risk of an unhappy customer since you won't have 100% good coated parts come back. There are sometimes blemishes, especially on used tubes. And you'll be bombarded with questions.

You can get a slightly lower price as a dealer, but you'll need a resale license and a first order of at least 10 sets of tubes. In the end, the margins are tiny, and if you're giving them away for your cost, then you lose your time and take on a bunch of risk with little reward.

...

Or you can just pay us $500-$600 (depending on color), take on little risk, and not lose a bunch of time!

So are any of the other colors better than the black?
Luxon MX
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7/16/2020 8:04pm
racerx217 wrote:
So are any of the other colors better than the black?
No, they're all the same performance. The colors are actually black DLC with another interference layer coated over it to refract the light differently (to make a color).
4

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