DAY 2 & 3

I came to China feeling very optimistic and thought I’d be riding on the 2nd day for sure… wow! I was obviously being a bit too optimistic.

With over 60 custom made parts the Raptor 2 is proving to be a true challenge of my perserverence…

This is obviously a huge project for me and I’m learning that reaching my goal is not just a matter of preparation alone it’s about affirmative action and hard work.

The biggest problems at the moment are suppliers who have missed their deadlines or didn’t meet our specified tolerances, combined with a handfull of random unpredictable headaches, for example thread pitches on screws not matching nuts… duh!

The good news is we are here on site and we have solved most of the problems, this is very rewarding process but also draining our energy. The bad news is we are running out of time and can’t​ afford any more unexpected hickups.

If I haven’t said it already, this is super tough both mentally and physically, I just finished a 14 hour day today and feel drained and anxious… today was particularly tough, I had to make some very big decisions​ whilst at our battery factory.

They rushed pack assembly to meet our deadlines but the final result wasn’t acceptable. I had to reject a large percentage of our batteries​ and send them back for reworking. It’s such an annoying situation because the battery would have worked fine but simply failed our QC criteria based on the pack dimensions…

It took me 3 hours of demonstrations to teach the production manager how to resolve the issues and build the packs to our specifications to ensure the battery would fit correctly in our enclosure… They promise to have them ready by Friday which is a very close call in terms of production and shipping deadlines.

Here’s some photos of the rejected battery

All of the other prep work is done and the most efficient assembly processes are starting to be more obvious… Here are some pictures showing different stages of the Raptor 2 build.

Note: Final enclosure is black. This is a batch made with wrong colour.

Tomorrow should be our most productive day yet. All the parts will finally be finished to spec and we will build and ride the board! I’m sick of building already and just want to ride now!

Hopefully​ tomorrow I’ll update with photos of the final finished Raptor 2 going into boxes ready to be shipped.