Has anyone purchased any carbon fiber parts from Casoli Moto, or QB Carbon?? What do you recommend? USA retailers?

-- Peter trocco (draggo1@aol.com), December 31, 2002

Answers

I purchased some carbon fiber from Andrew at Munroe Motors in SF. The quality is excellent (I believe it is MV stuff) and Andrew is real knowledgable.

-- Scott Krane (a56healey@yahoo.com), December 31, 2002.

I have bought from Casoli and the stuff was nicked and did not fit perfectly, normal for carbon fiber so I thought. I then bought some from mototrends.com It was in perfect shape and fit just as well. It was a little cheaper and they can overnight it. Casoli will take a few weeks to order. However! The Casoli pipes are very nice and worth the wait. Good luck!

-- Kevin Warner (kwarner@11thhourbiz.com), December 31, 2002.

I purchased from both companies mentioned above. I had to wait 8 weeks for a painted front fender from Casoli. I almost cancelled because of the lenght and not responding to my emails. When I finally recieved the fender I got billed twice...one for the fender and $125 for shipping. If I new how expensive it would have been for a fender I probably would have thought about it. The fender came out to $400. So beware when they won't tell you the shipping charges up front. I am happy with the fender though. QB was a lot better to work with I purchased a hugger and the charges for shipping was half of Casoli.

By the way HOW MANY MVs are in the BAY AREA? There was a guy I met at Skyline in San Mateo with a Senna. Please email me and all other owners in my local so we can do a ride. Thanks Ray Lorente 2002 1+1 Triumph Trophy

-- Ray Lorente SF Bay Area (ray1617@yahoo.com), December 31, 2002.

I purchased some stuff from Casoli. Fitting the front fender required the removal of the front tire due to different construction methods from the stock fender. The upper rear chain guard was too close to the rear sprocket and had to be shimmed. The rear fender fit well and all parts have a good clear coat finish. I was also hit with a big freight bill but thought is was normal for over seas delivery. The Ferracci carbon fiber fits as well as the factory plastic it replaces. I have the key guard, heal guard, heat shield set and throttle body covers. The shipping was fast, well packed and reasonably priced. No complaints about the level of service, both were very easy to deal with. I just hope the cost of the air tubes come down some day.

-- Tim W (provamo35@hotmail.com), December 31, 2002.

Wow, great response everyone, Thank you and have a Happy New Year!!!

-- Peter trocco (draggo1@aol.com), December 31, 2002.

$125 for shipping a fender is ridiculous. That's shyster territory as far as I'm concerned. I'll never buy from Casoli if that is how much they charge for shipping. I have shipped plenty of stuff between AZ and the UK and it was never anything like that.

I hear QB Carbon is who makes the MV special parts. Can anyone confirm this?

-- Andy Ruhl (quadreverb@yahoo.com), December 31, 2002.

I beleve the MV Special Parts carbon fiber pieces are produced by Carbon Dreams in Italy. Nice stuff!

-- Tim W (provamo35@hotmail.com), December 31, 2002.

QB carbon certainly does`nt produce MV`s carbon,and i don`t think carbon dream do either-although their stuff is v/good quality,if you look on carbon dream`s web site they do not have a lot of the parts that are available from Sp-parts-i beleive Ferracci`s stuff comes out of the same factory as MV`s

-- mike tilston (mike@tilston00.fsnet.co.uk), January 01, 2003.

I have some carbon dream stuff on my senna. The weave is not mv weave although the finish is ok. The number plate holder just slipped on the heal guards were a right pig to fit.

-- tony beckwith (mcbeck709@blueyonder.co.uk), January 01, 2003.

Dave at Casoli seems like a great guy and very much an MV fan. I've ordered parts from him and they were shipped quickly (even before my credit card was charged) and received within 5 business days from the UK to the west coast of the US. Everything fit just as it should. The quality of the c/f parts was good, but not great, in my opinion. Several parts had blemishes that were described by Casoli as simply "typical blemishes common to a hand made product". Dave was more than willing to work with me on replacements, exchange or refund, if desired. I thought he was very fair. However, the real issue that makes working with Casoli from the States is that if there's a problem with the order, the shipping costs will both ruin the profit margin for Casoli and/or raise the purchase cost prohibitivly for the buyer. (i.e. no one wins.) If I were to buy c/f from Dave again, I'd be inclined to find a cheap flight to the UK, fly over to buy it and then bring it back in my suitcase. It wouldn't be much more expensive than the mail order route, would give you a chance to hit a few pubs, and you'd get a chance to actually see what you were buying. YMMV.

-- dm (i8foie@msn.com), January 02, 2003.

I'm sorry to hear that you boys in the USA are having trouble with Casoli in the UK, I've been down to see Dave on a number of occassions to get some Carbon (silver) bits, have my wheels painted and recently just purchased a MV riders jacket. I have found Dave very helpful and the carbon great. I have seen QB carbon at the NEC and would buy Casoli again. The problem is the great divide, I had the same problem when I wanted to buy some handle bar risers from Ferraci, the cost of shipping made it very expensive, albeit Pro Twins are the only importer in the UK, the shipping cost was the same + their profit.

-- Geoff Barker (geoff.barker@ntlworld.com), January 03, 2003.

Greetings,

Late last year, I bought a Casoli mono tail section for my '00 996 and got stuck with a $125 shipping bill. It was of decent quality but to do it again, I would have bought my CF with Martin@Motowheels. Carbon Dream/Hi-Tech's linear weave CF is very nice and highly recommended, however, avoid Picasso Racing Corp (PRC) CF. Ray, if you are looking for a good group to ride with at Alice's, be in the parking lot around 0900hrs and introduce yourself to the Ducati/KTM group. Chin, Daves, Jim are really nice folks to ride with. We usually do breakfast@Duarte then the loop thru Bear Creek and the Gap. Unfortunately, I recentlly relocated to Northern VA otherwise I would love to go ride with you on my '00 mono F4S (or '00 996).

Cheers :)

-- David Nguyen (Archille@hotmail.com), January 06, 2003.

I would go with the QB Carbon stuff, the quality seems much better than the casoli stuff, my QB hugger fitted spot on, where as I gave up with my Casoli front fendor all it did was wear on my tyre. I have heard that Casoli stuff is just a copy of other firms products, they buy say a fairing and make a mould for it and then make their stuff from the mould, this is why their stuff is ill fitting cause it is made from a second generation mould. Check out that duke gp style fairing on the QB MV race bike it is awesome, want one. www.qbcarbon.com

-- Nick James (nickjames@mariaprice.com), January 16, 2003.

Casoli now has a sister company in the USA visit us at www.casolimotousa.com hopefully the lead time and the shipping issues will be taken care of and addressed.

Thanks Ryan

-- Ryan Cunningham (casoliusa@aol.com), February 17, 2003.

I am lookung for a set of MV wheels.... Anyone have any, or know where I can get some? Looking for Stock wheels.

Thanks.... Please email me.....

-- James Brewer (jbrewer07@hotmail.com), October 02, 2003.

We do have all the pre-preg cf for the MV in stock. Munroe Motors also buy some of those from us. They are the factory unpainted pieces. casoli parts are wet-laid and heavy and not as strong. Please check out our website:

WWW.MOTOWHEELS.COM

-- Stephano Riazzi (stephano@motowheels.com), October 07, 2003.

I've recently bought an 03 f4s 1+1 and added a rear hugger from QB Carbon. the fit is fine apart from the rising rate adjuster protector rubber just wont lie flush, the quality let it down a bit as there were air bubbles all over and where the rubber should fit looks like someone just laid an angle grinder on it. For £140.00 i was a bit hacked off.

-- chris plowman (barbaraplowman@hotmail.com), December 01, 2003.