Sorry people for not responding sooner... I am still only the unofficial voluntary USA tech rep for Golden. As a Golden owner myself, I merely want the rest of you to enjoy the same great benefits and experiences I have enjoyed by owning a Golden. I have not monitored this site for a few days since there were only nine posts because I have been working on a new dealer order page to make things go a bit smoother. (Yes, I do web pages too!) While I am busy, doing this Philip Yao is working hard on setting up a new 7,000 square foot customer service center that will include an area for research and development. The more time Philip spends on his project the sooner all of us will have less hassle getting all of the customer service we need. Just remember a few months ago, there was not even a printed assembly manual and now there is one online! Things are happening but for a new company in the middle of a Communist nation it takes a little time.
As for swindles... For a while, Golden Motor got a bad rap because their mission was misunderstood. Goldens are not designed with the same purpose as Crystalytes to explore the technology. Both are based on BLDC technology but with significant differences in price. The price difference and discounts make it sound like Goldens are pieces of junk and are being sold off to get rid of all the shoddy stock but if that were true, I would not be wasting my time here responding. In fact I found the opposite to be true; that while experimental refinements might be missing quality is not. Okay, so Golden had a few failed sensors problems with the original kits – but so what, the sensors only cost $1! Okay they take a little time and effort to repalce but hey you would not be reading this unless you were interested in that kind of fun!
The reason for the lower price is that Goldens are not designed and built for the purpose of perfecting the technology but rather as units of transportation for dependable non-exotic transportaion to and from work each and every day. For instance, Goldens do not offer a motor with skewed stator teeth, which may reduce startup torque-ripple at low speed but at running sppedd you simply can not tell the difference. Absolutely smooth starts in my book aren't exactly an absolute necessary worth an extra $400. Not only is there a price advantage for the consumer when such refinements are ignored but an affordable opportunity for users who like to tinker to have a kit which they can feel comfortable with doing their own refinements and mods.
The discounts you see some dealers offering come out of their own pockets since the factory has a rock bottom wholesale price mitigated only slightly by volume. The idea of a dealer selling at a discount is that eventually the higher volume will decrease his cost sufficiently for it to be merited from the volume based wholesale prices finally kicking in. The other reason is that currently it is the only way for dealers to compete with factory based retail sales aside from the issue of dealing with cultural differences.
Golden is just beginning to learn how vast and diverse the world outside of China really is and that Customers come in all shapes, colors and sizes, which are well beyond the ability of any single factory representative to deal with and handle well. Golden is learning that bridging the gap between its own cultural background and the rest of the world takes many interface layers and will require a great number dealers and distributors as well.
