Comet Ind closing its doors?

[Deezil]

I just caught snippet of this news over on the Oldminibikes forum.

People are saying Comet has closed its doors due to the Economy.

I'm on my phone and its pretty hard to search that out on it.

Anyone have any more info?

[Sphere]

Wow, it seems to be true: http://www.insideindianabusiness.com/ne ... p?ID=38286

They lost John Deere, which was 50% of their business according to the article.

[coachgeo]

Does anyone else make a CVT like we use beside Comet?

[smokyjoe]

Yikes!

My guess is that they will re-organize and come back in some form, either being "bought out" by the former owners or employees or some outside capital. They have about 60? years of experience, tons of tooling and some great products. I imagine that, like most of the rest of us, they have some big bills that they can't pay hence the "need" for bankruptcy to shed off the creditors. Probably they'll have to sell off enough to pay the banks, stiff everyone else, and be back in business in some smaller form.

Lets hope that the tooling and partially completed inventory doesn't end up in the scrap heap and Comet vanish into the mist with the 100's of other small businesses out there going bust. Watch on eBay for tons of stuff being sold off, I think that some things may have hit the block about a year ago in small quantities. I am sure that some former employees scoffed up lots of stuff as we all do when the shop closes it's doors for the last time. Where I used to work before the place moved to Mexico we had a big auction for employees only (all 10 of us who were the last standing). Unbeknownst to the corporate bigwigs we all fixed the auction and walked away with just what we each wanted. That's how I got my machine shop!

I don't know anyone else making these CVTs and centrifigal clutches. I thought they were bigger than 15 employees. Sheesh, from 300 to 15 to zero. I thought that everyone was using these, what's the Big Green going to use? Something from China? Or are they going to buy up the tooling and make their own in-house junk.

As some long-dead Chinese emperor said, "We live in interesting times."

[DieselFly]

This sucks as we were planing our bikes around the comet 94C. I called MFG. supply this morning and the have no stock bummer. So a quick search yielded an made in Canada solution in Drummondville Quebec. I tend to think their main customer is Bombardier. They can be found at www.CVTech-ibc.com . I have an email in with the specs for the 20hp Punsun I will share what I get back.

Sean

[jeremy]

This means spring and weight tuning-changes are now impossible for those like me with a brand new Comet 500! What about new belts, which will be a continuing need? Fortunately I think this belt is symmetrical, so maybe any good power supply shop will be able to get something that will work... Thanks DieselFly for that link, the products even look more elegant than Comet's Perhaps we will be allowed to purchase as needed from them or find a distributor.

[toyotaracer9]

I cant believe that the pucks have become so hard to come by already . I tried to get the 59g pucks from a few online suppliers and they are out of stock . I tapped my 53g pucks and will insert a 1/4 20 brass bolt at work tom. to see how much weight I can get out of them . So does anyone know any other suppliers of these pucks ? or is that an item only comet made .

[smokyjoe]

I picked up some belts on eBay a while back for a cheap price. I am sure that much more stuff from Comet will end up there, including raw parts if they aren't bought out by somebody else. I think that it's Gates that makes replacement belts, perhaps they supplied the belts to Comet as I doubt they would make their own.

How about boring out the pucks and filling with lead to raise the weight a bit?

The free rolling pucks would be easy to make on a lathe, and the swinging type could be easily modified by adding weights on the sides. Just have to watch out for clearance so they don't bind up and weigh them to get them close in weight so the whole thing isn't off-balance.

[jeremy]

Comet's remaining inventory, or some of it, has been bought by some other company in the recreational power sports line who now links to the old Hoffco/Comet website address and indicates that they will soon be up and running with some amount of the old equipment and support. They have apparently put inquiries out to Comet's old vendors for new spares etc, and that sounds encouraging.

[albertaphil]

I've changed transmission plans, and now I have a brand new Comet 94C (30mm tapered bore) with a pink spring (low rpm engage) and a new 90D secondary pulley for sale. Come on...you know you want it:-)

Phil