About

Red Eye Technical Services is a LLP with one general partner: Rich Byrne. The company is classified for tax purposes as a manufacturer of engine parts. I work during the day doing unrelated stuff at National Crop Insurance Services (http://www.ag-risk.org), so Red Eye runs at night. The company is headquartered in Overland Park, Kansas, underneath my living room. I'm a motorcycle nut, and to prove it I have a white 1999 Honda Valkyrie Interstate GL1500CF. My goal for Red Eye the next few years is to stabilize the Valkyrie in terms of reliability of the fuel system. Red Eye does this mainly by offering better rubber, wherever it is used in the fuel system. Red Eye's business model is to offer a superior replacement part below half the price of Honda OEM part, if that is available.

I didn't like buying limited-life rubber parts from Honda in 2006, when I first got my Valkyrie. I still don't. Cheap parts may work for singles, but six cylinders is getting up there. What has the difference between 6 and 1 got to do with anything? Mean time between failure is one sixth as long, if the part exists in six places (assuming independent identical negative exponential time until failure of one part, blah blah woof woof - this is basic reliability theory, not rocket science). Repairing something every 6 years is totally OK with most biker-mechanics. Heck, six years is pure luxury! But every year? A hot city like Los Angeles will destroy cheap rubber in one summer, with the ozone helping out. You can verify this by walking into the nearest barrio, lifting up a windshield wiper blade on the very first 1964 Impala you see, and running your finger along the crumbling edge. Yes, that wiper refill was brand new in February, when it rained for two weeks straight.

Some rubbers that work just fine for historic gasolines won't work right with the higher alcohol content of new gasolines - you'll see excessive swelling and you'll smell the alcohol, for it will rapidly permeate the rubber. I'm convinced it won't be long before the rubbers in the OEM parts are no longer good enough, even brand new. The US Coast Guard standards for boats changed in January 2009, to help prevent boats from exploding due to alcohol vapor accumulation inside the hull, where rubber fuel lines can run for yards. The previous USCG standards were augmented with the code "-15", which means the standards apply to gasoline with 15% alcohol. We don't normally get alcohol content that high for automotive use, and our cars' fuel lines are not enclosed within a hull (fuel lines are pointedly excluded from sensible car interiors), so our cars and bikes won't blow up. Naturally, there is no similar automotive standard.

Nevertheless, I think rubbery fuel-related things need to improve. Even Red Eye's own fuel line quick disconnect will have to improve, since it is using standard SAE30R7 tubing. DOH!! Of course, our vented tanks will defeat any improvements in fuel hose permeability ... Hmmm ... I forgot what I was rantin' about. Oh yeah: Swelling is tightly linked to permeability, so reducing permeability is the same thing as reducing swelling. Sounds good.

<end rant> :-)

Corporate Contact: Rich Byrne redeye.rich@gmail.com

Corporate Mailing Address:

Rich Byrne

12117 Cedar Street

Overland Park, KS 66209