Kaput

 

Out of business.

 

WOW this spring I ordered a windscreen and brackets from them for my 21XT. When it arrived the brackets were for some other motorcycle. After 3 weeks they sent me new brackets that were assembled backwards. With that kinda of quality control it's no wonder they are no longer in business

 

That's too bad, I was hoping they would offer one for the DL800. But after three model years, (23-25), I gave up and got a clip-on deflector for the windshield. I guess the costs of running a small specialty business became too great or the owners decided to retire or move on.

 

Copied this contact ph # from the Madstad 800 thread

352-848-3646

 

NOt surprised to see the site down. Unfortunately.....Chinese copies of too many American and European products are taking a toll on American...and European developers of quality motorcycle hardware and riding gear.

 

Take this to the bank. China had nothing to do with madstad closing. The company was mismanaged by an individual only interested in self enrichment. Not in the best interest of the company, it's employees or it's loyal customer base. In the end it's as simple as that.

 

Oh shoot... I was planning to get a windshield this winter. What are the other alternatives right now (Gen 2 DL650)?

 

Was there an announcement about them going out of business?

 

No there was no announcement. There was no warning to employees or the dealers. Zero concern for their customer base. James R Long, unfortunately my nephew, who took over the company approximately 3 years ago drove the company straight into the dirt. He had absolutely no experience or interest in the motorcycle industry and refused to consider the opinions of those that did. I know what I speak of. I was the production manager for over 8 years and put my heart and soul into this company only to see it devastated. I apologize to everyone affected by this because I trusted him. Never again.

 

This is from a similar thread on the GL1800 board:

Yes madstad is out of business. Jim long ( unfortunately my nephew) took control of the business and within two years drove it into the ground with his Pinhead ideas. On Friday September 26th without warning to employees, dealers or customers he released everyone and closed the doors for good. It's a very unfortunate shame because they had a great product and could have sustained quite well without his tampering. Good luck recouping your funds, you're not alone.

 

Were the designs copyrighted? If not, the Madstad products are easy to manufacture because they can be cut with standard lasers, bent with standard CNC presses, and powder coated. You just need the right person with the proper motivation.

 

It is a patented system however one could duplicate with enough resources. It would require a good Cadman, laser, brake press, router table, the development of a mold for the acrylic forming, English wheel, large oven, the acquisition of custom adjustment knobs, other assorted Hardware and materials.
Seems a bit much but hell, go for it.

 

I had Madstad brackets on my 09 Wee. They worked very well and you could use any windscreen that would fit the bikes normal windscreen mounts giving you a choice of windscreens to use. This spring I purchased a Madstad system for my Gen 3 besides the quality issues I noted in post #4, I felt that the windscreen cheaply made . The edges were not rounded off like most windscreens and the bottom frosted area that was done to prevent the headlight from reflecting onto the windscreen just made the frosted area light up like a Christmas tree. Hopefully if someone takes over the manufacturing they redesign the brackets to accept the OEM and aftermarket windscreens, if they want to design their own windscreen that is mounts to the same location that the OEM screen great but don't limit it. I believe that if someone wanted to start making the brackets that it would be cheaper and easier to make brackets for each bike than to make brackets and windscreens for each bike.

 

Patented, but what was patented exactly? Sometimes patents are for some aspect of a design that is not essential for the products function. Give me a patent number and I'll check it out.

Wait a minute. We have AI. I'll be back in a minute

Holy crap! Stop the presses. Hold your horses. Madstad cites U.S. Patent No. 7,654,710 and a bunch of attributes. AI searches on a superfiocial level until challenged to go depper. It gave me thyat patent and the claimed attributes and a link to Google Patents to read the patent myself. Pulling the threard on U.S. Patent No. 7,654,710, the one cited by Madstad (that is a question) found a patent about a retractatble recessed emergency luminare.

After being challanged to go deeper the AI said

🔍 Correcting the Record on MadStad’s Patent
MadStad Engineering, founded by Mark Stadnyk, is known for its adjustable windshield bracket systems, but the specific patent number I previously cited was a mismatch. The confusion likely stemmed from a misattribution or incorrect indexing.

As of now, there is no publicly confirmed patent number directly tied to the MadStad bracket system in the search results. However, MadStad has been involved in legal and constitutional challenges related to the U.S. patent system — notably, a 2014 case challenging the America Invents Act’s “first-inventor-to-file” provision. This suggests Stadnyk and MadStad Engineering are deeply engaged in intellectual property matters, even if the bracket system itself may not be covered by a currently active or easily searchable patent.

And just that fast I lost interest.

But wheather or not Madstad has a valid patent is open in my mind. The original owner sold his company on his terms. The new guy was apparently a toad.

I need to tell my Trail Tech vs Adventure tech story again to find the guy to take this stuff over.