Actually Joe, the backers are those with inside info, with actual photographic visibility of what's happening in the factory. So apart from Helix themselves, the backers are in the best position to give comment. On the other hand you have zero visibility, all you have is disbelief it can be done plus the gullibility to believe that a joke by smallwheeler was factual. But you keep beating your drum, OK we've heard you. You may turn out to be correct in your estimation but for the wrong reasons in the end. I have previously made some back-of-the-envelope calculations about the parts cost and the Ti material cost and so on, and for the $1600 or so of the KS campaign you can EASILY buy the parts several times over, given that you buy them in 1200 quantities each at OEM pricing and have them shipped there by the containerload. However as it stands now, there is pictorial proof that lots and lots is happening on the factory floor, but as I have said 5 months ago that this is a race against the cash crunch, that is still the case. However there is no evidence that the cash crunch has arrived.

If this fails it won't be because of your predictions it can't be done because it's too cheap, but because of about a year of time spent on redesigning much of the bike details and time spent on aborted manufacturing methods. That's all in the past now, it's clear that Helix went through a huge learning process too, but it seems they are really close now. One item to arrive, the tube cutter, and production can start. In the mean time, small quantities can be considered by using an external tube cutter contractor.

So to sum up, as far as I see, all the non-frame parts are there. The automatic welder is there (being programmed at the moment I guess). I haven't seen any large quantity titanium tubing yet - that may or may not be there, I won't pretend. The auto CNC machine is there, we have had a video of it cutting a head tube. We have a video of the inventor riding an engineering sample of the final design, doing wheelies and stoppies to show off the strength of the leftie fork and frame. There are published photos of the final design bike. The patent documentation is there. If there is one thing the inventor is NOT, it is an incompetent designer. He is clearly an outstanding engineer. What is also clear is that he is not gifted in estimating realistic time scales. He is unfortunately racing against time, but this is not unique - that is true in every case. I have had a personal assurance from him he is far from broke.