Beautiful, Ron.I received my Bieth wheel last week and here's my take...
I ordered one with a combination of smooth and perforated black leather and yellow stitching and squared off top and bottom (more on that in a moment).
Like all things hand-made you can have it good, fast, cheap. Pick 2.
Having personally handled the eBay specials and one from SoCal garage, I can honestly say Tim's wheel is in a league of it's own. Seriously, the others are not even close. The material and fit is just perfect. For the most important intermediary between driver and car those points are far more obvious if they are not done well. The wheel is not good, it's great.
It took about 3 months to get the wheel. Is that slow? The eBay specials can arrive in a week so by that metric, no. I'm sure Tim could have delivered it sooner but with less quality. While I would have loved to have it sooner, I'm happy I waited that long for the final product.
Cheap... I hate that word. The wheel is not cheap, especially compared to others. Certainly more expensive than the competitors, but of a much higher value. This one can be subjective as well. Would you be OK spending less but feeling a gap on the back of the wheel that you may never touch? Not me. Maybe that's being super anal, but I'm the type of person that asks furniture makers if they varnished the parts of the table you can't see...
Now the bad... When I was going back and forth finalizing my order with Tim I emailed him a link to a wheel on his site for reference. The wheel had squared off top and bottom. The wheel he made for me and delivered was squared on the bottom, but rounded on the top. Simple, stupid miscommunication. Tim offered to make it right, but being a maker myself I could feel his frustration. In the end while I "think" I would have preferred the squared top, it's really such a nice wheel and I'm very happy with it.
That being said, having owned a sports car with a factory squared off top I understand the difference enough to appreciate that it really is a little strange on a daily driver. Squared off tops have their purpose and off the track it just feels a little out of place. This is one of those things that for me is difficult to settle on and I'll probably second guess myself into a bottle of single malt.
So there's my review. If I ever do it again Beith will be the only wheel I will consider.
Beautiful, Dan. What's the color of your exterior?I received my Bieth wheel last week and here's my take...
I ordered one with a combination of smooth and perforated black leather and yellow stitching and squared off top and bottom (more on that in a moment).
Like all things hand-made you can have it good, fast, cheap. Pick 2.
Having personally handled the eBay specials and one from SoCal garage, I can honestly say Tim's wheel is in a league of it's own. Seriously, the others are not even close. The material and fit is just perfect. For the most important intermediary between driver and car those points are far more obvious if they are not done well. The wheel is not good, it's great.
It took about 3 months to get the wheel. Is that slow? The eBay specials can arrive in a week so by that metric, no. I'm sure Tim could have delivered it sooner but with less quality. While I would have loved to have it sooner, I'm happy I waited that long for the final product.
Cheap... I hate that word. The wheel is not cheap, especially compared to others. Certainly more expensive than the competitors, but of a much higher value. This one can be subjective as well. Would you be OK spending less but feeling a gap on the back of the wheel that you may never touch? Not me. Maybe that's being super anal, but I'm the type of person that asks furniture makers if they varnished the parts of the table you can't see...
Now the bad... When I was going back and forth finalizing my order with Tim I emailed him a link to a wheel on his site for reference. The wheel had squared off top and bottom. The wheel he made for me and delivered was squared on the bottom, but rounded on the top. Simple, stupid miscommunication. Tim offered to make it right, but being a maker myself I could feel his frustration. In the end while I "think" I would have preferred the squared top, it's really such a nice wheel and I'm very happy with it.
That being said, having owned a sports car with a factory squared off top I understand the difference enough to appreciate that it really is a little strange on a daily driver. Squared off tops have their purpose and off the track it just feels a little out of place. This is one of those things that for me is difficult to settle on and I'll probably second guess myself into a bottle of single malt.
So there's my review. If I ever do it again Beith will be the only wheel I will consider.
Thanks about the color. I love it. I am interested about how your experience Vivid Racing goes. I am about to deploy out of country so have given up for now concerning a steering wheel but wouldn't mind having one waiting for me when I get back.
Personally had a terrible experience with Vivid when I ordered a CF Swing. Confused the order, lied about the order, made excuses, etc. If any other option is out there, I would recommend that over Vivid. Check the Better Business Bureau website and you'll find that it's somewhat of a trend.
