Crane Cams
 

April 23, 2009

Viola, Wisconsin. S&S Cycle announces the acquisition of certain assets of Crane Cams Inc. Those assets include the inventory, intellectual property, and trademarks for all Crane automotive and motorcycle electronic products and for Crane motorcycle valve train products. The intellectual property portion includes designs, drawings, and cam profiles. Crane automotive valve train products are not included in this acquisition. Crane Cams was founded in 1953, and like S&S Cycle, founded in 1958, it has become a respected and iconic brand in the high performance industry.

S&S intends to continue to sell Crane products through the same distributors and dealers who have sold them in the past. To that end, they will establish a new facility in Daytona Beach, Florida to manage the business and provide customer service and technical support. This new facility will be staffed by many of the same personnel that Crane customers have worked with in the past, providing as seamless a transition as possible. While there may be some shortages of product in the near future, the Crane/S&S team will be working hard to fill back orders and meet future demand for Crane ignitions and motorcycle valve train components.

Since the acquisition does not include the Crane facility or equipment, manufacturing of valve train products will be moved to the S&S manufacturing facility in Viola, Wisconsin. S&S CEO George Smith comments: “The addition of this product line is a natural fit for our current in-house cam manufacturing capabilities as our equipment and processes are state of the art. We’re also excited that the highly successful Crane motorcycle and automotive electronics line is included with this acquisition. This will further strengthen S&S Cycle in the electronics field by providing additional expertise to improve our product offerings in late model ignitions, among other things."

Re: Crane Cams
 

Scorpion??? What "Scorpion"????

They made a huge deal out of buying Crane, offered an online video about their highly-touted, robot-infested manufacturing plant and went on and on about how this acquisition was going to improve their product line, blah, blah, blah...

I'd be reluctant to believe anything they said, now, much less buy any of their products.

Too bad; it sounded like a marriage made in Heaven, they way the Scorpion guy presented it.

Don't believe everything you see on the Internet, I guess...

Maybe they wil buy just the rocker arm portion of the business?? We'll see...

Re: Crane Cams
 

Who got the Automitve stuff?

Re: Crane Cams
 

Does anybody know what happened at the sale?

Re: Crane Cams
 

I don't know how true it is, but the rumor on the street in Ohio is that Callies Cranks in Fostoria, Ohio has purchased the rest of the machinery and profiles from Crane and will move them to Ohio, Anyone else hear anything about that??

Bob

Re: Crane Cams
 

S&S Cycle only bought all the motorcycle related products and tooling. A company called Triton Industries bought all the automotive related stuff & machinery along with the Crane name. Chase Knight was hired by Triton to get things back in operation but they need a building as that wasnt part of the deal. This is all second hand info as told to a friend that lives there by Chase Knight. A lot of employees will be rehired and thats a good thing.

Re: Crane Cams
 

That sounds like some good news

Re: Crane Cams
 

Maybe "we" could help once they hopefully get up and running again.....Sure, they might not make the "hard-core" piece your combo needs, or the price might be a little "steep" for you. Not sure of their contigency pay-out record as well...BUT there's American jobs at stake here....REAL PEOPLE hurting
just like you and me....maybe we could purchase a NEW Crane piece or two for your race car, hauler, street car, or that side job you're doing...think we have to consider "BUYING with a CONSCIENCE" in the future! I know our personal budgets are a bit tight as well but MAYBE some of us could help? WOULD you rather see no Crane Cams? Just my .02 worth, and no, I'm not being paid to say this nor do I work there!

Re: Crane Cams
 

Couldn't agree more. Good post

Re: Crane Cams
 

It will be roughly 6 months for them to find a building, get everything moved in and back in operation. That seems pretty quick but thats what I heard.

Re: Crane Cams
 

They have some lobe pro files that are very agressive up there with like Comp HXL lobes

I never did see them push the more agressive lobes for any engine like other cam companies because they know what they do to springs, rockers etc but if you wanted it they have the masters. Look through their master book

They have some very short seat & .050" duration with very high @.200" numbers

Crane .4467" lobe from the 1970's
308 @.020"
278 @.050"
200 @.200"
.183" tappet lift @ TDC

Comp HXL
307 @.020"
278 @.050"
201 @.200"
.175" tappet lift @ TDC

Not many of those .4467" lobes off the shelf. The split is 14/16 on the Intensity