Project Blue Belle

[sirch345]

This is coming together very nicely

Chris.

[StormyRob]

looking good rob, how much did matt charge you...

Hahahahahaha not everything has come from the cave of Matt


This time next week should show more progress

[agentpineapple]

looking good rob, how much did matt charge you...

Hahahahahaha not everything has come from the cave of Matt


This time next week should show more progress

keep up the good work mate, you'll end up with a bike worthy of joining us in spain lol......

[StormyRob]

Thanks mate!

Hoping I can still make it!

[Ant]

Looking good rob! Look forward to seeing this one done.

[VTRDark]

It was all going so well right up to the point where I saw the freshly sprayed tank

Well done you have done a fantastic job and it's looking well good. Lots of lessons learned and you know the bike better I hope. Did you follow the correct procedure for doing up the frame mounting bolts. This is really important.

http://www.vtr1000.org/phpBB3/viewtopic ... 31&t=27362

[StormyRob]

The tank is the right colour!

Yes that was a loose-fitting. Bike will hopefully be ready soon. Will be tightened the correct way. Taken a long time but should prove worth it.

[StormyRob]

This is something I have thought about doing for several months now. I think quite a few of you viewed this post when I got my storm. I am sure it looked like things were going really well and then all of a sudden I stopped updating the post.

I have decided to tell the story about why this happened. Some of the members here are well aware of what happened and unfortunately it does involve one member in a terrible light. I am doing this because I had a dream shattered. That is not an exaggeration. I wanted to turn the blue storm into something so special like a lot of people but someone took it away from me for no reason at all. The entire situation left me genuinely depressed and I have never had such a hard lesson in trust.

Here goes,

So I bought the bike nice and cheap. It had 25k miles or so and was mechanically good. Cosmetics were not too bad. I had a silver storm before it and it was a bit of a shitter with almost double the miles! I wanted the blue storm to be faster and looks like a one of a kind bike.

This all started when I decided I wanted to upgrade the front end of the storm. I had posted asking if anyone had a fireblade front end and was initially going to pick up from a friend of a member but he was quite busy so it was going to be a while. In the meantime I got a message from a member here. That member was Matt Greenall. His username is monkeymatt. Matt offered me a rogered front end. He was offering it nice and cheap and I could not believe my luck! I jumped at it and that is when I started sending money his way.

Over the next few weeks I was in touch with Matt a lot. Some of you know I am a Police Officer (please do not hold it against me). Matt told me he had previously worked for the prison service but was now working for the fire service on their vehicles. He seemed to have a lot of knowledge (credit where it is due he has an idea) and a lot of nice parts. He was sending me lots of pictures of really nice stuff he had. It went from there really and over the next few months I sent a lot of money his way. This is where I was stupid. I already know that. Matt knew I had polished my headers and offered to provide me with some fantastic looking Harris Ti cans and headers. Again for very little money. He sent me pictures which showed the cans I was getting on a member's bike. I was over the moon. He then told me I could get a couple of six spoke wheels from him. Money sent. Matt also convinced me to go on a trip to spain. I paid him for that as he had booked a boat. It was all looking so good already. Then it got so much better. Keep in mind I had already sent a fair bit of money based on pictures alone as I was essentially using matt as a source and people vouched for him.

Anyway time went on. I mean several months and it towards the start of 2016. Matt told me he had bought a stage 1 bike in bits and offered to give me Moriwaki carbs!!!!!!!!!!!! I bit his hand off for them and he was giving me them for about 30 percent of the normal price as he was a "friend" and wanted to help me make a great bike. Not only that, but he then told me I could have moriwaki cams. I was blown away by the man's generosity.

There is so much to this story and believe it or not this is a summary. I am only listing the main parts. The biggest thing happened when he told me he made fairings for the storm. Now I was at Matt's house on an occasion and he showed me some moulds so I really had no reason to disbelieve this. For hardly any money at all Matt offered to make me a FULL SET of Mario Nava fairings. Again I Could not believe my luck. I should have realised by now I hear you say. Well no, I didn't. He was sending me pictures of the fairings that were being "made". I was so happy and was telling people how amazing my bike was going to be.

Time was pushing on and it was approaching March. I had invested very heavily in the bike. I bought another tank and had it resprayed. I stripped the bike to nothing and had the frame, subframe etc powder coated. I had my swingarm braced. I literally took everything to pieces and if it did not look new I either made it looks new or I bought new. New chain, sprockets, the lot. By this point I had invested £3500 in this storm (including £390 for Spain). keep in mind this was a £900 bike! I obviously wanted to get it built and ride it. Matt had even arranged to have one of his friends who runs a dyno place allow us to have his shop for a day so we could spend the day setting the bike up.

At first I was just being keen. However I then had to start pushing as nothing was happening at all. I finally arranged to go to Matt's house one day and he was going to help me build it. Now I had actually planned several times to do this but on this occasion things were good to go the night before. On the morning I was supposed to go I received a random text from an unknown number. The person claimed to be a commander in hampshire fire service. The message told me Matt had been in an accident. Soon after that I received a message from Matt's phone. The person using it said they were his wife. "She" said he had been in an accident. I remember saying to my wife it was bull sh1t and that is when I was first pissed off about the whole thing. Anyway, I dealt with it. Time moved on and still nothing. eventually I managed to go down. I was there with the bike! However not of the parts were there aside from a set PFM discs and calipers I was also paying for. He said they were elsewhere and the fairings were being painted by a colleague of his. I got quite suspicious at this stage because the engine I had left at Matt's to be painted had not been touched. We built on it anyway and attached frame loosely and a few other things. When I said I was not happy with the engine being unpainted he told me he had a big surprise for me. I swear to you he told me he was going to give me another engine which was in essence a stage 1 engine. He started talking about it and stupidly I listened.

Anyway we finished for the day and my bike was left at his partially built. For the next few weeks I wanted to go back down so we could really get going. It was getting onto April and beyond and the sun was shining but I had nothing. I really started pushing. I was getting nowhere. All of a sudden I got a message from Matt saying he was a bit annoyed by the whole thing! He told me he had given the bike to Martin at Crescent racing and that Martin was going to build it as everything was done. Fairings painted and everything else. I did not know whether or not to believe him but I let it play out. Matt knew I was a police officer early on and I did not think he would try and shaft me. I kept pushing for weeks again.

All of a sudden I received a message from someone called "Martin BLACK." He told me he was working hard on my bike but had TT bikes to sort so was trying to get it sorted around them. I immediately thought this was baldrocks. So at 0200am one morning I headed to Southampton with my wife. I had a look over Matt's fence and there it was. My bike sitting in the same position I had left it with him. Instead of contacting Matt and telling him I knew he was lying, I decided to play along with his game. i let this go on for some time. During this time I had Matt confirming what I had paid for so I could have him by the baldrocks when the time came to out him.

It went on for a couple of weeks. The one day when Matt was messaging me he had no idea I was in Southampton again. I looked over his fence again and the bike was still there. I was absolutely livid. I got into my car shaking. My wife was there too. I messaged him and told him I knew all about it. He started some nonsense again but I just told him i wanted my money back. I had unfortunately sold my fairings, exhausts and a lot of other bits and I was absolutely skint. I was not going to be able to put the bike back the way it was without losing more and it would have been an absolute waste.

He was caught but the struggle to get my money was unreal. It took a long time. I had to show him all the lies. Quite interesting this bit actually and something you can all take advantage off in future. Have you ever heard of a reverse image search? Basically you put an image into the search box and it tells you where the image was originally sourced from.

At this point I will refer to the previous paragraphs and point out just a few of the lies. I have written plenty and it is late folks.

1) Worked for the fire service? They have never heard of him. Absolute lie and I now know this for a fact. So the commander messaging me was baldrocks.
2) The titanium exhausts. I contacted the member that owned those exhausts and he told me who he had sold them to. So I contacted them also. It turns out they still have the exhausts and they are in wales! Matt never possessed them but sold them to me anyway.
3) I was having a hard time with my missus and Matt sent me some pictures of a villa he had in Greece. He said if I paid flights I could stay there for a week. I told my wife and she was over the moon when she saw the pictures. Reverse image searched these and the place is not his. I have no idea why he lied about it.
4) The Mario Nava fairings. You guessed it, the images were copies from somewhere else. I have also confirmed this with an absolute authority on the matter.


There are so many more examples but I think these say it all. The man was selling me lots of items he simply did not have and had therefore defrauded me to the tun of about £1400+. It took weeks to push him into giving me the money back which he did eventually. He knew how heavily I had invested in all the new parts and he knew the whole time I did not actually have a complete bike to build.

I think some of you may say "there are two sides to every story." However this is not the case. I have physical evidence of all of this and more. That is how I got my money back. As the victim I told him if I did not have it back, I would make sure he was prosecuted. It certainly did the trick. There are other members who have been directly involved who I will not be naming. They know who they are and it is up to them to reply to this if they wish. I have done this so people are well aware. I had no idea how many people were affected by this fraud until I started speaking to people.
I swear on the life of my wife everything I am telling you is 100% true. I have no reason to lie. Feel free to ask matt for his side but I think you will find the Facebook profile for "Matt Green" has now disappeared and he now calls himself "MATT VTR" so he can keep an eye on forums etc.

If this was a long boring story I apologise. I just wanted to explain myself as I became absent from here due to how it affected me. I basically sold all the bits I had done. The engine went to Spain to a happy customer. Some went to Austria, some to the Netherlands and some to Denmark etc. That storm is all over the place but out of the 35 or so items I sent out not one person was unhappy with what they got. Maybe some slight matters which were easily sorted. So in a way "BLUEBELLE" is a part of the storm world after all.

I do not want anyone else to suffer what I did. I want people to be completely aware. I have never done anything like this before but it has to be done. I do hope others share their stories but no pressure.

Over the last week I managed to consolidate our debt and ended up having some cash left over from the loan. My wife knew how badly the Bluebell saga affected me and she permitted me (she is the boss) to spend some money on a storm. A few hours ago I picked up a storm with 11207 miles (backed up by MOTs). I will be playing with it a bit but I won't be going so hardcore!

Anyway folks, thanks for reading. If anyone wants documentary and photo proof to clarify any points just ask. I am an open book about this subject.

Thanks
Rob

[Kev L]

Rob, I'm really sorry to hear you've had such a nightmare mate. I had a minor incident with the same bloke over some engine cases I loaned him so that he could take mounds to produce CF protectors. He kept them for a year without contacting me and got shitty when I chased him for their return. He never had the decency to refund my shipping costs. I already had carbonadi protectors on my bike and only loaned the cases as I thought it might provide a resource for the forum.
He's a wrong un mate

[YETI]

I had a major incident with Matt greenall / Matt Green , Matt hall , Dean spybal amongst other names he used / is still using on facebook ) .
I can totally back up Robs story about the 2 faced butt that is Matt greenall and have more texts and messages of fabricated lies and photos taken off other company's sites that he claimed to have made brought or owned than you can shake a stick at ! .
My issues involved the bodywork Rob was offered as I foolishly associated myself with Matt over that project , I was then subjected to the most bizzare list of stories , lies and total fabrications I've ever encountered in my entire life !!! It was so incredibly it must be true was my thought pattern ...... but NO .... EVERY WORD HE SAID WAS A COMPLETE AND UTTER LIE FROM START TO FINISH .
I truly feel sorry for you Rob , I now know having chatted with you at length just what you went through and by chatting with you so many more people came to light with similar experiences .
I could go on and on all day about this but I think this all deserves a seperate post .
The very best of luck to you for your new project Rob .
Regards

YETI..

[YETI]

PS : There is a guy in Japan called Akira , Matt took his money for a full set of bodywork which Akira ordered to be made in carbon fibre .
Needless to say he did not recieve his bodywork and neither has he recieved his money back from Matt whom he paid directly into matts pay pal account .
Akira was fed lies by Matt from start to finish and is substantially out of pocket because of him .
My opinion of Matt is extremely low , I don't believe I've ever met anyone with morals like his and hope to God I never do again ! .

[StormyRob]

Thanks for the replies fellas. As Ian pointed out there are numerous people that have been affected by the lies. I learned of another yesterday evening when I told him I was potentially buying another bike in his area.

[Pete.L]

Just re-read the post from the start of the build. It was looking so good and coming together well.
Sorry you got let down and taken for a ride
I hope it hasn't put you off from doing something similar in the future. That would be a shame as it looks as though you've got the knack for it. I liked the way you got on with it, had a vision of what you wanted and pressed forward towards it's completion. Dont let someone else take that away from you too. Not everyone out there is bent.

Pete.l

[StormyRob]

Just re-read the post from the start of the build. It was looking so good and coming together well.
Sorry you got let down and taken for a ride
I hope it hasn't put you off from doing something similar in the future. That would be a shame as it looks as though you've got the knack for it. I liked the way you got on with it, had a vision of what you wanted and pressed forward towards it's completion. Dont let someone else take that away from you too. Not everyone out there is bent.

Pete.l

Thanks for that Pete! I really enjoyed it and it was the first time I had ever done anything like it. Felt like I learned a fair bit about the bike too.
I was put off for ages but I'm already making enquiries re a blade front, six spoke wheels, bellman, jet kit among others as well as the obvious respray. I will push on with this one but perhaps not.to the same extent. No braced swingarm, powdercoated swingarm, pfms and all that. And obviously no moriwaki cams haha

[moto1818]

Sorry to hear that you've been lied to, I'm sure that it won't be the last time I'm afraid. The older I get the more disappointed I get with folk, the good guys seem to be getting thin on the ground! I sincerely hope you get stuck back in and don't let this cretin get best of you? I have followed this project with a lot of interest and I was looking forward to more and I'm certain you can turn out a quality project.