this is a side project i have been working on for years, i have in the past produced a ton of 250R parts myself and also had 2 other manufactures make parts of my design. from air box removal brackets to aluminum intake manifolds, tie rods and motor mounts, exhaust flanges etc. i have started on the designs for billet case halves and there would be optional features you could choose for cylinder mounts. say you wanted to use a cr500 jug for a lower cost 500cc build.
it looks like 1500$ for a bare block of metal for a case half, and i still have a bit of design investment but i am sure i would cover that, so essentially the case halves would be for sale at cost of time and materials. (ball park of 4000$ full set, with a small discount on standard trx250r jug pattern probably)
there is no real benefit to billet cases over cast and finish machined. unless you did want to run a cr500 or polaris 400 top end, but with the sphynx and sabertooth and pro-x stuff all still relatively available there is not much of a need for that customization work either. the other benefit is that i could do a run of 10 sets instead of 100 or more like the casting manufactures want to do. so i can reproduce them with a smaller initial investment.
my question is are these viable yet or is there still enough aftermarket that billet cases are not needed? (i have been out of the loop a while working on other projects, your input is highly appreciated.)