London Fixed-gear and Single-speed

Big on irony though aren't you.

my mum does all my irony, even my t-shirts.

dawes super galaxy, singlespeed. £50 for the bike say £50 for bits and bobs. easy.
Really comfy bike.

yeah sorry - tautology, when the second phrase means the same as the first sort of, when the words used in the former are echoed or reflected by the latter. i myself try not to use or utilise tautology.
Pet hate - 'utilise' what's wrong with 'use' FFS?

er, i was trying to demonstrate tautology.

I know, and I was just illustrating a pet hate of mine - which had nowt to do with your tautology...

ok jolly good. as you were.

dylan - i thought you were running a tensioner on that bike.

"shimano s.i.s system". that makes me angry when people say that.

i say go on the fixed touring bike.

Is it like when ppl say PIN number?

Personal Identification Number Number.

That sounds awesome. See unless you are able to put the bike back together as a geared tourer then converting it would seem like a waste to me. Otherwise you wouldn't be able to do stuff like this.

Pics please - if you do go.

i was but a half link luckily found the magic gear :)

UPDATE: I've got the bike pretty good so far (chainline will need a bit of sorting but all good apart from that) don't have a camera at the minute and my phone camera's shit so i canny get a photo up but i will in a few days cheers for convincing me not to convert the galaxy as this bike is better for fixed in every way possible

yeah i will do just need to convince a few of me mates it's a good idea actually i might not even skate there just cycle down and get wasted for a couple of weeks

Many lovely things could be done with a Galaxy. I probably wouldn't make a fixed-wheel from one, though.

http://freshtripe.co.uk/Freshtripe/B...8B6CFB207.html

v nice

Very pricey though.

didn't say i'd buy it just a nice bike

A grand? Its nicely done, but a GRAND? Fuck.

I don't see anyone spending £1000 on that.

Whole build should maybe retail at £500 max. the rest is confection to make you think you're buying something amazing.

I mean why not settle for the BLB classic of £600. That's still an expensive bike.

£1000. what a joke. That just makes me want to steer clear of freshtripe, yet another place which seems to be deciding its ideal customers are mugs.

The worst thing is it doesn't even include the following:
I think he means 'Saddle bag' not 'Saddle & Bag'

exactly - they must be worth at least forty quid.

Mmm, this is the kind of reaction that means we're not going to be doing many more custom builds...

We're just a small firm and have to buy a large proportion of the parts at retail (inc. respray and wheelbuild) - with an ornate build like this the costs soon mount up, as you can see in the breakdown here:

http://freshtripe.co.uk/Freshtripe/I...20Scorcher.pdf

We're lucky if we make 10% on a project like this, so accusations of 'profiteering' are pretty painful - the reality is its just not worth us doing stuff like this for the cash, we just do it 'cos we enjoy it!

yeah, pajamas, quit it!

get some trade accounts then!

no wonder you don't make much if you have to buy at retail and markup further

hey freshtripe, arent you suposed to be on holiday? thought you were out riding.

nice bikes by the way.

are you bristol based, im sure i recognise a bit of clifton in one of those pics. i've never seen any of those bike out on the road.. come out on your mash tribute and we'll race through traffic then go do skids on the slippy floor at @bristol.

hey I'm sorry freshtripe. I reread my comment and it is a bit harsh if you're a one or two man outfit - I've waded in not knowing your background and as someone who has looked at your site for a while now I am familiar with your efforts to get the tasty stuff to the geeks - for that I have always given you massive props.

However, the problem remains the same - a build like the Dawes here is way overpriced. Even if this doesn't arise out of a "here's one for the mugs" ethic, the finished product simply doesn't match up in "value-for-money" to the retail set. All around (at least southern) England there are retail businesses passing the unfeasibilty of their ideas onto the customer in overinflated prices - London is host to a rash of enterprises like this (an example might be a "wrap bar", which tries to bring the world of Spud-U-Like to the tortilla - someone's muddled dream being made reality at upwards of five pounds a pop) and that's something I always find bewildering.

I know you may well have already sold the Dawes and other bikes to people willing to pay the price you ask, but in a broader sense your pricetags will at some point contribute to the distorting of (fixed gear) bikes' real value. Some of us will carry on as we were as we enjoy building our own, but I'm trying to think about the general picture.

If you could get your pricing right and your margins feasible you may lock down the South West in the upcoming fixed feeding frenzy we are all hearing about.. and you would be welcome because you've established yourself long before the chancers pitch in.


Good luck anyway, my throwaway derision was borne out of genuine disappointment at the price and the notion you were joining the growing trend of mughunters - it was not a personal attack just for the sake of it.

I thought the price of £1000 although high for someone like myself and most here who enjoy doing up a bike is pretty reasonable for a carefully put together custom build.

As a boutique/designer kinda item, for the kind of people who spend the full £140 for a pair of diesel/levi's then why not?

But at that price I would have been expecting you to make at least 60% profit including labour costs.

I mean you spent £140 on paint? thats insane. I take a few bits to the powder coater every now & again and they are happy to charge me £15 per frame + £5 each extra item.

I thought you were the kind of business that stockpiled loads of old leftover stock that you bought in bulk for next to nothing. Clearly not.

If you need me to work for you let me know, your selling prices will fall and your profits will rise.

oh dear it's all gone a bit Strictly Boardroom..

Yeah, but powdercoating and a decent stove enamelled paint job aren't really in the same league. Powder coating is an industrial finish, great for covering up a multitude of sins, which is why it's often used on mass produced bikes - stove enamelling, especially with a number of coats to get a deep gloss finish, costs money - £140 isn't way out. Having said that, if you put a fair number of frames the way of a particular painter, they should give a decent discount (you'd think). Try Dave Yates in Lincolnshire - I think he charges from £90 for a single colour for a top notch job. I've got two frames being painted there at the moment.