Mmmm, there seems to be a bit of confusion here , unless my 3 glasses of "2007 Garda Doc Classico Rosso 2007" have blurred my vision to the point of incompetence I dont think this thread is correct and its possibly a bit unfair towards us.
We planet x dont charge for bike fitting .
We do charge 10% for cyclescheme and thats what we get charged by cyclescheme , companies can avoid this by simply taking up a direct scheme with us .
Now Andy Sexton of Bike science Bristol and Derby , one of our resellers , who performs a retul bike fit that I believe takes 2-3 hours , uses the Retul bike system (that costs over 10,000 usd to buy and involves getting himself trained up to a high level )- charges I believe 175 pounds for a Retul bikefit . I think he may then discounts this to 100 pounds for a cyclescheme bikefit . Retul bikefit is not your normal pop your customer on a bike and see how it looks jobbie , its a 3d motion cature system used by the worlds best pro riders including Lance Armstrong . 100 pounds for a Retul bikefit is a very cheap price and I dont recall it being anywhere like that price at any other retul centre, so if the bikefit in question here is the retul one for 100 quid its very good value .
Bikefits done by planet x themselves are free of charge as our staff arent currently using retul bikefit , we are training our in house staff in the next month to use Retul , and at that stage customers will then have the option of a 3 hour retul bikefit where they will have to pay , or a more basic non retul bikefit that will still be free .
We will continue to charge for cyclescheme , but companies are free to avoid this and buy direct to avoid the cyclescheme fee .
I do think that is the situation , and its pretty transparent .
We think our 999 procarbon bike is still ahead of the competition in terms of value and allround spec - its a tight battle to spec the key 999 bike - in the past months focus and Boardman seem to have given up the ghost in trying to squeeze the carbon monocoque sram rival / shimano 105 bikes under 1k - and as carbon prices are now on the rise again its getting very tight even for direct selling tight arse northerners like planet x to maintain this price . Its clearly the key pricepoint in the market and whoever gets to 999 with the best value bike gets a decent slice of the market and thats our aim - and believe me we cant afford to "absorb" 10% to cyclescheme on these bikes .
Any rising prices at planet x are not to do with ryanair type tactics - its more likely due to the drop in the TWD rate from 31 down to circa 28 , plus the ever increasing raw material and labour prices in china / taiwan and USA (in the case of Sapa / Titus) , and maybe due to rising overheads and petrol prices etc in the UK .
dave@planet-x-bikes.com
