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Sad but true , how often is the term "cheap Chinese import" used with the cheap meaning rubbish.
China is not a shop at the end of the road.
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[/img]It's a huge place that manufactures on a huge scale. The biggest problem is a lack of respect for intellectual property and a desire to take, learn and reproduce products. My Santa Cruz frame proudly displays a made in china label, the finish and the quality is great however a lot of the work went into getting the design and process right to achieve that long term aim. There are some very good carbon manufactures out there, they may or may not be the same ones selling cheap frames etc.
I find old derelict factories very saddening, I don't know why.
How about now?
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More dancing required
By adding a scary clown...and where's his trike? 😀
They don't make proper films like that any more it's all cheap Chinese digital tat and low rent martial arts stuff and noodles. I don't know why, but I associate northern England with proper food like fish and chips and tripe, man nosh. Chinese food on the other hand is all stringy, low-rent things with unidentifiable bits of organic stuff mixed in with it. How can people on a diet like that be expected to produce high precision engineering etc... 😉
I am sure china makes great stuff, well that is very expensive.
People moan about IT workers riding oranges,
But at least orang build some bike in this country helping the economy and families in this country put food on the table.
And if we have no factories, all we have left is IT workers .
I say let make it the 70s again, pin some nudey pictures on the wall, write Dave is gay and a closet Wednesday fan on the toilet wall in permanent marker and turn the machines on and make some bikes.
(All remarks are made with tongue firmly in cheek and not meant to offend)
No scary clowns.
I find old derelict factories very [s]saddening[/s]scary, I don't know why.
I find old derelict factories very saddeningscary, I don't know why.
probably the clowns. I hate clowns.
I am very surprised by this and would like to know more about why it has ended up going this way. I find it hard to believe it is all because they couldn't get a part made by someone or couldn't redesign around the manufacturing available so there must have been something else. Maybe just simple cash flow exacerbated by delays on parts etc.
variflex - Membernow with manufacturing issues as outlined in other threads i don't think the brand will survive.
This only affects the Rocket, all the other models are business as usual so it's a setback and a big loss of time, and a it of loss of rep but it shouldn't harm the core business.
.chip - MemberAnd if we have no factories, all we have left is IT workers
We have factories- UK manufacturing (just before the recession) was at an all time high. It's just that we make different things now.
add in the delays and the almost universal dropping of 26" bikes are as current product (not 26" spares - not going down the wheelsize debate) there would be only this one production run to recoup all the design, tooling & manufacturing costs. You either sell for a premium or pull the plug.
Chinese food on the other hand is all stringy, low-rent things with unidentifiable bits of organic stuff mixed in with it. How can people on a diet like that be expected to produce high precision engineering etc...
something something forks all noodly etc etc
I am very surprised by this and would like to know more about why it has ended up going this way. I find it hard to believe it is all because they couldn't get a part made by someone or couldn't redesign around the manufacturing available so there must have been something else. Maybe just simple cash flow exacerbated by delays on parts etc.
Reading between the lines, people needed to pay their mortgages, and there came a point where money wasn't going to be coming in soon enough. I don't know if BML is dead or whether it's got other work lined up, but I'm sure Mike said on the other thread the Rockets will be manufactured elsewhere.
Cy has previously said (on here?) if he'd known how long it was going to take he'd have ordered another batch of Taiwanese Rockets.
It's all very sad; apart from those who'd actually ordered frames, there were an awful lot of people watching with interest, and a terrific amount of goodwill.
It looks like Mike was a one-man-band doing machining, jigs, welding, etc etc so its not surprising things took a long time.
Should these guys have realistically known how long things would take, probably, but shit happens when making stuff even with the biggest budgets.
Hopefully it will still happen, another UK made frame would have been great and I would have been a definite potential customer.
We cancelled the orders not because we aren't making the frames ever, we just aren't making them yet and it's hard to see how another missed deadline was going to help anything. It was getting unfair to customers who were hanging on, missing out on riding their bike. And it was putting a lot of pressure on us. Sometimes that's good, but it was getting unhelpful too.
We're still working on making the frames in the UK, we're just going to make sure it's properly done and dusted and ready to sell before putting them on sale again.
As for communciation, that is something we realise we've been bad at in this case, and I did apologise for that in the letter. Lots of lessons learnt.
I was idly flicking through a copy of this month's MBR in Tesco and noticed an article about the Cotic Rocket 29, complete with a picture of an (orange) prototype. The article mentioned that they will be built in the UK with fifty 26" models being produced "soon" and the 29er being on sale within six months. No idea how accurate that is. I'd hope that the editor would run the copy past Cy before going to press, but maybe not. Still, good to hear that the project may not be dead.
That would be good although i would personally love to see a 650b version. Even better would be a 26" / 650B.