[Closed] Mike Sanderson joins Planet X

Or if he lasts the first meeting with Dave, many haven't.

Its always interesting to see what appears from Planet X.

I ordered a road frame, and a track frame appeared!

Wonder what will appear next...

Has Brant left them again? He's been mightly quiet about them (and hardly on here at all?) of late.

He must be pretty desperate.

Just got this, looks like it may eventually be changing

https://mailchi.mp/planetx/wizard-of-oz?e=054788ca5c

Mike's a legend, they've done very well there, hope they treat him right.

Just saw some ramped up social media campaign featuring brant, with some British made jeans.  Has he stepped aside again?

I haven't had an email from Planet X for about 3 days ... I knew something was up.

who?

Yeah, who?

And did get a email about Dave stepping aside & planetx becoming employee owned...well 8 employees & Edna (the wicked witch 🤷)...or something like that

Was very impressed with him when he was with Calibre- not just the bike (which I love) but the fact that I emailed with a minor gripe and ended up getting the designer on the phone asking for info, finding out how I'd fixed it, and taking general feedback. They ended up doing a rolling fix and sending out upgraded parts to all the shops, pretty good effort.

Agree with Pistonbroke and Scotroutes.

Saw this on Facebook this morning.
I bought a calibre sentry about a month ago. Amazing bike full stop. Let alone for the price. If onone can start producing bikes like that with Mike’s input then good luck to them. Be interesting to see what happens.

Hope Calibre don't go downhill (no pun intended). Just noticed OP's name- is this a form of self promotion?

What on earth is that planetx email?
It may be confirmation bias, but it does re-enforce my view of O-O/PX being disorganised and lacking in care.

I did wonder if he would move on after jd sports got hold of go outdoors

Brant brant brant is probably too busy making vegan egg wrapped seaweed edible cycling shows for riders with webbed toes

firestarter

Member

I did wonder if he would move on after jd sports got hold of go outdoors

Ah - that would explain the 'temporarily closing down' posters and offers.
The new Bossnut and the Sentry are particular bargains at the moment.

No just coincidence that my name is also Mike!!!

move on after jd sports got hold of go outdoors

That was 3 years ago.

What on earth is that planetx email?

Nearly cringed my skin off reading it.

"Can I just say firstly none of you individually are good enough (sad faces) and none of you will ever be as good as me (sad faces)."

Worked with lunatics like that before. I feel sorry for those that have to endure him.

Right everyone - is that clear? , any questions? “

Quite a few puzzled faces followed, Edna who missed the first part seemed even more confused “why am I the wicked witch again that’s not fair “

And on with the day.

Can I just say firstly none of you individually are good enough

Maybe they aren't but they might collectively be able to turn out bikes with the stickers on the right way around. Also, maybe do something about the awful welding on the big dog.

I don't think Dave was doing any of those jobs himself, so the concern has to be that the existing staff and company culture won't change.

@cromolyolly - awful welding on Big Dog? Uh-oh is that a thing? How bad are we talking?! Bit Messy, or bad bad?

– awful welding on Big Dog?

Indeed. Looks pretty good on my raw one, I'm no welder and can't say I've been over it too closely but i actually thought it looked pretty nice, certainly nothing jumped out at me.

It may be confirmation bias, but it does re-enforce my view of O-O/PX being disorganised and lacking in care.

Agreed. They clearly take pride in having an amateur-ish approach and think of themselves as the plucky underdog, but their comms are as confused and incoherent as their product range.

I honestly think they'd have a stronger business if they cut about 2/3s of their product lines and focused on the things they do really well, giving their good products (own bikes, own clothing, cheap tyres, etc) the chance to cut through a bit better.

Not used their customer services in a while, so I can't comment on whether that needs improving still.

I think some of thats a bit harsh on Dave. I wont pretend to know him, he brought me a cup of tea when I did the build your own bike session at PX (and in his own words, they scored a customer service own goal when it had to be cancelled and i was the only one to turn up!). So ive only chatted to him for half an hour and it ended with a load of free kit so my imprrssion is first hand, but biassed.

Interesting bloke.

Lots of stories about Brant.

Very candid about PX and On One and past failings (corporate and models).

Passionate about bikes.

And quite obsessive. Which is why you sometimes get buy x and get a free bar of soap offers, he got really into soap at one point and ordered a lot of it.
Same with sofas, theres a corner of the warehouse full of them.

! Bit Messy, or bad bad?

Not structurally a problem by the looks of them. There are pictures on the big dog thread of a rear brake mount. Bizarrely good snakeskin on a fugly weld, which also looks to be filling a larger than normal gap. Pretty uneven. At a guess I'd say the welder couldn't get the right combo of wire feed and current to get a nice consistent weld on the size of gap he/she was dealing with.

I don’t think Dave was doing any of those jobs himself, so the concern has to be that the existing staff and company culture won’t change.

That was my slightly tongue in cheek point. If they aren't as good as him at setting up a culture of marginally passable QC, it doesn't bode well when he leaves.......

– awful welding on Big Dog?

Indeed. Looks pretty good on my raw one, I’m no welder and can’t say I’ve been over it too closely but i actually thought it looked pretty nice, certainly nothing jumped out at me.

Was thinking when I was fettling yesterday that the welds / butting looked nice, but I'm no welder either.

The only thing I can think of is the posts mounts for the rear brake. Look like a standard part tacked on rather than any thought put into it.

The buying process was chaotic though, and I ended up buying a full price bike in the end, even though I bought it in the pre-order phase...

Edit:

There are pictures on the big dog thread of a rear brake mount. Bizarrely good snakeskin on a fugly weld,

I see what you mean. Mine doesn't look that bad, but it is covered in orange paint, so who knows...

Wasn't the Big Dog part of the stock of frames they bought from the fabricator after S!CK bikes went pop?
If so can't really blame On One for that. Have seen a few steel and alloy OO frames over the years with sound welds

Wasn’t the Big Dog part of the stock of frames they bought from the fabricator after S!CK bikes went pop?

Nope. Was on their list of in-house designed stuff for a while.

Wasn’t the Big Dog part of the stock of frames they bought from the fabricator after S!CK bikes went pop?

Big Dog is the steel version of the new Scandal.

The only thing I can think of is the posts mounts for the rear brake. Look like a standard part tacked on rather than any thought put into it.

I don't think that's an On one thing, I've got a Charge Cooker that I'd describe in exactly the same way. A straight brake mount been welded onto a stay that's curving in 3 dimensions.

There's a reason a Cotic frame is £400 more expensive, 'custom investment cast dropouts' or whatever you get on a fancy steel frame cost money, specing whatever Maxway (or whichever supplier) already make and accepting a slightly agricultural weld is probably a big chunk of that.

Remember the 456 had pannier mounts, not because they seriously expected the 150mm travel steel hardtail tourer market to take off, but because it was the same dropout as the last bike. And hey, someone might use them.

I wouldn't be surprised if you dug around enough you could find most of the tubes on the Scandal on other bikes somewhere (the underside of the TT particularly looks like it would do well on a CX bike). I'm guessing they didn't pay for new hydroforming molds to be made.

My Big Dog frame may the one mentioned above with regards to the rear brake bracket. If you compare the welds on a Big Dog to a Orange or a Stanton I think it stacks up very well. This is a £200-250 frame compared to a £650-800 or more frame depending on whatever specials people are running. For the price it seems hard to beat in terms of quality.

You gets what you pay for 🙂

I think Brant is busy making a frame from selvedge denim. Wonder if he’s contracted to return to PX once every three years, like some sort of celestial event?

What happened to the Sonder Ti bikes that On One were doing?

As long as I can still get my soap I'll be happy.

I'm looking forward to seeing what Mike brings to the table, hopefully a short travel sentry style sled or at least some modern geometry full bouncers. I have bought 2 bikes and loads of kit for bikes and clothing off o-o/ planet X over the years and never had a single problem so I don't know what the constant whining about them on this forum is about, maybe I'm just fortunate.

maybe I’m just fortunate

You are.

Me too. Three bikes. Lots of bits. No problems

I’ve personally been ok too. Guess with the amount of kit they shift things are bound to go tits up from time to time !

The only issues I've had were ordering some Geoff Bars that were "in stock" and then not showing up for ages, issues with stock/QC, etc. I mean I'd not mind but they took the money straight away, and didn't communicate anything until I pestered them.

Had a fair bit from them though, they're cheap, good for a lot of kit, and I'll keep using them.

It's faur to say that they set consistently low expectations. And manage to meet them.

It’s faur to say that they set consistently low expectations. And manage to meet them.

Always gone above and beyond for me.

1st big issue was a floater tyre that snapped the bead, they swapped that by return post despite it being run tubeless and it not being a tubeless tyre (which probably contributed at least some way to it's demise even if there was some fault that insitgated it).

2nd was a headset that wouldn't stay tight, they took the bike back, and tried everything to figure it out. In the end if twas found that the bottom face of the stem clamp was on the piss. New stem and all sorted. Came back with an upgraded set of carbon bars and an apology that it hadn't been a straightforward fix.

3rd was a lost e-mail saying my DIY build session had been canceled, so I turned up anyway. Still got to build a bike, multiple cups of tea, a good long chat with Dave about the company, the industry and this forum 😂, and a load of free swag for the apparent inconvenience and missing breakfast!

The only people I've had better CS from are Hope, I sent them a 7 year old broken hub and got a new one back built into my old rim!