Aaaah I see they blocked me as I asked them why they were taking so long delivering frames a while back. I can still access their account from my other Instagram account.

I was going to say that they must have blocked you!

Says User Not Found To me.

Have they blocked you? (Can you block like this on instagram?)

Can’t decide if sick bikes was a deliberate scam or just a really poorly run business. I suspect just really poorly run

The attitude and responses from the company owners to that thread on here a while back rang massive alarm bells for me.

The lesson to be learnt is always use a credit card (or payment mechnanism with easy refund policy) to buy anything.

I don’t think it was a deliberate scam, just a show of shit they couldn’t get under control.

Still up:

But they have, all of a sudden, become quite inactive. They used to be all over Insta like a rash. The activity on that acct has nose dived, last post 4 days ago. For a company that would frequently post 10-20 times a day, that’s effectively dead in the water

It’s probably one of those things that starts well but they spend the money coming in and get to a point where they get problems and can’t dig themselves out but still keep spending the money hoping that something will happen which saves them.

tomhoward

I thought they were all about Long, Low, Slack? Long lead times, Low respect for customers, Slack attitude to running a business?

Very good 🙂

I thought they were all about Long, Low, Slack? Long lead times, Low respect for customers, Slack attitude to running a business?

I’m glad I only dropped 450 on a frame, I feel sorry for those waiting on a full sus frames which will likely never be delivered.

I was listening to Vital mtb inside line podcast with Frank the welder and he mentioned several times that he was doing frames for Sick, so hopefully they will arrive at some point.

Depends on if he gets paid I would have thought.

https://www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/17973903994037927/

They’re looking for a social media assistant…

They mentioned he was doing the Gnarpoon, (wasn’t that originally a STW coined term? From Northwind iirc) so that’s 4 frames (that have been paid for by customers via crowd funding, make of that what you will) Not sure about any others.

Interesting that all the comments about Sick! on Pinkbike’s current piece on hardcore hardtails have been taken down.
They do seem to have some industry mates.

Interesting that all the comments about Sick! on Pinkbike’s current piece on hardcore hardtails have been taken down.

Maybe if some of these comments were proven be true ? ..it’s almost got an element of the Roman mob about it once the hoarde jump on the bandwagon.

I initially started that debate on Pinkbike by questioning if Sick were still in business, then came the negative comments and discussion. I think that utterly stinks that Pinkbike have taken those down.

I think that utterly stinks that Pinkbike have taken those down.

Isn’t there some thing where by allowing people to post ( what could be construed as) potentially damaging stuff on their website truth or not it opens them up for liability

Maybe that’s why and the cynics just think it’s their mates at pinkbike? Not saying it isn’t their mates but truth is no one outside of the mods at pinkbike would know

Does that mean pinkbike actually got a bike to ride? Might explain why nobody else got one…. I had a look when this thread picked up a while back frames were being promised at the start of this month.

Isn’t there some thing where by allowing people to post ( what could be construed as) potentially damaging stuff on their website truth or not it opens them up for liability

That may well be the case.

neilforrow

Member

I don’t think it was a deliberate scam, just a show of shit they couldn’t get under control.

TBH it seems to be exactly like Duffbags- started out legit, then they just couldn’t be arsed, and at some point they realised that even if they didn’t bother delivering anything people would still pay them money. A little goodwill goes a long way.

tomhoward

They mentioned he was doing the Gnarpoon, (wasn’t that originally a STW coined term? From Northwind iirc)

It was either me or Ojom, he says it was me but I’m pretty sure it was him.

(wasn’t that originally a STW coined term? From Northwind iirc)

Oldest reference Google could find: https://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/needs-to-get-his-weight-off-the-back-more/#post-5746335

I wonder if they ever finished off that unfinished (or terrible I’ve not decided) braze that saw them launch the vitriol at me….

The comments on Pinkbike haven’t been taken down guys, if a comment on Pinkbike gets enough negative props it goes into the ‘hidden below threshold’ section at the bottom of the comments and you need to log in to see those.

Whats concerning about the comments being deleted (edit based on what anus said, I’m logged in and can’t see anything bad, have clicked on any below threshold comments, presumable HYD saw them to ask why they’ve been deleted?) is that that just means the hype keeps on building, thanks to all the renderings and new ideas they produce and the mags, including STW, going nuts for the exciting new ideas, but are little more than napkin drawings. My altercation with Tim *waves* was because I’d mentioned on the STW FB page that a headline proclaiming ‘Sick Bicycles High Pivot Gearbox Bike Receives 70% Funding In A Matter Of Hours’ was perhaps a little misleading, as at the time they had sold 2 (£2.5-3k each) frames (and some T-shirt’s, candles and stem caps) and only had a target of £9k, which seems ludicrously small to design and develop a high pivot gearbox frame, have them made and still make money. That was 6 months ago and to this day I haven’t seen anything more than a rendering. At the time I thought the buyers were schills in order to get the promo/T-shirt sales off the back, but now I’m not so sure, and some people could be on the hook for serious money.

Reckon if I did a decent rendering of a bike that had one surprising feature (geo/travel/weight/whatever), with outlandish claims about what it could do, I could get into at least a couple of mags. But I’m shit with crayons, so I won’t.

you can go and upvote the Pink Bike comments 😉 Just saying, little green up arrow, just a little click here and a click there….

I’m still waiting on something from duff bags but it’s been so long I can’t remember what it is

@otsdr, I think this might be the actual first:
https://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/how-burly-does-a-bike-have-to-be/#post-5547697

Good luck getting your royalties Northwind!

@otsdr, I think this might be the actual first:
https://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/how-burly-does-a-bike-have-to-be/#post-5547697

Nice! Can I point out that I co-opted Gnarwhale for my Cannondale Trigger 29. More a comment on the turning circle than the weight.

Has anyone coined “Gnarkedoff” yet?

I call Gnartgotaframeorrefund.

Re their drop off on social media I believe from what I have seen on their IG that Jordan one of the founders has had phone issues. Either lost it broken so his social media continuity has been interrupted somewhat. Personally I can believe that and I’m not so much into the conspiracy theories around them. I’ve had my own dealings with Sick and whilst I’m never going to be in the market for their core products, I did purchase some of their early merch which, you guessed it, was months late.. however they were v patient with me, courteous and the raport the whole time was fine for me.

That was about a year ago I should say and it’s been exiting to watch them as an early fan, push some big ideas out there since. I’m torn these days by the reports of poor service but have to concede there’s only so much you can read (and hear first hand I should add) that makes me worry for them. I don’t believe for a second all the crap about them setting this all up for some sort of gain on the merch front, and I genuinely think their hearts have always been in the right place- and their vision, in my opinion, has been really spot on. The retro feels with the modern tech, the ingredients are there and I think we all agree that theres the DNA of good MTB stuff in there if we take the mud slinging out of it.

Believe me I love watching the world burn as much as the next spiteful rage filled online see you next Tuesday, but I think the world is actually a poorer place without things like Sick happening, particularly in MTB. I don’t know how it will end or survive but I wish them, and their customers the best personally. It’s sad.

@Northwind, that does look like ground zero. Chapeau.

one of the founders has had phone issues.

So nowadays you can literally drop your whole business down the toilet…

I wonder if they ever finished off that unfinished (or terrible I’ve not decided) braze that saw them launch the vitriol at me….

Less vitriol more a toddler throwing an epic tantrum. It was great reading though. How to alienate potential buyers one o one.

Ha well possibly yes. Particularly if that brand relies so heavily on a very healthy social media presence as others have alluded to. Losing your main device for that for whatever reason is a major headache I would imagine.

You are very fair-minded Nick, but some of us are old and wise enough to know a gobshite when we see one.

(I don’t mean you obvs!)

It’s clear they’ve lost the plot, if they ever had one to begin with.

Let’s hope they’ve got enough self respect to own up and do the right thing for their customers.

“You are very fair-minded Nick, but some of us are old and wise enough to know a gobshite when we see one”

Well, I know what you’re saying there. I’m practically a feteus at 36, but just felt on this occasion id try and take a different route with my opinion. Im pretty judgemental and I’m trying to reign that in lol. STW is like an assault course for me ha.

one of the founders has had phone issues.

And gone on holiday? iSick.

One of the things that is really frustrating is seeing all these new renderings of crazy ideas and live Instagram videos about nothing particularly consequential and then talking about setting up customer service tickets and what not then complaining about the number of emails they get through the customer service email. Stop chatting and get emailing your customers and let them know what is going on. The crux of it is that they wanted to build some bikes and it blew up in their faces and didn’t know when to stop taking orders and instead of trying to either communicate with their customers about delays or say “look guys we **** up, we are going to have to cancel you order and give you refund”, they have stuck their heads in corporate bucket of sand and let their arseholes do the talking.