I’m sure they’ve weighed it all up but, seems a weird one

Shocking news, it turns out Rose Bikes is no longer supplying the U.K. market due to the braking setup. A friend shared this message with me below… Real shame after my review the excellent Reveal recently pic.twitter.com/TazhAubObi

— david arthur (@davearthur) September 15, 2020

That’s not great, but I think it’s reasonable that the UK specifies brakes are mounted, well, the UK way round (“moto”, if you want to sound cool).
In other threads I’ve seen a worrying amount of consideration to giving it a go with brakes the wrong way round, which is a disaster waiting to happen.
I expect it could be driven, at least in part, by the increased demand for bikes this year.

As a Yank, many times I’ve had to ride bikes in the UK “wrong way round” and no problems after a few minutes of settling in. Not for everyone of course, but I think it’s a stretch to say “disaster waiting to happen”.

Seems a bit nanny-ist to me. I would guess that the type of person who orders a Rose online from Germany is probably the kind of person who could easily swap cables, or have their bike shop do it?

In the overall scheme of things, is it really helpful to have a law stating which side of the handlebar a particular brake should go to?

Hmmmmmm – when I bought my Granite Chief, it was built by their UK rep anyway (Fin?) – sounds like the no longer use that model – just ship direct from Germany.

Seems very strange – to give up entirely on a UK market because of a small issue that could easily be addressed via an additional QC step.

Sounds to me like they wanted an excuse to stop shipping into the UK, and are blaming “health and safety / legal reasons”

Bugger, and XLite 4 was going to be my next purchase!

Possibly due to added complications of re-routing hydro hoses through those butt-ugly integrated headsets they’ve introduced?

Also – what is ‘serial production’? Does that mean no more customisable parts? Would be a big shame, seemed a very forward looking way to do things e.g. don’t lumber the customer with crap tyres they won’t use, wrong size cranks etc.

Sounds to me like they wanted an excuse to stop shipping into the UK, and are blaming “health and safety / legal reasons”

My guess is that they’re profiteering capitalists who insist on making a profit before they’ll sell anything.

If it was profitable, they’d find a way to resolve the brake issue and sell here… more likely the demand here just doesn’t make the maths add up

The Rose UK website still looks set up to sell you a bike? Not sure when/if this will happen? Seems strange, a good number of bikes must be imported to UK and no other manufacturer is having difficulty?

I live in Austria and do bike tours with EU set brakes. My own bike is 16 years old and UK setup on brakes. For me, it`s not even an issue. You will adjust depending on the bike.

The issue is whether you adjust before face planting in an epic manner.

I’ve been at bike hire places including Whistler where they will not allow the bikes out the door until they have switched to your preference.

Your average rider might remember for a bit, but any unexpected braking or something take your attention away, and you’ll be over the bars.

I’ve been over the bars on a friends bike who had set his brakes the wrong way as he didn’t know it was wrong, luckily it was slow speed and I managed too stumble over the bars and avoid a face plant onto the road!

With your Ebike tours Iolo, if you had UK customers I would expect you to have some bikes UK style or ability to easily switch them over when handing out the bikes, especially if going off-road.

My guess is that they’re profiteering capitalists who insist on making a profit before they’ll sell anything

Exactly. Even if it’s “just 5 minutes to swap them” (Protip: it isn’t), it’s still a cost.

They might also be taking the unusual approach of thinking maybe, just maybe, everything isn’t going to work out fine in 3 months time, and it isn’t going to be as easy as it is now to sell things to the UK.

Interesting that they didn’t just put a surcharge on it.

The issue is whether you adjust before face planting in an epic manner.

Disagree. I’ve ridden bikes with brakes the ‘wrong’ way and i found it impossible off road. I suppose if you just brake in a very basic way by pulling on both brakes to slow down (probably fine on the road 99% of the time) then it’s not really an issue.

But if you actually use each brake independently using your lizard brain, then there’s no way you’ll adjust in the space of one ride. Imagine trimming a manual on the brake and realising a second or so later (as your head hits the tarmac) that what you thought was the back brake was doing nothing.

It’s very simple to flip (most?) SRAM brakes without bleeding, so it would make sense for manufacturers to use exclusively SRAM brakes for export to ‘opposite’ markets. Perhaps they don’t want to be constrained in that way.

Disagree. I’ve ridden bikes with brakes the ‘wrong’ way and i found it impossible off road. I suppose if you just brake in a very basic way by pulling on both brakes to slow down (probably fine on the road 99% of the time) then it’s not really an issue.

Or some people’s experience are different to yours and they have different skills.

Possibly looked at the actual amount of bikes they sell here, tried to work out how it’ll go after Brexit and decided **** it.

Also – what is ‘serial production’?

Production line, with people having limited specific tasks to perform, rather than one person building your bike for you (and one checking it).

Yes definately a Brexit related stance I’d suggest….more of that to come along with higher prices for the stuff we can still buy.

I rode a hire bike in france with the brakes the wrong way round without issue, just kept repeating righty-tighty as a mantra after my boy said that was what I needed to think. Worked fine but I couldn’t get away from the the feeling that in a panic/emergency situation 40 years of muscle memory would kick in and it would all go a bit pete tongue.

I face planted last year on a bike with the brakes set up the wrong way, more embarrassing than actual painful.
On hire bikes in Costa Rica, following a sandy single track, the guys in front did a skid to a stop, so I decided to join in and pull a huge skid, but pulled the front brake instead! Tyres bit into the sand and over I went!
I used to live and ride overseas so I’m supposed to be used to both set ups, doesn’t take much to have a brain fart moment and I was lucky my landing was sandy. All my own fault though….and yes, it was the talking/laughing point for the rest of the ride.

@ krixmeister the brake orientation is for road riding safety, so you can indicate to turn across the traffic and one handed brake without launching yourself over the bars. So I’d say it’s perfectly understandable for it to be set in law.

Interesting that they didn’t just put a surcharge on it.

“Can you believe it, Rose bikes are charging £xx for something that takes five minutes to do?”

“Taking the piss, I’m not going to pay for something I can do myself, but I can’t choose not to.”

“Rose bikes are shocking, it takes two weeks longer to get a bike in the UK when it is next day delivery in Germany ”
Etc. Etc. Etc. Until their social media team has a nervous breakdown.

They may well reintroduce UK shipping next year, when the picture for retailing into the UK is clear… this way they avoid bike sales and deliveries spanning the end of transition, and the start of… well… whatever. Or it might turn out to not be worth the bother.

B******s. Both my road and cross bikes are Rose and I would definitely buy from them again. Seems a trip would be in order. Pretty sure it is a pretty small market for them – I rarely see other Roses.

Think I’ve only ever seen one rose bike, can’t imagine they shift huge numbers to the UK.  My mate rides with his brakes euro style by choice, not sure why he does but it doesn’t cause him any issues, nor does riding a bike with UK style brake setup. He’s only in his 20s though so not as entrenched as the rest of us oldies 🙂

If it was profitable, they’d find a way to resolve the brake issue and sell here… more likely the demand here just doesn’t make the maths add up

I suspect several companies across lots of sectors are reviewing the incurred costs and any extra liabilities in supplying to the UK right now as we stand on the brink of “divergence”…

In Rose’s position I’d probably look at the relatively small numbers they sell over here vs the cost of implementing a variation in production and the inevitable arm waving when an EU spec bike is accidentally supplied to a UK customer…

But part of me just wants to blame Brexit… Cos that’s basically the real reason 😉

Possibly looked at the actual amount of bikes they sell here, tried to work out how it’ll go after Brexit and decided **** it.

Yeah, that’s my guess too – can’t blame them tbf. Shame.

As someone who sells bikes outside the UK I would say this is all about winding down pre Brexit. As mentioned you could limit to SRAM only and then the customer says they’ll do the swap and you could probably get away with it. What you can’t avoid is the massive PITA that sending bikes from the EU to the UK will be after Brexit if it’s anything like sending say to the USA. Where 2020 has been a bit of a golden year for the UK bike industry I suspect 2021 will be somewhat the opposite as supply remains disrupted and then compounded by Brexit disruption.

Are they using brake levers that can’t be flipped over? I haven’t paid much attention to brake lever designs over the past few years, but my last 3 bikes have all had flippable/reversible brakes so they can be left or right on the bars…is that no longer a thing now?

I suspect it is more related to Brexit and the excrement-show this is…likely to not want the hassle and might look at it again once (if!) things settle down.

They are taking back their controls.

Ahhh… You Brits and your “wrong way round” brakes silliness…

So The Whole World, apart of few, very few places, is wrong way but you somehow, as a minority have it “right way around”?
Always makes me chuckle 😀

On the slightly more serious note, when I bought my first new bike in UK I thought I will try your fashion on brakes. Didn’t feel at all comfortable. My brain and muscle memory was screeching and wailing…
So I’m sure some people can adapt more or less easily but I’m not one of them.

Cheers!
I.

Smells like bullshit to me. You really have to worry about their competence and ability of they come out and say

” Sorry everyone, putting the brakes the other way round is actually beyond us. We’re stopping”

Yeah, right.

/ Whispers br’x’t

Must be more to it, likes been said. Unless the next step is BMW and the likes stopping RHD cars for the same reasons!!!!

That’s annoying as I had 2 Rose bikes on my shortlist.

But if you actually use each brake independently using your lizard brain, then there’s no way you’ll adjust in the space of one ride.

I have memories of a comedy crash at walking pace on a Canadian friend’s bike because of this. I gather I’m far from alone in not every wanting to repeat this at normal speed.

So The Whole World, apart of few, very few places, is wrong way but you somehow, as a minority have it “right way around”?

I don’t think anyone has said that? I’d personally be in favour of international standardisation (I don’t really buy the road safety argument), but I’ve been riding bikes for more than 30 years so I’d struggle with any change now.

They are taking back their controls.

Trying to stop the wheel of the people.

err but what about Ireland?

So no Rose bikes to the Republic as well?

SRAM only and then the customer says they’ll do the swap

They can’t. New bikes must have the brakes the UK way round.

https://www.cyclinguk.org/cyclists-library/regulations/safety-regulations

There lots of other countries using brakes the same way around as us (and LHD cars), but if Rose isn’t already selling in numbers to them, than they would effectively be adapting their production line just for us (at a time when “wait and see” might be wise). Remember, they are retailers as well as a bike brand… and the complications (at least short term) of the UK no longer being part for their home market from Jan are still unknown.

given the ban includes bikes, frames and forks, it would appear they’re just trying not to sell any big ticket items (the only other item that can cost a grand is probably a wheelset??) – probably because they don’t want to get stuck with a tax bill come brexit, but are trying to remain apolitical. I expect they’ll be back

So The Whole World, apart of few, very few places, is wrong way but you somehow, as a minority have it “right way around”?

The reason for the UK setup has already been explained in this thread.

The one in my spare bedroom has the inline hose connectors on the brakes. i think you can switch them over without bleeding in 30 seconds. Given you’d have to bleed after threading them through the frame it seems strange.

Check them out on trust pilot – they seem to have some issues. The bike I have is my second from them. It’s been a shocking experience. Ordered a custom build in July. Date pushed back with no notification. Arrived September. Wrong parts fitted – cranks, wheels, bar tape, casette. Basically everything I had changed from stock. Now in the process of trying to fix it. 10 weeks after ordering. The best they have offered is they send me the parts and I rebuild my bike. But the parts aren’t in stock…

I think they are lacking in staff and are swamped by orders so can’t cope. Custom builds have been disappearing from their site. I think this is a move to streamline their factory to meet the orders they have. The UK is a more complicated step so is being removed. My guess is they will be back if their home markets start to drop off.