May I ask you please stop saying I work for Sick Bikes. Or ‘help out’

The relationship I have with Sick Bikes is they are a client of mine:

One of the businesses I own is a remote inbox triage service. A bit like a virtual assistant

Sick have used my company for a while.

I do not work for them.

While I can understand him trying to separate himself from this shitshow. He is/was the point of contact, came on here in his own time to defend them, and signed his emails to their customers James, Customer Service, Sick.

He even gets mentioned in mailouts as part of the team.

It’s important for us to communicate to you, we’re not going away anytime soon.

We never take your support for granted.

Jordan, Tim, Zam, Lee & James.

At this point the precise mechanics over how he gets paid (and I’m glad someone is) is pretty moot.

Don’t think it’s the same james

It’s not. Though it would have been one way of explaining that fine piece of investigative journalism.

Spengle, thanks for joining in here. It’s brave for a brand to dive in to the bear pit that bike fora can be!

<–we are all just people at the end of the day, we all make mistakes etc

if we were running the customer facing aspect of the business, we’d own up, take it on the chin, FIX the problems – whatever they are! put processes in place to ensure it con’t happen again, then work our asses off to ensure that we deliver the things we said we would.

Re the reputation, if they sort it, release 3 awesome bikes, deliver close to time, then next year most people won’t remember!

One of our team had to fly 9 hours to deliver a pair of wheels because we promised the customer they would have them by a certain date, we’ve all eaten a pile of crap, now we work to ensure we don’t need to!

@spengle are you not worried about the potential damage to your brand by association?

@spengle are you not worried about the potential damage to your brand by association?

from what, Sick putting our wheels on their bikes?

90% of our custom comes from continental Europe already.

If a lifetime warranty, 30 day returns, and a sweet IG feed isn’t enough to help tip the UK customers over the edge, then we doubt a brand putting our wheels on their bikes will.

Did we mention the lifetime, no questions, warranty already?

@spengle 👌

Why is no one trying to drag SRAM, Fox or Shimano into this thread for daring to let Sick bolt their parts to a frame?

Spengle (who apparently offer a lifetime, no questions, warranty!) have no more reason for guilt by association, imo.

Why is no one trying to drag SRAM, Fox or Shimano into this thread for daring to let Sick bolt their parts to a frame?

I was only asking as they are another small company. It was a genuine question.

Personally given the utter shit show that Sick have created I wouldn’t want anything I did associated with them.

What frames did marino build for sick?

Unless the hells angels are making use of their tattoo parlour I can see Sick getting into difficulties with their CCC club too & that certainly won’t be the sort of attention they want.

Wait a minute…someone actually waited over a year for some Spengle wheels?!?

So, all Sick FS bikes are catalogue bikes from China…most of HT are from Merino…So besides choosing the colours on the frames, they really are just a t-shirts, socks and stickers company…!?! really hope people get their money and these guys stop having the limelight (good or bad) on all platforms and actual great small companies replace these idiots. Even if you were to receive a bike, would you actually want to ride it or would it all be tainted…and I wouldn’t certainly but second hand.

Naah, they also designed some custom frames.

Very badly.

But don’t be too sad about that, ‘cos you’ll never get hold of one to have to worry about it failing anyway 😀

A disappointing interview from James (editor on pb). I was contacted by him about 2 months ago. Was asked if I’d like to be featured in the article about sick to which I said yes. He asked and I’ve given him all the details about my experience with them hoping it’ll help my case. I even postponed taking legal action giving them a chance not to go down that route.
Lack of communication with James (pb) made me look him up and when checked his fb profile saw a picture with no other then sick gang posing and him beside them. At that moment I felt that I was messed around by sick and it was just another way of gaining time.
Lack of responses to emails sent to James in trying to get some info on the process became even more stressful than dealing with sick. It is like you reach out to a drowning person and the let go.. ah, well…
After reading Hannah’s piece on stw wish I would have helped her as she seems to have put a lot of constructive work in this.

I ordered xxl titanium gnarcissist luxe on 23 March 2018. Have been told that at the time there were only 3 of them “in the wild”. I recently found out that there are 20+. Someone has received no23 in February 2019. This got me fuming!
So,.. I’m wondering where the f***k that frame is.. They definitely been getting or got delivery of those frames. As my was ordered this long ago it was definitely in that shipment. I’ve been told it should be with me any day now. This was all more than half a year ago. I saw a picture of the frame that looked exactly like one I ordered at the time it was supposed to be delivered but was told it was not mine.
I believe I’m the longest standing outstanding customer (prove me wrong) that has no frame, no refund, no communication. They have paid 16k on refunds..yet I haven’t received one when requested..
.. And they say it’s not a scam. You’ve scammed me.

Did they honestly think that PB interview was going to be their big comeback?

I remember Evil ‘set the record straight’ a few years ago in similar fashion “it’s not our fault, it’s those dodgy manufactures” “we’re just a couple of normal guys who wanted to make a bike we wanted to ride, not what the industry told us to” “the big guys wanted us to fail” blah blah blah. They managed to survive it, not sure they’re any better now than they were 5-6 years ago, I’d hope so.

The attitude stinks though, they’re acting like victims of circumstance, but at any time they could have stopped taking orders, retuned money and just admitted they’d been overwhelmed with the response, but they took the money and then tried to muddle through making it work.

Website is still showing as taking preorders. That they don’t do.

Wait a minute…someone actually waited over a year for some Spengle wheels?!?

yeah, a few did (and a few very much didn’t), we had a bunch wait over 9 months for the initial drop.

But absolutely key was keeping the customer informed of progress along the way – this did have the the side-effect of reminding them that we were slow, but the majority appreciated and waited 👍

All other things aside, this “wanted us to fail” claim seems odd to me.

A big manufacturer isn’t going to care about a pissant little startup selling frames and bikes in the order of 10s. I’m sure the board at Specialized were shitting themselves.

Customers aren’t going to want a startup to fail if they’re doing something new and exciting, quite the opposite.

The only reason anyone would want them to fail is… well… if they need to take a long hard look at their life choices.

All other things aside, this “wanted us to fail” claim seems odd to me.

Nah, I reckon thats just the narrative they’ve chosen, they’ve been telling anyone that would listen that everyone wanted them to fail, trying for the ‘no hopers done good’ bit. they mention it a fair bit on insta.

A bit like when Millwall fans proudly sing ‘no one likes us but we don’t care’

Edit

not sure they’re [Evil]any better now than they were 5-6 years ago, I’d hope so.

To be fair to Evil, everything I’ve been hearing about then in the past year or so, both from customers and elsewhere, seems to indicate that they really have got their shit together.

All other things aside, this “wanted us to fail” claim seems odd to me.

The “h8rz gonna h8” narrative.

The “h8rz gonna h8” narrative.

I’m not certain they could expect much else:

Sick! Bicycle Co. – Fighting Talk

Sick Bicycles – the mountain bike menagerie

Titanium/Carbon – Sick! releases the Have Blue

All by James S when he was at DIRT and who can forget the beauty of this thread:
https://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/sick-bikes-and-welding/

All other things aside, this “wanted us to fail” claim seems odd to me.

me too, I think it’s a cognitive dissonance thing when your “We don’t give any of the ****” attitude is handed back to you with interest by your customers*

*Customers in the sense of not actually being customers…if you see what I mean…

when checked his fb profile saw a picture with no other then sick gang posing and him beside them.

I’m sure that was back in 2017 when they were cool and stuff, and still media darlings. If they were still mates, I’m sure PB would have sent someone else, as that would be a conflict of interest and you’d just end up with a puff piece and get accused of timing publication simply to counter bad press elsewhere on their behalf.

https://scontent-lht6-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/21369323_1585350448168103_6807490942160531566_n.jpg?_nc_cat=110&_nc_ht=scontent-lht6-1.xx&oh=a4a13b65386570c313cb789b84b39a56&oe=5D6621EE

yeah, a few did (and a few very much didn’t), we had a bunch wait over 9 months for the initial drop.

But absolutely key was keeping the customer informed of progress along the way – this did have the the side-effect of reminding them that we were slow, but the majority appreciated and waited

Spengle get it!
It matters less how late your product is, what matters is how you manage customers expectations and how you communicate with them.

I’ve a frame on order from a UK manufacturer that’s running a few months late, it’s slightly frustrating but I’m fully aware of the delays as I’m kept regularly informed.

Another friend ordered a bike that was several months late, each step of the way they were informed of the issues affecting delivery. When you buy from small boutique brands late delivery now seems the norm.

Where Sick continue to fail is with their lack of communication, lies when they do, questionable quality, arrogance, their woe is me attitude with barely a hint of sorrow for customers (and now suppliers). They really are undisputed champions of BS bingo and proud wearers of the emperor’s new clothes.

well, if nothing else, at least He’s admitted (in one of the articles) that he’s realised he shouldn’t be doing a customer service role…

I must say, Spengle come out of this looking rather excellent. A professional approach and a sense of humour, too.

I must say, Spengle come out of this looking rather excellent. A professional approach and a sense of humour, too.

did we mention the lifetime, no questions-asked, warranty?

and a sense of humour, too

With wheels that look like that, they need one..

I’m joking!! Seems like a fair response and always a good idea to keep customers informed.

I heard Dave Hinde is going to stock Sick*

(*complete made up bs of course 😋 )

always a good idea to keep customers informed

especially if you offer a lifetime, no questions-asked, warranty.

They offer a lifetime, NQA warranty? Well I never… 🕺

If that titanium/carbon bike is called the Have Blue, the next frame they do should be named “Norwegian Blue”.

and a sense of humour, too

With wheels that look like that, they need one..

the word you meant was Gin

😂

For me, one of the most surprising things to come out of this thread is that Spengle employs 47 people. That seems awfully high for a company that makes 3 models of rather niche wheels.
Maybe I’m wrong and half of continental Europe is riding around on 3-spoke wheels, but I can’t imagine there’s an enormous amount of volume there to support such a workforce.

No disrespect intended, @spengle btw. I’m just surprised and curious.

Spengle employs 47 people.

sorry, 48 staff, across sites in the UK, Switzerland, Austria, and Slovakia.

We’ve got some sweet custom machinery in a 65,000 sq ft factory, one of which took 6 months to get through customs as it was made by a firm that makes parts for missiles!

we’ve got customers in the US, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australasia, and about to sign a distribution deal in South America.

We support a race team in the UK, a few competitive enduro racers in the US (4th place at Sea Otter a few weeks ago), and have OEM agreements with 3 manufacturers for 2020 (Sick isn’t one of them).

No offence taken @pinetree we are small in the grand scheme of things, but make some really cool products that just happen to look a little quirky 🙂

Is this your CEO Spengle?

our CEO on here? I very much doubt he comes to STW – and if he does, I REALLY hope he doesn’t read this thread….

🤣🤣🤣

SB can suck a bag of strap-ons for all I care, but don’t XCAD specialize in custom Ti frames? So maybe SB designed the frames, then XCAD have decided to sell more un-badged versions?

Anyway, my Gnarpoon T-shirt arrived. Hurrah!