Bob Jackson Cycles

Bob Jackson wasn’t a profitable business, they have been under charging for all their services / under valuing their work for a long time and ultimately was only sustained be rental revenue from the units below the frame shop. They sold the building recently so staying would mean paying rent to a new land lord, which without major changes would mean the business operating at a substantial loss.

Have they?

1 Attachment

I found this experts opinion quite entertaining.

1 Attachment

Sad to hear about Bobs, always planned on getting one but never got round to it. I would have loved a crack at the apprenticeship, put my engineering to use.

what do (did) BJ charge vs. say Rourke? is rourke another step up in terms of price?

Regarding this opinion:

'Others that are turning out standard frames like Jackson's and charge nearly double what they do are taking the mickey'

List price for a Vigorelli is £496.00 inc VAT.

That means Jackson's get £412.50.

The cost of tubes, lugs ends etc.. has to be £150.00 at least.

That would give them £262.50 for the bare frame. Then they have to paint it, pay for their workshop, rates and tooling (and frame building tools ain't cheap).

They must be making a tiny margin on each frame. Building your own frames for leisure is great fun - being compelled to do it day in day out for very little reward less so. Charging double is the least I would do.

£150.00 at least

do you reckon? i bet they pay more like 50. workshop is owned apparently. paint done in house. tooling would be paid off decades ago, presumably?

i'm not saying it's not tough, economically. but they seem to be retiring because they're too busy, not because the money's not there. makes me wonder if the business will be sold or just the fixed assets...

I dont think they want to sell the businesses, new owners may spoil there name with inferior products

fixed assets? I pardon your pun

Sad news, I love my Bob.

sell the naming rights to @M_V imo. I'll take a mob vackson

3 salaries, pending rent as they sold the building, cost of gas, cost of braze, cost of outsourcing.

As I said @fizzy.bleach, it was not making money, it was only sustained by the rent income from the shop units below (which used to be their showroom before the retail side closed), they sold the building - now they close the business.

£50 for a tube set and lug set? Really?

ha maybe 50 was a lowball

so you're saying this talk of being unable to take on new blood isn't true?

I think their prices are ex vat.

The only people interested in learning frame building want to bleed the knowledge and experience from a shop then leave and become insta famous. Pretty much no one wants to build for someone else as a career, why would you do that when you can take the skills and setup yourself?

Also it’s not particularly well paid and it’s in Leeds. A great city with diverse culture and fantastic cycling 10 miles out of town but not exactly east London.

there is no money in bicycle framebuilding

leeds might win the challenge cup tomorrow

I think you’re pretty much right. One man (who’s learned his trade and served his time) in a shed can knock out pretty much anything you could want in metal, from a traditional lugged Audax frame to a ti race ready frame with 44mm head tube, thru axles and so on, for a reasonable price. Modern incarnations of small frame factories of the bob Jackson ilk, seem driven prices up through smart branding a social media strategies; there seem to be plenty of frame builders, fresh from a 10 day course, wanting to go straight to Instagram favourite. We consumers lap it up, whilst heritage brands such as BJ slip quietly away... We can lament those losses once it’s too late, or, if we, the cycling community genuinely value such brands we should buy from them, work for them long term, talk of them etc...

I’m only observing, by the way, not preaching! I do own several bikes from small British brands and frame builders (the guys in sheds), but I don’t choose these for any sense of history of responsibility; the question of whether we value these heritage brands enough is one for me as well as everyone else.

Maybe Bob Jackson would be better off selling rugger gear?

to the famously free-spending folk of leeds

Nope. I ordered one today!

The prices on the website include VAT.

To be profitable BJ should have been charging double for frames, but market pressures, cheap frames from the east posing as quality steel and FOMO meant they never made the changes they should have, pigeon holed as the last reasonably priced frame UK builder.

I would be surprised if someone else took it on, and if they did I couldn’t see it lasting unless as a vanity project for a wealthy long term fan - which would be a great result for them tbh but very unlikely.

Nobody bought them because they weren't sexy.

Agreed.