Foffa Bikes

http://urbanvelo.org/oury-grips/
http://foffabikes.com/index?pid=116&cid=19&act=shp&lnk=7
wonder if they will be around in 27 years time like the grip firm he copied?
sort the seat angles out too.

And they're more expensive than their original counterparts.

WAC.

Dear all,

it looks like the Foffa post is one of the most entertaining of the LFGSS forum for some, however since a lot of people are viewing this and get biased by the users that don't get the full picture, I feel obliged to clarify a few points:

Apollo, you seem to be very surprised to see one of our bikes going for almost £3000, but you have failed to acknowledge the components that went on this bike (image here http://www.bikeradar.com/road/gallery/article/london-bike-show-2013-big-gallery-ii-36243/16)

Here is a breakdown of all the parts that went on there. If you can find a bike with the same parts for less then please let us know:

• Foffa Columbus tubing lugged DB frame RRP £300 (if anybody knows of anybody that offers a Columbus tubing lugged DB frame for that money let us know!)
  
• Tifosi 1" Carbon Road forks RRP £119.99
  
• Miche 1'' headset RRP £19.99
  
• Deda UltraCarbon stem RRP £43.99
  
• Cinelli Vai XL Shadow handlebar RRP £29.99
  
• Deda bar tape RRP 5.99
  
• Campag Chorus groupset RRP £1254.99
  
• Campag Chorus chain RRP £41.99
  
• Miche SuperType seatpost RRP £55.99
  
• Fizik Antares Braided saddle RRP 269.99
  
• standard Foffa pedals RRP £19.99
  
• Campag Bullet Ultra 80 wheel set RRP £1317.99
  
• rim tape + inner tubes RRP 5.99 x 2
  
• Vittoria Zaffiro tyres RRP 14.99 x 2
  
  

So the total would be £3522.85 and this doesn't even include labour costs! So I am really curious to hear (using your words) how can Foffa 'infuriate you' so much if all we are trying to do is make high quality custom built bikes affordable?
I appreciate our first bikes were not at the highest standards but that was over 3 years ago, things have changed a lot since and we would appreciate that people started to recognise that rather than keep slagging off genuine and passionate brands on forums.

Howard, the reason why on the bike builder it works out as a bit less is that on our bike builder we haven't yet added the Carbon forks and stem option. The bike was built for the show to show what is possible.

Edscoble, just so you know we do listen to customers and have changed our mechanics after feedback from this forum as well. We let our previous one go after he damaged one of our customers's beautiful Donohue custom builds without letting us (and the customer) know, for which we paid for the full repair and re-paint job of the frame and gave the customer a full service free of charge. The customer is more than happy with the way we dealt with this situation.
Our new chief mechanic has 12 years of experience in the industry, Cytech and weldtech certificates, and was even one of the mechanics for the Team GB Triathlon guys.

The team at Foffa Bikes always listens to constructive feedback from anyone in the bike community. So if anyone has suggestions that will help Foffa Bikes become a better brand, feel free to contact any of us directly rather than hiding behind made up usernames on forums like this one.

All the best,

Dani

I think quoting off the shelf RRP prices to justify the cost of that build is a bit disingenuous.

For example: the Campag Bullet wheels-you quote £1317.99 but you can readily buy them for £975

the chorus groupset you quote £1254.99 but you can easily score for £825 so I've already saved your customer nigh on £500 just using google. Is the margin on top of that the price of your 'brand passion'?

If you are a trader you should have access to trade prices, if you don't, I find that very strange. If I'm buying a full bike from a shop and getting worse prices than I could get per component from somewhere like CRC or Wiggle (which aren't even that cheap) then I'd be a bit of a tool.

So, RRP issues aside, you're also saying you're 'not even charging labour'? Constructive feedback: it's not a custom build, you're charging RRP on every component on it (3 grand of trade?) and you want to act a martyr for the sake of what any reasonable shop would charge less than £100 to do if you just brought a bag of components in to them?

Point is, for £3,000 you can and should be buying a totally different animal from the one you're selling-personally I'd rather go to Mercian or Chas Roberts and get a genuinely custom specced frame in my choice of tubing from a renowned artisan frame builder's, finished in my own colour way, and I'm pretty sure it would cost a damn sight less even with equivalent group, and most importantly it would ride better than a £300 cromor frame too.

tl:dr more than welcome to put your response out there but i don't see why we should be criticised for raising very valid points about the cost of your builds (which ultimately is as much a feature of your branding as anything else).
It's a competitive market out there and people have a right to discuss what represents a good buy or not.

Again, Danni, you give people a lot less credit than they are due.

It seems you market bikes for fashion conscious people who don't know arse from elbow and that coming on here to 'get feedback' is really about being very conscious that this thread is no.3 on a google search for foffa, but the point I was making is that the price tag on that bike is fucking stupid from any angle you look at it, and that in attempting to justify it you had to quote massively inflated 'RRP' prices on EVERY COMPONENT, which is not realistic when buying a complete bike from any other retailer be it Brixton Cycles or Evans.

So to simplify it: anyone who knows anything about bikes and has 3 grand burning a hole in their pocket would not buy that, and if you don't know this then there's an issue.

And also-you accuse me of killing independent retailers because I quote internet prices?
I accuse you of doing far better in that regard as you are selling a product at a 'bespoke' boutique price when (as I pointed out before but you chose to ignore) for the same cash you could get a fucking incredible custom build from any number of independent workshops based in the UK that I'd be happy to support and aren't just about spanking out colour co-ordinated builds to sell to card-happy junior architects. Every pound spent with you is a pound not spent elsewhere, be it independent retailer or no, and I daresay from what I've seen on your website that elsewhere the same pound would buy a lot more.

You can moan about workshop costs and yadda yadda but at the end of the day the world doesn't owe you a living and you are being quite fairly judged on the products and prices on your website, and if your business model won't allow you to be more competitive then you need to question how sound it is and change it accordingly.

I'm sorry if you find this incredibly unfair but I think you've got a nerve trying to come on here and play Mr Reasonable as if we're a bunch of mugs who can't recognise a shit deal when we see one.

Same argument, different day.

Lessons learned?