Brick Lane Bikes own frame?

do you think you can get together the 10-15K dollars for a minimum order of 100, do the drawings (if you want geometry changes), organise shipping and handling, arrange a storage facility and transport for a container sized consignment and pay the duty and vat which unless you are vat registered you will not get back (and 10k is below the vat registration threshold)?
not wanting to piss on your chips but i know whats involved in having frames built in taiwan and unless you can do all of the above it's a non starter.

a mate runs dialled bikes who do mtb/bmx/4x/ss frames, (they don't use maxway btw). in fact yesterday we were talking about the design/ordering/shipping process and how much it all costs.

I wish there was someway to tell you this, but it wasn't entirely serious.

FFS, this thread would be better (for me) if my idealistic ramblings were left as just that.

Caribou pro Frames Ornate SL 853 with chrome fancy lugs 100 frame minimum order.

BUT

they have an order form for a 'sample' frame on their website. hmmmm.

http://www.caribou-bike.com/contact/contact.php

sample frame you say?

They'll probably not want to do it if you don't plan to order more..
http://www.caribou-bike.com/about/faq.php

why does it say 'ornate' on the frame?

it's like captioning a picture of the empire state building with 'skyscraper'.

cocks.

The pic is from the tradeshow so all the factories who make rebranded stuff are just promoting themselves and the standard frames they can make for you to brand yourself a la IRO and BLB.

They'll probably not want to do it if you don't plan to order more..
http://www.caribou-bike.com/about/faq.php

But until I'd personally inspected the finishing and ride quality how would I know if I wanted to order 100? ;)

BLB are nice to me, I hear that their service can be a little patchy, but I think that people have slightly inflated expectations of what the local bike shop can do

They have definitely failed my, I think fairly basic, expectations on a couple of occassions. For example not only did they not have a (brake) pinch bolt when I needed one, I had to explain to them twice what a pinch bolt was before we established they didn't have any. This wouldn't be so bad except that this a bolt with the same length/diameter that is used for attaching fenders/racks/bottle cages etc. So a fairly basic spare for any bike shop to carry.

Another example is ASM finding to his cost that they didn't have an old stronglight/TA sized crank puller to remove his cranks with so just angle ground them off. I wouldn't expect someone like Evans to have anything but current Shimano/Campag tools, actually maybe not even campag, in their tool box, but then they don't present themselves as dealing in anything but the latest and most current stuff. BLB, at least to my eyes, seem to sell themselves as having an array of classic/retro bits and pieces, yet don't have a stronglight/TA sized crank puller, then to top it off, rather than admitting they don't have the right tools to do the job, botch it using an angle grinder. This isn't a particularly rare/arcane tool, okay I'm a bit of an enthusiast, but even I have one in my tool box and I'll bet there are others on the forum who do to, so why don't BLB?

I expect a semi-decent local bike shop to have a reasonable general knowledge of bike related stuff, to know in detail it's chosen market niche and most importantly of all to be sufficiently competent and confident about what they do do, to be cheerfully up front about what they don't know/can't do and not to get all defensive/dismissive about such things. In my experience excellent examples of this are BikeFix, Brixton Cycles and the All Saints Road Bicycle Workshop, all very different, none do everything, but all offer an excellent and distinctively individual service.

In my experience BLB fails this test, the general level of ignorance that BLB seem to demonstrate suggests, to me at least, that they are much more ill informed jumpers on to the currently fashionable fixed gear band wagon than an attempt to establish a serious long term local bike shop. It'll be interesting to see how long they last once fashion moves on and they are left to depend on customer service to bring in their business. Or maybe they'll all just become [FONT='Trebuchet MS']BMX aficionados[/FONT], thats going to be the next big thing isn't it?

(rant)

I think they're patchy, but what I increasingly suspect is that their sales staff are generally nicer and more clued up than their mechanics. I used to go there quite a bit when they first opened, and found a couple of them very lovely and helpful (Jan in particular), but have only ever heard people complain about their servicing. For example, the two 2nd hand simple old bikes I sourced from there for lady friends both needed a bit of an overhaul to get them roadworthy, which I did for them - BLB wanted to charge extra! But whenever I need a part in a hurry that's where I go, as they're very close to me and usually have it in stock.

From photos the BLB frames look EXACTLY like a Mark V. No bad thing IMHO: I like IROs.

BLB frame on FGG - looking nice.

I think that belongs to the forum's very own Horatio...

It sure does.

Yup. It's mine.

Nice looking bike...

Anyone had any experience with Kiwicycles in Hackney?

great guy, lovely frames. knows his onions.

Cheers pj

Anyone had any experience with Kiwicycles in Hackney?

I've dealt with Paul over the phone and email and he's extremely helpful – totally willing to impart knowledge. I also really like his ethos of making the best of old frames, and working within a budget. Some bike-shop kids just glaze over unless you want to spend £800 on a spangley dream machine.

He works part time on the Kiwi cycles venture though so understandably you may have to wait a day sometimes to get an email response.

yeah have spoken to him a couple of times via e mail and he seems very sincere, just hadn't seen Kiwicycles mentioned on here yet so wasn't sure of his work or business practices. Sounds like a good guy, was gonna get him to do some stuff for me, cheers.

Another example is ASM finding to his cost that they didn't have an old stronglight/TA sized crank puller to remove his cranks with so just angle ground them off. I wouldn't expect someone like Evans to have anything but current Shimano/Campag tools, actually maybe not even campag, in their tool box, but then they don't present themselves as dealing in anything but the latest and most current stuff. BLB, at least to my eyes, seem to sell themselves as having an array of classic/retro bits and pieces, yet don't have a stronglight/TA sized crank puller, then to top it off, rather than admitting they don't have the right tools to do the job, botch it using an angle grinder. This isn't a particularly rare/arcane tool, okay I'm a bit of an enthusiast, but even I have one in my tool box and I'll bet there are others on the forum who do to, so why don't BLB?

Wow! That's horrifying. I would be seriously cross if someone did that to my bike. I too have a TA puller here in my tool-box.

Another satisfeied kiwi cycles customer here also.

Cotic Roadrats look real nice - MikeC has one and I was eyeing it jealously during the London 2 Brighton Ride... maybe ask his opinion...

another opinion:

coltac rugrats look like a piece of shit.