Foffa Bikes

what is it for?

what is it for?

It's for hipsters to wheel along Old St., utterly pointless for anything else.

wow. that sir, is an ugly piece of work.

and i paid money for a marillion album.

it is the marillion of bikes. and that's not a good thing.

see... ?

YouTube - ‪Marillion - Lavender‬‏

Regardless ed - point still stands - You can get better bikes from more reputable companies for less money.

• So why buy FOFFA?
  
  
  

bikes aside, you'd spend money with local people and not a faceless chain that wants your personal details as soon as you spend with them

Zing!

^ thought you'd notice, but the comment was in no way meant towards you (I assume that's obvious, but just in case)

quality shops have staff for a long period of time, they value repeat customers and treat you accordingly. this is why i would go to brixton cycles, cyclefit...

but given the foffa bikes i have seen i would not go to them

if they can't even get a show bike right for a stall at a cycling event it does not bode well. they could have just had the frame on show, but instead took something that had been build in an utterly half arsed manner.

^ thought you'd notice, but the comment was in no way meant towards you (I assume that's obvious, but just in case)

Believe me I know, and I do agree to a certain degree.

Regardless ed - point still stands - You can get better bikes from more reputable companies for less money.

• So why buy FOFFA?
  
  

Not that it really matters to me* but you can get them in the color combo you want, as opposed to what the OTP designers thought was a good idea.

*Being available in stealth black had nothing to do with my choosing of a CAAD9 as my roadie. cough

you'd spend money with local people

There isn't much local value added in a Foffa, he just assembles Chinese components the same as everybody else in the industry. If you really want a local bike for local people, you probably need to get a Roberts.

Regardless ed - point still stands - You can get better bikes from more reputable companies for less money.

• So why buy FOFFA?
  
  

You've just highlighted the biggest thing that narks me about this whole Foffa debate. I always thought that this forum was about getting people out on their bikes more, encouraging people to enjoy riding for any number of reasons from commuting to just for the hell of it. And importantly simply supporting the cycling community.

There was always a spirit about this forum that was somehow uniquely British, in that it supported the underdog, the quirky, the slightly upstream from the mainstream. Now here's a guy who has set out to follow his dream and set up his own bike shop. He's made mistakes. But he's held his hands up and he's tried to remedy them. And incidentally if any of you have ever had the balls to try and run your own business you'll know that making mistakes, especially in the early years, goes with the territory.

What you're suggesting tomd from a business perspective is utter nonsense. How can a small business possibly hope to compete with the likes of Fuji on price? Of course it can't. Simply because they don't have mass production and consequently worldwide outlets and therefore the luxury of being able to write off last year's model almost at cost making little or no real profit on what in business terms are leftovers. But despite this the Foffa prices are still pretty close to buying from some faceless mega-brand if that's what you want to do. Your money, your choice.

I think the main problem here amongst those who only slag off what Foffa are doing is jealousy. People are envious and consequently massively opinionated about what Foffa 'should' be doing in their opinion. The subtext I see when reading between the lines in some people's posts on Foffa is 'you don't want to do it like that, you want to do it like this!' or 'oh no, you really didn't want to do that I would have done it far better!'. But you didn't set up your own bicycle business did you? You just posted on an internet forum about why somebody else had done it alllllll wrong.

Support a local business. Support individuality.

Rant over.

repped

There's a difference between having the mindset to start up and run a small business to pushing out good products. It's why you have specific salesmen and mechanics. Most good mechanics I know couldn't sell you a bike, but then a lot salesmen even cycling specific ones don't know that much about being a mechanic. It's always better to set up a business as a team, then you have all bases covered. Someone who can sell the bikes and someone who makes sure that the bikes are good enough to be sold

And incidentally if any of you have ever had the balls to try and run your own business you'll know that making mistakes, especially in the early years, goes with the territory

The issue has never been the fact of mistakes, which as you say are common enough in start-ups, nor even the magnitude of the mistakes. The problem his detractors have always had with Foffa is the class of error. If the product had merely been tasteless or overpriced, there might have been piss taking but not the venom which we have seen. The vilification of Foffa stems from the fact that he has put his name to bikes which nobody who was steeped in cycling would touch with a ten foot pole. While the current product seems at least to be assembled from worthy, albeit low-end, components, it was certainly not the case in the beginning, and community minded as we are we properly took the view that "Friends wouldn't let friends ride a Foffa"

The issue has never been the fact of mistakes, which as you say are common enough in start-ups, nor even the magnitude of the mistakes. The problem his detractors have always had with Foffa is the class of error. If the product had merely been tasteless or overpriced, there might have been piss taking but not the venom which we have seen. The vilification of Foffa stems from the fact that he has put his name to bikes which nobody who was steeped in cycling would touch with a ten foot pole. While the current product seems at least to be assembled from worthy, albeit low-end, components, it was certainly not the case in the beginning, and community minded as we are we properly took the view that "Friends wouldn't let friends ride a Foffa"

If that was the case but not so much now isn't it about time the 'community minded' community cut the guy some slack? And to be honest I don't really get why it should be such a big deal that he had the 'audacity' to put his name to his bikes. I mean it's one of the oldest in the book, countless current bicycle brands are someone's surname. His early bikes were pretty shit (and this is based on anecdotal evidence) but he's listened to his critics and made an effort to turn things around. That's the right attitude.

I really do think there are a lot of people out there who don't want to see him make a success of things because they're jealous and bitter. Classic 'human' behaviour unfortunately.

"community" can mean many things, not always good.

Really David Cameron will be gutted, grand plans for the big community and all that. I thought it meant it he was going to sponsor LFGSS, maybe he can just rent one of the little advertising banners?

"community" can mean many things, not always good.

dani don't get me wrong, I'm trying to find out more about your rims.
what's the weight of them? 28 and 32h please

I don't really get why it should be such a big deal that he had the 'audacity' to put his name to his bikes. I mean it's one of the oldest in the book, countless current bicycle brands are someone's surname

You misunderstand - it doesn't matter whether it's his surname, first name or nickname for his cat, the Foffa brand was first seen on some shit bikes, and has ever since been tainted by association. That's not unique to Foffa, Raleigh have a hard time getting a premium price for their better bikes because everybody's first impression of Raleigh is of sturdy 3-speed roadster, whereas Colnago gets over the odds for his Chinese carbon bikes because Ernesto built a strong reputation over decades of hand built steel before he started outsourcing production. A Chinese carbon Colnago isn't necessarily better than a Chinese carbon Raleigh, but the brand value is much higher among cycling enthusiasts.

At this point, Foffa's problem is that his brand is so badly compromised that he actually has to supply bikes which are clearly better than Fujis and Charges at the same price point in order to recover, something which, as you say, is probably not feasible for a small company. Even if the capital were in place to fund such a brand recovery plan, any sensible person would see that there are better ways to spend it. That, of course, is the great peril of using your own name as your brand; if it goes tits up, you probably need a Deed Poll before trying again.

And Nhat, RPM and everydoby else that likes to comment on our bikes without having ridden one, feel free to pop by the shop and try one out, then you will be in a position to make an accurate judgement and not defame companies trying to run a decent business.

I think the photographic evidence is enough to make a judgement on these bikes.
I also don't think you produce a bike yet which I would trust to ride on the track or road.

Please note, to defame a company it would already have to have a reasonably good reputation. (among the trade and cycling media and representative as a whole, not just among the owners and some made up customers from fictional lands)

Keep listening to people who know what they're talking about, and strive to be honest and you'll be fine, good luck.

His brand is badly compromised where? On the forum or among his previous customers? We have no evidence at all for there being a significant number of people who would not now buy a bike because it is a Foffa.
If he is compromised on the forum then the forum cannot have it both ways; being at once discerning and knowledgeable (and independent minded) enough to have its opinion taken seriously on his old bikes but also fickle, shallow and sheep-like enough to avoid new foffa bikes because of 'branding'.
The pomposity and self-importance of sections of this 'community' is never more evident than when talking about bikes rather than about cycling.

sees thread full of really long posts. doesnt read and goes to a different thread.

Support a local business. Support individuality.

How is FOFFA getting a boat load of cheap OEM parts shipped over from taiwan any better than the bigger companies?

How is FOFFA getting a boat load of cheap OEM parts shipped over from taiwan any better than the bigger companies?

Is the head of Fuji based down the road from you in your home town? Could you as a keen cyclist pop in to see him and have a chat about cycling over a coffee? If you got on and shared some common ideas on cycling could you perhaps say influence the design of a new model? For example, you've been riding lo-pros for ages and with the new design proposed think that a seat-tube which curved around the rear wheel would shorten the wheel-base and sharpen up the handling.

You're just not really getting this face of a local business v. faceless mega-brand are you tomd? Do you think that the head of Fuji ever looks at this forum or give a flying shit about this communities opinions and views? However, as I said before, your money, your choice.