Foffa Bikes

It's never Dani that keeps resurrecting this thread though is it. And don't throw the word 'we' around quite so confidently, please.

None of us like it.

overpriced by a mile

You are posting this on a page that is effectively the third Google search result for Foffa. You offer no evidence to support your claim*, yet you are surprised and annoyed when he comes here to defend his business and product. Maybe put yourself in his shoes for a second? What would you do?

• I know there has been some discussion here about component prices - wasn't that bed time reading - but from a quick skim it looks like they are comparable to Condor, a more mature but similar outfit that builds custom bikes from customer selected components. Perhaps we shouldn't dwell on comparing the organisations - Condor has had more than enough time to get things right - but we can compare the products, and if built well wouldn't the Foffa be of similar quality given the frame is built from a similar material and from a supplier that builds for Surly?
  

This is the last post I am going to write on the matter since it seems like we are just running in circles now. There have been some valuable points raised and we will be taking them in consideration for the future.

Mechanical Vandal, let s assume you have purchased on the web all the parts that you listed from the cheapest online retailer out there. With the £164.10 difference that you keep mentioning, where do you factor in the tools to put the bike together and the knowledge to build the bike yourself? The service we provide is for the majority of cyclists that don't have the time nor the knowledge to build their bikes up.
The customers come in the shop and we guide them through the process of selecting the best parts for themselves, we offer post sales service and full warranty, so if you guys already have all the knowledge of all the components which the bike industry can offer, if you trust yourself on how to build a bike safely, if you have already invested in all the tools you need, then our bikes are not for you. If you don't have all of that, then our brand (considering it is not an OTP bikes manufacturer and the bikes are not built in China or Taiwan) is a very genuine business.

über_grüber, I merely quoted those prices cause these are the prices recommended by the distributors. What we or CRC choose to charge on these components is our decision, which will always be affected by our buying power. I never said that we are not trying to make a profit (I assumed that you knew the whole point of running a business is to make some) and the people and customers that know us would say that we are far from dishonest. As i said earlier if you think you can do better then by all means give it a go.

And thank you Andyp, Wiganwill, Howard and many others to give us some credit for what we do and all the valuable feedback.

All the best

He's not the one coming across badly in this thread.

Clearly.

And for the record, Foffa's bikes are comedy death-traps of severe error.

let s assume you have purchased on the web all the parts that you listed from the cheapest online retailer out there. With the £164.10 difference that you keep mentioning, where do you factor in the tools to put the bike together and the knowledge to build the bike yourself?

It's not £160 though, is it? A smart online shopper could put that build together for at least £600 below your ticket, more than enough to buy all the tools needed to assemble it and take a course in bike mechanics.

Clearly you're pitching to the clueless, and good luck to you; there's one born every minute, and there are many businessmen far more venal than you taking far larger chunks of change off mugs who ought to know better.

more than enough to buy all the tools needed to assemble it and take a course in bike mechanics.

Although not a huge fan of Foffa surely that is the point. Not everyone wants or cares to have the tools, not everyone wants to be a mechanic.

I have the opposite to that. I almost never 'get a man in'.

Although not a huge fan of Foffa surely that is the point. Not everyone wants or cares to have the tools, not everyone wants to be a mechanic.

Balls.

You should have the interest.

I almost never 'get a man in'.

Quoted for prosperity.

I saw a Foffa bike in Melbourne last week. #csb

So we agree to disagree and that's the end of it?

Phew.

As thread starting goes, Joneslice....

and for the love of good typesetting could you stop crowbaring your new fucking life into everything?

OKAY SO I DIDN'T BECOME SUCCESSFUL ENOUGH TO LIVE IN FUCKING PARADISE. Jeeeesus.

Clearly not keeping up with the Jonises.

Ha, almost repped for bagging me. Almost.

Balls.

You should have the interest.

Why? It's an interest, so if you're not interested why give a flying fuck? There is a cost of course to being not interested but if you're prepared for the trade-off then more power to you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=2l_1pGujwhw

Not everyone wants or cares to have the tools, not everyone wants to be a mechanic.

More to the point, not everybody can afford to be his own buyer and mechanic. There is an opportunity cost to seeking out the bargains and then building up a bike from parts, and an opportunity cost of tying up capital in tools. Let's see what they are.

The tools. We need, to assemble a bike from new parts including boxed wheels onto a properly prepared frame, a torque wrench, some Allen key bits, cable cutters, cassette lockring tool, BB cup tool, chain tool and possibly the extension tool for the centre bolt of UT cranks, since we're building with Chorus. Also a tin of Copaslip and a tube of grip paste. Total outlay about £200, of which half is lost immediately in depreciation, and then £5 p.a. if you look at where else you're going to stash £100 other than hanging on to your nearly new tools.

The labour. Probably 4 hours, including the search online for bargains. Cost, assuming you could be doing your day job in the time, and if you're earning £50k p.a., around the 90th percentile of UK earners, about £100, and let's say another £100 to spend time reading the manuals and looking at some YouTube instructional videos.

So, for your first bike, you're looking at £300, and then a further £110 for each subsequent one if you upgrade every couple of years, assuming you're in the 90th percentile of earners and you're smart enough to be getting 5% on your investments. If you're earning less, your costs are correspondingly lower.

Well, it turns out you're paying Dani £600 to source and assemble your bike, so I'm assuming all his punters are earning over £100k p.a., or he thinks his expert guidance in selecting the components is worth hundreds of pounds to lower earners. I think the dodgy selections on his show bike give us a clear idea of what his expert guidance is really worth.

If I was earning 50k a year I'd be paying people to build my bikes naked.

yawn yawn yawn

Charlie the Bikemonger came on here to respond to criticism and gained himself trade-I'd happily buy from him, his stock is interesting, prices are decent, and his responses were direct and honest so he sounded like a genuine guy. I wish him every success with his business.

Anything I've ever seen or hear about Foffa makes me think that it's a 'genuine business' in the very worst sense, and the perpetual PR schmuck from Dani in this thread is as nauseating as it is evasive. People rip BLB all the time, they don't come on here like a neurotic ex trying to smooth things over because I imagine they know they don't need to.

And his mates coming on here to try and make it sound like dropping 3 grand on that thing is a great buy? People have the right to express their opinions on his builds and prices and if people are stupid enough to actually pay them I guess that's just sad for them because all they're getting in my opinion is...

Gang Of Four-A Hole In The Wallet - YouTube

If people want to spend £3k on a bike without putting any thought into whether it is the most cost effective purchase, whether they could source all the parts and build it themselves and so on then what is the problem?
To those people £3k is clearly not much money as if it was they would be putting more thought into it. They may just be off riding their £3k bike and not caring about all this stuff as much as some of you seem to.

why do you care that we care if they don't care if you think they don't care and why should we care about you caring about us caring if they're not caring and if they don't care and you don't care then why would you care enough to contribute a post to tell us that they don't care so it's ok for us not to care if Danni cares about them caring about whether he cares about whether they care or not or whether we care about him thinking the world owes him a living?

maybe it's just sunday and people are drinking coffee and looking out the window at another 2 feet of snow.

If people want to spend £3k on a bike without putting any thought into whether it is the most cost effective purchase, whether they could source all the parts and build it themselves and so on then what is the problem?

The problem is that we like cycling. Look at where that £3k is going, and what it's getting. It's going into some chancer's pocket, and getting a poorly thought out build which will go in the detached garage of a garish Barrett home alongside all the other short-lived toys before it has 500 miles under it's ill-considered wheels. It might not be possible to steer Foffa's customers from the path of brainless consumption, but wouldn't you rather we tried, in our own little way? Somebody clueless enough to buy that Foffa would be far better off, as would the cycling economy of London, if he spent £2k on a more appropriately specified Condor and the balance on being taught how to set up, ride and maintain his new bike.

Keep this thread going guys. It's hilarious.

A 3k foffa. Not only did I laugh my arse off, but my arse laughed it's own arse off, before both detached posteriors ran away into the night, shrieking with manic, insane laughter.

Dani, come back. Your PR fumbles remind me of my teenage sexual exploits.

Anyway people shouldn't worry. I think he is about to move on to bigger things.

Foffa - one of the good people.

On a serious note, I genuinely don't think that 'Foffa' works well as a brand name in English. Obviously, it's Dani's surname and he didn't choose it, and it is also distinctive and easy to remember, and he is perfectly free to choose the name of his own company. :) However, phonetically, I think there are too many problematic connotations. There's obviously 'to faff', and I was also surprised to find this rich seam of phonetically related expressions on Urban Dictionary:

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=foff
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=fuff
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=fiff
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=feff

As an old person, as ever I have no idea whether anyone actually uses any of these expressions, and in time Urban Dictionary will probably contain every random combination of four letters, but note that they all have negative connotations. Much as I don't know anything about branding, I would not want to position the sound of my brand name close to them.