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I ll have the silver Knight and the Motocomfort please.

Cheers,

dani

Hi all,

just wanted to thank all the people that could make it to the opening the other day.
Regardless of the rain we have still managed to get quite a few people in and the general response was very good.

We are having another little exhibition of our bikes at the SoBo Cafe and gallery on Tower Bridge Road in case you are around the area.

If you missed our party and want to swing by to say hi I look forward to seeing you to the shop for a coffee or a drink and a chat,

all the best,

dani

Allright guys,

loving the response and am looking forward to meeting the rest of you face to face.

It is a pity Star Fish and Billybob are afraid to let go of the past. I would have thought the offer of free beer and snacks may persuade them, but it looks like I might have to take them out for a movie with candle lit dinner and finishing the night off with glasses of aids..

For the rest of you you gotta remember we are 2 Italians and one Aussie so here is our selection of drinkable aids:

That's it for today,

enjoy the sunshine,

(the real) dani & co

Uhm, that's strange.. I ve had a couple more people pointing out the chart link doesn't work but it is fine on all the computers I tried.

Hi all,

it's dani again. It seems to me that this thread has gone on for so long that those that have not been following it from the beginning have missed a few points which keep being raised.

Taki, I specifically tell all my customers to take advantage of their 12 months warranty and free service so I still don't understand why they would take the bike and pay money to get it serviced with you. Could you please remind the customer that in future he is more than welcome to bring to bike back to me for servicing.

As for the mechanical issues we have had in the past, please read the threads and you will see that we have made changes to progress forward.

As for upgrade options, we do actually have a range of different quality components to choose from but obviously not everyone has £500+ to spend on a complete bike and, as East End Images pointed out, not everyone is training for the Olympics. We are looking to change our base components and get a few more options in stock in the future but as you can appreciate these things take time. We can however supply any components requested by our clients if they are after something specific, even if we don't have them in stock. I'd be also more than happy to listen to other people's suggestions on what parts they would like us to stock.

Taki, perhaps the ashes are falling from the Scottish sky and getting to your head.. When you get back in London why don't you come down to my workshop for a proper Italian coffee and we could have a chat about your suggestions to help improve what we already do. As I have said and keep repeating I am always open for feedback.

And if I fail again you are welcome to burn me at the stake but certainly not before the free drinks or snacks though because Max wouldn't like it. but is he the real Max?

Hope to see you all at the opening of our shop on the 30th of April so you can come and check our stuff for yourself,

cheers,

dani

You guys are right, there's nothing wrong with toe overlap, that's if you are not using a track frame for city riding or bike polo..

I found that it is still possible to get a fairly compact track frame geometry while avoiding toe overlap, so I kept that in mind when designing our frames since most people don't necessarily use track frames on tracks only.

As for the Unipack/Create bikes, they are actually made in India which tends to be a lot cheaper than Taiwan (at least that's what I found when looking for suppliers) and most of the times don't even pass BS safety standards. You guys probably are aware that Claud Butler, Giant, along with many others get everything done in Taiwan these days (even some of the Bianchi models.. what happened to my Italian heritage?!?!) and I can ensure you that I certainly wish that I'd be making a tidy £100 profit on each frames/forks.

Cheers,

dani

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Hi all,

we would like to introduce to all the fixie and ss enthusiasts our new workshop in Aldgate East.

We will be having an opening party at our showroom (Unit 11 pinchin street, E1 1SA) straight after the next Critical Mass (30th of April) with free drinks, snacks and dj so try to make it if you can.

The Critical Mass usually starts at 7 o clock under Waterloo Bridge on the Southbank and we are hoping to head to the shop at 9 or so.

RSVP dani@f0ffabikes.com if you are planning to come along so we'll make sure there's enough drinks for everybody!

Cheers,

dani

Hi all,

it is good to hear that Wicksie is enjoying our creation without the hassle of toe overlap which the lovely 'shall I Go Large' Bob Jackson track frame has.

Respect to the Bob Jackson brand since I really like their frames but as Wicksie explained they target a completely different market and I still cant believe why they wouldn't get the toe overlap right.

As we have said in the past we are open to feedback so any suggestions are more than welcome.

When we decided to open up F0ffa we went back to the drawing board to come up with a frame that was both strong, sturdy, customisable, yet affordable. We feel the price point for our frames is fair and reasonable considering it also comes with a 5 years warranty.

As far as the geometry is concerned the main points we wanted to make sure were covered are:

• sturdy butted Cr-Mo 4130 tubings
  
• laser cut 5mm thick track-ends
  
• no toe overlap!
  
• height from the ground to the bb is over 11inch so unlikely pedal strike
  
  

I am more than happy to answer any queries about the spec directly via email (dani@f0ffabikes.com) or feel free to come down to the shop to check them out for yourself.

Also I will be posting a new thread, but to briefly mention here, we will be having an opening party combined to the next critical mass so come down if you get the chance!

Cheers,

dani

Allright guys,

this has gone way out of control!
I have had a serious word with Ian and he promised me that he is not responsible for any of the rubbish that has been posted on the Glasgow forum. He was in fact pretty annoyed because of people assuming that it was him.
None of our mates have come forward to say that it was them, so I can only apologise (again) for anyone that has been offended as a result of all this.
I have in fact come on this forum as myself, Dani Foffa, the only and original Dani F0ffa and I will not change the name of the company (or my surname!) as a result of all this since I don't believe in hiding behind fake names.

I will be the first one to admit that our first bikes have had issues which have been rectified, and we have built hundreds of bikes since so it would be very nice that some of the people that are doubting my mechanical skills would be a bit more reasonable or justify their negative comments.
For those that have defended and liked our bikes, thank you. If you feel there is still room for improvements as I mentioned earlier you are more than welcome to contact me directly via email or phone from my site for some more constructive criticisms.

For those that have bought a bike from me and have had issues with it, I will repeat myself, you need to come and see me so I can sort it out rather than slagging it off the forums without contacting me. Fair play if I am the kind of business that doesn't respond to previous clients or takes care of post-sales services like some companies do!!! But those that know me are aware that I always go out of my way to provide the best service possible. This includes riding out to a customer's house in the middle of the night to investigate a repeat flat tire problem which turned out to be him not realising the tire needed a lot more pressure!!!

As for the pricing issue you obviously are allowed to have your own opinion. I am well aware that most of the people in this forum have spent many hours learning how to build a safe bike and have plenty of time to look for the best deal on ebay, in which case I know you can save some money by building your own bike. If you feel that you can provide my customers a large range of bikes to a good standard for cheaper price than my current suppliers then I would love to hear from you!!!
Some people keep on arguing that our prices are too high for what we offer. As far as the pricing is concerned, they include the time to source and check the frames, time to strip them down ready for sand-blasting, logistics of preparing the frames, time to rebuild and check the bikes again, have them photographed, upload them to my site, not to mention the overheads of running the shop as well as VAT, your 12 months warranty, insurance, etc.. The fact of the matter is this is not a 'dubious' business, it is a registered business with HMRC and we aim to follow all the british standards. At the end of the day we provide a service and peace of mind for those that are not bike experts and have the time to customise their own bike.

i think forums are great to encourage discussions, I have gotten plenty of good comments as a result of this riot and I admit I had a bit of a laugh when people have been foffarising me!! I have lost track way back as to who is who, talking about what, when and how, but I want to reiterate I am the one and only Dani F0ffa.

In summary, I hope we can now move this forward and work together in an open and honest way.

I will be holding an opening party within the next 2 months and I sure hope that all of you can come along, the first drink will be on me! Especially for you Mechanical Vandal! Then again, you ll probably slag off my drink anyway...

Hey guys, I am just getting this issue ready to take out to the paddock!

I think that there has been some good feedback from everyone & we will of course take that on board in the coming months as hopefully the business develops nicely.

With regards to the prices I mentioned, they were based on rough estimates from your LBS, and not from what you can gather on the internet after spending time looking for the best deal. As a small business I currently don't have huge bulk buying power but will of course try my best to give better value for money in the future.

To clarify Ian (hacked2) is actually one of my suppliers and not part of F0ffa directly. He has worked very hard to supply most of my bikes, and we have taken on board plenty of comments since I started a while back. These include now supplying powder-coated frames, as well as other improvements related to structural integrity.

Also I usually do point out to our customers that these are not brand new bikes, and have been tested at the best of our ability. They do come with a 12 months warranty which is not something many bike shops would do on vintage frames.

Anyway, thank you once again for those that have respected me coming on this forum and showing good will. I hope we can now all (including Ian and Adam) put this issue to bed, or out in the paddock and let's hope 2010 is a good year for everybody!

Dani

RPM, my lawyer is on holiday so not suing this time!! Thanks for the tips, I will follow this up and owe you a beer.

Edscoble, you are right, someone told me it was about 100 to get brakes fitted on the Fuji but I spoke to Evans this morning and it's about 70. Still a rip-off though.

Whatfriend, thank you for pointing out the bent forks which I actually got replaced before the bikes got sold. It is true that it is not easy making a living doing what you are passionate about. I stuck my neck out 2 years ago when I quit my boring office job and although the margins are not as high as people think, I love what I do and will continue doing so and try to learn from everything good and bad that people have to say about our bikes.

As far as the bespoke issue is concerned, just to clarify I do offer all sorts of options for those that can afford Philwood hubs and Aerospokes but most of my clients are just after a simple commuter and are happy with the standard options. It seems that some people here are sensitive about me using the word 'bespoke' so if anyone has a better word for it, let me know.

Edric64, as I seem to be the only person struggling to get hold of old racers for cheap, could you please let me know about the large jumble sale you mentioned earlier?

Lenni, thank you for being fair! I’d like to make up for you not being happy with the bike, so pop round the shop and I’ll be happy to give you a set of Halo TwinRail tires or something else.

Velocio, just so you know Ian has made the millions through a lot of hard work in the retailing business, not in fact the bikes business, and lost them all due to some very unfortunate circumstances. And I respect a guy that has lost everything before and wants to try and make a living to survive.
Anyway, I can't be responsible for what he says and all the mess that has been caused in your forum, but I'd like to apologise if anyone has been offended.
I have had a serious word with him and asked him for no more pseudo-legalese rubbish to be sent to anybody.

Again, I would like to thank everyone on the forum that have supported me and that have given me some good constructive criticisms. I suggested to my lawyer to stay on holiday as I am sure we can resolve this in a friendly way!

By the way, I really hope I haven't offended the MG owner's club and if I have, please accept my apology!

Hello everyone following this thread.

This is Dani from F0ffa bikes and I just wanted to answer some of the comments that have been said.
Firstly let me say that I am flattered that my passion for bikes has generated so much discussion on this forum, even if some negative things have been said. It means that I can find out what I need to do to improve even more to make the next customers happy. Ideally I would appreciate people coming to me directly rather than slagging it out behind made up names on a forum. But what can you do other than offering direct access to me at my new shop when you get a chance to swing on by.

So to address some of the issues being raised:

• Yes, I am the guy behind singlespeed.angelfire.com and yes, we had a few teething problems with our first bikes, have listened to people's feedback & have built hundreds of bikes since. The testimonials are real as we do not need to make things up.

• As far as Lenni's (ehren_fried_chicken) bike is concerned, my friend has personally PM'd him to get him to come down and get myself to look at the bike but he hasn't. Also Lenni complained about the paint job, which is the reason why we started powder-coating all frames. So thanks for the suggestion Lenni.

• Edscoble, you are right, you can get hold of a Fuji for 400 but then you ll need to add another 100 to put some brakes on. As an example with cars you can get yourself a brand new Ford Fiesta or for the same money a nice piece of history like a vintage MG. At the end of the day it's a matter of personal preference but I think you can appreciate that for a bespoke custom build people are prepared to pay a bit more than a factory made OTP. And for your information I am actually going to have our own design of OTP bike (the Foffa Prima) for those that are after something new anyway.

• the Cytech certificate, as many of you know, is required by the BS regulations and needed for insurance purposes, etc.. Surely having this qualification is a positive thing and should give the buyer peace of mind so I don't know why people are joking about it.

• as far as our prices are concerned I really wish I could get old racers for 20 pounds. If you can get me these frame for around 20 - 30 pounds then I ll be buying plenty from you. And if you know someone that can strip down, sand-blast and powder-coat a frame for 40 pounds then let's do business!
  And new stuff at 50% off retail price, again I really wish it was so! And again I am not sure if people are taking into account when looking at my prices the 12 months warranty, taxes and overheads.

• And of course giving you a 12 months warranty on vintage frames means I won't be able to supply the exact same frame if one fails, but I have always endeavored to go out of my way to satisfy the customer and there have been a couple of times when I have given a full refund even after months of use. I have not yet come across anyone offering that on second hand bikes.

• And for those who wonder under the General Product Safety Directive, second hand bikes are excluded from BS standards (BS6102:1), however they should still comply in every way possible, bearing in mind the age and condition.

• Also wanted to thank you Hamatt and some others that try and understand where we come from.

I understand some people will always have something to say about Foffa Bikes since I am aware some of you are also trying to make a living off it, either way I hope to see some of you at my workshop. And if you have anything else to say that might improve my service I am open to constructive criticisms.

Dani