Originally Posted by
downtube
This forum has been great fun over the years. However I took a multi year break around 2012, because of personal posts...that were baiting a reaction.
There are two arguments in this thread.
1. My departure is discouraging people from buying.
2. Price increases are too extreme.
Let me respond to both:
1. Does anyone "know" the owner's of citizen bike? How about zizzo, Tern, Pacific Cycle? I have brought values, honor, and respect to Downtube. I believe it is in a good place to move forward without me. I don't understand how my leaving is a negative. My openness is unique, and I view it as a positive. Especially when the competition has mysterious ownership. It would be more logical to request openness from competition.
2. Price increases:. Supply chains are broken, container shipping has increased as high as $20,000 from $5,000. Duty has increased to 36% from 11%. Factory costs have skyrocketed. Our price increases will continue in the coming months.
More relevant is how competitive we are with our offering. Our new Nova spec is superior to all zizzo models, citizen bike models, and the Dahon Mariner. We have hollow tech BB & cranks, 8sp cassette with mid cage rear derailleur, trigger shifter, and quick releases on the hubs. In addition to having better specs we are priced less than the majority of our competition. Mariner is $999. Therefore our pricing is the lowest....so I don't understand the pricing complaints.
If you think an open ownership is worse than unknown owners, and you prefer higher prices for lower specs....I am unable to satisfy those requirements.
Thanks
Yan
To re-cap MY experience with you, we spoke extensively by phone about your bikes back in 2017 you were very affable and spoke extensively of your personal bicycling career. I told you I’d be ordering 2 units (don’t recall which model now) as soon as my tax $ hit the decks. Some 60 days later when the time was right for me, the price on that same model of bike was raised some $300 each*, a significant increase. Enough so, I decided to re-visit my shopping process.
*These costs you cite now had nothing to do with 2017, nor do I believe you sell enough bikes annually to require multitudes of containers full of bikes to fulfill your sales figures. In fact when I asked about this un-natural and significant price increase at the time you told me it was due to fewer of those models available in your inventory of them. In short you had fewer of them to sell so you felt it was OK to charge more for them. Increased costs, tariffs, etc. never came into the conversation.
Once I discovered and purchased 2 Euro-Mini Urbanos in lieu of your products, and began to discuss them on this very forum, you contacted me directly to question the validity of the 24lb weight claim Euro MIni makes for this model (Now Zizzo…same company, same owners, same bikes) and later when they landed a contract with Costco, one you claimed here that that would be their death-knell. My response to you was that you sounded like a jealous business competitor of theirs. They’re still VERY much in business, and I can call them now and speak to the same folks I spoke with in 2017.
All that said. I have no personal beef with you, but find your business practices as they’ve applied to me, distasteful, as business goes where it feels welcomed. You unfortunately have enjoyed none of my business as an outcome, and I’ve since purchased several bikes elsewhere (inc 4 Euro Mini/Zizzo). There is more to the buy/sell value proposition from THIS buyer’s point of view, and I suspect others, than specs and pricing.
Not that it matters now, but I’m not certain that point isn’t lost on you.