You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
Is this a late night rambling, or will we be seeing a new 'inbred'? Dawn of the less ****ery bicycle....cheap, simple, fun bikes?
Seems to have been building up to something.
Or it could just be a big sham to see who bites 😉
pretty confident that bikes aren't in the pipeline
Seems pretty clear. They're gonna make some budget bikes.
But some will be titanium, so maybe not low budget.
They've probably looked at PX and thought "we could do that a bit better", and maybe they could (on the MTB side anyway).
good luck to em if they do.
i use em for all sorts of stuff.
always on time, and always a good price.
Doh forgot my emoji
I follow them, as they do sometimes have bargains but some of their posts, such as the above, I have no idea what they're on about.
READ THE POST ITS DEAD CLEAR WHAT THEY ARE DOING sorry for the caps
Perhaps someone who uses Instagram could cut and paste the relevant content into this thread?
Ok so yes lets get on with it .
Been thinking about bikes recently .
Im supposed to have retired and nearly did.
Met one of my old right hand men this weekend who is now a big cheese at one of the major bike online brands .
Everything is so boring and corporate and expensive and “theres no one doing what you used to do”
By that he think he means that as me and Brant used to say “everything is now over ****ed”
Anyway I need a new bike for bozzing about on and so yes were going to knock up a few frames and maybe build a few bikes.
Steel, alloy, titanium but no carbon .
Cant see much I like at the moment so easiest is just make it yourself .
Thank you.
So two blokes had a conversation and decided that there aren't enough bike brands in the world?
Ok.
Sounds about right.
While I doubt we'll be seeing the £200 singlespeeds of yore, it'll be interesting to see what will be done.
Niche company will make niche bikes and sell a few to a few STWers mostly... yeah, i'm not seeing it working long term.
Not sure I agree Weeksy. Plenty of market for cheaper do it all bikes. Inbreds and carbon 456’s sold loads. To an extent some of sonders bikes fill that gap, amongst others.
STW forum users are not a particularly accurate proxy for most cyclists. If they’re within CTW range too imagine that will further help them. But I don’t know, maybe I’m wrong.
READ THE POST ITS DEAD CLEAR WHAT THEY ARE DOING sorry for the caps
TBH I was too busy wondering what the **** the images and captions were all about. Who is that dickhead anyway? Am I supposed to recognize him? Or is it that IYKYK bullshit and IYDKWDWYM? NTIGAMRN.
Anyway, apologies for coming across as a grumpy dickhead! I bought one of their t-shirts once, I like it - it's relatable, it bears the legend "it's not easy being steezy" accompanied with an illustration of a king on a bike in a playing card style . Genuinely asking, the guy labelled "clueless dickhead", is that the brant brant brant guy?
Not sure I agree Weeksy. Plenty of market for cheaper do it all bikes. Inbreds and carbon 456’s sold loads. To an extent some of sonders bikes fill that gap, amongst others.
STW forum users are not a particularly accurate proxy for most cyclists. If they’re within CTW range too imagine that will further help them. But I don’t know, maybe I’m wrong.
But the general public have to find them. Cheap bikes are ace, but only if marketed right and PlanetX appealed to the niche lot but your average guy buys his bikes in Halfords and Costco. So unless they can somehow market the cheap bikes to blokes with £500 to spend then I think they'll struggle long term.
you do realise that dave started planet x and on one?? he knows what to do mate to make a brand work
you do realise that dave started planet x and on one?? he knows what to do mate to make a brand work
Didn't they fold due to financial issues?
I think there's a gap in the market. If they keep A simple range if well priced bikes and decent parts and geometry that appeals to luddite leaning folk*
* that's not throwing shade by the way. I think many people are genuinely perplexed by how complex and confusing bikes have got nowadays - both the bikes themselves - (electronics, internal cables, weird standards etc) and all the variations of bikes you can buy.
The planet x and on one ranges just seem to have got into a complete mess for the last few years IMHO. It's all so overlapping, unclear and underwhelming I don't want to buy any of it. Sonders range is much more understandable and desireable but too many options for many people and also not generally really that cheap.
I think there's a gap in the market. If they keep A simple range if well priced bikes and decent parts and geometry that appeals to luddite leaning folk*
* that's not throwing shade by the way. I think many people are genuinely perplexed by how complex and confusing bikes have got nowadays - both the bikes themselves - (electronics, internal cables, weird standards etc) and all the variations of bikes you can buy. It's now often more like buying and running a car than a bloody pushbike.
The planet x and on one ranges just seem to have got into a complete mess for the last few years IMHO. It's all so overlapping, unclear and underwhelming I don't want to buy any of it. Sonders range is much more understandable and desireable but too many options for many people and also not generally really that cheap.
Not sure what happened there. I went to edit but quoted instead!
I’m not sure if rhe gap is there anymore, PX/OO sort of led the way and subsequently others got in on the act and you can buy ~£1k HTs or £2-300 frames from a couple of places today (including PX on occasion still).
Yet another brand doing the same and/or offering “cheap ti”? It’s a gamble.
Personally I’d like to see some Ragley-like frames as they seem to have been a casualty of the chiggle apocalypse.
I'm sure the frames will be decent if Brant is designing them, and I'm sure they'll find buyers.
Personally I’d like to see some Ragley-like frames as they seem to have been a casualty of the chiggle apocalypse.
Yes. This is exactly the kind of gap I think they could fill.
On One frames are getting dated (e.g. the Scandal was designed by Brant years ago IIRC and it could do with a geometry refresh), Sonder MTB frames are always slightly off the mark for me, Cotic are £££ now, Ragley is gone...
Probably not gonna become a household name brand though.
Sonder frames always look a bit odd and/awkward to me. Just aesthetically they look a bit outdated (regardless of their geo), apart from that Ti DJ bike they custom made once, that looked awesome.
It would be great to get set of Ragley style frames, but less so if they then stick with their 500 quid one week, 150 quid the next pricing strategy
Sonder frames always look a bit odd and/awkward to me. Just aesthetically they look a bit outdated (regardless of their geo)
I'd agree with this, but the geometry also usually seems a little off the pace.
less so if they then stick with their 500 quid one week, 150 quid the next pricing strategy
They absolutely need to just have a clear, fair price and stick with it. Will those two be able to resist though?
I've loved plenty of On-one or Planet X bikes over the years, and think budget bikes with sorted geometry and decent specs are fantastic for getting folks into cycling. If I was in the market for a cheap starter bike though, I'd just buy a Calibre from my nearest Go Outdoors.
There's always room for more choice though, so good luck to them.
Actually, if there was a new version of the Pompino, I might be tempted to buy one, single speed of course.
They've probably looked at PX and thought "we could do that a bit better", and maybe they could (on the MTB side anyway).
Erm… Dave Loughran WAS PlanetX/OnOne… Until he “sold” it to the employees at least… Then started his own discount warehouse (Banana Industries) once more, knowing that he can do what he does best (shagging prices and pissing the rest of the industry off) better than anyone else…
I don’t think he’s looked at anything other than to see how they’re not following his own business model anywhere near as well as they were when he was still at the helm!
I wonder how cheaply they could knock out a Surly Straggler or Grappler for? I'd be tempted if the price was right.
A bike that sits between a mountain bike and gravel bike, for big days in the Highlands, that you don't mind too much if your bike bags rug a bit.
2 x 10 speed, with no weird standards.
Big tyre clearance
Relaxed enough geometry to ride steeper trails
Comfy riding position for all day riding
Dropper post fitted as standard
Bold paintjobs and artwork
Cheap / affordable
Actually, if there was a new version of the Pompino, I might be tempted to buy one, single speed of course.
This +1
I'd like more 'old standards' simple bikes but with just enough modern updates to make them worthwhile (and to make them as compatible as possible)
I want a 100/135 QR single speed gravel bike because I have stacks of old parts like that. But give it updated geometry, and flat mounts. And a similar hardtail, think Stooge Dirttracker or Singular Swift, but with QR's, slot dropouts and half the price (because no EBB, axles, bent tube, simpler fork).
But the general public have to find them. Cheap bikes are ace, but only if marketed right and PlanetX appealed to the niche lot but your average guy buys his bikes in Halfords and Costco. So unless they can somehow market the cheap bikes to blokes with £500 to spend then I think they'll struggle long term.
I disagree to a large extent.
I agree the general public will buy whatever their local shops sell. Reading has a lot of brightly coloured Roscoes because that's what Evans sells (even more obvious now that Halfords in Whitley closed).
But although Planet-X was never Trek, I'd be surprised if there weren't more Pro-Carbons in the UK than Madones even at the height of Armstrongs marketability. People will buy good bikes at keen prices just via word of mouth. And they repeated that time and time again.
Pompino, every other fixie in london was a blue pompino during peak post-indie Hipster in the late 2000's
456carbon,
Fatty, arrived mid party to be told that it wasn't as cool as Surly, it's standards weren't fashionable, and now everyone wanted the 8" axles the new kid was packing, still seemed to be everywhere compared to both though.
Track bikes, cheap, won lots, still hugely popular.
TT/Tri bikes, just like the track (IIRC they were literally just like the track, but with the dropouts spread an extra 10mm).
It'd be nice to see them back to those glory days.
Erm… Dave Loughran WAS PlanetX/OnOne… Until he “sold” it to the employees at least… Then started his own discount warehouse (Banana Industries) once more, knowing that he can do what he does best (shagging prices and pissing the rest of the industry off) better than anyone else…
I think there is definitely space in the industry for companies to buy the big boys' excess OEM stock and flog it to those of use who aren't too fussed what we buy, we just want at least a 70% discount.
The problem is some companies were too successful at this and suddenly the market was being flooded with the big boys' 'excess' OEM stock.
Anyway, if we're using this thread to say what we'd like cheap versions of, I'd like a cheap BTR Belter please.
Erm… Dave Loughran WAS PlanetX/OnOne… Until he “sold” it to the employees at least… Then started his own discount warehouse (Banana Industries) once more, knowing that he can do what he does best (shagging prices and pissing the rest of the industry off) better than anyone else…
I don’t think he’s looked at anything other than to see how they’re not following his own business model anywhere near as well as they were when he was still at the helm!
Yeah, that's pretty much why I said they probably think they could do it better.
Plus PX have lost their way a bit on the MTB side. You can choose from a mad slack & heavy steel HT, or a load of slightly outdated trail HTs.
Actually, if there was a new version of the Pompino, I might be tempted to buy one, single speed of course.
Didn’t PX do something similar last year, but with a fatter head tube… and no bastard bought it.
2 x 10 speed, with no weird standards.
I'd be interested to see how well other 'outdated' standards sell?
When I bought my bike earlier this year I was adamant I didn't want 2x11 because I keep bikes a long time so didn't want things to be obsolete sooner than necessary. 2x11 105 bikes were actually cheaper than their 2025 versions, even if they were otherwise totally identical, even down to the color like the alloy Cannondale Synapse by more than the cost of a whole 12s group set. So my suspicion was they don't sell well.
OTOH there are plenty of current models with SRAM "22" group sets, GRX's product line is best described as confusing with a mix of Ultegra and 105 in their only 12s groupset.
I suggested 100/135 QR because almost every 142 rear hub is convertible to 135, and QR-12mm and QR-15mm conversion axles exist. And while post mount and IS did make a brief appearance on drop bar bikes it was short lived so I doubt there's huge numbers sat spare. What there are probably hundreds of ~1800g 29er wheelsets with QR hubs and ~i21 rims that would be perfect on a commuter / tourer.
I was going to post earlier isn't it the price of the components, especially drivetrains (these days), that bumps the price up... even "cheap" Chinese brakes (hi Lewis) are expensive. Have picked up 4pot Saint/Zee for reasonable prices in the past, don't mind spending a little extra on brakes.
Always found Shimano XT 9 speed shadow deraileurs & shifters worked very reliably. Triple cranksets for commuter bike (48/36/24 iirc) (2x is the work of the devil!), 1x for rigid MTB (with any old cheap chinese NW chainring 32/34/36 depending on my mood/leg strength/purpose).
11speed is the most modern drivetrain I have on my bikes.
I think there is definitely space in the industry for companies to buy the big boys' excess OEM stock and flog it to those of use who aren't too fussed what we buy, we just want at least a 70% discount.
The problem is some companies were too successful at this and suddenly the market was being flooded with the big boys' 'excess' OEM stock.
As a 15yr+ industry veteran, I'd still wholeheartedly agree with you... But when the big OEM's become lazy, knowing that they can shift any excess stock for more than they paid for it still at the end of a production run, and it becomes an entire business model for PX/Merlin/CRC etc... Something is wrong! When the expectation of price and availability for heavily in demand parts is at least 50% discount, something is very wrong!
That they are there ready to take advantage of said circumstances is brilliant, but it does need to become the exception rather than the norm...
Didn’t PX do something similar last year, but with a fatter head tube… and no bastard bought it.
Sold out
https://planetx.co.uk/products/on-one-mulo-frame
Rim brakes, the shortest headtube ever, and no fork makes it pretty niche though.
Charge did it better, this but in a nice butted steel tube set would be tempting.
If you take a quick look through the Banana Industries website, there are parts, frames/forks, wheels that will beuild a very nice flat bar CX/gravel bike up for v little cash - they've got enough going on already to start shipping some nice bikes at very good prices....
Dave Loughran knows what he's doing and I'm sure whatever they do it'll be great
Sold out
eventually and after the asking price was dropped to £100. I haven’t seen one in the wild yet.
I agree charge did it better.
I suppose there was a bit of a ‘peak’ in people wanting affordable SS/fixed CX/commuter/winter road workhorses about 2006-15ish and then it’s sort of dropped off since partly because hipsters discovered vintage bikes and partly because Gravel bikes sort of took off with some of the same demographics.
Probably due for a bit of a resurgence as COL bites more and ‘affordable bikes as transport’ becomes an interesting concept again.
On another thread I predicted a resurgence in simple, "XC" Hardtails, designed to appeal to those gravel riders for whom drop bars don't work and who want 2" or so of tyre width. I reckon we'll see some niche players to start with before the big dogs jump in. Marketing will be along the lines of "so light, you don't even need an engine". Top of the range will be all decked out in carbon wheels and lightweight components but there will be lower end models at a more affordable price.
I like my surly. Stooge sell out every time they release a new bike. If they're anything like those, they'll sell well and I wish them all the best with it.
I'm not convinced this will be a great thing as the end of line Olsen stuff is pretty meh to be honest. I had an olsen when they first cam out and the build quality was not great (being polite) and carbon forks we're just straight catalogue ones available from various chinese carbon folks with varying levels of QC.
Given the issues with cheapo carbon forks snapping at the steerer and the resulting court case for planet X/ one one, I certainly wasn't confident that these were tip top thrashable things.
If you want to take a flyer on the last couple of ti frames with no warranty support, then you can possibly build something pretty decent and the crap bits wont worry you as you've not paid much for it.
some middle of the road, catalogue frames with a hint of rebranding is what I'm expecting, much like the on-one/titus/holdsworth stuff, so possibly good for a cheap pub commute bike that wont matter if it gets nicked.