Tax and customs now included in price!

You many have noticed that our prices have risen. This is because we have finally been able to work with our couriers to pay the tax and customs for you. I know that it has put many potential customers off, knowing that the bike would arrive with a bill, and now, you pay one price, and that's it. We're very pleased to be able to offer this.

World Naked Bike Ride Again

My wife doesn't like to ride solo, so we took our tandem. That meant only one Downtube on this year's ride!

Smithfield Nocturne - Representing the Downtubeisti

The race ready bike shown below was not built for nothing. In fact, I raced it at the Smithfield Nocturne Commuters Folding Bike Challenge, a criterium race where the competitors run 30m to their folded bikes, unfold, and race 4 laps.

I wasn't really in shape to challenge, but I almost made the cut for the final, finishing 23rd (I think) out of 40 competitors in my heat. Nest year, I'll be fit, and I hereby promise a position in the final, and will aim for the top half of that as well. If anyone fancies bringing their Downtube along too, and racing the myriad Bromptons, then perhaps we can be Team Velo Chocolate? Let me know, and we can go next year.

My 12 year old son, however, has nothing to regret, as he tried out on the roller-racing (track bikes on rollers) and set both the top 2 times in the jnr category, against approx 150 other competitors. Not bad!




And Sam Jnr in action!

A Race Ready Downtube?

I have the latest model 9 FS as a demonstrator, which means that the 07 model I had previously was rather redundant. I use the FS9 regularly, so that I'm in a real position to comment on the usefulness of the bike in day to day riding, so what was my old IXFS to do? Well, I decided to convert it into more of a fast road bike, in preparation for a folding bike race. I swapped in old drop handlebars (up til the late 80's, drop bars had the same clamp diameter that mountain bike bars have now, so if you have old drops, they'll go straight on to your Downtube). I put on Tektro brake levers designed for V brakes (regular caliper brake levers don't pull enough cable), and replaced the twist grip shifter with an old Suntour bar-end shifter I had in a box somewhere. I wrapped the bars with elkhide wrap from www.velo-orange.com (if you don't know Velo Orange, go visit, they rule), and added a honey Brooks B17 to match. Finally, I swapped out the chainring for a 52t item for higher gearing (I'm a bit of a masher), and put on high pressure Schwalbe Marathon tyres. Here's the result, and isn't it a handsome looking Downtube?

Website Finally Fixed!

Finally the Velo Chocolate website is back in working order. Huge thanks are due to Dave Walker, who voluntarily looked over my bodged and fudged HTML, and offered the solution. Dave, you're a lifesaver, and should we meet, I'll buy you a beer or three.

Problems, and temporary solutions

I would like to apologise for ongoing site problems with Velo Chcolate. Our email has been down, and is now fixed, so if you've been trying to get in touch, I apologise; please try again.

Similarly, our site is garbled, and I can't work out why. I believe you can read all of the information (albeit with difficulty), but the buy-it-now links are not working. In the short term, please use the links below.

Finally, customers should be aware that our attempt to arrange to pay import taxes was a failure; the couriers would agree to send the bill to us, but would instead send it to the customer. Since customers were paying us in advance for the shipping, this led to refunds and aggravation, so we're admitting defeat. From now on, you should expect your bike to be accompanied by a bill for import taxes, which according to EU regs should be 19.9%. The good news is, this means we don't have to raise our prices. The bikes have got significantly more expensive, but we're holding the price, and simply removing the "we pay the tax" part.

Purchase links:

Full Suspension 9 Speed

http://velochocolate.co.uk/html/foldingbikes/fs9contactpage.html

Full Suspension 8 Speed Hub Gear

http://velochocolate.co.uk/html/foldingbikes/fs8hcontactpage.html

Front Suspension 9 Speed

http://velochocolate.co.uk/html/foldingbikes/9contactpage.html

Front Suspension 8 Speed Hub Gear

http://velochocolate.co.uk/html/foldingbikes/8hcontactpage.html

Mini

http://velochocolate.co.uk/html/foldingbikes/downtubeMinicontactpage.html

2009 Downtube Range available Now!

So, we've just launched almost the full range of current Downtube models! Very exciting. We don't currently have the No Suspension, since Downtube are very short of those, but the Front and Full suspension models have joined the Mini, in both 9 speed derailleur and 8 speed hub gear versions.

These bikes will be drop-shipped direct from the USA - the warehousing of bikes in Britain caused Downtube many problems, and a great deal of cost. The good news is, they should arrive within 3-4 days of order date, and all the tax will be paid, so what you pay is what you pay, the bike arrives, and it's yours! Prices have of course risen significantly - anyone who didn't believe the prices we had really represented a sale, and was holding out to get the new model year bikes at the same price will be severely disappointed. In reality, the current prices reflect what it actually costs to get these bikes to you. It's the US price, plus the cost of air-courier, and the tax.

We could of course ship them to the UK en masse by boat, and that would make the courier charges much lower, but then we'd have higher warehousing costs, plus we'd get hit with a gigantic anti-dumping duty, and the price would be very similar. By doing it this way, we can make sure that the European market is offered exactly what the US market has, rather than the situation we've had where there's a warehouse full of old stock needing to be sold. And we're still cheaper, and better, than Dahon! Hurrah!