Raleigh Leicester E

[flecc]

Hi

Have tried 3 times via e-mail & web page form to get price for this seemingly well priced bike from bridbikes.

NO RESPONSE

Can anyone help ?

Capncook

The last time I looked they had virtually no stock and they'd been relegated to a lowly place in the site. They may get no more before next spring since, like most big producers, Derby Cycles probably require orders for each season and once the allocated bikes have gone, that's often it. Since this is an issue rarely understood by consumers they may just be ducking the question.
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[Schwinnfan]

Raleigh Leicster E

Guys, if it helps, I have had 2 Schwinss from Bridlington and now have 2 Raleigh Leicester E. They do Tony, have the 10 amp battery and thanks for instruction, they have 19 tooth gear.

Some thoughts for consideration; Raleigh have been threatening to get into the uk pedelec market for a couple of years and have not done it yet, leading to Bridlington marketing on the back of a promise from Raleigh.

Schwinn importer no longer in a position to supply.

I have no financial involvement whatsoever with Paul but I have dealt with Paul for three years now, he has never let me down, i have had one stand failure on a Raleigh replaced in days, spare batteries for our Raleighs supplied at cost, 19 tooth gears supplied no charge.

As for all the Schwinn failures, anyone with half a technical mind looking at the electrical connection could replace four screws on the control box with larger ones and do the hundreds of miles that we did without a glitch.

Any of you on here who have a business should recognise someone trying to build a business, this a good honest person, battling against a situation where an importer has a given franchise tied up tight and other suppliers and sporadic at best, irregular normally and useless sometimes.

I head something called the Fair Play charater, a trading standards body for motor traders, i see good and bad serice every day and this is good.
Phil

 

[flecc]

No its not good Phil, capncook cannot get any answer which is hardly excusable, so something isn't that perfect?

With regard to the reference to Raleigh. Raleigh gmbh is a division of Derby Cycles who produce the Panasonic motored bikes in various names as Kalkhoff, Raleigh etc, and they are nothing to do with Raleigh in the UK now, though historically they were once the same company.

The Raleigh UK company have a joint agreement on e-bike marketing with Powabyke, the X type Powabyke being the result, so they are in the market and have been for a while. I doubt they welcome the Derby Cycles bikes being sold here using the Raleigh name. Equally I doubt Derby Cycles are particularly interested in promotion of their Raleigh name here since they are already fully represented by a main agent with the same bikes under the Kalkhoff name.

I sympathise with Hilderthorpe's position on supplies since it's one that all small companies suffer, but where the Raleigh gmbh bikes are concerned, it was their choice to bring them in in these difficult circumstances with an established agent already in place for the bikes under another badge.

That's no excuse for failure to communicate with customers though.
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[Alex728]

I found the website/shop referred too. Surely if they can't provide a timely answer to potential customers or there are no bikes of that make they should simply be honest about it, and also remove the line item from the website and concentrate the resources on serving existing customers or marketing stuff they can get?

ignoring potential customers correspondence helps no-body..

 

[Schwinnfan]

Tony and Alex, i agree with what both of you say. But, my angle is that of someone who has dealt with them. The recent behaviour and quality of website, the latter which I rang Paul and pointed out, do not represent my experience of them.

Last time I spoke to them, they were just opening a second shop and run off their feet.

On the supply side, Tony I told you some of my background, and distributor arrangements never work. I think that Hilderthorpe have tried routes to stand alone with Giant for example, but they also appear to be dipping in and out of the market, bearing in mind that most of this has happened during a torrid two years.

 

[capncook]

Thanks chaps.

No reply is hardly good business. Any reply, even an acknowledgement is better than nothing.

It's probably an Agattu now, for the Panasonic drive rather than a Gepida which I did like

Capncook

 

[Cyclezee]

My advice for what it is worth is, if you want a Panasonic powered bike, go to an e-bike specialist for either a Kalkhoff or an E-motion.

J hn

 

[flecc]

I agree with John, but if you were set on Gepida, they have appointed a large number of dealers, just click dealers on this webpage to see them all:

Gepida UK
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[flecc]

Tony and Alex, i agree with what both of you say. But, my angle is that of someone who has dealt with them. The recent behaviour and quality of website, the latter which I rang Paul and pointed out, do not represent my experience of them.

Last time I spoke to them, they were just opening a second shop and run off their feet.

On the supply side, Tony I told you some of my background, and distributor arrangements never work. I think that Hilderthorpe have tried routes to stand alone with Giant for example, but they also appear to be dipping in and out of the market, bearing in mind that most of this has happened during a torrid two years.

As you saw in my first post Phil, I was giving a reason why they may have stock difficulties, not criticising them on that. I can well understand your loyalty to Paul in response to the excellent service you've received, but no retail business should need an apologist, it should stand or fall on it's performance.

Again, I appreciate the problems they face with attempting distribution, but I strongly disagree that they never work. The reason they haven't worked for Hilderthorpe is their poor decisions. They took on the first Schwinn e-bike model when a Schwinn vice president had already withdrawn the e-bike from market as not up to standard, and as a result received a very poor review from A to B magazine. They then took on Sun e-bikes which were odd to say the least with their tiny handlebar batteries, and then seem to have dropped the brand just as fast. Then they took on the Derby Cycles Raleigh gmbh brand in the full knowledge that Derby already had full representation here with an official national agent for the UK.

This prompts me to say, why don't they just take on dealerships and not attempt distribution at this stage? They do seem to be running before they can walk. Most of the big boys in many retail spheres today started with one outlet dealerships and that didn't stop them growing into the large national roles they have today. One of them got the sack from a national dealership (Bennets), set up in opposition with one shop with dealerships and today is the dominant player DSG (Stanley Kalms, founder of Dixons, Currys, PC World).
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[Alex728]

Tony and Alex, i agree with what both of you say. But, my angle is that of someone who has dealt with them. The recent behaviour and quality of website, the latter which I rang Paul and pointed out, do not represent my experience of them.

Last time I spoke to them, they were just opening a second shop and run off their feet.

Fair enough - its easy for a business to become a "victim of its own success" particularly when expanding (it looks like that is what unfortunately happened to the Wisper dealer in SE England that David from Wisper fired!)

Fair play to you as well for telephoning the shop owner and alerting him to this issue - I hope he gets the chance to buy you a pint of good ale or make some other token of appreciation (if you don't drink) for the free consultancy...

 

[Schwinnfan]

Raleigh Leicster E

Tony, fairly put, but I have been at the wrong end of distributors, when something doesnt sell well you get too much, when something sells well you get none. One observation I have about most small businesses is that they are either business people and not good in the field they are in, bikes for example, or bike fanatics or whatever their field, but not good business people.

Every day of my life I deal with similar situations, i have commercial properties and shops and Paul is typical.

One thing i have suggested to him is to sit down with 50 Cycles, but I have no idea why this is a none starter. It strikes me as a win win, (albeit Tony it would be a distributor situation)

Most of my conversations with Paul are about commercial leases, landlord tenants act, investment property and an area of pensions called SIPPS. We occaisionally get onto bikes and if you know the lads at 50 Cycles, let me know if that idea is a starter.

Cheers

Phil

 

[flecc]

One observation I have about most small businesses is that they are either business people and not good in the field they are in, bikes for example, or bike fanatics or whatever their field, but not good business people.

That is so true Phil, almost but not quite a universal truth, and it helps explain why only a tiny minority reach the higher levels. It worried me that you said Paul had opened a second shop and was run off his feet, a recipe more for illness than success. Getting organised is always the number one priority before any expansion, and a businessman should never be run off his feet "firefighting" the workload.

One thing i have suggested to him is to sit down with 50 Cycles, but I have no idea why this is a none starter. It strikes me as a win win, (albeit Tony it would be a distributor situation)

The local dealership for brands is far preferable for a shop, since being a direct agent for a brand as Hilderthorpe have tried with Schwinn, Sun and Raleigh gmbh means a high workload with big responsibilities such as spares supplies, all conflicting with the day to day duties of a bicycle shop proprietor. By contrast, a brand dealership gains the support of the supplying distributor for spares etc and lessens the responsibilty to have reserve stocks. meaning a lower capital requirement. As a dealer for a brand it's normal shop/internet work fitting in with all the rest. The margins are lower, but larger margins are not much use if the products are not available as Hilderthorpe appear to be suffering at present with Raleigh gmbh etc.

If you mean sitting down with 50cycles regarding a proposal to be an official distributor for Raleigh gmbh, I couldn't see them being happy with that as it would be a rival situation. They may well be happy to have the company as a Kalkhoff local agent, though possibly not with rival internet sales.

Paul could alternatively approach Wisper for a dealership since that is now a very successful brand offering excellent support to dealers with all sales referred through dealers, Wisper not selling direct to customers. In turn that means Wisper's agents are free to sell on the internet as well, fitting perfectly with Paul's business model of shop and internet sales. I believe Powacycle also trade in the same way, and the long established Powabyke certainly do, so that's three well known and respected brands that might be available in Paul's area.

Being a sole distributor for a brand might seem a very attractive position, but it only works for those who only do that and work at building up that as a stand alone business in the way 50cycles did. As a sideline for a bicycle shop I think it's full of pitfalls.
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[Schwinnfan]

Raleigh Leicster E

Tony, if you know the guys at 50 Cycles, maybe we can bring them together. I agree on the internet marketing, but this would be almost a subfranchise arrangement and I suppose it would only work if everyone could freely market, but with pricing agreements etc.

Phil

 

[flecc]

Phil, please see your PMs for the reply.
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[stokepa31_mk2]

Hi All - its been a while

My local bike shop are stocking these now. Ebikes finally hitting the mainstream cycle shops. met the raleigh rep in the shop today. was interested to note that Lloyd from 50c (or formerly i guess now) is providing the dealer training. I remember him being a top guy so it could well work.

its been a couple of years since i flogged my ebike. I now ride a scott CR1 which I can now pedal as quick as my old agattu Ive lost 4 stone in weight and have just returned from doing London Paris. just goes to show what a positive impact ebikes had on my life. I also now appreciate what Flecc says about the terrain in the Downs. Turners Hill near killed me

Hope you are all well

Paul

 

[flecc]

Welcome back Paul, long time no hear as you say. Good to hear that you are well and so fit now.

That Scott is a beautiful bike and looks extremely light, well under half an Agattu I'd think.
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[stokepa31_mk2]

shes a real beauty. mostly ultegra wih DA chainset. Thats the one good thing about coming from an ebike background - you are already used to shelling out the big money for a bike

I am starting to see a few more ebikes about now and always try and stop for a chat with the riders. they seem to like it that i take an interest as most of the cycling fraternity are still a bit elitist when it comes to electric.

Hope you are well Tony. l drop back in and let you know how the Ralieghs are going in the LBS.

For anyone who may be interested the bikes are going to be stocked at Covventry Cycle Centre.