wks

Yes, that's becoming obvious the more I phone around. Lots of shops willing to order in for me, but they expect me to fund their business by paying upfront and no option of declining or cancelling if found unsuitable and no matter how long delivery is delayed ie "time is not of the essence" in lawyer speak. Nice business model but not one that I will give my custom to. And yes, I do expect shops to keep stocks of bikes. If they can't afford stock, what collatdral is there to protect any payments made to them in the unfortunate event they go bust betwixt payment and delivery?

12 weeks to make a bike, + 8 weeks lead time. Staggering. Going the custom build route I'm seeing quotes of only 6 weeks, and that's for a bespoke rig, not assembling from a very limited set of options in RM's case (and I don't understand why USA customers seem to get choice of tyres, brakes etc that UK doesn't). I do like RM, I had a Birdy Blue for over 10 years, but these supply times are ridiculous. The possibility of an unscheduled rapid exit from the EU within that timescale is sufficiently high with consequential dislocation of an order/increased price that I think RM are probably not an option. I am very dissapointed.

Thank you for the comments. Sadly, no one seems to know of a rohloff belt machine available now. Don't want to get into the chain/belt discussion, I am familiar with pros/cons of belt drives. And I never replace chains or gears on a bike, always worked ok so far. However, fallback could be a Charger with chainglide. It's sad that the RM rohloff/belt won't be around for a year or so, but I need to buy within the next few weeks or I will be without a bike.

OK, thank you for that. I cannot remembef if I saw those, I will have anothdr look. I should have made myself clearer, R&M don't do a rohloff / belt drive combo, which is what I'm looking for.

Hello, I am after someadvice please. I am planning to buy a replacement pedelec for my haibike eq trekking, which was bought 6 years ago. It is being handed on to my daughter. I had pretty much decided on a Riese & Muller bike, probably either a Homage or Charger Mixte but R&M don't do rohloff with a belt drive. My requirements are for: A similar gear range (Haibike is a Sram 27 speed dual drive with development measured at 1.85m – 9.70m although the manual says the gear range is 576%). I want internal hub gears, the rohloff has 526% gear range, nuvinci 380 only 380% on paper. Belt drive, either gates carbon or similar. R&M do a nuvinci/gates specification but for unknown reasons not a rohloff/gates (they do exist, I have seen a pedelec MTB with it). Trailer compatible rear wheel, for a burley flatbed. Bosch cx motor. A local bike shop can service them and in reviews it seems to come out on top for torque. Road capable from the start, ie rear rack, mudguard, bell, lights. Low step through, or Mixte as R&M call it. I have a dutch 'krat' which goes on top of the rear rack, basically an up market milk crate with nio internal dividers. Great for piling stuff in but makes it unfeasible for anyone but a trained ballerina to swing a leg over the seat. Bike must be useable without the battery. My Haibike has dynamo lights (auto-sensing flash in daylight, switching to steady beam at night), but most pedelecs now seem to need the battery to power lights. Suspension would be nice, if full suspension it must include the rear rack (reviews for homage and charger are conflicting about whether rack is floating or not). Front suspension only would be ok. I would really like sturmey archer hub brakes but they only seem to be an option on tadpoles nowadays ;-) There were some issues when I got my Haibike, so I will only buy and collect from a physical shop, and I probably won't buy without a trial ride. Because I don't own a car, travel is limited to bike shops near a mainline station. Budget is essentially unlimited; if need be I will go the custom build route. However I really need to get one within the next few months and would prefer to buy off the shelf. So, anyone any ideas? I have trawled google results without success so far and am about to start tearing my hair out.