I thought this would stump people. I reckon even after I tell you the brand you'll still not have heard of it. So I'll tell you the tale of it.
The brand was called Ferrero Cycles and the model name? The imaginative "TY15" - yep they named the bike after the mech!
https://companycheck.co.uk/company/03063121/FERRERO-CYCLES-UK-LIMITED/companies-house-data
The company was....erm...unique, The bikes weren't too bad, better quality than the cheap Magna and similar bikes that were around but being Italian they were rather overpriced for a budget bike. When I went to work for them after a stint of piecework wheelbuilding for Orbit bikes, the MD proudly told me that their bikes wheels were built by robots which could get a far better wheel than any human....and that the rims were not aluminium alloy like most but pure aluminium! I learned quickly to just nod my head and say nowt.
Similarly, their claim was that their bikes weren't just to BS6102 part 1 like others, but theirs were to BS6102 parts 1 & 2. Part 2 was the reflectors BTW, to comply with part 1 reflectors are needed which had to be 6102/2 so this was patent bollocks too.
There were only a couple of models, the TY15 in silver / red and another one in silver / blue. There was one other with Altus but we only ever had a couple of their..erm.."flagship" - this TY15 was the main one. But most didn't stay that way....
There was a half-decent idea there however..but implemented in a bizarre way. After buying in pre-assembled bikes we dismantled about half of them - the workshop was full of tubs of mechs, bottom brackets, headsets etc etc. Because the idea was to get contracts for sports clubs, businesses etc and produce bikes in the team or corporate colours. So the frames were then blasted, and sprayed but in two-pack car paint, before being put back together again. Re-using old bearings that had sat in rusty tubs, the grease picking up bits of rust etc before they were re-used.
Another problem was the price was way too high anyway; there was no way a bike could be re-sold to a club to then add their margin and maintain a realistic selling price, so this labour just wasn't factored in so each bike was sold at a loss. Even then they were too expensive so usually only the one-off sample bike was produced, or a couple on a small trial order. I don't recall any repeat orders.
One model I do recall was a bike for the Sheffield Steelers (Ice Hockey) and this was to be launched in one of the intervals between quarters (or whatever the correct terminology was). And I was to be the star of the show. For star of the show read "nitwit riding a bike on an ice rink". I did get a practice session and it was surprisingly easy - after the players had churned up the ice. Of course on the day, with a full crowd for what was apparently an important game....the Zamboni came straight out after the quarter - before I was to go on! What a great job that machine does of creating an absolutely smooth sheet of ice!!! That was a long walk of shame across to retrieve the bike that pirouetted seemingly forever across the rink -
sans-rider!
Somewhere along the line, a deal with Bianchi was announced, with Ferrero UK to be the UK distributor. A launch party was announced in the local press and it all seemed exciting if a bit weird that this funny little place in a backstreet industrial unit was to be home to a premium brand. Of course none of this ever happened, the MD grumbled that someone had done the dirty. I think it was all in his mind and it was never happening, ever!
Shortly after that the company started to run out of bikes and, because they had effectively been running at a loss, there was no money to get a new shipment of bikes from Italy..but did that put paid to the efforts? Nope...I mentioned the lower quality Magna bikes that flooded the market mid-late 90s...well that's just what they went out and bought!
So did we have a store full of Magna branded bikes? Of course not....
Into the workshop the boxes went and the bikes were stripped down, blasted and sprayed in the same silver with red spray-over bits. And the "Ferrero Cycles" decals carefully applied and so these Magnas were sold as something they weren't. Again with no real accounting for time, paint etc....
The inevitable of course happened and the money continued to run out and one morning we turned up to a locked building - bailiffs had taken possession of the premises for unpaid rent, and most of the stock.
Down but not out..yet. We were told that this was nothing to worry about as new premises were already in hand - and a new upgrade. With the few bits of stock left available after the bailiffs had taken so much, and some from the small Chesterfield shop where I guess this
ebay bike came from, we were presented with our new store. And it was shiny and new, on a new build trading / industrial estate.
So new, in fact that there was no running water and only a couple of electrical sockets. But we duly set up shop there, even though nobody would have had a clue that we were there to come and look at or buy any bikes. And we couldn't really advertise because you might have guessed from the lack of running water that the building was not supposed to be occupied...they had the keys on the basis of having a look round and we were basically squatters!
This also coincided with a change in the weekly pay being in the old fashioned brown envelope, to cheque. Which turned out to be handy because if you dropped it it would bounce....
A couple of weeks of squatting an empty unit, with the work rota now including sleeping as "security" - i.e. occupying; and having to take the accountant's car on a 1.5 mile trip to Meadowhall for toilet breaks that couldn't be taken up the back wall and it was finally all over
So there you have the story of that bike - it's certainly unique but was I going to pay £160 for it just for old times sake? Not blimmin likely! (I think the original selling price was £189). Although it IS one of the genuine Italian ones, I can tell from the lack of the front reflector and the plastic straddle wire catcher in its place. I'm surprised that there's one of the things still around!
