Fixies - Foffa bikes any good?

[danifoffa]

These bikes are completely overpriced - I bought one about 18 months ago for around £300 and it is literally in bits now. I got so fed up with the niggling mechanical problems and substandard no-name parts that I cut my losses and bought an off-the-peg SS bike - a far superior machine for similar money with a proper guarantee (I think these guys give you just three months). It's aimed squarely at the London market where people will pay over the odds for a trendy bike, but I suspect that they have very few - or any - repeat customers. I suspect they are picking up frames from police auctions, giving them a nice spray job, adding a few basic parts and making a huge margin on each one. Nothing wrong with that - it's good business - but if you're tempted then have a look first at what you can get elsewhere for the same money and then take someone that knows their stuff along with you if you still want to check them out.

Hi Oggmonster,

I just wanted to say I am sorry to hear you have had issues with your bike but, as I must have explained to you when you bought it, if you had any problems with it I would have been happy to sort them out, but I have not heard from you.

The warranty is 12 months as opposed to 3 but you can still come and bring the bike down so I can look into it.

Cheers,

Dani

 

[Radius]

Good to see a conscientious company that actively seeks out issues with their products...

 

[dellzeqq]

good to see a bicycle maker using colour

 

[chris667]

Thanks for getting in touch, Dani.

As for the magic gear, I have thoroughly adjusted the vertical dropouts so that there is enough clearance to pull the wheel back when the chain gets loose.

How did you do this? I'm not wishing to cause an argument, just curious.

Did you file a slot in the dropout?

 

[RedBike]

The trouble with magic gears is they don't work for very long. As the chain stretches you'll either need to change the ratio to compensate or put a new chain on.

 

[danifoffa]

Hi Chris,

yes, I have actually filed a 0.5cm slot in the dropouts as I have noticed chains never tend to stretch more than that, even after 2 years.

 

[chris667]

Which way? In or out?

 

[danifoffa]

Facing outwards as obviously when the tension loosens up the wheel will need to be pulled backwards.

 

[danifoffa]

Facing outwards as obviously when the tension loosens up the wheel will need to be pulled backwards.

 

[chris667]

But surely that'd make it much weaker?

 

[chris667]

But surely that'd make it much weaker?

 

[danifoffa]

Not at all. The dropouts are well thick so the robustness of the frame won't be affected.

 

[Landslide]

Facing outwards as obviously when the tension loosens up the wheel will need to be pulled backwards.

I suppose you could file inwards (towards the BB) if that would then give you the starting point for a magic gear (pre-stretch).

 

[TW85]

I would really like to know how you build up a bike for £200?

old Peugeot £30
cog £5 (off here)
best glue I could find £6


really, it's not difficult, even if you buy an old bike for £100 and a pair of brand new wheels where you don;t have to buy glue for £100

 

[MichaelM]

I think dani's coming in for a bit of unfair stick here.

Even with a £30 frame you'll stuggle to build a fixie for under £200 from scratch if you haven't allready got a bucket full of spares.

Wheels - don't forget to budget for wheel tape, tyres & tubes.
C/S & bottom bracket (got a bb tool?)
chain
sprocket & lockring (got a chainwhip & lockring tool ?)
bars, stem, headset, spacers, bartape.
brakes .......

I reckon that most who have built a bike from scratch would agree that if you're having to buy all the items individually the cost soon mounts up.

Even if you do have a bucket of spares and a load of tools, chances are that you're so into bikes anyway that you won't just fit the cheapest parts available.