HUBJUB closing??

[Sore Thumb]

I have just received some fixed gear parts from hubjub and he has wrote a side note on my order that says "hubjub winding up - get items while you can"

If this is right then it's a big loss to the fixed gear community.

 

[biggs682]

never heard of them , are they any good

 

[e-rider]

First I've heard. Not surprising seeing as though generally speaking the fixed market is quite small, perhaps with the exception of the 2002-2007 boom years.

I always got the impression Will did it more as a hobby than a business, although it looked like he should be making good profits at one point.

 

[fossyant]

Must be difficult as he stocks some specialist parts, not a massive range !

 

[Manonabike]

A friend of mine bought a Nitto stem from them as they were the only place that had the item in stock but had to say the prices were rather overpriced. The long quill Nitto stem he got was marked at $6.95 I assumed that was the cost price to them but for the public to buy was £45.00..... about 10 times the cost price (assuming $6.95 was cost price)

 

[GrumpyGregry]

A friend of mine bought a Nitto stem from them as they were the only place that had the item in stock but had to say the prices were rather overpriced. The long quill Nitto stem he got was marked at $6.95 I assumed that was the cost price to them but for the public to buy was £45.00..... about 10 times the cost price (assuming $6.95 was cost price)

The price the public were prepared to pay was £45.00. No gun was held to the public head. Caveat Emptor. If HUBJUB make a killing from fetishists.... good for them. If the bubble has burst and the profits are no more.... c'est la vie.

 

[dan_bo]

$7 for a new stem? all the way from japan? a misprint more than a cost price.

 

[JDP]

They are closing soon but the businessitself is likely to be up for sale. There was a note posted to the LFGSS form last week.

 

[Spoked Wheels]

First I've heard. Not surprising seeing as though generally speaking the fixed market is quite small, perhaps with the exception of the 2002-2007 boom years.

I always got the impression Will did it more as a hobby than a business, although it looked like he should be making good profits at one point.

Not only fixed gear stuff, the do all kind of things and some quite goods too.

I bought a couple of things from them, a Nitto stem that I still use and also a Nitto B135AA Randonneur bar. I had issues with them with the bars as I was looking for a rather shallow drops and the Nitto Randonneur seemed to be the only bars that fit my stem and had shallow drops. Anyway, I wrote to them to ask for confirmation of the measurements as they did not give such details in their website but I never got reply. In an impulse, since I knew the measurements of the item anyway, I bought the handlebars. When they came in the post I measured the drop at 14cm while the information on internet for that model was 12cm. I wrote to them and they said I could send the item back but they would charge me 10% re-stocking fee. Sending it back would have meant £13.00 in postage and re-stocking fees which I felt was a lot to waste for nothing. I kept the bars, although they were only half of the 4 cm gain I was looking for.


I know that Wiggle, CRC, Ribble, etc would never charge me for something like that and I'm pretty sure that after showing them evidence like I showed hubjub, they would have even paid for the postage back to them. I know that it's difficult for a small firm to compete with giants like CRC but they hardly have any overheads, they operate, as far as I recollect, from a house. Anyway, I never bought anything from them again so I'm not surprised that places like Tokyo for example probably took their business away.

My guess is that handlebar must have been an old model as I can find the same item in several places and they all quote a 12cm drop.

END OF RANT

 

[style over speed]

Hubjub were excellent, lovely packaged parcels with hand written notes, and both velorution, bobbin stores closing down…

good thing velo solo and fresh tripe are still going for nice shiny parts

 

[Manonabike]

Not only fixed gear stuff, the do all kind of things and some quite goods too.

I bought a couple of things from them, a Nitto stem that I still use and also a Nitto B135AA Randonneur bar. I had issues with them with the bars as I was looking for a rather shallow drops and the Nitto Randonneur seemed to be the only bars that fit my stem and had shallow drops. Anyway, I wrote to them to ask for confirmation of the measurements as they did not give such details in their website but I never got reply. In an impulse, since I knew the measurements of the item anyway, I bought the handlebars. When they came in the post I measured the drop at 14cm while the information on internet for that model was 12cm. I wrote to them and they said I could send the item back but they would charge me 10% re-stocking fee. Sending it back would have meant £13.00 in postage and re-stocking fees which I felt was a lot to waste for nothing. I kept the bars, although they were only half of the 4 cm gain I was looking for.


I know that Wiggle, CRC, Ribble, etc would never charge me for something like that and I'm pretty sure that after showing them evidence like I showed hubjub, they would have even paid for the postage back to them. I know that it's difficult for a small firm to compete with giants like CRC but they hardly have any overheads, they operate, as far as I recollect, from a house. Anyway, I never bought anything from them again so I'm not surprised that places like Tokyo for example probably took their business away.

My guess is that handlebar must have been an old model as I can find the same item in several places and they all quote a 12cm drop.

END OF RANT

Something like this

Hubjub were excellent, lovely packaged parcels with hand written notes, and both velorution, bobbin stores closing down…

good thing velo solo and fresh tripe are still going for nice shiny parts

I'm more interested in lovely bike goodies than lovely packaged parcels with hand written notes

Yes, I love Velosolo too

 

[Will from Hubjub]

Hi chaps, I've maintained a 'lurk only' policy during Hubjub's eight years but I emerged from the shadows to post on LFGSS.com recently and now I'll do the same for Cycle Chat.

Firstly, thanks Sore Thumb, Tundragumski and Style over Speed for the kind words. I try to limit contact with customers to tech notes (otherwise work spills over into personal life) but I can guess at your identities. Being an indie trader in the current bike market is not the easiest gig, and support like this makes it worthwhile.

Secondly, in response to (i) Manonabike and (ii) RRSODL:

i. Manonabike, about that suspiciously cheap Nitto stem -- it's the bubblewrap! I take my mum shopping most weeks and I usually gather scrap bubblewrap at the supermarket. My guess is that the 6.95 pricetag came off a shelf at Tescos. It certainly isn't the suppliers price for a Technomic. I can't tell you the real figure without violating my contract, but I am at liberty to say that, across most of its range, Hubjub operated on a notional 20% profit before overheads.

ii. RRSODL -- you know you're not telling the whole truth about that pre-sales enquiry. You say 'I never got reply,' but you don't mention that the reason was that you hadn't configured your e-mail properly. Mine is in fine shape and, when you started complaining, I snailmailed you copies of all our correspondence to prove that I had responded to every one of your queries. Since I had consistently provided you with exactly the information you requested, it seemed to me unfair that I should have to bear all the expense of selling an expensive imported bar as a second. That's still my position.

If there is a common theme to i. and ii., it's that people have unrealistic expectations about businesses. Something about being a dotcom makes people treat you differently. Hubjub started on a 1500 overdraft and for much of its history I would have considered earning the national average as success beyond my wildest dreams. Nevertheless, seldom a week went by without an impoverished rider asking for freebies. The fact that these often arrived during one of my beans-and-toast phases gave my sense of humour a workout which I won't miss.

So there you have it -- some good stuff, some bad, all part of the rich tapestry. Running Hubjub really has been a trip, as the hippies used to say, but now it's ended and it's time to get on with other things.

Rubber side down, chaps...

W.

 

[Manonabike]

..... in response to (i) Manonabike

i. Manonabike, about that suspiciously cheap Nitto stem -- it's the bubblewrap! I take my mum shopping most weeks and I usually gather scrap bubblewrap at the supermarket. My guess is that the 6.95 pricetag came off a shelf at Tescos. It certainly isn't the suppliers price for a Technomic. I can't tell you the real figure without violating my contract, but I am at liberty to say that, across most of its range, Hubjub operated on a notional 20% profit before overheads.

.

Will from HubJub, thanks for taking the time to respond to my post.

Can I just say that I didn't see any bubblewrap - I saw a clear plastic bag that contained the stem and the price tag was on the bag. If was definitely a '$' hence my conclusion. So no bubblewrap from Tescos

No need to explain where the price tag came from, if you say that is not the cost price then I believe you.

If there is a common theme to i. and ii., it's that people have unrealistic expectations about businesses. Something about being a dotcom makes people treat you differently.

I can only speak for myself and I'd say that I'm always on the lookout for signs of "RIP OFF BRITAIN" and at the time probably that was what came to mind,

Not sure if I have unrealistic expectations of dotcom businesses but I can tell you that I certainly prefer to buy most things from dotcom businesses and that would imply that those companies are fulfilling my expectations. Most of my cycling stuff, gadgets, office equipment, etc come from dotcom businesses and I am quite happy to keep it that way. Sometimes one buys from a small dotcom company and they cannot offer the same level of service as a large company would do, then it's possible one could expect too much and perhaps that is what you mean by unrealistic expectations and people treating you differently, being a dotcom company.... I suggest the misconception lies with people getting used to ordering from Chain Reaction for example and expecting free delivery within a couple of days or been able to return goods without having to pay restocking charges and even after 12 months, that is not a problem of people having unrealistic expectations but a problem of small companies having to try harder to compete with the big companies..... a phenomenon only too clear to see everywhere, ie the corner shop and the local supermarket or the LBS and the DOTCOM businesses.

Best of luck with whatever comes next.

 

[Will from Hubjub]

Hi Manonabike, thanks for replying, and for believing me. It's good to clear this up! When I was whingeing I wasn't really talking about being an 'online retailer' so much as about the experience of becoming a 'shop'.

Hubjub was very efficient on delivery, but I tried to keep it approachable -- all e-mail answered within 24hrs, honest updates about likely restock times (necessary because we never had enough capital to keep a decent level of stock). Above all I tried to be straight about the constraints of being a 'man in a shed'. But, when I started trading through a website, I was perceived as a business, and suddenly I found myself on the receiving end of all manner of preconceptions, one of the most common of which was that I was making huge amounts of money off the scene.

On that 6.95 tag: h'm, you're right, not Tesco. But I did recycle a lot of packaging, which people in the trade tend to do. My guess is that the bag you saw came in from one of the US suppliers and had previously contained zucchini or military surplus thyristors or something. Just One Of Those Things...

Best, W.

 

[Sore Thumb]

I looks like that hubjub is back open for business!! Yay.
Looks good

They have also got a good looking website

http://www.hubjub.co.uk/store/

Good luck to the new owners.