Do you live in the Manchester-Sheffield-Leeds triangle?

[Jaunty]

Have you thought of approaching the Chatsworth Estate? They have plenty of all sorts of hard tracks, might be willing to close some, might even be very supportive of an e-bike trial/demo? I trial vintage cars on the estate.

 

[Jaunty]

Its a bit far, but if the day suited I might even bring my electrified Trice recumbent.

 

[Kudoscycles]

Thank you for everyone's input. I need to make contact with the venues to establish whether they are interested in the idea.
Will report back.
KudosDave
ps. Come on BEBA and any bike suppliers up north-it's all very well attending shows to sell bikes to retailers but ultimately you do have to have customers,I am beginning to feel like Kudos is doing this alone. Mustn't moan the sunshine (whilst it lasted!)sold a lot of bikes-only 2 Sport bikes,3 King bikes,1 Cheetah left in stock...I will run out before the new performance range arrives,bit delayed Shimano are on 4 month delivery.

 

[Kudoscycles]

Have you thought of approaching the Chatsworth Estate? They have plenty of all sorts of hard tracks, might be willing to close some, might even be very supportive of an e-bike trial/demo? I trial vintage cars on the estate.

Jaunty,excellent idea,not one for this year because its very close to our Manifold Trail event,but I will make enquiries for 2014.
KudosDave

 

[Kudoscycles]

Its a bit far, but if the day suited I might even bring my electrified Trice recumbent.

Jaunty,the Manifold Trail itself is relatively flat with a gentle incline(as you would expect from an old railway line)would be a great ride on a recumbent-'recumbent'-strange name I wonder who invented it?
ALL KUDOS EVENTS ARE NOT JUST FOR TESTING KUDOS BIKES,THEY ARE A MEET DAY FOR ALL INTERESTED IN E-BIKES FROM FIRST TIMERS TO EXPERTS,MIGHT EVEN LET WISPER IN,AS LONG AS THEY DON'T SHOUT ABOUT IT!!!
KudosDave

 

[flecc]

-'recumbent'-strange name I wonder who invented it?

It's just an alternative adjective to reclining in the English language (from Latin recumbere: to lie down). I suppose with recliner already long "owned" by the chair industry, only recumbent was left to be used. However, that meant using an adjective as an adjectival noun, something not yet approved by the OED in the case of recumbent according to my edition.

 

[Cakey]

Derwent would be ideal if you got the go ahead, on a week day off school hols, its very quiet.

 

[Kudoscycles]

I have written to the Derwent people today,will try that one first. If a negative response I will try the other suggestions,thanks everyone.
Dave

 

[Spinalot]

I got me fingers crossed for you Dave.
Can I come and help if you get in at Derwent? I can make tea

 

[Kudoscycles]

Spinalot,of course....although I have a number of guys working for me,we are all working lean on staff these days so these roadshows are often my wife and I with one guy helping,so any extra help is most welcome.
You sound a bit happier today after your grinding noise has been explained-these problems always seem to surface at weekends,when the supplier is not working-often this forum has more depth of knowledge than some of the dealers.
Dave

 

[Wisper Bikes]

Well done Dave, a great initiative!

We will try and come along to as many of your events as we can.

Are they all on the events list?

You have my sympathies re Shimano, it's tough getting supplies.

All the best

David

 

[Cakey]

Speaking to my local dealer about the the grace mx . Seems odd that wisper do not supply a demo bike for use of , or send one up for a week or so.
Without sounding rude some suppliers just expect ebike shops to stock everything. In this economic climate I know which bikes i would push.
Also if I ride the shop bikes , technically they are not then new.
Cake and eat it comes to mind....

 

[Wisper Bikes]

Hi Cakey,

Thanks for your post, it really is a very helpful point.

Can I ask who you spoke to? We will try and arrange a demo bike for you to try out ASAP. The problem is our own demo bikes are out with the press at the moment, see next weeks Telegraph on Saturday for the first test review. The Electric bike magazine and other trade press have had the bikes until yesterday and they are currently winging their way down to a new electric bike mag that will be in the shops in the summer.

We don't have the finances to be able to supply free demo bikes to all our dealers unfortunately, but some have bought demo bikes, these will be delivered early next week with the first bikes going to out to end users.

Thanks for your interest.

If I can be of any further assistance please do not hesitate to email me at dmiall@me.com

All the best

David

 

[Kudoscycles]

Speaking to my local dealer about the the grace mx . Seems odd that wisper do not supply a demo bike for use of , or send one up for a week or so.
Without sounding rude some suppliers just expect ebike shops to stock everything. In this economic climate I know which bikes i would push.
Also if I ride the shop bikes , technically they are not then new.
Cake and eat it comes to mind....

Cakey,in one paragraph you have identified the big problem that the ebike industry has. If you look on the icons of many of the dealers they sometimes offer 10 different marques,if you average 6 bikes per supplier that can mean that they would have to stock 60 bikes plus different frame sizes,in these poor economic times that is not practical.
What happens in reality is that a dealer gets offered a good deal or he has a bike thats 'sticking' or he has a range of bikes that he earns more profit than another-so the bike he offers is not necessarily the ideal bike for a particular customer.
This is why the roadshows are so important, it is an opportunity to test bikes impartially.
It is not cheap to send these bikes around the UK,about £17.00 out and £25.00 back. I had a forum member who was absolutely adamant that one of my bikes was 100% certain his ideal bike and got annoyed that my dealers local to him had no stock-I especially sent that bike up to the dealer of his choice and he didn't even bother to go to look at it, 2 weeks later his ideal bike was something else!
As you say when you ride a shop bike it is then technically not new,Kudos has a fleet of 30 plus bikes which are either at roadshows or out on appro in dealers hands. Some of those bikes end up discounted on E-Bay,no individual dealer can afford that.
KudosDave

 

[Wisper Bikes]

Absolutely agree Dave, it is tricky even with a fleet of demo bikes. I imagine there must be upwards now of 100 models available in the UK, no one dealer could possibly stock everything.

All the best, David