New Gtech ebike

[Kudoscycles]

Disclaimer: I have taught marketing at a Chamber of Commerce Business School.

The initial price is the early adopter price, they were testing the water they didn't have to halve the price it is obviously worth much less than that. "How many can we move for £xxxx?" kind of stuff. Look at Apples history, my first Mac cost the price of a small car now you can have one for under 1000€. And that is a high end computer.

At £900 opposite the Raptor at £799 they are moving more to the under 40s. Maybe the god awful Raptor handlebars have something to do with that? And it isn't matt white and bright fashionable green either...

They still have plenty of margin but I have a hunch they prefer selling fewer bikes with higher margins than container loads with lower margin. They are entering the market you helped create. I think they figure that you and others have the general public over 50 years old cornered and they are looking for another niche. Maybe they have found it?

Early days for them but keep you eyes open they are a big company with deep pockets and young smart @ss marketing guys...

Sorry,can't agree with any of that. They are a marketing orientated company,their business model is high volume,high margin,strong (read expensive)marketing. To achieve a good return they needed to either take a big chunk of the current market and/or create a new market,to my knowledge they have not achieved either.
It is so easy to read this market wrong,e-bikes are green,e-bikes save you money,e-bikes are socially acceptable,it must be a wonderful and growing market. But your green tree hugger looks,but doesn't buy.
They had made a wonderful job of selling cordless vacuum cleaners,now having serious competition from companies with seriously deep pockets like Bosch,Vax and Dyson,Bosch are spending a fortune on TV adverts to push their cordless cleaner.
There is a momentum after success,if we were successful at being pioneers of selling a new product,cordless cleaners,which needed to create a new market we could make a similar success at creating a market for electric bikes.
Kudos spent £50k on marketing in our first year because we bought into the e-bike boom about to happen. It soon became obvious that selling e-bikes is a very local business,we went on the road with a series of road shows supported by local dealers,inexpensive but hard work marketing,it was very successful.
Not sure,even if G-tech got the product right,I don't think the market is big enough to satisfy their marketing model.
KudosDave

 

[anotherkiwi]

Maybe all this is just a market study? If it doesn't look to them like they have a chance to break in then they sell of at "special offer" and still make enough to not be out of pocket...

 

[the_killjoy]

As we must remind ourselves, most buyers of ebikes, especially at the bottom of the market, don't come on websites like this to get advice on what to buy.

The majority of those who buy a sub £10 bike do so because either they want something to go down the shops on or used to cycle but their lungs or legs are not up to it.

They are going to choose on price and aesthetics, if the resulting bike is a dog they won't be on here to decide what to trade up to, they will put it in the shed and forget about it.

 

[Kudoscycles]

Disclaimer: I have taught marketing at a Chamber of Commerce Business School.

The initial price is the early adopter price, they were testing the water they didn't have to halve the price it is obviously worth much less than that. "How many can we move for £xxxx?" kind of stuff. Look at Apples history, my first Mac cost the price of a small car now you can have one for under 1000€. And that is a high end computer.

At £900 opposite the Raptor at £799 they are moving more to the under 40s. Maybe the god awful Raptor handlebars have something to do with that? And it isn't matt white and bright fashionable green either...

They still have plenty of margin but I have a hunch they prefer selling fewer bikes with higher margins than container loads with lower margin. They are entering the market you helped create. I think they figure that you and others have the general public over 50 years old cornered and they are looking for another niche. Maybe they have found it?

Early days for them but keep you eyes open they are a big company with deep pockets and young smart @ss marketing guys...

Sorry but I think your hunch is wrong,their expensive business model needs to sell thousands of e-bikes at high margin,they bought full pages in the Nationals,that is £10k per insert. They could make it work selling more thousands at a lower margin but it definitely wouldn't work selling a few bikes at say mid margin. My hunch is they probably realise this is not the market they expected and will exit when current stock is exhausted,I wonder how many they bought.
The whole UK high street only survives because the multis buy stock at unbelievably low prices,say £1.50 for a dress that they sell for £29.50 .But those margins don't exist on e-bikes,no matter how many you buy and the current China crisis and weak £ is squeezing the margins.
I am the buyer from 130 companies in China for over 15 years,sourcing now over 4000 individual products,every product needs to have a different business model dependent upon a balance between market size,volume and margin,no one size fits all.
KudosDave

 

[SteveRuss]

Wow this thread has had nearly 25,000 views...

 

[anotherkiwi]

Maybe it is an interesting thread for a lot of us? All the right ingredients.

 

[SteveRuss]

Maybe it is an interesting thread for a lot of us? All the right ingredients.

Sure. I think I must be missing out.. !

 

[Kudoscycles]

A Karoo with Magura rim brakes (-450 grams), a GSM mid drive, Nexus 8 Inter (+1.7 kg) and no throttle or brake cut-offs (-350 grams) painted matt white with fire orange accents that could possible get my heart rate up a little. Chuck on the Gates carbon belt or competitor, a decent Selle Italia seat and ergonomic grips hmmmm... Can you feel the love? Oh and offer a diamond frame option (woman's frame if you wish, almost a kilo lighter than the step through frame) for us old geezers who are starting to have problems lifting our leg over the seat (and the ladies of course).

I will of course need a free bike after spending many hours working on the above specifications.

But where will you fit the 10Ah battery?
KudosDave

 

[EddiePJ]

Wow this thread has had nearly 25,000 views...

Free advertising, be it for a vacuum cleaner or an ebike..


I'd never heard of this brand of vacuum cleaner before this thread, but I have now. Perhaps they aren't so silly after all.



.

 

[RobF]

Seems to me most unlikely the price reduction was part of a pre-planned marketing strategy.

Like so many before them, G-tech thought they could shake up the stuck in the 19th century bicycle trade, and turn more than a grand a bike in the process.

They couldn't sell more than a handful, so have knocked them down to under £1,000 to get rid.

When those bikes go, so will G-tech - again like so many before them.

 

[soundwave]

I'd never heard of this brand of vacuum cleaner before this thread, but I have now. Perhaps they aren't so silly after all.

id stick a dual nitro kit on it
https://www.mowers-online.co.uk/Lawn-Care---Garden-Care/Leaf-Blower---Vacuum/Petrol-Leaf-Blower---Vacuum/Garden-Vacuum---Wheeled/Billy-Goat-QV550HSP-Quiet-Power-Driven-Vacuum.html?utm_source=google-product-search-us-en&utm_medium=product_search&utm_campaign=google-product-search-us-en&gclid=CjwKEAiAgeW2BRDDtKaTne77ghgSJACq2U4b7j9rub97AJ9moA7jpCBfrz6thZW_Rxj40pP2y_0slBoCcSrw_wcB

 

[Kudoscycles]

As we must remind ourselves, most buyers of ebikes, especially at the bottom of the market, don't come on websites like this to get advice on what to buy.

The majority of those who buy a sub £10 bike do so because either they want something to go down the shops on or used to cycle but their lungs or legs are not up to it.

They are going to choose on price and aesthetics, if the resulting bike is a dog they won't be on here to decide what to trade up to, they will put it in the shed and forget about it.

Seems to me most unlikely the price reduction was part of a pre-planned marketing strategy.

Like so many before them, G-tech thought they could shake up the stuck in the 19th century bicycle trade, and turn more than a grand a bike in the process.

They couldn't sell more than a handful, so have knocked them down to under £1,000 to get rid.

When those bikes go, so will G-tech - again like so many before them.

Rob...we don't always agree but on this one I agree with all your thoughts,it's still a surprise that such a marketing orientated company could read the market so badly.
Sometimes with good marketing you can sell a lemon to millions....Trump!!!
Dave

 

[soundwave]

you see that ebike on last ep of posh pawn c4 pmsl

 

[Kudoscycles]

you see that ebike on last ep of posh pawn c4 pmsl

Sound wave...Could you please translate that?

 

[soundwave]

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/posh-pawn

 

[Fingers]

Sorry,can't agree with any of that. They are a marketing orientated company,their business model is high volume,high margin,strong (read expensive)marketing. To achieve a good return they needed to either take a big chunk of the current market and/or create a new market,to my knowledge they have not achieved either.
It is so easy to read this market wrong,e-bikes are green,e-bikes save you money,e-bikes are socially acceptable,it must be a wonderful and growing market. But your green tree hugger looks,but doesn't buy.
They had made a wonderful job of selling cordless vacuum cleaners,now having serious competition from companies with seriously deep pockets like Bosch,Vax and Dyson,Bosch are spending a fortune on TV adverts to push their cordless cleaner.
There is a momentum after success,if we were successful at being pioneers of selling a new product,cordless cleaners,which needed to create a new market we could make a similar success at creating a market for electric bikes.
Kudos spent £50k on marketing in our first year because we bought into the e-bike boom about to happen. It soon became obvious that selling e-bikes is a very local business,we went on the road with a series of road shows supported by local dealers,inexpensive but hard work marketing,it was very successful.
Not sure,even if G-tech got the product right,I don't think the market is big enough to satisfy their marketing model.
KudosDave

You do sound so knowledgeable Kudos Dave. Kudos indeed.

Just for the rest of wretches tell me what you thought when you test rode it.

You have ridden it right? I mean you wouldn't be spouting such wisdom about something you haven't even seen let alone ridden would you?

Let's see if Gech are around at Xmas when their 'current stocks runs out'

Lol. You are exactly the arrogant, I know best type I came across in my exhaustive but ultimately successful search for the correct Ebike for me.

Keep going mate. You are making me giggle.

 

[mike killay]

Frankly, I think that my original posts re the 'Justjoined' was entirely appropriate.
Time and time again we have seen johnny come lately's trying to convince us that their product is the best thing since sliced bread.
Why on earth they come on this forum baffles me.
We all own one or more bikes that we have chosen after much thought and also experience of previous mistakes.
Yet still they come, then they vanish.

 

[RobF]

You do sound so knowledgeable Kudos Dave. Kudos indeed.

Just for the rest of wretches tell me what you thought when you test rode it.

You have ridden it right? I mean you wouldn't be spouting such wisdom about something you haven't even seen let alone ridden would you?

Let's see if Gech are around at Xmas when their 'current stocks runs out'

Lol. You are exactly the arrogant, I know best type I came across in my exhaustive but ultimately successful search for the correct Ebike for me.

Keep going mate. You are making me giggle.

Relax those typing fingers, Fingers, no one is saying the G-tech is a bad bike - certainly not me.

But it appeals to a very limited market, which is very few people given that the ebike market itself is tiny.

The ebikes that survive tend to have a wider appeal.

A lot are what the Germans call trekking bikes, we call them hybrids - flat bars and fully equipped with mudguards, lights, prop stand, pavement lock and carrier.

The rationale is simple, such a bike can do what the G-tech does, but it can also carry luggage, be ridden in the dark, offer some protection in the rain, and so on.

Range and climbing power is another big factor.

A bike with a 40 mile range and good climbing power can be ridden on the flat for a few miles, but it can also do a lot more.

Twenty miles may seem a lot to a non-cyclist new to ebiking, and it is a lot in London.

But when someone buys an ebike they often find that because they can bowl along at 10/12mph rather than struggle at 6/8mph, they want to do 30/40 or more miles.

Time will tell if the G-tech succeeds, but history is against it.

 

[Fingers]

Relax those typing fingers, Fingers, no one is saying the G-tech is a bad bike - certainly not me.

But it appeals to a very limited market, which is very few people given that the ebike market itself is tiny.

The ebikes that survive tend to have a wider appeal.

A lot are what the Germans call trekking bikes, we call them hybrids - flat bars and fully equipped with mudguards, lights, prop stand, pavement lock and carrier.

The rationale is simple, such a bike can do what the G-tech does, but it can also carry luggage, be ridden in the dark, offer some protection in the rain, and so on.

Range and climbing power is another big factor.

A bike with a 40 mile range and good climbing power can be ridden on the flat for a few miles, but it can also do a lot more.

Twenty miles may seem a lot to a non-cyclist new to ebiking, and it is a lot in London.

But when someone buys an ebike they often find that because they can bowl along at 10/12mph rather than struggle at 6/8mph, they want to do 30/40 or more miles.

Time will tell if the G-tech succeeds, but history is against it.

You seem a rational fella Rob but honestly mate I really think the market is changing. Bear in my mind I have been looking at Ebikes for a few years now. I came on here as part of my exhaustive research. It helped a lot but didn't ultimately sway my mind when it came to parting with cold hard cash.

What did was looking at how these things have taken over New York. Manhattan in particular. Literally every bike was an Ebike. It will catch on here too. The niche market you have now won't change but there will be a new class of Ebikers for some of the not Johnny come lately's to sneer at lol. That's not aimed at you mate.

My Gtech comes with mudguards that have been tested in rain and snow in the last week. Worked a charm and barring the panniers I have every else too albeit a 10 mile less radius.

We will see in the coming months who is right on this but I expect the Ebike revolution to explode this year. I will let you know if I can get some TV coverage on it too.

 

[mike killay]

if I can get some TV coverage on it too.
This is what worries us
So many unsuitable ebikes get offered to the public, they buy them and get their fingers burned.
Then they become anti ebike.