What's happening at 50 Cycles?

[Deleted member 25121]

Look what has just arrived...https://tobaelectricbike.com/bh-launch-new-e-bikes-with-the-biggest-battery-ever-seen-in-the-uk/

Very interesting quote from you link with the Snaith claiming he has an interest in "happier cyclists"!!! :

Spanish bike brand BH have just unveiled their new Atom City e-bike range, that will be sold exclusively in the UK through 50cycles.

BH say the in-house 720 watt hour Lithium ion battery pack that comes on the top spec Atom City bikes are the biggest ever sold in the UK, and owners will be able to ride for 100 miles on a single charge… that’s a couple of weeks of commuting without worrying about running out of juice for most of us!

50cycles founder Scott Snaith says that although Kalkhoff and Bosch have introduced batteries with over 600Wh recently, BH are taking things to a whole new level: “Many of their 2020 e-bikes come with 720Wh fully-integrated batteries – batteries completely hidden inside the frame. And this means a greater range, fewer charges, an extended battery lifetime, and ultimately happier cyclists.

 

[soundwave]

some bikes now have 1050wh batts

M1-Sporttechnik: E-Bikes mit TQ-Antrieb und Carbon Rahmen

Die M1-Sporttechnik E-Bikes sind die erste Wahl aller E-Bike-Enthusiasten. Vor allem wegen der Reichweite, dem TQ-Antrieb und dem Rahmen aus Carbon.

m1-spitzing-evolution.de

 

[Tallbiker]

I too have received the insolvency notice from Mctear, Williams & Wood, regarding 50cycles Ltd.
The Snaith brothers continue to trade via a new company: 50 cycles distribution ltd, selling only BH Bikes, hence why they are able to deliver to a few customers who have ordered them (apart from myself).

[removed by admin: privileged information at the time of editing]

One of the biggest amounts the Snaith brothers owed is to Derby Cycle (who own Kalkhoff). This debt totals £680 thousand approx.

[removed by admin: privileged information at the time of editing]

This can in no way be passed off as bad luck or a chain of unfortunate events.
Oh yes, and curiously, all the bikes that have been spotted by customers going to their
warehouse recently ... where have they gone.
Funnily enough, you will find a few second-hand light-use Kalkhoffs for sale on ebay from a seller 'bikegear23', and all the photos are taken outside the Snaith's warehouse.
But the rest of the new BH stock has apparently disappeared.

I am aware that someone else I know has contacted senior management at BH Bikes to keep them abreast of this situation, as I'm guessing they have no idea what has been going on. I only hope that BH Bikes are not extending credit to the Snaith brothers.

 

[No Bike]

Website is back up again with lots of gaps .................now claiming to use crypto currency - obviously to get round the little problem of having no bank!!!!

https://tobaelectricbike.com/homepage/

Surely this must be a level of arrogance and fraud that even our worst politicians would shy from.

I really don't see how this can continue.

......and I still haven't got my bike!!!!!

 

[Tallbiker]

Website is back up again with lots of gaps .................now claiming to use crypto currency - obviously to get round the little problem of having no bank!!!!

https://tobaelectricbike.com/homepage/

Surely this must be a level of arrogance and fraud that even our worst politicians would shy from.

I really don't see how this can continue.

......and I still haven't got my bike!!!!!

The Snaith brothers got hauled over the coals for using crypto currency a couple of years' ago. The banks pulled funding to the Snaiths at that point as well.

Please get in touch with Mctear, Williams and Wood asap: sarashreeve@mw-w.com and explain your situation. They are the insolvency practitioner dealing with the winding up of 50 cycles ltd, although I suspect your bike will be delivered/trading from 50cycles distribution ltd. Toba distribution Ltd was set up by the Snaiths in Feb 2019.

 

[Deleted member 25121]

I am aware that someone else I know has contacted senior management at BH Bikes to keep them abreast of this situation, as I'm guessing they have no idea what has been going on. I only hope that BH Bikes are not extending credit to the Snaith brothers.

I'm pleased to hear that, I was thinking of contacting BH Bikes myself.

 

[wheeliepete]

One of the biggest amounts the Snaith brothers owed is to Derby Cycle (who own Kalkhoff). This debt totals £680 thousand approx.

It could be said that Derby Cycle deserve to suffer some loss from 50 Cycles demise, as I believe they also own Daum, and were responsible for the development of the Impulse 2 motor and must of played some part in the terrible way customers were treated.

 

[flecc]

It could be said that Derby Cycle deserve to suffer some loss from 50 Cycles demise, as I believe they also own Daum, and were responsible for the development of the Impulse 2 motor and must of played some part in the terrible way customers were treated.

But Derby Cycles gmbh, which was once part of our Raleigh Industries, hence the Derby name, is in turn owned by Pon Holdings, one of the world's largest Cycle brand groups.

As ever with today's businesses, it's difficult to know where the buck really stops.
.

 

[KirstinS]

But Derby Cycles gmbh, which was once part of our Raleigh Industries, hence the Derby name, is in turn owned by Pon Holdings, one of the world's largest Cycle brand groups.

As ever with today's businesses, it's difficult to know where the buck really stops.
.

The buck stops with directors of the company you deal with. They have ultimate responsibility. It is that simple

 

[flecc]

The buck stops with directors of the company you deal with. They have ultimate responsibility. It is that simple

Of course that's the legal position, being the retailer.

But it's not that simple, hardly satisfactory and certainly usually unfair, since it's often impossible for the retailer to meet the legal obligation. That in turn is highly unsatisfactory for the consumer too when a retailer is driven into bankruptcy as in this instance, leaving the consumer without redress from the retailer.

Regardless of how badly 50cycles have behaved in this affair, the fact remains that they've twice in succession been put into this impossibility, by different brands. No retailer could have satisfied the law in these two instances, however well meaning they were.
.

 

[Deleted member 25121]

Of course that's the legal position, being the retailer.

But it's not that simple, hardly satisfactory and certainly usually unfair, since it's often impossible for the retailer to meet the legal obligation and thus highly unsatisfactory for the consumer too.

Regardless of how badly 50cycles have behaved in this affair, the fact remains that they've twice been put into this impossibility, by different brands. No retailer could have satisfied the law in these two instances, however well meaning they were.
.

I wonder why they didn't see the problems building up and switched brands, and I wonder why they allowed a huge debt to accumulate and continued to trade knowing that some of their customers would be out of pocket.

 

[vfr400]

Of course that's the legal position, being the retailer.

But it's not that simple, hardly satisfactory and certainly usually unfair, since it's often impossible for the retailer to meet the legal obligation. That in turn is highly unsatisfactory for the consumer too when a retailer is driven into bankruptcy as in this instance, leaving the consumer without redress from the retailer.

Regardless of how badly 50cycles have behaved in this affair, the fact remains that they've twice in succession been put into this impossibility, by different brands. No retailer could have satisfied the law in these two instances, however well meaning they were.
.

Maybe they need to help a few more old ladies across the road or be a bit more generous to their financially poor customers, then divine providence might shine on them and prevent all this.

 

[flecc]

I wonder why they didn't see the problems building up and switched brands, and I wonder why they allowed a huge debt to accumulate and continued to trade knowing that some of their customers would be out of pocket.

As I made clear, my post wasn't in any way excusing their poor behaviour and continuing to sell known problem bikes in the second instance was inexcusable.

The fact remains that two decades running they were let down by impossible circumstances with two different brands.

There was no gradual build up of problems, both hit previously sold bikes very suddenly and they naturally expected support from the makers in sorting them. That support was not forthcoming quickly enough and they did switch brands.

But the switch later turned out to be from the first problem into the second, no fault of 50cycles.
.

 

[flecc]

Maybe they need to help a few more old ladies across the road or be a bit more generous to their financially poor customers, then divine providence might shine on them and prevent all this.

As I posted, nobody representing the two brands as their retailer could have solved the problem. Only the makers could do that and for the first brand even that was impossible quickly enough.
.

 

[AL68]

Ah some logic at last and recognition of the real route of the problem. There are too many instances of large Companies hanging the small guys out to dry but in the end it's the consumer who looses out as in this case I suppose they were desperatly treading water. the only thing I would add is that most cases like this communication is the key not a tin hat mentallity. As someone once said no one died!!

 

[soundwave]

503 user error, there is no valid reply you are full of ***** end of message!

 

[Deleted member 25121]

As I made clear, my post wasn't in any way excusing their poor behaviour and continuing to sell known problem bikes in the second instance was inexcusable.

Yep, that was my point. The products they were selling had known problems yet they continued to sell them.

 

[Deleted member 25121]

Hmmm, this makes interesting reading......

Ongoing reliability of Kalkhoff/Focus Impulse 2 motors

6 genuine motor complaints. Luckily our UK backorder in 2015 did not have many motor failures only resulting in around 50 bike motor changes plus a few of the warranty replacement were also faulty because they were issue before the cause was known. 50 plus = 6 ? :confused: .

www.pedelecs.co.uk

 

[50cycles]

Dear Kirstin,

Thank you for your concern. Your comments are very much appreciated and I am sure really helpful to everyone on the forum.

Let me answer your questions in turn.

1. What was the trading period agreed at the 24 jan 2019 CVA ?

50cycles traded from 2003 to 2019

We sold and delivered over 30000 bikes whilst representing a couple of popular brands over that period. Namely Ezee, Kalkhoff and BH.

During that time we remained focus to deliver as many bikes as was humanely possible for a small family run business. Our intention has always been to be the best and grow the UK electric bike market which would reduce congestion and pollution for cyclist. We looked to achieve the tipping point where more cyclists on the road equates to a safer environment as we experienced in Holland & Germany. The ebike market has not taken off in the UK as well as Germany that sells 20x more ebikes a year. We should all really do more about this.

As we know and already pointed out in this thread there was a serious problem with Kalkhoff Impulse 2.0 motors which was well noted and documented on this website of which we should have listened sooner actually and acted quicker but Kalkhoff assured us everything was ok. Apologies to any of those that made us aware and we did not take quicker action earlier. We were so enthusiastic about how good Kalkhoff had been that we were blinded and never imagined a product failure on that magnitdue could happen. This caught us out in our best year achieving a turnover of £3.2m. Not bad for a small business from the midland that started life as a hobby to introduce new technology from Japan which is where the business was born.

Anyway, after the German company had delivered 12 months worth of faulty of bikes unknowingly to us which then was 2000 units of mainly Impulse 2.0 motors that season. After selling out of all those units we later found out that after 500 miles the motors were no longer usable. This was due to the wrong grease being put in at the factory where the motors were made. This resulted in slow corrossion and degradation of the nylon cogs in the Impulse 2.0.

The Kalkhoff problem was resolved at the expense of 50cycles which was carried over and resulted in the CVA. This was a very rigorous process and took a lot of hardwork to get us in that position. It was an opportunity gratefully received which has given us time to work out the best way forward.

After we had built the Kalkhoff brand up to being quite highly regarded in the industry, Derby Cycles felt it was their time to go direct and leave us holding the can with 2000 faulty bikes to deal with at our own expense. This cost 50cycles Limited dearly and its good standing in the business. Despite this we are proud of the fact that we did manage to exchange every single one of those customers motors ourselves and over the years kept the majority of customers on the road. We cannot please everybody all the time but we did break our selves trying to do so.

We recently did a trade in program which was very satisfying seeing some of the old favourites fly through the door. The good old Ezee Torq which Flecc kindly wrote about, The Pro Connect with Rigid forks which received blinding reviews in Atob with its Panasonic motor and big battery. The Agattu 45 cm that sold in the thousands with the Impulse 1.0 all over the lands.

Yes if the Impulse 2.0 motors had not failed and Derby Cycles were not greedy I am quite sure Kalkhoff and 50cycles would be the leading ebike brand in the UK today. However that was not to be and we cannot live in the past otherwise it becomes a reflection of the future, and nobody wants that right. Nothing last forever and we are grateful for the times we had and would like to thank each and everyone of the 30000 customers that we had the pleasure of deliverying bikes to over a 15 year period.

2. Did 50c accept orders after that date ? If so why is that not wrongful trading and have KSA considered their duties to make a report on the company directors

50cycles Limited can continue to take orders for the next few days but ceased trading nearly a month ago whilst it regroups its interests. Any customers that did not receive their bike in time were refunded by us and any models in transit allocated to the customer and delivered.

Those that have not received a bike or a refund should email me directly through this platform and I will send you proof which you can then forward on to the bank.

The only reason the website was still live was because our developers were celebrating Diwali and could not get online.


I am not a legally interested party (basically I didn't order a bike) but others who have been caught up in this would have a legitimate to claim to getting these questions answered.

A funny statment to make, I know nothing about this subject and have no vested interest but I do feel for no reason compelled to stick my two penneth in anyway and have no feelings or emotions for the individuals involved who have only ever had the best of intentions for the electric bike market. Attempting to get as many people on ebikes as possible and hopefully motivated a few people over the years to either try a bike, buy a bike or even start an ebike business.

Please if you have ever owned a BH bike in the UK. If it was sold through 50cycles or any dealer in the UK then register your bike on the form below. If you think you are out of warranty please submit your details anyway as their will be a service partner in the UK to manage your warranty. Updates will be given to those that complete the form over the coming weeks.

Please register your BH Warranty and aftersales support here to receive further updates.

If anyone has any problems or concerns please feel free to email

 

[Deleted member 25121]

Dear Kirstin,

Thank you for your concern. Your comments are very much appreciated and I am sure really helpful to everyone on the forum.

Let me answer your questions in turn.

1. What was the trading period agreed at the 24 jan 2019 CVA ?

50cycles traded from 2003 to 2019

We sold and delivered over 30000 bikes whilst representing a couple of popular brands over that period. Namely Ezee, Kalkhoff and BH.

During that time we remained focus to deliver as many bikes as was humanely possible for a small family run business. Our intention has always been to be the best and grow the UK electric bike market which would reduce congestion and pollution for cyclist. We looked to achieve the tipping point where more cyclists on the road equates to a safer environment as we experienced in Holland & Germany. The ebike market has not taken off in the UK as well as Germany that sells 20x more ebikes a year. We should all really do more about this.

As we know and already pointed out in this thread there was a serious problem with Kalkhoff Impulse 2.0 motors which was well noted and documented on this website of which we should have listened sooner actually and acted quicker but Kalkhoff assured us everything was ok. Apologies to any of those that made us aware and we did not take quicker action earlier. We were so enthusiastic about how good Kalkhoff had been that we were blinded and never imagined a product failure on that magnitdue could happen. This caught us out in our best year achieving a turnover of £3.2m. Not bad for a small business from the midland that started life as a hobby to introduce new technology from Japan which is where the business was born.

Anyway, after the German company had delivered 12 months worth of faulty of bikes unknowingly to us which then was 2000 units of mainly Impulse 2.0 motors that season. After selling out of all those units we later found out that after 500 miles the motors were no longer usable. This was due to the wrong grease being put in at the factory where the motors were made. This resulted in slow corrossion and degradation of the nylon cogs in the Impulse 2.0.

The Kalkhoff problem was resolved at the expense of 50cycles which was carried over and resulted in the CVA. This was a very rigorous process and took a lot of hardwork to get us in that position. It was an opportunity gratefully received which has given us time to work out the best way forward.

After we had built the Kalkhoff brand up to being quite highly regarded in the industry, Derby Cycles felt it was their time to go direct and leave us holding the can with 2000 faulty bikes to deal with at our own expense. This cost 50cycles Limited dearly and its good standing in the business. Despite this we are proud of the fact that we did manage to exchange every single one of those customers motors ourselves and over the years kept the majority of customers on the road. We cannot please everybody all the time but we did break our selves trying to do so.

We recently did a trade in program which was very satisfying seeing some of the old favourites fly through the door. The good old Ezee Torq which Flecc kindly wrote about, The Pro Connect with Rigid forks which received blinding reviews in Atob with its Panasonic motor and big battery. The Agattu 45 cm that sold in the thousands with the Impulse 1.0 all over the lands.

Yes if the Impulse 2.0 motors had not failed and Derby Cycles were not greedy I am quite sure Kalkhoff and 50cycles would be the leading ebike brand in the UK today. However that was not to be and we cannot live in the past otherwise it becomes a reflection of the future, and nobody wants that right. Nothing last forever and we are grateful for the times we had and would like to thank each and everyone of the 30000 customers that we had the pleasure of deliverying bikes to over a 15 year period.

2. Did 50c accept orders after that date ? If so why is that not wrongful trading and have KSA considered their duties to make a report on the company directors

50cycles Limited can continue to take orders for the next few days but ceased trading nearly a month ago whilst it regroups its interests. Any customers that did not receive their bike in time were refunded by us and any models in transit allocated to the customer and delivered.

Those that have not received a bike or a refund should email me directly through this platform and I will send you proof which you can then forward on to the bank.

The only reason the website was still live was because our developers were celebrating Diwali and could not get online.


I am not a legally interested party (basically I didn't order a bike) but others who have been caught up in this would have a legitimate to claim to getting these questions answered.

A funny statment to make, I know nothing about this subject and have no vested interest but I do feel for no reason compelled to stick my two penneth in anyway and have no feelings or emotions for the individuals involved who have only ever had the best of intentions for the electric bike market. Attempting to get as many people on ebikes as possible and hopefully motivated a few people over the years to either try a bike, buy a bike or even start an ebike business.

Please if you have ever owned a BH bike in the UK. If it was sold through 50cycles or any dealer in the UK then register your bike on the form below. If you think you are out of warranty please submit your details anyway as their will be a service partner in the UK to manage your warranty. Updates will be given to those that complete the form over the coming weeks.

Please register your BH Warranty and aftersales support here

If anyone has any problems or concerns please feel free to email back on this platform and I will see what can be done to help.

This shows that you were aware of the problems in 2017, how long after that did you continue to sell bikes with the Impulse motor?

Ongoing reliability of Kalkhoff/Focus Impulse 2 motors

6 genuine motor complaints. Luckily our UK backorder in 2015 did not have many motor failures only resulting in around 50 bike motor changes plus a few of the warranty replacement were also faulty because they were issue before the cause was known. 50 plus = 6 ? :confused: .

www.pedelecs.co.uk

And concerning BH Bikes, will your new company be selling BH bikes?