Hey just curious

[tvcreative]

I haven't been on the site for a while.

What is the status of the new FAT CHANCE?

does anyone have their bike yet from the kickstarter promises?

are there photos?

thanks

Jim

[MTB Mania]

It looks as though the frames are behind schedule but making progress. It seems like front triangles were tacked to rear triangles last week so they must be getting close...

[afterbang]

Attached is a post made by the FC instagram from last week.

[zonq]

I'm hoping that once they get to finishing and Team Violet is up & running, I can strip my old Team Comp, send it in with a bucket of cash, and have it included in the batch.

[Stingercut]

Originally Posted by zonq

I'm hoping that once they get to finishing and Team Violet is up & running, I can strip my old Team Comp, send it in with a bucket of cash, and have it included in the batch.

Like the sound of that....didn't know they were offering resto services yet

[zonq]

Originally Posted by Stingercut

Like the sound of that....didn't know they were offering resto services yet

I'd bet it's not even on their roadmap, I'm just hoping to convince them to consider it.

Although, thinking about it, once Chris has done all the legwork to get the paint schemes and decals sorted, and they start doing those finishes in quantity, I'll bet they'd do well to offer those same official finishes to legacy frame owners.

Doesn't cost much to add a frame to a batch, vs paying some custom builder to work out an approximation from scratch in a one-off project. Good opportunity for a lot of people with beloved old bikes that have 25 years of use on them.

Get a vat, fill it with aircraft stripper, strip em all in one go, prep like the production frames, toss em on the rack. Bring the batch cost/per frame down on all of them. Seems like a no-brainer.

[Stingercut]

Originally Posted by zonq

I'd bet it's not even on their roadmap, I'm just hoping to convince them to consider it.

Although, thinking about it, once Chris has done all the legwork to get the paint schemes and decals sorted, and they start doing those finishes in quantity, I'll bet they'd do well to offer those same official finishes to legacy frame owners.

Doesn't cost much to add a frame to a batch, vs paying some custom builder to work out an approximation from scratch in a one-off project. Good opportunity for a lot of people with beloved old bikes that have 25 years of use on them.

Get a vat, fill it with aircraft stripper, strip em all in one go, prep like the production frames, toss em on the rack. Bring the batch cost/per frame down on all of them. Seems like a no-brainer.

100% agree with this....and reading between the lines of some of Chris's comments, I'm sure he will get a resto plan going. It's very profitable for Aston Martin, Ferrari and other premium brands. The whole process of resto will massively increase interest in the brand and even drive new sales in sure

[rody]

Originally Posted by zonq

Get a vat, fill it with aircraft stripper, strip em all in one go, prep like the production frames, toss em on the rack. Bring the batch cost/per frame down on all of them. Seems like a no-brainer.

You guys honestly have no idea what goes into a restoration...stark difference from OEM paint.

I would love to eat my words, so here goes...you will not see restoration services offered. It is not a profitable segment of an OEM business plan.

As an example, I recently completed a restoration on the proto Action Tec Shock-a-Billy for the MOMBAT museum. As with any 25 year old bike, once you take the paint off the years of deterioration begin to show through. Restoration required stripping, blasting, dent removal, welding the aluminum chain stay, repairing the rusted seat tube, fabricating a new titanium pivot pin, solvent bath, and Team Lav paint/decals.

Had this been a customer bike, the cost would have been around $1200.00 bucks for the work completed.

A conservative estimate is 4x the time for a resto vs. an OEM paint job. How many of you would be willing to pay the cost to have it done right?

The answer is "few".

That is why Chris's direction should and will continue to be future manufacturing of new product.

cheers,

rody

[rick]

yikes! Thanks for the insight Rody. It sounds like more work than building a frame from scratch. Looking forward to seeing the bike built up, very glad that it will end up at MOMBAT rather than just hanging in my garage

[zonq]

Originally Posted by rody

You guys honestly have no idea what goes into a restoration...stark difference from OEM paint.

yeah, it's kinda funny you had to point that out, because I'm restoring one right now with a nearly identical list of headaches, and it's nowhere near my first that's turned out to be this much work. I have no idea what I was thinking when I was imagining that scenario.

Temporary insanity brought on by huffing too much paint stripper (hooray it's powdercoat) is my excuse.



I am very much looking forward to seeing that Action Tec Shocka featured in the museum.