Downtube Mini finally available in the UK

[Sammyboy]

For all those who've been asking "when can we buy one?", I'm happy to announce that the DT Mini is now available on www.velochocolate.co.uk

It's priced bang on the Dahon Curve 3 speed price at £350 shipped, and as such is way cheaper than the Curve SL 5 speed, or any Brompton. It's likely to be followed into the country by a VAT bill of around £34, so be prepared for that. Happy hunting!

[BikeBloke]

nice one sam. i believe i can see a DT Mini mini in my not-too-distant future... my IXFS needs a little brother.

but the blurb on your site says:

"With all the great riding characteristics of the 2 wheel models, the Mini folds even smaller, for yet more practicality."

um, so how many wheels does the Mini have? :eek:

[rhm]

... DT Mini ...
I would like to remind y'all that Yan requested, for Google's benefit, that we write the word "Downtube" at least once when we refer to his products. I know, Sam, you put it in the thread title, but... you know.... -R

[Sammyboy]

nice one sam. i believe i can see a DT Mini mini in my not-too-distant future... my IXFS needs a little brother.

but the blurb on your site says:

"With all the great riding characteristics of the 2 wheel models, the Mini folds even smaller, for yet more practicality."

um, so how many wheels does the Mini have? :eek:

Oops! Fixed now, should've been 20 inch wheel models.

Thanks Rudi, I didn't know that, will do in future. I also finally have some folding bike desing thoughts, which I'll PM soon.

[Diode100]

That's great news, what kind of delivery time are we talking about here ?

[BikeBloke]

I would like to remind y'all that Yan requested, for Google's benefit, that we write the word "Downtube" at least once when we refer to his products.

didn't know that - will remember in future. :)

[Sammyboy]

That's great news, what kind of delivery time are we talking about here ?

Well, my personal one took about 8 or 9 days. Yan is going to start using FedEx, so I hope to be able to provde trackin numbers.

[Diode100]

With the cost of the bike at 300 pounds & delivery at 50 pounds, can you please set out the calculation that give a VAT liability of 34 pounds ? Can one also expect the usual substantial handling charge from the carrier (Fedex?) for collecting the VAT ? The bike looks like a bargain, I just like to know up front how much extra I'm going to have to pay to the various bottom feeders in the chain !

[Sammyboy]

Well, let me be completely clear. The actual cost of the US assembly and shipping is around £140, but I felt that if I advertised the bike as £210 plus £140 shipping, that would cause me problems. People would see the £210 and get very excited, then see the £140 and get very upset. Instead, I chose to express the price on the site as £350 shipped, and to break it down that way. I might need to reconsider, and I'm very open to advice on that.

The VAT calculation is based on the actual purchase price part of the bike cost, which is what we'll quote to FedEx. Thinking about it, I did pay a FedEx handling charge on mine. I wonder if we could arrange to pay the VAT in advance, and fold that into the price? I'm very interested to hear people's ideas on how this is best expressed, since this is rather a new approach.

[nigelme]

Hey there Sammy. :thumb:

I've looked at the HM Revenue & Customs site and can't work out exact costing of importing but surely there is a way of cutting the tax burden/delivery on a bulk purchase. Do you know anything about such deals?

I got my IXFS for £200 of e-bay last year, apparently from Felixstowe; was this from a bulk purchase by someone here or Dr Yan sending a crate load over. I'm thinking if you could amass enough pre-orders would that work out cheaper ( if indeed you wish to get into it on that level ).

Just an idea. As you probably are aware us folder collectors are part big spender, part skinflint ( let's be nice and call it 'frugal' )

[Sammyboy]

Yan sent a crate over, but he got clobbered by anti-dumping duty, and has lost money on the venture. Hence, no more shipments to the UK. The bikes we import are unpacked, assembled and tuned in the US, meaning that the bike comes out of the box ready to go (my Mini shifts to perfection, with no tuning), and as a result, is immune from anti-dumping duty. I don't think there's anything we can do with the tax burden, it's simply VAT, at 17.5%, which has to be paid on all goods purchased here. What we might be able to do is to arrange a shipping discount if we brought over 5 or 10 at a time, and they were all delivered to the same place.

Trouble is, I'm not a dealer. I don't have premises for 10 bikes, and I don't have funds to bring them in. I'm essentially a marketing agent in this deal (though I'm a physical dealer for the other items I'll stock). Add to that the fact that Yan's business model is selling direct, and you'll see why it's happening this way.

Now, if you can find me 5 or 10 people who want to order, then we could see whether a bulk purchase discount could be arranged. You should know that I'm not making a lot of money out of this; Yan sells the UK bikes through me at the same price as he does through eBay, and the Mini at the US RRP plus shipping costs, and I get precisely 10 of your English pounds for every bike that sells, so I have absolutely no wiggle room personally. It'd take shifting every bike remaining in the UK warehouse to repay my investment in the site and in my demonstrator bikes; I did it because I felt that Downtube was a good central brand to build other more profitable sales around, and to drive traffic to my site, and I don't regret that at all. If I can help to get the price down further, I will, but I've worked hard with Yan to make this happen as cheaply as it can, and the Mini still kills Brommies stone dead on price, and goes head to head with the 3 speed Curve. In my view, that's pretty good value.:thumb: