vlanico

Hi

I would like to invest in a fixed gear and saw the one from www.republicbike.com which look pretty sweet

I would like to know what you guys think about these bikes, their components and their price.

Thanks

jet sanchEz

There have been a couple of threads about them, do a search.

I believe the general consensus was that they suck.

devilshaircut

Search function was broken earlier today. Although if the OP had scrolled down he would have seen I had posted a thread about this bike company like an hour before s/he did.

Just from reading the site they look like mediocre bikes but then again they are semi/fully customizable for $350 so it's hard to argue with.

Was hoping to get some anecdotal feedback though about the company.

jet sanchEz

Angles are slack, components are no-name, the build page is seizure-inducing, their welds suck, they use a twist-tie to secure the rear brake-line...but they come in cool colours.

There is a reason no one has any anecdotes for you...

devilshaircut

Sad. Another company failing at the attempt to do a custom bike. Sounds like Mission Bikes (too expensive) only cheaper and bad build quality. A shame.

Someone needs to do this bike concept right.

elTwitcho

They're called IRO

devilshaircut

IRO bikes aren't that customizable. I've ridden them before and they are nice bikes though.

elTwitcho

You can chose your style of bars, brakes, pedals, crank length, headset and colours. What else do you want exactly?

If you want "fully custom" there are a couple hundred places you can go in North America called Bike Shops. But that defeats the purpose of buying an off the shelf bike in the first place since off the shelf and fully custom are mutually exclusive ideas.

devilshaircut

If I recall, IRO makes bikes in 3 colors. Red, black, and blue. Places like Mission Bikes and this Republic Bikes offer frames and other parts (rims, cranks, etc.) in other colors and exotic colors.

If you want to customize a bike fully, why bother with a LBS? Have them order the part or get it online for cheaper (depends on your attitude toward local buying) and do the upgrade yourself. If you want to split hairs about this, I really think custom would mean doing the customization yourself with no middle man.

But the point of this is to get a bike to your specs from the beginning without having to upgrade.

If it legitimizes my point of view to you, I've either converted or built ALL my bikes frame up. But I see a value in the concept of someone being able to customize their bike from the get go.

ZiP0082

republic bikes use high tensile steel

jet sanchEz

They haven't necessarily failed; some people on a budget won't do their research so there is potential for the company to make money. But yeah, for that price, it is not a very good deal.

devilshaircut

Yeah ... noticed that when I read the spec page. The stock weight is obviously pretty hefty also.

EDIT: Yeah, you are right. I can't say whether or not they are profitable. Only that in my eyes, what constitutes a good custom bike operation does not fit with the product this company appears to make.

jet sanchEz

There are tons of customizable bikes out there but they don't come cheap. Marinoni will build you whatever the hell you want but it is going to cost a lot more than 344$USD but it will be half the weight of the bikes produced by Republic with name-brand parts.

Ultimately, you get what you pay for..

devilshaircut

May just be me but I bet BD could make a TON of money if they bought pretty good parts in bulk (like the ones that came on my TT Pro) and anodized/powder coated them to order (and provided various build options like grip color, tire color, and chain color). They could take the Kilo TT stock bike and customize the colors, mark up the price to $700 and people would totally buy it. And they would make a hefty profit. Basically a bike nicer than a Mission Bike for several hundred dollars cheaper (I realize that a fully built Mission Bike starts at low $800s but with customizations it's easy to go over $1k.).

The cost of powder coating and anodizing would be minimal for them and they would be doing it in batches. The cost of building the wheels would be additional but then again they are charging twice as much for the same bike.

Just an idea. The product designer in me coming out.

jet sanchEz

The Kilo TT Pro is a good deal and so is the Kilo TT. I am guessing that Bikesdirect can't go any lower than the prices they currently have or it wouldn't be profitable. So, if that is true, judging other bike prices against BD is a pretty good idea....that is why the Republic bikes are a ripoff.

And, last time I checked, the Kilo TT comes in 4 colours, the Bikeisland frame comes in 5 colours and the Kilo TT Pro is in 4 colours. That is pretty good for such a cheap bike. I don't really know how they could offer more than that, most bike companies offer 2 colours for each model, if that.