Originally Posted by
Bonzo Banana
You only have to look at alibaba to see steel folding bikes with a factory door price of $29. Yes they are basic 20" folding bikes but I would of thought even if you allowed 5x that value $150 you could get some sort of respectable clone that could retail for $299-499 at least direct selling. It might be made a little cruder, so ends up a bit heavier and may only feature the 3 speed SA hub without the mini derailleur but it seems viable.
Let's reduce the noise of these comparisons. What's the cheapest Brompton clone found on Alibaba? A quick search didn't find any good comparisons.
For reference, I think you must have seen something like the following which reminds me of a Dahon Speed but with much worse components and hi-ten steel everything. Remember, if you sell it in a developed country, besides getting the bikes and storing them somewhere which all require upfront capital, expect to have some warranty work, carry insurance, and distribution expenses. I'm not in the business, but I suspect that anyone who does this thing will rattle off a ton of other stuff.
https://www.alibaba.com/product-deta...5c34d93656PRIQ
A similarly quick web search finds Thor selling a Dahon Speed D7 for $430 -- nicer frame/fork + components + warranty and so on -- with some fenders, rear rack, and so on. Personally, I think your margins will be freaking tiny. Just based on snippets of information from Downtube (Yan) and Origami, it sounds that there is a lot of working with suppliers and developing QA. So I'm not sure how much you value your time and energy; but it sounds like a venture with some risk. On higher end bikes, I imagine that there would be more meat on the bones. But unless you get to super high production counts, I doubt that the savings on high end bikes like a Brompton will be huge.
Dahon Speed D7
FYI ... here is a titanium one that mixes it's pictures some showing a bike with a Brompton fold while others lack a folding rear triangle. So I'm not sure what to make of it.
https://www.alibaba.com/product-deta...52029250BYWccC