Originally Posted by
Duragrouch
(above) Hmm... Hong Kong and Singapore... my perception of both are "high rent", lots of money; Perhaps that has resulted in their getting a disproportionate number of Helix owners, if the pricing there, with exchange rate, makes Helix company more money? Or that the environment (pricey to own and park a car), with good public transport, places an extra premium on a good folding bike? Or there are Helix dealers with good company relations? I'd enjoy comments on any or all of the above. Thanks.
I'm not from Hong Kong or Singapore so I'm also just speculating, but I think you're probably right. I would expand the reasons Helix is likely successful there:
- Hong Kong and Singapore are both very dense cities, much denser than most western cities
- Density makes getting around by bike a lot easier. It also discourages automobile use due to congestion
- Both cities have highly developed bike infrastructure
- Singapore (and maybe Hong Kong as well) puts high taxes, restrictions and other impediments making owning a car difficult, onerous and extremely expensive
- As you mentioned, both cities have comparably high GDP
- In a comparably high GDP city which is dense, has developed bike infrastructure and getting around by car is cumbersome and very expensive, it makes sense that people would put higher value on their bike and be more willing to spend on bikes and bike equipment
Originally Posted by
Jipe
Are you sure that Helix produced more than 2400 bikes (all owners aren"t on the Hong Kong Facebook group)?
The Kickstarter project had 1069 backers and a big percentage of them never received their bike.
Originally Posted by
Jipe
But my impression is that there were much less than 2400 Helix produced, maybe 600 for backers and then the several batch produced with a small number of bikes in every production batch.
Does anyone know how many Helix were produced (just a rough estimation)?
I think that many of the 2400 Helix Hong Kong Facebook group members do not own an Helix because then there would be much more than 2400 Helix produced what seems to me impossible seen the amount of bike Helix can produce per year and the fact that production was interrupted several times for several reasons (lack of components during covid, stem problem...)?
I think you're highly underestimating the number of Helixes in existence. My bike, which I ordered last June, was number 2715 produced. I imagine hundred of bikes have been produced since then, just given the Helix Hong Kong group alone seems to grow by around 50 people per month and most people there seem to own or have bought a Helix. I think the Helix demographic just isn't well represented on these forums, possibly because most of the owners seem to be based in Asia and this site does not seem to cater to that market.
