I also hope he pulls it off but unfortunately it is looking less likely with every update.

At one stage during Q2 of this year he reported and showed pics of a shared factory space with a company called WITC; since then the bike & process has undergone several redesigns and the partnership with WITC was dissolved for reasons unreported. He presumably was kicked out and had to start all over with setting up a factory himself. That seems to be in progress but the huge cost of such an undertaking is going to cause cash flow problems pretty soon in my estimation. The 1000-odd KS bikes are barely covered by the amount raised let alone setting up a factory from scratch. So while I was optimistic initially while he set up a partnership in manufacturing, his going it alone has set off alarm bells in my head. If he can't raise more money soon, he won't make it. It's easy to see that parts & labour might have been covered by the KS fundraising but not that plus setting up a sophisticated factory with automated equipment.

So I for one have stopped holding my breath. It's very unfortunate but no longer a realistic hope without more investors. Production of KS orders can't start until 2017 Q2 and I don't see how the pile of money will last much beyond that. We don't have any evidence that it will or won't, just common sense.

This dude is running around in a BMW with some eye candy with other people's money. I'll say what I want.

Could be her money??

And I`ll stick to my opinion about you my friend

Are you referring to a random pic smallwheeler posted? That was a joke. Do you have other evidence?

Yes, and no one told me it was a joke. Jokes aren't really funny if they're presented as fact.

Ah yes, the smallwheeler brand of humor...

It's so peaceful nowadays,...

I read that 97% of all patents never make any money. An entire scam industry exists to extract money from young inventors looking to become Bill Gates rich with their new widget. You see them all the time on television or newspapers on how you can patent your idea for $150.00 dollars. They'll even set you up with manufacturers who will put your idea into production.(for a huge fee!) It hardly ever happens.

However, the young are the ones taking out all these patents. You cannot blame youth for being young.

What you are not informed is a patent doesn't protect you in case someone steals your idea. You must hire expensive attorneys by the hour to sue on your behalf and hope they collect enough to pay them back! Trying to collect from a small outfit in China making knockoffs of your product can be a massive waste of time. The last thing any startup needs is to get involved in paying tens of thousands in legal fees. Quite frankly, a startup doesn't need to worry because unless they're wildly successful, it's highly unlikely anyone will steal the idea.

If you want, the Brompton patent expired from what I head on the forum. All you need is about 10-15 million to build a factory from scratch with all the tools, machines and a staff of professionals. If successful, you'll break even in 5-10 years. Quite frankly, If I had 5-10 million dollars, working 60 hours a week or more in a factory is the last thing I would do! I'd be in Aruba on the beach with a girl half my age!! LOL! ;=)

The scam industry profits from the naive home inventors, who think there is some magic in filing patents, not from the professionals. The patenting process is organized so that you can file applications paying just nominal fees and you can involve lawyers then only to the degree you want, paying them by the hour, such as to airtight your patents. In the end an application is just some text + figures. Yes, there are many holes but if you do not file you will have no protection whatsoever.

I'm not here to rag on smallwheeler. I'm just saying I thought the ******bag in the BMW was this Helix huckster. He needs to stop making ridiculous promises and start paying people back.

I hope you're joking.

I hope you feel better now that you've contributed nothing to the discussion. I quite clearly explained myself, do you have any other questions?

I am with Joe .... didn't catch " the joke" either, although I didn't pay much attention to it. I like success stories and if he is successful all power to him having a nice car, etc...


At this moment its going backwards as far as I can see, and the new run to get people paying money up front is really disturbing.
In my opinion the bike was priced very attractively and there is no bike, folding or not with those components which sells for that low price. Despite what people think, the frame is usually NOT the most expensive part on a bike, the components are...
Now in Helix case its a titanium frame ... and its complicated , hence now you have an expensive frame/fork to add to expensive components.. Its just not adding up ...
If that bike would be priced at 3750.00 dlr from the get go, it maybe would have had a chance. Although the Kickstarter campaign would have died from the beginning.


again I am the first to say, that I wish him well and hoping that all paid bikes get delivered. I just feel that I have to warn folks to sent more money, they same way I felt at the beginning warning peeps not to sign up in the first place.

Absolutely correct, Thor. That frame with those parts was never going to show up at the insanely low price he announced. His track record is of a person who decided to create a product with no knowledge of how bicycles are manufactured, priced and sold.

The bike componetry spec was changed numerous times after the campaign ended. As it stands now, a lot of the parts are quite so-so. Plain rims, Kenda Kwest tyres, common well-known Taiwan hubs (can't remember name but it's not expensive) plain seatpost, bars, the only thing that stands out a bit is the derailer, Zee, and perhaps the disc brakes, Spyre.

When the final specs came out there was quite a bit of grumbling about the entry-level parts.

Anyway as it stands now you can buy mtn bikes at way less than the campaign price with those sort of parts.

Could there be the possibility of him selling the frame and forks on their own, might get him some early revenue and publicity to have the bike out on the road in owners hands ?

No. The frame manufacture which looked close a year ago, has basically gone back to square 1. He had partnered with Warren Industries to make the frames and posted pics of the factory setup; since then he has 1) gone through several design iterations 2) several manufacturing technology iterations 3) managed to piss off everybody he teamed up with so ended up alone 4) was kicked out of the Warren Ind factory space, so had to 5) find a new facility, 6) order all machines that WI were sharing with him for installing in the new factory space he leased.

That's how it stands now. A week ago none of the machines were there yet, while several are only due 2017 Q1, more likely Q2.

So it is now no longer speculation that he will face cash problems, since the KS campaign may have just covered making the frames and buying parts and building the 1000 bikes, but it very obviously can't also cover setting up a factory like that from scratch. I give him 6 months before the cash reserve runs out.

As you can see, I no longer am optimistic about getting a bike. I foresee disaster, unfortunately. I posted a message to him that I can no longer defend and promote the bike, but he has long ago stopped talking to backers except via sporadic updates.

Ouch! That stinks! I was hoping he could make it happen. I didn't like that he is preselling more bikes before delivering anything.

Thanks
Yan

I am sorry things don't look good for you guys getting your bikes.

Well technically, he wasn't pre-selling anything. The concept behind crowdfunding on kickstarter is about backing an idea or a concept because you believe that they can deliver something new to the world. And by backing them, you will get a reward once they achieve it. Unfortunately, not all KS or indiegogo campaigns are successful. Neither are all ventures or start-ups.

I truly do hope that he can somehow pull a rabbit out of his hat and make this happen. There are a lot of people counting on this. Peter, if you're reading this, I wish you all the best.

Apparently you joined and have the wrong information to convey. It looks like the Helix is up for preorder,...that's selling.

https://www.helix.ca

Oh that's what he was referring to. Lol. Yes in that sense, he is taking orders then. My bad.

Seems like he has to go the route of 'The Coolest Cooler', to raise funds. That sucks.

Correct, this dude with no bicycle to sell is taking deposits with the promise that you will get one in July. Which would be a little easier to swallow if his Kickstarter backers had bicycles.

Here's a rare post from Team Helix:

"I appreciate everyone’s support and also criticism. I want to add a little perspective to what we are doing with regards to the bigger picture. There isn’t a single company in the bicycle industry that would have produced something as complex as an all titanium folding bike that is made better than other titanium bike in existence (robot TIG in a chamber) at anywhere close to the price point we are offering. That is not an excuse for the delays, I just wanted to balance the argument a little in my favour.

Buying expensive equipment isn’t something that is done on a whim. There has to be a strong case for it. Have no doubts that these purchases were made after all possible solutions were attempted. This kickstarter was about bringing the world’s best folding bike to market. That entailed either partnering with a manufacturer, which I tried twice, or setting up manufacturing in house. Helix is exponentially better off that it has been the latter.

With regards to the team working on Helix; while is has been just me for the past few months there are so many people involved in the project including engineers, programmers and project managers at our robot, weld, chamber, laser, CNC, titanium and other suppliers. I also worked with a local engineering firm after Warren Industries. Our trading company in Taiwan has managed our entire component spec and custom parts end to end.

We're getting very close, please hang in there."

Thanks Jur for showing us his latest update. I suppose that is a glimmer of hope.

They say that computer users get impatient within 2 seconds of a perceived frozen screen, which is why they added the hourglass mouse cursor. I can't imagine how you backers must feel.

I'm going to wait and see what the future brings...I've done lots of other research on bromptons, dahons, Montagues, bike fridays, but I can wait a little while longer.