tcs

"The best defense against copying is innovation.” Will Butler-Adams

Perhaps Brompton should sue less and innovate more.

childcarepro

Seems that if a Western company makes something better than the incumbents, they're called "disruptors." If it's an Asian company, they're called "copycats" despite being lighter, faster, stronger, cheaper improvements of decades old "innovations." Inventing once doesn't make you an innovator; innovating does.

If your only defense against better, cheaper competitors is finger-pointing… you're out of ideas.

CrimsonEclipse

"We're a sue-happy company stifling competition so we can keep our prices high!"
Yeah, thanks Brommie, helped me narrow my purchasing decision to NOT-Brompton.

idiots

Jipe

I also don't like the commercial strategy of Brompton.

But do not like the clones and their manufacturers that, for most of them, stupidly copy everything, even the well known weak points of the Brompton.

A single man like Ben of Kinetics does a much better job with his upgraded Brompton.

For me the Dahon Curl is not a clone, its just inspired by the Brompton with several mods to solve several weak points of the Brompton.

For the Chedech, there are some improvements but it has the drawback of the carbon frame not that good for a folding bike while being much heavier than a T-line.

CEBEP

I’m not sure Kinetix qualifies as comparison to bike manufacturers. It’s tailored made design, very expensive with long wait times and serious issues with availability and delivery options worldwide. I emailed them once and never received a reply.

Jipe

You are right, these are typical problems of a one man company.

But what Ben designed, implemented and manufactured could easily be done by a company like Brompton to improve their bikes.

For the prices, most of the price come from the price of higher quality components for the hubs, brakes... the rear triangle of Kinetics isn't that expensive considering that it is hand built and in stainless steel, an industrialized production (and lower quality not stainless steel, but stainless steel is much better) would greatly reduce its price.

tcs

Hmm.

The manufacturer's advertised numbers I'm seeing:

Brompton T Line One - 7.44kg, $5225USD
Chedech Air Limited - 6.82kg, $3700USD

Jipe

I found 8.6kg :

Fentuz

Basically, a typical custom frame manufacturer. I looked into steel racing gravel cyclocross custom frame, they all require same amount of labor and are often a "man in a shed" type of business. Not surprising.
The only one that are cheaper with less delivery issues tends to be semi industrialized: the get small volumes from far east and do custom assembly with specific accessories, basically "pret a porter".