xrageandfearx

Does anyone know where I can get fixed gear bike parts in bulk quantitys? I want to build up about 15 to like 25 bikes. Yes I will be selling them. But I need like 15 to 25 Cranksets, Cogs, lockrings, Chains, Bottom Brackets, and Head Sets.

I am not a rich kid, but I do get financial aid, and some other benifits of being a orphan. So just don't think I am rich. Far From it.

Thanks in advance

00soul

dang, are you rich?

monkeywithacold

dude must be rich

xrageandfearx

Nope. Not rich. I am a orphan, trying to make some money on the side.

Scratcher33

You can usually open up an account with a catalog like Merry Sales Catalog, if you're ordering more than $1000 worth of parts, but I think you might need to get a business license. Email them.

SSBully

Check your LBS's and ask them if they'd be willing to do cost+ 10% or something similar. Hell, even call up some of the huge e-tailers around and ask them. If you buy enough, they may even get a break from their distributors, and make some cash for themselves. It never hurts to try.

xrageandfearx

Cool I will ride down there tomorrow. Ask a few questions. hopefully get lots of answers. Thanks for helping me

kevinsaari

As stated, if I were you I'd hit up the LBS and ask if I could get a discount for a large bulk order like that. I work in a guitar shop, and we've done this for customers before.

xrageandfearx

again thanks. I didnt think that the LBS's here could do that.

HandsomeRyan

Sorry, I don't know where to get bulk parts but I did have a few questions:
• What, specifically, are you building?
• Will you be able to undercut bikes direct and similar retailers?
• Do you have insurance if a component of a bike you assembled fails and the owner tries to sue you?
• How do you plan to sell these bikes once they are assembled?

If you are not comfortable discussing your business model (and likely getting flamed by the rest of the forum for it) I understand but I'm always curious to hear about how people build up a business from an idea to fruition. It sounds like a really cool project and I hope you can make it work.

wearyourtruth

this is my thought as well. i see sales ALL THE TIME of someone who built a bike/bikes and is trying to get out of it what they spent on it, when the reality is that places like bikes direct get their parts at such ridiculously cheap prices that they are always going to be able to sell for less than an individual.

my thought is that if you got your parts cheap you would be spending
wheelset - $100
cranks - $40
tires - $30
tubes - $5
cog - $10
chain - $10
stem - $25
bars - $20
bar tape/grips - $10
seatpost - $10
saddle - $30
pedals - $15

now you've already spent $305 without even the cost of the frame/fork/headset! (since you mentioned something about conversions) and even now if you got those for free and have ended up with a $350 bike (making a $45 for your troubles) who would spend $350 on your conversion when they can get a kilo tt, motobecane, dawes, etc?

if you are going to be selling conversions, even with all new parts, i would say that you need to keep your SALE price under $300 at least. if you can do that then you might have something, but i don't know how. buying it bulk may end up with cheaper prices than those on some, but they won't be wholesale, you are still buying them from someone else who has to make a profit too.

dsh

Just to play the devil's advocate here:
Things like seatpost, stem, and bars are things that will probably be on the "$10 craiglist special" conversion-able 10-speeds he's looking at. With a little investment in degreaser, rust remover, steel wool and elbow grease, he could polish those components up enough not to be an embarrassment and sneak in a few bucks under your $300 price line.

And who knows, maybe he's an artist with a really gifted eye for aesthetics, and he's going to pump out some beautiful conversions. Maybe.

All that said, this is going to be a really big front end investment, for an uncertain and small return. Even if you do get the parts for great prices (say $200 per bike for everything, which would be exceptional), that's a $4,000 up front investment for 20 bikes. If you've got that kinda dough, sweet.

devilshaircut

I am curious as to the context of this. Did you find a bunch of NOS frames for free or something?

Rob1900

organize a group buy from somewhere, but dont invite anyone else.

DudeAbides

What about Universal Cycles? With coupon code vip15 (when you spend $300), you get 15% off already competitive prices. They're also good about responding to price match requests, so they may be willing to cut you a deal. If LBS fails, they're the first online shop I'd try.

Good luck!

PedallingATX

Anyways, as far as sales go, I don't think it will be a problem. I turned a profit on my Bianchi conversion and I was paying retail for all of the parts. If you make it pretty, people will buy it. you don't need insurance or anything like that to sell bikes on CL. If he opened up a real shop, it'd be a diff. story. I think you can make this work.

A good friend of mine is a bike flipper. He just constantly scours CL and Ebay buying cheap stuff, polishing it up, and turning a profit. You need to be mechanically competent to do this, though. In addition the price of parts, you need to invest in tools. Truing stand, repair stand, chain whips, lockring tools, chain breaker, and lots of other tools I don't care to list. But if you are paying a LBS to do the work for you, you definitely won't make a profit.

The same friend of mine who flips bikes also has a truing stand and charges people 5 bucks a true, which is cheaper than LBS. It's not that hard to make money with this kind of stuff. Most FG buyers don't care about ANYTHING except how the bike looks, so make it pretty and they will buy it even if it has a crap crank/headset/BB/stem/seatpost/saddle

devilshaircut

Recycling.

riot2003

I wanna buy a bike from the rich kid.

xrageandfearx

Okay, My friend has about 30 bikes sitting in his garage and backyard. They are all different sizes. My plan was/is to convert them, powder coat them random colors. I can do the powder coating at a friends house. But my whole deal is i dont want to rip people off. I would probably put up a ad on craigslist for custom conversions or something like that. My price was to sell them for about 350 each. Really if any one has any good suggestions please lay them out. I need to make 5000 dollars in like 6 months. So yeah that is the main reason for my quick money making idea.

devilshaircut

Do it!

wearyourtruth

if i may be so bold as to do a little math... if you sell 30 bikes at $350 each, you will need to make a profit of $166.67 on each bike to end up with a net profit of $5,000. This leaves you $183.33 of the $350 to spend on each bike. If you spend $183.33 on each bike, however, you would have spent $5,500 to do the builds, so why not just take that money and pay off whatever you need $5,000 for?

so lets say you don't need to spend $183.33 on each bike... lets talk bare minimum. lets say you spend $75 on each bike, all you get is a cheap rear wheel, every other piece of the bike is the same. now you've spent $2,250 to put rear wheels on 30 bikes, and in order to make a $5,000 profit on top of your investment, you would need to sell these bikes for at least $242 each. Are these bikes with some fresh paint/powdercoating and a new fixed rear wheel going to sell for $242? You tell me.

so what about somewhere in the middle. using the same math, to make a $5,000 profit, if you spend $100 per bike, you spend $3,000 and you need to sell them for at least $267. if you spend $125 per bike, you spend $3750 and you need to sell them for at least $292. if you spend $150 per bike, you spend $4,500 and you need to sell them for at least $317.

just food for thought...

ianjk

Not to be a negative nancy...

You also have to figure in the amount of time and money it takes to strip a bike of 100% of the orig. paint and prep for powdercoating?

Also... each bike is probably going to pose some sort of challenge (assuming they are all randoms). chainlines, rust, bad threads, tweaked frames/forks, etc, etc. This will also take time and/or money to sort out.

If you have the time, tools, resources, and buyers, it could work tho.

oldfolksmashers

1. What LBS is going to give you cost+10 on product that is going to undercut their business? "Sure, you're welcome to have access to our vendors as long as you pay shipping and tax!"

2. wearyourtruth is awesome.

3. didn't that whole xthisxthingxandxthat die out a while ago?

4. You need a business resale license and a tax ID to set up an account with ANY distributor. That's how it works. The government says so.

Geordi Laforge

some town's craigslist is about to get bombed with janky conversions for $480 each for the next 6 months.

sp00ki

i hope you fail at selling "your friend's" 30 stolen bikes.