Many months ago I announced that we would have 52mm VO 650b fenders. I said they would arrive in a month or two. What arrived were 700c fenders. So I took the opportunity to spec a cooler Zeppelin profile fender. Three months later I was told they were almost ready to ship. Delays are expected with new products so I was not concerned. Two months later they had still not shipped and after another few week's wait I was told that the tooling wouldn't work. Darn; well time and money would fix the tooling so I did the only thing I could, paid and waited. A weeks later I was told they were ready to ship. A month after that they had not and I was starting to get mad. My agent assured me that they would cover the cost of air freighting them to us to make up for some of the delays. He put them on a plane, but they didn't arrive. US Customs apparently spent three weeks looking for tiny terrorists hidden among the r-clips. Finally they were released by customs. Yet they did not arrive. The trucking company that was to bring them the last 20 miles had misplaced them. Finally, last Friday, the new fenders arrived. All the hardware was missing though. And the profile was not exactly what I'd ordered. Still, I think the profile is still very cool, perhaps even nicer than what I'd wanted. And we do have extra hardware so can ship the fenders to customers starting today.
I relate this little experience in case any of you have thoughts about getting into the import business. I also wanted to demonstrate the futility of asking us when something will be in stock. I may nod authoritatively and say "In three weeks" but I probably don't have a clue.
I hope that you like the new fenders? I do.
10 June, 2008
VO 650B Fenders are Finally Here!!!
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12 comments:
Pretty. Matching chainguards?
So, yer page says "may be used on 26" wheels too"- is that may be used with great caution, or may be used with very few problems?
I gotta tell you, those zeppelin fenders are EXACTLY what I'm looking for...
I know what I want for father's day.
Great stuff, Chris!
brian,
26" wheels are smaller than 650B wheels, so there shouldn't be any problem.
Anon-
I'm worried more about a clean fender line than anything else- it would suck to end up with a fender line that didn't match the wheel, which has to do with where the "brake bridge" is on a frame built around 26" wheels- spacing front and back is no problem, but there's a very definite limit to how far up I can adjust a fender...
Let's see a photo of one of these over a Hetre.
The best looking VO fender yet! And thank goodness there weren't any Smurf terrorists in the packaging. ;)
Nice profile, looks like it's made specifically to accept pinstriping or other paint in the "valleys"!
brian,
the clean fender line is a function of your bike's frame. If the brake bridge and the chainstay bridge are equidistant from the dropouts, the fender will make a nice, even arc.
That's a problem I've seen in Rivendell frames. For some reason, Rivendell insists on placing that chainstay bridge farther away from the dropouts, forcing you to put a spacer between fender and bridge to achieve a proper arc.
On the other hand, the spacing of the fender mounting points on the Velo Orange Randonneur is perfect.
Im in the logistics field, so I feel your frustration regarding this debacle.
But if a supplier puts me through that runaround and I dont end up with EXACTLY what I wanted, they are getting the ax.
To think, I was about to start up a competing bicycle supply site until reading this post. Way to kill your competition Chris.
Nice looking fenders though.
I bought a set of your 45mm smooth from a bikeforums member who couldn't use them. I was very impressed by the construction and quality.
I thought you might like to see them on a Salsa La Cruz:
http://chriscortez.com/salsa_v1_1.jpg
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