Assos - True value for money

robbo2011

Yet another Assos thread I'm afraid.

However, these high end brands seem to come in for quite a lot of derision on this forum, so I'd like to share my recent experience with the company.

A couple of weeks ago, I rather ambitiously decided to take on a big climb in the Jura when the snow was still about. 3/4 of the way up, the road became impassable due to snow, so I decided to walk over the top and down the other side until the road became clear again. During my rather longer than expected walk (4 km!), I caught the lower leg of my Assos Winter LL bibtights on the outer front chainring, ripping a small but nasty hole in the calf area of the bibtghts.

Being slighty pissed off about my stupidity, I contacted Assos, and they said send them in and we'll take a look. So last Saturday, they were posted (B post) off to Assos and arrived there on Tuesday. Lo and behold, on Thursday morning, only 4 working days after sending the things, the postie knocked on the door with a package from Assos.

In the package contained my repaired bibshorts and a load of goodies (skin repair cream, active wear cleanser and some chamois cream). The repair itself is invisible, they have unstitched and replaced the entire damaged panel - absolutely superb quality work. What's more, the repair is free of charge.

So, a good news story to counter some of the negativity, and proof that value should be measured by more than just the price tag alone.

djm501

Are you *sure* you don't work for them? 8-)

;-)

MountainMonster

Just wait until raffles sees this!

giant_man

of course, Assos is king imo ...

robbo2011

lol, no I don't. Just relaying some unexpectedly positive customer service. It's nice when a company actually looks after the customer for a change. not just in cycling, in any walk of life. Doesn't happen that often in my experience.

Anonymous

You generally get better VFM by spending a bit more.

Assos is a fab company IMO. Had some utter crap winter gloves but everything else (including the winter gloves/undergloves I swapped them for) is top quality, and excellent VFM, especially if on offer
Love the packaging and design generally.
I am not surprised by the great service you have highlighted.

They are a little up their own (no snot wipe area on gloves to name but one thing) but no where near as bad as Rapha lol. I have only looked at their site twice, and clicked straight off both times!

goonz

It is funny how if there us anything positive we all become cynical and assume it's a ruse or lie. If it's something negative we are quick to condemn them immediately. That's great news about the tights for the price you pay its great service. To be fair to rapha they also repair things free of charge but it's good to know when I rip my assos shorts I can get them repaired.

Devastazione

Bought one of their fancy weird name jackets 2 months ago,it's called jhabu 5 something. Looks good ? Looks classic i would say and I'm ok with that. Well refined ? Looks like. Deliver what it says ? Yeah it's ok but nothing to feel overly excited. Bottom line was it worth it ? Now way Jose, I could have saved at least 100 Euro with the usual Gore Bike Wear. Maybe I should have stayed with one of their famous Fondellos instead. And oh yeah,cool packaging and fancy online warranty registering.....big deal.. :roll:

Brian B

giant man wrote:

of course, Assos is king imo ...

+1 Giant Man.

stifflersmom

Man up, climb in the big ring and you'll never rip a pair of tights on the chainring again

letap73

I am a cheapskate - my initial impression of Assos was it was severely over priced. I managed to get an 80% reduction on some ASSOS bibtights - which in all honesty were not the correct size (way too big)- however the performance of these tights were still superb, dispite size issues. I have bought other ASSOS kit - at large reductions - the performance of all the kit (AIRJACK jacket being outstanding) has been excellent and the fit generally very good.

goonz

Where u get such a huge discount in assos?

letap73

goonz wrote:

Where u get such a huge discount in assos?

You have to look around - I got the ASSOS bibtights from Wiggle pricedrop
Royles - applied a 20 % discount on already discounted ASSOS gear - I got my Airjack brand new for less than £100!
Chain reaction - price drop.

I think I got lucky as ASSOS were moving to their latest line up - a lot of old stock was being gotten rid of.

You can also try:
http://www.assosfactoryoutlet.com/

ShutUpLegs

My favourite assos jersey

Anonymous

This is a groovy one.......YEAH BABY, YEAH!

http://www.bicycleretailer.com/sites/de ... _Front.jpg

I think she has been doing too much cycling!
Looks a bit like they photoshopped out the bike

robbo2011

I quite like this myself:

Anonymous

Gotta love Assos. Only they could make a gimp suit look so stylish :P
Do you just use the standard chamois cream on those or is there a special version? 8)

priory

if one rips normally priced clothes the local dry-cleaners or bridal wear shop will have a seamstress who would mend it for a fiver, saving you a hundred quid or so overall c.f. assos; and no postal bills.

Anonymous

priory wrote:

if one rips normally priced clothes the local dry-cleaners or bridal wear shop will have a seamstress who would mend it for a fiver

One's black Lidl bibshorts would look a little odd with a silken ivory panel sewn into them though, would they not?

robbo2011

priory wrote:

if one rips normally priced clothes the local dry-cleaners or bridal wear shop will have a seamstress who would mend it for a fiver, saving you a hundred quid or so overall c.f. assos; and no postal bills.

Err, right. What a repair that would be. Let me say again, with the assos repair, they unstitched the entire damaged panel and replaced it with a new one so the shorts are as good as new. That's not going to happen down at the local sketchley's is it? Unless you want a nice flower print non stretch panel sewn into your shorts of course.

Nobody is saying that these high end brands are cheap, but when making a judgement on value, one needs to consider the quality and longevity of the item and the after sales care too rather than simply looking at the sticker price. That does not tell the whole story.

Anonymous

Well put robbo You are kind of wasting your time on some people though as they do not seem to understand the concept of value for money :roll:

If you buy a cheap pair of bib shorts and then spend a fiver having them repaired (the only reason any repair would cost so little is because they could not do it properly), it has cost you a fiver and not saved you anything!
The 'saving' was made when you bought them in the first place, and even calling it a saving then is subjective as its really just buying a cheaper, less able, product.

If you did not need/want the Assos ones in the first place, how is it a saving? Thats like me buying a carrera and saying I saved £2000 by not buying a Cinelli.
A saving is what I did by getting an Assos jersey for 60% off. Assos haters will only ever see a £150 jersey though, but thats their problem, not mine

priory

''One's black Lidl bibshorts would look a little odd with a silken ivory panel sewn into them though, would they not?''

I think some people on here would rather like a bit of ivory silk to go with their magic swiss lycra.

giant_man

there's no 'magic swiss lycra', it's just good quality lycra, and good value I might add, although I did take your comment with a pinch of salt :roll:

MountainMonster

Why is it poor people have such hate for expensive things?

Funny stuff!

bigbarper

Hi All

Just wanted to flag up some great customer service I received.
Came off my bike a couple of weeks ago and put a hole in the right hip of my airblock bib tights, they are approx 6 years old and in very good condition due lack of use, so was keen to try a repair option.
A couple of searches revealed that Assos will try to repair garments if possible, so I somewhat hopefully posted them of to Switzerland. Ten days or so passed and I had heard nothing, then just as I was beginning to think the worst a parcel arrived from switzerland containing my beautifully repaired tights.
The repair was done for free.

Well done Assos great job.

Iamnot Wiggins

MountainMonster wrote:

Why is it poor people have such hate for expensive things?

Funny stuff!

Hahahaha! Bow to our wealth!!

In all seriousness though, whilst Assos is expensive, it's also great stuff. I used to have one their old airblock jackets which I sold to a friend who still has it. 8 years later and it's still going strong, stitching is still intact and it still looks and fits great. That's what you pays your money for. Never had to have an item repaired by them (thankfully) but the good news stories posted here just reinforce the brand strength.

Anonymous

I like Assos stuff but not sure I would call it the pinnacle of VFM, especially when it relies on using the free (how much is insured/tracked postage to Switzerland?) repairs.

VFM bib shorts for me (if we are talking list price) would be something like Endura FS260 Pro.
Aldi, Lidl and other cheap stuff is never good VFM IMO.

Decent bib shorts should be at the top of every road cyclists list.
If you can afford £30, you can afford £60 in my book.

Assos is great if you can afford it but perhaps more of a luxury unless you do use the free repair service.

robbo2011

Judging by the number of people on here who have gone down like a sack of spuds over the last few days, the free repair service is looking more and more valuable by the day!

cattytown

I thought my DHB bibs were good until I tried a pair of Assos. I still thought the DHB were OK after that, then I tried the DHB again...

I'll also remind people of Vimes' boot theory :-)

Paul.

Anonymous

Am guessing most people that sl4g Assos off and swear blind that £30 bib shorts are just as good and better VFM have never tried them so cannot really comment anyway.

People that have found Assos ones to be worth the expense will probably have worn cheaper or even very cheap ones though.

Does anyone who went out on a financial limb regret buying Assos bib shorts?
Would have thought they are few on the ground compared to people who regret buying cheap ones.

I see Assos (as a company) a bit like Thule. Both Swiss with loads of cash for R&D/production to make a better product that works really well and not really giving a to55 if anyone chooses to buy it.

colinsmith123

robbo2011 wrote:

Yet another Assos thread I'm afraid.

However, these high end brands seem to come in for quite a lot of derision on this forum, so I'd like to share my recent experience with the company.

A couple of weeks ago, I rather ambitiously decided to take on a big climb in the Jura when the snow was still about. 3/4 of the way up, the road became impassable due to snow, so I decided to walk over the top and down the other side until the road became clear again. During my rather longer than expected walk (4 km!), I caught the lower leg of my Assos Winter LL bibtights on the outer front chainring, ripping a small but nasty hole in the calf area of the bibtghts.

Being slighty pissed off about my stupidity, I contacted Assos, and they said send them in and we'll take a look. So last Saturday, they were posted (B post) off to Assos and arrived there on Tuesday. Lo and behold, on Thursday morning, only 4 working days after sending the things, the postie knocked on the door with a package from Assos.

In the package contained my repaired bibshorts and a load of goodies (skin repair cream, active wear cleanser and some chamois cream). The repair itself is invisible, they have unstitched and replaced the entire damaged panel - absolutely superb quality work. What's more, the repair is free of charge.

So, a good news story to counter some of the negativity, and proof that value should be measured by more than just the price tag alone.

robbo2011 wrote:

priory wrote:

if one rips normally priced clothes the local dry-cleaners or bridal wear shop will have a seamstress who would mend it for a fiver, saving you a hundred quid or so overall c.f. assos; and no postal bills.

Err, right. What a repair that would be. Let me say again, with the assos repair, they unstitched the entire damaged panel and replaced it with a new one so the shorts are as good as new. That's not going to happen down at the local sketchley's is it? Unless you want a nice flower print non stretch panel sewn into your shorts of course.

Nobody is saying that these high end brands are cheap, but when making a judgement on value, one needs to consider the quality and longevity of the item and the after sales care too rather than simply looking at the sticker price. That does not tell the whole story.

See underlined and italics in Robbo2011's thread. Did Assos repair the bibtights, or a pair of shorts? Or even both? If your going to tell fibs at least be good at it.