Beacon Bikes... anyone???

rickeverett

New bike brand and shop has just opened near me and there stuff looks quite nice. Had a good look but you cant test ride. They have some GB Olympic connection and a professional service centre further up the road.

Thinking about a new bike after Christmas and they might be on the list but the frames look a bit simple or dare i say CCCF ish. although they claim they are 100% british and tirelessly designed.

so was wondering if anyone has one from them or heard anything about them?

Website here: http://www.beaconfell.com/beacon
They have pics of customer bikes on twitter.

snipsnap

I've been in to have a chat. I was v impressed with the service and the bikes. I kinda had my heart set on the upgrade to a 2014 Cervelo r3 next spring, but after chatting with the guys here and looking at the bikes, it's given me a conundrum. I was offered a full test ride on a bf_80, which was the bike I was looking at. The only things that's put me off so far is that as they are a new company, they're not currently doing finance, which is understandable really.
The bikes seemed great to my eyes at least, though admittedly I didn't ride one.
Plus I love to ride around that area, and over to chipping and beacon fell, so it's nice for the bike to have that type of connection also. But that's probably just a load of horseshit I've made up to justify the purchase! Ha

I was impressed, would be interested to hear what others think.

rowlers

IIRC these were Onyx bikes, founder sold onyx and moved on to set up Beacon.
Cracking bloke, had a real good natter with them [onyx] at 2012 cycleshow...

dwanes

Been over there this afternoon myself for a nosey.
They are connected with Protool Cycleworks who service bikes for the Rapha Condor JLT Pro cycle Team so you would think they would know one or two things about bikes and quality, and i'm sure being a new company they would do anything to ensure you are happy.
But at the end of the day, I guess you would only buy one if you like the look of it.

rickeverett

Might go back over some time and see if I can get a test ride.
Price Seemed a little high but not too bad... If the frame is as good and as real as they say however. Sometimes a lot of frames are slightly modified versions of off the shelf Taiwan/Chinese frames. PlanetX seem to be like that with wheels i think.

Would be great for them to get some reviews and opinions in the mainstream. What makes it nice is they are local.

dwanes

rickeverett wrote:

Might go back over some time and see if I can get a test ride.
Price Seemed a little high but not too bad... If the frame is as good and as real as they say however. Sometimes a lot of frames are slightly modified versions of off the shelf Taiwan/Chinese frames. PlanetX seem to be like that with wheels i think.

Would be great for them to get some reviews and opinions in the mainstream. What makes it nice is they are local.

Yes, can't say I was blown away by their prices. Their high end bikes fair enough (these were very nice and lightweight), but for their lower range bikes I expected slightly better value for money.

Although they will offer a good customer service, so some people may be willing to pay that little extra for that.

cyclingspenny

Dont be fooled...

Just another open mould brand making their bikes in China trying to make a fast buck.
Open Mould meaning generic frames with no development costs that anyone can brand up for a small order.

I have connections in the industry and some Planet X are apparently made in the same place,have the same quality but at a realistic price point.

From looking at their website what really irks me about this lot is their arrogance, trying to pull the wool over our eyes by making out they are 100% British bikes (union flags everywhere on the bikes) when they are produced in the Far East. I have no problem with this because most bikes are made out there but dont try and misguide us, be honest.

For me their bikes look cheap with shocking colour combinations. When you look at what else is available at this price point this really isnt an option for me, not even close.

cyclingspenny

rowlers wrote:

IIRC these were Onyx bikes, founder sold onyx and moved on to set up Beacon.
Cracking bloke, had a real good natter with them [onyx] at 2012 cycleshow...

I didnt know this but I dont think the Onix guy has anything to do with them now.
http://www.bikebiz.com/news/read/founde ... kes/014975

I don't know this guy but from what I have read and been told he was incredibly passionate about his brand, had a hard journey to build his brand and having just looked at his twitter feed (@onixfounder) has a large following.

It all seems very amicable from the Bike biz article but he didn't leave after selling the brand so I ask

Why would you leave after working so hard?
Why would you change the brand name after it had just established itself?
Why would you let that guy go with all that experience under his belt and a strong following?

Might be just me but there is something just not sitting right with this Beacon thing.

Also having just googled some images the Onix Bikes look far better IMHO

Does anyone know if the Beacons are re branded Onix Bikes ?

rickeverett

cyclingspenny wrote:

rowlers wrote:

IIRC these were Onyx bikes, founder sold onyx and moved on to set up Beacon.
Cracking bloke, had a real good natter with them [onyx] at 2012 cycleshow...

I didnt know this but I dont think the Onix guy has anything to do with them now.
http://www.bikebiz.com/news/read/founde ... kes/014975

I don't know this guy but from what I have read and been told he was incredibly passionate about his brand, had a hard journey to build his brand and having just looked at his twitter feed (@onixfounder) has a large following.

It all seems very amicable from the Bike biz article but he didn't leave after selling the brand so I ask

Why would you leave after working so hard?
Why would you change the brand name after it had just established itself?
Why would you let that guy go with all that experience under his belt and a strong following?

Might be just me but there is something just not sitting right with this Beacon thing.

Also having just googled some images the Onix Bikes look far better IMHO

Does anyone know if the Beacons are re branded Onix Bikes ?

No they are not re-branded. Each frame has apparently been developed and tested from scratch (or modified off the shelf)
In the shop the bikes look nice, but I didn't think they were that good a value for money- esp considering what you can buy from Canyon and the likes so I have gone off them now.
They had one of the cycling mags out for testing, but for some reason the article has gone from a promised review to just a review of the shop and his experience out riding around the area..... why no review of the bikes???????

They appear well connected however.

spanner239

Good luck to them but why no pictures of the actual bikes on the web site? How many people will have looked once and then never gone back?

xixang

guy who founded onix left by "mutual agreement" and the "new" owners became beacon, or so I've been informed by the man himself (Craig). He couldn't go into details due to non-disclosure agreement (read into that what you will). Can't comment on current setup but I know Rob Hayles had some involvement with Onix - had a good chat to him when I had a bike fit at the cycleworks unit.

dwanes

Rob Hayles still has some involvement with Beacon and so called road testing of the bikes.
I thought they might have created a bike builder on their website since they build them up themselves.

rickeverett

dwanes wrote:

Rob Hayles still has some involvement with Beacon and so called road testing of the bikes.
I thought they might have created a bike builder on their website since they build them up themselves.

might be too small for that just yet perhaps?

either way, unless the frames are stand out amazing, the VFM isn't that good as they would be facing the likes of Canyon, Rose and Ribble etc.

maddog 2

from the pics - of which there are strangely very few on the website - they look very similar to HongFu/DengFu Chinese moulds, which is no big problem (I have a HongFu) but you could build your own HongFu for £500 frame + groupset + wheels + bits and end up cheaper than they are selling for, so it all comes down to how important the paint job is....

Unless they aren't Chinese frames after all, and are trying to suggest the frames are bespoke jobs and they are aiming to mix it with the big players like Trek, Giant, Cervelo et al.

cyclingspenny

Quote from above "No they are not re-branded. Each frame has apparently been developed and tested from scratch (or modified off the shelf)"

Well thats a lie because having done a little research it turns out the top of the range BF-100 is a rebrand of the top of the range Onix RH Pro. Same bike just different paintwork, so that bike was developed by the Onix guy, Right ?

Lies, Lies,Lies

From what I have seen so far this lot are so full of crap & charging a premium rate to push it.

dwanes

cyclingspenny wrote:

Quote from above "No they are not re-branded. Each frame has apparently been developed and tested from scratch (or modified off the shelf)"

Well thats a lie because having done a little research it turns out the top of the range BF-100 is a rebrand of the top of the range Onix RH Pro. Same bike just different paintwork, so that bike was developed by the Onix guy, Right ?

Which looks surprisingly like this.
http://www.olympiacicli.it/eng/dettaglio.php?id=127

cyclingspenny

Looks identical.. A geometry diagram would confirm this but I cant seem to find on on the Beacon website.

If you look long and hard enough you will find multiple brands using the same moulds as Beacon and I would like to think at a cheaper price.

robbo2011

Cyclingspenny, It is time you came clean.

Every post you have made on BR has been a diatribe against Beacon bikes.

What is your link with Beacon bikes or Onix bikes, and why are you continuously running down that company?

It seems to me as if you are conducting some kind of personal vendetta and I, for one, think that this is unacceptable.

cyclingspenny

Nothing to come clean about robbo2011

I just dont like this trend of many brands doing this type of practice that I believe is unfair to the customer.

I have posted on the main BR site applauding Factor for example for developing their own bikes with F1 tech in the UK but also criticised their 20k price tag.

In this case I really didnt like the blurb on the website giving the impression its a 100% British Brand which I think is unacceptable.

I have focused on Beacon but I am against all brands who do this.

The Ribbles & Planet X of this world get criticised for being a bargain brands but they produce their bikes in exactly the same way as 80% of bike brands.
I think they should be applauded not criticised.

rickeverett

Having had a look the BF100 does look like the Onix RH Pro... but it would as its from the same development guy?. what about the rest of the Beacon range? + still appears to be a British developed frame.

The bike in the olympia link however has a different fork and head tube by the looks of it.

Either way they do seem very expensive for what you get, considering its a new company too.

dwanes

Last years model release by Olympia of the frameset, which was the same frame and fork as the Onix pro, coincided with the finish of onix Bikes
I wonder if onix had design rights for the frameset, for a set period ,that came to an end. Which then the chinese factory allowed others to use it.

I guess this is how it works?

RDW

Sometimes there is this sort of deal - e.g., Planet-X had significant design input into the carbon TT frame frame they sell, and got a UK exclusive in exchange for this - presumably it can be freely sold by the manufacturer elsewhere:

viewtopic.php?p=15988089

As for Beacon, they seem quite open about where their frames and components are made:

http://www.beaconfell.com/faqs

and there's no mystery about Onix -> Beacon:

http://www.bikebiz.com/news/read/founde ... kes/014975

rickeverett

They are having a lot of fun and PR regarding Davina's Sport Relief challenge. Davina was spotted riding a beacon bike a few months back and now she's on it doing a 500mile bike hike swim thing.

The convoy drove through Whalley Lancashire this evening and stopped at the shop.

Apparently they have supplied bikes and maintenance support for the challenge.

Not bad for a little bike shop/company.

IrishMac

There's a Beacon BF80 in this month's Cycling Plus, it did good, 4 stars, so you can buy the mag in any newsagents or they might put it up on the bikeradar site, I don't know.
It looks the business anyway

RoboRider21

I spoke to them at The London Bike Show and they were very evasive when I asked them if they designed their own bikes.

I would have thought if they were not using generic off the shelf open mould products and designing their own bikes they would have just said "Yes We Do"

It undermined my confidence in them when I felt they were hiding something.

Quirky looking bikes paintwork design wise but overpriced when you look at what you can get for far less money.

rickeverett

RoboRider21 wrote:

I spoke to them at The London Bike Show and they were very evasive when I asked them if they designed their own bikes.

I would have thought if they were not using generic off the shelf open mould products and designing their own bikes they would have just said "Yes We Do"

It undermined my confidence in them when I felt they were hiding something.

Quirky looking bikes paintwork design wise but overpriced when you look at what you can get for far less money.

Aren't the top frames Onix Re-brand jobs ?

Theres nothing wrong with off the shelf really. A lot of brands use or licence out frame designs from the far eastern factories.

Only thing is, yes the prices are very high, esp for a new brand on the block. You need a hook in order to justify those prices and Beacon go for the Designed in UK / hand made / specialist route.

Like you said, in terms of what you can get elsewhere, I would pick a Rose or Canyon over a Beacon any day. Justified, high quality, honest and exceptional VFM. I really dont know why we can have a UK manufacturer that does what the Germans do.

dwanes

rickeverett wrote:

RoboRider21 wrote:

I spoke to them at The London Bike Show and they were very evasive when I asked them if they designed their own bikes.

I would have thought if they were not using generic off the shelf open mould products and designing their own bikes they would have just said "Yes We Do"

It undermined my confidence in them when I felt they were hiding something.

Quirky looking bikes paintwork design wise but overpriced when you look at what you can get for far less money.

Aren't the top frames Onix Re-brand jobs ?

Theres nothing wrong with off the shelf really. A lot of brands use or licence out frame designs from the far eastern factories.

Only thing is, yes the prices are very high, esp for a new brand on the block. You need a hook in order to justify those prices and Beacon go for the Designed in UK / hand made / specialist route.

Like you said, in terms of what you can get elsewhere, I would pick a Rose or Canyon over a Beacon any day. Justified, high quality, honest and exceptional VFM. I really dont know why we can have a UK manufacturer that does what the Germans do.

I guess Ribble and Planet-X are the closest we have to a Canyon or Rose.
Canyon and Rose just look a bit more professional and slick in terms of marketing and web design.

curto80

I went in to see them when I was in the Ribble valley for work (I live in Hampshire so its a fair trek up there). Really nice guys and I liked the bikes, but they took my details and promised to get back to me with some build options and pricing and they never did. Went for a Rose Xeon CRS in the end which cost me £1100 (including delivery) for their high quality T30/40 carbon frame with 105 components and lightweight Rose own brand wheels. That is unbelievable value at the best of times, but against the Beacon prices it just knocks them out of the park.

RoboRider21

rickeverett wrote:

RoboRider21 wrote:

I spoke to them at The London Bike Show and they were very evasive when I asked them if they designed their own bikes.

I would have thought if they were not using generic off the shelf open mould products and designing their own bikes they would have just said "Yes We Do"

It undermined my confidence in them when I felt they were hiding something.

Quirky looking bikes paintwork design wise but overpriced when you look at what you can get for far less money.

Aren't the top frames Onix Re-brand jobs ?

Yes I asked them about that and they said that some of their models were Onix bikes previously, Cant remember which ones exactly but the top of the range road bike was definitely one of them because that was the bike I was looking at. They said its the same bike as the Onix but now has Di2 options

rickeverett

dwanes wrote:

rickeverett wrote:

RoboRider21 wrote:

I spoke to them at The London Bike Show and they were very evasive when I asked them if they designed their own bikes.

I would have thought if they were not using generic off the shelf open mould products and designing their own bikes they would have just said "Yes We Do"

It undermined my confidence in them when I felt they were hiding something.

Quirky looking bikes paintwork design wise but overpriced when you look at what you can get for far less money.

Aren't the top frames Onix Re-brand jobs ?

Theres nothing wrong with off the shelf really. A lot of brands use or licence out frame designs from the far eastern factories.

Only thing is, yes the prices are very high, esp for a new brand on the block. You need a hook in order to justify those prices and Beacon go for the Designed in UK / hand made / specialist route.

Like you said, in terms of what you can get elsewhere, I would pick a Rose or Canyon over a Beacon any day. Justified, high quality, honest and exceptional VFM. I really dont know why we can have a UK manufacturer that does what the Germans do.

I guess Ribble and Planet-X are the closest we have to a Canyon or Rose.
Canyon and Rose just look a bit more professional and slick in terms of marketing and web design.

Ribble and Planet X are off the shelf too aren't they? Or at-least licensed / modified Far East designs. Again - nothing wrong really with that...

Canyon and Rose frames developed by themselves and are fully original according to the sites.

FransJacques

If you call them re-branded Onix you're not really going far enough down to food chain to the source. Not sure if it really matters - it's like calling a Roux a re-branded Comtat. Most lower end bikes are re-branded open molds.

The paintwork is really nice, and yes, they might be the same frame from the same factory as other brands. We had exactly the same debate 3 years ago about the Ribble Stealth vs. the DeRosa R383. I notice more DeRosa R838s around still on the road than I do Ribble Stealths.

Cycling is a mix of head and heart and this dude's web-site and paint jobs will appeal to people who like his story.