ROSE no longer selling to UK customers

alpineaddict

Hi all
I have had my eye on a ROSE bike for a couple of months, with the intention of seeing what their 2021 bikes were like (if different to this season), however, recently they vanished from the website... No road bikes at all...

I contacted them to ask if this was just a transition of bikes from one season to the next and got the following response, stating they will no longer be 'legally' allowed to sell to UK based customers...

"...We have changed our production to serial production and for legal reasons we can no longer sell bicycles to U.K. citizens. The legal problem results from the fact that we now only mount the front and rear brakes according to EU style and do not accept any more changes. The problem can also not be avoided by ordering via the .com/.de/.fr/etc. websites, because we have blocked the delivery of bicycles with delivery address in U.K..."

My initial assumption is that they have their brake set up on opposite sides in Europe and maybe they change it around for UK based customers, but with us leaving the EU, they can no longer do this...??? Does anyone know, or can think of any other reason why 'legally' they would have to stop selling...?

I'm going to assume that collecting from Germany, in person, or having it bought and delivered to an EU address gets around this issue, but I wanted to be sure that there was potentially nothing too different to the bike, in EU set up, that could not be changed, with minimal expense?

I am a tad disappointed by this email as I desperately wanted to purchase one...
Thx

ugo.santalucia

This sounds a bit like that pub that was prevented from selling beer because their glasses were in ml rather than pints...

What a load of rubbish...

super_davo

It is nonsense but it is true... from Trust Pilot and a response to an angry customer

"Reply from ROSE Bikes
A day ago
Hello Pierre F,
we are really sorry that we are no longer able to supply the UK.
But a restructuring in the production makes it impossible for us to install the brakes according to the UK standard.

Your ROSE Bikes Team"

Bearing in mind that many people, myself included prefer having Continental brake routing because it makes all the cable runs that bit neater - are our bikes illegal?

Suspect they've looked at the money they make from the UK, looked at the potential Brexit paperwork and costs then decided simply not worth bothering. I doubt they will be the last, and this probably goes across many other industries too.

kingstongraham

I don't think it's the law.

ugo.santalucia

It isn't the law and there is no obligation from manufacturers to sell bikes where the front brake is on the right side... it's just a lot of balooney.
The law only says that there need to be two brakes

PMark

I would personally make a holiday of it and maybe fly to One of the shops in Germany and then take the bike back via train. Will give you a good chance to try out all their bikes, so you can get the perfect one.

alpineaddict

markdurdle said:

I would personally make a holiday of it and maybe fly to One of the shops in Germany and then take the bike back via train. Will give you a good chance to try out all their bikes, so you can get the perfect one.

Yeah agreed... There are obvious ways around this, I just wanted to be sure it was just the brakes on the opposite side that they are referring to... and nothing more complexed...

arlowood

Yep - bought an X-Lite Four from them back at the end of 2018. At that time you could do a fair bit of customisation on the componentry (stem length, wheels tyres etc). If you wanted the brakes/shifters set up in the UK convention (right = front brake/rear derailleur : left = rear brake/ front derailleur) you could stipulate this in the additional requirements box on the order from. My order went through and was delivered as requested.

I can only assume that this twaddle about production standardisation and legal requirements is just their way of avoiding the hassle of building and shipping bikes to the UK when the Brexit deal or no deal charade is finally resolved. Whether we end up with a deal or not it will probably involve additional headaches to supply to the UK which must be a pretty small slice of their overall market.

Just glad I go my X-Lite when I did. Maybe it will become a collectors item here once the supply of new bikes disappears

paulkilbourneassociates

It’s a British Standards requirement to have right hand front when the bike is sold.
I know a shop that imports a well known premier brand direct, and has to change the brake arrangement before sale to conform with a British Standard.
What the customer does, or has done, after the sale is up to the customer.

loltoride

Is there not another bike you can purchase from somewhere else?

shortfall

I'd be telling them to shove it up their @rse, never mind flying over there and begging them to take my money.

ugo.santalucia

OK, I see, so these are the requirements, now you guys tell me how many bikes you bought from a shop that met them all

1) Any hand-operated brakes arranged left-hand rear, right-hand front
2) A bell
3) White or yellow reflectors on both sides of each wheel or tyre
4) A white wide-angle front reflector, or a front lamp
5) A red wide-angle rear reflector
6) Yellow reflectors front and rear on each pedal

My wife bought a bike from a Giant shop last month... it met only requirement no. 1

DeVlaeminck

Good, just get one our Great British bikes, Bob Jackson are still going I believe, someone in Leeds can confirm?

bompington

Surely, given the tone starting to creep into this thread, it's a Boris bike you guys would recommend?

loltoride

ugo.santalucia said:

OK, I see, so these are the requirements, now you guys tell me how many bikes you bought from a shop that met them all

1) Any hand-operated brakes arranged left-hand rear, right-hand front
2) A bell
3) White or yellow reflectors on both sides of each wheel or tyre
4) A white wide-angle front reflector, or a front lamp
5) A red wide-angle rear reflector
6) Yellow reflectors front and rear on each pedal

My wife bought a bike from a Giant shop last month... it met only requirement no. 1

Other than option 1 I am sure you can get other bits cheap on ebay or amazon. Just a thought.

hopkinb

ugo.santalucia said:

OK, I see, so these are the requirements, now you guys tell me how many bikes you bought from a shop that met them all

1) Any hand-operated brakes arranged left-hand rear, right-hand front
2) A bell
3) White or yellow reflectors on both sides of each wheel or tyre
4) A white wide-angle front reflector, or a front lamp
5) A red wide-angle rear reflector
6) Yellow reflectors front and rear on each pedal

My wife bought a bike from a Giant shop last month... it met only requirement no. 1

my daughter's Frog bike came with all that, as did my wife's step-through ridgeback.

None of my bikes have come with pedals, so 6 was never going to happen, but only requirement 1 has ever been met.

alpineaddict

loltoride said:

Is there not another bike you can purchase from somewhere else?

Well of course, but having dome some research, I'd settled on Rose... I like the fact that are not mainstream... I'd never even heard of them until earlier this year.

They look the nuts and offer decent components for semi-reasonable prices...

dabber

shortfall said:

I'd be telling them to shove it up their @rse, never mind flying over there and begging them to take my money.

Agreed

yellowv2

alpineaddict said:

loltoride said:

Is there not another bike you can purchase from somewhere else?

Well of course, but having dome some research, I'd settled on Rose... I like the fact that are not mainstream... I'd never even heard of them until earlier this year.

They look the nuts and offer decent components for semi-reasonable prices...

They look like nearly all current mainstream bikes imo!

fenix

I wonder if Canyon will follow ?

shortfall

alpineaddict said:

loltoride said:

Is there not another bike you can purchase from somewhere else?

Well of course, but having dome some research, I'd settled on Rose... I like the fact that are not mainstream... I'd never even heard of them until earlier this year.

They look the nuts and offer decent components for semi-reasonable prices...

What a shame then that you're going to have make your own way to Germany to get one and then have the trouble of swapping the braking around because they don't want to do that or sell it to you in England. I mean seriously? There are plenty of suppliers of non mainstream bikes with good components that are happy to take your hard earned, some of them even in the UK so if it was me I'd be all too happy to take my business elsewhere, it's literally their loss.

ugo.santalucia

agree...

alpineaddict

shortfall said:

alpineaddict said:

loltoride said:

Is there not another bike you can purchase from somewhere else?

Well of course, but having dome some research, I'd settled on Rose... I like the fact that are not mainstream... I'd never even heard of them until earlier this year.

They look the nuts and offer decent components for semi-reasonable prices...

What a shame then that you're going to have make your own way to Germany to get one and then have the trouble of swapping the braking around because they don't want to do that or sell it to you in England. I mean seriously? There are plenty of suppliers of non mainstream bikes with good components that are happy to take your hard earned, some of them even in the UK so if it was me I'd be all too happy to take my business elsewhere, it's literally their loss.

.. and that will probably be the case, but doesn't stop me being a little disappointed at not being able to purchase the bike I'd researched and kinda wanted...

slowmart

alpineaddict said:

shortfall said:

alpineaddict said:

loltoride said:

Is there not another bike you can purchase from somewhere else?

Well of course, but having dome some research, I'd settled on Rose... I like the fact that are not mainstream... I'd never even heard of them until earlier this year.

They look the nuts and offer decent components for semi-reasonable prices...

What a shame then that you're going to have make your own way to Germany to get one and then have the trouble of swapping the braking around because they don't want to do that or sell it to you in England. I mean seriously? There are plenty of suppliers of non mainstream bikes with good components that are happy to take your hard earned, some of them even in the UK so if it was me I'd be all too happy to take my business elsewhere, it's literally their loss.

.. and that will probably be the case, but doesn't stop me being a little disappointed at not being able to purchase the bike I'd researched and kinda wanted...

It’s better it happened now rather than post purchase otherwise any warranty issues may be problematic if not definitely a long distance issue.

alpineaddict

slowmart said:

alpineaddict said:

shortfall said:

alpineaddict said:

loltoride said:

Is there not another bike you can purchase from somewhere else?

Well of course, but having dome some research, I'd settled on Rose... I like the fact that are not mainstream... I'd never even heard of them until earlier this year.

They look the nuts and offer decent components for semi-reasonable prices...

What a shame then that you're going to have make your own way to Germany to get one and then have the trouble of swapping the braking around because they don't want to do that or sell it to you in England. I mean seriously? There are plenty of suppliers of non mainstream bikes with good components that are happy to take your hard earned, some of them even in the UK so if it was me I'd be all too happy to take my business elsewhere, it's literally their loss.

.. and that will probably be the case, but doesn't stop me being a little disappointed at not being able to purchase the bike I'd researched and kinda wanted...

It’s better it happened now rather than post purchase otherwise any warranty issues may be problematic if not definitely a long distance issue.

Absolutely and this is probably the reason I wont be bothering unfortunately... Post sale, things could be a proper ball-ache if anything goes wrong with the bike...

mrb123

I think it's a shame they've left the UK market.

The level of customisation available really was impressive and second only to doing a self build.

Owners always seemed to give very positive feedback too.

darrell1967

Will this affect Pinarello, Colnago and all the other bikes built abroad and brought into the U.K.?

Also, I didn’t know bikes that were put together abroad had their brakes the opposite way round.

darkhairedlord

Not surprising, if the delivery schedule is now pushing into 2021 they dont know if they will be able to get it to you or what the process will be. They might be just suspending until they have a better understanding of the market. On the brakes thing, it's fairly simple to swap over on rim brakes but hydraulic discs would be a real pain.

veronese68

As above, they don't know what they are going to be charging their customers come 2021 so it makes perfect sense to step back and see what happens. Canyon have premises in the UK so may have a plan involving that. But direct sales from the EU if you can't guarantee delivery this year is asking for trouble.
Personally I wouldn't buy a bike from them, or others like them, anyway. Yes, they are good value for money. But the hassle if you have a problem isn't enough to offset that for me. Same reason I don't buy direct from the far East if I can help it.

gethinceri

Some of the best customer service I’ve ever experienced has been from Rose. Shame they’ve taken this step.

pblakeney

darrell1967 said:

Will this affect Pinarello, Colnago and all the other bikes built abroad and brought into the U.K.?

Also, I didn’t know bikes that were put together abroad had their brakes the opposite way round.

Those listed are generally shipped frameset only and built by sellers although you could buy direct at RRP if you choose.