Please pardon our pivot

If you've come to Flatbike looking for the line of CHANGE full-size folding bikes that we've built up over the years, it can be a bit disconcerting. Where did all the inventory go?

Surprisingly, after eight years of initially reselling and then designing and building our own popular bike models like this on the CHANGE folding frame, we're changing away from CHANGE.

 

We still think that CHANGE bikes are some of the most convenient and rugged bikes available for anyone who wants to save space---or simply drive around without a bicycle glommed on the outside of a moving vehicle--but two factors combined to put a halt to all our design and build efforts on this frame:

1. Tariffs. Suddenly, frames from Taiwan cost more, and the Shimano components we add to them cost more (because Singapore buys oil from Venezuela, of course). And entire devoted customer segments, like long-haul truckers, have been negatively disrupted, with concerns about their jobs. So we're hit simultaneously buying and selling, even within the US.
2. Design. We've followed Changebike, LTD through three iterations of their frame designs, while requesting attributes that would widen the potential audience of CHANGE bike customers. But two of the latest frame changes potentially reduce the market, so we had to draw the line somewhere, and declined to participate in future bike-building.

What now?

We've gotten a number of condolences from long-term customers, but Flatbike is not going out of business. Far from it. Just as the bike side of our business is winding down--we're now down to just a few frames in size Large--our component business is taking off.

Component business? Where did that come from?

Actually... that's how Flatbike started, with the realization that indoor bike storage is a problem---so much of a problem that bicycles often get subjected to outside conditions, rust, and theft because they don't fit inside.

And it's not just kids' bikes or "beater bikes". Even commuter bikes needed for reliable transportation to work often get the outside treatment. How risky is that?

Suppose we could offer an add-on, space-saving solution for your existing bike?

So Flatbike's first products were a folding stem and removable pedals from Wellgo that we put together into a Flatten Your Bike Kit that we've been selling since 2017.

But recently, there have been two major developments that turbocharge this whole area.

First, after five years of quality-checking and improving Wellgo pedals before shipping, we invented our own completely different removable pedal latch, designed for real-world use. And then we destruction-tested it. And then patented it. 

Then we told riders to go nuts with it. 

In a market where removable pedals typically come with back-of-the-box warnings about not being for athletic use, Flatbike Pop-Off Pedals are a game-changer.

Not surprisingly, these pedals hit nearly 500% of goal on Kickstarter, won a design award at the Taiwan Bike Show, and are headed for distribution in Japan. Our biggest open questions are where in the world we manufacture now, and how soon we can get to SPD and road bike pedals.

THINstem, meanwhile, is enjoying rapid growth. The relationship we began with the inventor at the Toronto Bike Show has grown through the years, with feedback from Flatbike customers incorporated into each new revision of this amazing space-saving product.

The future looks bright. Over the next year, we'll be building out retail distribution of Flatbike Pop-Off Pedals and THINstems, reaching far more urban and suburban riders than ever possible just with flatbike.com.

But for now, at this pivotal moment, let's take a final walk through key moments in Flatbike product development history...

What we're leaving behind.

• 2016: Flatbike.com launches, featuring Wellgo road pedals and a Japanese folding stem.
  
  
• 2017: Flatbike discovers and starts selling the THINstem, and adds Wellgo MTB pedals to the mix.
  
  
• 2018: Flatbike discovers Changebike.com and becomes a distributor for CHANGE bikes, starting with the CHANGE 702 hybrid and the CHANGE 612 MTB. We discover and start selling Wellgo SPD pedals.
  
  
• 2019: We develop our own lightweight folding road bike, the CHANGE Century, on the CHANGE 733 folding frame. Our video gets 1/4 million views, and sales are brisk.
  
  
• 2020: COVID hits. All bikes sell out. Bike supply is so limited that at one point we are down to 1.5 bikes in the shop and surviving entirely on component sales.
  
  
• 2021: Changebike introduces new frame and new model numbers, so now we are reselling the CHANGE 811 and CHANGE 812. To go along with these, we design and introduce a pair of new bikes, the Road Warrior gravel bike on the MTB frame and the theft-resistant Road Scholar, for students, on the road frame. Due to manufacturing shutdowns during COVID, we are informed that there will be no more Wellgo pedals for 10 months.
  
  
• 2022: We are informed that Changebike has stopped manufacturing the 733 folding road frame and there will be no replacement. All sales of the Century and Road Scholar immediately cease. We begin our own removable pedal design.
  
  
• 2023: We decide to stop reselling pre-built CHANGE bikes. Focusing only on our own builds on a 1x11 or 2x11 drive train. we rebrand the Road Warrior as the Folding Gravel Bike, also introducing the Folding Adventure Bike (hybrid with MTB gearing) and the Folding Off-Road MTB (which requires a custom 3D printed part). Our new pedal design gets into destruction testing.
  
  
• 2024: We launch our own patented pedal design, Flatbike Pop-Off Pedals, on Kickstarter, our launch video gets 2 million views, and we hit our goal in the first 24 hours. By the end of the month, we have shipped 500 sets, often multiples to customers in different countries. Meanwhile, Changebike announces that the 833 MTB frame that underpins all our bikes will be replaced by two frames: an e-MTB frame and a gravel frame that will not accept gravel tires (maximum 35mm).  
  
  
• 2025: We finally introduce e-bike versions of all our bikes based on the Bimotal e-bike conversion kit, combined with a 3D-printed adapter of ours, but it is too late. Tariffs have increased the cost of bike-building and we have already decided not to pursue the latest frame designs. We begin the long process of building a dealer network for Flatbike components.

There will be a lot of changes on our website over the next three months, as we change our business in several significant ways. It's like long-term construction. Please pardon our pivot, and if anything is unclear during that time, just ask: bob.forgrave@flatbike.com.  

See you on the trails!

Bob