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Mango Bikes: The Sh*t Fixie Brand.

Had a couple of salty comments on some social posts. Decided it was a good prompt to address where Mango Bikes has been, is and will go to.

I love Mango Bikes (most of the time). It’s my bambino and since I took over steering just over four years ago it’s been a mighty ride.

But going right back to late 2017 when we were close to relaunching, a choice had to be made. Compete on price or compete on value and quality.

It’s impossible to do all three and survive.

So we decided to go for value and quality.
Easy.
Yeah right.

It’s definitely taken longer than I imagined to transition Mango on the journey from price based to value and quality based. 

Not just the transformation of the bikes; that’s fairly straight forward – spec the best parts possible without blowing the RRP sky high. But getting the message out there and people really seeing and believing what’s been done takes time.

But one (colourful and custom) bike at a time we are getting there and will continue to get there.

Thank you to all you lovely Mango tribe members who gave us a chance and are now riding happy.

But lets just address some of the things we do still hear now and again. (I guess not hearing or reading this as much nowadays means something is moving in the right direction)

“£600 isn’t cheap to most. But it is……but it’s overpriced for a mango bike”

The average bike price in UK is about £450

That statement is prime pedalling of bicycle science (aka BS). The cycle industry is rife with it and it just makes buying a bike seem like a complicated, intimidating and very expensive process.

Firstly - Mango Bikes is small enough that every bike you order is really, really appreciated. We do 4000+ bikes every year but know we’re only as good as the quality of the bikes we send out and service we provide. (We do make ballsups now and again, mostly service related, but will always do our best to sort).

Maybe you saved up to buy your new Mango, bought it on finance or had had the cash to pay all in one go. However you purchased, it’s a considered and significant investment, we’ll never take that for granted or see £600 as some throwaway amount.

Secondly – we could add in distributors and wholesalers and dealers to our sales channels and all of a sudden we’re selling bikes for two or three times the price. Early doors, Mango Bikes thought this was all a bit Don Corleone and went direct.

This means you get higher spec and quality bikes for a lot less than brands still sticking to old school routes. 

Simples. Just how we like it!

”You have the business of 60% of the population who just don’t really have a clue…”

See above for BS being rife.

That’s cyclist privilege right there, or something. When you buy an overpriced, under-spec’d, totally unnecessary bike I guess it hurts a little bit to then see someone else riding a much more comfortable bike, suited for purpose that cost way less. And don’t even mention the colours and customisation…

Its pretty simple. Thankfully you lot who apparently don’t have a clue, actually do.

For Tour de France or downhill mountain biking, Mango Bikes probably isn’t the right brand. Want an all year round, every day bike that’s fun to design, fun to ride and keeps on going? 

Gotcha.