... if Lion Bellworks is operating?

[hujev]

I've been wanting to buy a few more of their bells, 1 brass & 2 silver, but they've been out of stock of silver ones for a long time, and emails asking when they might be available again have gone unanswered for months (previously they were decent at answering).

I'm in the us and there's no dealer here, so I've ordered direct in the past. I need a few more for English framed bikes, and silver would be the best colour match (and I like their sound the best!).

Anybody know?

There's always the Japanese Crane bells as backup but for my Woodrup & Stanforth English seems best...

[Brucey]

you could, er, give them a ring...?

cheers

[deliquium]

They're still showing the silver ones to be out of stock, but the brass ones are listed as available.

I'm sure I have a new unused silver (handlebar mount) one that is now surplus to requirements - I'll have a rummage later. PM me if interested?

I have 4 of their excellent bells in use

[hujev]

Theoretically I could ring them up, but it'd either be too expen$ive from americaland, or 'super complicated I'm too old to do it without messing up' via my flip=phone (there may be some fancy i-phone or internet method, also outside my grasp)! Wait - I think I have some super cheap dial one number then the desired scheme I used trying to contact a disgraceful deadbeat framebuilder.. if I can remember it was very cheap, cheap enough to justify the weird second or two lag... Now if I can just get up early enough to call shop hours UK...

[JakobW]

I couldn't find a contact number on a quick scan of their website; if you can post it here I'm happy to try giving them a ring and see if they're still going.

[RickH]

They posted on 1st April on their Facebook page (link - which had been quiet since 2017).

They also have a presence on Amazon which may give greater security financially if the transaction goes belly up - UK link. They only seem to have brass ones listed there though. Maybe the silver ones have a supply problem.

[Paulatic]

They posted on 1st April on their Facebook page (link - which had been quiet since 2017).
.

That is 1st April 2018

[RickH]

They posted on 1st April on their Facebook page (link - which had been quiet since 2017).
.

That is 1st April 2018

missed that! (Or forgot what year it was - I think March/ April is the worst for that, after concentrating to get it right at the start of the year, you let your guard down & get it wrong. That's my excuse & I'm sticking to it )

[hujev]

Well dang... I went through the rigamaroll to get that 'post' (I avoid facebook and all that not, and /just/ because the design is awful!) and thought at least that's a sign. In my opinion a company's private website ought to have the most current info of course; their copyright says 2018 but nothing very recent on thgeir 'news' page.

I've been trying to email them repeatedly over several months with no reply; previous emails a few years back were answered as I recall. Would be nice if this is all because they are having difficiulty getting the silver material and their email is broken, but easy enough to fix the former and put a post on the website of the former.

I managed to find a used silcer one via the poster, above, but maybe I ought to try and order a couple brass ones from LBW in case (or as experiment). I like the Japanese Crane ones too which are pretty similar in all ways, but would be a shame if they disappeared. I have 4 english bikes (counting new Stanforth Skyelander frame almost reasy to ship) & a trike, and two need English bells!

Will report back if I find out more.

[gaz]

Lion Bellworks twitter feed has been quiet since last September .

[hujev]

Hey, I finally got a reply - best case scenario under the circumstances at least... weird it took so long [months and 3 or so attempts] to get the response, which would have been good to know via web page... now I can see my silver lions as 'rare and extinct', but at least brass still around..
------------------
Hi RJL,

We suspended manufacture of the Urban bells because of the currently high metal prices for nickel silver. It's a combination of the low Brexit pound and market conditions.

I'm not sure when this situation will end. Have you considered one of the Classic brass bells?

Best regards, John Beirne

***********************************************
Lion Bellworks
British made retro bicycle bells
Web: http://www.lionbellworks.co.uk
Email: sales@lionbellworks.co.uk

[Brucey]

shame that they no longer do a Nickel Silver bell. FWIW I think they are probably suffering from price gouging somewhere in their supply chain; there is nothing much about Brexit that constitutes a real excuse for hiking up the price of nickel silver more than other metals.

FWIW Nickel Silver is a bit of misnomer; although silvery in appearance it contains no silver. It is really a variety of brass in which some of the Zinc is replaced with Nickel. There are various types but a typical composition is 60:20:20 Cu,Ni,Zn.

cheers