D Tek still in business?

[david143]

I think as long as you look at cost per mile, then the buying cost can then be put in to perspective.

If all you are going to do is a few hundred miles then anything is expensive. If doing a few thousand every year, the initial costs start to look small (per mile).

I'm not saying get the most expensive, but do get something that suits your requirements. If that is the most expensive, better to save up a little longer than to settle for something you will never be happy with.......At least that is how I look at it.

In the case of the OP, it appears top of his list is an ICE QNT to do AUDAX and other things on. I would have thought that as a result, the better quality components you get with ICE and the like become more important factors.

This is not to say that some less expensive machines can not do the job, or that they can not be suitable. All depends what you want. After all, there are people happy to ride £50 cycles around. (and I do not mean less expensive trikes are comparable to a £50 cycle).

[xpc316e]

David143, I think that you make some very good points. I do not think there is a trike on the market equivalent to the £70 bikes from Argos/Asda/Tesco; I may be wrong, but I think that I would have come across one by now. There are trikes available for what is a bargain price when compared to a new Trice. Just because they are a fraction of the price, it doesn't follow that they are only a fraction as good.

We all know, if we are honest, that a pretty good bike can be bought for £750. If we choose to spend twice that money, we will not get twice the bike. We will get something prettier, more desirable, lighter, and that generally pushes our cycling buttons for us. Should we double our budget again, we know we will get correspondingly less again for the extra sum spent. We may get a low-volume, super-sexy, Italian confection but it is not going to be four times as durable as that £750 machine - we may want to keep it four times longer, or ride it four times further, but that's to do with us and not the bike.

The OP will probably be able to get something to do the job he wants for around the sum he is prepared to spend. Remember that he is just dipping a toe into trike waters, and will have a much better appreciation of what is available and how much it's going to cost him once he has seen and compared a few machines. What seemed like a perfectly reasonable velomobile sold on ebay this weekend for £620. He probably now realises what a top-end machine will cost, but with a little patience and luck his budget ought to get him a tool that will do the job tolerably well. It may be that he will want to buy a Trice, or similar, in a couple of year's time. If he buys sensibly now, he'll see a reasonable return on his money. It may be that he will realise that he doesn't need to spend any more; we are all different and have different expectations.

[D.TEK HPVS]

Funny how thinks turn out and just for the record I did not supply this trike which is now up for private sale .
Whilst David was looking for the ICE trike at five hundred pounds
He received sound advice from various forum members .
It was pointed out that better known recumbent trike brands retained strong residual values
Yesterday I received an Email message ........the edited highlights are set out below and a list of extras are not shown .

Hi Kevin,
My name is David Rand and I'm located in north Norfolk (postcode removed )
Sometime last year I sold you an HPV fairing and one or two oddments and I believe I mentioned my TWBent recumbent trike.
I've decided to sell the Bent - it's only done about 300 miles from new
It has been stored under an Oxford Bikes anti-condensation cover, in a fully weatherproof barn for the past three years and is in excellent condition,
I'm asking £1,400. for it and have not at present offered it to anyone else.

Regards,

David Rand.

[Tangled Metal]

Basically is Dtek still in business and do they have a website?

I've been recommended to visit such a recumbent specialist but I prefer to see what they sell and try to get a feel of the shop from a website. Might be irrelevant but does Kevin at DTek maintain an online presence? I can only find an entry in a site for Thetford.

[D.TEK HPVS]

Perhaps I should call you
Sent you a private message .....pleased you enjoyed Little Thetford village website
...Dam it ! You might have just discovered the UK's largest recumbent test track
Regards Kevin D.TEK OCTOBER 2017 ( just to confirm this is not a Robot response )

[[XAP]Bob]

Basically is Dtek still in business and do they have a website?

I've been recommended to visit such a recumbent specialist but I prefer to see what they sell and try to get a feel of the shop from a website. Might be irrelevant but does Kevin at DTek maintain an online presence? I can only find an entry in a site for Thetford.

I think the answers are yes and no.

Operating primarily in the real world is still possible, despite what the (somewhat self selecting) masses on here generally think

[belgiangoth]

It’s very hard to keep an online presence when you sell second hand bikes, the thoroughfare makes it an excessive task, at the cost of buying, fixing and selling (or requiring more staff which increases the price). It’s worse for recumbents, as their prices fluctuate massively (Brexit and pound to euro exchange makes this worse).
You’ll notice that laidbacks don’t list prices for new or second hand bikes, at which point I can see why Kevin doesn’t bother.

[[XAP]Bob]

There is a gap between *no* online presence and at least a 'store front' even if it doesn't get every bike listed and priced...

[Tangled Metal]

It's good there's a recumbent retailer serving the region. There's not many in the UK and mostly seem to be opposite ends of Britain. Whilst no online presence is not an issue for him I think the lack of even a basic information and contact page will limit how easy it is to find out about his shop. I've read a few threads like this asking if this highly regarded recumbent retailer is still operating.

I however appreciate how his business is run, it's a resource for recumbent riders both new to the type of bike or those moving on to a more ideal recumbent for their needs. It's very much a local resource though. I'm not local and I think there's not another shop like it. Laid back cycles seems kind of close in a way. For me to shop there takes some organizing for me. It's not a direction I have ever been. Glasgow I could see myself passing on a holiday to the highlands. Less so Edinburgh.

[Tom_B]

He was a clever man, was Alexander Graham Bell

[mjr]

He was a clever man, was Alexander Graham Bell

It's better if you use the bandwidth for data than one person at a time, though. If you call and get no answer or a recorded message, what do you conclude?

[Tom_B]

"It's better if you use the bandwidth for data than one person at a time, though. If you call and get no answer or a recorded message, what do you conclude?"

'Yes, probably' to the first sentence.
There are several reasonable conclusions to the second. I once visited on spec and found him booked up all day. He was very nice and, while the booked customers did a test a test ride, took a few minutes to show me round and explain how he works. Knowing this, my conclusion would be: 'accept that he's a one-man show who has as much custom as he can handle without the benefits of the Internet. Accept that he may well be in the workshop or on the street with customers. Accept that his approach might be "if they really want to come, they'll ring back" '.
So, ring and ring again. This is like going back to pre-Internet days: it was what one did then.
(iow, more or less what [XAP]BOB said in a single sentence above)

[pete75]

"It's better if you use the bandwidth for data than one person at a time, though. If you call and get no answer or a recorded message, what do you conclude?"

'Yes, probably' to the first sentence.
There are several reasonable conclusions to the second. I once visited on spec and found him booked up all day. He was very nice and, while the booked customers did a test a test ride, took a few minutes to show me round and explain how he works. Knowing this, my conclusion would be: 'accept that he's a one-man show who has as much custom as he can handle without the benefits of the Internet. Accept that he may well be in the workshop or on the street with customers. Accept that his approach might be "if they really want to come, they'll ring back" '.
So, ring and ring again. This is like going back to pre-Internet days: it was what one did then.
(iow, more or less what [XAP]BOB said in a single sentence above)

I rang Kevin at D tek a few weeks ago. No answer but about an hour later got a call back from him re my missed call. Arranged to go down to test an HP Scorpion I was interested in. Kevin phoned twice more to check details and arrival time. What more do you expect the man to do?
From my dealings he seems a likeable chap as well as a knowledgeable and fair trader - so what if he doesn't have a website.

[Tangled Metal]

I've been in email contact. I'm afraid phone calls don't work for me because I can't really use personal phone in work time. Email does work because I can read and reply anytime I'm free.

Phone or email is perfectly acceptable contact methods IMHO. The only thing is in this modern age a very simple website presence does have value. Even if he's busy enough as it is, a site instills more confidence in a retailer I feel. A very brief about me, contacts page and perhaps a very small selection of photographs showing past sales. It's a portal leading to contact and trust. Although lack of this would not mean I wouldn't buy from him. I think he's a unique retailer that I believe is worth supporting (because he comes across as honest and fair).

[mjr]

I rang Kevin at D tek a few weeks ago. No answer but about an hour later got a call back from him re my missed call. Arranged to go down to test an HP Scorpion I was interested in. Kevin phoned twice more to check details and arrival time. What more do you expect the man to do?

Have a basic website? How did you know there was an HP Scorpion to be interested in?

From my dealings he seems a likeable chap as well as a knowledgeable and fair trader - so what if he doesn't have a website.

So people don't know if he's still in business, what hours he's open, what phone number to call, whether he's currently away from that phone number and so on. I accept his approach is up to him but it's hardly a freak and unreasonable expectation these days that a specialist business will have some sort of website.