Author Topic: No more Colony Flatland....  (Read 7709 times)

Offline Aceface@Lemgo

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No more Colony Flatland....
« on: September 12, 2012, 10:29:42 AM »
 
Sad news!
 
 
http://www.colonybmx.com.au/news/2012/09/colony-flatland-program/
 
"Way back in 1988 when I started riding, I primarily rode flatland. I was however one of the few riders that rode flatland & also did ramp, street & dirt back then. Given my links to flatland back in the day, it was natural that I wanted to do a flatland range within Colony as a company. Especially when good friends of mine Shane Badman & Simon O’Brien were without support at the time it made perfect sense to help them out.
Over the years we have supported flatland as much as we can. It’s no secret that the flatland market is a small one indeed. Through our strong position within BMX as a whole we have been able to support this for some time but at some point we needed the flatland program to support itself. Unfortunately this has not been the case & after much deliberation & sadness we have had to pull the plug on our flatland program.
We will still support Shane, Simon & Shintaro as much as possible with our products but we will no longer be making any new flatland products moving forward.
The guys at Flatland Fuel still have some stocks while they last so if there is something you want before it’s all gone, I would at fast.
I would like to take this time to thank everyone for their support throughout the years, we’ve had some of the best riders on the planet ride some of our products & that is amazing to think about. So thanks for the good times & may the they continue into the future. You never know… we may bring out some very, very limited edition flatland products from time to time."

byke

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Re: No more Colony Flatland....
« Reply #1 on: September 12, 2012, 01:08:49 PM »
With the greatest respect to the owners ... I cant say I am too sad.

No flatlander wants to see parts being removed from the shelves, but the design and input that was put into street / dirt parts seemed to much more thought out than the flat section.

So thanks for trying, its much appreciated.
But if you do release any new products in the future, I would rather see 1 or 2 great new thinking products than say 10 standard bits.
« Last Edit: September 12, 2012, 08:01:29 PM by byke »

Offline Paradoxium

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Re: No more Colony Flatland....
« Reply #2 on: September 12, 2012, 02:52:06 PM »
@Byke, most stuff has been done already, things just go in cycles. Only thing not touched is adjustability of tt length, hta, and stem offsets and ppl may not even want that.
I'm not sure what other innovation could be asked off a street company. But they designed their very own freecoaster coming out soon so that takes guts seeing the challenges of flawless/flawed hubs thus far..

byke

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Re: No more Colony Flatland....
« Reply #3 on: September 12, 2012, 02:56:47 PM »
I will look very forward to see what they can add to the freecoaster market.
I really hope they have designed it from the ground up, as there is too many re-branded coasters out, or coming out already.

** fingers crossed **

Re: No more Colony Flatland....
« Reply #4 on: September 12, 2012, 07:57:07 PM »
Biting my tongue so bad on this topic!!!!    I like a lot of Colony's products, but like 99% of flatland companies, they ultimately dropped the ball as far as marketing efforts, and now they are out of the game.

Simple as that.  Sorry to see it, too.


Offline johnu773

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Re: No more Colony Flatland....
« Reply #5 on: September 12, 2012, 08:35:56 PM »
Sad news but with some of todays riding styles and a lot of peoples bike setups moving towards hybrid sizes, straight tubed frames(closer to street/park sizes) and 2 piece street bars, I wouldnt be suprised if more street/flatland companies don't rethink "flat only" parts. I'm NOT happy about it at all but it is what it is.
 

Offline out~riding

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Re: No more Colony Flatland....
« Reply #6 on: September 12, 2012, 08:56:27 PM »
More space for other companies to grow.  :beer:

Offline metalbmxer

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Re: No more Colony Flatland....
« Reply #7 on: September 12, 2012, 09:11:54 PM »
Some issues with colony products:
1. forks cracked after a few months where "colony" is stamped out on the inside of the leg.
2. frame began to crack at the seattube after 3 months (colony followed through with warranty).
3. crazy high pricing like $430 on the cube frames

also, a few things were missing:
1. longer frame sizes (19"+)
2. updates to frames (straight tubing/longer backends)
3. lack of international team (mostly australian)
4. 14mm dropouts (could have helped sales)

ok just a few thoughts, sad to see Colony and their investments go...
Dax (now in LAS VEGAS as of July 2022)

Offline The Flat Squirrel

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Re: No more Colony Flatland....
« Reply #8 on: September 12, 2012, 09:24:26 PM »
I sold the last Colony Deja vu frame last Friday and the UK distro have no more, so thats it here in the UK for Colony flatland parts!!! :(


The only thing coming from them flatland orientated is the freecoaster, which is only coming with 14mm axles I think. also a choice of lhd & rhd. also a choice of male or female! sounds more like a street freecoaster to me

http://flatsquirrelflatland.weebly.com/
BMX, Vdubs, Music, what else??

Re: No more Colony Flatland....
« Reply #9 on: September 12, 2012, 09:36:25 PM »
Well John, the majority of recent Colony stuff was like 2010, when they had a whole line (2 of each style frames, 2 forks, 3 or 4 handlebars, pegs, cranks, stems, sprockets, 2 seats, etc. That's a real LINE of products, not like when MacNeil made a frame and a seat and called it their "flat line".

So that stuff was likely developed in 2009. It would be crazy for them to move towards the trends of "right now" especially if their program wasn't supporting itself like they had hoped.


I think Clint's explanation was really good, but I have always had a real issue with Colony. They didn't seem to properly promote their entire line of stuff. All those parts I mentioned were only imported to the USA by Flatland Fuel, no other USA distributor or retailer had it. Pat once told me it was a HUGE investment just for him to get their stuff over here. Add the fact that Colony was putting 48 page catalogs online with no mention of flatland at all, seldom mentioned it on their own site, etc. Their own website, when you click on "products", brings you to an online store where you can only see what they may have in Australia at that moment, ready to ship. So how is anybody supposed to know that they make all that stuff for flatland?  I bet there are tons of BMXers worldwide who had no idea Colony even made flat parts...and the only way you would even know (for instance) that their flatland handlebars even existed would be if you visited FF, clicked on "handlebars", and scrolled down to find them.

It's a weird thing that I see all over the place with many companies. They invest tons of $$ to develop and manufacture parts, ship them all over the globe, and fail to properly spread the word and try to sell them. Or maybe once they sell them wholesale to people like Pat, their job is done and it's up to him to promote and sell it??

Some of this might be incorrect, as I don't claim to know much about this industry at all but I do applaud Clint for contributing for so long!!  Thanks!

 
Sad news but with some of todays riding styles and a lot of peoples bike setups moving towards hybrid sizes, straight tubed frames(closer to street/park sizes) and 2 piece street bars, I wouldnt be suprised if more street/flatland companies don't rethink "flat only" parts. I'm NOT happy about it at all but it is what it is.
 

Offline rideflat43

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Re: No more Colony Flatland....
« Reply #10 on: September 12, 2012, 10:29:16 PM »
DAMNNNNNNNNNNNNN
POOR SHANEY BOY AND SIMON'
THEY MIGHT BE HELPED OUT BUT DOES NOT HELP
WITH THINGS THEY GOT FROM A SPONSOR!

I USE TO HELP OUT SHANEY BOY BUT NOW FIND
MYSELF IN 40K IN DEBT FOR MEDICAL...

SAD NEWS FOR THOSE TWO RIDERS AND FRIENDS!

Offline leeroy002

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Re: No more Colony Flatland....
« Reply #11 on: September 12, 2012, 10:58:13 PM »
ive had the cube frame and fork , no problems with them whatsoever, im still riding my contour front wheel, isnt shintaro riding a complete street set up now?
sad to see colony flatland go down, the stem was awesome,
i miss my cube frame and bar :(

Offline Bradlandr74

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Re: No more Colony Flatland....
« Reply #12 on: September 12, 2012, 11:25:59 PM »
I recently purchased cube forks for my new Jungle Rider build & hope they hold up well. 8)

Offline johnu773

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Re: No more Colony Flatland....
« Reply #13 on: September 12, 2012, 11:32:20 PM »
i don't fault colony at all.  I do agree they didn't market flat as well as they could have but in reality, the flat market is small as a whole so how many would truely see it anyways?  Flat is a "word of mouth" sport it seems and rider recomendation goes farther than hype (i would hope) but at any rate, my comments were more to suggest that I foresee this happening with other companies as well.
EX:
why would someone like a "khe" for example make an "a-dam" frame or "a blast" bars when they can just start offering  one of their street frames in a small size or street bars with less sweep.  it's just more economically sound for their company from an overall standpoint (marketing and production)
« Last Edit: September 12, 2012, 11:36:32 PM by johnu773 »

Re: No more Colony Flatland....
« Reply #14 on: September 13, 2012, 12:15:12 AM »
Well then, I guess flatland is always going to be small. Bummer!