Hi Everyone
Thanks for all your comments. Also cheers for the post Willy. We take customer/ potential customer feedback very seriously. We know the price may be high but if we could justify a few things to you guys before you come to the conclusion that we are just trying to rip you off.
1. The product has been designed, developed and assembled in Australia and manufactured in China. We are not in the business of discrediting our competitors but our parts have not constructed from off the shelf parts you find at Bunnings, or any other hardware store for that matter. The price includes all shipping within Australia as well as GST.
2. We know this is a road rider forum so only half of this may apply. The Rideline is the first of its kind to be developed for both on and registered off road use. Every Rideline comes with a dual mounting system one for on-road use and another for off-road use. Once mounted, the on-road version (slimline) features no visible fastener, which we see as an innovation as customers have a more streamlined look and no bits and pieces hanging off their bike.
For the off-road mount (Shock Resistant Flexible Bracket) it features a flexible zone, if the registration label holder comes into contact with bush, shrub or other obstructions the body flexes, as to not tear off or tear off a part of your bike. We also see this as an innovation as no other tubular style registration label holder does this. Also from our riding experience conventional cheap Polypropylene holders have a tendency to fly off when you are out bush.
3. The tube itself is constructed from high impact UV stable Polycarbonate. This is an automotive grade plastic and shatter resistant. We also see this as a plus as a lot of our competitors use acrylic, which will turn yellow in sunlight and shatter upon impact. The end caps, SRFB and Slimline brackets are all made from high grade die-casted aluminium, with the flexible zone made from UV stable TPU.
4. The Rideline also feature recessed areas for dome labels/ decals to be placed. With every Rideline sold you receive 3 sets of standard decals free. As Willy mentioned (and no Willy has no affiliation with us, we am not cutting him a deal. He put this thread up in response to being sent a link) if a few of you get together and purchase as a group or club then you will get your own custom decals made. We ultimately saw this service being utilised by the various motorcycle clubs in Australia.
5. Retailers. The fact of the matter is that if we sell our products in stores we have to set our prices accordingly. We do not want to uncut our retailers as no one would buy from them. In the same breath we cannot sell it to retailers for nothing, brothers got to eat. pOint_1's reply, saying that we are only offering a $2.95 discount, is valid, however, all of this comes down to a juggling and balancing act of our wholesale prices with the retailers profit margin.
We appreciate all who have read our response. As developers of the product we love it. However, to hear that you, the buying public are discouraged by the pricing makes us sit up and take notice. For us to deliver a better product could you please help us with the following:
A. Who does most of their purchasing online?
B. Is this the sort of product you would happily purchase (if cheaper) without seeing in real life?
C. Given the above information how much would you expect to pay for a product like this?
Cheers, safe riding and hope to see you out on the road
Leo
www.rideline.com.au