In attempt to keep our customers and supporters as up to date as possible we will be updating this page with current known and estimated lead times for our products. As always, please do contact us if we can be of assistance or if your order has been adversely impacted. For 2022 we’re starting the page with a blank canvas. Generally speaking conditions in the bike and manufacturing sectors have not improved, and supply of raw materials, production time, factory capacity, and shipping capacity are all quite strained. We continue to advocate quite hard for the completion of our products that are in the manufacturing pipeline, and we’re dedicated to delivering every bike as quickly as possible.
08-12-2022
TD3 painted: We have the flight schedules for the first shipment of painted frames (per the last post) and it seemed worth passing along for everyone out there who is as anxious for arrival as we are:
UA0872/18 Taiwan > SFO
UA2045/20 SFO > DEN
Flaanimal Ti: Air Freight frames are leaving today and will arrive in Denver next week. Ocean freight frames will take 4-6 weeks in transit.
There will be fewer regular updates through the end of the month as we have a number of staff out of the office but we will still be working hard at the office to get the balance of our frames landed.
08-10-2022
TD3 – Naked frames are cleared for pickup in Denver so we’ve dispatched a team to get them at this very moment.
In a slight improvement of the painted frame situation: We arranged to have the frames that are cleared through QC sent now, and the rest next week, so the freight broker is arranging the first batch pickup for August 12th. More updates on that after they’ve left Taiwan.
Flaanimal Ti – We’re arranging air shipment now for people who opted to have their framesets flown in. We are arranging ocean shipment presently for the balance of the 2022 frames.
08-09-2022
FL50: We’ve built and shipped the majority of the Flaanimal shipment that just arrived. There are frames making their way through custom coating one at a time but other than that we’re close to being caught up on this batch! The next batch of Flaanimal production is almost concluded as well but unless people have specified and paid for the air shipping option from Taiwan those will all go on a boat instead of a plane and take 4-6 weeks to arrive in Denver.
TD3: It was a frustrating week with these. Last update said Naked would arrive any day but they didn’t arrive. We got an update this morning from the shipping broker that they are now due at Denver Airport for pickup tomorrow. From what they’ve told us the ground crews between airports are running quite slow which is causing a stop and go traffic scenario with commercial air cargo. Hopefully Aug 10 brings us the good news we’ve been anxiously waiting for.
Painted frames (Green Mountain and Arctic sunrise). We were updated today from Taiwan that they found a QC issue where the rear rack eyelets were not properly masked by the paint contractor and now have to be cleared out and tapped clean. This is utterly infuriating news and we’ve of course communicated that to the painters. (This is one reason why we avoid painting Flaanimals in Taiwan now, the delays are murder!). We are requesting exact udpated information on the cargo pickup date for these painted frames now but it will most likely be next week. Huge apology to everyone reading this. This is utter Murphy’s Law material.
08-01-2022
FL50 arrived in Denver on Friday and we have them at The Lab. That’s a huge win! Today the team is QC’ing, decaling, shipping framesets, and prepping for builds and cerakoting. The stoke is high.
TD3 Naked will almost certainly arrive in Denver this week. Green Mountain and Arctic Sunrise frames are PAINTED and complete in Taiwan over the weekend. That’s another huge win. Hardware is being assembled now and we will schedule shipping to USA as soon as we get pickup notification.
07-27-2022
FL50 – Our shipping broker notified us today that our FL50 frames will land in Denver on Friday morning. We aren’t sure if that is early enough for us to get a pickup notification on Friday, but if we do we will head straight over. Otherwise it will be a Monday pickup.
TD31 – We are arranging pickup for a TD3 Naked batch. Broker has the cargo out for bidding. It is ready for pickup now so as soon as Broker arranges it’ll be on a flight.
07-27-22: A Note About Rodeo EU orders / timelines / info
We’ve had some notes from Rodeo EU customers recently so we thought it best to offer the following guidance:
If you have orders with Rodeo Europe the best source of information about your specific will be to contact them directly.
Rodeo Europe is the EU distributor for our products but is not the same business entity as we are here at Rodeo Labs USA.
There are a number of factors that affect when their frame orders will arrive that are not public or obvious. When they place orders definitely affects the priority order that their frames are completed in. But we do work with them to understand where their most urgent needs are to help prioritize certain frames for them.
We have no visibility into Rodeo EU customer orders, who is waiting for what, etc, so we can’t advise any specific person on when their frame / bike will be ready.
We do know that we expect to have completed ALL OF The 2022 frames Rodeo EU have on order by the end of August if all continues as it is now in Taiwan. Some framesets have already shipped (batch of FL50 and some TD3 in the last week or so), some Naked TD3 are being prepped in Taiwan to ship to EU exactly right now (this week), Flaanimal Ti are probably a week or two from being ready to ship to them, and the remaining FL50 should be completed and ready to ship by the end of August.
Once EU has frames in-hand their shipping to customer, custom paint, complete bike assembling schedules are information that only they have.
That is the best info we can offer at the moment for EU customers. Hope it helps!
07-26-2022
FL50 – Just waiting for pickup notification at airport. They were in LA two days ago but haven’t cleared the Denver warehouse yet.
TD3 – Naked frames are cleared for pickup on the 28th in Taiwan. Green Mountain are through first layers of paint and Arctic Sunrise is having decals put on today, then Green Mountain will next.
07-22-2022
Quick update that we have been getting regular updates on TD3 and they are definitely moving through paint with urgency. Cosmetics are super important here so if we find any cosmetic issues we have to remediate and reapply before moving to the next stage of paint for the batch in question.
The current batch of Arctic Sunrise is well underway and some QC photos are pictured below showing some of the stages of the process.
07-21-2022
We have confirmation that FL50 will hit the Denver cargo warehouse tomorrow. Based on that we will probably get a pickup notification on Monday 07-24 and then we will finally have these frames IN HAND. (Correction, this notification applied to a shipment of Sporks, not Flaanimal frames, which is why they FL50 didn’t arrive on Monday as we thought. We had the two shipments confused.)
07-19-2022
TD3:
We just got a production update on TD3 this morning. Most (not all!) of the Naked frames are complete, which is great.
Important details:
They are waiting for a few more frames to pass visual QC (more sanding and some clear coat touchup / polishing required). Those frames will be back from that on the 22nd. Assembly and packing will complete July 27th. We will pick up for shipping July 28th for shipping to USA.
There are a small number of frames from the Naked batch that did not pass manufacturing QC and those frames are being entirely remade which is unfortunate but necessary. A frame simply has to be manufactured and pass all mechanical tolerances and QC. Those frames are being remade now and will be completed end of August. We will manually notify anyone affected by that via email so you don’t need to wonder if you will be affected if you hear nothing from us.
We have a note out requesting painted (Arctic and Green) frames status. Will report back with that.
07-18-2022
Flaanimal 5: We’ve arranged shipping for that first batch of Flaanimal 5 and they are being shipped presently (today) from Taiwan. An allocation for EU customers will also leave to EU this week as soon as the final shipping details are arranged.
Remaining factors for Denver arrival only involve flight schedules and customs clearance in USA. We expect end of this week or arrival or if anything doesn’t go smoothly with customs Monday / Tuesday.
TD3: We have a first wave of NAKED frames getting ready to ship to USA as soon as tomorrow if they pass QC. This isn’t every single TD3 but it will make a number of people waiting on their Naked or custom coated TD3 happy. These TD3 are being completed in waves as follows:
- Naked
- Arctic Sunrise
- Green Mountain
AS and GM are already in paint and we’ve verified it which is great news – things are moving along! We’re all keen for them to be completed, and we’re getting close!
Flaanimal Ti: Production of our 2022 Ti frames is COMPLETE. Hurray! Frames are in QC and assembly AHEAD OF SCHEDULE. Air freight frames will probably be in Denver end of this month or first week of August if all goes well. The rest of the frames are going on a boat and will take 4-6 weeks to arrive in Denver.
07-13-2022
Today’s update is only for the FL50.
Great news: We have a Taiwan pickup notification for the 15th (two days from now). We’re working on scheduling the courier now. Depending on flight schedules shipments typically take 3-5 days to get to Denver. This first shipment we are air freighting FL50 pre orders through at least June 8. We may also bring in some of the more recent frames via air per how many frames are done. Only 1/10th of the overall 2022 production is complete in this advance order but it will be enough to make a lot of pre order customers happy – which makes us happy. A much larger batch of FL50 is scheduled to go to paint July 25th so it would be completed and ready to ship early August. We will ocean freight those frames in instead of air freight except for those we pull for customers who have paid extra for air freight. Those take about 30 days to arrive in Denver but the good news is that there is available inventory in that batch of frames so frames will return to “IN STOCK” for retail and shop wholesale orders when these land. We haven’t had many Flaanimal IN STOCK in the past couple of years so this will be a huge change for us and something we very much look forward to.
The team in Denver is PRIMED AND READY to box, ship, build, paint, and otherwise speed customer delivery of this first advance shipment as soon as they land!
07-06-2022
It’s been a tense week of meetings around here – and over there, in Taiwan. That said, I think applying more pressure has produced some results.
TD3: Last week they, the manufacturer, were saying first deliveries of Naked frames in early August with Arctic Sunrise then Green mountain being completed in waves towards middle and end of August. But after these tense few days and some in-person negotiation and discussion at the paint shop we’ve now been told that all frames will in fact be ready to ship to us in July. They will be completed in waves because the contractor will only complete frames in each color batch – Naked, Arctic, Green – But they will be done in July they say. They haven’t given us exact dates – probably because they can’t yet as there are always so many variables in finishing paint, but in this case I (Stephen) do actually believe that they will be true to their word on this. Of course they’ve said “after this batch we need to have a meeting” which is ominous, but nothing really matters right now except for delivering this batch of frames to people who are waiting. We are a low volume bike builder, and each and every customer who is waiting for frameset or a bike from us matters.
Flaanimal: We haven’t gotten a straight answer why we haven’t gotten a pickup order yet, but today they told us that it would be Tuesday, possibly Thursday at the latest, and I think that is actually accurate info. They can sense the tension in each meeting we have with them currently and I don’t think they are gaming us on timeline right now.
If you’re wondering “how can things actually work like this” we recommend some reading. The book “Poorly Made In China” is a text book on some of the cultural factors and games that get played in some Asian manufacturing relationships. We don’t make these frames in China, we make them in Taiwan, but at times we feel like similar gamesmanship is at play when it comes to factory owners keeping production lines booked and occupied with the highest margin, highest profit projects. As a lower volume brand we’ve gotten the short end of this stick for years now. There isn’t much more to say about this situation for now, but it is definitely a “fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me” situation and we’re quite hard at work making sure this situation doesn’t play out continually into the future.
07-01-2022
Flaanimal: We’ve got our air freight quoted and tentatively booked for all pre-ordered frames and we are simply waiting for the pick up order in Taiwan.
TD3: Switching to first person here (Stephen): I got a schedule update this morning that made my blood run cold. I won’t post the details yet because we aren’t accepting the *new* schedule they proposed. I called the factory owner today at 3am his time and had an incredibly heated discussion that further delays are simply not acceptable. The issue is quite simple: The paint factory has a big order they want / need to complete in front of us. But I really don’t care about that big order from another company. I care about our customers. So through a lot of yelling, swearing, and explaining I think I made the case of Rodeo clear: We’re not going to accept being pushed around on this, and we expect the factory to work with the paint shop to get our frames completed as expected. This was an extremely tense discussion and historically we’ve gotten a lot of blowback from this sort of tactic but I really don’t care about the relational consequences at this point – we can’t go on like this, and our customer should not be expected to bear the weight of opportunistic contract violations in Taiwan. I believe our point was made well, and the factory owner will be meeting with the paint contractor tomorrow morning to attempt to forge a favorable outcome for this. I’ll get news of the results of that over the weekend or Tuesday next week at the latest and will update this page with that information.
The world and situation we live in sucks, quite frankly. Depending on unending customer patience is an utter garbage business model. This isn’t the first time we’ve had an impossible situation like this, and we’ve somehow navigated these in the past and moved forward to today. I knew 2022 would continue to be frustrating, but I had no inkling that we would still be dealing with this on July 1st. Perhaps that was for the best.
Apologies from the whole Rodeo crew, to anyone reading this. We’re pushing hard on this and we’re tired of being pushed around.
06-28-2022
TD3 – no changes to schedule to report
FL5 – Initial pre-order shipment is being prepped for shipping (typically involves bolting on all the parts and packing in cartons). We’re pre-quoting shipping costs to try to get priority booking when we get the pickup order. We haven’t been given the pickup order yet, but it should be imminent. Clearly they didn’t have them ready for pickup on the 25th but they haven’t given us any info on why not.
06-17-2022
Flaanimal 5. A good initial batch of frames is through bonding and expected to be ready to be ready to ship on the 25th. We will air ship these. They are currently getting clear coat across the whole frame now that the frames are complete and bonded.
TD31 Red Pine all arrived. Framesets have been shipped as have the full builds.
TD31 2022 – No changes from the dates posted below.
05-26-2022
Ok we’ve got some more detailed information to share on TD3 2022 schedule. Major note before you read too far: This is a general schedule that we’ve been given, we’re now going back and negotiating to get frames for our pre-order customers completed quicker than this main batch. Will we be successful? Maybe. We’ve had success with this in the past when we say “yeah but we really need this list of frames completed sooner”. Wish us (all) luck!
Current status of the frames is bonded and sanded and ready for base paint. This is the anticipated schedule we’ve been given based on that:
31th May — Start painting the base layer
7th Jun — Back to our factory and do QC (There is ALWAYS QC, sanding, putty, pinhole remediation)
10th Jun — Start fine putty processing
17th Jun — Complete fine putty
28th Jun — Start color painting
11th Jul — Complete painting
05-23-2022
Quick update on TD3 Red Pine: Frames are done and we’ve arranged shipping for ALL of the frames via FedEx our additional expense. It’s a tiny tiny way to buy back a little time for our customers. We should see them in Denver on Friday if transport goes smoothly.
05-17-2022
We’ve a bit more info to post so lets dive in. But before we do that a word of caution that Covid numbers are at 70k per day now in Taiwan. They are basically getting the Omicron wave we got in the USA back in January. Factories are still open but they do have more incidence of employees calling out sick than is typical.
FL50 2022 frames. This is the updated schedule we have from the factory. Normally we would never be this granular with production schedules, but it seems transparency is the best approach here so this is what we know right now. As you can see they are behind, but compared to 2021 not as behind as last year so that is encouraging at least. It is worth noting that we never have paint delays with Flaanimal because it is raw ED coated with a layer of clear coat. So when production concludes we’ll plan shipping straight away.
16th May—Completed the welding processing of rear triangle
17th May—Our QC manager will check the spec first, if there is no problems, we will start the ED black processing
20th May—Completd ED black
25th May—Completed the cutting processing of chromoly seat tube
26th May—Start the bonding processing of carbon tube on headtube and seat tube
2th Jun—Completed the bonding processing
TD31 Red Pine (2021 very late frames): Mostly done. They said they could be ready to ship this week but we haven’t gotten notification to schedule transport yet.
Proof of life photo. This was last week before decals were applied and final clear was sprayed.
TD21 2022 frames: We will update more as we get these 2021 Red Pine frames out of Taiwan as it seems the 2022 frames are waiting behind these last frames at the paint shop.
Thanks all! We know this isn’t easy and we’re trying hard to advocate on your (and our!) behalf. We had a number of cancellations last week from people who couldn’t wait and although we hate it when people cancel we just want you to know that we will honor refund requests immediately if people ask. The trust that people have shown us and continue to show us can never be taken for granted or put in jeopardy.
05-11-2022
We haven’t had a huge amount of factory info come our way in the last week but we owe y’all an update so we’re posting what we have:
Flaanimal 2022 frames: Currently having head tubes welded on. This is not where we need to be so we’ve asked them to complete the pre-order frames in a small advance batch before completing the remainder of the frames. Our hope is that with this smaller batch they can wrap it up sooner and we can get it shipped sooner. We’ve asked for a shipping ETA and they have replied that they will create an estimate and get back to us “shortly”.
TD31 2021 Red Pine: We’ve sent a stern note that they are very behind and very silent on these. We expect a response shortly.
TD31 2022 frames: Still wrapping up production and heading to paint after that. We expect Naked to be somewhat easy to finish without hassle. We expect typical turbulence on painted frames. We’ve also asked for an ETA on these.
If you’ve got a frame in our custom queue please know that we are Cerakoting custom and standard color TD3.1 (2021) and Flaanimals in house at as high a velocity as possible. Our booth has been a lifesaver and our crew here has been amazing as well. Liquid paint continues to be done out of house and is moving slower, but we are in direct contact with all of you liquid paint people with updated timelines.
Just a reminder: We ARE shipping quite a few bikes every week. So even though this page is delay oriented, it’s important to highlight that the whole crew here at Rodeo has been building and shipping bikes at record levels this year. Every bike matters. Every customer matters. Thanks for hanging with us!
05-03-2022
We’ve been shipping Naked 2021 final frames for the last week and a half at max pace and it’s great to see so many people finally getting their Donkeys. If you are still waiting for yours read on about the status of the remaining 2021 (Red Pine) and upcoming 2022 (Naked, Green Mountain, and Arctic Sunrise) frames.
Red Pine 2021 TD3:
The painters updated us today that they are chasing down pinholes on a few frames which is holding up the group. Frames are pushed through paint in batches and if a single frame has to be held up for QC the whole batch must wait, which is why these Red Pines are so delayed.
What is a pinhole? A pinhole a tiny point in the 3k carbon weave where the resin doesn’t fully fill the space between the fibers. There are a number of factors that contribute to this, but suffice to say this has been a thorn for us and is something we’re working hard behind the scenes to solve and prevent on future frames because of the delays that it causes.
Pinholes are cosmetic, not structural in nature, but nobody wants to have a frame with one, and we must persist until we remedy them.
Examples
2022 TD3 frames (all colors)
With 2021 frames still not being fully delivered we can imagine 2022 people saying to themselves “is my 2022 frameset really going to be that delayed? Short answer: No, but they are definitely behind schedule in paint.
The good news is that we don’t anticipate the frames being anywhere near as delayed as the 2021 frames, but the outlook seems more like paint will conclude late May for Naked frames and some time in June for Arctic Sunrise or Green Mountain frames. Behind the scenes we’re applying as much pressure as we are able to move them along as quickly as possible, but beyond that, in this environment that is the most we can do. For customers who are disappointed: We understand and we deserve that disappointment. All we can do is apologize and work with any impacted customers to plan workarounds or adjustments to their order as needed. If you need to take any action on your order based on these timelines please do get in touch and we are here to help.
04-22-2022
Quick update that we retrieved 2021 TD3 Naked frames yesterday and delivered the first frameset today. Builds and shipping will resume next week as we QC, build, decal, and prep. More Naked 2021 will leave Taiwan on the 25th, and Red Pine will follow at the end of the month.
04-18-2022
(2021 Naked) Donkeys landed in SFO today. Denver ETA is 04-20 evening which would mean we may be able to pick them up as early as 04-21.
2021 Red Pine) Donkeys: More delay developed over the weekend. There are two frames that need revision and the painter won’t complete final paint on any frames until ALL frames are ready to paint together. Yes, this is very frustrating, but this is how these contractors work: All or nothing. They are telling us new completion date is now April 29th.
04-14-2022
D3.1 remaining 2021 frames (not 2022). Almost every Naked frame has left Taiwan and depending on flight schedules will arrive in Denver next week for shipping, building, painting, etc depending on what you ordered.
Red Pine frames and the remaining small quantity of Naked frames are due to be completed on the 16th still so if all goes smoothly they will all catch another flight next week and be here late next week or the early the week after.
If you’re reading between the lines here you’re noting that we’ve flown ALL of these frames in. Some customers very graciously paid for air freight to make sure theirs came quickly, and there were just a small number of ocean freight frames to ship in this batch, but because the frames are so late we just couldn’t bear to put these frames on the boat for 60 more days, so we flew in the balance of the frames via air at our expense.
2022 TD3 and Flaanimal frames: These are moving a bit slower than we wanted when we projected April completion but all things considered they are faring much better than the late 2021 frames. We had some scary moments with raw steel billet for the dropouts being unavailable, and another emergency with head tubes being unavailable – which we flew in from Japan last minute to claw back some time the schedule. We’re telling any new customers that order right now not to expect anything until June, but we’re hoping to wrap up pre-order frames in May and will do everything in our power to get them to Denver quickly once they are completed in Taiwan.
04-07-2022
TD3.1 remaining 2021 frames (not 2022). We received a paint update today: Most Naked frames are complete and are being boxed up now. Some 52cm Naked needed another round of cosmetic QC so they aren’t read to ship now, but the plan is for them to be complete and shipped with all of the Red Pine frames on April 16th.
We are working on arranging shipment for the complete frames now and will post updates as we finalize those details and have the timelines for shipping secured.
04-01-2022
We’ve got another TD3 update from the factory today. (And FYI this isn’t an April Fool’s update).
Forks were clear coated today and are on the rack for QC. Taiwan has a (very inconvenient for us) Qinming Festival from April 2nd to the 5th, so we expect framesets to be boxed up closer to the 7th or 8th.
We’ve requested an exact update on painted frames and will post that as we get info.
03-29-2022
March is wrapping up and we’re all asking the same question: Will the new estimates hold?
Traildonkey 3.1:
We’ve had a positive update that Naked frames are complete and ready to go, and are waiting for the QC report on forks which is due on the 31st. If that is positive all will be assembled (frame hardware, fork hardware) and they will be ready for shipment.
Painted frames have more layers so they are slower to complete than these Naked frames, but we can’t underscore how good it is for the overall schedule that these Naked frames are essentially done because it means that fames are ready for those extra color layers of paint to be added.
More as we have it.
03-17-2022
Flaanimal Ti: Flaanimal Ti orders are shipping smoothly, but they are media blasted and Cerakoted one by one so that adds a few days to a week on average to frameset shipping times.
Flaanimal 5.0 standard Cerakote: Concrete Orange framesets and builds have almost all shipped. Other colors are proceeding through coating presently with no issues (other than the fact that they are painted by hand and take time!). We expect to have more colors delivering to colors in about a week based on transit times back from our second coater (who is in the Midwest). Our secondary Cerakote applicator is extremely professional and motivated, and they are getting faster with every batch of frames. Bringing them online has taken time, but the results are now paying off.
Traildonkey 3.1 (2021 late frames) are currently in paint and we received an update this morning that they are expected to be completed “around the end of March” which to us sounds intentionally vague. The issue reported is that the order ahead of us in the paint shop had issues and delays which caused our order to sit while they complete that order, which is due to happen on March 18th. We are quite aware that it probably sounds like we are stringing customers out with reports of constant delay after delay, but the purpose of this page is to relay information that we receive as well as we can, no matter how good or bad. We are very (painfully) aware of how these delays are affecting customers and are applying every pressure at our disposal to try to motivate our supplier and push these frames to conclusion.
02-14-2022
It’s been a couple of weeks since our last update so here is the latest on a product by product level:
Flaanimal 5.0: We’ve delivered a huge number of framesets and complete builds since our final (very late) 2021 shipment arrived on Feb 4th. More builds and shipments are happening every day. We’ve got two new people in our service course in order to speed up builds and shipment as much as possible.
Spork 3.0: No more delays to report. Available for immediate shipping.
Flaanimal Ti: No delays to report. What is listed on the site is in stock for framesets or full builds.
Traildonkey 3.1 (late 2021 batch): This batch is dragging on which is quite stressful to both us and our customers who are waiting. Delays in putty QC on a few frames meant the whole batch had to wait for those to be completed to be scheduled for paint. This means we lost our scheduled spot in the paint shop. The next scheduled opening is March 1st for paint. If things go well it takes two weeks in the paint shop for our frames to be completed. So at the earliest we are looking at March 15ish for frames to be ready to leave Taiwan. This is a very fluid situation and we feel the weight of each and every customer who is waiting for their frameset or bike. We are committed to advocating for these to be completed and delivered as quickly as possible.
Explorts Bibshorts: We expect now stock to arrive middle of March
Slow Gravel Kit: If things go well they will arrive in Denver early March, but they will arrive no later than late March.
Custom paint / Cerakote: After a very slow month of custom deliveries we’ve been working with customers to find solutions to their scheduling needs on a case by case basis:
- For those customers with complex paint or Cerakote their projects must stay at Flux because Flux executes complex layouts at the highest level.
- For standard color Cerakote Flaanimals we are handling that work separately in batches. The first batch to go to the paint booth are Concrete Orange and those are in-process right now. We expect a week or two turnaround on those.
- We have completed our own in-house Cerakote booth and are using it to expedite certain orders on a case by case basis, mostly one or two color Flaanimals or Flaanimal Ti projects.
- Some customers who do not wish to wait have opted to chance their orders to Naked + Decals so that they can ride their bikes sooner. For any of those customers we have refunded any custom paint deposits.
02-04-2022
Sporks arrived and are in-hand at The Lab. What a win! We’re immediately at work:
- Shipping totally naked (no decal) Flaanimal 5.0 and fork frameset combos
- Decaling and shipping Flaanimal 5.0 framesets
- Allocating our first shipment of frames to our newest Cerakote application partner whom we’ve been getting up to speed with over the last few months in order to speed up are custom finish queue. The first shipment that will go in the booth are 5.0 Concrete Orange frames. We will update on the 2nd batch as we get the first batch completed.
- Shipping out all Spork 3.0 pre-orders in our shipping queue.
Thanks for the patience!
02-02-2022
Spork 3.0: We’ve got confirmed space on a flight from LAX tonight so we should have more news tomorrow. We do have a significant snow event in Colorado today so hopefully that won’t impact things tomorrow.
From shipping broker:
02-01-2022
Sporks 3.0: We were told they would be in Denver on Friday, and we were advised that they had landed and cleared customs on Friday. Then yesterday they said that they were in transit to the ware house for pickup in Denver and pickup notice was imminent. Now this morning they have informed us that they’re still at LAX airport because of LAX airport congestion. We’re all a bit shocked around here especially because we relayed the original date of Friday to our customers. So we’ve done our best to insist they get the forks to Denver overnight, and they said that they would try. Here’s a screenshot of the email because, at this point, if we were a customer we would say “are you kidding me or are you telling the truth?”
So… forks are definitely in the US, and so close to being here, and yet they aren’t here. This is the world we live in now. 2022 is looking a lot like 2021, but with more shipping congestion. We will keep doing our best to push as hard as we can to get our products landed and delivered. More updates once forks are on-site at The Lab here in Denver.
01-26-2022
FL50 have been picked up from the airport and are at Rodeo HQ. We only now need the Sporks to arrive so we can start shipping and building the last batch of the 2021 frames.
Drive side Flaanimal derailleur hanger sliders have also arrived which will help us move out FLTi orders and ship any derailleur hanger backorders. Those frames are also waiting for the same Sporks to arrive.
Spork 3.0 are still on track for January 28th arrival as long as flights aren’t delayed.
For 2022 production FL50 we’ve got some less than stellar news on the raw materials side that could delay the April 2022 frames until June. This situation is still very fluid so we are working hard to find a way to mitigate that. It is worth putting the info out there now so as to be as transparent as possible. The last thing we want to do is disappoint people with late bikes in 2022!
01-25-2022
Flaanimal 5.0
Great news. The remaining 2021 Flaanimal 5.0 frames have ARRIVED at the Denver shipping depot. There is currently a small blizzard ongoing so we may need to pick up tomorrow, but they have in fact arrived and we are thrilled for every victory we can report.
01-24-2022
Quick update:
Flaanimal 5.0 and Flaanimal Ti:
- We ran out of sliding drive side dropouts last week which caused shipments of both platforms to grind to a halt. Normally this would never be an issue and we’ve always planned to have excess stock of dropouts, but our supplier is two months late on dropouts and now we’re dealing with the consequences. The good news: We already have more sliders en-route via FedEx and are projected to arrive this week.
- We also ran out of Sporks this last week. This also shouldn’t have happened, but it did, for a number of inane reasons. The good news there is that we’ve already completed plenty more forks and have already arranged transport. They are due in Denver on January 28th.
So, pending the arrival of both of these essential parts we’ll be back on track shipping Ti and steel framesets right around January 28th. We aren’t sitting still in-house. We’re all hands on deck media blasting all of the Flaanimal Ti frames on order so that they are ready to box or build when the sliders and forks arrive.
TD3.1:
We know that we are getting close to the estimated cargo ready date of January 28th for TD3.1 so we reached out last week for a production update at the factory. We were finally alerted last night that the frames are not yet complete. They are through putty and prep but waiting in line at the paint shop in Taiwan. Paint seems to be our nemesis in 2021 and now 2022. We are attempting some delicate negotiations to try to gain priority in the paint shop schedule but don’t have anything concrete to share from those efforts yet. We will update this page as we do have more to share.
Things like this WILL keep happening in 2022. We’ve planned our production schedules carefully and we’re getting better at anticipating disruption to supply chain, but we know that more curve balls will happen this year that will require a tremendous amount of determination and creativity to overcome. Thanks for bearing with us.
01-18-2022
Spork 3.0
We got a nice batch on time last week and used every for towards shipping fork backorders and bikes. We were due another shipment this week but it looks like it will be delayed and arrive next week due to… you guessed it: delays in the paint shop. Once this shipment arrives we don’t expect to have any more fork availability issues in 2022.
Flaanimal 5.0
We expected frames this week so we reached out to our freight forwarder yesterday. Freight forwarders are the agents that actually move your cargo through ports and onto trucks, etc. They responded this morning that due to Port of LA congestion the cargo moved through the docks and warehouses absurdly slow, but it was put on a truck on Monday and will now arrive in Denver on the 26th. Now that the frames are ON THE TRUCK to Denver, we expect the date of the 26th to hold.
01-11-2022
This is the first update of the year and for now we’re only going to cover remaining 2021 products that we need to deliver, as no 2022 products are late or due to arrive for a few more months at least.
TD3.1: Our December batch was bumped in the paint shop in Taiwan and is no due to be ready to ship to Denver at the end of January 2022 if QC completes smoothly. We are quite regularly pushed out of our place in production queues overseas because big brands have more leverage to push their projects through more quickly and in front of small brands. This probably won’t change much in 2022 and will continue to introduce unpredictability in our supply chain.
Flaanimal 5.0: Our remaining 2021 frames have cleared Port Of LA and are en route to Denver. We don’t have an exact arrival date in Denver and have no control of the pace of transport from LA to Denver. We will simply be notified when they are ready to pick up in Denver and we are hoping for right around the middle of January based on previous shipping timelines.
Custom Paint: There are plenty of people in the custom paint or Cerakote queue with existing orders. Turn time on new custom paint projects is probably about four months out, and all of our painter’s energy is going into catching up with the backlog of existing projects. They are working as fast as possible without cutting corners on quality. We’re working to add Cerakote capacity to our workflow in particular in order to speed up our standard color projects and leave the complicated custom projects with our local partner where they will be best executed.
Spork 3.0: We expect supply to improve dramatically in 2022 and we have a shipment landing in Denver right around the middle of January. We expect to not go out of stock on forks for the entirety of 2022 once this shipment arrives.
Fender bridges for frames are now in stock. If you need one or have an overdue order that hasn’t shipped yet please reach out so we can rectify that.
Generally speaking our customer service is pretty overwhelmed with email volume right now but we’re putting in extra time to get caught up. Covid cases have affected our office just like everywhere else and keeping everyone safe and properly quarantined when necessary is a priority.