Presale?

[Rick Urbanowski]

Can someone explain to me how the presale works? I can't find any actual explanation on it on the website.

You pay upfront, right? And then just wait for the frame to come in? Or is it like a lottery type situation? I'm confused.

Thanks in advance

[Joe Mullins]

To my knowledge it’s been done a few ways. Most recently the Gus and Susie presale was pay up front and wait for frame. The Clem’s were on a lottery where you pay a small amount for a ticket and if yours is drawn, then you got a chance to buy a bike. 

Joe in Los Angeles 

On Feb 12, 2022, at 8:07 AM, Rick Urbanowski <rickur...@gmail.com> wrote:

Can someone explain to me how the presale works? I can't find any actual explanation on it on the website.

You pay upfront, right? And then just wait for the frame to come in? Or is it like a lottery type situation? I'm confused.

Thanks in advance

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[Ed Carolipio]

In the past, a pre-sale meant having to pay for the frameset up front before anything was built since that helped Riv's cash flow situation. They would give an incentive to have your money tied up for so long, e.g., $100 off the frameset, a components credit and free labor to build up a custom complete. I "bought" a pre-production MIT Atlantis this way, but I changed my mind and "bought" a pre-production AHH instead - with the same money and before either frameset went into production. Since COVID, production times got so long and uncertain that they now have to *know* a frameset or complete is on the way - I think that means packed in a shipping container and on a manifest - before they offered it up for pre-sale.

Having the pre-sale occur after rather before production along with COVID's impact on the production schedule led to a demand crunch. Trying to buy a presale frameset or complete became some crazy Nike SNKRS situation on the site. To alleviate that for the Clems, they came up with the ticket lottery system. You purchase a ticket for $100, and "winning" gave you the right to purchase a Clem complete as a presale complete with the $100 going toward your purchase. If you lost or changed your mind, you could convert the ticket into a gift card or get a refund. Here's the post on the Clem lottery: https://www.rivbike.com/blogs/news/clem-lotto-tickets-on-sale-til-friday-the-15th?_pos=3&_sid=4b083caf0&_ss=r

On the recent AHH's, Will was confident enough that what they had in the container would (mostly) meet demand that they skipped the lottery and just did a post-production presale of the frameset.

To keep up-to-date on the production plans and what's in stock, I recommend subscribing to the weekly newsletter. It's also a good read: Will does a great job including bike and bike-adjacent content. Here's the URL for the archive with a link to sign up: https://us7.campaign-archive.com/home/?u=ad1569fa93a2ab2374ead2fde&id=7342c4ce65

--Ed C.