I’ll weigh in here as a designer / furniture maker with a nice CNC Router, who considered making a similar product (but decided not to)…
I have a friend who is a professional MTB skills coach - he owns quite a few MTB hopper ramps and really likes them. He even has their largest ramp and an airbag setup!
So I spent about 4hrs in CAD designing something similar, and laying it out on Baltic Birch Plywood to get a sense of my production cost. This was before the invasion of Ukraine, which caused the price of this plywood to double. So while the price of these ramps is high, I can say from direct experience that by the time you factor in material cost, machine time, packaging, shipping, \[plus the cost of marketing and running a business\] these are priced very fairly.
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My best guess is that they aren’t selling in large enough quantities to justify a more traditional manufacturing approach.
CNC and digital fabrication tools are a great way to produce a niche product like this, but the cost will never compete with oversees manufacturing. Now, if IKEA made a similar ramp…
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Who is it for? Someone who is needs a portable ramp that can fold flat, and survive years of use.
If you’re handy with some power tools, you could DIY something effective for 1/3 the cost. But these are very well thought out, adjustable, expandable… and pretty unique.
July 28, 2023, 7:58 a.m. - Vincent Edwards
I’ll weigh in here as a designer / furniture maker with a nice CNC Router, who considered making a similar product (but decided not to)… I have a friend who is a professional MTB skills coach - he owns quite a few MTB hopper ramps and really likes them. He even has their largest ramp and an airbag setup! So I spent about 4hrs in CAD designing something similar, and laying it out on Baltic Birch Plywood to get a sense of my production cost. This was before the invasion of Ukraine, which caused the price of this plywood to double. So while the price of these ramps is high, I can say from direct experience that by the time you factor in material cost, machine time, packaging, shipping, \[plus the cost of marketing and running a business\] these are priced very fairly. _ My best guess is that they aren’t selling in large enough quantities to justify a more traditional manufacturing approach. CNC and digital fabrication tools are a great way to produce a niche product like this, but the cost will never compete with oversees manufacturing. Now, if IKEA made a similar ramp… _ Who is it for? Someone who is needs a portable ramp that can fold flat, and survive years of use. If you’re handy with some power tools, you could DIY something effective for 1/3 the cost. But these are very well thought out, adjustable, expandable… and pretty unique.