I've been watching these on Ebay for a long time, but at £179.99 plus delivery on a BIN sale, they were a bit pricey I thought.
I noticed though that one Ebay seller , "Grow-ur-own" regularly puts them up as an auction, even though they still have them at £179.99 as well......the auctions seem to all go to around £120 for the Trike sized one (which I measured up and it's the only one big enough for a GS)
So last week when one came up, I stuck a max bid of £92.30 on and walked away.......a few hours later, I got the mail saying I'd won, so with the £9.99 postage, I got one for £101.99 delivered, which I reckon is a fair deal
It arrived yesterday, a fekking massive box (a couple of feet wide, 9 inches deep and over 8 feet long) weighing in at probably 25KG.....the parcel force guy wasn't too happy with it
I moved the car to the extreme edge of the space I've got available and had to take my machete to some large weeds and nettles from next door to get the maximum space I could, then today I put it together
The frame bars are fairly light weight mild steel but are well painted....there are only four nuts and bolts to actually assemble (m4 with nylocks, so I might upgrade those at some point) and then the roof-hoops slot onto the uprights using those spring loaded nobbles that pop into holes in the outer tube....it only took 15 mins at most to put together in fact
That massive ground anchor BTW was my best ever Ebay bargain, because the person selling it stipulated collection only.....effectively, i got it for the cost of a trip to Bedford where I strapped it on the back of the bike and brought it home
It bolts into the ground and there's a scaffold tube in the back corner off it which takes a decent sized chain......the only issue really is that it is only really suitable for the rear wheel
The holes in the base plates were only M6 to match the aluminium/steel puny ground anchor bolts as supplied, so I drilled out some M8 holes and used some much heavier duty bolts......this thing won't go anywhere in a strong wind
The side plates have a shackle type affair on them (circled below) but partly because of the space I've got (no access to them) and partly because the metal is a very thin (2mm?) plate that I wouldn't trust, I'm not going to use them.
The pivots for the uprights are also poxy little M4 bolts and nylocks, so again, I may well upgrade those at some point
The hardest part of the whole job was getting the cover on.......Ideally, it's a two person job, but as I was alone I cracked on.......I got it 'about right' but when I came to use the velcro that skirts the whole bottom edge and that wraps around the lower bars, discovered I was probably 6 inches out in rotation, so I'll have to take it off and re-do that in a couple of days......
I've also run a decent chain through the rear wheel of the Golf and by parking the bike at an angle, I can get that through the front wheel....that will suffice until I can work out how best to use the big wheel anchor.
It looks bloody massive when closed, but you can see that it's just right for a GSA.
The weights on the front edge are temporary.......once I've rotated the whole cover a few inches on the frame and got it fitting well, I'll put in some anchor bolts with loops so I can padlock the leading edge down.
OVERALL......
Price....Good at just over £100 delivered, but I wouldn't buy one at the BIN price, It's too much IMO.
Quality...Average....metal is barely good enough and I'll have to keep an eye on rust breaking through, but it's adequate.
Mounting bolts as supplied not confidence inspiring, so use beefier ones
Delivery...Excellent, arrived inside 48 hours but don't attempt to manhandle the box if you've ever had back problems
Material.....seems OK, it's rubber lines and the seams are taped, but the proof of that will be in the pudding of a decent storm to test it out
Happy enough with it and will report on how it stands up to use
I noticed though that one Ebay seller , "Grow-ur-own" regularly puts them up as an auction, even though they still have them at £179.99 as well......the auctions seem to all go to around £120 for the Trike sized one (which I measured up and it's the only one big enough for a GS)
So last week when one came up, I stuck a max bid of £92.30 on and walked away.......a few hours later, I got the mail saying I'd won, so with the £9.99 postage, I got one for £101.99 delivered, which I reckon is a fair deal
It arrived yesterday, a fekking massive box (a couple of feet wide, 9 inches deep and over 8 feet long) weighing in at probably 25KG.....the parcel force guy wasn't too happy with it
I moved the car to the extreme edge of the space I've got available and had to take my machete to some large weeds and nettles from next door to get the maximum space I could, then today I put it together
The frame bars are fairly light weight mild steel but are well painted....there are only four nuts and bolts to actually assemble (m4 with nylocks, so I might upgrade those at some point) and then the roof-hoops slot onto the uprights using those spring loaded nobbles that pop into holes in the outer tube....it only took 15 mins at most to put together in fact
That massive ground anchor BTW was my best ever Ebay bargain, because the person selling it stipulated collection only.....effectively, i got it for the cost of a trip to Bedford where I strapped it on the back of the bike and brought it home
It bolts into the ground and there's a scaffold tube in the back corner off it which takes a decent sized chain......the only issue really is that it is only really suitable for the rear wheel
The holes in the base plates were only M6 to match the aluminium/steel puny ground anchor bolts as supplied, so I drilled out some M8 holes and used some much heavier duty bolts......this thing won't go anywhere in a strong wind
The side plates have a shackle type affair on them (circled below) but partly because of the space I've got (no access to them) and partly because the metal is a very thin (2mm?) plate that I wouldn't trust, I'm not going to use them.
The pivots for the uprights are also poxy little M4 bolts and nylocks, so again, I may well upgrade those at some point
The hardest part of the whole job was getting the cover on.......Ideally, it's a two person job, but as I was alone I cracked on.......I got it 'about right' but when I came to use the velcro that skirts the whole bottom edge and that wraps around the lower bars, discovered I was probably 6 inches out in rotation, so I'll have to take it off and re-do that in a couple of days......
I've also run a decent chain through the rear wheel of the Golf and by parking the bike at an angle, I can get that through the front wheel....that will suffice until I can work out how best to use the big wheel anchor.
It looks bloody massive when closed, but you can see that it's just right for a GSA.
The weights on the front edge are temporary.......once I've rotated the whole cover a few inches on the frame and got it fitting well, I'll put in some anchor bolts with loops so I can padlock the leading edge down.
OVERALL......
Price....Good at just over £100 delivered, but I wouldn't buy one at the BIN price, It's too much IMO.
Quality...Average....metal is barely good enough and I'll have to keep an eye on rust breaking through, but it's adequate.
Mounting bolts as supplied not confidence inspiring, so use beefier ones
Delivery...Excellent, arrived inside 48 hours but don't attempt to manhandle the box if you've ever had back problems
Material.....seems OK, it's rubber lines and the seams are taped, but the proof of that will be in the pudding of a decent storm to test it out
Happy enough with it and will report on how it stands up to use
