FLOCK LIGHT PRODUCT UPDATE #15 - 3rd Dec 2023

PRODUCT UPDATE SUMMARY (TL;DR)

1. TOOLING NEARLY DONE - Samples due soon, production run imminent.

2. ELECTRONICS ORDERED - We’ve locked in our production order for electronics!

3. TIMELINE UPDATE - We’re still on track for May but it won’t be without some bumps in the road…

4. BACKER SURVEY UPDATE - We’re nearly ready to go live and there’s going to some surprises in store…

5. EARLY ACCESS TO PRODUCTION SAMPLES - see how you can get early access to some production samples next year…

6. TOUR DOWN UNDER - We’ll be making the trip down again!

 

1. TOOLING NEARLY DONE

In the last update, we placed a tooling order through one of our partners, Formero and now we are days away from getting the very first ‘off-tool’ samples. These ‘T1’ samples aren’t quite the final product but they are produced so we can inspect the parts to make sure they've been made to our specifications. Once this is done, the tool will be adjusted and the T2 samples will be made and sent to us for another inspection. We’ll receive these around the end of the year or early January, and if the T2 samples are good enough then we can proceed to production with all the mechanical parts!

Here is a progress shot of some of our Tools and T1 samples:

2. ELECTRONICS HAVE BEEN ORDERED

The beating heart of the FLOCK LIGHT… the Electronics Assembly has been all ordered. We’re proud to be working with yet another great Aussie company, Entech Electronics, for the manufacturing of our electronics. Electronics is easily one of the most challenging and expensive parts in the FLOCK LIGHT but we’ve spent over 2 years testing and refining this package. We had our first fully functioning prototype in October 2021 well before the Kickstarter campaign, so we’re confident that the final product will perform. Thousands of hours of testing and over 25 Flock Pilots have tested the hell out of the package we have now!

3. TIMELINE UPDATE

CURRENTLY, WE ARE STILL ON TRACK FOR DELIVERY IN MAY 2024.

There’s a lot to juggle when it comes to manufacturing any product and we expect that there will be fires to put out along the way to delivery. Here are a few factors that may either bring the timeline forward or push it out:

• We’ve factored it into the timeline but the Chinese New Year holidays will throw us some curve balls. It could delay shipping and/or pilot production.
• About 75% of our parts are made in China and we will be sending them to Melbourne for final assembly. Just about all of our parts will be air freighted to help hit our deadlines but there’s no guarantee there won’t be delays (post Chinese New Year can be tricky!)
• Because we are assembling the FLOCK LIGHTS in Melbourne, Australia, backers outside Australia will probably have some delays with delivery. We’ll be doing our best to factor in international delivery timeframes.

See below for a general overview of the timeline to delivery…

4. BACKER SURVEY UPDATE

Backer Surveys will begin around Jan - Feb 2024. We’re currently switching our website over to Shopify in preparation to collect your details and finalise your Kickstarter reward order. You will also have the chance to customise how your Flock Light will fit your bike because we’ll be offering a range of mounting kits.

• Maybe you’d like to run your FLOCK LIGHT on the back of your Specialized Power saddle?
• Maybe on the back of your bike rack or maybe just grab an extra clip to swap the Flock Light between bikes?

Odds are we will have something to make our light work seamlessly for you. We’re developing these kits right now, and there will be more info in the next update. But in the mean time...

Let us know what extras you’d like to customise your FLOCK LIGHT HERE.

You’ll have the opportunity to finalise your order between approximately January and March. Just a reminder for Kickstarter Backers - we will be collecting postage and handling fees when you place your order on our website. Pre-order customers will have already payed for this.

5. EARLY ACCESS TO PRODUCTION SAMPLES

So the plan is to be putting the last of the FLOCK LIGHTS together around the end of April BUT to make sure we optimise assembly and ensure the quality of the FLOCK LIGHT we’ve got 2 stages of pilot production runs before that. It’s just like rehearsing for our big theatre production! So what this means is we’re going to have around 100 Flock Lights for early delivery to some of our lucky Kickstarter Backers. We’re still working out how to decide who’s going to be the lucky Backers but it’s looking like it will be a raffle with some weighting towards those who backed early. Fingers crossed these early samples will be available in approx. March... more details on this next year.

6. TOUR DOWN UNDER

More details on this soon but if you’re heading down to Adelaide to catch the Tour Down Under we’ll be popping up around Adelaide and we’ll have plenty of Production Samples for you to see and test.

Until next time, stay human.

Tim and Marie