Major US Bicycle Maker Outsourcing to Asia

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Originally Posted By: tom slick
There are still a few European bike manuf. if china really turns your stomach.


True. Time still does their own carbon fiber handmade frames in France. Excellent quality bikes, and extrememly expensive. Colorado Cyclist has a Time frame on sale right now, and it is calling my name in a bad way.
 
Originally Posted By: wavinwayne
Originally Posted By: tom slick
There are still a few European bike manuf. if china really turns your stomach.


True. Time still does their own carbon fiber handmade frames in France. Excellent quality bikes, and extrememly expensive. Colorado Cyclist has a Time frame on sale right now, and it is calling my name in a bad way.


What about Bianchi? I have an old Bianchi road racing frame at my parent's place, used to be fully dressed in Campi gear.....

According to their website, all their bike frames are made in-house......

Quote:
Bianchi Reparto Corse is the utmost expression of the "celeste" philosophy. At Bianchi everything is home-made, an unrelenting activity of tests and experiments takes place at every production stage, from the design of the tubes section all the way through to the release of the finished product.
 
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What about Bianchi? I have an old Bianchi road racing frame at my parent's place, used to be fully dressed in Campi gear.....

According to their website, all their bike frames are made in-house......



From this website http://allanti.com/page.cfm?PageID=328


Bianchi - As I was writing this, it occurred to me that Bianchi and Schwinn have remarkably similar histories. Both were turn-of-the-century family-owned companies, manufactured their own bicycles, were popular brands in their respective countries, fell upon hard times, were eventually sold, moved substantially all of their production to Asia, and have seen a resurgence in the past few years under new owners!

In 1996, Bianchi was sold to a Swedish conglomerate (now known as Cycleurope1) whereas Schwinn went through several owners before winding up with Pacific in 2001.2

Under Cycleurope, which owns 11 bicycle brands,3 much of the bicycle production shifted from Italy to Asia, with the exception of some final bicycle assembly (i.e., Asian frames assembled into complete bicycles) and limited high-end production.

Let me take a minute and address Reparto Corse bicycles, because their "Made in Italy" sticker is a source of confusion.

The historic Treviglio factory - a monstrosity of a thing which used to house much of Bianchi's manufacturing before it shifted to Asia - has a section dedicated to Reparto Corse. It used to be that Reparto Corse (RC) meant the race department where high-end bikes were made. Now it is used as sort of a branding logo to identify the upper-end bikes that get the RC design and marketing treatment.

Many of the RC bikes have a "Made in Italy" sticker, which usually means assembled in Italy using a frame made in Asia. For example, the carbon RC frames are made by Advanced International Multitech (a Taiwanese carbon manufacturer of bike parts, baseball bats, golf shafts, arrows, fishing poles, etc.) and the aluminum frames are made by Taiwan Hodaka.

There are some frames still welded at Treviglio. My understanding is that the aluminum frames with carbon rears are either welded there or, at least, bonded there. I also understand that the frames with foam injection have the injection process completed there, even if the frames come from Asia.

Although Taiwan Hodaka manufacturers many of Bianchi's U.S. models, Fairly and Giant have manufactured for Bianchi in the past.
 
And as said above, even Pinarello and Colnago are using Taiwanese made frames now. (albeit in their entry level offerings)
Taiwan is king of the kids when it comes to frame manufacturing at good quality on a large scale, and Giant are the masters of it.

Looks like my Old C'dale Silk Road 2000 (the frame made for the Paris-Roubaix back in '99-'00 ) might take on collectors status now. LOL
 
Originally Posted By: tdi-rick
And as said above, even Pinarello and Colnago are using Taiwanese made frames now. (albeit in their entry level offerings)
Taiwan is king of the kids when it comes to frame manufacturing at good quality on a large scale, and Giant are the masters of it.

Looks like my Old C'dale Silk Road 2000 (the frame made for the Paris-Roubaix back in '99-'00 ) might take on collectors status now. LOL


That is REALLY sad.
frown.gif
 
[censored] that sucks. I had a Cannondale bike up until it got destroyed in Katrina. I had planned on buying another one day, guess, guess that's out.
 
Sad as it is to see Cannondale go to Asia, don't expect the quality of their bikes to go in the toilet. They make some wonderful bikes in Taiwan.
 
Hmm...to those who are putting Cannondale on the don't buy list because they are being outsourced to Taiwan, does this mean you have Shimano and Campy on your list as well?
 
My Cannondale is loaded with Shimano components, which are, of course, not made in America. But, Cannondale makes (made?) great frames and assembles bikes in the USA and I'd gladly pay more for made in the USA products. The only reason I can see for off-shoring is corporate greed.
 
Originally Posted By: mstrjon32
My Cannondale is loaded with Shimano components, which are, of course, not made in America. But, Cannondale makes (made?) great frames and assembles bikes in the USA and I'd gladly pay more for made in the USA products. The only reason I can see for off-shoring is corporate greed.

Having ridden a Scott CR1 Pro, which I now own, and a Trek Madone 5.2, it seems like the USA needs to play catch up in terms of carbon frames. The Cannondale Al frames are great yes, but are significantly heavier and from what I hear from my LBS, not as durable as Trek's Al frames, like the Taiwan made Al frame on my Trek 1500.

Originally Posted By: msparks
Litespeed, made right here in TN.

http://www.litespeed.com


I wanted one so bad but I couldn't afford one. I got the CR1 Pro for under $2400 and it rocks!
 
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Originally Posted By: mstrjon32
My Cannondale is loaded with Shimano components, which are, of course, not made in America. But, Cannondale makes (made?) great frames and assembles bikes in the USA and I'd gladly pay more for made in the USA products. The only reason I can see for off-shoring is corporate greed.
+1
 
I rode a Cannondale for about 15 years. It was a great bike. Bought my wife one too. Too bad I probably won't buy another... Not really because they're going to made overseas, because my Specialized was made in Taiwann... Mostly because they've screwed over the people that were making them here. What are these guys supposed to do now? Move to Asia? Maybe open their own bike factory?
 
I hated cannondale for a long time, mainly due to their lack of quality control. the alignment on the late '80-early '90's bikes was so bad it was hard to get the shifting adjusted. you could lay a straight edge on a tube and measure a few mm of bow in the middle.
but, years later I found myself again working in a cannondale shop, and they won me over. they were doing stuff no one else was doing. they had the lightest best riding alu frames out there. they pushed the envelope of welded aluminum technology. anything the chinese or taiwanese are doing now, cannondale did first.
 
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