Quote:
Originally Posted by Chance
It’s mostly one and the same. The product is a reflection of the insane overhead – or should we say that overhead probably grew out of proportion due to the product’s design. Seems clear to me. Without the insane overhead Serotta can’t build the insanely expensive bike that “IS” presently Serotta. You can’t separate the two without talking about a totally different product that would not be what we know “today” as a Serotta bike.
Much of the Serotta design and quality mystique was based on utilizing manufacturing processes to shape tubes and other parts in a very custom way. That takes a lot of very expensive equipment, and higher-paid people to run them. Can we say “higher overhead”?
All the smaller one- or two-men shops I’ve visited purchase most of their materials nearly ready to be welded into a frame. They can fit the entire shop into a home garage because they don’t have tons of fancy equipment to do all kinds of machining.
“IF” Serotta goes back to welding standard tubes and using stock dropouts and so on so it can be manufactured in a very small space, would it still be the same Serotta bike? Would it ride the same? And how would it compare to a similar bike made in Asia for a fraction of the cost?
Granted it’s sad all around; particularly for the employees who will have to find new jobs. And for the older ones it may be much tougher yet. But the announcement shouldn’t come by surprise to anyone who has been reading the forum for years.
|
0
The multi million dollar facility in Saratoga Springs, with the fancy farmhouse was what I was referring to. The same Bikes could have been built in the low overhead shop in South Glens Falls. They had plenty of space, plenty of business without the huge mortgage every month. Maybe if the economy stayed strong, then the Saratoga plant would of worked out better, but obviously not the case.