USA made bike parts: The missing pieces

[JAGI410]

How hard would it be to manufacture cables, housing, chains, tires, and tubes here in America? I'm sure there are facilities that can make these things with a simple retool for their existing machines. These are the only missing pieces to an all American bike build, AFAIK. Wouldn't this be a good piece of the bike market to fill in?

[FlashUNC]

Curious, who's making derailleurs in the U.S. these days?

[cmbicycles]

I think the question isn't, 'how hard would it be?' Rather the question is whether it would be profitable enough for someone to do it. I doubt the majority of the cycling public would be willing to pay more for these consumables even if they were made in USA.

[fiamme red]

http://bilenkycycles.blogspot.com/2013/09/made-in-usa.html

[ColonelJLloyd]

Great looking bike except for the shameful front fender line.

[#campyuserftw]

We invented the Industrial Revolution. We have the hardest working, intelligent minds in the world. Americans I am told by my international counterparts, "work too much and too hard." This isn't some halftime Clint Eastwood speech, but yes, we can make all of those parts. And we should; I don't see the resolution for this at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, but rather, in going back to places like Pennsylvania, where we used to make the best steel, and producing, manufacturing once again. American frame builders should be able to readily acquire the best steel or carbon here, not Italy, or China, and the bits and pieces should be apple pie, too.

It's still morning in America, we just need to find our coffee.

:cool:

[jmoore]

Only one saddle made in the US is sad.

I'd love to personally remedy that.

[JAGI410]

Only one saddle made in the US is sad.

I'd love to personally remedy that.

I agree. Rivet saddles use Wisconsin leather, which is shipped to Taiwan for construction, and then back before hitting the shelves. The Eco-friendly part of me really hates the carbon cost of some of these products. We have plenty of skilled craftsmen/women that can make these products that WILL sell.

When I pay $150+ for taiwanese fatbike tires and $65+ for japanese Grand Bois road tires, and I can buy an American made tire for my car for $100, it seems that the market could support it.

[BurritoGuru]

Wheels manufacturing out of Colorado produce excellent ferrules, crimps and other pieces. Expensive like most ferrules type pieces, but with enough patience you can get a good deal on eBay.

[plattyjo]

I have an (admittedly pain-in-the-ass) fondness for building up bikes with components from the same origin as the frame. With the exception of the tubes, decaleur, generator hub and light and saddle, my Ebisu (http://www.flickr.com/photos/87927634@N00/7367642576/) touring bike is sourced with Japanese components and accessories.

And here's an older photo of my Hunter (http://www.flickr.com/photos/87927634@N00/4736448059/) (which now has pink decals, different grips, seatpost and a Brooks saddle but the build list is the same), which I wanted to be my "All-American as possible" bike. [I rode an Selle An-Atomica for 3 years, but then the rails broke...and the next one just didn't feel comfortable to me but I may try again now that I have the uber-setback post from Paul Components.)

[jmoore]

I've been poking around thinking about reintroducing a discontinued saddle. There are component makers in the US who can do parts, but no one who can do the whole thing. The idea of doing everything here instead of Taiwan/China holds a lot of appeal to me and I think it would sell. People I talk to think it would sell.

Can I make a profit by doing this is another question. If I could do one saddle here, I'm sure I could do others.

I agree. Rivet saddles use Wisconsin leather, which is shipped to Taiwan for construction, and then back before hitting the shelves. The Eco-friendly part of me really hates the carbon cost of some of these products. We have plenty of skilled craftsmen/women that can make these products that WILL sell.

When I pay $150+ for taiwanese fatbike tires and $65+ for japanese Grand Bois road tires, and I can buy an American made tire for my car for $100, it seems that the market could support it.

[JAGI410]

Wheels manufacturing out of Colorado produce excellent ferrules, crimps and other pieces. Expensive like most ferrules type pieces, but with enough patience you can get a good deal on eBay.

I use their ferrules and headset spacers, and have used there bottom brackets as well. Good company and products!

[MattTuck]

I've been poking around thinking about reintroducing a discontinued saddle. There are component makers in the US who can do parts, but no one who can do the whole thing. The idea of doing everything here instead of Taiwan/China holds a lot of appeal to me and I think it would sell. People I talk to think it would sell.

Can I make a profit by doing this is another question. If I could do one saddle here, I'm sure I could do others.

Kickstarter.

Everyone says 'it will sell', until they have to put up their own money to buy one. Start a kickstarter campaign, and when people say, "I'd buy one", you can say, "Great! Let's go on my kickstarter page and you can become a backer right now!"

[JAGI410]

That $35 US made bike bell went nuts on Kickstarter....

[jpw]

We invented the Industrial Revolution.
:cool:

how's that?

[Mark McM]

We invented the Industrial Revolution.

Ah, excellent - more revisionist history! Following in the proud tradition of the Tea Party movement I see!

The Industrial Revolution is generally accepted to have started in England in the mid 18th century, and didn't arrive in the US until several decades (after the US succeeded from England).

P.S.: On a related note, England of Industrial Revolution times is also the birthplace of the Luddite movement, of which it is apparent many of us here are still practicing members ;-)

[Mark McM]

I have an (admittedly pain-in-the-ass) fondness for building up bikes with components from the same origin as the frame. With the exception of the tubes, decaleur, generator hub and light and saddle, my Ebisu (http://www.flickr.com/photos/87927634@N00/7367642576/) touring bike is sourced with Japanese components and accessories.

Hmmm... Not so sure about those 'Japanese' components. As the cost of manufacturer increased in Japan, Shimano and Suntour were some of the first bicycle companies to start moving production to other Asian countries - first Taiwan, then other countries like China and Vietnam. I'll bet many of those Japanese branded components were not actually made in Japan.

[#campyuserftw]

Ah, excellent - more revisionist history! Following in the proud tradition of the Tea Party movement I see!

The Industrial Revolution is generally accepted to have started in England in the mid 18th century, and didn't arrive in the US until several decades (after the US succeeded from England).

P.S.: On a related note, England of Industrial Revolution times is also the birthplace of the Luddite movement, of which it is apparent many of us here are still practicing members ;-)

When England invents the tooth brush, drop me a PM. :)

PS: We didn't secede/succeed from England. We kicked their arse. :)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuozcM3pFPY

:beer:

[zoid]

'Muricaism at it's finest.When England invents the tooth brush, drop me a PM. :)

PS: We didn't secede/succeed from England. We kicked their arse. :)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuozcM3pFPY

:beer:

[earlfoss]

We didn't invent the industrial revolution (some even argue France was it's origin) but we did a darn good job with ours. I love me a well built cotton gin!

[plattyjo]

Hmmm... Not so sure about those 'Japanese' components. As the cost of manufacturer increased in Japan, Shimano and Suntour were some of the first bicycle companies to start moving production to other Asian countries - first Taiwan, then other countries like China and Vietnam. I'll bet many of those Japanese branded components were not actually made in Japan.

Ah, well - the dream was nice while it lasted. :)

[Ralph]

Econ 101 says stuff will get made where it makes the most sense to make it. That involves a lot of things, but the USA competitive advantage is not in mass produced bike parts. We're best at producing other stuff.

[JeremyS]

Two things come to mind:

1) Americans are very cheap. We've always chased cheap over any other attribute as an aggregate group even in irrational ways. (Long winded example at bottom of post). This means that whatever we make here has to cost the same as made there, as the pool of folks who vote with their dollar is pretty small compared to those who want it cheap.

2) In order to make a widget of any complexity, we need a widget factory. Seatposts, stems, bars are relatively easy. Pedals, a little harder, but not a ton of labor. Right now we're maxed on what can be produced with CNC in the USA - look at what's produced by White, Paul, etc. That's about it.

Getting into drivetrains means we need cold-forging or other fabrication capabilities that are all expensive to tool up for. Paying off expensive tooling means we need to make a pile of whatever it is we're making, if we can get a line of credit to do that in the first place.

( That's why car tires made in USA are cheaper than fat bike tires made in Asia. Everyone needs car tires. No-one "needs" fat bike tires. )

So, back to our factory - in order to make it economically viable, we're pretty much going to have to turn out XT / Ultegra /Chorus or better level parts, and for the sake of pleasing product managers to get the crucial OEM acceptance to give us enough volume to run the factory, it'll have to be a group.

Cool, we're making a drivetrain. Let's build around a Shimano-compatible 11-speed road cassette so we don't need to do cassette or chains right now.

I don't know how many parts go into a rear derailleur, nor do I know how long it takes to assemble one, but I'm willing to bet that we can't bring just that to market for under $250 and still have margin to keep the doors open, let alone pay people.



Example of irrational behavior : per-capita yearly spending on clothing has been the same since the post war years. The number of garments purchased has radically increased. Obviously, there will be anecdotal exceptions like my friend who only has one pair of jeans and one pair of nice pants. Those are folks exploiting the new externalized-cost efficiencies in the marketplace.

[oldpotatoe]

How hard would it be to manufacture cables, housing, chains, tires, and tubes here in America? I'm sure there are facilities that can make these things with a simple retool for their existing machines. These are the only missing pieces to an all American bike build, AFAIK. Wouldn't this be a good piece of the bike market to fill in?

Only thing missing is the drivetrain, except none, ders, shifters, are made in the US. Owned by Americans does not make it an 'American' company. Toyota is made in the US, but it is a Japanese company.

[#campyuserftw]

Econ 101 says stuff will get made where it makes the most sense to make it. That involves a lot of things, but the USA competitive advantage is not in mass produced bike parts. We're best at producing other stuff.

America is best at producing consumption. Quote me.

:)

[jpw]

When England invents the tooth brush, drop me a PM. :)

PS: We didn't secede/succeed from England. We kicked their arse. :)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuozcM3pFPY

:beer:

you don't do quite so well when you have to play away from home though.

try Iron Bridge Gorge for your history lesson.