Opinions on BH frames?
 

Hi everyone,

How are BH frames? I don’t hear too much about them here in the US.
Considering an Ultralight Evo for one of my builds

Thanks for your input

Kerry

I've had a couple of pre Evo Ultralights. Light, stiff, ride nicely. Friend has a Large frame for sale pretty cheap...

Thanks
Pm’d You

I had an Ultralight. It was a great bike.

BH USA is headquartered in St. Charles, Mo.
The local riding group goes by the place every Monday morning, yet no one knows it’s there.

BH is the Spanish/Basque bike manufacturer Beistegui Hermanos SA (Beistegui brothers). They are a very similar, but smaller, company in many ways to Orbea. They're both based in the Basque country (Vitoira BH, Mallabia Orbea), they both began as gun manufacturers but moved into bicycles around WW1 or just thereafter.

They make good carbon bikes, like everyone I guess. They currently sponsor the Spanish BH-Burgos team and the French Arkea-Samsic (Greipel, etc) and have sponsored other pro teams like Liberty Seguros and Xacobeo Galicia. I guess their specialty is super lightweight frames?

You see them around here (Spain) quite a bit but they're nowhere hear the size of Orbea which is an enormous company (co-operative).

BH and Orbea are the two brand names all the kids grew up with. Every kid had one or the other or both at one point.

If you like it, it's as good a carbon bike as any.

What?! Where is it exactly in St. Chuck?

I had a G5.

Some of this stuff is bike/model specific, some of it is not:

Pros:
- Great riding bike
- First bike I had with a tapered steerer, it worked well for me
- Comfy & stiff, etc..
- Fit worked well for me as well

Cons:
- Seat mast design sucked
- Had problems with the clamp, adjustment was hard, saddle slipped
- Couldn't easily get a new seatmast toppper
- Dealer had trouble with getting parts
- Unsure what would happen if I'd ever have needed warranty service

So overall.. bike was good, brand was shaky. That was an expensive frame... the level of service available on it was terrible compared to similarly priced comparable bikes from US big brands or local boutique/custom shops.

Honestly this kind of thing turns me off almost any European brand that doesn't have a massive US presence. Most of the Euro bikes are made in Asia anyway.. might as well have one that's wearing the badges of a US or Asian brand (e.x. Giant) that has a great business presence and customer service in the US. I kind of feel like if I'd bought a Colnago, Look, Pinarello, etc.. the experience might have been similar.

My Trek Domane 5-series frame was a LOT cheaper frame (almost half the price).. it's a much better bike than the G5 in most ways, in a few the G5 might have been better, it certainly had some cachet/rareness and was cool. But the service is a huge difference.. I could go get parts for the Trek very easily, very quickly, and no worries if something happened about warranty. For the money the G5 was I could easily be into a custom frame too.

Outside of St Louis.

620 N. 2nd Street.
Big brick building at intersection of 2nd and Clark. I believe there’s a small sign out front. A ride through the alley behind the building will net sight of a trailer and a bunch of BH boxes.
The company picked St. Charles due to it’s location in the center of the US.
St. Louis Metro area has exactly one shop (with two locations) that sells the brand.

Now...is BH produced in Spain (as Orbea is, or once was) or another branded Far East product?

Far east like basically every non-boutique bike.

Orbea
 

I am pretty sure (though I could be wrong), that Orbea's are still made in Spain.

The vast majority of BH frames are/were produced in asia afailk. Orbea has aggressively been moving out of asia.

Orbea produces a ton of bicycles in Spain and Portugal. Their highest end bikes have (almost) always been made in Spain. The last I knew, they still make some bicycles in Asia but that's either changed completely or soon to.

This is really interesting.. I'd love to hear more about how/why they are doing this. Really interesting when it doesn't look like many other brands are interested in doing that.

I would say that should really help differentiate them.

I was just listening to a podcast last week and they had someone on from Orbea, and he mentioned that being that they are a coop they feel a certain responsibility to keep jobs in the Basque Country, I am not sure if that is the full or real reason, but that is at least part of the reason.