Bike manufacturers - where do they do it?

richh

I was thinking about this the other day and I really wasn't sure that I understood how the larger brands operate. With the possible exception of the true top end models, which might still be hand made in European/US factories, I'm assuming that the vast majority of other bikes/components are mass produced in the far east (China, Taiwan mainly I guess). Do these bike also get fully assembled out there before shipping to distributors? or are the basic components brought back to the EU for assembly? Perhaps it's a mix of both of these things depending on the brand? PX/Ribble for example appear to assemble things in the UK, but what about people like Bianchi or Trek or Boardman?

Rich

rick_chasey

You'd imagine it'd be easier to transport bikes unassembled. Doesn't take much to assemble a bike (for professionals).

As I understand it, Boardman is effectively a brand and IP of particular bike designs, and possibly manufacturing processes or techniques. That's the value it has. The rest presumably is outsourced out.

thegreatdivide

Trek http://pelotonmagazine.com/Special-Feat ... rerolldone
Wilier & Bianchi http://www.pelotonpresents.com/pillars_italian.htm

richh

some nice videos there, thanks for that. Looks like it's only the very top end frames that are actually manufactured in the traditional factories with the exception of Trek, who seem to stick with US based production. Interesting.

Good point about assembly not being a difficult job but I'm thinking of whether it's worth doing due to the sheer number of bike that would be being built. I could see that some would just get the whole thing built in the Far East but I've not seen that this is what's happening. I guess the other thing is for a higher level of build out there, other things like components/groupsets might be cheaper rather than paying UK/EU based wholesalers prices?

Monty Dog

Most bikes are assembled and shipped from the far east e.g. China and Taiwan. Only the real top-end stuff is made in the US or Europe anymore. Most bike companies are in fact marketing operations - they may employ a team of designers, product managers and marketing people, but 90% of their output is subcontracted - there are very few vertically-integrated operations. This gaves them greater flexibility in terms of adapting to market and seasonal demand as well as new trends / technologies. Giant & Merida are about the only truly integrated makers and they sub-con for lots of others e.g. Trek and Specialized respectively.
Bianchi is an interesting example as they are in fact owned by a Swedish company which sub-contracts manufacture & assembly to Asia which tries to exploit their Italian heritage - practically none of their stuff goes anywhere near Italy or is made by them.
Planet-X and Ribble are no different except they have expoited the direct to market model rather than going through a distributor.

inseine

Bianchi is an interesting example as they are in fact owned by a Swedish company which sub-contracts manufacture & assembly to Asia which tries to exploit their Italian heritage - practically none of their stuff goes anywhere near Italy or is made by them.

I'll be at one of the factories where they assemble Bianchis tomorrow. All the design work is done in eItaly.

mikeyboy12345

Regarding Planet X, I work for a company that makes imported container deliveries to them, and I think they are assembled here in the UK. I remember telephoning the shipping agent asking how the importing side of things worked, etc (and wrote all the info down and promptly mislaid it), and he told me that the bikes arrive in bits from Taiwan to avoid incurring higher rates of duty. It all gets very complicated - imports from certain countries attract higher duties, and there are limits on the numbers of carbon frames you can import from certain places but not others - but basically if you ship a complete bike you'll pay customs more duty than if you ship a largely-built up bike frame and two wheels, if that makes sense!