Which Bike Brands Are British?

Lloydy25

I mean manufacturers of bikes, not of accessories.

Hoopdriver

There are a lot of very fine hand-made frame-builders in this country - just look at the Bristol Bike show, or get a list of their exhibitors. I happen to live near Enigma, down here on the Sussex coast, and had a beautiful bicycle built for me over there

sungod

loads here...

http://www.framebuilding.com/custom_uk_ ... ilders.htm
http://www.bespokedbristol.co.uk/Frameb ... istol.html

plus...

http://www.sabbathbicycles.co.uk

wheezee

When does a modest outfit that build their own frames become a brand, though?

Pashley and Moulton manufacture here... I guess you could call them brands. Or am I thinking of Brompton?

Bozman

Mercian

marknic72

Forme

Monty Dog

There are lots of British brands, but perhaps only a few dozen companies who actually design and make their own product in the UK. The vast majority of bike companies, including some of the biggest brands are purely marketing companies, buying in OEM product from the Far East, applying their stickers, fitting a groupset and so on.
It really depends on what you consider to be "British"?

godders1

Kinesis are a British company that design their own frames but I'm pretty sure they're manufactured overseas.

Monty Dog

FWIW most of the UK-built product are steel frames with the exception of Enigma's titanium frames or the carbon frames built for British Cycling. AFAIK there are no other titanium or carbon builders in the UK.

wheezee

And I don't think all of their Ti bikes are made here.

DaveRobinette

Moda, although they are only designed in britain, and even then only the frames are, but they have a union flag on them so they must be british right.....?

pinarellokid

if somethng is build abroad, then assembled in the UK i personally dont think it should carry a british flag, as its not british made..


just my tuppence worth

wheezee

It would certainly cut down what has the potential to become a very long thread.

Mind you, if you were to consider components in the same light, you wouldn't end up with a single British bike.

Mad_Malx

wheezee wrote:

When does a modest outfit that build their own frames become a brand, though?

Pashley and Moulton manufacture here... I guess you could call them brands. Or am I thinking of Brompton?

Moulton are built 8 miles from you in Bradford-on-Avon
They also build a titanium.

wheezee

Mad_Malx wrote:

Moulton are built 8 miles from you in Bradford-on-Avon

Yes, but there's a sodding great hill in the way. I couldn't see them from here.

Bozman

Aren't Moda British ish?

Dave1441

Holdsworth bikes

giropaul

A brand is just, and only, that - a name.

The rules are that an item can be labelled as "made in....." if the "last significant process" took place there. This might be covered by, e.g. assembly, or even by addding a "prestigious" set of transfers. That's what happens in the fashion business (and cycling gets more and more like fashion every year).

Very, very, very few frames are UK built apart from the small steel builders mentioned (such as Mercian, Rourke, Bob Jackson etc). Whatever is told to you, very very few frames for the public are built in Italy either. Groupsets come from the Far East or "Italy" - (Campagnolo has plants in other Eastern European countries as well). The days of Williams, GB, Benelux etc are long gone (but actually, some of the British stuff wasn't that good!)

The UK Sport Olympic frames are fabricated in the UK, and Moda (I think) now has a Stoke firm that fabricates carbon frames lined up for one model.

Many of the famous bike names from the past have been bought up for "badge engineering" purposes, but they aren't UK made bikes in most cases.

However, this doesn't mean that the current kit isn't great. The quality control applied to the products for known names (not of course the dodgy "Chinarello" type products) is second to none - you don't get the "odd bad frame" that some of the more homespun builders of the past could come up with any more.

We're in a global economy, and most products are a mix of parts made all over the world. So it is with bikes.

Omar Little

Orange make most of their bikes in the UK...although not their road bike.

desweller

Monty Dog wrote:

FWIW most of the UK-built product are steel frames with the exception of Enigma's titanium frames or the carbon frames built for British Cycling. AFAIK there are no other titanium or carbon builders in the UK.

Qoroz.

Bozman

DesWeller wrote:

Monty Dog wrote:

FWIW most of the UK-built product are steel frames with the exception of Enigma's titanium frames or the carbon frames built for British Cycling. AFAIK there are no other titanium or carbon builders in the UK.

Qoroz.

And apparently Moda sell the only British made/built carbon frame

Mad_Malx

wheezee wrote:

Mad_Malx wrote:

Moulton are built 8 miles from you in Bradford-on-Avon

Yes, but there's a sodding great hill in the way. I couldn't see them from here.

My daily commute (insert wheezing icon) , but not on a Moulton

alihisgreat

Bozman wrote:

DesWeller wrote:

Monty Dog wrote:

FWIW most of the UK-built product are steel frames with the exception of Enigma's titanium frames or the carbon frames built for British Cycling. AFAIK there are no other titanium or carbon builders in the UK.

Qoroz.

And apparently Moda sell the only British made/built carbon frame

Yep: http://road.cc/content/news/67974-moda-2013-uk-built-carbon-monocoque-new-steel-frames-plus-big-upgrades

Oxo

Are Qoroz frames "British"? Fab as they are, I thought they were designed here & fabricated in the Far East. Either way, I'd love one after a recent test-ride

desweller

I was under the impression that they were custom-made in this country (i.e. made-to-measure). They certainly cost enough.

Jester27

MEKK are a british brand run by Brits and have Brit headquarters, but the carbon frames are designed in Italy and made in Taiwan.

Monty Dog

Qoroz frames are made in China - I'd even have a pretty good guess at which factory and could tell you how much they cost to buy having bought a few custom titanium frames from China.

hulla the hulla

Bozman wrote:

Aren't Moda British ish?

as mentioned on the labels on the frames on the Moda bikes at the NEC yesterday, "born in the UK" - it also had Barelli kit on it as well, bars etc but a lot of the finishing kit was not British, e.g. American Classic wheels.

bit of a mish mash TBH - nice bikes though

logitech208

My Raleigh Airlite has made in nottingham stamped on the frame does this count.???

pgrhodes

Dolan are British I believe. Could quite easily be wrong tho...I often am

Oxo

DesWeller wrote:

I was under the impression that they were custom-made in this country (i.e. made-to-measure). They certainly cost enough.

I knew I'd read it somewhere! http://www.qoroz.com/docs/CA-June2010.pdf