UK made MTB

Bluestoesonnose

The time has come for me to consider a new bike and for the first time since my first mtb in 1984 (yes I am that old!) full suss.

I'm currently riding around on a Pace 305 and love the way handles and feels, looking for a some with about 100mm to 120mm of travel as I tend to go for distance over the moorland trails and bridal paths rather than trail centres and AM stuff.

Being the loyal Brit I'd like to buy another UK brand bike, but what are the options for a full suss lightweight UK made bike?

Been looking at and Orange Gyro but its too heavy, then Pace but they seem to have gone very quiet, and then, well no one, and others I should be looking up before looking across the Atlantic or Channel?

cooldad

UK made - not a lot. UK brand - a few - Boardman etc.
Or just buy a bike.

rockmonkeysc

There are plenty of UK brands but very few UK manufactured frames. None that I could think of which are actually any good. All the best frames are made in Taiwan.

paul.skibum

You could get a handmade steel hardtail - I think a few places still knock them out to order. Then throw a whole load of Hope parts at it - might have to go foreign for tyres and gearing, maybe wheels too. And brakes.

Sod it, no one makes bikes in Britain, bite the bullet and buy something decent from them foreign types.

The Rookie

Apart from Hope, very few bike component is made in Britain, there are lots of UK brands that sell bikes made in Taiwan, a few bikes are assembled here from bits made predominantly in Taiwan/China (Bird, On-One for example), nearest you'll get to British is an Orange (but not the hardtails which are built in Taiwan) where you can buy a UK built frame (complete with lots of snot) and lots of Hope stuff, but you'll pay for the pleasure and it may not be what you want anyway!

felix.london

Bluestoesonnose wrote:

UK made

What's that?

The Rookie

Should be spelt UK maid, and she'll be from Eastern Europe......

welshkev

Bird?

rockmonkeysc

felix.london wrote:

Bluestoesonnose wrote:

UK made

What's that?

Lots of things are made in the UK. British manufacturing is actually doing pretty well now. We did go through a stage of buying parts from India and the far east to assemble in the UK but quality, consistency and delivery times caused huge problems so a lot more is being made from raw materials here again. The biggest problem for UK manufacturing now is the lack of engineers caused by decades of low pay and poor training.

The Rookie

RockmonkeySC wrote:

Lots of things are made in the UK. British manufacturing is actually doing pretty well now. We did go through a stage of buying parts from India and the far east to assemble in the UK but quality, consistency and delivery times caused huge problems so a lot more is being made from raw materials here again. The biggest problem for UK manufacturing now is the lack of engineers caused by decades of low pay and poor training.

It's very sector specific, you need manufacturing engineers to manufacture, we have those, what we don't have is the engineers to develop new product, but in terms of cars we are building more cars in this country and than ever before, just they are for foreign owned companies and the development is elsewhere, as an automotive development engineer the shortage of UK engineers is only good for my salary thanks!

We do have a lot of automotive engineering in the UK with a number of well respected consultancies and also UK based development centres for overseas companies (2x Chinese, 2x Indian and 1xJapanese for example), if anything the shortage in engineers in that sector is due to the unprecedented growth in demand.

aldo45

Get a Dialled Bikes frame!

BloggingFit

Chas Roberts UK made.

Levi_501

BloggingFit wrote:

Chas Roberts UK made.

Seconded

Angus Young

D.O.G.S.B.O.L.X

I.N.F.A.N.T.I.L.E.

rockmonkeysc

The Rookie wrote:

RockmonkeySC wrote:

Lots of things are made in the UK. British manufacturing is actually doing pretty well now. We did go through a stage of buying parts from India and the far east to assemble in the UK but quality, consistency and delivery times caused huge problems so a lot more is being made from raw materials here again. The biggest problem for UK manufacturing now is the lack of engineers caused by decades of low pay and poor training.

It's very sector specific, you need manufacturing engineers to manufacture, we have those, what we don't have is the engineers to develop new product, but in terms of cars we are building more cars in this country and than ever before, just they are for foreign owned companies and the development is elsewhere, as an automotive development engineer the shortage of UK engineers is only good for my salary thanks!

We do have a lot of automotive engineering in the UK with a number of well respected consultancies and also UK based development centres for overseas companies (2x Chinese, 2x Indian and 1xJapanese for example), if anything the shortage in engineers in that sector is due to the unprecedented growth in demand.

As a mechanical designer I should be doing well. There is a shortage of mechanical design engineers in the UK but pay is still relatively poor considering the level of qualifications and experience required and the responsibility of the job. I get paid around 30% less than the salesmen who are selling my products.

Angus Young

RockmonkeySC wrote:

I get paid around 30% less than the salesmen who are selling my products.

You're not doing too bad, then. The no–talent businessmen who often come between me and the client will often be making ten times (or more) what I make and their only role in life is to take a brief and then repeat it to me. And half the time they can't even get that right! And as if that wasn't enough, I was once told by one of the feckers that the bit I do, the design, was the least important part of the business. And this despite the fact that they were a design agency!

bartimaeus

Aren't Cotic planning to build frames in the UK... ?

BloggingFit

Angus Young wrote:

D.O.G.S.B.O.L.X

I.N.F.A.N.T.I.L.E.

It was the 90's...

rockmonkeysc

Angus Young wrote:

RockmonkeySC wrote:

I get paid around 30% less than the salesmen who are selling my products.

You're not doing too bad, then. The no–talent businessmen who often come between me and the client will often be making ten times (or more) what I make and their only role in life is to take a brief and then repeat it to me. And half the time they can't even get that right! And as if that wasn't enough, I was once told by one of the feckers that the bit I do, the design, was the least important part of the business. And this despite the fact that they were a design agency!

My biggest problem with salesmen is they promise anything whether it's possible or not as long as they get an order. I was expected to design a gravity flow filtration system with an outlet higher than the inlet and then accused of giving up without trying!

The Rookie

RockmonkeySC wrote:

The Rookie wrote:

RockmonkeySC wrote:

Lots of things are made in the UK. British manufacturing is actually doing pretty well now. We did go through a stage of buying parts from India and the far east to assemble in the UK but quality, consistency and delivery times caused huge problems so a lot more is being made from raw materials here again. The biggest problem for UK manufacturing now is the lack of engineers caused by decades of low pay and poor training.

It's very sector specific, you need manufacturing engineers to manufacture, we have those, what we don't have is the engineers to develop new product, but in terms of cars we are building more cars in this country and than ever before, just they are for foreign owned companies and the development is elsewhere, as an automotive development engineer the shortage of UK engineers is only good for my salary thanks!

We do have a lot of automotive engineering in the UK with a number of well respected consultancies and also UK based development centres for overseas companies (2x Chinese, 2x Indian and 1xJapanese for example), if anything the shortage in engineers in that sector is due to the unprecedented growth in demand.

As a mechanical designer I should be doing well. There is a shortage of mechanical design engineers in the UK but pay is still relatively poor considering the level of qualifications and experience required and the responsibility of the job. I get paid around 30% less than the salesmen who are selling my products.

I guess it depends on your field of expertise, automotive and aerospace salaries are shooting up right now and many companies are struggling to recruit and having to pay 'silly' money to do so.

rockmonkeysc

There is a major shortage of industrial mechanical designers but it seems that most employers answer to this is to expect their engineers to work a lot of unpaid extra hours rather than pay the money to attract new engineers.
It seems engineers are valued well below salesmen despite the fact that if you don't have designers then you have nothing to sell.

Angus Young

RockmonkeySC wrote:

My biggest problem with salesmen is they promise anything whether it's possible or not as long as they get an order. I was expected to design a gravity flow filtration system with an outlet higher than the inlet and then accused of giving up without trying!

^ Yes! Oh yes, this!

photonic69

Moulton Bikes - just down the road from me. However I dont expect you want/need a stainless steel truss folding bike costing around £12k do you?

rockmonkeysc

PhotoNic69 wrote:

Moulton Bikes - just down the road from me. However I dont expect you want/need a stainless steel truss folding bike costing around £12k do you?

Bradford On Avon's finest bicycle manufacturer! They have been advertising for design engineers constantly for around five years. 10 miles from me and I quite like bicycles but I'm not going there.