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Jay Townley: The supply chain nightmare!
2021 is truly a supply chain nightmare, but that doesn’t mean the American Bicycle Business cannot quickly learn and adapt.
www.bicycleretailer.com
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An Excellent, Fact Based Article on Supply Chain Issues
- Thread starter martyg
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www.bicycleretailer.com
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Very interesting. A bit dry, but worth the read.
From @cantunamunch along the same lines:
I'm not a video guy, but this one is worth the time (at 1.5X of course).
From @cantunamunch along the same lines:
I'm not a video guy, but this one is worth the time (at 1.5X of course).
There's been some good news recently - for cars and ebikes and power tools anyway:
/cloudfront-us-east-2.images.arcpublishing.com/reuters/H377RTBDG5OCJL2T33TT6ACARA.jpg)
Bosch opens German chip plant, its biggest-ever investment
Robert Bosch (ROBG.UL) opened a 1 billion euro ($1.2 billion) chip plant in Germany on Monday, a record investment by the leading automotive supplier as it stakes a claim to equipping the latest electric and self-driving cars.
www.reuters.com
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Bottom line you are not getting that Ibis any time soon.
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Shimano plant shut-down is being extended due to covid restrictions. Keep waiting for those parts!!
cyclingmagazine.ca
Shimano factory shut down is about to make the parts shortage worse - Canadian Cycling Magazine
Malaysian factory temporarily closed due to COVID protocools
I found that chart regarding containers arriving on-time very interesting since Ive been trying to source a couple 40’ containers for a project the past couple months. Suppliers are telling me no idea on eta and/or price, but plan on waiting a while and paying alot more than previously.
A bigger picture from NPR.
www.npr.org
How 'Chaos' In The Shipping Industry Is Choking The Economy
The U.S. trade deficit is hitting record highs — and it's fueled by a surge in demand for imports, mostly from East Asia. On both land and at sea, the shipping industry is struggling to keep up.
www.npr.org
Taiwan..envy of the world..until they're not...
Felt like my chain was slipping so went into LBS who advised it may or may not be chain stretch and, if not, I might need a new cassette. Was told I'd have to wait until late September for new chain, and up to 2 years for new cassette! Campy Super Record components might have something to do with it, but still ........
That's ...pretty desperate. Makes me feel a few times better for ordering NOS cassettes from Oz.
The unfortunate thing is it could be both. Usually you find the cassette wear when you install a new chain. You can see the hooks sometimes. Often it's only 1 or 2 cogs. You may be able to get by with just scavenging those individual cogs. Depending on your group you may be able to swap them individually. I would suck up your Super Record preference and get whatever you can swap...
Nowhere in that article did I see any suggestion of bringing the manufacturing of bicycles back onUS soil...?
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Bikes are mfg'd in the US..they just don't cost $500...Nowhere in that article did I see any suggestion of bringing the manufacturing of bicycles back onUS soil...
They are?
Dozens..Moots, Lynskey, Calfee, Independent Designs, Zinn, Waterford...
I like this guy...
Custom ultra lightweight steel racing bicycles, made by Rodriguez Cycles
Lightest road bike in the world. All hand made in Seattle
rodbikes.com
All but 1 of my bikes in the garage WERE made in the US: Trek, Cannondale, Santa Cruz, Calfee, Waterford. But I can't be sure all of those are still made in the US any more.
Clearly, Schwinn "succeeded" in ridding off all their US based manufacturing. Possibly some of the others did too?
Clearly, Schwinn "succeeded" in ridding off all their US based manufacturing. Possibly some of the others did too?
Rudi Riet
AKA songfta AKA randomduck - a USSS coach, as well
SkiTalk Tester
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Schwinn hasn't been in the actual Schwinn family since 1992, when they declared bankruptcy and were acquired by Dorel Industries under their Pacific Cycle wing. Their domestic downfall was sticking to old-school manufacturing techniques (their factory was over 80 years old and had tooling that was almost as old) which put them at a competitive disadvantage to brands building their bikes at more modern factories in Asia - whether the R&D was in the U.S. and the manufacture in Asia, or brands simply imported and re-branded bikes from a larger manufacturer like Giant (a factory Schwinn used in the years immediately prior to their bankruptcy).
Schwinn also had labor troubles that forced their line workers to unionize under the auspices of the United Auto Workers. All 1,400 of their factory workers walked out on strike in late 1980 to fight for higher pay, and when Schwinn settled the dispute they hired back a little more than half of their workforce.
Fun fact: Schwinn's first foreign sourced bike frames were built by Panasonic in Japan, and those frames were very high quality for the price. Panasonic-built Paramount frames command a high price on the used market.
Pacific Cycle has a lot of brands under its auspices in addition to Schwinn, including Cannondale and GT on the higher end, and Murray and Roadmaster on the low end, as well as other bike and component brands. Since Dorel's acquisition of the Schwinn brand all of the manufacture of their bicycles has been sent to China and Taiwan, their focus being on sales in big box stores and bargain-level bicycles rather than anything high end save for occasional runs of their Paramount frames.
Under Dorel/Pacific all of Cannondale's manufacturing has moved to Asia, though their R&D is still in the U.S.
FWIW: the Schwinn family still builds bicycles under the Gunnar and Waterford brands. These bikes are built in the U.S.
In the end it became too expensive to manufacture affordable bicycles in the U.S. - and it still is. Thus why most U.S. manufactured frames are in the high-end and custom range. Gunnar and Waterford frames aren't cheap but are wonderful bicycles. Other U.S. manufacturers make similarly lovely frames, from carbon (e.g Calfee, Alchemy), steel (in addition to Gunnar and Waterford, lump in Independent Fabrications, Breadwinner, Richard Sachs, Vanilla/Speedwagen, K. Bedford, among others), and titanium (Moots, Bingham Built, Firefly, Mosaic, Seven, Lynskey, among others). Most of these frames cost a minimum of $2,000 and average between $3,000 and $5,000. They're investments.
And yes, there are investment frames and bikes from the big manufacturers who do their thing in Asia. And if the bike sparks joy and does what it needs to, there's zero shame in that.
Sincerely,
A guy who rides a bespoke U.S.-built ti bike, a mass-produced Chinese carbon bike, and three Taiwan-built bikes - and loves them all.
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I just built up a Paramount 70 MTB frame for my neighbor and took it for a little rip. Man it's a great bike even at thirty years old.