The Secret Factory The Bike Industry Doesn't Want You to Know About 

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I agree. Don't let the globalists ruin Taiwan like they did to our workforce. It's terrible. Taiwanese products are generally very well made in my experience.

He does a lot of touring on my bike videos though

A lot of channels have mixed content, I go with who's having the most fun tbh.

Who was your grandfather?

@@bffaris Stan Lang. His frames were called 'southern cross'

They will voluntarily become part of China, we have nothing to protect them from.

You wrote that joke using a device that surely relied on Taiwan chips though :p

Protect from what?

@@Jack42Frost gina

So every frame is just for yourself? Why not to sell any?

@@jamesmedina2062 I’m slow; I typically build one frame a year. I have really basic tooling and limited time, so it’s tough to make more than that. I’d have to sell multiple frames a year just to cover insurance, and my day job doesn’t pay enough to buy nicer tools, machines, and equipment that would speed up the process.

silent?? so like the rear freehub is quiet? What kind of wheels on it?

I'm glad a rigid bike is silent. Probably has literally nothing to do with the frame, since rigid frames aren't the source of the sound.....

@@jamesmedina2062 I don't know about the above person's bike, but I ride a Shimano Alfine 8 speed hub and it's totally silent. I recently bought a hardtail and I can't stand how loud the freewheel is. I've decided to save a litle money and buy a new rear wheel with an Onyx hub for that bike.

Well, the blurry filter helps…

Same!

Let us know when the group buy for a frame with thru axles and 406x2.4" tire clearance starts

Why nice? Can you describe it there?

I have a 2005 Fuji Team SL with a Taiwanese frame….but my first love was a 1989 USA Cannondale….still have it, and another 89’ is being assembled with Campagnolo wheels/group tomorrow….they got it right

Under the terms of our visa we're only allowed to leave Spain for a few weeks a year so we have to be pretty judicious about the trips out of country.

Mine 2

I’d be surprised if 1 in 10 people that walk into a bike shop know about them. Also lots of brands are cagey about mentioning the factories they work with.

does it have a "florida man" personality? "only ride this bike if you're up for fighting a drunk alligator in the middle of Calle Ocho" ;)

@@buriedintime Maybe, but Im messing with no overgrown geckos. She is a very specific racer, with some brand new and some very old parts, like the spring forks from the 20s. Lol.

Perhaps the intellectual design is worth something too right? Charging the very maximum you can for something or that the market will bear is now a very "American" thing. I don't think any one asks what "fair" would be. Thats pretty sad because it's really not fair to be this way but at least there are choices and on these things we don't have to buy it unlike some other necessities.

@@jamesmedina2062 I'm not sure what you mean. In the case of these boutique brands, they buy the rights for a given frame mould in a given jurisdiction. They do not develop the mould /design themselves. They're literally just a reseller pretending to be a big dog.

Can you name examples of frames you ride? Where to get them? Aliex etc is a very confusing place. Even things that make media such as the Yasujiro Svelte by Tange are not available. Thanks.

I lived in China for a year, overseeing manufacturing for a USA firm. Chinese learn fast once you show them exactly what you want. Besides low wages, there isn’t any OSHA rules, no pesky HR with DEI crapola that adds nothing to the end products, etc.of my own volition I did visit a very big shop in Taiwan in early 2015 that manufactured carbon frames for supposedly 90% of all commercial bike brands in the world. Interesting part was each brand had their own dedicated space and some placed curtains around there proprietary shenanigans to feign secrecy.Carbon frame layups area “black art”, IMHO, but it seems to work. I bought a carbon frame bike off Bikes Direct for less than most can buy a frame that is out of that very factory. Personally my favorite bike is my 1984 Miyata, cro-mo steel welded using automated processes to avoid human variables. It was made in Japan but forced to move to Taiwan in early 90’s due to Yen/$ changes in value. ✌️

@@ShaggyRodgers420 long teng is a great factory. I suggest you join the online forum chinertown, it's a whole community of nerds that discuss Chinese carbon bike stuff.

Seriously? Why?

meh, you can fit a bike with the right parts, their designed that way. Custom frames are luxury items and completely unecessary

@@BigBADSTUFF69 judging by the way I see a lot of people fitted to their bikes I would disagree not to mention rising tubing which is made for someone much heavier than themselves because the bike has to suit a wide range of riders. The advantages are real. But you don't know the difference until you experience it. However I would agree that these days it is a luxury for most. Having said that perhaps it's better to invest in the right bike rather than half a dozen compromises..

It’s what people click on. Don’t hate the player hate the game.

i lived in china...the culture is very greedy and opportunistic

Ideas are cheap. Execution is expensive. And patent trolling is not the answer.

Your statement is very xenophobic. Taiwan has been innovative building high quality bikes for over 50 years.

@@brianhagan4728 they are only innovative because you take them ideas, ideas are not cheap, ideas push things forward. Without new ideas you get stuck in the dark ages. It is not xenophobic when it has been proven time and time again, it is foolish to take the ideas that but then again we have been putting into a society where people expect cheap things. So I suppose we can only blame ourselves

@@thisisadebrown ofc we need new ideas. My point is that it's pretty easy to come up with good ideas. Implementing them, at scale production, is way harder. Anyone smart can come up with ideas, but turning them into a successful product is a very different league.

American manufacturing was crushed by decades of state policy and unfettered corporate greed, one RU-vidr isn’t going to move the needle

@@chadwells7562 and taking a defeatist attitude of one person not being able to move the needle will certainly make sure the needle does not get moved.

@@f1hotrod527 If you want to film a treatise on the past 50 years of corruption, greed, and treason degrading our industrial base and destroying the middle class no one is stopping you. There are also probably hundreds of videos talking about the same thing on this very platform.

Oh I don't know, maybe look at the salaries that one would have to pay in the U.S. for equivalently skilled labor and you might trip over the reason why

Fair point. Next, ask yourself, how comes that in the US, one would have to pay much higher salaries ? Take public transportation, cheap-efficient- affordable, Taiwanese industrialists can pay their workforce less because it can live car-free. Same goes for Education, Healthcare... etc. Can’t have a competitive workforce with an uncompetitive lifestyle.