> Maybe it's time for someone to start up an > enterprise like that again, or at least some sort of collective where > a handful of builders can share a common marketing and office > operation.
In the Bay area you have Inglis, Bruce Gordon and Sycip (maybe other) designing and building their own great bikes. Design only you have at least Riv, Swobo, Jitensha, Soma. Maybe there is some way the designers and builders could join up and create a process to build stock lugged steel frames in batches. Or am I getting too much 'We are the world!' here? On Aug 20, 3:31 pm, Bill Connell <bconn...@gmail.com> wrote: > On Thu, Aug 20, 2009 at 3:09 PM, MichaelH<mhech...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > I think it's a mistake to build an entire business strategy on the > > assumption that exchange rates will always work in your favor. If > > Riv. wants to continue to offer affordable, quality, lugged frames it > > needs to begin to develop on shore manufacturing capability. It can > > be done. Bilenkey offers his Delux Touring frameset for $1900, Co- > > Motion offers a high end tig welded frameset for about $1500, and I > > think Waterford is $2200, which is just petty darn close to a Toyo > > price. Why promote MUSA clothing and then abandon MUSA frames? > > > High end mfgs, like Phil Wood, White Industries, and Pauls are able to > > make stuff here. Heck I just bought a lettuce spinner manufactured in > > Switzerland, which last time I was there made the US look like a third > > world country. > > Was the demise of match a factor in Rivendell going to Toyo for > frames? I mean, aside from Waterford, they were the only high-end > production frame house in the US, and it would be a huge headache for > them to build their own network of framebuilders, maintain > consistency, etc. Maybe it's time for someone to start up an > enterprise like that again, or at least some sort of collective where > a handful of builders can share a common marketing and office > operation. Something like thehttp://madisonframebuilders.com/group, > but building to spec. > > -- > Bill Connell > St. Paul, MN --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
