On Oct 8, 2009, at 8:47 AM, Seth Vidal wrote:
> On Thu, Oct 8, 2009 at 9:42 AM, Jim Thill - Hiawatha Cyclery > <thill....@gmail.com> wrote: >> >> Technomic Deluxe stems are forged. Non-deluxe stems are cast. At >> least >> that's my understanding. >> >> I highly doubt that many companies are looking to move into the >> higher- >> end quill stem market. Aside from Riv, the only bikes that need those >> stems in any numbers are old bikes. From the industry standpoint: if >> somebody is riding some old bike, it is unlikely that they are gonna >> pay $50+ for a replacement stem. Look at the dwindling variety of >> threaded headsets. It's considered a dying, if not dead market. > > But to be honest the parts from nitto are the least of the items I was > concerned about. The frames from toyo are the item which seem to be > commanding the large price increases. So that's my main curiosity. Is > there really no feasible way to level out the exchange rate by > producing more of the frames in north america? > > It's not like toyo and wateford are the only two frame builders in the > world, right? Do all the frames have to be built in the same couple of > places by the same subset of people? Apparently so. No, but there are very few US frame building shops that can make 500 frames in a month for a house brand. There's Waterford and that's abotu it. Match tried and went toes-up fairly quickly. Most frame builders in the US are one person operations and unable to meet a demand higher than one frame a week or even less- most of those frame builders are artisan hobbyists who make a living doing something else. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ 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 -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
