On Thu, Oct 6, 2011 at 5:15 PM, Jan Heine <hein...@earthlink.net> wrote: > On Oct 5, 1:41 pm, Seth Vidal <skvi...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> How about the manufacturer of any of the Grand Bois non-tire parts? > > - Grand Bois tires are made by Panaracer in Japan. Their stems, > handlebars and racks come from Nitto, also in Japan. > - Grand Bois rims and cassette hubs are made in Taiwan. > - Compass Bicycles' new cranks also will be made in Taiwan. > > Both countries have excellent labor standards. > > There are two reasons bike parts are made in foreign countries: > Expertise and cost. Forging a bicycle crank requires specialized > tooling to broach the square taper. I don't know of any North American > forging house that has this tooling. Even TA has their cranks forged > in Taiwan. > > Cost is a different issue. In the mainstream market, every penny > counts, and labor-intensive production is moved to whomever offers the > lowest bid. In Taiwan, this often means sub-sub-contracting to China. > When our engineer visited all prospective companies in Taiwan who > wanted to make our cranks, he found that many were little more than an > office, who then would sub-contract the job to mainland China. Of > course, the label still would say "Made in Taiwan." > > This type of outsourcing to the cheapest bidder not only has > implications for labor standards, but also quality. It is not uncommon > to substitute a cheaper alloy. As a result, you find chainrings that > are labeled as 7075 aluminum, but wear so quickly that there is little > doubt that they are 6000-series. That way, the company could underbid > all the other companies who had to factor in the higher cost of the > raw material... and they got the bid. > > When you work with reputable companies, you don't have to worry too > much about these issues, but of course, the higher quality comes at a > higher cost.
Jan, thanks for the response. This is exactly why I asked. I take it you are confident that your manufacturers are playing fair on their outsourcing. I agree higher quality comes at a higher cost and I expect that. But I've also found you can get expensive goods which are, in fact, quite cheap. -sv ps: speaking of parts from reputable makers: any word on when the compass cranks are going to be available? -- 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.
