"We would be paying $1000 for a crankset." That's simply not true. White Ind., as just one US manufacturer, makes multiple cranks, including a state of the art VBC dbl crank, an excellent triple, and tandem cranks, Most of their cranks sell for around $220.
I am glad that Jan Heine & Grant Peterson are careful to avoid purchasing from grossly unethical suppliers but there is more to it than that. Buying anything, either food, clothing, or brake sets, from your neighbors helps to build community and strengthen the fabric of our society. I'll bet that's a big part of why many on this list buy from LBS & from RBW. When the "low cost" producer becomes so, not by excelling in mfg. technology but by paying low wages and manipulating currency rates then working people's wages get driven down world wide and all the money collects in the hands of a few. I am sure that both asia and america have big enough markets to support their own manufacturing structure at wages that are fair to their own people. Finally it is unclear how sustainable this system is even for a small company. Grant manufactured his frames in Jpn. for many decades based on lower costs. But that lower cost was based largely on currency manipulation. Now that Japan is unable to do that, prices have risen dramatically and he is forced to look for other sources or try to work with the now seriously malnourished US mfg. base. What happens when China & Korea are no longer able to sustain undervalued currencies in the face of permanent, huge trade surpluses? Will the next generation of frames be made in Afghanistan? Over the last few years I have bought BBs from Phil Wood, hubs, cranks, and pedals from White Ind., brakes from Pauls, a tandem frame from Bilenky, made with US mfg. Tange tubing,. I haven't regretted any of those purchases. michael -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msg/rbw-owners-bunch/-/nu8zvnPlgoAJ. 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.
