indyfabz

Or possibly Canada.

StarBiker

Unless really scared because of what is going on (I sold a bike on CL on the 30th) CL in Florida is a bike buyers market. So is the OP in Florida, or do they reside there?
I would look on there.

And there was no mention of price. How much is the OP willing to spend?

People are funny, do they actually think on their own?

It took this for people to wash their hands, not bump into people, and for places to keep everything clean?

(I am very irritated with public places that are set up so I have to touch key pads, door handles, and sit at dirty tables, and ask a clerk to wipe a table off somewhere. Keep the place clean, or is that to much to ask?

Sorry for the rant.

indyfabz

Gunnar, Co-Motion and IF are but a few. Isn’t Rodriguez another? Bike Friday, too. And IIRC, Thompson components are made in GA. Chris King in OR.

StarBiker

Don't you make them in your back yard to save money?

Wileyrat

Off topic, but I'm a tech for one of the big three telcom providers in the US, and I can assure POTS is still around. I won't guarantee the equipment that takes it from digital to analog doesn't get here in a container on the same ships that most of our bikes arrive on.

veganbikes

Thomson makes some stuff in the U.S. Stems and seat posts.

Also tons of other awesome builders. Phil Wood, Paul, White Industries, Industry Nine, Hadley, Profile Racing, TiCycles, Wolf Tooth Components, Rolf Prima/Astral, Velocity, Wald, Wheels MFG, ODI, Oury, ESI, King Cage, Wheelsmith, Wickwerks...are all U.S. made component manufacturers though plenty of builders are also making stems and handlebars and other components as well.

If only Mr. Paul would re-make his old derailleur again we would be in business,

HerrKaLeun

Good, another US-supremacy thread. Must have lived under a rock the last 40 years if you discover NOW in 2020 that most consumer products (or most parts) are made elsewhere.

Production and capacity is planned out months if not years ahead. To be profitable they attempt to run factories at 100% (minus maintenance time). This current sale is just a bubble and manufacturers know there will be dry time coming up. They won't, and can't, just up production of those $500 bikes. The bikes in the store now were ordered last summer or fall.

GamblerGORD53

WTF....I agree, Taiwan is NOT CCP China. Not much except carbon, bearings and Walmart is made on the mainland actually, AFAIK. Velocity rims are made in USA. Tires in other SE Asia. Dyno lights in Germany. I just bought a SRAM 1/8 chain, made in Portugal.
There are LOTS of bikes and parts made in Europe. Most Dutch bikes without defaileurs will last a hell of a lot longer too. Rohloff is German of course. SA is made in Taiwan. Vivente was making good bikes in OZ, not sure about now.
But yah, toys and electronics are mostly made in mainland China.

Dwillems26

highly doubt there coronavirus being first identified in China has anything to do with him wanting a USA made bike. Most people that look for USA made just want the reassurance of the quality and more importantly supporting their country's jobs.

For me, I know things are made in China, I know it's cheaper, but when I can I keep to USA made to support my own country. It never has anything to do with ethnicity or what's going on in the country at that time.

Edit: and yes, I know that the USA made sticker doesn't mean everything was made in the states.

PDKL45

Most bikes from the brands you mention are made in Taiwan. Taiwan, known officially at the Republic of China, is not the "China" that you will not purchase from, so relax, you'll be fine. Look for the Made in Taiwan sticker and you'll be ideologically pure, especially with President Tsai Ing-wen's recent reelection.

I've seen this a few times in the forums now, people thinking that the majority of bikes are made in China. To be fair, the issue has been somewhat confused, after the Nixon years, when the US dropped official recognition of Taiwan (the Republic of China), in favor of official recognition of China (the People's Republic of China) in a move aimed squarely at isolating the USSR.

The two split apart in 1949, after the Nationalists were defeated by the Communists in the Chinese civil war, and retreated to the island of Formosa (Taiwan) where they built a thriving modern democratic state, which, along with Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea, came to be known as one of the four Asian Tigers, highly developed industrialized nations in the East Asia-SE Asia region. These were countries whose economies boomed in the 1980s and 1990s as neighboring Communist economies stagnated under planned production quotas and the fall of the Soviet Union etc.

Taiwan came to lead the world in bicycle production in the 1970s, when US companies like Schwinn turned away from increasingly expensive Japanese original equipment manufacturers (OEM) to OEM companies based in Taiwan. Now, Giant, a company based in Taiwan, is the biggest bicycle manufacturer in the world. Other companies, like Merida, make their own products, as well as OEM products. Merida have a 49% stake in Specialized and thus manufacture Specialized bikes for the global market. Others, like Maxway, supply bicycle frames etc to so many companies that when you see two bicycles from different brands on the floor of a bike shop, they may have been made in the same factory in Taichung, Taiwan.

indyfabz

I have one of each on my road bike. Chris King hubs and headset well.

Ogsarg

The OP specifically said "But have to start somewhere with not supporting a Country that gave us the Wuhan virus." You can speculate that wasn't the reason, but it sure sounds like it to me so just wondering if the same sentiment extends to any country where any pandemic originates.

Please don't mistake me for someone who has no concern where things come from. I work in manufacturing and thinks its very sad that so much of it has been lost to countries where labor and environmental regulations are mostly non-existent.

Tacoenthusiast

The reassurance of quality, sure it's low quality but at least we are reassured of that hahahaha

Production didn't just leave the USA for price reasons, there are/were quality issues too

probe1957

Perhaps, but it was MOSTLY price. Over regulation and union labor adds considerable unnecessary costs.

Robert C

Rodriguez Cycles are made in the US, they have been doing so for over forty years. For anything but standard sizes, they have a waiting list. My daughter has one of their bikes. All I can say is a great bike and great service.

Dwillems26

My apologies. I didn't see that in post #3 .

veganbikes

This was gross. I didn't even notice you wrote that. Blaming the people and area known as Wuhan in China for a virus that is global and has unknown origins is a pretty pathetic thought path. I get it, it is super easy to believe whatever oddball conspiracies that people tell you especially during a time of crisis but I highly suggest not doing that and just focus on helping end this thing.

freeranger

I've been "on the bubble" about buying a hybrid-maybe one in the Trek FX line. A local dealer has 4 shops within a reasonable distance to drive. Called today (5/21) and was told there were no models of the Trek FX available in any of their stores. Maybe I'll find one when "isolation" ends and people who didn't really get much use out of them start to sell them off. Have a road and mtn.bike now, so don't really need one, but we all know how that goes!

Phil_gretz

Even though it's been said again and again on the Bike Forums, I guess that this needs repeating...[sigh]

Even though you get to customize, it's always cheaper to buy the complete bear that you want than it is to build your bear from parts. You do, however, gain the experience and satisfaction from doing it yourself. And that may translate into being able to do your bear maintenance going forward.

viffer

My bear has been making some strange squeaky noises from its bottom end. I opened it up and stuck a greasy lubed finger into its inner workings but it seems to still have a problem elsewhere.

But I agree, everyone should learn how their bear works and care for it themselves if only to avoid the 4 week wait at the bear repair shop these days.

GlennR

Last time I had a greasy lubed finger inserted in my bottom end, i was having my prostate checked.

PDKL45

That's just Friday night for me, but I digress.

The world is facing a potential shortage of bikes, something even outlets like the NY Times have picked up on (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/18/n...ronavirus.html). Other NY outlets are reporting the same thing (https://www.ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs...ing-for-a-bike).

Even if most bicycles are made in Taiwan, the raw materials and semi-finished products used by bike companies often come from elsewhere, including, but not limited to mainland China. In this regard, the global shipping industry, like many other industries, is grappling with the new normal and has seen large disruptions. It's not just one thing affecting bicycle availability, it's a range of things, not least of them disruptions to the global transport of materials and finished goods.

The bike industry works a year or so ahead of itself, and so even while we may see some new products and innovations in 2020, like the new 2021 Specialized Diverge, those bikes were probably being manufactured, assembled and packed last year and into the start of this year, to be in stores by May 2020. I think we'll see a shortage of model year 2021 and 2022 bikes, as the global economy and all of the small things that have to come together for bicycles to be produced and available shake themselves out and get rearranged to meet current challenges. Taiwan is relatively unaffected by the virus and it will be interesting to see if they are able to get factories up and running at capacity this year to produce the model year 2022 bikes due to be released in the northern hemisphere late spring-early summer of 2021.

I think the best thing to do right now is hunker down with the bike you have and wait for brighter days. If you were ever thinking of selling any excess bikes you own, now would be a good time to do so.

Phil_gretz

Their are so many bikes on Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace and other local sites right now, that I think that we'll scrape by somehow.

A shortage of bikes has never been my problem...

texaspandj

What about the time before that?

GlennR

I'm disappointed you don't remember