Originally Posted by
Nemosengineer
The build is interesting, in the video see how the folding rear triangle is fabricated with the frame then aligned as a unit... no interchangeable parts, each unit is unique unto itself, and it moves very quickly for two men building a frame. Yes Bike Friday is a high end bicycle in a very old tradition and you would have to redesign the product to mass produce it, however it would lose all its character and most of its value as something really special. I am really glad I own one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0N77UxRS4U
: Mike
Thanks for the video.
I can see the part that was never put on my bike(s).
Hmmm, Bike Friday Pocket Companion. Apparently a discontinued model (replaced by OSATA?)
Obviously this film was designed to show production from start to finish (at fast speed). So, it is quite possible that there are more parallel tasks that aren't clearly being shown.
Anyway, it is most interesting construction. One thing about the Bike Friday is that nothing folds quite squarely. So, for example, the seat mast folds to one side of the main tube, and the rear wheel also folds to the side.
However, I disagree about mass production.
I think a person could cut batches of 100 tubes.
Bend a bunch of rear triangle tubes.
Build a rear triangle jig.
Weld up a bunch of rear triangles.
Same with welding up a bunch of main frames (perhaps in batches of half a dozen of each size).
Then weld the fork, main frame, and rear triangle independently, even at different times.
Smaller jigs may even make welding of certain components easier.
I'm a bit surprised that the final alignment is done after powder coating, but one issue with bicycle frames is that everything moves just slightly. I presume that sandblasting, powder coating, and baking stress relieves the frame slightly. So, final alignment after the final assembly of the parts is expected. With good jigs, assembly of the frame separate from the triangle should be no different than assembling them together.
Of course, any repair would still need realignment, probably being sent back to Bike Friday.
They seem to have different employees doing specific tasks. Welding, Finishing, wheels, assembly, packing, etc.
Nonetheless, I wonder if the frame building could be streamlined somewhat. Perhaps even cutting the raw build time in half.
Now, looking at the cost of the Pocket Rocket Frame vs whole bike. The frame may be 1/2 or 1/4 the price of the whole bike. So, cutting the cost of welding the frame may only make a moderate difference in overall cost. But, based on the 2 reported finance years that I saw, they aren't that far off from making ends meet.
One issue, of course, with mass production is job satisfaction. I'm sure there is a certain amount of job satisfaction with "artisan" work which might get lost with mass production.
So, there may be more satisfaction welding up a couple of bikes in a day, rather than simply getting fed parts and welding up, say 24 mainframes one day, then welding 24 rear triangles the next day, and 24 forks the third day.
So, one might be able to weld a bike an hour????
Perhaps have one person doing TIG, and one person brazing.
The risk, of course, is driving away the artesans because of too much time pressure and assembly line work. But, cross-training may help with that, as well as doing the occasional full custom build.