# USA Made Road Components?



## rallyrabbit (Aug 15, 2009)

Hi All,

been trying to figure out, are any component or component sets made in USA anymore? Chris King stuff still is, right?

What about Sram, Campy, FSA, Ritchey, Cane Creek, Shimano? Anything left made here.

I thought about trying to make a completely USA built bike. Heck, my friends in Germany can actually get a full German component bike, so why not here too?


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## jmoryl (Sep 5, 2004)

Uh, the US was never the place to find component manufacturers. At least not for the last 50 years, maybe longer. But there are a few (generally great) components made here: 

Thomson stems/posts
King, Phil Woods, White Industries (mainly hubs)
Edge Composites
Zipp stuff

Other than some psycho-light stuff that is mostly unobtainable, what are those German components? I've got some nice Continental tires and a REMA patch kit....


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## laffeaux (Dec 12, 2001)

Coming up with deraillers, shifters, cranks, and a handlebar are likely the biggest problems. Paul made deraillers in the 90's, but they were expensive and never worked as well as the mass produced stuff. Also, in the 90's there were several crank options (Cook, Sweet Parts, Adventure Components, etc) but today other than the Chris King bottom bracket there aren't any options that I know of for cranks. You could have a bar custom bent, but I don't know of any off-the-shelf US manufacturers.

Hubs and headsets are readily available. Are Zero Gravity brake calipers made in the US? Thomson covers the post and stem.


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## MarshallH1987 (Jun 17, 2009)

http://www.zinncycles.com/ does cranks, custom lengths and everything so they're not exactly cheap.
i don't know of any shifters or derailleurs that are made in the us... SRAM is the closest being an american company.


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## Rubber Lizard (May 10, 2007)

Why would Shimano, Campy or FSA ever have a reason to manufacture in the USA? It's not exactly the country that they are based in. 

Sram is all Taiwan. 
Shimano is Japan and more and more Malaysian made
Campy is partially Italy but mostly Romania these days. 
FSA is giant Taiwan conglomerate. 
Ritchey is all sourced in Taiwan. 
Cane Creek is all Taiwan, other than a few choice bits. 
The USA hasn't really made any derailleurs or shifters other than some old Paul mtb stuff.
And your German friends are lying to you when they say they can get a complete 100% German built bike.


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## rallyrabbit (Aug 15, 2009)

Rubber Lizard said:


> Why would Shimano, Campy or FSA ever have a reason to manufacture in the USA? It's not exactly the country that they are based in.
> 
> Sram is all Taiwan.
> Shimano is Japan and more and more Malaysian made
> ...


Because I also work for a manufacturing company, and it is cheaper to make items in USA and and sell to the local market than it is to source commodities, items, make, assemble and then ship overseas to sell more often than not.


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## MrTiles (Feb 28, 2005)

rallyrabbit said:


> Because I also work for a manufacturing company, and it is cheaper to make items in USA and and sell to the local market than it is to source commodities, items, make, assemble and then ship overseas to sell more often than not.


When you consider economies of scale with the major mfg's coupled with our government's lack of enforcing any sort of semblance of bilateral trade with other countries (i.e. import taxation), I'd have to disagree with that.


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## e39540is (Apr 10, 2009)

rallyrabbit said:


> Because I also work for a manufacturing company, and it is cheaper to make items in USA and and sell to the local market than it is to source commodities, items, make, assemble and then ship overseas to sell more often than not.


In what industry is the manufacturer that you work for?

If that is the case, then why do so many companies send out there manufacturing to other countries? American labor is expensive in comparison. I used to work in the motorcycle industry for a manufacturer, and making a "one off" prototype in the us cost 50 times what an outsourced copy cost from Taiwan.

You asked the question....



been trying to figure out said:


> Like Rubber Lizard said, the brands you mentioned: Shimano, Campy, SRAM, etc where never thought of as US companies. Did you have the idea that they had once started in the US, and moved to other countries for some reason?


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## 88 rex (Mar 18, 2008)

laffeaux said:


> there aren't any options that I know of for cranks.



White Industries


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## rallyrabbit (Aug 15, 2009)

e39540is said:


> In what industry is the manufacturer that you work for?
> 
> If that is the case, then why do so many companies send out there manufacturing to other countries? American labor is expensive in comparison. I used to work in the motorcycle industry for a manufacturer, and making a "one off" prototype in the us cost 50 times what an outsourced copy cost from Taiwan.
> 
> ...


For the most part, no, but being manufactured in USA and being owned by a USA company are completely different things. SRAM is USA based, so it is hard to say that they aren't thought of as a USA company. SRAM, at once, had manufacturing in USA, Germany, Canada and I want to say Taiwan, even though they are a USA based company. Campy being Italian has facilities still in Italy, but others scattered across eastern Europe.

USA labor is not cheap, but it is much cheaper than European labor, and given high commodities prices abroad and shipping prices, this is why you see auto companies rather build and assemble in USA than ship a completed product to USA (there are other factors involved too).

So, like I said, what is made here, not what is a USA company.


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## Rubber Lizard (May 10, 2007)

rallyrabbit said:


> So, like I said, what is made here, not what is a USA company.


Chris King, Phil Wood, White Ind, Paul, Some Reynolds, some Edge Composites, Zipp, some Bontrager, HED and Thomson. Probably a few other small machine shops I forgot about.


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## rogger (Aug 19, 2005)

rallyrabbit said:


> For the most part, no, but being manufactured in USA and being owned by a USA company are completely different things. SRAM is USA based, so it is hard to say that they aren't thought of as a USA company. SRAM, at once, had manufacturing in USA, Germany, Canada and I want to say Taiwan, even though they are a USA based company. Campy being Italian has facilities still in Italy, but others scattered across eastern Europe.
> 
> USA labor is not cheap, but it is much cheaper than European labor, and given high commodities prices abroad and shipping prices, this is why you see auto companies rather build and assemble in USA than ship a completed product to USA (there are other factors involved too).
> 
> So, like I said, what is made here, not what is a USA company.


I highly doubt that labor in the US is cheaper than in Eastern Europe.


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## jmoryl (Sep 5, 2004)

SRAM was also cobbled together from some pre-exsisting companies like Sachs (chains, previously Sedis, IIRC), Truvative, Avid, etc. At present it appears to be an office in the US where guys say things like "..... so I was at the trade show in Taipei and found a vendor who will make us that deraileur for $5....."


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## babylou (Jul 13, 2008)

Frames:	Top end Treks, Lynskey, ++.
Forks:	Edge Composites, Some Bontrager, ++
Headset:	Chris King, Cane Creek AER
Stem:	Thomson, Zipp, ++
Bars:	Some Bontrager, Zipp, ++
Bar Tape:	Velo Orange (VO), Selle An-Atomica 
Seat Post:	Thomson, Some Bontrager, ++
Seat:	SDG, Selle An-Atomica
Hubs:	White Industries, Alchemy, ++
Spokes:	Wheelsmith
Nipples:	Wheelsmith
Rims:	Zipp, Edge, Sun (some)
Tires:
Tubes: Slime
Rim Tape:	Rox
Shifters:
Brakes:	EE Cycleworks, Ciamillo Zero Gravity
Fr. Derailleur:
Rr. Derailleur:
Crank:	Cannondale, Zipp, Lightning
BB:	Zipp, Chris King
Pedals:	Speedplay,
Chain:
Cassette:	Cycle Dynamics
Cables:	Gore (maybe?)


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## babylou (Jul 13, 2008)

jmoryl said:


> SRAM was also cobbled together from some pre-exsisting companies like Sachs (chains, previously Sedis, IIRC), Truvative, Avid, etc. At present it appears to be an office in the US where guys say things like "..... so I was at the trade show in Taipei and found a vendor who will make us that deraileur for $5....."


and they are able to design and market SRAM Rival, considered by many the best value in road groups, SRAM Red, the lightest road group and now SRAM XX, which appears to be a damn nice MTB group. Oh and those guys are generating about 1/2 billion $ in revenue. What a bunch of losers


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## babylou (Jul 13, 2008)

rallyrabbit said:


> Heck, my friends in Germany can actually get a full German component bike, so why not here too?


A full German road bike? Who makes shifters, cables, fr. derailleurs, bar tape, seats or stems in Germany?

As far as I can tell one can probably build a Chinese or Taiwanese bike. Maybe a Japanese bike. That's about it.


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## MartinsMental (Feb 8, 2007)

babylou said:


> and they are able to design and market SRAM Rival, considered by many the best value in road groups, SRAM Red, the lightest road group and now SRAM XX, which appears to be a damn nice MTB group. Oh and those guys are generating about 1/2 billion $ in revenue. What a bunch of losers


That was awesome...  :thumbsup:


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## jmoryl (Sep 5, 2004)

babylou said:


> and they are able to design and market SRAM Rival, considered by many the best value in road groups, SRAM Red, the lightest road group and now SRAM XX, which appears to be a damn nice MTB group. Oh and those guys are generating about 1/2 billion $ in revenue. What a bunch of losers


Except that that the number of little defects (design and manufacturing) in the SRAM road groups has been legion since their introduction. The defective quick link for the chain being the latest. Sorry, I'm sticking with Campy (which isn't perfect either).


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## redpoint510 (Mar 26, 2009)

White Industries makes a really beautiful road crankset which you can get in 52/38 and some compact ring combos as well. They of course make equally amazing BB's in stainless and Ti. Pretty much everything but the derailleurs and lever/shifters can be sourced from smaller US companies. I'm pretty sure wipperman chains are made here and I have read very good reviews about them. I tried to spec as many parts as I could from smaller and equally great US sources like Chris King for my headset, BB, and hubs, Negative G brakes, Ringle stem made in Trenton NJ back in the day, King cages, and an Eriksen seatpost which I'm quite fond of. I've bolted it all to an 85 Cannondale which actually was handmade in PA during only their second year of making bikes I believe. It would be cool if someone else came up with a group that worked as well as the others do. That was the big problem for little guys in the end I think. Coming up with something that works as well and still be able to keep the lights on at the end of the month. With the renaissance of small frame builders increasing maybe we'll see more smaller component makers pop up and we'll see some all American groups one day. 

I remember back in the day when Paul made those amazing derailleurs. They are still super expensive and really way to nice to put on a mountain bike. Another company who's name escapes me made some as well which were also super trick and $$.


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## jmoryl (Sep 5, 2004)

I have yet to even see a photo of the White Industries road crank - they must be rare. Nice hubs, though. Wipperman chains are from Germany and the SS version has a tendency to crack around the pins. Otherwise, decent stuff.


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## redpoint510 (Mar 26, 2009)

If you check out the White Industries website you can see what the cranks look like. The only gripe I have with them is that they don't use traditional chainring bolts so they look different but still pretty trick.


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