Mountain Cog
Mountain bike podcast that will make you laugh and learn. Featuring a wide range of passionate guests. Available everywhere (Apple, Spotify etc).
Mountain Cog
133 - Made in the USA: Which MTB Brands Actually Manufacture Domestically?
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Josh and Dane spend this episode digging through the mountain bike industry to find out which brands are actually building their stuff in the USA — and the answer isn't always what you'd expect. From titanium frame builders like Moots, Lightspeed, Sage, Chumba, Sklar, and Bingham to newer players like Stinner and Neuhaus, they break down who's hand-welding frames stateside and who's just slapping an American flag on the marketing. They also dig into legacy brands like Foes, Ventana, and Intense, arguing over which ones still deserve the "Made in USA" label.
From there, the guys move through suspension (Push, MRP, Risse), wheels and hubs (Enve, Industry Nine, Chris King, White Industries, Onyx), and drivetrain and cockpit components (Thompson, Wolf Tooth, RevGrips, Paul, 5Dev) to map out a full picture of what's really built in America versus overseas. Along the way they talk tariffs, why domestic manufacturing doesn't automatically mean better quality, and a few surprises — including some companies you'd swear were American that aren't. If you care about where your bike parts actually come from, this one's for you.
Here are the websites to all of the brands discussed in this episode.
Bikes/Frames
https://binghambuiltbikes.com/
https://www.stinnerframeworks.com/
https://neuhausmetalworks.com/
Suspension
https://www.pushindustries.com/
Wheels/Hubs/Rims
Components
https://www.wolftoothcomponents.com/
Also… in this episode we refer to this past MCP episode with local frame builder / frame building school run by Bohemian Bicycles...
https://www.bohemianbicycles.com/
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Dad Joke And Summer Heat
Host - Josh AndersonFour I got a dad joke. You got a dad joke? Yep. Go for it.
Host - Dane HigginsI don't think you'll like it. Uh-oh. You maybe. You got me nervous. I, you know, I picked it because um it's got a polar bear in it, and I just want to feel a little cooler because it's so hot here. It's so hot. So hot.
Host - Josh AndersonI'm worried last week when we did our night ride, you came in with this. It's the second week in a row you came to the flight club room. I know. I'm not supposed to talk about flight club room.
Host - Dane HigginsThis is the second popcorn podcast rep. You're gonna lose your card.
Host - Josh AndersonI have a reference, but yeah. I'm Tyler Durden, I can't lose my card. Anyways, um it was 90 degrees when we stopped the ride last week. Oh, really? It's like 10 o'clock at night.
Host - Dane HigginsYeah, I remember. Yeah. But when the sun goes down, it's a little better. So and the nice thing about polar bears, you know, is they have a place uh to keep their money. Did you know that?
Host - Josh AndersonPolar bears have a place to keep their money. Yeah.
Host - Dane HigginsDon't know. You know where it's at? Where's it at? The snowbank. Oh god.
Host - Josh AndersonVery good name.
Host - Dane HigginsVery good. Yeah. I thought that was good.
Host - Josh AndersonYeah.
Host - Dane HigginsI thought it transitioned into that decent.
Why We Are Mapping Bike Origins
Host - Josh AndersonAnyways, um, podcast has been doing great. Uh blowing up. We really appreciate all of our listeners and new listeners, and please share. Thank you. Um, subscribe. We're still doing uh still doing although I haven't turned today's episode on yet on YouTube. I gotta do it. Remind me to do it before a ride. Okay. All right. I'll definitely do it. I gotta read it.
Host - Dane HigginsAll the YouTubers do.
Host - Josh AndersonThey're just gonna have to, I don't know. I don't know.
Host - Dane HigginsWe're not getting that many views on YouTube, but we're doing plenty on the other platforms. You know what I like though when I watch, I you know, I watch YouTube a lot, and uh while I'm it comes up on my thing now. So Mountain Cod Guts? I've only watched or I've only listened to the podcast once on YouTube, but now it comes up on my feed because it my feed gives me all these mountain bike podcasts. Yeah, and so it's really cool.
Host - Josh AndersonYeah, because you that's what you have running while you're working on suspension a lot of times, right? Yeah. All right, so um today's episode, we did an episode on on effectively like the Chinese bike companies and bike product companies that were starting to kind of upscale or uh upcycle a bit and uh offer products and and talked about all that. Um that episode did really, really well. So we thought it would be cool if we carried on that uh con that concept and did some additional episodes on other countries and highlight um the bike products uh that are available and manufactured in many different countries. So um the United States, which is what we're gonna do today, uh one we'll do one on Canada, one on uh Taiwan, Indonesia, uh Vietnam, maybe Cambodia, uh seems it may and maybe Europe. Um uh and so today we thought you know, America, which is it's it's like fourth of July, 250 years, yeah. We should uh focus on um mountain bike-related companies uh that manufacture, design, and manufacture in America. Yeah. So uh the way I thought we'd go, and we haven't even talked about this, so we're gonna we're gonna debate live here on how this episode will play out. But like I got my list broken down into different types, like frames, components, suspension, whatever. I can just like read the company.
Host - Dane HigginsOkay.
Host - Josh AndersonAnd you can tell me what you know, what you think,
Titanium Frame Builders In America
Host - Josh Andersonwhat you like, what they do. Okay. And I think you should know all these, so it should be pretty easy. Okay. What do you think?
Host - Dane HigginsYeah, I'm down.
Host - Josh AndersonOkay, so first one. Uh first first topic is frames. Okay. Uh, frames are bikes, but effectively frames. Um and uh I got a handful of companies here, and I actually own one of these brands. Uh, so when we get to that, we'll talk about it. But the first one, uh US made and manufactured uh bike uh frame company is Moots. Yes.
Host - Dane HigginsWhat can you tell us about Moots? Steamboat Springs Titanium. Um, really cool. Uh hand built, probably kind of becoming one of the premier hand built titanium frames. Yep, yep, you know, like a household name. They've weathered the storm, they're lasting long longer than anybody. Yep. Uh so just really cool. And yeah, they're amazing.
Host - Josh AndersonThey're high-end, really, really high-end, very expensive.
Host - Dane HigginsYeah, you can get custom, but they do um standard frames too. So a lot of a lot of companies will they'll you know, they get they cut their teeth on just making hand-built frames. That was back in the day. You would get like a Erickson or a Davidson or um Gilmore is a Tucson guy, yep, you know, that nobody else will know except Tucson's. Um Serrata, I've got my fat chance. Uh, a lot of those were built, you know, custom. You'd send them measurements and they'd make you a custom one. Then they figured out maybe if we made some that are really stock, right? Uh we can sell more bikes. And so a lot of them are doing that now too.
Host - Josh AndersonOkay. Let's stick with titanium.
Host - Dane HigginsOkay.
Host - Josh AndersonAnd we'll kind of go through a handful of bikes. The next one is the brand that I have. Yep. And uh, I think of it as the poor man's moots. Yeah. But it's lightspeed.
Host - Dane HigginsYes. Yeah, Lightspeed's kind of crazy because Lightspeed used to be Linsky. Did it really? I didn't know that. Linsky is the family that started it, and then they were sold, and I don't know if they were sold more than once, but they're now American Tennessee.
Host - Josh AndersonAnd they're Chattanooga, Tennessee, is that right? Something like that. Yeah.
Host - Dane HigginsYep. Um, but they're I think it's American Bicycle Brand, is the parent company. I I may have that wrong. Um, but uh I was surprised because usually when uh an American Thai company or an American company gets bought, it gets bought by some foreign company. Yeah. You know, that gobbles it up. But yeah, they're still doing bikes. Um famous for I don't think they do that. Did we check your bike where they they bond in aluminum in the head tube?
Host - Josh AndersonUh yeah, I don't believe there's any aluminum bonded in my head tube. I believe it's the whole thing's titanium.
Host - Dane HigginsYeah, they used to they used to bond in wherever you had to press something in the head tube and at the seat post, they'd bond aluminum in. So aluminium. So I'm just looking up real quick.
Host - Josh AndersonWho owns light speed bikes? It's American bicycle brands or American. Let's see what they say. And then uh we're looking it up, searching the web. Who owns lightspeed bikes? Uh Lightspeed is owned by American Bicycle Group. Group, there we go. E G. And I was correct, they're based out of Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Host - Dane HigginsYeah, they own a bunch of companies. So here's something that's interesting about that company. Yep. A lot of their companies that they own don't uh produce in the U.S. So I think Lightspeed is one of the only ones. Okay.
Host - Josh AndersonThey own Obed Bikes, yeah, uh, and the triathlon brand Quintana Roo. Yeah, so both of those I think are made overseas. Yep. So and it and you're uh actually was correct, the Linsky family founded Lightspeed in 1986, then sold to the American Bicycle Group in 1999. And then opened up Linsky Bikes. And then they started their own company. So which is crazy, which is totally crazy, which is which is since filed uh filed for bankruptcy. Okay, uh the next one. I don't know that you'll know this one. Okay, I know this one. You'll probably know this one. Uh Sage Titanium.
Host - Dane HigginsYeah, Sage is kind of cool. I had a friend who was looking for a bikepacking bike, and that was one of the companies that we looked at. Uh they're Northwest, Pacific Northwest, if I remember, Oregon, maybe. Um Beaverton, Oregon. Yeah, yeah. And so really cool bikes, um, smaller batch stuff.
Host - Josh AndersonUm you know who else is in Beaverton, Oregon?
Host - Dane HigginsUh no. Nike. Oh, really? Yeah. Oh, nice.
Host - Josh AndersonNice work there. Nice. Just outside of Portland. All right, so Sage, uh, light speed moots, one more. This one does titanium and steel, and this is Chumba. Oh, yeah.
Host - Dane HigginsChumba's crazy because they I don't know what owner. I don't I they they're so different uh from what they used to be. Back in the day when I was racing nationally, um because they made downhill bikes for that, right? But it's not the same company anymore, and now it's all like kind of bike packing um, you know, hardtails, titanium and and stuff.
Host - Josh AndersonOkay.
Host - Dane HigginsAnd so uh I was looking at them too. I'm not really sure if the old company and the new company really have anything except a name, you know. So all right.
Host - Josh AndersonOne more, well, actually two more. There's a lot of titanium in here.
Host - Dane HigginsYeah, yeah. Well, that's that's that custom built, smaller batch kind of vibe vibe. And and also that's something you can do. So, yeah, okay. I that's that's why I think they're US made, because they're the reason people buy them is for them to be hand-built and meticulous and attention to detail, and the price could be higher.
Host - Josh AndersonBut you can get titanium bikes that are not US made. But they're usually considered cheaper. Right. Like Revel makes titanium bikes that are not in the new I believe they're not in the United States. Yeah, the Y. Uh Y is the company they bought. Yeah. And so um I think Y was actually their first company and then they started Revel afterwards, yeah.
Host - Dane HigginsYeah. But um but the uh I think what it is is when you make it mass.
Host - Josh AndersonBy the way, Revel not made in the United States, just for the record.
Host - Dane HigginsYeah. When you make it mass overseas, I think it gets stigmatized and you don't get the same cred, the creed. Yeah. Yeah.
Host - Josh AndersonSo it doesn't, by the way, mean that it's worse. No product. No, we found out it's kind of stigma. Yeah.
Host - Dane HigginsIt's and and there's something to be said if you're, I don't know, and you're calling a frame builder and saying, I need these measurements and talking back and totally sexy.
Host - Josh AndersonYeah. Yeah. So and you can go back if you guys are interested in this kind of custom frame building thing. We've got a really interesting episode back in the archives with Bohemian bikes in her. Dave Bohm. Yeah. Dave Bohm and Tucson. Yeah. Um, and I still want to do his his uh his deal and make my own bike at some point. Okay, that would be cool. So two more titanium. Uh uh, by the way, uh, we talked about Sage. Chumba does steal in titanium. Um, Skylar bikes and Bingham built bikes. You know either of those? Yeah, Skylar. Is it Sklar? Sorry, Sklar. Sklar, okay. S-K-L-A-R.
Host - Dane HigginsYeah, so Adam Sklar, if I remember correctly, is uh same thing. He's going overseas, so he's starting to build overseas. Is he? Okay. Yep. Um, but got his reputation doing local. Uh just a a cool frame builder, definitely one of the more popular ones lately.
Host - Josh AndersonSo there's a theme coming out of this with like a lot of frame, like like small batch frame builders building titanium frames in the United States, titanium and steel frames in the United States. Yeah. And you know, there's a lot more than these that we're naming. Yeah. As far as like if you think of like the handmade or the made. The tiny, tiny little ones. Yeah. Guys that just do a couple frames a year. There's a lot. I mean, there's a couple in Tucson. There's lots and lots and lots of more. These are more the established ones. All right. So we talk about Moots, Lightspeed, Chumba, Sage, uh, Sklar, and Bingham Belt. Um, let's go to some. So do you have um Stinner? I have Stinner. I do have Stinner, yes. And they do, they also do uh titanium frames.
Host - Dane HigginsSo Stinner is a big story because when all the tariffs were going on, uh Stinner was one of the biggest bike manufacturers in the US. And they were ramping up production. Um, so they were in the news quite a bit. Uh so Stinner and Adam, and there's uh one other guy, I don't think it's Sage, but uh there's like two or three guys that that all make um bikes and they kind of collab and talk to each other and help each other, or maybe they worked for one or the other or something like that. So that's kind of a cool story that you can get into there. But Stinner's doing more mass production, which is cool because it's it's similar to custom but mass products, mass production. I think he's still US. Uh I don't know if he has any overseas.
Host - Josh AndersonIt's interesting. Some of these that we've talked about, and I have it broken out here, like uh none of the ones that we've talked about so far, all of them are just as far as I know, are just in the United States. But some but you've got some new news, right? Yeah, like let Sinners kind of think about going over.
Host - Dane HigginsSo there's there's a good uh YouTube video about where uh I don't know if Stinner's doing it, but Adam is, and then there's one other one, and I can't remember the name of the company. Oh, it's New House.
Host - Josh AndersonOkay.
Host - Dane HigginsUh, and they're all focusing on these Asian builders, one in particular uh frame manufacturer that is like a craftsman.
Host - Josh AndersonAnd New House makes frame some frames in the United States. Yeah, I think they have some that are made overseas, and like the one that the guy we're gonna ride with tonight, uh um uh he got a stockyfoot stock one overseas, he got a Taiwanese build one, right?
Host - Dane HigginsAnd so, but the the the YouTube that I watched with these guys was really kind of going over the quality that was over there in the craftsmanship, and they did a little tour of his frame building facility. And you know, this isn't like uh I I remember seeing like a how it's made or something, and they were showing a bike factory, and you could tell they were making Walmart bikes, like it was awful, like the way that they they bonded the frames together and stuff, and uh it's not like that. These guys are like artists, real, real frame builders, yeah. And the reason that I know all this is because during tariffs there was a lot of discussion on could you bring this back to the US uh to avoid those tariffs? And they were talking about even even if you could get the machinery over here, which is gonna be tariffed because it's coming from over there. Um, then those people are still over there. It takes craftsmen to make these hand-built frames. So hand built in Taiwan and hand built in the US is not far off. From a quality perspective, yeah.
Host - Josh AndersonWell, lots of options uh for titanium and steel frames. And I'll tell you like I've got a titanium gravel bike, a light speed. Um, it was relatively inexpensive. That's why I called it like the poor man's moots. Yeah. Um, amazing bike. I love it. I rode before I got into trying to like learn how to ride bigger stuff, I rode basically hardtail, single speed steel frame or titanium frame bikes. If you're if you don't have suspension on the back or suspension at all, like there's something about steel and titanium that it like kind of helps eat up some of the chatter. Yeah. Uh,
Big Frame Names And Gray Areas
Host - Josh Andersonand so steel is real, titanium is amazing. Um, if you're thinking about a hardtail or you're thinking about a gravel bike, I would strongly recommend considering titanium or if you can't afford it, uh, steel bikes. Fantastic, right? Yeah. Okay, uh, some bigger names. Um, and and interesting, uh interesting to see what you think here. Okay. These are some older names, but I did verify that all of these are still producing in the United States. You may argue with me on a couple of these.
Host - Dane HigginsSo I know one I'm gonna argue with, but we'll see.
Host - Josh AndersonSo the first one's FOS.
Host - Dane HigginsYeah, no, they are. So yeah. Yep.
Host - Josh AndersonSo So tell me about FOS.
Host - Dane HigginsUh so they were one of the first to do hydroforming, yeah. Uh, which is like aluminum. Yeah, aluminum, blasting it with super hot oil and making shapes and then welding it down the middle. Uh really cool uh bikes. Um, not super high-tech. Uh they're they're not cutting edge company, they're just hand-built. And those guys do um, you know, a lot of off-road racing. And so their craftsmanship is great, their welds are great, they're you know, it if you get a foe's you're not looking for cutting edge technology. You're looking for somebody who made it in America and really made it great.
Host - Josh AndersonAnd I would say i like you say it's not cutting edge technology, like all these like frame kinematics, like suspension kinematics have been worked out. So you've got to imagine that these bikes perform well.
Host - Dane HigginsA good hand-built frame will have certain characteristics figured out that make it ride like you were talking about, where it gives it a smoother ride. Whereas um, you know, if you just copy a frame in Asia and just send it out, you may miss some of the nuances that gives it, like if you're butting some tubing or if you're changing a head angle or bottom bracket, you know, drop or something like that.
Host - Josh AndersonSo all right, next one is is Ventana.
Host - Dane HigginsVentana's cool. So Ventana's made a lot of um so frames for other companies. So I have a couple Ventanas, and uh they do a lot of tandems, so they're still surviving. Uh, but they would do contract work for other companies. So like uh Ellsworth. Yep. Uh and then um Moots, I believe, and a couple other companies.
Host - Josh AndersonIf you go back in time to episode 42, you will hear an episode called Old Vantana Mountain Bikes USA. Oh, yeah, you said that Sherwood Gibson.
Host - Dane HigginsYou met that guy. Yeah.
Host - Josh AndersonSo who was I think the original founder. Yeah. And uh he now works at my company. Yeah, which is cool. Randomly. Yeah. Or did it at least at the time. Yeah. So you can go back to episode 42 if you want to hear all about Vantana bikes and the history of Vantana bikes. Yeah, uh, episode 42 will give you that. Uh next one's intense. That's the one that I'll argue with you. They are making a lot of frames. Cart there so so my research says that their carbon frames are all produced overseas. Yeah. But their aluminum frames are still made in the United States.
Host - Dane HigginsThe only aluminum frame I could find was their dirt jumper.
Host - Josh AndersonIs that the only one they have?
Host - Dane HigginsUh yeah, I don't I could I I didn't spend a lot of time.
Host - Josh AndersonYeah.
Host - Dane HigginsUh, but I'm pretty sure most of their frames are overseas. Okay. They know that all their carbon ones are, right?
Host - Josh AndersonThen this is the company that did that did the thing where they put them at uh in Costco.
Host - Dane HigginsYeah. Right. Yeah, yeah. They made some almost bought. Questionable decisions. But um the the big thing is back in the day, they probably had the best aluminum welders in the world. Yeah. And and they were producing some of the best aluminum welds, you know, on bikes by by far. Yep. And at some point, you know, the whole industry shift to carbon and they took forever. Uh my one of my race bikes is a M3, and um, they were just making aluminum, still there, a lot of their aluminum, their prototypes are still made in Temecula and California. And um, but yeah, most I I don't know if they're making an alloy e-bike frame, uh, but almost nothing else is all their carbon stuff. Yeah, they have they have one dirt jumper, and again, I you know, maybe they make a hundred of those a year. I'm not sure. Not a lot of not a lot of dirt jumpers. So that's the one I'll argue with you. It's they're really not uh you don't you don't feel like they're a USA brand anymore. Not anymore, no.
Host - Josh AndersonAll right. Well, if you know, hop in and let us know. Okay. Yeah, for listeners, right? Yeah. Uh um the final one I have on my list here, and I know that this is not an exclusive list, like there's other companies that we missed, is Reeb.
Host - Dane HigginsYeah, Reeb is cool, so you know Reeb, right? It's beer backwards.
Host - Josh AndersonYeah.
Host - Dane HigginsOkay, just check in. Yep. And there's some people that don't know that, but yeah, those guys are are cool. I I don't know them well enough to know if their bikes are made here or not. Um they have um they got a lot of culture.
Host - Josh AndersonThey have some US models. They say that the uh I'm gonna screw these names up, but the Steezy, Sam's Pants, the SST, and then Dikulus? Yeah. The Dikless. Um, those are all apparently sure that's not Dickless. I was yeah, it probably is. Okay, but spelled differently. Dick Dicky Diculus. Okay. Um, are all made in the United States, as far as we know. Uh they have one called the Hall Pass that's made in Taiwan. So I think they're doing both. Yeah. All right. So we talked about a bunch of titanium, you know, Moots, uh uh Lightspeed, Chamba, Sage, uh, Stinner, Bingham, Sklar, we talked about Reeb, we talked about Foes, Ventana, and Intense. Uh, I'm sure there's other uh amazing uh American-made frames or bikes out there. So if there's one that we missed that you think uh was just a complete oversight that we should have mentioned, please comment, let us know, and we'll uh bring that up in a future episode uh as a as a comparison or uh as a uh uh correction. Um so that's frames. You ready to move on to something else, or is there another frame builder that you or frame company that you think? No. All right.
Push Suspension And How It Works
Host - Josh AndersonThis the next, and I've only found one. Well, there might be two. It's like 1.5. And that and this is suspension.
Host - Dane HigginsOkay.
Host - Josh AndersonPush is the only company I can find. Yeah. Push Industries that actually manufactures in the United States. Used to be Fox.
Host - Dane HigginsUm used to be Fox, and that's relatively new. I mean, could be 10, 15 years since they took stuff overseas? Yeah. Um, I remember, I think I want to say some of their first ones overseas were the evolutions, which were a big flop, but I'm I'm not a hundred percent sure. Um so and that was 2012-ish.
Host - Josh AndersonSo tell us about push. Like you you're a suspension guy.
Host - Dane HigginsYeah, so push, as far as I know, I don't know a hundred percent, but from what I remember, they were some of the Fox engineers uh were you know went off on their own, and they really, really were getting into the like the data data acquisition on suspension and telemetry and just kind of testing bikes and getting feedback from racers and putting instruments on the bikes to find out how to make the suspension better. They kind of wanted to go one level up from Fox. Um, I have no idea, you know, what caused that, but they split off and started to push. And originally push was kind of a service center. It was not really uh like a tuner, right?
Host - Josh AndersonLike like they could they they they they offered like upgrade packages and special tunes to existing suspension products.
Host - Dane HigginsBefore they actually made their own products, they were taking and doing things like uh maybe remilling out the they were modding existing products, effectively. Yeah, and trying to make it better.
Host - Josh AndersonYeah.
Host - Dane HigginsUm and then eventually they started putting out their own products. Yep, yeah. And they really focused on data acquisition to kind of justify what they were doing and to kind of basically be the expert for who who's making it better, you know.
Host - Josh AndersonAnd uh I remember that uh Fox wouldn't work on anything uh that push a touch push a touch and I remember there were there was like a sticker like if your if your fork had been pushed yep yep there was a frame and you do that same thing with your guru suspension right you got the guru you'd kind of you kind of maybe you copied there.
Host - Dane HigginsI mean certainly you know I'm thinking yeah mine was after them so yeah I I certainly was like oh you could put your name on there you know mine was different reasoning but um but that's it if you get a fork that's got a guru suspension sticker on it yeah I know that that fork at some point has been taken care of.
Host - Josh AndersonYes yeah yeah and someone's opened the guts and like made sure that everything's cool and stuff yeah and and uh in my case it was to make sure that I did the work and somebody else didn't that that's where that came from the origin story of that sticker. Whereas push I think they were adding a little bit of like um uh like clout you know you you didn't just have anyone work on it we worked on it yeah and so it was a little different motivation at the beginning but they've got their own products now they have a fork they don't do service anymore don't do service anymore they've got a fork they've got um came out with the rear shock first rear shock first as a matter of fact I'm holding in my hand yep and I got this in the mail today from push nice this is uh 116 spring yeah did they did you tell them what bike that was for no why uh so uh the funny story so Josh has my old 116 yeah can I tell a story of how I bought that from you yeah yeah okay yeah so we're at the so Tucson every year has a bike swap yeah and um it's just any it like anybody that wants to go out there that's got a a lot of bike parts can take it out there. It's like a swap meet for bikes. Yeah and they do it twice a year they do it once in the spring once in the summer or once in the fall that's because the summer's too hot for us to do this. Yeah and you know if you own a bike shop and you sell used bike products you end up accumulating lots and lots and lots of used bike stuff yeah and maybe even some new stuff where you get rid of your clothes stuff yeah so Dane goes out to the bike swap every year and and I or every twice a year and I try to go out and help him if I can and one of the years I went out and helped him I think I was trying to sell my e-bike or something too at the same time. But at the end of the day that's when I like to buy stuff. Yeah because everyone's got the leftover shit and so Dane had this push shock and I was like hey would that fit on any of my bikes he's like yeah it'd fit on that Rocky I just sold you I'm like what's the lowest price you'll take for that and I won't tell you what he told me but I got it really cheap.
Host - Dane HigginsThere's a fraction of what it cost a fraction of what it cost. It's a $1200 rear shock.
Host - Josh AndersonIt's a it's yeah yeah so my my son my 13 year old son now has moved up from the IBIS which was a small frame to the BC'd out Rocky Mountain Instinct which is uh medium frame and it's got a it's got the push on it. Push 116 yeah and the the um I did a bunch of research on this you can tell me if I screwed it up but they have 12 different levels of first of all there's two different like you gotta get you got to make sure you get the right uh uh springs because there's two different uh what's it called I uh sizes stroke sizes so mine takes the smaller one yeah yeah so I got the smaller one and then there's 12 different um pounds pounds yeah and the lowest one is 400 and it goes up to like I don't know 900 or something like 25 I think it's like 25 pound increments. And so the one that I had on there was like size for someone that I would say is like 150 to 175 pounds. It's like basically my my son and my wife my older son and my wife but my younger son is so light so he really wasn't doing it. So I bought the number one the lightest uh uh spring you can get 400 pounds 400 uh and so Maddie's sub 100 pounds so we're gonna put this on and hopefully he'll get a whole lot more squish yeah uh out of this mungeon did I screw anything up here no that's right uh interesting push does not make an 116 for Rocky Mountains and so uh one of So how am I running it unaracted well so so one of our riders um he was frustrated because he's like why and they don't they weren't really telling him they were just saying we don't we don't believe in it we don't believe in it or whatever.
Host - Dane HigginsI'm not sure and it was a very frustrating process for him because he loves his Rocky so he found the exact same uh suspension kinematics and and design on a nuke proof which they did make a shock for and so then he ordered it telling him telling them that it was a nuke proof instead of a Rocky and that's how he got it and that's the one that you have uh and so basically what I did was um I had to get new hardware so the the big thing that Rocky does is they put eyelid um bearings on the lower shock mount uh and I think that's because push has their own uh spherical so they allow the shock to kind of turn a little bit I noticed at the top yeah that shock can turn but the bottom can't yeah exactly and so I had to talk them in there's a very long email chain for me to talk them into me being able to put it on a Rocky and finally get the stuff because I'm I could not understand why they wouldn't let me do it. So but finally they did.
Host - Josh AndersonSo we might be the only that Rocky might be one of the only Rockies in the world that has a push on it.
Host - Dane HigginsUh it could be could be yeah so maybe one I think I told you that too this is very special. You have no idea because the what you paid for the frame and the bike and the shock was probably less than than I would have paid for for the shock basic.
Host - Josh AndersonYeah. This is me taking advantage of Dane at moments of weakness. You just got to have a wallet full of cash. I'm just watching him whenever just have have cash ready when I'm cleaning out the garage yeah I mean that's that's uh but you know at that point you're just trying to get stock out and you're getting value for it.
Host - Dane HigginsSo push has been around American company and now they came out with that shock then they've revised it a few times now they've come out with a lower priced one which I actually have also um does it perform as well? It does it's um the I the 116 had this cool little lever that you would switch so you could have two different compression chambers? Yeah two different high speed and low speed compressions so that's but a single rebound that controls both. Yeah I learned that when I set it up this weekend and so you can change your high speed and low speed on one circuit and set it up for cross country and then on the other one set it up for downhill. Yeah and then you can just switch a lever back and forth between them or or anywhere in between there's so much adjustment I think that the my primary use case I think is like if you're doing jumps that's one setting because you want it to be firmer.
Host - Josh AndersonYep yep or if you're just riding the park. So if you're at the park you can be like at the top of the trail be like hey I'm gonna go hit a jump line yep flip that you know stiffen up your suspension so you get the right spring on jumps then the next one you're like I'm gonna go down a tech trail flip it back and it's set up more for for tech and you can do that just you know in a in three seconds.
Host - Dane HigginsYeah that's uh that's their big differentiator so the other one that I bought doesn't have that has one circuit so 11 or it's a S8 or I I can't remember their names are weird. I don't understand them so I don't memorize them but uh it's a good shock I had it at my Firebird at Whistler last time.
Host - Josh AndersonSo this is a the shout out to the bike companies out there like naming your products things that consumers can easily remember and understand that makes it helps you sell those products better. Yeah like 116 is a hard yep that's a hard thing to remember yeah I know you probably thought it was clever. I think it's single valve eight or something is the other one SV8 I think maybe I don't know all that stuff all that tech the whatever you're using with your engineers to like differentiate the products that make sense to you know who's the worst about this? Uh let's see Shimano. Yes oh my God all right so that was a rabbit hole okay big rabbit hole but push um great American company they got their 914 they got their 116 shock hand assembled in Colorado yeah I think they're the only ones that I know of so one other one uh a little bit um and this is MRP yeah they actually do some of their CNC machining in the United States but everything else is done overseas.
Host - Dane HigginsYeah so MRP was used to be I think fully US so before MRP bought uh the suspension company which used to be called White Brothers and so the White Brothers uh MRP bought them okay I didn't know that interesting or you know like somehow they merged yeah somehow they merged I don't know who bought who or what but uh MRP came out and MRP used to be the standard for our chain guides on our downhill bikes they make such cool stuff uh they're very unique uh really different they actually make a sweet damper uh that you can add to your fork that you can change out and that damper can make it a a spring right no no other than that that that that would be a push push and Vorsprung have done that what I thought MRP did one too. No they have uh MRP ramp control.
Host - Josh AndersonOkay.
Host - Dane HigginsI don't think they have a spring conversion. But what the their um their new uh damper does which I've wanted to do forever is be able to take a damper that I think is really really good and be able to put it in whatever fork I want. And that's effectively what they've done. And now you have to buy it specifically for the fork so they didn't make it interchangeable or movable. Yeah but they you can now get a different damper. The only company that I know of that's really done this in the US here's another US one uh you know that we didn't there's two more you missed. Uh so now that we're talking there's two more and they're really obscure one is Avalanche. Never heard of that Avalanche does downhill stuff and this is suspension. Suspension yeah they create damp dampers uh for boxers and things like that and so like aftermarket yeah different dampers for existing like suspension products but also forks and I think rear shocks and I I think they came from the snowmobile industry believe it or not so so there's Avalanche is one and I believe almost everything is US made but I'm not a hundred percent on that the other one that I know is US made uh that's been around forever is Reese Racing. And Reese How do you spell Reesey? Oh god I I have to have Google do it um R-I-S-S-I-E or just E I can't keep talking keep talking and I'll look it up yeah so Reese back in the day made I think it was called the Trixie fork uh which was uh upside down so back in the day there used to be a lot of upside down forks which the the Fox podium and the push are both upside down forks um Reese back in the day made a couple of them huge ones like 12 inch travel forks like they were crazy and they also made a bunch of rear shocks and now they're a machining company and so now what Reese tends to do is they still have some of their old stuff but they fix a lot of legacy stuff old stuff.
Host - Josh AndersonAre you sure that's in the US company? Yeah yeah it's a machine shop let me see let me see the logo Yeah I can't find anything the only Reese I can find is in France.
Host - Dane HigginsNo no uh R E I S S E R E I S put in Reese Racing R-E-I-S-S doing this live on the radio Reci Racing uh we're not the only podcast I want to say they're in Washington okay R-I-S-S-E. Yes that's it's say racing technology yeah is that the one in the US we also offer RST suspension service yeah they work on a bunch of random stuff if you if you have an old so like uh um the old epic um brain shocks that were in this in the seat stays where nobody works on them they're made by Fox those guys will work on it you can get a Trixie yeah can you still get one yeah well I mean I this website looks really dated. Dude it is they um trust me these guys are amazing machinists and they will make you new axles for your hub they'll do all kinds of stuff but they are not marketing uh gurus and they are definitely not um website designers so like but man I I want to go tour their website you'll see them from time to time at some of the big trade shows so yeah it's interesting the the the the tag on this website is 2009.
Host - Josh AndersonOh yeah I believe it so and everything looks really old
Wheels Hubs And Rim Makers
Host - Josh Andersonman it's it's oh there's there they got some pose from 2023. Yeah okay so uh that's suspension yep um the next is uh wheels hubs and rims oh god that's so we'll start with oh yeah envy composite yeah so envy is uh you know where they came from go ahead uh some engineers from Reynolds okay and they went out on their own to do the stuff that was in their head that they wanted to do that they probably weren't allowed to do uh one of the things that they built their reputation is they uh mold around the nipple holes so they don't make their rim and then drill holes in it to put the nipples they're layup yeah the holes are already in the layup yeah so the fibers go around it so you don't have a weak spot where you drilled through the system yep yeah exactly yeah and so so yeah they've been uh you're a well established great brand and the NV wheels are great absolutely uh one note that their rims and wheels are made in the United States but not every product in their catalog is yeah I think uh a lot of their their handlebars and and things like that come from overseas Ogden Utah yeah uh next one's Industry 9 i9 yeah they're they're pretty they almost bleed red white and blue so but get this with one caveat yeah they're now gonna have somewhat red and white uh with a maple leaf yes so yeah yes yes because they bought we are one yep yeah uh the or merged with we are one I'm not sure how that worked out well and I think now that the old owner of we are one is now their new uh not CEO but maybe he's super high up yeah they're still they're still he's still on the leadership team so interesting um the same uh bike swap that I got that push fork from you you got some i9 hubs one of your bike mechanics uh um great guy yeah was walking around and he had some i9 hubs hanging off of uh the back of his backpack and I think it's at like 300 bucks or something yep and he had bought a Reynolds wheel set that had i9 hubs he doesn't like i9 hubs yeah so he was just trying to move them so I was like Willie are you really selling those yeah I'm like all right and they were brand new brand new yeah and then I had you lace them up to another set of Reynolds hubs so we like reassembled the same wheel set that he had we did disassembled custom set yeah yeah and I love those rims I love those I know some people have had problems with that um those uh specific hubs yeah but I have not had any problems and I love that yeah I on my cross country bike I I will tell you I've had Reynolds on most of my bikes and I really like them.
Host - Dane HigginsI'm talking about the I9 hubs specifically though I'm sorry uh yeah I'm and that's what I meant was the uh i-9 hubs yep usually they come on a Reynolds wheel uh but um we've had a couple customers that had some broken axles uh sometimes it was uh something else causing it and sometimes there was just a weak point that they had yeah which they fixed in like the next generation of in the newest version they've really changed a lot so in the Torch they were pretty solid then they went to hydra they actually had more problems with hydra yep and that's that that's the generation I have yep and then after Hydra they have hydra 2 or whatever it's called um it's uh they've really addressed all those issues and I haven't heard any problems from anybody fantastic so they're based in Asheville North Carolina yeah again we are one which is a Canadian brand and when we get to the Canada episode we'll talk about we are one yeah uh is part of them right now um next one old company that I used to have so many products on my bike this was like the best thing was is Chris King yeah Chris King was like if you had Chris King headset on your bike it meant that you were a real rider. Like if you didn't have Chris King you were a poser like you had to have a real Chris King on your like I would buy the headset and the bottom bracket and skewers and oh yeah I had Chris King everything the hubs everything. Yeah uh yeah yeah Chris King hubs would last forever. I have a bike at home with a Chris King headset and hubs and bottom bracket.
Host - Josh AndersonYeah so just great. And I think king Chris King and you know one of the episodes I want to talk about is is uh companies mostly machine shops that we may do in the future that also service other industries. I think Chris King's one no no they're not Thompson is one of those Thompson yeah yeah so forget that's but Reese we were just talking about is the same thing. I don't think I have Thompson on my list we don't have to talk about Thompson. Five device we do we'll get to them okay um I just lost my list man now I gotta like go find it. What? I know this is like amateur hour right now.
Host - Dane HigginsI know but that's okay it's our second of the day so we get a little leeway right but no one that's listening to this knows that it's our second well I guess we told well if you listened to us two weeks ago this was the same day as this now how does that like work with the time space continuum? Did we open a rift?
Host - Josh AndersonLike is that we broke we broke something in the time space continuum like is there is there some is there is there now a parallel universe all right one more um so so uh two more actually uh in the wheel in the wheel game uh uh white industries yes hubs cranks headsets and bottom brackets they're still going strong you what are they most famous for do you know hub uh white industries uh don't they have a crank that is like a titanium crank or something no that is super cheap that is super expensive but it's like one of the best cranks out or some lightest cranks out that was EE and now they're owned by King Creek.
Host - Dane HigginsOkay um E oh the E Wing is the thing I was talking about yeah yep go ahead um what is known for uh you uh white industries white industry sorry yeah uh so two things back in the day they're cranks so you're close uh but now it's called the Eno hub okay and the Eno hub is a hub that's got a eccentric offset axle so you can put it on a bike and you can rotate it to get chain tension so you can create a single speed uh on a bike that didn't used to be a single speed oh no shit I so I've I've used like concentric bottom brackets before the same thing to rotate yeah but they just do it in the hub. Yep exactly interesting yeah really cool design it helps you know I mean a lot of single speeders if they can take an old frame and then make it a cool I mean that's part of the mystique and the culture like just going and buying a brand new single speed is not nearly as cool as getting like making one yeah finding a garage sale bike and then just modifying it. And so uh so those Eno hubs are really cool for that.
Host - Josh AndersonInteresting I didn't know that was even an option.
Host - Dane HigginsYeah I've been getting the single speed itch lately. Yeah I you know what I haven't researched is if there's a through axle Eno uh that is because they're not through axle. We normally it was up back in the day for bolt on okay you know and um through axle presents an issue because they had to the bolt on ones had to pinch the the rear stays of the bike to keep it offset.
Host - Josh AndersonSo it didn't it didn't rotate. Yeah and so I don't know which I've had which I experienced in my concentric bottom bracket when I didn't tighten it. Yep yep and that would like be like oh shit my chain falls off final one is Onyx. Yeah onyx silent instant engagement hubs sprag clutch so main in uh St.
Host - Dane HigginsAugusta Minnesota yeah huge in BMX so like you talk to a BMXer they all know yeah I've built a couple BMX bikes and I've got a lot of Onyx components like a lot of different Onyx components on that bike. Yeah that was uh good stuff the mountain bikers love it because they're silent and
Components From Wolf Tooth To Five Dev
Host - Dane Higginsso you you stop pedal and all you hear is nature and the tires on the ground.
Host - Josh AndersonSo a handful uh so moving off of um uh uh wheels this is kind of just like drivetrain components and cockpit stuff uh first one is uh wolf tooth components yeah so another machine shop yep makes a lot of stuff and then started doing bike stuff and killing it so in Minnesota uh chain rings cassette headset tools pedals uh some of their small hardware is imported so not everything but the major stuff I think is made in the United States and I I have a lot of Wolf Tooth components I really like Wolf Tooth's dropper lever as a matter of fact I have it on I think almost all my bikes I really like the dropper lever it's really simple works really well for mechanical droppers um their chain rings I think are fantastic I've had really good ex uh experience with their chain rings high end they last forever their bling kits we sell a lot of their bling kits okay so what is a bling kit this is like a makes your bike look cool with color yeah yeah so like I could give two shits about that so I'm never gonna buy a blink kit we sell a ton but it it's like it comes with um some headset spacers that are a particular color so you can get purple or orange or whatever yeah yeah yeah and then some water bottle bolts and what have you in a top cap and things like that.
Host - Dane HigginsSo it just lets you what is their blink kit cost?
Host - Josh AndersonLike is it a hundred bucks or something?
Host - Dane HigginsNo it's cheaper than that. I you know you're catching me off guard because I've got like six of them yeah but I don't really know I didn't memorize that price. Okay no worse they're they're more than you think you know the most probably the most expensive thing I'll look them up while you're talking keep okay the most expensive thing that I feel like in the bike shop that is unnecessary is headset spacers. Like I cannot find or source headset spacers that don't cost the customer like five to ten dollars a piece. What are you seriously? Yes it's crazy it is stupid. Even if I get them in bulk they're expensive.
Host - Josh AndersonI mean isn't that like an AliExpress thing?
Host - Dane HigginsProbably probably uh so the
Host - Josh AndersonUh the the Wolfkooth bling kit. Yeah. It's about 35 bucks. Yeah, that's not bad.
Host - Dane HigginsSo and you get like I don't know, the Febonichi sequence of headset spacers. So right the you got the big thick one, then a littler and then litter and you have enough options to get the right spacing. Yep. And then their their top cap is really cool because it's a spacer. So it allows so so I like this as a mechanic. I don't like when the steer tube doesn't get far enough through the stem, because I don't think it's safe, especially on big hit bikes. And uh Wolf Tooth has their top cap has a recess, so your steer tube can actually be a couple millimeters above the stem, and the top cap still functions.
Host - Josh AndersonBecause the bolt is kind of bedded down into or recessed into this the top cap itself.
Host - Dane HigginsYes, because the steer tube can go up into the top cap it uh enough. And you you always need to have a gap so that you can tension it properly. And so on traditional top caps, they kind of sit on top. Yep. And if they hit your steer tube, they can bottom out and your headset will always be loose.
Host - Josh AndersonAnd so the wolf tooth one is you're not a mechanic, that's a hard thing to understand.
Host - Dane HigginsYeah, I I totally live with it.
Host - Josh AndersonThe only top cap that I think is worth owning is one that says guru bikes on it.
Host - Dane HigginsYeah, I I've been switching in, but we gotta get cool colors because all we have are black and silver right now.
Host - Josh AndersonBut maybe next time you do a run, we'll do some mountain cock ones too. I'll have you do some yeah, we gotta start selling our products. Um all right, so dig the wolf two stuff, really cool. Uh the next one, also a company that I've used a lot, uh, not so much recently, is Paul Component.
Host - Dane HigginsYeah, Paul's Paul's old school. Yeah, it's yeah, it's hard, uh, hard to apply. Their hubs are pretty cool. They're really known for like their tandem hubs, and uh it's kind of weird. Um, back in the day, cantilever brakes, things like that.
Host - Josh AndersonI do uh when I on my uh I had a cross-check, a surly cross-check, and I bought Paul cantilever brakes for it because they were like the strongest brakes out. Yeah, yeah. Actually, you know, I'm a big I'm a big boy, so they were like some of the only cantilever brakes that I actually stuck. You know they make a mechanical disc. I didn't know that Paul made, I've had I have mechanical discs. I have an MRP of Shimano, but I've never used I have the obviously the BB7s, which I have which everyone used, which you know, SRAM, but um uh I never knew that Palm, no, I think I did know that Paul made them. They're bougie, they're super cool, but they're expensive, like 500 bucks a wheel or something. Yeah, right. And they make thummies. Do you know what thummies are? So um I I think I know what thummies are. This would be friction shifters.
Host - Dane HigginsYeah, you can take the down tube shifters and put them on these thummies to make like old school above the bar friction shifters. Yeah. So you can have kind of your retro bike, um, you know, but you can get a, you know, uh, I don't know, I think you can get an 11 speed. I can't remember, but you can get a lot of them. Um it's just kind of cool, you know. Uh bike packers, touring, uh they do a lot of like weird stuff for them. They have a um, we were talking about uh they make a I think it's an access perch uh for road bikes.
Host - Josh AndersonReally?
Host - Dane HigginsYeah. So I need to take a look at that then. Yeah.
Host - Josh AndersonBecause that's I'm I'm struggling with that right now. Yeah, they make a lot of stopper on my road bike.
Host - Dane HigginsYeah, they make a lot of cool adapters. Adapters and error not adapters. Not not like that, but cool things that you can, you know, that that make a totally different product. Okay, that's that nobody else does.
Host - Josh AndersonBut super high quality. I've used their products for a long time. I don't have anything I don't think currently on my bike, but man, Paul Components is a great company.
Host - Dane HigginsYeah, they're you they make a dropper lever and it's really cool looking. It's god damn it. I wish you wouldn't have told me that it's bulky, but man, when you see it in person, it is just machined so cool. I think we have one at the shop so I can show it to you. Yeah, um, it's just really cool looking. Like again, the it's it's you know, if you're a bike guy and you don't have some sort of Chris King thing on, you probably want one of those, you know. So all right.
Host - Josh AndersonFinal final company, maybe, maybe final, maybe it was a half of one after this, but is five dev.
Host - Dane HigginsYeah, and they're new.
Host - Josh AndersonUm, San Diego, California.
Host - Dane HigginsYep, yeah. So they kind of came on, and I I don't know their their origin story, but they're a machining company and they just started making these cranks, and I think they were meeting uh the market where it needed it, where short cranks because everyone was looking for shorter cranks, and at one point, like five dev was only one of the only companies that you could go to, right? Yeah, they were like, nobody's making this. I wonder always how those these companies, because this is a machine shop that just was like one day was like, We're gonna do this. Uh you know that somebody there rides.
Host - Josh AndersonOr they're all mountain bikers and they just made their own cranks. Yeah.
Host - Dane HigginsAnd they're like, hey, we could sell these. Yes, exactly. You know, some guy got machine time like on the weekend or something and pumped it out. But yeah, they're they're really cool product. Now they're making titanium. Did you know they have um like weighted spindles?
Host - Josh AndersonOh, because like a lot of mountain bike or a lot of uh downhillers are putting weights in their bike and they're putting they want it in that center of gravity so that the bike feels more planted.
Host - Dane HigginsYes, exactly. Um, but they're uh yeah, they have these like solid spindles or or pretty solid uh spindles for your cranks so that you just to add more weight. Yeah.
Host - Josh AndersonWow, that's super interesting.
Host - Dane HigginsYeah.
Host - Josh AndersonSo five dev. All right, uh the only other company I have on the list here that we didn't talk about, and they do some assembly, some and their design in the United States is Cane Creek.
Host - Dane HigginsYeah.
Host - Josh AndersonUm, but I think most of their products uh uh the this products are manufactured overseas.
Host - Dane HigginsI think that's more common. Uh huh. So like I was one thing that I looked up was what are the big surprises? What companies don't produce in the US?
Host - Josh AndersonWhat's the number one that I would think produces in the United States but doesn't? Yeah. I mean Revel comes to mind. Okay. Um, any smaller company that's in like any smaller brand company, like I don't know. How about specialized? Uh I would not think that specialized would produce in the United States. Nothing. Yeah. Trek. Trek used to do some stuff, and they might still.
Host - Dane HigginsThey still have a little bit limited, but it's more prototypey. Um but the the specialized stories always kind of got me. Specialized started off as a distributor. And the guy would go over to Italy and pick up a bunch of campy stuff, bring it back, I think Southern California, maybe I'm not sure where, but somewhere in California. Right. And then go to the bike shops and sell them these parts, but on his bike. He would have he would he would go on his bike and sell these parts to the bike shops in his area. And that's where I think that's Mike Siniard. I I think that's where he got his start. So specialized has always been an importer and not a US builder. Right. And I find that crazy, you know, because I mean Because they're so big. They're big and and they're always been US, you know. But they were importing and bringing stuff from overseas way before everybody else.
Host - Josh AndersonYep. So But we know Giant doesn't really Giant's not a US company. No, it's uh we talked about them in one of our in how much do bike companies makes as one of the brands that we could actually see.
Host - Dane HigginsYeah.
Host - Josh AndersonUm Trek, I think they did some stuff in Minnesota. I think they might still be doing some stuff there. Um Wisconsin. Wisconsin, thank you.
Host - Dane HigginsTrek started as a US manufacturer and was for many, many years. And then they kind of did uh like most of these companies, they started shifting overseas to do uh just for competitive you know, advantage. For prices, but then they would do their Project One series and their race series and some of their high-end um carbons would all be made in uh Waterloo, Wisconsin. And then um eventually they just kept going over. I think most of these companies had a heritage where they started here and then went over there, you know. So that's the ones that stuck it out here are fairly new, except for Chris King. They've been around forever. Like Wolf Tooth's new, five devs new. Yep, Kane Creek is fairly new. Not that new, but I'm trying to think. Moots has been around forever. Who else? Chomba's totally new.
Host - Josh AndersonYeah, I mean a lot of these a lot of the like Moots, Foes, Ventana, Intense, Lightspeed, the Reeb, those have been around for a long time. Reeb's not that new. Reeb's not that old. I mean, but they're 15 years old, right? Yeah, that's not very old. Yeah, you I guess you you're you're ancient. I that's true. So bottom line is if we look at everything here, right? You can get push suspension products and some of the other brands that you talk to, like Reese, yeah. That's a that's a real boot boutiquey. Yeah, very um, you can definitely get lots of options for wheels and hubs and rims between NV Industry 9, Chris King, White, and Onyx. Um, lots of uh drivetrain component cockpit stuff from Five Dev, Paul, Wolftooth. All I think all these products, one thing that um that they have in common, I would say, you tell me if you believe this or not, uh-huh. Every single company we talked
Tariffs Regional Brands And Takeaways
Host - Josh Andersonabout, with the exception of maybe intense, which you didn't agree with me, every single company we talk about is like super high quality products.
Host - Dane HigginsYeah.
Host - Josh AndersonI know. Well, okay, so a couple final thoughts and then we'll we'll end this one. Um country of origin does not dictate quality. No, period. Yeah. And we're gonna share just just as an educational thing, like what companies are made in what country what products are made in what countries, uh, because I think it's interesting to our bike nerds out there.
Host - Dane HigginsI I got uh an idea for a podcast, and people can give us their feedback on it. Go for it. Um so one of my buddies would fly uh to Australia for a single speed race, and he would always take Chris King wheels, Chris King headset, and bottom bracket on his bike and sell them and sell them there, and it would almost cover his, it would almost pay for his trip.
Host - Josh AndersonSo the the Chris King That's a very expensive trip though for so folks know from from America to Australia is a very, very expensive trip.
Host - Dane HigginsThis was easily over ten years ago. I don't know what the the atmosphere, but but he would almost pay for his trip, and he would do this every year. Uh in fact, I had another friend who would fly to Italy, and he would buy a Conago bike, Italian road bike, and then bring it back here and sell it, ride it for a year, sell it for more than he paid for it, then buy a trek. Take it to Italy. Yeah, this is when Lance was doing well, and take it over to there and sell it for more than he had paid for it. And so uh something interesting. So I'll give you an example. Um, the Chris King of Europe is Hope. Hope makes some amazing products.
Host - Josh AndersonI lived in England, Hope was big over there.
Host - Dane HigginsYeah, and I think their costs, I remember going in this again a while ago. Uh, I remember going into London into a bike shop and seeing Hope headsets way cheaper than I saw them here.
Host - Josh AndersonYeah.
Host - Dane HigginsAnd I'm like, wow, that's so much cheaper. But then you factor in tariffs and transport. In transport, importing, all that complication. Yep. Uh so same thing for Chris King over there. So hope exists over there in essentially because Chris King doesn't very much, you know, and so it'd be really interesting to know what products are big in a region that are not here. So a bike that we carried um that I wish we could still get, but we can't, is called La Pierre. Yeah. And they're like the Trek of France. So interesting. Yeah. So how many companies are like that? Because we had a lot of um listeners comment.
Host - Josh AndersonYeah, I was just gonna say that to the people saying that we're not identifying this as a global market, yeah. Suck it, we are.
Host - Dane HigginsYeah. But but they're right. But but they are right in the effect that um there's a lot of brands out there that we don't even see. Yep, you know, and uh it'd be interesting to know what those are. I try and do a more global view, and watching Eurobike, watching Taiwan on uh bike show, and and things like that kind of gives us more.
Host - Josh AndersonSo all right, buddy, we gotta wrap it up. Okay.
Host - Dane HigginsYep, for sure.
Host - Josh AndersonLet's do it, get some 10 minutes to get some biria in us. That's fine.
Host - Dane HigginsTen minutes to get change, and then we get to the nice so we get to ride heavy bikes in 100 degrees after eating a belly full of biria. So slow.
Host - Josh AndersonAll right, appreciate you all. Thank you so much. Have a great afternoon. Or morning or evening.
Host - Dane HigginsYeah, yeah, when whenever.
Email Us And Support The Show
Host - Josh AndersonHey, what's up? This is Josh from the Mountain Cog Podcast. You got questions, comments, or feedback? Well, we'd love to hear from you. Shoot us an email. You can send it to mountain cog at gmail.com. Digging the show? There's a couple things you could do to help us out. First, you could tell your friends about Mountain Cog. And also, it would be great if you'd give us a good rating and review over at Apple Podcasts or Spotify or wherever you listen. We appreciate y'all. Go ride and keep the rubber side down.
