High End Bikes – Made in USA
As a result of requests for children’s bicycles which do not appear to be made in USA, I have found that there are a number of high end bicycle manufactures in the USA.
Aegis Bicycles
Serotta
Litespeed – Merlin Brand
Cannondale – Aluminum frames Ask questions. I believe Cannondale was sold so this may have changed.
Made in USA according to article referenced below..
Waterford Bikes Made in Waterford, WI
Seven Made in Watertown, Mass
You may also be interested in reading this blog about where bikes are made. The FTC states that a product advertised as Made in USA be “all or virtually all” made in the U.S. …
This site demonstrates that the Bicycle industry uses a 60% rule which does not meet FTC regulations. That does not mean that the bicycles are mis-labeled only that you need to be informed and know what questions to ask when you are buying.
See this link for many other bicycle manufacturers in the USA.
Trek Information
Some sites are saying only the frame is made in US. Which would mean a “made in usa with imported parts”. The FTC gets sticky here, but generally if the largest expense of the item occurs in the US, then by law it is Made in the USA. This site invites you to see a factory tour. Two locations both in Wisconsin. Trek Tour
NOTE**** Some websites are stating that Trek makes a childs bike. They do not….. Here is their response to my inquiry on 12/21/09.
“Currently, all of our children’s bikes are produced overseas. I don’t know of any company that produces their kid’s bikes in the US except for some high-end, low-volume BMX race bike companies.”
September 5th, 2010 at 7:25 pm
I love bikes, so I’ve done a lot of research on bikes made in the US. I have some good news and some bad news:
First the bad – it would be impossible to sell a 100% made in the USA bike right now (mid-2010) since there are a lot of parts on a bike, and many of them are simply not made here. Most bike companies just make a frame. Then they buy components from a handful of major brands (e.g. Shimano, SRAM) to complete the bike. Cannondale frames have been offshored to Taiwan/China as of 2010. Trek fired all of it’s people and offshored as well, with the exception of their top of the line carbon frames.
Now the good news – there are a number of companies making frames in US that are not listed above. The ones I know of are mostly mountain bike companies, since that’s what I’m into. They are expensive, but they make nice stuff:
Turner
Moots
Merlin (listed above)
Litespeed (listed above)
Lynskey
Titus (and they have quite a number of reasonable priced closeouts right now)
Foes
Ellsworth (starting to offshore some models)
Ventana
Vicious
Independent Fabrication
Gunnar
There are also a ton of custom frame builders if you want to go that route.
As for bike parts, the selection is limited. White Brothers makes front shocks, but they are very, very expensive. Romic and Risse make rear shocks and are surprisingly affordable. Brooklyn Machine Works makes some more BMX oriented parts. Thomson makes well respected stems and seatposts. Chris King makes wheel hubs and headsets.
SRAM is an American company that makes tons of bike parts. But their products are absolutely all made in Taiwan or China. Their brands are Rockshox, Avid, SRAM, and Truvativ. The shameful thing is that a lot of their products were made in the US 10-15 years ago, but when the SRAM Corporation took over, they offshored everything. You will have to decide whether or not you want to give them your money to send to China. Another option is buying parts from a foreign company that makes their products somewhere in the free, developed world. At least they are subject to the same labor and environmental standards that a US producer would have to follow. This way, they aren’t unfairly keeping a potential US manufacturers from entering the market in the future. Here are some parts makers that you might want to support, given that some parts are simply not made in the US. I know it’s bound to be controversial, so feel free to skip it if you don’t agree with my reasoning.
Blackspire makes cranks, chainrings, handlebars, stems, seatposts in Canada.
Magura makes great brakes and front suspension in Germany
Wippermann makes chains in Germany
Continental makes tires in Germany
DT Swiss makes spokes, wheels, wheel skewers, front and rear suspension in Switzerland
Mavic makes wheels and wheel rims in France
Hope makes brakes and wheel hubs in Great Britain
Shimano makes some of their higher end parts in Japan and most of their chains in Japan
The above info only good if you are looking for something expensive. But most Americans use their bicycles infrequently and are looking to spend hundreds, not thousands, on a bike. For them, I would recommend going on Craigslist and buying a used bike. A lot of bikes from the 1990s were actually made in the USA, and more of the parts were made here too. Even if it wasn’t made in the US, the dollars that somebody spent to buy it new have already left our country and are not coming back. At least you won’t be sending any more dollars off shore. Used bikes will need more frequent work, but labor at the local bike shop is made in America. And used bikes are cheaper. This will leave you with more money in your pocket to buy other made in the USA items when they are more expensive than their foreign counterparts.
Cheers,
Mike