me and a few mates have been looking to get new bike for a while and the time to buy is getting closer. while looking at a few bikes it made me wonder about how many of the major brands manufacture frames for other brands in their factory’s.

we’ve been looking at the giant reign, santa cruz bronson, transition patrol, cube stereo, whyte g160, mondraker dune and intense tracer to name but a few

but i wonder how many of the known brands are made in the factory’s owned by other brands?

Gaint – make everything, for everyone. Okay, that’s massively over stating it, but they do make a lot of frames for other brands.

But they don’t do the R&D or Design, and frnakly the marketing that makes the badge ‘cool’ just the manufacture – so a Trek for exmaple isn’t a Giant in all but name.

There are a few generic frames about, but they’re fairly rare – if you buy a Gaint, Intense or whatever – that’s what you get.

There are a few different suspension designs thare are shared.

If you look at Intense frames, you may notice they have an awful lot in common with Santa Cruz for exmaple. The Tracer is very Bronson like, with Geo somewhere between a Bronson and a Nomad.

Whom

Specialized own part of Merida, which was a ‘generic’ manufacturer until they followed the Giant model of own-branding bikes so it’s safe to assume Spec are built in Merida factories.

More of a roadie bias but a couple of interesting links here

Who made your bike?

Who Makes What?

most frames will be made by giant or merida with them being the 2 biggest manufacturers in the trade most wheel brands will have the alloy or carbon for there rims also supplied by them e.g giant supply dtswiss with materials and in some cases manufacture for them.

Specialized own part of Merida

Other way around, Merida own a significant chunk, but not a controlling share of Specialized

If you look at Intense frames, you may notice they have an awful lot in common with Santa Cruz for exmaple. The Tracer is very Bronson like, with Geo somewhere between a Bronson and a Nomad.

yep i’m aware they both use the VPP design that SC originally bought from Outland.

Other way around, Merida own a significant chunk, but not a controlling share of Specialized

thats what i was led to believe too…Merida are one of the major manufacturers along with Giant so its a given that most other brands use their factory’s

i’d read somewhere that santa cruz frames were also made at the Giant factory but i’m not sure if this is still the case. Treks top end stuff is US made but all other stuff is made by giant. Scotts frames are made by giant to i believe.

the bikes were looking at are the carbon versions so it’d be cool if any light can be shed on which brands are made in whose factory’s

Other way around

yeah, was rush-typing as at work 😉 it even says that in the second inrng link.

gonzy, the first inrng article is about carbon (road) frames.

Given that Santa Cruz is owned by Pon Holdings, a Dutch conglomerate that owns several bike brands including Cervélo, Focus and Gazelle, I suspect there may well be some common production lines and contracts used.