Hope having bars made in taiwan now so it seems:
How do you view this, some people seem almost offended by the idea, not exactly any of our business but they do make an almost obsessive deal about making things in the uk usually.... sign of things to come?
On a side note, i want a new headset and works are giving one away if they reach 600 on fb so like them or whatever you do and give me a chance to get one as a freebie 😉
Whats the problem with Taiwan?
Handlebars are a different production method to pretty much everything else they do. So it's no surprise, I expect the same is also true of the new thompson bars.
Whats the problem with Taiwan?
What's wrong with supporting British manufacturing when you have a chance?
I agree, no 'problem' with taiwan, 90% of my bike is made there. The problem many are having (i dont have this problem) is Hopes obsessive 'made in the uk' mantra this flys in the face of.
Thompson are reportedly buying / bought in equipment to bend bars..
Probably because the machinery needed to make bars is not the machinery they have and quite expensive. Maybe they are testing the market before they invest?
I would think they buy in seals and brake line etc. I know it's not quite the same thing as the main item though. I wonder how the seat post sales are doing, I don't see much mention of them.
Not much mention of the pedal either which is quite expensive...
I am not sure a cnc tube bender would scratch the surface of their 250k cnc machines they show off in their video they have 5 of.
Machinery to draw the tubing i am sure would be though.
What's wrong with supporting British manufacturing when you have a chance?
With the exception of Renthal, does anyone make handlebars in the UK? There isn't a bicycle handlebar manufacturing industryt o supourt! It's not like everything else they make which can be knocked out of a CNC mill or lathe is it? It'd be a whole new set of machines to make one product (and the machines may well be made elswhere and not require a huge ammoutn of skilled opperator input).
I'm all for suppourting British 'industry', but the value added is in the design industry. The day we have Tiawan designed Bitish made components then you know the economy's hit the shitter.
Could be worse they could be made in Yorkshire.
I don't really have much idea of what goes into an aluminium handlebar but as it's a new product line it would be a bit risky to buy all the machines in and then learn how to use them etc instead of going to a company with all the machines and years of experience manufacturing bars and QCing of them.
When I got my Prince Albert (fnar fnar) frame from Dialled Bikes I noticed that they were designed in the UK but manufactured in the far east somewhere.
I do try my hardest to at least buy stuff that has some link to being British no matter how tenuous it is.
Those same people seem to have missed the bit where they were going to produce a carbon version made in the UK.
Sell a load of Taiwanese made handlebars in order to fund getting into making carbon bits in house. Seems sound to me.
Rant? 0/10
Only good thing was the completely off track postscript.
The day we have Tiawan designed Bitish made components then you know the economy's hit the shitter.
I would like to say that i could not ever see this happening but who knows.
There is of course good reason for Hope to outsource bar production but you do have to wonder if it is a good move for their image when they are so pro uk manuafacture.
In a dirt article they spoke about how hope won a business report which suggested moving some or all of production to taiwan and that they promptly binned it... attitudes changing in the company?
i have been awake since 4am.. excuse me for being random.completely off track postscript.
Jeff Jones uses frame builders in Taiwan for his steel frames.
Now I'm not picky but JJ REALLY is.
Good enough for him, good enough for me :O)
Those same people seem to have missed the bit where they were going to produce a carbon version made in the UK.
I was wondering about that.
OP needs a link to the article/source as well as the headset one. 🙂
[img] 
[/img]
HD (Heavy Duty) Hope Techbar – available May 2013
Designed for Downhill / Freeride Use
Manufactured from 7050 Aluminium
Shot peened for increased fatigue life
800mm Wide in 10, 20 and 30mm rises
31.8mm clamping diameter with 70mm of width for ultra wide stems
Weights from 290 grams (10mm rise version)
5 degree upsweep, 7 degree backsweep
Optimised wall sections and distinctive shape allows for increased strength in higher stress areas
Super stiff construction for increase stability and improve control
Positioning grids for setup of components
Cut-off marks to reduce handlebar width
An exclusive, Hope handlebars. Not made by Hope but next in the production line to Renthal. An exclusive, Hope handlebars. Not made by Hope but next in the production line to RenthalA quote from Moonglu's Facebook page, are they saying the bars are made by the same folks that make Renthal MTB bars?
blimey, there's a lot of white and other visual noise on those bars.
or [img] 
[/img]
It makes a lot of sense. Lots and lots of people want a Hope 'cockpit' and the obvious hole in the line up is bars. Most folk don't get a monkeys where the bars are made, but care deeply that they say 'Hope' on them.
The product manager wouldn't be doing his/her job properly if it didn't get into bars.
well, reading that it seems renthal dont make some bars in the uk either...
Better made in Taiwan than China...
What's wrong with supporting British manufacturing when you have a chance?
Hope make ugly looking stuff that doesn't work as ell as other manufacturers. With the exception of hubs.
mm, not sure the bottom design will catch on 😀
They are a bit in your face for my tastes but very interested.
All they need to do now is bring out a Reverb/Lev beating dropper post and I can see a lot of people running all Hope finishing kit. I guess with the drive train plans they will have a good % of a bike.
Frames, brakes and hubs on our bikes are made in the UK. I can hardly say it's supporting the UK bike industry, as all but one item (except pads) were purchased second hand...
Christ 790mm, do they come with Mop heads as standard
They're 'orrible.
crankrider - Member
Thompson are reportedly buying / bought in equipment to bend bars..
Iirc only early Thomson bars will be made in the US. Once the design is settled they are going to transfer production to Taiwan
"Cut-off marks to reduce handlebar width "
Ideal because if you can't use a tape measure you bound to be safe with a saw 🙂
If you are Chinese Taiwan is China.
Did Hope, start off getting their rotors made in the Far East, then move production to the UK once they had tooled up ?
800mm width? No singletrack riding with those - My Havens are 711mm according to specs & they're wide enough that a couple of local singletrack track spots require the bike to be steered through with a steer from one side to the other along with a lean, to ease the bars through as the bars are wider than the gap.
Can't see the issue with made in Taiwan - most stuff is these days. I buy for how well the kit works, or at a budget, not for where it is made.
Do you drive a British made car too?
For the UK market, whilst not everyone is bothered by it, the fact the manufacture in the UK is a selling point for many purchasers. Once that is lost, they no longer have that point to make them stand out.
Think of Marks and Spencers - their target market loved the fact that their beige slacks were made in the UK. They then decided better margins were elsewhere and sold non UK goods. They then lost much of their loyal fan base and they did not have the right image to attract enough new custom.
If I was given the choice between a UK made Cotic Soul and a Taiwan made one, then I would pay an extra amount for the UK one (not too much though! - perhaps 100 pounds?).
I hope Hope (sorry) keep producing quality goods here.
The problem is you pay more for stuff made in the uk like hope and orange because they have more overheads and its made by skilled professionals working in the right conditions getting paid a decent wage not £2 a day. If there having stud made surly they can't charge the price they do for there made in the uk stuff
The day we have Tiawan designed Bitish made components then you know the economy's hit the shitter.
crankrider - MemberI would like to say that i could not ever see this happening but who knows.
University admissions down dramaticaly in this country, admissions up just about everywhere else in what we used to think of as the 'developing' world.
It's a concept we might have to get used to. Look at Jaguar/Landrover, and Indian owned company (so where the profit ends up), manufacturing in the UK and exproting to China (where the rich people are). Dress that up however you like, a success for British manufacturing industry or whatever, but I think the high value added jobs are moving on.
The problem is you pay more for stuff made in the uk like hope and orange because they have more overheads and its made by skilled professionals working in the right conditions getting paid a decent wage not £2 a day. If there having stud made surly they can't charge the price they do for there made in the uk stuff
LG built a manufacturing plant in South Wales. The wages in South Wales were less than in South Korea.
[i]Tiawan designed Bitish made components you know the economy's hit the shitter.[/i]
why?
surely if we have world leading manufacturing techniques and technology that deliver a good product at a competitive price then that's a good thing?
I'd rather *everyone* in the world designed stuff and asked british companies to use their production skills to create the best products.
You can't have a good manufacturing base without a local level of design and innovation driving it forward.
Ugly bars, you'd at least expect them to be anodised in line with the other components rather than the LOOKATMYHOPEBARS colour scheme. The bulges at the rise look like Truvativ bars, they have the same shrugging "I dunno" look about them.
I'd rather *everyone* in the world designed stuff and asked british companies to use their production skills to create the best products.
Which is the better paid job, manufactuing or designing? Romantic idealisms and man crushes on Guy Martin asside, more value is added in designing something than making it.
[i]more value is added in designing something than making it[/i]
which is why I added;
[i]You can't have a good manufacturing base without a local level of design and innovation driving it forward. [/i]
but, also, the design process gives far less employment and not everyone in the UK can be a designer and, frankly, some people are better suited to makign things.
Yes, but if you were in charge of economic policy and had a generation of school leavers to manipulate. Where would you encourage them to go?
Primary industry - extracting the raw materials, very little value added in this
Secondary industry - manufacturing/processing, more value added.
Teritary - services. The most value added as the input is paper (+office space, computer etc) and the output is almost 100% profit.
200 years ago people lamented the lack of jobs in agriculture following its mechanisation (ditto miners sicne the last war) and people went to work in the mills/factories. Now we lament the loss of manufacturing in favour of better pay and conditions in tertiary jobs. It's progress and in general people hate it.
taiwan make good alloy bars
but even thomson said it was just easier and far more reliable to make carbon ones in the USA
I'm sure someone will be along shortly with a GOOD carbon one from the UK
PROBLEM WITH THE UK we forgot how to make stuff
EDIT* try getting a company in the UK to make anything technically out of their comfort zone and you get caught in the ..well er ummm er stage of development...
LG built a manufacturing plant in South Wales
Yeah and look how successful that was (now a co-lo DC), luckily the tax-payer footed most of the bill for them though...
200 years ago people lamented the lack of jobs in agriculture following its mechanisation (ditto miners sicne the last war) and people went to work in the mills/factories. Now we lament the loss of manufacturing in favour of better pay and conditions in tertiary jobs. It's progress and in general people hate it.
all well and good, except there are only so many bits of paper that need pushing around. what's required is a balanced economy to suit your raw material ( your school levers ).
as mentioned above, some people are cut out to be designers and engineers, but some are actually cut out to stand on a production line putting one widget inside another day after day for 40 years. not a life you'd wish for anyone, but we are not created equal, so make the conditions safe and as clean as you can, and at least give people a chance to earn a living and provide for their families. look at the welsh valleys for examples for what happens when you have people who can't work, no matter how shit that work might appear to you.
if you don't actually dig stuff up, then refine it and turn it in to something people want, not only do you loose the skills and knowledge involved in those processes, but there's no underlying structure for your bits of paper to float about on. 😕
fortunately the rest of the world is being pulled up by it's bootstraps, and we might in 30 years have a level playing field.
not that it will really matter to the likes of us by then!
The way this post is turning out is quite interesting. Nice discussion. I recently heard a politician talking about UK getting ready to provide services and call centres to support the growing wealth in Asia. This is quite interesting as things obviously were different.
As for manufacture in China. All of these things could be made in the UK. If they were, it would mean jobs created in the region. These items are all made in China to increase the profit margins, this in my opinion is not so good. I would rather see companies making a little less profit and spreading some good.
Production in China creates double the CO2 emissions that production in Europe. To to increase profits companies increase impact. For those who don't believe in climate change there are other impacts that are also higher than if stiff was produced in Europe.
So moving production to places like chine increase profit, increases impacts and has a social impact also.
