My Wife 'test drove' a new carbon wheelchair the other week and was surprised to see the castor fork was made by Magura from their Carbotecture material:
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Not sure if they've used a bike manufacturer for the carbon frame.
So what other stuff have you come across from bike/component manufacturers that aren't bike related?
I'm sure that Hope and Superstar etc. make other stuff.
.
Fishing stuff and Shimano :p
Park Tools pizza wheel and barbecue tools.
Beaten to the obvious shimano and fishing stuff
Can't hink of anything else off the top of my head.
The infamous Campag Corkscrew, and Park Tools TP-2
Didn't superstar put their cnc devices to good work for the NHS? Does this count?
Lots of crossover in clothes between sailing and horseriding, especially in boots.
Peugeot made salt and pepper grinders, there was something else they made too but it's slipped my mind.
Campagnolo also used to make wheels for Lamborghini.
The infamous Campag Corkscrew
I am an owner of one of these, it is great
I don't think they are specific to the industry, but some of the jacks in the F1 pitlane use Hope components like stems & bars; might have also seen some of the Renthal fatbars too.
BOA make stuff for medical purposes such as knee braces etc.
https://www.boafit.com/en-gb/products/medical
Came across this the other day from Litespeed I don't know exactly what input they had or even if they built anything but Mars Rover, Curiosity.
Are Manitou forklifts anything to do with the fork people?
.
And most of the tyre companies
Manitou make telehandlers. Could JCB start making forks?
Edit: beaten to it
Chris King did salt and pepper shakers from hub shells that didn't pass QC at one point
Not what the OP asked for, but possibly more in the spirit of the question, the climbing company DMM make things for other companies due to their expertise in forging small aluminium parts. E.g. they make bits for ski bindings for one particular brand (can't remember who). Probably lots of occurrences of things like this but I'm struggling with bike industry examples.
Manitou make telehandlers. Could JCB start making forks?
Lord help us if they ever did 😉
Are Manitou forklifts anything to do with the fork people?
No, they don't
I remember seeing a video of Industry Nine where they said their day job is making parts for offshore fiber optic cables, and the bike stuff just happens in between.
Are Manitou forklifts anything to do with the fork people?
Manitou make telehandlers. Could JCB start making forks?
Different companies. Bike Manitou are part of the Hayes group, forklift Manitou are a French company
Of course Fox do some stuff that isn't metric
Hambini
Gates
https://www.gatescarbondrive.com/
https://www.gates.com/gb/en/power-transmission/synchronous-belts/rubber-synchronous-belts.html
Don’t Easton make baseball bats and hockey sticks?
Edit, they do.
Michelin
Continental
etc
Chris King did salt and pepper shakers from hub shells that didn’t pass QC at one point
As did Onza, from headtubes.
Never really had the same price mark up or resale value the CK ones did, and I think my Onza shakers cost me £7.
Someone values their post count...
Scott and Garmin spring to mind.
Look started with ski boots didn’t they and then developed the clip less pedals.
(Whyte and energy drinks 😉)
Used to see a lot of Spinergy Wheelchair wheels about, not seen that many recently..
I have an Easton carbon fibre walking pole. It's bloody excellent!
Also made some filing cabinets I believe?
Don’t Easton make baseball bats and hockey sticks?
I think they did, but now the name is just used by someone else (part of the same group as RaceFace, hence why Easton mtb handlebars dissapered).
I've got Easton alu trekking poles, they're great
Easton have always (well, since the ‘40s) made the best arrows, in aluminium, carbon, and carbon/aluminium combined. Still do.
Came across this the other day from Litespeed I don’t know exactly what input they had or even if they built anything but Mars Rover, Curiosity.
They made the rocker bogies - that’s the frames/linkages that connect the wheels to the body.
Sick.
Ah, no, sorry - they don't fullfil the brief.
Did a few rides with Bob Strawson(?) who was one of the head honchos from Middleburn many years ago. He said they made components for the medical industry. No evidence of that here, but says they were in Aerospace and F1
https://www.pinkbike.com/news/Inside-Middleburn-from-aerospace-to-MTB.html
What about Decathlon?
And Easton tent poles !!!
Ohlins make motorbike suspension & Magura the brakes.
Tune... Salt / pepper pots and coffee grounds tampers from Lefty hubs. Not quite in the Mars Rover league but still...
Whyte Bicycles and F1 cars 😬
although best know for their stylish and affordable mountain bikes Porsche and Lamborghini also make cars and tractors
Chris king also do Coffee Tampers.
As a CK fanboi, I have both the shakers and a pair of tampers.
Most of these examples are manufacturers who also dabble in bike stuff aren't they?
Thomson started off manufacturing - and still does - CNC aerospace components.
From their website:
L.H. Thomson Company was founded in 1981 by Loronzo H. “Ronnie” Thomson with the vision to manufacture the finest precision aerospace CNC machined parts, proudly made in Macon Georgia, USA.
In the mid 90’s, Ronnie lent his engineering expertise to a pet project, and created a ground breaking one-piece bicycle seat post for his daughter, who at the time was a collegiate MTB racer. Thomson designed, patented, then set the standard by utilizing aerospace engineering to create the perfect bicycle component… the Thomson Elite seat post.
I have some Easton ice hockey skate.
Santa Cruz boards.
Not quite the same, but when we moved into our first homes, a mate (who liked the nice things in life) bought a Porsche kettle (made by Siemens). It was 3x the price of a normal, nice enough kettle. We used to joke that it went 0-100deg in 3 seconds. Oh, the jokes.
My first drop bar bike was a BSA, commonly referred to as a "Bloody Sore Arse"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birmingham_Small_Arms_Company
I guess 50 years ago many of the big bicycle manufacturers were just offshoots of larger engineering concerns which either went under or became completely bike specific.
Can't believe nobody hasn't mentioned Orange and filing cabinets yet...unless I missed it 😛
I remember Middleburn who were a sub-contact machining company as they were a supplier for the company I worked for at the time. They did indeed make medical equipment as they machined the regulator bodies for emergency oxygen cylinders carried on passenger aircraft amongst other things.
Panaracer have a small consumer electronics arm under a similar name that makes a few TVs
Can’t believe nobody hasn’t mentioned Orange and filing cabinets yet…unless I missed it 😛
And of course, they used to make an extensive range of mobile phones.
If I remember right, ODI grips are/were a sideline out of an injection moulding company that does Christmas decorations etc.
Can’t believe nobody hasn’t mentioned Orange and filing cabinets yet…unless I missed it 😛
You missed it (cryptically hidden in the windsurfing sails reference as they started off as a spin off from Tushingham sails).
Santa Cruz boards.
Different company, although Rob Roskopp did used to work for them.
Panaracer have a small consumer electronics arm under a similar name that makes a few TVs
Also Panavision (cameras and lighting) and Panavice (grip).
Exposure (USE) have a range of products aimed at the sailing and boating market. Torches, strobe lights and man overboard tracker tags. Ive got one of their SOS strobe lights for kayaking.
Still with the sailing and boating tie up Neil Pryde had a range of road bikes for a few years. Using their carbon fibre and aero knowledge. Bikes were a sideline for them based on senior guy being a keen cyclist I seem to remember.
As well as eBikes Yamaha make musical instruments and golf buggies.
Magura made the hard plastic grips for the controls of a small crane we have at work.
Whyte Bicycles and F1 cars 😬
It was a milk float, not an F1 car.
Cannondale dabbled in MX bikes a few years ago. It did not end well.
http://chainslapmag.com/2016/10/form-no-function-cannondale-moto-experiment/
Reynolds 853 tubing was for crash protection in car doors, rather than bike tubing.
Also Panavision (cameras and lighting) and Panavice (grip).
And panacotta (jelly milk)