Where are Cannondale made these days?

Cannondale moved their frame production to Taiwan a couple of years ago – probably one of the last of the larger bike companies to do so. They were innovators with aluminium bikes, and got a lot of mileage from trading on their heritage and made in the USA branding. Eventually they caved – anything carbon was probably already being made in the East in any case.

At the time there was much gnashing of teeth on places like mtbreview on the loss of American manufacturing – I recall there was a thread like this on mtbr that was pretty comprehensive as to who was left welding frames in the West. Very few bigger-than-boutique operations left doing this. Surprised to see Turner still fabricate in the States tbh.

Divinci have sold over 6,000 bikes in London alone in the last 18 months, all made in Canada.

Do Devinci sell a fixie then?

I bought a 2009 cannondale Rush, with its ‘made in USA’ badge proudly stuck on the seat tube.

It was a pile of crap. Finishing was apalling, rivnuts for the bottle cages fell out and rattled round the frame, paint chipped quickly round the dropouts, bad paint everywhere else. And the brazing round the joins had been ground down badly. pretty bad for a 2 grand bike. It rode nice though..

We got the newer ones in and they look MUCH better quality….

Do Devinci sell a fixie then?

Don’t know, but the 6,000+ I’m refering to all have gears

My 2004 Bianchi SL3 was made in Italy, but they may have moved by now.

Bianchi and look?

Bianchi are made in Taiwan apart from a few of the top end ones I think, and I’d expect Look to be the same.

I’d be very surprised if DeVinci had sold 6000 bikes in the whole of the UK, let alone London.

Look alloy frames are made in Taiwan, and the carbon frames are made in Look’s own factory in Tunisia but are then finished in their factory in France.

I’d be very surprised if DeVinci had sold 6000 bikes in the whole of the UK, let alone London.

Then stand by to be surprised – they did, just in London.
In fact, 2,000 just in Tower Hamlets!

The temptation to spoil Phil56’s fun is immense.

The cobbled streets of Tower Hamlets are pretty hard core…

Talking of which, I keep seeing a guy on a green Orange 5/Alpine or whatever, charging around in full facer and armour in that area. He looks to be having fun though..

The temptation to spoil Phil56’s fun is immense.

I’m clearly missing sommat 😕

Don’t Colnago still make some in Italy? Weren’t Pinarello making the Dogma still as well? Certainly debateable again though!

Viner make most of their stuff in Italy. A couple of entry levels are banged out from Taiwan.

Divinci have sold over 6,000 bikes in London alone in the last 18 months, all made in Canada.

Don’t forget, that was just one model too…

thought yeti were still built in colorado (but would have expected an owner to pipe up by now)?

I bought a 2009 cannondale Rush, with its ‘made in USA’ badge proudly stuck on the seat tube.

my Orbea road bike has a sticker saying “made in spain” on it. The frame is built in the FE, but as its assembled/painted/stickered in spain that apparently counts as made. No doubt the same for the C’dale.

Good article about Devinci in last month’s Dirt.

The Devinci factory is in the same town as the Alcan factory and the frame tubes are literally made on their doorstep out of Brazilian ore.

The tubes get sent to Taiwan for hydroforming before coming back to Canada to be made into bikes.

My understanding is that to qualify for being ‘made in’ the country has to add 40% of the bike’s final value so a raw £25 frameset from Taiwan that gets painted and stickered up in Spain before being assembled in the USA can qualify as being ‘Made In The USA’

Mmmm, regards Cannondale, we were always told by Cannondale themselves they were made (above a certain RRP) in USA, from scratch, and from 2010 it ALL went to Far east.

I’ve got no problem with the far eastern products, Taiwanese made bikes are excellent. I do have a problem with the misleading stickers some companies stick on stuff.

I sold a Brompton once, the shop always used the fact they are made in blighty as a sales tool. I sold a Brompton luggage bag with it. A few days later, the customer demanded a refund for the bag as she’d found out online that it is made overseas, by child labour (!).

If its not made in Britain its foreign. I don’t care if the guy who makes it speaks Chinese or American English.

Just because its made in the far east doesn’t make it substandard.

I know Trek used to make all the top bikes in house, perhaps the global recession or numbers they are selling has made them have a re-think? I’m not sure regarding the Madone or the road OCLV and its ratings as I don’t ride it, but maybe they thought they couldn’t have Lance etc competing on a Taiwanese bike. My Remedy is OCLV ‘mountain’ which is meant to be the strongest carbon Trek use. The 9.9 Remedy has the same main triangle and seat stays as my 9.8, so I assume that’s a Taiwanese bike too and it’s £6.5k. For me personally, it could be made on the moon as long as it rides well.

I know Trek used to make all the top bikes in house, perhaps the global recession or numbers they are selling has made them have a re-think?

There was a thing in the last-but-one issue of Rouleur about how they still make all the top end bikes in Wisconsin.

Andy

But a 2012 Remedy 9.8 up there somewhere had a made in Taiwan sticker on it.

I’m fairly sure my 2011 Top Fuel 9.9 says ‘made in the USA’ somewhere, but I’ve never really looked. I really don’t care, and worry about anyone who does!

But a 2012 Remedy 9.8 up there somewhere had a made in Taiwan sticker on it.

Yep, mine. Maybe a Remedy 9.8 just isn’t considered top end anymore?

I’ll have a look around next time I visit my Trek concept store. Like I mentioned earlier, it does have “Designed in Waterloo, Wisconsin, USA” sprayed on the frame where the reverb stealth routing exits near the BB. The “Made in Taiwan” was a sticker on the headtube.

Just did a quick search on it and apparently the Top Fuel 9.9, Session 9.9 and Madone 6 are the only OCLV bikes being made in WI now.

Quite a few o the Trek road bikes are still made in the US. Can’t remember which mountain bikes still are but I thought all the Top Fuels were offshore now. SF100 is still made in the US.

njee20 – Member

Don’t Colnago still make some in Italy? Weren’t Pinarello making the Dogma still as well? Certainly debateable again though!

top end Colnago’s are still constructed in Italy.

Dogma’s made in far east.

Thought it was just OCLV red now made in USA.

You can get both Pinarello and Cervelo straight from the ‘back door’ of the taiwanese/chinese factory now for about 1/3rd of the rrp.

Islabikes made in Vietnam. Don’t know why I felt the need to mention that. 😐

You can get both Pinarello and Cervelo straight from the ‘back door’ of the taiwanese/chinese factory now for about 1/3rd of the rrp.

You can get copies – I really rate eBay frames, and would buy another one in a heartbeat, but don’t think that a Chinarello really is a Dogma that someone’s snuck out the back door!

just to be clear with the usual moron who pops in here shouting ‘bike made in the FE are good bike’. Yes I know they are, I actually own 4 of them. Plus I never said they are crap bla bla bla bla. I am just being curious, you know just for the sake of it…

My islabike was built just off the Halesowen Road, Old Hill.
My Merlin was built in Tennessee, and my Dawes tandem
In the UK.

My islabike was built just off the Halesowen Road, Old Hill.

Did they used to make the frames there? nowadays, the main parts (frame) are manufactured in Vietnam. Not to say that bikes made in Vietnam aren’t as high quality as bikes made anywhere else in the world.

Just did a quick search on it and apparently the Top Fuel 9.9, Session 9.9 and Madone 6 are the only OCLV bikes being made in WI now

That’s interesting, as said, I thought the 9.8s would have been as well. Thought my TF9.9 said it was made in the US!

So in answer to your question Juan… none of ’em! 🙂

My winter commuting bike’s a Focus, which has a “made in Germany” sticker on the frame. I’d say they count as mainstream, although I think only Wiggle sell them in the UK.
The other “mainstream” bikes in our collection are a Thorn tandem, two Konas and an Islabike – all far-eastern-made frames AFAIK.
My other frame is a Mercian, obviously British-made, but not mainstream.

So in answer to your question Juan… none of ’em

Yeah it’s a bit of a mistery to be honest. Some few years ago (&à to be more precise) you could get a RM that was handbuild in canada, with man made wheels for about the price of the equivalent bike from kona.
If that was doable 10 years ago, why is it not doable now, specially considering the increase in fioul prices.

The tubes get sent to Taiwan for hydroforming before coming back to Canada to be made into bikes.

What a waste of time and money! They send them half way around the world, to undergo a process that does nothing but add cost and make it look pretty, only to have it sent all the way back again.

Why oh why do we have to have stupid shaped tubes on our bikes when a straight one is stronger and lighter?

Speaking to Steve Wade about this over the summer and he was shaking his head at the stupidity of having to DOUBLE the weight of the Orange Five’s top tube, just so it could have a kink in it that barely made any difference to the stand over height.

Frames could always be made in USA, UK etc. whilst it was just a case of welding a couple of tubes together.

Now the trend is to carbon more any more is probably going to the Far East.

What a waste of time and money! They send them half way around the world, to undergo a process that does nothing but add cost and make it look pretty, only to have it sent all the way back again.

Why oh why do we have to have stupid shaped tubes on our bikes when a straight one is stronger and lighter?

Speaking to Steve Wade about this over the summer and he was shaking his head at the stupidity of having to DOUBLE the weight of the Orange Five’s top tube, just so it could have a kink in it that barely made any difference to the stand over height.

@geetee1972

the Devinci’s are not hydroformed for any visual aesthetic or to put a unnecessary kink in the top tube..

when you actually look at why they bother sending their locally drawn tubeset 1/2 way around the world, its to have the wall thicknesses and shapes manipulated to give a definite mechanical advantage

I ride a Devinci Dixon SP – the down tube is actually a complex piece of manufacturing with a very thick base which resists rock strikes and impacts (I have a huge carharrt sticker on this surface which is covered in the evidence of numerour rock strikes), very thin side walls and a reasonably thick top surface, and a complex three dimensional shape to offer maximum support to head tube and bottom bracket, and resist bending from the lower shock mount

lots of companies (including Specialized and Norco) went MAD with their hydroforming, but Devinci have always been a “sensible” i.e. boring (french canadian) company and only bother to do things for specific reasons, rather than visual fashion

Talking about bikes what about shocks? Wasn’t Fox once French i think nearly all shocks are now made in Taiwan.

Not mainstream but CIOCC make there frames in Italy still.
My 80’s Raleigh Burner was definitely made in the uk.

Robnorth see other posts for what constitutes “made”. You don’t think your focus frame was welded in Germany do you?