Carbon road bikes, where are they manufactured?

[dairic]

As title, do any makes of bike manufacture their own carbon frames?
Reason I ask, I was looking at the ribble sportive racing and was told by a lbs that they are made in China, but have found out that a lot of makes them are!
Cheers

 

[vickster]

Where did you think it was made? Far East, Taiwan, China...99% probably (and in a fairly small number of factories, Giant, Merida)

Most things are manufactured in the Far East nowadays regardless of where the company is based 99% of your bike parts will be too...Ribble will just assemble, finish off

There may well be UK made carbon frames from bespoke manufacturers but they won't cost a couple of hundred quid like a Ribble frame (ok realistically £50 tops)

 

[dairic]

I looking at my post it's a bit vague.
I realised most of them would be made in the Far East, I know my bianchi was.
What I was trying to ask was, like everything there's good and bad, so will there be major differences between brands ie, ribble, bianchi, kuota etc? I know they will be made to the makers spec, but generally?
Cheers

 

[vickster]

Yes there are lots of differences in terms of the composition of the frame, the layout it's called. However, I expect a 1k bike with comparable components from 3 companies will have a similar if not same frame. Probably, flexy not very stiff

 

[Drago]

Ribble carbon frames are Japanese.

Giant lay up their own in house, but I don't know where anyone else gets theirs. Only the big brands are likely to be in house, and not all of them.

 

[BRounsley]

Moda are planning to bring a uk made frame out, not sure on cost.

http://road.cc/content/news/111396-moda-reveal-their-first-british-made-carbon-fibre-road-frame

My understating with carbon frames they’re 2 main approaches.

One is you do your own R&D and then get someone to manufacture it for you. This can be an expensive process.

The other is you buy an off the peg frame and stick you brand name on it. This is sometime referred to “open mould” frames.

 

[mattobrien]

My carbon frame was made in Italy

 

[martint235]

For some reason I'd always thought that Giant manufactured most of the carbon frames and then they were just re-badged.

 

[w00hoo_kent]

Most of what I've read suggests that the basic building blocks are massed produced and different manufacturers have different approaches to then taking those bits and sticking them together. Some companies then make a point of saying how they don't do it like that (I want to say 'Trek' at this point, but I'm really not sure). There was a UK lot in the current Cyclist talking about how their frame is completely manufactured in the UK, might be the Moda one linked higher up, I'd need to be at home to check for sure though. As with everything like this, I'd expect to find the more mass produced (and therefore cheap) something is, the fewer people there are doing the initial producing, just because of economy of scale.

 

[bpsmith]

Being made in the UK, or anywhere else outside the Far East, is only worth something if the frames are actually really great! Would much prefer a Chinese well made frame vs a poorly made frame outside of China. Goes without saying I guess, but often overlooked in the marketing buzz.

The fact that a lot of frames are made in the same factory is also overused as a marketing tool. Each frame model is built to a different spec, so can't compare based on where they are made.

 

[youngoldbloke]

As title, do any makes of bike manufacture their own carbon frames?
Reason I ask, I was looking at the ribble sportive racing and was told by a lbs that they are made in China, but have found out that a lot of makes them are!
Cheers

Interesting article here http://inrng.com/2012/02/who-made-your-bike/