Is there something wrong with Bianchi road frames?

[Globalti]

Very common scenario - private company grows big but reaches the point where it can't achieve the next phase without outside capital, meanwhile the owner is facing the usual succession concerns so the company and brand get sold to a bigger group and the original shareholders skip off into the sunset clutching big cheques.

 

[bpsmith]

What’s wrong with enjoying the spoils of being successful?

On the flip side, brands regularly have to sell in order to keep them going when they fall on tough times. Again, what’s the shame in that too?

Let’s remember that the main purpose of any private company, albeit not always sole purpose, is to make money. That’s pretty much universal.

What I do find interesting is the quintessential brand of Land Rover, owned by Indian firm Tata, yet no Indian flag in sight. Similarly, Aston Martin Lagonda, “owned” by a “British” consortium called Prodrive. Yet Prodrive had no financial stake involved, as the tab was picked up by an American investment banker and two Kuwaiti companies. Since that happened, an Italian firm acquired a 35% stake. Don’t see any of their flags anywhere on the marque either.

 

[JhnBssll]

Besides, whilst the majority of the frames are manufactured in Asia the bikes are still designed and assembled by hand in Italy... That's fairly Italian...

 

[bpsmith]

Besides, whilst the majority of the frames are manufactured in Asia the bikes are still designed and assembled by hand in Italy... That's fairly Italian...

By no doubt the same people who used to do it when the funding was Italian.

 

[BianchiVirgin]

Says on my Sempre it's made in Italy. That's Italian enough for me. Might not be made in a Bianchi factory but it's not made in Asia. Anyway, if it espouses the brand etc etc who really cares?

 

[Drago]

Is it the modern trend for having acres of seat post exposed, levering away merrily at the crossbar/seat tube join?

The Biancji frames are manufactured in Thailand and Japan. They are posted to Italy, where the postman delivers them to the factory in Lombardi to be "built" up. Frame testing and development takes place at Lombardi, but no frame manufacture. The Veloce range frame was the last to linger on being manufactured in Italy, and that was finally ended in the mid 00's. Even the frames that bear the legend "Made in italy" are actually manufactured by Maxway in Taiwan - much like my Felt that has a "Made in The USA" sticker, but has a frame manufactured in the far East. Cheeky.

https://aushiker.com/where-was-my-bicycle-made/

Felt, like Bianchi, are happy to lead people to believe that assembling a box of parts in a particular country means the bike was "made" there, and people are quite happy to take that at face value.

 

[bpsmith]

Does everything that is “Made In” somewhere have to be built completely from components also made in that country?

It would be very difficult indeed to build a bike with all of its components from any one country these days.

 

[Blue Hills]

espouses the brand ?

Can't help but ask, what does that actually mean?

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

Does everything that is “Made In” somewhere have to be built completely from components also made in that country?.

No, but at least a good proportion of the finished product needs to actually originate from where it claims to, plus the design should also come from the claimed country of origin.
I regard shipping in far-east manufactured bikes in bits and doing a bit of final assembly then claiming them to be British/Italian/Whatever to be a downright dishonest practice. If I was to buy an "Italian" bike, I would expect the frame more than anything, to have been completely fabricated from scratch in Italy. Not in Vietnam, Taiwan, China etc.
I have several old Raleighs and a rigid Dawes MTB in my bike stable - and every single one of them has a British-built frame, mostly hand-built lugged & brazed Reynolds tubes, so the raw material was also made here. When I ride one of these I can honestly say it's a British bike, it isn't an import with a British maker's badge stuck on it, who are trading on their previous reputation for making decent bikes. I'm not saying the far-east stuff is all junk, it isn't, but if you are selling bikes with say a Vietnamese frame, you should be honest about it, and not try to pass it off as a home-grown product when it isn't. Some buyers may not care, but I do, and that's one reason I run old stuff and don't buy new badge-engineered bikes.

 

[bpsmith]

I think you’ll find the world has moved on and that most of all the bikes made are built from frames made in Taiwan, China, etc. When you consider carbon frames, the expertise in making them to very high standards just doesn’t exist in many places outside of that area, for a price that people are prepared to pay.

With respect to Design, that’s still done in Italy. Nothing has changed in that respect.

Let’s be completely honest here, if you ask any cyclist where their carbon frame was made, they would all state the obvious places and nobody would be shocked that it wasn’t the country where the brand hails from.

Just out of interest @SkipdiverJohn, is yours one of the Raleigh’s with head stamp stating Nottingham, England when in actual fact the had been made in Dublin, Ireland for 30 years prior.

I also don’t remember Raleigh having to rebrand when they were bought by a US company in the 80’s?

 

[bpsmith]

Here’s a photo of my “dishonest” 2014 Sempre Pro frame. This is the only Italian flag on the bike whatsoever, with no other Italy reference anywhere, with the words Italian Design underneath. Not Italian Made, Italian Design.

 

[mjr]

I also don’t remember Raleigh having to rebrand when they were bought by a US company in the 80’s?

Raleigh licensed their brand to Huffy. Who bought them? I thought it was a German company.

The real question is why didn't they have to rename when they left Raleigh Street for a purpose-built factory around 1913? Before the Trade Descriptions Act, I guess...

 

[Blue Hills]

Here’s a photo of my “dishonest” 2014 Sempre Pro frame. This is the only Italian flag on the bike whatsoever, with no other Italy reference anywhere, with the words Italian Design underneath. Not Italian Made, Italian Design.

View attachment 414949

That's all fine and dandy then isn't it?

Used to amuse me to wander into italian bike shops to ask where the "italian" bikes/frames were made. A very very high proportion of the time I was told italy. They couldn't be, or not the ones I was asking about, due to the price point. Never decided if they were ignorant or cynically treating me as the stupid foreigner open to italian blarney.

Pretty sure my 90s ridgebacks aren't british made frames, excellent as they are.

 

[BianchiVirgin]

 

[BianchiVirgin]

That's from my Sempre Pro. Rascally if that really means assembled, with a frame made in far flung parts.