Bike Brands

"Handbuilt in England" they used to say. Well, all bikes were handbuilt - they still are, but not in England (except for Brompton). Whatever most bike brands like to say, or imply ("UK designed," "American Bike Technology" etc), the fact of the matter is that most high quality bikes are built in the Far East from a shopping list of standardised parts by manufacturers that you've never heard of. Apart from a few exceptions, the brands that you have heard of are not manufacturers any more, but designers and brand managers who buy in their manufacturing. The really top end brands, like Scott, do get into the business of technology development, but this really only applies to their top end bikes.

The key thing that you need to know is this: is it a good brand? i.e. does it design and sell great quality bikes? If we stock it, then the answer is yes. Most of the bikes we sell are made in the Republic of China, AKA Taiwan - which is a good thing, as Taiwanese production technology and therefore their quality is absolutely superb (inferior brands tend to use lower cost factories in Indochina, Indonesisa and Bangladesh). Otherwise, we have brands such as Gazelle - still made in the Netherlands (though sadly not the frames); and Brompton - which is a sparkling gem of dedicated excellence admidst the otherwise shameful and sorry tale of British manufacturing decline.

Then of course, there is all that subjective stuff about 'brand values.' No doubt they will all want to tell you their 'stories,' but our brands are all good quality and in our sector of the market, broadly equivalent, so we say don't get too hung up on brand. But you can find out more about them here...