bicycle frame design

Where would you rather your bicycle be manufactured—China or Taiwan?

You’d probably hope for the latter, although it’s unlikely to be the case. Back in March Velo News published an article pointing out what industry insiders all know: that high-end bicycle frames are 1) hand made by 2) a few large manufacturers (in which Giant looms prominent) based in China. When it comes to the rest [...]

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Decals – From Finalized Design to Production

There was some cycling action last weekend with a report on the day’s event here. Another view of the day is available in the accompanying video. The main part of today’s post concerns the outcome of part of the process of aligning decals to a frame. When a color and graphics scheme for a frame is [...]

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How Butted Aluminum Alloy Tubing is Produced – the strength of Taiwan’s bicycle component manufacturing sector

Bicycle component manufacturing is highly distributed and specific; nobody manufactures complete bicycles in-house. Bicycle industry SMEs in Taiwan are at the center of multiple highly specific routines carried out and techniques applied. This feeds complex supply chains which all terminate in the assembly of a bicycle, the endpoint of the process. In this post, I want [...]

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Bicycle Frame Making with Aluminum Alloy – Key Processes: T4 vs T6 Heat Treatment, AL 6061 vs AL 7005

Since I have new aluminum alloy model on the drawing board, here is a brief coverage of key considerations in aluminum alloy frame construction behind the production of these frames. Grades of Aluminum Alloy 7005 is the grade of aluminum alloy I use for my frames. Most manufacturers of alloy high-end frames in Taiwan use [...]

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