Interesting article (Grafton, Magic, Ritchey)

[Archangel]

http://www.adventurecorps.com/what/americanstuff.html

As we all know, things didn't happen like these people hoped.
Of these 3 hopefuls, only Ritchey survived. BTW: whatever happened to Magic Motorcycle ?

I red somewhere that one large factor in forcing many small boutique brands to bankrupcy was the introduction of the XTR M950 groupset in 1996.

 

[B3]

V brakes killed off the whole CNC'd brake market, why pay 3 times as much for something that worked half as well? Same with cranks & shifters.

So, yeah, blame Shimano for the death of the technicolour CNC business.

 

[GoldenEraMTB]

Ah...American Pie in the sky...that's what that was...

Shimano is either god or the devil of the MTB industry depending on your vantage point- the greatest and the worst at the same time.

I remember back then, I was trying to build a bike with all american components- it just cost too much, and then there was still a couple parts I couldn't get "Made in U.S.A"

 

[Neil G]

Ah..Grafton Speed Controllers....they were the brake of dreams!

Never could afford to buy a set!

 

[IbocProSX]

I was never quite dso focused on all American, but have tried to build bikes with"No Shimano" conrtent. Middleburn, SRAM, Avid, Ritchey, Race Face, Onza, back in 1992 I could barely afford it. Most recently my 29er turned up Shimano-less without thinking about it.

I have to give credit though to the big S for making reliable MTB groupsets available and affordable. Even their modest low cost kit just works, and works. I once switched rides with a mate: my bling bling Santa Cruz for his "Halfords" 150? pound hack. That bike was equiped with 3x6 shimano SIS the lowest of the low grade kit at the time. Sure it was not refined, but the brakes had power and the gears changed on the button every time. I was most impressed, Kudos.

Enjoy !!

 

[theboy]

very interesting article, raised a few questions too:

Did Grafton get their derailleurless system going - anyone see it a trade show? ive certainly never heard of or seen it before? did they disappear due to a lack of innovation? Shimano might have the size and money to push things forward and to fine-tune things, but in a lot of other aspects of MTB component design it was the small builders that came up with the great ideas (rear sus frames, suspension forks, disc brakes, v brakes)

When Magic Motorcycle claimed they had a whole groupset sorted, did they? I have never seen anything more than the cranks/chainsets, and I guess when they hint at a way their products will be available cheaper they are referring to the CODA branded version of their kit right?

Also, I kind of assumed on the whole that a lot of 'Ritchey' stuff was just rebranded kalloy crap, I am cynical, but still, did he really put that much effort into 'redesigning' seatposts etc, or is it just talk, I know thats probably tantamount to heresy on a classic MTB forum, but hey, I didnt post it on MTBR VRC so I assume ill get away with it

 

[yo-eddy]

Also, I kind of assumed on the whole that a lot of 'Ritchey' stuff was just rebranded kalloy crap, I am cynical, but still, did he really put that much effort into 'redesigning' seatposts etc, or is it just talk, I know thats probably tantamount to heresy on a classic MTB forum, but hey, I didnt post it on MTBR VRC so I assume ill get away with it

Agree with you, Tom had most of his stuff made in Taiwan/Japan i.e. Diacompe brakes/Sugino cranks/Nitto posts ans stems (very good stuff btw)/Kalloy and many more.....completly different from Grafton and MM who made even worse parts that looked great but were expensive and most of the time not very good IMHO

Think about this little chain company in Germany that put lots of R&D in a bomb proof full ratio geared hub and DID succeed to make something that will last in the industry (mark my words ).... so it is possible to do.....but most good designs were sold to the big companies just for financial reasons I presume

 

[boxxer]

whatever happened to Magic Motorcycle ?

Was it not the case that the components they produced wowed Cannondale so much that they bought the company, I remember the cranks specifically being rebranded as CODA on their high end steeds.

IIRC when 'Dale filed for Chapter 11 Bankrupcy protection due to the failure of the Moto arm, MM died along with a few component manufacturing parts of the company to save a bit of cash

There was a small piece on them in Dirt mag a couple of issues back..... combined in an article about cranks

 

[Archangel]

Well that's what I thought about as well. The Magic products disappeared from Cannondales after 2000 model year. The Magic cranks were replaced with SI cranks on road and CX2 cranks on mountain bikes. It might be that the SI crank was designed/made by MM.

I have never seen MM hubs/wheelsets even though the mention those to exist in the article. I think that MM's plans hit the trash can at the moment when it was bought by Cannondale.

 

[user7307]

All that talk about revolutionary new drivetrain system must be BS, nothing was ever seen of that.

Grafton did have a prototype disc brake with a proto Ringle hub. The disc brake had carbon fibre rotor, probably did not work that good but looked nice CNC. Ringle even had prototype crankarms btw when they where bought by Sun (looked worse than Joystix though).

IIRC some ads in MBA even claimed Grafton disc brake would appear next month, TBA. But that brake could not have been better than the AMP brake I guess.