Is there a market for reproduction parts?

[Rampage]

How things change. These days cheesy pants is normally a prerequisite for the application of live yogurt or a trip to the docs.

Also, is there an alternative to rim brakes? I must have missed that meeting.!

I would love to see a re run of products too, but its not just the brakes that have changed.......square taper anybody? 26" wheel....you remember those surely?

With the lack of supply from china, rising € to £ prices and tariffs, is this not the golden opportunity for uk engineering.....no....ALL uk business to get of its arse and start making stuff again.


Well it is.....but we won't.

Its been hard enough to get UK companies (well 50% of them) to answer the phone / reply to emails in the last year.
One company I deal with regularly takes 2-4 weeks to reply to emails, the company has one of those sales departments where you can only deal with the one person.
Lots of other suppliers are taking a week to reply.

 

[pw_pw_la]

I think there’s something interesting in what you say regarding performance - Grafton made tweaks, Critical Racing made tweaks. The tweaks to Critical cants put the performance through the roof. Easily as good as Vs. I could see repro parts but with modern knowledge (of materials, design, geometry) applied to them, so that they are the next step on....I can see that applied to cants, U brakes, levers, mechs etc

See, THIS is what I'm talking about.

If all the rich cycling enthusiasts would just stop buying old Kleins and invest that money into R&D for a new company instead...

 

[Tootyred]

Oh. I see what the basic problem is here now! People are under the impression companies develop stuff and move thing on for performance enhancement.......errr.......no.

Profit.
Easy to make = profit
Less or worse material = profit
Change the standard so everybody has to buy a new one = profit
Shiny = profit

Plus, everything is cheaper these days. Team marin 1989 £1000. (£2552 using the boe conversion) Team marin 2021 £1295 ( marins rrp). Half price!

What's changed.....well we all know that...its been covered a million times on here...they and all their components are cheese.

So given that we now have a society that expects a team marin for lets say a grand still with a bit of discount, who is going to buy repro older parts where the development and low run production cost puts a pair of brake levers at £500.

Yes there will be some, but i would hazzard not enough to make it a viable business. Especially if what your producing has already been done and are essentially fakes.

As somebody said above, surely its better to invest time and money on producing new quality parts, with all the benefits of technology and material science to make excellent components for now.

Although, if you want a pension pot, just go out and buy up new stock of parts and sell them to retrobikers in 30 years time.....because there won't be the amazing levels of surviving equipment we are blessed with.

 

[FluffyChicken]

Gosh we need some reproduction terminology - in the 1990s if something was ‘pants’, then it was usually ‘made out of cheese’.


I think there’s at least one Mint Sauce cartoon which makes a subtle joke and reference to ‘cheese’.

Deore DX, is made of cheese, didn't last long*. It's what made me get XT and then XTR.
It's a shame as I much prefer DX to LX.
The Exage series was generally stronger than the lower end Deore, but they used more steel and plastic covered well 'ard steel.

*at the time and in constant use, despite much of it still going strong 30 years later.

 

[2manyoranges]

I went to see Rich Hall last night. The chair I was sitting on was made in China. The glass for the beer was made in China. The mic he was using was made in China. But Hope bits are actually made in England. So is USE. Cotic and Stanton are designed in the UK, and Dan is thinking about moving production to England. I think it’s possible that the need to become a trading nation (out as well as in) will mean a resurgence of English manufacturing. We are good at it. And if the Government understands the need for industrial strategy. Germany still exports massive amounts of machine equipment to China. We need to establish the same top end manufacturing. I like Hope bits. I buy lots of them. And a few USE bits. The more that is made in England, the more I will buy.

 

[Tootyred]

Made or assembled in england? Major difference, which sadly seem to get mixed up a lot these days.

" we make this in england....." out of parts all made in china.

If pace are making there stuff here, maybe somebody could ask " bob" the machinist when hes coming off tea break to make head race shims. Ive only been asking for over a year.....still not in stock.

The uk is excellent at making expensive stuff. Want a massive mill or digger.....yep thats us. But its the small stuff for average consumers we cant make.....like bike parts. Not because we cant do it, its just not economic to pay " bob" £24k a year for 5 productive hours ( toilet, fag, lunch, tea and buggering about breaks considered), and expect to make something that the customer doesn't go "HOW MUCH! at the end of the process.

 

[2manyoranges]

TR yes that’s absolutely right re manufacturing versus assembly.

I think that’s broadly right re manufacturing culture in England but I do think it’s changing. In Stanton it’s pretty frenetic and efficient, and of course they do some heavy duty finishing. Pricing is becoming interesting. The full price of middling Shimano brakes are now comparable to Hope. And Hope is very lively and profitable. I sense a shifting of the tectonic plates.

 

[FluffyChicken]

Made or assembled in england? Major difference, which sadly seem to get mixed up a lot these days.

" we make this in england....." out of parts all made in china.

If pace are making there stuff here, maybe somebody could ask " bob" the machinist when hes coming off tea break to make head race shims. Ive only been asking for over a year.....still not in stock.

The uk is excellent at making expensive stuff. Want a massive mill or digger.....yep thats us. But its the small stuff for average consumers we cant make.....like bike parts. Not because we cant do it, its just not economic to pay " bob" £24k a year for 5 productive hours ( toilet, fag, lunch, tea and buggering about breaks considered), and expect to make something that the customer doesn't go "HOW MUCH! at the end of the process.

Superstar make bike parts, milled out on their own machines*. No idea where the metal is mined or blended together on made in to blocks/tubes etc., so I guess hacked up and assembled in to shape in the UK.

But they did a batch of jockey wheels recently, despite requests they wouldn't make 10teeth versions.

*It's a great facebook/etc feed to keep an eye on, always showing the processes, machines and custom part they need to make it happen.