Who made the most parts of their bikes ?

[velomaniac]

I was musing to myself why a friend I'm assembling a bike for was so excited by riding it. The frame for this machine is an early 90's Specialized Rockhopper the rest is a very varied collection of parts bin stuff. The only bit of the bike that is Rockhopper is the frame yet somehow this seems to define the entire bike.

Nowadays it seems the only thing directly attributable to a manufacturer is designing the frame as even this is built by someone else.

So here is the question, in the history of mountain biking in particular, did any manufacturer design and even manufacture the majority of components on a given bike. I know Cannondale have lots of CODA bits but I get the idea that they badged anything that another manufacturer could make within their tight financial specifications.

So who made the most bits of their bikes ??????????

Cheers

 

[one-eyed_jim]

It's rare for a company to have the resources to make many of the parts for a bike - it makes more sense to buy them in, rebadge other products, or have them manufactured by a third party.

Having said that, two that spring to mind are WTB and Ritchey.

WTB sold their Greaseguard technology to Suntour, as well as using it on their own components. At one time it was possible to have a WTB frame, stem, bar, headset, seatpost, tyres, rims, hubs, saddle, bottom bracket, pedals and brakes.

Ritchey had frames, bars, stems, posts, pedals, cranks, chainrings, sprockets, (2x9) shifters, headsets, hubs, rims, and brakes.

Keith Bontrager designed many parts (forks, stems, bars, seatposts, rims) that ended up on his frames.

In most of these cases though, the actual manufacture was done in the far east.

 

[orange71]

Proflex (Girvin) 'made' the frames, forks, cranks, stems, shocks for a lot of their bikes. I'm guessing others really made them though and they just put thir name to them...

 

[cherrybomb]

I reckon the likes of Raleigh from way back would take some beating.

 

[one-eyed_jim]

I reckon the likes of Raleigh from way back would take some beating.

Indeed. Or Flying Pigeon maybe. Or this guy:

http://www.reneherse.com/Schultz.html

He did say mountain bikes though...

 

[stevet1]

Pace rc100? Not 100% what parts came as standard but I know they designed it as a complete package.

 

[rienster]

I remember an old specialized brochure from the early nineties. Think they made virtually all parts. Frame, BB, Cranks, seat+ seatstay, handlebars, grips, pedals, tires, brakes (???)
Don't think they ever made any cogs or shifters though.
Some lovely stuff, ti as well, but bloody expensive at the time.

 

[one-eyed_jim]

Ritchey had frames, bars, stems, posts, pedals, cranks, chainrings, sprockets, (2x9) shifters, headsets, hubs, rims, and brakes.

Oh, and spokes, made for him by DT. Nicest spokes I ever bought. Bottom brackets too. And tyres.

 

[one-eyed_jim]

I remember an old specialized brochure from the early nineties. Think they made virtually all parts. Frame, BB, Cranks, seat+ seatstay, handlebars, grips, pedals, tires, brakes (???)
Don't think they ever made any cogs or shifters though.
Some lovely stuff, ti as well, but bloody expensive at the time.

I've got a pair of nice Specialized track pedals from the early nineties, made by MKS. Often it's the same factories producing a lot of this kit. MKS made pedals for Specialized and Suntour, Sugino made cranks for Specialized, Ritchey, Suntour and Cannondale (Coda), Dia Compe made brakes for Ritchey, Suntour and Coda...

 

[JustKev]

So who made the most bits of their bikes

I think lots of manufacturers used rebranded Tiawanese parts to build their bikes. Some where better quality than other and some were available as aftersale items BITD.

Trek Matrix stuff was mixed - I really liked the rims but the tyres were awful.

Specialized stuff was always high quality - rims, tyres, saddles, stems, bars, bar-ends, grips, toe-clips and even their 'own' brand suspension forks were great.