Folding Bikes - A Rare look inside some of Taiwans leading manufactures (Giant, Kenda, Pacific..)

http://www.canadiancyclist.com/dailynews.php?id=23257

It's rare to see an outside view on manufactures.. some great stuff.

Check out on the links at the bottom, some great gallery pictures.

Juan

Just to add, some of the above is not solely a perspective. Scooters in mainland China are by now nearly exclusively electric. Combustion engines have evaporated from the domain of slower two-wheelers.

How about a 3 wheeler segway type thing with Birdy style front fork? lol

http://www.canadiancyclist.com/races12/taiwan/partsix/images/pacific_DSC0518.jpg

"Visiting the factory is like entering a mad inventor's workshop." best quote ever.

Juan

thanks!

So sad to see there are still countries in this world where people have to work in factories to make a living. Hopefully, they will be able to convert over to a service & shopping based society like we are, sometime soon.

Lou

So sad to see there are still countries in this world where people have to work in factories to make a living. Hopefully, they will be able to convert over to a service & shopping based society like we are, sometime soon.

Lou

:thumb::D ace quote !!

Just to add, some of the above is not solely a perspective. Scooters in mainland China are by now nearly exclusively electric. Combustion engines have evaporated from the domain of slower two-wheelers.

Just to comment, this does not match my, daily, observations. While electric scooters are very popular, petrol scooters are still sold and desired. Even if the bicycle crowd does not want to here it; just as the electric bicycle has many advantages, the petrol scooter also has advantages. It is not a simple shopping decision.

A huge advantage of the electric scooter is that it is treated as a bicycle by Chinese law; yet, social practice treats it as a scooter. This allows the electric scooter rider to avoid licensing; yet, they can use the motorcycle parking areas in markets (which are generally more convenient than the bicycle areas) and th eriders are not required to constantly mount and dismount, as they are on a bicycle.

Yet, they still have the range and power problems. Most importantly, they are quite inconvenient for people living on upper floors.

There are more electric bicycles (scooters) than in the past, and they are very popular. They are definitely more popular than they are in the US. However, the petrol scooter is definitely not gone.

Just to comment, this does not match my, daily, observations. While electric scooters are very popular, petrol scooters are still sold and desired.

My shocking observation was from Shanghai and involved the need to pay a special attention to the vehicles zipping by noiselessly. In the surrounding I could hardly encounter a combustion two-wheeler. However, there could have bias from the treatment of the electric scooters by law. On a university campus I might have not seen a single combustion one - maybe there was a ban and it influenced the proportion of electric/combustion vehicles in the neighborhood. However when I directly asked the locals they appeared to confirm the conversion to electric. In my earlier part of the trip, a bit closer to you, I was not paying attention to the issue.

Very interesting, thanks.

I am looking at this picture from Pacific. Does the last bike in the row have a Bike Friday label?

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So sad to see there are still countries in this world where people have to work in factories to make a living. Hopefully, they will be able to convert over to a service & shopping based society like we are, sometime soon.

Lou

Respectfully, where do you think that service and shopping society get their goods? There are also plenty of factories in North America.

So sad to see there are still countries in this world where people have to work in factories to make a living. Hopefully, they will be able to convert over to a service & shopping based society like we are, sometime soon.

Lou

Factories are obsolete. All we need is a Replicator in every house

http://www.makerbot.com/blog/2012/01/09/introducing-the-makerbot-replicator/

Very interesting, thanks.

I am looking at this picture from Pacific. Does the last bike in the row have a Bike Friday label?

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The museum consists of 3 levels full of bikes, 90%? are made by Pacific (only shows a very small selection of what they have made, no Raleigh Rampar R9 was seen to my disappointment) and since the museum is in honour of the humble bike there also have some of the other brands, in the small wheel section: Brompton, Moulton, A-Bike, Strida, and of course a Bike Friday.


https://picasaweb.google.com/100269765886407145262/PacificCyclesMuseum
The museum is free of charge and open to the public.


Juan

Thanks for the clarification Juan.

Pacific-cycles is a wonderful place - a factory and workshop bristling with innovation.

Respectfully, where do you think that service and shopping society get their goods?

There are also plenty of factories in North America.

Most folks get their goods at WalMart (and similar stores) and probably never think about how/where they are made. Goes for food, too.

FYI: North America includes Canada & Mexico - not being made in America is the problem. If one checks the country of origin tags in most stores (such as a bike shop), 95% of items are not made here.

The business plan for most manufactured goods is to have them produced in the country of lowest labor cost. We will get those factories back someday. Doing away with the minimum wage laws would likely speed it up.

Lou