Originally Posted by
az2008
That's not true. Walmart sells a "Hiland" brand. It isn't made by Pacific. The manuals have no reference to Pacific. No phone number to call. The box (I saw) said: "Winston International Manufacturing, 7704 E 38 St, Tulsa, OK 74145."
Walmart also sells GMC and Triace brands. Pacific doesn't hold those brands.
Pacific could be Walmart's sole supplier, serving as the middle-man to get into Walmart.
The key to that assertion is "identical." For example, the Schwinn Avenue, Trailway and Midmoor (Walmart, Target and Sears) are almost identical. A few cosmetic differences (grips, straight or pull-back bars, rack-mount holes). In that case, the quality is the same.
But, there is a very big quality difference between those Schwinns and most Mongoose or Huffy bikes. Single-wall wheels. Peel-off decals. Flimsier brakes. SIS derailer instead of Tourney.
In some ways I agree with your sentiment. These bikes probably come from the same factories (probably the same factories LBS bikes come from). They generally use the same components. TD-One derailer is just a rebranded Shimano (I suspect).
My LBS told me there are 3 factories in China where all the inner tubes come from. They said it's funny when someone demands a Kenda tube instead of a cheaper Sun -- when they both come from the same factory.
In that sense, I think you're right.
I almost added "someone will immediately prove me wrong" when I typed that. It seems GMC and several other brands are "made" by Kent International, although it's not clear who the actual manufacturer is.
http://www.kentbicycles.com/
I've seen identical cruisers labeled Schwinn, Pacific, Roadmaster, and Huffy down to the stitched grips. Then again, it shouldn't be any surprise that a simple bike like that would be so common. Wal-Mart sells the Huffy I bought under the Next brand online, but I think my local Wally World had the same bike under yet another brand; I was thinking it was HiLand, but I'd have to go back and check. The only reference I can find to that brand is a Panama-based company that farms out its production to China.
It's entirely possible that both the Hilands and Kents are still made by Pacific without revealing the true source much in the way Giant cranks out frames for higher quality bikes for just about everybody. Dorel has Dorel Independent Bicycle Dealer (IBD) Division for designing and producing stuff for LBS's and Pacific Cycles for "retail channels." Some brands are sold by both divisions (i.e. Schwinn) but are developed and built separately.
Incidentally, Giant started selling under their own name in the U.S. because they were mad that Schwinn wanted to come out with a low-end Chinese manufactured line; the LBS's weren't too pleased with Schwinn rolling out factory stores at that time, so Giant found a lot of willing dealers. Most '80's Schwinns are actually Giants.
I'm not sure if any of this is really proprietary. The Falcon grupo on the bike I have is a bit odd, but even if I couldn't get the parts the threads on the hub aren't proprietary so I could screw on something more common, or even go the single-speed route with a BMX freewheel (or suicide fixie!) thanks to the horizontal dropouts. The single-piece crank and expander stem are obsolete, but replacements pieces are readily available. If I really wanted to I could get a conversion kit to switch to a 3-piece crank.
As for innertubes, Bell tubes are -clearly- labeled Cheng Shin on the casing complete with the CST logo. Avenirs are made in Taiwan, and my Huffy has Taiwanese-made LHR tires which are clearly a knock-off of a Kenda tread design.
More confusion: A lot of the CST tires seem to use old Panasonic tooling.