This Business Week article is only tangentially about tandems, but Chris King headsets are on a lot of tandems, and CK makes a tandem hub. Also, the issue of boutique vs mass manufacturing and China/Taiwan vs. Made in US is discussed here often. An interesting tidbit is that 99% of bicycles sold in the US are made in China/Taiwan. That is a lot different for tandems.

Manufacturing
Portland Bike Maker Sees Made-in-USA Demand from Overseas
By Anthony Effinger

Until this year, few people beyond his 96 employees saw inside Chris King’s bicycle factory in Portland, Ore.

The cagey manufacturer makes everything in an old coffee roasting plant on the edge of town, and he zealously guards the secrets that have helped his company thrive despite competition from China and Taiwan, where 99 percent of the 15.7 million bikes sold in the U.S. last year were made, according to the National Bicycle Dealers Association.

Now, as businesses in disparate industries, including Apple and General Electric, rediscover the appeal of Made in USA, King is letting visitors see at least some of the 80,000-square-foot place: the frame-welding floor, the room where employees press tiny metals balls into metal rings for hub bearings, and the paint booth. The main floor, where workers mill aluminum parts, some precise to 2/10,000ths of an inch, is still off limits....






Chris King Precision Components employs 96 people in an old coffee roasting plant outside Portland, Ore. It's one of the few bicycle factories left in the U.S. King makes mostly components, including wheel hubs and headsets, the assemblies that make the front wheel turn smoothly. Until this year, Chris King, the founder of the 36-year-old business, allowed almost no visitors into his factory, guarding the methods that have helped him compete against larger rivals in Asia, where 99 percent of all bikes sold in the U.S. are made. He still forbids visitors on the main manufacturing floor.