Originally Posted by fhall1
There's a guy over on FatWallet claiming that you shouldn't buy a Trek or Specialized bike, but rather buy a Giant, because Giant makes the frames for those other two companies anyway and you get the same bike with less big-name markup.
I think he's full of it, but can't find any evidence on the net to definitively point him to. I always assumed the three were distinctly separate competitors...and watching the Lance Chronicles they showed the Trek folks making the carbon frames for the Postal/Discovery bikes...which tends to tell me they at least do their own carbon frames.
Anyone know with certainty one way or the other on this issue?
Giant is a manufacturer who made frames for Schwinn back when it was un-american to buy non-US built bikes (70's and 80's) Schwinn was stuck building clunky and crude 38lb varsitys in their Chicago plant. These frames were built of flash welded low grade 1010 carbon steel. The last "10" meaning 10% carbon content.
Companies like Nishiki and Centurion were building bikes in Japan and later in Taiwan that were vastly lighter (25-30lbs) due to higher quality steel frames like 1020 and 4130 cro-moly loaded with alloy components from the likes of Suntour and Shimano.
Schwinn's forte was building tanks like the Stingray, Cruisers, Tandems and so on. The Chicago plant mostly built the durable heavyweights that schwinn was famous for, but they also built some lighter lug framed bikes like the Le-tour and the famed Paramount line.
To combat the Japanese and Tawain invasion of higher quality lighter weight bikes, they turned to GIANT in Taiwan. To keep the US public from shunning these bikes, they discretely badged these bikes "Schwinn Aprroved"
Back in the 80's a varsity cost just under 200 bucks and was the heaviest 10 speed in the lineup. Using Giant they brought in the "World Sport" which was a near duplicate of the "Nishiki Century" . Both frames were built by Giant and both even shared the same maroon paint job and nearly identical japanese components. These bikes were lighter , faster and better handling machines due to the higher quality frames and lighter components. This was the beginning of the end for the Varsity and alas, the storied and famed Schwinn Chicago plant.
When badly mismanaged Schwinn crashed and burned in bankruptcy proceedings in the early 90's the chicago plant was shuttered and all the frame building fixtures sold off.
Right around that time , Giant stepped into the independent bike dealer market and began selling the exact same lineup they built for Schwinn but instead re-labled with new stickers and badges that said "Giant" . The rumours at the time were that Giant had already committed to build these bikes for Schwinn, but Schwinn couldn't pay the bill and take delivery. The early Giant Dealers were simply Schwinn Dealers who had been left high and dry without product to sell when Schwinn crashed. Schwinn Dealers recognized the Giant product and new it's quality was up to their standards. For many dealers and Giant, this was a natural and successful alliance.
Over the last 3 decades bike manufacturing has followed the path of nearly all manufactured goods, they are are built wherever they can be built for the lowest cost. From the US , they shifted to Japan, to Taiwan and now China.
Viet Nam has been mentioned in recent years as another source of low cost frame building. Giant could build state of the art manufacturing facilities there and crank out frames for any of the major bike marketing companies be it Schwinn, Trek, Specialized , or anybody else.
Does Giant build bikes for other people ? you bet they do.