Well I, for one, am with Agent Pombero on this (pretty much)!

Props to Detroit Bike for doing it right and actually making-- which in a real American town like Detroit means welding sh*t together!-- the frames, painting them, and building them into bikes. That's where the real value is for me, especially in Detroit, where we so much need something we can proudly put that world famous "Made in Detroit" stamp on. Detroit Bikes rocks, and I'm excited to see where they go.

Regarding Surly, well, they're an easy target because of the counter-culture vibe they cultivated around a bike production model that was anything but. Having your frames made in Asia somewhere is mainstream, so Surly is perhaps unfairly singled out here, especially when you consider that it's a brand owned by the largest parts supplier in the world, QBP. Though I despise Surly for these reasons, I wouldn't call them out like they need to step up, because it's ridiculous to expect a zombie company to do something like that.

That said, I'd definitely like to see more national level brands be manufactured here in the USA. Yeah, I know there are plenty of small, custom houses doing their thing, which is great, but to see someone invest stateside in competitive, large scale manufacturing (of, by necessity, not too expensive bikes) would be great. Time will tell if Detroit Bikes proves to be the prototype, but certainly there are plenty of people who do care about where they spend their money, with whom, and about what they get for it. The locavore/farm-to-table thing is huge, and it isn't a stretch to extend those sentiments to bicycles if one doesn't have to spend $3.5k and 4.5 months on a custom bike in order to realize those priorities.