Originally Posted by
tjspiel
I'm not arguing about where the bikes are made. There is more to a bike company than just manufacturing. Dorel just opened a new 51,000 sqft headquarters for "Cannondale Sports Unlimited" in Wilton, CT. They do product research and design there among other things.
So no, buying a company and buying the name of defunct company are two different things. It's not just a matter of semantics. Are you suggesting that Salsa and Surly under QBP are essentially no different than Windsor and Motobecane under Bikes Direct?
Other than maybe a prototype or two, Surly has never made a bike in the US. Yet they are a real brand, with real products and distinct designs. Windsor and Motobecane are not, - not anymore. They are just names. Which collection of parts ends up being called a Motobecane vs a Windsor, vs a Dawes might be decided by rolling a die.
If Dorel ends up laying off all the staff, shutting down research and design, and basically throws Canondale decals on off the shelf frames and parts, then I agree. It's no different.
There isn't much difference outside of innovation.
QBP owns many brand names of bikes, none of which existed before QBP created them. The only difference is that BD bought the names of old companies to use. Nobody really knows where BD gets frame designs or if they more or less just clone previous frames but their designs are generally 3-5 years out of date compared to new bikes coming out. Their frames are made in Taiwan like most other bike companies, their components and frames are shipped to a place in FL where they are assembled and shipped from. This isn't really any different than Trek, Giant....ect.
In fact, most Motobecanes are made in the same factory as Giant bikes. Windsor is made in Fuji's factory. Kestrel is owned by the same company as Fuji and most of frames not mentioned here are made either in the Giant or Fuji factory and some in the same factory as Trek.
From what I can tell all the bikes are assembled at Cycle Spectrum (a Bike shop in FL) and shipped mostly assembled to the customer. In fact, you can buy fully assmebled BD bikes frome Cycle Spectrum if you live in the area and they also offer life time free adjustments and repairs (minus cost of parts).