Originally Posted by
cyclonoob
I don't know if the rep is being misled and lied to by marketing, or is just doing the lying himself to make a quick sale, but it is so incredibly disappointing to find out that I was being lied to directly by them. If you don't feel like reading the article, their carbon supplier is Toray (who I've worked with for years and years), and the bikes are made in Asia (where in Asia???)........... I guess history and heritage don't really work for KTM. This all comes at a suprise to me because the Specialized Tarmac I looked at over the weekend had this really nice and proud sticker saying it was "engineered in California" followed by "built in Taiwan" and defintely not trying to hide that fact. I even saw a super expensive Pinarello Dogma with Toray being literally clear coated decal into the frame.
Meh, Shinola in Detroit got nabbed like that a while back, on their watches. Sure, they were "made" here, but with imported components because they simply aren't available in America. I take anything referring to "Engineered/Assembled/Crafted/etc" in Location X with a grain of salt.
It is partly why I also don't get caught up in trying to buy something with too tight of a criteria. If the frame is made out of a material I want and apperas to be well made, I don't really care if it comes from Taiwan, Austria, or Wisconsin. The utility of the item is far more important than its peerage, especially on bikes that don't break the bank.