Originally Posted by
phyko
do you know if tern has their own manufacturing facility? I’ve trying to find this out and there seems to be evidence of a factory in Macao but I can’t verify that.
On the Dahon wiki page they mention a Macao facility where I believe bikes were assembled for selling there due to it being preferable to assemble in Macao which is similar to Hong Kong in being part of China but also partially independent. Maybe that facility transferred to Tern when they separated? When Tern had the recall on frames it seemed like they were tendering contracts to build them and had a handful of manufacturer's supplying such frames. One of which was obviously very poor quality hence the recall. A quick google gives no indication of a Tern factory anywhere but this isn't unusual, many top brands have no factory or even proper design facilities sometimes and merely order product from the main manufacturer's like fuji-ta.
My impression though is Tern do invest in R&D but outsource their manufacturing, this may change in the future of course. Where as Dahon is more varied with some product outsourced, I suspect the majority but it could be a minority. Looking at their frame production I think I'd rather have their outsourced frames.