Old 08-18-20, 08:59 AM
  #14  
2_i 
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Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Michigan
Posts: 3,693

Bikes: Trek 730 (quad), 720 & 830, Bike Friday NWT, Brompton M36R & M6R, Dahon HAT060 & HT060, ...

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Parts manufacturing provides plenty of room for error, especially when they grow in complexity in the form or functionality. Even with that room you can theoretically get things done right if you have a high class people engaged, decent equipment and test a lot. The question is whether you have that. Are there market pressures for you to have that? My impression is that Glasgow Kinetics is on the right track, as well as Eerder Metaal or Juliane Neuss. On the Ti side, maybe Vostok Cycle Works is professional. However, the latter do not try to make copies of Brompton parts but design the form and size on their own. I am not sure whether Vostok is still operational, which also illustrates the problem that once you dive into something custom you may be left in the cold if you need a replacement part down the road.

Otherwise, shiny photos of a custom bike demonstrate nothing as far as practical utility thereof is concerned. When I put some aftermarket parts on the bike, they worked fine for the first half an hour of riding. Then things started to slip and after an hour I would have to stop on every block to reset the bike so that I could make it to the next block. A couple of times, I took a bike with an aftermarket replacement part, that was not fully tested, on a trip, and the riding there went completely down the drain. I wised up since and now presume the aftermarket part not to work until it I prove it or make it work. Come to think, on my Brompton I have very few aftermarket parts made specifically for Brompton, all simple and all modified at some level.
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