made in China?
 

Are all of the reasonably priced folders made in China? I'd rather have a different point of origin if at all possible.

try made in taiwan...

yeah but once you go made in Taiwan prices already start to go up from there. Even their cheapest brand name folder a carryme is already 2.5 times more expensive than the typical folder bikes you can buy in china itself.

It's a different quality control in that country. You pay for it just like some pay for bromptons and bike fridays. If you want better it ain't going to be lower than china. The main folder thats reasonable and really good quality are the dahon's coming out of the china factories. But they have their own dahon guys there watching the QC.

Mr Dahon himself lives in the plant in China... they have one of the lowest worker turnaround in the region ( they pay decent money and have social programs in place, like a factory kindergarten, sporting events on the factory grounds and and and .... Its an American company which happens to own their own plant in China.....

Other that that there is Bike Friday who brazes their frames over here ( I think they get some from Taiwain, but not 100% sure and it really doesnt matter anyhow )

Thor

Don't buy a Brompton. They are hand-brazed by minimum-wage slave labour in a Socialist gulag in West London.
Their brazers were paid £6.75 an hour last year. The steel for the frames does not come from the UK, but China. The UK has no bauxite mines for the alloy for the rims.

Dahon's are currently assembled in Macau, a nicely run province of Communist China.

Whatever you do, never buy a Schwalbe tyre. They're made in Korea. Downtube are a cool American company, but they've made the grave mistake of having their stuff made abroad. Like Harley Davidson.

Many of the Shimano spares on most of the other bikes; cables, outers, brake pads, plastic parts are made in China. [1]

I really hope you haven't got a Mac, or a PC, or an iPhone, or a Motorola. [2] or a GM car.

You work for Fedex, right? Fedex China should be able to get a bike to you, no problems. A global company, they have a great World Citizen program. I hope, as an ambassador for Fedex, [3] that you've embraced it. :)



~~~

[1] Shimano (Kunshan) Bicycle Components Co., Ltd. (China); Shimano (Kunshan) Fishing Tackle Co., Ltd. (China); Shimano (Mersing) Sdn. Bhd. (Malaysia); Shimano (Shanghai) Bicycle Components Co., Ltd. (China); Shimano (Singapore) Pte. Ltd.; Shimano Taiwan Co., Ltd.; Shimano U.K. Ltd.; Wooyun Co., Ltd. (Korea).

[2] http://www.foxconn.com/

[3] "I travel the country for Fedex Custom Critical doing expedited freight transportation. We are the ambulances of the freight industry offering 90 minute pickup and straight through delivery. I have 3 big trucks and a van."

"Mr. Dahon", I like that. :-) David Hon.

Dahon has *very* good reputation among manufacturers in China, among the very best when it comes to bikes. Their main plant is near Shenzhen, outside of Hong Kong in the protected economic zone. Still, it's China, a country with a jet black human rights record, workplace standards, and consumer protection standards. So, that's the call you gotta make.

I believe that BF still makes all of their frames are entirely made in Oregon, from scratch.

The cheapest Bike Friday is the Pocket 8, at $900. The cheapest Bike Friday tikit used to be $1000 but now it's $1100, oh well.

Bike Friday..might be right ...that they braze all the frames over here... and as I said no problem to me anyhow ...
They might have tried at one time or the other and that might be the stuff which stuck in my memory....



yes Dahon has a plant in Macau ... but I think they only make Chinese modells there.... ( bikes for the chinese market) they also have a plant in Europe where a few only Euro modells are built.
The big plant is in Shenzen

and yes Mr Dahon is actually Mr David Hon :-)


lol
thor