U.S KHS Shuts Down
 

It was a good run. RIP KHS.

KHS Bicycles Shutting Down May 31, 2026, After 50 Years in Business
KHS has announced that, along with its subsidiary brands (Free Agent and Manhattan Beach Cruisers), it will be closing down operations after a 50-year run....

KHS Taiwan remains unaffected and continues to operate as normal.

My KHS
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...9d39b003c3.jpg

Always been an oddly distant brand, to me.
I've known it has existed for decades, yet I rarely ever see a KHS bike.
In the last decade, I have seen 5x more KHS road bikes from the 80s and early 90s than bikes from the entire current century.

I don't think I've walked into a dealer that sells em...in any of the bike shops I've been to across a bunch of states.

This has been in the making for quite a few years. Not that long ago KHS was sold due to financial issues they had for a while, and in short order the company that bought the brand decided North America ops were not making the grade. Can't imagine what they saw in the first place, but I suppose the Asian and Euro markets were strong enough to entice the buy.

When I was still mtb'ing, several were riding KHS. Seemed to be well made bikes. Used to be a dealer in our area, but he closed a good bit ago. Guess the brand just didn't catch on, the people I know never had a problem with them and weren't easy on them.

almost bought one years ago from a small local shop; they parked the bicycle in the window and i would walk by and kind of salivate over the thing. since my road bicycle was stolen years earlier, the KHS seemed to be a good enough bicycle. then along came the Mountain Bike craze and i got the Schwinn High Sierra instead.

still ride that bike, made in Taiwan with indestructible components. almost never needs any maintenance ever, including the RIM brakes and FRICTION shifting which i still feel they never have improved on since 1985 despite what Big Bike agents claim on this forum LOL. i went back to this kind of riding when needing some surgery recently and found it to be superior to even my Trek 105 equip ed road bike. so now i am total C and V in my bicycling world view.

RIP Khs and thanks for the memories.

The US owners are in their 80's and want to 'retire'...lol...working until 80 is quite the work ethic.
No one wanted to buy the biz and their kids didn't want it either.
KHS has been making/selling bikes for a long time...they don't advertise and sell only to shops...quality is great and support is even better...yep our shop sells KHS, or did...and we are sad to see them go.
The owners also stand by their bikes even post closing...

yes and good memories. how does KHS quality and pricing compare to Big Bicycle, are they equivalent or do we get Bigger bang for the buck? i am a fan of the Taiwanese & Japan bicycle industry, they are what the Schwinn bicycle company should have become and failed. Trek has been great for me, but taking over small bike shops leaves a bad taste in my mouth, so no new Big Box bikes for me. hello used C & V bicycle, you were great then and still great now.

Good memories of KHS for me. Bought a couple their low-er priced models in the late 80's. One for a girlfriend and later one for me. Test rode a few different brands, and they just stood out for having a little better handling and value compared to the big name =$ competition. Only 2 or 3 of the many shops in San Diego sold them so most people went for the popular big brands, so hard for KHS to compete. Very happy with mine until some thief decided they liked it too. :notamused: I guess the current market strategies just snuffed them out. Not happy with that.

I am kind of surprised that they were still the original company, unlike almost all the other bike brands that were eventually sold to this or that holding company or big-box store. Anyways here is my KHS ZH2B Aero Comp from their glory days:
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...a95d75d3f.jpeg

I sold quite a few of their steel hybrids when I worked at a KHS dealer. They offered a lot of bike for the money, and it's sad to see them go.

They were not as big as Schwinn/Trek/Specialized/etc. and maybe my experience is skewed because their headquarters was in Los Angeles, but it was not uncommon to occasionally encounter one of their bikes or a dealer that sold them. Pretty sure they even had pro teams and sponsored grassroots clubs as well. I remember liking their track bikes with the cool curved seat tube.
https://ep1.pinkbike.org/p4pb22734835/p4pb22734835.jpg

A shop near me in Philly had them relatively recently. Unfortunately, that location closed. Haven’t noticed if their other location still carries them.

One of my friends had one MTB made of True Temper OXP tubing and with XTR, bullet proof frame despite the abuse on the trails it has endured. Another friend had a KHS road bike made of Reynolds 853 with Dura Ace 7900 and Zipp 60, he often beat people racing carbon frames.RIP KHS.

The Flite 747 model always comes up in discussions of big & tall bikes. I don't know of anything similar in the price range.

Forgot about that. I did get mentioned in the Clyde/Athena often.

John Howard was involved in some of the road bike development.
https://alchetron.com/cdn/john-howar...esize-750.jpeg
He once had the bicycle speed record and helped with the current record holder.
https://c8.alamy.com/comp/PKMKGC/bon...ews-PKMKGC.jpg

I've had 3 KHS bikes. My first road bike was a KHS and was the first bike I ever rode that was the right size.

My current mtb is a cf enduro style KHS. It's now 8 years old.
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...a3f8042155.jpg
The one before that was a lower end aluminum, shorter travel bike. Rode it for 10 years
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...81437b6988.jpg

There's a good KHS reference pic on wiki for folding bikes that I use for discussions about proportions:

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...f35f85288c.jpg
That folder looks interesting for its time.

Other than that, I know zip about KHS. Sorry to see anyone pull out of the USA market. Worse are companies that do sell here, but not their best stuff.