grumpier.mike wrote:
There is a great article on the Chinese/Taiwan bike industry at BikeBiz. Some companies are top notch and they are the ones who produce almost all of the high-end frames. Others you should avoid like the Plague. This article answers all the questions you would ever want to know from a forum question.
I would paste the link, but my iPad is a turd. Google BikeBiz Cowboy and it will come up.
The problem with that article is that it mostly disses counterfeits while saying hardly anything about open mold frames. It divides the issue into top end frames manufactured for Western companies and shit frames made by mafia owned, fly-by-night operations. It does not address what most people buying an open mold frame are looking for, a cheap frame that is good enough. It does give a clue, though, when it calls out Pat McQuaid for saying frames selling for thousands cost thirty or forty dollars to make and then a paragraph later defends the industry by saying the cost is ten times McQuaid's misconception. Now it's been a long time since I took multi variable calculus and differential equations, so I may make some math mistakes here, but ten times thirty or forty seems to me to be a small fraction of several thousand and, coincidentally, not too far off what reputable open mold sellers charge.
I have a Hong Fu frame that has been alright. It is not as chi chi as the custom frames I bought over the years, but at this point in my cycling career I don't care. Instead of being covered with oversized, hideous logos like bikes from the big manufacturers, it is murdered out black so there is no confusing it with a work of art. It is just a tool. It also came with a BSA bottom bracket instead of that press fit garbage the industry has pushed on to everyone. And I don't have to worry about the industry changing standards every year, obsoleting stuff for negligible benefits, because the frame is so freaking cheap I can buy a new frame every year or two and chalk the frame off as a consumable, like tires, chains, and cassettes.