Made in _____?

Advanced Composites Wound Up Fork, made of Carbon Fiber and Aluminum Alloy here in the USA.

The stamp that many people associate with quality, the Made in USA moniker is much rarer nowadays than it was twenty years ago. Outsourcing has seemingly become a necessity for many manufactures and companies which want to continue to exist. This desire for quality made products is still prevalent, but bicycle companies with heritage rooted in the little towns in Italy, Connecticut, and Wisconsin no longer operate the same way they once use to.

Bianchi, one of the most famous bicycle manufactures in the world, notorious for their beautiful Celeste color, no longer produces any bicycles in Italy. All of their carbon fiber bicycles ever built were originally molded and baked in Taiwan, then painted and finished in Italy. Thus, garnering the Made in Italy name but not truly built from scratch in their Italian factory.

Cannondale, notorious for their "Handmade in USA" graphics adorned on the seat stays of almost every bicycle they produced, has also gone to Asia to built their bikes after 2010. None of the bicycles in Cannondale's current lineup are produced in the USA.

Trek used to do all of their carbon fiber work in Waterloo, Wisconsin. However, they have since consolidated their facilities and only produce their highest end Madone 6 and 7 series bicycles in the Waterloo factory and produce the rest of their bicycles in Asia.

Other boutique brands like Cielo, Vanilla Bicycles and Moots all continue to produce their bicycles in America. Enve Composites and Advanced Composites both produce carbon fiber products here in the United States of America. This isn't to say it's the most cost effective way to do it, but all of these brands produce what can be regarded as top-quality components and bicycles. And the price tag of these products definitely reflect that.

So even if it is made here in the USA, does that ensure quality? Well, it does, but only to a certain extent. Buying a twenty year old bike that has been ridden over ten thousand miles, even if it is made in the USA, is still a well-used bike that is potentially at the end of its life cycle. The purpose of this article isn't to say that bicycles built in Asia are inferior; if that was the case, bicycle manufactures would have gone out of business for the inferior quality products that they have produced. In fact, a close friend of mine remarked that his Asian made aluminum Cannondale was indeed stiffer, lighter, and nicer to ride than his previous American made Cannondale. There is a balance between technology, quality, and other aspects of the end product that must be weighed together.