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MikeD":1h202rlh said:Assembled in Holland from frames made in Taiwan.
That's common practice, and has been so since the early 90's.
MikeD":1h202rlh said:Assembled in Holland from frames made in Taiwan.
MikeD":1w5t4ak1 said:ibbz":1w5t4ak1 said:VN bikes made in their workshop in HOLLAND according to their website.
Assembled in Holland from frames made in Taiwan.
Thank you for your interest in Van Nicholas.
Our Factory is in the Far East where we manufacture all of our frames for over ten years. Our design department, sales office, assembling department and testing facilities are all in the Netherlands.
As you have seen we work with a fixed program but we also offer custom/ Tailormade made bikes.
Please let us know your wishes.
Met vriendelijke groet/ Best regards,
ibbz":1vxkuzmq said:I would never pay the same for a bike produced in China and one produced in England.
MikeD":4g16xzo0 said:Under EU labelling rules, bolting all the bits onto an imported frame counts as "built in <wherever>".
Someone on MTBR asked Van Nicholas directly a couple of years back, this was the reply:
Thank you for your interest in Van Nicholas.
Our Factory is in the Far East where we manufacture all of our frames for over ten years. Our design department, sales office, assembling department and testing facilities are all in the Netherlands.
As you have seen we work with a fixed program but we also offer custom/ Tailormade made bikes.
Please let us know your wishes.
Met vriendelijke groet/ Best regards,
(http://forums.mtbr.com/all-mountain/one ... 36785.html)
And I'm not holding up the Boardman FS as some kind of aesthetic paragon, but it's not hideous. The Van Nic full-susser mings, though
Koupe":1k9smgou said:Regardless of where they're made, the VN has far more quality and aesthetic appeal in its design than the BoredMan.
It's not just about frames anyway, I find newer mechs, rims, saddles and stems equally hideous. Earlier generations found beauty in visibly engineered and machined components with simplicity in the design - now it's all about aggressive visual impact, fighting for attention with all the other parts. Maybe that's because the target market is considerably younger, I don't know.
highlandsflyer":occnrk5i said:ibbz":occnrk5i said:I would never pay the same for a bike produced in China and one produced in England.
Let's remember Taiwan produces many of the high quality frames coming from the East.
What you have in Asia is the world centre of excellence for Tig welding, Hydro-forming, CF work/whatever. If you can't get it made economically at whatever quality level you need in Taiwan, it simply cannot be made. .......
oldave":2chlg46p said:highlandsflyer":2chlg46p said:ibbz":2chlg46p said:I would never pay the same for a bike produced in China and one produced in England.
Let's remember Taiwan produces many of the high quality frames coming from the East.
What you have in Asia is the world centre of excellence for Tig welding, Hydro-forming, CF work/whatever. If you can't get it made economically at whatever quality level you need in Taiwan, it simply cannot be made. .......
@ ibbz, assuming that you mean that you wouldn't pay AS MUCH for a bike produced in China (you may of course mean the opposite!), why not? The Chinese are actually quite clever you know - there is nothing that "we" can make that they cannot! Their customer care can also be significantly better than commonly found in UK. A few years ago I was discussing Ti frames with the Xian-based company that, from memory, was building Airbornes (now VN): what a helpful and nice man! Answered emails a damn sight quicker than a few UK builders of whom I've made enquiries.
And plus 1 to highlandsflyer comments.
FWIW, I can't see that VN's statements in any way untrue - slight case of a sin of omission, but that's standard commercial practice!