Doing research on bikes for my upcoming bikepacking tour led me to some surprising information. I found that most bikes are made by three companies in Taiwan, the largest being GIANT BICYCLES, also the largest bicycle manufacturer in the world. If you look closely at the industry, you can find an identical frame shared by many companies, it’s referred to as original equipment manufacturer, or OEM. OEM’s are manufacturers who resell another company’s product under their own name and branding.
There are manufacturers that produce their own frames. but most in-house frames are made of steel. There are a lot of lower quality recreational bikes made in China and other regions, but bikes produced in Taiwan represent the overwhelming majority of bikes manufactured.
Aluminum and carbon frames are usually sourced from Taiwan under direct representation of the OEM with strict quality control and guidelines. The result being, better technologies and products being brought to bear on the entire industry.
If you look at any bike intermediate and up, you will find that the only thing on the bike proprietary to the brand is the frame in most cases, although proprietary is a loose term in this case, as most frames are OEM. The rims, hubs, cranks, cassettes, seat posts, stems, tires, brakes, etc., are all made by other companies.
The pictures reflect COLNAGO, BONTRAGER (TREK), and SCOTT, all being manufactured in the GIANT plant.
Photo Credit: CanadianCyclist.com
