Are there any British manufacturers?

[Kudoscycles]

I like the description Rose use of themselves: "Quality bike assembly in Germany."

Investing in a ground-up plant to make aluminium frame ebikes in the UK cannot make any sense.

However, there are still quite a few steel frame builders who could easily make a dedicated ebike frame.

Equipping a frame building workshop from scratch wouldn't be expensive.

Components drawn from the usual suspects, assembly in-house, and you would have a unique ebike brand which could fairly be described as British.

Rob....Yes it would be easy to set up a bike frame manufacture in the U.K...but very expensive to build a competitive one.
The frame manufacturer in Tianjin,extrudes his tube from the raw billet....that is an expensive extrude machine.He bends the tube on CNC benders.The welding is robotic. The paint shop is largely automatic. The stickers are affixed with very low cost labour.....you would need Chinese volumes to consider the investment in the U.K. !!!
KudosDave

 

[anotherkiwi]

Yeah, best leave it to the Portuguese...

 

[Woosh]

the only

Yeah, best leave it to the Portuguese...

I don't believe that the Portuguese factories could compete with Chinese factories on alloy and CF frames. Even MFA couldn't with their robotic lines.

 

[anotherkiwi]

Well they aren't building many frames with electricity generated by burning coal now for starters are they? They are certainly doing a better job at making industrial quantities of frames in the EU than the UK is... You see they are trying. Trying to compete is just as important as competing n'est pas M. Coubertin?

I have a MFA frame made for Decathlon, the bike cost 199€ in the shop, what kind of quality can I expect for 199€? A German bloke got paid for making it. No dumping duties were paid on the frame... etc. etc. You are being very English Monsieur Woosh!

 

[Kudoscycles]

Yeah, best leave it to the Portuguese...

The Portuguese wont make the frames,they wont make the gears,wont make the motors,wont make the pedals,wont make the tyres etc etc. What will happen is the chinese will fiddle the values on the imports and the Portuguese will fiddle the cost of assembly,to get round the rules of origin percentages.
It will be a chinese bike assembled in Portugal.
KudosDave

 

[flecc]

The Portuguese wont make the frames - - - - It will be a chinese bike assembled in Portugal.

Not quite Dave, times are a'changing. See this link
.

 

[anotherkiwi]

http://www.triangles.pt/en/

"The company utilizes innovative technology in aluminum processing where the welding process is fully automated. Triangle’s is the first factory in the world to produce aluminum bike frames in an automated manner. Triangle’s was founded in 2015, with the establishment of a factory of approx. 20,000 m² of indoor space. The company has several advantages over its competitors, namely Asian companies, because of its location in Europe, it manages to respect delivery deadlines and lower logistic costs; therefore, it can be more competitive. The company will be certified by ISO9001, ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001/NP 4397. Regarding Portugal 2020, Triangle’s has filed for three applications in the categories of Production Innovation, Internationalization and SME Qualification, all of them have been deemed eligible. The investment amounts to €14,171,926.95..."

I hear the UK is to invest 2.8 billion in submarines, you are in the wrong business Dave...

 

[Dewey]

Rodford won an award at this year's Bespoked handmade bicycle show for their 20/20 Big Billy. At first glance it looks a lot like a Donky Bike, however it's supplied with disk brakes and either a Shimano Steps motor with Enviolo CVP or as a donor frame with space for a battery on the downtube, a 5-speed IGH, and room for a bafang BBS mid-drive conversion. Thought it an interesting design worthy of the Really Useful Bikes moniker.